Arrival and Only Lovers Left Alive with Jessica Stone - Talking Pondo

 In this episode, Jessica Stone joins the podcast. She brings along the movie Only Lovers Left Alive. Marty and Clif give Jessica the movie Arrival to watch. 

Clif and Marty welcome back returning guest favorite Jessica Stone for two wildly different but unexpectedly connected films, Arrival and Only Lovers Left Alive.

The conversation starts with Arrival, through a discussion of language, grief, nonlinear time, and whether Denis Villeneuve’s cerebral style is immersive genius or frustratingly distant. Jessica brings sharp observations about symbolism, sound design, and the heptapods, while Marty offers a spirited dissent that sparks one of the episode’s best debates.

Then the crew moves into the dreamy, undead world of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, revisiting the vampire genre through a very different lens.

It’s an episode about aliens, immortality, loss, communication, and whether time might really be a flat circle.

#TalkingPondo #ArrivalMovie #OnlyLoversLeftAlive #DenisVilleneuve #JimJarmusch #SciFiPodcast #MoviePodcast #FilmDiscussion #AmyAdams #JeremyRenner #VampireMovies #AlienMovies #IndependentFilm #CultCinema 

Transcript

Clif 0:01
Welcome to season four of Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty give each other a film to watch and talk about them in detail. Some episodes will include special guests.

Marty 0:18
Aliens land and vampires don't care will be let me start over again. I fucked up. Aliens land. Aliens land and vampires don't care won't be heard tonight, so we may bring you the following funeral dirge. Because, you know, if the aliens land it in the world of the only vampires don't care or only vampires left alive or only lovers left alive. Only lovers left whatever the title was, I don't think they would care too much about the aliens. You know, they'd probably would have already seen them before or know about them, and it wouldn't be as big a deal. Or they're like, finally, it's fucking happened. But it would be interesting to see those two worlds mash to each other. I kept calling it Leave Lovers Alive. I don't know, I don't know why, but I kept calling it Leave Loves Alice. It's a tongue twister. But we're back. It's episode 118. Can you believe it? It was 18 episodes ago that our guest was last with us for the hundredth episode Christmas Spectacular. And now she's back.

Clif 1:17
Quickly becoming a fan favorite and an epit and a show favorite. So Jessica Stone. Hi, Jessica.

Jessica 1:24
Hello. I'm so excited to be back. This is cool. This is gonna be a great one, too. Two great movies.

Marty 1:32
Bisquick, Triscuit. How about a biscuit? We brought Biscuit back.

Clif 1:42
And a couple of uh interesting films this week. Um one by uh God, I'm gonna try and say his name the French way. Denis Villeneuve.

Jessica 1:52
Villeneuve.

Clif 1:55
And then we've got and then we've got a Jarmouche uh film. We had him on for Ghost Dog, and now he's back with uh Only Lovers Left Alive. Not Leave Lovers Alive, right? Only Lovers Left Alive.

Marty 2:08
Only Lovers Left Alive.

SPEAKER_02 2:11
Alive Alive.

Marty 2:12
A movie that just left Tubi on March 31st, and I tried to watch it on April 1st, so it was a little tricky to get a copy. We did manage to find the film before the pod, though. It was a last-minute struggle, yes.

Clif 2:26
Yeah.

Marty 2:27
Uh I'm I'm Marty, and we got Cliff again. We're we're back in our normal location after last time with the crazy shuffle we did where we watched two random movies and that had mixed results, but I still think the episode was funny.

Clif 2:44
Jessica, that was wild. So we had we pulled up uh the library and of 4,500 so movies and just did shuffle. And you Marty got three vetoes, so I hit shuffle. First one he vetoed it, second one he vetoed, or first one he he was like, Oh, I think it was the first one that came up. He was like, That's the one we're doing, but let me see the other two just to see. And it was and it was Cobra of all things with fucking Sylvester Stallone. And then we watched and then we watched it and immediately did a sh did a part of an episode about it, and then he did the same thing three three uh choices, and I did a movie called The Voices with Ryan Reynolds, who plays a psychotic killer who hears voices his pets. Oh, I love that movie! It was an interesting film.

Jessica 3:31
It was it was like I totally did not expect that movie to go where it went, and I was like horrified and also laughing my ass off. It was just like this is so wrong, very dark, but so funny. Oh my god, it was the cat cracked me up the most. The cat and the dog. Oh, yeah, that was great.

Clif 3:53
Yeah, so we did those, and and that was uh that was a wild episode. But anyway, so now we're back to our regular format. Yeah.

Marty 3:59
So we got listener mail again, which we haven't seen for a few weeks. It ties in a little bit because we uh we have watched so many movies about vampires, we can make a playlist at this point of all the vampire movies we've covered. It's about six or seven. So we'll go back to one of the previous ones we covered, Sinners. We got a little mail on that. Uh Shane writes in and says, We just watched that last night, great story. So he was a fan of it. But the bigger letter was from Jim over at Bravo for the B side. Oh. And he writes in and says, Still making my way through the Sinners running time episode. But he just got to the comment about Westerns and science fiction being almost the same, which was Cliff's word, and he said at some point I think this would make for a fantastic conversation. Uh because, you know, sci-fi is the fantastical, unless a Western is history-based, everything that makes the hero and story is also fantastical.

Jessica 4:58
And uh Cowboys and Aliens.

Marty 5:00
Cowboys and Aliens Cowboys and Aliens, but also bringing more sci-fi and Westerns to the show. And I think we brought some more sci-fi to the show today. Good. Yeah, that's true. Or a little bit of fantasy in there too, I'd say, for one of the films.

Clif 5:18
Uh Roddenberry always described um he pitched Star Trek as wagon train to the stars. That's how he pitched it. He pitched it as it's it's just a it's a it's a western in space. It's just you know, it's a wagon chain going somewhere in space. And so it's and to me, they've always been I'm not saying that they're interchangeable, but they have a lot of the same beats.

Jessica 5:42
Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that. But Sinners, I just saw that recently, too. That was it. That's probably my second favorite vampire.

Clif 5:52
It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I mean it was a lot of fun.

Jessica 5:55
Yeah, I can't wait to hear your podcast about it.

Clif 5:59
I I really, really enjoyed it. I I I thought it was fucking wildly creative and a lot of fun. And and I had a few problems with it. Um, you know, I had a few problems with it here and there, but uh for the most part, I you know, I like to joke that you know um Haley Steinfeld took the role just so she could say that one line in the movie where you're just like, oh my goodness, gasped, young lady. Um but I overall I thought, you know, good film. It just, you know, a few things here and there that it could have done better.

SPEAKER_01 6:27
Yeah, yeah.

Marty 6:29
What else you got, Marty? Uh that's the listener mail for today, but I do think it's interesting that we just keep hitting vampire movies over and over again.

Jessica 6:41
I gave you three options and you chose that one.

Marty 6:43
I I think it is it's thematic, and I'm glad we did it because I don't want to, you know, show my cards too soon, but wow. So today's movies were Arrival and uh Only Lovers Left Alive. I have to look over to see the new space.

Clif 6:59
I I did too. I did too. What do you want to which one do you want to jump into first?

Jessica 7:06
I kind of want to save only lovers for last.

Clif 7:09
Thank you. I'm I'm I'm okay with that. Yeah, I'd take a rival. Um, I'll take arrival.

Marty 7:14
Okay, so arrival, uh Charlie Sheen. Uh no, no, we did not do the arrival. That's weird because that's about UFO aliens.

Clif 7:23
Isn't that isn't that the arrival? The arrival. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica 7:28
I cleared I asked I asked, uh uh messaged Marty and I was like, which arrival are you talking about? I just want to make sure I watched the right movie.

Marty 7:37
It's a good call. And so it's I guess the one of the many things these two movies have in common is uh why hide it? What is arrival from 2016?

