The Rewatchables - ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley,’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Amanda Dobbins

Episode Date: December 24, 2019

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Amanda Dobbins would rather be a fake somebody than a real nobody after they rewatch the 1999 psychological thriller ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley,' starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Talented Mr. Ripley coming up next. Thomas Ripley lived a solitary life until a wealthy man offered him an extraordinary opportunity. Did you ever conceive of going to Italy? I'd pay you to her to her. Persuade my son to come home. Dickie Greenlee? It's Tom. Tom Ripley. We were at Princeton together. How do you do? You're so white. Do you ever see a guy so white, March? You know, you should come and have lunch with us.

Now, he's in a world he always dreamed of. And now that he has it. I could hardly expect this to go on forever, Tom. He's had a great run, no. What? He'll do anything to keep it. I always thought it would be better To be a fake somebody Than a real nobody I don't believe A single word you've said

You're shivering, Marge Can I hold you? Well, whatever you do However terrible, however hurtful Nobody thinks that they're a bad person All right Manda Dobbins is here Sean Fennacy is here

I haven't done with Amanda in a while It's been a while for us I know it's nice to see you, Bill It's great to see you as well I was delighted to know that you like this movie as much as I did. This is the most late 90s movie to me. What do you mean by that? It just uses all these different people who feel all late 90s at like great points of their career all together and it's a movie that shouldn't have worked and I love it and I've watched it a million

times. That's where I'm going to start things. I'm still getting over the fact that you didn't open this podcast with Tommy. No, you did. No, you're going to do it. Tommy. Tommy. No, you're right though. I was looking at the cast, which is really one of the more decorated cast. in the history of movies. And it was this whole, basically one generation of people who are now between the ages of like 45 and 52 or 53,

just hitting that sweet spot of fame. You know, Gwyneth Paltrow right after her Oscar win. Obviously, Jude Law, with the role that kind of catapults him into stardom, Damon coming off of Goodwill hunting, Philip Seymour Hoffman,

getting ready to become, like, the character actor of his generation. Cape Blanchet kind of out of nowhere, taking on what should have been a nothing part and making it something special and then becoming a pretty big movie star. Yeah. It's just a, it's just nice. It's kind of like, it's kind of like the European dazed and confused, you know,

where it's like, oh, yeah, all of these people coming together at this time makes it so perfect. Amanda was saying it, remember the 2012 Oklahoma City Thunder a little bit. Oh, yeah, sure. She was saying that before. She was thinking of the parallels. Is that the one with the Hardin Trade? It was a yeah, before that. Okay, yeah, all right.

What's your favorite thing about this movie? I think this is my favorite Matt Damon performance. I don't think I have said on a. an actual podcast that this is my favorite Matt Damon performance. And I think pretty much per actor, you went through the cast, Sean. I think everyone is operating as high or at their highest level. But I think also for me, I saw this movie at an interesting time in my movie going career. I think it's kind of one of the first, like, really serious, like, grown-up movies that I saw. And I was like, oh, wow, I didn't know that movies could be like this and that I could relate to them.

And, you know, my relationship to it has changed over time, I think, because I maybe understand it a bit more now than I did at the age of 15. There are some undercurrents, especially, you know, the sexual stuff that you don't really, I think you know what's going on, but it kind of deepens. But I am a person, I think this is a great movie about movie watching, at least for me. I like things to be beautiful and shiny and charming. And I basically like everything that is the first half of this movie. and this movie delivers all of that and also reminds you how dangerous all of those things can be. It's kind of like an indictment every time. Yeah.

It's very challenging, but I love it. I just think that it's basically two movies. The first half of the movie is this incredibly beautiful portrait of living life with wealth in Europe. Yeah. It's like this is truly easy living. And then the second half, which I don't know if it holds up as well. on the rewatch, because the first half is such a fun experience, and you feel like you're meeting Dickie and March every time,

and you're kind of getting shotguned into their world. And then the second half of the movie, especially once you know where you're going, it just feels like the panic starts to fall away from it a little bit, and it's not as fun. But the thing that stands out to me rewatching it is Damon is, seems like he's having so much fun playing a guy like this, playing somebody who's so duplicitous and so smart and so kind of evil.

Like he's becoming evil in real time. I don't think he's ever had a part like this ever since, something that he got to play that was not so. He usually plays like pretty decent, also hyper-intelligent, but like ultimately the good guy in his movies, even if he's Jason Bourne and killing a lot of terrorists. He's still like, he's our hero. And this is it like as far from a hero as he's ever played.

Yeah, you know, I remember when this movie was coming out, thinking it was going to be a bomb. because it was, at least with Palau and Damon, they had already really succeeded, and now the knives were a little bit out for both of them, right? And it was like, okay, and then she's famously dating Ben Affleck, and she won the Oscar,

and people were annoyed by her speech and the whole thing. And then Damon had just been on a good run. And you see, like, they're making this movie, and it's going to be set in the 50s, and you're like, oh, this is a mistake. And then it was the opposite. And I think the thing that, struck me is how you

catch five people in this movie five Damon Paltrow, Hoffman, Jude Law and Cape Blanchet, five. You catch them at these perfect kind of time of their careers where you would have just bought stock and all of them. And if you had stock,

you would have bought more. And I think Wesley wrote about Poutro, when was that? Like, earlier this year, maybe, about how this career that she kind of could have had that it ended up not happening, but all the interesting work she did really all the way through maybe the early 2000s. And to me, there's like Marge, for example, not a character in the wrong hands could have

been really bad. If that's like Jennifer Aniston playing Marge, it's going to be bad. And she brings so much depth to it. And I think with all of those actors, they got the most out of those five parts. Yeah, I think Jennifer Aniston playing any part is bad. So that's definitely true. It's true, though. And she, I was reading a bit about the book.

I haven't read any of the Patricia Highsmith novels, Ripley novels, but I was just in reading about the novel, the March character was not very smart and not sort of very significant to the story and the way that she is here in Paltrow. The movie kind of amplifies a lot of things that it seems like on the page were very surface, and the movie is very much inside Ripley's head. And it gives a lot more people a lot more to do, which makes this much more of an ensemble movie. It isn't just, you're not alone with Matt Damon the whole time. Everybody plays a really significant part, which is. nice because they nailed the casting, like, as much as you can possibly nail the cast. Does it make it disappointed at all that Damon's career wasn't slightly more interesting just from a part-setty-pick basis? Because I think he made a lot of different interesting movies.

And I think he has credit over Affleck for making better choices IMDB-wise for the course of his career. But I kind of wish he had gotten weirder a couple times. This is the weirdest he got, and it was great. And I wish he had taken two more super weird chances like this. I agree with that. I think when we, Sean and I did a Matt Damon podcast a bit earlier this year. And there are a lot of roles that are him trying to be weird and don't kind of work in the same way. A lot of his Soderberg stuff, I think, is him experimenting. Like, Soderberg loves to experiment.

But. Like that movie Jerry was another one, remember? It was him and Casey A fuck in the desert with Gus fans at. Yeah. Yeah, that was weird, I guess. He's tried a lot of stuff. But I think that talented Mr. Ribly is so great because it's him trying it in. it works. You know, not all experiments work in it. There's something I think about the intelligence

of this character that Matt Damon is like a very smart guy and that's not just because I've seen Goodwill hunting. But there is, in all of his best performances, there is an intelligence and sometimes even a smart aleckness to what he's doing. And this movie allows him to do that as well. I think this movie also allows him to be, um, he's a very good looking guy and he is often playing against that. And, but he can, he can wear the suits and he undergoes the transformation. He doesn't pick these kind of restrained smart. And to Sean's point, I don't know. Would we say that Ripley's evil?

I mean, yes, he's evil. But that's a journey over the course of the movie. He's not the bad guy very often. True. I think he's played kind of buffoonish bad guys in the past. Like, Siriana, he is just like a representation of like evil corporate America invading other countries. And in the informant, he's just kind of like a dopey. corporate guy who thinks he's going to get a once over on his boss.

He doesn't play, you know, it's interesting, he was supposed to play the Casey Affleck part Manchester by the sea. Yeah. And I think that would have been an interesting kind of part for him to take on it because it's way more emotionally complex dynamic. That character obviously does something terrible, borderline, unforgivable. And there's like the emotional crisis of that movie is different from something like Ripley.

But I'd love to see him do more movies like that. Like in Ford versus Ferrari, he is just like heroic American avatar of ingenuity. and winning. And he's great in it. And he's great in all of his movies like that. But it's very down the middle. So he does, from 9799, he does Goodwill Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, Rhynders, Dogma, and Talented Mr. Ripley,

all in a row. Saved Private Ryan and Dogma, we're supporting parts. But him playing Goodwill Hunting, Will Hunting, Mike McDee and Rounders, and then Talented Mr. Ripley, basically in the span of 18 months, pretty incredible

range. Those are three characters that have nothing to do with each other really. And the interesting thing about him doing at that moment in time, obviously Matt Damon was a big star and had won an Oscar for writing Goodwell Hunting, but we didn't have like the 20 years of association with Matt Damon that we now have. And so it was an exciting moment because you're like, oh my God, this guy can do everything. Right. And he is really, he was trying on all the different parts for size.

I think Departed is kind of a variation of this, too. I thought he is really in that movie. Like he does take chances. This is the craziest chance. I think he took. And in the theater 20 years ago, I remember thinking like, oh, wow. Okay. So this could be potentially Paul Newman for this generation or whatever he's going to be.

But now that we have some distance and it's been 20 years, it's first of all striking how much weight he lost for it. And the research that said he lost 30 pounds because he wanted him to look, you know, pale, skinny and pasty, basically. So he did this twice for two different movies in the 90s because he did for courage under fire. I was just going to say this isn't the first time he's done it. Where he lost like 40 pounds for that movie. I don't want to distract us, but there is one shortlist scene when Kate Blanchett is looking at him. And I don't know if I would call him skinny or pasty in that particular scene. He's definitely pasty, but he's also cut.

