The Rewatchables - ‘High Fidelity’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Rob Mahoney

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

What came first, the music or the misery? The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Rob Mahoney pick up a shift at Championship Vinyl to revisit ‘High Fidelity,’ starring John Cusack, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet, Iben Hjejle, and Todd Louiso. Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, and Chris Thomas A State Farm agent can help you choose the coverage you need. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.® Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. The rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network We can find The Watch with CR

For sure You can find The House of Arr with Joanne Robinson Rob Mahoney Oh hi! I know You did it You're on the Ringer MBA show You're in the Prestige TV

Yes Podcasts, you're on my podcast sometimes And now Now this one I asked you for a list I asked Joanna for a list Like give me 12 movies that we haven't done yet Didn't ask me

It's okay Oh you just sent me back Sycario You're like Sicario Sicario, Sicario I have other ideas. But there was one movie that was on both lists. I mean, the star is completely aligned for high fidelity.

How could it not? CR, you fucking bitch, let's work it out. High fidelity is next. You totally stole that from me. This episode of the rewatchables is presented by State Farm. Whether you're debating watching that award-winning sports drama or re-watching your comfort buddy comedy movie for the 10th time, choices are important.

When it comes to choosing coverage, a State Farm agent can help you find options that are right for you. go online at statefarm.com or use the award-winning app to get help from one of their local agents like a good neighbor. State Farm is there. I have a million places I can start here, but let's start with why both of you pick this. Joanna, you go first. Probably because we had just done the Big Pick movie draft, and it was on my mind. So I think that's why it was on my list.

But also if you work here, like this is a formative movie for people who care about things obsessively. Like what else are we doing here, if not this kind of thing? I saw this movie as a teenager and, of course, you see some of that rob and this rob. You see some of that. There are parts of him that you loathe and there are parts of him that you love.

And so it's like, how could you not pick a story like this? CR, you actually worked in a record store in the late 90s. Yeah, from 95 to 2003, I was a record store clerk. So this movie comes out in 2000. I also with assistant manager as well. I don't want to make it sound like I got to. You had some oversight. My career development was taking off.

Do you have keys? You had keys? You had keys. Not to Kim's. but for Newberry, yeah. So this movie comes out, but you already read the book. I had Nick Hornby.

It's set in London. It's like a twin with fever pitch in that sort of like Peter Pan, English male, trying to hang on to the things that he loved as a child as he becomes an adult. Yeah.

Was he like your favorite author in the 90s? He was one of my first, you know, it was one of my first contemporary authors that became like a favorite author. Like, if there's a new Hornby novel out, you're going to read it.

So excited after, I felt very seen. find those two books. Were you cool that they were making a movie out of the book? Because that was like a traumatizing 90s like, oh, you can't touch that book. You're going to fuck it up. I was upset about Chicago.

I was upset. Really? I was nervous about Chicago, but I was a huge gross point blank fan. So I was excited for John Cusack with music because he had obviously shown an affinity for like populating his movies with really great bands and really great needle drops.

I'm surprised for the two of you because you're two of the biggest anglophiles I know. So moving out of the UK, yes, that's scary. But they make the characters in this obsessed with British music? Yeah. Yeah. So doesn't that speak to you in some way? Sure, but I loved the book, like CR, and I just didn't see it working outside.

And it totally works. Like, it works really well. But I was, I didn't want it. And I was wrong. And I'm surprised, you know, they made a TV show on Hulu, which I actually really, really loved as well. I feel like COVID killed that show. It was right before COVID. It was ridiculous that that got.

I really liked it. Why? But we still haven't had a London-based version of this story, and I would take it eagerly. That is kind of crazy. Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously the version of it that happens on the Hulu show, I think the hardest thing to get over is the idea that there's still like a relatively thriving record store. Sure. There are some.

There are some that are still doing well and the vinyl is probably having like its most popular run in a long time in the last couple of years. That would be the re-entry. But the idea of like a record store. store where like multiple people can work for... Even in 2000. Yeah. A thousand definitely. Even in 2000, I was like, that apartment.

Rob's like, look at my shitty apartment. I'm like, that apartment? I've been sick. Yeah, that's great. I have a complicated relationship with this movie because I was probably the exact same age as the guy in the book when it came out. I was obsessive with weird shit like him. My life wasn't going the way I totally wanted to go at that point.

And I also loved the book. So it was one of those where I went into it. ready to not like it that much, but it's kind of worn me down over the years. Can I ask you, do you feel like when you read this book, had you started writing yet? Oh, yeah.

Was it influential? No, because I always thought his style was just so different than mine. But, see, I don't feel like he invented anything with that. It was a lot of how we conversed in the 90s. Because we didn't have the internet yet, and it was a lot of, like,

you would have these long arguments about shit for like two, three hours. Yeah. And you would argue you would do like list of things or favorite whatever. Like this is all the stuff that like became Bleacher Report. We were just doing in somebody's apartment at 1.30 at night. Constantly generating listicles. Yeah.

I'm kind of surprised you like this movie because I consider you the patrons saying of the top sevens. Right. That's true. What are you even doing with the top five? You have to make a little different. Top 11 QZAC straight to video movies in the 21st century. Well, here's what I realized is I was thinking about it. Like, I do think it's the last Gen X movie.

I think Gen X kind of dies with this movie in a lot of ways. But then I was trying to think of, this is why I called Closternernerner today. Because I was like, this is my list of like the essential Gen X, if you're doing a thread from where I'm going to start to high fidelity. And it's interesting because QSack bookends it. Because his theory was that say anything is the first Gen X movie, which I actually agree with. Because he's like, Lloyd Dobler, all the things he stands for is Gen X. Yes. And he's different than John.

anything. He has that whole speech. He's like, I don't know where my path is. That was basically Gen X. Pump up the volume, I think, is a Gen X movie. Slacker is the one that I'm not sure about. I have that as an asteros. Why wouldn't it be?

Because it's, like Chuck was saying, it's a little bit more like it almost, it's set in Austin in the 80s, but it is Gen. It's like, it's on the cubs. Anyway, singles, reality bites, before sunset, kicking and screaming, chasing Amy and high fidelity. I think are the ones that have to be in there and then Slacker, I'm not sure about. I wouldn't put clerks in there because...

Chasing Amy is definitely the Kevin Smith that you would put on that list. I think so, because otherwise it's five years between kicking and screaming high fidelity and I need like something. Oh, you need like... Just to like... Take it. But I think the thing that all those movies

have in common except Slacker, you have this male protagonist, doesn't know where his life's going. There's either somebody that he used to be in love with and he screwed it up or he was in love with her but wasn't sure she was quite good enough for him

or she dumped him and they're just kind of navigating it and you're not even positive you like them. This is probably the least likable character of all the leads. And it's about the woman and it's always told through the eyes of the male

there's no female Gen X movie really. But I can remember from the 90s. Was there CR? Off the top of my head, it's hard to think of one. But there was... It's always the dude. A lot of the movies you described are guys talking in room movies

and a lot guys talking in rooms at women Like trying to prove even Ethan Hawken before Suner Rise and Sunset I would argue that Winona Ryder is the protagonist of reality. Oh, that's fair. That's a good one. Yeah, and I think you could say in singles like Bridget Fonda's a co-protagonist. Would you put Heather's in this group? Or is that like... I wouldn't, but it's close.

I think Heather doesn't say anything to me are a different kind of high school movie than the ones that I had gotten previous to that. So they're different than John Hughes. But what is Heather's teaching us about Gen X? I guess is the question. So when you were younger than Gen X, CR was right at the tail end and I was like head first

in the middle of it. So when you both look at Gen X, what do you see? I'm a cusper. I like to claim GenX in my can. Yeah. I mean, obviously the jadedness, I think, is part of it. And clearly, just like the such a strong pushback against any kind of like sellout culture

or enfranchisement in any way. Like, there's such a an independent spirit. And with that, I think, just comes like a cold, hard, honestly, bitter shell to a lot of these movies and stories. And you can see that with Rob through and through, right? Like, he is closing himself off from the world in this book and this movie. And just, like, you know, fiddling through his record collection as a way to keep warm at night.

But I think that's kind of what sticks out to me the most about these Gen X stories. It's funny that you went through these, like, Gen X, signpost, because I was thinking about this. I think that this is a great retail movie. Yeah. Like a hang at the store movie. Yeah. And you've got clerks 94, Empire Records 95.

You've got mail, which I was a bookstore clerk, so that's what I would count 98. I think that counts. You know, and then you've got this 2000. It was like a nice little run for like... And even throw mall rats in there sort of, kind of, at least the... Yes, headint-toe mall and shopping. But yeah, yeah, exactly. So, like, hanging out on your retail job is, you know, I think this is all comes from clerks.

But that's my favorite part of this movie. Like, Rob and Laura is interesting to me, but... the guys in the store. Well, in that Slacker kind of, the bookstore and Slacker kind of works for this as well as a retail hangout place. One other thing with Jen X that this movie hits perfectly is you're kind of stuck with the people you were stuck with wherever you lived. And they weren't exactly, it's like you're not on the OKC Thunder this year.

You're not winning 75 games. You're kind of on a playing team. But you have all this content you want to talk about. And it's like, well, these are the people I guess I have to talk to about this. These two guys showed up to work. Don't stop. Name names. Yeah.

But he's with these two guys that I'm not even sure he really likes, and they're not that likable. Yeah. But they're all just kind of together every day doing top five. And he's just like almost like a stand-up doing a bit. Yeah. But that's the joy of the retail job, especially like based around like I would say music or books or something like that where it's just sort of like you have this base thing in common where you love books or you love music or you love people.

I worked at a movie theater. You love movies. Yeah. And so even if you like different genres, there is this. sort of you wind up becoming friends with a weird group of people where you have this core thing in common, but otherwise your paths would never cross. So you're saying what you like is more important than what you are like. I actually agree with that. Yeah, it's at least kind of true. And I found myself sick to my stomach when I was like, I know we're not supposed to agree with

this. God damn it wrong. It's like the Dark Finn Stock Award is like it does matter. I agree with Joe. I mean, like I remember the names of almost everybody I worked with at a record store, but like forget names of people that I met last year. You know, like, and there is also like, it's a very important time in your life when you're kind of in college, coming out of college, or if you're just like entering the workforce, the retail jobs that I had and the record store jobs specifically that I had, I was like, you know what, if nothing ever else happens to me, I'd be good. Like, I kind of would still work at a record store if I could.

I get nostalgic for it. I'm like, can I do that on the weekends? And I go into the bookstore and the week. intellectually stimulating while being physically mechanical. So, like, you just don't have to do that much. You just bullshit with people all day about stuff you're interested in. And then, like, the

things that you're, quote, unquote, responsible for are, like, alphabetizing and moving things. That actually does sound very soon. A lot of shelving. A lot of shelving. And then you close the store door at the end of the day, and then you're done with work. Yes. And lots of cigarette breaks. Yeah, I remember my buddy Gus from high school,

we used to play this game called the Name Game. where you said Joanna Robinson and then I had to say the next name I had to have Joanna or Robinson in it and we would just keep going

until you could try to stump the next person so we did a Robinson Canoe and then Frank Robinson we did it we'd be driving somewhere for three hours a trip game

just we didn't have podcast to listen to know it's like let's play the name game and you'd eventually get to some crazy name like Tray Gin Langdon and it's like fuck I have nowhere to go

I don't know another trade but that's the kind of shit you did in the 90s you're just killing time with content and you never you know you'd hear somebody's theory or take on some movie or a music album or something like

that's fucking amazing. Oh yeah well there was also that you find out on the internet anywhere. There was no comment section so people would be like I'm going down in flames with this take. Yeah. And I'm right. The only comment section is the bar. So I don't have to like worry about this following me around for years if I want to say

like this band is better than pavement or this band is a this is a better movie than Apocalypse Now or whatever. Yeah, yeah. You could just have one glorious night, and they'd be like, oh, I had four beers. That's why I thought that. But, like, now, if you're, like,

high fidelity is better than Nashville today, people will frigging, like, at you for a while. And, like, it'll be like, well, that was miserable. Yeah, drunk takes were huge back in the day. I think drunk takes still exist. They're just, you know, experience and documented. They have consequences. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I love your point about the people you're stuck with, though. Like, that is one thing that this movie gets really right is the bear. is the Barry and Dick and Rob Trio is like they spend more time together than anybody else in their lives. But like Rob is just like they just started appearing here. Right. He was supposed to be three days a week. He says that, but it goes out every night with them. Of course. You know, these are his guys. You go out every night with your co-workers from the rest from the store. Because that would be the people who are getting

off work at 930 or 10. And you'd be like, okay, let's go see a band. Let's go to the bar. But then Dick moves to like, I don't know, Austin with Anna and would never talk to these guys ever. Oh my God. Never again. Never again. Never connect ever. I moved a lot in my, I worked in bookstore all through my 20s, and I moved a lot

my 20s. And every time I went to a new town, I worked in a new bookstore, and then you just have built-in community. And it was so easy to move to a new town when you have that sort of like retail fam. Or were you like the Patrick Swayze of Roadhouse of bookstores? The cooler. The cooler of the cool stores, yeah. Hey, Joe Robinson's in town.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't pin me down, man. Who was there, Sam Elliott? The Gen X blueprint, I wrote down. I might have missed a couple of things. Turning pop culture into therapy. Yeah.

Reading way, way, way too much into music or movies. Caring way too much about a relationship because you didn't have enough else to care about. That was 100% true. We're just missing, like, three things. Hanging out with people, you didn't really like that much.

We talked about that. Being tortured that you're not doing what you thought you'd be doing, I think probably is still the case now. But in Gen X was like a badge of honor that I don't want to do this. I don't know how I got into this. Almost like proud, but not willing to change it. But it was almost like there's something virtuous about working like retail or something like that.

Where you're just like, I'm not making a ton of money. I'm doing this for the passion. XYZ. I feel like millennials when they complain about not being where they want to be, it's like because the economy screwed me. Right. And with Gen X, it's like because I have principles. Because I don't want to sell out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wouldn't it be nice to have principles, you know? But think about Rob. He was a good DJ. He probably made money from it. Like, he was getting complimented. And he was the happiest he'd ever been when he did it. Yeah. But now he's like in this record store that nobody goes to.