Clif 7:52
Arrival 2016, PG-13, one hour 56 minutes. Here is your log line. Uh linguist Louise Banks leads a team of investigators when giant spaceships touch down around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Uh this is directed by Dillis Villaniur. Uh writers Eric Heiser, Ted Chang, stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner Forest. Forrest Whitaker. Um, let me get you a story line. Oh, yeah, he was in the Jar Moosh movie last time. He sure was.

SPEAKER_02 8:26
Yes, he was.

Clif 8:27
Uh Linguist Professor Louise Banks leads an elite team of investigators when giant spaceships touch down in twelve locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors, hoping to unravel the mystery she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.

Marty 8:49
Yep. There you go. Like I said, why hide it? You know, what would the what would the harm be in being transparent with everybody on the planet? You know, hey, this is what we're up to. We're trying to talk to them. Everybody, we know you're gonna lose your shit anyways, because you're already losing your shit. So let's just show you what we're doing. But that's my common sense of it all, you know. That's not what this movie's about. Uh well, that's not how governments work. It's an interesting film, to say the very least. Uh it's very bizarre in its setup because we see that, oh, she's she's had some horrible tragedy in her life. It looks like she's lost her kid from a horrible disease in the beginning. And then we're about 10 minutes in, and suddenly she's a translator. We haven't told you anything about it before. And I'm thinking, did I miss something in my half hour into the movie already? No. Later on, you discover a reason for the strange setup of it.

Clif 9:43
It reminds me of the first 10 minutes of UP, the Disney movie, the Pixar movie. Oh, that was so. Yeah, exactly. Or I'm just like, why in the fuck are you trying to kill me, Disney? I'm trying to watch a fucking kids movie and you're trying to kill me here. This old man and this old woman who couldn't have fucking kids. What the fuck are you talking? You know, pardon my language, but holy crap, Disney.

SPEAKER_01 10:04
Like, you know, I was in tears at that. I'm like, why is what is this movie about? I was terrified.

Clif 10:13
Because Disney has been scarring children for life for a very long time. That's what they do. That's what Pixar does, right? Especially Pixar movies, right? We only have to dig into those, you know. Just that that first 10 minutes of Up, it really reminded me of that, you know, where you're right, right in the beginning, you're like, man, this is this is uh and and truly I do think that the the theme, the overall theme of the movie is about grief and loss. Oh, yeah. I feel like it's almost a 9-11 parable. It's you know it's it's very cathartic. It's a very cathartic movie, um, where or at least you're watching somebody go through a catharsis of trying to deal with what turns out to be uh, you know, spoiler alert, a future loss, not a previous loss, but a which is the craziest part of the movie to me is the concept that knowing that you're gonna have a kid and knowing that the kid is gonna die of a rare disease and knowing that you're gonna fall in love with the student, all this type of shit. Uh I don't know, it's like the last 20 minutes of La La Land. You know what I mean? I really fucking enjoyed this movie.

Jessica 11:14
Yeah, you know, so my notes about the opening was the um the opening scenes feel very isolating. Like Louise is always at a distance from everyone. You don't, and you only really see her face at the beginning. You see like the students are far back, and nobody they're they don't really focus in on any of the students, and she's walking through a crowd and she's just like in her own little silo of space. She's by herself, she seems to be like a complete loner. And and there's also they show her in silhouette a lot, like when she goes into her home and it's just you know, yeah, sparse.

Clif 11:51
Almost like memories or something, right? Like like I don't know.

Jessica 11:55
Yeah, well, yeah, it's just um it's really interesting. It really gave me this sense of the isolation that I experienced under during COVID, and like just the space that you know, you get used to it, but then you you and you adapt, but then when you're around people again, it's like, oh my god, I've missed being around people. You know, you just there's uh but it just felt so remote and and also like the whole setting. You know, Villeneuve is so good at creating that sense of space, uh, you know, the immersion, like in Dune, there was just you know, the massive this the desert.

Clif 12:34
This use of space in these simple visualizations are masterful. It had a feeling of 2001 only with a better pace. Like from I like 2001, I think it's a great movie, but my biggest complaint about it is that it's it's fucking slow. It's like it's like moving through mud. Like that movie takes a while to get going, and then even once it gets going, it's still very slow to give you what it's giving. And this does the but this feels a lot like 2001, the use of space, the masterful framing, but the pace is much better, and you're getting a much more emotional, a story of much more emotional content than 2001. 2001 is almost emotionless in a weird way.

Jessica 13:14
Yeah. For me, it reminded me of um of Blade Runner 2049, which is also a build note, because of the same, like it was such a stark contrast. The first Blade Runner was just lush, full of like human stuff everywhere. And then 2049, it was just lots of ri of barren landscapes and fog, and this one really kind of carries that fog and sp and vast open spaces. So for me, that kind of um it felt like it set the tone of isolation across the com the countries too. I mean, the 12 countries that are not communicating with each other, or they're they start off sort of communicating and collaborating, but it's it's still like it's an isolationist approach. And it's an interesting evolution that the film takes to the end where there's collaboration and closeness, and I don't know, it's just really an interesting journey from that perspective for me.

Clif 14:14
I like this, I liked the sound design quite a bit.

Jessica 14:17
Yeah.

Clif 14:17
I think I think it really works in the movie's favor and provides that big spacious. They were real smart about using those giant kind of jarring trumpet sounds for the aliens, that you know, that kind of a noise, you know, uh, which I think at this point is probably overused, but it is overused now.

Jessica 14:37
I was thinking that when I watched it, because I was like, oh, that all they've used it so much that now when I watch it in the first place that it was used, I think. But this is 10 years ago.

Clif 14:47
Yeah, this is this is 10 years ago. Yeah, it's like fuck, this is 10 years ago, and damn it. Okay. It's like uh watching all the found footage films, right? Where you're just like, oh, after a while. But you know, you go back to the original ones and maybe they're still okay. Marty, what about you?

Marty 15:04
I don't like this movie, guys.

SPEAKER_02 15:07
I don't like it.

Marty 15:08
I don't hate it, but I don't really care for it. I've discovered that through the show I don't really care for this director that much. I have a lot of the same issues that with Sicario and what was the other one we watched his? Or was there another one?

Clif 15:23
Because I've seen Sicario is the only one I think we've Yeah, I think Sicario is the only one that we saw. Dune probably the other one that you've got.

Marty 15:30
I mean, it's not like there isn't an interesting kernel of something in here, but much like an M-Night Shyamalan movie, it's like it only has the one kernel that's interesting, and so you get this long spread out everything else to get to it. Like 22 minutes in, nothing's really happened except they've arrived. And then Hawkeye shows up and he's pulling a little Westy Crusher shit, you know. Hey, I mean, you thought of this and that. And I'm like, well, he is the expert, maybe he does know a little bit more, that's why they pulled him in. I did like the uh language stuff. I thought that was the probably the most interesting thing of it. But the whole device of the it's the past is the future made sense to me going into the end of the movie, but then it's like the movie was trying to say the beginning was her memories of the future as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:25
Yeah.

Marty 16:26
Because that's the kid that's gonna die, right? Yeah, that's the kid. She didn't tell another kid earlier that already died. No, it's this is the kid that's a little bit more. No, it's a foreshadowing tool. Yeah, it's a foreshadowing tool. Does she already it is this her looking back at the entire experience, or is this the experience happening linear? Because if it's happening one way, then I'm like I don't like the beginning of it.

Clif 16:46
Because I feel like if you're trying to once you once you learn the language, it's no longer linear.

Marty 16:51
That's why the story's kind of out of order in that way, right?

Jessica 16:54
Yeah, I had to watch this movie twice.

Marty 16:58
I mean, and it's one of his first movies, too. So that's a hell of a swing for somebody who's only made like what one or two movies at that point.

SPEAKER_01 17:05
Yeah.

