This Had Oscar Buzz - 123 – Life As A House (with LaToya Ferguson)

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

This week, we’re looking back at Oscar buzz molded from the success of American Beauty and the (new) hope of an incoming mega-franchise star: 2001′s Life As A House. Writer and podcaster LaToya Ferguson joins us to talk about the film that stars Kevin Kline as a dying man building a dream house with his estranged troubled son, … Continue reading "123 – Life As A House (with LaToya Ferguson)"

Hi there, listeners. This is Chris and Joe here coming up at the top of the episode, reminding you to submit your mailbag questions you have until December 15th to do it. You can message us on Twitter at Had underscore Oscar underscore Buzz. You can also email us at Had Oscar Buzz at gmail.com. Send us all your lovely questions. We'll be answering them on our mailbag episode at the end of this month. It's a nice little New Year's to read for you questions about Oscar ephemera. Please do not ask us questions about COVID.

Right. No COVID questions. No, when are you going to do X movie questions? We'll probably not answer those on. But like, yeah, Oscar stuff, actor stuff, movie stuff. You know. We like answering questions. You don't need to ask about it.

for you. We're kind of bummed out about that. But, you know, other than that. We've got no HBO Max questions. Thank a goodness. Thank goodness. Thank goodness gracious. Yes. We're going to have a good time together. We're going to have laughs,

um, uh, nostalgic tears. Um, all of you know. You're really requiring a lot of me emotionally for this episode, Chris. I know. I am very demanding co-host and friend. All right. Yes. But yes. Send us in your question.

and then settle in for this episode on Life is a House. It's a good one. We got a good one coming. Bye. Bye. Wait, not by. Stay. Don't go away. No, don't go away. Don't go away. Stay. Don't go away. All right. Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Merlin Heck. You live in a garage, and I'll take a shower in the middle of the yard. Come over to my house whenever you want.

Finally tearing down this pile of junk. Oh, hi, George. Guess how many low-income apartments the city approved for this lot? Could you hand me a towel I'm getting out? Why are you so tight? I'm coming in. I was here six years, and I only hated two. Which two?

First because I wasn't sure you really loved me, and the last because I wasn't sure I really loved you. I'm going to build something I can be proud to give you. Build this house with me. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that sets off the sprinkler system in the Mercury Theater because we're just that dumb. Every week on This Had Oscar Buzz,

we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we are here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Joe Reed. I'm here, as always, with my soft goth child of divorce. Chris Fyle. Hello, Chris.

I'm vaguely offended by that. Well, watch this movie, and you'll be fully offended by it. No judgment to Goths. I definitely had, like, a friend who was very goth because I grew up in the, like, corn evolution of goth, corn with a K. Gotcha. You had me on a different path for a second there. Exactly. Musically in this movie, aside from Joni Mitchell, I probably identify as Guster. Well, the music in this movie is all over the place, and we're definitely going to get into that for sure once we get into the full swing of this. But yeah, we're going to be talking about a movie that I think both of us said before we started that we haven't really revisited this movie at all. since it first came out.

So this was a fascinating little revisitation. The things you didn't forget, or the things that you forgot about this movie, you probably buried them very deep. Yeah, but the things I remembered were like real still fresh in my memory. Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure. But there was the wildest things in this movie

were the things that I really did not remember whatsoever. Yeah, life on that cul-de-sac was interesting, to see the least. But this film was not my selection, nor was it yours. This was the selection of our very special guest this week. And we don't like to waste a whole lot of time before we bring in our guest because what's the point in chit-chatting without those podcasts that like talk for 20 minutes before they introduce their guests where they're like holding them hostage before they introduce them. Well, and some of them are some podcasts do the thing where they record separately a little like chit-chaty intro by themselves. But we, the listener, aren't sure whether they're that kind of podcast or not. So we, as a listener, are in suspense as to, like, are they just saying all of this in front of the guest?

Because, again, you know what, you know there's a guest when you click on it because you have a podcast app and you've selected this episode on purpose. So anyway, we don't want to be, we don't want to give you listeners that stress. So we are going to bring in our special guest for this episode. She is a freelance writer. You may have seen her work on. on the AV club or recently on primetimer.com. And she is the host of the Angel on Top podcast and co-host of the Empire Diaries podcast. Latoya Ferguson, welcome to this head Oscar Buzz.

Hello, guys. Thanks for having me. And you may know there's a guest because I was already laughing and I made a corn joke. We love it. Listen, all our guests need to make a vegetable joke of some sort. You have said a new criteria. everybody has to mention some early 2000's artifact of music specificity. I don't know what I'm saying, but you have said a new rule.

Because it wasn't even a joke. It was just me elaborating that it's corn with a backwards art, what it is. It is shocking that there is no corn song in this because it does have, I'm pretty sure that's a limp biscuit song. It sure as heck was. It's a lint biscuit ballad at that. It's, yeah, the sad limp biscuit song. It's the Fred Durst

Has Feelings Too song We will absolutely discuss that I would rather learn that Fred Durst has feelings from that one song than from his cinematic directorial career Oh, what was that movie called? That movie he directed. I know it's been more than one, but that one? He did more than one.

Wasn't it that movie where John Travolta had a bowl cut? Am I crazy? Yes, that is what it is. I cannot remember what it's called. I just keep wanting to call it the fan, and I know it's not the fan. That is Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes, and that was the 90s. But didn't he also direct a movie with Ice Cube?

Did he? All right, now I'm doing it. Now I'm bringing up the Fred Durst filmography on IMDB because my hand has been forced. No, we're doing this now. There's no going back. All right, Fred Durst, God, the fact that he has a filmography at all is crazy. Oh, and of course, IMDB is giving me all his music videos. Give me a second.

I'm going to get them to... Well, you can't, like, forget his cameo in the pie. of McG's Fastlane, either. Oh, God, Fast Lane. I remember Fast Lane. I don't remember him in it. I probably blocked him out. But it's Faccinelli, right?

Yeah. Yeah, Faccinelli and Bill Bellamy and Tiffany Embertheson, I'm pretty sure. Absolutely. I could talk about Fast Lane for a long, long time. I've written about Fast Lane multiple times. Oh, my God. That was a mad lips of a cast. That's wild.

Oh, absolutely fully wild. Okay, so The Fanatic, not the fan, but Travolta Bull Cut is called The Fanatic. Okay, so I wasn't crazy to be thinking the fan when I knew it wasn't the fan. No, that is, the first two stars listed are John Travolta and Devin Sawa. I'm probably going to have to watch this movie now. Oh, boy. The Ice Cube movie with Ice Cube and Kiki Palmer is called The Long Shots, which means, God damn it, I'm probably going to have to try and watch that movie, too.

And then the one that I was thinking of that was like the teen one, Jesse Eisenberg in The Education of Charlie Banks from 2007. Jesus, wasn't that like a Sundance movie? I'm pretty sure that it was, yes, because that was the first one. So people weren't really sure yet whether Fred Durst was going to become one of these. No, it was Tribeca Film Festival premiere. Oh. Yeah.

Why are we allowing this? Why? Why have we allowed Fred Durst a lot in his career? Let's be honest. Like he, there's just so much that we let him become a fashion statement. We let him rhyme the word nooky with cookie. Exactly. And made it a hit, made it a huge hit.

God. That was our first. We had to be an impossible theme. Oh, my God. Which one was that? Was that the third one? Am I two, baby? My two.

Am I two went wrong in so many ways. All right. So, Latoya, as a first time guest, with all our first time guests, we, want to sort of get the lay of the land in terms of what your relationship is to the Oscars. We sort of talk about it as an Oscars origin story. Like, when was the first time you remember being aware of the Oscars and being aware of being interested in them? Yeah, so I knew I was going to have to answer this question when I found out I was going to be on the podcast. So I literally, I went to my mom and I'm like, Mom, do you remember the first time I watched the Oscars?

And she's like, why are you asking this question? That's weird. I often ask my mom, like, work-related questions, and she's like, why? Why are you asking this? I'm like, it's a thing. I have to do a thing, no. It's for work. It's for work.

Yeah. So I was racking my brain for it, and I was like, obviously, for most of it, like, the Oscars would have been past my bedtime as a child. So I'm like, when would have been, like, old enough to care, I guess? And I realized it would have been the 73rd Academy Awards, which was in, in 2001, and that's the year Gladiator won Best Picture, Soda Bird, one, best director for traffic.

And I definitely, I think that was kind of a big one in our household, because like my mom was big into Billy Elliott and we were big into Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Aaron Brockovich and even like, O Brother Were Art Thal, which I know, which one of you hates O Brother, we're

out there, both of you were. I hate O'Brother Where Out Thel. I'm fine with it. I'm totally fine with it, yeah. Yeah, we were strangely like a Cohen Brothers household. Like, raising Arizona was like a perennial fave in my, my household growing up. But yeah, so I just remember specifically, I remember seeing the clips for traffic and not knowing what that movie was, but every time being like, I need to see this, but I was 12. So like I wasn't going to see it anytime soon. Right.

And that movie, like a lot of movies, because I, for the most part, wasn't allowed to watch rated R movies unless my mom didn't know they were rated R or it's like, it's not that like big of a deal, like the content wise. And so to this day, there will be movies I never saw as a kid because they were like rated R and I couldn't see him. And my mom's like, oh, haven't you seen them? Like, when would I have seen it, mom? When? This is your fault. I love that genre of movies, which is movies that were from around the time when you were like 12 to 14 years old and you wanted to be or at least if you were me, like wanted to be conversant with like grown up things. So these were the kind of movies you're like, this is the kind of movie.

movie I want to be able to watch and maybe you like never did but you saw an ad for I remember movies like I was even younger like movies like presumed innocent or something like that where it's just like it's a legal drama and a thriller and I'm like this is very mature and adult and I want to watch this and I think that played into a large part of why I became such a fanatic for a few good men when I was 12 years old because I was like the only 12 year old super fan of a few good men but it was because it was just like I was very much a child who wanted to be who wanted to like

grown up adult things that weren't just like you know kid stuff and it's a fun little subgenre of things. Traffic feels like it would fit very well into that genre. Yeah. And especially like around the era you have all these movies and stuff you see like in your in trailers like when you're

watching your VHS or like your early DVDs or whatever and you're like one day I'll see that movie and then you forget completely about it. Yep. Yep. Like the movie, I always think about that I never got around to seeing, but I'm like, I saw this like in front of, I don't know, she's all that or whatever, a million times was broke down palace. Yes, and Claire Dave.

Yeah, and all broke down palace. Never saw it. I've only seen the trailer. And I've like read the plot. But I'm just like, as a kid, I was like, one day I'm going to watch this movie. I was weirdly, that trailer was weirdly so like burned into my brain for whatever reason. I think you're right, though, is that it was a big, um, on the VHS's, um, um, of some popular movies at the time.

