Inside Good Boy: horror, empathy, and the golden path

We rate Good Boy, salvage a lost recording, and settle into a dog’s-eye horror that hits harder than slashers. Between bourbon, Pineapple Express, and hallway dread, we trace empathy, ownership, and why silence can be the scariest instrument on the board.

• rating the categories: acting, cinematography, score, story, rewatchability
• dog-as-protagonist and sensory POV through scent and silence
• empathy for innocence vs desensitization to human death
• the fox image, ghost retriever, and metaphor of illness
• long hallways, patience, and when silence works
• responsibility of pet ownership and listening to warning cues
• alternate cuts: guard dog vs retriever, how the plot changes
• shoutouts to listeners, Blade debate, and Air Bud jokes

“Thanks to our newest listeners in Springfield—Cadarius, this one’s for you. Cheers to Air Bud and to every nepo baby burning in hell—respectfully.”

Chapters

• 0:31 Chaotic Reboot: Lost Episode Confession
• 1:41 Setting the Table: Hosts, Bits, Banter
• 3:41 From Are You Afraid Jokes to Focus
• 4:14 Smoke, Sip, and Strains Roll Call
• 5:14 The Plan: Rating, Golden Path, Insert Ourselves
• 7:33 Listener Shoutouts & Blade Debate
• 8:16 Into Ratings: Acting, Dog vs Humans
• 13:33 Cameras, Hallways, Dread: Cinematography
• 16:39 Score, Silence, and When to Use It
• 18:34 Story from a Dog’s Mind
• 21:56 Rewatchability and The “Hallway Problem”
• 24:52 Tallying Scores and Near-Misses
• 30:12 Golden Path: Ownership, Care, Responsibility
• 36:59 Empathy: Dogs, Innocence, and Horror
• 42:56 Jamie Kennedy Tangent and Desensitization
• 46:15 Insert Ourselves: Weed, Warnings, What Changes
• 51:43 The Fox, Ghosts, and Scent-as-Time

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Jump jump on in. Fucking hell. Alright. So hello everybody.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Hey everybody. I'm your host, Ryan Barron North. With me as always, James Crosswell and Luke. So we just recorded a full episode, and we got so drunk and high that we didn't realize that the episode wasn't recording.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

So we're back on in.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Doing it again.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

From the top. Send it.

SPEAKER_06 0:48

From the top, boys. Rehearse the sign. Make it snap.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

After almost a hundred episodes, I'm surprised that this is the first time that this has happened where we got so fucked that we were just doing an episode to nobody.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

It's not the first time we've lost an episode.

Setting the Table: Hosts, Bits, Banter

SPEAKER_02 1:07

It's not the first when we realize it mid-episode. No, that that pisses me off straight up. So lesson learned. I'm definitely going to be watching the timer. I don't know when the fuck that happened. And that oh my god. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 1:26

Well, welcome to But that's okay. We're gonna be talking about Good Boy, directed by Ben Lienberg, um, and also produced by Carrie Fisher, oddly enough. Um and stars short early. Yeah, I thought she died. No, yeah. I mean, she well, it's been three years. Oh, she came back to live.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Okay, gotcha. Yeah, she yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

All right, well, it's gonna be my boy, our good boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Good boy. I'm your host, Ryan Barron North. With me as always, James Croslin, Luke. We're doing this one fucked up. Welcome to the party. We're High and Dry Podcast. Um, the only podcast keeping alive, the fucking fandom of what was it?

SPEAKER_04 2:09

It was Are You Afraid of the Dark? Are you have to do the dark? We have to do all your all our Are You Afraid of the Dark jokes again? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

There's so many. We forgot that Michelle Trackenberg was in Are You Afraid of the Dark.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

Michelle Trackenberg. Yeah. Also Joanne Garcia Swisher, which I am also in love with. I don't know if you guys are. Wait, hold on. Hold on. Let me look it up.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

This wrong Garcia Swisher. Garcia Swisher. Well, here's while you're looking it up, here's fucking Remy. He'll be involved in this episode. Go away.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Joanna Garcia Swisher's great.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

I I I've seen her in a few things that I liked her in. She's very funny. She was in not another teen movie, apparently.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

I don't know who she was in that one. She's in Once Upon a Time. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Yep. She was in some good shit. I like her.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Well, we're not actually gonna be doing that because Jesus Christ. God damn it.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Ah, and then I gotta Oh my god.

From Are You Afraid Jokes to Focus

SPEAKER_04 3:15

This is a nightmare. Hi guys, welcome to High and Dry. We're talking about Good Boy today. James, what are you smoking today? Thanks, Ryan. I'm smoking Kim Dog on theme, baby. How about you, Luke? What are you smoking? I'll do it again.

SPEAKER_06 3:34

Pineapple Express. Ooh, everybody on the Pineapple Express.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

All aboard. Ryan, what what do you got over there? What are you drinking today?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

I'll be working with Knib Creek, Kentucky Straight Bourbon, uh nine aged years.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Oh, that's I bet it's got some good horsepower, huh?

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Oh, 50 50 horsepower, baby.

Smoke, Sip, and Strains Roll Call

SPEAKER_02 3:57

30 bucks is gonna get the job done. That's what it's all about. Who doodie?