He's like really bad. I think he starts putting on more and more weight as the movie goes along, right? I guess so in order to be more impressive. He's on the beach. And they see him for the first time. It's like, oh, he's in pretty good shape. Right. So maybe the 30's overrated.

Do you think it was like 12? Yeah, I just want to say. I don't know how much of that sacrifice it was. Yeah. So he has that, and by the end of this, he is established now as one of the highest draft pick actors we have under, I think he was under 30 still at this point. I think he's like one of the top five guys in the last 30 years in movies. It all seemed believable after this movie. Not until after this movie was like who's going to have, what five actors are going to have the best careers over the next 20 years?

And I think everyone picks him after this. Yeah, this movie is also kind of a tough sell and it was a hit. Like if you describe the plot. And if you think about the way that it ends, it's pretty dark and strange. And even though it is beautiful and gives you that look at Europe in this way, it's like, it's pretty fucked up. Like the sociopathological stories of Patricia Highsmith are crazy and weird. But that's why we like 1999 so much. And that's why we've done so many of these movies for this podcast and for rewatchables 99.

We never got to Fight Club this year, unfortunately. But it was one of the last years where everyone was taking huge fucking swings. Yeah. I think nowadays Matt Damon's wearing a cape. He comes out arounders and they're like, put a fucking cape on. You're going to be, you know, you're going to be a plastic man. It's definitely true. I mean, I think it's also Anthony Mangela coming off with the English patient has got a lot of capital.

Yeah. And used it. This is clear something he wanted to do and got it off the ground amazingly. It's kind of shocking that a two-hour-and-twenty-minute movie about a gay conman murderer made $150 million. Like, that's pretty wild. Yeah. That is probably the best context for 99 out of anything. Gwyneth Paltrow, 1998 and 99 only.

Sliding doors, great expectations, perfect murder, hush, Shakespeare and Love, talented Mr. Ripley. Cranking them out. That's my girl. Impressive. Where are you guys out on great expectations? It's not the best. It's not the best. It's not the best of those.

I definitely saw it in theaters as a devoted, I guess I was at Gwyneth Paltrow Stan, even in 98. I don't know, Stardham Young, I suppose. Saw in the theater. It's okay. I like to Ethan Hall. It's Alfonso Quaron. I have a little history with Palatro. You guys dated?

No. Her dad created my favorite TV show ever, The White Shadow. Bruce. Yeah. Bruce Paltrow. So when his daughter became an actress, I was like, I'm all in, I have season tickets. Plus, she was adorable. We were around the same age.

You had season tickets just because her dad created a TV show? Yeah. I mean, on the family. I like the reasoning. Yeah. Are you also just in on like David Chach's family as well? No. I love the white shadow the most.

And his daughter became an actress. I'm like, I'm in. And then she turned out to be really good. I even saw a perfect murder in the theater. I'm a fan of that movie. Perfect murder holds up. It's better than people remember, I think. I don't know if it holds up, but it's very fun and it's of its time.

It's good. Does Gwyneth Poutreau have range? Or is she just, is it just that she is this sort of like elegant patrician woman in real life and also in all the parts in which she excels? So here's what I liked about are the Bruce Poucher thing. Because as somebody went to preps. school. She was that girl in prep school who always carried herself like an adult, even at age 15. It just seemed classy and like she had her shit together and was just, boy, if I dated her,

that means I'm doing something well. And that was the vibe she had in basically her first five years of movies. She always feels like she's above the material and carries herself in a way. Marge is a character that ultimately is like being embarrassed, right? Dickie's cheating all over the place with her. Then he's not calling her anymore. And she has this, she's this real dignity the whole time. She's never desperate about where is he and all that.

She's always true to herself. And it's a really good character, but also like a really good performance where you believe the whole time. She loves this guy. She doesn't believe the story. She doesn't trust Tom. And she's more and more suspicious of them. Her clothes start to change.

She's wearing darker clothes. and she kind of hits this dark side, but always maintains that quality that I thought made her really special as an actress. Even in Bounce. Do you see Bounce? You watched that recently? I think once a year on a podcast,

you ask me how have you seen Bounce? Bounce is really good. Sure, it's great. It's a good one. And it was one of her last good, likeable performances before we got too much backstory with her and the off-movie person started to infringe on the actress.

Ah, yeah. And she was a really good actress. And that was why I really like that Wesley piece because he's right. She was a really unique special actress. Yeah. And I feel like Damon never had baggage like that, you know? No. Like he never, there is no like off screen.

We talked about this when we talked about him before. We just don't know that much about him. He's really studious about making sure that he's not photographed. We fucked up once, though. Yeah. He dated Mini Driver. Right. And they did Good Well Hunting and it became a celebrity relationship.

And I think after that he's like, I'm out. I don't want any part of anything. Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, Gwyneth Poucho has always been kind of the opposite. She's had very famous boyfriends and husbands and is very limelight focused, which is certainly her right. Well, child actress and daughter of an actress. Right.

So somebody who's used to being, no, she's going to be in the center of attention. And could sing. Oh, yeah. Made duets. That's when the wheels started to come off a tiny bit. I enjoy duets. I love country strong. I mean, I just want to say that Gwendozao was dating Brad Pitt in 1996.

So we stand a legend. Yes. Don't you remember? And they had the matching haircuts? I honestly think that that's possibly part of the reason. reason that you were into her also. Because it was a very early good celebrity couple. And they would show up on the red carpet and they looked like twins.

I had huge crush on her. Yeah. Always waiting to run into her bar in Boston, but I'm making my run. A bar in Boston? Why would she be in the bar? She's filming a movie there or something. Make a run. I'm still in.

What's your pickup line? I love the white shadow. Oh, that would be good. Your dad meant a lot to me. It's great. Good conversation started. She would probably say he meant a lot to me too. Yeah.

Yeah. Man, what a guy that guy was. I don't think I really got her until Royal Tenenbaum's. The Royal Tenet Balms part, I think, actually makes a little bit more sense for the prep school girl archetype that you're describing, except the tragic version. The version that is like stiff-backed with great posture, perfect elocution, I don't relate to that girl. I don't, like, I'm not attracted to her. Well, you're not interested in her. You think you're better than being? Yeah, yeah, it is.

It is like something kind of like tribal about it. And there's no, I don't, I don't cotton to that necessarily. But the Tenet Balms thing, I was kind of like, oh, you're tortured, you have a drug problem, you smoke too much, like you're flawed. I think also she's funny in Tenant Balms. Like there is a comedic edge to that. And I think Guineath-Faucho actually is underrated comedic actress from Emma to Tenant-Bowms. I would say just underrated period. I'm with you.

I didn't know this was going to come of Gwendoz Paltrow podcast, but I'm all here for it. Huge fan. And I actually feel like it's a. bummer that she didn't act more because I think she had a chance to be really, really great. She picked a lot of bad movies. But I think the fame kind of

a lot of stuff was going on and she also became famous right there in that first wave of the internet. And people lined up for her pretty quickly and I think that probably affected her too. Then she started dating Chris Martin. Everybody, one of the most polarizing musicians who could date.

She had her Madonna phase. Yeah, and everybody was annoyed by them as a couple. And then it just felt like transferred over how people reacted to her movies, which I don't think it's totally fair. I always think it's interesting when someone wins a best actor or best actress Oscar really early in their career because the first thing that they do when that happens is they go out and they usually go do a movie to get a paycheck. She didn't really do that. You know, she kind of became a movie star with a perfect murder.

But like if you look at Ripley is the first thing she does after Shakespeare. The intern duets, duets, bounce, ten and bounds. I guess Shallow Hal is probably the first one. Well, Shalah was when people turned. They were like, fuck her. Yeah. And they were turning the Farley brothers, too, and she got caught up in that. And then it was like, seems like she lost momentum after that.

It was right when she started, probably right around when she started angry Chris Martin, too. When they got married and she had kids and she took some time away from acting as well. And then she got caught up. And she was in Iron Man. You know, she was very early in being in the Marvel thing. True. Even if she doesn't remember it. And then Goop starts in, it's 2008 or 2009.

So I think she really, after a shallow howl just takes a turn. And then Kate Blanchette, this is the first, I would say, signature movie she'd been in. And in the research, the director basically extended her part because he loved her so much and just figured out more scenes for her to be in. And she's another one who's like the way she carries herself in this movie. It's funny, they're kind of on the same corner, her in Paltrow. And they're just perfectly cast for the 1950s as these kind of debutants. and she's great too.

Really, really, really. What is she in five scenes? Yeah. Hard, maybe not even. Four? Yeah. On this rewatch, she was the person who really stood out to me just because,

and as you noted, that character has really expanded, I think, from the original Patricia Highsmith novel. And just the insecurity and also the snobbery that she's just really subtly telegraphing. And she's like, in a lot of ways, a mirror image of Ripley. But it's, you know, you have to be,

paying attention, or at least I wasn't paying attention before. It's an amazing performance. She's one of those people who she wasn't there and then all of a sudden she was. Like all of us, she shows up in Elizabeth in 1998 and you're like, I guess this person is a big time actress. And not a movie star exactly. I think I might have even said movie star, but she just becomes like dependable and prestigious films all the time. And she's been in a lot of huge movies.

She was in the Lord of the Rings movie. She was just in a Thor movie a couple of years ago. It's not that she doesn't make big movies. but like she just starts showing up and stuff like the shipping news and Veronica Garin and the missing and she's so good in the aviator but her career is kind of funny

like I don't how do you define we don't talk about actresses like her that much on this show they don't usually come up we don't usually talk about movies that actresses like her make all the time Paltrow was different Paltrow was like a movie star she was a very famous person

who would be on the cover of a tabloid Kate Blanchett is actually closer to Damon like we don't know that much about her she might even be a little bit boring but she's consistently like you never walk out of a movie thinking like Kate Blanchett sucked. It's true. She's got very good stats.