And that's just what he decided. But that was also like a very, I don't know if this happened with you in the bookstore, but like the moment you get any recognition from within the sort of business side of working in a store, you're like, whoa, wait a second. This is my life plan. Yeah, I was also a manager And I'm like, I don't want keys You should think about doing this for a living.

I'm like, whoa. Two more blueprint things. Settling with someone solid when you're not sure if you can do better, which was big, even in like beautiful girls who's dating. Oh, especially beautiful girls. They're doing the ratings.

And it's like, what is she's solid seven and a half. And they're like, seven and a half. And they're like, yep, solid seven and a half. And he can't decide if that's good enough. That was a big Gen X culture thing. And then you're the same person you used to be, and I'm not, which Laura says to him. Yes. Was a classic Gen X thing of somebody's like, I'm 32 and I'm doing the exact same things I was doing when I was 27.

What happened? Five years just went by. And this is like, if you were going to continue the sort of jumping the lily pads from this movie onwards, the man trapped in a boy's mind thing is essentially the template for like the early Apatow movie. You know, like for knocked up and like, I just want to hang out with my friends and just fucking play D&D and watch and watch movies. And it's like, yeah, but grow up, right?

Like you're almost 30 kind of. When you, to go back to the settling for someone, in this movie and High Fidelity, who's settling do you think? Well, I think it's Laura. It's both. I think it's both sides on that one. Honestly, when she says like,

I'm too tired not to be with you, there's something kind of romantic about that. I don't know, there's something about the comforts of finding your 7.5 out of 10 person. This is the big weird curveball that this movie throws is that there is not a gesture in this movie, the way there is in singles where he's like, I want to be Mr. New to you. You know, like, there is none of that here. It's basically like have sex with me after my dad's funeral and then I guess we're back together. I guess the gesture is I didn't, or I made the tape for the reporter, but it didn't mean anything to me.

I told you about it. I just closed it. Even though I proposed, even though I was pretty sure you wouldn't say yes. Wasn't the gesture, have sex with me, or I'm going to go home and put my hand in a fire? Or you can put some cigarettes out on me. Those are my three options. Sex it is. This is not a romantic movie in the traditional way.

Yeah, no boomboxes in the rain. Just pay phones and piles of quarters. Yeah, I was going to do this and answer most later, but these two do not actually get married. No chance. Yeah, this is a wrap. Craig, can you give us your Gen X thoughts? About the generation? When you see Gen X represented in movies and TV, what do you see?

Well, I don't want to spoil my... That factors into my entire opinion of the film. Okay. I intentionally didn't learn how to pronounce Laura's real-life game because I knew I had Joanna here, and nobody pronounces names of actresses and actors better than Joanna. Great. Picture me last night in my hotel room,

wandering around just muttering this over and over and over again to see if I can... I came up with Ibn Yala. That's what I got. Is that what you got? I heard Yala. I heard something like Yala. Like, it just depends on the...

Even Yala. How much Danish spice you want to put on that last pronunciation? What do you have to see her? Yala, but like that was just one version of the internet's response to how to pronounce this one's thing. Well, for the rest of the powder, we'll be calling her the lady who played Laura. I think Eben is doable. Even, even my word. Well, she said...

This is a Scandinavian podcast. I need to be very careful about this whole situation. I don't want the sweets to come after me. She said, I knew tons of guys like Rob, where it was ages before they understood that relationships and committing kids is a good thing. And it doesn't mean you have to lose yourself or who you are or what you like to do. And then she said, Rob is the sort of character I would fall forward to me. He symbolized the whole generation of what matters is not what you're like, but what you like.

So I thought it was an interesting way to put it. I mean, well, that's the movie. But my question is, is that. now, too. The things you like are what you like. What's the difference between podcasters and these guys in the record store, actually? It's a great question, I don't know.

I mean, we're here because of what we like, right? I'm not happy about it. Then there's the with the Gen Xers, this is a whole different era of hopeless romantic and courting and standing outside somebody in the pouring rain. I don't know if this happens in the same way anymore. Now somebody just called the police or take a cell phone video. Or you just be on hinge being like,

I'm on. I'm on Tinder. My next question, did this book slash movie create the top five list? Like, for real? Because I'm going to say no, but I also can't think of what did. This is a pre-apix mountain for top fives? Maybe, yeah. Like Casey Kaysom?

Yeah. No, that's the countdown. His countdown might have been it. Yeah. When does PTI start? Later, after this. I know they weren't doing top fives, but they were doing that, like, the idea of a countdown and the idea of, like, a sort of menu for the day.

We would do more arguing one thing against another thing. Yeah. Versus list. We weren't doing a lot of lists. We were doing what's the best. Like, you do, like, I don't know, Best Harrison Ford movie, or you do Barry Sanders versus Emmett Smith. Yes. Right.

Perrin's versus Hagler. It was a lot of that. It was a lot of 1V1, not lists. There was, and there was also, like, I think this movie or this book kind of introduced the idea to me, at least. least of, or like I don't remember a time before it, of top five track one, side one, like very specific lists. And then also adding like sub lists into the list or giving excuses for it. I would say that was really influential, at least for me.

Like thinking about like writing columns and being like how far is too far and be like the answer is like especially when I was doing like the first year of the mailbag or something. Like every question's on board. No answer can be detailed enough and fuck it. Let's go for it. See, that book is like, the lists are crazy in the book. Yeah. In a good way.

The only reason I think this is not the outset of the top five's is that Barry in particular has all these like second and third wave opinions about list making. It's like, oh, you can't do the four safe ones and the one modern classic. Or else I'm going to call you a pussy. So it's like, it's been happening somewhat for a while at this point, right? Yeah, there's like, it's been iterating. A couple of, there's a couple of like big bangs. There's like Tarantino in Sleep with me doing the Top Gun speech.

I'm so glad you brought. this up. Is like where I first saw the guy in the bar who's like, I have a fucking take that's going to blow your mind. And it was like to see that on screen and to know that there were satellite dudes like that in every town. Well, this is what the Kevin Smith Uber is too. It's like just an assemblage of those hot takes.

And kicking and screaming too. And what was the top eight, whatever movies when they did? It's like, ding. Yes. Ding, which was before this movie. But anytime I would see that in a movie, I'd be like, oh. The Tarantino thing is the ultimate example. That was so great and so random in that movie.

It was like, it became the most memorable part of the movie. But to see somebody do that in a movie, it was like, that's what me and my friends do. We do weird shit. Like, there's more of us. Like,

it was constantly trying to discover that there was more out there than just this little weird group you had. There was also this very, and it turns out it was everybody. Funny thing. Because I think that this is actually similar to what goes on now

because we have so much access to streaming stuff. But back then, from the 90s to the 2000s, like in 95 especially on, I remember this huge flood of like used stuff. You could basically build up a record collection for like a couple of dollars per LPA. And you could start being like, I listen to Funkadelic and I listen to industrial music and I listen to Public Enemy and I listened to the Beatles. And it wasn't that expensive to have that kind of breadth of taste.

Yeah. Which is why Barry's so interesting because he's got, like, hipster taste in some ways, but he's also, like, I listen to Katrina and the waves. And Rob, obviously, like, the kind of variance of people's tastes was really interesting for those kinds of arguments and those kinds of lists. I thought of a better top 10, top 5 thing. It was Letterman, the top 10 list. Sure. Of course.

That started, like, 85, and that was my show. First, he did it ironically. He was making the stupidest list pop. And then they became one of the staples of the show and became a serious thing. And that's, he's like the Gen X Sherpa. Yes. But I wonder like with Nick Hornby, like, did, did he even know about letterman? I'm sure he knew about letterman.

He must have, right? Rob, can I ask you? Please. Is this Rob the top pop culture Rob? The top Rob. Because I couldn't like, top five Robs? Rob Roy. Rob Lowe is pretty big.

No, but that's like a character name. Fictional Rob. Rops? Fictional Robs. There aren't that many. I was looking. They're fictional robs. I can't honestly can't.

Rob Roy was the only other one I could think of it. What's the name? Rob Stark. Rob Stark. Robb has two Bs. It doesn't count. No, two Bs.

You're in your hotel room being like fictional robs and how to pronounce yours name. Even Yala. I have a normal existence here. Don't worry about it. How do you add the second B with Rob? Did we ever figure that out? Where does the second B come from?

It doesn't make any sense. It's just George Rmartin's way. He likes to add the consonant in the end. Does anyone else do the double Rob? second B. Does who? Like, who else does double Rob? Nobody? Well, there's the Rob report, but that's not Rob. Like, that's the...

Jen with two ends was always at least understandable because it was Jennifer, but it was always suspicious because Jen should have one end. Yeah. So anytime someone added the second end, they were usually on the real world or show like that. Like, oh, Jen with two ends. When you were bartending, it was like, don't give Jen with two ends any extra shots.

Jay and two ends, like, oh, she's here today. The cast of this movie, that includes Cusack, who I can't wait to talk about. Jack Black. Todd Luiso. I never knew his name until the research of this movie. I just knew him as the mani and the guy from this movie, Manny and Dick. I didn't know he had a name in real life. But he also directed Love Liza, which I found out.

Yeah. It's like directed multiple movies. Couldn't believe it. He's so good in this, too. I know Jack Black has all to shine, but like having, the like nebish guy off to the side is like so anxious he can barely contain himself as he's getting the taste of things I need him to talk to him about so I'll talk to him about that but I talked about those other things. You need him to make like Barry work. Yeah.

They have a beautiful thing going. It's a good combo. Catherine Zeta Jones, Lisa Bonnet, Sarah Gilbert. Chris Bowers in this movie? Cut from the movie. Oh. He was cut. I know.

He's on IMDB, but he is cut for me. He's briefly in it. Is he in it? He's one of more. He's one of his friends. So I think his initial scene got cut, and then like a two-second dinner party sequence after they get back together

where he's like bringing a plate to a table or something. Frank Sabaka's here. Frank Sabaka barely made the cut. Lily Taylor, Joan Cusack, Tim Robbins, and one of my all-time favorites, Natasha Gregson-Wagner.

Always dug her. Where to go? A primo-nepo baby. Good guess. Just had some moments. Never sure why I did. They didn't fully come together. And she was married to one of the screenwriters for a while.

Yeah. Yeah. Great job by her. Okay. So we'll talk about Jack Black here. This is a really important Jack Black performance. He steals the movie. This is the Jack Black.

Like, this is, to me. This leads to School of Rock, everything else. Is this the best Jack Black performance? I think so. He's said this is his best performance. School of Rock is carrying more, though. You know, he gets to come in and be heat checking constantly in this. School of Rock, like, he has to be the emotional center of the movie.

and the Jack Black of the movie. Would you rather have this, this like version of Jack Black coming off the bench? Yeah. And just shooting threes, or do you want Jack Black in the Jalen Brown's role right now? I kind of want him in the Jalen Brown role. Really?

I mean, only in a specific kind of movie. I prefer this version of him, six-man Jack Black, but the streets have spoken. And like he is one of the most reliable movie stars. I think he's the number one movie star of Gen Alpha, wouldn't you say? Probably, yeah. Yeah.

Well, especially after this last movie. Yeah. But, like, Minecraft, Mario Brothers, Jimonji, like, all these things that are directed for kids, goosebumps. Like, he's the king of the kid franchise. Yeah. And I think for generations of people, Jack Black is the biggest movie star in the world.

Super Mario Brothers. Like, I guess there really is a straight line, not just to School of Rock, but to, like, Bowser singing ballads. Like, it's a very strange world to live there. I went to a pre-Luca Lakers game last year, and he got a bigger round of applause court side than anybody else, like, on the floor.

And I think, like, Wembe was playing. I mean, he's easily the biggest thing to come out of this movie without question. And then thinking about... Well, I didn't know who he was before I saw this movie. Like, he came out of like a fucking canon. You're like, what...

Tenacious D was already... Tenacious D was already on HBO, but like I... This was like his calling card. Like, this was... Which was show is he at? There was a Tenacious D. show with his band. That's sad. Do you remember him in the Day of the Jackal remake with Bruce Willis and Richard

Gear where he gets his arms blown off? I 100% do. He's also an airborne. A very important name to me. Famously in airborne. You know, if you were ever going to let me pick every watchable, it wouldn't be Sicario. It would be the Jackditchell.

I saw Tenacious D at some point after we moved that hair when it was the right time to see them. And it was like really amazing. He's just such a great stage performing. It captures it. But I still think his best scene's the first scene. It's one of their great character.

And he's doing stuff with his hands. And there's just nobody like that. I also just think there's, like, sold to Barry, like, his ambitions, his disappointment that Rob is willing to back, like, the teenagers instead of him and all of those and stuff like that. Like, I just think, I think, you know, Jack Black has talked about how he was so nervous to make this movie. And so I think he's just a little bit more restrained. And I like off the least Jack Black, but I like just, like, a little bit of restraint. I'm not sure I can go to 11 in every single moment. I like that balance inside of this movie.

How about Zeta Jones? Where does this rank for her? Because for me, it's like... What's that? Way up there! I wish she had done more movies like this. Yeah, just come in and... I wish she had just played more, quote-unquote, normal people.

Yeah. Where, you know, obviously, she just gets cast in a lot of, like, really big blockbusters and pretty, like, comic, not comic book roles, but, like, really out-there roles. And this is just, like, Charlie, this is like a lady that you would know. She's great. And if I can borrow Dobbinsism, it's very important. Like, her...

in a pretenders t-shirt is a very important thing. This was a specific type of woman that I'm sure still exist that I always had my number. Which, like the college version? Catherine Zeta Jones type had your number? The terrible version.

No, just you're annoying, and I don't even want to put the two hours in here, but you look great, and I'm just glad I'm here, but God, you're annoying, but God, you're great. And just that kind of battle. Yeah. And she's not in this movie that much, but she's so good. in the parts

and she's so so like just phony and I just knew people like this but you couldn't stay away from them but I just love that revelation he has because you get the flashback version of her and you're like you believe Rob that she's the most fascinating person

has ever existed and then he meets her now and he's like wow she's the worst she's absolutely the worst person she probably was when he was 22 exactly you know but we're just seeing the like the horny haze

the great thing for me is that some of these people are still on Instagram now and you can they just don't change I would say the core the real life

Charlie's yeah I would say they are the core of Instagram but I mean they're like in their 50s now still making

Charlie they poured the concrete upon which Instagram was up yeah they really did they started it there's a

Lily Taylor cameo always fun when the QSacks are in a movie together yeah and then

how mad do you think Piven is that he's not this movie I had that in unanswerables. Like, I don't... They were their best friends. And it's a Chicago movie. I don't know what happened.

