The Rewatchables - ‘Country Strong’ With Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, and Liz Kelly

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Amanda Dobbins, and Liz Kelly join Kelly Canter on the tour bus as they revisit the 2010 drama ‘Country Strong’ starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester, and Tim McGraw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, the most flawed rewatchables we've ever done. People couldn't believe it. People internally were like, wait a second, what? Country Strong? Why is this the movie? We're going to explain all of it next. But first, the rewatchables, they're coming to your TV. Check it out on AMC during National Lampoon's Christmas vacation on Saturday,

December 19, 7 p.m. Eastern. Chris Ryan, Sean Fennacy, I know those guys. They're parking the RV and taking a deep dive into this classic. Don't miss it. The rewatchables on AMC presented by Blue Moon, brewed with Valencia Orange Peel for a Taste Beyond the Ordinary. Next time you need a taste of the air. Extraordinary, open up a Blue Moon Celebrate Responsibly Blue Moon Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado.

This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation. Built for today's creative process, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast, because the asks aren't getting smaller. And the timelines? Ooh, yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Learn more at Adobe.com slash Firefly. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business.

And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. It keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas.

Amanda Dobbins, you can hear with Sean Fennessee in the Big Picture as well as GM session on the Ring or Dish podcast. That's also where you can hear Liz Kelly. She does tea time. My daughter's favorite podcast. I think because you're the closest to her age. We're going to do Country Strong. And I have something to tell you guys.

If you see me getting smaller, don't worry. No hurry. I've got the right to disappear. Country Strong is next. Nashville's Kelly Cantor left rehab early this morning. When you get a second chance. I'm really looking forward to playing for my fans. Some will try to stand in your way.

Who's your idol? Kelly Canter and Jesus Christ. I love her. Put on January 7th. That's my son. Wasn't right for you. It was too good, too young. Don't let anyone hold you back.

I'm stronger in all this. You know that. That's how it's done, sweetheart. Country Strong. Where to beat you 13. All right. are here. Can a movie not make it for reasons that have nothing to do with the movie? We're talking about Country Strong, a movie that was critically semi-savaged. It didn't do that well.

It barely made its money back. I think it kind of came and went. And yet, over the next 10 years, developed this rewatchable tale with a specific demographic that includes two of the people on this podcast, as well as my wife and many of her friends. And, you know, and many of her friends. And this just became one of those movies that people watch over and over again. So a Star is Born comes out two years ago. And everybody's like, a Star is Born, this is great. We did it on the rewatchables. Liz Kelly, a voice in the wilderness saying they just ripped off Country Strong.

Country Strong is better and was on this corner. It was Noble. And I ended up giving Country Strong a second chance. And then my wife probably watched it three or four more times over the last couple years. So Liz Kelly, we'll start with you. You think this movie's better than a Starzborn. Yes. Although I will say I did not know that a stars born was a movie from the past besides when it was made by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

I thought this was a brand new premise and a brand new movie. Heard about it. I actually refused to watch it for the first year because people at The Ringer went actually like ate shit over that movie. And like on principle, I kind of took a step back. was like I have, I already have one like sad addiction story and like whatever in my heart and that's country strong. Now knowing that this, a star is born was made several times, it's actually like a very influential movie over the decades. I mean, I stand by my take. I'm not going to lie. Like I was afraid rewatching the movie for this podcast. I would be like, oh God, this is not as good

as I remember. And guess what? It is. It is just as good as I remember. Amanda, is Garrett Headland's performance the model for Bradley Cooper eight years later? Because there's a lot of similarities. He's obviously not addicted, but the gravely low voice and that kind of charm. There's a lot of pieces in there. No, I don't think it is with all respect. And listen, I just want to say, I'm honored to be here. And I'm thrilled to be talking about this movie, which I've seen many times, and also to share in Liz Kelly's personal joy.

And it's just, it's great to make Liz Kelly happy. and it's great to have your own personal opinions. This movie's not better than a star is born, but that's okay. This movie is maybe more pop-culturally interesting than a star is born because it has four really interesting stars at very interesting points at their careers doing weird stuff, including Garrett Headland.

And this was maybe the moment where Garrett Headlin was like, oh, is it going to happen for him? And I don't really know if it happened for him. I like him a lot. He lived in my old neighborhood, and I saw him taking quarantine walks, and it seemed like he had a nice time. But I think this, it was a nice moment.

And I like his gravelly voice, even though I think that Bradley Cooper's gravelly voice was better. So this got me thinking about why movies make it and don't make it. Because there's a world in which this movie, if people are more fired up for Gwyneth Paltrow in 2010 at her point of their career, if a couple things are sold differently, if they change maybe three,

scenes. I see this movie hitting in a totally different way. But the problem is, I think people are really tired of Gwyneth Paltrow at this point. And I think that's the biggest obstacle with this movie, because you have to buy into really, really liking her and wanting this to be like a potential Oscars performance for her, all that stuff. Ironically, Natalie Portman is doing Black Swan the same year. And everybody was in on Natalie Portman. Everyone's like, this is great. This is fulfilled promise for her. We always thought she could be the best actress someday. And if you put those two movies, Black Swan is much, much better done. It's a better movie. But this is a more rewatchable movie and probably kind of a more likable performance. I don't know. I just feel like Gwyneth gets a

bad rap and I want to go into it. Why were people sick of Gwyneth Paltrow in 2010? We're going to get into it. Okay. Can we get into it now? Let's do it. I'm ready. I'm just, I feel like I'm here as the Gwenteth Paltrow, uh, represent. Along with you, Bill, because you and I, I think, have huge affection for Gwyneth Paltrow as an actress going back to talented Mr. Ripley. Let's be fair. It's you, me and Wesley. Yeah. And we're basically holding the torches and having vigils for when everybody turned on Gwyneth.

Wesley thought she was potentially at one point the best young actor that we had. I think she's at least one of the better actresses or actors that we've had last 25 years. And at some point, people got tired of her. Explain. Well, Liz, you may not remember this, but Goop launched in 2008. And so everything that is happening now, it feels like we're kind of in the second or third internet cycle of being like, oh my God, I'm so tired of Gwyneth Paltrow and like I don't need a $400 vagina egg or whatever. You know, and people think that that's like a new attitude on the internet. But let me tell you, 2008, 2009, 2010, before Country Strong, those opinions existed on the internet. So this was sort of. of the first or honestly maybe even the second backlash to Gwyneth Paltrow after she started becoming a lifestyle person. And I think that Goup had not really, I loved it at the time. Frankly, I think it has really great travel recommendations. But, and always has. And, you know, I've learned some stuff about, I don't know, scented oils. But it wasn't the brand that it is now.

didn't make sense to people. And it kind of felt like just, I don't know, this rich lady giving you like unaffordable recommendations, which, to be fair, it kind of was. And so people did not want to give her the time of day. Do you think that's fair, Bill? There's one other piece of it. So we're talking second half of 2000s, the internet blog culture, which really, starting with Gawker and the mid-2000s and going on, where it's just like celebrities become punching bags left and right for any sort of stuff like Goop. And people decided they didn't like her. You go backwards. So she's the daughter of one of my heroes, Bruce Paltrow, the guy who created the White Shadow, my favorite TV show ever, and Blight Danner, who's a really good actress, and she

was kind of the young lottery pick on the way up, like in basketball, where it's like, oh, she's, she's going places. She has this crazy run from 95 to 2001. I mean, these are, these are some of the movies she made, not even all of them. She's in seven, hard eight with Paul Thomas Anderson, his first big movie, sliding doors, Shakespeare in Love, perfect murder, great. expectations, talented Mr. Ripley, bounce, duets, royal tannabombs. She made 15 movies in five years. She famously dated Brad Pitt for like a year and a half and then moved on to Affleck right after. Right as Affleck's coming out of Goodwill hunting. She and Brad Pitt were engaged. And Liz, are you familiar with the iconic photo of them with the matching haircuts when they both have

the blonde? She has like the new sliding doors haircut, like the breakup sliding doors haircut. And then so is Brad Pitt. Essential late 90s celebrity lore. That was also my best friend Jeff Gallo, his wife. That was when she premiered her celebrities love dating, celebrities who look like each other based on that Gwyneth Paltrow Brad Pitt picture. So she's also named a Calvin Klein girl in 1996.

She's daughter of Hollywood royalty. She wins the Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, best actress, and gives this teary speech that I actually thought was a good speech and genuine. And it made people mad. They're like, now, fuck this. Too much too soon for this. I don't like this. And the first Gwyneth Backlash begins.

And then she compounds it by marrying Chris Martin, who is the lead of the most polarizing big band at the time, Coldplay, which was already facing its own backlash. So now she's on the side at Coldplay concert. It's like, whoa, this is like the backlash tsunami. Yes. And also she does kind of a Madonna thing where she does move to London and becomes like a, quote, citizen of London. And she doesn't really do the accent. But that was early goop too of being like, when I lived in London, you know, I learned about the ritual of like having tea. We're like, okay, Gwana.

Wait, can I ask since we're doing this? Why was cold play hated? Why was that a polarizing band? Because I also missed that era. Cold play, so we're talking 0-203. They put out two excellent albums. And they put out the second one and basically people are like, this is the next you two. And Chris Martin instead of being like, no, no, you know, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

He's like, we want to be the biggest band in the world. were going to be and was just aggressive. And people are like, well, no, wait a second. You don't get to. And there was this immediate backlash. And so then they get married. She names one of her kids Apple. That starts a whole other internet backlash.

Her dad, her dad dies. She stops acting. Then she kind of eases back into it. And like in 05, she made proof. She's getting proof. 08, all of a sudden, she's an Iron Man. And people are like, oh, you want to be this famous actress. Now you're in a Marvel movie.

So there's another backlash. And then goop and O'Brien. and then at that point, people were just kind of working against her. Meanwhile, those movies I mentioned, seven heart eight, slide into our Shakespeare in love, perfect murder, great expectations, talented Mr. Ripley, bounced, duets, royal tannibombs.