Yeah, to me she's more of just like the quintessential theater actor. It's like if she were British instead of Australian we would just think of her in the way we think of all of the British actors who show up in period pieces from time to time as a way to fuel like their theater companies that they keep on the side, which is

actually what she does in Australia. Right. She's like Alan Rickman or something. Just doing great parts all the time even if the movie is a little beneath her. I was going to say she's more like the Phillips Seymour Hoffman a little bit. Like when she can pass to her a movie for 15 minutes and own the scene she's in and feel like she was

one of the lead actors when she actually wasn't. Yeah. She's like that in the aviator. Yeah, she kind of takes it over though when she's in there. You know, she owns the movie completely playing Catherine Hepburn. She does the same thing in a Wes Anderson movie in Life Aquatic. She like shows up and you're like, oh my God, all eyes on her. I'm a huge fan. I'm also

a huge fan of the next person we need to talk about. Jude Law. who after this movie you're like this guy's going to be one of the biggest stars in the world. It is the most charismatic. My wife, if I asked her to list like her five favorite parts slash performances of all time, this would be one of the five. She absolutely loves Dickie more than anything. So this is like, I think that's an unspoken truth that a lot of people agree with. I feel like if you did a list of characters from the last hundred years that you're just like,

I just want to be around this character. I just want to watch them doing stuff on screen. he would be pretty high for anybody who's seen this movie. And that was the whole point of the character was he had to be this tornado that people just want to get caught up in. And that's so hard to pull off as an actor. It is possibly like the most concentrated example of charisma and really charm in a movie that I can think of of all time. And obviously there are like a lot of charming people in the movies especially before, you know, 1960. That's kind of what those movies ran on.

but there is something so, like, natural and also astonishingly, like, shiny about what he's doing. And it's in his body. I mean, obviously, he can wear the clothes, the character, and the lines are written in a certain way. But it's just kind of the way he moves. There's like when... And how people play off him. Like, they just want to, like, they don't want him to leave. Yeah, he has chemistry with everybody.

It's just kind of a force field around him. Yeah. It's astonishing. And he's so handsome. in this movie. It's really, it's, I spent a whole podcast with Bill's wife and Julia Lippman talking about Jude Law. But it's, I don't have words for it. It's really important. The amount of, the amount of equity he bought with the female viewership population from this movie, he is almost immediately involved in a cheating scandal with his nanny. Yes. And it didn't

end his career because people, because people were like, yeah, you know what, I still, you know, they're like, grasping for straws trying to keep him around. But that whole scandal that he was involved with usually like ends people. Yes. Where people are like, that guy's a fucking asshole. Yes. Like Billy Crutt was another one when he dumped whatever her name is for Claire Daines. Mary Louise Parker.

For Claire Dane's when she was like eight months pregnant and people were like, whoa. That's terrible. But we've moved on from that as well. We've moved on and now he's stealing the morning show. There's a period of mourning and people. And disgust. Right. Having to be responsible for their actions.

and now we've moved on. But you're right with Jude Law that we never really did that. And if anything, Sienna Miller, who was his girlfriend at the time, suffered from the associations, from being in that tabloid thing. Because Hugh Grant was never the same for him after that, after his whole little scandal. He never really bounced back. He's fine. He's working all the time.

Judea. Jude Law and Hugh Grant. They're all... Closer was on recently. Yeah. Which I had to watch some of because I'm reading this book about Mike Nichols. and it's funny That's only like five years after this movie

And he seems like 20 years older Yeah Well he starts to lose his hair pretty quick Yeah Which kind of dispels him with His hair in this movie Holy shit It's great

It is a hair icon He's like his whole body is golden And the all the clothes he wears Is perfect He's a hat icon It's really It's tremendous And when

When Gwyneth Patro As Marge says When Tom starts getting bummed out Dicky's kind of shunned him for Freddie. And she says, The thing with Dickie, it's like the sun shines on you,

and it's glorious. And then he forgets you when it's very, very cold. So I'm learning. When you have his attention, you feel like you're the only person in the world. That's why everybody loves him. It's always the same.

Whenever someone new comes into his life. You have to be pulling the performance for somebody to say that about you and it not seemed like the worst part of the movie. But she's right. You're like, I get it. This guy walks in a room. Everybody just wants to gravitates on him. It's true. He has like a light in his eyes the whole time. And he's doing things that on another actor would look ridiculous. He's playing the saxophone, you know? He's wearing a jazz hat. He's like the original white guy who loves jazz in movies. And it just goes on forever. There's so much. Yeah. The other thing is just like, Dickie is a bad person just really demonstrably.

he does a lot of terrible things and you can see him and even intellectually acknowledge, well, that is a terrible thing that that person just did, but, like, I don't care because I'm so, like, insorcelled by Jude Law.

He never topped this from jumping off a movie screen. He, but he... He's had a good career, but he's never topped it. It's been very up and down. I think if you look at the movies he made right after this,

it's him kind of trying to reject being the most beautiful man in the world. Like, he makes AI, which is basically like a commentary on the robotic beauty that he possesses. He makes a road to perdition where he plays like a really grimy I think he's like an assassin and he's like

kind of ugly and I think he puts a gap in his teeth. Cold Mountain he's covered in dirt the whole time. He's a soldier. I heard Huckabee's one of my favorite most underrated movies of the century where he plays this character Brad Stand who is almost like a it's almost like if Dickie Greenleaf was born in 1980

instead of in 1940 and he's just like so full of shit and so golden and like such a bad person but also so he's like, people are attracted to him. Like, he has this ability to seem like super phony but also magnetic at the same time. It's a gift. Last one, Hoffman. This is when he goes on his character actor around 99, 2000.

He's in flawless. What do you stand on flawless? Not aging well. It felt like it was supposed to be an important movie at the time. It never got there and now it's just gone. Yeah. I didn't really love it when I saw it back then either. Magnolia?

Iconic. Talented Mr. Ripley? state in Maine and then almost famous by the time almost famous is out it's like oh Hoffman this is the guy he is he can pass through a movie

put 10 minutes in and steal every scene even more than Kate Blanchett is it like should we just talk about him right now yeah that's it um by far best actor of his generation like not even close to me

um I think probably the simultaneously like the funniest scariest most vulnerable actor ever, like not afraid to be disgusting, not afraid to be weird, not afraid to, like, he could be King Lear one moment, and then he could be like the biggest dirt bag of all time, the next moment. And you've mentioned it before, but he kind of, just like Dicky, he kind of just like pulls into this movie like a tornado.

As soon as he's on screen, you're like, what the fuck is going on with this guy? He's very funny, but disgusting. And he could just take over. And I think he's good in his parts where he's the lead, you know, he's good in Capote and He's obviously great in the master, but I love him best when he is just Scotty J or Miles, you know. Agree. And what's funny is he got Scotty J.

He's got the Magnolia guy who's very meek. Yes. Very sweet. Very earnest. We did when we did rewatch Bowles 99, like Cruz has the big scene. And Hoffman's just in the background, sobbing. Like, just got so caught up in the Cruz performance. Like, he just kind of broke down.

Then he does this character. And then Lester Banks had almost famous, which he filmed in two days when he had a cold. And I mean, when he's in the record story, he's like, Iggy Pop, amen. And like the energy that he could bring, like you could feel it. But I loved him in this movie, I think, the most. I think this is my single favorite Philip Seymorhoff performance because he's in three scenes. And in each of the scenes, you're like, oh, my God, what is happening? Yeah.

And it's not like he's taking on small actors, taking on big time movie stars blowing him off the screen. I mean, that's the thing. I often feel when we talk about character actors and supporting actors, The difference between them and movie stars is they don't often always have that magnetic quality. They have other things. They can assume a lot of different personas. But Philip Seymour Hoffman has that same. You just want to be near this person and watch every second of what's happening to him, even though he's only in the movie for 10 minutes.

And I always feel like he's creating a character. Like they give him Friday, right? And this guy's a fucking douchebag. He's Dickie's buddy. And he's going to think he's better than... Ripley. Those are your instructions. And he's like, okay, good, I got it. And then he comes back and he's got this character.

And like, when we were going to talk about the boat scene, Tommy has peepin. But before he says that, he's kind of watching him and he does that laugh or he's like, it's so douchey, but he can pull it off and he just seems like the biggest fucking douchebag. And his dad's probably some billionaire somewhere. And he's just like the perfect prep school douchebag. My favorite little moment is when he's in the record store listening to the jazz records, and there's a close up of him, and he's looking at Ripley with such disdainting, such contempt, such like, you're so beneath me, repulsion.

And there's no dialogue. He's just holding headphones up to his ears and looking at somebody, but he just, he says everything with the one look. And Tom shows up at breakfast the next day, and he's just like, I'm starting in on this guy right away, cutting his legs out. Great job of him. Matt Damon said this was his favorite film. ever made. $40 million budget.

Do you think that's still true, the Damon thing? Yeah. Okay. 40 million budget. 130 million. It made five Oscar nominations. The cast includes four Oscar winners. Everybody but Jude Law, who got nominated.

The OKC Thunder Comp is pretty legit. It's not bad. I didn't realize the director died at age 54. Yeah. I'd forgotten that. I thought he was older for some reason. He had a fatal hemorrhage for cancer with Tom. He had been trying to make this movie over and over and over again on his terms, and it took a while.

