The Long Goodbye / Stay Outta Malibu (Guest: Matthew Palmer)

Smoke 'em if you got 'em, cause you're in for "The Long Goodbye," (1973 d. Altman). Starring: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, and Sterling Hayden. Joining is our guest, very cool Director, Matthew Palmer (Instagram). In this edition, we go deep into the annals of "Philip Marlowe," films and novels. What was the actual plan (if one existed) for Roger Wade? Just how much of this movie is in "Lebowski," and others, Lebowski? We don't know either, but clearly, you are not a golfer. 6/24!

**All episodes contain explicit language**
Artwork - Ben McFadden
Review Review Intro/Outro Theme - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching" & "Whatcha been up to?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root
Concept - Paul Root

Transcript

Oh, it's me. I'm doing the intro. Isn't that nice? That's a rarity. Hi, everybody.

Welcome to the Review Review. This is a movie podcast. I am one of the cohost of this podcast. My name is Ben. I am one of the cohost of this podcast.

My name is Edwin Fletcher. Fletch. I don't believe that's your name. Tell the people the truth. My name is Philip Marlowe.

That makes more sense, actually. My name is Patrick Bateman. Wait. No. Hi.

I'm Paul. I'm your other cohost. And we have a guest today on this mister Matt Palmer, director extraordinaire, is with us. Hello, Matt. Hey, guys.

Yeah. I didn't get a pseudonym like that. That's doesn't seem fair. Oh. You don't have a a pseudonym to that you work with or a a nom de plume?

Hey, Dwayne. It's Paul Paul Root. Oh, interesting. That explains a lot of police and legal action. Okay.

Yep. Well, if you're tuning in for the time, what the is this program? This is a movie podcast where me and Paul, a guest that guest will bring us a movie, something that they've seen before, something maybe they feel passionately about one way or the other, and they will bring it to us. We'll all watch it, and then talk about our rankings out of five that we get from Letterboxd. And then we'll discuss, have a conversation, and see if our rating has changed at all.

Matt brought us one for our sweaty swinging seventy summer or soapy, scantily, silky, super, slappy, slippy, Swenson? Swanson? Say Sam's the same. Okay. I was way off.

The long goodbye. But before we get to that, I wanna talk to you, Matt. I wanna know more about you. Tell the people about you as a filmmaker, a director, storyteller. I've had the pleasure of working with Matt as a director, and it was it was a real treat.

So please tell everybody. The pleasure was all mine. I'm a a director based in Los Angeles. Do a bit of everything, mainly direct commercials, which is what pays the rent. And then and lucky to have collaborators like like Ben here who will humor me when I wanna do a short film or an animated film or lots of, you know, music videos, short documentaries.

I've done, two feature docs now. A little bit of, everything. Now that I have a a newborn or a three month old, which is, the thing that's taking most of my time, my my newest project that, I may be doing fewer of those side projects that take me away from home and empty my bank account. But I, and I've been very fortunate to to do it thus far. Before we get deep into the movie, though, we're gonna talk about what you've been doing.

What I've been doing? Yeah. Parenting. Parenting. time time father.

time caller. Long time listener. Long time listener. Long time participant. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So I have a a three month old daughter, like I mentioned, and it that's been mainly what I've been doing. Have been fortunate to I've done a couple commercials this year, which has kept me busy work wise. Have been working on something very different for me, which is well, two things very different for me, actually.

One, is a art gallery installation that I did, and we had our kind of I don't know what you can call it, show in, at a gallery in Oakland. And it was a video installation with 11 different videos. And That's awesome. Yeah. It was it was a trip.

It was a a very different experience. My friend and I who he's a musician, very talented jazz pianist. He and I took a upright piano in a a U Haul around the desert and just filmed performance videos out in the middle of nowhere and hope people would come listen. And we turned it in this art installation and had it up in for six weeks in Oakland and, hoping to do more. And then I This is my year of of trying things, I guess, because I I'm also That's great.

Yeah. And Ben helped out on this next thing I'll mention, which is I'm directing a friend's one man show. He's a comedian doing a play. And, Ben was one of the voices that, we hear offstage, quote, unquote, you know, prerecorded, but offstage. And we did our preview or whatever test screen is.

I'm gonna screen a test, performance last Friday. How'd it go? Went really, really well. Great. I was very nervous because it's so different from filmmaking to, like Where is it at?

It's playing jam in the van for now or right now. It's, that's where it played last Friday. It'll play once in May, once in June at Jam in the Van. That's what we have lined up now, and then, we'll see. Yeah.

We're gonna probably take it Jam in the Vans in in Culver. Okay. Or Culver Palms area. Cool little venue. It's been fun.

It's been very different. That's cool. Matt and I worked on a a short with Riley Shanahan, guest of this podcast, many years ago now in Atlanta that Riley produced. And I remember we talked about how you were interested in getting more into theater and doing like, stretching your director muscles in that way, and it's so cool that you're you're making you're taking those steps. Yeah.

I mean, it it just kinda fell in my lap. You know? I guess, I manifested it, if you will, where he reached out and said, I'm trying to do this thing. And I think he originally was like, you should film it. And I was like, but I could also help you craft it and direct it for the for the stage, and he nicely took a chance on me.

And it's been it's been fun. I will say it's it's and you guys probably know this as actors. And and, Ben, I know you're from the theater, Paul. I'm I'm not sure if you've done, yeah, done it all. But, see, having that live feedback is nerve wracking, and especially for a comedy thing, which is kind of different for me as well if they don't laugh.

I was I was pretty nervous. I was pretty nervous. I can imagine. Luckily, they laughed at most of the jokes. Great.

Hey, Paul. What you've been doing, man? Oh, boy. Well, recently, it's mostly been doing, I think, what will hopefully be final research to get these note cards moving into a script. So, honestly, just gearing up for that.

Watching stuff, reading stuff, researching stuff, delaying, procrastinating, stretching it out, smoking a lot of weed, lot of weed. I burn joints like Philip Marlowe burns it. Yeah. Exactly. So All part of the process.

Yeah. Exactly. Hey, Ben. Yeah. Is it my turn?

What have you been doing? Well, as this is coming out in our swinging seventies summer, so my production of the time machine, issue well as the time machine, is now open for Hollywood Fringe. And people can't see that. Did I not know about this? That's so cool.

I adapted the time machine. High school. I've been working on the script for about five years. So this is, like, at the Hollywood fringe right now, which is all through June since we're releasing this in June and definitely recorded in June. That's obvious with how I'm def definitely saying that more.

I think I'm definitely not digging a grave and saying that we didn't record this before June. Right? No. Congratulations, NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. You did great.

Yeah. Steve Grabowski. The Seattle Sonics. This is released in the year 2020. To say, I have terrible news.

It definitely was not that one. Sorry, Ben. It also wasn't the Portland Trail Blazers. So Or the Sacramento Kings, Matt. Sorry.

Oh, come on. You had to say that? You just broke Riley's heart, broke Matt. All the wonderful Oakland A's hearts of Sacramento, they're they're destroyed. Yeah.

We're used to it. It's, You guys just keep getting kicked. They're in the play in, and I'm like, what the fuck are you guys doing? Like, just why waste your time? They could've don't get me started on it.

This could be a whole podcast about why I hate being a Kings fan. But anyway so, yeah, if people are interested in coming seeing the time machine, they can follow the time machine Instagram. They can also go to the Hollywood Fringe portal and find the Time Machine. All tickets are paid where you can. We have guests of the podcast who are in the show.

Jessica Martin plays the time traveler. Brandon Marino is in it. Mike Bowers is in it. And Ben Burris, built puppets for it. So come on down to the Broadwater and check it out.

I can predict this. If you don't, you will regret it. There is no going back, unlike in the time machine, which is totally correct. In that fantasy scenario, not a problem. But this is not that.

So go. The dinosaurs fucking pussy. Matt, what have you been watching? I've been catching up on severance. Yeah.

You guys watching that? Oh, I finished it. Yeah. Oh, you did? I went hard.

Paul, you finished it? Paul's not a sever severed, and Paul's not I would really like to finish season one and watch season two. I I would like to. I I liked season one quite a bit. I I'm not sure if I'm into season two that much so far.

It was, like, years before the second season came out. Right? And we were actually in the hospital. Elise was going into labor, but we had, like, hours to kill because it just takes a while. And we're like, let's throw on season two of severance.

Just came out. And we got, I don't know, five minutes in, and we're like, what the fuck is happening? I don't remember anything. And so we turned it on. And now here we are trying to catch up still three months later.

So Gotcha. I enjoyed season two. It's definitely it stretches outside of the world and stretches a little bit outside of its there's an episode, though, in season two that I think might be one of, like, the best episodes of of the season or the series. Is it the snow? The okay.

No. You're not. Why is everything like a James Bond movie? Everything's better in the snow. It's great.

I want a severance snow episode. Now I'm very I'm very interested. The whole thing is shot in, like, New York, I think, and it's or Newfoundland. I know they shoot part of it in Newfoundland, which is weird. Yeah.

Severn's great. Oh, yeah. Been watching that. Watching a lot of Altman, actually. Cave and missus Miller, The Player.

I rewatched that recently. Oh, I I went and saw Mickey 17. That's the only movie I've seen in theaters this year, sadly. But Yeah. It's hard with a newborn.

Yeah. So forgive me, listeners. But I saw that. I actually really enjoyed it. I think I'm one of the one of the only people that seems to have really liked that movie.