All kinds of layers. Like, she's playing characters. She's trying different things. She's taking characters that weren't, like in Mr. Ripley, you know, whatever. It's an okay character. She takes Marge and makes Marge like this really distinct whatever. Amanda, is there,

Is there a case? This is one of the five best actors the last 25 years? Because I think there is. I absolutely agree. You and I are alone on this island. And I do think it's important to point out, she does play a different range of time periods and settings. But there is kind of, I guess, like a patrician element to Gwyneth Paltrow that I do think always rubbed people a little bit the wrong way in some of the role. You know, she's always, she's usually playing like upper class type of women and she, you know, very blonde and beautiful. And there's a Grace Kelly aspect to it, but like Grace Kelly doesn't really make sense in the 90s and the 2000s in the same way. So I- That's fair.

Parasote made more sense. Yeah, exactly. Right. You also have to look at it in context. But I think she's excellent. I think, by the way, I think a perfect murder is really underrated and we should be examining that on some podcast soon. And I think it's a credit to her that she was also like, I'm good. And I don't want to act anymore. I do think that there is something to the lore of quitting, maybe not on top. We can discuss whether Country Strong is, quote, on top, but pursuing other ventures and being like, I don't need to do this anymore that helps crystallize that incredible run and just say she was great. So, Liz, what's your, what's your mid-20s, you're in your mid-20s,

you're Gwyneth Paltrow, not knowing most of this stuff, you're coming in late. You're coming in for her library from the past in movies like Country Strong. So what's your assessment of her just from where you are? So my personal history with Gwyneth Paltrow is growing up, love Shakespeare and Love, loved Emma, which I don't think was a very popular movie, but me and my mom watched that

all the time growing up. But then I came to her actually in 2010 and it's a very important piece of her history that you both are not talking about, which is her four-year run on Glee. An iconic role for me, for everyone I knew, and that is really when like I stuck my flag in Guineath Poltro and I'm on that island with you guys.

I just am coming at it from, I think she's a phenomenal singer, which I know is probably not a popular opinion. And she's great on Glee. And that's like my real Guantanath-Paltrow stake is in that instead of like, you know, her 90s movies. Yeah, I watched her. My wife and I watched duets recently. And I remember thinking it was better than it was and then watching it. And it's a train record.

It's all over the place. Absolutely. There's some really good scenes in it. Yes. And she has a couple really good scenes with Huey Lewis. But she's like playing this crazy, kind of honestly dumb character that she can't get her shit together. And then, but she's good at this one thing. And it's a really interesting performance.

I agree with you. I think she's a good singer. Right? I mean, she was the one at the CMAs after this country strong on this press tour. She got a standing ovation singing from this movie. She's the only one that got any recognition really from her singing, even though all of them did. All these many characters did. I mean, in defense, the country music is just like, oh, wow, Hollywood actually paid attention to us for once.

Okay, we'll give you a standing ovation. I think that she is good. I think that she is not, you know, comparing it, say, against a star is born. Lady Gaga, professional singer. Right, that's not fair. Gwenitha Castro, actor who is singing and pulls it off. And I think her singing is passable. then her performance is excellent. And we'll talk more about the movie. But when they finally like

Gwyneth Paltrow just like be a star on stage, it really clicks. And you can see, oh, I understand why you are as famous as you are. You have that presence. You kind of change the energy in the room. So I think she's great. The Glea thing is really an important point, Liz, because I think that Glee is basically like the successful version of this same experiment that she tries with country strong in the sense that it like finds the right audience. And people were a lot more. willing to accept her in her life and that kind of like winky self-aware singing as opposed to right say country strong yeah it's funny when actors try to sing and then they're good at singing but then there's this over correction and she's got an incredible voice and it's like well not compared

to lady gaga but it reminds me of like in sports if there's an athlete who's funny they always talk about how hilarious he is and it's like well he's not hilarious compared to like will feral but he's really funny compared to other athletes. So the fact that she was able to use that as a weapon for herself. I mean, so Wesley wrote a piece and I, you know, obviously Wesley's been on her a few times, one of my favorite people. And out of nowhere, he dropped this Gwyneth Paltrow appreciation piece last year, or maybe it was this year.

And I thought it was one of the best pop culture pieces I'd read it in a while because it was basically like, we need to reconsider this. Look at this body of work. This is one of the best. actresses we've had and nobody even thinks of her that way. He wrote, quote, Paul Trow was for a while the best young American actor in Hollywood. She's still among the very last generation of movie performers, including Cotillard, Kate Blanchett, Winslet, and Nicole Kidman, for whom stardom and skills seems scarily thrillingly natural. And I think that's a, it's an awesome point. There's only a

couple actresses that just seem like famous movie stars, no matter what movie they're in and what part they're playing. And I don't feel like we have, Mind, are there, how many under 35 actresses do we have that you would say that about now? Sersha Ronan, who I think is my number one, 35 under 35. I honestly, I don't know where Emma Stone is in the, she might be 35 now. So maybe she missed the cutoff. But Emma Stone, I would say Margot Robbie, there's a case for it. And I'm sure there are a few more actresses as well. That's just kind of off the top of my head. And that is also a little bit because those people have been given, like,

the opportunities to have big roles, you know, and to develop that body of work, which, anyway. I do think Emma Stone, Emma Stone, 32. So she makes the cut. Oh, great. Okay. Well, congratulations to Emma Stone. I think within the list of names that you just read from Wesley's piece, a very cool thing about Gwyneth Paltrow is that she is maybe the least capital A actory or of those where Kay Blanchett is one of the great actors of our time, but she's a theater actress.

Like you can kind of, she puts on the hat in Blue Jasmine and you like see her working. And that's part of the performance and part of the appeal. And Gweth Paltrow just seems very. very natural in it and kind of confident in a way that I kind of think is off-putting to some people. There is like, well, of course, I'm just a movie star quality to her. But it's just very lived in in a way that I really enjoy. Well, they, Clay Blanchett and Paltrow were both in Talented Mr. Ripley, which is one of the reasons it's so much fun. They're both going for it. Liz, I'm going to blow your mind. Poutra went for Titanic.

and they picked Kate Winslet instead of Gwyneth Paltrow. If she's in Titanic, her next 25 years are completely different. First of all, she's not making 15 movies in five years. She's way more famous right away. I think she has a ton of kind of residual cachet from that movie.

Now, Kate Winslet is one of my favorite actresses, and I really respect and admire a lot of the choices she's made over the years, right? not to sound like too film dushy, but she just, she really tries, makes a real effort to play interesting characters

and then occasionally she'll do a one for them movie like the holiday. But for the most part, she's gone. But if you put Paltrow and Titanic, she becomes, I would say,

as big of a star as Leo was. And I don't really know what happens next. What do you think happens next? It's a tough one, right? It's like brain breaking. I can't even picture that really. But you know what?

The only thing I can think of is that would spur a lifelong friendship with Gwyneth Paltrow and Leonardo DiCaprio, which I kind of would enjoy because Kate Winslet and Leo over the decades have been very sweet and she together. So I'd like to have seen that friendship blossom, but otherwise I literally cannot picture it. What do you think, Amanda? Yeah, I wonder whether she would have been good in it, honestly. I think it's one of those things where the Titanic is really corny. And I say this as a person who grew up. I was 13 when Titanic came out, okay? Like target audience, hugely informative to my understanding of movies and romance and, you know,

what happens in the back of a car. But she's, like, not corny in the way. And you need to be willing to. And Leo isn't really corny either, but you need one person who's, like, willing to sell it a bit more so that Leo can kind of be cool and reserved from it. If it's the two of them, then, like,

I don't know how you get, like, I'll never let go, Jack, out of Gwyneth Patro. That's just not her vibe. I think it worked out the way it should have worked out. Yeah. Because I agree with that. Kate Winslet's great in that. So Gwyneth not nominated for Best Actor for Country Strong. Our nominees, they are. Natalie Portman won for Black Swan. This was a really good year for actresses.

Annette Benning, the kids are all right. Jennifer Lawrence Wintersbone, which was like her arrival movie. We were like, oh, this person's going to be in our lives. Michelle Williams and Blue Valentine, which is just a disorient thing. Liz, you wouldn't like that movie. Not a feel-good movie at all. I've been told to stay away from that movie. Yes, stay away from that one. You're too innocent for that movie. And then Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole, which I don't even remember. I don't know where that came from. So you could have said maybe she would have had the Nicole Kidman spot if everybody like Country Strong, but they did not.

And this movie kind of became not a failure. But going back and reading the reviews, which I'm going to do for Liz later to see if I can have her throw up on camera, the reviews were kind of savage. And this happens sometimes. And it ties into the Gunneth Paltrow thing, which we covered, which I think. think the goop thing and all that stuff. Garrett Headland. So here's another one.

This is another like Fork in the Road guy. His first break is Friday Night Lights and Troy, same year 2004 and gets the first wave of, oh, this is going to be a guy. Then he's in four brothers a year later, a movie that I really like. And it seems like good things are happening for him. Gets cast in Georgia Rule, which was, wow, deep cut. So Lohan, Lohan's still a major star. She's an A plus lister

And this is the movie when the wheels come off And he's the love interest in that And by no fault of his own That movie becomes a disaster Since his career, tiny bit of a tailspin But then a big comeback 2010 Country Strong and Tron And neither of those movies make it

And then it's just It doesn't really happen And triple frontieries in the Netflix movie That me and Shea and Chris And a whole bunch of other people loved I love it as well And I still feel like it's there You did?

I for some reason watched it for tea time I you guys Amanda you liked that movie Yeah come on it's hot dads invests That's great that movie's great But my theory on Garrett Headland Nudged out by the Chris crew I feel like if his name's Chris Headland I think he has a much bigger thing

So he lost he lost two big Avengers parts One to Chris Evans in 2010 The other did Chris Pratt in 2014 I don't watch those movies but Liz, any difference between him and the Chris's? Honestly, no, but I think he's more believable in a country strong role where he's like kind of gruff, small town man, very deep, gravelly voice. I don't know that he could command a planet and have superpowers and be like that guy. I don't know that he has the power on screen, but I really like him in this.

You know he's six foot two, Liz. I actually didn't know that. That's bonus points. But yeah, I don't know that he's that commanding. But I really like him in roles like Country Strong. I think this is a perfect role for him, honestly. What do you think, Amanda? I think he got really unlucky.

