The Rewatchables - ‘Before Sunrise’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey get lost in Vienna for the day after rewatching Richard Linklater’s 1995 romance classic, ‘Before Sunrise,’ starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Watch this episode on our Ringer Movies YouTube channel! Producer: Craig Horlbeck Video Producer: Jack Sanders and Chia Hao Tat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're a fan of the inner workings of Hollywood, then check out my podcast, The Town, on the Ringer Podcast Network. My name's Matt Bellany. I'm founding partner at Puck and the writer of the What I'm Hearing newsletter. And with my show, The Town, I bring you the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. Every week, we've got three short episodes featuring real Hollywood insiders to tell you what people in town are actually talking about. We'll cover everything from why your favorite show was canceled overnight, which streamer is on the brink of collapse, and which executive is on the hot seat. Disney, Netflix, who's up, down, and who will never eat lunch in this town again? Follow the town on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered

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Scroll long enough and you'll hear it all. Miracle diets, fitness trends, you name it. But with iPhone and Apple Watch, you get meaningful insights from a very trusted source. Your body. You can track sleep quality, cardio fitness, and more than unpacked. all the information in the health app on iPhone to get a picture of your overall health. These health insights are developed

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Breaking down the most boring Oscar season in years? What do you mean? Deadly boring. It's wide open. We don't know who's going to win. This is great. All the Apo research is flying around. I won't be talking about one of these movies 10 years from now.

Well, that may be true. That may be true. I am excited for Shalameh. Yeah. I'm excited for Demi Moore. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm excited for the Oscars. Come on.

Come on. He's back. Back. If Timmy wins, that'll be fun. Will he come on the pod before or after? Can he win? He can win? He can win.

Who's the favorite now? Adrian Brody for the brutalist. Do you do it yet? Do you fire it up? After, I need after football season. Okay. Let me get through football season. Especially even the football games last for four hours.

And we also get through this Celtic swoon. That's an alarm, it's an alarm, but it's not alarming. Right? Yeah. Okay. Are you playing a team or now? We're here to bond over love, right? And the possibilities of the universe.

C.R. What are you up to? I do the watch podcast. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Men's Health Pod. Interesting. You're looking fit today. You can find this podcast and all the movie stuff we do on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel,

a great channel, which we're going to be trying to spruce up during 2025. Subscribe to that. Coming up before sunrise, three guys getting romantic, a better romantic movie. Let's go. I have no idea what your situation is, but I feel like we have some kind of connection. Yeah, me too. So listen, here's a deal. This is what we should do. You should get off the train with me here in Vienna and come check out the town.

Since we never going to see each other again, I don't think we should sleep together. Let's see each other again. Castle Rock Entertainment presents Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in a new romantic comedy from Richard Linklater. Before Sunrise, rated R. At Select Theater's Friday. All right, this is an I remember where I saw this in what theater I was in. movie. It's a movie that describes your view of life, both when you saw it and then all the years later. It's a true classic. It's before sunrise. It's a all-time Gen X movie. It's a great

90s movie. It's aged perfectly. And I almost don't even think we need to do the pot. I have no notes. See later. Yeah. What's age the worst? I was like, nothing. Zero. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very, have you ever started an episode like that thinking, you didn't start the Godfather episode like that. This movie, we had a mail when we did the rewatchables mailbag, there was that person who had that, they wanted to add the category about,

did this movie achieve perfection? It didn't have to be a perfect movie, but for what the movie was trying to do, yeah, there's some good cigarettes. But for what the movie was trying to do, did it achieve it? Did it throw basically a no hitter? And I think this movie achieved

every single thing it wanted to do with the added bonus that endured 30 years later. That it's still, even though, you know, they don't have phones, they don't have, they're not texting, but for the most part, this is a watchable movie now, even for people like my daughter. Yeah. You know, this was in theaters while Pulp Fiction was still in theaters. Wow. So probably incredibly informative moment for all of our lives.

This movie's pretty unique in that not only do you watch it and you're like, I remember seeing it or I remember the impact it had on me. It's overwhelming because you watch it and you're also like, I remember who I was. Do you know what I mean? Like literally there is a degree to which you kind of see a lot of the things that you were feeling at that time or would go on to feel very shortly afterwards, like reflected on screen. It's different than dazed and confused that way. It's not a period piece in my mind, even though Zoe might watch it and be like, oh,

so tell me about what the 90s were like and stuff like that. We're watching it. We're like, this is a photograph. Yeah. of the way people used to talk and the way people used to kind of act. It's so mind-blowing to see these days. It reminded me of a few movies

that you guys have done over the years that felt like they were their own subgenre. So Singles was one of these movies. Kicking and Screaming was one of these movies. Reality Bites was one of these movies. They're not all the same. They have different tones. Some of them are more comedic.

Some of them are more sincere. But the emotional philosophical hangout movie was very present because independent cinema was getting to be a huge part of American movies and these were kind of easy movies to make. They didn't cost a lot of money. You just needed a couple of attractive people who could seem smart. Yeah.

And I'm wondering if this is the best possible version of that kind of a movie. I think it is. Well, when I think about those movies and you mentioned some of them and also this Gen X era and obviously I was the age, I was probably a year older than Jesse when I saw this movie.

But it's all pre-internet to me. It's this time capsule of what life was like before email and text and everything else showed up. And people were really lost just trying to find, like, connections. You would just go to a bar and hope you ran into somebody. You would meet some girl or if you're a girl, some boy, and you'd be like, maybe this is the one, but you'd have no idea. You wouldn't even know if they tried to call you again. It's like, was my, oh, my answer machine didn't work. there was just this sense of if I meet somebody, is this going to last?

Is this going to get screwed up? If I lose their number, we'll ever see or hear from them again? All of these things that made like the value of a connection. I really think we valued it more back then. I hate to be like the old man on the lawn, but it feels like it's so much easier to connect with whoever. You can go on the internet. You can find your people wherever.

You really couldn't in the early 90s. So if you met somebody like this in one day, it was like the most important thing that ever could have happened to you. Yeah, it's also, these people are at an age, that 18 to 25 or whatever age period, where, like, everything that happens to you feel like it feels like it's the first time

it's ever happened to anyone. And there's a moment in the opening just few scenes of this film where Jesse is talking about how it's been a bad trip to Europe, but he's liked sitting on the train and having ideas. Right.

And I was like, I don't remember the last time I did that. Like, if I'm ever on a mode of transportation or have any downtime, I'm usually, like, looking at my phone, have my headphones in, texting with somebody. I know, like, I'm in constant contact with this external world. Right. And I was like, holy shit. I completely forgot being bored out of my mind. Yeah, you have a book. Both of them, when they meet each other, they're both reading a book.

That's kind of what you did. If you're on a train, what else are you going to do? Suddenly, you'd be like, oh, I'm going to go on Instagram. You know, you were kind of stuck with your thoughts. some book or a magazine you had or some conversation with somebody like in a train like that. It's like maybe I'll sit next to somebody.

I remember flying places in the 90s and you'd sit next to somebody who talked to them for three hours and be like, oh, I'll see you later. And that was it. You never thought about them again because it was like, oh, that killed three hours. Now you would just kill the three hours on your own.

I don't know if it's better or worse. Guy next to you is reading inside sports. Yeah, right. What is that? Well, I think... What did they think of the sun? Is that a retic article? I think it's 95% what you're saying that, you know, it was impossible to distract yourself in the ways that we can now, right?

And that there's like an inherent bad for our ability to socialize or be connected to other people. But then it's just, it's also 5% just being 21 or 23, where you don't. And idealistic. Right. And you have not been destroyed by the world yet. You don't have a lot of money, so you don't really have a lot of options. So you have to make good with what you have. And you don't have a lot of responsibilities that are otherwise weighing down that idealism.

You know, these are people with no jobs, no kids, no boyfriends or girlfriends. You know, their parents are alive. Everyone's healthy. Like, they're at this point in your life where, like, you can and probably should just fuck around a little bit. Yeah. And both literally and figuratively. And the movie really captures this time of, like, no responsibility.

The fact that Celine can just get off the train in a foreign land with some guy she met for 20 minutes. Yeah. And wander. And she's getting off the train before a nine-hour trip. And she's like, you know what? I'm just going to, I'll go to... I don't have anything going on until Tuesday.

I'm booked through February. Think about like when even Jesse just being like, I don't have enough money for a hotel, so I was just going to walk around Vienna all night until it's time to go to the airport. And then sleep outside. That would be like a pretty... Something would have gone really wrong if that was like the circumstances.

I found myself in now, and that was fucking romantic back then. But this is why Ethan Hawk was the Gen X Hero, because he played this character and he played Troy. And Troy was, but would it try to say all I need is a cup of coffee, a pack of cigarettes, and five bucks Laney?

Lainey, and is all I need. And that was what all that character needed, right? This guy, he's like, yeah, I'm just going to ride the train for an extra two weeks. I'm just going to walk around Vienna tonight. Maybe I'll sleep on the thing. But that's kind of what a lot people were like back then.

Were you like that? No, I was, sports was too important to me. I was, I was a mixture. But if I was him, I would have been like, I gotta get back.

Sports are too important like you need to get back. That's like round one MBA's coming up. Yeah. Oil can't boy is thrown on first train anymore. Clemens is pitching.

Mike Greenwell and Ellis Berks are like gonna fucking put it together. Big picture though with this movie. And it's really, this one other thing I love about this movie. And we, by the way, we're just going to talk about this movie.

Yeah. Because we want this movie to stand on its own. Obviously, there were some sequels. But one thing with this movie, as you age with it, but your feelings on love have aged too. And if you see this when you're in your teens, like you don't even know what love is yet. If you see this in your 20s,

that's when you're the most hardcore into, I kind of know who I am and I'm ready to be in love. So if you see this at the perfect time, this movie would be like your movie. And then as you get older, you're like, oh, those two, they're not going to last. Like you start becoming more cynical. right so it's and they he the only time i'll bring up the sequel he mentions in the beginning about

the difference to a romantic and a cynic that's how you see this movie are you a romantic or a cynic so when you saw this where you're a romantic or a cynics i think that when i saw it it i didn't see jesse is cynical like i thought jesse was just being cool you know like in this movie and then as you grow older you kind of see him he's working a little bit Yeah, it's like this is like your cynicism isn't of itself. It's like the thing from singles where it's like, I think your thing is not having a thing. It's like Jesse's thing is pretending like this is love is bullshit or that like because of his parents, it's like he thinks that romantic love is basically a fallacy. But he's the most romantic person in the world.

And he's got his five or six bits that he's clearly done with other people. It's like, hey, souls, what's going on there? Hey, everybody. Please remember Tip your Barton. Yeah, real Jerry Seinfeld. Yeah. I think that's exactly right. I mean, he, both of them show both sides of those two ideas.