SPEAKER_04 4:04

I prefer I'm usually a fan of Dick Stream, but I guess knob creek will suffice.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Who doesn't love a good dick stream? So, all right. So we're not actually gonna be talking about whatever the fuck we were talking about. Instead, what we're gonna be talking about is the film Good Boy. And we're gonna break it down into a three-part method, all right? Number one, as usual, fuck Fandango, fuck Netflix, fuck all the places that do the thing. All right.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

What we're gonna do is so much more aggressive this time.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

It was far less aggressive the first go around. We've been drinking, baby.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

So we're gonna break it down and we're gonna figure out first the best method. All right, it's gonna make all those other people go fuck themselves.

SPEAKER_06 4:55

For a movie rating to be clear, everybody. I don't know.

The Plan: Rating, Golden Path, Insert Ourselves

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah, for a movie to be clear. It's a movie rating. Just everybody. Just fuck everybody. Fuck everybody. We're gonna give you five stars and we're gonna tell you how good this fucking movie is. Alright?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

And then when we're done with that, we're gonna jump onto the golden path. That's a Dune reference for those of you who haven't caught up yet. And um, we're gonna dive into the deeper concepts of this film, which is where we were when we started drinking in the first place. And then finally, we're gonna insert ourselves, drugs, or alcohol into the film, and it's gonna be so special and magical. We're gonna do all that drinking that James mentioned earlier. So just to make it up to the folks at home, boys, line up your shots. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_04 5:46

I'm so high. I'm so high. One more time. And also for people who didn't know for this. For people who didn't know, we used the golden path before the Dune movie came out. That was that was a segment before, I think. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Yeah, we did. We did for sure. We did for sure.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Um, it was actually a We definitely referenced it on this podcast well before the movie.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Well, we started referencing the Golden Path back when we were doing versus matches between fictional characters.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Um but anyway, this this toast, this shot, this hit, this one goes out first to our newest listeners who are in Springfield. Uh Kadarius, my boy, he had a problem with our Blade film. Um, it also goes out to all the fucking listeners we've had this month.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

Thank you so much. Oh, yeah, Kadarius didn't get a full up didn't get a full thing. We're rushing through it now. But we did a whole thing where we were like, no, no, Blade is actually a good film because Ryan in a previous episode had some shit to say. What was the Ludic statement?

Listener Shoutouts & Blade Debate

Into Ratings: Acting, Dog vs Humans

SPEAKER_02 6:51

You can't just buffy fucking vampires. We have a rib cage. That's not how it works. You can't just shove wood into hearts, all right? And then Kadarius' argument was that strong. And like, yeah, I agree that Blade is super strong, but at the same time, vampires are super strong. Also, he shouldn't be able to rip apart a nightclub. But at the same time, that nightclub was a canon event for me as a young man. It awoken some a lot of sexual fantasies for me involving blood and but anyway. Wesley Snipes and Wesley Snipes, yeah, and very, very strong black men with biceps. So here's to black men with biceps. Cheers. Cheers in a respectful way. Respectfully, respectfully, respectfully, it's hot as fuck. Oh my god. This is gonna be a wild episode, people. Uh so for those of you who had listened to us before, buckle up. Um, we fucked up the recording and we decided just to restart the recording. We're talking today about good boy, as was already stated. First off, let's jump into this rating.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

Go slow, Ryan. Oh no, that's just coke, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah, it's all my coke.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Um drink more. You need sugar.

SPEAKER_04 8:14

You get the sugar because you're kicking off, because you were the most excited about this movie. As Luke said last time, I'm jumping in, I'm stealing it, I'm pipping it. We're going forward.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

The problem is I'm drinking Coca-Cola zero sugar.

SPEAKER_06 8:31

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

It's just gonna make you just it's just gonna activate your insulin. You're gonna start producing insulin, and you're gonna go to sleep.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Hasn't happened once yet when I'm an alcohol. So uh anyway, look, at the end of the day, alcohol is the only thing that stops a shakes. So people tell me it's on.

SPEAKER_04 8:49

Oh, I just I meant the I meant the fake sugar in your coke. It activates your insulin. Did you guys not know about that? Fake sugar, so it it so it when you drink fake sugar, your body actually thinks that that you're consuming sugar, and so it'll produce insulin to counteract that sugar, but if it doesn't have sugar to produce, it makes you tired.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

I thought you were talking about the coke that I had ingested in the bathroom before this episode.

SPEAKER_04 9:20

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

No, no, that's fine. Okay, that's fine for you. Okay, cool. Yeah, so alright, so after that bump, so let's talk about Good Boy. Fantastic film for me. Like, and this is so hard because we just fucking talked about this, but you know, the show must go on. So for me, and this might be interesting for the three of us at least. Let's see how our scores change shot to shot.

SPEAKER_04 9:49

Oh, yeah. Do you still have our old scores recorded, Luke? Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Yeah, so don't look at them, Luke. Yeah, don't look at them. Let's see how let's see how accurate our score is. Well, it's 100% accurate. 100% accurate.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

Well, whatever we say is right.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

So for but maybe we need a little bit more alcohol to get to the truth of it. So, for me, acting, I thought the dog was incredible. Indy was incredible, um, and and they explained to us later on what was happening, and I agree with that and everything like that. But at the same time, I think that the effort that was put into this acting um pushed it over the edge. Like, if you're a dog owner, there were moments where you could see, like, oh, he like he's curious, he's not scared. Like, obviously.