And then my queen, Lisa Bonnet, is in this movie. Incredible casting. Really, really good work. Unreal. Pre-L.A. Law, Susan Day, but black. Yeah. It's a good description. Honestly, it kind of works.

Post-partureeatry. Pre-A-L.A. Law. Shockingly accurate. The way he's... It's really like a... So distracted. I'm just going to move on. Just like off hand, tosses it off.

Yeah. Want to do some Stephen Frears? Sure. I'd love to do some Stephen Frears. He does dangerous liaisons in this movie. You love dangerous liaisons. And one of my... I know.

We've talked about this. One of my favorite things, like, doing research for this, is how many people... Everyone lost their shit about working with Stephen Fares because of dangerous liaisons. Did you see the Grifters, right? Yeah. The Grifters is in between. That's the thing. If you put his best movies on next to each other, it's crazy.

It's, like, just all over the place. Where do you rank... Where do you rank Mary Riley? So I never liked Mary Riley. I didn't like too skinny. You have to say it like that because that's how they said it in all the trailers. No, nobody liked Mary Riley. Jilly Roberts doing a bonkers Irish accent.

What was the other one? The Big Stephen Fares, Little the Grifters. My Beautiful Laundrette. Did he do the hit? Is that him? No. I don't think so. But after this, he just veers really into like sort of Miramax, fuddy-duddy, British.

Yeah, costume drama, period piece. A lot of very British movies. This is like the most American thing you probably have. I always wondered whether I was trying to figure out who Jim Broadbent is supposed to be in Jay Kelly, you know,

the British director. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, it has a little bit of Frears. Who's also originally attached to this or Bogdanovich. Do you think Ferris makes a good sandwich? What do you think?

I bet. Yeah, I bet it does. Liaisons is on the 26th rewatchable slate. It's got to be. Watched it just randomly two weeks ago. Like, I forgot. This movie is amazing. This is like an amazing movie.

Anyway, this movie is based on the Nick Hornby book. Obviously, they gave him 500K. Wow. I thought of change back then. Yeah. He is a fan of the movie. It was developed for three years with somebody named Mike Newell, who's the director, and beautiful girl, Scott Rosenberg.

Yeah. Who was the guy who was dating Bridget Moynihan or maybe even married to her before Tom Brady started dating. to him. It was a Boston guy. It was always like the all-time conundrum. You're like a giant Pats fan. But you lose your girl to Tom Brady, your quarterback. It's the great rom-com nobody ever made.

Yet. QSack got a hold of it and they moved it from London to Chicago. I can't wait to talk about some of the QSAC oral history performances. Just wait. On the edge of our seats.

Just wait. But he said, when I read the book, I knew where everything was in Chicago. I knew where American Rob went to school and dropped out where he used to spin records. I knew that he does the whole thing. He knew. He just felt like it could all switch over and be a transition. He was right. To me, this movie actually is like one of the rare examples of a hipster movie or like kind of cool movie that actually got in under the wire before all the stuff it was talking about was sort of over.

which is sort of the criticism people love at singles, which is like it feels like they're like a year behind everything. This was like actually a great time in Chicago music. All these venues were like iconic. Like all my friends who would tour to Chicago be like, do you think we love lounge acts or whatever? And the bars will get to all the locations. But it's a great Chicago movie.

$30 million budget made $47 million. It's fine. Roger Ebert, four stars. Raj? Raj came in hot. He loved this movie. What a shock that Raj liked this movie. He said, watching High Fidelity, I had the feeling I could walk out of the theater and meet the same people in the street and want to, which is an even higher compliment.

Raj was in. The number of people, probably Roger Ebert included, who read this book or watched this movie and said, I am Rob, is really fascinating to me. Probably disturbing as well. Yeah, totally. But like, the number of guys who are like, that is me. That is exactly me. And I was like, that guy's an asshole. Like an asshole and an arc, but an asshole.

You're missing the other piece of that. I'm not missing. What am I missing? That is the arc. That is the movie. There was that group. But there was the other group who was like, I'm not Rob. Why do you think I'm Rob?

Right. Yes. And the people who are defensive that they weren't Rob, even though they probably were Rob. Were more Rob than the other guys. By the way, that's Chuck Close to me. Because he literally said, like, people come up to him be like, you must love high fidelity. You're just like Rob. It's like, I'm not Rob.

Yeah, just about the meanest thing you could say to somebody. Especially Chuck. Chuck doesn't want to be pigeonholed by a movie character. But yeah, so those were the two groups. Sure. I remember I left singles. And then the women saying I've dated Rob. Yes.

I left singles. Yes, I dated him and I'll do it again. I left singles at the Chestnut Hill Mall and was with a female friend of mine and we left and she thought I was like, eh. Okay. I thought, she thought I was like,

Campbell Scott, character and it really threw me off for the rest of the night. Because you thought you were the Matt Dillon character? I was like, I'm not any of those characters. What are you talking about? She's like, no, you're just like that guy. And I'm like, what? And there's nothing worse than being compared to a movie character when you're not, when you don't feel like you're the movie character. Sure. You know what I mean?

But if I wanted to be anyone in that movie, it might be Campbell Scott in singles. If you had to pick. If I had to pick. Yeah. I've just ruined transportation in Seattle and I just ordering Chinese food every night. Remodably improved transportation in Seattle. might think I spent a year out. It was a huge failure. It was like a connection with Xavier McDaniel.

What are your thoughts on garage door openers? A lot of them. We're going to take a break. Then we're going to do most rewatchable scene. This episode is brought to you by Apple and AT&T. Scroll long enough and you'll hear it all. Miracle diets, fitness trends, you name it. But with iPhone and Apple Watch, you get meaningful insights from a very trusted source.

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The beginning. What came first? The music or the misery? What came first, CR? The music. I think the misery came first. You think that there's something inside of a person. Because then there was music about the misery,

which then it became a cycle. But when you're young and you're like, I don't know what I am yet, Maybe you have lots of different feelings, but you can't put words to them yet. And then you see, like, oh, look at this. Really, like, my friend's older sister who likes the Smiths. What's up with that? Like, that's dark.

I get it. That's me, you know? Like, there's a certain kind of, like, you're basically, like, molding your personality to the things that you like. Yes. I think there's nothing stronger. When people talk about music, there's nothing stronger than the song you listened to when you broke up with the breakup song.

And what that, what is the song that got you through this breakup? or what is the song that always reminds you of that breakup? And so that's like the epitome of misery and music together. But the misery came first before the music. But you mold the music to the misery. I'm just thinking about, for a lot of people break up song. He's thinking day one, Adam and Eve, music was second. People were not like Morrissey, let's go.

You know, this is not the vibe. That would have been amazing. But maybe with their various instruments, they create a percussion version. Initially, misery was first. But then I think as we. evolved as human beings, probably the music puts a face on the misery. Sure. Yeah. Well, so much of our modern lives is how do we simulate danger? Like, we watch sports to get the adrenaline rush, but it's not actually dangerous.

And it's like we tap into sad music to feel something immense. It's not actually like harmful to us in a way. It's like they're just feelings. They're just emotions, but it taps you into something different. I don't know. I remember, it's funny because they play this song in the movie, The River, the acoustic version of the river by Bruce Springsteen. One of the great concert album moments of all time when he tells the five minute story. And I remember driving to Boston to go

to a Celtic game, listen to, they put out that concert album. Yeah, the first time I heard this story, and he's like, when I was growing up, there are two things my dad hated, me and my guitar, and he does this whole Bruce Springsteen thing. And he was just driving like, and then you would hear

things like that, and they would really resonate in this, you mean, Bruce Springsteen? was going through stuff in high school. Wasn't just me? Why do you think they called Jeremy Ellen White and not you for the Springsteen? You think I could have done it, Joanna? I think you could have gotten that gold medal nomination as well.

Yeah. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable or was I miserable because I listened to pop music was the other part of this? I would say that's probably 50-50. I like when he says if you really wanted to mess me up, you should have gotten to me earlier. He's a great line.

normal thing to say to somebody. That's, we know right away we're dealing with somebody who's messed up. All right. More rewatchable scenes. Jack Black's first thing we mentioned. Charlie, you fucking bitch, let's work it out. Just that little piece. When he's going to see Marie play.

Yes. This is so funny when he does the John Dojure was shot dead. You know who tipped them off his fucking girlfriend? And he just walks in. We could see Lisa Bonnet. Next one, Laura tells the sister of the Four Reasons. broke up. Oh my God. JunkuSect didn't really enjoy

that much. She may have told her two, but perhaps all of the following pieces of information. If your list is four or five, it's bad. Well, because he does the, like, I slept with somebody else while she was pregnant, and he's like, that's one. I was like,

that's one. Two. Where do we go from there? Rob plays the beta band in the store for everybody, and that gets robbed. I like this whole thing about playing the beta band and looking to who reacted. It's a real thing. Classic record store move.

Yeah. Yeah. selling. Charlie calls Rob back, but then Ian shows up, and then we get the four versions of how he handles Ian. It's great.

Laura reading the top five jobs. Did you have some notes on that? The top five jobs? I honestly felt very seen by that list. Rolling Stone, 76 to 79. Producer, Atlantic Record, 64, 71, singer, director, and architect.

The top five. It seemed like a real invasion of privacy, I got to say. Like that's his list. Who's in a drawer somewhere? Why did she even find it? I think all that's off with Laura and Rob at that point. In terms of invasion of privacy. I mean, I get it.

Rob and Laura get back together, but he knows some things missing. And then my pick, which would be DJ Rob doing the concert, introing Sonic Death Monkey, who coming off that album with the two kids, their song, I sold Mom's Wheelchair. Kinky Wizard, too. Yeah. then let's get it on and the Jack Black

and then we get the ending. The last eight minutes of this movie is fantastic. That would be my pick. What's yours, Joanna? I mean, I think you hit most of mine, but I will say that I want to expand on the beta band

and say it's just that whole entire hand-selling sequence, right? Like Jack Black is hand-selling you know, the Jesus in the Mary chain and Dick is hand-selling stiff little fingers, you know, and we're just like... Just Joe casually dropping

hand-selling right here is just unbelievable. That's what they're doing, hand-selling. If you work in a bookstore, music store, you're just sort of like, and I like the different styles, right? Like, Rob just plays it passively, and he knows he's going to hook people, right? Jack Black is emotionally manipulating

this guy into buying O'Sack. And then Dick is making, like, a very personal, like, connection with somebody. Yeah, you make it so craving for him. He's making a genuine effort with Anna, you know? Right, but he's catching some other strays while he does it, right? Is this the new green day?

So I think that, that, because I think this is such a good retail movie. I think the whole busy Saturday hand-selling vibe. Do you have a favorite hand-selling story? Favorite

favorite? Yeah, because, well, you can stack anything on staff favorites and it'll fly out the door. Yeah. You can put something at point of sale.

It'll fly out the door. You know. Yeah. CR. I might have been more in it than you, but the bootleg CD culture in the 90s. Sure.

The live stuff, yeah. There was a store, actually in Kenmore Square, there was a store that had a whole bunch of great ones. But they would do the move of, it would be behind the counter. It's the only one I have with the high price. I can't sell it. Jack Black does with the cap. And you would go back. It really worked.

You would go back and be like, it's still there. You're going to sell that yet? I don't know. And then eventually the fifth time they would sell it to you for $20. My favorite. Yeah, what's your favorite? I was recreationally high on Adderall. and a mom came into Newberry and was like,

my kid really likes corn. Do you have any recommendations? And I was like, your kid doesn't like corn. And I like walked her through like the entire store. You pulled the, I just called to say I love you. And I was like,

you got to get him for gauze. You got to get him this. And I was just like, I just changed that kid's life. And my mom's like, but in retrospect, I was so high. She was probably like,

I'm going to call the cops. I had a woman come in. She was returning like hunger games or something like that. And she was like, this is too violent. And for my kid, I'm bringing my kid up religiously. I don't like this. So I sold her, his Dark Materials trilogy,

where basically, like, they kill God. Yeah. I was like, but she won't know that. So that's my favorite hand-selling story. She didn't return. So I did the wine version of that when people order Pinot Grisio. And I was like, you don't want Pinot Grisio. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It sucks. Get a shardine. Please try the Chardonn. And if you don't like it, I'll get you the Pinot Grisio. Yeah. Your favorite? I think it's when they go see Marie de Salle play. I mean, it's got the Dillinger trivia.

It's got the Peter fucking Frampton, which is the only way I refer to him by his full God-given name now. It's got day-during about liner notes. It's got everybody swooning, and it's got Lisa Bonnet in it. The whole movie kind of stops for a second, and everyone is just kind of marinating in it together.

It's a great call. He's making me rethink by choice. I know. What do you have, CIO? I'm tied between Jack Black entrance scene, which culminates with Cosby's sweater. Yeah. and the side one, track one, listmaking

with the Captain Beefheart vinyl problem and that whole sequence, because that is Jack Black being like, oh, new classic, casually slipped into the end of the top five so that you don't look so boring, interesting. And I just like, that is, you would just have that fight about the nature of your own listmaking at that time,

and it was just so perfect. Do you remember before we started Grant Land, we went to New York because I still had met a couple of people and we all hung out at this bar and it was like me and you and Katie Bakes and Closterman maybe like two other people. Yeah, sure. And all we did for four hours was shit like this where we're just arguing about all these different. I was like, this is a job interview?

Like what is that. No, this is what Bill's actually like. It wasn't a job interview. Yeah, but it was like, this is what we did. It was like it was kind of the vibe that I think was going to, we thought might be the website. But it was like, oh, all these people. kind of get it. But that came out of like this weird era.

I do have to say the Tim Robbins fantasy sequence, the get your petulis stink out of my store. As someone who worked at Bay Area Bookstores for a decade is my most thought about petulie. That's my most quotable line from this movie. Get your patch a stink out of the store. How many people did you bash over the head with an

air conditioner in my mind? That was good job I have no way it held it up. What's the most 2000 thing about this movie? I have a few things, but we'll go around. What do you got to see? It's really weird. But I noticed it this time is that when Laura first comes back to pack up her shit, that's when she gets her laptop. And it reminded me of like, yeah, I leave my computer at work.