Clif 17:06
So prisoners and uh prisoners and something else, I think. Um I I like I like it. I like its aesthetic. Um I think it's I think it's a pretty film to look at and watch. And uh Vil Villain, Villain, the director is I I get it. Like he's to me, he's a very polarizing director. You either like that pacing, that style, and what he's doing with it, because I always say that like his films are like watching things happen, because all of his exposition, a lot of it happens in the action. There's a lot of exposition that happens in action, and you have to kind of infer story from it. And you and you it's also also he's also got an almost like a it's almost like a I don't know, like a dead tone to his films where I'm watching the film, but at the same time, is anything happening? And but yes, things are happening. It's a it's a really strange way that he makes his films, and it's very kind of almost eerie and kind of cool, and I really think it's cool. But if you don't like that, you're gonna fucking hate his films. Like I get it. He's in that way, I think he's a very polarizing filmmaker.

Jessica 18:06
I find him very his his film's immersive. Um Sicario less so, like I just that was just a hard movie for me to watch because the subject matter is, you know, it's it's just a hard thing. It's violent and stuff. But the um but I really I think where he works for me.

Clif 18:25
I think it's great, yeah.

Jessica 18:26
Yeah, where he works for me, though, is the way that he creates he immerses you in the environment that you're in. It's it's like you're there, you're present. The the sound and the the scenes, everything around you, and he simplifies things. Like he's it's almost like he's a minimalist in a way.

Clif 18:42
Oh god, that's exactly what my notes say. Basic, basic yet advanced.

Jessica 18:46
Yeah, exactly. It's like he he he it's like it accentuates your attention to the things that he wants you to pay attention to because he gets rid of anything extraneous.

SPEAKER_01 18:57
Yeah.

Jessica 18:58
And um, and I felt like uh I I I watched, I'm glad I watched it twice because the first time I missed things. I thought that I thought that he she had two daughters. I thought she had a daughter and she died, and then she had another daughter with with uh Hawkeye and Jeremy Ritter. But um, but watching it this time, I was like, oh, I see now. This is and I could see how she was she starts the film when she starts narrating and she's writing this like a letter to her pat and the the kid, but in the future, is she writing to her daughter in the future?

Clif 19:32
It seems like I I think it's all because of the fact that she's learned this language, as you learn later, it's not it's not start and end anymore. It's it's all a circle, it's all linear, it's all the same thing. So it's it's you know, she's telling the story to her daughter, but she's and writing the letter, but she's also writing it to her and for her and in the future and in the past at the same time. I I I I love that concept of the film. I thought it was really cool idea.

Jessica 19:59
Well, what was interesting to me was that she didn't seem to remember the future until something happened.

Marty 20:07
It's like she or she has to learn the language first, which is like why are you already having the memories of the power of the children? I think that's the trigger for sure.

Clif 20:18
Yeah, yeah.

Jessica 20:18
The trigger in the present will trigger a memory from the future, or vice versa. An event in the future triggers a memory in the past. It was really fascinating, the idea of nonlinear thinking like that, you know, or time being uh well, it's okay, true detective, time is a flat circle. Or, you know, like I love that that concept of looking at it from a different perspective. What does it what does it look like? And um I mean it's confusing, and it was like I I I have a feeling a lot of people, if they didn't like this movie, maybe it was because it was just a little too complicated to pay attention to and to think about.

Clif 20:59
I'm I'm also willing to bet that most people said it was boring. Yeah, they're like, this is it's boring, nothing happens. And it's like, no, there's a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01 21:06
There's so much going on, yeah.

Clif 21:08
There's a little there's a fucking shitload of emotional content to it.

SPEAKER_01 21:11
Yeah. I thought I loved that.

Marty 21:15
I also thought that its structure was a little clunky. Like I said, the like when she shouldn't be having the memories of the future before she learns the language, but the movie's presenting it to us because it wants to have it both ways. And so that's what aggravated me about it.

Jessica 21:28
Well, I think her contact with the aliens also affects her.

Marty 21:32
Like I'm like, I noticed that I mean it's not even special from the aliens that other people don't I think she does.

Jessica 21:41
I think that first of all, the vibrations. One of the things when the when the aliens speak, they vibrate, and that vibratory that can affect you on like I think there's some subverbal communication going on, and it was interesting that the things that they said had absolutely no correlation to the ink that they splashed. So the things that the circles of communication, the writing, the logograms or whatever they were called was a completely different thing. But the vibrations seemed to trigger her flashbacks. Like that's one of the things I actually noted is that every there was a vibration and it triggered, it would trigger the mint something would immediately trigger her her flashback or flash forwards or whatever.

Marty 22:21
Because see, my big question with the movie was, you know, once you learn the different language, it rewires your brain, right? So I figured, well, once everybody learns this language of the aliens, are they seeing the future in the past as well? Or is it just her because she had a different thing?

Jessica 22:37
That's the intention. Yeah, in 3,000 years.

Marty 22:40
Why is she singled out as seemingly be the only person that has the foreword?

Jessica 22:45
Well, because of her language knowledge, I think.

Marty 22:47
Because she already knows something a little different going on with her, right? I almost says it without saying it.

Jessica 22:56
Well, she knows so many languages in the I mean, like when she says, Oh, you're gonna go to Danvers, well, ask him what what war means in Sanskrit. Sanskrit. And and so she understands a subtlety of language that I guess most linguists, even linguists, may not know, or whatever. She's special in that regard. And I think that that, and if I I don't know, I mean it's just interesting. Like she was she was the one, she was the right one in the right place at the right time.

Marty 23:27
Axel Foley, right? She's the rogue cop. You're not playing by the rules. No, we have to do this, you know. So I thought it was kind of like that, but space version, you know.

Jessica 23:35
Yeah. I I really enjoyed it. I actually liked it more the second time around because I understood it more and I was able to appreciate knowing how it ended, helped me to pay attention to what was going on.

Marty 23:56
But if I watched it again, like you're saying, I'd probably pick up more things in that first part and might even go, oh, I missed that. And then I would appreciate the movie more.

Jessica 24:05
Yeah. One thing that I really enjoyed that I specifically wrote notes about was when they first go into the tunnel up to talk to the to meet the aliens, the physics of the tunnel was so interesting. And and the camera movement of the as the crew gain their uh their footing and process what's happening is like the camera itself does this weird focusy thing that's very disorienting. It's like it's moving around them and back and forth, and there's this weird visual flux that's happening that kind of helps you to understand a little bit what the people are feeling as they step into this weird transition in physics and gravity. Uh, I thought that was just really well done. I think that was one of my favorite scenes and like how they conveyed that sensation.

Marty 24:57
All the stuff I've really enjoyed. Yeah, it was the tropey stuff around it with the you know, movie, you're way too smart for this, you've run out of time type nonsense. Well, but we're right there, we're almost figuring out. Sorry, we got to shut it all down. I'm like, movie, come on, you're you're more intelligent for those tropes. But I I liked all the stuff inside of that. You know, that was the stuff that was most interesting. And also, like you guys were talking about the noise. Why does it have to be so and the aliens always got to be some grotesque thing? But I think it's because they want you to not know if you should trust the aliens for a while, right? Are they a threat? Are they not? Because if they come out and they're just all happy, then you're not gonna think they're a threat, right? So you kind of have to make them a little creepy, right?

Clif 25:41
I didn't find them, I don't know, I didn't find them gross, maybe a little creepy, but I didn't find them gross. If I felt like they were more like um just like, you know, oh, okay, so this is a uh race that has evolved from some sort of octopod or right, exactly. But uh I loved the idea that the theory that the language you speak determines how you think and you see things. She talks about that in the film, and I thought that was really cool.

Jessica 26:04
I've wondered that before. When I like when I was studying Japanese, I was really curious about how cognition, whether the language does change your how you perceive things, at least a little bit. I mean, um, and yeah, I thought that was really um an interesting premise.