Because the book was apparently famous. I'm going to step on casting what ifs for a second. He said he wanted final say over who played Tom Ripley and said I'm not making the movie until I find Tom Ripley. We're not just going to make it with a guy I'm 80% about. It's like, I have to have. That was one thing. The other thing he said was, who were the brightest and most interesting group of young actors I could find in the world?

That's how I try to put in the film. And when I turned around a year later, there were all household names. Yeah. The casting in this is so remarkable just because all five of those people have to have chemistry with each person individually. It's not just like Jude Law and Matt Damon have to have chemistry. But then, like,

Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon have to and Kate Blanchett and Gwyneth Paltrow have to have the chemistry or like they have to be plausible enemies. It's remarkable that he found these five people. I mean, I guess. So five for five. Yeah. Then they became five movie stars. So shout at Anthony McGuella. But like Blanchett was not a movie star when he cast her and Jude Law was not a movie star.

And he gave Jude Law a really big part. Like he saw something. He's coming off of Gattaca. And I think in Gattaca people are like, this guy's going to be a thing. so there was some momentum for Jude Law. That's a fun stage when somebody's in the going to be a thing part of their career. Like Chris Pine right after Star Trek.

Yes. It's like, going to be a thing. Yes. But they all have that moment, except for Gretchen Maugh didn't last very long. Vanity Fair, and that was it. Tough beat, but a worst version of this movie stars Gretchen Mall instead of Gwyneth Paltrow.

That's the thing. You do have to get lucky with these kinds of people. And that's the thing. If Gretchen Mall is Marge, the movie takes a hit. It's a really hard part. And it could go wrong in the wrong hands. but he's trying to be super whatever.

Roger Ebert. Raj came through. Four to four. Yes. Quote, an intelligent thriller. Quote, insidious in the way it leads us to identify Tom Ripley. He's a monster, but we want him to get away with it. I'm so glad Raj is back on the board.

Do you agree with that? That's an interesting way of phrasing it. Are you rooting for Ripley? Yeah, 100%. I think you kind of are against your will. You both are like, this is. really screwed up and it's about to happen, but it's a little bit structurally because you are, as you said, in his mind and you're watching it. And there just is also that first hour,

you are also like it totally enraptured with Dickie and Marge and you also want to be a part of it, or at least I do. But I mean, it's great. I would love to spend my summer on the Amalfi Coast. And so you're at least sympathetic to him? Yeah, I think in the beginning of the movie you feel like, oh, he's kind of like an underdog, like lower middle class kid just trying to be. And so, you're to make his way in the world. But as things unfold, you're like, this guy is a specific brand of evil. I don't, you know,

maybe he's just evolving in real time, or he's just mentally ill or something. They never really say, but... I rooted for him the whole time. The whole time. Even after he bashed Freddy's head in. I had this in, uh, unanswerable questions.

Was this the year the anti-hero was officially born? Mm-hmm. Mr. Ripley, Tony Soprano. Um, fight club guys. Yeah, Tyler Dirk. Yeah. Those are first three. And then it's like, boom, we're off.

You know, Tehires. The shield comes. Interesting. The wire guys. And then it's like, oh, cool, we can root for these terrible people now. I don't remember doing that before the end of the second. No, we had like dirty Harry and stuff like that in the 70s. There was versions of it.

Dirty Harry, how dare you? Dirty Harry's not a great cop. What are you talking about? Broke several laws. No. He murdered several suspects. He did what he had to do. Okay.

That's your take on dirty hair. You taught people a less. Sure. Great. This is... I think of that as like the vigilante era. Okay. That's like the death wish, dirty hairy. These criminals are crazy. Thank God we have this one person who's not afraid of them. We'll take care of business. Almost like an anti-hero.

That is a vigilante. He's protecting us. As CEO of the Ringer podcast network, I use my morning community to catch up on the most recent episodes of our shows, like the Dave Chang show, the big picture of the watch, and many more. It's my way of using the drive as an opportunity to stay on. top of everything going on in the ringer and get prepared for the day, no matter what your morning commute looks like you can use as an opportunity to earn rewards with three times points on travel, including transit like taxis, ride chairs, subway swipes, even ferry rides. For those of you who get to enjoy a nice breeze on your way to work, I hope you're listening to me right now on your way to work. Learn more at Americanexpress.com slash green from

AMX Terms Apply. Let's go to the categories. Most rewatchable scene. Tom hangs out with Dickie for the first time, unless you want to go earlier with the scene. Is that the Speedo scene or when he comes to lunch afterwards and starts doing the impression of the dad? Yes.

Which, okay. When he says, Dickie says, what are you good at? And he says, forge your signatures telling lies in person. They didn't practically anybody. Everybody should have one talent. What's yours? Forging signatures. Telling lies, impersonating practically anybody.

That's three. Nobody should have more than one talent. Which I thought was a little weird that you would play, show your hand coming out of the gate. Maybe that was a little jetty mind trick by him. But that whole is he's trying to win over Dickie, and Dickie's like, this fucking schlob, I don't remember him from Princeton,

but is kind of enamored by him for some reason. Yeah, well, I think that powerful charismatic, people like to be surrounded by people who they know they're more charismatic then. So Dickie's attracted to that in a way with him. He knows he can kind of push him around a little bit, big brother him. Is that why you have Chris? No, no. That might be why you have me.

But I think the other thing too with Damon's character saying that is I think conmen, one thing that con men do really well is they actually reveal something about their strategy to make you trust them more, you know, to sort of say like, I'm letting you under the hood, I'm letting you see like my, interior. So then you'll, then you'll know that even if I'm conning other people, I'm not, I'm never going to con you. Right. I would never hurt you in this way because you know I can do this. So that's a really cool scene. Can I give a quick shout out to the opening credits, which I know is not like a cool thing to say. Yeah. The style of the opening credits is very Saul Bass,

who made a lot of opening credit sequences for Hitchcock. Yeah. Including Strangers on a train. Strangers on a train is also a Patricia Highsmith adaptation. There's like a lot of purposefulness behind that the sort of like, it's almost like two lines like sliding. over each other. And even they're showing like Dickie walking in Europe and there's a, you know, like a green bar or like lens through him because it's all about the way that you see people and the way that they can flip. Like there's all like little subtle choices in the movie like this throughout like in the filmmaking that I really like. The mid late 90s is when we really got good at credits. You think so? There's a lot of next level, like even enemy of the state. I don't remember what are

the credits like in that one? Just really good, really strong credits. Really good. Great. Keep you I mean, for years and years, it was just words, words, words for the credit. And it would be like, directed by this person, starring this person. And then they actually started to make them a little visually stimulating. I remember Seven had really good credits. They were sort of disgusting. But, like, revealed what kind of movie you were going to get. Next, we'll watch it.

We'll see Tom sings jazz with Dickie for the first time. My wife's probably favorite Whiskey and Solar My wife's probably favorite And probably favorite movie scene of all time Wow It's in the running She loves it so much

It's irresistible It's all of the movies themes And like drama condensed into two minutes And is also Just really, really watchable Yeah My wife also is obsessed with this scene It's funny that you say that

That's why I was kind of taken it back when you said it. She used to sing this song all the time. Dude, we got Americana, Americana, Americana. Is that a real song? Yeah, it is. Whiskey and soda. Keep going. And then she brings...

That's three more stanzas. That's all I know, because I know the one Italian line, and then when they say whiskey and soda. Great job by the Italian guy. Yeah. Really sells that song. Fausto? Yeah. And then they bring Matt Damon and near the end, and he does just enough.

Like, I'm super awkward. I don't really belong here. but I'm really so happy to be here. I can't stand it. And he's just staring at you the whole time. He's just completely loved it. It is good character building. Good job by him.

That's a great scene. Next one. Freddie enters the movie. This is an all-time five seconds. Is this even a scene? It's just honestly one line and the entrance. Oh, God. Don't you want to fuck everyone you see just once?

Only once? Absolutely once. Child. Tom Ripley. Freddie Mark. Tom. And then takes him to go listen to Jazz records, which I guess was the thing back then.

They're just sharing each sharing a headphone. I feel like we had listening boost in my lifetime. You had to go to the record store to listen to CDs before you bought them. And like 94 you could do that. No one else did that? The listening booth? Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Go to the wall.

Just spend hours in there listening to records. It was great. You couldn't Spotify. That didn't exist back then. I just want to say, could you imagine being Philpsey Moore Hoffman being a young actor? You get this script. You look at the script and it says, Freddy enters pulling through a piazza and a cherry red alpha-rameo. And this is what he says. Oh, God, don't you want to fuck every woman you see just once?

That's the first thing he says. It's just one of the best entrances in movie history. In a charming way. Yeah. He's kind of gross, but yes. No, it's very sleazy. This is charming, Freddie way, though. You're like, oh, I kind of like this guy.

Who's this guy? A friend is here. Yeah. I have Freddie again. Next rewatch we'll see. Freddy making fun of time at breakfast. Hey, I want this job of yours, Tommy. I was just saying, you live in Italy, you stay at Dickie's house, you take his food, wears clothes, and his father picks up the tab.

If you get bored, you let me know, because I'll do it. I'll do it. And then leading to the boat, when they're in the water and Marge gets off the line, why is it when men play, they always pretend to kill each other, which I think is just a good line. Good line. And then finally leading to, they go down on the bottom. Ripley's just watching and Tommy goes, Tommy, how's the peeping? How's the peeping?

Tommy. How's the peeping? Tommy. How's the peeping? Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. Do you think that was in the script? Do you think the script was like Tommy has the peeping and Hoffman's like, I have some ideas.

Well, he kind of makes a jazz, you know? Tommy. How many times do you think you've said, Tommy has the peeping to people who have no idea what that is a reference to? I wish we had somebody named Tommy. Oh, I do. I have Tommy Alter. Yes. Oh, I'll just start doing that with Tommy.

