The Big Picture - ‘Palm Springs Is The Year’s Most Fun Movie. Plus: Introducing ‘The Connect’ With Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion.

Episode Date: July 14, 2020

The perfect quarantine movie has arrived: the delightful Andy Samberg high-concept rom-com ‘Palm Springs’ exploded this weekend after its release on Hulu. Sean and Amanda dive deep into the movie, before Sean is joined by director Max Barbakow and costar Cristin Milioti for a conversation about how it was made (45:30). Then, Jason Concepcion and Shea Serrano stop by to talk about their new movie podcast, ‘The Connect’ (1:20:45). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guests: Max Barbakow, Cristin Milioti, Jason Concepcion, and Shea Serrano Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelley, and welcome to The Ringer Podcast Network. The Ringer's got a brand new show out now about NFL player Cam Newton called The Cam Chronicles. We'll be releasing new episodes every Monday for the next six weeks, but you can binge all six episodes right now for free on Spotify. Here's a quick trailer. From The Ringer, I'm Talar Tans, host of the new podcast series The Cam Chronicles. NFL star Cam Newton has always been a complex figure. Over the past year, I've traveled the country speaking to coaches and teammates,

friends and family, and even briefly to the man himself, trying to unravel the enigma that is Cam Newton. The Ringer NFL Show presents The Cam Chronicles. Listen to the full series now on Spotify. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the most fun movie of the year. I'm talking about Palm Springs, the new Andy Samberg comedy that debuted on Hulu last Friday and quickly gained steam over the weekend.

People love this movie, which first emerged at the Sundance Film Festival and was picked up in the biggest acquisition in the festival's history by Neon and Hulu in a joint deal for $17,500,000.69. So with theaters closed, it came directly to us, to Hulu, much to the delight of a great many people. Amanda and I are going to have a mildly spoilery conversation about this wonderful movie today. And later in the show, I had a chance to interview Sandberg's co-star, the fantastic Kristen Milioti and director Max Barbicau. Then later in the show, I had a chance to interview Sandberg's co-star, the fantastic Kristen Milioti and director Max Barbicow. Then later in the show, have a little treat, a preview of a new podcast coming to the Ringer Podcast Network soon. It's called The Connect, and it features two friends of the big picture, Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion.

If you know them, you know they love movies, and you'll want to hear what their show is all about. So stick around for that. But now, let's take a journey into the movie desert where we find the oasis known as Palm Springs. As I said, there are light spoilers ahead. Let's go into this movie. Yes, Amanda. There are full spoilers. Okay. Okay. Full spoilers. We're going to spoil it because part of the fun of this movie is the premise and you know, whatever. If you haven't watched this movie and you don't want it spoiled for you, like please revisit us after you've watched it. I don't want to hear about it. We're spoiling the movie. Yeah. And I think the point is that you should watch it. It's very fun. It's 90 minutes long. It is deeply conquerable movie experience. And it's the kind of movie that I think we've all been asking for since quarantine

started. And it's a perfect quarantine movie. So you mentioned the premise. Do you want to walk us through what this movie is actually about? Yes. So the movie starts with Andy Samberg, who plays a character named Niles. And he wakes up on the day of a wedding in Palm Springs. He is the boyfriend of one of the bridesmaids. And we go through the entire wedding day

and hijinks ensue at the wedding. And then we learn that Niles is stuck in a time loop because the day repeats. And so this wedding day, November 9th in Palm Springs, and the circumstances of this wedding are repeating over and over and over again. So it is adjacent to Groundhog Day, Though there are some changes and complications, which may get a very rich text, which we will talk about. Sean, would you like to talk about some of the additions to the Groundhog Day premise? Yeah. So this has obviously become a very hot way of telling stories just in the last few years,

but there are some key twists. So one, this time loop is not restricted merely to Niles. Other people can enter the cave. There's a cave that opens after an earthquake, and that is what sort of incites this time loop. So Niles has entered this cave once. It sucks him in. This is sort of a glowing red light, and it drags him into the time loop. If he leads someone else to that cave and they enter the cave, they then become a part

of the time loop. So there's a gentleman named Roy, played by J.K. Simmons, a party guest at the wedding, who somehow finds himself in the cave they then become a part of the time loop so we there's a gentleman named roy played by jk simmons a party guest at the wedding who somehow finds himself in the cave and then of course there is a woman named sarah who is uh the sister of the woman who is married in palm springs and she begins at the beginning of the film a kind of romantic entanglement with niles on this night and they find themselves cave adjacent. They're making out. Suddenly Niles is attacked by a man with a bow and arrow. He runs, he races towards the cave. Sarah follows him cave side and she wanders into the cave. And then Sarah, who's played by the

great Kristen Milioti, is now part of the time loop. And so every time we've seen a story like this, we've only seen one person go through this experience, or maybe in the case of Russian Doll, two people, but it's not until the latter stages of the show, Russian Doll, where we find a second person who is experiencing a similar time loop. In this movie, it seems like a lot of people could be exposed to this, and it totally changes the dynamic of a story like this. And so, I i don't know it was a wrinkle that i think made this a lot more effective than i was expecting yes because then it comes it becomes about two people experiencing the time loop together i mean the groundhog day um setup which i re-watched groundhog day recently after re-watching this movie and also you can listen to

sean and bill and isa ray do groundhog day on the rewatchables, which I really enjoyed. But the Groundhog Day is about one person and one person trying A, to solve the problem, and B, to learn how to connect with other people. The time loop becomes a referendum on what the Bill Murray character was and who the Bill Murray character was before the time loop. And you got to get out. And that is very effective. And you can have a lot of like existential life lessons from this. But because there are multiple people in the time loop in Palm Springs, you start exploring the reality of like the time loop itself and what it means and how different

people experience it. There's like a real compare contrast to the Niles and the Sarah characters. The other thing that I thought was really interesting is that the time loop in Palm Springs like has started, like when the movie starts, Andy Samberg has lived in the time loop and you learn about the time loop because the Sarah character falls into it. And then the Niles character can explain everything to her. So that has like two really useful consequences. Number one, it's just a very clever script built in way

if he just like explains the rules of the time loop and they don't have to do everything over and over again. But he's like, I tried getting out this way and I made it to like somewhere on meth. I can over again but he's like i tried getting out this way and i you know made it to like somewhere on meth i can't remember where he's like i you know i tried to escape this way and i tried to escape that way but he can explain the rules and it also cuts down a bit on the what happened and how do i get out of here which to me as a person who is not as interested in the really like sci-fi, let me get on the message board, solve the rules of this universe. It cuts down on some of that. There is still like, how do we solve this?

But it becomes a little less reddity, like Westworld-y for lack of a better word, which I appreciated. Yeah, I think a movie like this creates an opportunity for a lot of gags, a lot of jokes, a lot of montages. It also does create an opportunity for what you're describing, which is this expectation that it needs to be solved and that we need to understand it. People have pointed out in the past that one of the genius parts of Groundhog Day is there is literally no exploration of why Phil Connors is trapped in a time loop. There's no scientific approach. There's not even really like an emotional question raised by someone else. Like how could you have been trapped in this situation? By having Niles have already existed for what seems like decades. I've heard it suggested that he's been living for 40 years

inside of this time loop, which, you know, it's been so long that he has forgotten what job he had before he got caught in the time loop. So that just means that not only has he been living in it for so long, he's had so many different kinds of experiences. He's committed suicide so many times. He's had so many weird sexual encounters. He's committed suicide so many times. He's had so many weird sexual

encounters. He's traveled to so many strange places in an attempt to break this loop that you get a completely different perspective on this kind of a story. And Sarah, who is the person who's experiencing it for the first time and we're hanging with Sarah, she is in that traditional Phil Connors role of like coping with the existential crisis of it. And then she kind of leaves the movie for a little while as she attempts to solve some of that crisis. And so what we see is really more time with Niles, who is just this nihilistic weirdo who has like murdered himself numerous times into a kind of like blank state.

So this sounds like a very deep and intense movie. And in some ways it is a very deep and intense movie, but it's also like a, just a very whimsical and charming and kind of like very rhythmically amusing movie. It's a soft nihilism. And, and I actually kind of responded differently to the Niles character. I mean, everything that you said is true.

Although I think 40 years is high. I'm sure that someone out there did a lot of like, you know, that's the fun of the internet right that we're calculating how long it takes to get to the equator and how many times you can do meth and like how would you acquire the meth and like all of the things that that and then we add them up and we have how long he was in the time loop but i think both both because of his nature which is a little bit, it's like resigned. He is not freaking out all of the time. And in fact, like has developed some time loop, like values and ethics and goals that he reveals to Sarah over the course of the movie, which to me is what really works about this. There actually is a hopefulness and some sort of direction that this character is on, which again, he still is pretty nihilistic,

but it's not like full, ugly, cruel nihilism. It's not, but I think the key distinction here, which separates this from, and there's a whole host of films that have used various aspects of this story. So there's 50 First Dates, which uses a kind of the idea of memory and lost memory. There's Source Code, which replays the same eight minute sequence over and over again. There's Before I Fall, a movie that came out a few years ago with Zoe Deitch about a car accident being played over and over again. Happy Death Days was kind of a very fun horror slasher movie about this. We talked about Russian Doll. And then there's Edge of Tomorrow, too, which we also did on the rewatchable.

So maybe time loops are a personal obsession of mine that I keep returning to when I kind of loop throughout quarantine. All of these movies have been a part of my viewing experience in the last four months. But the difference between this movie and all of those other movies is that the main character in all of those movies is trying to solve the loop. They're trying to get out. they're trying to figure it out. And when we meet Niles, Niles has resigned to a kind of like fascinating exploration of infinite existence. You know, he doesn't feel the need. He's tried before and we haven't really seen him make an effort to get out, but he has accepted his fate and he's met someone. He's found someone who is joining him in this fate.