The Christing is interesting. And obviously, in the last 10 years, you just have to be in a franchise to be a big star. But if you kind of look at his decade, he works with the Coens. He does that Angelina Jolie movie that was not good. But he works with Joe Wright, who I like a lot. He works with Engle. He works with D. Reese. He picked a lot of good directors and movies that I think some of them are very good.

I mean, inside Lewin Davis is great, but he's not. the star of it. He's kind of just in the periphery and never manages to make to break through, which is tough, but happens to a lot of people without like a superhero role. I think he is a bad luck career guy because even Friday Night Lights, which he's excellent in. And the Friday Night's, Friday Night's movie is really good. And it's like my son and I watched it probably two months ago. It'll be on the rewatchables at some point. That movie's excellent. And he plays the Tim Riggins character. And Tim McGrath is his alcoholic, abusive dad. and he is great in that movie.

And I remember seeing that movie and talking to Peter Berg after him, being like, where did you find these dudes? Like that guy, who is the Riggins guy? That guy's going to be a star. And then here's the bad luck part. Two years later, the TV show starts, and it makes the movie irrelevant.

Nobody talks about the movie anymore. It's all about the TV show, the TV show. And then Taylor, whatever his name, plays Riggins and becomes this heartthrob character from that show. And it kind of like erases the Garrett Headland performance.

So I think, I believe in bad luck with actors, and we've talked about it a lot over four years here in the rewatchables. He is a bad luck guy to me because he's really, really good in this movie. Yeah, I think there's something to be said. I honestly think he could have had some kind of career in music because this is his real voice. I did a lot of research thinking that there has got to be some other person singing, and there was backup, of course.

But he is a great country singer, I would say. But yeah, now I talk about him and he's Emma Roberts' baby daddy and that's basically the only time he comes up in the pop culture conversation. That's it. I'm buying stock. I think he comes around again.

I think sometimes late bloomer stuff, Amanda and I are old enough to remember when it happened for George Clooney after seeing him on 17 TV shows and he was on facts of life and just bouncing around and it was like, oh, that guy and different haircuts

and then all of a sudden it happened. So, it was. It can happen. He's not too old yet. I'm still buying stock. All right. We're going to take a break then. We're going to talk about the rest of this stuff.

Don't you think some once-in-a-moon moments should happen more than once-in-a-blue moon? Like getting together for a Zoom chat with some friends you don't see all the time. Well, Blue Moon on a mission to celebrate and inspire more of those moments. Just like those looking for the special on the everyday, Blue Moon takes a twist on the traditional Belgian wit. Here's the thing about Blue Moon. Just put it in your fridge. You'll notice when you have somebody over, like if you have somebody for distance drinks

and you throw them your options for them if they want a beer, watch what happens when you say Blue Moon. They're going to be like, cool. You have Blue Moon? Pop on open for me. It was created 25 years ago, actually, during the 95 baseball season at the San Lap Brewery at Coorsfield, Denver, Colorado.

It's one-of-a-kind of parents' bright taste, best served with an unmistakable signature orange garnish and glass to showcase beautiful, a hazy color. Once in a blue moon is the motivation behind why they made this beer because somebody said they're tasting at a beer that's good only comes around once in a blue moon. You got the holidays coming, kicking back, probably eating a lot of food, opening gifts, hanging out at the family, whatever. It's time to reach for a blue moon. It is time to be reminded of the extraordinary. And you can have Blue Moon delivered by going to get that bluemoon beer.com and finding delivery

options near you. Add a special touch to your holiday season with the brightness of Blue Moon, brewed with Valencia Orange Peel for a unique fibered taste, reach for the moon. Celebrate responsibly. Blue Moon Brewing Company Golden Colorado Ale. We're also brought to you by the ringer.com and the Ringer podcast network. And wanted to mention

if you love the rewatchables, we move the entire rewatchables library to Spotify. So if you want to hear anything that's older than 60 days, the last two months are always on available at any platform. Anything older than 60 days is only available on Spotify. We've done over 170 movies. We've done some huge ones.

This is not one. Not one of the huge ones. But we've done some big ones over the years. We have more great stuff coming. And if you want to check out all of it, go to our Spotify page for the rewatchables. Just follow it or search for a rewatchables and you'll find everything. All right. So one more thing we have to talk about that's very time specific with this movie, Leighton Meester, who was on Gossip Girl at the time, and who's excellent in it. And was also excellent. She's an entourage, season one. She plays basically a Britney Spears character, and she's great in that.

And was somebody that I think people had high hopes for as an actress, and she's really good. And even reading the old reviews of this movie, everybody's like, she's really good. This performance is good. I went back and read some of the reviews, and I'd just like to say, I think she's very good in it. I think people focus a little too much on her at the expense of Gwyneth Paltrow, but again, I have made my biases really known. I think her character is really interesting in this and also really time-wise

specific because she's clearly supposed to be a Taylor Swift-esque character in the type of music and her relationship to country music and kind of the way that country music looks down on pop. And this is when Taylor Swift is really also taking off. She hasn't done full crossover yet, but it's on its way. And she's certainly a sensation. and I don't know. I don't want to step on categories,

but I think the movie gets the Taylor Swift aspect of it a little bit wrong, at least predictively. Well, what's interesting is Gwynn's character becomes Taylor Swift 10 years from now if she turned into like an alcoholic lunatic because the way she carries herself her hair, all that stuff, she actually looks like older Taylor Swift in this movie.

She does. I want to talk about this year later. Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts on the hair in this movie. Yes. Yeah, me too. And the way she's like, because she's tall like Taylor Swift too and she's kind of pranced around the stage

and her voice isn't like fantastic but it's good enough all that stuff and then the other one is Tim McGraw who amazingly does not sing in this movie which is probably the fatal flaw of the movie What is going on? Why doesn't he sing? I'd forgotten that and I was so mad.

You guys, I went to Tim McGraw concerts in the year 2000. I was there, okay? My guy can sing. Something like that. Great song. Let the man sing. Also, let the man act. Why was he not in more things? He is a perfect stern, protective, fatherly figure, both in the blind side and country strong. I'm just going to say it. I'm here to provide the enthusiasm, not the real critique. Why didn't he have a very prosperous career as that kind of guy?

And he was in Friday night lights. Yeah, he did some good stuff. Yeah. I was going to do this later, but I'm just doing this now. I think there's so many things I would change about this movie. I do feel like it's like a jigsaw puzzle where there's just some of the pieces. are in the wrong spots and you're like, why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? And I know we'll go into some of them. But the biggest one for me, he should have just been a former singer who ended up taking over her career and maybe not singing as much, but it could have led to him and Gwyneth having a duet on stage, which is like, guess what? Guess what always works in movies? Duets on stage with two actors who have chemistry. It works every time. It was just sitting there and they decided not to do it. I don't know what they were doing. I a thousand percent I agree with this. It's baffling. And I also, I think that Tim Rugga is good in this movie.

I think he's way better in Friday Night Lights. But they don't give him anything to do except to kind of look confused and then have to react to stuff. Let him sing. Let him shine. I have him in what's age the worst coming in later, but not for the reasons we're talking about. This movie is directed and written by Shana Festy. I think that's her name. She wrote The Greatest, which in 2009 was Sundance Darling. This is good. She was working as a nanny for Toby McGuire. Oh, wow.

As she was right in the screenplay, showed him a work in progress. He agreed to co-produce it. She also worked as a nanny for Courtney Love, raising the question. Was there just a dash of Courtney Love here with Gwyneth character? I'm going to say yes.

She explained the movie as she saw what's happening in the media to Britney Spears. She finished the script when Michael Jackson passed away. She said, I think it's tragic how we treat people give us so much. We love to see them knock down to build them back up again and knock them down again.

It's a weird fascination. That to me is the best thing about this movie. What it tries to do and it doesn't do, which is why it's a flawed rewatchables instead of rewatchables is this person's clearly headed toward the worst possible path ever. And everyone around her sees it. And they're like, oh, if we could just get her back on tour,

it'll be better. She's got to get her in front of fans. What could go wrong? And it takes you behind the scenes of how a poor decision like that, which is clearly damaging to somebody, would happen because everybody wants to keep the money train going. Am I wrong on that or is that the best thing on this movie? I think it's the best idea in the movie.

Best idea. I do wish that it were further explored because it's like it is both very much of that late 2000s TMZ moment that, you know, Bill, you and I, Liz, I don't mean to exclude you, but I don't know how dialed in you were to TMZ in 2007 and 8. I was extremely dialed in. And, you know, we think about it all the time. I think it's still kind of influences how we relate to celebrity. I think that this movie could dig in a bit more to the media, to all the choices around her, to each of the character's motivations to her own.

I think it's like pretty surface level, but it is really interesting. And I will always watch that type of story. Yeah, I had this in my what has aged the best, which is like the celebrities or pop stars, they have like a very finite amount of chances to win back the public, basically, and get into their good graces. And it can only happen a certain amount of times. And if you mess up more than that, then it's over. But I was researching.

And Britney Spears did have like a comeback tour where it was this very limited run. All the songs were shortened. It was called her M&M tour because the M stand for mother because she had two kids at that point. And then the other M was for Miss because she was recently divorced from Kevin Federline. And she had gone through the 2007 whole breakdown in the public eye. And then she did this little stint across the United States with like six songs in her set list. And it was successful. And then, of course, in the next 10 years, it would go up and down several more times.

But this happens literally all the time. And still today in 2020, I mean, Demi Lovato. You have like many, many, many pop stars who kind of go through something and then have you like prove themselves kind of immediately and like become part of, you know, like the positive conversation about all this stuff. Yeah, which is why the biggest flaw of this movie is we're supposed to think Tim McGrath really loves her. Yeah. But he doesn't really love her because he's basically putting her out to die on this tour that he knows is just completely horrendous for her. And it never explains why he has this fundamental need to keep this train going at the expense of this

person that he allegedly loves. And they don't have one scene that explains that. And it's, you know, like when the critics are tough on it, that's a good reason. Because it's like, well, wait a second. So does he like her or not? He seems clearly infatuated with the Mr. character. But then in the end, when he finds out she's dead and he like sinks to the ground,

it's like, well, wait a second. You had to know this is how this is going to play out. One of the many reasons why it's rewatchable, it's frustrating because you're like, oh, man, why don't you do this? It's a why didn't you do this movie? There's a legacy for what they're trying to do here. Cole Miner's Daughter, Tender Mercies, Walk the Line, Crazy Heart. Our four movies that go into this country Western, this person, their fans meet so

much to them, they've got a lot of demons, can they keep it together? And those other ones all did well and, you know, got Oscar attention, stuff like that. This did not. $50 million budget, $20 million it made. It did get nominated for Best Original Son. the Academy Awards for the coming home song. Soundtrack is a true highlight of this movie. It lost two. We Belong Together from Toy Story 3.