You know? Like when I leave work, I don't, I'm not checking my email. I'm not like checking the internet. Oh, right. And it was just sort of like, if that was now, the laptop would be in her bag first. You know what I mean? She'd be like, I'm taking my computer. I'm taking my phone and all this stuff.

So that was, that jumped out at me. What do you have, Rob? That's a hard look in the mirror. I mean, bands, rock music. I think all that stuff is right there. But also calling the operator to get somebody's home address. Oh, yeah. Absolutely not.

Directory assistance. Definitely not. What do you have? Rob's sunglasses, which I believe are Oakley's, and they're just like right on the edge of 90s and into like 2000 style. They're just like right on the cusp. That's good. I have the last days of mixtapes.

Yeah. describing someone as Cheryl Crowish combined with Partridge family pre-OA last Tuesday day but black. I don't know if that would fly now. Like Craig wouldn't understand any of that. Being tortured by answer machine messages,

is the tail end of that era too? Smoking indoors? Well, I was going to say... Smoking indoors is always in here. I was going to ask if any Chicago listeners could just hit us up and let us know, could you still smoke at your workplace in 2000? Because I don't think so.

If you owned the store? That is the twist. That was kind of right on the edge. But if you walked into Championship Vinyl and you were just like, these guys have been smoking darts in here with like no windows open. But don't you know that Championship Vinyl

reeks a cigarette smoke and it doesn't matter when they stopped? It's a guy. The single person I've ever worked with at a record store were like inveterate chain smokers. But we did it outside. Sure, sure. Two more.

Being afraid you'll end up someday working in a virgin megastore. Very 2000s. And then a guy in his late 20s, early 30s, name Dick. Sure. That guy doesn't exist anymore.

He's named Scout now. Craig, do you know any dicks? Not a single dick. Bring back. Dick, I guess. Bring back dick? That's what we're going with? That's what I'm going with.

We're going to cut that out for social. Rob Mahoney. Quick question. Have you ever made a mixtape? Mix CD, yes. But not a mixed tape. I mean, this will shock no one. After seeing this movie in high school, I'm like,

well, I got to follow Rob Gordon's advice for you got to start with the bang or you got to lead it up. then you've got to bring it back down because you don't want to blow your wad. It was like, there is a philosophy to it. I was very bad at it, but no mixtapes, only mixed CDs.

There's just nothing like messing up a mixtape and being like, shit, I got to start all over again. It's so mad. I actually found my... I found an actual mixtape I made in 1993 that I made it as a Spotify playlist. And here was the order. Feed the tree by belly.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sure. Canaloupe flip Fantasia. Fuck would. Dre Day. Let me ride. Geppetto into your arms. Mr. Jones. Time Capsule by Matthews Sweet.

Cannonball. Make you sweat by Keith Sweat. I don't know why he's on this. This is so good. Ordinary World by Duran Duran. Remedy by the Black Crows. Let me go by cake. Anna begins. Mm-mm-mm-mm by the crash test dummies. Loser. Get off this. Amazing by Aerosmith. Uncertain Smile by the The Human Behavior by Burek.

And it ends with Indigo Eye. And I have no idea. I must have been hammered. 93 Bill, just vibed out. 93 Bill, I think just trying to prove he had a lot of layers. I don't know who he was trying to prove it to. I can't help for me if it's the counting crows into Matthew Sweet or cake into the counting crows.

Like, what is the most quintessentially bill? Yeah, that's all of Rosetta Stone. That we would have been friends when I was 24 is what you learned. He would be like, you don't want pito greasy. Just try this shirt a day. What's age the best? Mix tapes. Had they?

Because of playlist? I think the mixtape is better than the playlist, and I'm going to make the case. I can do it now. It takes so much longer. Yeah, I get it. Playlist, easier. Yeah.

Pop them in. Digital. I get all of it. But there's something about the mixtape. No, I was agree with you. And not knowing. The blood, sweat, and tears you put into the tape. Yeah.

Well, but also not knowing where the mixtape's going to go is the art of the mixtape. And somebody's listening to the first time, and they don't know the order of why you put... You didn't write out the tracks on the little, like, thing. You did, but you tell them, don't look at the things. Just listen to it and take a ride on it.

Would you do on the cover of the mix? No, I just would write the songs. What did you do? Sometimes I would make like zine style like cover art. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Oh.

Yeah. I think you just piloted. God damn. C.R. But how was this not a Spotify feature where you can hide the track list? And so you could be surprised in that way. You can make your own art. On Spotify, but you can't hide the track list.

It's tough. That's the next frontier. We got to mixtape this shit. So it's almost like the vanished text that Apple has for a playlist. You got to hover over it if you want to see it. You should request an emergency meeting with the top two guys at Spotify. Gustav. Have you seen high fidelity?

This great idea. We're going to revolutionize playlist and it's mixtapes. I have a shitload of what stage the best. So give me yours. So I didn't know whether to do this here or Apex Mountain, but this is, the best breaking of the fourth wall in cinema history. It's really great. And with the exception, maybe Ferris Bueller

Alfie. Sustained? Okay, yeah. I mean, Alfie's up there. I would say this is my favorite. What else is on the list? Singles did it. Yeah. Singles did it. There's a lot of fourth wall breaking momentarily, like in space balls or something like that. But

to have it be, I am just addressing the camera. As your narrative. On the L. on the, yeah. Ironically, it was Closterman's biggest nitpick with the movie. Really? He doesn't like the staring in the camera. I love it because they're using like swaths of the book in that. He's just like reciting the book.

But also one of my favorite parts of the movie is when Laura comes back and she hears the fourth wall break. A very fleabag moment, you know? And when he wakes up the morning after Marie, he's like whispering it so he doesn't wait for it. It's like all that stuff I think works texturally so well. The time when Joan Cusack calls him and is like,

I don't know how I feel about this Ian guy. And then Marie comes in and he goes out of his office for a minute and talks to Lisa Bonnet and then comes back and he goes what fucking that was just like in the back and percolating his brain a whole scene.

Could you have done this movie blind? I'm finding that I don't need to look at my much. Yeah. What else did you for what stage is the best? There's a very, very cool Cusack moment which is like I'll give him some honor a dab for smoking here.

But the beat that he takes between taking a drag on a cigarette and revealing the four pieces of information that Laura might have told Liz is like, it's everything you need to know about Rob where he like takes this drag and he's like, okay. And he's like, you're an asshole,

but not without your charms. And also probably probably getting laid off the back of a parent dying because we call this the Jesse from Reality Bites. That was a move back then. Classic. Classic move. What do you got, Rob? Marvin Gaze, let's get it on.

I mean, only gets better with age, to be honest with you. I think one of the Alzheimer's. Final relative to 2000, to your point, Chris. Like, it is boomed way beyond my wildest expectations to the point where I never thought I would own a single record. It seemed inconceivable. Yeah. When I was 15, I would ever buy one.

And now, you know, you got your tidy little collection of your favorites. And it's like a nice analog way to experience. What do you have, Joanna? 30-something white dudes talking about records and books and movies. What are you talking about? Yeah. Welcome to the ringer. I have a dickheads working in a record store

who don't actually care about customers or selling records is a fucking staple. This is what it's the best? Well, because that was, that's the way it was and the way it probably still is. This is like a perfect balance that we had in this country. I still think we have it.

Somehow these places could stay in business. Yeah. I don't want to name the store, but I was in a store with Ben and they were just not interested in selling us anything because they were deep in a conversation beyond the counter. And it was, this has been a thing that's going on for 30 plus years of like, can you

hold on a second? I'm in the middle of this meaningless conversation with somebody I work with. Or were you like, I'm going to get on fucking yelp and kill these guys? No, I think it's just the culture. The people that are in the store aren't in the store to make money for the store. They're in the store because it's a cool job and they get to hang with their whatever. And it's like,

oh, that's a hell yeah, comrade bill. Like power to the people, power to the working man. You don't make enough money to care. You also don't make enough money to run down shoplifters. Rob does, but the fact that Barry goes, I'm like, you don't make enough money to do that. The concept of a grown-up Charlie, I just thought was really well executed. Two, what's aged the best, two great theories from this movie, is it better to burn out or fade away? It's just a great question.

With elite jack-black hand acting as he does it. But that is, his Stevie Wonderpoint is like one of those, like, we're going to fight about this for five hours. Because now it's like, I don't think anybody really wants to hear anything negative about Stevie Wonder, but like a dude throwing a Molotov cocktail and being like, Stevie Wonder's greatest failures of the 80s is like, yo, all right, man, you're a takes me. That was a classic Molotov cocktail point. You're right, which you wouldn't do on the internet in the same way. The other one I loved was Rob's theory about how he tried to move up in weight class with Charlie

and how guys have to punch their own weight. It's like one of the great theories that I've always been jealous of. He's like, what did he say? He said, welterweight or a middleweight? He's like, I'm a middleweight. He's like, I'm a middleweight. What was I thinking going up in class? I was like, that's fucking great.

Katrina and the Waves, for what stage is the best. I think this was their only song. And it's probably a top five, the happiest song that anyone's ever made. Didn't you just hear it? And it's like, hey, let's go. Sad bastard music. I just like the phrase. Yeah.

How about movies where there's a cute lead actress and she really belongs to this movie and I don't know what else she was in. I'm sure she acted in a bunch of stuff. Like Danish stuff. Yeah. But she belongs to this movie and when I see her, I see her in this.

In America, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I'm glad this wasn't like Gwyneth Paltrow. Sure. You know what I mean? You mean Ibn Yala? She's the Gwyneth Paltrow of Denmark, though, you know? True. Well, did you read what Frere said about,

casting her. Yeah. That he was like, if we cast an American, she would seem too much like Rob's mom, so we need someone who's like European.

Just because Rob is such a man child, and he's like, I need someone who won't feel like she's babysitting. The problem is she still feels like she's babysitting, she sure does. Busy coffee houses with people pounding cigarettes,

C.R. Yes. I know you were getting the shakes. I miss it. Overqualified stars doing small cameos. I just wish there was more of them. Like, just let's get Tim Robinson when he's red hot. Yeah.

It's going to be in like two scenes. At Hulu remake show, I think, is age the best. I liked it. It's so good. This is just such an durable property. I just can't believe that they gave up on. And Zoe Kravitz was like, I would still be making that show today. She was fighting for it.

Would Devon J. Randall have her Oscar, though, if... Probably not. High Fidelity was still a show. But she's like, me and Zoe Kravitz text each other about how we wish we were still making high fidelity. All right. Here's my best, what's age the best. There's an Entertainment Weekly 2020 oral history about this movie. and QSack's on a heat check in it

to the point that I decided to create a new award for the rewatch balls called the John Qusack Hero Ball Award for biggest heat check in an oral history anniversary feature. It's unbelievable. This can only go to like three movies. Yeah, it might never be given out again. The cousin to this is the Wikipedia

where somebody involved with the movie clearly wrote a lot of the Wikipedia, which is also one of my favorite. Cusack has quotes in this oral history. these are actual quotes. I knew that Jack Black would be my secret weapon. He had made a movie with Tim Robbins, and there was this sort of actors gang, blah, blah, blah.

I knew the secret was that he was a great musician and a great comedian and hadn't gotten a role with high fidelity yet. He's got like 10 of those in this, where it's like everything was his idea. He knew this, he knew that, he pulled this off. He got Bob Dylan and gave them most of the time. I was lucky enough to be friendly with him. So I called them up.

And I said, do you want to be in this movie? And then he has this quote, my movies, at least the ones where I've been involved in producing or writing or co-creating it. A lot of times they don't get seen or loved right away when they come out. So that's pretty common.

But I am proud of it. I put an enormous amount of effort and care into this film. The whole oral history is like that. He's just, he checking it. I sent it to CR. It was such a bracing read. It doesn't he also just like I just, I had Springsteen on speed dial, like I got him. He does that.

Yeah. Yeah. It's spotty reputation for Cusack. I think Piven being his best friend is says a lot. Telling. Did you read the Frears quote where he was talking about working with him on the grifters where he's like, I only had two good hours a day with John on the grifters. So we had to schedule around that. He's like, by the time we did high fidelity, he had figured it out.

He could like show up for a full day of work. But on the grifters, he only gave me two hours a day. and that's it. It's him and Nicholas Cage where it's just like it feels like the world is at their feet and then they go on to make six movies a year that are on Amazon Prime.

Ironically, they were in Conair together. Is this John Kusack's last great movie? No. I mean, Hot Top Time Machine was a massive movie, but that's probably nine years after this. Are you stumping for serendipity? What are you stumping for? Is Markovic?

I was thinking Malchavich, too, but it's 99. This is the end of the run for him, though. Well, yeah. No, I guess like terms of being starly in. Yeah. Maybe it is. I think it is. I meant to do this before we did the categories about Cusack.

Just like going back to the sure thing. He's in a couple 80s movies even before the short thing. Like he's in class. He's in one of the Hughes movies, maybe 16 candles. Yes. Where he's just a party goer. He's just in the background. And then he became like a main guy and he just sure thing and he's better off dead.

And then say anything kind of minted him. And then I think he had a good 90s. But Lloyd Dabber, I think, was a really important character for an entire generation. So I think people gave him a lot of leeway for a long time. And then this movie helped. But I don't think he sustained it in the way I would have predicted. He just did a bunch of, like, I think, bad rom-coms after. Like, he took the wrong lesson from High Fidelity, where he was like, I'm a rom-com guy now.

And that's not what he's good about this movie. It was like, I'm a rom-com or weird, like, psychological thriller guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he probably actually would have been better off, he had a good career, but he probably would have been better off like, I don't know, some sort of HBO show. Like being like the big love part and the bill packs the part. Something like that.

Definitely, big love. For being Sabaka and the Wire. Something. Take a swing, John Cusack. I don't think that's the one. Take Chris Bowers, like, legacy. What do you have for Great Shot Gord or C.R? I don't really, this is a very subtle visual film,

but I had, I like this. shot of him walking with the Metrograph movie theater in the background and talking about Dillinger. Yeah, okay. There's not a ton of blinding visual stuff in this. Would you have for Kid Cutty Pursuit to happen and swear for Best Needle drop up? We could do a whole bracket,

I think, for this movie. It's hard not to pick Stevie Wonder. Like, the close-out song with Stevie Wonder, but I think Bob Dylan coming out of the funeral is also that's a fucking powerhouse. Would you have, Joanna? It's a beta band. Dry the rain. Dry the rain. Although, we'll say, puts the C-Wathe

CD in and the song starts four minutes into the song. I was going to say the exact same thing. It starts the hook. Yeah. Which is like, nitpick? We can't do it. Yeah.