And so the movie sort of evolves into this effort to create a love story that is also, I think like perhaps the most optimistic view of long-term partnership that you could have. It's just like marriage is the same day over and over again. And how do you find ways to make it exciting together? And so it's, you know,

it's, this is a very like deep and metaphorical movie with also a lot of ridiculous over again and how do you find ways to make it exciting together and so it's you know it's this is a very like deep and metaphorical movie with also a lot of ridiculous just like jokes about sex and drinking and you know and penises like there are just a lot of like hand job jokes and like dick tattoo jokes you know it it is really willing to operate on that juvenile level. Though even like, it's clever juvenile, which is kind of the Andy Samberg persona for me. It's like, I know this is pretty silly,

but isn't it silly and aren't you laughing? And that's what a lot of this movie is. I think that's completely right. I was thinking about it just in terms of the movie approach to things. And as I said, it's only 90 minutes, which is is wonderful and this felt like it could have been a tv show and i'm really relieved that it was not it reminded me a little bit of last man on earth you remember that that um that show with uh will will forte and january jones yes um which was like had an incredible premise and basically an awesome first season and then after the show i was like why am i premise and basically an awesome first season. And then after the show, I was like, why am I still watching this?

This was the very, this was the same. It was very contained, which I appreciated. I think if it becomes a TV show and if it's longer than it, it's not the same movie because it can't have the same tone. It actually can't have that optimism and that, that then you start actually living the time loop.

Maybe, maybe I don't like TV because I experienced all TV as a time loop. I'm just like, Oh my God, this is still going. And we could have imposed boundaries on this and it would have been okay. But you're just doing this again and I get it. And I think Russian Doll is an interesting comparison because I do think Russian Doll was a bit darker and more existential and really grappled with the difficult parts of this thought experiment. And I think part of that is because you just lived through it. Like literally you were on the journey with them and you are living through this in Palm Springs. But as you mentioned, it's a lot of montages and fast cuts and it's just the highlights.

You're doing all of the fun stuff that they get to do in the time loop without having to deal with the actual literal existential sitting through it. So we're going to talk more about the existential nature of things. And we're also going to talk about what the other things that make this movie so fun. But I had a couple of like Reddit board questions for you. Okay. I know that this is not your preferred way of experiencing these movies, but I want to know what you think. I like having a conversation with you about that.

It's just like I'm not doing the math on the message board. You know, there's a difference. So we don't know how long Niles was in the time loop. We can, we can guesstimate on that. We also know that Sarah, in an effort to break the time loop, goes out on the pursuit of quantum physics knowledge. And she studies and she consults with experts and she pursues theories to break the loop. How long do you think Sarah was gone for in an effort to educate herself on the deepest meaning of quantum physics?

So are we, first of all, question, are we talking in terms of how many days does she live? Because it does seem like sometimes she like goes to the diner, does as much as she can and then like falls asleep. And so she's not really living like a full day period. You know, she's manipulating the time loop thing in order to like keep waking up. But you just want to talk about how many days. But that's how we'll measure it.

You literally just gave me like a Reddit response to a Reddit question. Like that's literally what the person would say on Reddit. They would be like, are we doing full days or half days when someone falls asleep? It's not the nature of the intellectual exercise. It's the execution, Sean. Okay. That's what, that is the problem with everything in life.

And I'm here with you. Roughly speaking, how many days? So I think that this is a matter of years and not decades across the board. Like I think that 40 years is like crazy for Andy Samberg because he would literally go insane. Because one of the facets that this movie makes you think about is just kind of it's about isolation and also like human connection. And at some point, if you're in solitary confinement for 30 years, you like, you you know we unfortunately have evidence of what that does to people and it's and it's really serious so i think this is all years and i'm just like

the sarah character is very committed and focused which i really relate to so i think she can probably knock it out it's like some focus study like two years okay that seems reasonable if she's entirely focused on that yeah no that seems legit like I also don't think that she's learning all of physics. I think it's a focused pursuit, as I said. So one or two years, honestly, is where I am with that. Okay. Two more questions about who participates in the time loop. So one, we know Niles and Sarah and Roy are there and they're just living the same day over and over again. Yeah. There's been some speculation that Nana,

who's played by June Squibb, is in the time loop. Number one, thrilled to see June Squibb. That's, I mean, it's the attention to detail in this movie, where June Squibb just shows up for maybe 90 seconds total, okay? And I was like, that's June Squibb. Love June Squibb. And yes, she's definitely in the time loop. She has the line at the end, but she's like where she understands what's going on. So, I mean, maybe she's an administrator of the time loop. I don't really know,

but she's like, because she seems to have some knowledge of like, you're about to get out. So she understands how it works, but yes, she's aware. June Squibb is like the all-knowing manager of the time loop is great by me. Is June Squibb God? Maybe. Look at God, June Squibb. Incredible stuff. Okay, one more question. What about the goat? What happened with the goat? Is the goat gone forever? The goat that is used as sort of the test goat for Sarah's theory about how to break the loop? Right, right, right, right, right. I mean, I assume that the goat makes it to its own life, you know, the way that they do eventually. Oh, like back to its normal goat existence?

Yeah, right? Do you think that that was a fulfilling goat life? I hope so. I don't know. What are goats into? Eating trash? I don't know. What are goats into? Eating trash. We're moseying toward difficult territory here and I don't want to get into the inner life of any goat. Let's say you had this setup, you Amanda Dobbins. You go to a wedding. You wake up one morning. You live the wedding. Is it in Palm Springs?

Sure. Yeah, Palm Springs. We've been to Palm Springs. We know about Palm Springs. Yeah. Is this torturous for you? Or is there something appealing about getting to rehash and relive and reclaim your time in a weird way? No, it's complete torture. I think I would go, I would lose my mind for a number of reasons like and and the movie explores this a

little bit through the Sarah character and kind of why she wants to escape what she's escaping is a little bit because of some past actions without spoiling it even though I said we were going to spoil it but um yeah reliving things that you feel uh or just reliving things is you know a pretty concise definition of anxiety and fretting about them. And that would be a punishment for me. I do that plenty on my own without being stuck in a time loop. But also, I know I couldn't accept it of just being like, sure, this is how it's going to be. I don't accept anything.

As you know, I would just be like, I must solve this problem. I would definitely be like the Sarah character being like, I will learn science and I will teach everyone this science. I think it would be really hard. I could do it for maybe three weeks. I don't know. Three, that's it? Three weeks? Yeah.

I mean, how do you, I couldn't deal with the knowledge that it was just like this forever. That would feel crushing and suffocating. You would be fine? Well, I think that the actual setting and premise of the movie raises some fascinating questions about whether or not this would be torture. So I think it depends on what your feeling is about the wedding industrial complex. It depends on what your feeling is about destination weddings. Depends on what your feeling is about the wedding industrial complex. It depends on what your feeling is about destination weddings. Depends on what your feeling is about the desert.

Depends on what your feeling is about sitting in a pool, drinking a beer every day. Is that dull? Is that pointless? I think, you know, these choices are very specific, right? And they're made to kind of provoke this thought in our mind. Like, would I be happy if I got stuck this way? Well, I think that's true, but the movie also argues like

pretty aggressively on the part of all three characters that you wouldn't be happy. And there is that, that scene, um, like three quarters of the way in when Niles goes to visit the JK Simmons character in Irvine and the JK Roy, the character has kind of made peace with what's going on, which, you know, that that's a very nice argument. You got to, like, quote, find your Irvine. But even in that scene, he's talking about how mad he was because he's like, I'm never going to see my kids grow up. Like, I'm never going to get to know what happens. And he's illustrating the sense of like a loss of future and and really kind of the loss of a connection because if you don't have like Niles has another person who he can go through

it with but for the most part you're kind of doing it by yourself and you know that everything that happens during one day is going to be completely lost it's completely isolating you have no future and I like being in a pool as much as anybody, like probably more than anybody. You know this about me, but the desert is not my favorite ecosystem, but I could hang with it better than cold for sure. But the, especially alone, the hopelessness of it, or just the, like, how do you keep going? It seems like it would eat at everybody. Yeah. I think the most frustrating part would be every time someone, you got close to someone in one of the days and you tried to explain to them what was going on, the kind of

repetitive nature of that, I think would drive me a little bit batty. But the movie has, for a rom-com, it just has an extraordinary amount of existential despair and cynicism and like deep thought about what it means to go through life. And a lot of the best lines in the movie are, they're meant to reflect the experience that Sarah and Niles are having, but they're, you can basically just project them onto everything. I mean, at one point, you know, Niles says pain matters. What we do to other people matters. Being a source of terror is not fun. Okay. It's not fulfilling. I, during a disagreement with my wife last night, I probably should have just recalled that line and said, or, you know, pain matters. And there are a number of moments like this, you know, like we can't die, but the pain is very real. I felt everything I'll

ever feel. So I'll never feel ever again ever again like these are especially in these quarantine times where every day feels the same to so many people right now the movie is bizarrely resonant and and thoughtful about everything just feeling uncontrollable and exactly the same in the same way yeah can i share that when you um you wrote the outline and you wrote a plot summary and you said that the wedding takes place on July 9th instead of November 9th, but it's July right now. And I noticed some connection to the text on your part. Every day is July 9th, Amanda. It's all just one big July 9th. I guess so. I mean, that is true. But and I think a lot of our anxiety right now, in addition to or, you know, as you pointed out, it kind of reflects who you are and how

you relate to these things. But even like the repetition of these days, I find myself being able to adjust a bit to the repetition of the days. And it's the fact that I don't know when it's going to end and what is going to happen after the repetition of the days or maybe there won't be an end to the repetition of the days that is tough for me to wrap my head around which is the more existential component of this but you're right it's a smart it's it is it they got I don't want to say lucky because I'm sure that this is not how anyone imagined releasing this movie would be, but it is of a moment and speaks to the current moment. Yeah, it feels right on time. Also, you know, we know that Niles is in this shitty relationship

with a character played by Meredith Hagner. And, you know, the film opens with this moment where they're sort of like, they start to have sex together the morning of the wedding. And it's clearly like, they're just not connected. And she seems like kind of an asshole. And, but Sarah is living a much more complex life. And,

you know, you pointed out that this is like also a movie about guilt and about what Sarah is going through too. Yeah. Because ultimately, I mean, okay. Spoiler within a spoiler.