They both, you know, Celine and Theoreo, the ethereal French girl should be the most romantic person in the world. Yeah. But she's also protecting herself with a certain kind of pragmatism throughout the entire movie. And they both kind of bounce back and forth. I was having this conversation with my wife last night. And I feel like the movie is like 51% Celine's, ultimately, and 49% Jessies. and in the future movies you could say

which direction does it go in but this movie ultimately has that drop of romance that outweighs the cynicism that is always being debated that they're always he's you know Jesse is always circling back to the palm reader bullshit

even the poem there's just a hint of like are we sure about this guy you know all the moments that in the wrong hands would make for like the worst movie ever oh my god like if this was not a Richard Linklater movie it could have been a disaster because of the sincere, borderline sentimental steps that the characters take. But ultimately, I think they both have the desire to love and be loved,

and they both know that you have to protect yourself in the world because people will hurt you. Yeah, because Jesse's just gotten his heart broken. So he's going around being like, there's no palm reading, there is no poetry, he's had that poem. Like, none of this stuff is, this is all bullshit. You made a key point there, though, about sentimental working or not working in a movie. We've seen people, Cameron Crow is a great example, almost famous, all the sentimentality works in that movie. And then he makes Elizabeth Town, and it's a lot of the same beats and none of it works. It's really hard to pull off like somebody's falling in love with somebody else.

You see it in a lot of movies and it takes place over the course of weeks, months, however they do it. I don't remember another movie where it's like this is about the immediate experience of falling for somebody over the course of a night, basically. And I don't remember another movie that nailed it like this. No, I mean, the best part about it is the fact that even though they obviously have like an instant connection, which is partially just due to like the circumstances of the train car in which they meet and the other couple fighting. Yeah. They have a pretty awkward first 30 minutes of the movie when they're first working around Vienna and it's like, now what? You know, like this movie is a series of now what's, which is what's so great about it. It's like every time they achieve some sort of point that.

in another movie would have been like it's all building up to a kiss or it's all building up to sex or it's all building up to this, they actually deal with like what happens next for the most part. And I think it makes it that much more effective because they do. So at the end, if you think they're seeing each other in six months when the movie ends, not knowing what happens in the sequels, if you leave that movie and you go, they're going to see each other in six months,

I would say you're a romantic. And if you leave the movie going, nah, one of them's going to fuck this up. I would say you're a cynic. And it's weird how that one decision at the end probably It says more about the viewer than it does about the movie. Do you remember having a take on it when you left the theater? Yeah, I was like, I really hoped.

I was like probably the most idealistic when I saw this movie. I was like, I hope they're going to make it. But to this day, the movie drags you back to that feeling of romanticism. I was kind of just laughing to myself watching the movie again. You guys know me. I'm very rounded and very cynical about certain things. You would not like the fortune teller. No, I would have been, I've identified with Jesse a lot.

The poet, you'd been like, oh, he wrote that already. Yeah, I really identify with him a lot in many ways. But the same way that Jesse can't help but feel lifted up, you know, taken away by this person who's, he's encountered, who is just like filling him up with all of this hope and excitement. The movie does the same. Like, it softens a hard heart. So what was your, do you remember the first time you saw this? What was your takeaway? Would they see each other in six months?

Well, it's complicated for me because I can't remember the first time I saw it. And so I didn't see it in a movie theater. I definitely saw it on VHS. And I don't know the circumstances under which I saw. Did I see it with a girl? Maybe I don't remember. Like, did we watch it in my parents' basement? Maybe.

So I don't have the same. I just wasn't old enough, just being a little bit younger. Whereas the next film, I remember everything about that. So we did kicking and screaming a while ago. A little bit similar. We don't know whether Grover's going to go to Prague. To Prague to chase his old girlfriend down and they kind of leave it ambiguous. This was a very 90s thing.

It's like, we're going to bring these characters in your life. You're going to fall for them. And then you will never know what happens. We'll see. Do they still do the Will See? They don't do it the same way anymore. I don't feel like we'll see is a huge move. This is a huge spoiler alert for a movie.

that not everybody has seen yet, so if you don't want a Nora spoiled for you, but like, that ends in an intriguing way in that very specific respect, where you don't know what happens to the characters next. But it's, to your point, it's really rare. Were you, did you, do you remember if you had a girlfriend, like a long-term girlfriend when you saw this? I had a girlfriend when I saw this. Yeah. Yeah. It is, it was one of those movies that also makes you reevaluate whoever you're dating at the time. It may be, I was, yeah, I have.

It was my first real girlfriend I had. It was my senior year of high school. And I was like, I'm, I'm pretty into this. Like, I was, I thought like... You weren't like she's not the one for me. No, I mean, it wasn't that as much as it was just like, being in love seems so cool. And it just kind of, like, it made me feel happy to have a girlfriend. I think if I had been alone, I would have been like, uh, fuck.

That's how I felt for kicking and screaming. I remember leaving the theater. I was like, oh, my God. I got to get a job. One thing that, one quote from this movie, being with you has made me feel like I'm somebody else. Jesse says that. I was thought that was a great quote and a good example of like when you meet somebody like this. You have no, they don't know any of your baggage.

They don't know anything. They're just seeing you as this fresh thing and you can have learned from your past mistakes, especially if you're in that like 23 to 25 range. You've had some swings and some misses. You've run some goal line offense plays. it didn't work. You've tried to make some stuff work out of the shotgun on third and 14. You kind of know a place to run a little bit more.

Yeah. Kellan Moore has it dialed by that. Right. There's no basketball reference for your playoff record, and you can just meet this person and just start fresh with some of the... And Jesse's at that perfect point, and not to bring up the second movie again, but it's one of the interesting things about the second movie is how

they're not doing some of the stuff they're doing. the first movie where a lot of it is they're not, I don't want to say bits, but it's a lot of like people kind of talking out of their ass in a really fun way. Yeah. And then in the second movie, it's not like that as much. It's definitely an extension of that like dorm room

kind of like philosophy. Hang on a hallway at three in the morning. I have five like you said, I have like five or six things that I think are pretty uniquely cool that I've got going on in my head, even if I'm wrong. Yeah. And I'm just going to keep trying them out on people until it clicks. That's link later

stock and trade through his first five movies. You know, Slacker, that's all Slacker is. It's just people popping into cabs and walking into bars and being like, here's my theory of the world. You know, that's what waking life is. That's what dazed is. You know, think about Rory Slater riffing on George Washington and, you know, grown weed. Like, all that's all like, he came up with like a thousand theories.

Dazed is. We have to read Dazed at some point, by the way. It's still one of the best movies ever. But he's like an accumulator of people's cool anecdotes. Yeah. And he knows how to reprocess. Which Tarantino was good at, too. Same.

But then the other thing, too, that I think makes it so special, I'm sure we'll talk about it. Casting actors who could write with him to make these people real is like the whole, it's the whole thing. It's the whole movie. It's the reason why it works. It's a reason why that sentimentality stuff works. Like, he's just, the whole movie just feels like it's happening in front of you for real. And there's so few movies that you can really say that about. So it just goes a long way.

It has a real angle on love. And I think if I had to summarize the theme of this movie, it's obviously about connection, but she says that thing about how she worked for the old man. And once he told me that he spent his whole life thinking about his career and his work, and he was 52, and it suddenly struck him that he had never really given himself of, giving anything of himself.

His life was for no one and nothing. He was almost crying saying that, which I think is the point of the movie. It's like, if you don't connect with somebody, your fucking life's going to suck. And it doesn't matter how successful you are. because Jesse, he gets that question later, would you rather be really good at something

or would you rather find a connection? I think that's whatever Link later cared about, I think that was it. Because he'd probably had a little bit of his success, but he also hadn't found anybody that he was with, and he was probably battling that somehow became the movie. Yeah, I mean, the thing that Celine says to Jesse in the alley when they're talking about

whether they would have families or what their futures might be. like and she's like, if there's any kind of God, it wouldn't be in any of us, not you or me, but just in the space in between. So this idea that it's like the effort to become connected to somebody is where like this almost like holy magic exists. Well, that's why she's the rock of the movie in a lot of ways. Yeah, she's able to articulate these incredibly complicated ideas.

Yeah, she's just better at explaining her point in life, but he's more interesting at it. Yeah. And the combo is really good. Jesse's doing power rankings. Yeah, he's really good at the gimmicks. She's really good at the meat of the conversation. She's like, here's why Josh Allen should have Rona Shakir. She's talking about the orbit.

It's about the orbit of love. Forget the orbit route. You don't know what it's like to get blitzed by specs. Oh, my God. Movie characters I always wanted to meet in real life, but they didn't exist in real life. Celine's way up there. God, she's so beautiful.

She's so great. Conversely... I think I would have absolutely melted into a fucking puddle if I had met Celine at like age 24. It would have been lights out. I don't even know if I would have had the balls to do what Jesse did.

He had even talked to her in the train. Yeah. Once that accent came out and she was so interesting, I just would be like, oh my God. It speaks perfect English. Yeah. That's the thing is...

I would screw that one up. I think the reason that Jesse comes to life in the movie is because you can tell fairly early on, in part because she agrees to get off the train with him, but even before that, that great feeling when you're like,

this person's into me. Yeah. You know, not just romantically, but just any connection you make with a person where you're like, this person's actually interested in what I'm saying.

That gives you like a jolt. And they communicated so well because I think she's like, they're both reading and she doesn't like immediately go back to her book. She like turns towards him to like,

all right, let's keep talking. Yeah. And he's like, I can't believe this is happening. Yeah. This is crazy. Ultimate Gen X movies.

Slacker, singles, reality bites, kicking, screaming, clerks, before sunrise, mall rats, swingers. Yeah, you can throw a few. Throw in a couple, but I think this could be 20, it could be 12, it could be, but I feel like those eight have to be at least eight of the eight, whatever the final number is. All movies about people in their early 20s talking about pop culture and love and existence, basically. Kind of wandering around life, hoping to connect with whoever. Yeah. Right?

That's the theme, ultimately. Link later, you mentioned Slacker days before sunrise. That's the first three for him. Solid. He's... Good job, Rick. He's 34 when this movie is being made. This has got to be one of the most wise movies ever made by a person that young.

Because it's not that what the characters are saying is wise, because it is very idealistic and very lovy-dovey at times and very, like, you know, just ripped a bong hit and started talking about souls. But knowing that... that that is how you are when you're 24 and being able to reflect on it 10 years later and metastasize it is amazing to me. I mean, he's like in the 1% of capturing

how young people really are in the world. It's also really cool to go and look at this movie and think about, like, 99 out of 100 other directors would have done so many things differently. There would have been more montages. Yeah. There would have been more cuts. There would have been...

And needle drops. There would have been some sort of like, I don't know, like there would be a crescendo to the film that was, this movie has like five crescendos. This movie peaks like five times, six times. Sometimes it's intellectually, sometimes it's sexually, sometimes it's, but like every other filmmaker, and then when you're watching it, though, you're not overtly aware of him doing anything. It's not like you're like, oh, wow, the camera hasn't cut in a while. You're just like completely locked in with their conversation. It's almost invisible filmmaking. Well, it's weird to be an indie director, especially from this era and not,

and also be a romantic and not have like weird shit in the movie because that was another thing that the 90s couldn't resist throwing in some sort of weird monkey wrench.