But that trailer had that sort of dance, trance remix of the Sarah McLaughlin song in it. And it ended with Claire Dane's sort of like banging her fist on the jail bars and saying, we didn't do it. He's done it a hundred times and you're just 101. You did it, didn't you? You've ruined my whole life. I didn't do it. Those girls have absolutely no choice. hands and getting out of they're guilty or not. They're guilty. They're going to die if we don't do

something. And I was like, oh my God, that's, yeah, that fully sold me. I think about her screaming, I didn't do it a lot. Thank you. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Absolutely true. That was also, I think I've talked about this on this podcast briefly before, that era of the post, do you remember the incident in Singapore where the American teenager was sentenced to be caned? He was sort of whipped with a cane for, was it, it was either weed or vandalism or shoplifting or something comparatively minor. And it was like a big momentary scandal in the United States. And after that, in the years after that, there was this run of movies about American, young, white American kids who got, who went overseas and got in trouble. And the punishment was

like severe. And it was like, broke. Palace and it was Return to Paradise with Joaquin Phoenix and Vince Vaughn and Anne Hache and I can't remember the other ones but when I was at the Atlantic Wire when I was a culture editor

at the Atlantic Wire and David Sims was working there with me. I literally I didn't make David right about it but I was just like David like it was like because I think there was something that hooked it into something that was happening currently but I was just like why don't you write about this and yet it was a

article. But I always feel like, I was like, that was a, you know, that was, I made him do that. That was a time, honestly. Yes. Yeah. Of all the times that we had in the 90s, that was definitely one of them, for sure. That's why I made sure to prepare for this. I found the VHS, like, trailers that came before life as a house, because I'm like, I need to embarrass myself. This is one of my YouTube obsessions. Yeah, I, well, first of all, I was like, trying to find out, like, what particular. VHS I had that had, like, the Life is a House trailer before it. I couldn't figure that out.

So I'm like, I'll just watch the trailers that were before Life's House. And it was a great decision because I learned apparently that there was a Jake Jillen Hall, Jared Lettel movie I've never heard of. Oh, I've seen that on like late night HBO when I was younger. And I could never remember. But Jake Gyllenhaal is like a tweaker kid or something like that, right? He's sort of. Yeah, it's so weird.

And some of Blair is there. It's called Highway. And it's Jared Leto is like the sexy pool boy having sex with the rich lady or something like that. Am I mistaken? I couldn't tell you that from the trailer because all these trailers, of course, had like that really schizophrenic editing, which should I say schizophrenic? Probably not. That really frantic editing, you know. Yes.

Okay, wait, I want to back up, though, because this is a phenomenon that I'm not aware of. Can you go on YouTube and find a specific movie and watch whatever trailers were before that on the video? these before and it is that is a time I okay real of trailers and like there's always one really shitty one that they slip in there but you have fully iconic VHS trailers to things this is where I was like my mind went to with um when you mentioned R rated movies you weren't allowed to see I remember my first red band trailer oh specifically what was it was to this movie called mute witness which I have never seen. That title sounds familiar to me.

You know the poster because it's like it's a woman's face and it's kind of blurry and it has witness underneath her mouth, but mute is sewn into her mouth. Very scary poster. Don't remember why it was a red band trailer, but like when you would normally have the green logo, I remember explicitly the first time that I saw it in bold red. Or maybe it wasn't a new witness, but it was a movie like mute witness. and I've conflated them. I don't know if it was... I don't know if it was my first red band trailer, but I very clearly remember

seeing the red band trailer for David Cronenberg's crash because it was Holly Hunter exposes her breast in it, in the scene in it. And I remember being like, oh, this is why,

this is why we're not allowed to see these things in theaters. And I was very... I wonder what movie that was attached to. I would be fat. Well, now that you've, I, I believe you when you say you've sent these to me, but like, I probably missed it because this would have, this absolutely would have been a rabbit hole I would have tumbled down because it has so much of your time, honestly. Yeah. And it like has also, in fairness, terrorize you with different videos, links and such throughout every day. I wake up. I sometimes like wake up to just some first thing in the morning and I'm just like, oh, this is nice. But it also has the potential for being like a real Rosetta Stone of. just like, this is why I think about this movie all the time for no good reason.

This is why I saw that I Am Sam trailer so many times yesterday. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, yes, because this would have been attached because this was also a new line movie. And so was I Am Sam. I remember from the real of, we were a Drop Dead Fred household. We rented Drop Dead Fred all the time. And I remember we would have to fly through the VHS trailers because they're attached to Drop Dead Fred, a movie for children and high people had some absolutely terrifying trailer attached to it, and I can't

remember what it was. But as a child, it terrified me. Worth looking up later on. There was one of these, you know, I'll watch that one day trailers. I actually, my brother and I, we ended up watching like a few years ago. So it was the feature film Telling You, which was ahead of the She's All That trailer. And it starred Peter Fatchenelli, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Matthew Lillard and Dash Myhawk. Wow. Yeah. In the trailer, it looks like a fun romp, you know, with Peter Fatschinelli and

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Matthew Lillard doing his Matthew Lillard thing. And so we were like, one day we'll watch that movie. And then we did. And it was not what was sold to us at all. It was a very boring movie where Dash Myhawk, bless his heart, was the lead. Oh, wow. It's just not at all in the advertisements for it. And it just didn't happen.

It did not happen And I'm just like This is literally It was not the movie We're sold And it's clear that it was one of those things Like after the fact where Oh so they were pushing like

Jennifer Lof Hewitt and Matthew Laird Because they had hit Right Pretty much because there's so little of them in the movie That era We can't get too far down to tour We'll never emerge from this rabbit hole But like that era of teen horror

Slash the WB is Like deserves to have A 12 part docu series on it of just like examining what the culture was at that point like the different... The cultural influence of the scream two poster where they

were in a triangle Yeah. Like the fact that like it literally you can retrace it all back to literally it's scream and it's Dawson's Creek and everything just sort of like branched out from there and it was like a full like almost a decades worth

of films and now it's all stuff that doesn't get made anymore. Like she's that is there's what's the market for she's all that these days it shows up on netflix i guess like there is no such thing to all the boys i loved before yeah exactly that's exactly it okay so um to pivot letoya from your oscar origin story you uh you came to us with life as a house as a movie you wanted to talk about and talk a little bit about what made you select that one so you know after that year's oscars i was like a serious cinefile as we as we know i hadn't seen traffic but, you know, I'd seen some stuff.

Yeah. I watched the Oscars. I knew things now. I knew that Kevin Klein was a serious actor, so I'm like, yeah, this is the movie. I was, like, thinking about it, like, did I have a hating Christensen phase? And I didn't. But then, again, as we were talking about briefly, I fell in love with Ian Summerhalder here, the most beautiful man I'd ever seen at, at that point, I was 13 years old. I would take me to the next year till I was, because the next, the year after the year

after this is the rules of attraction, which was when I first noticed Ian Summerhold, even though I definitely saw Life as a House, but maybe it wasn't until VHS a little bit later. Yeah, so I last one of him to hear, and I couldn't see the rules of attraction, obviously, until, like, a couple years later, and, like, one of my friends and I, like, we became obsessed. I don't think I've ever said this before, but I definitely developed, like, a Brett East and Alice phase, so. Oh, it happens to the best of us.

Like, absolutely. I read, I read, oh, far later on than I probably should have. I read that weird sequel to American Psycho that he wrote about maybe 15 years ago. I don't know, maybe not that long called Luna Park. Yeah. Yeah. And not good. But like, I definitely remember being like, oh, it's all connected.

Like, there's a whole, like, interconnected universes were, like, obviously very big for me. So, like, I was, I was definitely down with that one, for sure. If you came of a certain age in the early 2000s or the late 90s, it was all about Brett Easton Ellis and interconnected universes, and it gave you both. Yeah, no, that's not a lie. And then you would go see the informers in college and be very disappointed in that movie. Yeah, yeah. And then you would listen to him on podcasts and be even more disappointed. Yeah, I was subscribed to his podcast for like two seconds and I'm like, I can't do this.

I can't. My blood pressure can only take so much. I swear to God. There's that whole, I mean, this is a whole other wormhole we don't need to go down. But just like gay men of a certain age who were used to being very outrageous in their moment. And then it feels like they've been chasing the drug of scandalizing people for so long that they like. lost the thread on like what and I feel like that's there's like Brad Easton Ellis Dan Savage to a degree Andrew Sullivan certainly like that like all the really

curdled gay men around that same age where it's just like well you can't freak out the squares just by like kissing your boyfriend anymore so now you've really got to like up it to the next level and it's become just a real problem just a real big old problem yeah but life as a house as it turns out has a very specific sort of Oscar Buzz thing. We don't even really have to gin it up too much because, like, Hayden Christensen came wildly close to an Oscar nomination before he ever stepped onto a screen as Anakin Skywalker. Like, while he was still just the name and a headline for most people when he was announced in May of 2001 as the actor who won the Anakin sweepstakes, it was all these like big name actors. And also Jonathan Brandis, I remember, like this whole, like, who's going to be Anakin? And it was this mostly unknown Canadian actor, who I think was on, like, a Fox family show.

Higher ground. Okay. That was Fox Family at the time or something like that, right? Obviously, it aired wherever in Canada, but then, like, Fox Family here. Right, right, right, right. And that was like a family sort of seventh heaven, maybe, but like less religious. Is there a different Fox Family Show that was on? Because Higher Ground is the one where they're like at the boot camp for bad kids.

Oh, see, I had no familiarity with it. I would suggest you watch the opening theme to Higher Ground. It's not so much singing as a lot of, what is it? Just guttural sounds. Oh, no. Oh, God. Like the Survivor opening theme song? Yes.

Wow. Okay. Well, it's great. I'm definitely checking that out. Absolutely. Once we get on the other side of the plot description, I want to talk about the Entertainment Weekly cover with Hayden Christensen on it after they'll get into that. For sure. But I think... There's also just like the veneer of a certain type of Oscar movie. I think after American Beauty won Best Picture,

movies like this, like, had a certain eye on them, especially if they had cast that included people like Kevin Klein. There's so much post-American beauty to this movie. Yeah. I, like I said, I hadn't watched it since it was a teen, and I think I watched this definitely before I ever watched American Beauty. So, like, re-watching it now, I'm like, holy American beauty. Yes, yes, especially in the Jenna Malone character, but also like, oh, God, we will get into

everything. Yes. But so let's get the plot description out of the way because we're coming up an half hour into it as has become our new tradition. But Latoya, we're going to ask you to do a 60-second plot description. Chris, do you have your phone near you? Because my phone's on the other side of the room. I will use my quick time timer. Awesome. All right. So we're going to be talking about Life is a House today, the 2001 film Life is a House, directed by Erwin Winkler, written by Mark Andrus, starring Kevin Klein, Hayden Christensen, Kristen Scott Thomas, Jenna Malone, Mary Steenbergen, Ian Somerhalder, Scott Bacula, Jamie Sheridan, and Sam Robards. This premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2001 before opening, limited, I believe, on October 26, 2001,

and then went wide a few weeks later. It didn't come to much, uh, regardless. Heartless, Latoya, do you think you're ready to do a 60-second plot description for Life as a House? No, because this was not, the one thing I did not meticulously plan for. Winging it is a proud this had Oscar Buzz tradition, so do not worry about it. As I am proud to do. All right, your 60-second plot description for Life as a House starts now. Kevin Klein is George, a man who we are told is miserable, but really is just more of a

menace, and we'll talk more about that as we go on. He is currently living in a shack situation in a rich cul-de-sac. I don't know how that works. His ex-wife is Kristen Scott Thomas, who is always cooking food. Their child is an email little bitch played by Hayden Christensen. He's very angry. He hates the world. He hates himself.