I enjoyed it. Oh, you did? Okay. I enjoyed it. You know, I think I was talking to, a friend of mine, friend of our Paul and I's Moses Olsen, and I was saying, you know, if you go into it expecting Parasite, you'll be pretty disappointed.

Like, it's so rare to see big budget science fiction that's not Oh, hi. It's Paul from The Edit. Let's assume Ben said pre established IP here. I think that's pretty safe. Back to the program.

You know, on on on screen? And it feels very much him. It feels very, like, it feels like a very personal story. I enjoyed it. Yeah.

I think I I knew not to expect I mean, Parasite feels like a once in a lifetime type of Yes. Type of movie. Mhmm. And Yeah. And a lot of his English language movies, like, are all a little bit more, I don't know, goofy for lack of better term.

Yeah. Well, they're having a little more fun. I mean, even Parasite, like, the symbolism isn't really hidden. You know? He doesn't hide what he's going for in any of those movies.

So, like, maybe just because their subtitles, it's a little more, like, I don't know, abstract feeling. But I I know that's the criticism most people have of Mickey 17 is that it was it just feels like two on the nose and I'm like Yeah. That's fine with me. He was having fun. We did mother a while ago on this, and I just feel that anytime I watch any of his work, you feel him through it.

Mhmm. So it it's his very specific kind of strange quirky isn't existence so goofy, like, point of view that really carries through. I don't know. Makes me really wanna watch that movie, but boy was motherfucking Motherfucking? Motherfucking was so fucking good.

Yeah. I love the fucking And you still have to see memories of a murder. I do still. I'm I'm still kind of selfishly or unselfishly waiting for it to show up. I I can't believe I can't believe mother was on who Mother.

Our friend Moses. Is also Who's Moses is cool. I can tell. Yeah. He is absolutely a wellspring of knowledge and appreciation for international cinema.

Yeah. Oh, there is awesome. And that that final that final shot on the bus Yeah. So good. Incredible.

Memories of murder is pretty amazing too. Yeah. I've heard Paul, what you've been watching? Probably not Memories of Murder, though. No.

No. Mother on repeat. Motherfucking. Go to his history his incognito history. You you can't.

Final scene on the bus. That's not what I saw. Motherfucking final scene on the bus. So I watched Smile two. Hell yeah.

Okay. Speaking of trauma, bonding with mothers. But I watched Smile one not too long after it came out. And speaking of things that can be on the nose as we were talking about earlier, it's very on the nose in terms of the trauma bonding aspect of it. And then in this new one, the origin is like, oh, this is very similar to it follows for those who have seen that where it's like there's a way that it transmits itself and it's probably some sort of demon and I don't know how much I love having the the lore of it built to me.

Again, I've said this so many times on this program. I like Michael Myers when I don't understand or can't conceptualize really the why. It's just a force. And the the Rob Zombie of, like, my stepdad called me a shithead once and stomped at me or whatever. So then I became a killing machine, like, does not work for me.

So I enjoyed it enough. But watching Hacks season four, really, really enjoying it. I love Jean Smart's performance in it. It's so fantastic. And there's a rehearsal season two.

Oh, yeah. Now that we're in June, of course. It's so Oh, yeah. I mean, I I mean, that of course, I can. Right.

But I what? So hooray. Yes. Alright. That's what I watched it, all of it, and it was so good because I knew.

Great, Scott. What'd you been watching? So I went and saw warfare, the new Alex Garland movie, which I always thought was weird. It was coming out so quick because civil war wasn't even was that, like, nine months ago? It wasn't that long ago.

Did he direct or co direct or it could Co direct co direct and written with Raymond Doza, who's one of the vets who was involved with the events that they're capturing as far as I know. I thought it was pretty good. I always like Garland. I I like his for the most part, I like his worldview even though it's pretty nihilistic and cynical, but I usually align with it. And I find his, like, visual storytelling always is pretty stellar, and I loved civil war.

And I think that it ultimately is is, like, a fine move. Like, warfare is, like, it's fine. But, like, the event that they're capturing, it's a real it's, like, a real event that happened in the second Iraq war, and it doesn't actually feel very, like, unusual. It's about a couple of it's about a group of soldiers who get pinned down in, like, a side street somewhere, and then some of them, like, lose their legs and a couple of them die. And I'm like, well, yeah.

I mean, that's war. I don't know. You kinda signed up for that, I think. But, I mean, it's intense. It's like Yeah.

The possibility of it. Yeah. The performances are great, and he does a great job with tension and everything he does. I saw that. And then I've been watching I've been just been going hard on on Black Mirror.

Also, what the fuck? Just kinda shadow drops. Wait. There's there's new Black Mirror? Yeah.

I don't know what I'm where I've been. It just early. It literally just dropped. And, like, I was talking to someone who said, I can't watch too many Black Mears because it just, like, fucks me up. Oh, yeah.

Me too. Somehow, I just can do it. I really enjoy watching them and, like Really? Mhmm. Yeah.

I actually feel the same way about the rehearsal. Like, it just makes me feel too anxious and Yeah. I get it. Nathan Fielder is, like, a very specific type of Obviously, very different than Black Mirror, but they both I don't know. I could see a Nathan Fielder Black Mirror episode.

That's fair. I would love it. The rehearsal kinda is, actually, if you think, like, in a weird way. I agree with that entirely. Nathan for you is kind of that if anyone has seen that television show.

Hard to watch for me. I mean, brilliant. I get it. Watch. I get it.

Should we talk about this movie, The Long Goodbye, and get to some facts? Let's do it. Okay. Archaeology is the search for fact. I, tell you this for free.

The Long Goodbye was brought to us by Lionsgate Films. Not that one. Not the Hunger Games one. A different Literally a different film company called the same thing. You should look at the movies that they've produced and released it.

The last of them were, like, fairy animated fairy tales with unicorns and shit. Totally different company. Is there a space in the name? Lions? Yes.

Exactly. Exactly. They own the gate. Belonging to Yeah. And United Artists.

It is rated r nineteen seventy three, one hour and fifty two minutes. The budget on this film was $1,700,000 adjusted. That's 12.2. Opening weekend, 03/08/1973. Who knows about that money?

Forget about it, k. Final gross in North America, I have no idea. I said forget about it, k. But the final gross worldwide was $959,000. That is $6,900,000 adjusted.

Other reasons to go to the movies this weekend, if you wanna see something new, Slither, Zife was the director of that version of that movie and Different. Nothing to do. No no storyline in common with the James Gunn version. March top earners were Ludwig and the Eddie Duchin story. Are you Eddie Duchin?

Did I make these up? Yeah. I've never heard of that's crazy. Any of this shit? Yeah.

Well, I don't even know I don't even know what James Gunn's slither you're talking about. So, obviously, I'm out of the loop. That was one of his early movies, maybe, like, early two thousands. Yeah. Other films from 1973, Jonathan Livingston, Steven Seagull, The Day of the Dolphin, Enter the Dragon, Serpico Okay.

Paper Moon, and The Exorcist. Go back. Listen to You believe me? Go back to listen to our Exorcist new new episode where we did Exorcist next to Exorcist Believer, which is I believe I'm not exaggerating. Exorcist Believer is one of the worst movies ever made.

It's really Not exaggerating. But exact rough. Exorcist And you guys did that intentionally, watched back to back? Yeah. We have a version of the program called Nunu where we'll like, we did the original Roadhouse, and then we watched the remake of Roadhouse.

Oh, nice. And we'll talk about them. And usually, it always I mean, I think more often it ends up being like, why did we watch the remake? It or anyone. It sucks.

We may be doing a very special super duper one this year. We'll see how it goes. Oh, okay. Check the timing. Alright.

I'm gonna have to guess what that is based on Yeah. It's a secret. So you mentioned a lot of movies that I'd never heard of. Siegel, Jonathan Livingston Siegel, and Day of the Dolphin, and then you ended on four Dangers. Yeah.

Again, Serpico, Paper Moon, and The Exorcist, Alzheimer's. Apparently, the Day of the Dolphin is the shit. It's something about, like, a dolphin being programmed to kill the president or some crazy ass shit. And it's I don't remember if it's George c Scott or Rod Steiger. One of those, like, seventies machismo dudes is in it, but I wanna see that movie.

Apparently, it's wild. Wait. We can program dolphins to kill the president? Can you give me the details? If you want it bad enough, you can travel back in time, Ben, if you want it bad enough.

You don't need a machine. Have you learned nothing? No. I don't learn. From somewhere in time?

No. I don't. I don't. I purposely try to not learn. Letterboxd, average of this film is 4.2.

Follow us on Letterboxd. I'm at Run BMC. That's Run, B E E M C. I'm at Paul Axe Badly. Matt, do you have a Letterboxd?

I do, and my name is pretty bad. It's just my initial. It's, m j p four zero six. Is 406 like a ZIP code or just No. So you know what?

I never knew that I would be giving this out. I just got a letterbox to, like, log on. I didn't know it was gonna be, like, a social platform, which is my naivete. You're about to be a big fucking deal, Matt. Yeah.

Right? MJP four zero six is the generic email they gave me in college. Oh, sure. Yeah. E four zero six at Yeah.

And I just use it whenever I need a username now when I don't wanna think about it. And Sure. It's easy to remember. Yeah. I don't know if I told you, but I'm I'm starting grad school this summer.

And I just got all of my information, and my email is m c f a zero eight nine nine. So maybe I'll That could be your letterboxed. I had an employee number that was 8990889. Don't get top c top secret. Don't make me do it.

Don't make me get Sally on y'all. Number 23. It's my pen. Oh my god. My top secrets are at the secret's out.