Can't say I remember how that one went. No, not at all. I remember there's a Mariah Carey song We Belong Together, right? Yeah, that is very good. Rotten Tomatoes, which Sean hates. This film has an approval rating of 22%. Oh. I don't get it.

I didn't read any of the reviews. I know you're going to tell me about them later. protect myself, I did not read a single thing that people said about it. Bill, I feel like you got to do a real Sean disclaimer of like this, especially Rotten Tomatoes does not mean anything. But I guess actually it does a little bit because I think that there's a little bit of just like sexism baked into that of people being like, and whatever, I'm not taking this seriously. And so the up or down Rotten Tomatoes score just immediately gives it a down. I bet the reviews are slightly more nuanced than 22%.

Roger Ebert. two and a half stars. Okay. This is a weird, weird paragraph. I'm just going to read it. Country Strong is one of the best movies of 1957. And I mean that sincerely as a compliment. We live now in more fraught times with Natalie Portman

mentally disemboweling herself for art while slipping into madness. And I admire Portman, and she will deserve her anticipated Oscar nomination. But Country Strong is a throwback, a pure heartfelt exercise in 50 social melodrama using such stock elements as a depressed heroin, her manipulating husband, an ambivalent other man, and tapping her toe impatiently in the wings, young Eve Harrington,

eager to swoop in and gnaw the heroine's courage from her bones. Roger Ebert, one of his best reviews that he had. He nailed it, though. This is an old-school movie, and in 2010, we are now in the Black Swan stage of movies. Yeah, I guess that's true. And maybe that was a piece of this. All right, we do the categories.

Most rewatchable scene. Most rewatchable scene, first one. Gwyneth's first scene. I like that song. What did you say when you start? I remember that day. I remember that day when I, when what? When we first met?

I remember that day when I first met. You ran into the building to get out of the rain. soaking with and when you held a door wanted to know my name timing is everything they do the timing is everything with the sponsor

and she's helping him rewrite and this says Star is Born clearly clearly might have borrowed this a tiny bit the two people kind of workshopping a song because it always works if it's done correctly Plus, the timing is everything was just good.

It is true. Timing is everything. Before we go on, we have to do an asterisk around the sponsor, because that's going to come up many times talking about this movie. He's technically the janitor at this rehab facility. I was also during air quotes. Yes, we really should talk about Garrett Headlands, like employment status and HIPAA rules and all sorts of rehab issues.

Do you want to do it now? I had it for picking Nits. Yeah. So just let's do it now. She's randomly in a rehab center with this country Western prodigy who's a janitor slash sponsor. What are the odds? They're not great. Better in Nashville, but you know.

Fair. But she goes on tour and she has a staff of presumably, she has six people around her at all times. They have this enormous tour bus, enormous crew. Could they not have also, I get bringing Garrett Headlin on. He's a singer. He like kind of calms her keeps her kind of on track. could they not have brought a legitimate sponsor as well? Like there's room to bring another person because that's the whole problem, right?

Like then she falls off the rails and Tim McGraw's like, you're supposed to be your sponsor. Where were you? And Garrett Hedlin is like literally nowhere to be found because he's the janitor. He's on stage. Right. Well, he was also on stage. He's like, sorry, I was singing. Where is there the sponsor?

Sorry I couldn't be with her. Right. And this happens like three times. I agree with this. It's tough. It's not good for the rehab scene in general. But that's a really good scene. I like it establishes like this whole Gwyneth.

Oh, so she's damaged, but she's also really talented. And there's a real connection between these two. Tim McGrath walks in. He's got that look like, oh, what's going on in here? Next one. Most rewatchable, Bo saves Childs from bombing. Oh, yeah, I had that one too. Sorry.

Blame it all on my roots, showed up in boots. Root. It's really good. He comes in with the guitar. Somehow he's not miced, but he sounds great. Comes to waltzing in. And yet another flaw with this movie, it's unclear whether he likes her or not.

He has no respect for her musically, but seems to have real affection for her. He's threatened by her, but as soon as she's bombing on stage, he has to go save her. I don't know what his motivation is. Other than, yeah, she's hot, I guess, is basically his motivation.

But this is a good scene. Amanda, you like when people get save from bombing on stage. I do because I find all of the scenes in which people are bombing on stage in this movie and no one saves them to be excruciating. I just, singing in general is really awkward. I typically don't like it when people sing unless they can sing really well.

So I'm very grateful to him for saving her. Also, a classic Garth Brooks song. You got to have a little Garth Brooks in a country movie. And I enjoyed it. I started singing along when I was rewatching. I like how they play every song for like a good amount of time. There's no clip. They go through an entire.

verse and chorus of I've got friends in low places. And you kind of like sing along. It's kind of the only enjoyment you get throughout the movie is like these like minute and a half of people actually singing because there's not a lot of joy elsewhere and you have to find these moments. But this specifically is like one of the only happy times, I would say. Yeah, and I don't even like country music. Like I literally don't like it. And I like all the country music in this movie. I think it's good. The next one is that when Charles and Bo have the duet on stage of given to me. Oh, yeah.

It's just good stuff. A lot of good chemistry. As you said, duetting is good. Also, I think it's notable that every single one of these rewatchable scenes involves a song. I honestly, that's why this is rewatchable because you just skip through to the songs. It's like, oh, now they're singing this. And like, oh, now they're singing this. And the songs in this movie that are written for the movie are like better than usual for

movies. And I just kind of watch it like a concert video. I completely see. Yeah, the music's so much better than the actual, like, Tim McGraw being bummed out of Gwyneth Paltrow for the night time in the ninth scene. I cannot remember a single song from a Star is Born, like, truly thinking about it. I can't think of that one famous song. But this music comes on in Country Strong, and I somehow know all of the words still after 10 years.

It just is like one of those things you ease back into. Liz, you just lost the audience. Shallow, yeah. Oh, right. I can see Lady Gaga doing that, like, you know, where she became a meme. I'm off the deep end. I'm not going to see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here's the thing. These can coexist in your heart. And also they have to because this movie is a ripoff of the three previous Astoria's Boards. I love you so much. We just got to, we got to accept that and then move on. I think it's crucial that he actually sings.

And there's some research we'll go into later. The fact that they're not lip syncing and they're genuinely singing is such a huge advantage when you're making a move about music. And I'm always, I got to say, like, I just. just don't like lip syncing. Like, I didn't, I can't believe, uh, Rami Malick won, an Oscar for the Queen movie. He didn't even fucking sing. I agree with this. You have to earn it. Like, you want me to give you an Oscar for lip syncing. And I thought he danced very well. It was a recreation. But like, this is, if you're going to sign up for a musical, sing.

This is my case for Val Kilmer and the doors. How is one of the great performances of the 90s. Oh, my God. No. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean. You're not. You know what I'm in it. You're You're not getting invited on the doors rewatchables because it was. I already had to do this. Sean made me rewatch it for an Oliver Stone podcast, and I was in such a bad mood. That movie is so weird and boring. Valcomer's amazing in it.

He becomes Jim Morrison. He does. That's true. Actually, he is very good in a movie that I don't like. Well, you're not invited on the podcast. Okay. Thank you. Next rewatchable scene, Gwynness Charity Visit.

Yet another song. Tell her how much you love her music track. Are you going to play a film for me? What? Am I gonna play a song for you? Oh. No, you don't have to. Oh, oh, yes. Oh, yes, I am. That's why I brought my guys.

Come on in, guys. There's just one little thing, which is I wrote this new song, and I'm not sure if it's any good. So I was, thanks. I was hoping that I could play it for you, and you tell me what you think, okay? Okay. it's called Travis.

And it goes like this. Who's this gym with the shiny wind breaker? This is Gwyneth. This is her Oscar scene. This is the scene where it's like, you can't say this is a bad movie. Because this scene is awesome. She's great in it.

And it's really touching because, and then it cuts to Tim McGrath after, and he's just like, wow, she's never going to recover from losing. in this kid, she would have been a great mom other than being an alcoholic and whatever else was going on with her. But fundamentally, if we had had this kid, things would have been much better. And this is why she's falling apart because it's just really well done. And she's great in it. Like, she's a star in that scene. Yeah, she's so nurturing. She also showcases again that she's

got all this natural talent, the kid, Travis, who she goes and visits. She does this little tiny verse and then he goes, is it over? And she's like, no. And then on the spot, she has to come up with lyrics and then she's dancing with them. Makes me cry every time I watch it. It's such a good scene. I think my favorite in the movie. Yeah. It's great.

Really great kid acting. The child who plays Travis is wonderful. And in addition to her singing and just the connection and her charm, like, it's just kind of, she's a movie star. It's the case for her as like a star within the movie as well as exploring all of the, the kid stuff. I think it's like the best expression of that plot line as well. It's definitely better than anything Nicole Kidman did in Rabbit Hole as Becca Corbett.

I still don't remember what happened in that movie. Next rewatchable scene, Bo is singing on stage near the end and Kelly goes and this is before, in the Big Dallas concert, Bo's ripping it off and Kelly goes and gives Charles advice. Oh yeah. I have the advice. I'm just going to rip through this right now. Okay. Don't ever wear satin on stage.

Always travel with your coffee. costumes. Don't take laxatives ever. They never work the way you want them through. I think that's pivotal advice. Don't drink anything carbonated on a show day. It will make you bloat. Wear high heels everywhere you go. Don't be too concerned about writing your own songs. Best song wins. Don't be afraid to fall in love. And you never want to hide anything from your fans. It's not worth it. All of a sudden, there's just like an incredible amount to work with it. It's like a war chest of, of, in It's one of the most interesting scenes in the movie. Totally.