He wears makeup so you know he's edgy. Hayden Christensen is a problem child, and Kevin Klein learns he has cancer and he's dying in a few months. So he decides he's going to take Hayden Christian to go build a house for the summer, and then they hate each other, but they love each other. And then Chris Scott Thomas and Kevin Klein reunite. And then Kevin Klein dies and becomes a house, I guess.

Yeah, really does kind of become a house. He becomes a house and there's a voice before. I'm like, what the fuck is this? That was not the movie they gave us. I guess he does, like, that's time, by the way. I guess he does kind of become the house, because

as the house builds itself he is deteriorating and withering away and everybody is so concerned about how thin and frail he looks and it's really just like he is like squinting or like they maybe like put some blanched makeup there's some like grandmother willow action happening there where like all of a sudden it's just like he becomes the like sturdy structure that will you know, lured over this family for a while and ultimately do good things because at the end of the movie is they give the house away to this weird shoehorned in subplot

about his father was a drunk driver. He was wildest, last second plot twist of a movie. Every time they added more information about his father, I'm like, enough. Why are we keep... I fully expected... He kept getting worse and worse. Right. I fully expected at one point being like, my father went on a killing spree in Iowa in 1982.

too. And it was just like, well, it's just like more information and more information. There's so much, there's so many odd little, but you mentioned the cul-de-sac, and I want to talk about that maybe first, because the economics of it and the sort of logistics of it baffled me. Because the only explanation for that shack still being at that like prime billion-dollar real estate with like the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean where you could see clear to Santa Barbara or whatever, and it's just like, okay. Yeah, it's like, imagine someone living in a porter potty outside Renata

Klein's house. Basically, right. Right. Where it's just like, it's, yeah, you're on Barbara Streisand's lot, and it's just like and the only thing that makes sense is, well, that was there first before all this stuff built up around it. And like, A, that even strains credulity because, like, that view has

existed forever. So, like, that's been valuable property for a billion years. But also, when these sort of big, wealthy, like, developments build up, and there's a house there. Those houses get bought out or taken out from under them by, like, chicanery or whatever. And everything we know about Kevin Klein's character is, like, up until he got diagnosed with cancer, he didn't give a shit. So it doesn't make any sense that he would have, like, held on to this house through buyout offers and, you know, underhanded tactics or whatever.

and he's been, like, a thorn in the side of his neighbors for all these years who, like, clearly hate them. I love the old couple who, to me, is an approximation of the old couple in What About Bob? Who, like, keep, like, rowing their rowboat past and, like, spitting raspberries at Richard Dreyfuss's ass. My favorites and What About Bob? But, like, none of that made sense. And so already off the top of my head, I'm like, oh, this is a very screenwritery movie. Like, the whole movie in its concept felt very, very. screenwritery. And like Mark Andres, who is the writer, who was Oscar nominated for writing

as good as a get script, if you look at his filmography and if you look at Erwin Winkler's filmography, it's all very like punch clock work sort of, right? Where like nothing feels like it's this like big personal project or whatever. And so so much of this movie to me felt like it grew out from an idea of just like, what if you were diagnosed with cancer and you only had four months to live? What if cancer? I'm like, what would you do? And somebody would just be like, I'd repair my broken relationship with my son and also my

wife. And another person was like, no, I would like focus on professional accomplishments. And another person was like, I would like stop and smell the roses. And then Erwin Winkler stepped in and was just like, all of it. do all of it, all of it at once. All of it and a house. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I also have questions about how he's building this house

because of course this is a stop and smell the roses movie so in the first act of the movie, Kevin Klein has to get fired. He works at an architecture firm, but you would have to assume that he has some type of architectural acumen to build a house on the side of a cliff. but he really you really only see him function at his job as like a miniature artist like he builds the miniatures of the buildings that they will build and like they're pushing him to be faster and they're like we could do this all with a computer and then he gets fired so like this is a movie that has in the early 2000s that is either about the internet or computers taking over um so it's like He bashes all of these models. Which is psychotic.

And I was already, I already, like I said in the description, he's a menace. At the beginning where he's just like being a dick to Mary Steenberg and I'm like, this is not okay. And like when they later say, oh, they used to date and it was a whole thing. And like, okay, maybe I can expect it. Like his dog, as much as I love a cute dog, that dog needed to behave and it did not. And you know what? I was not appreciating the scamp behavior. No, it's true.

for as much as the Sam Robards character is supposed to be like he's the designated irredeemable dick of the movie. He's the only person who starts off a villain and remains a villain. Everybody else gets sort of like usurped into this great work project where like Mary Steenbergin starts hammering nails and Jamie Sheridan comes around. And the mean old couple from What About Bob comes around. And Sam Robards is the only one who not only does he never come around, he threatens legal action. And at the end, the movie pulls this like Trump card from its backpock. pocket and just like, you're the guy trolling for underage dick in the parking lot at night. And it's just like, that's our solution.

Let's not forget, Ian Summerhalder is a pimp, for lack of a better word. And he's trying to get Hayden Christensen to be one of his progeny. And it's like, it's only, I was very confused how long this would take. At one point he said it would be a half hour. One time he said it would be like three hours. Yeah. Yes. Like he said $300 for two hours.

And I'm like, that's the longest blowjob. I've ever heard of in my entire life. I think that would be multiple clients is the three-hour situation. The half-hour is just the one client. I see. I see. Not that I know how his pimping enterprise works. Right.

They didn't really delve into the economics of Ian Summerhalder's work situation. Okay. But like this brings up another sort of like big sticking point for me in the movie, which is the way this movie deals with Hayden Christensen's character as gay adjacent in a way that felt like the movie was going to use all of the gay boogeymen

but never actually make him queer so that like they could have their cake and eat it too and it really bugged me it really bothered me yeah well that is incredibly era specific too because there was like a whole thing

I think especially if you were growing up too that the goth crowds were gay and it's because they like there would be vague and to it, there was makeup, there was like the whole Marilyn Manson side of it, which it's like, Hayden Christensen only listens to Marilynne Manson, apparently. Like, that's how they let us know that he's edgy and bad. He has multiple Marilyn Manson posters in his room. And yet, even by this time, and like is vaguely, no, go ahead.

I was going to say he's also like vaguely sexually deviant. Like, the movie opens with him, huffing, spray paint and engaging in auto erotic asphyxiation while shirking off in his closet. Right. And he's got the piercing and he's got the makeup and he's got the blue streak in his hair. And the other thing was the Kevin Klein character, his big early part of the movie thing is like, I'm going to take my son, I'm going to live with him and I'm essentially going to straighten him out. And whether what straightened him out means the movie is sort of very vague on. but like what the Klein character is adamant about is that he takes that thing out of his chin and he stops wearing makeup and he essentially just like stops dressing like half a fag essentially and and that's the thing that he never comes around on that he never meets his son halfway there he never says I was being too big of a deal of this or whatever like that becomes sort of canon inside the movie that

That, like, Hayden Christensen's character by the end, we know he's come around, A, because he's been able to be, like, emotionally honest with his parents, and he does the right thing with the house, whatever. But also, that Stud stays out of his chin, and the makeup never comes back, and he's essentially a more normal-looking kid. And I hated that. Do you want to know what's bizarre? And, of course, they don't address it because they don't do this character or actress any service. Mary Steenbergin is the only one who accepts in Christensen's character as he does.

She doesn't judge him at all for looking like that. Like even Jenna Malone is like, you look better without makeup. It's like, shut up, Jenam Malone. You're supposed to be open-minded. Okay. Can we talk about Jenam Alone really? Yes.

We maybe have to get into it to just like get it out there. We need to like have this exorcism. So I think the writing is bad for her character, obviously. Yes. But I also think Jenna Malone is, I think she's bad in it too. This was before she got good, I think. Yeah. I'm just like, I don't know if I just hate this character and it's writing so much or she's bad.

And I'm like, no, she's bad too. And she was also 16 when they shot this movie. Wow. Having a shower scene with Hayden Christensen, who was an adult, and having like a makeout session with Kevin Klein. And the 16 filming this movie. I saw the, what was it? Lindsay Lohan was for the role, but they said they wanted older. They didn't go much older, did they?

No, they really didn't. I mean, like, I was kind of mortified reading that because Lindsay Lohan would have been 14 at the time. And, like, were they really, like, how bad was this that they were thinking that they would even read or consider a 14-year-old for these scenes? Like, Jesus. But for as, like, that was the part of the movie where obviously that's the most that, I'm thinking of American Beauty at that moment where like that character is very clearly written to be the like teenage sexually liberated. We don't have to worry about sexualizing her because she's sexualizing herself, like all of this stuff straight from American Beauty. And I'm like at the at the very least, American Beauty made that stuff feel dangerous.

Whereas like life as a house just like incorporates it into its like general cute and homie vibe. where just like, that whole scene is played off as being at worst, awkward, and at best, like, kind of nice. It's so awful. I can't tell what her character wants. Does her character want Kevin Klein as her dad, or does she want to fuck Kevin Klein? Right. And she doesn't want Hayden Christian's said at all. I think she just wants to piss off her mom, which made it even worse.

Well, and then later on, towards the end, when, uh, when Hidden Christensen goes over to the house and he's sad because he finds out his dad's dying. And Mary Steenbergin's like, I don't think you should be, you two should stay up in your room overnight. And Jenna Malone's like, well, I don't think you should have had sex with Ian Summerhalder. And I'm like, Jenna Malone, A, you're like, he's like three down the depth chart in terms of like people you care about romantically at this point. You've already like made out with Kevin Klein across the street. You're really going to give your mom shit about like. getting some with the future kid from Lost?

Like, I don't, I don't know. It's written so strangely. It's, it's so frustrating. It's, I mean... It's bad melodrama. I think there are some good performances in this movie. I think Klein is good. I actually think Hayden Christensen's really good in this at playing that type of a teen.

I do. I think Hayden's good in this, which is why I'm like, this is why you would think he would be good as Anakin Skywalker as they write him. And for directing reasons, like, that's not the case. The problems were twofold with Anakin Skywalker is, A, it takes a really good actor to be able to say that dialogue and not sound ridiculous. Right. And like, and he was not there.

And B, there's a difference between an actor playing a credible, bratty teen who's like working through his teenage emotions and can't express himself articulately and just sort of like ends up being generally very difficult versus and then who like grows out of that to be like whatever just a guy he's just whatever versus a brady teen who can't articulate his emotions who grows up to be the most powerful villain in the history of the galaxy And it's just like that was the, you know, the bridge too far for the Star Wars movies. But yeah, I actually do think he's, in the scenes where he's called upon to be emotional in this, I think it tracks. I think that stuff really tracks.