There are no monkey wrenches in this movie. Yeah, where was the gimp in this movie, you know? Right. I think the poet. Hawk,

Dead Poets, which we've done, we talked about the position he was in when he did alive. We did reality bites too. Dead poets, Mr. Date, Weifang.

Then he has a live reality bites. Stuff's happening. with them, but this cemented it. I think after this movie, even though it didn't make a shitload of money, but I think the combo of this and reality bites and alive, it felt like he was a young star that led to Gattaca

and then they kept down from there. But I don't think he ever really like shakes this off until Training Day. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think he... I agree. I think Training Day was like, in some ways, like, he needed it. Brought him into adulthood. It did, but I still think this is like his his most perfect creation as a character.

Oh, yeah. Like, it's so beautifully capitalizes on the Ethan Hawk thing, which is that he looks like the coolest guy of all time. But once he starts talking, you're like, wow, this guy's like kind of insecure. Yeah. And a little bit all over the place emotionally and really well read, but maybe insecure about that too.

Like, he's like, it's just like when you talk to Ethan Hawk in real life. And you're like, wow, he's really cool, but he's more like me than he is a movie star. Yeah. Which is a unique quality that he brings to movies. The other thing is just worth noting is that I think you could put Hawk and Link later up there with any of the great director-actor-doos. Totally.

Would they do 10 movies together? Nine, yeah. But also, like, they're telling one big story. Like, Jesse's backstory is the story of boyhood. Do you know what I mean? Jesse's parents divorcing and hit that impacting how he looks at the world and everything his dad and his mom told him about love. That's just the movie Boyhood, like, a couple of, you know, a decade or so later.

So they're just basically working on, like, one American male project. Let's take a break and then a couple more things We'll get to get the categories. This episode is brought to by Pure Michigan. In Grand Rapids, every moment feels like a scene worth replaying, every riverside stroll, every slow afternoon sipping small batch brews,

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risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. All right, so we talked about Hawk and Linklater. So it took them nine months to set on Hawk and Delphia. We'll get to some of the casting what ifs with that. But he was,

this movie was like impeccably rehearsed. He spent a ton of time with them. They had a script, they had a screenplay. Some stuff was added after. Julie Delpy was talking about is anyone

actually going to like this? This isn't going to be boring to just watch us and Hawks said Link later said we're not making

the movie for them we don't have to tell any jokes we don't have to be interesting you guys don't even have to act he wanted to make a power or make a film about the power of connection and that was all he cared about

and I don't even my guess is he never probably thought this was even going to be a big movie I think he wanted it to be a great movie but I don't think he was thinking oh my God

We're going to crush. We're opening weekend. We can take it. I don't, I mean, he's not a careerist filmmaker, even though he does make mainstream movies. Yeah, every once in a while, there's a bad news bears remake in there. We're like, why do you do that? He dips in there to be in the mainstream sometimes, but I don't ever think of him as, like, trying to get butts in seats or whatever.

But this one is particularly unusual because Dazed wasn't a big hit, but it was an instant call classic. And it was made for a big studio. And this is something smaller. I really liked that quote, I don't know if you saw this, that Martin Schaefer, who was the co-founder of Castle Rock. Again, there's how many Castle Rock movies have we done on this podcast? It's like the best production company. But he was like, this movie was almost the rejection of or opposite of what romantic comedies were at the time.

Like, it didn't fall into any of those traps. And so when I read the script, I was just like, I want to do this because it isn't like, you know, the Julia Roberts era, Meg Ryan, while you were sleeping. Like, all those movies that were so popular at that time, it was not doing those jokes. All those movies, like, so high concepts. Yeah, so all the tropey stuff that was in them and, like, I'm just a man standing before a woman and all that. Like, it didn't, it's not about that. It's about something much more down to earth and also. Well, it's also just even wild to watch this compared to, like, say anything.

Where, like, say anything has, like, the whole nursing home plot and all these other things going on in. And it has, like, a big... Joe, Joe kept lying. Yeah, Joe, why did you lie? And, like, there's, like, there's a huge gesture with the boom box. Like, this is a... devoid of all of that stuff. It's just the talking. It's just these two people

growing closer. I remember being super excited to see it in the theater because it had some Sundance momentum and I knew about that because that was there when you were reading all the movie stuff. But I also really liked Ethan Hawk. I liked him in dead poets. I liked them in reality bites

and I liked them in Alive. And I'm like, I'm ready for the next journey with him. And that was kind of all I knew and the movie surpassed all the expectations. Had you seen killing Zoe or killing Zoe? Because Julie Delpy is in it. I think I had, but I don't remember having a huge opinion on her. She'd been in a lot of really big art house films in Europe.

She's in white. She's in a number of movies. But I love that story that Ethan Hawk tells about this movie, which is that when he was in dead poets, that Peter Weir encouraged him to write for his character. He was like, write backstory, write lines for your character. I want to hear what you think this character would say. And he was blown away by that experience. And he was like, wow, I guess this is how every movie is.

And then he went on and did like white fang And they were like, sir, please keep your lines to yourself We don't need this. And so the reason he did this movie, even though he could have been doing much bigger movies is this after meeting Linklater, they became fast friends. And he was like, I want you to write this with me. And he was like, that's all I want.

I want to be in the creative process of the movie. Well, Linklater, he wrote it with Kim Crizan. They wrote her 11 days, but they didn't know the ending until the final day of filming. And then they kept tweaking it. Do you know who she is, by the way, Kim Crizzan? Who is it? She's the teacher in Dase and Confused,

who at the end of the day. She's awesome. Yeah, she's great. She's in the CR zone and throw my life away. Really? The Falco Copeland. This movie premiered at Sunday

at 1995. I'm going to read the list of movies that premiered that year and see if Sean passes out. Before sunrise, the usual suspects, the brothers McMullen, kids from Larry Clark,

safe from Todd Haynes, the Doom Generation, the addiction, party girl little Odessa Mirro's wedding and crumb these were at Sundance yeah same year

that's insane I mean if you do you come back from that festival it's like what happened to Sean he died at Sundance you would come back and like the culture is changing you know like or something I mean this is specifically I'm sure I've said versions of this on the show before but like this is specifically why

I became obsessed with movies is that this thing was happening in 93-94 95 and I was reading all the magazines and like how do I get closer to that? Yeah. How do I? Because if you see like Little Odessa or the addiction

they're like I don't know there are movies like this you know you could have never imagined and then this movie is one of those movies too. Party girl. Our girl. I saw this and I was like I just have to

I obviously have to get a Euro pass. You've got to become an Austrian man. 2.5 million dollar budget made 22.5 million. Everyone in this film jokes that it was the lowest grossing film ever to get a sequel. I don't know if that's factually true. I'm sure there was

some junkie trauma movies that got sequels. I mean, 10x is money. I mean, I think that's the... Penitentiary 2 with Leon Isaac Kennedy happened. So I'm just saying, I'm sure there were some sequels. Roger Ebert. Disappointing start to the year for Raj, three stars. Thought for sure it'd be the three and a half.

A little more muted in his praise. Yeah. He wrote a... this sort of scenario has happened, I imagine, millions of times. It has rarely happened in a nicer, sweeter, more gentle way than in Richard Linklater's before sunrise, which I would call a love affair for Generation X. You're fucking a right, Raj. Except that Jesse and Celine stand outside their generation, especially outside its

boring insistence on being bored. Yo, Raj! Are you thinking about maybe asking shots fired at Gen X? Ask Deepseek if Raj has changed his mind in heaven. Well, he did write that Delpy is ravishingly beautiful and more important, warm, and matter of fact. And he says, this is Linklater's third film. He's on to something. He likes the way ordinary time unfolds for people as they cross paths start talking, share their thoughts, and uncertain philosophies.

Boom, Raj. Roger Ebert was 53 when this movie came out. I think that's notable. Yeah. You know, we've always talked about like wire, 15. 50-something movie critics reviewing Billy Madison, you know, like that's just not that doesn't make sense. That doesn't like that

movie's not for them. And you could make the case that this is a movie not for 55-year-old men. Right. They couldn't get a grasp on Gen X. Nicely enough, it is now, though. It is now. It has aged nicely. Categories. New category.

We have some new ones because we had that mailbag. Thanks to everybody who sent ideas. What's the exact perfect age to see this movie. I think it... Would you have? Freshman...

I would actually say summer after freshman year of college. You want to be aware that people do study abroad semesters slash go over to Europe to go backpacking

or traveling around. But I don't think you want to have done it yet because then you may have too many takes on like what Jesse did or didn't do right. But like if you just

are like going into college or in college, I think that's the perfect time. I do that. I wrote down 24 because the two characters are 24. I will say, I saw it probably when I was 14 or 15. The thing that it does if you're 14 or 15 is it's almost like a playbook.

You know, it's like if you encounter a lady on a train, these are some moves you can make. And when you're 14 or 15, you don't have any moves. You don't know what to do. And so you like internalize some of this stuff. And I don't, so I don't think it's the best time. But I would say it was very helpful to watch in general Ethan Hawk

as Troy as this guy and be like, okay, is this an archetype that can work like full of shit tall brown-haired guy? Like I'm like, can I do this? So that was nice. I think being roughly where you were seemed right. I wrote down

23. Okay. I was 25 when I saw it. I think I would have probably enjoyed it slightly more at 23 because you're like even a little bit more idealistic at 23. Yeah. But you are also, you have some of your full of shit moves down at that point, too. But it's somewhere in that, I would say early 20s.

But I got to say, it was super enjoyable to watch at Byage Now. I was like, wow, this movie still got it. Most rewatchable scene. So this movie starts with a mid-40s couple fighting in a foreign language, and it somehow works. Yeah, it's about, I think they're fighting about money. No. No, there's actually an answer to this. What is it?

It's about drinking. Oh. Yeah. Who's got the drinking problem? The husband or the wife. Do you want to do the translation? I had this in What Stage the Best? The man is reading in his newspaper

how 70,000 women are addicted to alcohol and he says, you're one of them to his wife. And she volleys back and says, he's the alcoholic and he says, I have a reason to do it. I'm married to you. Wow. That's what they said the other language.

It's perfect. It's perfect in so many ways for this film series. But then it leads to, yeah, for the series, it's a really interesting way to start it. But it leads to, do you ever hear that when couples get older, they lose the ability to hear each other? Which is one of those like, might be true, might not be true. Have you ever heard that as couples get older, they lose their ability to hear each other?

No. Well, supposedly, men lose their ability to a higher pitch sounds. And women eventually lose hearing on the low end. I guess they sort of nullify each other or something. I guess. Nature's way of allowing couples to grow old together without killing each other. but a good conversation. Do you think it's true?