And it's kind of one of the only times that they really interact besides like the All About Eust stuff in the beginning. And it's really the only time they let Gwyneth Paltrow do something other than look confused. And like she's struggling, which, you know, she is struggling. It's a complicated character. And I don't mean to diminish that. But it's like, oh, what if you actually let Gwineth Paltrow be Gwendoz Paltrow for for a while in this movie?

that would be nice. And it's a nice payoff at the very end because they have a couple scenes where they're together. Like when the whole crew picks her up from the bar, Gwyneth Paltrow is absolutely shit-faced. And she's like laying down in the back of the van on Leighton Meester's lap. And they start chatting. And they actually have like quite a nice conversation about motherhood and being someone's daughter and all that stuff. And then Leighton Meester asked, she's like, does this mean we're friends?

And she goes, no, sweetheart, doesn't. And then it's like this great pay of it honestly shows you it's the end for Gwendoth Paltrow. that like she's finally giving out this advice. But I think that's like one of the only satisfying parts of the movie because it obviously ends the way it does and that's really upsetting. But this is like actual payoff from this whole thing. Well, I'll tell you this. It was great advice for me because today I was going to wear sat and take flexitives and drink

carbonated soda. And now, thank God I didn't. Two more scenes. Kelly's Dallas concert. I think, you know, the songs aren't like amazing. They're good, but it shows off like how. you just what a good performer, Gwyneth is.

But I really like the older alcoholic Taylor Swift vibe. She's got going. Like, it's like, this is Taylor Swift, nine rehab stints from now in her 2032 comeback concert. This is what it would look like,

these three songs. There's one thing that Gwinez Paltrow does when she finally says, Country Strong, which is like my favorite part of any movie when they say the title of the movie. You're like, oh, okay, we made it.

But so she does, like, she comes up on the riser and she does Country Strong, and she plays the guitar, She, like, hits one chord on the guitar and then raises her arm all the way up over her head, right? Which I don't know if any of you, I don't know if you're familiar with the way that Taylor Swift dances in concerts, but it's really just raising her arm up over her head like so. Like, she just is only an arm dancer.

And I don't know whether Gwyneth Paltrow is parodying Taylor Swift in that moment or whether Taylor Swift watch Country Strong and then was like, oh, this is it. This is what I got to do. And whether that moment is responsible for a decade of Taylor Swift dancing with her arms. in either case, love it. Yeah, I've seen Taylor Swift in concert many times, and you're absolutely right, especially even down to her look in that final big concert, the ponytail that kind of is teased in the back

and it's got this big blonde kind of half curls. She looks like Taylor Swift genuinely. It feels like I'm looking into the future. Hopefully, maybe not. I invited Taylor on the pod. She didn't respond. She's busy. She's writing 18 songs a day.

The last scene is the ending. It's really good. I like to bring a friend on stage. A wonderful songwriter I met in Nashville. She just so happens to be here tonight. We welcome to stage Miss Child's stand. Again, I'm always in for duets if the singing's good. Can I ask a question about that scene?

Yeah. So he says that his friend has a ranch on the beach, and then it's a small town that needs a Saturday night band. Where is this ranch in California? I had this for probably an answerable questions much later. No, let's do it now. So there's a lot of holes in this. He's on a 10 city tour with an eight-list celebrity.

And he's like, hey, got this awesome offer to work on a ranch and appear in a club on Saturdays. Yeah. And I, first of all, the country western scene in L.A., I wouldn't say it's like thriving. Piss poor. Yeah, especially in 2010. Yeah, if you're working on a ranch, I'm guessing it's like maybe, you know, in the, in deep Malibu. Okay.

Probably up there, right? Like, like, yeah, kind of like up to Panga Canyon. Yeah. One of those places. Like off the PCH, maybe like, you know, 15 minute drive up. Okay. And every year they're worried the fires are going to like take out the ranch, but they don't. Right.

So he's there. And then he's probably driving on Saturday nights from there down to somewhere on sunset for whatever country Western thing. but I just can't imagine this was a good career move. So you think it is in L.A. As opposed to being like somewhere Central Coast. Oh, really? I think that, I think it's on sunset.

Okay. All right. Did you see the camera pan to who was in that bar watching him on a Saturday night? I guess every, I guess, I mean, I don't know. It felt like he was in a small town and that's his entire world. Oh, so you're thinking he's in like San Bernardino or somewhere like that. Yeah. Yeah.

But I mean, it's on the coast. So I thought like Central Coast. Topanga's interesting. It could be just like in. And the place where he's playing is in Topanga as well. Or like Agora Hills or something. Yeah. I don't know.

We're not supposed to know. I just think L.A. is so gigantic. You could tell me that bar is anywhere and I would believe it. Okay. You could say it's like, oh, it's in Little Ethiopia. Okay. If Garrett Headland can't handle the Dallas tour of it all and like that whole fame, I don't think he's driving into L.A. every night.

I think he would kill himself before going on Sunset Boulevard. So you think like maybe Oxnard? Maybe. He's like way down the PCH. She's working in a ranch and then driving. All right. Yeah. What's the most rewatchable scene?

Well, for me, it's when she finally is on stage in Dallas and does like the three concert set. And it's like, and she says country strong. And I'm like, you are country strong, wed to Falra. But it's just also the pure star power and what you're waiting for the whole movie. That's true. I had the Travis scene just because, again, it's one of the only few moments of joy that we have.

And it's a couple of like merciful, like three minutes maybe. because I kind of forgot how dark this entire movie is. Like she doesn't really recover for more than a day or half a day until the nighttime comes. So I didn't remember that as much. It really is like kind of a struggle throughout. I have the Travis scene as well. Yeah. Because my wife who watches this movie frequently really likes the part near the end when

Gwyneth and Tim McGraw are like intensely slow dancing and they're in like this, like kind of like this. I don't know, daycare center with kids who are with sick kids and there's teachers and there's like, you know, chocolate cake on paper plates and they're just like slow dancing like it's two in the morning at a hotel bar. She drops Travis quick. She only dances for a couple seconds. I didn't notice that.

I was like, come on. She's like, all right, kids right there. She's good. All right. We're going to take one more break than we're going to do the rest of the categories. There's a reason why Fandulah's number one sports book. their app is simple to use. They've got great odds in all different betting markets. Unique fun bet types like same game parley and exclusive always on promotions to let you get more

action out of every game day. And if you win, they'll even get your winning safely in as little as 24 hours. Right now, Fandole letting you place your first bet risk free up to $1,000, place a bet on any game. Fandole will refund you up to $1,000 back if you don't win your first bet. No strings attached. Place any bet you want if you win. Keep the cash. If you lose, you'll get your entire bet up to $1,000 back in site credit. For example, Thursday night, Chargers getting points against the Raiders will probably like a field goal, three and a half points, something like that. You can take the Chargers with the points. You could do a little same game parlay with Justin Herbert to throw two TDs and the Chargers to win, whatever you want. Don't forget,

you have all kind of options and your favorite promotions, all that stuff. It's all there. If you never try Fandallandall Sportsbook, what are you waiting for? download the Fandul Sportsbook app to get started. Be sure to sign up with promo code rewatch. So they know I sent you Fandil's Sportsbook promo code rewatch. 21 plus president in Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, West Virginia, Indiana, Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee. First, online real money wager only.

Site credit, non-withdrawable expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See sportsbook. Fandil.com for details. Gambling problem. Call 800 5 to 2,2,4,700 in Colorado. 800 bets off in Iowa. 800 9 with it in Indiana.

800 gambler in Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, 800, 889, 9789, and Tennessee, 1,800 gambor.net in West Virginia. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list, not one more. With Carvana, it is. Just go to Carvana.com and to your license plate or Vin and get a real offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can trust. Like your offer, accept it, schedule pickup, and we'll come to you with a check in hand. Your car, your timeline, your terms.

Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. All right, what's age the best? We mentioned the Brittany Spears type premise of an unraveling star and a team pushing her to stay famous. I like the Who's Your Idol, Kelly Cantor and Jesus Christ. It's really good. Meester gives us that one.

my wife dominated this one My wife was a little bit involved In the creative put together this pot She said you have to put in what stage the best Nobody is better at crying and talking At the same time than Gwyneth Every time I think you're close to forgetting Something happens and brings it back up

Well I'm not gonna forget about Dallas It's not something you just forget about It's one of my favorite Gwyneth Paltros That's what she said It was like a down I don't know if Wyneth Paltrow's was a down But I would love to see her presentation of other Gwyneth talking and crying. Like, could we get a slideshow?

I know. I would like that. So she, I called her out on that. And I were like, what are some other examples? She said, talented Mr. Ripley. Okay. Yeah. Great talk and cry.

And then she couldn't come up with that anymore. But I was like, all right, those are at least two. That scene's really good. It's a little morbid. But when Kelly dies and they ease into the timing, timing's everything song, It was like, ah, it kind of works. For a movie that has a lot of misses, that really works, like the combination of the music

and then the hospital scene and all that stuff. And then a Kelly fan says at one point, and I thought, this is like when we talk about all the shit that could have explored this movie, they're interviewing the fans before the Dallas concert, and one of the Kelly fans says, she's hit rock bottom, and sometimes you have to hit rock bottom

to realize what you have. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. Let's explore that. Never mentioned again. But I thought that was good. Any other nominees for what stage is the best? I would say country music and liking country music has aged really well. I think there has been no other crossover in history up until this modern day to like country music.

Celebrity and the genre of country music have never been more combined. You have Gwen Stefani, who's married or going to marry, Blake Shelton, which is absolutely insane. You have Casey Musgraves hanging out at the Cardass. Ashians. You have Marin Morris, like, you have all of these artists now as just kind of celebrities and not like country celebrities. You have Ashton Coucher at stagecoach. You have all Bachelor Nation at these country concerts. It's like never been cooler, I think, to like country music. Taylor's got to play a huge part of that whole thing, right? She does. Yeah. She's kind of the person paved in the way. And she's starting in 2010. So in like in a way that's what's aged the best. And in a way,

that's also what's aged the worst because the movie is like pretty dismissive of the the Leighton Meester character and the idea that you would go outside country music to find success. I had that in What's Age the Worse? Yeah. The way they present Leet Mister's character versus kind of how the world works and how the last 10 years work. There's actually like dead wrong. What's Age the Worst? Oh, I had one more What's Age the Best, which also leads in the What's Age the Worst?