And A, you wouldn't do it in the record store with there's such purists and B, you can't do it on a CD. No. Because it's not even a vinyl. It's a CD. I have Katrina in the waves. Because Black switches it and it's like a pure needle drop.

Can I go back to cinematic shot? Yeah. And say when he's on the Kinsey Bridge and the camera's hand handles. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, yeah. And he's going back and forth. I think that. The five things he loves about,

or misses about Laura. Yeah. Did you try to pay tribute to that shot when you did your walk-in talks in Chicago? You know, I did it, but I can claim that I did. All right, we're taking a break, and then we got a flex category for CR. This episode is brought to you by McDonald's. Right now at McDonald's, you can get great deals all day with McValue. Jumpstart your day with the under $3 menu featuring a sausage McMuffin for just $1.50.

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18 plus. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. CR, Flex category. What do you got? The Den of Thieves Benny Hano Award for Seen Stealing Location when Rob is going through before things that Laura might have told Liz,

it's the green mill, which is the bar from heat. Thief, sorry. Blows the fuck up at Thief. Oh, shit. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. I'm surprised I didn't notice that.

Butch's Girlfriend Award, Weeklink of the film. What do you have, Joanna? I think it might be Lily Taylor, who's the actress who I love. First of all, how dare you? I love Lily Taylor. She's so great in this. I think that character's too real for this moment, like too sad for this moment,

and I needed more like Elizabeth Banks and 40-year-old virgin energy, I think, from her. I don't know. I love the heartbreak. Like, her performance. messes me up every time. Her grabbing him when they sit down and it's like, are you seeing anybody?

I would say to piggyback off of that, I don't know that Rob reckons with like the wreckage of his, you know, going back through his back pages, interviews with these women where it's like, and he's like, I was basically like sexually assaulted after we broke up and then Sarah being like,

I'm off my meds and unemployed. And he's just like, great, okay, moving on. We got an answer there. That's what I have for, That's age of the worst. When she's like, it was basically rape and he's like, yes, I rejected her. Right. And you're like, Rob.

Yeah, not great. I have. I think he just ended up with the wrong girl in the movie. So do you think he ended up with the wrong girl? I think he should remember the girl from the reader. Really? My girl in Natasha Gregson Wagner. Late breaking Gregson Wagner?

It's just like the chemistry. It's just like the chemistry. I don't think he should have wound up with anyone. Yes. I think he should have kicked the tires with the reader girl. I thought... But he's already back together with Laura

when that starts. It's your girlfriend. But that should have been the sign, though. Also, he was only with her because he didn't have... Someone knew? He was only with her because he couldn't think of what else to do.

Then he clearly had this other person who was like, this is like my soulmate here. But that's the same thing... That is not his soulmate. This whole point is that, of course, you're going to meet somebody

and they're going to be distracting and they're going to be like the tantalizing new thing. What was distracting about her? She was great. Because she had to see her everyday underwear. Finally her laundry. They only had the cute problems, like buying each other the same Christmas present.

You know, it's not a real thing. What's going to happen when the Chicago reader negatively reviews the CD singly he's put out? True. He's just like, what the fuck? You know? I thought she was a good calming presence for him. I feel like if he hops to the next woman,

there's no lesson learned. Back with Laura is a lesson learned. But I think the real lesson should, Laura should not have come back. Well, so I had that in answerable questions. Is this a better movie if he ends up with nobody at the end? And I think if they make it 10 years later, I think that's how it ends. It's 500 days of summer.

Right. This is, Mickey Kelly. Well, in the last 20 years, we have shifted to we actually, we, it feels like a rom-com, but we are not going to give you the happy ending. We're going to actually give you the... The problem now is like we have so many movies in which they choose themselves at the end. And I think it's like, we're, like, it's so terrified. in terms of the robs of the world now in films and TV,

like have to work out their problems in a real way. This is so incremental. Guys should not be in therapy. They should DJ. Well, this is a man's journey to thinking about a person for literally the first time who is not himself. It's like the revolutionary ideas, I'm going to make a mixtape of stuff she likes,

which is what I like. Crazy. Can we bring back the hottest take so CR can do a whole mention be in therapy and they should DJ episode? I mean, why? You know who created I choose? me.

Joanna knows. I know. It's Kelly. Not on 2 and O. Sent Dylan and Brandon Packin. She's like, I choose me. I think it should be a category. The Kelly Taylor, I choose me.

Do you guys think that the Rob and Laura getting back together works within the context of the movie being satisfying even if you don't think that they belong together? I do. What I think is interesting, and I think this is true, I did not reread my copy of High Fidelity

in the last 48 hours, but if you just had one more night in the hotel. Even yala. even yala as I turn the pages. Rob doesn't do his career shift in the book. Like, Laura comes back, but he doesn't have this, like, and now I'm a music producer. And I think that's an interesting ad of just, like,

this is another area of growth for Rob as he is sort of, like, growing in his career. And Laura comes back. So it's like he's evolving in multiple ways. It's just, what's funny is we all had the couples in our lives where they got back together like this. And they're not going to make it, but then they end up getting married and having kids and then getting divorced. There's a deleted scene.

There's a lot of great deleted scenes. There really is. But there's one where Laura's talking to Liz, to Joan KSack's character. And she's like, maybe I should go back just so that he can break up with me and then it'll be easier. And Liz is like, that's demented. And she's like, I know. But like that would just calm everything down. If I just go back, let him break up with me.

That is something that people used to think back then, though, where it was like you just didn't have enough feedback. So we were like, maybe what I'll do. Right. We want to have sex for three weeks and see what happens. So there's an interpretation. If that scene stays in the movie, there's an interpretation of the ending of like, that's just what Laura is doing. What was the other deleted scene that's the famous deleted scene? Well, there's a couple. There's Beverly D'Angelo with the record collection,

which in the TV show was the Parker Posey episode, which is so good. And then there's... Harold Ramis is his dad. There's one where when the reporter asked him to give his top five records. It turns into like a full-blown nervous breakdown where he goes home and has to revisit and keeps like calling her back to add more records to the list. There's a lot of really fun stuff. There's a direct address that I kind of miss, which is like he's talking to the audience and he's like, yeah, you think I'm an asshole. He's like, okay, take a moment, write down the five

worst things you ever did to your partner or never told you a partner. And then he like, next scene, he's like, do you write him down? All right, who's the asshole now? You know, and so it's just this like interesting relationship he has with the viewer where he, he keeps saying like, yeah, I'm an asshole. But to your point earlier, it's just like, I feel like he wants the viewer on his side. And that's really demonstrating that. I think they do a really good job of almost not quite needing that

because the movie undercuts Rob all the time. Like he'll go on some super self-indulgent tangent and then like a dead body at the funeral goes underground. It's like, this fucking guy. Like, there's so many ways where they point at him and so many characters who are constantly making fun of him for who he is that it is, like, The movie is judgmental of Rob, even if Rob himself isn't calling stuff out directly.

In the oral history, the actress who plays Laura. Even Yala. Even Yala. Talks about the sex scene with Tim Robbins. Yeah. And how it was fun because they were like, this is what's happening inside of Rob's head. So it's not like a real sexy. It's supposed to be what's tormenting him. And I was like, I wonder how many of these scenes you could view as like an unreliable narrator telling you about them.

That being said, I don't think the film itself. tips its cap towards that very often. Yeah. So I do take the movie at face value when it's depicting events. But I think the flashback stuff. Yeah. You're like, that's through a lens. For sure.

Also, age is the worst. Yes. Also, for what's age the worst, the semi-stocking, the mean-spiritedness, the misogyny. We've got to throw that in, but that was the 90s. Rob? Rob, age is the worst? Rob is a character.

Rob is a character. Charlie, you fucking bitch. Let's work it out. And one's the funniest and most disturbing thing in this movie. We got to talk about QSack's hair. Every time Joanna's on, somehow we get into the hair piece thing.

The last time it was Robert Redford and your cross hairs. Now it's QSack. Tell me. Never really answered. No one has definitely answered the Redfrey question. I had a couple people in my life sending me different screenshots to him in the early 70s. But nope, we'll never know. I stand by it's a dying problem, not a

piece problem. Well, Kusk had the combo of he's wearing wigs in the movies for the throwback scenes, but then it's the real Cusack and it's like, are we, oh no, that, so it's a lot of that. I don't know what's going on. You think he has fake hair just as Rob. In present day, Rob.

Well, he definitely added hair from the say anything kind of or Conair was when it was, we talked about in the Conair podcast. He comes in with the full main in Conair. There's a lot of not continuity problems, but like stuff shot out of order in the sense that you can tell, like, he's changed

his hair since they shot the exterior to the interior. And I wonder if it was just like, that's not a huge concern of this movie is like how his hair looks. I have another what's age the worst. Springsteen's cameo just isn't that good. I just wanted more from it. It's fine.

Bruce Springsteen, can you come up with better than what he says? Sounds like you guys read an EW. Did you read the consequence of sound? I did. Yeah. Which was like constantly reloading. Did you have that issue? I also had that issue. We got to talk to the server people at It's just all websites right now.

But they talk a couple things about the Bruce Springsteen cameo. One, they claim that Bruce himself is the one who punched up that line where he's like, oh yeah, you'll feel better. They might feel better. That that was like a Bruce ad. Maybe they feel better. Yeah. Definitely.

Yeah. Where he's like, no, it's not that they'll feel better. And so, and then also for copyright reasons, they had to have Bruce noodling something unidentifiable so they could use it. Yeah. Because they didn't have to pay for it. Oh, that's interesting. And they made him say on camera,

I'm just making this up as I'm playing it. So they could send it to the record company. I would figure if they paid for the river, they would have just like paid for maybe he could just complain. All it's handled. Have him actually play one of his songs. Play something from Tunnel and Love. Well, then you,

then your budget goes up from 30 million to something higher. And you're 47 million taking margin. You're fine. Scott Rosenberg wrote the original draft set in Boston, CR. Yeah. How crazy would that have been. That would have ended our lives. And then they moved their round

and then somehow they ended up getting a writing credit anyway. And then my last one for it's age the worst. This movie did pretty well, which led to fever pitch and Jimmy Fallon be on the fucking infield grass as the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years and I'll never forgive anyone for that. But if this movie doesn't do well, maybe that doesn't happen.

So what's age of the worst for me, Joanna? Get Jimmy Fallon off the fucking field. My team just won the World Series. UK. punish Nick Hornby. We'd already made favorite pitch. Why are we making

this again? The Ruffelahann Rubenck Partridge overacting word. It's Jack Black, but I'm also, it's not an insult. It's just a wrong way.

I mean, Julianne Moore saw Rubenck. We're a fan. It's also Tim Robbins, but I'm also not mad about it. Tim Robbins is good, too. I do think Natasha Gregson-Wagner

who plays Caroline Ford is careful. She... This is your first time. Don't make your last time. I'm just like, her flirt dial is cranked up so high she forgot how to be a normal person. Yeah, that was a definite, like, it's happening in Rob's head. It's weird.

Yeah. Some Olivia Nuzzi, like, journalism ethics questions. Wow. We're getting topical. Current affairs here. Jesus, that was great. She's been relieved from her post as West Coast editor of the reader. Oh, Joanna's got a flex category.

Okay. I was tempted to do the category that I, invented, which is would a cell phone ruin this movie? I would say social media would ruin this movie. We all know too much about our exes already or whatever. But I'm actually going to give it to the Big Cahuna Burger, best use of food and drink, is when he says Lauren's dad died and Jack Black goes, oh, drag, and then just chomps on a burrito.

And it's when one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Oh, my God. And then just like a massive chomp of a, of like a $2.99 burrito. Barry's whole reaction to her dad dying of like top five songs about death, a Laura's dad tribute list. And then all the guys in the record store are like, okay, yeah. A solemn acceptance, sure. I mean, tell Laura I love her.

Absolutely. Bring the house down. Sierra, what do you have for the Sierra? Thanks, Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford. How does take a word? I have two. I wonder if Joe and I are circling the same thing, which is kind of the TV show. I don't know if it's better than the movie, but it has, I think it had legs.

my hottest take is that there's just no way Rob and Laura even get back together, much less stay together and that first of all, the Marie stuff comes out. Fucking one day, Barry's like, hey, this is Maria Sal, remember when you were sleeping with her for like a couple weeks when you and Laura broke up? You fucking asshole! And I just don't think

I'm making a mix CD for the Chicago Reader Music Critic. No, it's a rap. She's getting her stuff again. She's just like, oh, cool. It's done. Like, that's not happening. It's done. It's a rap when he's caught making the tape.

I don't know that I would say the show is better, but because by the nature of television, it just has more time to luxuriate in the side plots like I'm selling my terrible ex-husband's record collection. You know how you guys have the balls to? The TV show is better than this movie. And I like this movie. The TV show is better.

It's not a ball's issue. It's an absolute crime that they canceled it. It's fucking bullshit. That show is good. The show is good. And it would have had to have been COVID. And it was also the best possible like Zoe Kravitz got to do

like you just got to see her do everything. Also no offense to Hulu but I'm going to offend Hulu. Like you're not exactly the 96 Bulls. Great use of Jake Lacey in that show. It's not like oh we have to cancel this because of all of our other awesome shows here on Hulu. Like what the fuck are you guys doing? Lizzie Moss needed more money for Handmaid's Tale season 7.

They have like three good shows a year. Do this to Iger next time you see him at a Clippers game. It's ridiculous. How do they cancel this? Joey Cravitz, they fucking blew it. Like, they really had it in their hands. And again, there's no reason to not let it play out. Also, not a lot of people at Hulu in 2019.

Like, it was still, I don't think Hulu is where it is now. Handman's Tale was like one of the first kids shows. I think everyone was watching normal people on Hulu and during COVID. I certainly was. Yeah. Absolute bullshit. You're not a normal people head. I don't know.