You've never done that with Tommy? No, I never have. You said it to me probably 300 times. Tommy. The boat murder is really good and really well done and violent and weird and well acted. And it flips. And he goes, who are you some third class mooch? And it just gets super ugly and unfolds in a way that it seems realistic that he would kill him, not intentionally.

And then he transforms. I think the line that you open the show with is like one of the more devastating digs you can put on a person. you know, you're a leech and it's boring. It's so boring. Like that is, imagine someone saying that to you. I just feel like so dismissed. What? You can be a leech.

You know that. And it's boring. You can be quite boring. Well, and this is the best, if we're going to talk about big, I was going to do this in what stage the best, but the big picture theme in the movie is you have this whole super wealthy culture, that everyone else aspires to get to. And the closest this guy can come

is basically to infiltrate it with the stupid come go get my son. And then pretending he's something he's not and he's living a lie the whole time. But he's getting a piece of this culture in this whole world. That he would never have a chance to be in otherwise. And at some point he's like,

I'm just going to start killing people. I'm not ready to leave. I'm not leaving this. I mean... I'm leaving a trail of bodies so I can stay here. He's also trying to protect things about himself that he wants people to know but doesn't want to say out loud. You know, like he's in love with Dickie and he's convinced himself that he and Dickie have

something more, you know, and... I think there's a difference between he's convinced himself that they have something more and he's in love with Dickie. And that's an interesting tension to the movie. To what extent his affection for Dickie is about wanting to be with Dickie and versus wanting to be Dickie and have all that Dickie, have all that be. Dickie means. So one other scene I would add that comes right before the one that you're describing that I think is important to that conversation is when they're playing chess and Dickies in

the bathtub, which is a really peculiar scene. And I'm sure when I was like 16 and I saw it, I didn't really get it. I didn't really get what was going on. The power dynamics, like what Dickie is doing to him if he's like challenging him sexually, if he is interested in him, but he won't say anything. Like, there's a lot of unspoken going on in that scene that obviously like kind of triggers Ripley, it kind of like sets him off in a way. I didn't include that because I felt like that scene they were trying like 10% too hard

to establish some sort of sexual attention thing. And I just never got the feeling that Dickie was gay. I didn't think Dickie was gay either. I think he was like lording it over him in a way. He knows that Tom is interested in him and the way that everyone is interested in him. And Dickie is using that against people and against each other constantly. Exactly. Because everyone is attracted to Dickie.

Even Freddie, who's not gay, is like, where's Dickie? I want to be around Dickie. I need to be around Dickie. The next one, most rewatchable scene, Tom runs into Peter and Marge at the opera. Tom. March. How are you?

What are you doing in Rome? Is he here? Are you with Dickie? No. No. Hello. I'm Tom Ripley. Peter Smith Kingsley.

I've heard all about you from Marge and Dickie. Ditto. No, no glasses. So, where are you hiding him? It's impossible, isn't he? Is he really not here? Well, Marge, you know, Dickie has I hate opera tattooed on his chest. I thought you were going to Venice.

Where is what happened with that? I had you were desperate to come. I was rather looking forward to rowing you around. I am. I really am. I've been traveling. I just can't seem to get that far north. Well, you should hurry before we think.

Coming right off, the opera make him cry because it's this parallel tale he killed Dickie, basically. And then he's strutting around. with thinking he's Dickie, but then all of a sudden these two people who know that he's not Dickie and the way he handles it, he slinks around the... Everything about how that scene shot,

he slinks around the corner so Marge can't find him, and it's really well done. Damon's performance is so good. And Marge is the first time the hint of her being like, wait a second. What's going on?

What do you mean? Yeah, why are you here? How did you get in here? You saw Dickie? Like she's, but not too accusatory, but you can see she's sizing them up the whole time. And it's so confused, but I like that scene.

And then Freddie confronts Tom. That would be my next scene. Similarly, like, some of the best line readings. You know, just the Hoffman where he's like... It's a new piano. Probably shouldn't. Probably shouldn't. Did this place come furnished?

It doesn't look like Dickie. It's really horrible, isn't it? So, uh, who's wah? That's a very expensive opinion. Can you not? And he's just pounding it. Yeah, he asks whether Dickie decorated it, the apartment himself. And he's like, it's so bourgeois.

And then he shits on it. Yeah. And the part when Tom is trying to tell him where Dickie is, and he says, Well, I would suggest you ask Dickie that yourself. I'll tell us is on Delacroche just off the course of. Is it on Delacroche just off the corso? You're a quick study, aren't you? Last time you didn't know your ass from your elbow.

Now you giving me direction. That's not fair. You probably do know your ass from your elbow. Do you think he knew? Freddie? The character? Yeah. What is Freddie thinking at this point?

He knows he's a con man, right? He knows he's full of it and he didn't go to Princeton. Right. I don't think he knew that he killed Dickie, though. No, but do you think he thought maybe he stole money from Dickie or something? Yeah, of course. I think he thinks that Tom is there trying to take advantage of the situation, probably in the same way to an extent that Freddie is. I mean, they all are taking advantage of Dicky and of each other.

But I think he's suspicious. I don't have any more 100% re-watchable scenes. I really like the first two-thirds of this movie more than the last third. I do like, though, when Pautro flips out at the end. I know it was here. I know it's a march. March. March!

March! March! I know! No, you kill him. March! I know! No! I know I was here.

Yeah, and that was a big change from the book because in the book she doesn't suspect him at all. That seems good. I wouldn't give that totally rewatchable, though. Any other rewatchables for you? I do like the Phil Baker Hall scene a lot. Because you think it's going to go one way and then it goes the other way.

And you think you're going to get this big reveal where he interrogates him and he's forced to confront him. And like all of the Ripley stuff, all the other Ripley movies, Purple Noon, the original Ripley. Every time you think he's going to get caught, he wriggles out.

Yeah. The problem with Purple Noon, is that he gets caught at the end, and that, like, totally betrays the point of the Ripley character who is uncatchable, who is, like, such a mad genius. And when Detective, what's his name of Karen, comes in, and he's like, you know, I don't like bullshit. I don't like talking it and I don't like hearing it.

You think he's going to cut straight to the chase and be like, you killed Dickie. And instead, he's like, what I'd like to do is give you money because you did such a good job. It's crazy. I like that scene a lot. He's basically playing the Boogie Knights character, too. I'm a simple man.

I feel like Phil Baker Hall is the same guy in seven of these movies and I love him every time. There is like an underrated Phil Baker Hall run that he's smacked at him of the love. So he goes

1997 Air Force One Boogie Knights, the Truman Show, Rush Hour, Enemy of the State, the Psycho remake, Cradle Will Rock, the insider Magnolia,

the talented Mr. Ripley, Rules of Engagement. Jesus. That's like 11 movies. He's like the that guy of his time. He is you know, without,

we're getting ahead of ourselves. Yes, but that's, I agree. That's amazing. Yeah. Most rewatchable scene for you guys? I mean,

for me, it's the, it's the singing in the club. I agree. I agree. What's age of best, Jude Law, we covered him.

Peak Blanchet and Peak Paltrow. I wrote that one down. Okay. Peak. Peak. Peak. Not peak Blanchet for me. Just like that young version of them.

captures them at the perfect time of their young careers. Italy, have it with an exclamation point. Love it. It seems so great. Yeah, it's fantastic. I mean, in this whole movie, just the production value, it's so, like, sumptuous and beautiful, and you want to be a part of it, which is, like, part of the kind of the tricky edge of this movie is that you're, you know, do you ultimately want to be a part of what's going on here?

Right. I'm not sure. But for the first two-thirds of it, I definitely do. It is one. Sometimes these movies just make you want to go visit. the place. Yeah. I think that's one of the reasons my wife likes this movie so much is you watch this and

you're like, man, I got to get back to Italy. Yeah. You just see the different things. Oh, my God. We'd all like to go to Mangabello. Unfortunately, it does not exist. Yeah. Yeah.

Where did they, was Pasatano? Positano, yeah. That still exists. It sure does, yeah. I would love to go. Dickie's clothes I had down. Wait, can we do a live rewatchables from Pasatano? Sure.

Okay. Dickie's clothes, they did a great job. I have Philip Baker Hall's one scene. And then, uh, Then I have this. Tom is talented. Tom is tender. Tom is beautiful.

Tom is mystery. Tom has someone to love him. That is a good thing. Tom is crushing me. Tom, Tom, you're crushing me. Oh, God. Tom, you're crushing me. How they do that is really great.

Well, the camera's not on it. He's back in his room. Tom is crushing me. Yeah. Tom, you're crushing me. What, so what you see him, he's got a tie or a rope or something. I thought it was a belt. A belt. He's got something and he's walking over to the bed and he sits on the bed.

He's talking to Peter. And he knows he's going to do it. And he starts leaning on him, right? They have this physical connection. And you know that he's going to start doing something. And then we get the cut and we go back to Tom's room, but you can still hear the dialogue. But when he's saying he's crushing me, what is he doing to him? I think he thinks he's like giving him a little love tap strangle from behind and then it's a full full-fledged strangle.

In asphyxiation. Yeah. That's, you think that's part of their lovemaking? Yeah, I mean, who knows? I'm not here to judge. Yeah, I mean, the way he's snucked him that Matt Damon is snuggling up on him, you have to figure that he's like, he's pretty much on top of him and strangling him from behind. And he like put his elbow in his back and strangling him or something? Yeah, maybe he did like a UFC move on him.

Yeah, it sounds like it. Okay. Like he's bear hugging him from behind like they're. buddies and then just gets a little tighter and tighter. Brock Lesnar choked him out. Yeah. Any other, what stage is the best for you?

We've covered a lot of it. I mean, scammer season. It has definitely, I think it's probably always been relevant. I don't think that talented Mr. Ripley or even Patricia Highsmith invented scammer season, but this movie definitely applies to certain recent events and this infatuation with how you look and superficial.