And I think that's why the scenes with him and Klein together, I think largely work, even though I'm grossed out by the weird, like, gay adjacent politics. Yeah, that part's bullshit. But, like, I really do appreciate how, like, you can tell, like, his whole thing is performing. He's, like, he's clearly in a lot of pain, and he has a lot of issues that they should probably address with something more than house building, but okay. Right, right. But, like, you can, you can just tell, like, whenever time he tries to be strong and, like,

you know, tough, like, just how much of an act is why he's like, I'm not, I don't even care. And then he, like, immediately starts sobbing once his dad leaves the room. Yeah. Well, the scene where Kevin Klein finally tells him that he's got. cancer. And his reaction is essentially, I can't believe you made me care about you just in time for me to have to watch you die now. Like that pain translated to me. Like I thought that translated pretty well. So I thought I wanted to be as invested in the Kevin Klein, Kristen Scott

Thomas stuff. And I wasn't quite, even though I really like her a lot. But I don't. I like her to. Yeah, because I think it's like the bullshit of like, you're not telling her, you're dying and you're waiting so long to do that. Yeah. All she's doing in this movie is cooking food. Or just bringing pizza over. Right. Yeah, exactly. California Pizza Kitchen at that.

It reminds, it made me think of the sort of the post-English patient run for Kristen Scott Thomas, where like American audiences knew her if you watched British stuff. She was in four weddings and a funeral, obviously. She's the best in that. then she's Oscar nominated for the English patient and that was like this big sort of launch pad and then I think Hollywood decided oh we're going to start casting her opposite

our like great leading men and so she's opposite Robert Redford in the Horse Whisperer and Harrison Ford in Random Hearts and Kevin Klein in this and none of it works and I think it's because all three of those movies are

more concerned with her co-stars than with her and it's just like you have this really like specific kind of a talent who's like is going to waste playing the love interest opposite these you know these men and I think it wasn't until she started getting supporting roles again that things got you know more interesting whether it was like Gosford Park or um what's that one where she the Gosling movie where she plays Donatella Versace Only God forgives

Right, only God forgives And like Or oh She was in this one movie With Ila Fisher Um Where it's like Confessions of a Shopaholic

Or something like that movie Where she's the Miranda Priestley And she's very funny in that I think she's really good in that Yeah She also had the French movie I've loved you so long That she was almost nominated for

I don't know I maybe disagree with you guys on her in this movie. I liked, and I kind of especially appreciated the understated energy that she brought to it, and it made me believe her as a character more that, like, everyone around her is so loudly expressive that, like, she can't always express her emotions. She may not be able to even hear her emotions and, like, understand what her feelings are because everyone around her is either a pest or a brat.

Yeah. I think basically it's like she's good, but I think both she and Mary Steenbergen are underserved, but like she can just kind of make it work and it's just like so easy for her. Whereas Mary Seenbergin, I'm just like, give us, we need more scenes for that character or just don't have her at all. Right, right, exactly. Yeah, I remember at the time being like, oh my God, we are failing Mary Seenbergin when this movie came out. like casts her as the next door flusie. And we have come around to appreciating actress songwriter Mary Steenbergin,

and she is getting at least, if not better roles in movies, like things that at least showcase her more, like, happiest season. Yeah. Her biggest iPad. Oh, my God, that giant iPad, that menace of an iPad. The iPad, that's the size of the house. Life as an iPad. But this was the era where, like,

Like, that's what Mary Steenbergin kept getting cast in, because she was also the next-door flusie in Gilbert Grape, if you remember. And it was just like, oh, I guess this is sort of just like what Hollywood had pigeonholed Mary Steenbergin in at that moment. But I want to you turn back to Christensen for a second because I do want to bring up this Entertainment Weekly cover where he had been announced, like I said, in May of 2001 as being the Anakin Skywalker selection. And this Entertainment Weekly issue is from July, and it's the it list. Remember, they would do the it list. The it list. May it rest in peace. So, and it was just like, it was essentially just like a giant listicle of just like

what publicists are doing their jobs in Hollywood and getting their clients on the it list. And it's all, but it's like the things that I appreciate, especially revisiting old EW covers for, we've talked about the fall preview issues before and how that's a fantastic way to look at what was, you know, big. major going into the Oscar seasons. But like the it list is this too where so I want to read the sidebar of where it tells you who's going to be featured in this. So it's Hayden Christensen gets the big headline. He's on the cover holding the Darth Vader mask. The other ones are

Tom Green, which this has got to be like Freddie Got Fingered era, right? I'm pretty sure Freddie got fingered was 2001. Right. So Tom Green Show, Freddy Got Fingered, dating Drew Barry more, that whole thing. The next one is Mina Suvari. So, like, obviously the post-American beauty thing

is still sort of like thick in the air at this point. Mina Suvari, Jason Biggs, which American Pie 2 was coming out this year, which I remember because that's the film that they see and remember me, Secret 9-11 movie, remember me. Has that feature film Loser come out? Or was it about to come out.

Loser was before this. Yeah, I think Loser's 99, maybe? No, maybe Loser's 2000. Okay. I think it's 2000 actually, yeah. I just want to address about Loser. The thing no one ever addresses is that casual date rape is a plot, and no one is taken to task about that.

His roommates are just, like, date rapists, and they're like, this is great, and I don't think they are ever punished for that. Amy Heckerling, what are you doing? This is our second episode in the last three that we've talked about the film loser actually and about how wild it is because it's also as we said before a movie about how a guy in college is friends with three people who hate his guts and that's so weird it's such a weird dynamic isn't there a vet clinic in that movie it's very possible is that where minisuvari works maybe i think so i feel that's

like a classic steal some drugs from there too i believe oh my god worst oh boy so uh is big it's umka jansen of x-men it says so Wow. Okay, we have not properly given Fomka Jansis the chances she deserves. That's absolutely true. Agreed. She's fantastic. We love her.

Macy Gray, hand on my heart, Macy Gray. God bless. I try was new and wonderful. Penelope Cruz, which we've talked about how this was... This is the woman on top year. This is the woman on top year. This is blow. This is vanilla sky is at the end of this year.

So, like, they were really trying it with Penelope. They were, the effort was significant there, for sure. Again, this is a list for publicists and good for her publicist. The next one is vitamin C. Oh, yeah. Dracula 2000's vitamin C. The fact that I graduated college in 2002 and not 2001 means I escaped vitamin C. sees Friends Forever being

nostalgically imprinted on me by like one year because I remember how much Green Day's time of your life was imprinted on me because I graduated high school in 1998. So like that is a real thing.

Like if you have a heavy nostalgia song or like a heavy sentiment song that is in the culture the year you graduate high school or graduate college, either one of them, like it will stick with you. forever. And you'll be so mad at yourself for like, why is this song make me emotional? And it's just like, God damn it. I used to hate vitamin C's graduation. Now Penn 15 has made me love everything

vitamin C. I won't say what grade that this was for, but like it came out as I was moving from one grade to another. And you know how you would have like three minutes between classes to get to your next class. They played it the final day of school between every period of It was the most psychotic exercise I've ever been submitted to. Traumatizing. So on the Empire Diaries, which is my Vampire Diaries rewatch podcast, we just recorded the season four finale, which is graduation. So we definitely sang some vitamin C multiple times during the episode

because our new bit is singing throughout season four Vampire Diaries to keep sane. It's few people I like these single-service celebrities who are, like, famous for just one thing. Although you did mention Dracula 2000, and I'm glad we're rounding out the vitamin C portrait of fame. I also have to mention, of course, my beloved cover from Vitamin C of What a Night for the WB's image campaign. Okay, so, Latoya, we need to commemorate this. This is why I wanted to bring up this it list, because this is the era of fame that that WB oh what a night promo commemorates you and my old decider co-worker josh sarokotch are the two people

who most intensely have discussed that promo on twitter and whenever you do i like jump in on that with a quickness because it is so important like that era of the wb again 12-part docu-series Netflix just find a way to do it find an angle i don't care yes i will be be a talking head, obviously. I need to help chronicle this. And in that promo, of course, you have the young Americans cast who are like off in their own little rooms separate from everyone, which of course includes Ian Summerholder and Kate Bosworth. The number of shows that you forget were a thing back then that you were like, oh right, Jamie Fox had a show on the WB at that time where it's him and Garcel Beauvais. And Katie Holmes, who for a while there was

dating Jamie Fox recently. So every time I watched that promo then, I was just like, the early, like, but it's like, but there's always this plausible deniability of like, which ones were actually in the room with each other at this? Like, were the Felicity cast, like, really mingling? Like, was Shannon Doherty allowed, like, did Shannon Doherty allow anybody, like, within her vicinity? Well, from my multiple viewings, of course, as an expert on this video, obviously, Shannon only interacts with David Boreana. I was going to say David Borealis. Love story. Yep. In the video for some reason. season. So Amy Jo Johnson and Scott Foley are there, but Carrie Russell's not actually there. They just show footage from season two of Felicity. Right. And they show footage like from season four of Buffy for Sir Michelle Geller. Like she's not there either. She's not there either. But like all the other like buffies are there and mingling. Yeah, yeah. Well, so this brings us to the next person on this list. Well, in a second. Amanda Pete is there. Amanda Pete was having a moment. This was wait. Just for Amanda Pete's.

At all times. Was Jack and Jill part of that promo, actually? No. That was a different time. Okay. Yeah. Different WB era. Okay.

And then the next one, though, is the Girls of Popular. Now, Popular was definitely represented on that WB promo. The great Leslie Grossman I have chatted with about that promo several times. She said it was as wild as it seems. I loved Popular. I was, I jumped on it after it was on. but, like, not too far after. Like, as soon as it became available on DVD, I, like, caught myself up.

And then joined the, like, choruses of, like, I can't believe this was canceled, even though it's so obvious why it was canceled. Like, it's pretty clear why it was canceled. Like, if you, like, it's Ryan Murphy's sensibility today of just, like, what if an old gay man obsessed with, like, old style camp decided to make a high school trauma? And it's so freaking weird. But, like.

Mary Cherry is one of the greatest. like characters of all time honestly absolutely this is undeniable um the list closes out with d'angelo which this had to have been the how does it feel yeah like took uh took the nation by storm everybody learned about those particular muscles uh the lower abs and then the list they study that video in medical school yes yes anatomy 101 with professor DeAngelo. And then the list ends with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, because apparently we just could not get enough.

The most early 2000 thing that we have maybe discussed on this podcast episode so far is Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. It's a moment in time, I would say, go and go and go look at old EW covers. There's a lot to

learn, for sure. But back to the movie. What else do we want to say about the movie? Can we talk about the Summerhalder Steam Virgin plot because it's so, like, I did remember that.