Clif 26:27
It's it's it's it has a couple flaws. It's it's a little weird that all the countries stop talking to each other in one scene and then suddenly they're friendly very quickly later. It seems kind of a hand wave. Um, you can obviously tell that the fucking patriot dickhead is gonna do something like put a bomb in there because he's an you know, you you can see that from a mile away. But I think you're supposed to. You know, the movie's gonna try to hide it from you. Um but you know, I I like the film. I like it's it's strange, it's a strange movie. I like how I like that it takes its time and kind of slowly unfolds into where it is. I like it's sort of I like that it's ambiguous in the beginning and the end where you go, is that you know, and it's almost like the album metal. You put the album metal on, right, as a CD instead of not the actual LP. But if you just put the album metal on and put it on repeat, you you kind of have a hard time telling when it begins or ends because the arena and the album and the the uh be at the end of the album, yeah, are the same, right? Or sound a little bit the same. So when it loops, you you have a hard time going, is that is that echoes or is that oh I can't okay. But anyways, I feel like that's how kind of how this film is supposed to kind of loop in and on itself and and do that.

Jessica 27:40
Yeah, and I one thing that I noticed is that as the story progresses, the camera gets closer to her face. And the and of course the face is by the end, it's like really, really up there. It's in their personal space, you know, her and and and Hawkeye, and just the you know, the connection, and everyone else is blur, and again, everyone else kind of is blurring around. I felt like the only two characters who mattered were the two scientists, and everyone else was just like I I don't remember their faces much. Oh I'm the the the Chinese general. I remember the Chinese general because he comes into her personal space and you know and in this future scene where she um Whitaker Whitaker had a weird accent going on in the movie.

Clif 28:24
Oh, yeah, that threw me right in the movie. I had to rewind that what the fuck is that? That's an interesting acting choice. Okay, why not?

Jessica 28:31
Yeah, yeah, I liked him too. Yeah, he was pretty good, but he kind of he kind of stepped into the background after a while.

Clif 28:37
Like he was there definitely supporting, yeah.

Jessica 28:40
Yeah, but um it was just really it was an interesting process, but it's kind of like the abyss a little bit too, right? But oh, I haven't seen that in so long.

Clif 28:52
I don't remember space, but I I do think that the fact that she's teaching to groups of kids or to students is kind of crazy, and I do think it that's exactly what the pot the heptopods came there to do was to teach language, which gives them of course, you know, 3,000 years from now, it will be it'll just be the language that everybody speaks, it'll be the thing that everybody writes, it'll be the way that everybody thinks. Then people won't think linearly.

Jessica 29:16
Well, I don't know how they're gonna speak it, they're gonna have to write it because because they don't and unless humans figure out how to squirt ink. You know, oh that's no telling, maybe it will evolve.

Clif 29:31
There's no telling.

Jessica 29:32
I one of my favorite scenes right before they get blown out of the ship was when um I guess it was Abbott or Costello, one of them steps forward and she and squirts the ink onto the screen, and then he she can't use both of her hands to form it, so he uses his tentacle pod and she and to help her complete the and I just love that scene so much. That was a really good scene. And then when and then I guess it must have been Costello because Abbott was the one that got blown up when he protected and like shot her out of the thing. And I was sad, I actually got teary.

Marty 30:10
Yeah, it makes me emotional over these things.

Jessica 30:12
Yeah, when Costello was like, Abbott is death process, and I'm like, oh no, he's dying.

Clif 30:20
So but I guess learning this language in a way means if time isn't linear, right? If the concept of time is not linear, and you can sort of then that means you can sort of be in any time that you want at any time.

Jessica 30:34
That would be nice.

Clif 30:35
Which means that she can be in any time with her kid, this kid that dies.

Jessica 30:39
Yeah.

Clif 30:40
You know, she's and and can kind of live with her for the long. It's I don't know, it's it's a weird concept, this idea that even when this person has passed, that you can still go back and be with them in a certain way until you pass. That's a fascinating kind of concept that you can live in this, that it's not linear, that you can go back forward.

Marty 30:57
She has this air in time kind of Christopher Reeve time travel mind power. Yes, yeah.

Jessica 31:03
When she when she hugs Jeremy Renner for the first time and she says, I forgot how come how wonderful it is to hug you. I just love you know, it's like, can you imagine that?

Clif 31:13
That's what I mean. That's exactly what I mean, where she's even at that point you realize she's not really there, like she's still drift, she's drifting in and out of the time, the time, you know, time times or whatever you want to call it. But it anyway, I I love this movie. I forgot how fucking sad it is. To me, this is a this is definitely a movie about processing grief and about processing loss. And it's a truly it's a sad movie, but it's also a very cathartic movie, a good movie. If you were a sad person who has lost someone, you might put this one on. This one might do something for you.

Jessica 31:45
Well, I like the it, you know, the way that she she asks, you know, she's like, Well, if you knew all of the things that were gonna happen, would you still live your life the same way? And she chooses, yes. She's you know, she decided to happen that way if you don't know. Because right. And and like uh Jeremy Renner's character well can't take that. He's like, No, you know, I can't believe that you chose to have a child, knowing that that child would leave, because the love that you have is gonna be ripped out of your life, and you know, and it's like, well, that's every real you know, all relationships end. Whether one person, whether you both die, one of you dies, one of you leaves, whatever. All ever there's an ending to everything.

Marty 32:29
And I think that that's something you just have to embrace as part of the So the Aliens were the children's we made along the way, is what you're saying? Because they always do them. We're like, hey, where'd you go? We're just getting used to you. We weren't to hang out.

Jessica 32:42
Well, we'll see you in 3,000 years, apparently. Um but I thought it was also interesting how they just dis just turned into mist at the end and left. And it was just like I wondered one of my last things was how did they like the mist that surrounded them that they turned into, it um seems like they had some power over matter transference, or it didn't seem like it was teleportation, but maybe maybe it was.

Clif 33:10
That's what I like about the movie is that it's not it's not it's gonna explain that shit to you.

SPEAKER_01 33:14
Yeah, it just it's open-ended.

Clif 33:16
You're getting exposition in in action and not in dialogue, you know, having to list to some nerd go, I've got the power over matter, and they could transfer blah blah blah back and forth, you know, and and you know, you don't have to sit there and listen to exposition, which I really like. I think yeah for a sci-fi movie, this movie has very little explanation about the technology, about what they're doing.

Jessica 33:35
No, they don't care about that.

Clif 33:36
It's secondary. Yeah, how the ship, how did it get here? You know, we're not interested in that. For some reason, the first thing we're interested in is crawling inside of this thing and talking to the aliens. You know, we don't ask them about their technology. It's anyway, it's weird.

Marty 33:48
There's been a bunch of- I'm sure we're eventually getting to that. There's been a bunch of other movies we brought on the show that ask a lot of questions without answers in a similar way, and you hate it, those. But this one does what I feel is the same thing, but you like this one. What's the difference for you?

Clif 34:03
I think the emotional content's the difference.

Marty 34:05
It's hitting.

Clif 34:06
Yeah, I think I I really think that's well, I just think it's the same thing with Blade Runner. There's an um a level of emotional content to Blade Runner that is lacking in a lot of science fiction films, right? A lot of science fiction films are just about enjoying the tech and the and the space and the don't too abstract, give you something to grab onto. Yeah, but this this fucking thing is like punching you in the face right in the beginning. Again, first 10 minutes, it's like the first 10 minutes up where you're just like, God damn, movie, what are you trying to do to me for? Right? And then and then it begins to tell you why it's okay. Why it's like, look, here's why I did that to you. Here's here's why, because in the end, you know, we've learned that time isn't like isn't going to ever be for these people like it is for you and I. We're not, you know, we can we can shift backwards and forwards in it, we can live in these moments and see these people that we've lost and so on. It's fucking fascinating, man. It's really cool.

Jessica 34:54
Yeah, and I thought it was a beautiful film.