At some point in the movie, we realized that the day that she's waking up on, she has just slept with her sister's fiance the night before her sister's wedding um and that's a pretty good reveal i think i gasped the first time it happens and but she needs to get out of the day because she can't live with that reality she can't live with that guilt and waking up with it over and over and over again. And so her character's approach is about, you know, solving the time loop, but also making it to an emotional place where, you know, she's like at least deals with the guilt. Maybe she hasn't totally made it up to her sister.

I mean, it's a pretty shitty thing to do, to be quite honest. But yeah, trying to work through what you can handle on an emotional basis and what you can't live with and have to find a way to change and how to change as a person as a result of that. Yeah. I think part of the fascinating mix of the movie is the weightiness of an idea like that while also kind of testing what would you do if you did have this time? And especially if you got a partner in crime during this time. You know, if you got stuck with your partner or maybe another person, maybe a goat. Not a goat.

What would you do? Like Sarah and Niles, they get fucked up a lot. They drink a lot. You get the impression that they both liked to drink a lot in their life before this. One thing I did wonder, which is like a way of answering your question is it seems like hangovers are not a part of this universe.

Yes, pain matters, but alcohol content is not. Yes. So that's pretty crucial. But they find ways to have fun. You know, there's a synchronized dance sequence. You know, they play pranks at the wedding. You know, there's one incredible bomb in the cake gag.

Wait, stop! There's a bomb in the cake. Don't worry. I used to be a bomb guy. Everyone stand back! Oh my god! Try it out, you son of a bitch! You ruined my plans!

Sarah, the sister of the bride, and based on her accent, from origins unknown. I'll take her dead or alive. Put the weapon down. Fine. Then it's to be hand-to-hand combat then. Oh my god! Niles! Really funny.

It's so funny. And there's so many moments like this. You know, you mentioned the amount of penis content in this movie. Like, they tattoo penises on each other and they think it is hilarious. You know, they eat a lot of candy and junk food. They steal a plane? Yeah, they steal a plane. That's a really good one. Yeah, they go shooting. You know, they steal a plane. That's a really good one. Yeah, they go shooting.

You know, they learn how to acquire C4. Like this is a, they have adventures. You know, they taunt cops. They kill people. You know, I mean, they do some crazy stuff. And the movie cuts between these really fun experiences and these really wild experiences. And it feels easier to do some of these things

after something like Groundhog Day, you know, which, which kind of started the ball rolling on like, what would you do if you had every day? And the way that Phil Connors like travels across hope, joy, frustration, nihilism back to hope and joy is an interesting journey. And they, they are working similarly, but also the movie is very modern. You know, it's like Niles has experimented sexually in every way he can with every person he can at the wedding during his extended period in this one day of November 9th. And so I just find it to be just a really creative approach to a movie like this, you know? Yeah. It's both, it's very familiar and also

really innovating on the form which is and and acknowledging a lot of those different movies like even the bomb sequence that you mentioned is just like a very funny like james bond riff uh and it and and a and a romantic comedy which this very much is is a very a tried and true formula and it's just about how you can you know jazz up the the genre and the the formula and insert all of your ideas which it does extremely well so it's also got a lot of weird personal character that a lot of things like this don't necessarily have like a lot of the characters just saying shukran to each other to thank them for something or like the made up beer in the movie that, that Andy's character is always drinking.

You know, like it feels made by human beings. It doesn't feel like a movie that's made by an algorithm. And I think we've seen a lot of movies in recent months that feel very made by algorithms and that those movies can be good, but this feels like a movie made by a bunch of weird people and and we know that i think you know the filmmaker and the director and the writer are first timers but the it has that lonely island like cocked eyebrow goofy smile attitude

that you find in a lot of the sandberg stuff, which some of it is successful historically and some of it is not. Where are you generally on Andy Sandberg as a movie star, I guess? As a movie star, I was trying to think. I went through his IMDb page and I'm not sure I've ever finished one of his movies. Have I? Oh, there's some. Well, I mean, there's two good ones. There's two really good ones, but they're like cult classics now, you know, hot rod and pop star and pop star. Right. Which, but I've seen the videos, but for me,

Andy Sandberg was lonely Island SNL. That was when I was still watching SNL. That was also like, I think probably my first YouTube video was one of those video shorts that I'm just, I'm squarely that generation. And so, and I always found him very funny,

you know, like a, a knowing self effacing, confident humor is my type of humor. He is, um, like a funny goofy guy and also like knows that he's a handsome guy and that's all like working together. It's not, it's, it's not cringe humor. It's, uh, it's, it's wink wink wink and on the joke humor. And I find that much, I find it funny. Like I actually laughed at this movie, but it's also just much more comfortable for me. I can't do the cringe stuff as you know. Yeah. I found myself wishing that, you know, he spent the last seven years doing Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is a show that a lot of people like. And I think probably is part of the reason why you may have found this movie on Hulu, because that's where Brooklyn Nine-Nine lives. And so there's some obvious crossover audience

there. But when a great comic actor or actress appears on a TV show, that means that usually takes them out of the mix on doing movies on a frequent basis. So like Hot Rod is 13 years ago. Pop Star was, while it has like an intense cult fan base and people, when we did the episode, we're like, what the fuck is wrong with you? How did you not talk about Hot Rod? Or how did you not talk about Popstar? But that movie didn't do well at the box office. So it's very culty. And so we don't even really know like what kind of a movie figure he is until now, I think. And I, you know, I think people wanted him to be like Bill Murray or Adam Sandler or something. And I think he's maybe a little bit Bill Murray or Adam Sandler or something.

And I think he's maybe a little bit different than that. Yeah, I do also feel like this is one of the first opportunities that he gets to do a bit more character as opposed to just being like the lonely island. Like Popstar, from the clips I've seen, is like an extremely smart parody. And it's like it's crazy smart and it's working on a lot of levels but like i'm not really interested in the narrative of pop star like i know what the narrative is the fact that i know the narrative is what it's commenting on and making jokes about and this is him like playing a character who is having an emotional connection with his great co-star and they have like fantastic chemistry like that's another thing that we should talk about is that so often these days, I mean, if you get the casting wrong and people don't, you don't believe that these

people would fall for each other, but they also like, if they aren't funny together, it doesn't work. And Andy Samberg and Chris, Chris and Milioti like work together, but I'm just more interested in, he hasn't had this many opportunities to do this because he's kind of doing like more pure parody. And that's a nice thing about Palm Springs. Like it is, it's a gentle, it's a great wedding parody. I feel, you know, you have like the insufferable speech from the bridesmaid with the definitions, you know, that's such a classic one. That was so smart. It's so smart. And that always happens. God, if you have to give a toast, just like, don't read a definition in your toast.

Please, from the makers of Palm Springs and me, I want you to succeed. Because I love a good wedding toast. And I love a good wedding if I'm not in it. But I don't know whether you noticed it, but there's a great just Instagram parody in all of this. Because the pool floats and the Sarah Sarah characters wearing a bathing suit that is advertised to me once a day on Instagram and like even Palm Springs. And that it's like very Instagram aesthetic, which it's just like very gently mocking. And I think for a lot of us who have used too much Instagram, that can also feel like the same thing over and over again. I'm just

living in this like virtual reality of pizza floats and burritos and people wearing short shorts and boots. And why? And Andy Samberg even is wearing, I think he's wearing baggies. Is he wearing baggies? I think so. Yeah. Okay. There we go. So this movie does do that parody that we know Andy Samberg for, but with a lot more, I think, warmth and hopefulness and character development. I totally agree. I'm happy to see him take on a part like this. I hope he gets more parts like it. And you mentioned it doesn't work without his counterpart. And she's an interesting one, Kristen Milioti. I think fans of The Wolf of Wall Street probably recognize her as Leo's first wife in the movie. And for people who watched How I Met Your Mother, she, spoiler alert again, turned out to be the titular mother in the series.

And she's really like really winning and charming and fun comic actress. She reminds me of a lot of like 80s and 90s sitcom and or like rom-com actors. You know, she has a little bit of like Joan Cusack. She's got a little bit of Melanie Griffith. She's got a little bit of like aith. She's got a little bit of like a little bit of acid, a little bit of sweetness. And, you know, they're just

they're great together. And that's like if they didn't if they didn't work, this movie doesn't work at all. Plus, you've got like a pretty I don't know. I always I'm reluctant to use the word overqualified,

but there are a lot of really good actors in this movie in very small parts. You know, we talked about June Squibb, who must have worked for like 72 hours, but she's delightful. I hope that June Squibb likes Palm Springs and had great accommodations and also got to sit in a pool if that's what she wants. Yeah. And Peter Gallagher, you know, who was on Bill's pod last week and who is, of course,

like a legendary TV dad and also a legendary dirtbag for fans like you and I have sex lies and videotape evolving interestingly in his career. And while you were sleeping, speaking of legendary dirtbags and romantic comedies. That's right. Yeah. The gag with the teeth, really good. And then this Dennis glues teeth. Good. He's thrilled to be there. It's really nice also when you can tell that everyone's having a great time. And I think that's one of Peter there. It's really nice also when you can tell that everyone's having a great time. And I think that's one of Peter Gallagher's skills of just communicating, like, I'm so happy to be here with you. And he does that in his roles, and he definitely does that in interviews, but he's having a great time. He's great. I mentioned Meredith Hagner,

who people might recognize from Search Party. She's great. J.K. Simmons just coming in, doing what J.K. Simmons does, which is throw 105 miles an hour in five scenes. And he gets to be both crazy evil villain J.K. Simmons and also sweet, deeply philosophical J.K. Simmons at the same time. Yeah. And he also gets to be dirtbag J.K. Simmons in a three-piece suit. And that was an incredible wedding look from him. And then just doing a shitload of drugs. It was great. Really good stuff. The whole cast is really great.