I think hearing gets really I just think your hearing gets worse when you get older. I don't know if it has anything to do with who you're with. I now can't hear anything like when the water, like water is on.

Oh, me too. I have the same problem. It just so happens that my wife talks while that happens. Next scene. Jesse gets Celine to leave the train. All right, all right.

Think of it like this. Jump ahead. 10, 20 years. Okay? And you're married. And only your marriage doesn't have that same energy that it used to have. You know, you start to blame your husband.

You start to think about all those guys you've met in your life. And what might have happened if you picked up with one of them, right? Well, I'm one of those guys. That's me. You know, so think of this as time travel from then to now

to find out what you're missing out on. See, what this really could be is a gigantic favor to both you and your future husband to find out that you're not missing out on anything. I'm just a big as loser as he is. totally unmotivated, totally boring. And you made the right choice, and you're really happy.

Let me get my back. Jump ahead 10, 20 years, okay? You're married. Well, your marriage doesn't have that same energy that it used to have. It sounds like Closterman. Great, great, great way to get her to come off the train. And then in some of the pieces about it, come on, come on, come on. And so many pieces about it

He said they really improv Spitballed all kinds of scenarios for this And couldn't get Delpy In the right spot with No, I'd actually get off the train for that And then they came up with this time machine thing She said He would have to show me that he was really smart

He has to be smart and funny That's the only way I would get off the train The Time Traver thing And she's like, okay, that I would get off the train for And then they were off. Can you imagine if Julie Delpy was like, I don't believe it Sorry, not buying it.

You should have thrown a Shakir. I'm sensing a new category coming up. The Shakir, the Shakir, what if. Should Jesse have thrown a Shakir? Next category, the long one-shot bus ride as Jesse does advance metrics on Souls. Yeah. I got to admit, Jesse kind of blew my mind in that. It was great.

the movie last night to discuss this for five minutes. One of the best theories I've ever heard in a movie. It's like, yeah, he's right. How many souls did we start out with? Can we break it down very briefly? Yeah. The pivot is, all living things have a soul. Every leaf has a soul, and that's how you explain it.

Is that fair? So I used to be a tree in Florida. So I kicked that to my wife last night, and she was like, yeah, but when the earth started, it was all just bacteria. And I was like, I don't have a response. Wow. She just shut me down. Like, she just nailed it scientifically.

Check out the big brain. They should just first take instead of talking about sports. It should just be like Stephen A and Mad Dog talking about soul. I would listen to that. Richard Linklater's first take would be amazing. The long one-shot bus ride and just long one-shots like that in general, from a re-watchable standpoint, had so much fun of the movie.

Because I watched it twice leading up to the pod. And it's just so much fun to just watch the background and be like, did they cheat this? No, they didn't cheat it. It's all one shot, and they basically did it like a play. I love the movie starts where the graduate ends. It was like them at the back of the bus. Oh, yeah, yeah.

The listing booth scene. That's my next one as well. Which is my winner for most of the watch. Is it? Yeah. Interesting. I would not have guessed that if I had to pick. That seems great.

No dialogue. No dialogue and really smart and really well played. Link later said it was, was the only time he withheld anything from the two of them. About what the song was going to sound like? They had never heard the song. And he says, you can really see them listening because they'd never heard that yearning, creaky thing.

The singer is Kath Bloom. Hawke said, it's probably my single favorite take of anything I've ever been involved with. And then Delpy said, that was really special. It was like magic. Every time I felt Ethan looking away, I would look at him and vice versa. I almost fell in love with him right there. But then Rick said, cut.

That's a whole separate podcast. The hawked LP real-life relationship. Also talked about this a long time with my wife last night. Like, there had to have been one night where they got drunk and things happened. I believe my question was over under how many times have they hooked up five. Oh, yeah. I'd say at least three. Did they date?

Did they date for like a week? They're very circumspect about this. The whole Ouma thing to, yeah. She doesn't come into the picture, I think, until 96. Yeah, well, I don't want to. There is no way that they didn't get drunk and had a... At least a one-nighter. There's no way.

That is the power of this movie is that you absolutely believe, in my heart of hearts, I'm like, they're actually soulmates. Like, no matter what happens in those actors are- One other movie, Jackie Brown, Bridget Fond, and De Niro. Away their time. When he was fucking are standing up from behind. I was like, those two are soulmates. I love those two.

What's her character's name? Oh, my God. That's De Niro's funniest moment ever in a movie. She's fucking incredible in that. She's great. I can't wait to do that movie. It's on the list. I can't wait.

Listing booth is great. And the fact that it was one take and that was all the first one, I just, I love that thing. Magical. Amusement Parks. This is more good Jesse theories.

Rich parents give their kids too much. Poor parents don't give their kids enough. There's nothing in the middle. He's just whipping it all out at this point. All his material. Do you know any happy couples? I like being at amusement parks just in general in a movie or TV.

TV show. Always a win. You get to see good scenery. A lot of people walked around. The homeless poet. My guy. This poem is great. Written by a real poet. I went and I actually read it and it's just sweet cakes and milkshakes.

I'm a delusion angel. I'm a fantasy parade. Real beat stuff. It is. It is. Good, like little short sentences. Yeah. I love poetry, Bill. Coffee shop Bill? This is my favorite Bill. English

Major Bill? Yeah. Rappeteer in my wine glass. Look at those big eyes. See what you mean to me? It's great stuff. Shades of woman, whoa, man. Yeah.

I love it. He's a homeless poet. Thumbs up. He's like, what kind of drugs he was on. He's like, if this poet doesn't hit, I don't know if I'm able to afford smoke. Give me whatever you think is appropriate, too. You know, not putting a price tag on it. Love that era.

Next one. Wait, so you skipped over the palm reading. No, he skipped over the kiss. You said amusement park, which could include the Ferris wheel. Yes. Are you including the Ferris wheel? Yeah, that's all that music. Okay.

So you'd put Fortune Tower in there? I love that scene. Star Dust. I like the actress. Yeah. The Fortune Tower actress is good. I've got her on a list here. I should have put that in here.

Great question that is asked. Would you rather find love or excel at one thing? That whole scene. You know, I believe if there's any kind of God, it wouldn't be in any of us. not you or me but just this little space in between if there's any kind of magic in this world

it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something I know it's almost impossible to succeed but who cares really the answer must be in the attempt right

and your answer to that question was it's one great thing and it's crushing tape that's what you do that's right you chose that over a He's breaking down Spags his defense. Three blitzers overloaded on one side. He's got to see that.

The fake phone calls. Oh, yeah. I like that thing a lot too. Can you imagine telling Celine? I want a best day with you. I want to do this. But in about 20 years, they're going to invest something called All 22. and it's going to take over my life

so I'm actually sparing you from later a happiness the reverse time traveler I've seen the future and it's all 22 they went empty backfield five wide I'm sorry Celine but I'm a ball knower yeah spags is blitzing he's five wide out

something's got to break this is incoherent to like 30% of the audience the fake phone calls should not work but I really enjoy the scene it's really cute it's awesome it's really funny it's a really good gimmick It's one of those things like if you're an inspiring screenwriter, a director.

It's a delpy thing, though. She sells it. She is so charming and smart in this. She brought it. She was like, I used to do this with my friends. I like her American accent too. She's like, dude, you got a collar. She's so good.

Jesse gets the bartender and give him a bottle wine. It's great. Got a lot of questions about that. Yeah. More wisdom from Celine in another scene when she talks about love. When you talked earlier about after a few years. how a couple would begin to hate each other by anticipating their reactions or getting tired of their mannerisms. I think it would be the opposite for me. I think I can really fall in love when I know

everything about someone. The way he's going to pour his hair. Which shirt is going to wear that day? Knowing the exact story tell in a given situation. I'm sure that's when I know I'm really in love. Idealistic, great. I mailed that to my wife and I said, this is how I feel when I know you're about to lose your keys and she didn't think it was funny Is your wife like this movie? Loves it.

Okay. Like an all-timer. It might have been one of the first ones that we owned on DVD but she bought anyway on streaming was one of those. It was like a double one of the first double purchases.

We gotta get her that criterion collection box set. We have it. Okay. We have that now too. Great, great criterion. Look at him. I'm getting physical media killed.

This is where I was going. This is, I mean, this is one of the best ones. What will you happen when he's, he's like, now I must destroy Sean and get, I welcome it. Three times. No, because I'm only buying stuff like, I go on Amazon and when they have the, I have a certain price limit because I'm trying to not go crazy. Like, Sean. But like, it's like total recalls, 57% off today. I'm like, fine.

$11. This is how it starts. I told you, this is how it starts. Fine. You start looking at deals and then all of a sudden, you're like, eh, throw. 3999. 4999? I was looking at the Dean of Craig box.

It's like, oh, all five for 40 bucks? For the bond movies. All five? So it starts, man. I love it. I support you 100%. Thank you. I knew I'd have your support.

Last scene is the ending, which I think is just brilliant and would be my other thing for most. What do you consider part of the ending? Do you go sex scene, statue, train? No, I'm saying. Or just the train. The goodbye, first when she's lying on his lap,

Yeah. They dropped the stuff off. But I think the most genius part of this movie is when he shows all the places they were. Yeah. Love that. Which is obviously stolen from John Carpenter in Halloween. And I know that was a big influence on the movie. Yeah.

But I thought it worked really well. You know, Myers. Myers was there. And then he was standing next to that hedge. Linklater's like, this could work for romance. If you just saw Celine get on the tree and then Michael Myers. He's just like. right next to it.

Bring it all back. Yeah. But I love that. Because I guess the point is like, you know, they gave all these places life. They're not there anymore. But it's still fucking cool. And hey, here's this memory that was in this spot, in this spot. For the record, I think it's Michael Angelou and Tony Ones, Le Clese, where they do that trick before Halloween.

Before Carpenter? Yeah. Just for the record. Damn it. What do you got for most? There's movies before Halloween? Yeah, I thought that was the first movie. My first is the reverse of that.

It's the first train sequence. It's them on the train getting to know each other because I just find it mesmerizing and so naturalistic. CR was a big cafe car guy too. Yeah. What was your car? Oh, like, this movie brought back to me that I just function off of like coffee and cigarettes from 20 to 30.

See, I was in the smoking car hoping for Julie Delpy. I mean, who wasn't? Or U.D. Falco. What's your must-re-watcher? Well, there was one small one that you skipped over. That is sort of the end, but I really love the cut away to not showing whether they have sex or not. And then they wander and they see a guy playing a harpsichord. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. And they see him in the window and then they do the let me take a picture of you, which I think is like a mesmerizing moment. Yeah, you're right. I love that scene a lot. My pick would probably be the listening booth too. I love that one a lot. What stage is the best? Movies set on trains.