That was one of the things I did remember, but it seems like so abbreviated and I feel like we don't have Steamburgeon's motivation. I understand he's very beautiful. I understand this. But like, what is she feeling that it's like,

I should probably fuck my daughter's boyfriend? Right. Who is maybe a nefarious character who maybe I shouldn't let my daughter hang out with this person, but maybe I'll have sex. with him. I think it's more of a, like, this is how this movie is so much of a product of its time.

I think it is also, like, that whole trist, whatever, like, this is the, 2001 is like the emergence of the milf, right? Because of American Pie. Right. Jennifer Coolidge. And, like, this feels like, this feels like, this feels like a movie that was so clearly written in 1999 because, like, the influences are obviously. Yes.

This person saw American beauty and saw American Pie, all of the America movies. Right. And also the cider house rules because it was about a house. Yes. They said, what if a movie... Life as a cider house. What if a movie was about a house? You're the worst.

I want to say that I do have a soft spot for movies that take this, like, it takes a village approach to things, like as it goes along and all of a sudden, everybody starts to like pull together to build this house. And I'm just like for as much... Except in this movie, the version of that is so stupid. Yes, it's incredibly stupid. And yet I'm watching it and I'm just like, oh, they're all doing their own little things. Even though in reality, it's, it would be like that Simpsons episode where they all decide to rebuild Flanders's house. And it's like misshapen and the hallway like low... narrows into, like, the size of a thimble and whatever, and it's just like a nightmare.

The house would not look that good. No, it wouldn't. I absolutely believe that the set for this movie was lifted as, like, in a perfect form from a crane onto the side of that mountain, and then they just have some background extras and Jenna Malone and Mary Steenberg and, like, tip-tap in a hammer against a pole. Right. Like, this is not built on this mountain. We never see anyone do any measurements for this house.

it's true or like I think one point you see Kevin Klein's character with a level but it's just like for half a second and like that's about it and yeah and they're also working with like this heavy duty machinery like at one point they start using that a band saw that you like pull down onto something and I'm just like A where did you rent that and like B you're doing that with like toddlers running around like Jesus Christ the health inspector was okay also we need to pay attention to the fact that One of Kristen Scott Thomas and Jamie Sheridan's kids is the brady one who's Aaron Brockovich's kid and Aaron Brockovich, the one who's like mean to her, the little blonde little shit who calls Hayden Christensen a queer to his face, which super triggered me as a gay older brother. And like, I don't want to talk about it, but I'm just saying. So as I texted Chris, I said, Julia Roberts did not raise that son on a single mother's law firm salary to come. call his brother a queer, you little brat. But the other one was cute. The littler one was cute, I thought. The one that goes and hugs Kevin Klein.

Yeah, yes. The one who's not fucked up. Yes, the one who actually has a chance in this life. I liked that. I did appreciate that. Also, the music in this movie is insane. We talked about Marilyn Manson. But the fact that, again...

Guster, man. Guster. Marilyn Manson and Guster and the emo version of both sides now that is in love actually. and rearranged by Blint Biscuit, all sort of like coexisting on this nightmare soundtrack, which I just don't get the rhyme or reason to it. I think for Guster, and the dog is named Guster, by the way. The dog is also to eat Guster.

Wasn't it that Mark Andrews, the writer? Was it just a fan of Guster? He had to have been. Somebody in some process was somebody at New Line. Mark Andrews, something. You know who I love is fucking Guster. Yeah, so I remember that I didn't remember specifically until all of a sudden, in like what you wish for starts playing.

I'm like, oh yeah, that's where this song is from. I think I started like listening to Guster because of this movie. You know what's the biggest outrage of all is if you go and watch the Life as a House trailer, there's no big pop song in it, which is a betrayal of the movie trailers of that era. It's got to be like a Thomas Newman score, right? Or one of the billion trailers that has like the Shawshank Redemption score. But it's not even a recognizable piece of score. Like if it's from something, Mark Isham did the music.

for this movie, and I don't know whether he did the music for the trailer also, but it's very nondescript trailer music, too. Like, it's, I, the fact that that trailer didn't end with Chantelle Creveizik singing something is outrageous to me. Like, her singing it feels like home to me

would have been perfect for the trailer. Exactly, because it feels like a home. Yes. What was the trailer? Life as it feels like a home. What's the trailer that has Nina Gordon's tonight and for the rest of my life? I always, uh, damn it. I know this.

It's something that I watched frequently. I'm just like, I know this. Somebody listening, like, just blurt it out and let the chips fall where they may and explain to the person you're with while you're blurting out whatever the answer to this is. But I will figure it out what trailer has Nina Gordon's. That was a moment. So for all of the things I forgot about this movie, because it wasn't too much, but I forgot that Ian Summerhaler was a pimp, I guess. I forgot about the weird scene with his nurse

Yeah Oh yeah when he's hitting on his nurse Yeah yeah he hits on his nurse and she he's like I haven't been touched by a person in years And she just like Is receptive Yeah But then also she shows up at the end

When he's like dying Which is like that's two different wings of the hospital That she works on Right So when I was watching this, again, not remembering the scene and all, I'm like, what the fuck is this? I literally were in my notes, like, whose, like, wife is this? Because it was such a weird scene, and it turned out it's Erwin Winkler's daughter-in-law. Oh, well, there we go.

Perfectly. Yep. Yeah. Because it was so much just like, this person is related to someone. Not to knock on her acting, but, like, the scene did not need to be. Also, back to Summerhalter for half a second. that character through the course of this movie like has sex with Mary Steenbergen

so like good for him but also gets arrested and like literally like they say at one point it's just like he got thrown in jail and then falls off a roof and according to Kevin Klein's character broke his leg his wrist and his ribs or something like that I was just like it sounded

some fingers broken as well and one of the kid was like twice is that his bone and I'm like he's got a compound fucking fracture? Like, what the fuck happened to this son of a bitch? It wasn't that high. No, but like, God damn it, he really hit that ground with a thud. But again, and if that was the case... We know exactly how high it is because this movie tells us multiple times that his permit is for the house to be 25 feet tall. Also, that house now officially

belongs to that kid's parents because they're going to sue the fuck out of Kevin Klein. Why isn't that part of the movie? I know it's like two hours already, but like, give us more. Yes. Okay, we also have to spell out the last beat of the movie because who the house eventually belongs to is insane. This is like the last 60 seconds of movie. It tells us that Kevin Klein's dad like had a heart. They did tell the story. He did tell the story when one of the many escalating stories about how terrible his father was. Right. Yes, one of the many and it's like buried in there. But then it becomes this final 60 second reveal that the house is. being built to give to this woman who her father turned into a quadriplegic. And that he like, Hayden Christensen tracks her down at the trailer park she lives in, which like, A, very convenient that like she's, you know, living in, you know, rough circumstances or whatever so that he can look like, that's so this family can look like giant heroes and whatever. And like, good, I guess that like the movie recognizes that this kid's mom and step

Dad are crazy rich anyway, so he kind of doesn't need a house all to himself or whatever overlooking a cliff. By the way, that, like, rock slides are a problem, and, like, I'd be nervous living that close to a cliff, but whatever. But also, when they show that last shot and they pan back or whatever, there is a wheelchair ramp on that house, and I'm like, right, who built that one? Like, was Kevin Klein doing that all along, too? Or did, like, Hayden Christensen just, like, wake up in the middle of the night and we're just

like well now I have this idea and so now I've got to add all these like accessibility because it's not just a ramp like if this woman's going to live in there this is like a multi-level house that this is going to have to be like many improvements made on this and the movie the movie just sort of drops it in there for us at the end and it's there's complications the movie is absolute loony tunes the movie also forgives the stepdad whose name is peter and not George as I assumed it was as he is the reason why that little shit calls Hayden Christian to the queer, and he's, like, he's awful. He shouldn't be forgiven for anything. This is why I have a lot of sympathy for the Hayden Christian character, which

goes beyond the fact that I always have sympathy for the gayest seeming character in a movie, but also that, like, his stepfather clearly, like, not just hates him, but, like, isn't shy about saying it. And, like, by the beginning of the movie, seems to have turned his mother against him, too, because at one point his mother says to Kevin Klein, like, Do you know what it's like to hate your son? And it's just like, you what now? Like, you fully just hate him? And it's just like, that's a bad situation that like, this is why, this goes into

why I defend the kid in War of the Worlds too, because it's like, yes, when from the point that the movie begins to the end, this kid is like a giant brat, but we don't see all the stuff that happens before the movie that turned him that way. Like, I feel like in the grand scheme of this kid's life, he's earned becoming the monster that he is at this point. But yeah, in the war worlds, Tom Cruise is just now becoming a good dad because he has to save his kids because, you know, aliens. Right. And Hayden Christensen's character in this is more just like a brat of the time than any, like, real thing that he does, except for drugs.

Like, it really only gives him drugs as the thing that he is misbehaving besides just being a teenage brat. But it's like the whole fear of goths and such. Yes. Like, that just makes him a bad kid. It's such a time capsule. of, like, that. It's, it, the movie really adopts Kevin Klein's sort of fears about what these accoutrements on his son say about his son. And also, weirdly adopts this thing in the culture at the time, which was all those goth kids that you're talking about, Chris, were very concerned about being perceived as gay.

So, like, all of these things that had goth characters in them had to also. And also make sure... And perceived also as violent, too, in... Yes, that is true, because this is Post Columbine. But that, like, so many of these things seem to need to make sure that the audience knows that, like, just because he's wearing eyelineer doesn't mean he doesn't want to fuck a girl. And it's just the whole scene in the shower is so weird, just like he literally just, like, points to his dick and just so we all know that his dick is hard. It's just like, yes, we get it. He likes girls.

Like, Jesus fucking Christ, movie. And also, Hayden Christensen has multiple scenes where people walk in on him in the shower and it's like one of those ones with a full door and he like opens it wide and half sticks his body out like, oh no, go away. Don't look at my naked body. But it's just like you're just putting it all on display, dude. Well, but the... Paul is the first one who shows up and he opens the door wide. Like, well, no. What is he supposed to think? The boundary issues in this movie are like suffused through all of it because there's also the thing about how there's no door in between the toilet and the kitchen

in this little garage shack that they're living in, which ends up being a public health issue. There's also an outdoor shower issue. Like, there's also the thing where, like, Hayden Christensen has padlocked his room shut at his mom's house. Like, this movie is so very concerned with, again, it's life as a house. So it's just like... Boundaries.

Walls! Walls! We need walls. And here's why we need walls. It's crazy. Yeah, but the other thing, why Genible Lone's character is, I've decided it's the worst now, is because, so she's doing the shower thing just basically to test if he's really gay pretty much. She's just, she's trying to turn him if he is gay. And yet, aren't you trying to fuck his dad? Like, what are you doing? Like, focus. Like, what is your objective of Jenna Malone's character? Like, what is her deal? What is her deal? Develop a strategy. So, I want to talk about Hayden Christensen being a SAG nominee and a Golden Globe nominee this year. Because, like, He really, like, that's rare.