What's Age the Best? the Tim McGraw I'm so psyched she's killing it face on the side of the stage I don't know how he does it it's like kind of a smile

and he's kind of nodding and you can see his wheel it's really he must have practiced in a mirror he has one face in this movie yeah

but he doesn't well Percy's lips kind of a half smile yeah thank God what's age the worst they don't give

Tim McGraw a lot to work with in this movie agree he does not have likable character. Over and over again, he's in scenes where his character's motivation is confusing. He, uh, I don't really know what his endgame was. I feel like he was 100% responsible for his wife's death. And I don't wish for him to end up happily ever after. I don't know how they could have

saved this character, but they did not do a good job with it. I agree. I think they probably could have either given Tim McGraw more to do on stage, as you said, Bill, and kind of develop. Like he's a former star and so he like understands fame, but maybe like this worked for him. And so he thinks it'll work for her, whatever. Or you just recast it and you get someone who can either play into the kind of business craven side of it a bit more or the actually have more of a connection. There's not a lot of chemistry between these two individuals. It's kind of hard for me to believe that they were married. And like maybe that's the point.

But, you know, they go, when they have dinner that one time and they're talking about, like, would we have been happy if we stayed in Bristol? And I think you're supposed to feel that original spark. And I don't know that it was totally there for me. I bought it. I don't. But, yeah, I agree. Liz just likes Tim McGrath. I have rose-colored lenses on this whole movie.

Yeah. Yeah, he was kind of a shitty guy and all these, like, I mean, very overt ways. But then a lot of vague ways, like, you know, him kind of flirting with late Meester. He, like, visits her hotel room late at night, which I have problems with that timeline later. Yeah. But then he also knowing, I mean, Kelly is sleeping with everybody, including, like, her tour manager. So on the spectrum, you know, he's still bad, but he's not actually cheating on her, which I guess is good. My advice would have been either way more villainous where it's like, he's like the Shawshank warden where there's like, this tour's got to stop.

He's like, nothing stops. And he's just like, just over the top cartoonishly evil. I actually would have preferred that over where they landed. Or you do the thing where he used to be a really famous country star. And maybe he had like throat surgery or something, couldn't sing anymore. So you at least have that connection. But then maybe near the end he comes back and he sings with their, even though he's got polyps. Like he's just, and he started anything to make it more interesting than what we have in this movie from Tim McGraw.

Yeah, and I mean, I feel like this is the way in which it's trying to deviate from a star is born. Like, because that's the star is born, right? That there are the two main characters are both stars and one's on the way up and one's on the way down. Guess what? The formula works. I agree. Morewood's age the worst. No social media for Kelly's drunk performance in the bar.

I'm sorry, there are cell phones in 2010. People can film stuff. There's no way that's not online the next day. Yeah. I personally would have made Kelly 25% drunker and meaner. Really? She hits Tim McGraw in the face. I think there could have been one really mean scene where we're like, wow, when this lady has a few in her, what, this is...

Miener than her hitting Tim McGrath in the face? Well, he kind of deserved it, though. Yeah, you might be right. But that was supposed to be, I think, like, her at her worst, right? And then she, like, gets upset. Then she starts kissing him. It's just a horrible scene between the two of them. I agree that it has, like, the safety rails on a bit.

I would also say maybe that's because, and I love Gwen Patro. I'm going to speak more about how I love her. But the one scene when she is really drunk and yelling at Leit and Meester in the back of the cab, I wouldn't say that's the Oscar submission reel. So perhaps they dialed it back for that reason. The safety rails is an important point because she's like hooking up with her tour manager that's scumbag. But not really.

She's got all her clothes on. It's not like anything's really happening. She's drunk, but she's not like. disgracefully drunk and, you know, the way, like, even a star is born really goes for it when it's like, this guy's unraveled and they'll go, you know, one step beyond. This last one's age the worst is not from me. It's from my wife. She's upset at Bose. This is her quote, disheveled oversized clothes. Okay. Sure. Yeah.

Listen, I have nothing to add. I'm just passing that note along. I have a contender as well, which Amanda, I feel like you could agree with perhaps. I'm going to call it like the dry bar hair, which basically in 2010 told me that this was like the pinnacle of style and beauty that I went and wore to every dance for the next six years of my life. But it's the side part, straightened bangs here, and then big barrel curls coming around you. That's like her look and her like kind of at her best. That's what she looks like. like Meester rocks it. She's got like a bumpet in the back. And it's, I swear, dry bar happened before, but it was like, it just reminds me of like a look that everyone rocked for as formal wear for a very long time. This is a hugely important point. I agree with you. It is of that dry bar moment. And I think it is also, you know, like a Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill. There is like a country music aesthetic for especially like the tall blonde white women aesthetic. They all have that hair. And so it's a.

nod to that. But it definitely, the barrel curl had a moment. And also, now that we're speaking of the barrel curls, did you notice and the rewatch when Gwyneth Paltrow goes from straight hair to full barrel curl in the span of two minutes? Which it just is not how that happens. That is a two-hour process, even with extensions. So I think that's great. The styling in general, they're all wearing those tiny bandage dresses. It feels like that. That, again, is I think part of the country music's styling, but is definitely a circa 2010 experience. Yeah, a lot of peplum dresses and stuff like that. And then a lot of eyeliner, under eyeliner, and it just strips down Gwyneth Paltrow's face

and every other scene. Just a lot of heavy eye makeup on both of the main girl characters. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of style. I have some photos to show you from the 80s if you think the style is better. What's age the worst? The reviews.

The Guardian. Quote, Gwyneth Poutra sings your own material in this mind-blownly mockish and self-indulgent country music movie. Watching it is like drinking a mix of Texan corn syrup and dolly part and hair toner. That's just hurtful. New York Times. Though seriously miscast as an unreformed alcoholic,

the bronzed Miss Paltrow gets by with a thin, serviceable voice and an actor's confidence. If she plays the role of the star well enough, it's because she is one, not because she's been given the necessary material. Again, hurtful. Hallowed reporter,

themes and cliches plucked from countless country lyrics, fuel a thoroughly unconvincing show business story about a large and life crash and run star in an unruly entourage. It's hard to synopsize this movie because it sounds even worse than it actually is.

And then the Boston... That might be true. Honestly, if you gave someone the plot, it might be true. Boston Globe, quote, by the time the film reaches the most absurd and least earned of its many conclusions,

parentheses of country strong ends once and ends nine times, it's fair to assume, that Festi, the writer, has mistaken her protagonist for Lindsay Lohan or Courtney Love. The writer of that, Wesley Morris. Yeah, I was going to say. So he didn't really like the movie right away, but I think it's grown on him over time, which is one of the reasons we do the rewatchables.

Casting what-ifs couldn't find any. I looked. One of the rare, not like a shitload of information about this movie. You're going to be surprised. I found that too. Liz Kelly wasn't blogging yet, so there's not a community online. There was one blog post I read that. thought might be young Liz Kelly in high school giving her review of Country Strong.

Where the person loved it so much, I was like, was this Liz? Should I send it there? And I was like, I don't even know what my identity will be after this pod wraps. And like the thing I've been holding on to, especially at the, my Ringer identity for four and a half years is this movie. And then now we could talk about the CM boat. Like, where do I go from here? You're your post country strong identity.

Yeah. Yeah. I'd think of something else. Best that guy, aka the Joey Pants Award. So the tour manager dude. that she was sleeping with, and then Garrett Headlin walks in, that creepy guy. He's one of those guys. I don't even know what that guy's name is, but I've seen him and other things, and I'm

just giving it to him because I don't even know what his name is. Can I ask something about this category? Yeah. So I was prepped on all these categories by the producer of the show, and that guy, I thought, is where you watch it, you know, and you're like, a that guy, and you, like, can't really place him or, like, know him too well. Yes. So I originally wrote down Tim McGraw, and then I had the producer of the show review my

notes and he was like, that's not it at all. That's the wrong. That's not of that guy. But don't you watch Tim McGraw? You're like, oh, that guy, right? Well, but he's, he's Tim McGraw, though. Yeah. So I think Liz is hitting on an interesting point, though, which is that the next three

categories, kind of all the side characters, this is a really hard movie for all of them because this is just a movie with four people. By the way, I have them blank. Yeah, they talk the whole time. And it's just those four people. It's dominated. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I had the Vince and Hannah, Give Me All You Got Award. Yeah. Probably Gwyneth in one of the scene when she's super drunk. I have a Dionne Waiters board. Deanne Waiters, who do you have? I have the bird. Oh, I have to talk about the bird later.

I have so many thoughts on that bird. That's a good one. I like that. Let's do it now. Thank you. Okay. Give us your bird thoughts. So basically, in rehab, Kelly finds his baby bird. She waited around for her mom and never came.

She takes this bird in and is caring for her. So problem one is she keeps it in a very time. tiny box with the lid on in total darkness with like some sawdust on the bottom and like that's her like care and the woman has many resources as well as like a pet like to keep it in a wood box like three by three in darkness is absolutely cruel and then the other thing is this poor bird gets passed around there's a scene where um tim mcrog goes and scouts lateen meester and then also is going to see um what's his name gerrit headland perform at this honk talk-tong-bar. So he's in this loud bar. He watches the whole set. He goes out to the back alleyway to talk to Garrett Headland to be like, you should come on tour with us, blah, blah. And then, Bo, Garrett-Hedlin goes, hey, I think your bird's hungry because it's like chirping. And it's like, did Tim McGrath take this baby bird into a bar with like very loud acoustics? It was probably very scarring. He's in total darkness. So like he doesn't understand what's going on. And then it's

just toad him around, like probably thrashing him around in the car on the way there. Like, he's got to care more for this bird and just doesn't. It's very cruel. I'd just like to add, how long can a tiny bird survive in a box? Like, I just, this seems impossible to me. I'm not, I don't, not a bird expert. I'm kind of afraid of birds, but I don't know. It's interesting that this, this bird lives that long in this tiny little box. Yeah, and it's just absolutely thrashed around. I mean, there's like no proper care for the bird. And it, like, every once in a while, Gwyneth Paltrow will kind of like pop it open and kind of like give it like two pets and like push it back in the box and it's like I think they need like warm. I think I've seen something where they need many other things to survive.

