73: Blonde (2022)

Alex and Nick review Andrew Dominik’s controversial new film, “Blonde.” The guys discuss online hysteria, Dominik’s challenging filmography, Marilyn Monroe’s best performances, NC-17 movies, Ana de Armas, cinematographer Chayse Irvin, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, and more.
Alex ends the episode with an extended, spoiler-filled review of Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling.”
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Watch Alex's films at http://alexwithrow.com/
Watch Nick's films at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
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Transcript

0:09

Hey, everyone, welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex with our own. I'm joined by my best man, Nick Dostal. How are you doing there? Dick Little. Oh, my. Oh, you know what? That's what I get for rewatching every Andrew Dominik movie. The past two days. Honestly. Oh, man, I'm. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited for this episode. Yeah. We're walking on edgy ground here, you could say, because blond, right? Andrew Dominik's blond released on Netflix on September 28th, 2020 to my birthday. Yes, it was it was a great present to me on your birthday, I'll say not from you. It was just it was just right there. It was great. Okay. So released on Nick's birthday and we are recording this right now on October 2nd, 2022, and right now on this afternoon, this is the movie people are talking about the most. Yes, it is. Number one on Netflix, whatever the hell that means. And people online are pissed. Yes. A few times a year the online world seems to focus all of their ire toward one or two movies. And then it never lets up until you know the next movie to be made. It comes out and we don't record movie podcasts to measure our opinions against this, like mass online hysteria. That's not what this is. But coincidentally, we have planned to do a few podcasts on certain movies, and these are the movies that end up being the most controversial of the year. Last year we had Malcolm and Marie. We wanted to talk about that one. I had no idea the shitstorm that was going to come alive as a result of that Don't Look Up. The. Very controversial movie. We did a pot on that licorice pizza people shit themselves over licorice in this year. Right now it is blond people are losing their minds. Yes. With this movie, we were planning to do a whole solo part on it. Regardless, we've been planning this for months. We both watched it recently and both loved it. We're going to get to why. We're going to talk about why most people seem to be having a hard time with this movie and really, as we hammered home constantly in our Gas Bar and away podcast, we are going to reinforce the notion that not every movie is for every person, even if that movie premieres on the biggest streaming platform in the world. So get ready because this movie goes there. Yes. This episode, I think, is becoming a whole different thing than what we intended it to be, because like you said, it's right. We did plan on doing this regardless of the backgrounds it's receiving. We wanted to be we are trying to be a little bit more choosy with some of these deep dives of movies that just come out because we want to kind of remain a little bit more current to what's there. So choosing certain movies specifically ahead of release dates, knowing we're going to do an episode on blonds, we're going to do an episode on whatever. So I would have never thought that we would have reached this episode. And B, I feel like whatever our plan was about, talking about this episode has now changed just due to the climate a little bit. Yeah, it's like when Alex Gibney made that Lance Armstrong documentary and it was all about how you like, you know, beat cancer and won all these races and stuff. And then in the middle of them filming that documentary is when all the news breaks that this dude has just beet juice. And the whole time, you know, everything was a lie, so they had to completely pivot. I approached Blond, the movie, unlike any way I have ever approached a movie in my life, and that is that I knew this novel by Joyce Carol Oates, which was released in 2000, was out there. So I read it and I never read books before. I see the movie, but the novel is very admittedly fictional, though in reading the book and in watching this movie twice, I've seen it twice. Now I can say that the way Dominic depicts certain events are very shocking in their harsh realism. They are tough scenes to watch, but I am not shocked by the notion that these things very likely happen to her in real life. And the book reading the book, I was like, Oh God, this is, you know, starting with the casting couch bullshit. Like, I'm, I'm reading that in the book and that happens very early in the book, very early in the movie. And I was like, Oh boy, we're just, you know, we're in for it here. But I don't think anyone would deny that that stuff did happen. But just the way maybe Dominic approaches it is a little tough for people. I've read a ton of Monroe books. I've watched all the documentaries and nothing in it was like this inherently new to me. Nothing in the movie was so inherently shocking. Like the way it displayed things is new, but the stories aren't that new. And so I guess this goes without saying, but if you hated this movie, for the love of God, do not ever crack open this book because it is so much more detailed into the trauma she endured. That early scene that I referenced in Mr. Z's office, that's a not so subtle nod to famed producer Darryl Zanuck. There. That scene is so much more graphic in the novel because we stay in Norman Jean's head the like so much longer and the physical pain she feels after Jesus. But I wanted that kind of primer, and as I read the book, I go, Oh, there are a few movies that she's really hammering home here and focusing on, like, don't bother to knock from 1952 Niagara from 53 Gentlemen prefer blonds from 53 the seven year itch which is a huge deal in the movie and some like it hot so I not only did I rewatch all of those, I watched just a ton of her movies for the first time. So I've been on like a marilyn Monroe blond kick for weeks now, so I was ready for the movie to premiere on your birthday, but I wasn't ready for what I saw, and I don't think anyone was. But I think there are a few clues up front. The movie is rated NC 17. It is directed by a director who has never made it an easy film. All of his films are challenging in their own ways. Yeah, in reading this book, I think one of the conflicts people are having with this, I think there's many, but one of them is the idea that this is fictional. I think people go into a biopic thinking that they're going to see a factual account, they're going to see a complete representation of this person's whole life lived and everything that goes with that. And this is not what that is. And you and I can understand that, and you and I can kind of like see what it is. And because what I feel like this movie is offering that people don't like is almost an alternative. Look at the headspace of what's going on with this person not seeing that this is exactly how it was, but that just like everything there's room for, there's room for other thought. And I feel like this movie is all about that. And that's one of the reasons people don't like it. Yeah, there are a few ways for me to approach this answer. One is that this movie has never called itself a biopic. It has never pretended to be a biopic. Nowhere in the film, nowhere in the marketing of the film has it ever said This is based on a true story. This is based on actual events. It doesn't say that anywhere. This is a fictional tone poem that, in my opinion, still does get to the truth because everything is fictional to one degree or another. Documentaries you have to edit in the documentary. When you make that cut, you are making a decision that wasn't really decided in real life. So there's a little bit of fiction in everything. They, in my opinion, have very smartly, starting with Joyce Carol Oates, embrace that fictional aspect. And you see these threads a little bit like Joe DiMaggio, who's never called Joe DiMaggio in the book or in the movie, was on set during that filming of the seven year itch scene, and he was not happy. He was very visibly not happy to people there. And they broke up very shortly after and she was not ready to film the next day because why no one else is in that hotel room. Okay. But I mean, his abuse against her has been very, very well documented. So they're taking these strands that are, quote unquote, you know, based on fact. And going with them in a fictional aspect is what I mean, that every movie isn't for everyone. I don't know whose responsibility it is to investigate a movie beforehand to find out that this is a fictional account. If someone is going into it, the movie is never telling you that it's true. So you're assuming that it's true then. Okay. I mean, I know they're using some real names. Sometimes they purposely aren't. Mr. Z, you hear me? Go on this rant all the time, and I know it's going to happen in upcoming episodes about this based on a true story thing that I hate. When the main selling point and marketing of a movie is, this is based on a true story. And then you watch it and you're like, Oh wow, that was good. And then you get home, you do a little research, and well over 50% of that was complete bullshit and quote unquote artistic license. And everyone accepts this as okay. I mean, there are some reason ones like Elvis is a really good example. Sure, Elvis will get brought up in this in this conversation today, but that there's so much of that movie that is just blatantly false or moreover, even though it's damn near 3 hours, just excludes so much and does not show many of the dark aspects of his life. And that's that director's choice to do that. Yeah, I genuinely think Andrew Dominik's intention with this movie is to show how a suicide occurred and that person who died by suicide happened to be the most famous person in the world at the time. Why did that happen? We can watch biopics of Marilyn Monroe being like enjoying the aspects of her life, enjoying the fruits of her labor, of starting, you know, independent production companies. Those biopics exist. I like them. Some of them star Michelle Williams. They're good. This isn't that. I'm already I'm like getting way ahead of myself. But yeah, that those are my thoughts. Now, this is something that I kind of felt watching the movie in. Is it suicide or is it overdose or is it the gray area? Yeah, I think it's absolutely gray. I think well, we're never going to know that in real life. This movie also, it's crazy what he does not show. And there are so many more controversial aspects to her death. It I'm not even going to get into here. I don't even think there are conspiracy theories about how much more involved the Kennedys were in her life, both John and Robert, that it was you know, she was taken out of her room, maybe, apparently, and like taken to a hospital. And then she died there and they brought her back and staged it. There are all these theories, but no one is ever really going to know. So whether she did it intentionally or not, I mean, there's so many famous people we could ask this question about. This still is happening where we're like, Oh, God, what's that? You know, did they mean to do that or did they just take too much of blank? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's describe it. The movie's about crazy because, I mean, you know, there's not like it's pretty straightforward, but I do think this movie's about the suicide or the death of the most famous person in the world. And per the vision of this movie, that's really, to me, all it's interested in showing the great Marilyn Monroe's demise. Crude, brash. Yes. Not for the faint of heart. Yes. But that is the movie. That's what Dominick and Ana de Armas have been telling us for months. This will be NC 17. This will not be a traditional movie. This will test your patience and your stomach in my opinion. Dominick has been so clear about what he intended this movie to be, and I do believe that matters. And I think in order to find any appreciation or value in Blond, you have to accept it for what it is as opposed to what you want it to be. We said that countless in our guest far and away podcasts not not never in our right mind are we going to recommend Irreversible to the masses. That podcast episode isn't even for the masses. That's not what we're doing. We're just saying, This movie's here, this movie exists. That movie specifically is 20 years old and people are still talking about it and it's still getting brought up and it's getting fantastic Blu ray releases. So it's in conversation. Let's try to talk about a little bit about why. And I think that's where criticism of like the hot movie Take is today. We've talked about this ad nauseum with Liquors Pizza as well, that people are watching movies now. So it seems with a very specific idea of what that movie should be. And when that movie strays from that personal idea, certain people get pissed beyond belief. And I don't know, I just don't think that's what art is meant to do. Not all art. I don't think art is meant to reinforce this firm belief in yourself. I think it can be that, of course, but I do think art some art some movies are meant to challenge, meant to provoke. I don't think all art is intended to be easy, to be profitable, to make everyone happy. Blond is a challenging film from someone who has now made four incredibly challenging movies in a row. Andrew Dominik does not make commercial movies. He is always testing us and his movies are never well-received by audiences. When they are released, we'll get to that. Blond is not for everyone. Again, if you want to see the joy of Marilyn Monroe like acting while still battling some kind of onset demons, you have my week with Marilyn from 2011, where Michelle Williams played her perfectly. If you want a more homely look at the stark difference between Norma Jean and Marilyn Monroe, you can go watch HBO's Norma Jean and Marilyn from 1996, starring Ashley Judd as Norma Jean and Mira Sorvino as Monroe. Now, if you want an admittedly fictional account of the brutalities Marilyn Monroe endured while being the most famous person in the world, here's blond. It's not an easy movie, but it's never pretended to be. I love what you said about pretty much everything right there. That was. Well, I kind of like I've been. Yes, sorry, that was a rant. But I've been I have been like holding this in. I've been reading everyone's takes online. I see them all. I see them all. You know, I knew when the movie ended that before I read any take, I posted our tweet about it from our account saying I loved it, but I don't know how people are going to what people are going to do with this and people are just not liking it. That's very clear. But, you know, I'm not here to call anyone wrong. I'm just here to come to defense a little bit and to talk about some of the intentions. It very, very intentionally cuts out very big aspects of her life, her first marriage, her last movie, very big things are cut out, left out on purpose. I'm still going. You got to you got to chime in here. I can't start. Well, I mean I mean, this is try. I've been trying to find a spot. All right? I think my biggest takeaway from this movie, what I liked about it, is the fact that it was made the way it was, the fact that there is a movie that currently is number one on Netflix. It is the hot topic of everything and it is a complete, complete piece of art for everything. The definition is. And that excites me because you and I are searching for movies like this now. Now, of course, like we don't want every single movie to be as difficult or as intense as this, but I do not want to see these types of expressions go away. I don't want to see movies like this become a thing where, oh, we don't make challenging movies in American audiences like this. This is not something we do because of the backlash that it's getting. And this is something that when I see something like this, it's still like, okay, good, okay. I'm glad that this is still. Someone's doing. It and then yes, someone's doing it. And I mean, you can say what you want in terms of what this controversy sell. The way that this is is I don't think this movie is going to be a reason that more movies like this are going to be made. But I also think that a movie like this is going to be a reason why movies like this continue to get made. So it's a fine line in terms of one of an unending conversation that we have on this podcast is what is the future of movies? It is a very, very weird time, the weirdest time, I think in movie history, movies are in a very, very shaky time. So for something like this to be made and to be getting watched, regardless of what people think, it's number one, it's the only movie that people are talking about. This is a good thing. This discourse is important and we can talk about why that discourse is okay and why we are coming to the support of a movie that is like this. Yes. So my response to that is I'm very interested to see Babylon by Damien Chazelle, which is coming out December, because we don't we don't have too many young directors who are willing to do this. You know, Andrew Dominik is 54 years old. He's made four movies. If he goes on this pace, he's going to make his next movie in 2032. Yeah. And I would like to see more of them at a faster clip because again, this is one of the mottos of this podcast is that we do not want every movie to be blond. And if I wanted that in my life, I could curate my own movie watching to just watch fucked up shit all the time. That would not be hard to do, and we could just have the fucked up movie podcasts. You know what. I was going to say? I think some people probably consider us that. Yeah, yeah, maybe. Maybe we do. This is exactly why I'm like, Hey, man, let's do favorite romantic comedies, because that's not a joke. Like, we love those movies. Like I just rewatched When Harry Met Sally. We always promised to give it to you straight. And this is a difficult movie, and it's 2 hours and 46 minutes of like 2 hours, 35, because, you know, the credits, I kind of felt straight. Yeah. It is tough. Everyone involved in it is all in, though, from the person who shot it, to the people who scored it, to the woman who plays the lead character. Everyone's all in it. I always do a thing too, when I'm watching a movie and if I'm not liking it, if something is going on that I'm like, Oh, I. I will notice that if a movie like this, which every single frame, every single sequence, every single second of this movie is so intentional. It's so being cared for from the cinematography, from the performance, from the direction. Yeah, this is as intentional as it gets. So if you're watching it and you can't see it's trash because you have to look and be like, okay, what's going on here is not what I like, but what is really being given to me. And maybe can I look at it a different way? Can I, like, see this for what it actually is? Because you can watch a really bad movie that is not being taken care of. It is it is sloppy. It is no one knows what they're doing. There's no vision, there's no direction, there's no anything. But this is not that. Right. So if you're saying that it's garbage, I question that word. But if you're not liking it, maybe explore what this movie is offering you and why? Because you still will walk away from the movie not liking it. But you can have a little bit more of a sense as to what art does. Is it challenges you, like accept the challenge, meet the movie on its level. Like we always say, I feel like that should be our motto for the podcast, Meet the Movies at their level. Well, yeah. I mean, I'm just saying, like if you meet the movie on it's level, I, I think it's showcasing the horrors it took to achieve her status. And yeah, in all my research, this was never a woman who lived an easy life. It was never a woman who went out of her way to be unkind to people, everyone. She was just so nice and so loving and stuff and yes, late to set all those all those rumors of on set behavior. That's all true. But I don't think that came from a malicious place. And it seems like to me that he's far more interested in making a movie about someone who really was never properly loved and wanted that and endured just complete and utter hell. And I think because of people's personal attachment to Marilyn Monroe, that that is why people are having a very hard time with this. And I understand that. I do. If you watch Elvis, he comes through relatively unscathed and, you know, Marilyn Monroe, because she is in everyone's lives. Even if you haven't seen a movie of hers, you know who she is. You know what she looks like. You've seen a picture of her. I mean, everyone has it. She's so ingrained in our culture. So to one degree or another, we all have a relationship with her. And I think it's really hard for people to see the things this character is put through on screen. But again, I don't think I don't really know what to argue about here. If someone's like, well, it's too brutal. I agree. The movie is fucking brutal. The movie is not pretending to not be brutal on what I rewatched the second time when I was ready for the harsher scenes, I went, okay, this is still iffy. Chose to do this scene. He did it in a way that, okay, I get it. He's not showing the worst of what it is. I fucking guarantee you that this could go so much farther. I do want to talk a little bit about Andrew Dominik and where this guy's coming from and his intention. Yeah, I'm ready. Let's go with his movies. Because in a way, you know, four movies in 22 years, and he's actually made two perfect double features. And he's like the most unconventional biopic director ever. So his first movie is called Chopper. This is about famed Australian criminal Mark Chopper Reid, played here by Eric Bana. Never seen Eric Bana like this. How do I sell Chopper? Chopper is my favorite Andrew Dominic movie. Boom. There. I said it there it was seen this movie. It's never available anywhere. I bought the DVD in like 2000 to I absolutely love this movie I've never seen on screen violence the way it is depicted in the first 20 minutes of this movie. More specifically, the way Chopper responds to violence, which is to say not really. And if you know, you know, and I just love everything about it, it's deeply funny, deeply fucked up. And if you watch that movie, you're like, Wow, this is a director with a very, very different vision of just the world. Seven years later, he releases the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. This is produced by and starring Brad Pitt, wildly misunderstood movie at the time. Now, 15 years later, I think it's objectively considered an artistic masterpiece. But I was there in 27, and we're going to talk about this movie more in upcoming in an upcoming podcast. But I was there in 27. I saw this movie and I loved it. Everyone I knew hated it. They didn't get it way too long, way too boring. Now, even the people who don't like it seemed to appreciate what it was trying to do. Next up, 2012 is killing them softly. I was here for this one, folks. This was ten years ago. People fucking hated this movie. Yes. I need people to remember this because I know I know a lot of people think that, like, this movie is awesome now, which it is. But I watched this fucker last night and once it settles into its supreme weirdness and it's Bush Obama cutting crazy shit, it just cooks for those final, like, 80 minutes. Like, you just go. You're just on this crazy, right? It's genius. Cinemascore Cinemascore is a market research team that is stationed at different movie theaters on opening weekends, and they ask regular old moviegoers, rate the movie that you just saw. Cinemascore has been around since 1979. Would you like to guess what? Killing them softly received? A to F? It's