Roger ebert dot com. Roger ebert wrote this one. Gave it a three out of four. Rotten Tomatoes, 95%, 87% popcorn. Metacritic was 87, 7.5 user.

Major award wins, nominations, acknowledgments. In 2021, this movie was entered into the national film preservation logs. Essentially meaning this movie will not be changed, will not go away, should be essentially available to access in some way, shape, or form always. Until it's Bosco. Makes himself the chairman and Fucking fucking good.

And he does the reverse, like, French connection. I want Popeye Doyle to say the n word every three words. You wanted to remove it? It's important that he says it every three words. Jokes aside, though, that's gotta be the best honor for a movie in my opinion.

I think so too. Not being watched by Trump or reviewed by Trump, but being in the in the movies? Yeah. There's no I mean He watches Fast and Furious. Bloodsport.

Yeah. Never no man's land. Never point breaks. Forget about it, because No. That's gotta be such an honor.

And and the film They put the actual film reels in there? Like, did they yeah. It's like in a vault, I think. That's cool. Maybe some art will survive the apocalypse.

Well We can hope. You mean the the book burning? Alright. The people involved with this movie Used to get get strong by reading books instead of burning burning them. Director of this movie is Robert Altman, the player, Gosford Park, Popeye, amongst many others.

A favorite, Ben? Do you have a favorite? Oh, McCabe and missus Miller, by far. Both of you are McCabe and missus Miller. Have you seen it, Paul?

So this is where I have to admit partly because I was just fucking put on the spot. No. Oh, it's okay. I just saw for the time. I know.

I'm days ago. I'm over exaggerating. Awesome. I'm stoked to see it sooner than later. The player to me is a fucking bulletproof ironclad classic.

I love that movie. Player rocks, but McKayla and miss Miller is next level. Okay. It's a five out of five on letterbox. Yeah.

So one of the things that we did in my film course back in college was we watched John Ford, and then we watched we watched that one because it was, like, the whole point of the course was showing how the the Western was developed and then showing us how the Western was torn apart and brought to its knees, basically. Oh, very cool. And he did that when they came as Miller, and he did that with film noir with the long and black. Yeah. I mean, this is basically the the anti big sleep with the same character Philip Marlowe.

So, anyway, we're not there yet. But yeah. Writers Lee, brackets, r I p, El Dorado, Star Wars episode five, The Empire Strikes Back. The best one. Sorry to interrupt.

She wrote The Big Sleep. Oh, interesting. And thirty years later, writes along goodbye. So she wrote two Philip Marlowe movies. The novel is written by Raymond Chandler.

Director of photography is Vilmos Siskamont, r I p, blowout sliver, the crossing guard. Music, you may have heard of him. His name's Johnny Wills. Johnny Bills? Johnny oh, yeah.

Johnny Bills. Johnny Money? Johnny Money. Johnny Money. Who's most famous for Home Alone one and two.

Hell, yes. Those scores are so fucking good. No. They they really are. Don't be a hater.

And Angela's Ashes and JFK. We've probably begun to the left. I mean, I think he's probably the the composer we've done the most on this show. Do you change the movies for his credits each time? Yeah.

Paul Try to. Dug deep with him. Yeah. Ben works hard. I had no idea.

I saw John Williams live a couple times and was the person screaming, home alone. Like, people scream free bird, and people, like, were turning around and, like, the How how high were you? Ben, why do you even The the you're right. The perfect The only other the only other person were you. Yes.

The only other person yelling home alone louder in the audience was Macaulay Culkin. Oh, Macaulay, Macaulay Culkin Culkin? Yeah. Oh, awesome. Yeah.

That's cool. Producer Jerry Bick, RIP Against All Odds, Swing Shift, The Big Sleep. To the cast, Elliot Gold plays Philip Marlowe, Ocean's 11, MASH, Nashville, Nina Van Peledent plays Eileen, American Gigolo. Cutter's Way, the sword and the sorcerer. Sterling Hayden, RIP, plays Roger.

Doctor Strangelove or did you know the National Theatre in London has a a stage production of Doctor Strangelove that just premiered? No. That's exciting. Yeah. And, Steve Coogan plays Yeah.

All the Peter Sellers roles. But, like, more than more than the Peter like, because Peter Sellers didn't wanna play a few roles that he was asked to play. Yeah. When he gets to play Steve Coogan's like, fuck it. I'm gonna do it.

I lied. I did know this. I heard him talk about it on The Daily Show, and I fucking blanked it out. Yes. Okay.

Sounds really cool. Yes. Sorry. Back to Sterling Hayden. The Godfather and El Paso.

Mark Rydell plays Marty, one of the few people still alive. On Golden Pond, Hollywood ending, Havana. Henry Gibson, RIP, plays Veringer, Magnolia, Blues Brothers, the Burbs. Go listen to our Burbs episode. David Arkin, RIP, plays Harry, All the President's Men, Cannonball, Valley of the Dolls.

Jim Bouton? Boughton? RIP plays Terry. How do you know? Question mark.

Pick up. Ball four, TV. Florent Berger, RIP, plays Morgan. Hero, that thing you do, take two. And Joanne Brody plays Joanne.

That's that's all this person did. That's the that's their resume. Which to a degree is, like, when we start to unpack this movie that this is the only movie this person did. She has a rough go in this movie. So Yeah.

Alright, Matt. Why don't you go? Yeah. The two weirdest scenes in the movie involve her, I think. Yeah.

It's a weird movie. Would you mind reading some fun facts for us? I'll read some fun facts. I also looked up a few of my own if that's Oh, we love that. Fun facts.

Fun facts, everybody. It's fun fact time. Reportedly, director Robert Altman did not read Raymond Chandler's novel prior to production. He was more interested in Chandler's collection of letters and essays, and copies of this book were given to the cast and crew to study for production. Lee Brackett and Robert Altman said that Sterling Hayden, who plays the author Wade what's his name?

I can't remember. Roger. Roger Wade. Roger. So Sterling Hayden and Elliot Gould's dialogue during the drinking scenes was improvised.

Very not surprising there. Mostly because Hayden was drunk and stoned on marijuana most of the time. This is I'm into this guy's acting approach. Yeah. This sounds I'm interested in this.

Was that when you learned that fact, were you surprised at all? Because you watched that and you're like, this guy doesn't know his lines. I mean, I think that's the thing with Altman, though, is sometimes it just feels like people talking. Like That's true. But you you watch it and there's, like, a blank stare.

And sometimes he's like He's somewhere else. He's not there. He's not there. It works for the character, though. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. It feels like in the character. Yeah. Totally. It was amazing.

But that was not a surprising fun fact to me. I loved it, though. Not a fun fact. More of a No. It was fun.

Just not a not a shocker. The opening scene with Phil and Marlowe and his cat came from a story. A friend of Altman's told him about his cat only eating one type of cat food. Altman saw it as a comment on friendship even with Morris the cat being naturally finicky. I love the as Paul would attest to, I love the opening of this.

I was, like, into it. It's so good. And it sets up the whole movie. I mean Paul, was were were you into the opening? I really enjoyed the opening and I sent Ben a little video.

My cat, Sand Cat, who hates other cats, heard this through the speakers. The cat prancing around and meowing and whatnot and perks up, gets her attention, like, slinks over to the middle of the entertainment console, like, climbs up, like, starts, like, pawing at the TV. She's so she's watching the movie totally engaged, super into it in this moment. It's awesome. It's like flow.

And she's finicky too. So, like, I get she's very specific about food. Diva actors. You know? Exactly.

Exactly, man. This is another fun fact. This cat was actually fired and replaced. Dick. The one in The Long Goodbye.

Too finicky. Okay. I wanna I wanna, like, a deep dive documentary on that. Can you do that, Matt? I'm on it.

I wanna dream come true. Yeah. You can study sand cat for sure. Trust me. Another fun fact about that scene is Elliott Gould improvised the whole thing, which is also probably not very surprising.

But Even the cat the can switching stuff? Well, that, I think they wrote into it. They they that's based on the story that Altman's friend Oh, right. Right. Okay.

But all the mumbling he does, which he does throughout the whole movie, and it's just Yeah. But the what what he does in the beginning is all improvised by Elliot Gould. Obviously, they didn't know exactly what the cat was gonna do, but the cat was finicky. Also, as an aside, I just love the way that that sets up the movie with Philip Marlowe being this guy who values loyalty even to a a cat, but is still, like, taken advantage of even by a cat. Pretty pretty nice opening to me.

Elliott Gould has said that if he is physically able, he hopes to reprise the role of Philip Marlowe. A screenplay entitled, it's always now, based on a Raymond Chandler story, The Curtain, was sold to Gould by the Chandler Estate for $1. Woah. How old is he now? Like, in his eighties?

He's gotta be close to 90. He's gotta be pushing 90. Should we make that 90, guys? I think you should make that one. Reach out.

Yeah. Hit him up. My favorite fun fact that you guys pulled is that Elliott Gould smokes in every scene. Every are you sick? Like, who?

Yeah. And he's just And he's lights a match. Smoking. What can't the guy light a match on too? Yeah.

Lights a match on everything. It's awesome. Philip Marlowe is real cool. He is very, very cool. That he is.

He has that. That's for certain. Not a very this is a pretty well known fun fact, but there's a pretty cool me on Arnie. Well, then I'm not shocked. You.

Right? But and it's fun, I guess. It can be fun. The Arnold Schwarzenegger cameo. Right.

Cool. Just flexing in the background. I guess it's not a cameo. He wasn't And wearing little yellow underwear. Yeah.