I love a good train scene in a movie. obviously I was riding a train back and forth as a parent as a child of divorce I have a bunch of them Sierra give them a couple yeah just Jesse as a takesman just Jesse having like lots of like I have like bunch of bits

here's here's like I have five of them this is this is how I'm wrote Jesse going club shayshay yeah and uh that was like me on my pod last night doing my Emmett Smith I was like I'm gonna do my Emmett Smith bit I stepped on this but it was Jesse's story being the story

that boyhood becomes and the way that his character kind of gets woven throughout Linklater's filmography or two of my favorite things of H-Best. I mean, the Ural, have you been on the Ural?

It's incredible. It's just an amazing experience. I recommend everyone try to do it even if you don't do it when you're 22 and idealistic. It's just such a fun way to travel. I think specifically that letting your actors

casting actors who can write and letting them write with you is such a cool idea and it's, you know, Mike Lee does this in his movie, too. This is like a hack for sophisticated filmmakers. Apatow does it. A lot of really good directors do this and it's all about making the movie as good as it can be because the actors need to be fully on board with what the story you're trying to tell. I think it's a little bit

different when you're doing like a good drama versus doing an Apatow movie because Apatow it seems like they're they're really working like bits and they have like let's riff on this or riff on that and this is like they have like character arcs that they really have to track in this. Yeah, totally. Yeah, it seems like they worked really hard on it. And like the overlapping dialogue, it was kind of rehearsed to a T, like you said. Also, just the obvious stuff. Really realistic. Like Vienna in the summer. I had that with stage the best. Vienna. Which is amazing. Seems great. Yeah. Vienna just gets winds left and right in culture. Never been there. Yeah. I went there on an Easter weekend once. It was shut down. It was a lot like this, but it was very cold. Interesting. Also, French girls, I think that's aged well. You know, just a beautiful blonde French girl on the train. That's like, that's like an archetype.

Yeah, the 200 years old. I had movies that eventually have sequels where the characters age with the sequels. I don't feel like that recipe is lost yet. It's really hard to pull off. We got Dr. Loomis. That's one. Who else? Who else is on that list? The town, too, when that happens, Doug McCrane.

Yeah, Jim. Shine. Yeah, shine. Yeah, Shined. Yeah, for what stage the best, the anonymous cemetery I thought was cool because I just didn't know that story. I thought that was a neat.

idea for a cemetery. So the film starts June 16th, 1994 and ends June 17th, 1994, which was also, we did it 30 for 30 about that day. That was the OJ. Car Chase, the first day of the first U.S. World Cup, Nix Rockets, Game 5, Rangers Stanley Cup Parade, Arnold Palmer's last U.S. open round, and Jesse said goodbye to Celine. All happened on June 17th, 1984. You imagine, Jesse, instead of going to the bar with Celine, Jesse's like, I really think maybe if I

get to the airport they're showing Nick's Rockets. Or it's like the car chases on the train station. If at any point during the course of this day, someone had come up to them and been like, you guys are not going to believe what's happening with OJ right now. Do you think this day would have like... Is Jesse from Texas? I, well... Oh, that's it.

I had that for probably in answerable. Where's Jesse from? I can't remember if they answered it. I was guessing like Ohio, but... Oh, no, he said, does he say Ohio? I think he... Or maybe he goes to college in Ohio? It feels like he's like a Sacramento.

Really? Like a northern California somewhere. I can't remember. Maybe I thought he said. I don't think he ever said. He's from like Shaker Heights or something. Okay. The other thing is that it's June 16th, I believe, because that's the day that James Joyce.

James Joyce is set. Just a couple of quotes for what stage is the best. If none of your friends or family know you're dead, it's not like really being dead. People can invent the best or worse for you. That made me think. That was deep. You know what the worst thing about somebody breaking up with you? It's when you remember how little you thought about the people you broke up with and you realize that's how little they're thinking of you.

One of the best quotes of any movie like this. That's what I'm talking about with the wisdom of Link later. That line is insane. Every person who hears that line can understand exactly where it's coming from. If there's any magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone. So I keep potting with you guys. Great shot Gorder Award for most cinematic shot. What do you got, Ciar?

I have Celine with her head in Jesse's lap in front of the Archduke Albrecht statue. I had the wide shot of Jesse sitting on the railing talking around with that beautiful building behind them. I thought it was really cool. I think the ending's really good too. I had the going down the cobblestone streets when there's a big dip and they've all been wedded Michael Mann style. Oh.

Yeah. Kid Cuddy Pursuit a Happiness award for Best Needle drop clearly, the Kath Bloom song. Boxinata number one coming in at the end. Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of classical pieces. Like I said that, like I just know all the sonatas. I believe it.

I'm a ball nowhere when it comes to sonatas. We have a new award. You guys don't know about this one. The Sean Fantasy Award. Oh. You finally got an award named after you. I'm touched. The Sean Fantasy Award for Stealth Omage that gives every movie nerd a criteria orgasm.

I came up with that word. There are several in this movie. Well, I thought for you would be the Ferris wheel that they ride in Vienna. the same one used in the third man? My favorite movie of all time, there are several homages to the third man. The listing booth you mentioned earlier has... My Darling Clementine.

Isn't that also... It kind of echoes into the future with Mission Impossible when Tom Cruise goes into the list... Same thing, yeah, except he's not looking at anyone. Is that Dead Reckoning? No, it's Fallout, right? It's the one before that, I think, yeah. Or maybe even the one before that.

It's the first one with Sean Harris. Yeah, that's not... It's the one before Fallout, whatever that's called. Anyway, sorry. The fantasy word. Do you like criteria orgasm or criteriongasm? I think I like criteria orgasm. Yeah.

Citeriorgasm. Ceregrasm. Stealth homage. I'm touched. For the movie nerds. What I want people to think when I'm talking about movies is that this is sexual climax, so I really feel honored. New category from the mailbag. The Chess Rockwell and Brocklanders Award for Best Character Name.

It's got to be Celine, right? Got to be saline. Easy. All right, we're going to take a break and come back with yet another new category. This episode is brought to you by McDonald's. Right now, McDonald's, you can get great deals all day with McValue. Jumpstart your day with the under $3 menu featuring a sausage McMuffin for just $1.50. Or grab the perfect lunch with the McDouble for just $250.

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terms of play. All right, coming back. So we added this category after the mailbag because we took out some categories but we also didn't want to remove them completely. So what we're adding is a flex category

for the other hosts that aren't me. CR, you can flex any category that didn't make the blueprint cut and roll with them. Is this the place where I could talk about smoking? It sure is. Which one do you want to give out?

I think we need to give out the Jesse and Before Sunrise Award for the character that absolutely should have smoked but didn't. This also could be the Chris Ryan Award for would this movie be better if the main character smoked? In my memory, I thought he was a smoker. Well, because in reality, he never smokes. He chain smokes. Why? Okay, so. I'm so glad you're talking about this.

In Europe, where people smoke everywhere all of the time with a French girl. who was probably still smoking as of like December of last year. And there's not a cigarette between the two of them. And they're watching this poet who's just like, all I do is smoke everybody, like, but these two people in 1995 don't smoke cigarettes. This is not only a nipic, not only a probably in answerable question, but it's also the Chris Ryan Award. I don't understand the choice.

Other than maybe Ethan Hawk felt like he smoked so much in reality bites, he's like, I don't want to be typecast as the guy who's just sucking. But he probably smoked back then. That's a good thing. It's not like, I don't want to have to take all these fake cigarettes. It's the only thing that bothers me about this movie is I have no idea why they're not having six. It's inexplicable.

It's the most like, why aren't you guys smoking, especially in this era, 94 and 95. Like, they're definitely one of the two is smoking, but probably both. Could you make the case, though, that it's a reverse what's aged the best? The fact that they chose not to smoke and there is no smoking in movies. movies. Great confidence. But now it feels more like a modern movie

because no one is smoking. Okay. Also, Ethan Hawke, great smoker. You're just like wasting a talent. I'm just guessing

Delpy wasn't a bad smoker either. Yeah. French girl? Yeah. Good one. The Butch's girlfriend award for a week link of the film.

What do you have? Do you have a week link of the film? It's okay not to have one. Um, not, like, there's no actor in the movie.

I have, I mean, for the flex choice too, You could make the case as the weak link, but it's a bigger discussion. Do you have one? I don't have a weak link for this movie. I have one, and you guys aren't going to be happy, and I might not even berate, but I didn't want to just toss away the category.

I was thinking about the closing credit song, and I went back and I looked through all the 1995 songs that I have on every playlist, trying to figure out if there was a better song that would have made it feel more 1995-ish. Jeremy. I have two runner-up choices, and then the choice that I actually think could have worked. Okay. But just would have been more 1995-ish. Blue by the Jayhawks, I don't think it totally works.

Incredible song. Yeah. And it's 1995. Good riddance by Green Day, probably too corny. Probably too corny. Is that a 95 song? Oh, it sure is. Wow.

I wouldn't have guessed that early. But bright is yellow by the Innocence Mission. That's the one I landed on. I think that would work. But I think that the choice of music in this movie is to make it timeless, you know? Mm-hmm. This cast-blood song from nowhere. I forced it. I'm not sure I'm right.

What's age the worst? I don't have anything other than there was some screenwriting credit stuff that emerged in the mid-2010s with Delpy where she basically said we got hosed on our screenwriting credit and Link Later and Krasan were on the defense and it became a story

that a lot of people wrote about. Then there was some pay stuff. Yeah, there was a pay-dap thing too. But Ethan Hawke was a famous actor at that point and she wasn't. And that's just I don't know. None of that stuff bothered me that much, but I just wanted to flag it. Other than that, I don't have any which is worse. Well, it's an interesting movie to put in front of younger people. I was talking to Jack Sanders

before earlier today about this movie, and he said it's one of his favorites of all time, and it's a big movie personally for him. And that's interesting. Do you think he's a romantic because he's a Mets fan? I don't know. That is hardened my soul, so I can't imagine. Although he is a way more optimistic Metz fan than I am. But I think it's interesting because it is a movie that forget about whether or not

you would have ever met Celine. Even just the way that they go about their day would be radically different today. You'd have Google Maps up and Yelp up and you'd have food guides and tourism guides and even if you still had the spirit of wandering, the absence of technology in the movie and even just asking strangers for help

is something that I feel like people don't really do anymore, like when they run into the two theater guys. So I don't know if it's not that it aged the worst per se that there are no cell phones or anything, but it has aged the movie in a unique way because it's right on the precipice of cell phones. You almost watch it now, and it's more fantastical than it was in 1995 to see it, because now you're watching it in almost like a fairy tale. Yes. And if there's so many things that they do where you're just like,

where he's just like, let's just get off this train. And I would be like so neurotic about like, where are we? Like, is this the right place to get? Are we going to be in the wrong place? Right. It's closer to 1,500 than 2000. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. I watched it with my daughter and her boyfriend, Tommy, last week, because I was in Boston. And Tommy's a romantic, so of course he liked it. Tommy. My daughter was on TikTok half the time and thought there was too much talking. Tough beat. Wow. Tough beat for Tommy.