Why are you saying in Hathaway? I don't know if she got scammed. Did she? Oh, yeah. By the... By the... By the Italian. By the Italian.

Yeah. I more meant like, you know, Anna Delvey and all the Instagram people who are like I... Oh. You know, everything about surfaces and looking good and what you project versus what is actually there. This movie is like certainly relevant. And all of those people are doing the same thing as Ripley.

They're trying to enter this elevated lifestyle. They're all trying to get a little closer to that wealth, that success that they have no access to. I have for what stage the best, though, other than Jude law, just Italy. Yeah. Aging well. Thousands of years of beautiful history. Italy. Still winning.

Italy. I will say when I was watching it, I was thinking back and wishing I could have visited Rome in the 1950s, when it was not overrun with tourism in quite the same way. Obviously, it'd be nice to be in Rome in the year 1000. It would have been nice to be there. I don't know whether historically speaking, 1,000 was like the highlight for Rome. What was the best year? Well, you might want to be there Like, you know, at the

dawn of the new millennium Or the old millennium When things are really popping off 1,000 is kind of like dark ages Um, okay, maybe 1400 Just as the Renaissance was about to strike That would have been cool. You know what's cool?

You know what's cool? Yeah. Rome. It's awesome. It's so great. Big fan. It's because everything, you don't actually have to,

You can go to museum, but most of the stuff is just like on the street and you can look at some old shit and then eat some pasta. It's great. It'd be cool if we had like the leftovers though for Rome where like half the people would just disappear. You just had a really traumatic experience recently. You went in the summer. I went in the summer and it was so crowded and so hot. It was beautiful. A lot of great time. It didn't smell great. Yeah. It didn't smoke great. There's not a lot of deodorant in Italy. I'm half Italian. I can say that Rome is great. You know what is also great? Is the Mediterranean and particularly the Italian coast on the Mediterranean in A-plus experience?

I my husband planned my wedding and I planned my honeymoon because I didn't really want to have a wedding. I just wanted to have a honeymoon. But it was literally my theme was talented Mr. Ripley without the murder. And, you know, I want to say I thought, I think we got pretty close. And then he threw in one murder. But it was only one. It's fine. We covered it up.

What's age the worst? Covered the last 45 minutes of the movie. A little slow. Probably could have cut 10 minutes out of there. It's a little slow. So, Vana's death scene is still confusing to me. Me too. That's kind of my one, what the fuck were they doing here and what's going on?

It is really confusing. I don't understand how she killed herself and how they knew she killed herself and just any of it. And why they thought it was a suicide versus her being murdered. And I just don't understand any of it. What is your interpretation? Who was hugging each other and were the brothers and? Well, my interpretation is just that they're there for a different festival, right? It's like that, what's it, something about the Virgin Mary.

Always the case in Italy. And then she. And none of them are virgins. That's the problem. That's, you know what? This is a sex positive podcast, okay? And then she shows up. What does that mean?

Sex positive. No, I was just, anytime Sean keeps me like, Sean likes to shame people for having sex and movies. That's just not true. I don't think. Sex shamer. I only like to shame whores and the men who sleep with them. Great.

Great job. I had a wedlock defying Christ His teachings Well I don't think you're supposed to know that Well you are the viewer is But like the people at the festival are just upset Because like their friend is just drowned I mean that always puts a damper on her festival

Yeah exactly And the dead body is floating floating in there It's not what you want I just so confused How did she kill herself Why? Why? Who drowns themselves as a As a suicide?

Like usually you're just so confused would like tie a rock to your leg, right? I'm not even totally sure I fully got her despair. Obviously, she's pregnant. There's a scene missing. Yeah. But there's something doesn't connect. Like, she just jumps quickly.

She says at one point, like, Dickie, we have to talk. He's like, yeah, yeah. And then all of a sudden she's dead. All of it is a little off. But then they cut straight to Dickie. And I think you're just supposed to know that he's involved in it somehow. Right? Or that he is somehow responsible for it.

We knew that they're fucking. We just didn't know. Yeah. But as soon as they cut to him, you're like, oh, she's dead. He must have done something. But is there a possibility he murdered her, though? I think there could be. They insinuate that in some ways, but in other ways, it just seems like a total tragedy to him.

Like, it's kind of hard to, it's just hard to understand. And the movie is about ambiguity in some ways, but that part I completely agree, Bill. Like, I couldn't really gather what they were going for there. Any what's other what's age of worse for you that we haven't covered? No. All right. Casting what ifs. Apparently Leo declined the offer to play Ripley.

before Damon was cast. Yet again. Damon versus Leo. Comes up over and over again. Always. I think Leo's, it would have been a different movie. It wouldn't have been as good.

Leo should have been Dickey. Leo's not. Leo's Dickey would have been great. And at that age, he could do it. Yeah, blonde, tall, handsome. Kristen Bale considered for the role with Tom Ripley. He could have done it. He's like slightly too menacing.

That's, I agree with that. Yeah. Because Damon is using. his kind of boyish, all-American looks and vibe in this. And you can watch it turn in his face. But, you know, Christian Bale doesn't have that. He has other gifts. It's true.

It's funny a year later he's American Psycho. And that's kind of an interesting double feature. Con men who lure people to be murdered. And Leo ultimately plays Gatsby, which is another, like, in this conversation. And I think Leo makes more sense for Gatsby because Gatsby is more like outwardly flamboyant and showy, much like Leo style of acting. John Malcovich apparently came very close to directing this movie.

That's weird. Well, he later played Ripley. He played Ripley in the secret. It's kind of strange. Yeah. Let's take a break to talk about Luminary or podcast subscription service with some of the best content around, including The Ringers,

amazing new podcast, Sonic Boom House Seattle lost its team, hosted by our very own Jordan Ritter Khan. You like this podcast, Sean. I loved it. I helped work on it. You helped work on it. Yeah, yeah. That was like a humble brag.

Putting my editing cap on here. There you go. Well, if you're a fan of sports, great investigative journalism, or NBA franchises getting cruelly ripped away from their cities, I would highly recommend this. We broke a lot of news on it. We also did break stuff to story of Woodstock 99. Another great one.

Steve Hayden, the rewatchable spinoff. The rewatchable is 1999. You were on that a couple of times? Loved it. We didn't finish the slate, though. We got more 99 movies to do. Well, we still have Fight Club. We still a fight club.

That's the last one. I'm doing it in 2000. Luminary app free to download gives you access to way more than just their own content, including thousands of other shows like this one, two months of access to Luminary's premium content for free at Luminary.com slash rewatch. After that, it is only $7.99 per month. Luminary.com slash rewatch. Cancel any time. Terms do apply. The Deanne Waiters Award, it can only be Hoffman. It can only be Hoffman. I think Deanne Waiters in real life, the basketball player. Yes, thank you. It's not going well. Oh, no. He's been suspended

twice in Miami for conduct detrimental to the team. Are you able to rename the Dionne Waiters Award? The Freddie Miles Award is kind of pretty good. Wow. Yeah. It's one of the all-time heat checks we've ever had in this pod. Wow. I thought what we would do is... This is a big moment.

Well, I thought when we get to the 100th and we do the reheat. Me and Chris Ryan... Is that actually happening? Yeah, that's really... That's really nice. 100 episodes, and then the 100 first is the reheat. with me and Chris Ryan, we're just doing it again. I have some more thoughts since the last time.

I'm really glad you guys found each other. Thank you. But I was thinking maybe we'd have the listeners give them four choices, put it on the Twitter account. Okay. Because I think we should rename Dion Waiters after the 100th. Okay. For the heat check.

It should be a new person for the second. I will say, like, I think I finally learned what this award meant. And now we're changing it? No, but if it's Freddie Miles, I still understand what it means, so that's okay. The Spirit of Miles Award is pretty good. I love it. I don't think we can change it yet because wasn't Deon Waiters on this Oklahoma City Thunder team? And isn't Hoffman's character kind of the Dion Waiters?

There you go. That's why we do it. Apex Mountain, you could make a strong case for Gwinterre. She's already won the Oscar. She's another big movie. She's been in six commercial movies over the last two years. I don't know if she has more power at any other point than she does right now. I'm sorry that we have to redefine this category in every episode.

But is Apex Mountain limited to acting or movie endeavors? It is about peak of your powers. When did you have the most career options? When you have the most juice to do whatever you wanted. Okay. I mean, the goopling is so huge. Yeah, I was going to say, I honestly think it might be right now. I know that's ridiculous.

I would say that's when it's the business woman. So that's just the actor? I think the act. actor. I think this is Apex Mountain for her. It's a good case. Okay. Jude Law. I mean, absolutely. Has to be, right? Yeah.

This is, coming out of this movie, we're like, this guy's going to be James Bond. This guy's going to be, who is this? He's the most handsome man in the world. What's next? And he never really, really topped it. He strikes me as one of those guys who's going to win an Oscar when he's like 71. And it's going to be for a really, like, sacchar and mediocre movie. But we're going to be like, Jude Law has given us so much.

It's time to us. honor him in his time and we're going to look back and be like, why didn't we honor him for a movie like this? He was nominated. Like when Michael Kane won the Oscar? Exactly. Same, which end the year that he won the Oscar for this in this race. Oh yeah. He won for the Cider House rules and Jude Law was nominated. Mm-hmm. 1950s Italy I have for Apex Mountain. Okay. What? I mean, I just wanted to mention Italy again. This movie is Apex Mountain for 1950s, Italy. For 1950s Italy in a movie? I think that I, I think Roberto Rossellini would probably have something to say about that.

He's got some films during this time. For me personally. You might want to consider. For me personally. Any other Apex Mountains? Nobody else I don't think really qualifies. Unless you wanted to make a Hoffman case, which I'm not ready to do. You know, Anthony Mangela is kind of an interesting one to talk about.