You know, he was not famous really at this point. Yeah. And he didn't have any lines. No lines. He's just stand he's just a dude who had to With a mustache, Ben is holding up a screen grab of a half naked Arnold Schwarzenegger wearing yellow underwear and rocking a fucking Bert Reynolds mustache with his massive, massive tits.

I think he does the little dance with him for you know, how you can, like, flex one and the other. I I was I was paying attention to this on this rewatch, and he definitely does a little dance with him. He he sneaks into every summer no matter what we do. I know. He tries to take over every summer.

Last summer, we did my Ben's blockbuster Bonanza summer, and it almost became a Schwarzenegger summer. Swartz and Schwarzenegger summer. There you go. If Terminator two had won, it was all over. It was the end.

Yeah. It was judgment day. We narrowly avoided it. We got in a time machine and booked out of there. Can you guess what won?

Great. What else you got for us, man? Only a few things. Altman called Elliott Gould's version of Marlow Rip Van Marlowe, as if Philip Marlowe had fallen asleep in the late forties or fifties and woke up twenty, thirty years later still thinking the world was a black and white film noir moral world, which explains why he's out of sync in seventies LA. The only other thing was John Williams writing the the score, but also writing that song that's played throughout in so many different forms in the Muzak and the grocery store, the Mariachi band in Mexico.

The piano. He wrote the song. He cowrote the song itself. Oh, wow. So not just the score, but the song as well.

That's crazy. Yeah. Okay. And the Home Alone the score for Home Alone. You got it.

One and two, baby. It's crazy to me that because the genre LA noir was new at this point as far as I know. Okay. Yeah. I mean, the big sleep takes place in LA, but, like, LA noir is, like, a seventies thing in my mind.

Because I think a lot of people always point to Chinatown, but this predates Chinatown by a year. Yeah. So that's this is interesting to me because, I hadn't seen it before. Alright. Matt Yes.

I'm gonna do something bad. What is the logline to this movie? If if you were to logline this movie, if you were to elevate or pitch this movie, what do you think it would be? And you don't have to try to get close to what it actually is, although we will read the real one after you Please do that. Let's see.

Philip Marlowe, a chain smoking private eye. I think Paul got that far earlier. Is, Philip Marlowe, a chain smoking private eye in LA, is unwittingly brought into a scheme that his close friend, friend is in quotes, close friend, brings them into leading them down a dangerous road of betrayal. I don't know. Betrayal, intrigue, murder Yeah.

Those moments. I tried to make it a sentence. Suicide. Paul Half naked yoga on the porch. Half naked Schwarzenegger with mustaches.

Check out my yellow undies. Yes. You like them. Look at my mustache. Paul, what is the logline to this movie?

Do you want me to write it, or do you want me to just because I have it. I want you to read it. You don't want me to write it? I don't want you to write it. You got it.

Private eye Philip Marlowe helps friend Terry Lennox out of a jam and is implicated in his wife Sylvia's murder. He also is hired by Eileen Wade to locate her dipsomaniac husband, Roger, who frequently disappears when he wants to dry out. Word score dipsomaniac. Yeah. What is that?

I I will A guy who manically dips out, apparently. When we Yeah. Dip out. When we get back from our break, this episode is clearly brought to you by, Schwarzenegger yellow undies. I was hoping it was close friends in quotes.

Close friends, friends in quotes. I mean, you could get close friends. It could be Schwarzenegger yellow undies. Like Yellow undies. That's not your friend.

But but I will say this logline to me points out something that I think is the thing that maybe rubbed me weird with the movie. And I think it points it out in this logline. But before we get into that, we gotta take a break. Schwarzenegger's close friends, yellow undies, have to He borrowed them for this movie. We'll be back.

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Later on. Boy, this is me Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this is me on the screen here riding towards the camera. Underwheels. You mean Where?

Other people's Underwheels. Stop it. Yeah. Not as good as, Fallout. Fallout.

Fallout, I saw, like, six times. I love that movie. Hell, yes. I saw sitting next to I saw dead reckoning with Brandon Marino and sitting next to director, not Chris McCrory, who directed that movie, but director Chris McKay, and then talked to Chris McKay afterwards about that movie. Who's Chris McKay?

He did Lego Batman and, he Oh, like, Chris and Phil, that one? No. That's, Chris Chris Miller and Phil Lord. Phil Lord. Yeah.

Chris McKay most recently, I think, did Renfield with Nick Cage and Nick Holt. Yeah. Which was pretty fun. I like that movie quite a bit. Okay.

We're back. We've we've borrowed our friend close friend's undies. I reckon somebody snapped those undies, and we were brought back to react like a time machine. We all switched undies. That's what he did.

We're all friends. We all just borrowed each other's. And we all went, ah, oh, jeez. And she snapped it. Somehow, it snapped us back into the scorching seventies Schwarzenegger summer.

He got out. He got in again. Okay, man. I I need to know what you didn't like in that log line and all that. In your log line?

Or No. You not well, my log line was But, he said the log line summarized what you didn't like. I will talk about it when we talk about my experience with this movie, which spoilers was when I watched it a couple nights ago. What? I will bring that up.

How could we get there? We're gonna play a quick round of Cinephile. For folks at home and for Matt, Cinephile is a game. It'll be a actor's name on a card with a sketch, and it'll have a movie on it. And you will read, Matt, you will read the actor's name.

We'll read the movie. That will be your freebie. We give the guest a freebie. We'll go around the horn, and whoever can't answer we'll just then talk about their experience and what their rating out of five would be with the movie The Long Goodbye. Does that make sense?

It does make sense. Yeah. I've never played this game. Nervous. It's alright.

We're we both Paul and I have had frozen accounts. Paul has his sand cat for everyone at home who cannot see. Sand cat is not begging for food. It doesn't seem like. She just thought we were about to start talking about the long goodbye.

And she's like, that movie that starts with that cat, let me help out. It's her idol. I still can't believe you haven't shown her flow, Paul. I'm scared to watch it. Like, I feel like it's gonna be harrowing for me.

That's the Paul, same page. I'm so excited. It looks amazing, but I'm anything with animals, I'm so scared of. Okay. So I'm gonna bring your attention to the website, doesthedogdie.com because it's a real website, and you can put in any animal you would like and put in the movie.

Because when this movie started Along to Buy, I did that on my phone. I went to doesthedogdie.com and went, does the cat die? Because I needed to know before I got too far into that movie. Oh, sorry. Spoiler.

The cat never comes back. You're just using him. Alright, Matt. You let me know when you would like me to stop. Stop.

I'm gonna hold up this card. Full disclosure, the movie title is written in yellow, and it's kinda hard to read. So let me know if you just want me to read it to you. Okay. Diane Keaton.

Play it against Sam. Okay. Going I do not know Diane Keaton. Paul gets to go Annie Hall. This is a shot in the dark.

First wives club? That is a 100% correct. Alright, Matt. If you're you're drawing a blank, then No. I'm gonna go with an easy one.

I'm gonna go with The Godfather. There you go. Something's gotta give. She's not in The Godfather part two, is she? She is.

Okay. I hate to be that guy, but she's also in the godfather part three, I think. Yeah. She a 100% is. Fuck shit.

I'm freezing. This happens. Right? It's like I'm trying to think of any Woody Allen, not the not Woody Harrelson, the great basketball player, but Woody Allen. The pervert.

Great pervert. I can't I I lost. I lost. I I think I would've I think I was done there. I was done too.

So Oh, okay. I was hoping that one of these two godfathers was gonna swing around to me. She wasn't in one of the meet the parents sequels, was she? I don't think so. Was she?

The reason I just feel like she Barbara Streisand. Oh. Yeah. It was Streisand. Okay.

Role she would have played. Yeah. Alright. I'm gonna light my cigarette here so I can get in my mode. I, Ben, this was also the time I saw this movie.

I don't know. Okay. Maybe before. We're in a pocket. Sorry that I was You're welcome, guys.

You're welcome. We're in a pocket. Oh, very confident. I had never seen this movie. I turned it on on Tubi for a moment and was frustrated with the visual presentation.

So went to Amazon's free streaming with commercials, and it looked pretty good Yeah. And was pretty happy with it from there. And, yeah, as a experience watching it today, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I That was tense. I really like the dialogue.

As a smart alecky little fucking gremlin person, of course I'm watching this person and watching him talk to people and feeling like there's a level of like, oh, I really I see myself. I relate to there's a level of fletch that I see. I see so many movies that clearly this movie touched that it that came after it. But I I really liked it for the most part, and that also considering something that I'm gonna say a little bit later because I think so much of it ends up hinging on it, but either way I'm going to give it four I'm gonna get a drum roll here. I'm gonna give it four boxes of brownie mix.

Did I make brownies right after I watched this movie? Yes. I did. And they're delicious. What kind of brownies?

The Dutch Dutch chocolate fudge. Not weed brownies. No. Not special. Not Yankee doodles.

No. Nothing dandy like that, baby. They're not even But I I give it a four. I I like the score. I like that it's like John Williams, like, with this little touch of funk and reworking this theme that weaves throughout, which was fun.

I like the smoking throughout and some of these noir tropes that run throughout it. It's a really good looking movie. It's a well performed movie. And especially considering, normally, this kind of stuff, I think, has to be written so tightly. In a lot of cases, the fact that clumps of things that are used are improv, that the actors were so tuned in that it's like the story is still progressing when these things are happening, and it feels really natural.

Like, knowing that that happened actually, kind of enhanced my enjoyment of it. Four. Okay. My turn. And then and then it'll be your turn, Matt.