got to be a deer. An F. S Only 22 movies since 1979 have received an F cinemascore. People hated this fucking movie. My point is this hate that blond is receiving is nothing new to Dominic or fans of his movies. We've all seen this. People always reject his films. At first and then maybe, maybe accept him years later. Other cinema score f movies Solaris by Steven Soderbergh in the Cut by Jane Campion Bug by William Friedkin and Mother by Darren Aronofsky. Big shocker on that one. And now we have Blond. Ten years after killing them softly, Dominic does not make movies often. This is his fourth film in 22 years, and he wanted to adapt Oates's novel. And he has been pretty adamant about in the press that this is all a movie about Monroe's headspace and not the people in her life. It doesn't really care about them, you know? Andrew Dominic again, not very good at press. He always puts his foot in his mouth. He's been doing this in the press since 27. This is nothing new to me. I do not agree with everything the man says, but I certainly respect his vision as a director. Oh, and he also directed two episodes of Mindhunter, including the Manson episode, which I thought was like a highlight of that show. It did a really good job at that. So those are just, I don't know, my Andrew Dominic thoughts. Do you have any like general thoughts? Tell me this. I know you haven't seen Chopper, which, you know is a shame not not a lot of people have, but that movie just fucking rocks. But Jesse James killing them softly. Did anything in that, like, prepare you for blond? Were you were you ready to see something, you know, different? Oh, and no, to double features. God, I really botched that. Yes. Chopper and killing them softly are like great crime features and choppers. Really outrageous biopic and then Jesse James and blond are would make a great double feature because they both have very similar cinematography styles. They're both, you know, very long and patient and they do a good job of getting into the headspace of their characters. But those would be my double features. But anyway, sorry. I mean, I knew going into this movie because of killing them softly and the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. You just got to be respectful that every time's a great spike every goddamn time. I'm going to go with J.J. from now on. How about that? Yeah. Yeah, I knew what I was getting into. I knew that I was like, All right, this guy is going to go to a place with it. I didn't know where. Upon seeing the movie, I am like, Yeah, that's that's exactly right. That's exactly what it is. Yeah, I agree with you. I think it is more along the lines of of J.J. because of the pace. I think there's always an argument that can be made when something feels like it's dragging a little bit too long. With a director like this, if I feel like it's dragging is we're always aware of it. You're always like, Oh, yeah, moment. Like, I remember I even specifically felt that way in this movie. Blunt At the very end, there's a shot that is being held for a period of time that I was sort of like, All right, I think we could move on now. But again, I'm like, Well, clearly we're not. The director is telling me something. He's like, Nope, we're holding on this because there's a reason. So if I'm hearing you correctly, was it like, Oh, this is going on for a long time? But then once you realize that was his intention, you were like, Oh, I get it, I get it. I'm cool with it now. Exactly. Everyone you that with the whole fucking movie. That's exactly right. That's exactly explained. What I want people to do with the movie. Yeah. Yeah, that was that's. Yet an example of the way that he makes movies. Now, of course, a lot of people don't know who Andrew Dominic is. A lot of people don't really know his previous movies. Most people don't like his previous movies. So it is difficult to try to sell this movie in terms of like this podcast as to why we like it. You're giving a like sub reference to something like for us to say, you got to understand that this is an Andrew Dominic movie. Well, the the curve in the road here is Netflix. Yeah. Yes, it is. Any other NC 17 movie? They can't premiere at Regal's, they can't premiere at AMC's. So you're going to be in Landmark Works, you're going to be in, you know. LEMLEY Where you are you're an independent theater houses. That's that's the way it goes that's dictated by the MPAA. If this was that and Netflix wasn't doing it because it was not an expensive movie, this is like a is a $22 million movie. It looks like way, way more than that. Yeah. But if this was made by, let's say, I don't know, Warner Brothers and they're just releasing it in those indie theaters, and if you want to see it, you have to see it. Or if you want to wait until like the the NC 17 Blu ray, that's not going to show up in Walmart. It's not going to show up in Target because they don't sell NC 17. You're going to have to like buy it on Amazon, you know, you know what I'm saying? Like if you if people had to actually find this a little more, you know, I don't think this controversy would be as crazy as it is. But the fact that any old person with a phone is opening Netflix and this is numero uno, this is right there. People are just going to click on it because that Marilyn Monroe. Okay. And I know I mean, come on, I'm not delusional. I bet 80% of the people who hit play on this have never seen an Andrew Dominic movie or didn't make the connection that it was him. I bet 80% have no idea that this is supposed to be fictional, that this isn't based on a true story. I get all that. That's just that's in part what I'm trying to do here is trying to tell people, because I've had a lot of people a lot of people in hello out there, ask me in the past, you know, four or five days, should I watch this? Is this too intense? Does this go too far? Like I'm seeing all this crazy stuff and I'm like, you fucking watch Euphoria and love it. I didn't see anything in Blond. It was worse than euphoria. I mean, it's yes, go for it. If you're squeamish about that stuff like, I'm not saying the movie's going to be easy, but you know, Jesus anyway. Yeah. So in this regard because, you know, people may not be as familiar like what I want to know, like what movies do you think would be good primers for people to see before they dare venture into Blond? Because I do think Blond has challenging material. It is not at all the most challenging film I've ever seen. Not by like know any standards. Enter the void is much more difficult. The house that Jack built by Lars von Trier is like, Oh, much more difficult. But I know I'm talking about difficult films. I'm not talking about like mainstream movies, but like I think a lot of comps for Blond have been Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me. The score is so similar to it, which is really awesome. Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive, those are like in the same territory. So are there any that you would say, you know, if you've seen this, this is going to prepare you for this? Like gentlemen prefer blonds. Some like it hot. This is not preparing you for blond. It'll give you more appreciation when you watch blond, but you need to understand that you're going into something like tough and that I text. And that was what I texted my dad. I was like, This is this is not, you know, your mama's version of a marilyn Monroe biopic. Just know that going in, there's. One movie that if someone was to ask me, what movie do like, would I like? That's that, that if you like this movie, this is going to be a no one's going to like this. Oh, boy. Raging Bull. Okay, I'm with you. I kind of feel like the Raging Bull is a biopic about a. Very, very difficult one, very professionally, very crass for 1980. People didn't I can't even say some of the some of the words they're yelling at each other and like minute ten. What he's yelling at your mother's an animal like that. That's that's the PG version. They go there. I like this black and white little color. Black and white. Like it's got some very vulgar scenes. It's got some hard to watch content. It challenges the audience not as much as Blond does in a lot of ways. In 1980, it might have been as much, you know. Yes, yeah. Yeah. Because I still think Raging Bull is is like for lack of a better word, more than Martin Scorsese, more experimental outings he's ever had. That's this is a great take. We've never talked about this. I completely agree. It absolutely is. People don't people miss that among it. And they just they think of it as it kind of how you're describing it. Very intense, which it is. But it is a very artsy film. Very it's a very, very artsy movie. This is a very, very artsy movie that pulls no punches, pun intended. But I would say that if someone wanted to have like a warm parable, it was excellent. It's like, hey, man, go watch Raging Bull. And if you enjoyed Raging Bull, go check out Blond then because you you're in a little bit more of an understanding of what type of movie it is. But I like the idea of pairing a primer of my week with Marilyn because it examines the complete opposite of what this is. So do I. Yes, I love that. Just don't expect Blond to be the same thing. That's all I'm saying. So that's. That's exactly right. But if you're talking about a iconic character like this, and I think this is one thing about biopics, that there is no such way that one movie can single handedly convey a full life lived. It just can't. No, there's not there's not enough. I think movies, biopics that are done well, examine a certain aspect of this person's life time attitude, headspace, whatever it is. So we talked about a little bit earlier, My Week with Marilyn is the PG version of that, and that's all true. Marilyn Monroe was like that then was something that's something this movie does not show. This movie shows the darker side of it. If you want to talk about like a full life lived, you kind of got both. Yeah, I love that. I like the idea that it's sort of like all in this end. This is she was this is what everyone loves about her. This, on the other hand, fictional or not, these were some demons. These were some very dark elements of her life. And that's all a part of it. Like if you were to watch every single thing ever made about Marilyn Monroe, you'd be able to put together all of these different aspects of what made up this person. Yeah, I love that idea too. And I did that. I had not seen my week with Marilyn since it came out and I rewatched it. It's on HBO, so I rewatched it before I watched Blond and I was like, Oh, this is great, it's great. I never seen The Prince and the Showgirl, so I watched that, which was a lot of fun. Laurence Olivier That's the movie that they're on the set of the whole time in my Week with Marilyn. And yes, that if you watch that, you know, that production, that movie came out in 1957. So like the seven year itch is 1955. That's in blond and then some like it hot is 1959 and that's in blond. So he's it's like, okay, I don't need to show The Prince and the Showgirl again. That's one of Andrew Dominik's favorite Monroe performances because they did that in that movie 11 years ago. And Michelle Williams did a really, really good job. When you watch that movie, you don't get much of a sense of her dread. You get that? Yeah, whatever is going on in her personal life is constantly causing her to be late to be. You know, they go out on that nice day trip, just the two of them to be a little playful. She's calling him into the trailer and she is naked. So it's all it's the playful Monroe. But she was also having a bad time while making that movie. And she was also in her substances while making that movie. That movie just decides my week with Marilyn decides not to showing you that. Okay, I understand. I get it. Bond is the inverse of that. In some ways. That's what makes it such a good pairing. Hey, this is the exact opposite of my week with Marilyn. So just, you know, know that going in. I like my week with Marilyn. I'm so glad