Because obviously the English patient is like major triumph, huge hit, wins all these Oscars. And a lot of people were like, can you follow it up? Can Damon follow it up? And like, they did? They made it successful. And then it was like... I thought English patient maybe, but maybe you're right. Now that he does this and then it's like, oh, man, here we go.

Everything at his fingertips. And he, you know, he probably doesn't make as many movies as you would have wanted to make. He died so young. But he never, I don't think he ever got back to something this successful and beloved either. It's a bad one. Bad loss. It is. It is.

He would have made some great movies. I feel like he would have had a couple more decades there. His movies, a follower, are a little bit, they don't feel like they're fully there. Like Cold Mountain and Breaking and Entering in particular are like, there's something. a little bit off about both of them. They're interesting, but they're not like these first two. The Joey Pants Award for Best That Guy, unless we want to give it to Philip Baker Hall, but I feel like he's Philip Baker Hall now.

The guy who plays Dickie's dad? James Rebhorn. Yeah. He is an all-time that guy. All-timer. Yeah. I think they both are. I mean... I can't even name the other movies he's been in, but I know he's been in 30 of them. Are you on to do a couple? I mean... He's incentive of a woman, right? He's incentive of a woman, also starring Phillips Seymour Hoffman.

Well, he's in the My Cousin Vinny Basic Instinct back to back. That's pretty huge. Oh, yeah. He's in Carlito's Way. He's in White Squall. Who is he in Basic Instinct? Dr. McElwain. He's one of the psychiatrists.

Yeah. He's the dad on Homeland. Forgot about that. That's right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He also has like a mental illness of some kind. Yeah, I think so.

What's his name, James Rebhorn? Rebhorn, yeah. God, what a good guy. Kind of like the G.D. Spradlin for his generation. Good call, yeah. Do you think... Like in the 70s, he's definitely playing Senator Geary. I feel like you got to do the pyramid for that guys.

He's in there. You think he's in the upper rung? Is Joe Panelliano? Is he the number one? Yeah, yeah, he's the overlord. His 80s run is just unparalleled. This is good shit. I also really like how much Rebhorn hates jazz.

We're a guy's playing jazz and he's like, give that guy $100 just to shut up. He's under some stress. His son is missing. He's in a foreign country that he doesn't want to be in. And the saxophone is reminding him of his son. Why does Herbert Greenleaf hate Europe? That's kind of a hot take. Well, he's right after the war.

Yeah, they're supposed to be post-war Americans. They're building their own world. They're too, they're snobby. Right. Good call. Yeah. Good job, guys. Sounds like now.

I agree. Herbert Greenleaf, Brexit. Linda, Linda Partridge, they knew overacting award. Everyone in the Sovana death scene Some of the most overactive we've ever had in a movie. All right. Half-Fice internet research. Damon lost 30 pounds allegedly.

Learned how to play the piano, ran six miles a day, and was covered in makeup all over his body to make him seem pasty and pale in comparison. Oh, wow. I can't relate to him anymore. As someone who is that pasty and pale. I thought you wore makeup.

No, you're not. Okay. Just an undercoat. Damon actually sang my funny Valentine. Yeah. Jude Law learned how to play the saxophone. Where are you out on Chet Baker, Bill? You big Chet Baker guy?

Yeah. No? The early stuff. Jude Law gained weight for the movie, so I think he could seem a little more of substance. Jude law is also jacked in this movie. Yeah, he is. Broke a rib while falling backward while filming the murder scene in the boat. After viewing the film, Tommy was so, was so emotionally moved that he vowed to make a film just as compelling.

And four years later, that film was The Room. That's the most incredible. It's half-fast. They're kind of similar movies. I mean. It's about like a sociopath in a bad relationship. Yeah. Who's maybe more in love with his friend than the woman.

And one of them kills the other, right? Isn't that what happens in the room? Sure. Tom kills Freddie with a bust of the Roman emperor, Hadrian, who had a gay lover who was killed. A little on the nose You were a classics major What's up with Hadrian?

Well, he built a wall And that's, you've never heard about Hadrian's wall? That's like a big thing. Break it down. It was very long. There's some of it in the UK And obviously Rome's in Rome, which is far away. And then also he had a gay lover.

And he looks like the bust that's in this movie. That concludes Amanda's classic's quarter. We'll be back. The, The production, they were shooting in all these different seaside towns. They shot at Rome. They shot in Sicily and Naples. And sometimes their shoots were hundreds of miles apart.

And they had to scramble around these different places. I think he shot everything in sequence, which made it harder. Clint Eastwood would have been like, we're shooting all the Sicily stuff today. We're banging out the boat seat right now. Yes, Clint Eastwood, known Italy and Sicily enthusiast. I'm not sure the story really would resonate with Clint Eastwood. This is not really in his style. recasting couch

Let's talk about Peter Whatever his name is for a second Jack Davenport Yeah This could have been like Early Colin Farrell I don't know if he's old enough yet I wish it was somebody that would eventually become a major star

Because then we would have six instead of five This guy kind of comes and goes We don't know what happens to him after this movie I really for three quarters of my life And also rewatching this movie I thought it was the guy from that guy. What's his name? Robert Sean Leonard. Yes. Another three-name person, but it's not Robert Sean Leonard. Yeah. Could have been a bigger star in this role. I'm trying to think of who would have been good in this part. It's Colin Farrell five years later.

No. See, I was thinking more like Colin Firth. Yeah. I agree with Colin Firth because this person is actually supposed to be like a good person. Yeah. I mean, he's a little elitist and snotty because he hangs with all these people. But it's like supposed to. to show that Tom can... What about Jack Black? Jack Black? No? No? No? Jack Black?

I was just thrown out... Will Ferrell? Why not Chevy Chase? Will Ferrell? Try to be weird. Pick a Nits. Why wouldn't Dickie's dad just go to Italy to get him? Just can't go to Europe and drag him back?

He's too busy, golden ships. Yeah. If you're Ripley, do you just come clean about being Dickie at the end on the boat with Cape Blanchette? I don't think you can because then you definitely get arrested. You become a suspect? Yeah. I mean, there is a question of why doesn't he kill her instead of Jack Davenport? Because her people saw him.

Nobody saw Jack Davenport except for one first. I mean, unanswerable questions. Picking nits. It can be an unanswerable question, too. The two things are related because when he kills Peter, how does he get off the boat? Like, how does he, where does he do with Peter's body? Overboard. throws Peter's body overboard?

Yeah. What about when they get off the ship and they're like going through the manifest? He's like, oh, he must have left or something. My second friend who killed himself? I don't know where he is. What's coincidence? That's just a tough one. I was trying to figure out like, where is Peter's body?

He's like, I can't believe this is happening again. Two phones and killed themselves. It's really tough. I think he probably. I'm wearing their rings. It pretends to be someone else when he gets off the boat. You think he's like, I'm Peter? Yeah.

Yes. I mean, no one's fact-cha. No one's checking anything. No one's looking at photographs. That's the genius thing of the movie is that everything is happening in 1950, whatever. And there's no way to double-check anything, you know? Like, people literally look at a passport photo of Jude Law. And then they look at Matt Damon and they're like, checks out.

And people are like, okay, whatever. Could be a bad photo. This is true. Here's one related nitpick, though. Like, wouldn't someone at some newspaper have, like, an actual photograph? of Dickie Greenleaf because he's like famous and he's the son of like the shipping air and he's also really handsome and ostentatious.

I think it was really easy to get away with stuff from 1950s. Yeah, but like once they're doing a lot of news stories about it because at one point they say like this is a really big deal like because Frayy's gone and he don't. Yeah. At least there has to be like one like there's a Princeton yearbook

with like the actual photograph of Dickie Greenleaf. That exists. There's a lot of flaws in this movie. Yeah. The plotting is a little bit complicated. And how does Amanda Knox get in here? That was weird. Great point. Great callback.

The Amanda Knox store, basically a remake of the talented Mr. Ripley. Oh, my God. It really is. Please don't bring that up in my presence. Why? Do you know what my middle name is? Oh, right.

It's Knox. My name is Amanda Knox. Okay? My Google results were really screwed up for like four to five years there. Your middle name is Knox? My middle name is Knox. Wow.

Yeah. That was tough. Couldn't go to Italy for a couple years. Still a little nervous about it. To be quite honest, we were mostly vindicated. We? We, you know. You're like, we're like, we.

I have to tell you. I didn't ask for this. Amazing. I threw you off your side there. I'm trying to think what I would have done if I was him. You're on the boat. Everything's great. I'm with, what's the guy's name, Peter Kingsley Johnson?

Peter Smith Kingsley. Peter Smith Kingsley? I'm good. I found a guy. I have all Dickie's money. Everything's worked out great. But then it's like, oh, I see. I see the aunt who knows them.

So now I have two witnesses. I don't know. I think I would have at least entertained trying to get rid of Kate Blanchett. What about just throwing her overboard? You know, she's like, hey! Just right over. That's what happens to everyone else in his movie except for Freddie Miles. And then he gets found.

No, Marge gets out of it. March is about to buy it. Yeah, but everyone who dies, I mean. Best quote, other than once we mentioned, I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Do you mean lied about who you are? I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.

What are you talking about? This is a great quote. No matter what you do, no matter how awful, no one ever thinks they're a bad person. It all makes sense, doesn't it? In your head. You never meet anybody who thinks they're a bad person. That's like a good quote.