Okay. That sounds That's how it works. Yeah. Okay. Cool.

I'll have a So, yeah, I watched this movie two nights ago. I watched it on Amazon. I agree that whatever they use, the digital dump over looks pretty good, which is is tough for seventies movies. It does not you know, it can't always transfer well. I I don't know if everyone knows.

I love noir. I I find noir to be a really fun genre to play in, like, all the way back to the Maltese Falcon. Like, I think, like, there's just so much fun cinematic tropes in noir to play with. And so going into this, it charred me at because I had always said Chinatown, which I almost did on the show, is the another movie by a pervert, is the LA noir. And and this, like, was blowing my mind a little bit knowing that this genre was kind of, established prior to that.

I think Chinatown is probably more regarded as an LA noir because, right, like, an LA noir contrast to a noir is, like, more, like, bright contrast sharp lines than, like, the dark shadow sharp lines. Mhmm. The thing I loves about I loved about this movie are the world building. Philip Marlowe is such a fucking great character, and Elliot Gould is incredible, just incredible in this and just living. And I think Robert Altman is just so confident in his actors to just let them live, which is a really and he does this in most everything he films.

Mhmm. But it's that that to me is a really strong, huge confidence booster for a director to be able to, like, just be comfortable with your actors just living. Mhmm. Fucking hate. The thing that pulled me back a little bit, which is what I'm get to, Matt, was the way that this log line is written is private eye Philip Marlowe helps friend Terry Lennox out of a jam and has implicated his wife Sylvia murder.

Plot a. He is also hired by Eileen Wade to locate her to Semenidic, Roger. Plot b. And they just kind of coincidentally happened to be connected. And that That I disagree.

I mean, sure. The you know, you have to kind of suspend your disbelief a little bit on some of these things. But I think having watched it now for, I think, the time for this podcast was and sorry to interrupt, but this is important, is, and I'm I'm gonna get the names mixed up. But the the woman who hires Philip Barlow, Aileen Aileen. Yeah.

Aileen. Wade. Yeah. Eileen Wade is having an affair with Terry. Right.

Right? And so Terry kills his wife, Sylvie. Leaves town. Yeah. Right?

And so Eileen is like, well, I gotta dip and go with this $350,000 that Terry stole, and I'm gonna go to Mexico and see be with them. And she thinks, well, who can help me accomplish this goal? And she's like, oh, Terry's Patsy friend who's like I see what you're saying. Kind of aloof. I wanna hire him Yeah.

Yeah. To to say that my husband and friend, my husband. Because all signs were pointing to the husband having killed Sylvia. Roger. I totally see what you're saying that it's not technically coincidental that it actually is, like, a purposeful choice by Yeah.

Yeah. I think the way sometimes, especially with, like, the subplot of the gang dude, the guy who loans money, like, sometimes it feels like these are two disconnected storylines. I hear you. Yeah. No.

I think they basically are until the finals, the end Yeah. In a way, which is is also, like, kind of this I feel like in noir, and I haven't watched a ton, but, like, in the old film noirs, there's, like, every scene had a new side story, and they all kind of came together at the end. And it's like, I actually bought this one much more than some of the other. I like And I think I'm I'm Yeah. I'm going out with Jerry on Wednesday, and then you hear about how that went at the end when he when, like, the detective finally how to go on Wednesday with Jerry.

Yeah. I mean, I think I'm Yeah. I get open and willing to to move and talk about this because I think you're already making great points, but I'll tell you what my rating was out of my viewing. Okay. And that was three and a half humping dogs because those dogs in Mexico are humping, and the camera guys are going at it.

I'm just gonna zoom in on this. Why not? Which They are going at it. I hate actors? I hated that they did that the two times I saw this movie.

And now I think there's a reason for it. Okay. Well, that's a good transition. What is your time watching this movie? How would you feel out of five?

And then your newest, most recent viewing, how do you feel about it? My viewing was a lot like, maybe eight or nine years ago probably. I a friend got really into LA noir, actually, and was like, I'd never seen any Altman, I don't think. And he was like, well, you have to see that long goodbye. And so I watched it, and I was like, I think similar to both of the what both of you said, I was like, man, Elliott Gould is fucking rocks.

Like, he's just so good. His Philip Marlowe is one of the coolest people on the face of the planet. And I didn't realize this viewing the time I watched it at least that I was like, oh, he's kind of naive he's kind of, like, just one step behind everybody this whole time, in a weird way and just being taken advantage of. He's, like, too trusting and all these things that, like, were very intentional in my opinion. But I didn't at I was just like, oh, he's just he's just awesome.

Like, he's just a cool LA private eye. Fucking Isn't that what he always says? Like, I'm cool with that. I'm good with that. Like I'm okay with that.

I'm okay with that. Yeah. And it's like, no, dude. You shouldn't be. Like, you know, but so I I I watched it with kind of that.

And then, obviously, there's the end, which is iconic, and he just, like, makes this very definitive move to kill his friend, you know, or former friend. That's right. Friend in quotes, Paul. Close to friends. Brought to us by a friend in quotes.

You could have at least washed the underwear Vote. I will not. And yeah. So I I loved it. I really liked it, but I don't know that I fully was like, oh, yeah.

There's a lot that went into that. You know? I was like, this is just a cool LA noir. You know? And I and I love Chinatown as well.

I do think it's probably the better movie, but it's also, like, Aldman has fun. Aldman just, like, making lots of jokes. You know? He clearly and he's making jokes until the jokes have worn have gone too far a little bit, and he's like, now I'm gonna show you something serious. And I think he's just really, really good at that.

At all. And so I thought it was a a good hang. Right? Rather than Chinatown, which I think is, like, a good movie. And I I I would probably would have given it three and a half or four.

Well, shoot. I don't have a thing. Three and a half or four. Damn it. Lot of pressure here.

Yeah. Well, I don't I don't have anything good. We're all judging. The Mexican coroners. I don't know.

Cornel Cornel? Cornals? What? Colonels? Yeah.

Cornals? This is the collection Yeah. Three and a half or four. Okay. And your fur you just watched this movie.

And I just watched it again. And how do you feel now? Solid four. Coming Maybe four and a half. Yeah.

Like, definitely a solid four. Would you say it's four and 4.25 if you could? Is that what you're saying? I'd say 4.25. To a decision.

Can I say that? We give two five. Corners. Your guess the grace rule. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. I and the humping dog. I mean I wanna hear the symbolism behind that. So okay.

There is keeps on turning, brother. I think there's a lot of symbolism in this movie that I In that accidental humping dog they filmed? Accidental. You think all You think they you think they forced those dogs to hump? That's that's why I asked, are they were those actors?

Were they I don't. I I think it was lucky. But Two little people and dachshunds. Clearly, dogs dogs e t. Or it's like the Werner Herzog quote.

He's like, I don't film nature. I direct it. Oh, no. I need you two to really I need you two to love you love each other. You two love each other.

That was it was nonconsensual. That dog. You saw. He he barked. Most nature sex is nonconsensual.

Keep going. That's fair. So, no, I think dogs and cats are clearly an important part of this film, and it's True. I love dogs, and I love cats. I'm not saying I believe this, but dog eat dog world.

And so this dog mounting and taking another dog is kind of what all the people in the movie are doing, is fucking each other over. They are actually Yeah. World keeps on turning. Yeah. World keeps on.

So, like, yeah, it's a little silly and all that, but, like, that's the moment when Elliott Gould should kinda Phil Marlow should kinda realize that's what's happening and doesn't. Right? It doesn't happen in the time he goes to Mexico? It's the time. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah? Well That's my argument. And I know it's not a it's not like No. I mean, you made a good point, though, that there are the running themes of the cat and the dogs in this through the movie.

I mean, the dog at at the house always trying to attack him because he's not a dog. He's not trying to eat other people. He's always thought of kind of as a cat, like an independent figure it out on your own, like Kinda meandering, wandering around, just like yeah. And the cat never comes back. And the cat never comes back.

Never comes back. I think it's time. We're at a three and a half, a four, and a 4.25. We should start the movie. Let's start the movie.

Star the movie. Star the movie. And now, our feature presentation. And most movies or most scripts and most of these things in terms of what we talk about here, you're kind of told for the most part when you're writing, like, don't start with somebody, like, waking up in the morning or doing something to get ready or what have you. And it's kinda great that he wakes up, he's asleep, he's in a suit, and he goes and does something kind of unexpected from waking up from sleep.

Like, the movie just to me immediately he's a guy with a cat. Like, it all feels a little offbeat, the neighbors you meet. It's all just a little skewed. Yeah. And I think what what I love about it, having read some of the fun facts before this most recent viewing is, like, the Altman, Rip Van Marlo vibe.

This is, in his mind, a guy who fell asleep in the forties or fifties and just woke up, and he's literally waking up in the shot of the movie. And then we see him with his cat who he's, like, strangely loyal to, and it's his companion. Loved it. It's so good. And I I don't feel like you get as as a male who loves cats, I don't feel like you get a lot of males who love cats and movies.

Yep. Agreed. It's just not a lot of representation for us. Keanu? Sure.

I mean, more recently, but not, like, you know, definitely not in the last, like, eighties, nineties. But I also loved I just oh, cat makes an appearance. Sand cat. I also just love the design. I don't and I'm of, like, finding that apartment location.

It's insane. Like Yeah. It's amazing. This, like, two suite like, two rooftop suites that are parted by a a bridge that goes to a elevator that goes to the top. So cool.