Marty 34:57
Yeah, another thing that didn't work for me towards the end was uh once she gets the power and has discovered that she can go through time in her mind, it's kind of like, well, there's nothing left at stake because we already know that she's going to be able to tell the guy. It's like Bill and Ted logic saves the day. Well, we're time travelers, so let's go back in time, put a bucket here. So when we come back to this moment in time, the bucket will fall at the exact moment, and she did that and it worked. I'm like, hey, that's some good time travel logic, but thank you, Joel S. Preston and Ted Esquire.

Jessica 35:27
Yeah, it is weird that it didn't work in you know, that it worked in this film.

Marty 35:31
And I guess it's just the way that it's somewhere in time kind of mind way. Yeah.

Jessica 35:36
Well, it's because again, I think it's because of the the tangential linking, like the like some triggering thing happens that triggers the memory, the future memory, it's the past memory. I don't know. There's like a little sync in in in sync.

Marty 35:50
That's why she didn't get it all at once, right? Like then he has to spoil her no, this is what she said.

Jessica 35:55
And then when that's it, spoiler spoiler from the mill from the next film, spooky action at a distance.

Marty 36:04
It's funny how the thing is.

Jessica 36:06
And the link in this film is that the spooky action is through time instead of at a distance. I that's a great connection.

Marty 36:16
Non-zero sum game, yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:18
Yes.

Clif 36:22
Um, what do you give it, Jessica?

Jessica 36:25
Oh I think I'm gonna give it four stars. I've been thinking about it and I've watched it twice, and I still love it, and and I think I actually liked it better this time. There are some things that are like uh it's a little that's a little out there, but overall, it just it left me immersed after the film, and I felt like I mean it just put me in a different mind space where I was thinking about things, you know, in a more subtle but emotional. I don't know. I just loved I loved the way it made me feel. I had great, I don't remember my dreams, but I remember waking up and thinking, wow, that was really cool. Having like a the next night, you know, that night. Um so yeah, it just put did something to my brain. I loved it. So four I give it four stars.

Clif 37:12
Yeah, I'm I think I'm right there with you. I've I've vacillated back and forth between three and a half and four. And um, I think it does just enough to push it into the four. But uh again, there are a few problems with it here and there that I think overall, uh just a few tiny things where I'm like, eh, not good enough to really make it like a classic masterpiece of all time. But um and I agree with you. I got more out of it the second time, but this is the third time I've seen it. So I I got more out of it now. Each each viewing is kind of even more, even richer, I think. Yeah, you don't lose anything. Marty, you mentioned an M Night Shamelon movie. The thing I don't like about Shamalamba Ding Dong movies is once you watch his movie, you see there's there's no rewatchability factor. The big twist is there, you know what it is. I will I'll take that back with maybe Split, um, which was just James McAvoy. Oh, that was a great person. Yeah, but for the most part, when you watch a Shamlon Ding Dong movie, the rewatchability is terrible because you know the twist, and once the twist is there, the build-up sucks, right? You don't want to watch the buildup again. This, I know the twist, I know what's gonna happen, I know the payoff, and I still sit there and watch it and go, yeah, it's fucking I, you know, it's a great movie. It's you know, just really well made and good. What about you, Marty?

Marty 38:25
Uh, two aggravated me. I don't think I would want to watch it again, but if I did, I probably would get more out of it. But it just it's just not for me. I think I think you nailed it. I think this director's just not your cup of tea.

Clif 38:37
I just don't think it's your aesthetic.

Marty 38:39
Now, on the other hand, this other movie. Now, once again, why hide it? What is Only Lovers Left Alive?

Clif 38:50
Only Lovers Left Alive. Uh, 2013, rated R, two hours and three minutes. Here's your log line: a depressed musician reunites with his lover. However, the romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister.

SPEAKER_02 39:05
Love you.

Clif 39:06
Directed and written by Jim Jarmuse, and uh stars Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, and Mio Wasakowska. Is that how you say it? And Anton Yelchin and John Hurt. Storyline. Set against the romantic desolation of Detroit and Tangiers, an underground musician deeply depressed by the direction of human activities, reunites with his resilient and enigmatic lover. Their love story has already endured several centuries at least, but their debauched idol is soon disrupted by her wild and uncontrollable younger sister. Can these wise but fragile outsiders continue to survive as the modern world collapses around them?

Marty 39:43
You know, we watched another Chimjar Moosh movie a couple of seasons ago, Ghost Dog, and we I watched that one on the full moon as well, and then watched this one on the full moon, and I thought to myself, well, I was watching that Ghost Dog movie on a full moon, and then they cut to the shot, look, it's a full moon. And I can call it the movie uh Goosebumps. It was like, oh shit, got some riffback on that. But yeah, only Lovers Left Alive. Where did this fall through the cracks? I mean, what I'm also discovering is.

Jessica 40:13
No, how is it that I'm only just seeing this film?

Marty 40:16
Yeah, I really like Jarmouche. He's somebody that I've slept on over the years, and now that we've gone into some of his stuff. I mean, I've been seeing some of his stuff on and off, but now when I think back, I realize he's almost like a musician. You know, the spaces of blank are just as important in his movies as when something's going on.

Clif 40:38
And it's like it's weird that you say that in the crazy. I feel the same way about Denis, and it's I feel like I feel like Denis and Jamar Jarmouche are so closely related in that infusion and uh it's fascinating to reason.

Marty 40:53
One is telling you about what acid's like, and the other one is acid.

Jessica 40:59
I loved, I mean, I love both of these directors. I think they're both two of my new recently favorite directors, and it's like they're very similar or they do similar things, and yet they do it from opposite directions.

Marty 41:12
It's a trip.

Jessica 41:13
Like Jarmoosh puts Jarmoosh's characters are in their surroundings. I love the way that he helps you to understand his characters by the set around them. Like, you know, in this film, the the musician surrounds, you know, just the all like, okay, four or five hundred years worth of stuff that this guy's collected. Actually, probably not even that long.

Marty 41:38
Oh, yeah, because people are around and you know.

Jessica 41:41
Yeah, and it and this house didn't exist that long. It was probably what 150 years or you know, built in 18 Victorian thing. But all of the things that he collected, um, and all of her books, and you can just see, and her light and his dark, you know, they are they are the belongings definitely tell a lot about them, right? Yeah. And like her bra her bracelet has a black skull and his necklace has a white skull, and it's like yin-yang. That they have like this this connection, and it's like the you know, I just I just loved the the duality of the two of them. I okay, I fell in love with this couple. The first time I watched this film, I about halfway through, I was like, if anything happens to these two, if anything bad happens, I am gonna be so mad because I just loved existing in their world with them. Like it was just lush and beautiful, and they they adore each other, but they give each other space and they just it's oh, I love that. I loved it so much.

Marty 42:41
Yeah, I was referring to it as with null and vampire because it was giving me the with nil and eye vibes a little bit, but like, what if they were vampires? But also the train spotting thing a little bit because they're kind of like junkies, but they're vampires, right? Like they do the shot of blood and then they fall backwards. Yeah, they're definitely junkies. So it's like, oh, it's all about you know, heroin junkies and a lot of but yeah, I I really I really got a kick out of this one. I didn't know what to expect. I also think it's a little too long, just like the other movie I think today were a little too long, but I still I still appreciate it. It felt like a double album, you know.

SPEAKER_02 43:23
Yeah.

Marty 43:23
Like, well, maybe some of the songs are like that was okay, but then it leads you to the next, which pulls you back up, and then and and we don't even get to the plot till an hour in. It's just you're just kind of voting in it.

SPEAKER_01 43:34
Yeah.

Marty 43:35
And see, it sounds like like Cliff said all the things I shouldn't like about it, but for some reason, I don't know.