Tough beat for me. I was like She was like I told you I wasn't really in the mood for a movie She said it was one of those I'll watch it again When I'm more in the mood

I'm like you're I got Tommy is on an unbroken streak Right now Tommy's doing great Amazing stuff Then that same night We made a Of a five leg parlay

And the Nuggets Knicks games You and Tommy That we hit Yeah because he's 21 now We can both put on Fando Shout out the Fandul And we hit it Plus 125

And Doctrine He'd him young Yeah, let's go. All I can see is you are Jimmy Conway, and he's coming up the stairs. It's like, you popped to Jerry! The Ruffalo Hannah Rubenich-Parchage overacting word, again, nothing. I don't have anything for this. Yeah, I mean, you could maybe say that the street poets put a little extra...

I would say maybe. Ernie Mangold, the palm readers, putting a little extra on as well. Yeah, but you kind of need those are like these distinct characters. All right. Time for Sean's flex category. What do you have? Okay, so we already sort of mentioned with the criteria orgasm

that the recent rod at the Prada amusement park is the Dent of Thieves Benihana award, I think. It's got to be seen stealing a location. But the George Lerby two weeks with pay award, which I absolutely love. This is the character who definitely should have been fired.

The fucking bartender who gives away a bottle of wine at a bar because one guy tells basically a lie. I'll send you money. and says, give me the address and then never even gives him the address. We have to go straight to the bartender in this table. This is a shocking act.

I had that in picking Nets. He never gets the address. Never gets the address. He gets the bartender's info, nothing. The guys just like, yeah, and then he's like happily watching them. A million questions. What kind of red was this that he gave him?

Probably like two-od chock. How did he get that bottle open? That's a good question. Had to have been a twist off otherwise it didn't work. I mean, got to be less than $10 bottle. That's true. She's putting glasses in her back.

I love this scene. Also, honestly, like, still were in the AIDS era. Like, I'm not psyched about grabbing glasses from the table. It's a real hot table. We didn't know any better in 1994. You weren't like, oh, cool, let me drink this random person's glass. Yeah, Europe. You know, it's all different.

Yeah. That's true. The CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford Hottest Take Award. I actually have one. Did Jesse invent live streaming on the back? of that train or the back of that bus in Vienna when he's just like I think we should have a public access show that's just 24-7 people all over the world like isn't this basically YouTube yeah I had this improbably in answerable questions did Jesse's 365 24 hour a day create

Instagram reels and TikTok so we're aligned it did feel like he was on something yeah I mean there's elements of this in slacker where I think yeah link later's idea is like you're just going around Austin and these different people are having these different experiences or whatever, but, you know, he's like, if you know, why, why is this thing beautiful, but this thing isn't. It's a great take. I don't even, this isn't even really a hot take. Maybe it is, but I don't feel like we have enough random movie crossovers. I guess this is a hot take. And I was thinking if they're walking around Vienna and they just run into Grover from kicking and screaming for five seconds, because he didn't work out from a proxie. Because he went to

Prague, then he went to Vienna. And it was just never acknowledged or explained, but he was dressed like Grover. That would have been like one of the great movie moments of my life. Why don't we have more movie crossovers with just... I love an extended universe. Yeah.

I just like when things get weird. Yeah. We have the multiverse in these dumb comic book movies, but not in like just indie movies. The indie movie multiverse would have been really fun. I like that. The Gen X... The GenX Multiverse. talkative

like talkative like multiverse because they could have run into the redhead from singles who was just on a trip whatever her name was Sheila Kelly yeah yeah

yeah she's could have been on a trip with some old dentist and just like granted she's just in the movie for 90 seconds Campbell Scott's studying European infrastructure there isn't there isn't

yeah he's working on the Euro rail yeah I was also thinking of the guys from Barcelona the Whitstoneman movie maybe finding their way into this movie

because he's going to Madrid you know You could have seen those two guys. You could have seen Chris Agamon coming over. There is a really prominent example of this that I can't think of where a character pops up from another movie in a completely different movie. God damn it. I'm sure somebody listening to this knows what I'm talking about. The best one ever was, I think I've talked about it, when Coolidge from the White Shadow ended up on saying elsewhere as the January.

Yes, yes. And then Salami from the White Shadow was playing a character on the show and he saw him and he's like, Salami! And the guys, I don't know who you're talking about, man. Were they on the same network, the two shows? Yeah. Okay. I think, no, actually different networks, but same production company. Okay, okay.

You don't have a hottest take, right? I just think that this movie is more romantic than Casablanca, gone with the wind, Titanic. Whoa. This is, to me, this is the most, because it doesn't need all the accoutrement of the setting and the stakes. It doesn't need life and death to make this feel so emotionally impactful. Casting what ifs. Apparently, Aniston and Paltrow both tried out for the Delpy role. It was going to be against Hawk the whole time.

So this is true. It came down to two women and two men in the end. The two that got the role, Michael Vartan was the other option for Ethan Hawks' part. And Sadie Frost, never really 100% hit, but I was like that. Bram Stoker's Dracula, right? She was. She was a few things. Was she married to Jude Law?

dated Jude Law? Was she part of the Sienna-Miller thing? Michael Vartan's a weird one, though. Yeah, I mean, eventually on alias and never been kissed and a couple of other things, but he's just a little bit more, like, bland, for lack of a better word, than Ethan Hawk. Ethan Hawk has so much personality.

That's that guy a word, nothing, because this is a movie set in Vienna with weird people you've never seen. Dionne Waiter's a word, though. we have the two guys to invite them to their play Bring me the holes of Wilmington's cow

We had the Fortune Tower We have the poet And we have the benevolent bartender I'm going poet I have the poet Great poem And also seems to really Take it up a notch

For the two of them I'm 100% going Ernie Mangold, the Palm Reader Who is a Beloved actress in Austria She's 98 years old Still alive

And she has more than 100 credits In her career I don't think any of them are an American Productions I'll do in this movie. Recasting couch director of City. I got something here.

We got to talk about it. The singer in the bar? Oh, no. I'm recasting the city and I want to talk about what would happen if this was set in Boston. What happens? If Jesse goes up to a Boston bartender

at 1.30 in the morning and asks for a free bottle of wine. He gets hit over the head in it. You think you better than me? Ask you for a bottle of wine. Are you fucking crazy? Yeah. Fucking OJ is on the TV.

The white Bronco. So it would be, they'd be waiting to get on a train going from Boston to New York. But the Amtrak was shut down. And it was out for six hours. So they had to walk from Back Bay down to, they go to Back Bay, they go to Beacon Hill. It's still a French girl and a guy from America? No, it's like a really obnoxious girl from Rhode Island. Who says it in a better accent.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they end up in North End for dinner. Yeah. Yeah, that would be a pretty good movie. They could go to, like, the Newberry comics. They could go to the Middle East, you know.

But then she ends up getting in an argument with somebody at one of the bars they go to and he gets punched out. Yeah, he gets punched out. Curved. Some former college football player. Oh, Murph's just wailing on him outside of bar. My choice for the flex category is one from the mailbag, a new award. The Okay, motherfucker! Award for the exact moment.

Okay, motherfucker! When the exact moment when the movie goes up a notch, which is the listening booths. Yeah. Good test drive in the new category. You're good. You know what he's looking at? Us. What's the foreheed status?

Like, we're how far away are we? We're circling it. What kind of scouting has been happening? I've just been, it's just on every streaming platform now and I watch it all the time. I watch it constantly. Yeah. I just kind of put it on now. when he introduced okay motherfucker

I watched that scene and then I watched like five other scenes and I was just like I'm back I'm in do you I've hit the point with heat where now I'm analyzing the most meaningless scenes in the movie like when they go for the fake Van Zandt drop off and I'm like how do they not realize you're watching heat on all

22 I am I am how do you not see his design right there West Vee is coming right down now he's blitzing them with three shooters um I

How responsible do you... I like to interview you guys about your obsession with Michael Mann. How responsible do you feel for the fleet of young men who are showing up at these repertory screenings of Michael Mann movies?

Is that happening? Wearing heat t-shirts and like black hats. It's like, it's the new version of the seven thing that you were talking about. You know, where it's like,

this guy might murder you, but it's the opposite. It's like this guy might be your best friend who you rob a banquet. These people sound great. Yeah. I mean,

Jack Sanders will tell you, they're all over Los Angeles in the movie theaters. they're showing out. Yeah, they're like, Black Hat is screening tonight, I'll be there. I'll pay $80 for a ticket.

You know, if we could say we played a small part, then that's all you can do. If there's any God in this world, it's between a bunch of men sharing heat with each other. One thing I was thinking was, I think I could do an entire heat nitpick pod and not do any of the other categories.

I could do that. Because I've seen it too many times now. I can nitpick literally every scene in the movie. The director's commentary, I could just nitpick. And by the way, this is like one of my five favorite movies, but there's, I've just seen it too many times. Can I pitch an idea? Yeah. Nip pick.

You guys, for the Ringer movies YouTube channel, remake before sunrise, but it's just you walking around LA. Downtown LA. Doing a heat pod. I thought, I thought you were going to say, do our version of Michael Mann's before sunrise. Is it how awkward his meeting dialogue is? A book about medals. Why are you so interested in me getting off this train lady with hot? Locky masks and suits with open shirt collars.

Michael Mayn't trying to write, though, would you like to go to the cafe car with me part? Would have been amazing? I mean, his version of this is like collateral, basically. And yet, Jesse reading Klaus Kinski's memoir is a real Macaulie shit. Halfa Center Research, some good stuff. So, oh yeah, you mentioned those books.

She's reading, I'm going to mangle the name. Is it George Bastille? Gertr Batea? Batea, Batille. I don't know. I'm not an expert. Ethan Hawk is reading, all I need is love by Klaus Kinski.

Yeah. I feel like that's a book and that's about it. A hostel somewhere. Yeah. Because he looks at he's like, I don't know. So this is sad,

and I never knew this until I did the research, even though this is a movie I've seen many times. The movie is inspired by a lady name Amy Lairthopped. Linklater met her in a toy shop

in Philadelphia, in 1989, and they walked around the city together, conversing deep into the night, and then she died of a motorcycle accident before sunrise. But apparently one of the reasons he made the movie was he was hoping she would see it and hunt him down because this was the 90s. And once you lost connection with somebody, that was it. You couldn't find him. But he didn't know she died for a while after that.

He was 2010 when he found out. Yeah. And a friend of a friend reached out and sent a letter. Yeah. There's an episode of Fresh Air that features the three of them. Delpy and Hawk and Linklater and he tells the story. And I remember the day that that episode aired because my wife listened to it and was just a mess and was like you have to listen to this immediately because it's so heartbreaking.