He just lives across from these hippie girls who just live topless across the street Yeah. Across the way. And it's it's it's never salacious. Like, he's never pursuing anything No. From them or anything like that.

They're just, like, doing their thing, and he's like he's like, yeah. I'm I'm cool with it. I'm not some great pervert or anything. And but, like, a lot of the people around him are obsessed with it. But he's just so aloof is the way that the movie tries to portray it.

But it's just like, he has things that it's like where it's I have way more important shit going on all the time, and they're doing their thing, and I'm okay with that. Like, it's unimportant. Yeah. I feel like them being neighbors is clearly like, he lives in this suit and tie black and white world, and they're like the modern LA at the time. Totally.

Yeah. Like, they're like they're the ones who are stoned all the time. They were, like, just floating through life a little bit post at the time, post Vietnam world. Like a job, ladies. And and and, like, the feminism movement had a Yeah.

Exactly. Burning bras. And I also wanna point out that he so he goes to the store because he has to get his cat the specific kind of cat food because it won't eat whatever, like, cottage cheese egg thing he creates. You know? Yeah.

It's some gross thing. That I'm like, why would a cat eat that? I wouldn't eat that. Listen up, man. You're gonna have to eat your grub if you wanna be a stud.

And I wanna point out as one of my favorite noirs and quotes is The Big Lebowski starts with the dude at the grocery store. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Dude, the Buying milk. Yeah.

When Cashing a cashing a check for $1.67 or Yeah. What what the hell is this, Marlo? I think. What the hell is this, Marlo? And it's like the brass shoe or whatever.

And he goes, a baby shoe. It's clearly a shout in Lebowski to the, what the hell is this? And he said, clearly, you're not a golfer. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

There's so many parallels to so many things. So many. Prom. Yeah. Between the parallels, like, I I'll caveat this by now by saying I haven't seen the full all of Inherent Vice.

I started it and I mean to finish it. But I found Paul Thomas Anderson loves Altman. I thought that too. Adore's Altman. Movie.

Yes. Yeah. And, obviously, Inherent Vice is based on a book, etcetera. But I was like, this feels like the long goodbye in a way. Yeah.

No. Actually, I was I'm glad you brought that up because I was thinking about PTA this whole time. Like, I was thinking about I thought about boogie nights at a couple points. Mhmm. Sure.

Liquorice Pizza I thought of and also, the one, the the one he did was Sandler. Oh, punch drunk love. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, I I wrote a list of movies that I was like, oh my god through this movie.

Yeah. Like, at many points. But I love that he has to get up at, like, three in the morning and these and just go get cat food for his cat, and he encounters that dude in the who works at the grocery store. And then sees him again in the jail. Yeah.

He sees him again in the jail. Good. But he comes back home, and this is when, like, the whole thing starts. And so I love that his night has already been disrupted, and he's seemingly okay with it. And now he's Yeah.

I just love that you brought up loyalty because I think that's such a great theme for him is I think that's, like at his fault. In this world I mean, look at, like okay. So the big sleep is Philip Marlowe. Right? Same character played by Humphrey Bogart in a traditional noir right after World War two.

And that's when, like, everyone was like, we trust our country. We trust the we trust each other. We're patriots. Here to get, yeah, patriotism. We're all in it together.

And the morality is this. This is right. This is wrong. Then you go to the seventies after Vietnam in LA, of all places, and you're like, no. Things are not black and white.

There's Hollywood. Yeah. Hollywood. Exactly. They end on that song.

Like, there's Start ending. There's there's women topless. They're not these, like, people who were you you can't show you don't have to hide sex on screen. All these things where he feels like he wakes up in this world that he doesn't understand, that is cynical So go back to the club. Not not a part of the black and white morality that he's used to, and he just starts sleepwalking through it.

And I think there's there's this so he in that scene, there's loyalty, and there's this weird time travel element just like, we out of time. Out of time. Yeah. Similar to kinda a guy now, and I'm talking about the dude here. Like, there's a guy in time.

But, like, Philip Marlowe's were saying, he just is like a vessel that can kind of exist at almost any point. Mhmm. You can almost say, like, he exists as the dude in the galaxy. Point because the dude Yeah. Literally comes straight out of the sixties or seventies and is in the night.

That's true. Well, and another layer to that that I didn't that's interesting is with Lee Brackett who wrote it, wrote the big sleep, right, with the Phil Marlowe from the forties. So she wrote that version. That's the one who saves the gal, the dame, and, like Yeah. All that stuff and wrote this version of The Long Goodbye.

And so in a way, she changed with the times too. And That's amazing. That's so crazy. It's very cool. I noticed too in this movie at this moment, we meet Terry who's been driving this Ferrari away from the scene of a a crime because his wife has been something's happened to her, and his face is cut.

The the right side of his face is cut like he got nails dragged across his face. And he meets with Marlo and Marlo's like, sure, I'll fucking take you to Tijuana even though you just told me, like, you beat your wife and It doesn't even ask him what happened. Questions asked. They're just like, that's what friends do. That's yeah.

Because he's, again, like a vessel. He's just kind of he's loyal to such a fault. Also, who shows up at, like so he woke up at three, went to the store. Let's say he got back at four, 04:15. So his friend shows up at five with a cup face.

Cocaine. Oh, yeah. His friend shows up at five in the morning with a cup face, and he's just like, what's up, dude? Like, welcome. Come in.

Like, I would I would I have a lot of questions. Yeah. Me too. A lot of questions. But he just drives him to Mexico.

But the thing they do is play this this game with their money. Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I was like, to to Elliot Gould's character, this is why this viewing was a game changer for me.

Seven. Yeah. They're like they're like playing this game, and everything is a game to Gould's Philip Marlowe. Like, there's nothing that's he's kind of an outsider for all the sinister shit that's going on. He to him, it's just like, I'll just amble through.

It's okay with me, man. You know, that kind of stuff. And for everyone else, it's kind of life or death, and that finally catches up with them, obviously. Everything is a game. Everything is not the game.

Right. I mean, it is everything kinda similar though to Michael Douglas Douglas in the game where everything was a game to him in the game. Yeah. It was a It was all the game. It was all of the game.

How you lunch tray if you could A la king. It had a good size He gets home and the cops are cops are there. Yeah. And, dude, I love the kinda the bowling ball echo that happens in in Big Lebowski with the shoe and those cops and how they push him into the other guy just to get them into an interrogation and, like, booking and just put him through hell. It's all just a bunch of trumped up bullshit.

Yeah. You know, I mean Fucking fascists? Yeah. You know, you can just arrest people now or kidnap them. I don't know.

Send them out of the country. It seems like an okay thing to do. El Salvador? Yeah. We might.

Who knows? Yeah. We should edit out all the the shit we've talked because Should we just all say is good. Trash. Gloriously.

It gets replaced by dear leader, and you know that. Yeah. When he gets booked and he gets interrogated, he's just always difficult no matter what. Like and I Well, he he combats systems, though. I feel like he doesn't Man v system for sure.

Yeah. And and this is, I think, an interesting part of this movie that is different from most noir, especially LA Noire Chinatown, which is, like, there isn't actually a large conglomerate thing that's being that he ends up taking down. Right? Like, in Chinatown, it's like the water's being stolen. Right?

So that's, like, the whole thing. But Who framed Roger Rabbit? In this, it's still very ways. Personal, and it's always kind of personal. It's kind of interpersonal between this, like, core group of folks.

The only thing you could say is maybe this, like, crime lord or, dude who likes to, like, work out and get punched in the stomach and take his Body. With the dude. Weirdest crime lord movie ever maybe. Like, maybe Gary Old man and, what you're, Leo? Professional?

Yeah. Yeah. I I have a a short list of movies that hit me while I was watching this, and I wanna know if either of you think I'm crazy. Basic that you're crazy is yes, but keep going. In this moment, in this subject, basic instinct.

Interesting. I didn't see that. I haven't seen it either. Okay. Kill me I've seen it.

I just didn't see that. Okay. Kill kill me again. I haven't seen it. With Val Kilmer and Joanne Whaley.

12 monkeys? What what Yeah. How did 12 monkeys come into it? When when they're in the hospital, I get little pieces of 12 monkeys and Ace Ventura. Interesting.

Ace Ventura, I could possibly see actually. Ace Ventura is kind of a noir movie in a way. Yeah. That's true. So I got that I got bat the Batman from '89.

Like, Shane Black clearly loves this movie. Like, Nice Guys and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I think those are the more clear ones. I mean, those are LA noirs, basically. Yeah.

Exactly. But I just so much stuff. So much. I almost did Nice Guys for my seventies pick because it's set in the seventies. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Great movie. What I what I was blown away by in that interrogation scene is, like, how does it feel so fucking improvised? I mean, I don't think it was.

I mean, maybe it was. Mhmm. But, like, the whole movie, Altman's just so good at that. Like, he just they just feel like they're riffing. Yeah.

I mean, he just interrogation, which is, like, supposed to be the most tense, like, standoff moment, and they're just, like, having fun riffing. It's so crazy. Just speaking of Altman in general, like, it's crazy to me because he kinda does things that are universally taught, like, not to do Mhmm. Which is, like, having background, just having full conversations. You know?

And they're clearly just being picked up probably by the boom or the lav mics of the the, like, leads. Yeah. But it's incredible because it feels real. You're just watching this, like, I think when it's like, when he's leaving the police station, and there's just conversations happening, but you're not distracted enough by them to, like, still pick out the dialogue that you want to hear. It it does I I don't know.