Jessica 43:41
They he loves his his traveling. He loves riding around in cars with his characters. Like that's one of the things that I think is constant in the films that I've seen of his is and I loved I mean, I really love his movies. I didn't know. I knew. If I had been when I was younger, I would not have loved them. In fact, I remember seeing I saw the Johnny Depp one. Was it Dead Man?

SPEAKER_02 44:06
Yeah, Dead Man.

Jessica 44:07
I saw I I don't remember anything about it. I just remember not liking it. But when I was younger. Well, but I also think uh my perspective on movies is different now.

Clif 44:22
I mean true too.

Jessica 44:24
I really enjoy I've some of my favorite films of the past couple of years, several years are very immersive and very slow-paced. You know, the like um uh The End of the World Until the End of the World, the five-hour movie. I loved it. Except there were a couple scenes where like, oh please, you could have cut this whole section out. This was so just too much. But I just adored it. And I I love existing with these characters. It and I think Jarmouche is really good at building characters that you're really intrigued about. Like you just he doesn't give you explicit details unless he lets you notice their surroundings and he just lets the them unfold in their existence.

Marty 45:07
And I just think it just seems very natural. It's like Yeah, very naturalistic. Like he's uh the non-pretentious David Lynch. I mean, I love David Lynch. Sometimes he'd go so far that it'd become obtuse, but here it's kind of like he just Jarmouche just has this natural flow with the actors and the chemistry and the and the shots and the use of the music, and the whole thing just flows like like a visual album, kind of like when we were watching Purple Rain a few weeks ago. It's it reminds me like that, where I'm just like I shouldn't like a lot of this, but the way it's put together, I'm totally digging it.

Jessica 45:42
Yeah. I loved also how Detroit became kind of a character in the film. Oh, yeah. Just I mean, I ended up Google a whole bunch of pictures of Detroit from around that era, and I could find, I could see the places that he shot at in his films, and they looked just like that. And maybe a little junkier, they probably put a little bit more debris around, but there was already a lot of debris at that time and a lot of broken down stuff. And it's so interesting to see everything at night, and you know, these long shots of just desolate places, but they were beautiful because of the camera work, the the glow of the distant lights and things like that. It just the lighting in that in the film was just wonderful. I really felt like it really captured the the characters and the moods really well.

Marty 46:32
I also like the whole history of it. You know, I wish I had met him before I wrote Hamlet, you know, little things like that. And you see the wall of all the famous people that they admire. I kind of looked that up. There was like a list of like 52 different people on that wall, all sorts of varied. I had to go for pause and I'm like, oh, look, it's Hank Williams and all these various.

Jessica 46:52
I looked it up too. Joe Strummer is one of the pictures in there.

Marty 46:55
Yeah, because uh was putting a lot of his people in there too. That's why Riza's on there and Iggy Pop.

Jessica 47:02
Yeah, it was a that was pretty neat. I kind of went down a rabbit hole of like, tell me more about this film. I want to see more of the articles of at the house that it was that was Adam's house, is uh it's in the it's an actual kind of mansion, old run-down mansion at the time that was being renovated. And apparently the people that lived there were hoarders or something. Like it, they they there was they had to declutter the place.

Marty 47:29
That's what reminded me of the house, the clutter of it.

Jessica 47:32
Yeah. Yeah, and I think they probably left a lot of the clutter that was in there, and they're like, oh, we can work with this. Right.

Marty 47:39
Um, yeah, but I just I love I I love all the little snippets of philosophy and science and hit you know, through time references to Tesla and all of the, you know, just interesting alternative sciences and yeah, that's the stuff I loved about Ghost World was the little poetry off to the sides. And I dipped into the deleted scenes a little bit, and it looks like they were originally framing the movie a little more like Ghost Dog, where it had quotes before. I'm like, I can see why they removed that. The movie couldn't be two and a half hours. You would really start with the dog at that point. So it's already long enough as it is. Yeah.

Jessica 48:20
Although I do I wouldn't mind seeing some of the deleted scenes. Yeah. But um uh so I would like to bring up um so Ad Anton Yelchin, he was he was um Ian, and he is actually uh an actor that I really am fond of for a lot of um animated stuff. He was an animated voice in a whole series of things, and he unfortunately passed away way too young.

Marty 48:52
Yeah, 10 years ago.

Jessica 48:53
He died in like a weird accident.

Marty 48:55
I know a member of a 27 club who died in a freak accident. It's terrible. That shouldn't have happened that way, but yeah, it's crazy.

Jessica 49:03
So it was really neat to see him. He looked exactly the way that I thought he would based on this on his voice, you know, sort of it just it fit. Um, so yeah, I was already fond of him. That I think that might have been well, Tilda Swinton, too. Actually, Tom Hiddle, those three actors are what pulled me into watching the movie because I love all three of them. But yeah, Tilda Swinton has become my favorite actress and you know probably I want to say that the main three in Arrival really kicked ass too.

Marty 49:32
The main actors, you know. They or if it if you hadn't cast those three in both movies, the movies don't work. You know, because like the chemistry between Amy Adams and the uh Jeremy Renner, and to a lesser degree the forest Whitaker, it kind of you know, it it reminded me of the chemistry between the the three leads in the uh vampire movie. And Anton kind of just disappears into his role. I forgot it was him after a few minutes. But I feel like we haven't let Cliff talk about this movie.

Jessica 50:01
Yes, yeah. Let's let Cliff talk for a minute.

Clif 50:04
Uh I I like the idea of the music obsessed vampires. Um I I wonder if um Ryan Kugler saw this before he did Sinners, so it because it feels a little bit like that. Um the um yeah, the Vamp, you know, it I don't know. The Vamp feels like he's Cobain, planning to off himself, you know, tortured tortured musician thing. Um uh but I I dig it. Um you know I didn't expect John Hurt in the movie. That was kind of a fun surprise. And I like that I like this idea that you know Marlowe was pulling the strings on Shakespeare and that whole thing and you know, faked his death so he could you know live forever and all that. I thought it was really good. Um I really liked the one of the things that I noticed that they don't talk about much in the movie is the actual like thirst or hunger that vampires have for blood. Like they they they definitely worry about getting it for sure, and they worry about the quality of it. And it is like you said, it's like a like heroin, like it's train spotting, like there's you know, they get high off of you can tell you're really fucked up off a little bit too. Um it's but you know, and it's just like you know, when that when her little sister shows up and basically just comes into the house and just does all those drugs, and he's like, get the fuck out of my fucking house, like which felt very drugstore cowboy to me. Like that felt very kind of drugstore cowboy, this idea of this group of people that go around robbing fucking dis you know uh pharmacies to get to get their fix, and then the new girl that comes along with them, you know, get the goddamn hat off the bed, all that shit. It felt very felt very drugstore cowboy.

Jessica 51:39
Um what's interesting to me is that the vampires the they were older, like the adults, they were more adult. And and Mia's character, um Ava, was it's like she became a vampire before her brain fully matured, and maybe that's why she was so impulsive, because she was still the pretty much a teenager, right? She says it's her sister, but it's sister because they shared the same blood.

Clif 52:04
Yeah, right. But but uh they're not real siblings in the script. I was turned at night, but I wasn't born yesterday. Eve is like 2,000 years old, and Adam's like 600 years old, right? So she's been around a lot longer than he has.

Jessica 52:19
Yeah. And I think Ava was is probably even younger.

Clif 52:24
Um maybe. I don't know. They don't tell her. I think she's I think she's just an asshole. She's just she's just I mean, because she's been like like it's not the first time because you know when when she when he finds out she's when Adam finds out she's coming, he's like fuck because he knows it hasn't been long enough. He knows she's gonna show up, he knows that Eve's not gonna do a damn thing about it, make a bunch of excuses for her behavior, right? And this little girl's gonna show up and do all of his fucking dope and leave, right?

Jessica 52:49
And and kill people, which they don't wanna, yeah, because they don't kill people anymore.