SPEAKER_05 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

But that, but that that's to that's not to a layman. Um, that's to someone who has been around dogs since they were young or who is experienced with dogs. And uh I've found in my in my experience with uh my newest dog right now is an American Akita, um, who's a fucking insurance hazard. Um, not everyone picks up on dog's cues.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Not everyone picks up dog on dog's cues, and not everyone's parents have taught us that hey, don't just go petting a random dog and don't put your face in a dog's face. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

So if you aren't aware of what a dog is, if you were born in a cat family or a frog family or a lizard family or a parrot family or whatever, or just you know, I learned there's families that just think pets are disgusting, and they do living with any animals is a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Yeah, and those people are sociopaths. Um, and so if you're not one of them, um the acting on this, I'm giving a 4.5, and the only reason I drop it from a five is because the humans in this film they kind of I don't know, they forgot how to act, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

They were all props, is how I saw it. You know, I explained this last time, of course. But I thought that they were all props, but that was their job. Their job wasn't to be an actor. It's like the way dogs are props. He was just supposed to represent sickness, that's what all he was meant to do.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Yeah, but there were the moments.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

In a normal movie, the dog we wouldn't think about dog as an actor.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Exactly. But there were just moments where Todd's acting kind of like, what? That's not what you'd say. Um, and it and it bothered me. So 4.5, but not enough to make it a three or anything like that. A 4.5, that's near perfect.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Cinematography, in my opinion, it it evoked a sense of dread throughout. I was worried the whole time about fucking indie. I I was worried about Todd even. And uh the cinematography drew me in. I I loved the angles, I loved uh like I loved the hallways.

Cameras, Hallways, Dread: Cinematography

SPEAKER_04 13:11

Yeah. Yeah, the the 30 minutes of staring down hallways. I love that it's really sweet that you that you worried about Todd.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

I did, I did, because I saw Todd as me. And I instantly worried about if I got sick, how would Remy feel? Um, I shouldn't have said his name because he might attack me during the podcast. He'd probably eat you. Yeah, yeah. If you died, he'd eat you. When we get to part three, god damn it, he saw me. Um when we get to part three, it's gonna be a totally different story. I don't own a retriever, I own a guard dog. You don't own a good circle of boy. He's a good boy. Um I love him to death. But uh cinematography, I'm giving a five. It was unique, it was new, it brought me there, it made me emotional. I fucking loved it. Um the score soundtrack, it uh, like I said, it is not John Williams, it's not a Star Wars, it's not like I'm not gonna hear the good boy soundtrack and go, holy shit, it's good boy. But they knew when to shut it off, they knew when it was needed. Um, I felt it was very well utilized, and for that I'm gonna give the soundtrack a four. Um, story and plot. I, you know, it like we've had Cygna stories before, but it's never been from the perspective of the dog. It's never been from a perspective of someone who is so dependent on us, and someone who is so um helpless.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

Like if we often don't get protagonists who can't speak and also and also can't reason.

Score, Silence, and When to Use It

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Yeah, and and so um, so while the story and plot like, was it Godfather? No. It was better than the Godfather. So for that, I give it a 5.5. Um for that I'm gonna give the story and plot a four. Um, I'm gonna give the story and plot a four. Um, just because it was a very strong story told from the perspective of someone that we don't usually anticipate. And I I thought there was a lot to be said here, and it definitely did like I mean, like Luke said in the previous episode that we'll never air because we uh something happened. We'll never get to know. Like, I will always look at this movie and like ask questions about like, am I a good dog owner? Was Todd a good dog owner? Fuck no. No, um I'm I'm sure that's dealing with illness, yeah. But I'm sure the actual Todd is a good dog owner. Like, obviously, he spent three years just playing with his dog. So honestly, he's probably one of the best dog owners, if for selfish purposes. But uh for that, I give story and plot a 4.5. Um and then finally, rewatchability. No, I'm not watching this at Christmas uh at Christmas. Uh I'm not uh but if someone asks me if like hey, you seen Good Boy and they haven't seen Good Boy or whatever it is, I I know when it comes out on a streaming service I will see it again. Um so for that I I give the rewatch ability I give it a three. Give it a three.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

Nice. I, you know, for what it's worth, we are now, Luke and I are now very quiet. I think I wonder if we might be too high.

SPEAKER_06 16:52

I'm pretty fucking high.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

I wonder if we might be too high to be entertaining. We did a we did such a good job last time.

SPEAKER_06 17:03

Dude, I'm just staring at Ryan right now. I'm not gonna lie. I wish you didn't say anything I didn't notice until you just said something. I was just fucking like, Ryan, I was locked in on you that whole time.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Look, this is gonna be the episode. This is gonna be the episode that like this is what it looks like, baby. This is real. All right, this is real.

SPEAKER_04 17:25

We usually get the scores out before we're blasted. Acting, I'm gonna rush through it. I'm just gonna rush through it.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, rush, rush, baby.