Tyler Hoechlin and Camila Mendes as the couple who are getting married. It's just one of those movies where like they just, whether they got lucky or they were smart, it's probably a combination of both as it is on most of these things. They just made a lot of great choices. And I need you to like clear out for Sean's music corner very quickly for the end of this conversation about this movie. Are you okay with that?

Yeah, no, I think it's good. I liked your notes. Good music. Go ahead. Why don't you share mine? Very good music. Thank you. Um, I, it's rare that I watch a movie that has music that makes me feel seen.

But this is a movie that has music choices. You heard one of the songs at the beginning of this podcast, this theme song, that is like amongst, if you had access to my Spotify Unwrapped, you would see that John Cale's Barracuda is like the song of songs for me. It's the song I listen to almost every day. And I don't even know why. I don't have a clear sense of what it is other than rhythmically, it just lives inside me. And there are a gang of songs like this. And you can tell from the minute that the movie starts and you hear Demis Rousseau's Forever and Ever. You hear Gene Clark's No Other. You hear Kate Bush's cloud busting like at the climactic moment near the end of the movie. Leonard Cohen and Graham Parsons, like these people who made this movie have very

good taste, at least by my definition. And the screenwriter, Andy Ciara, was a member of a band, the Henry Clay people could tell that these guys seemed to care about what songs made their way into the movie. And that just elevates something like this. I don't know if it costs a lot more money to get to license songs like this in a movie these days, but it's so worth it. And, you know, Hall & Oates is when the morning comes being like that closing tune when we see Sarah and Andy's character, you know, from above in that pool one last time is it makes the movie much more memorable to me and makes me want to return to it. And this is the kind of movie that you'll be rewarded if you return to it. Yeah. I mean, this kind of movie is all in the details.

And I think that's something that gets lost when people are making romantic comedies for sure. But a lot of the movies that we do wind up watching at home and it's like, the story is fine. And I mean, this story is good, but you don't just have to have a good story and good actors because it is the small things where it's the, whether it's the music or the swimsuit or the, you know, the location or the type of joke, like those are the things that people hang on to,

especially when we're watching it and screenshotting it and turn it like when these things live online it is in the details and i think they like clearly put a lot of thought and a lot of themselves into these details and happily they also seem to share our tastes yeah so just as we as we close this out i think the movie is probably as worthy of conversation for us because it's like a genuine intersection of movies that we like. It has classic rom-com tropes and comedy tropes, and it also has high concept science fiction. And it features two people who you and I are both very eager to be like, this person is a movie star. That's the other intersection for us. And so I don't know, it's rare that something like this

comes along. Do you think it works on the rom-com level? Yes, absolutely. Because they definitely have instant chemistry, like, and there are unique, but also relatable hurdles put in their way that, as you said, speak to like larger tropes about long-term relationships, but also why you pick someone, you know, there's like the, the, the kind of pause when, uh, the Niles character reveals that they have in fact, like, you know, had some entanglements before Sarah got caught in the time loop, but he didn't want to tell her cause he didn't want to, you know, and this is like a very classic romantic comedy. Like I wasn't completely truthful with you because I didn't want to mess this up because it was going so well. Um, but you know,

with a twist and I think also a really interesting thing about it, you noted that there is a great final speech, which, you know, there is and love a grammar joke thank you in this moment for an extended grammar joke along with some like very lovely scent you know sentiments including that great line like we're already sick of each other it's the best which is so lovely so marriage that's so marriage it is so marriage and it's it's like it's a great speech and the and the rhythm exactly is exactly right but um there are like two other distinct speeches that like kind of feel like climactic speeches, which, you know, he has the first one when he pronounces his love and she's learning to her sister, but it's when she like learns about herself and learns like, you know, about selflessness.

And there is just something very clever in the fact that in a movie about repeating, there are in fact like multiple final rom-com speeches in it. Like it, it just good job by them. I appreciate those structural touches and also all of the speeches are good. Yeah. The,

the writing in this movie is really, really and it's interesting because you know this morning we got word that based on some stock analysis it seems that tenant will not be coming august 12th i don't think warner brothers publicly and publicly commented on that but um i'm shocked yeah but it just i mean palm springs is movies, I mean, Palm Springs is movies now, you know, the old guard is movies now. Hamilton is movies now. And as you and I have been like walking through this experience in real time, twice a week for four months, I think there's been some question about like, well, are, you know, are we kind of shifting and altering our expectations on things? Are we getting too soft on certain stuff?

Are we being too hard on things because of how we're seeing them? Are we not paying enough attention? What's the viewing experience like? There's all this anxiety going into a lot of this conversation. And understandably, I mean, I think in many ways, the future of theatrical exhibition is on the line here. But it's just struck me as a kind of home movie experience that just worked perfectly.

It was not complicated. I wasn't distracted. The length, the people who were involved, the story, the writing, the music, everything fit together, looked great on my TV. I was very involved. And it's not like it isn't the greatest film of all time, but it's just a very good movie that we got at home. And I think that it indicates that hopefully that can be a part of the home watching movie future. Yes, it is actually possible to make good movies still in the world. And also if you make good movies, then they're still fun to watch at home. I mean, I had the same experience. I have whined and moaned about how much I hate watching movies at home and how bad I am at watching them. And, you know, this is definitely just in the Amanda wheelhouse. They made a romantic comedy starring two people I like, and there's

a pool. So there's, thank you. So, but, but it held my attention and I, and, and, and it was also, you can just tell it has the hallmarks of like of, of time and thought and resources put in the right places and honoring like the same values of, do you have good actors and do you have a good script? And have we thought about how this is going to look? And they do. It is at times a nod to the Instagram aesthetic, which I think is intentional, but it's at least like composed. It looks like, you know, you know where they filmed it. They spent some money on it. It just, it's a movie.

It works as a movie. Sometimes it's just like you can recognize when a thing actually is a movie and this is it. Thank God for movies. I'm so relieved to have a movie. If you want to hear more about this movie, stick around because we're going to go to my interview with Kristen and Max right now and tune in later in the week when Amanda and I will be back, maybe talking about more movies with pools. We're going to be joined by our buddy, Chris Ryan, to talk about the top five summertime movies. So let's go to Kristen and Max now. Today's episode of The Big Picture is brought to you by Blue Moon. Don't you think some once in a blue moon moments should happen

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Max and Kristen, I'm so glad you guys are both here. I love your movie. I think your movie is going to make a lot of people very happy during this very weird period in history. Max, I thought you could maybe help me understand where this movie came from, how it started, how you came to make it? Yeah. I went to AFI for film school and met a very special man named Andy Ciara there on the first day. And we made a lot of stuff there together. And coming out of film school, we really wanted to keep making stuff and not wait for permission to make a movie. So went to Palm Springs one day this was like five years ago for the weekend and trying to come up with an idea for like a little easy contained movie one or two locations that we could make and kind of after a lot of mai tais and gambling in agua caliente casino um and a weekend at the ace hotel there came away with the idea for niles

um this character. And it started in a very different place. It wasn't always a wedding movie. It took us an embarrassingly long time to figure out that it was a love story. And kind of through developing these two characters, Niles and Sarah, stumbled upon a time loop idea. And it really was just kind of born out of conversations we were having after Andy got married in Palm Springs a year later and took that plunge into commitment. As I was navigating an endless wedding season as a single person slash consistently participant in like kind of consistent, bad, toxic, immature relationships that you find yourself in in in like your mid to late 20s um it became this movie about like commitment and um and vulnerability and um you know for a long time it was this kind of creative therapeutic exercise with us two in a room trying to make

each other laugh and kind of do some some personal self self inventory. And then, you know, Andy loved Jurassic park and, uh, and it became bigger, you know, um, and ballooned into this, this project that attracted Andy and the lonely Island dudes who were so generous and so intelligent and so funny, but we're just like seeing the same movie that we had dreamt up and so supportive and kind of protected everything that we loved about it and was really cool about it um and kind of elevated it beyond our wildest dreams new kristin kristin came on board and also did the same thing um and you know there were no expectations for this thing at all beyond just

trying to make something and not wait for permission at a film school. And then to have like, have it ballooned into this amazing collaboration with so many people. It's been super cool, but it started really just from two, two dudes in Palm Springs kind of being sad and trying to make each, make each other laugh and figure out their stuff after two intense years in the bubble of film school. Two dudes, one desert. Before we started, Max, we were talking about the depth of questions that you guys are going to be getting about this movie because it's the

kind of movie that has a lot of ideas and also a big idea. So for both of you, when I saw it, I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know the premise, the kind of the gimmick aspect of it. Like, do you guys not want people to know? Like you use the word time loop in your first answer to the first question. Like Kristen, when you show it to people, are you like going blind or are you explaining what the movie is? No, it's actually like, um, it's a weird one to do press for because i think that um my own personal opinion is that the the less the less you know going in the better the better and it has been a weird like obviously there's the like the time loop is revealed in the trailer which like in an

ideal world and max i don't know how you feel about this like i actually have done this exercise in my head of like how would you advertise this movie without giving any of it away? And it would be very difficult. We tried. I'm sure you guys did. Yeah. I like, how do you even do it?