To get a Golden Globe nomination and a SAG nomination and not get the Oscar nomination is, like, that's, like, 15% of the time that happens at best, probably, right? So, I want to look at, like, the rest of the field for those performances. At the Globes, he was nominated against Jim Broadbett won for Iris, which is also he won the Oscar. The Globes nominated Ben Kingsley for sexy be. and John Voight for Ali, who were also Oscar nominees, then Hayden Christensen, then Steve Buscemi for Ghost World, who also had a lot of momentum that year.

That was like, again, speaking of American Beauty, sort of Thorough Birch's, the next big acclaimed thing after American Beauty. And then Jude Law was nominated for AI Artificial Intelligence, which I think is a great performance that I do wish was Oscar nominated. And then, let me look up the SAGs really quick. I have the SAG one pulled up.

Sagan McCullen actually wins Sag for Fellowship of the Ring. Also Ben Kingsley for Sexy Beast, Hayden Christensen for Life as a House, Jim Broadbent for Iris, which I think that was the only major precursor. He lost that season. And this is where Ethan Hawke shows up for Training Day. Right, because he would eventually get the Oscar nomination as well. And he didn't really become kind of a talking point until late in the season. And I think it started actually with Sagg. Yes, that's right.

Because there wasn't enough time even for people to sort of like stop and realize that he's the lead of that movie. Like, oh, right. Because all this, all the like momentum was on Denzel as lead. But it's just like, oh, right. No. Ethan Hawke is like also the lead and like even more of the focal point because he's the protagonist in that movie. And he's also great in the movie too. And that was his first nomination.

And he was like kind of an underrated actor up to that point too. And it was the first time he actually got appreciation. Yes. That was like a level up. sort of moment for him. So, yeah, it's an interesting year that lineup never really solidified until the very end at the Oscar. It was in very much flux.

And that's why, so, like, the only people who got both SAG and Golden Globe that year were Broadbent, Kingsley, and Christensen. So, like, he was definitely, you know, favored to get that nomination. And yet there was also that sense of, remember when Milakunis got Golden Globe and SAG nominations for Black Swan, and people still were just like, yeah, but that's not going to happen. And I think there was sort of that with Hayden Christensen, where they were like, he's still just this little Canadian kid who we don't even know if he's going to be good in Star Wars yet. And a lot of it is also just, yeah, it's like a curiosity factor because he emerged from

relative obscurity to land probably the biggest casting of that time. And there was definitely, I remember, this sense of resistance to just like, let's not coronate this kid before the big movie comes out right where everybody thought that the cart was getting put before the horse with all these nominations for Life as a house and also the fact that like

Life as a House had no other awards momentum whatsoever like that wasn't not getting nominated in anywhere for anything else I think it got well Kevin Klein got a SAG nomination oh he did say I'm surprised they kept the client didn't get anything oh well then I'm totally

wrong okay so Klein did also have some momentum then. All right. But I mean, the thing that kept this movie in any type of conversation was Hayden Christensen. He got the breakthrough with National Board of Review. Right. You got a couple other breakthrough mentions. It does sort of make you appreciate the sort of the evolutionary charms of a Timothy Shalame who's like had also like a similar sort of, you know, breaking through. But it happened more organically maybe and he's just better. You know what I mean?

Just like now we have our current day version of this Hayden Christensen moment except it's Timothy Shalame and he's just a better actor. I don't know. Wait for Timothy Shalamay's jumper. Let's see what happens.

I mean, Timothy Shalame won't prove he's better to me until he can do his own version of Little Italy. Ah, Little Italy. Fair. That movie only exists to me as a poster. Was it a jumper he started dating Rachel Bilsson?

Rachel Bilsen, right? And they dated for a while, right? Yeah, that was a long one, yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, Jumper's not good. Poor Doug Lyman. I'm like looking at Hayden's like wiki right now, can I'm just like, let me look at those Canadian TV credits and it's great. He was in an episode of Goosebumps, you guys. He was. He was in an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? You know he was in the episode of Famous Jet Jackson, which I do remember.

Was that Nickelodeon? Was the New York? The American was Disney. And it's not Disney Plus because there's some of their Canadian shows that they don't have the distribution rights for. So unfortunately, the famous Jet Jackson is one of them, and it is a crime. Oh, no. Oh, that's too bad. Fully don't remember him in the Virgin Suicides.

Now I'm looking at these credits, too. I don't remember him in Virgin suicides. I will say he is really great in Shattered Glass like he is the like

it's just one of those things that I think it's a tremendous casting thing like if there's anything where we are like skeptical about him as his persona

it's like it's all embedded in that role in a way that comes to fruition beautifully although I know that especially when

the Star Wars movies came out with Hayden a lot of people were just like, like, it was basically the battling cry, but he's great in shattered glass. It's true. It's that thing where, like, if you're really good in one movie, people are going to hold on to that forever and ever and ever. And it's partly because he's cast so well in the movie. Yeah, no, it's absolutely true. I'm looking forward to whatever HBO or Hulu or Netflix series casts him in a few years in this very sort of nondescript role where you're like, you get to the end of the pilot and you're just like, that was Hayden Christensen. And he has a little bit of a comeback.

I'm sort of looking forward to that. I'm thinking he's going to be USA. It's either going to be the sinner or dirty John. Oh, he's in the new season of the sinner. That's perfect. Let's cast that. Let's make that happen. It's one of those two.

That's what's going to happen. I love that idea. I love that for him. That's perfect. Excellent. Very good. Yeah, 2001 Oscars. So this is the other thing about Life as a House is it comes out in October, late October.

And it's still within that like shadow of 9-11 era for movies where I remember all the buzzy sort of stuff this year. Like nothing felt like it was, movies didn't feel like they were real quite. yet until like to me until lord of the rings and harry potter sort of like jolted everything back into shape in december but there was this whole gave people these big worlds to get lost in that were not our own and things that weren't as bleak or if they were dark like it was about transcending darkness yes but up until then it was i remember there was like what was that robert redford movie is it called the last castle yes Like, that was a fall of that year.

So, wait, I want to go into, because we remember, like, the very specific, like, the movies that, like, 9-11 sort of wiped out the box office chances for, which are, like, glitter and Donnie Darko and that kind of stuff. Yeah, glitter famously, it would have been a huge success, if not for 9-11. Yes, exactly. Don't say a word, I think, was in that, like, right that week after that, hearts in Atlantis. But then you get into November, and it's, like, serendipity. Bandits Um

Well, Mahaland Drive But Mahaland Drive was a very late bloomer The last castle Writing in Cars with Boys, the episode we did We did an episode on riding in cars with boys K-packs for God's sake Freakin K-Pack Oh boy

2001 A Time for Kevin Spacey Yeah for sure The man who wasn't there Was in November that year Life is a House Life is a House opening wide The same weekend that Shallow held

is also, like, a curse upon curses. Jesus. Yeah, and then Harry Potter in late November, and things sort of started to feel like real movies again. And there were, like, good movies, like, interspersed in there. But in general, it felt like, you know, America was in this, like, odd little haze. I don't know. What else?

What else should we talk about for life as a house? Kevin Klein. Kevin Klein's an interesting career, actually. where you look at, he gets the Oscar in 1988 for A Fish Called Wanda, the very rare, like, true comedy Oscar, where it's just like it's not like comedy but with darkness, comedy but with poignancy, it's just like, no. Or like one of the last comedy Oscars, we should say.

Yeah. We're more common in like those 60s. And so after that, he's still making comedies. He's still doing soap dish. And I love you to death with Tracy Allman. and he's in French kiss. Right, in and out, which is another one that, like, you get a nomination for Joan Cusack. But there's also this series of movies, Dave is another comedy that he's in, and he's great.

That's one of those movies where, like, if the Oscars were better with comedies, Kevin Klein would have probably had a really good shot in a nomination for Dave. But he's also then, after that Oscar, there's every once in a while, they'll put him in something that feels like, oh, we're going to try and get, like, a Best Actor nomination for him, And whether that's, well, he's in an ensemble in Grand Canyon, but, like, that was definitely going hard for poignancy and, like, trying to be of the moment and whatnot. The Ice Storm we've talked about on this podcast before,

where, like, that's a big sort of serious, dramatic lead role for him. Life is a House. The year after Life is a House, he's in a movie called The Emperor's Club, which is like... I love how you skip over Wild Wild West like that. Yeah, Wild Wild West was not maybe the Oscar position film for him, but yeah, he gets awful reviews for Wild Wild West. Entry to the Criterion Collection, the Cayet de Cinema, Wild Wild West.

Yeah. Emperors Club is very dead poet society, light, as I recall. He plays Cole Porter in DeLovely in 2004. And then it just, like, really drops off and really, like, from pretty much, he's in a prairie home companion is a supporting role he's very funny in that i think and then from then up until ricky in the flash it's just a lot of sort of detritus right where it's like really small roles or really small movies and and he was doing a lot more theater again right and then obviously like it all turned around when he played maurice in the live action beauty and the beast and we all remember

how we all know how it turned around yeah yeah but he got us Oscar for that movie Yes, yes, he got finally that long-awaited second Oscar for Beauty and the Beast. Yeah, I'm noticing, I'm looking, too, at his credits. He started playing hot older man, hot distinguished older man, like, and definitely maybe, and no strings attached. Right, right. And then he gets sort of Last Vegas, which, like, is his congratulations, you're old now kind of a movie where it's just like, now you will be in a movie that is about how old you are. and there we are And yeah, I don't know

I really liked him and Ricky in the Flash We've taught, so this is got to be, this is our third Klein then after Ricky in the Flash and Ice Storm And the Ice Storm, yeah I don't know, I think he's good in this But I don't, I don't Can't really point to any other performance

Besides maybe Dave Where I'm like, oh, Kevin Klein Should have gotten an Oscar nomination for that I mean, you could make the case for the Ice Storm I think there's a handful of people who are more exciting than him in that movie. DeLovely was definitely part of the conversation, but we'll get into that movie whenever we cover it.

Yes, we will. We'll definitely cover that. Isn't that also an Erwin Winkler movie? It is. It is an Irwin. I think it was maybe his last, like, I don't know. Erwin Winkler coming for Lassa Hallstrom's gig. Yeah, well, Irwin Winkler is one of those people who, like, very successful as a producer,

and then as a director, it just does. really happen for him. His other movies are the net. He directed the net. Oh, yeah. He directed the movie at first sight with Mirosurvino and Val Kilmer. Oh, yes. Where they get... I always

conflate this with Untamed Heart because he gets a baboon heart. Right. In Untamed Heart. And for whatever reason, I lived years of my life thinking that Val Kilmer got baboon eyes in the movie. Baboon eyes. See, I always conflate at first sight with One Fine Day and City of Angels are like, they're all the same genre.

All of their posters are basically the same, except like One Fine Day is like the happy version of the same poster, but the same movie poster. Right, yeah. It's all peach colored, yeah. And then his last movie that he directed was something called Home of the Brave, which was a Iraq War movie in 2006 that starred Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Beale, 50 cent Christina Ritchie and Chad Michael Murray. So there we have it with that cast.