No, I don't know the story behind it, but I guarantee it's like, whoever ran Hulu got fired and it was their show and the new person came in. It's like, well, that's not my show. and get credit if it does well, and they just got rid of it. That's what always happens. I think in terms of scope, too, one way that the show would work better,

I saw this quote from Ryan Coogler this morning about, like, he's adapting the ex-files thing. And he was talking about how someone in TV had told him, TV is about the most important journey in somebody's life, and a movie is about the most important moment in somebody's life. The most important moment for Rob is at the end when he's like, I cannot believe, I've been putting everyone at a distance,

I haven't committed to anything my entire life. It's this huge revelation in the rain, and his life changes from that. point forward. But he needs more time to actually become a not-shitty version of Rob. Yeah, you don't need to hear Jack Black playing music for two minutes to be like, I found the light. And so if you play it out over multiple seasons in a TV show format,

like this is a journey story, not a moment story ultimately. It would have just been cool if they were more realistic where it's like, well, okay, after he covers Marvin Gay and you do one record release party, like, now what? Now what? Yeah. Now what? Your take, did you have a hot-stake? I agree.

Just like Laura should say Laura should not have come back. I will say this movie does some things for Laura that the book doesn't. Like we're at least in her POV sometimes. Like there are scenes of Laura without Rob. And the moment where he's crying for her at her dad's funeral

does a lot of work for me. But in general, Laura should not have come back, I think. Did you do yours? I have one. The top five, you were talking about earlier, Chris, the top five side one, track one. debate in the record store. The problem...

Thunder Road not being on it? Well, no, the problem with Smells Like Teen Spirit being on the list is not that it's like a cliche pick. It's that that song kind of sucks and nobody wants to talk about it. This is your hottest take? This is my hottest tape. Holy shit, Rob.

Is it like... At the risk of never coming back on the rewatchables? You were like comment sections have killed the hot take essentially. Here comes Rob with smells like teen spirit is bad actually. Look, this is the Gen X divide. Honestly, it's like...

Wait a second. Yeah. I'm listening to you. I've been going from chat for like four years and you're just like, yeah, you know, there's a lot to like about the bulls. But you're going for fucking Kirkgo! I have better things to say about

I-O-Dissomu than I do about smells like Cheat Spirit, to be honest with you. Tell me more about why that song sucks. I mean, I think there's like the emblematic bigger thing, which to me, to me, grunge feels so put on. To me, the ethics of grunge do not feel authentic. They don't feel lived or urge. Wait, now you're coming for the entire ideology.

I'm starting big and we're zooming in. We have to dig on this, Tixia. Thank you. Like, we start there, and then if I were to pick a grunge song, it wouldn't be Nirvana. If I were to pick a Nirvana song, it wouldn't be like the nonsense radio play Nirvana of all things. Like, I just do not like that song. Wow. I'm speechless.

Well, that's it for the Craig when you think of the movie. Wow, that was great. Oh, my God. We may have to rename this category. Romoone. It smells like T's a spirit. It was wildly overrated. I'm sorry.

Not even overrated, just sucks. I think it kind of sucks. Dude, you would have done very well. Pass the category over. You would have done very well in bars in the 90s.

The Rob Mahoney. Team Spirits sucks, actually. I feel like Rob is like Rocky. He's been fighting right-handed this entire time. Oh, man. What's Rob's hottest tape going to be?

Yeah. It was funny because I thought I had a pretty hot take. And now I just feel like tepid. A tepid take compared to what. Greatness. I just don't think the music's good enough

for this movie. Whoa, what? Yeah. I think it's the biggest reason it was, it was a rewatchable for me, but not like one of my movies.

Because I thought it got too deep cutty. Did you own the soundtrack? I did, but I actually now probably prefer listening to like there's a lot of playlists of

all the songs mentioned in the book and in the movie and also in the TV shows. Here's me wandering around saying, even y'all, in my hotel room, and I listened to the official,

and I was like, this isn't satisfying. And then I listened to, like, one of those playlist that... It's just not that good. And I think it could have been, like, one of the great soundtracks of time, and it's not.

So the movie's credit, a lot of the music is dietic where it's like, it'll be, like, playing in the store at a certain volume. So, like, they could have had any, like, they could have the greatest collection of songs ever.

But I think they used music functionally in this movie, rather than, like, days and confused where it's just, like, This is the fucking best song at the best moment. I just think these guys would have been listening to more music from the last 10 years. They're doing this in 2000. I think the 90s, it was like one of the great decades of all time.

I know, but like at record store, you're trying to sell the new shit. I get it. But this is one of my picket knits though. Okay. I'll do them now as part of my out of stake. The smashing pumpkins not being in this movie is outrageous. They're a fucking Chicago band. It's 2000.

I think there was a, this crazy run. There was a touchy relationship between the Chicago music. scene and smashing pumpkins. Yeah, but here's the thing. Billy Corgan in the Springsteen spot, I don't know, makes more sense. You want Billy Corgan in for the boss?

That's the sage advice you want? Yeah, I want Billy Corgan in here. Hey, the world is a vampire. I don't want anything from Billy Corgan. He's so weird. It's a better cameo. Oh my God. So you don't think the Chicago Pumpkins piece?

I just think that there's like the bands that they're championing are like touch and go and drag city bands. I get it. So the pumpkins are like the sellout band? Kind of. Yeah. Well, they're only one of the best bands of the 90s.

I don't know. I will say that Billy Corgan would not have aged. They picked the boss. And anyone watching now knows who Bruce Stringtine is. But anyone young watching now does not know who Billy Corgan is. But that's the thing. In 2000, I don't think these guys are listening to Bruce Springsteen. But if they're rock critics adjacent geeks who care a lot about, like, music history canon stuff,

like the river is a very important record. He pulls up his Fleetwood Mac album. You know what I mean? Like he's talking about landslides. But you guys don't think he wouldn't have cared about the 90s stuff too. I feel like he would have. But he does care about the 90s stuff. He's playing beta band.

He's like, yeah, but that's my point. He's going like, the old stuff is like the most famous people possible. And then the new stuff is like the deepest possible. So you want to, I don't know what his house.

I don't understand his taste. You want older, deeper cuts or mainstream current is what you're saying. Whatever he's doing are two separate things at the same time. And I didn't understand it. But a lot of New York. a lot of older music genres and bands were getting kind of rediscovered

and appropriated by younger people because you could buy their albums for three bucks. So I remember for most of my life, I thought Flewwood Mac was like soft rock that I didn't listen to. But then when you can get their records for like three of them for 10 bucks, and you're like, oh shit,

there's like really good songs on rumors and Tusk. That's how like that stuff kind of like was... Yeah, but I'm the same age as the guy in that movie. And by the time you're 30, you're not listening to the river anymore you're listening to it's like for you by Springsteen like you've moved on to deeper cut Springsteen that's the part

he's still like basic Springsteen but Springsteen's been in his life the whole time isn't that kind of the formula though it's like the old stuff is the canonized stuff and then the new stuff is like you are digging deep into the bins to find what is like hyper specific to you that feels coherent to me I hear what you're saying though I'm just I don't I don't know how

you're mass appeal on one side and then deep deep deep cut in the other side seems weird he contains multitudes I'm just glad that like whoever they picked isn't massively canceled now so that like what opposite I'm dealing with like casting what ifs Jack plaque passed

and they just basically bullet him into doing it the role of Dick was originally offered the David Arquette I'm going to give that like a small scale yikes

that's way worse yeah Liz Fair that's the one was considered for Maria Selle we'll never know that's a totally

different movie what about Bob Dylan for the boss if it's Dylan instead of Bruce Springsteen. Yeah, I just don't think he ever does it. No, he wouldn't, but like, would that have... Billy Corgan or Bob Dylan is my question. If that's the binary, we know where we're following.

I just see Billy Corgan's so weird. Springsteen wasn't weird enough. I think... Bob Dylan is weirder, so he's probably better than Springsteen. Lisa Bonnet is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life. I probably would still throw my life away for Liz Phair. I got to say. See, it's like fucking run.

This is my jam. they talked about how hard that part was to cast. And I think there is something at Lisa Bonnet specifically versus Liz Phair, which is Liz Pharre's great. But she needs to feel Marie does like an alien to rob. Like she needs to feel like from another planet. And that's not Liz Farr's whole deal. C.R., who are your 90s female musician,

throw my life away? Who's in your inner circle for that one? Well, like Liz Phair is definitely like the number one seed. She's Gonzaga. Number one. I think so. There was a lot of fleeting This is a strange conversation to be having in 2025

Sarah Shannon from Velocity Girl I'm saying in the mid-90s Who were your throw-o-ways? That's not a strange conversation Liz Phair was up there Yeah Okay Yeah

The girl, like this lead singer from Velocity Girl would be another one I don't know if you liked them Did you, well Julianne Halffield was from Yes The Boston area So she was a big one for us just a couple others.

We really sidetracked big time. Bill, do you have any other names and burning a hole in your pocket that you want to get out there? That feels like a question you want me to ask you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We need to reflect it back to you. Bill? Tanya Donnelly, like, what else?

You were locked in losing. Would you care to go therapy or just become a DJ? I'm going to move on. I'm going to move on. I'm going to move on. Lost track of where we were. Oh, you mentioned how Ramis Beverly DeAngelo. Rob Cusack said

he wanted, I'm so tired by John Lennon. for this key scene when Rob finally proposed to Laura and they couldn't clear it. John Lennon was also dead at that point, but also I think would have told John Kusack to fuck off. It would be my guess. Best that guy. Todd Luizzo counts, right?

I think so. Does anyone know his name's Todd Louiso? I see him and I think he's the manny from Jerry McGuire and he's from this movie and that's how I know. I actually to this point think he's such a that guy. His name is Todd LeWiso, I think. At least that's how John Qusack for him. Even yalla. But there's a better

that guy than him. Alex Desert. Yeah. Alex Desert. Yeah. From Becker. From PCU. He needed two more scenes in this movie.

Swingers. Like, why do you be a part of all the arguments? He's in for two minutes and I'm like, can he come back? And then I don't know. He got cut. This place is dead anyway, Sierra. Dionne Waiter's a word. Alex Desert.

Catherine Zeta Jones, Lisa Bonnet, Tim Robbins, or Natasha Wagner. I think it's Catherine Zeta Jones. I think it's Catherine Zeta Jones. Strong agree. What do you think? Yeah. She's great. Did we talk about Lisa Bonnet?

Lisa Bonnet is amazing in this movie. And I was watching this movie with someone who's younger than me, and she was like, is that Zoe Kravitz? Said, no. Zoe Kravitz is not old enough to be in this movie. But yeah, yeah, she's just, she's absolutely smoke show in this movie. I don't think anyone's ever looked more like. their parent. And then Zoe Kravitz.

It's funny because we did this last week with... We did this with Cameron Crowber. We were talking about Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn. How crazy was that a mother and daughter that could have played each other's roles. And this is the same thing. I can see that one for sure. But I think, interestingly, in the Nepo Baby world, that Zoe Kravitz has cultivated looking like her mom.

Because when she first starts in, like, X-Men and stuff like that, like she doesn't really look as much like her mom as she does now. This is the new frontier. You got to lean into it. You got to lean into it super hard. You got to wear it. You got to style yourself similarly. I think it pays off more than people think.

She's one of my true queen, CR. Zoe? Or Lisa. Lisa. Yeah. Along with Michelle Pfeiffer. Do you think she was aware of the Cosby joke in this movie? Diane Lane.

The Cosby sweater Joe? Yeah. Great question. Oh. We'll side swipe. She probably supported it. Yeah. What if it had been Cosby instead of Bruce Springsteak?

I think they wait. We've re-edited that. They would have been like, can we get Corgan still? It's Corgan available. Recasting Couch Director, Cidium, just throwing this in quick. Can we test drive? Just hop in the car with me for Samantha Mathis as Laura?

Oh, Jesus. Just quick drive around the block with that thought. But then I get very defensive. Who comes up in this category more than Samantha Mathis? I know. I keep trying with her. I just thought it was a little throwback to the early 90s of Gen X. We were talking about her because we were talking about River Phoenix on the Sneakers pod.

and their country music movie that they made together. What about Laura Linney? I was trying to think, like, how... Early Laura Linney. She's in Congo by now, right? So this is like, you can count on me era. Like, I'm already, like, she's already babysitting Mark Ruffalo. Yeah, early 90s.

Oh, so she's in the mix already. I think, like, she could really nail this part. The question is, can she be the partier, Laura? She's like a whisper away from love actually. Yeah. The only other one, if you're going to keep, if you're going to keep Laura being from Europe. What about Fomka Johnson?

Wow. That's powerful. That's a lot for one movie. She's Jean-Grain. She's Jean-Graining really hard at the moment. Rounders and high fidelity. Too much. You're bringing too much firepower for that car, Sierra. Oh, Craig, you got a flex category.

I have the cell phone same thought as Joe, and that this movie makes like not knowing what happens to your ex seem torturous when in reality it's actually like the beauty of it. Yeah. And that now, I mean, Rob would be on a list now if he had been. Yeah, he would let this dude on commercial.

No, if he knew that like somebody was like across the street at a cafe or was posting photos with like a different guy, he would have completely lost his mind. No. But the other category I want to give, which is kind of odd, is the Sasha Jenkins Award, the actor you can't believe to become a bigger star. Jack Black, although you are right, he is literally probably the most dependable box office star right now, but he is a kid's star. And I think it's kind of crazy that Jack Black never really was like an adult comedy movie star.

And for how funny he is, he was never even like the top five of like, that's my favorite comedy star. He never really had like the big movie. He had shallow hal. Which kind of ended it, right? They tried Nacho Libre and things like that. He's really funny in Tropic Thunder. But like, it's crazy that he never had an Austin Powers or an Ace Ventura.

He's so physically gifted. and he never became an adult comedy star, like a big one. I think that's really weird. Would you not count School of Rock as like one of those? Yeah, but he's saying like he never got in the Apatow crowd. Yeah, yeah, no. He never got his franchise comedy.

I think it's a good point. Like there should have been like probably five school rocks. It's weird that they're not thinking of that now. Like you could just base, I mean like it's strange that like somebody wouldn't make a movie with Jack Black now or it's like what's your Ace Ventura. Like could have been like Jim Carrey like had like a 1990, for Jim Carrier.

Because he was so gifted physically as a comedian. Yeah, definitely. And it just never trained. I mean, he was so good in Tropic Thunder and he's really good in the roles he's given,

but I can't believe he never had his own franchise. I mean, stay tuned this holiday season for Anaconda. It's true. It's true. Also, the holiday, perpetual rewatch for a lot of people. I think he's maybe the weirdest part of that movie, though.