But I, I think like I've been telling everyone, don't like read anything. Don't look at anything that you should just go in completely blind. I also don't even like calling it a rom-com. Why? Cause I think that like, if you go into it thinking that it it a rom-com. Why? Because I think that if you go into it thinking that it's a rom-com,

obviously there's a love story at the center, but if you go into it thinking it's a rom-com, I think you go in with certain parts of your brain shut off and you go in with a certain set of tropes, maybe, which is, I think, one of the things that's so special about this movie

is that it upends all that. I don't know. I think you should, but I feel like this with every movie. Like, I don't think reviews should exist. Like, everyone should just go and watch a thing and figure out your own thoughts on it. Like, you know, I don't know. No, I agree. It's hard now, too, because there's so much stuff out that you kind of have to, like, I just instinctively rely on press and reviews and profiles. Like, Oh, that sounds interesting. I'll watch that. But like, like you're saying, when it comes to your stuff, you're like, just watch it. Absolutely. Just like, go watch it. Don't think about it. It's definitely good. Sundance was great in that respect, because we just got to watch it with an audience that had no idea what it was. And the press we did the day before it turned into just

andy and kristin you know messing with each other and messing with the interviewers which is like the perfect you know way to promote a movie that's what the movie is you know never tell a thing like what it was about and and to what max just said like that first screening at sundance i think has a very special place in my heart but also because because like I saw a group of, I don't know how many people were there, like 400 go through all the same things, like the same like vocalized reactions that I had when I read it. And that like, would you call that symbiosis?

I don't know. Like that journey is so rare to like feel something when you read it, to feel something when you watch it. And then to see others feel the same thing that you felt is like very, rare and this in this and I was sitting behind you and I loved watching Kristen watch it because I know you said before you don't really watch much that you're in so it was like cool that you wanted to watch in the first place and then watching you watch other

people so it's like it's like an amazing yeah. Yeah. No, I know. I never, I usually never watch anything I'm in, but I'm so glad that I was there. And I'm like excited to go to Rose Bowl with my friends. You know, I mean, I still watch everything sort of like through fingers and with like a private sort of like notepad of like things that are crimes against acting, but that I keep forever singed into my brain. You said that you were watching other people have the same reaction that you did when you read it, but what were those reactions? What was that emotional journey as you were reading the script after you got it? Well, again, like without sort of revealing anything, the sort of each turn, you know,

there's obviously like a turn 10 minutes in that you don't see coming when you, you know, that's like, what's so genius about it, I think is that like there's a very um intentional misdirect in the beginning and you're like oh it's one of these movies okay i've seen this i know what this is and then it like hits you with this turn i remember reading that and being like oh shit like and that's literally the sounds that like 400 people made in a giant theater in utah was a, um, like a gasp and a couple of, Oh shits. And like, Oh damn. Like, you know, and it's amazing. And then just sort of the, the things that are revealed as the movie keeps going, um, hearing people laugh and gasp and then, um, get emotional too. It was, you know, that's. Those are all the reasons that I love it, but you don't

always know if that's going to translate. I'm sure you guys have gotten a lot of Groundhog Day questions. The thing that I think distinguishes this story specifically is it shifts perspectives a few times and it's not just with one person which i thought was such a clever and cool way to tell the story so you get to spend time with just niles with just sarah like max at what point when did you figure out that it needed to be a two-hander in that way and to change the way that those stories are told sometimes like embarrassingly late i mean not not in the scope not on the scope but roy came in super late for sure like like right before we sent it out and the lonely island got involved um but i think that's what at its core it was always kind

of about the people you know and not not necessarily even the time loop it was like let's put these people you know who have intimacy issues and commitment issues and like shame that they're bearing in a really vulnerable situation being trapped with each other and let's see what happens there um and i've said this too i i think it was the first time kristin were you and andy rehearsed or we just read through um with andy ciara too and it was the first time we kind of put it up and then saw what it was going to be like i realized i'm like oh my god like sarah's the emotional catalyst of this movie like Niles is such an indifferent character you know it's like she's the ending of the movie it is it's it's it's such a two-hander um and even how we shot

it it was like I loved the way it was scheduled where we started with all the big wedding stuff and then gradually kind of like wrapped actors and peeled away crew and it became this like very intimate two-hander in the desert I think I mean that was an accident and just the way the schedule worked out but I think that really helped the experience I always I didn't know that was I always thought that was intentional because it was so wonderful yeah like it was because I always hate that movies are filmed and tv is filmed out of like chronological order obviously that's like how it's made but as an actor I always find that like you know a challenge sometimes especially when you film a scene and then you go like weeks later you go to film the scene that's right before and you're like oh shit now i'm like oh i did that

wrong like oh if i knew then what i know now um but it was amazing to be able to like actually sort of go through their experience yeah of like being at that wedding and then just being alone in the desert for like two weeks absolutely Absolutely. Was there anything challenging about having to look exactly the same every single day? Cause I, you know, even if you just change in very small ways over the course of a short shoot, you still, you have to be at that wedding every day. You have to be on that same day every day. I loved it because I don't like sitting in makeup chairs and I don't like, like I don't, I mean, I love, like, um, I loved our makeup artist galaxy. She is like incredible. I loved like chatting with her and hanging out with her. The part about like getting ready,

if it were up to me, I would like show up to set. They would like literally like blow some dust on my face and I'd be done. Um, so I really loved it because I could just throw on the same thing. It took me like 20 seconds to get ready. You know, we got the makeup down like really, really fast because then you have more takes. Which in our case meant two instead of one. Which meant two, yeah. Exactly, yeah. Exactly.

Like we got it down to such a, also I'm like, I think a little bit fidgety too, just in general. So I don't like, I want to like get up there and do stuff so no I found that to be wonderful I hated when we had to be at the wedding because I had to wear that dress I mean I didn't hate it that's so strong I just was like very into that like t-shirt and jean shorts that I could like throw on and and go Max did you like having mostly the same handful of sets to go to every day in the same kind of setups or did that get monotonous at any point? I remember the first day we shot all of Kristen's waking up stuff. And that was like such a, and you like, of course the first day of a

movie, you're like falling in love with everything you're shooting. So you're like, yeah, just open your eye like one more time and we'll get it. Like we'll get it. We'll get it perfect. So like there were parts that were monotonous for sure. again we shot the movie in like 21 days so it just felt like this sprint and we were doing such ambitious stuff every day there's not like a a straight moment in the movie even the premise is just kind of like a little offbeat so like i didn't it all felt so thrilling you know to be jumping between you you second half of a day, you're shooting a wedding and you're shooting Kristen's amazingly emotional speech. And then, you know, you're stabbing Tyler heckling in the face with a fork and then like,

there's, you know, there's another big stunt and like a dance sequence. So it's, it was. Yeah. Like all in one day. Yeah. So it was, it was super thrilling in that sense. And we also, uh, Q Tran or like our amazing cinematographer we kind of designed the movie um shot wise before so we're not really recycling moments we're seeing even if you're seeing the same moment you're seeing it from a slightly subtly different perspective that's related to all what the characters are going through so

even if we were in the same set you know we were kind of messing with the camera a little bit, which kept it exciting. I found Tala's wedding to be a very familiar sort of getaway wedding experience in good ways and in many bad ways as well. I mean, Max, you were mentioning to me that that was a familiar experience to you. Kristen, was that a wedding that was familiar to you as well? Oh, yeah. to you Kristen is that was that a wedding that was familiar to you as well oh yeah I went to a wedding once where the bride was very set on like a Pinterest she's very very set on a certain aesthetic and we all showed it was it was um a destination wedding and no one there um was from where the wedding was and we all went and like took days setting up and um everything had to be like perfect there were like old canoes that were used as like seats i mean it was nuts

and and it was like deep deep deep in the woods and i i remember and like i remember stringing those like mumford and son's lights and being like this is so intense yeah it's kind of it's it's an amazing hell day to have you know over and over again um i feel like one of the reasons that people are gonna respond to the movie who haven't seen it is because we're all kind of living the same day over and over again during this really weird period is that something that you guys have even talked about in the aftermath and like reflecting on that at all that it is it's hacky to say it's a movie for the moment but it's a movie for the moment you know yeah i mean that's been brought up in every single interview we've done and like um i think that yeah i mean it certainly has like another level of relevance i always felt like it did anyway because i sort of

when i read it i was like, it's so beautifully written, the story about people who are trying to run from who they are and like run from their stuff and how universal that is. And we distract ourselves from that at varying degrees with like drinking and sex and TV and like all this stuff and work of just being able to be like, oh, I don't have to think about that right now. And that when you're actually like made to sit in it, how excruciating it can be. Certainly now everyone across the world in ways both negative and actually,