That's like the entire ironic invite list to like a VF party. Yes, it's the it's the Vanity Fair Oscar party photos, but it's like the really late at night ones where like everybody else has gone home and it's just like who's still there. It's Jessica Beale and Chad Michael Murray and 50 Cent, just like cutting it up. And, yeah, so that's the last movie that Erwin Winkler has directed. He is 89 years young and still kick in and good for him. Yeah, I would say the direction on this movie does not distinguish itself too much, even though the cinematographer on this is... Vilma Sigmund, right?

I'm just like, you're really, like, wild. Hulling up the heavy artillery for, uh, filming these. One of the finest, uh, cinematographers in the history of cinema, just like. Filming cliffside shots. Showed up for this movie. Yeah. Um, we really wanted, uh, they wanted the Oscar bus.

It really did. That's the thing. I think it really did. Even though the fact that, like, you mentioned earlier that I Am Sam was a new line film, which I had forgotten because I was like, oh, obviously, uh, life as a house didn't get too much Oscar Love because all of that new line Oscar money was put into Lord of the Rings. Like, this was the, this was the big intro Oscar push for the Lord of the Rings, fellowship of the ring. I couldn't be remembering this wrong, but I think they dropped I Am Sam at the end of the season, like last minute.

I don't think going into the fall that it was originally planned to be there. Because that was Sean Penn's nominations in both 99 for Sweeten Lowdown and 2001 for I Am Sam were both really late breakers as far as I remember and yeah because yeah that 2001 best actor sort of field took a while to firm up I think where it was everybody assumed that it was Russell Crow and then nobody else really knew what else was going to come in there and then the Denzel Washington buzz sort of accumulated over time and IAM Sam happened and then wait who are the other two nominees that year? Tom Wilkinson

for In the Bedroom, which was a Sundance movie. So good. So good. Incredible. And then Will Smith for Ali. Right. Who I think is fantastic. Which was a huge buzz movie throughout the season, and then the movie itself kind of disappointed people.

And yet, was never not getting nominated for it. And yet by the time, then it was enough to even get John Voight nominated, too. So, like, I think that buzz kind of rebounded a little bit. Will Smith is so good in that movie I sometimes feel like given how many great performances

Denzel Washington gave after training day that I feel like oh maybe Will Smith could have won the Oscar that year in 2001 and then We could have given Denzel an Oscar for Fences what I think is his best work

He's also incredible We could have given Denzel and Oscar for a lot of things For amazing things I mean I'm the person that's like like rewatch Roman J. Israel. He's amazing. He is amazing in that. He would be my winner that year. For Roman J. Israel?

Yeah. That's interesting. That's fascinating. So good. Of anybody that year, or of the five nominees? Definitely of the five nominees. Fascinating. Anyway, justice for Will Smith and Ali. I think he's really good.

What else? Now I'm going to like pull out my notes. you're going to hear my little papers flapping around. This is mostly, like, one of the best, best actress years, even though this movie doesn't really give us room to talk about it, but it goes without saying. Yeah, Nicole Kidman giving two of the best performances of the year and only got nominated for one of them.

Thank you, rules. Yes, okay, what else do I have? Very post-American beauty, E.W. Itlist. Also, the fact that, like, Sam Robards just sort of, of like shows up in character actor roles and stuff like this or on like the West Wing or whatever and I always have to be like oh right he's Lauren Bacall's son like he's Lauren Bacall and Jason Robart's son and it's just like because it's like he's good in things but it's like Lauren Bacall was like a movie star's movie star right and it's just like he's not quite that and

like yeah he's he's Nate Archibald's dad on Gossip Girl he's the captain he forgot about that holy shit I forgot about that yeah um Yeah, he's, you know, classic character actor, hey, it's that guy, kind of a thing. I don't know. I didn't really like this movie, but I'm glad I saw it again. I think that was maybe was where I come out on this. Yeah, it was one of those things where I'm like, well, I forgot a good portion of this. It's over two hours long.

Why do we need any of that? When there's clearly things that are missing and should be in this movie, and yet two hours long. but it was nice to revisit, I guess, yeah, and it was fun to, like, watch it as an adult, I guess, and see what insanity I was watching as a kid, I'm like, yeah, this is cinema. It really feels like the first time in a minute that we've done a movie like this, that was so clearly conceived and written under the umbrella of prestige and seriousness that, like... It, it, this movie is so, like, trippy. Only in the early 2000s could this movie exist. It's true. Yeah, very much, like, there's a, there's a very narrow window of time where this movie would have existed in its, in the way that it does.

I think Hayden Christensen's character is very much styled of the time. Obviously, we talked about the American Beauty influences. Yeah. Yeah. A house, I will say, the house looks nice. When we saw the little shot at the end of the house. Yeah, it looks amazing. I know it's going to be haunted by Kevin Klein forever, so, like, that'll be weird.

But that's what you get, you know. It's what you get with a house like that when it's a man inside a house. Little architecture models just keep popping up. Yeah. That was the other thing is early on when he like barnstorms the architectural firm and breaks everything and walks out with his model and then collapses onto it into the courtyard. And I'm just like, well, now that model's all broken. Like, the whole fact that, like, I hope that wasn't...

He can't really take it with him when he dies, you know. Right. It's true. He took the blueprints, though, right? Did he take the blueprints, too? No, I think they said he could just take a model. Maybe he stole the blueprints with his weird post-columbine, like, kind of harrowing thing, where, like, all of the people in the office were very concerned and kind of rightly so.

That is actually a really scary scene. Yes. He has a weapon. He's a mess. I was like, okay, so he goes to prison and that's the movie now? Because this is not like... And he dies in prison. Yeah, he's not walking out safely in that building.

I was not rooting for this terrifying man. It's true. No, I think that is the other thing is maybe it's just like, I'm not, I'm never really, like, super rooting for him at any point in this movie. Like, I kind of wish the sun could have just gone to Tahoe. And I kind of, like, I guess I'm, like, passively rooting for the house to get to be. built or whatever. And I'm like rooting for him with Kristen Scott Thomas, but only because Jamie Sheridan's character seems worse. But I don't know if I'm actively rooting for, yeah, not George. There's George and there's not George. I just didn't understand what about him

made him bad or an asshole specifically to his family. Like I get it with his coworkers. I get it with his neighbors. But like, you just are asked to kind of buy that they have these a strange relationship. This is the war of the world's problem. What's the grudge? Right. You know, like, what's, what was the behavior that led to this? Yeah.

Right. She clearly fell in love with him. So, like, what was he putting out there before that she's like, I'm into this? Uh, and also, regarding going to Tahoe, I think the thing I love the most about Tahoe is that he would still be working on a house apparently if he went to Tahoe. Right. I think, uh, what John Foster tells him. The movie is asking that one scene of. him peeing off of the cliffside to carry a lot of weight in terms of telling us what his character

is like because that I think is supposed to sum up like he's slovenly he doesn't give a shit he's crude and he's inconsiderate and it's just like okay but he's also just like peeing off a cliff and he's not peeing on anybody you know whatever it's just like it's you know whatever one scene can only do so much character building anyway Should we move on to the IMDB game? Yeah, Chris, why don't you tell us in our listeners what the IMDB game is? All right, so the IMDB game every week. We end our episodes with this game where we challenge each other with an actor or actress

to try to guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are television or voiceover work, we mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue. If that's not enough, it just becomes a free for all of hints. Love a free for all of hints All right, Latoya You have come armed With a selection for the IMDB game

Would you like to give First or guess first And who would you like to give Your clue to Or guess from? I would like to guess first to get it out of the way Because I've been so terrified of it And Joe, you can do it

Okay, all right. So I will Give to Latoya. Latoya will give to Chris, and Chris can give to me. All right. So we'll get it out of the way early. I mentioned before that Kevin Klein's Oscar is for the 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda. It's very funny.

He's very good. He has a lot of scenes opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, who we have never done as an IMDB game before. So, Latoya, why don't you give me Jamie Lee Curtis is known for? And, of course, it's not going to be any activity. commercials, correct? No, it's all feature films. Feature films. Okay. We discussed

Lindsay Long Island, so I'm going to go with Freaky Friday for one. Correct. Freaky Friday. Huh. Let's see. The poster for Freaky Friday, by the way, is, like, blazed into my memory. The shot of Jamie Lee Curtis with the jean jacket and the punky hair and the choker and the plaid rocker

skirt with the guitar looking absolutely just dear, like absolutely deer in the headlights crazed and befuddled. And Lohan in this like really ill-fitting oversized suit, which like super delights me. It's a power suit, Lindsay Lohan. I love it. It's such a great poster. All right. You're one for one.

Okay. One for one. So I was just listening to the blank check episode on this. So I'm going to say true lies. Yes, true lies. True lies. A movie I've seen a million times, usually on FX with all the commercials, and it's already like a five-hour film, so. Exactly. Those lies, they're true, baby.

Gotta love those lies. Lies as a house. As a house bit, love it. Let's see. Two more? Two more. No wrong guesses, too. Halloween.

Which Halloween? Oh, no. She has been in... She has been in two movies named Halloween. That's bullshit. I can't believe we haven't talked about Scream 5 renamed Scream. I know! What the fuck are they doing?

Because Joe and I both basically screamed at each other on Twitter while agreeing with each other that it is bad for both Halloween and Scream to just say fuck all to their search engine. Optimization. Right. Our new movie is our old movie. The original Halloween? It's not the original Halloween. So that's one strike.

But that means that it is... That's a new Halloween, but it's also bullshit. It is bullshit. All right. David Gordon Green doesn't deserve to have his Halloween on Jamie Lee. You super hate that Halloween. I don't mind. I think that's a good Halloween.

I think it's good. The last 15 minutes of it are so good and the rest of it is garbage. He's on the prison checkerboard. It's kind of... It's creepy. David Gordon Green and Danny, what's his name that I hate? They didn't deserve to get to make that movie. Danny McBride.

You think Danny McBride? Yes. Oh, boy. All right, so you've got one left and you've got only one strike on you. Trading Places? No, so that's two strikes. Your missing year is 1998. And I will say our discussions in this episode,

have laid the groundwork for this one. Halloween H2O. It's Halloween H2O. You are correct. The WBist of all Halloween movies. Yes. My expertise comes in handy, finally. As soon as I saw Jamie Lee Curtis's,

I'm just like, this is what I'm giving with Toyota for sure. It's Michelle Williams, Josh Hartnett. Who's the one you always bring up, Chris, when we do this category? Adam Hanibird. Joseph Gordon Levitt, Joseph Gordon Levitt. Oh, Joseph Gordon Levitt is in this as well. Yeah. Jody Lynn O'Keefe, who has only, like, who kind of ceased to exist once this trend of

of WB-era teen movies went away. Which sucks because she's great. She's in the sixth season of The Vampire Diaries as one of the characters' love interest, and she is, like, so good in it. It's like the season that, like, a lot of it is about the 90s, the season, so it's like it's a perfect casting to have her. And I'm just like, Joey Lino Keefe rocks, you guys. Jody Lino Keefe was on another world, which is my favorite soap opera when I was younger,

as a recast for this, like, teen Hellion, who, like, she was the, like, rock, like, not rocking, but she was just, like, the problem teen who joined the, was the, the long-lost great niece of the, like, grand family at the center of the soap opera. So she would, like, injected new life into. And it was like, now all her and her friends were like the young, sexy, like, characters in this. And then Jody Lin-O-Keefe was the first recast for this role. And she was, the original was blonde and she was brunette. And the original was sort of bubbly.