I just it it is a it is a feat to me. It doesn't so crazy that he can pull it off too. Like, you say it's it's you were talking about world building. I mean, that's what he's doing in a way. It's, like, creating this world.

Like, there's there's lives happening all around us. Right? And that's, like, crazy that he can do that without it feeling overwhelming. And now it's what, you know, the Safdie brothers, like, that's, like, their hobby. You know?

So, like, it's a thing now. And, like Cut jams. Yeah. I'm a big fan of Uncut Gems. Uncut Gems.

How's Josh Sashday Smears for Uncut Gems? I think Good Times, I liked more, though. They're both great. I disagree with you, but they're I mean, they're both great if we have to weigh them against each other. Although, Elliot Gould does give me Eric Bogosian vibes if we're talking about Yeah.

Uncut Gems. I feel that. This was the movie too for me where I was like, oh, the Elliot Gould, like, movie star thing that has occurred in time that I was very alive for in my mid early fifties. But, like, this was the movie that has now stamped it for me where it's like, oh, I get it. The movie's stardom.

He wasn't just, Ross and Monica's dad? No. I He wasn't just the old guy who funded Danny Ocean in the Yeah. And speaking of friends, I let them borrow some underwear that I need back. Was it yellow?

Were they clothes front? Was it was it German underwear or Austrian underwear? They were. We were at a wedding of another friend, our friend Rachel. Did they have a mustache?

Who Yeah. It was drawn on. Who wants a mustache, Ryan? So the cellmate thing too that happens while Elliot Gould's in jail for a few days. Yeah.

The cellmate thing that happens where he's just like, people are in here for some fucking, like, marijuana, bro. And, like, again, like, background people saying and doing things that just carry weight or, like, move the story. And it it's a I get Elliott Gould with the, hey, man. I'm okay with it kinda opportunities for this attitude toward everything all the time. The line that I loved was when he was leaving.

He was like, just remember, you're you're not in here. You're only your body is. Yeah. Just the You can't break your spirit, man. That's fucking like break your spirit.

He he he's kind of unflappable until until and I this is spoilers, but until he starts, like, realizing that the people that he trusted aren't trustworthy. Well, because he thinks now Terry's dead by suicide. Yeah. And he's devastated. I feel like he knows there is something suspicious around that, but he doesn't know what that is.

There's gotta be a reason he doesn't react as strongly as you would think. Right? Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah.

But I just, like, Terry's too much of a narcissist, too vain. He knows he would never do that. Like, I don't know. The thing that he says unequivocally is, like, I know Terry he wouldn't kill his wife. And I think, like, that's his biggest fault is he's not 100%.

He's not going to see past his own loyalty Yeah. Yeah. Which Matt brought up, which I think is a great point. But then we get into the Eileen stuff. Right?

Yeah. I was gonna jump ahead just but I won't. You can. We we don't know. Just curious, like, what what point does he realize that people are, I don't feel like it's still very late.

It's not. I don't think it is either. Yeah. Because even with Eileen, I think he thinks they have, like, a connection. Totally.

Oh, absolutely. And that's what the audience thinks too, I think. Right? Yeah. But there's there's a few a few moments where, like, he follows, what's his name?

The the Arnie's boss. Arnie. Marty. James Cameron. James Cameron.

I'll get you your undies back. Alright? You'll get him back, Arnie. He follows Marty to Eileen's house, and that's why he's like, oh, shit. This is I shouldn't be so trusting.

But then I love the way they handle the dinner where Wade kills himself, basically. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Right before that and this is my favorite part of the movie probably, and forgive me for jumping so far ahead. It's alright.

Wade and Eileen are having a conversation. And just like we we have been the whole movie, we're just like voyeurs and Elliot Gould's off doing his thing. And we're just spying on these people in an intimate emotional moment that's actually important. And then we see the reflection, and Elliot Gould's just playing with the waves. You know?

It's just so to me, it's like this private eye is not even he's just on the outside playing games. Yeah. And then Mhmm. Ten minutes later, those same waves are taking the life of someone who's vital to this case. Right?

So it's like, oh, no. Elliot Gould is playing games with these waves. Now one of the main characters is getting killed by them, and every shifts to me. I just love that that whole sequence. I get that.

The one of my favorite things about this movie, doctor Burling Beringer thing where Wade's in the hospital From the burbs. Yep. From the burbs. My brother The talk doctor. Have you seen the burbs, Matt?

Mm-mm. The whole Do yourself a favor. I know. It's been on my list. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a really one of those really wonderful, like, Hank's early gems. But the Behringer thing and the the money and Marlo following and and what how is this part of this whole cover up? Because for me, one of the really big dead giveaways in the movie outside of the cut on his face and the hit on her face, on missus Wade's face where it's like, oh, they must have done this to each other. Because I start to put this together kind of more so here where she set mentions that Terry was her friend and then kinda backtracks it.

Yeah. And it's like, oh, well, clearly, this lady is like this guy's getting wrapped up in something. Totally. Wait. But how does the the scratch, I do think, came from His wife.

From his wife. And then Probably did. And Wade and Wade hit Aileen. No. I thought I thought maybe they even hit each other.

Like, I Yeah. I I wasn't sure if this was part of the whole cook up. But I think that's a But I was suspicious already. I will I think there's You gotta be. There is suspicion in Laid, but I think a credit to the film or the store the script is that she talks about Roger being drunk and hitting her.

So Right. She gives you that already. Totally. Totally. But she also, like, I think was probably trying to lay lay hints that he could be a murderer too.

Like, was trying to help Robert. She was try this was her way to make sure she could bring him in, like, using the sympathy piece. I think that's actually another credit to the script that her framing of Roger worked on me. Like, I Shine every time. Yeah.

I could see. Yeah. And and, like, the way they give us Roger who's like this, like, Hemingway esque character. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this is kind of his introduction of being Miserable drunk. And this is at a time where it was, like, did they have they didn't have anything called alcoholism.

Right? People because everyone It's just called your diet. I was cigarette and coffee morning. He, like, checks into, like, a yeah. I mean, like, Winston Churchill woke up drinking champagne.

Yeah. I, I can tell you this for a while. Did. The secret of success. But he's checked into, like, a mental hospital for alcoholism?

Is that Yeah. Or Yeah. Something along those lines. But Oh, what was the log line you read, Paul? Oh, dip Go out.

Dip somaniac. Dip somaniac. Yeah. I just get this feeling. This was part of the mystery for me at this moment where I'm like, who killed the wife?

Was it mister Wade, missus Wade, Terry, a combination of these people? That was my main thought at this point. I because I'm thinking Terry's alive. He's waiting for missus Wade. He's waiting for eyelashes.

I did not see I I did not think that. I was I I didn't I mean, I didn't either, honestly. Yeah. I was behind on that. I thought that maybe I mean, they do a good job of, like, giving you so many different angles.

I just got finished watching, White Lotus, right, which Yeah. Right. Also does a pretty good job of, like, giving you, like, you know someone's going to die. And then it gives you, like, seven different directions, and you're like, oh, which one am I following? And this movie does a good job of keeping you on your toes, to for me at least.

Well, this the part that really keeps me on my toes, I think a little bit more is the stuff with Marty because he's such a fucking wild card. Because when we meet him and they tear the apartment apart and he's saying all this crazy shit, the tension is building. Mhmm. Because through this character, you can even feel it through Elliot Gould's performance a little bit. And it it it works in the writing.

The execution is so hard to watch. But where he busts that coke bottle over poor Joanne's face. And this is the person I'm more so worried about doing damage or being evil. And I'm still super interested in all storylines, but I'm interested in this Marty thing and following Marty with Marlo. I I'm definitely on board with this.

The thing about the character too is that he is, for the most part, it seems like he is always on the quest for truth, which I know, like, that is, like, the iconic thing of detectives. But I don't know. There's something in Gold's performance where you truly believe, like, he's not going to go back to bed. He's not going to go back to sleep with his cat, which he doesn't get back with. Maybe that's what looking for the cat is, looking for the truth.

I mean, yeah. I mean, kind of. Right? Because that's how it starts, and he never I wish we got a bookend of the cat coming back, but I get why we don't. Yeah.

It's important. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's very important that the cat does not return. Although, I believe that cat's happy and healthy and Oh, totally. Somebody took someone else's apartment who's feeding them curry He's probably with the exactly what he wants. He's with the yoga women. He's just playing out with the They probably just took him in.

They didn't even know it was his last day when he when he goes over there, and he's like, hey. My cat's been missing. If you see it, can you let it come in? No. They're not even there.

Yeah. It's kinda like They're not yeah. It's okay with me. It's okay with me. The Wade's talk about all their problems and Roger's drinking, and I'm like, oh, man.

Somebody please. They They're trying to she's trying to talk this guy into suicide. There's a level of that HBO documentary girl like, yeah, do it. Yeah, sure. Which part?

Sorry. Where mister and missus Wade are talking at different points in private, and you just get the I get the feeling that she Oh, yeah. Yeah. Pushing him closer to an edge. I felt she I felt like she was trying to and this is, like, back to that reflection moment I was talking about where I I felt he was trying to get him to hit her and have Elliott Gould see it to more suspect her, and he didn't take the bait.

And, also, Elliott too. Was was playing tag with the waves. So when she's the the thing that I didn't get until later was that she was playing him the whole time. Oh, 100%. Yeah.

And then I'd come to a new lie after she's like, oh, my he's dead. Now I have a new thing. Yeah. He killed her. Yeah.