I think ultimately incredibly positive are having to sit in things and look at things and look at their part in things and sit with some really uncomfortable stuff. But I think that that will lead to change. But I think that that's like certainly, yeah, everyone can relate to this in a way stuff but I think that that will lead to change but I think that that's like certainly yeah you know everyone can relate to this in a way that I'm sure if it if this hadn't happened wouldn't be the

same the the tone the tone and pacing of the movie is just feels so important for something like this and I was wondering if did it have to be like a Swiss watch in the script or were you able to change things in real time like did you find yourself improvving or coming up with a new version of a day like when you were actually making it did it did it evolve at all it was it was in terms of the the structure of it and what i again what i love just about the structure didn't really change because you pull a thread and you know in a movie like ours and the whole thing could come apart but like some of the best stuff some of the hijinks in the in the nihilistic montage was a complete invention of kristen and andy's the tattoo stuff and galaxy speaking of galaxy um so like there was always room to play like that

you know um and we would again we're shooting these locations that kind of are sprinkled throughout the movie block shooting them so you could pick stuff up um that you hadn't thought of if you were inspired and kind of sprinkle them through um but tonally it just i'm so everybody got the movie like everybody got why it was special and why we were after we're after kristen's the writer too and she she you know you you have two leads like we had and they're able to kind of like understand it and protect the sensibility and kind of elevate it and serve it and you know it's it's emotional it's it's funny it's it's happy and it's sad and you just we kind of just covered our asses too and tried a bunch of different things like everybody in the cast was so utterly fearless

and gave kind of different versions of every performance. And then you kind of, you calibrate that stuff in the edit and kind of just do something that feels honestly human, but also just entertaining. It's like the stuff that I like to watch, it kind of hits all these different things. Andy and I,

when we met in film school, I remember Andy was in a band called the Henry Clay people. We talked about music a bunch when we met um like the replacements and pavement and stuff that felt kind of like scrappy and collage like in its construction and then eastbound and down was big just like how you could laugh and cry like we did in that show and also just empathize with toxic people because they're it's all like a defense mechanism um so that was always kind of the goal tonally um and we just were lucky to work with with you know everybody even again galaxy like getting why that tattoo stuff was important and being able to like turn that around in record time yeah yeah but that also

i think it's like one of the most amazing things about this experience was that like everyone in every single department, you know, no one did this movie for like the paycheck. Everyone was so wild about it that we were, you know, every everyone across the board, like the hustle of getting these things, getting it shot in 21 days in like sandstorms in the desert where like scorpions were near the camera. Like, you know, like you know like coming like coming up like during an emotional moment be like yeah i got a rattler it's like yeah exactly there's a baby rattler everyone step back yeah like you know everyone just like threw down for those 21 days and i think that that's also like part of the spirit of the movie is that like everyone wanted to be there and everyone believed in it what about like the the logic the narrative logic of the movie like did you did you guys have a lot of debates about that like

kristen when you got it were you like okay it makes sense or did you interrogate the setup at all because it is in it's a in a weird way it's scientific i know again at the like trying to protect. There used to be a speech that Sarah had that explained a lot of it. That we wrote like the night before and made Kristen memorize it. And she did it like a champion. And the performance is brilliant. And then we just cut it out of the movie. Like we knew we would because we're invested in the people in that moment. Yeah, exactly.

But then like, because you guys had sent me drafts of that I know it wasn't like um frozen or whatever locked until um like the day before but I'd had like drafts of it which included sort of all the um because you guys had talked to multiple physicists yeah and I so I like researched all of the things that were in there. I have like a folder on my computer still called Couché, you stay. And because that's like based on one of the theories. And I did like try to learn them to the best of my ability. And then, yes, there was this like two page speech that I would say like in the shower all the time about like the black hole and like how time works. And so when I'd read it, that was in there. And so I was like, makes sense to me.

Let's roll. Like, I don't know. I also like, that's a little bit above my pay grade. But there was, there wasn't anything in it that I can recall that made me be like, no, hold on a second. Like I just sort of, yeah, was very, I believed everything. Max are you gonna you gotta

release that black hole cut yeah people are dying to see me do a four minute monologue about how time loops work that should have been the trailer for the movie no just like that explanation and like in a slight flop sweat because I was like oh boy get this right like that's crazy yeah so many words and it helps it helps too just with with niles just being indifferent over it having been in the in his predicament for so long and just kind of you know you you get that liberty to to shrug off logic in a way you trust him in a sense and you don't have to delve into it so much um but i think that's kind of the cool thing about the movie too with the logic and even the ending you're just kind of holding up a mirror to what people are bringing into the movie in a way like their cynicism their

optimism about love you know or relationships or you know the journey that these characters are on and you can kind of that's one thing we talked about very early on with Becky Sloveter our amazing producer and Andy and Akiva and Lonely Island like we want an Andy and then we want a movie that kind of like poses questions and holds a mirror up to what people are bringing in and people can go out afterwards and have dinner or you know and talk about it and not to confuse but just to like engage but that's also my favorite stuff as a viewer too. Like I really love ambiguity. I think that's also like maybe tied into why I'm like, don't read reviews, just go see it

and figure it out for yourself. Even though I know like people have to decide what to spend money on and what to spend their time on. But like, I really love things that don't, that do require a bit of a suspension of disbelief, but that are also like open to interpretation. That's my favorite type of stuff to watch. It's a great like dinner party movie, you know,

it's just, it's something that can be like analyzed and picked over and, well, how would you spend your day? And you know, that's, it's really great in that respect. I very quickly wanted to ask you guys about Sundance. I actually ran into Becky at Sundance and she was like, please see our movie. And then like six hours later, you guys broke some sort of crazy Sundance sale record, which then became a talking point of the movie. So like, what were those couple of days like for you guys at what may turn out to be the

last film festival in American history? God, I know. I mean, it was, for me, it was a blast. It was a blast just to like, that live screening was the best blast part. Also, we all stayed in a house together, which felt very like summer campy, very like, very, very special.

You know, I don't know. It was a blast. I mean, Sundance is like a nightclub in the snow and that element of it, I don't love. But like to blast. Sundance is like a nightclub in the snow. And that element of it, I don't love. But to be able to sit in a dark room with hundreds of people and all be still for an hour and a half and go through this journey together, I mean, yeah, that's definitely extra weighted now because I don't know when the next time we're going to be able to do that is. But it was a blast. It was it was incredible it was it was it

was emotional too it's like sitting behind kristin at the premiere and then next to andy siar like holding hands as the festival uh like sponsor trailer plays um and knowing our families are there and our partners are there and it's like well i guess this is it like it's no longer ours anymore like it's it's these peoples and like everyone could hate us after this but you know this is beautiful and then the lonely island classics card coming up before the movie in a room full of acquisitions people and everybody laughing at that so you get like a laugh out of the way like it was it was totally surreal and I had never been before because I never wanted to go without having a movie in the thing so it was I was very surprised because there's so much pressure put on it like just how electric it was how passionate people were about movies it was

just was cool to be part of that community for a fleeting second and then also as Kristen said just to have a kind of a nice cap like a a emphatic period, so to speak, at like the end of the movie, because it was, again, such a quick shoot. We didn't really have time to say goodbye or celebrate it. And it was just, it was incredible. Deeply, deeply spoiling. Yeah. Like in ways that continue to sort of like hit me.

Because it was just such a fortunate way to to close that out yeah and also because i mean i can only speak for myself but like never in a million years did i think i i was hopeful that like we would get bought and that people would see it and that like everyone would break even and like that it was i just wanted people to love it and i was like god what you know that would be great like what an exciting prospect and to to see like the reaction to it and I was like god what you know that would be great like what an exciting prospect and to to see like the reaction to it and to see it was so unexpected for me very unexpected and incredible um yeah and spoiling I mean I don't know I've I've done some independent films that people do not like and people like it like liking it or not liking it like they I remember this

moment at a party at the, at our rat or our premier party when someone showed me a review, I wasn't sure if I was going to read a review or retweets or anything. And someone just like showed me one and it was a positive one, but they were also engaging with the movie the way that we were when we were making it. And it's like, Oh, people are seeing it for all the reasons that we fell in love with it while you're making it. you know, that,

that was super special and cool. And you can't, no expectations going into that festival whatsoever. You know, none. Yeah. I was just there to honestly like party just as basic as that sounds. I was like,

well, you know, who knows what this stuff, like we all get to hang out in a house for a weekend. We do like a bunch of interviews. I'm going to like, also like have a blast here and then like go back to work how are you guys feeling about it going straight to hulu given the circumstances that's cool it's one of the cool things about the the deal that we got

at sundance was like it was with with neon they rule obviously and have great taste and hulu is so well curated and also is great but it was it just felt very modern and kind of like where things are are headed with a cool distributor and then a great streaming platform and having both those things like locked down and not having to think about that um being able to make like a cultural ripple and then have as many eyeballs as possible on it is great and then i mean there's there's many more important things happening in the world right now than our movies. So like,

we'll take it, put it on, you know, like, like it's not, I won't be picky about it. It's great that people are going to get to see it. And we couldn't have asked for,

I think a better scenario at this point, you know, I agree with Max. It's such a thrill to be able to like have something to share at this point. And during this time and like something that also people are from like, you know, different interviews that I do. People like are revisiting it over and over again too.

And I don't know. And like, it's bringing, it's seemingly bringing them joy. And like, as long as it's just out there, it's it's like, it's amazing.

Yeah. One thing with this movie, I've told people already, like it's a great re like it's amazing yeah one thing with this movie i've told people already like it's a great re-watch you know because there's a lot of hints and what you've been watching it again last night you can see there's like you're nodding towards where you're going in the story in such clever ways and like it being on a platform like that just means that if people want to fire it up a day later and see it again they can do that which is different than if they were going to a theater so i I guess there's some upside. We end every episode of the show by asking filmmakers, what's the last great thing they've seen?

Have you guys been watching stuff in quarantine? Oh, yeah. Kristen, you want to go first? I have a loaded answer. I've been watching a ton of stuff in quarantine. I'll like name some of the things that are like, are, but then I want to get to like a thing, a movie that I've, I'm speaking of rewatching that I just watched for,

I think like the 12th time. But I watched Disclosure, the Netflix documentary. That was incredible. I watched Normal People. So Irish, so horny, so hot.