And Jody Lin-O-Keefe was not bubbly because that is not her vibe. So I remember that very specifically as like a very hairpin turn for that character. All right. Well done, though, Latoya. You nailed that one. I did it. I didn't fuck it up. Yeah. So worried. All right. So now you give to Chris.

Okay, Chris. So we discussed the film Shattered Glass. Spectacular. And in Hayn Christensen's Shattered Glass, Melanie Linsky plays one of his co-workers. Oh, my God. So good in that. I love her so much. So what are her known for? This is going to be hard. There is a TV show. I'll give you that. Uh, is the TV show Togetherness?

Yes, of course. Okay. Um, Heavenly Creatures. Mm-hmm. I'm trying to think of what of her movies would be high on the algorithm. She's amazing and hello I must be going. I don't think that's going to be on there. What else have been her lead roles?

What about like, Happy Christmas? No. Okay. Maybe I should go supporting in this. She is in a way we go. Is that going to be my answer? No, because a million people are in that.

What about like up in the air? Is that your answer? Yeah, up in the air. Yes. Ah, spectacular. Very good. Hmm. I'm just going to say away we go, because that's, like, the first thing that's coming to my mind.

No, and the year is 2016. Oh, okay, so it's semi-recent. It's not happy Christmas. It's 2016. Maybe that's, no, that's well before, uh, hello, I must be going. Uh, that's around the time of togetherness. There is a distinct connection between this film and a film that is very much in the discourse right now. Oh.

Not discussed on this episode yet, but is in the discourse this week. Of what people are talking about right now. Hillbilly elegy. I mean, we did actually discuss it on this episode. Oh, did we? Yeah. Oh, I don't remember that. My memories come.

What else? Oh, yes, we did. We did talk about it briefly, didn't we? Yes. We talked about happiest season. That's in the discourse right now. Is it connected to happiest season? Yes.

Maybe. Okay. I'm helping him. It can't be like Mary Steenberg. I feel like that clue really should help. It could be Kristen Stewart, but I feel like I would lose my mind if Melanie Lewinsky and Kristen Stewart were in a movie together. I think you might be over.

overthinking it now. Yeah, think more fundamental to the, to the film. Gay stuff. No. Like a person, but like, not just someone in the cast. Oh, um, uh, Cleo Deval directed. Is it directed by Clea Deval? Oh, it's the intervention.

Yes. There you go. Intervention. Oh, that's a good movie. It is a good movie. I really like that movie. Really great cast, too, man. Yeah.

Yeah, it's really good. What's her name, um, from the Marvel movies? is super good in it. Kobe Smolders, I think, is super good in that movie. RIP Stumptown. I know. Yeah, sad. Well done.

Wonderful. Does somebody just pop a bottle? I'm very happy about whatever I just heard. That was, I was drinking my water from my water bottle, and then, like, I put it down, and it just, like, went quunk. It just did say. It makes those really satisfying splashes. Yeah.

It sounded like somebody popped a cork, and I was just like, yes, let's get the party going. Okay. Cork is a house. Life is a cork. As I love to do, I'm running this bit straight into the ground. Take it, babe. Joseph, for you. Hayden Christensen, we mentioned, was probably like one of the big, almost their supporting actor performances this year in terms of not getting nominated.

Another one that I think of when I think of 2001 was a favorite among the critics. Got a Golden Globe nomination. Did not get SAG, did not get Oscar. It's Mr. Steve Buscemi. Ah, Steve Buscemi. Steven Obushemi. Okay, so is Ghost World one of them? Yes.

All right. Is Fargo one of them? Yes. Okay. is reservoir dogs one of them yes be very careful with your next guesses you could get our first perfect score in a minute god thank you for heaping on the presh okay so it could be another tarantino he is in pulp fiction but very briefly um and none of it's television right nope no tv so no boardwalk empire which kind of surprises me but okay um talk about board

Walk Empire. I recapped that show for television without pity, so I, like, know so much about Borrwark Empire, at least the early seasons. I sort of developed this, like, very, like, love-hate relationship with it, and that devolved to mostly hate, just because I had to write about it at length each week. And I was just like, oh, my God, everybody's so violent. I hate it. Like, anyway.

Yeah, I think I, like, kind of cut out. I was, like, done once they cut off Michael Pitt, because I'm like, well, I want to well now this isn't happening anymore and then like Bobby Cannavali who I love but he was doing you know what he does which is the most acting that season was what killed me like that was the season where it was just like I love Bobby Cannavali but he's got it turned up to 17

and he won an Emmy for it and I was like no this is just not it's just being extra like this is not acting like what the fuck so and then I cut out and then they added Jeffrey Wright to the cast and it was like fuck you I love Jeffrey Wright anyway Steve Bishemi I'm still trying to do the fourth.

Okay. So, it's not going to be like Trees Lounge, which he directed. It's going to be something that he's like a featured supporting. Is it another Cohen's-y thing? Oh, is it the Big Lobowski? It is not the Big Lobowski. Damn it. Okay.

Oh, almost perfect. Almost perfect. I know. I think we technically count perfect scores if you don't have to get the year. Yeah, you're generous about that. I'm much more of a stickler, but I'll go with you on this. All right, all right. No, I'm not going to, it's not Pulp Fiction.

It can't be Pulp Fiction. Okay. There's got to be another Cohen's one in there somewhere. You know, I could give you a hint, but you haven't got the wrong yet. I haven't got the next one wrong yet. Okay, so. All right, I'm just going to say Pulp Fiction so I can get the hint. It is not Pulp Fiction.

Your year is 2017, though, I would like to, even though you haven't guessed that much, I would like to give it a caveat that it opened in the U.S. in 2018. Okay. All right. So it's 2017 on IMDB, but like we consider it. So it played a festival or something in 2017, and then it didn't open until 2018.

Is it an awards even? movie? No, but yes. It's not a movie. I mean, like, it got no Oscar nominations, but like there were critics groups

that supported this movie. It has Bafton nominations. Is he like one of the main guys, or is he like far down the cast? I mean, main guys in this movie, you're probably talking about equal footing

for like five people. Oh. And it's too late to be one of those earlier Martin McDonough movies. He's not in, obviously three billboards would have been much more of an Oscar movie and that was actually 2017.

Okay. The problem is all of 2018 is a blur to me movie-wise. Everything is just like, okay, so that was the Star is Born Year and Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody

and all this stuff that everybody was an outlier, like, when people were predicting their fifth screenplay nominee, they might have chosen. Oh, it is Coens, right? Is it Buster Scruggs? No. Oh, fuck. That was actually a nominee. Is he even

in that? I don't know. I'm maybe misremembering things. Everybody's in that. Somewhere. I also sometimes allow my brain to, like, mix his credits with Tim Blake Nelson's credits, even though I don't think the two of them are all that similar, but anyway.

All right, I'm going to need another hint. This is a writer-director who had done movies before, but had become famous in the interim for running a certain TV show. Not true detective. No.

Different genre. Comedy? Yes. For show running a Comedy. Yes. Left that comedy to make this movie. Oh.

Network comedy? Uh, what do you, like, primetime television? No. Okay. But not a streamer. This is tough. Okay. Um, it was an HBO show.

Oh. Oh, HBO comedies. Uh, not on to, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I did see this at a festival in 2017, and it didn't open until March of the next year. Uh, death of Stalin. The death of Stalin.

He's so good in that movie. Everybody is so good. Another movie I just don't care for it. Okay, I can't. I can't with you in that. It's such a good movie. It's funny. I laugh a bunch, but I just, I don't, I don't know if he anew cheese attempt.

upset drama for me. It's so good. All right. Well, I went gangbusters for the first three of those and then really crapped out. Okay, it should have been a screenplay nominee. Anyway, any last thoughts before we take her out? This was a good discussion. I thought I think we got into lots of little alcoves and eaves of this film as a house.

That we love to do. Latoya, it was so amazing having you on. Thank you for joining us and giving us a wild movie to discuss and making it a lot of fun. Yeah, thank you for letting me revisit this film for the first time in many years. Happy to have it. I'm sure we will be the last people to do so. That is why we are here. We want to be the reason why people revisit movies that they haven't thought about in many, many a decade.

That is our episode. 2020 is probably the most. Someone's talked about Life is a House since. It's 2002, honestly. Yes. No, it's true. And we're proud of that. We're proud of that little push in the right direction.

If you want more of this at Oscar Buzz, though, you can check out the Tumblr at this had oscarbuzz.com. You should also follow our Twitter account at had underscore Oscar underscore Buzz. Latoya, where can the listeners find you online? The listeners can find me on Twitter at LaFergs, L-A-F-E-R-G-S. And from there, you can find my writing and such because I will be plugging because that's what I do. And you can listen to me on other podcasts, such as the Angel on Top, Angel Rewatch podcast, and the Empire Diaries, which is a Vampire Diaries rewatch podcast, both spoiler-free for the most part. Nice. How far into Angel are you? Well, I actually have just taken over as the host of Angel on Top.

So I'm starting in season three of Angel, which is a good season to start. Yeah, season three is when it really hits that next gear of the whole season is an episode, essentially. Yeah. Nice. All right. Chris, where can the listeners find you in your stuff? Also on Twitter at Krispy File. That's F-E-I-L.

Also on Letterbox under the same name. Follow my alt account at as a house. Well, now you have to make that. You know that, right? Yeah, it's true. I might. Maybe I will. I'll work on that before this episode drops, so you have lots of fun content to go back on. It's probably taken, but I'll sue them. Yeah.

Go to the city planning board and say that their alt account has six inches too much height on it and must be knocked down. All right, that's it. I don't know. I didn't know whether we could. It's your entry to say what you are at. as a house on Twitter. Oh, I am Life as a at Joe Reed on Twitter, Reed being spelled R-E-I-D. I'm

on letterboxed, frantically trying to cram all of the 2020 movies that I haven't watched into the end of the year. Also as Joe Reed spelled R-E-I-D, we would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mievous for

their technical guidance. Please remember to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or Spotify, wherever else you get podcasts on that great and beautiful internet. A five-star review in particular really helps us out with Apple Podcasts Visibility. So please stop wearing makeup to prove that you are a good son and write something nice about you. Sorry, write something nice about us, please.

You can write something nice about yourself. Give us a five-star, but really give yourself the five-star. Give yourself a star. Give me a five-star, too, actually. Yeah, absolutely. You wear whatever you want on your face. We approve of you and we accept you. And that is all you say about that.

That is offered this week. But we hope you'll be back next week for more buzz and more guster. That's it. More houses. More houses. My life. The way you've done. It feels like home to me.

That feels like home to me. to me it feels like I'm all the way back where I come from It feels like home to me It feels like home to me