Story from a Dog’s Mind

SPEAKER_04 17:33

Acting, I thought they did a really good job. I actually thought the you know, I the you guys said the owners would had some dumb scenes or bad lines or stuff. I thought it was okay for what they were there for. They're like the owner was like an even though he was central to the plot, his acting was like an extra in the movie. Uh and I think acting yeah, yeah. He was great, he was a great, he was prop plus. And and I think Indy did a really good job. There were just and and I'm you know, I think that those scenes where Indy was not was not juxtaposed correctly for horror took me out of the film, and I think they should get that dog in some fucking acting classes. Come on now. So 4.5 for acting, cinematography. Uh I am going to I loved the ch I loved the follow scenes. Uh the scenes where we like followed Andy up the stairs. Agreed. The scenes where we like followed him outside, and I feel like I feel like um the director kind of saw like this trend coming where we've gotten really good five follow scenes lately, like in weapons, where they're where um where they followed on the skates. That that follows yeah, weapons was the had awesome follow scenes. And uh, I think this director like had been filming getting ahead of that, and like where indie went through the woods, uh just great, great cinematography. And I I also loved his dreams. Yeah, his dreams were good. I loved when he put his head in the log. I liked that. Yeah, and so that was that was good cinematography. We learn later it's fox eyes, and it's like, and we learn that Indy is like perceiving the world through scent, and the only way for us to get that is he has visuals related to sense, and it's really interesting, very interesting. Um, so cinematography gets a five score and soundtrack. Oh man, I'm humming the good boy music in the shower. Uh oh, yeah, obviously. The good boy title. Good boy, good good indie has a nightmare. The reprise. Uh no, score, I would say uh 3.5 on the score. I thought it was good. Uh story and plot, I really liked the plot. The plot, you know, for those who may have not seen it or, you know, may want an explanation. The plot was that an owner gets ill uh with some kind of congenital disease that causes them to have to like collapse. And lung disease. It is, yeah, a lung disease. And his dog is perceiving that as like some uh uh supernatural force in the house, like the specter of this disease. Um and and Indy is perceiving that, and uh and yeah, that's the plot. And then eventually he probably does smell yucky, like sick people don't smell great typically just because they're like not taking care of themselves necessarily as well, and like like that's probably why he perceives him as like a mud man, because it's like oh gross.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Smell like shit, Dad.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Like for me though, like I I I know I know going into this that James, you're gonna perceive it as strictly metaphor, but it's the ghost golden retriever that it really that's it was a twist.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

It was a twist where I was like, it was I thought it was just the metaphor. I I I got cued in pretty early that it was a metaphor. The when the sister called and said, you know, uh, you know, dogs are dogs perceive you know illness and stuff like that. And it's true, dogs can sniff for cancer and stuff. Sometimes they do that.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

We should make that argument in part two.

Rewatchability and The “Hallway Problem”

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Okay, okay, okay. But when the ghost dog came around, that that got me again because I was I thought it was all metaphor. And then an actual ghost dog swings doors open and shit.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah, like yes, a real ghost. All right, we'll talk about that in part two.

SPEAKER_04 21:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But story plot, I'm gonna give it uh 4.5. And for rewatchability, I'm only gonna give it a two because I while I think this movie was really good. I I just cannot. I think if I was to watch this movie at home, I would pick up my phone so soon because everything is like meth slow and methodical, and seriously, if we if you timed it, half of that movie would be looking down hallways where nothing is happening. Nothing is happening. Is it half of it feel like half because it's so grueling? It's there were probably I think there were like six extended scenes where we are looking from Indy's perspective down a hallway where, and I have to reiterate, nothing happens. I think they were over the show, a show like that's what dogs be doing though, being creepy in our house, like fucking staring down hallways and doing, dude.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Yeah, they be doing. It's creepy.

SPEAKER_04 22:55

I agree. It was very effective in the theater. I love it. But I do get what you I do get what you mean. It was a lot. It was a lot.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

If I rewatch obsessed, I'd rather have a dog than a cat, and I'll tell you that much. And I'll bring that up in part three. I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

So I wrote mine down, so I won't mess them up, but you guys were off by 1.5 from the first two.

SPEAKER_06 23:17

Oh shit!

SPEAKER_04 23:18

Yeah, uh, it was James. You ended up giving the uh score soundtrack less, and then uh Ryan, you gave the uh rewatch ability a lot less.

SPEAKER_07 23:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 23:31

So that was that was not far off though, but I wrote mine down, so I'm not gonna mess them up. So I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Okay, let's do it. This might be more accurate because Siskel and Ebert never got fucking wasted in the theater.

unknown 23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:49

Well, they did, but but they also didn't write their own reviews. They fucked though, right? That was like a thing.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Oh yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 23:56

Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Um they may never admit to well, well, one can't admit to it, but the other probably will never. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:07

Hate fuck.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

I'm letting Remy be in this one more just because it's about dogs. He's currently biting on my elbow. I can't wait to bring him up in part three. Hey, Remy.

SPEAKER_06 24:20

I will yeah, I'll go ahead and and shoot off mine then.

Tallying Scores and Near-Misses

SPEAKER_04 24:23

My uh my acting, I gave a 4.5. I thought it was really good, and but I do agree with James that the um there were a couple scenes where in Indy definitely had more of a curious look than a scared look, and for that reason, I just couldn't give it um give it that full five. Cinematography was by far my favorite part of the movie. I thought that um they really put you into the perspective of a dog. They they made me like Ryan said, feel anxious like consistently throughout the movie. Um I I I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really, really uh fresh, and I thought it was a cool thing to do. Again, such a unique idea that I think it comes through in all the different categories. Um but I think like cinematography, it really, really shines. So I gave it a five. Um the score soundtrack I gave a 3.5. It it was good. It like just didn't like it wasn't super memorable for me. Like I wasn't um I did notice that they used silence at times, but I think that they were a lot of there was a lot of silence because it was kind of in those hallway moments. Um and at times I was like, man, I I I need to c seriously make sure I'm not breathing too loud in here. The people next to me are gonna be able to hear. And for that reason, I didn't like it that much. So I gave it a 3.5. The story and plot I really enjoyed. I thought it was cool. Um, I'm not gonna lie, I like I was kind of at first like, what the fuck is going on? Mudman, and then I like then I once I understood the like sickness and stuff, I I enjoyed it more. Um, but at first I was kind of can confused. It didn't pick up for me right at right um right early on. But I ended up giving the uh story and plot a four. Um, but I thought it was really good. I thought it was a cool scary movie, too. I know, and I'm again, I'm probably the most harsh critic on scary movies, but I I I really enjoyed it. Lately, I feel like a lot of these movies have come out with something like very cool uh story and plot-wise, which makes me more into the like horror genre as a whole.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