I rewatched it. I do, too. I've never seen a bad Michelle Williams performance, so that always helps. And she's in it. Judi Dench is so good in that, too. I didn't I didn't remember her being so good. And Kenneth Branagh, is Olivier some way better movie than I remembered? And I was really happy to watch. And I went, okay, we are going to get more in-depth in Blond here specifically. I think that we are a little top heavy with all that controversy. And, you know, people are going to make up their own minds about it. But there was a lot that we liked about this movie, and that's what we're going to talk about now. And why don't we start with the great Ana de Armas as Norma Jean? I really liked it. She was insisted on being. She's credited that in the final credits. She's never credited as Marilyn Monroe. And because of that, right from the beginning, I'm getting a very big disconnect from who I am as Norma Jean to who I've created or who they quote they created. It's Marilyn Monroe. And when you're watching Blond, this is someone who never fully identified with this alter ego, this alter ego that made them hyper, hyper famous. But oh, my God, de Armas here she's just perfect. This is full immersion. She's a Cuban actor who's risen to fame in the past decade with things like Knock, Knock, Blade Runner, 2049 Knives Out, which was such a smash, No Time to Die, which she's in for 10 minutes and completely steals the entire, like, three hour movie. She's the best part. She was in deep water. Yeah. Affleck I love that movie. Got so you do a solo part on it, but we vetoed that. There's still time. And now. She has her. Biggest role yet as Norma Jean in Blond. She always maintains Norma's innocence throughout the longing to be loved, to be liked. I was never once mad at Norma in this movie. I just felt so, so bad for her. I really did empathize with her. I didn't think, you know, I didn't find this as a cheap exploitation flick. I really, really felt for her. And I was tremendously sad by the end. Sad for her. It was so like, of course, I want to ask you what you thought about her, but it was so heartbreaking to me to see how easily she would succumb to. Oh, I'm so sorry I did something wrong. Yes, of course that was my fault. Or how quickly she would bounce back, you know, fucking slugger Joe comes in, backhands her, and immediately she's like, Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Yes, of course, the house is a mess. And it's like, yeah, I thought that was such a a horrific but a perfect encapsulation of probably how she thought about herself and her role in everyone else's world. But yeah. She was just amazing. Like, I loved what you said about the way that she kind of used Marilyn as this alter ego, and it was someone she never understood. She well said. She gathered that this is what has made her famous. People love Marilyn and would what I thought was a very clever and very very well done part of the movie is it's very clear in the first half that she looks at Marilyn as something that's not her. And then slowly, as time goes on, she actually uses Marilyn to feel better about Norma. Yeah, it's like a shield. It's all. Yeah, it's all deeply, psychologically odd. Yeah, yeah, because at first, she. She keeps the two separate. And then just by course of time that that becomes blurry and then of course, when substances are involved, that changes things even more. And I love that that was just a very organic progression and it was just a very subtle sort of like, wow, like. And I think it was all done like visually like that one scene. I loved it so much where it's this slow motion, black and white, where she's coming into like the premiere of a movie. It's where all of the it's so great. All of the mouths of these men. Oh, and she's going into some like it hot. Yeah. Yeah that's it. Yeah that was that was my favorite premiere of the because they go to a lot of her premieres in the movie. How about that shot setting up to premieres where you can like just see the marquee in the very left and then her getting out of the limo on the right. Yep. Singing and fuckin masterclass. Because it is because you know where she's at in the movie. And this was my I perceived from this moment. This is when her she completely was she was not in a good place, but she now had an opportunity to be Marilyn Monroe. And she's blowing the kisses. Yeah, she's looking at everyone. All these men that just want something from her. Like the thing that she says, where I'm just meet to be delivered. Yeah. And this is where she's like, yep, this is. This is why I'm here. And it's not being told to us. That's just know you have to watch it. And I'm sorry I cut you off when I said the premiere, but you were you were explaining that as we like. She gets out of the limo, we adopts her point of view in slow motion. And as she looks at all the men, you know, presumably screaming, Marilyn, look over here, whatever their mouths like that morph. And they get like big. And if you see Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it's kind of something like that. But it's a little more subtle to the first you're watching it like is that and then, you know, it's subtle enough, but yeah, you totally get what he's trying to say there that she just being like swallowed by this hyper masculine, wildly inappropriate crowd. And in one of the coolest things that I thought was like a parallel to was like, if you watch any Marilyn Monroe movie, whenever she has a close up and like the screen is hers as Marilyn Monroe, you're just captivated. Like you are not looking anywhere else. You were completely absorbed in what Marilyn Monroe is saying and doing. Ana de Armas does this to. Yes in every one of her big moments where she's got like her scene with Joe DiMaggio, her scene in the audition room where she's having that awesome audition. Yeah, she's doing what Marilyn Monroe did. Like, you can't take your eyes off of her. Everything that she's saying and doing, you're just, like, locked in. I thought that was actually a very kind of off the beaten path. Nod to Marilyn Monroe is like comparing the to it's the essence it's that she she managed to capture the essence of what Mary what made Marilyn Monroe so captivating? Ana de Armas managed to put in her performance and thought that was a very, very cool, very abstract way of connecting the two. Yeah, because like I said, Marilyn Monroe is so saturated just in pop culture and they recreate some of her most iconic moments. And it's shocking how much she can look like her at times. And just that essence, it's much when she's performing that song for some like it hot, you know, right before she flips out when she's performing I had just watched some like it hot like the day before and I went she looks exactly like her like it's crazy, but she's embodying her. And you're right. I think maybe the best example of this is, oh, that guy, Whitey, the makeup artist. I love him so much. And he's just like, Yeah, she flips out and he's like, Here she comes, you know, rubbing her shoulders. And she's sitting in the mirror, like, almost trying to, you see, watch Norma Jean, like, conjure up Marilyn to just let me get to the smile, let me get to this fake place of pretend just to, like, achieve it so that I can go on and finish the day. Shoot. Yeah, it's really it's really incredible. I'm trying to think of, like, every single thing she's doing. She's totally dialed in and utterly convincing. And I got to say, we're moving on from the heat and the controversy, but it's nice that none of it's falling on her because what what everyone appears to be seeing is that this is an actor who just went all in and there was no turning back. And she gave I mean, one of the best performances I've seen in years, but oh my God, I thought she embodied her. That Joe DiMaggio scene. I feel like that was like the scene where the clear state of mind that she could probably be in, in expressing what she wants if she wanted to be an actor, like in New York doing theater. And Marilyn is something else and she wants what she wants. I thought that was like one of the best scenes of the movie, because that's where I feel like I got to know her the most. I'm going to get to my Monroe binge that I went on a little bit later, but one of the ones I really enjoyed watching was Niagara from 1953, and that's the footage of her. It's that color footage, and she, like, walks out of the hotel room and it's holding the record. She really looked like her there and like it was really embodying her. Well, I just thought all the recreations of her work was so believable and, like, shocking. I mean, even we're just coming off of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood where they're putting DiCaprio in the Great Escape. And this even looked more convincing than that. I was like, Oh, my God, she's just right in. All about Eve right there. She's yeah, I always love that. Just as a diehard fan of that period and of these movies and stuff. But she is fantastic in the movie. She's in like almost every frame once we get to adult Norma Jean because it does start in her childhood where her mother, where we're introduced to her mother, is played by Julianne Nicholson, who's just a great actor. Always, always good, always working mare of Easttown, the outsider, Boardwalk Empire, August Osage County. She's playing weird Al's mom and the new Weird Al Yankovic movie. Like, she's great. And she was great here. I mean, they take her through, you know, to adulthood, but it's terrifying. Terrifying. What scares the absolute shit out of me? Just driving into that like fire, I'm like, oh, my God. She was very believable as, you know, it must have been really, really hard in this time period, the forties and fifties, with these these mental illnesses that were going on, they existed. And there was just virtually, you know, oh, you're just drunk, you're doped up. Like there was no sort of treatment or put them in that. Put them away. Put him away way over there and we'll go visit him once in a while. But yeah, she was terrifying, very convincing. They would say, like, she's just sick. It's just sick. Yeah, that one doctor, that was just sort of like, well, we don't really know. It's just she's on a certain level and it's different from other people, and that's about all we got. Yeah, that's it. That's it. It's terrifying. Shortly into her career, Norma Jean meets Cash Chaplin. Son of Charlie Chaplin and Eddie Robinson, Jr. Son of Edward G. Robinson. These are played by Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams. These two are good and creepy like Jesus. They were. I was very interested after reading the book to see how these two would be portrayed. And it was like a 1 to 1 of how I envisioned them. I thought they I felt they achieved what was in the text and what I assume was in the script, like so so. Well. This is the one where I was actually going to ask you about this in the book, because everyone else in the movie seems like they're playing their characters to a certain degree of realism. And these two were ones where I was like, This seems to me to be so stylized. This seems to be so specifically like, No, nobody acts that creepy. It's almost like a dream, like, like these types of percentages of what they're saying, the way they're saying it. Were these how these guys really were or do what my my take was that because as the movie goes on and I'm not going to spoil anything, there seems to be like a thread she. Dies. There's there. There seems to be a thread of of unease with these guys that lasts the entire movie. And I feel like that's stylistically what was achieved by having those guys perform those roles quite like how they work because it's, it's unlike everything else in the movie, but every time it comes back, you're like, Who's these guys? Yes, guys. That's what I mean about it. Getting so close to the source, so close to the text, because you just get this inherently dreamlike, creepy vibe from them in the novel. And I was like, I didn't even want to look