He's so out of place. He's like the week link of the holiday. I think part of the problem with him was the tenacious D thing was pretty all-consuming. Sure. He was like on the road half the time with them. He has said that,

Like, he was worried about making this movie. Some people have the theory in this consequence of sound oral history that he was worried because he was too scared. And he said that as well. But he was also like, but my music career was kicking off. And that was something that I was really interested in as well. Yeah. So, yeah. Half a Senter Research.

Not a lot except for you can, if you want to know the Marie de Salle CD, what was on it. Yeah. This is really funny. After Baby, I Love Your Way. It includes Ghosts, Busters beat it. Baby got back. I will survive. Mbop.

My heart will go on. The time is now. I will kickstart the Marietasel Ghostbusters cut. I need Lisa Bonnet singing Ghostbusters in my life. I just need it. You should turn it up.

Turn that thing up. You should turn it up. Tim Robin said he agreed to take the small roles in high fidelity and Anchorman because he didn't care about the money, but he wanted to keep the custom-made wings. wigs and that was part of the deal

that he got to keep the wigs from those movies. Do you think Susan enjoyed the Ian Gray Ponytail wig? Right. Got to give it up was the original

Jack Black song for that scene and he really wanted to do the other one so they did the other one. How many movies do you think Joan and John Cusack

have appeared in together? So many. Career. Not only how many, but are they the best brother's sister actor tandem to appear in film?

Who are they competing against? Jill and Hall? together? How many Jillen Hall movies are there? Donnie Darko. Yeah. How does one suck a fuck? How exactly does ones like that fuck wrong?

You didn't guess. How many? Five. Ten. Wow. There's a bunch that they're just, yeah. They're both sporting. Yeah, yeah. Not very big of it.

Because she's also in that Hughes movie that he's. Yeah. She's incredible. Gross point blank too. Oh, yeah. Has that been a rewatchable yet? Gross point blank? Because I like that this is sort of,

her, like, girl on the phone is like kind of her role in this movie, too. Well, and the scene at the funeral between the two of them is one of the best scenes in the movie. She's like, we are talking about someone else. Laura. There's a theory that there's five albums that you can see in Rob's apartment, that that's his top five albums. Yeah. And it's Funkadelic, Neil Young, Beach Boys, Sonic Youth, and the Minutemen. It's pretty good.

Checks out. It's pretty good five. Checks out. Which Beach Boys album? That's got to be pets. Wild Honey. Oh, see, a little curveball. Yeah.

Classic Rob. Rob got us again. Speaking of Rob, Rob, you have a flex category. Your first one. Probably your last after you get banned from the rewatchful. I'm going to go out in flames then. You took over the hottest take category. Once we send that clip to Courtney Love, yeah.

Absolutely screwed. I can't wait for fantasy for that clip. I know. Top three people who would go nuts for that clip. Definitely like Yasi and Sean are going to lose their minds when they hear that. We're having that show to Yassi.

Let's keep that away from Yassi. Rob, you were like establishing yourself as a music guy. I love it. Listen, as all of you know, we need more hottest takes than live. Craig tried to bring back cannibalism. That cannibalism is in pluribus.

It's true. Thanks to Craig, I heard. Rob, what's your flex? I'm going to attempt the double Seagal. So we've got Stephen Seagal shitting on himself for the most unbelievable anecdote from the actual film shoot and the Stephen

Sagan Hard to Kill Award, did this movie need a better intimacy coordinator? Apparently, the Tim Robbins dream sequence that we've been talking about, it wasn't really directed by Stephen Frears at all. He went and gathered all of the women on set who were just like working in hair and makeup or working in craft services and were like, can you guys just tell us what to do? And the result is that I Ivanyala said, this was the best sex scene I've ever shot and the most, like the most comfortable I've ever been. So I put it to you, do they need another intimacy coordinator?

Did they crowdsource an entirely new model, we should be taking advantage. She said Stephen Fierce was essentially, like, in the corner with his hands over his eyes. Turn to the corner shielding himself. As the women of the wardrobe department were like, grab her ass. That's hot. That's funny. Crawl your hand down her thigh. It's kind of like, I have like a small window to do this.

So we got to kind of like get to sell. Well, maybe this would be a new blueprint for intermacy coordinators that will go terribly wrong on some other movie set would be my guess. Yeah. So maybe don't crowdsource the crew. Maybe not. Or be very careful about who you're hiring in the crew. It turned out to be a hilarious scene.

Fun fact. The cinematographer of this movie, Shamis McGarvey, also was a cinematographer on 50 Shades of Grey. Was he inspired by this sequence? Who's to say? I don't think so. Based on what we know about the 50 Shades of Grey

intimacy coordination. Apex Mountain, Cusack, no. What's the argument for no? Gross by blank. I don't think it is. But this run, like 97 to 2000, that run. He doesn't like these.

You don't like the run? He doesn't like the run. He likes the exact moment. Trust me, I've tried to, unlock this door so many times. It's fun when a new rewatch this person comes in. What's Apex Mountain? It's the most juice. He didn't have the most juice in this movie.

It's earlier. They literally called him to be like, can you bail out our script because it doesn't work? Can you make this movie work? And he's like, yes, I will do it. I will star in it. I will make an unlikable character quite survivable within the context of the movie. Like, you want to spend time with Rob, despite the

fact that he sucks. I think he's got a lot of juice here. Maybe he never had an Apex Mountain. I think Just a couple mini-mast? 96-97 is his apex. When he's in Conair? City Hall, gross point blank conair. Yeah, I agree.

All right, Sarah. That's like Blockbuster, prestige, Pacino, you know. But you stretch out a little bit, and you go thin red line, Nalkovich this. Yes. Although he probably doesn't even know he was in thin red line. I'm not sure.

No one knows they were in thin red line. You could have been in it, yes, I don't know. Apex button. The weeded Smith singles. Microbangs. Love thy neighbor. Oh, yeah. Oh, micro banks.

I was thinking about that. That was very attractive to me at the time. Jack Black, no. No. Beta beat, definitely. Beta band? Beta band. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Bonnet, no. Ceda Jones now. Katrina and the waves, maybe? Probably just... To that or when the song actually came out? I think that. Ebeniola?

Yeah. And her microbangs. Sad bastard music, maybe. Breaking the fourth wall in a movie. Sierra brought that up earlier. Possible. I guess he does Like they do it in Annie Hall

I'm trying to think of like when that would have been like I think Ferris Bueller was probably the most like I was ever like That might be the one But this is It's Ferris Buehler That's you're right That's what it is It's Ferris

Or it's Stanley Roper on Threys Company One of those style Fleabegg Fleabag is great Or Fleabagicag Would you go for Todd of the Wiseo Is it the Manny or is it this? I think it's this

It's this. I think more people I don't know that ABC show that has the name Ted in it. It was like a workplace comedy. Do you what I'm talking about? Better off Ted? No.

That's a thing. He wasn't one of the light guys in a lab. I'm maybe confusing him for another guy who looks like him. Chicago movies. No. Book movie combos from the last 35 years. In terms of both are good? Yeah.

35? Last 35 years. We'll go back to 1990. I think the answer is Fight Club. Let's just do 25 years. 2000 on. Why are we involving the 90s? I would say...

Because I wanted to bring Fight Club into it as the answer. What about Mr. Grover? Atonement. What? Is that my Don't? Atonement. Atonement?

It's really good. Fight Club? When was Bridges of Madison County was in the 90s? Mm-hmm. Bridget Jones. Holes, obviously. Obviously holes.

50 shades, we already cited. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Cruise or Hanks? This is tough. This is tough. I think this is Cruz. Hanks. I'm never buying Cruz running a record store in Chicago.

I'm pretending he likes music. It's Cruz as Ian. That's the most. Yeah, I don't think Cruz is, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Cruz is Ian Raymond? Yeah. I agree.

So is that doable? Can Cruz win on that? No, it has to be the lead. It has to be the lead. But you don't think that they're, I mean, yes. It's Hank's then. It's, Hank's is Rob. I guess.

Hank's is Rob. But Cruz is Ian slash Ray. What role would Philip Seymour Hoffman have played? I think Barry. So Fierre said that Philip Seymorhoffin audition for this movie. It seems like Dick. They were trying to figure out where to put him. Do you think he would have been good as Barry?

He basically does that. I thought he would have been... His version of Dick, I think, would have been pretty good. It's like a Scotty J. Crosswood. I don't think you could put him with Jack Black, though. No. But him, because he basically does a Jack Black role in Twister, I always think... Can we talk that out for a minute?

Philips Timorhoffman and Jack Black. You don't think Phillips Seymor Hoffman would have laid back and been counterpuncher for Jack Black? I don't think he's capable of fading that much. I feel like it would be like Philip Seymoural Hoffman's Punch Drunk Love character would come out. Shut the fuck up!

Shut! It's like, hey man, we're just talking Side 1 track ones. He's like, you put some respect on Anna's name. Yeah. Fuck you. Picking Nits. So Jack Black's character, I think we would all agree,

was fantastic as a performer. Just not ever playing music in any capacity. Never got to do. store? Couldn't have gone to karaoke night belted it out a couple times? This guy never sang? I do like the idea that when he's just like,

how can you not put him my record out? And he's like, because you just won't let anybody hear your stuff. That being said, the influences that he has up on the flyer for his band has got nothing to do with the music that he plays at the end.

It's far from like classic soul. Palehead and Primal Scream and Warp Records is all over the place. Laura, being with Ian, this was like a 90s trope, it was the same guy in singles with the ponytail guy that

Kier's character ends up with. Why do they do this? You're interested in understanding what tantric is. Sometimes you're like, have I tried Tempe? I don't know. Maybe I watched some surprise. How many earrings does this man have on his ear? You know, it could be four, could be five.

Something I said, while watching this movie is I'm upset that my ear jewelry and his ear's jewelry is essentially the same. I was not happy about that. There was also like a trend back then because they would like the genre of world music was so kind of popular and it was a very like. Jack Black wearing the Yanni T-shirt, the Yanni tour t-shirt. This is John Corbett's character in serendipity too, right? Hmm. Because he's essentially Yonnie in that movie.

Yeah. I do think Rob referring to him as some super tramp fan is offensive. That's rude for no reason. Do you like Super Tramp? Fine. But like Evan Nirvana? No comic. Wow.

He's a Magnolia soundtrack guy. What other nitpics do we have? The band that they use as a stand-in for, what is it, Vince and what's the other kid's name? Justin. Justin. Justin. They play Royal Trucks's music as like, this is what they sound like. But Royal Trucks would be a band in the high fidelity world because they were on Drag City,

which was a Chicago label. So that just is like breaking a seal there. Sorry to get nerdy about that. And the way that Lewis, the Alex Desert character, holds the Captain Beefheart record, shows that he does not hold... We're getting kicked out of that store. $40 LPs, because he's, like, holding it

by the corner of the sleeve and bending it, and, like, you're... You're, like, get your petulies stink out of my store. Well, no, but it's like... That record is now worth, like, $5 less because of the way you're holding it. So that was the secret sauce right there from CR. I think it's really good stuff.

I'm going to go with Robb can't afford that apartment. No chance. No. Nor can he afford to pay Dick and... Is he paying them only for three days a week, even though they show up full time. Like Evanston? Like, how does that happen?

What's the ratio of people who couldn't actually afford the apartment they're in and the movie is usually 50-50? I believe Marie could afford her apartment, possibly. No, and I'm not saying just this movie in general, movies and TV shows we like. The apartments are always nicer. I would say 75-25. Yeah. Yeah, 75 feels low. I feel like overwhelmingly, it's like you just need enough space for one to film in these places a lot of the times.

And then there's just no way they'd be realistic for a record show. This is a big thing. with my wife when we watch stuff. She's always really upset with if they don't get the real estate. I mean, I think especially because in this movie, he's like, look at my shithold apartment. And I'm like...

And it's like, it's pretty cool. I will also... The other thing about Laura moving in with Ian Slash Ray is when he tells us... When he tells the story of their story, she moved in with him right away. So I think this is just something Laura does. Yeah.

Serial monogamous. Yeah. Also a little weird because Ian's living in Rob's building but moves out and then Laura moves in with him. Right. I would need a minute to kind of process that. It's a move. It's a ploy.

The My Lise's expiring move. Does it work? You know who it worked for? My wife. She sent to you. My Lisa's expiring. I think she would admit it. She's like, I'm here all the time anyway.

Next thing I knew I had a roommate. Yeah. Bill's like, hold on. Let me turn down my world music for a second. We've got to move you in. I'm like, hold on. Pageerman. I went into a relationship.

and a girl I was dating got evicted and I was like, I can either leave Boston or live with you and I was like, well, live with me then. There's just like... As long as you know, there's four other guys here. Working in retail in San Francisco in the early odds, there would be couples who would break up and they would like have to stay there

because... Yeah, that's tough. Like someone has to sleep on the couch or whatever because you just like can't afford to move, so... That's like an Apple news story you'd read on the side of your iPhone where it's like the divorced couples who still live together.

Yeah. here on Harper's Magazine. The real story of the housing crisis. Six-minute read. Any other picket nits from anybody? After the funeral, Rob jumps over the white picket fence into the mud. He's covered in mud.

Immediately goes into a car and they have sex. Just vile. Absolutely disgusted. Do not do that. He's also completely cleaned off when he gets into the car. But how? I don't know. Well, I would say it's a torrential downpour

for about 40% of this movie. True. That rain was coming down. But he was shaking the mud off his hands. Everybody has pneumonia. Disgusting. Any nitpicks, Craig? Nothing brewing for you?

No, not yet. Okay. I'll let you know. Just to be clear about the movie's statement on this, sorting your collection autobiographically is deranged, right? Like, it's meant to read as deranged? No, but kind of cool. No, it's...

How do I explain this? It's crazy. It's a crazy thing to do. Dude, though, there's... This is... I got to tell you, there's nothing more satisfying than reorganizing your CD collection or your records. I agree with that.

Just taking them all out, seeing what you got, and cleanly putting them back away. But don't leave them stacked because the pressure. No, the pressure. They'll compress. Rob, if you took your movies, your DVDs, your Blu-Rays, your 4Ks, and could you put them an autobiographical order? No chance. But wouldn't it be fun to try? I watched this.