It's giving me a solid point. Yeah, giving me a less solid point, like with weapons and uh yeah, and this and like and the long road, which we also all saw.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

The long walk, yeah. And that you know, the thriller style, but yeah, it's I feel like they're really cool. I and I really enjoyed this one as well. Um and then we watch a lot of a lot of sorry, I think that a lot of horror movies do a bad job with suspense. You know, suspense is like a secondary thought. And a lot of the movies that you've come the horror movies you've come back and you've said that you like, it's about suspense and not about the the not about horror jump scares or kills or whatever. I always say my bit my least favorite thing about horror is jump scares. That's like my lead. I am someone I pull me on my toes, and I get that's kind of the point of it, is to like get you onto your toes, then yeah, do the jump scare. But the jump scare's not fun for me, like it is for other people. So, like, but like a thriller, something that has me just like on the edge of my seat, I I live for it. I really do like I feel like they've done a good job. Well, while still adding some jump scares, but not that I'm just not so much where I'm like, oh my god, this is just like un unpleasant. It's like, yeah, you got I feel truly like, yeah, you got me. All right, all right. That was like that was good. So versus I've seen one of the paranormal activities that was truly I've never seen something that was just jump scare after jump scare. It's just like quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet, loud ass noise. Quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet. Like it was truly just a um jump scare movie. So really cool, really cool to see in general of some of these directors coming out with these. And then the rewatchability, I gave it 3.5. I actually, it's a movie that I could see myself watching again just to enjoy the the camera shots, but I agree it is sad. I don't see myself watching it a lot. But I that this is one I will watch with somebody else at some point. 100%, I know for a fact. Somebody else is not gonna have seen it or not gonna um and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's watch it. Because I like to enjoy something, especially something unique for the first time with somebody, and I enjoy that. So, like, and this is something I'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's throw it on. Like, you need to watch this, let's do it right now. It's only 70, it's only 75 minutes, an hour 15. Like, we can knock this out right now. Let's do it. So, um, yeah, for that reason I gave it 3.5. Solid.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Alright, well, what did uh what did Good Boy wind up with?

SPEAKER_06 28:45

Four out of five. Um, which I solid really, really good.

SPEAKER_04 28:50

Especially for a dog, a movie where there's almost very little dialogue and just a dog. Like, that's pretty shot on one uh single camera. I agree. I agree. I mean, and especially they were only able to work with the dog for two hours a day. Like, I can imagine the there had to have been a point for the team where they're like, fuck my gosh, are we really gonna keep doing this? Like, this is this is insane. Like, you know, yeah, especially. The team was two people. It was that guy and his wife. Really? Is that it? Is that all the things? Yeah, that was it. That was the team.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

It fucking paid off. And and this is what happened. You get a good film. You get a good film when you stop casting your shitty children in things.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

Uh I mean, Big William Bird kind of cast his shitty child in this. Yeah, that is true. It did take three years to film his shitty child.

SPEAKER_06 29:41

Just because his dog was not a professional.

Golden Path: Ownership, Care, Responsibility

SPEAKER_04 29:44

Well, I mean, this was nepotism. It worked out though. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

That's true. That's true. All right. Uh Golden Retriever. Yeah, good boy. It's nepotism at its finest. Fucking.

SPEAKER_04 30:08

I recognize that I recognize that Golden Retriever. He's a veteran in the game.

SPEAKER_06 30:15

Yeah, that's air fucking bud. Are you fucking kidding me? They gave him a he's a dead ghost dog? God damn it.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

Airbud gets a fucking dead ghost dog roll in 2025. Fucking hell. So uh what did this film wind up with?

SPEAKER_06 30:32

He told you it's a four. A four out of five. You're so drunk.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

We've been drinking, folks. We've been drinking. Congrats. Uh Air Bud, you got a four out of five.

SPEAKER_04 30:49

This is gonna be our worst episode. We're this is gonna be short. It's gonna be our worst episode, and it's gonna be real short because we're gonna blow through these next portions.

SPEAKER_06 30:59

Because I have nothing for I need someone to start off the golden pad, that's for damn sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Well, we will, we will.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

So, but that being the case, it's time to get on to the second portion of this podcast and to the uh I guess uh curmudgeon uh of my co-hosts. Um, it's time to line up our final shot, final toast, final hit of the night. This one this one goes out to Airbud.

SPEAKER_04 31:28

Cheers to Airbud. So to all Hollywood's Nepo babies.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

To the Nepo babies. You will all burn in hell. Ah fuck. I had a night plan tonight. Jesus Christ. All right, so all right.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Yeah, uh, you can't do anything else. I'm gonna go lay down on the couch after this. All right. So who wants to kick off this one?