up like on IMDB, like, Oh, who's playing? Who's playing them? I knew Carnevale was playing DiMaggio. I knew Brody was playing Arthur Miller. I knew that. But I didn't want to look anyone else up and I didn't recognize these two. I looked them up later and I've seen them in things, but I didn't recognize them watching it. And this is what we're getting into with the gossip stuff. Like I think this is a movie. This could be if it's a fictional aspect of the movie, I still think the the intention of it is that you have these three deeply ignored lost souls because she's not Marilyn Monroe. She's on her way to being there, but she's not super, super famous yet. And you have, you know, son of Charlie Chaplin. What a tall task that must have been. Yeah. Son of Edward G. Robinson, one of the most premiere tough guys ever in movies. What a tall task that must have been. Eddie Robinson Jr was in a few Monroe movies such as Some Like It Hot and they they were friends. It is official that she dated Cas Chaplin and they were together for a while for a little bit of time. So did all this happen? I don't know, but I definitely got the intention of it. And it was it was weird to me. They kind of started it as these, like they're helping her discover herself in this world and this deeply, you know, weird and creepy way. And then you kind of see them as good. You know, they're meeting at Musso and Frank's and everything's everything's good. Everything is exciting. And like you say, as the movie progresses, like they are not maintained that way. And I liked that about the movie. Like they they changed a lot of the men in her life, you know, change some of them like the next act or I want to bring up playing a character who stays exactly the same. What a horror show that must have been. But yeah, these this Chaplin and Robinson, these performances where I got a I got a lot of was very there were a few shots in the movie not a few there were a number of shots in the movie were I was just deeply impressed by them and went down. That was holy shit, that was stunning. And the transition to, the Niagara film trailer was. Really. Something like really something I thought that was very imaginative. That was yeah. That David Wojciechowski as Mr. Z, this is our guy from There Will Be Blood H M Tilford. I. Mean, yeah. If I offended you, I apologize. This guy's playing Darryl Zanuck here doesn't have much of any onscreen dialog. This was a famed early producer in Hollywood. He won three Oscars for How Green Was My Valley Gentleman's Agreement and All About Eve. According to the book and this film, Blond all about Eve is the movie is the role Monroe won after being abused by Mr. Z. And this is you know, I'm not mentioning these characters to, like, litigate. Did this really happen in real life? Was this but this was like a serial sexual predator that is just widely known now. I mean, it seems like Weinstein got his playbook from this casting couch sort of bullshit. Just Zanuck, genuinely one of the OG Hollywood shitheads. And I want to bring this up because we see that guy early in the movie and he doesn't go away. He's there taking her to movie premieres. She's forced to talk with him. And there's never like it's never any mention of, Oh, this is my abuser. We see it, you know, flash in her head a few times. So it's still there, which I appreciated. But that really put me into the mind frame of how terrible it must have been in this age, quote unquote, golden age of Hollywood for these women who were, I'm sure, routinely getting abused by producers, directors, male costars, and then having to do shit with them through throughout the duration of their careers. I just when she knew, like, when she like sat next to him at the premiere and just at, you know, gentlemen prefer blonds and it's like, is it true? I'm going back to my hotel room for a surprise. And he's looking at her like, What the fuck are you talking about? You know, like, remember, this is the dude that abused her. Like, it's just what the movie was trying to do. It worked on me. That's what I'm saying. I felt all of it. Not in a way that made me, like, angry at the movie. It made me angry for her just it. I mean, you said it perfect. Okay. Yeah, I got nothing I got to say. This is you're this is a this is that you should win some award. This one, this whole entire time. I've been thinking a lot about this. It's Wednesday. That's very generous of you, but it's just it's been on my mind. And, you know, you know that I kind of I like to get to come to the defense of a movie that I think deserves it. I know from doing that, I will never, ever, ever call someone wrong for their opinion. Never. I will disagree with your tactic. I don't agree with watching a movie for 45 minutes and then shitting on it. I'm never going to agree with that. I don't agree with shitting on a movie without having ever seen a second of it. That's not something I'm going to agree with. But if that's what people want to do, that's on them. I'm on the other side of this. There are a lot of movies that a lot of people like that are very well received that I hate and I don't like at all. And I don't comment on this because I don't think I just don't think we need more shit and more negative hot takes. I'm like, I'm here for blond. I really like this movie. I liked it a lot. I don't. It's not like one of the ten best movies I've ever seen or anything. I'm sure it will be on my top ten of this year. I just, you know, I'm happy to give it a little defense. I don't care. Shame is in my top five of all time. I mean, come on. No way. You like that. Movie? No one said it was normal. You like that movie? I do. Very much masterpiece. I was going to say there's a movie. If you haven't seen it, you should see. I think you'd like it a lot. That's a Shane. Hardy fucking horror. Let's move on to my main man from Blond Toby Huss playing Whitey, Norma Jean, personal makeup artist. I love this guy. I'm going to mention him briefly, but I just loved him. He really seemed to be the only man in her life that understood her. And I loved her. And I listened to a pod with Dominic and he mentioned that as well, that that relationship was very important for him to kind of get right on screen. And I liked that and I thought that actor did a really good job. Bobby Cannavale is Joe DiMaggio. He got a boost here. Anyone upset over DiMaggio's depiction as an abusive husband? You just just do a little more research, that's all. You know, DiMaggio did not treat Marilyn Monroe well. I never liked the guy he got a huge upgrade here. Yeah, I mean, played by Carnevale. That's all I'm going to say. I don't give a shit. That's my hot take. Fuck Joe DiMaggio. How about that? I mean, he was perfectly cast. I thought he really what I knew about Marilyn Monroe's personal history. So I was very because they don't tell you who he is like they like smartly. Yeah. And he is not credited as Joe DiMaggio. He is credited as ex athlete. X athlete. Yeah. Yeah, they do that. That's how it is in the book, too. It's never Joe DiMaggio in the book. It's always X athlete. But you, you know, if you know anything about her life, you're, like, putting the pieces together. Yeah. And I always kind of wonder if that was the book and the movie's sort of way of expressing a little bit of how Marilyn may have seen these guys. Oh, I. Want to give a quick like, acting shout out to Adrien Brody for this movie. Oh, work on him. Yeah, well, we're going to move to him now. We haven't even mentioned his name yet. It's weird how we, like, buried it, but. Yeah, Adrien Brody as Arthur Miller. Brody cannot lose right now, but. Yeah, tell me why. No, because if if you look at all of the scenes that he's in, he has very little dialog. It really I think his biggest scene is the one where they're having coffee and. In the diner. In the diner. But everything that this guy does in the way that his portion of the movie is expressed, it's all through Marilyn's point of view, obviously. So it gets to a point where it's very clouded by her substance and her fears of what's happening in her life. And he's just like this piece of it that's moving around nebulosity around her and he can't do anything. And you get all of that from him. Yeah. What he does with that is just really fucking incredible. Like, it's really great in watching him watch Norma in that scene. Like, he is so moved by her. Oh, God, I fucking love Adrien Brody. Yeah. Oh, I do, too. That's what's so great about his first scene is that she's. She showed up to a read through of his play, and he's like, What the hell was Marilyn Monroe here? Like, okay, this is weird. And you see that doubt come over him. And, you know, the lead character of his play is Magda. And you see this doubt come over him like, Gee, this is not going to be my Magda. And then we cut to like black. Clearly the read through is happen, which we don't see. And then we come back. Yeah, the man, like, can barely move because he's so moved by her and he literally tries that. We get that great thing with the sung with his glasses and he puts them on and we like take the POV of him. I thought that was so fucking cool and. Then he literally tries to run away from her because he's just so overcome with like he's just so overcome with emotion. Then he runs outside. There she is, the seven year. It's like giant poster kind of saying like. Yeah, this. Woman's going to be in your life, buddy. Like, here she is. But I. Thought he was exactly as I. Thought he conveyed so much in I mean, the way she played off of him. And you know, he seemed to be like, yeah, on that great scene when she's coming home and like, who are you? And that effect on his face, he's like, I'm your husband. Oh, my God. It was so it was so evocative. Just that little distortion on his face about where she was at the time. Oh, wasn't that great? I'd love that. Yeah, well, that was so. Yeah, that was the only time I removed it, the first time I played it straight through. But when I watch it a second time, I was like, No way. And I got to go back and see that again. It's so it's the same thing with the mouths. Some like it hot. Yeah same like really minor level of distortion. Then you, like, lean in and then it's gone. It's Oh my God, it's so cool. And puts you perfectly in her headspace. Yeah, it's so. I love that so much. It's only for a second, too. It's just like, that's such a good choice. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, you know, I said Dominic has made four feature films. He's also made two feature length documentaries on musician Nick Cave One More Time with Feeling and This Much I Know to be True. Nick Cave has scored. Jesse James, JJ The Road, Lawless Wind River, Hell or High Water Dahmer which is currently on Netflix and that I absolutely loved and that everyone else seems to fucking hate. Blond is his best score yet, and like I said, I've been listening to it nonstop since Wednesday. I downloaded it right away. It's very Twin Peaks influence. Clearly, I'm okay with that. I love that the music in Blond almost assumes her headspace. It is like a character but never forceful and I can tell by your reaction that you loved it. So God, I loved it. I've been a big fan of these two for a while now. I think I took notice of them with Wind River. Mm. Oh, cool, cool. That's just a really good movie in terms of the genre that it is. Tough movie, good movie, tough movie. That score is just fucking phenomenal and it's one of those ones where you notice it more than you probably normally would for a score. You're like, What is this music right now? This movie? I mean, this is much more emotional. It's much more expressing the character and how they're feeling because some of the sounds are ugly, Oh yeah, some of the sounds are not pleasant to the ear. And they put you in a particular emotional place that's so intentional. And and yet still is pretty in some ways, even when it's ugly. Well, yeah. And listening to it, it's funny that some tracks will just like cut really sharply out because it does that in the movie when you know, it shifts or something. But there's definitely a beauty to it that I just love. It's never it's not never forceful and I found out that they the way they do this is they basically they read the script and they were seeing some footage like dailies from the movie, and they spent two weeks and gave him like six of music. And then he gets to pick and choose and place where he wants. I That would be my preferred way of doing it as opposed to like timing to the, you know, to the movie, which lot of movie scores do. But so that I think, gives it this much more lyrical vibe that the music was allowed to live on its own. And it just how it meshes in so well with the movie is really it's one of the great kind of objective triumphs of the movie, that it's one of the things people really appreciate about it. And yes, we forget the cinematography here by Chase Irvin, who has done a ton of commercials and music videos, but very few features. Black Klansman seems to be his biggest but blond. It's next level. I mean, he uses all the cinematography and it still works, though. All of it. All of it. Yeah. He goes black and white. We have color. We're using every aspect ratio. One, we. Even change within the frame, which I love. There's crazy flares, there's crazy filters. Every shot matters. It is a beautiful tone poem visually, and that echoes Terrence Malick. That's something that's been brought up a lot in conversation. And you know what? If Terrence Malick made an NC 17 movie, maybe it would look something like this. And when a movie is being taken to task like this, yet every single review calls out how accomplished the score and the cinematography are. It's just like, Yeah, no arguing there. I love that. But some of these black and white shots are just some of the most stunning black and white shots have ever seen. Yeah, it's truly, truly beautiful. And I love that you brought out that like, this movie really is all this cinematography tricks in the book. Yeah. And it doesn't ever feel like they're doing it just to do. That's what I mean. It always. Yeah, yeah. It all works like even even the one shot that I always kind of laugh at these shots. It's, I don't know, you just got to educate me. It's that one shot where clearly the camera's attached to their body, like the. Fear factor shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we see. It because Joe DiMaggio. Yeah. When he's going up the stairs. And what's what I liked about that is you could feel the weight on kind of volley. He was, like, grunting, and you could see him, like, climbing up the stairs. That's. That's right. You know, and it's not just fear factor. It seems that Jennifer Connelly had one hook to her in Requiem for a Dream. It looks really good. But then she gets that treatment, too. And she's like drinking and walking, which. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They, they even though that's such an easy style of shot to make fun of and they still use it. Well, here it is. That's what I mean. Because, like, I always associate that shot to get him to the Greek. Oh, yeah, always. It's like when he gets the injection because it's just a really funny scene. But I feel like that scene is used a lot in comedies in that way and so exactly right. Like it's almost hard to take that shot seriously because it's such a specific thing that we've all associated it to something else. So to be able use that in a movie like this, I was like, I remember it shocked me. I go, really we're we're using the get him to the Greek shot here and and yet I did not at all did it take me out. I was like, wow. Like this was very purposeful and it worked. Yeah. Yeah, it really did. Yeah. Any other thoughts on Blond? Because we're pretty much done here. I'm going to talk about I am going to talk about briefly my relationship with Marilyn Monroe and some of the performances of hers that I like a lot. And then we're going to have a very, very, very different sort of. What are you watching segment? Oh, boy. Okay. Would you recommend blond to people? Would you recommend people? Check it out. I would have a conversation with them beforehand. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think that's the way it is. Like if someone was just going to black and white just like that, would you recommend blond? I would say yes, but I would also be like, here's the thing. Yeah. And and I think that's fair because you and I can go into a movie like this without knowing a single thing about it, and it just accept was given to us and, and find what we've talked about all throughout this part about it. But that is not everybody in. And I guess like there needs to be a little bit of a a warm up idea to. All right. If you're going to go into this movie, know this and maybe that's not fair and just too in a lot of ways, maybe you shouldn't have to do that for a movie. Well, in some ways, the MPAA who makes the ratings has done it for us. Yeah, I've. Seen a lot of NC 17 rating movies, and I've never seen an easy one. They are all challenging in their own ways, usually for sexual content. And that's your first indicator right there. This ain't going to be an easy one. Yeah, not I do think there is a lot of value to find in Blond. I do not want to see every movie done this way. But yeah, this is not for the faint of heart. This is not for the casual moviegoer. This is not a Friday night like sitting at home. Watch. It's very challenging and very fucked up. You know, switch over to HBO and watch My Week with Marilyn if you want something a little easier, which is and that's also still a good movie. But one thing I don't want the conversation to be lost in Blond is actually Marilyn Monroe and her performances. So I want to briefly just touch on that. When I was younger, I didn't like her like when I was a teenager and I was into movies and as a teenager I didn't like her and I just wrote her off as very famous person, incredibly attractive person, and that's what her performances were based on. And then as I got older and started investigating stuff a little more with the help of my dad, I realized that that's just flatly false. And there were there were different facets to her career that are really interesting to watch. But I'm just going to get my top five. I'm going to make this really quick. Number five featured very heavily in blond it's gentlemen prefer blonds this is she's playing Lorelei Lee directed by Howard Hawks this is where diamonds are a girl's best friend was first performed the pink dress she's really good in the movie it was a slightly misunderstood movie at the time and I really liked it. Number four, maybe her most famous. She's playing sugar cane and some Like It Hot, directed by Billy Wilder. She did not have an easy time making this movie. She was pregnant. She cannot remember her lines. It's me, Sugar. And where's the bourbon are? You know, two infamous Hollywood stories. And I loved the flip outs in Blond during the making of this movie. I as I said earlier, I think this is where Alana looks most like Monroe filming some like it hot musical number number three she's playing Elsie in The Prince and the Showgirl, directed by Laurence Olivier. And this is the movie, the production that is featured in My Week with Marilyn and not the best movie, certainly not the best movie Olivia made, but she's really good in it and very different than kind of anything else in her work. And I it's a lot of fun to watch this back to back with my Week with Marilyn. That's what I did. Number two already mentioned it. Niagara, 1953. You would love this movie. This is I absolutely love this. She's playing Rose Loomis, directed by Henry Hathaway, perfect Technicolor noir. Marilyn Monroe is the femme fatale. And again, Otto looks so much like her when she comes out of that hotel room and leans against her door. And I just love this movie. It's on Criterion. I watched it twice in a week. I thought it was great. Number one is a no brainer. It's The Misfits 1961 playing Rosalind Taber, directed by John Houston, not mentioned at all in the film Blond. I wasn't surprised by that. This is one of my favorite movies of the sixties. This was Clark Gable's final film. This was Marilyn Monroe's final film, and it was one of Montgomery Clift's final films. He's perfect. Shocker. Marilyn Monroe is stuck between Gable and his friend, played by Eli Wallach, briefly. CLIFT So for a little bit, it's like three cowboys kind of going after the same woman. But what I love most about the movie is that at one scene, Clift asked Gable, You know, Can I go after Rose? I can. I have a shot at her and Gable's like, No, absolutely not. So then Cliff's character, Pierce, Howard makes the silent, but clearly very purposeful decision to just be Rose's friend, as opposed to her suitor, her third suitor in the movie. So Clift, my favorite actor and Monroe, they have a great scene where Marty just has his head in her lap. He has a head injury from a rodeo earlier and they just sit there and talk about their lives. And it's my favorite scene Monroe ever did, and it's some of the best acting Clift ever did. They were in such terrible places in their personal lives, and she wouldn't even live out the year he was barely hanging on. And The Misfits is a work of art I've loved since I first laid my eyes on it. And again when I was younger and thought Marilyn Monroe's talent didn't go beyond her blond appeal. If you watch Misfits, this is where the acting talent is. It's right here, misfits. So you have to see this, everyone. I've really I've never seen it. And so. Good. God, the fact that you've that you've you've phrased it as that's that's what I really want to see it now. It just came out on Blu ray and I bought it. Who's great? I got it for my dad for his birthday to get two copies of it for me, one for him. And it looks all it just looks stunning. I put it on the other night and I'm like, God, I love this scene. It's a really good movie. It's just a simple, simple tale about a couple of cowboys. It's a couple of cowboys. Final thoughts on Blond four we go to. What do you. Mean? I think I think we go right into the controversy again. Let's get not even I'm not touching a lot of the controversy. All right. Here's what we're going to do today. So don't worry, darling. Directed by Olivia Wilde came out and we're going to do some a little different because you had intended to see it. And then when you couldn't get around to seeing it, I said, what if we turn the what are you watching? Section of the Blond Podcast into a spoiler heavy review section of Don't Worry, Darling, you thought that was a good idea. So here's what's going to happen. Let's do it. Spoilers abound. I am about to give away everything about Don't worry, darling, if you do not want to know the most pressing details about this movie, you can turn off this episode now. I promise there's nothing out of this review. We're going to sign off. The music is going to come up the outro preview, the next episode, which is Andre Arnold, because we had to skip over her. So there, that's it. We work very, very hard to not include spoilers on this podcast. Any movie. I'm saying this again because I don't want to catch heat on Twitter. We are spoiling. Don't worry, darling. So if you're like working out or doing the dishes, stop now and you have license to interrupt me whenever you want. Just hold up your finger if something doesn't make sense. If you want to chime in, if you're like, wait a minute. Yeah, because because we came to this because he was like, all right, listen, like, if you don't see this movie in time for the part for us to talk about it, then how about I just tell you, like, do you care that much about seeing it? This will be more fun. This will be a better time. So. So, yes, you are about to give away everything about, this movie, and I am your faithful audience. All right, review beginning now. This movie is very dumb. I mean. Very, very dumb. I don't. Let's step away from the controversy. I don't care about it. I mean, I do because it's