Clif 52:54
Kill his one fucking his one thrall that's useful to him, right? So yeah, I just think she's an ass in a way to use it and she's just a fucking shitty vampire.

Jessica 53:02
My favorite, my favorite uh bit is you drank in. You drank in. Sorry?

Clif 53:13
Get the fuck out of my house. Get the fuck out of my fucking house.

SPEAKER_01 53:19
It's been 87 years.

Jessica 53:22
It's not long enough, yeah. I really love that. It's just but again, I think it's maybe because I was thinking about like why is she so different from the others? I think she was turned, she wasn't a full adult when she was turned.

Marty 53:35
And so again, yeah.

Jessica 53:37
Because I think because I don't think vampires age once they've turned, so they look like they were probably more like 30s or 40s when they you know, at least I think it's just a her personality.

Clif 53:47
I think she's just a list kind of type of vampire where she just you know she knows she's immortal, she doesn't give a fuck about consequences, and yeah, you know, that's a that's that's why nobody wants to fucking be around her because she's goddamn chaos.

Jessica 54:00
Yeah, she is she is the chaos. Yeah, but she's she's she's hilarious, though. I I didn't I hated her the first time I saw the film. I was just like, get the fuck out, leave this house, leave this film. But this time I actually appreciated her presence a little more. I didn't feel the same way. Uh but it was just I've I like how Eve is just so she's beyond trying to change people. She's beyond she just accepts everyone that you know the way they are. And it she gets upset when she sees the the bullet, the wooden bullet, and she knows that he's thinking dark thoughts again, and she's like, we gotta get him out of here. Um you know, he needs to be he's too disconnected from oh so one of the things that I thought about at the end is like they he's he moves to a city that's in decay, and all he sees are dark, he sees the corruption, he sees the pollution around him, and and he's he's he hates the zombies as he calls them, but I think that he absorbs their mindset because he's in a dying, he puts himself in a place where everything is dying around him and and kind of self creating his own little loop of self-frag you know, self-depression and stuff.

Clif 55:14
And he seems like he seems like a moody mopey type of guy, anyways, right? Like he seems like she's had to more than once pull him. I mean, why the fuck do you think they live apart, right? Because they've been married for centuries. Yeah, I'm sure this isn't the first time that he's gone into one of his 50-year fucking dark depressions or whatever, you know. And uh, but but I like that. I I like that the movie's like, well, this you know, you you get the idea of like, well, this is not the first fucking time this has happened. Obviously, you know, uh, I love that scene at the end where they're banging on Marlowe's door once they get back to Tangiers, and it's like that's very they're just like they gotta have their fix. It's very drugstore cowboy. You know, at one point one of them says, ah, this is the pure shit. And it's like, yeah, you guys are fucking junkies. Do you even need the blood to survive, or does it just get you fucking high? Like, I don't know at this point because you uh your response to it, your your need for it isn't like I said, they don't talk about it like it's a thirst, like it's a hunger, like it's uh an insatiable desire. Quench it they talk about like it's fucking training, like Marty said, train spotting or drugstore cowboy, right? It's like let's get a fix. That's why I say let's feed.

Jessica 56:22
Well, part of it is the rarity of it. The the blood is rare because um humans are so contaminated now because of all the microplastics or other things that are the chemicals that are in their bodies.

Marty 56:34
What did you expect? Of course his blood is gonna be all fucked up, you know. The way I see it is, you know, like why hide it? If all you need is a shot a day, I'm sure we could probably uh hook you up with something clean, you know. You ain't gonna fuck with us. We can get, you know, it's like the drug addicts. You show up and get your methadone shot of your little little blood shot. But apparently there's only like four vampires on the planet, kind of is what they allude to, because don't they say, I've never seen any of the others? Where are the others?

Clif 56:59
It's just me and you and well, no, he says that he doesn't hang out with the others. Yeah, he doesn't hang anymore.

Marty 57:04
He doesn't hang out, but they're not a minute.

Clif 57:07
It is alone some blood, and they'll will be can coexist. It is weird the the ending. I like the ending, this final excuse-moi with the the final reveal of the creepy shot. But but oh, so now we've suddenly given up our worry about how bad the blood is, and we're just gonna attack these two freaks in the park that are trying to get about to get down. Yeah, I guess they let or die, right?

Jessica 57:31
Well, and also their family is dead. I mean, in the sense that Marlowe was was definitely Eve's you know, family. So they decided, well, we've got to start a new family. And that's I mean, that's one of the things they said we are gonna turn them. They we have to turn these. Yeah, so it's like it's they have to rebuild, they realize that their previous world is gone. You know, Eve took took a um Adam out of his world that he had subsisted in, and uh, because he was destroyed self-destructing there, he was just you know going stagnant, and she brought him back to life and brought his will to live back with her, you know, her effusive personality and passion. But um, but now they have to start a new family, they have to keep going. And they realize, yeah, it's all shit. But she her attitude is she's lived through the shit before. She's lived through all the plagues and all of the you know the things the fun times, as she calls them. The interesting times. Interesting times, yeah. I love when she's collecting, when she packs her bags, that's another scene I love. Is she packs her bags full of books and she pours through them and she loves and she's gotta pick like her most favorite books out of all of the ones in her home. And uh I thought that was a great scene, and they're all in different languages from all different eras.

Clif 58:51
And yeah, yeah, I I was just waiting for Ava to bite Ian. Like, I knew that shit was gonna happen. You just knew that was the husband because she's like, Okay, I mean, right.

Jessica 59:03
I was like when both of them are like, okay, we're gonna go to bed, you're leaving now, right? Yeah, or don't do that. You're leaving, right? Don't do that. You have to know that Ava is going to jump on him and not let him leave. He's willing to leave, but you gotta just like okay. That was so dumb.

Marty 59:20
Yeah, we gotta be, we're gonna go crash. You know, they're not thinking, right? So when they wake up, that whole, oh, I don't want to get up out of the bed type thing, they realize that they had fucked up. Kind of like a drugstore cowboy thing that you mentioned.

Jessica 59:32
Yeah.

unknown 59:32
Yeah.

Clif 59:34
I feel like there's a lot of drugstore cowboys in there. Drugstore vampire. Drugstore, a train spotting, drugstore train cowboy. I don't know how else to put it. Uh drugstore spotting.

Marty 59:45
Drug boy and alien and octopus aliens.

Clif 59:48
Vampire drugstore spotting. I really enjoyed this. I really, really enjoyed it. It's got that fucking jarmouche kind of humor to it, that kind of wink at the that that kind of wry grin and wink. It's not, it's not laugh out loud, funny. It's not farcical, but it's fucking kind of darkly funny and humorous and and uh situationally pretty funny. Again, when she eats when she drinks Ian, and like you said, that you know, you drank Ian, you drank Ian, you know, and then of course they have to fucking uh put him in the acid bath and flee. They free freak out because it's just I really enjoyed it.

Jessica 1:00:25
I think I loved the music too. I loved his music that um sure, really good.

Clif 1:00:30
I like I like when they go to the the the club and they hear his music being played by the band.

Jessica 1:00:35
I was like, oh, it's funny, really cool.

Clif 1:00:37
Yeah, I like that quite a bit.

Jessica 1:00:39
And I like the the old stuff. I like the scene where you know, like she pulls him out of his suicidal, you know, he talked, you know, she's like, okay, we're gonna go listen to we're gonna listen to this music. And she dances with him and she pulls him back into her sensuality and you know, and and just interaction, um, bringing him alive. I just I just love the the yin and yang of them, the two of them. The opposites attack, you know, and I've I've had the opposite attraction sort of relationships before. They're very they're very flamey and they don't live, they don't like yeah, they're powerful, but they're not, you know, they're not something that can sustain.

Clif 1:01:18
They're too bright to last, right? Right.

Jessica 1:01:20
Um but they've made it last. They just know how to give each other space and they still adore each other.