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Yeah, so round two. It's time to get on the golden path. What are the deeper thoughts and feelings of this film? I'll start it off. So for me, uh right away as a this this film hit me as an animal owner. I have owned creatures since I was a child. And there are some when I was not ready to own creatures that uh keep me up to this day. You know, I I didn't, you know, because when you when you decide to buy a creature, um, you still have a life. But this creature, its life is all you, and it lives and dies by your whims and what you want to do in a given day, and all that sort of thing. And this film definitely brought me to that, especially in the scene, uh, like Luke, you were talking about earlier, where um Indy hops up under the chair and he's looking out the window and he's waiting for his owner to come home, and there's just a hard cut from day to night, and he's just still sitting in that chair. Um, and that's our animals' lives. Is watching time pass, waiting for us. And oftentimes we get so caught up in our nonsensical bullshit that we forget that there is an entire life dedicated to us.

SPEAKER_04 33:33

And I think that a lot of people need to understand that before adopting dogs and before like going out and and not just dogs, animals in general, because I think that there's so many people will get these hamsters and get get lizards of uh reptiles of of sorts, and they they think that it's gonna be an easy thing to just like haha, cute fun. No, this is like a fucking living being that you're taking out of its normal habitat where it it should be, and now you're gonna have to take care of it, and you're gonna have to create that habitat for it, and you're gonna have so for a dog, you know, you have to give it the exercise, you have to give it the the training and the the reward and all you know the stimulation that it requires for a lizard. You have to give it the climate, the heat, the the moisture to be able to properly shed for you know, and I think that people don't do that.

SPEAKER_06 34:21

And it you know, a lot of animals pay the price in the end. It it is kind of crazy, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

Yeah, people amen.

SPEAKER_04 34:27

That's a great point. People need to understand that animals are stupid losers with no lives.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Well, just being the fact that our listeners are generally stupid losers with no lives, imagine related to the animal. Yeah. Imagine if you now had your stupid fucking life controlled by one individual and he kept forgetting about you.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

It'd leave for like the majority of your life.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

And you you didn't know how to get your own food or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

You were just waiting on fucking stale meat cereal that they give you.

SPEAKER_04 35:19

Yeah, but it's like the best shit ever to the yeah. And then you get fucking I pour a little warm water in it to make a little bit of gravy for the.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

I started buying um dog uh beef stock and I'll pour it over the top. And like I I I try and I try and accommodate. I try.

SPEAKER_04 35:41

Absolutely. I do little bits of chicken breast also. Well, no, I just little crumble of chicken breast on the meat cereals.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Well, I I find uh Remy and folks at home, you'll meet him later. Um, he enjoys um uh kosher hot dogs. And uh have to be kosher. They have to be kosher, or he's just not into it. He's just not into it. Um he comes out with his little fucking hat and he just uh he won't do it. He won't do it. Um so I I gotta make sure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:18

Has this been blessed by a child of Judea?

SPEAKER_02 36:24

He'll sniff it and he can tell. He can tell. They have stronger noses than we do. They do. And it wasn't, it wasn't. So he won't eat Oscarmeyer. He won't eat Oscarmeyer, it has it has to be kosher.

Empathy: Dogs, Innocence, and Horror

SPEAKER_06 36:39

Um what were we talking about? Golden Path of the movie Good Boy. I did have another thought, I th I think, I think.

SPEAKER_04 36:51

Um, and that is that in general, I feel like this movie did not a lot of different things. It's all from a different perspective, and I think that some of the things aren't inherently that scary. Um, and because they weren't, it was disease, right? But I mean it's people's empathy for dogs, though, goes further than their empathy for humans. And I and I feel like that's a common commonality in society in general, but I feel like people feel as scared as they do during this movie because their empathy for this dog is actually deeper than what it would be for just another teenager getting hacked in half by Jason.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

That is a solid point.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

And it is it it's the same thing with babies, and you can find this with people who are like really anti-abortion and stuff, where they give a lot more empathy to unborn children and babies because they are without sin. It's like a dog is without sin. A dog literally can't sin because it doesn't have enough understanding of the world, and it's it's it's pure innocence, and it's the same with like unborn children and babies. But once you start to gain an understanding of the world, you have like your your information about the world informs your actions, and that for and therefore you are no longer innocent. And and this is a really common thing in our culture, and I don't fucking understand it. Sure, protect protect innocence, but it's not worth more consideration than any other being just because it is innocent. But I think it does, and it's common, it is very common. Yeah, I yeah, very especially for I would say like you know, mammal like pets, because I feel like that's like what people like really um associate with like deep emotion, I suppose.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

Yeah. Well, I would just say, since I mean, as soon as we started fucking making film, I mean, this is a this is a podcast about cinema, um, we've been slaughtering human beings, and there reaches a point where we're just desensitized to it.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Um so but Well, you can hear the justifications. They're not innocent, right? That's the justification that they're not innocent. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Your average human being is not innocent. We're all going to hell. And it's gonna be a wild party, but until then, we gotta live with each other.

SPEAKER_04 39:28

Well, and usually in the movie, they make some of these characters hateable in general. They just like give them hateable personalities. So it's even easier for us to be like, oh, thank god that fucking guy died, or you know, yeah, it it they do it on purpose a little bit.

SPEAKER_06 39:41

This one I'm like, please don't fucking let this goddamn dog die.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Okay, so it was within this uh I mean we're we're entering the October Halloween season, and just recently I've had uh some people force me to watch the scream series. And then all of a sudden I was asked, Who's your favorite character? I'm like, Well, fucking none of 'em. I mean, these guys have point. Yeah, they all suck. I hope they all die.

SPEAKER_04 40:15

That's what that's what you that's why people go to see screen movies, is to watch the people.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Just to watch people die. But when you walk into Good Boy, all of a sudden, for the first time in probably 30 years, there's a character where you're like, please don't die. I like I'm so used to people dying.