That would be a good senior year book quote that would freak everybody out in your class. What is going on there? You don't want to quote this movie Why is it when men play They always play at killing each other It's a great one Tell me, why is it when men play

They always play it killing each other He's drowning me! He's drowning me! Yeah We mentioned all the other ones. Could this be remade as a 10 episode Netflix show? My first answer was fuck yeah

I'd be in? Ten episodes? I'm in Italy. Who are the stars? Well, they're remaking it. They're doing it. And Andrew Scott, a hot priest. Oh, that's right.

is going to be Ripley. Hot Beach from Fleabag. Really? Yeah. I don't know that I don't believe it's for Netflix now, but for another streaming service. Amazon. It's a little HBO Max. I think it's Amazon.

Or maybe it is HBO Max. Yeah. I mean, there are five Ripley books, right? So there's a lot of story to tell. There have been four or five versions of the movie. So it's not like, also Conman stories are the best. Like they're just very entertaining. I feel like this movie is, it's still a little evil.

Yeah. Like following this person for 10 hours. is a little much. Well, I don't think he would turn until, like, the fifth episode, right? He'd probably go. Okay. Because there's a difference between, like, yeah, because that's what Breaking Bad does, right? Breaking Bad takes a long time before you're like, oh, God, Walt is a piece of shit.

You know, when he kills Jane. I'm still in on Walt. What? Yeah. You think he was justified in everything he did? Can't judge. Good guy? Can't judge from far away.

Good guy to know? Don't know the choices he had to make. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. like murders several dozen people distribute drugs across the country it's blemish okay I just want to

it's a Showtime show eight episodes written and directed by Stephen's alien Showtime Oh screenwriter of the Irishman Yeah The most appropriately lengthed movies of all time

Yeah there you go Showtime needs something Yeah they're getting Ripley Well I'm excited for that Unanswerable questions Would you rather be with Marge or the cute Italian girl. This is your sort of fantasy. Why can't I answer that as well?

You can answer. Honestly, neither one is my idea. You're out on both. You're so boring. I love Sylvana. Really? That's your pick, though? I want to be with March. I think he's handling it perfectly. Sylvana looks like she cuts her hair with a rock. I'm just not into that.

I liked how he, I think he was on the right path. On the right path? Yeah, with both. No, that part, maybe not. But he had Sylvana. He was still playing his options. He knew he was going to marry March. She's trying to sew his oats a little bit. It's the 1950s.

Who's there to judge? Clearly, Silvano and killed herself. Well, and then he gets killed. So it went a little wrong. The plan, it fell apart. Okay. But I think, you know, for 1950s. Dickey, I think, was like, all right.

And then obviously had more than just those two, too. He's a magnetic guy. He is a magnetic guy. He's a terrible person. Kind of spread it around. I personally pick March. She can make a martini. Marge was great.

She has, love Marge. Yeah, great style. She's a writer. She's a writer. What kind of book was she working on? A novel, I think. Was it? I don't know.

Definitely a bad novel. That's rude. Marge. I don't think she had a lot to say. She has like the most insightful observation. You were just like, this is the best quote. She's writing about, like, rich people in Italy. I don't know.

You. You. Okay. Me. You. We are. We literally just did it. podcast about it.

I think she eventually ends up on Mad Men and gets involved with Don Draper for three episodes. I'm much more into the Cape Blanchett character. Yeah. She has all the wealth, but also hates herself. You know, so there's a ton of vulnerability there. Well, she has that great moment when she first meets

who she thinks is Dickie and she's complaining about some super rich thing. What does she say? She says something like... The bags. She's like, she has too many bags. You have to teach me how to pack so lightly. Or is it when they're in Rome at the Spanish steps and she's like... The truth is that if you've had money your entire life, even if you despise it, which we do, agree?

You're only truly comfortable around other people who have it and despise it. I know. She basically comes in on like the Queen Mary, right? What's the name of that ship that they take when the driver is like, yeah, the Greenleafs know the owner of this giant cruise ship. Amazing stuff. Do you think Dickie, my other in answerable question, do you think Dickie ever was like, I'll hook up with Tom tonight?

I think you're meant to think it's crossed his mind. Yeah. He's a sensualist. He wants to try everything. Right. Okay. Any other in answerable questions?

I don't know. Do you root for Tom? I just like the movie. I've seen it so many times of not really rooting for anyone because I already know it's going to happen. But in the moment, it is weird sometimes when you watch movies

and you're rooting for bad people to get away. The ultimate example is natural born killers, right? Those are the worst people on the planet. They're like, oh, I hope they survive two more scenes. That's true. Just be rooting for them to be shot down by police. Well, the movie does something interesting that, like, pretty much no one in the movie with the exception maybe of Marge that is surrounding Ripley is a good person. Yeah.

And so it kind of justifies some of the choices that he makes to the audience, even if they're still monstrous. Question I have for you guys is, have you ever been a Dickie or a Tom in your life? Have you ever been a person that has a relationship with someone who looks up to you aggressively? And then you kind of are keeping them at bay, but also keeping them close? Or have you ever wanted to be someone so desperately? I feel like most likely you have these experiences as like a teenager. You know, when someone's a little older than you. Right, right, right.

They have more access to stuff than you understand. This is such a good question. When I was rewatching it, I was thinking a lot about the Fronte novels. Do you guys know about those? My Brilliant Friend, which are set in Naples and are about, essentially kind of a female version of this relationship minus the actual sociopathie or and the murder. Though actually I haven't finished the series.

So maybe there is some murder and I don't know about it. No spoilers. But this idea of just being of one person in the relationship and the friendship being so obsessed with the other person. And I have basically always not been a huge fan of the Fronte novels because I just don't understand the dynamic at all. But there is like in that way it's presented. more is like, this is what female friendship is like. And it's not what female friendship is like. That's not friendship. Just FYI. But in this movie, because it's shown to be unhealthy and this idea of obsession and longing and aspiration is shown to have disastrous ends for pretty much everyone.

I don't, I relate to it more. I guess I don't know if I've ever been. I think for me, like, my dickies would be like Jude Law and like the people in movies. I really do like see this is the, you know, kind of the way I'm fixated on, like, famous people and, and I guess, to an extent, rich people and the people who can afford to go to Italy all the time. Those are the best movie characters, though, right? The people that are able to create this charismatic tornado that you just want to be a part of. Yeah. Over and over again, those are the ones that we end up remembering. I just didn't expect Jude Law would be one of the ones that created it, right?

Yeah, but he's just undeniable. Yeah. He's such a perfect presentation, especially of, like, mid-sense. century America of like what people thought the idealized life was. Wealth, beauty, the ability to do anything that they want but not choosing not to do anything. I feel like so many people just fantasize about the idea of like when I'm retired at 32, you know, they just want to get away and be done with stuff. And he has chosen that path specifically of just going to bed with beautiful women, listening

to jazz music, sailing. That's his life. I had one more unanswerable question. Do you think the name Marge is ever going to come back? No, I feel like The Simpsons pretty much ended that. The Simpsons ruined Marge. Well, not ruined it, but there's only, I think we only have one association with Marge now. It's hard to overcome that.

How about Maud? That one's tough. Judd Apatow tried. Yeah. He did a Maud. I've always liked Maud. Because I think having gone through now my kids are older, but there was this kind of generation of names that all the same kids have. and whatever class you have it,

there's an Olivia and an Ava and an Eva and all these names that nobody had when I'm like we were growing up. And I'm wondering now if people are going to go back further and go into the Marge. Well, I've always loved... Kind of the old 20s and 30s names. I've always loved Margo.

I think that's a great name. That one's in there, though. That's in the rotation. People use that, yes. We have a friend who has a Margo. But Margot was also Gwyneth Poutre and Tenetbaum's. She's a Margo.

And there's something hip about that. Marge, that's not hip. The move is Jenny. Jenny's ready for a comeback. Jenny? There's no Jennings. There's no Jennings. There's no Jenys under age 15.

There were so many born between 1970 and 1990. Number one name, right? Yeah. Jenny and Michael, I just feel like I knew a thousand of them. Yeah. I feel like this is just your Forrest Gump coming through. What do you mean? The Jenny and Forest Gump character.

No, Jenny's going to come back. It should come back. I don't know. Jenny, everyone was named Jenny for 20 years. And then everybody was like, no more jennies. And there is not, my kids have not been in a class for 14 years that there was a Jenny or Jennifer. Can I tell you what I want to come back is Dickie?

Dickie. When are we getting Dickie back in the mix? I don't know anybody named Dick. I don't know a single dick. I don't know a Richard or Dick. I don't know Dickie Barrett. Because I think now you're not allowed to give kids any names with like obvious bullying possibilities. Oh.

We have that's Richie here at the Ringer. But nobody has ever called him Dickie. Well, let's start calling him Dickie. I'm sure he'll love it. Who won the movie? Tough one. I think it has to be Jude Law. Yeah.

That's kind of how I feel too, but it's amazing because Damon, this is such an important performance for his career and he's, you know, top five actor the last 25 years and he doesn't win this movie. Right before we jumped onto this podcast, Kate Hallowell saw, I was going into the podcast studio and she was like, are you going to do talent to Mr. Ripley? You're going to talk about just how incredibly hot Jude Law is in that movie. That is the lasting impression of the movie. Yeah. And also the movie's never the same after he leaves. It's true. That's right.

That's a great way to put it. Yeah. Great. by him. Little Sunny Corleoneish. I think the Godfather recovered pretty well. It did. I think it's okay. He dies and it's like, oh man, really? That guy's going to be

gone now? Yeah, no, it's true. We don't get to hang out with him anymore. That's how you know you're a charismatic actor. We get gunned down halfway through. Amanda, Sean, pleasure is over. Thanks, Bill. Thanks, Bill. Stay tuned. We have one more. We're sneaking in right before the end of the year.

It is a trilogy. We did three movies. selected by a famous person who then sat down and did those movies with us, all three of them. It is a person you will not expect. It is a truly famous person who is very important to this podcast. I'll leave you hanging with that. Merry Christmas.