These are all great points. The way they treat the bird is like if my kids when they were like six decided to have a bird and then lost interest within three minutes and then the bird is just in this private hell of a box. We'll give the bird that Deanne Waiters a word. recasting couch you know so I'm going off the board here usually this is where we take one of the parts and we say oh it would have been better

with this actor I'm actually creating a whole new character here that I also think would have helped the movie she needs a rival and it's only two scenes and this solves the Dion Waiters Award and the recasting couch and makes the movie more interesting

if she crosses past with whoever whoever Kelly's rival was on the rise, right? Everyone has a rival. And it could only even be one scene. They're in the same town and the rival's doing great. The rival's still killing it. And she's kind of condescendingly friendly to Kelly and then walks away and Kelly's like, I hate that bitch.

But it's somebody famous, you know, either a famous country star or a famous actress. And maybe we see her twice and maybe we see her in the billboard. I think that really would have helped the movie. You don't think a stronger rival is actually late in meester, the young, beautiful, up and coming. But you have that, though. You have the younger rival who's going to take her spot. But then you have the other rival. No, the other rival who was her generational rival she grew up with that now she can't hang with

anymore. And also the gen. I like this idea, Bill. This is smart. Thank you. The generational rival needs to, like, just be fine, successful and also be really mean. You need to, like, just you really have to dislike her. Yeah, because you like the Leighton Meester character, even though I think she could be recast.

Like the rival says something like, I'm sorry I didn't reach out to you after your baby died. Yeah. But we were praying for you. And it's just like, oh, fuck you. You don't think that this would have said Gwana's Paltor absolutely over the edge. She lost it by one time latee Mr. stole her song. You want her demise faster. Literally just send her off the cliff.

I think it's a great cameo for like Reba McAxie. entire 10 years ago. I don't know. Who would have played that person, Amanda? Carrie Underwood, if you want country star. I mean, who is. She's too young, though. I guess that's true. I was thinking about if we're remaking it now.

How about a little Faith Hill? I was going to say Faith Hill. Tim McGraw brings on set one day. And then they have fun day together. She same. She kind of looks like her, but she's just got her shit going. There's a little Tim McGraw, Tyne. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued.

Ask your doctor about Zepbound. Terseptite, the first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zetbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. Zetbound contains terseptitite and should not be. be used with other terseptite-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pins or reuse needles.

Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop Zepbound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia. If you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills.

Taking Zepbound with a sulfonel urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsened kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99 or visit Zepbound.lily.com. Have fast internet research. I'll go fast. Garrett Headlin auditioned at a karaoke bar in Koreatown and sang a Pearl Jam song

Could not find out what the Pearl Jam song was So disappointed What is it? Wait, I scroll down It's called, I listen to it Better Man by Pearl Jam Okay, that's the most famous Pearl Jam song, Liz That's a classic I'm so glad that we got that on record

I'm sorry It's called Better Man Wow So he sings Better Man, that's interesting That's a great karaoke song It is, yeah, it's really good I believe you. So the director said he took four months off, learned how to play the guitar, took voice lessons, went to Nashville early, started working with producers, became a country singer.

Garrett Headland. I have my Garrett Headland stock. Guineth Paltrow emailed Robert Downey Jr., her Ironman castmate because she was trying to understand addiction and rehabilitation. This is the kind of stuff that some people would be like, ah, fuck you, Gunneth Paltrow. That sounds so pretentious. You needed to understand addiction better. So you emailed Robert Downey Jr. he did write back the most amazing email, quote unquote.

That really helped her. Garrett and Tim mentioned they were on Friday Night Lights together. So apparently there's a scene. What was the scene when Gwyneth and Garrett Headland, they have like that emotional scene near the end? You talk about when they're in towels or later on? Oh, he dedicates the song to her and then she comes back and they say like fame and love can't coexist a bunch of times.

in the dressing room. That's also when the ringlets appear very quickly. Oh, it was in Dallas when they say goodbye to each other. The director said, quote, we were shooting Gwynnicides first. Every single take, every single angle, the camera is only in the back of Garrett's head. And Garrett cried for her performance.

I didn't even know he was doing it because the camera wasn't even on him. Garrett afterwards was like, oh my God, that was so amazing. I loved everything you were doing, blah, blah, blah. Actors love when the other actor sells their performance when they're not on camera. It's a great way to,

also some Gwyneth stuff mentioned the Titanic thing. Did you know she lost out to Jenny Garth for Kelly Taylor and 902.1. I did know that. Interesting. Again, Bill, how do you feel about that? I think she would have been an amazing Kelly Taylor. Kind of perfect. I don't know what that does for her career because now she's on that grind and 902.

They're making 30 episodes. She probably would have left after like four seasons. She also turned down the. ring in 2002, which I think was, the one thing missing in her in her IMDB is a really good horror movie. I don't know why she didn't do that. I mean, she made like flesh and bone and stuff like that, but like just one where she moves into the house and there's something wrong with the house. If I was going to say, Adrienne, I'd be like, hey, do a movie where something's wrong with the house. Apex Mountain. Wait, I did, I did a little bit of research. Can I tell you two things?

Yeah. Because I think you'd enjoy it because it talks about Chris Martin. So, Gwenith Paltrow learned how to play the guitar from scratch over several months, whatever, she had never picked it up before. Her husband at the time, Chris Martin, told her, not only was he extremely supportive of her guitar playing, told her that she was better at playing the guitar than U2's frontman. Not better than The Edge, but apparently, Gwyneth Paltrow, like, just absolutely blew Chris Martin out of the way

with her guitar plane, which if you watch the movie, it's not great. Just a couple strings here and there. And then also, Leiden Meester's real mother did give birth to her as an inmate in prison, which I thought was interesting because her in the movie, her real mom is apparently also in prison. Liz Kelly, bringing it. I had to. Apex Mountain, Gwyneth Paltrow, no.

Garrett Headland, you could make a case that, I mean, this is probably one of the issues with how it turned out. It was so far for him where this should have been his apex because he had Tron and Country Strong. These are two major movies for him. it didn't happen. So his apex was probably 04, but this was like his lost apex mountain. Tim McGraw no. Leitemister, yeah.

I agree on Leitmeister. Because she's gossip girls like season two or season three at this point. And I would say yes. Country music, no. Nashville, no. Movies about alcoholic, self-destructive singers who died at the end, no. And that's all I got. Picky Nets.

We mentioned Kelly somehow as a sponsor who was also a huge potential country Western star crazy. Why was Tim McGrath such a shitty husband? We covered that. Did Bo like Childs or not? I actually asked this while watching the movie to Craig. And I think he said yes. Like, it's very confusing. I actually didn't really buy a genuine relationship out of them.

I was surprised that they were like the real love story in the end. Can I just make a case here? Childs is great. Why wouldn't you like Charles? What's wrong with her? She's good-looking? She's good-looking. Whatever.

She's 22. She's good-looking. What is he? There's more. He's going to get married? No, but it's like at the stage of life he's in, like, why was he so repulsed by her? It's like, all right. She's cute.

She could sing. What are you looking for, dude? You're working as a janitor in a rehab center. You have both seen romantic comedies before. And you know that at the beginning, the people have to not like each other. I get it. They have to like each other. It's literally the only arc this movie has besides the really.

really sad arc. Okay? So we got to take that. Number two, he just, he thinks he's like a cool outlaw country Western guy. So he can't like the, the pageant queen. But then, of course, in the end, you know, they're both deeper than the stereotypes that are presented. I don't think they made her unlikable enough in the first 20 minutes to sustain the whole, oh, there's no way he can be with her. I never felt like it got there, which is yet another reason it's a flawed rewatchable. I was, I was like, oh, she seems cool. Why wouldn't you? Well, maybe he is also, the problem. The problem is with his character, because his character, as previously discussed, is not a responsible sponsor or medical standard of any kind. And he is also basically two-timing Kelly and,

and child. And, but you're just supposed to be rooting for him to find his voice or whatever. And I'm rooting for him to find some comment from decency as a person. I agree. He actually has a situation in the middle of the movie where he presumably sleeps with Gwyneth Paltrow and then later that night meets up with late Meester. And you're just, you're absolutely right, Amanda. You're like, you're supposed to believe that he and Guineith Paul have this like otherworldly real deep connection and truth and he sees the real her. And then you're also supposed to believe that he sees the real latent meester beyond all

the hair and the hairspray and all that stuff. Yeah. It's a mess. Not great. It's a mess. And somehow it still works. Any other, we covered all the other picking knits at. Any other ones for you before we move on?

I just had one, which is I'm, we're supposed to believe this is just. a three city tour and that that's like economically feasible to play Houston, Austin and Dallas. And the first two, Houston and Austin, two of the largest cities in Texas, one of the largest states in the country are just their small venues, you know, no pressure, no big deal. I don't really understand how this tour works. Yeah, you figure like building the set, that that giant TV, it's not something you just like throw together in a week. Yeah, I don't know.

I have two others. One is this woman is left alone a lot. For someone who needs constant care and attention needs to take pills every day at a certain time. Right. Literally no one can find her ever. She somehow managed to go into town, get drunk, was left alone to be fucked up at a bar somewhere saying something. She also is so bold with like her alone time. She's kissing Garrett Headland in her dressing room where Tim McGraths presumably right outside or wandering the halls.

She sleeps with JJ, that guy in her own tour bus, which she shares with Tim McGrath. It's like, the woman, I know that she's like kind of, you know, not all there and she's got a lot of demons. But she is very bold and also left alone way too much for someone who is that vulnerable. These fair points. I wish they had dialed up the randiness of her hookups. Oh, really? I think, like just make her a complete, it's like what Amanda said earlier about the guardrails around this movie. Make her a complete train wreck.