SPEAKER_04 40:35

I get it in other movies as well, but this is this one you definitely you feel it. I um you definitely feel it deeper, especially as a dog owner. Dog owners in general, I feel like you know, pull they're pulling on the heartstrings of them.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

Well, and that's what I'm talking about. We got uh the three of us were I mean, like Luke, you you're a young millennial. Like we grant you access to the council, but you don't have the rank of master, obvious. Damn it.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

But um we're all right. I thought we were a horizontally structured organization. I did not know there was a hierarchy.

SPEAKER_06 41:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Look, it's I it's grant him we grant him a seat on the council, but he does not have the rank of master. Um he he's essentially a zillennial. Um, but uh, but I mean, good for him. He's gonna outlive us.

SPEAKER_04 41:29

So uh but I I would say just maybe probably not we're older, we can hold our we can we get we get first come, first serve in the jobs. And when there's when there's only five jobs left, they'll be held by the oldest people.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

That's also true. Um, yeah, well, honestly, uh I don't know. But um anyone uh also this is Remy, but um the point I was trying to make, uh I would say just like we we got used to since the 90s, um, you know, since Jamie Kennedy was allowed to have a career, that um that was a huge fumble. He sucked. Um he was pretty awful for the entire band. He was allowed to have a career, and we wanted him to die, and so that's what happened. And now for the first time in 30 years, we have a character that we don't want to die because we haven't been desensitized to animal death.

SPEAKER_03 42:33

Yeah.

Jamie Kennedy Tangent and Desensitization

SPEAKER_04 42:34

Can you imagine if they filmed this movie with Jamie Kennedy instead of the dog? From the perspective of Jamie Kennedy, yeah, yeah, and how much you'd want Jamie Kennedy to die instead.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

And then I'm just questioning why this dude with cancer owns Jamie Kennedy.

SPEAKER_04 42:56

Jamie Kennedy crawls between his legs and starts slapping slapping his belly in his face. Like to the scene where the dog gets like drug under the bed, but it's Jamie Kennedy, just like laying man that just gets his like ripped under the bed. I think we've naturally moved into our third segment.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

I agree. I agree. Where Jamie Kennedy is at the foot of the bed and we've made it to the third part of this fucking Jamie Kennedy. Go fuck yourself.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

You ruined the mask. Um, so um, we reach our third part of this podcast. It's now time to insert ourselves drugs or alcohol into the film good boy. Fellas, how does it change? Who'd like to kick this off?

SPEAKER_04 43:42

I would. So sadly, um, what would happen is I would be Todd's friend. All right. So I would just be in the background of the shots. Um, but we'd be like smoking. But you'd be that hunter guy? No, I might a different character, different guy. Okay, okay, okay, okay. You'd be his only friend. Yeah, his only friend. Um, but I don't ever got a call.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

That's a solid point. That's what I'm saying. No one ever checked on him.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

His sister kept trying, and then he kept pushing her away. Yeah, well, I'm a persistent one, so I'd come over, I'd have some flour with me. You put it, you put a tracking device and Todd's car. Yeah. I found you. In his urethra. I already knew he had mentioned uh his childhood house to us years ago. I had I had remember. We're lifelong friends, guys. So that's great. That's great. It's in the urethra. It's in the urethra. Uh I did it with my tongue during uh blow. So um what are friends for? What are friends for? Right? So so yeah, so I I'm going over there and I actually end up killing him earlier on accident because I didn't know he had lung disease, and I'm just like, bro, smoke this, it's gonna make you feel better.

SPEAKER_06 44:56

Um, and he ends up dying faster um because he actually also um destroys his lungs with with the smoke.

SPEAKER_04 45:03

But he goes out enjoying life a little bit more. He never turns into the mud man. Um, and Indy just is a good boy, and I take him when we're done, and he never has to ghost dog.

SPEAKER_06 45:14

Um and it's just kind of like about a friend taking care of a friend from a dog's perspective, um, into his deathbed and then taking the dogs for its new life.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Oh, nice, gorgeous movie.

SPEAKER_06 45:28

Solid.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

I want to let you know, if that was the case, you would be taking me along because I would be Indy.

SPEAKER_07 45:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:38

Because I know that you got like you you said, Ryan, that you like associated yourself with the dog owner. Like, I put myself in Indy's place when I watched this movie, and I was like, you know, if it was me, I would have done a few things differently. Andy's a fucking moron.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Let me tell you how I do it.

SPEAKER_07 46:02

Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

So here's what I do. I would sleep 14 hours a day and it would be glorious.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:15

It would be amazing. I'd sit right by the door where the draft comes in right on the crease, and it's like, and I'd sit there and I'd just I'd have my nose facing it, and it would just blow through my nose and my little ear for and that's how I'd spend 14 hours. I wouldn't give a shit about where this fucking dude was. He pushed me off the bed one time. That's it. And then and then you come along, you kill him, and I get to be your dog. We go and have awesome adventures. We find that cool fox demon. Uh we have a good time. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

You just call it a fox demon. Yeah. So I'm not fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_04 46:57

What? Whoa. I I think it was supposed to represent like death.

SPEAKER_02 47:02

But I saw the fox, and then there was the jump scare. I associated them as being the same creature. But then it turned out I was the only guy who thought that way. Did you also think the fox was the creature?