fascinating. It is fast. That controversy has never thing to do with how misguided this film is. It makes very little sense. It's very badly written. Certain performances are very poor and it's just outright clunky and bad. It is not one of the worst movies ever made. It's probably not even one of the worst. It's it's not one of the ten worst movies I'm going to see this year. There's nothing offensive or gross about it. It's just lame. It's just bad. It's just dumb. Lot of walkouts. In my two screenings, every single person groaned at the end, it's just bad. Without the controversy, Harry Styles fans would have flocked to the theater opening weekend as they did. But beyond that, no one would be talking about this and I want to say it's not a bomb. It's made about 32 million domestically in two weeks on a 35 million budget. So it won't make its money back just barely. But not going to set the world on fire. And we're all going to remember this as one of the worst PR disasters in modern Hollywood history. Oh, my God. It's not going to go down as of the worst movies ever made because it's not so plot. Yes, we start strong. Ray Charles is playing over the Warner Brothers logo and bam, we hard cut into the middle of a very small domestic party. Looks like there's three couples. They're laughing, they're dancing, drinking, smoking. While Olivia Wilde is smoking like Olivia Wilde is always smoking. In this movie, she's the only one smoking. Chris Pine's wife, like, holds a cigaret at one point. Olivia Wilde is the only one smoking. I only mention this because she's always smoking. Like. I have no idea why. I don't know if she smokes in real life. She just wanted to smoke on set. But it's a it's a weird choice. Florence Pugh is Alice. She's married to Harry Styles playing Jack. They seem happy in their very simple life. This party that's going on seems to be at their house or one of their friend's houses. They live in a small community called Victory. They were filming in Palm Springs, a place you and I both love. There seems to be like ten or 15 couples total. That's it. It's vaguely the 1950s. There are mixed race couples, so it's not you know, race is not a factor in the film in any negative aspect. Olivia Wilde is married to Nick Kroll. Okay. All the men leave for work at the exact same time. Every day the wives stand in the driveways, waving Goodbye. Olivia Wilde is smoking. All the men drive into the desert at their mysterious jobs at headquarters. They all work at the same place and never talk about it. The wives don't question it. Everything's in its right place. Everything's fine. Everything's cruising along for 10 minutes fine. Interestingly, and I did find this interesting, they conflict does not begin with Florence Pugh, but with another couple in the community, the wife of which is played by Kiki Layne, who is perfect in If Beale Street could talk and she's starting to act weird in public places, she's off something off. Florence Pugh then witnesses her suicide and it's why did she die by suicide? What's going on? Like all the men are saying, she's okay, but Florence Pugh saw her slit her throat and fall off her roof. So she's like, not okay there's weird stuff going on. Like, earthquakes happen intermittently, but not bad ones. They're just like, shaking. Like, Florence Pugh will look in a mirror, then she'll go in a bathtub and like, her reflection, will still be looking at her. But she's in the bathtub. There's like weird stuff like that that's not explained that she doesn't even really seem to be seeing at first. Then she does see it. So like, okay, there's weird stuff happening, whatever. There's a lot of close ups of food. Okay, everyone in this community bowels at the altar of Frank played by Chris Pine. Yeah. Seems to be the leader of victory. He gives very vague speeches about like community purpose, chaos. It's all very bad dialog that's poorly written. I genuinely I've seen the movie twice, about twice to the movie theater to see this because I knew I was going to be reviewing it in this way. So I went two days ago and that's how I spent my Friday night. I couldn't really track anything he was saying. It was just like kind of dumb and clunky. That was this purposeful, like just not. It's like. You know what? If you watch him in the trailer, it's just a bunch of that, like over and over. But he seems to be like this all knowing, being like the men love him. Their boss. I guess so. You know, it's about 40 minutes in. Alice has assumed the paranoia of her dead friend Kiki Layne. And now Alice wants answers. Alice is starting to flip out. Everyone thinks she's crazy. Olivia Wilde says she's crazy. Harry Styles are crazy. Chris Pine You're crazy. But there are like other things going on. Dreams of like these Busby Berkeley type dances where everything's really well choreographed and everything's in black and white in perfect unison. All the women belong to a dance group that is taught by Pine's wife, and Alice is suspicious of, like, all this weird shit that's going on. Earthquakes. Everyone's acting weird. A plane crashes in the desert, she tries to find it. This leads her to headquarters, which she is not allowed to go to. And headquarters looks exactly like that abandoned alien restaurant outside of LAX. Like, it looks just like so Alice watches, walks up to it, touches the glass of the building and she wakes up at home. So headquarters, bad headquarters, weird headquarters, off limits and she has no idea how she got home. Harry Styles is there. What's up? What about the plane? Plane planes? It's fucking gone. Like she doesn't know where it is. Like, what happened? She don't know why that fucker crashed. She went to go try to find it to help the pilot and it's that got lost in the mix of I assume that when the plane crashes that leads her to finding headquarters and you know she wasn't supposed to know like where it is even though it's in the middle of the fucking desert. Looks like L.A.X.. But when she wakes up, Harry Styles is in the kitchen trying to mashed potatoes by putting raw potatoes in a bowl and smashing them with a giant liquor bottle. What is happening? I mean, you'd have to assume like a very, very, very, very, very dim person is thinking that you can mashed potatoes in this way, but like, oh, that's just though, Jack, this is literally like 20 seconds in the movie and it's played is humor, but the movie is full of idiotic things like this. And I'm like, So things happen to Alice, weird dreams. Everyone's acting weird. She tries to make eggs, but the eggs are hollow. There's these constant minor earthquakes. She's cleaning a glass wall and it, like, encloses her. That's in the preview. She, like, tries to tie her face with Saran Wrap and then almost like, suffocates. And it's like, did she mean to do this? Okay, so she's going nuts. So they decide to give her electroshock treatment. Are you ready? Ready? Okay. Shortly after this treatment, we hard cut to Alice, leaving a hospital in a present day city. She's exhausted. She's wearing scrubs. We don't know what's going on. She goes. She goes home. And there Harry Styles sitting with his, like, double monitor computer. And what has what will go down in history as some of the worst hair and makeup I've ever seen in my life? Terrible goatee, terrible hair. Everyone in the theater in both screenings, which is populated largely by Harry Styles fans, just started laughing. It's very bad. Oh, my God. We come to learn that Jack is an unemployed gamer, bro, dirty gamer guy and he's mad that Alice is working so much he tries to have sex with her, but she just got off a 30 hour shift. She needs sleep, dude. She's not having it. The movie stipulates that after this one act of rejection. Oh, boy, we put together that Chris Pine in real life. Frank is some sort of like leader who has created a meta simulation that you can use to enter into this perfect little life known as victory. So Jack does this. Jack orders two simulation devices and essentially hooks Alice off without her knowing. So Alice is living in this victory simulation. It's literally like The Sims and. She has no idea that this is happening. And basically the movie has been her figuring out that this is a simulation. Okay, the way the simulation works is you hook yourself up to like clockwork Orange style eye openers and a red light that like, looks like a windshield wiper just keeps going, scrubbing, like, over your eyes. I don't think it's touching your eyes. It's just in front of it. So how her eyes have not dried up? I have no idea. It's all very, very dumb. Very, very fast. Very, very confusing. We see present day Jack tending to his wife while she's in this simulation, like wringing out a washcloth so that water gets in her mouth. I think the idea here is that when the men go to, quote unquote, work every day, they are unplugging back into the real world and then the wives stay in the simulation. This is never explained. It certainly not well. It's all very fast and confusing. Audiences hated it. You can take the temperature in park screenings. Audiences had no fucking clue what was going on. So this is the beginning supposed to be like in one of these sessions, like that's like like she's getting window screens, like windshield wiper screen. And this is like the simulation she's in. Yeah, everything's a simulation like she. And it seems that the amount of time that passes in real life is the amount of time that passes in the simulation. So there's like an hour pass in real life is an hour in the simulation, but time seems to be like going like in order in the simulation. It's not like things are repeating like Groundhog Day, like they're making memories and stuff. So how this is where the movie falls apart because when you go and see it for a second time, like I did and you apply the own movie's logic against it, nothing makes sense at all. Like this simulation thing doesn't sense. And I'm not. I'm not even done like it's so. Oh, my God. I suppose the idea here is all the men know that this is this is a simulation. And I have no idea why earthquakes are happening. I have no idea why eggs are hollow. I have these, like, glitches in this simulation. One could argue that that's never explained to us that word is never used. So I've read that those takes on the mind that you're you are bringing that to the movie. The movie's not doing that for you. You're doing that to the movie so much. Is there some, like, bad editing of Chris Pine? Like the first time we meet him, he's like in a stairway railing and then it cuts awkwardly and he's like standing next to his wife. So you could write that off as a glitch. There's also just a lot of really clunky editing in the movie, especially as especially as it relates to conversations. It's just not well made. But okay, we hug, cut back to victory and everything seems to have reset and like everything's okay. And Alice figures out that if you get to the lab victory headquarters and touch the glass, that's your portal out of the simulation. Okay. Okay, so. There's a chase. Alice has to make it to headquarters. The men in red shirts grab her. There are men in red shirts who appear out of nowhere and grab women when they're doing something bad. Like where they're someplace they shouldn't be. This is how Alice received electroshock therapy. The men in red red came out and grabbed her. So which leads to the question if these men in red can appear anywhere, why is there a chase? Why Can't they just appear in her car and just take her? Why are their cars like it doesn't? She leaves to go in the chase and streetlights start exploding. No idea why they just start. Okay, so all the men are after Alice and she's racing through the desert. Olivia Wilde The character has admitted to Alice that she knows about the simulation, so she appears to be the only woman in the movie who knows about it. She lost her kids in real life and in the simulation. She gets to be with her kids and smoke a lot. Okay, so the kids in the simulation are apparently not real, I guess. Okay. If Wilde