Yeah. So the cemetery they visit, it's called the Cemetery of the Nameless and simmering. The people buried have found anonymity and death. Yeah. Apparently a famous place. First group for before sunrise, do you know where it was set? This kind of blew my mind because this is, one of the most boring places I've been

I believe it was San Antonio San Antonio yeah Riverwalk baby it took place in San Antonio and the guy was a rabid film fanatic who talked all the time about film better or worse movie 95 spurs when the

spurs were yeah that's when Rodman kind of submarine the spurs in 95 and he took his shoes off during the game he was torturing David Robinson tough one that could have been a scene Rodman what's up with him apparently the last shot of the movie they had to time it with the train and they'd like rehearsed it and it had to be perfect and if they fucked it up then they would have to come back the next day and do it and they rehearsed it and worked and then uh cat bloom got like a little resurgence from the movie ended up releasing more albums that's cool got a little bump uh you mentioned james joyce's ulysses where did you stand on this book c r your english major face

talking about this. When I went overseas myself for my semester abroad, I took Ulysses at an Irish university. So it was probably the ideal circumstances. It's an incredible novel. It's a lot of parallels. Both stories are on June 16th. Both involve a journey, taking place around a single city. Jesse says his real name is James, Joyce's first name. Jesse spends a lot of time wandering around the cities of Europe instead of going back home. Cath Bloom, Molly Bloom. They visit a graveyard. June 16th was the day James Joyce met his life partner,

Nora Barnacle? Great name. Yeah. Link later. Joyce, he's an artist. Yeah. Apex Mountain. Ethan Hawk?

I think he... You can talk me into it. Apex and a re-Apex, and I think Apex's reality bites, and then re-Apex is Training Day. I think it's Training Day. but I could be talked into this movie. But the only thing is this movie didn't do that well.

He's been in a movie since he was like eight so hard. It's a slow burn. It's had a big cable run. And I think a lot of people loved it, but it took a couple years to really hit. What are you thinking? I don't know. I mean, I think he had a third wave in boyhood. Well, the perj. I mean, it's connected, right? Like the purge sinister boyhood period of his career, the other thing that happened is he got.

really good at doing press really good one of the best podcast he's an unbelievable storyteller he's just a great talker and I think he like kind of cemented his place

in movie history in some ways with that third wave of success and so I don't know it's like this movie wasn't a huge hit Training Day is a huge hit but it's a huge hit because of Denzel and he did a lot in that

you know that the Blumhouse plus I keep doing Linklater movie stretch yeah that I think think confirmed him in a way. I don't know. Maybe that might have been his apex. I mean, Sinister and the Purge made a lot of money. Yeah. That's probably the answer. Julie Delpy, I would say before sunset. Your rail trains? Sure. Austrian palm readers? Absolutely. Definitely, yeah. Littering? Great littering in this movie. They just leave the wine glasses in the bottle, just in the park. That's true. That's a good point.

Vienna, probably the Billy Joel song. Yeah, there's also, there's a couple other cultural touchstones there. Nothing like the Billy Joel song. I think the third man, which is also said in Vienna, would be a good one. Yeah. Billy Joel, that song's multi-generational. Yeah. It's kind of the cath-blooms come here of the late stage.

Billy Joel. Like, people love that song. What about, is this Apex Mountain for first dates? It's the greatest first date in the history of love. So it's this or Neil and Eadie in the finals. That's right. Neil and Eadie, starting out at a diner, talking about a book about medals, and then they end up in some awesome place of the view.

And then he takes off in the morning. Then he takes off in the morning. I don't think I'm well suited to be the adjudicator of best first dates in movies. I wish we had thought about this more. We should have researched this more. No, you know what best first date is? Actually, Colin Farrell and Gongley and Miami Vice go to get some movies. That is the fucking answer.

Top that. You like the limino? I can't. Yeah, it's good. On another hand here, is this. Apex Mountain for date movies. If your relationship is going well, it's a great movie. If it's not going well, it's a confrontation.

It's a great point. If you saw this movie in 95 and you weren't really getting along with whoever you're dating, you would leave the movie side eye on them and be like, I don't feel this one about you. You would say, why am I wasting my time when there could be a Jesse or a Celine out there for me? That's like my got-to-see about a girl story. Yeah, from Goodwill. Apex Mountain for Gen X I think it's a year earlier

I think 94 was the peak 95 were in the last remnants Well this is 95 is Kicking and screaming in this right? Yeah but I think 94 It's fresh or cooler Okay We got

Reality Bites that year I think it's 93 or 94 The music was better in 93-94 Are we sure it's not the election of Barack Obama. For Gen X? Wow. That's interesting.

Still the only Gen X president we've had. Probably will be the only one. Listing booths? Inpex Mountain? No, it's clearly Philip Seymour Hoffman and the talented Mr. Ripley, vibing out to the jazz, basically. Oh.

I would go for this. Kath Bloom, definitely. Anonymous Cemetery is no question. Okay. Cruiser, Hank. Let's go. I got Hanks. Oh, really?

No. Oh, I think Cruz is clearly the answer. You don't think Hanks? Cruz's doing his motor mouth routine. Cruz would be amazing. Cruz trying to do this movie would be messrs. It seems like he's wearing a skin suit. If he's like, they go into like a time machine, okay?

You know, like, I, don't you think he- Sign me up. A lot of his parts are like this. A lot of his movies are like this. Honestly, he's doing, there's multiple scenes in cocktail like this. Yes. A lot of his 80-90s movies. I'm very surprised that I'm on an island.

I'm going this far. This is the movie Cruz should have made. He's missing this from his IMDB, young man I and DB 10-year stretch. I wish he made a movie like that. Yeah, I guess the closest he gets is Jerry McGuire, right? Yeah, another fast-talking. But that's like, Jeremy has a huge movie. It's like, let's spend 24 hours with Cruz trying to win a girl over.

He never did it. The Nicaro tried to do it once with that Merrill Street movie and it was a disaster. Frankie and Johnny? Is that the one? Now that was Pacino. Oh, yeah. What was the one? It was called Falling.

in love, I think. Stanley and Iris? Are that what you're thinking of? No, De Niro did a movie called Falling and Lus. Like about two people getting sick or something? Or no?

That was a different one. Falling in the 80s. It was De Niro and Meryl Streep and it was positioned as these two huge actors are finally together and it just was like they had no chemistry

and that's why you didn't even remember it. Stanley and Iris was De Niro and Jane Fonda. Yeah. So we trumped CR, Cruz wins two to one. You guys dunked on me.

Yeah. I got you on the cruise side for once. That's great. Yeah, you guys are usually on the opposite, aren't you? Young Hanks. Well, we're in a death war until we die about who's superior. What do you mean? I love Cruz the most.

What do you're talking about? I fucking have defended cocktail multiple times in my life. Someone just had a criteria orgasm. I'm talking about. I love Cruz. Okay, okay. But I think if you're going to say, 1984-range Tom Hanks in this movie,

I think he would have been really good. I just personally, I think Cruz would have been hilarious in Vienna. Just like, they would have had to work in some scene where he did something athletic, like he played hockey sack with somebody. I think that Jesse's neuroses are a critical part of this. And I don't think of Tom Hanks as a particularly neurotic actor. Whereas Tom Cruise, despite Matt and Aidal Good Looks and the fame and success, there's something kind of nervy and weird about. him. Cocktail. I just think he'd be trying to, like, do the magnetic

smile thing the whole time. Like, can you imagine Cruz being like... Like, he'd be like... That is true. I don't know why you're digging a ditch for Cruz. No, he would have needed a bad hair dude to try to make it seem less realistic. Yeah. Yeah. I think... I think one of the reasons why it shouldn't be Hanks is because

this movie is kind of a rejection of Tom Hanks' movies like this. Like Sleepless in Seattle. Like, you know, soon to be when you've got male. New category. Scorsese or Spielberg? I'm going to go to test drive. Scorsese. Yeah, because he showed that he can do

one long night with after hours. Yeah, is he a romantic? Is Scorsese or romantic? I think it's a question. I think he's spiritual. There's some spiritualism in this movie. That's true, and there is. The history of the soul.

I would say Spielberg. There's the sentimentality. So is the question, who made more sense or which version? Maybe this category is, which movie would you rather have one? wanted to see Scorsese or Spielberg? Because I think I'd rather see Scorses

before sunrise over Spielbergs. I know what I'm going to get with Spielbergs. I know that they'd be smoking in that version. Yeah. But then the poet would have gotten shot and fallen into the river. That sounds amazing.

There would have been a robbery. I, this is the tough category for genuinely great films made by serious artists because you're like, well, this is one of the quintessential Linklater movies, maybe the quintessential Linklater movies.

So it's a little hard to be like, it's a lot easier when it's like... Maybe this category doesn't work. Dead of the Fis too, directed by Steven Spielberg. This category works. Another new one. What role would Philip Seymour Hoffman have played? The poet. Oh, I had the poet.

Yeah. Oh, I like that. But I will say, I did test drive in my head him as Jesse in the mid-90s, whether that could have worked. The thing is that I think everybody in their mid-90s was like, I'm Jesse, but we probably all looked like Philip Seymour Hoffman. Yeah. You know what I mean?

But the poet he would have been, I think that's the answer. Yeah, that's good. Or the actor, the Cal actor. Yeah, that would have been good too. The Ed Norton Reverse Dunk Award for did this movie need a random sports scene? And we've already come up with like five. I think racing to the TV to see Houston Knicks would have been a great one. Yeah.

And then stumbling upon the Bronco. Can I, can we talk about a possible hacky sack scene where they're in a park? Oh, yeah. The height of hacky sack. where Jesse gets distracted by the sack. Jesse's like, I used to be really good at this. And then he does some hacky sack. You play hockey sack?

I never liked it. I never liked anyone who did it. I wonder if there's an extended cutter or deleted scene where Jesse sees a bunch of Austrian guys playing soccer in the park, and he's just like, this is why football will never catch on in America. Here's my thing.

That would work. This next category is Blind Caudericillo. He might not answer. He's not going to pick up, right? We'll see. It depends as if he's doing stuff. So this new category, we're just going to call Roselo and see if he's seen the movie and put him on speaker.

Can you hear that? Welcome to Verizon. No! Oh, for one. Man! Are you sure he doesn't have you straight to voicemail in his phone? No, I talked to him yesterday. He's probably on hour two with Bruce Feldman right now.

He's right in now. He's in Vienna. He's on a train, reading Klaus Kinski's memoir. Pick a Nitz. Jesse wearing a leather jacket. in Vienna in mid-June. Yeah, I was, it's got to be like 90. I'm gonna say an unanswerable question is,

what are we doing with body odor? There's no shower right after the train. Oh, yeah, it's Ethan Hawk. Yeah, they've been drinking coffee, not smoking, I guess, but walking around. Okay, this raises an interesting question. In the 90s, you were significantly there. You were less there, but still there.