Marty 1:01:26
You know, I love and I love the film The Call where he hooks up his like what 60s TV with a remote and a he rejects all the new tech because he's like just on all the scientists' ideas, and Tesla had the and so he knows how to get electricity from outer space with the from the air, yeah.

Clif 1:01:47
Well, all his recording equipment is all analog, right? Like he's he's definitely not a digital type of guy. I kept expand expecting the shrooms to to pay off, and they never did.

Jessica 1:01:58
What the fuck happened there? You know, there's a reference.

Clif 1:02:01
Yeah, we got these Nintendo-esque fucking mushrooms in this movie. Why aren't they paying off? Why aren't these vampires eating these fuckers? Why isn't Ian eating these fuckers?

Jessica 1:02:09
It's a nod to another movie. I I looked this up and I wouldn't have found this except that I was I read an article or a blog post about the film, and apparently there's a movie from like the 60s, 67 or something called it's either Persuasion or Performance. Oh, performance?

Clif 1:02:27
Is that with McJagger?

Jessica 1:02:28
Yes, with McJagger. And then and they were comparing, the author was comparing the two of them and how in performance it was they were on drugs, they were on the mushrooms, they were tripping, and this one was just they referenced it, but they didn't need it because they had their own breasts. Yeah, but so I thought I haven't yeah, I I thought that was interesting.

Marty 1:02:47
I figured since they were out of season, maybe it meant things were off and it was showing that it was time to go soon.

Clif 1:02:53
I don't know. I I read that there's supposed to be buried a lot of references in this, so it's not surprising that that's a reference to something.

Jessica 1:03:00
Yeah, it'd be interesting to just pick apart all of the different because I'm sure there's so many that we missed. Like and subscribe.

Marty 1:03:10
Uh she's Snoopy, he's Charlie Brown. She wants to dance and have fun, he's always mopey, it's that classic, you know.

Jessica 1:03:23
So one of the things I wondered is if they were the the actual Adam and Eve. And I don't know, like she felt like she was really, really at probably as old as at least 2000. But I don't think it's a good idea.

Marty 1:03:35
It's a reference to a Mark Twain book, apparently, where he had characters in Adam and Eve. So like you're saying, more weird references. It's just full of them. Yeah. It's buried with it, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. But it also makes you think are they have they been around that long? Well, no, because he doesn't remember all the good times, but it's still a funny name for them to have.

Jessica 1:03:54
Yeah, you can tell that he was definitely younger, but I definitely I was like, huh, I wonder if Eve was uh, you know, they didn't really tell you in the film how old they are. So you can't.

Clif 1:04:04
No, no, they don't. I think that's um I think there's some uh I read that there's a longer uh I and it's this is to quote the actual quote. It's the nude scene that where they're laying there, they're in bed. Apparently there's a lot of deleted scenes, so yeah, apparently there's a longer cut where she's talking about how old she is and how old he is.

Jessica 1:04:22
Oh man, why did they have to cut that?

Clif 1:04:24
Well you'll have to watch the maybe the criterion version, I guess, with all the deleted scenes, right? But what do you give it?

Jessica 1:04:34
Oh I'm waffling between four and four and a half stars. I I I'm gonna say four because like the second time around it wasn't um as new and and in a um but I still loved like I really still loved the characters and I you know I mean after I watched it the first time I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks. I was just like every little thing, but this time I was actually more curious about what was going on behind the scenes and really curious about Detroit and things like that, and realizing that these were real places that had really um like what a what a great time to make that film in that place, just to capture that because I think it Detroit has come back quite a bit, and it and a lot of the stuff that was there at the time has been renovated or torn down um since then. So I thought that was really interesting, but yeah.

Clif 1:05:37
Um I think I'm probably right there with you. I think four is right at it. Um Jar Moosh is kind of a singular guy. You you um you watch a Jarmoosh film, you know you're watching a Jarmoosh film. Yeah, his earlier stuff, like I said, I think all the stuff he did with Tom Waits and some of those guys early on, I think um down by law and things like that, or maybe a little more of a Stretch because they're a little rougher as films. They're they're made they're much more handmade, handheld.

Marty 1:06:04
Once he gets to like train, right? Yeah.

Clif 1:06:07
Yeah, but he gets better and better. He mystery train, night on earth, some of these others, and he just gets better and better. Then you get Ghost Dog, and I think Ghost Dog's really just fucking just so good. Uh but yeah, I think this is definitely right at four. Right at four. Mari, what about you?

Marty 1:06:21
So who was the actor from American fiction from a few weeks ago who plays the Doctor Jeffrey Wright. Jeffrey Wright. We get to see him again in this movie. And it's like just like I loved that movie, I love this movie. I don't love it as much as that because that movie was fucking incredible. But this movie was awesome too. Thank you for bringing this movie to us, Jessica. I really appreciate it.

Jessica 1:06:40
I'm so glad that you guys appreciate it. I mean, I kind of felt like I couldn't fail with Jarmouche because um every now and then, like I said, he's he's he can stumble every now and then.

Clif 1:06:50
But this was a this was a great one. Yeah, really good one.

Jessica 1:06:53
I've been impressed by his films. Um, I'm new to his stuff. Like the only one I had ever seen was back, you know, was was Dead Man a long time ago. I didn't like it, but I've seen um The Dead Don't Die, and which was fantastically funny. And I watched Broken Flowers. Oh yeah. Which I really again I started to that's a wild one. Yeah, Ghost Dog was after I Ghost Dog is what set me on the path. I heard your I listened to you guys talk about it, and then I finally got around to watching it. And at first I didn't like it. At first, I was like, um, you know, I don't like rap music, and it was a little too jarring, but then but I decided to stick it out because there was there was a hook, you know, there were lots of hooks in it. And I by the end, I was like, damn, that was a fantastic movie, and so and that's kind of how I felt. But this like this movie had me captivated from the opening credit with the spinning of the record and the music and the the rooms from above, and just that that just really sucked me in, and I barely moved the whole time just watching, just so so enthralled by the film. Um, yeah, so I'm really glad you guys loved it.

Marty 1:08:08
Give it a four as well. We're all in a green pores all around. Much like a lot of the other club movies we've watched recently, they're good, but they're people trying to make a good movie, and Jarmouche is just like, I'm just me. This is just what I make. And I'm like, how the I guess that's what they call a true artist, right? Where it just pours off of you.

Jessica 1:08:29
Uh it's yeah, some people are just touched. What can I say? Well, and I think that I think that Jarmouche, because of that, is it does have its issues, but I loved it though. Yeah, I think that people either really love his stuff or don't like it, don't get it.

Marty 1:08:42
Discovering today, it's a that's why these were a good pairing, because they're kind of the well, you're either with it or you ain't.

Jessica 1:08:48
Yeah, and I think a lot of people would be bored by both of them because they're too slow pacing, and you know, unless you some people just watch movies in the background or peripherally, and they're not gonna like these films because there's too much you have to pay attention. I mean, to me, that they are both visual spectacles as much and auditory spectacles as much as they are, you know, a story being told.

Marty 1:09:13
I feel like we just keep going to the loft week after week because we keep bringing on these challenging or more art interesting, you know, art house films. And I'm like, damn, there's another two movies I feel like I would have seen over at the loft.

Jessica 1:09:24
Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:25
Or Mr.

Marty 1:09:26
House theater.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28
Yeah.

Marty 1:09:29
Yep.

Clif 1:09:31
Um well, great. Thanks for coming on. We really appreciate it. You brought a great movie. Um, do you guys want to get out of here on a quote?

Jessica 1:09:40
Oh, I used my quotes up, I think.

Marty 1:09:44
I'm sure she'll be very famous. God, I hope not. She's way too good for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:50
You drank in.

Clif 1:09:54
Please feel free to piss in the garden. All right, guys, let's get out of here. Thanks again, Jessica.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:04
Thank you.