I remember I watched this when I was in fifth grade at the mall. Maybe. Put on Nirvana unplug. Who's to separate the one time I went to like CD Warehouse in 2000? from the other time I went to a movie trading code in 2005. Maybe you're not a real one like this, Rob. I guess not. Maybe you're not a true fan.

Is it meant to be autobiographical by when you first listened to it or when you bought the record? I think it's supposed to be every song has a story. So every record has a story. It's like, oh, I listened to Super Chunk when I broke up with my girlfriend, blah, blah, blah. So I have to find it in this year. The soundtrack of your life stuff. I don't think you can do that. That is when I would listen to Super Chunk.

Yeah. Yeah. Any other than picks? Because I'm going to move on to the Wayne Jenkins Award. Do you have a Wayne Jenkins Award? We can skip it. I could also be talked into doing one. I was wondering, I don't have any other nitpicks.

It's Rob's first time, don't you think you should do it? I would love one. You want to do a Wayne Jenkins? I don't want to do one. I would love to experience one. Okay. I had Stephen A. Smith as Rob in the scene when Ian slash Ray shows up to the store as a fifth scenario.

Because we have four scenarios in there. be the fifth. I'll pretend you're Ian slash Ray in this. Ian slash Ray. You know I like you. You know we're friends. But I did not appreciate how you came into this record store.

That's how I'm going to. I was doing that. Stephen Ann YouTube does a very low voice. He's got like a very like, I'm warning you not to cross this line. Yeah. Ian slash Ray. You know I like you. Yeah. If you want, want to do whatever you want to do with Laura,

I hope y'all are very happy. Just don't come in this record store again. Because if you come in a second time, we're going to have a problem. That's Stephen A YouTube. Really nice work by you. Pregnant pause, low voice. Honestly, you were really hit.

Bill, threat, also an important part of the formula. Rob, I'm working on it. Yeah. And now he'll go to answering fan mail where he like ranks Pokemon or something. Just want to ask her. Who gets it? I think Cusack, right? I was going to say Jack Black supporting.

Production designer. Oh, I like that. Good call. Especially like the record store they built that record store from scratch. Unanswerable questions. Is this movie better with Ethan Hawke? As Rob? Aren't most?

No. No, because you're taking Troy from reality bites and you're putting him in this movie. Or I'm zagging from Troy from reality bites and doing it. the evolutionary older Troy from reality bites. Like a self-aware Troy. A little more self-aware. True. Froggy already went a cordon and now he's doing this.

Hey, that's my bike crashed and burned. He's moved to Chicago and opened a record store. You know? No. I'm in for it. Like, I think QSack is really tremendous in this movie, but I don't know many Qusack movies that Ethan Hawke couldn't also do. No, well, here's the deal.

I think Ethan Hawk is a way better actor than John Cusack. I think John Cusack has a likeability that Rob really needs that Ethan doesn't inherently have. That's my next question. Did Ethan Hawk Marker correct John Cusack? Well, they're pretty parallel, right? I think he's a little younger than him, but. I mean, maybe that's part of the reason Cusack started doing so many other weird roles. Ethan Hawke grabbed all the sensitive boys and then Cusack had to hit it and do weird drillers.

And then John Cusk is like, I have to make a movie in Bulgaria with like three UFC fighters. Ethan Hawk could do Must Love Dogs. But John Kusack could not do Dead Poets Society. No doubt. Must love dogs, not a bad movie. It's a bad movie. It would have been cool. Not a bad movie.

That's your Diane Lane head talking, I think. Sure. That's just a normal human race. It would have been interesting if they put Ethan Hawke in the Tim Robbins role and made that character like much more down. Like it would basically be like choose your fighter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Laura had to choose between.

the two icons of Gen X. That's just reality bites at that point, isn't it? I mean, that's probably a better... Actually, Stiller is better in that role. That's a better Ian slash Ray thing, right? He owns, like, the biggest comic book store in Chicago or something. He's on Rob's Corner. He's not even a threat.

He's not even a threat. Yeah. True. Yeah. What piece of memory? Oh, we add a couple other possibilities to answer questions. Who should Rob wind up with? Nobody. Or the reader. You know, I'm already in with the reader, lady.

Well, sub-question. Not, is it better to burn out than fade away? but why doesn't he call Marie just out? I love that you also did the end. Yes, it's part of the move. Like, when he and Marie part ways, he's like, I'll call you and she's like, yeah, whatever.

Why wouldn't he call her? Because both of them knew what that was, which was not an actual beginning of anything, but just sort of like, we're both not over the person, the exes that we're talking about. I just don't believe that that guy does not call her again. Even though he's trying to play a real cool.

To me, that's like more out of his league than Charlie. Maybe. That's like more of my, like. How about he, has a better reaction to Penny's story. And he winds up with her because he's like, we're having a great date. She has a light up pen. Yeah.

And that's what I thought film critics had to have a light up pen because of this movie. But he's like, we're getting along. And if he has a better conversation with her in the restaurant that doesn't end with her storming out on the word rape, then maybe those two crazy kids make it work. All he had to do is not bring it up. All he had to do is not be going through a what does it all mean thing. We never talked about the Allison Ashmore, the one in like seventh grade, the first. kiss when he's just like, she married, Kevin! I'm fine now.

He kisses me. Marries Kevin. I'm fine now. It's such a good, like, such a funny delivery. That's the thing. Could Ethan Hogg do the like, I am alone in a room screaming? Because that is half of the Cusack performance. Yeah, you're right.

I'm not sure he has that. Anymore? Just what do we think the ceiling on Rob's DJing is? Oh, you had some thoughts on this. Well, so in the early 2000, I would go see Holatronics DJ and that was Diplow and his partner low budget and they would play

a lot of stuff but like it had that same kind of like I'll play the Neptunes and then I'll play like an 80s new wave song and so like that kind of variety was emerging as a DJ choice but I don't know like they make it seem like Rob is just selling clubs

out with his DJing and I was just like I'm not so sure that's like a viable He also didn't have the DJ type of personality yeah like did you believe he was a DJ. DJs have a certain vibe to them that I'm not sure John Cusack has. I can't see him being like,

DJ's got to do a lot of that to get the crowd going. When famous enough that Caroline would remember him, but not so famous, she wouldn't remember that he's Robin, not Bob. It's like, it's a weird fine line. You have a weird thing about. Rob and Bob? I think we all do.

You know? But like... It's nothing offensive. It's just like, I am not a Bob. Yeah, or a Bobby or anything like. Definitely not a Bobby. I mean, nobody wants to be a Bobby either. Big shot Bob Mahoney. But you could be a Rob or a Robert, but not a Bob or a Bobby. I mean, I literally am a Robert, and I'm definitely a Rob.

Okay. Bob is just like, it's a big group on the other side of the river. You should develop a group chat character called Bob Mahoney. That's where you save your real takes. Chris, have you ever considered Tofer? No. No. That's in the Chaz.

That was never, like, that wasn't in the mix until Tofer Grace. I didn't, yeah. It took years until. until I figured out that that was short for Christopher. I just found that out right now. And Liam's, the other one, Liams didn't exist for the first 30 years of my life. And then all of a sudden, they started.

I'm just glad I got past the era of my little league coach calling me Chrissy. You know, that was like, tough. I was just really worried that I was going to stick. That's real tough. Tony Sobrano calling Christopher Chrissy a couple times. That's the last time that's happened. Yeah. What about Will Simmons?

Like your alter ego, Will Simmons? I just never would have. No. I was Billy for the first like 20 years and went to college and dropped the Y. Oh, wow. Because my dad was always Bill and I was Billy to separate it us. So did you just never introduce any of yourself? College, I'm like, I'm Bill. You're Bill now.

Yeah. I'm Bill. A rebranding. I'm no Bill. Oh, okay. What memorabilia would you want or not want from this movie? What one thing? To be completely honest, it's not quite memorabilia. I want the record store.

All the entire record. I just want a store. A storefront smoking indoors is allowed. We listen to records all day and argue with each other. Can you probably live stream it? There's a Marie Desau poster that I think would be pretty great. The black and white one? Yeah, the wind.

You see outside the club, there's a poster of her thing. I thought it was good. What about the Dickie's shirt that he wears and Zoe Cravitz also wears in the TV show? Oh, quite good. Also, great coat. John Cusack, perhaps top five coat actor. The leather jacket The long leather jacket

But he's like a really good Coat jacket actor He knows how to like swing a pocket Etc et cetera I like that How about you Rob? I would love the flyer For the record release party

Which I mean looks It looks like a woman is giving birth To the name Kinky Wizards In space But most importantly to me At the risk of doxing myself The party is happening literally on my birthday So I got to have the flyer

You know Dosing Just more fuel for the nirvana I know, for Courtney love to steal your identity. Life lesson. It's not what you like. It's what you're like. It's what you like.

Yeah, I think that's a pretty good one. What about for all the physical media collectors at the Ringer, fetish properties are not unlike porn. I mean, it is true. I'd feel bad selling to these guys if I wasn't one of them. How about when Rob is going through what he misses about Lori? Talking about how she has character. It's like character is not taking it out on people when you're having a bad day.

I think there's some truth to that. Oh. But more importantly, it's what you like. I mean, that's the movie. I know what you were like. Double feature trace? You know, Joe, Joe got me thinking about clerks,

but I had Empire Records written down. What about if you, so if you flip the formula and you make a movie that's basically from Laura's perspective, it's also another Nick Hornby book, which is Juliet naked, where she's like dating a guy who is like a rob.

And has you been knocking it, right? I like that movie. I think that movie's pretty good. I think that could work as a double feature. I would say either gross point blank or about a boy. I would do say anything. Bookend it with Kusack, the beginning of Gen X. Who won the movie?

Jack Black. I think Jack Black as well. His entire career. I mean, it's hard to argue. I think what Kusack gets out of this is pretty powerful. And like all the iconography of the movie, the cover, the poster, him in the record stores, all QSack. But Jack Black does seal it.

He knew that Jack Black, this was the perfect part for him. That's true. He wins. He wins out of this. I told these guys, Jack Black was going to be great. I told Dylan when I was on the phone with him. Picked all the songs in the movie.

Yeah. What do you have? I think I have Cusack. I think that there was a road here where he could have done like an iconic generational role every 10 years. And he kind of did in his teens

in his 20s and gets right up to the precipice of his 40s and it just goes direct a video. Yeah. Too much time with Jeremy Piven. Producer Craig. Yeah. What do you got?

Never seen this film. Oh. Yeah. But your wife likes it, though. Yeah, she saw it a while ago. I think she saw it when she was really young and it was like, now I'm realizing that I completely didn't get that movie and I need to watch it again. But there's a lot I liked about this movie, but there's no way I could like it as much

as the people who actually fit the demo who saw it when it came out. I just think you kind of can't get there unless you were there. It's just not for me. It's not mine. Like, I feel like you guys were like the people in the record store in the movie, like working there. And then I was the dad who walked down in the court. What are you in a coma?

Yeah, I'm like, I'm not going to point out the scenes I like, but you guys are like, you weren't fucking there. You don't understand. But it's funny, this movie being in 2000, I feel like I knew less of the names you guys talked about today than a movie that came out like 1980. Of the actors or like the bands. Just like the cultural references are just like gone.

I don't like, when you were just naming all the singers that you were like attracted to in the 90s, like, I don't know any of the names you were talking about. Half the bands over my head. it's crazy that, you know, I think that I was born in 1994 and it's like your parents when, you know, right when they have kids, like that's the time in your life where you like stop consuming new things, right?

And so from probably from like 94 to 2000, my parents probably watched the least amount of movies they had ever watched. Which is when kind of this comes out. And then when I come to in like the mid-2000s, I was completely getting ingested into like the Apatau era. So I think there was just like, it's like there are these blind spots and it's why I saw 80s movies before this. these movies because my parents love the 80s movies. So I think there's a blind spot from like 94 to

2000 that I just like have no cultural reference for. And you never read the book. No. Yeah. The book's really good. It's worth read. It's. It really is. My copy is all water damage because I accidentally left it on the lawn of my dorm and the sprinklers came on. And so it's all like crunchy and wavy. And I was just like, I'm going to keep it that way. I also struggle with the like the emotionally stunted like, angry at the world, woe is me, like reality bites, Troy type. There's something about that that's never called. I don't love that.

But that is the Apatow guys too. Like that, you know, in a slightly different thing. They're just making fun of each other. There's more character for this. That's true. Yeah, it turns much more raunchy and slapstick. It's just trying to do Mr. Skid.

Instead of having a record store. Yeah, and it's like, it's not as clever. Like, the writing is not as clever deliberately. Like, there are still lines in this movie that are very reality bitesy, like John Cusack looking at the camera and being like it was a state of ill-advised blah blah blah and you're like nobody in an

Avatar movie talks like that and it's still very it's very lyrical in this movie which is like kind of an example of that 90s style except for my guts have shit for brains which is the line I would cut from this movie I'd like to apologize for re-end the pot that I didn't mention the lady from Massey Star as one of my throw my life away people

you did that class thing where you shoved the boat out and you didn't come up behind me who is your Rushmore? So the lady from Massey Star Who else? Gillian Hatfield? No. Like who are these people?

Liz Phair. Madsie Star, you got it. I don't know. You don't know Fade into you. You would know Fade into you. Who was the one that dated Evan Danda? Julianne Hatfield did, didn't she? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, she's on there. I feel like we're missing somebody. I'm not prepared for this. Well, you asked me I know. I asked you, but I didn't get the list on you. Yeah, but I didn't like, I didn't, wasn't like, I'm going to talk about who I was attracted to for a decade.

Like, it was, I just forgot. You're always doing that in the office, though. Cracking a cold poppy can. It was also like, there was just, like, it was more like types of women. And it was like, you know, it was more like women in Hal Hartley movies or Noah Bomback movies or whatever, you know?

Yeah, like the girl and kick him from, kicking and screaming. Rob, how was it for you? This is the kind of initiation I was hoping in training. You did a great job. Hoping to just burn your career with that day. It clearly can't be invited back. Joanna, a pleasure as always.

That's real. C.R. You're the best. Thanks to Craig Warbeck. How as well. Who else is back there? I don't know who's back there now. C.T. Jack Wilson, shouts out to Eduardo. Yeah. All right. We'll be back. How many more? What's today's day? Today is like the eighth or ninth or something.

We have the 10th. We have two more in the month of December. Yeah. Wow. There you go. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Bill. Thanks.