I mean, my goodness. I watched 90 Day Fiance before the 90 days. Absolute garbage. So good. I watched it. Every episode is an hour and a half. I watched 90 Day Fiance before the 90 days. Absolute garbage. So good. I watched it. Every episode is an hour and a half. I ate it up. And then what else? Yeah, I've been watching a bunch of great stuff, but I watched Showgirls for the 12th time the other day. And Showgirls is one of my favorite movies of all time. And what is wild to me about that movie is that I was showing it to

someone for the first time. And I, which I love to do. I like, like to introduce that movie to people and with each, each viewing of it, the more I think that, um, what Elizabeth Brickley is doing is actually like genius. I think that she was like a victim of the time. Like she does the same thing that like Christian Bale and Nicholas Cage do. She just was like, it wasn't edited together and wasn't like, like the director told her that she, the character was on meth.

And so she plays it like a crackhead, but then he cut out the scenes where they talk about her drug abuse. Like I've gone on deep dives on it. And like, I actually think what she's doing is like so avant-garde and like so ballsy it just like didn't the execution that had nothing to do with her like anyway i'm like a very into justice for elizabeth berkeley did you did you see the documentary about showgirls that just came out yep you don't know me i mean yeah you don't know yeah it I mean, yeah, you don't know. Yeah. It was really good. And it's 12 times. Yeah, no, it was really good.

I thought it like painted such a good picture. Um, I mean, like that movie is so wild and so stylized and like, also obviously like so problematic in so many ways for sure. But then you get to that doggy child scene and you're like, is this actually art? Do you know what I mean? Where you're like, am I actually, have I been wrong about this the entire time? Like maybe this is, maybe this is like post art or something, but it's just so bananas. And also makes sense for like, like I read an interview with him where he was like, I was trying to make the most like excess Vegas.

I told everyone to act like that too. To like as big and as like indulgent as you can because that's what Vegas is like. And like indulgent and empty. And like fucking mission accomplished. It's such a good. I don't know. I like, I think, I don't know. I, I like, I, I think, I don't know. I'm just like watching it again and having time to think about it. And then thinking about like how her career was like completely,

you know, ruined for it and how wildly unfair that was. And she was like 20 years old when she made it and she's doing the same things that like all these fucking dudes who lose 70 pounds for a role are doing, you know know and i just think it's brilliant end of end of speech never seen it i'm gonna watch it now you've never seen it tonight tonight it's it's 12 times in a row tonight you can't find it on itunes you have to download fandango now okay done done yeah max what are you watching i've been on uh i've been trying to i've been all over the place with what i'm watching but i've been trying as much as i can like go by by filmmaker or actor and just kind of like do a do a survey and kind of revisit stuff

and i've been on a hal ashby kick which has has been super fun. Um, I watched being there most recently, which is just so good and so prescient. And so such a great, thoughtful yet sweet, you know, um, and light in some ways, the film and Peter Sellers is the bomb.

Um, but that's been fun doing the Hal Ashby kick. Being there in Palm Springs would be a fun double feature and maybe a triple feature of showgirls that would be extremely intense i've never seen being there check it maybe i'll watch i'll check that out yeah i was on a michael keaton kick at the top of quarantine i watched like the michael keaton canon the best what was the best thing that you saw from that canon i mean i think he's like the fucking shit he's so good i saw multiplicity which definitely there are parts of it that 100 do not hold up but like he's so charmed he's so good that like you're you're just rooting for

him there's a ton of that movie that's nuts that's like just like all the clones bone his wife it's so weird like that's like her role in the clones bone his wife it's so weird like that's like her role in it is that she just like gets slammed by all those clones so weird also like it's yeah like some of his choices for the clones like would not fly today like it's just but he's so charming and it's like such a that's another one where like you know they clone him like they spend like literally 20 seconds explaining how the cloning works they have a bunch of machines that are like beeping and they're like you're cloned now like they do not explain it and you're down for it you're like cool who cares um and then also his performance in batman oh yeah

they're bringing him back batman they're bringing it back as batman i think right you see that yeah i saw that oh man so showgirls multiplicity and being there show an iconic show trio right show girls 12 more times yeah guys this was really really fun thank you for doing it i appreciate it. Thank you, man. Thank you to Kristen and to Max. Now, before we get into our conversation with Jason and Shay, let's hear a trailer for the new show that they're working on, The Connect, before we dive in. Hello, I'm Jason Concepcion. I think that's too much energy to start with. 20% less. Okay. Hello, I'm Jason Concepcion. I think that's too much energy to start with.

20% less. Okay. Hello, I'm Jason Concepcion. I don't think that was it either. 5% either direction. Either direction? Okay. Hello, I'm Jason Concepcion.

Let's do that one. Let's do that one. Can you just let me do it? Just let me do it. Okay. Hello, I'm Jasonason concepcion and i'm shea serrano we have a podcast coming out it's called the connect and it's cool each week shea and i will talk about two movies and the theme that connects them for example for our debut episode which comes out july 22nd the theme is work friends i'm talking about 1999's office space it's about

three friends who work at a technology company and i'm talking about 1983 scarface which is about two best friends just trying to make their way to the top of miami's very competitive cocaine industry another theme we'll have is mean mentors i'm talking about fletcher from whiplash jason's talking about miranda from the devil wears prada. Another theme. How about Matthew McConaughey doesn't understand outer space? I'm talking about contact. Jason is talking about interstellar. And yet another theme.

Oh, man, why'd you do that? I'm talking about juice. Jason's talking about Lady Bird. There are categories and bits and contests. It's a whole thing and it's going to be great or it's going to be terrible. I don't know, but I'm excited to find out.

Me too. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts. man i'm delighted to be rejoined by the ringers jason concepcion and shea serrano what up yes what is up sean you look fantastic oh thanks i got a haircut somehow your stubble looks like like if i touched it it would be incredibly like velvet on your face. This is actually fake. This is fake facial hair. I can't get, you know, Jason can get the great d'Artagnan and you've got the great d'Artagnan

and I just can't grow it that strong. I've got weak mustache strength. So guys, I wanted you to come on because you are launching a new show. People who listen to, if you listen to Binge Mode, if you listen who listen to, if you listen to Binge Mode, if you listen to Villains, if you listen to various Ringer podcasts, people have heard you guys over the years. I think also people on the internet know that you're friends and you've been

friends for a long time. Correct. So I think it's fair to say maybe this was overdue that you guys got a show together. But, you know, I was hoping that you both could talk about how you developed the show, what the show is going to be, get people excited for it a little bit. Shay or Jason, feel free to jump in, whoever wants to talk first. All right. I will tell everybody what the show is about, and then Jason can tell you how we got here because this all started with some emails that Jason sent. The actual show is called The Connect. The Connect with Jason and Shay.

And the way it works is very simple. Every week we have a theme, and this is a works is very simple every week we have a theme and this is a podcast about movies every week we have a theme and jason picks a movie that touches on that theme and i pick a movie that touch on that theme and that's all that it is so with our premiere episode the theme is workplace friends he needed to bring a movie that dealt with workplace friends in some sort of way i needed to bring a movie that dealt with workplace friends in some sort of way. I needed to bring a movie that dealt with workplace friends in some sort of way. Jason went with Office Space. Mike Judge's classic.

Which is about three friends working their way through a whatever, whatever. And I went with Scarface, which is about two best friends trying to work their way through the cocaine empire. So we have that there. There's your central theme. There are two movies. And then we just work our way through some categories, talking about the main theme and how we get we get here and blah blah blah blah it's super great it's super fun right it's super on brand there's some

like fun uh games that we play in which we try to one-up each other in terms of um listing how these movies are similar we have a category called the Michelle Rodriguez where it's basically six degrees of separation but with Michelle Rodriguez where we have to connect something about our movie to Michelle Rodriguez

in the fewest steps possible. I want to say Jason cheats on this game every single time. Stop it. Every week. Stop it. Every week. Stop it.

Every week. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jason. Go ahead. Well, let me just say why Shay is saying that because i win in the first episode by getting to michelle rodriguez i was cheated don't spoil it don't spoil it don't spoil it all right just know that if you're listening just know he's a cheater in all facets of every game that we play

well can you guys tell me what goes into picking the movies? Because I think that that will also kind of animate for people who want to listen what your taste is, who you are, like what your mood, because I think people have heard you on the rewatchables,

you know, they hear you talk about Armageddon or Gladiator recently. Like what movies are you looking to pick? Or is it, is it just purely organic? I always just pick whatever like movie is the first one

I think of whenever Jason says the theme. Another one of our themes might be Mean Mentors is one of them. Find a movie that has a mean mentor. As soon as Jason said that, as soon as he sent me the text, I was like, oh, fucking the guy from Whiplash. That's a mean mentor right there. And then what we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure

we don't pick only the movies that have already been done on the rewatchables or trying to hit some other stuff, trying to pick things that, that Jason likes a lot and that I like a lot because there's a lot of, there's a lot of overlap there, but usually we like a thing for a different reason. So it almost always ends in some sort of argument about the fundamental nature of that particular thing. And it's fun to, you know, something we both enjoy doing is just kind of breaking down some of the themes of, you know, what these movies are about.

I think one of, Matthew McConaughey doesn't understand outer space is one that we have, which is, it might surprise people to realize that that is an ongoing theme in today's cinema. I thought this robot was my friend is another theme that we have.