SPEAKER_04 47:17

No, I think the fox was an I think the fox was an impression. And that I mean in the movie, I think the fox was an impression of a scent that that uh that Indy picked up and then he started associating that scent with things. That the there was the darkness of the eyes and the tunnel. You know, it makes you know, you saying that, you know, you associating those things, maybe. Maybe it was supposed to maybe the fox was dead. Because I think that indie is sensing dead things. It was right by that fox trap, remember? Like the guy had had a fox trap in that that's a solid point.

SPEAKER_02 47:54

It was a dead fox, it was a fox ghost. Yeah. That's a solid point. So we can see any ghosts of animals.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

It's the it's the lingering podcast. I'll tell you that much right now. You know what I mean? That's why we're better than Fandango.

SPEAKER_04 48:11

We skipped it on the golden path. I just remembered it now. But it it but dogs have a very special thing that they can do that humans can't. They can't they have a sense that travels through time. Scent is time is a time traveling sense. It tells you something that happened in that place hours ago, days ago. They mark the same spot over and over and smell the markings of other animals, and they have like a sense that travels through time. It's really interesting. It does for humans too, though. It's the sense is the strongest sense or smell is the strongest sense connected to memories. Like you have to say, there's times where you go in somewhere, you smell something, you're like, you know, transported to a or transported to a house, like a childhood home. Like I I've I've gone in and smelled smells, and I'm like, this smells like my friend Kenny's house. Like very specific smells. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_06 49:11

No, not a bad thing. Not always a bad thing.

SPEAKER_04 49:15

But yeah, I I do think like that it happens for humans as well.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

Yeah, that's true. Good point. Yeah. Well, well, for me, the film would change indie. I would be the sick guy, but indie would change. Okay. So for James is come.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

So my film would change. Ryan's gonna change me. My film would change.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

Come. Come. My film would change with this little dude right here. Um turns out he's not an actor, and you can't get him to do what you want. Yeah, he's not an actor. But this is Remy. Remy. Remy, his head is larger than mine. We're standing at the same place right here, and he's a puppy. Um, this dog right here is a puppy. Um, he hasn't grown all the way, and he is a guard dog. He has cost me hundreds of dollars a month in insurance because if he doesn't know who you are, he'll make you bleed. Um, and so the film would change in that um when Remy starts growling at something, um, I'm concerned. I'm not gonna just sit there going like Remy, go away. I'm sick. No, I'm like, fuck, Remy, do we have a ghost? Um and that's how the film would change. Um, is that my dog is a guard dog and uh Indy is a retriever. And as soon as Remy's concerned, I'm concerned. So in that scene where we're worried about the endless hallways that that uh James dislikes, um, I'd be I'd be fucking up out of the bed going, Remy, what's wrong?

SPEAKER_05 51:14

Um and there's no more hallways.

The Fox, Ghosts, and Scent-as-Time

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Yeah, yeah. No, it's I'd be like, Remy, what's what the fuck is wrong? Um why are you freaking out? You don't freak out. Um and so that's how the movie would change, is that I would be a dog owner who actually listens to my fucking dog. Um and that was the thing that drove me crazy about this movie. That was like my one problem with it, is that I don't know a lot of dog owners who ignore their dogs as much as Todd ignored Indy.

SPEAKER_05 51:52

He had lung disease, man. Give him a break.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

I will not give him a struggling with health is I will not give him a break. He doesn't give a disease. Any time that your cat, your toad, your dog is growling into the shadows, you're like, what the fuck is in the shadows that I don't see?

SPEAKER_04 52:13

I mean, unless you're just one too many times. Unless you're passed out from having lung disease.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

I mean, maybe, maybe. I've never had lung disease, so I don't know. But I could tell you this. If my dog, and this is how the film would change, if my dog were growling at the shadows, I wouldn't be like, Remy, go to bed, stop being stupid.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

I'd be like, Remy, kill what's in those shadows.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

And Remy would be like, Yes, sir, and he'd run off into the shadows and murder that fucking thing.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

Murder the ghost the ghost retriever. I believe I believe that he could pull it off.

SPEAKER_05 53:01

I would like for you to then be he your lung disease to be healed, and then you guys go on a paranormal. You guys are a paranormal execution doer that just go to places and gonna just fuck like ghost creatures up.

SPEAKER_04 53:14

Yeah, you go to places and kill the manifestations of illness of sick people.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

I've owned terriers, I've owned bulldogs, I've owned toy dogs, uh like I've owned all the dogs, and uh I would not put up anything against a scarf dog.

SPEAKER_05 53:32

You want a disease healing dog now.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

I I think he'd pull like he wouldn't cure my disease, but I wouldn't have to worry about ghosts, I tell you that fucking much.

SPEAKER_05 53:46

The ghost is the disease.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

The ghost is the disease, and uh yeah, for me, Remy would fucking fuck that thing up. So uh well, um well folks, there you go.

SPEAKER_05 53:58

That calls it.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

That calls it. So um, hey, we're High and Dry Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Barron North with me as always, James Crossman, Luke. Um, there's an episode where we were fucked up from the get. Um god, that was rough.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

That was so hard. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 54:19

I got things to do tonight. God damn. Um good job, everybody. Yeah, good job, everybody. That that's called being professional. That's what that is. That's what that is.

SPEAKER_04 54:32

I'm gonna go watch Michelle Trachtenberg.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Yeah, so here's to Michelle Trachtenberg, here's to us being professionals, and here's to Michelle Trachtenberg again. Uh we're High and Dry Podcast. Bye.

SPEAKER_06 54:45

Bye bye, bye, bye. Good boy.