They go 80% there, but they're not willing to go the final 20%. A tremendous amount of implied sex in this movie, which, to Roger Ebert's point, it is like a very 1957, you know, like the scene cuts, and you're supposed to understand that two people had a nice time together. But I agree. It's 2010. Give us some sex scenes. And then lastly, just quickly, Amanda, I don't know if you noticed this, but Gwyneth Paltrow

sleeps in all of her jewelry, including a very intense diamond, like tennis necklace. And then this big diamond. Cross. Yeah, she's wearing that diamond necklace and the fur-trimmed coat throughout the entire movie. I think it's hilarious. Gwyneth Paltrow just does like not care. Yeah, it feels like in the nighttime routine of like cleaning up after Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGrath should like unhook that necklace. I mean, that's got to be really bad for, I mean, it's probably a very expensive, nice piece. She sleeps in it. She has sex in it. She's like going all over and all of this like insane jewelry. I don't buy it. Yeah. Let me want to be on. Maybe that's why she had to self-medicate because the necklace was

like cutting off the blood supply at her head. Maybe. I want to throw one more in because Liz pointed out that Tim McGraw could have taken the necklace off for her at night so she didn't have to sleep in it. Except why are Tim McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow sleeping in the same bed? I am like asked to believe a lot of ridiculousness in this movie, but their marriage is not at a point where they're sleeping in the same bed. No. I guess that's true. Yeah.

She made a move on him. He's like, sorry, I took an ambient. Right. Oh, that was so sad. Oh, my God. That was tough one. Yeah. Best quote timing is everything.

Could this be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show? So I thought about this, and I actually think it's a better move than making the movie. I actually think you could do a sprawling 10 episode. You could have had a cliffhanger. You don't know if she dies at the end of the last episode. She's getting rushed to the hospital. You could bring in all these new characters, like the rival character I mentioned. You have a chance to really dive into some of the sex and debauchery and explain.

floor some of the themes. I actually think it's a pretty good idea. You don't think you'd be fatigued watching her relapse basically every episode and like kind of having it end the same way. I guess you're right. You could make it more fun in the interim. But like bottom line is that all she does is relapse. But she'd be stable maybe from like episodes three to seven. And you'd feel like, oh, things are getting better. And then she falls off again. I don't know. Do you guys remember the TV show Nashville with Connie Britton and Hayden Panetteer? I never watched it. Was that this plot? Yeah, well, I don't, I did watch it, but it was a while ago.

I believe it started in 2012. And I think, I don't know that Connie Britton had all of the substance issues, but she was definitely like the fading country star and Hayden Parenthier was the Taylor Swift character on the rise. And then the plots got increasingly ridiculous as the seasons went on. But it was good. First season was good. You could definitely remake this as a Netflix show.

Probably an answerable questions. The sex part. I have no idea who had, I don't. know if Garrett Headland had sex with Gwyneth ever in this movie? You can tell me it was once. You can tell me it was 200 times. I don't know. I don't know if Tim McGraw was having sex with Childs at any point.

It's insinuated, but we're supposed to guess. I just don't know. How did the media react to Kelly's death? So I was thinking about this because the movie ends and then it's like, hey, it's Garrett Headland's in L.A. And things are going to turn out right. There's this whole six-month investigation. of why did they let this woman continue to perform?

How did she die? Was she murdered? There's Reddit conspiracy stuff. This blows up. This is the biggest story in the world for six months for pop culture. Yeah. I think six months is short. I think it's like ongoing because the conspiracy element that you mentioned lives on.

Did the husband killer? He was involved with Childs. Oh, my God. It all would have come out. I feel like JJ would have said something at TMZ probably. Plus you have all the fans. like accounts or everybody wants to talk about like I saw her for the last time and I could tell this or the other thing and everybody wants to talk about their own experience with it.

It would definitely last talk. Yeah, there's weirdly a good sequel. So if you're talking about this as a TV show, maybe she does die in the last episode of season one and then season two is all about the fallout and the conspiracy and maybe he did kill her. Do you think Tim McGrath exit the music industry? Do you think this is so traumatic for him that he's like, you know what? I kind of caused this.

This is a child will go about her life. I should kind of take a step back, maybe try something else. I would hope so, considering he murdered his only client. I would hope that he didn't stay in the managing business. I would say maybe that's assigned to do something else. Any other unanswerable questions for you? I feel like we had everything. I was going to ask, how long do you think at the very end,

Leighton Meester, goes to Garrett Hedlin, meets him in the bar? It's implied that, like, you know, they kind of maybe start dating. It's like, they're the true love story. How long do you think Leighton Meester would actually stay in Oxnard, California, or wherever we decided Garrett Headland is, before she's like, you know what, I actually know, I kind of want to be a celebrity again. I feel like this is, they last for maybe three, four weeks on this farm.

So great question. I think some of it depends on how famous she is at the time she goes back. We're also still in the Us Weekly era where Kelly dies and she's probably in the cover of Us Weekly for the next four out of six weeks. And then it moves to Child's questions about her. she becomes famous. She probably changes her hair. She's kind of unraveling a little bit.

Maybe starts hanging out with not one of the Hilton sisters, but like Nicole Richie. Or maybe Chloe Kardashian somewhere in there. She's in that world. And then she starts dating Bo, but probably for the publicity of it more than a genuine thing. Like if we're being honest, that's how the real-life version this plays out, where she's like, this would be good for my career to go. back to my roots with this guy. In 2020, Childs, Stan is like a judge on the voice, you know, and it's just kind of doing that

and it's like a real sign. You know? No question. Worst case scenario, she comes in during a bachelor date. Oh, my God. The one-on-one day to Saranate. And it's like, oh, man, Childs, you're on the bachelor? Oh, I thought this was going to be better for you.

That's really tough. That's absolutely worst-case scenario. Yeah, it's tough. All right. What piece of memorabilia would you want? want from this movie. Liz? This is your favorite movie. Her diamond necklace, her enormous wedding ring that she wears. I would take all of her jewelry. I wouldn't take the coat. Coat's kind of grimy. Don't love that. And her outfits are not like amazing. So I would take her jewelry. What do you got,

Amanda? Tour bus seems nice. I could use it in 2020, you know? The tour bus. That's a great one. I'm going to go with that too. Tour bus. You probably have to clean it pretty extensive. Yeah. I hope so. It's also got bad juju in there. It's got JJ in there. You don't want it. You got to clean out, JJ.

Who won the movie? I think we all know what my answer is going to be. Which is what? Which is Gwyneth. Yeah. I mean, I think if you can win this movie, I think that she's pretty good. But I'm a Gwyneth partisan. So to answer this question, Bill, you also mean that, like, who received the most, like, praise after the fact, right?

And got, like, the recognition from the movie? No. No, it's just like, who? He's overcomplicated. Who won the movie? Oh, yeah, Gwyneth. But she also got a lot of, I feel like, the only one who got praise from it. I'm going to make the case for Gareth.

Okay. We know Gwyneth's a good actress. We know she's one of the best actresses of the last 25 years. In this movie, if you're talking about the Gwyneth catalog, would not be one of the first eight to ten mentioned, even though she's really good in it. The Garrett Hadlin thing, and in this movie came out 10 years ago, I should have mentioned that earlier.

One of the reasons we're doing this. It's a 10-year anniversary of this. When I go through the rewatchable as I try to tie it to the anniversary. I was like, oh, 10-year anniversary, country strong, Liz, we're doing it. And Liz is like, you're kidding. You're not, we're not really going to do it.

You're not going to, and then we end up doing it. It's hard to watch this movie and not wonder why he wasn't a bigger star. And that's why I feel like he won the movie. The big takeaway, anytime my wife has the song, I'm like, I think Garrett Headland's really good in this movie. Like, when is he, when is somebody going to cook for him? his big chance. So I would vote for him, but I got outvoted because you both said Gwyneth.

Yeah. I mean, it's just a reminder that she, it's also kind of her last major role, right? I mean, she does other credits and she's an Iron Man and some other forgettable movies, but this is like the last Gwyneth. So it's a reminder. Look what I can do. Yeah, she has the gleece stuff. She's in one other movie two years later that I think it's pretty good. It's an addiction movie with Mark Ruffalo. And she play, Mark Ruffalo is a sex addict. It's like a, it's a hardcore indie movie. Mark Ruffalo is a sex addict who's trying to break out of it. And he falls for Gwyneth.

And she's not even like, it's not like she's in every scene or anything, but she's really good in it. And then basically she just stops acting. I mean, she had kids. Kids get older. You probably, you know, start picking parts basically on, I don't want to be on a set for four months, stuff like that. And it seems like she was doing ease of career kind of choices versus like, you know,

body of work type of stuff. Plus she was doing goop. Do you think she's coming back now that she's in the politician? Brad Fowlchuk is, like, creating tons of stuff. I feel like she could kind of just insert herself in every other one of his projects and be fine. Do you think she'll be in more acting? I would personally like it. Her kids are older now.

One of her kids is at Zoe's school. She's a year older. But I want to see her in a movie like, you won't know this movie probably, but is the contender with Joan Allen, like one of those type of movies. Like that movie came out 20 years ago where it's like this female vice presidential candidate and she has the skeleton in her past. Jeff Bridge is the president. It's really good. It's borderline.

We should probably do this on a podcast some point. It's wacky. It's also of its time in a way that it's like really startling. I rewatched it recently. Oh yeah. Yeah. And Joan Allen's great in it. But I want Quinn to have a movie like that where it's just like this really strong,

nuanced, detailed adult performance for the stage of the life she's in. Because I think she's my age. She's probably like, you know, in the 48 to 50 range at this point. Yeah. I think she is. I wonder whether she will. It's always been my impression that Brad Falkchuk, who is now her husband, she's doing those because she likes her husband and likes working with him and that, you know, can kind of manage the commitment, which I think is great. Good for Gwen to make. May we all get to that point in our careers and our marriages. But it seems like she just

really likes doing Goop and Goop is pretty successful. So I wonder, it would be nice if like she starts picking just like a really one for me role every couple of years in really prestige stuff. I would be thrilled. I don't know whether she will, though. Yeah. Well, Country Strong is available for free on Amazon Prime. So you can watch it and not get mad at us if you paid $4. And you're like, what the fuck was that?

I can't believe the rewatchable costs me $4.00. It's free on Amazon Prime. I'm guessing it does well because if you type in the COU for Country Strong, it immediately pops up. Which I always feel like it's a good sign for a streaming service. But Liz Kelly, we finally did it. Congrats. Thank you.

Pleasure is always. Good to see you. Check them out on tea time and jam session and the big picture. And we're coming back next week with a bigger movie than this one. I promise. We'll see you then. That's it for the rewatchables. Hope you enjoyed it.

We're back next week with another one. Stay safe. See them.