Now that's been going on for a while. You can go back to, I don't know, Metropolis to find an example of that. But those are the kind of things that we enjoy doing is breaking down these movies according to these themes, some of which people might be familiar with. Others, maybe people haven't thought about too much. Have you guys thought, have you defined your movie taste? I feel like

on the big picture, I'm constantly moving through this process of trying to figure out who I am by identifying the things that I like. And frequently it turns out to be like super corny white dude. But despite that, I think I have learned a lot about who i am and what what why things certain things interest me do you guys find that just doing the first few episodes of this show you're finding the same thing uh probably a version of that um if i'm like trying to define what my movie taste is yeah here it is for you sean i i just like good movies that's it this is this this is an argument that that larry and, my wife and I get into all of the time because she will not like a thing that I like.

And I'll be like, why don't you like this thing that's good? And she goes like, it's not good. You think it's good just because you think it's good doesn't mean it's good. And I'm like, no, if I like it, that means it has to be good in some sort of fashion. So that's usually about where I stand. If I watch a movie and I like it, to me, the social network and blood sport are like equal works of art. I'm like, fuck yeah. Both of these made me feel things. That's all that I'm looking for is just make me feel a thing in

my chest. Yeah. For me, I think it's something similar. I would put it as, do i do i dread the thought of watching it again you know i think with uh with movies there's so much kind of you know to get versed in it as you are you are incredibly versed in movies to get there you really have to watch some stuff that's almost like taking medicine sometimes you're like well i gotta know i gotta know how this developed so i gotta watch this i gotta watch freaking 21 days of sodom or some terrible movie that's gonna destroy my life but i have to watch it in order to understand some you know and and that is i think an important thing to do but for me in terms of my actual tastes and the stuff i end up enjoying is just when i think about it again when when I think about the movie, what is the immediate emotional reaction to the idea of watching it again? Do I want to watch it again because it surprised me the first time, the characters delighted me because it has great

dialogue? If that's the case, then I want to watch it again you know it's like I think about like the first scene in Reservoir Dogs when they're just when the hitmen are just sitting around the table just talking and nothing is happening but they're just it was so unlike anything I ever saw and I was like man I want to watch this again because this is not like anything I've ever watched before and it doesn't even have to be I'm not even talking about like originally

originality of concept or anything like that because there's really very few setups for movies like in general but it's just like do I want to watch it again that's it so one thing that I'm I'm I'm hoping to see on the show I don't know if it'll necessarily happen is you guys not just bringing movies to each other that you're familiar with, but movies that maybe Shay, you like that Jason might not be up on or vice versa. Have you guys talked about how you can bring new stuff to each other in that way? Or is the idea to just kind of create movies that like, there's a lot of awareness of. That's actually how the whole thing started. Jason and I were texting about various action movies and I'm mentioning certain ones that I like.

And he's like, oh, did you know that this was like a direct, there's a direct line between this thing that you like and this thing that happened in like Asian cinema already 30 years ago. And I'm like, no, tell me about it. Let me watch it. And then we like started sharing movies that way. So there are definitely a few episodes where he shows up with a thing that I had no idea even existed or had not paid attention to as thoroughly as I needed to, and then also vice versa.

Jason, are there things that you want to, a kind of movie that you want to put on this show that maybe we're not, maybe The Ringer isn't hitting on frequently enough or just Shay is not spending enough time investing in because he's watching Bloodsport for the 900th time? You know, i wouldn't i wouldn't say that it's the uh driving force but you know like there's i do like a lot of

world cinema and so talking about john woo's the killer or john pierre melville's like army of shadows like those are things that should the theme work for that week i would i would love to bring to shay because those are fun movies. And I'm trying to bring every movie that has ever had a Mexican in it. I'm like, we need to talk about Mi Vida Loca this week. Mousy and Sad Girl are like premiere characters.

You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to do that sort of thing. I want to know about the actual making of the show um have you guys had had disagreements have you been doing segments and been like actually this is fucking stupid yeah largely that's what the thing is yeah we have we have we have pretty uh pretty heated disagreements mostly stemming from two categories uh the connection contest in which we compete to see who can come up with the most connections uh in which shea is constantly uh berating me for taking too much time and then there is the the michelle rodriguez which is you know there's a lot of constitutionalism, originalism debates going on,

whether a certain thing actually counts as an appearance of Michelle Rodriguez in media and what constitutes a win. So there are a lot of arguments in that regard. See, I think even in this aspect, I would have gone a different direction, and I would have said we have argued more about one category. It's called the cafeteria table, which is like, okay, if we have a theme for that week, we, we talked, we, we did workplace friends and we're like, all right, who else gets to sit at the workplace friends table? What other friends from, from workplace friend movies get to sit here? And we got into a big fight about one of Jason's picks. He picked the guy from Michael

Clayton who really likes, he picked guy from Michael Clayton who really likes. He picked Arthur from Michael Clayton who really likes bread. And his whole thing was. Tom Wilkinson? Tom Wilkinson's character? Yeah. I am a God of death. Michael, you got to taste this bread.

It's the best bread I ever tasted. So I'm like, why would we invite the fucking guy with the bread takes. He's a genius litigator. When we can get Lee and carter from rush hour and and it's like you know we're bumping heads a lot on that on that sort of thing but i don't so who is the decider in these circumstances how do you guys land on steve producer steve allman our producer who has an anti-shay bias i have come to find out stop it stop it now yeah hold on first of all you're basing this on

the one episode that we just taped in which i won the michelle rodriguez in in and i won't spoil how but in incredible fashion that was only one he usually rules for you i don't know i felt like i'm being cheated every time that i start talking. Steve interrupts. But Steve is the one who decides at the end basically who won this particular category. Are you guys going to be keeping score of any kind? Are you going to be referring back to who won? And will you gamify is my question. Only if I'm winning will we keep score.

That's what I was about to say. This is like when you play pickup basketball and you score a bucket and you're like 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, and then the other team scores and you don't say anything. And you're like, what was it?

And then you score again and you're like 4-1. I'm ignoring whenever Jason wins, but if I win, I will make sure that everybody hears about it. And we're also hoping that, you know,

as we build momentum behind this, that people will come in with some suggestions and some engagement for some of these categories. That's what I really like about this particular podcast because we're like, okay, every week we have a theme. If I text my cousins or my uncle or whatever, I'm like, oh, we're recording this week

and we're doing Mean Mentors. They automatically are like, oh, what about these five people like that? You know, we're sort of going encouraging that to happen because more often than not, we will not pick the ones that you want to hear. You would have picked first. We're going to, cause we're just picking the stuff we like, but it's cool to like, get that feedback already. Would you guys just be willing to be a little bit emotionally vulnerable with me for a second and tell me what you want to get from each other? What do you want to learn from each other?

What do you want this to mean for your relationship? Okay, I'm going to be serious here because we had this exact conversation in the very first episode. The very first episode, Workplace Friends. We were talking about, I was talking specifically about Tony and Manny and like the little thing. We see all the big stuff that they do together. It's like best friend, best man at the wedding. He's like the guy that I trust with my life, this sort of thing. But the little stuff was the stuff that really stood out to me when I rewatched it, only focusing on that.

And there's like one part in there where they go to Frank's house and Frank asks them if they want a drink. They both look at each other and they're like, yeah, gin, we both want a gin. They like know each other's drinks. And I thought this was like a really touching thing. And I realized while I was watching this movie that Jason and I have been to dinner together 30 or 40 times.

And we've had many conversations about many different things. But I don't know like what Jason's preferred drink is. And I'm like realizing in this moment that maybe I'm not as good a friend as I thought. Maybe I don't know what Jason's preferred drink is. And I'm realizing in this moment that maybe I'm not as good a friend as I thought. Maybe I'm not as considerate or emotionally available because I don't like... Then I realized, I don't know, Jason's like, does he have a brother? Is he married? I don't know major details about this guy's life who I've known for years. And so yeah, some of that stuff will happen.

I'm hoping by the end of it, we will go through like we become even better friends. And then at some point we hate each other. And then we like build it back up. And then it comes back around. Stronger than ever. Yeah, it's similar. You know, I think the title is it's not even really a metaphor for what this kind of project would mean to me in terms of my relationship with Shay. It's like a lot of us are sitting around at home. We only interact with people through screens. And so the process of just like hanging out and talking about movies

with a friend is something that I think I appreciate more than ever right now. And I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way. So just being able to be like, hey man, have you seen Three O'Clock High? What are your thoughts on Three O'Clock High? Can we talk about Three O'Clock High? A really underrated 80s teen comedy for a second. Just being able to do that,

being able to be like, what movies did you watch this weekend? Have you seen Old Guard yet? Just being able to do that being able to be like what movies did you watch this weekend um have you seen old guard yet you know just being able to talk about stuff and then having a framework to do that and learn about just what my friend is is doing in their day-to-day life uh is is something i really appreciate because it always turns into a conversation about something in your own personal life right always whenever you start talking about whatever the main theme of a movie is, you realize, oh, that stuck out to me

because of this thing that happened. Right. Because of this relationship that I have with my father is why I was drawn to this sort of thing. And then it becomes that. I just have one more question for you guys. Who is Tony and who is Manny

in this partnership? I'm Manny. Yeah, I'll be Tony. I'manny in this partnership. I'm Manny. Yeah, I'll be Tony. I'm Tony in this case. Jason is there for me when I need him, and ultimately I'm going to shoot him in the stomach. Yeah. I might actually be Angel,

the guy who gets chainsawed very early in the movie. Guys, I'm very excited about The Connect. Congrats on the show. And I hope people who are listening to this will listen to it. Any final words on the show that you want to share with the folks? It's really fun and sweet and I'm excited about it.

I'm genuinely very pumped about this thing to get it out in the world. Very much the same. Okay, guys. Shea Serrano, Jason Concepcion. Thanks, the world. Very much the same. Okay, guys. Shea Serrano, Jason Concepcion. Thanks, you both. Thank you. Bye.