knows about the simulation, does that mean her husband, Nick Kroll, does as well? Because he goes to the quote unquote office every day. So are they like in this simulation together and like they know it, but they have to pretend and lie to the other people. Like this is most, most bafflingly. As Chris Pine learns the news of the Alice Chase of her attempting to go to headquarters, he begins to leave his house and his wife, played by Gemma chan, who has said about nine words. The whole movie stabs him in the stomach. What? And turns the blade. And if you die in the simulation, you die in real life. And she says, It's my turn. This makes no sense. Like everyone in the theater is laughing, this has never been hinted at or foreshadow owed. This cannot be explained if they are having tension. It has never been suggested. Never. So does she know? She's in a simulation and she wants to like take it over or do she want to be in charge? This is all wildly unclear and it's moving very fast. This chase and we're cross-cut. So we're in our Chris Pines house like we're close. To where. Chase is. Going to be. All this is. Happening with the Chase going, she's she's found a car and she's driving to the LAX, you know, headquarters. Before Alex left to chase, Harry Styles tried to stop her. He bear hugs her while he's on his knees and just keep screaming over and over to stay. It does it. So she hits him in the head with like a glass object and kills him. He also there kills him very bad. Kills him, acted on him like all of his fans are in the theater laughing. It makes no I mean bear hugging like weeping like it doesn't it doesn't make any sense. Yes. Nick, when you die in the simulation, you die in real life. Alice And sort of like putting together do all of that. It seems to me like all the men have put their wives in this simulation. Apparently it's like so it's, you know. Quote unquote incel men who were unhappy with their wives in their real lives. They have I guess they're drugging them somehow or making them unconscious, leaving them on they're leaving them on their like beds, in their homes in this simulation for days. When they. Went into things for what I assume are days, weeks, months at a time. And I guess they're doing this as a way to reclaim what they want out of a marriage and what they want out of life. And this this is why there's so many a whole host of other problems, because what we see is Harry Styles is perfect. Life in this simulation is he gets home from working an eight hour shift. Florence Pugh has a glass of whiskey waiting for him. He picks her up, throws her down on the kitchen table and goes down on her to completion. Molly mentioning this because Olivia Wilde was big on mentioning this in the press and like and it what why can't I be done in real life? Like, why can't you communicate with your wife or girlfriend and be like, hey, I'm unemployed. Maybe I should get a job. Maybe it'd be cool if you could not be working 30 hours at a time. We'll see. But then why don't we, you know, like try to spice things up, like what he wants to achieve. And what is being achieved in this film is doesn't seem like anything that's hard in real life. I'm standing fucking done. She reaches headquarters. The men in red are chasing her right before she touches the glass. Harry Styles is a ghost, embraces her from behind What begs her to stay. And then he fades away and she touches the glass. And we cut to black and we hear her inhale audibly. And title card appears and everyone in the theater groans and they laugh and they walk out shaking their heads. I've been through this twice now. So, so. So your reaction? Perfectly. It's not like there's anything offensive about what I told you. It's just dumb. It's just dumb. The same thing is something we're seeing a lot in movies and video games, like a lot of episodes of Black Mirror deal with this. So that's like nothing new. Yeah. And it's a big it's a big thing. When you fold it in on itself. It doesn't make any sense because it's like so honest with the eyes. Like, how are her eyes staying hydrated when she's sitting in this like bed? What did he say to her work? Like You know, hey, the doctor that comes in for 30, 30 hours shifts, it's like gone. Like the dude doesn't have any money. So how is he, like, maintaining his livelihood? How is he maintaining her livelihood? Who's paying taxes? That's all. Like if we go in the real life situation, which okay, when you come back to this simulation, it just it nothing adds up when you and I, I haven't I haven't described it to you in perfect detail because this is like a podcast summary, but nothing lands and nothing makes sense. And you leave with way more questions that you have, and it's usually not a good sign. I like ambiguity in movies. I do, but it is not a good sign when your movie ends that there's a much more interesting movie in the next hour, like seeing her reengage, like having to fold back into real life now that Harry Styles is dead. I don't know where the fuck his body is if he's lying next to her on the bed or if his body is kept in headquarters. I don't like his real body. It will can't be kept in headquarters because we're in the Sims. Okay. That's a much more interesting movie. Like way more interesting first hours is simulation in the last hours her trying to integrate like what the fuck is this and like I don't know go into the FBI and like blowing it open I don't know. But the movie's just not it's not well done. It's not interesting. And again, without a controversy, we wouldn't be talking about it for any reason. Really? Honestly. Florence Pugh is Florence Pugh good. That's what people want to know. It's tough to be good when you're working with very, very shaky material because the biggest the worst aspect of the movie is the script. And whenever we say that about a movie, it's I mean, you can have like good cinematography was shot by Matthew Liberty, who's one of my favorite cinematographers, who yeah, I don't understand some of the stuff he was like asked to do. I don't understand a lot of it. And just straight up, a lot of it does not add up and it's very silly and very dumb, and it makes her press tour look all the more baffling. There's nothing about this movie that's like outwardly, progressively feminist. That's just a falsity. That's not true. Like all the reviews are saying this too. I'm reading very good reviews by female writers who are like, This is not a bastion of feminism that you promised it would be in the press. Like it's the sex scenes are not like remotely feminist, as she said they would be. There's, you know, there's two there's one of the described and then they get frisky at Chris Pine's house. He gets frisky with his fingers and Chris Pine watches and she sees this and is okay with it and okay, that's it. I don't know if the people who made this movie like realizing they were screening it or testing it, this maybe this isn't that good. Or did they have this disassociation like we made this masterpiece? I don't know. But then to go and conjure up so much unnecessary, bad PR is just I'll never understand why this played out the way it did, because this could have just been a sophomore slump movie, which happens to good directors all the time. She had a good, solid start with Booksmart. That's good. That's awesome. Second movies often flounder a little bit because they're given more money for any number of reasons. That's as old as Hollywood. That's okay. I would if anyone is going to forgive a bad movie, move on to your next one. It's fine. Who cares? All this controversy is just it's been so bizarre, so unnecessary. And then to see that this is the final product. Very odd. Very odd. Hmm. So you didn't lose anything by not seeing it or by me spoiling it for you. But I mean, the crowds are just not into this. Like, they're just not into it at all. And I. Yeah, that's. Don't worry, darling. I can't imagine, aside from the controversy that anyone will be talking about this years down the. Line, it's always, always enlightening when when you get this type of reaction, because this is like I mean, obviously, I haven't seen the theater, so I couldn't gauge the temperature in the room, but If you're saying that both times you went there like this and then this is what also the social media is saying. About two times in two different cities, I should say. I went to like a massive theater on purpose. The Thursday that it was opening, it was packed and it was mostly Harry Styles fans, and they were just not into it by the end and laughing at it. There's nothing in the movie that is like a joke, like, Oh, that was funny. It's if you're laughing during this movie, I mean, they're laughing at it and a lot of people are, damn. Why do you think it was called? Don't worry, darling. I think he kind of says that some point, like, don't worry, everything's fine. But it's not. Oh, I mean, it's not a very strong title, in my opinion. I'm not again, I didn't go in expecting to hate it. I've been I've been incredibly confused by some of the PR surrounding this film, but that's not going to make me walk into a movie hating it. And I did think it started strong. Ray Charles, we're in this cool party scene. I thought the whole thing was going to be like she was on cool with it from the beginning, like the Florence Pugh character. And she's not she everything seems cool, but things like add up when if the same amount of time is passing in real life and in the simulation, I don't know. Like at what point does someone start to question things? At what point does she go? At what point if these are glitches, at one point, are the glitches going to start to be communicated about? None of this is said. None of this is spoken. So that's my review of that. People have a lot easier time watching. Don't worry, darling, than blond. But one is a much more pronounced artistic achievement. I'm sorry. Say for all the haters. But don't worry, darling. It's not being like everyone just accepts this as a loss. It's not. It's not making a lot of money. It's not been received well at all. There's nothing. The craziest thing about it is the controversy that was largely started and maintained by its director. I've never seen I would have to do some research, but I've never seen a director seemingly like just sabotaging their movie and not intending to. And it's like, what are you doing here? I don't know. Yeah, but you know, I'm sure everyone will move on. Florence Pugh is going to be fine. Harry Styles is the most famous bestselling musician in the world. He just did like, what, 15 sold out shows in Madison Square Garden? He'll be fine, everyone. Nick Kroll just has a comedy special on Netflix. They'll be fine. Olivia Wilde is going to be fine. Everyone's going to be fine. Everyone seems to move the fuck on and everyone needs to do it. Florence Pugh is done from the beginning, which is be quiet and move on. So what you're saying is, don't worry, darling. Don't worry, darling. That's it. Don't worry. Move on. So that's it. Thank you all for listening. We appreciate you listening to our perspective on this podcast because we really did like Blond and we felt the need to come to the defense of it a little bit. Let us know if you watch it, let us know if you like it. I even met anyone else who liked it yet. I don't think you have either. I better know people online. I have met everyone in person, but if you liked it, let us know on Instagram or Twitter at W AIW underscore podcast if you didn't like it, tweet Nick. But as always, thank you for listening and happy watching. Oh my God. Hey, everyone, thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at Alex Withrow dot com. Nicholas Dose Dotcom is where you can find all of Nick's film work. Send us mailbag questions at What are you watching? Podcast at Gmail dot com or find us on Twitter at W AIW Underscore Podcast. Next time we're going to break down the career of one of our favorite directors. Andrea Arnold Very few directors have had more influence over my personal filmmaking. Stay tuned.