Were we just a little bit more comfortable with the human musk? were we less moisturized I don't know I felt like that was a big deodorant frenzy in that man that was like

you get all sorts of different flavors that old spice right because like think about what a man in like 1957 smelled like at the end of the day yeah but everybody smelled that way that's my point that's my point is that

would have been okay if he was just you know riding the year real hostile sleeping and she's the French are used to that yeah that's what I'm saying there's an odor thing

that might have been a non-issue he never gets the bartenders address, which we covered. I have one more big nitpick, but do you guys have any? Just that these guys suck at pinball. Oh, my God.

Ethan Hawk is so bad. I know. They're just like... He's never played. We should have mentioned that earlier. It would be really funny if he was just like, can you shut the fuck up? I'm trying to play.

When he's explaining what love is, he is atrocious. You know, we had a... Didn't we have like a Tom Cruise sports award? I get the point. Ethan Hawk not being able to play pinball. They're distracted by each other, and they're just kind of like, what can we do here?

Well, Hollywood stole Ethan's youth, so he never really got to play with childish things. So the Playboy Playmate of the month in July 78 wasn't Crystal. It was Karen Morton, who has the distinction of being the playmate with the smallest breast ever out of the playmate. She was the 32B.

I did a deep dive on her. She played the Bestil Virgin in the comedy feature History of the World Part 1. She played Jenny in the music video for 8675309 Jenny by Tommy Tuton Yes Wow

That's who the actual Her legacy is profound This is This is This is why this is the best podcast out there Because I just gave you July 1970s Playmate deep dive

But you didn't find out like why Why they screwed it up Yeah Okay I think they screwed it up Because they didn't know The internet was coming Or podcast

Sure And that we would be like Deciphering Who actually was the playmate Right now You've got many men At home Furiously Googling

This person's name Karen Morton. Sequel prequel prestige to be all blackcaster untouchable. Two sequels. So we know how that turned out. All right. Tweet category. Buckle up.

Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Treo, Doris Burke, Sam Jackson, Nell, Byron Mayo, Barney Cousins, Tony Romo, Harley-Maze, Chris Collinsworth, Daniel Plainview, Long Legs, or Wilford Brimley in the firm? Because we've tweet the category. I do have a request that you do long legs reading the fortunes, reading the bomb reader.

Jesse, you seem to be moving around a lot. But if Wolford Brimley from the firm was talking about Jesse's trip to Spain, now here's our Jesse who has saved up all his money from working as a barista in a college town. And he goes all the way to Spain to reunite

with his long-distance girlfriend. What does he find instead? He finds heartache in the form of a fabulous matador named Gonzalo. I ask him, there's a Tony Robo case, too, for the Ferris wheel. She's begging to be claiming one, Jim. She's watched one kiss, Jim. Jesse's got to do it, Jim. I don't know if I could actually do this, but Daniel Plainview as the poet reading the poem.

Oh, no. I'm scared It's really hard Give him the poem You've got to see the poem Look up the poem I'm looking at it I mean

You know it's Come on Skip it We're all friends there It's daydream delusion Limousine eyelash Oh baby with your pretty face Drop a tear in my wine glass

Look at those big eyes See what you mean to me Sweet cakes This is good milkshakes Milkshakes I am a deletion You have sweet kings and milkshakes

I drink your milkshake Okay that's all I got Good job, thanks Should we at Tom Brady this? What is Tom Brady's signature Aside from saying KB? Tom Brady would be like That date went great

Jesse was so poised back there Seems to be a real connection here KB I feel like they're gonna They're gonna maybe connect down the road KB That's why It's really important to have a strong offensive line, KB. Right there, he was able to get her off the train, KB, and that was huge.

That was huge for what's going to happen on the rest of the state. You know, I was just looking for love in this world, KB, and he may have found it. Just want to ask her who gets it. Probably link later, right? For script or for direction? Well, if it's script, then they share it. Yeah. And along with Kim Krizon.

Which I think would be pretty cool. these the next two movies were both nominated for best screenplay yeah probably an answerable question see i already covered the uh jesse's 24 hour idea and then for this movie only

the question was did they have sex we find out the answer in a later movie i got another in it unanswerable though yeah how many people through emotional hail mary's on first dates because of this movie like how many guys out there do you think like did insane bits or we're like we're in a time machine or we're Stardust

or tried to come up with something like really overly romantic and some girl was like it's okay like it's this fucking guy we're not in Vienna we're in Syracuse we're in fucking Benegans Did you ever try to stop or is it Denison?

You never tried to pull any of this material out for your own purposes Oh I did I don't know you did Oh yeah I feel like I made like grand gestures when I was younger like this. Like, like, I'll meet you back here

in six months? No, but like that kind of like just kind of going for brokeness of it is just like a little bit more common I think. This isn't a nipick and it might be an unanswerable but it's something. It's the one thing I felt like

wasn't authentic about his character but it's based on what happens in the next movie. Where he writes a book. Which tells me that if he wrote a whole book nine years later then he would have been writing at this age, right? You're writing

short stories, you're writing all this stuff. And it feels like, because he's just throwing, he's running all the plays he can run. Yeah, he does have a writer's mind in the movie though. You can tell. But I'm saying at some point, I think he shows there's something he wrote. I think he play that move at some point during the night. Can I show you?

Do you want to read this one thing I wrote? That's why he's mad at the poet. He's like, there's no way you could have come up with that on the spot. Well, he's always protecting himself, like even when he reads the Auden poem, which he obviously loves, he needs to do it. Is it in the Dylan Thomas voice that he does it in? You know, because he like can't totally turn himself over and become vulnerable to her. I just think he has writing and I think, and I think, I don't know, I just think he would have tried it. Can I ask you, can I ask you a question? Yeah. I thought about this a lot watching this movie. So you

really don't like the English class guy. You know, the guy who's like, I'm looking for the metaphorical meaning and all these things. I did like them, but I didn't like them. I thought they were fun to argue with in college. This is what I want to talk about because, you know, you employ some at the ringer, and you're very drawn to

movies that feature these characters. So maybe I just didn't want to admit we're just lurking deep inside me? Well, I'm just asking. It's fair. It's never too late to crack open Ulysses, Bill. It is for me Because my brain is leaking Do they have that An iPad in big print?

Yeah, seriously. Do they have a version of it that is read by Robert Tadro As Neil McCauley? The Coach Finstock Award For Best Life Lesson Connecting with someone for 24 hours

is better than never connected with anyone. I think human connection being the real religion of the world Something about that. What piece of memorabilia would you want

or not want from this movie? I would want the poem. Oh. The poem that the guy wrote. That's a good one. That's nice. I had the actual Kath Bloom album that he had.

That's good, too. I would not want that turtleneck. I could not pull that off. That maroon turtleneck he's wearing at the beginning of the movie. He gets rid of it. He takes it off at some point. He's wearing like a t-shirt and when they're at the amusement park. But, boy, that would be a tough look for me.

The wine bottle is an interesting one. Mm-hmm. The poem, I think, is the right answer. Best double feature choice before sunset. And then probably the toughest of all of these. Who won the movie? I think it's Linklater. I thought it was Hawk.

I had Hawk, but I don't know if I'm right. Because I think he needs this for his kind of big picture thing. Linklater was doing great anyway. But I also think it might be... It probably is Linklater. It's probably Linklater because if Hawk doesn't make this movie, he still has reality bites. Linklater really needs this. Because then it leads to the trilogy.

I also think you know, you mentioned their collaboration and whether that's great. Like there's a couple of other interesting examples of this De Niro and Scorsese, George Roy Hill and Paul Newman.

Like there are some people who you're like when these two guys get together something special is going to happen. But Linklater needed to find Hawk for this movie. And when they're together, even if the movie isn't a success, there's something alchemical

that is really working. and I don't know And also it just seems like I don't know What is his signature movie now Linklater? What is the one is it still dazed and confused? Is it is it?

Yeah. Is it Boyhood? Is it School of Rock? Is it sunrise, sunset? I would argue it's sunset. I think it's the trilogy. Yeah, or the trilogy as a whole. Because it's both

So crowd-pleasing but also so formally inventive and so breathtaking in its scope. You know he has two movies. coming out this year. Right. One of which stars Ethan Hawk. Blue Moon, which I think he plays Rogers,

from Rogers and Hammerstein. Yeah. We didn't get to the Big Gahuna Burger Award. We cut that one out, but it would have been the wine. I also just have drinking coffee at night. The Dan Campbell scale for Holy Shitter, are they really going for this right now? I don't know if this movie had this one.

I can't wait to do the Lena Dunham running the Spahn Ranch Award for most jarring-classed. decision. That's going to be great. We didn't have the Rissillo blind thing. The Devil Where's Prada Award for Is this movie actually perfect for what it tried to do? I think we could have given that one out.

When would I have died? Didn't get to do that one this time around. Yeah, probably the 40-year-old version of myself is when we didn't have lunch. They just don't eat in this movie. It's a great point. They eat anything? I think that it's implied that they eat at the

cafe where everybody's like smoking and playing chess and stuff. Nobody goes to the bathroom with this movie either. Yeah. Yeah. There's some I'm glad. Semi-sumd subtle cutting. I'm gonna drop the kids off at the pool. Yeah.

I'll be right back. Eating in front of someone is also a little bit of a challenge when you're trying to seduce them. Yeah. A little hard to be elegant in that way. One other thing just to note is that he runs out of money with the poet, I think. So she's basically paying for the rest

of the night. Yeah. What a dream girl? He's reaching out for coins there at the end with the poet. We don't get producer Craig's take this episode because he went to SNL this weekend and was somehow on camera in the monologue. So if you want to watch Timothy Shaomé's monologue when he goes into the stands,

there's producer Craig. He's like the New Zealig. Just Zellig? Zellick, yeah. He's kind of Shalmay kind of given some Ethan Hawk vibes in the Bob Dylan performance, you know? It's an interesting one because this would have been the perfect Shalame movie if you're really

like we're recasting this now. Shao May is clearly Shaloman Sercheron in Europe. That's the movie. I mean, they would be amazing. But it's, they're too big. But in Buckethe's too big. Sharia Ronan in Boston.

Yes, but in 20xel, he broke down it's been eight hours in Boston. She's a nice Irish girl in Boston. Before sunrise. After last call. That's it for the pod. We're back on the regular schedule. Please keep signing us emails on the rewatchables 33

at gmail.com. to Jack and Cow for producing. You can watch this on the Ringer Movies YouTube channel where you can see all stuff from the big picture as well, and we'll be doing some bonus stuff too. Great. Tell me when you want me to do my own personal Oscar awards for you.

You know, Wesley's going to come on and do the big picks, which is all of the alternative Oscars. Do you want to come on? No, I haven't seen all the movies. It's not for a month. I don't belong on this. No, but you would come on and say what you want to pick. Like, forget about what's nominated. You know, like, what Oscars should long

legs get in your opinion. Oh, those movies? Just any movie that came out. Anything. Other than it was a really good. Thanks, guys. Putting off replacing your window treatments because you think it's complicated. At blinds.com, we've spent 30 years proving it doesn't have to be.

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