So, yeah, I can just tell you. I think I I, like Philip, was thinking with my dingus and was like, oh, she wants to bone him. Yeah. And clearly, she was I thought she was like Elsa and Indiana Jones in the last group. Like, talk to your sleep.

Like, I always thought that she was using her Zold us to be your daughter, your granddaughter. Sensuality and using her sympathetic nature and whatnot to manipulate this, like, poor fucking schlub. And when Roger and Marlo are talking, and they're talking about Terry and the things that happened, and the murder and who was maybe sleeping with who. And I love that the the movie does go, like, really deep, twists and turns. Like, it's all very satisfying.

Mhmm. It doesn't feel like, yeah, it doesn't feel like it's trying to just yank us around. It feels like it actually is following something that feels true. Feels true. It feels like the way that the character would follow this Mhmm.

Story. And I think this is, again, an a credit to Altman, which he does really well, which is immerse us into the world more with every shot. And I feel like he is one of those directors where and I don't think a lot of directors do this much anymore, but some do where they're like, this shot is this way because I need the audience to feel this specific Oh, yeah. Way. And one of the big things he did in this, and it works, is constant camera movement.

You know, I know he's known for that. Read my mind. Always moving. The zooms are constant, and it's really making us feel two things. One, disoriented just like Marlo or, yeah, Marlo should Mhmm.

And and probably does, and making us feel kinda like voyeurs in these private lives, which also is what Marlo is doing. But it's constantly moving. Yeah. It is. It it feels like it's never still, and it feels like it even picks up more after he gets the $5,000 bill and goes to Mexico Yep.

Like arrested development style. And they're like On the spares? Yeah. Exactly. You're gonna get some hop ons.

You will get some hop ons. Well, and it becomes even a little more, like, frantic, and we were talking about the movement. And and when Baringer comes back to the Wade's beach party and Gould's back in after seeing not Terry's dead body, do they show him the dead body? They show him a photo. They show him a photo, but it's like It's a little They faked it all and it's Well, they say later, like, they shot in a way that made it look like I don't know.

Yeah. Who did they kill? You know, that's like Right. A drifter? Well, it was a friend of mine, and he didn't he didn't wanna borrow my underwear.

And look how he ended up. White men can't jump. That's like blood simple where they, like, Yeah. You could feel use some photo manipulation. Yeah.

But the the beach party that they have, Elliot Gould's back and Wade is like, I talks in a sleep. I know you wanna fuck my wife. He's been doing this most of the movie, but still lets Marlo hang around and Baringer shows up demanding his money for this treatment at the Ace Ventura fis football facility hut too. And he fuck Let's see that again in his And it works. His rib room.

And it works. Yep. And he slaps him in the face in front of his friends and or family. And it but that's what's crazy. Isn't it worth Effective.

You're like, yeah. That guy could not be a fucking murderer. He just got slapped by someone who's about foot shorter than him. Yeah. Agree.

And just gave into it. He also told him that that dude owed him money? No. No. He told him Marty mobster owes him Oh, Marty Marty owed him money.

Yeah. Clearly, Wade, that guy could not kill anybody. I mean, that's why I was like I felt like he was a Hemingway character. Like Totally. Agreed.

Blossom's cups which is completely, like, void to the world, really. Totally. Did he beat his wife? I don't know. I I was convinced.

Have you guys seen Barton Fink? Oh, yeah. Oh, not a long time. But yeah. But there's the drunk author, and they it's a spoiler for Barton Fink, but it's 40 years old.

Yeah. At this point. Wow. That's really old. I'm only born 13.

Maybe 30 years old or something, but I don't know. Cool. That's awesome. I'm I'm Leonardo Caprio. That makes me sick.

I feel seasick. I feel I feel like I'm never gonna get out of the sea here. Shit. We were just talking about this. Barton Fink and some other stuff about this movie, fancy dinner drunk people.

But the, that was part of the reason why I thought that Terry and Eileen staged this together because there are she tries to get him to hit her a couple different times. And you just got the whole movie. But, like, and he won't and he won't do it. And, Matt, you make such a great point where it's, like, he wouldn't clearly, he's not gonna kill somebody. He just got slapped in the face by this small man.

Like, he he doesn't snap with, like, these fits of rage. It doesn't seem like Well, it's also like level of control he's two in his cups. Like yeah. But then the movie's credits, so that happens. Right?

You think, okay. He is obviously not a killer. He's just got slapped into his place by someone shorter than smaller than him that he could easily beat up. Right? Yeah.

Then when he dies, Elliot Gould is like, oh, he paid doctor Varinger $5,000 for an alibi. And so then you're like, as the audience, you're like, oh, maybe he didn't fight back when he got slapped because then Varinger would give up the fact that he wasn't there and actually killed his wife. And so, like, you're like I'd already I'd already figured it all out, though, Matt. Yeah. But you're so smart.

We're not. Yeah. Smart? I was finishing a Rubik's cube, and I was curing various forms of cancer while He was on Jeopardy. This movie.

Yeah. People borrow my underwear. They ask. Close friends? Close friends?

The fancy dinner that she makes him again to, like, butter him up, I think, and make him feel special. That's the thing I guess I didn't get as much is there's so much of her using her status that I didn't get as much towards talking about it. Or I think she's gonna get laid maybe, and it's like Sure that. Yep. The sexuality for sure.

Wife who's, you know, at the end of a rope. But I think the movie, again, wants the insurance money. Does a good job of burying the lead in terms of, like, big sleep or, you know, classic noir, multi fucking, like, the femme fatale is very clear. Totally. Mhmm.

And this is not yeah. That's a good point. It's not clear. And I think, like Yeah. I do like that subversion.

That's great. Yeah. I think it's a really, yeah, it's a really great Yeah. You don't think there is one. You think Yeah.

I mean, it doesn't it doesn't display it in the way that most noirs do. That's a really good point. Yeah. I like that. It feels very intimate, like, very soft, very friendly a lot of the time between the two of them.

I think that's it feels very delicate. That's why the days seventies. I mean, it feels Yeah. That's a good really good point. And so Roger will transition now to Roger's like, well, I'm out of here and just walks into the fucking ocean.

And there's that juxtaposition of how Hey. No one. You know, this is all just fun and games. He can play with the powers of life and death, Marlow, to a degree because he doesn't really acknowledge or respect him. There's, I mean, there's just something about being, like, naive Bang.

And call, like, ignorant to this. Right? Yeah. Absolutely. And there's a search big search for Roger, and this is where Sylvia accuses she takes the stab, the scream series stab of my husband killed Sylvia.

They were fucking each other, and he killed Sylvia Lennox. It was totally him. It's a good it's a good pitch. And Marlo is trying frantically to get things moving again on this case for Terry. He is fully in her palm hand.

Yeah. And he yeah. In my And he's trying to be the good guy. Right? Like, he's trying to be the Oh, yeah.

Classic knight and shine like, the Her husband beats you, but I'm gonna be the nice guy. Like, yeah. Leave her alone. She's a oh, she's in distress. Like, he doesn't you know, that's the general vibe.

I didn't think of honestly, there's so much of it feels like the status piece that I really didn't feel like it. Like, he's been Tomcatting or whatnot, and he feel like, there's a level of, like, I like this lady. I like this place. I like this. This is I like this.

He's a cat. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't think about that. I mean, it's it's kinda great.

She is definitely using her status too. Because, I mean, once that like, once the dude is dead and, like, the case is seemingly wrapped up, she I've never had a meal this fancy. He even says it. Like a fancy feast? Meow.

He's like, I've never had a he starts cleaning himself like this. But she he seems to be willing to wrap this up that case up. Oh, yeah. And then he, like, walks into the crime lord's place without any sort of Yeah. Was there not really a attraction there?

He walks into his place, and they're waiting. Right? I thought okay. Doesn't he oh, yeah. They take him into a meeting.

They forcibly take him into a meeting. But but he somehow sets it up with the police because don't they police show up? No. Wait. Are you talking about the Arnie scene?

Yeah. Because they he'll have to leave after the extra naked. No. They leave because they got the $350,000. Yeah.

Eileen dropped it off. So I think Oh, okay. Yeah. So they're in this they they Eileen got insurance money. That was insurance money, I think.

Well, then at the end, which the end We're almost there. To come forward, baby. End, when he finally sees Terry again, who's, woah, alive. Right? Yeah.

Is Sylvia or, Eileen is richer than Sylvia and I ever could be. So I think what she just had it. So Terry stole $350,000 from this crime boss. Right? Yep.

Went to Mexico, left Elliot Gould to get fucked over with it. Right? Even send him $5,000 that would seal the deal and or just as a tip, one or the other. So then they're they're arguing they're, like, confronting them, and they're naked, which is something we should talk about. So weird.

It's so weird. It's so strange. It's so weird. That's, like, what takes it from a five star movie. But, anyway Like, I I love it.

I love it. And the $350,000 is there, so the crime lord, Marty is like, oh, you're good. You were telling the truth all along. Someone just dropped this money off. And I think Eileen dropped it off because she's like, we don't need this anymore.

Like, let's just this guy's gonna keep looking for Terry. Let's just give the money so he stops looking. I'm gonna go out to Mexico and live my life. Oh, okay. It's even said Sterling Hayden's like she's like, I'll divorce you and they're arguing about divorce I think because she doesn't wanna give money up.

And again, it's like this is part of why she's pushing Yeah. Exactly. Him to more, you know, drunk in Nick Cage insanity. Yeah. She wants the money from both of them for sure.

Essentially. Her and her husband. She wants to have all the money good in Correct. And the insurance money. But their plan so their plan was to have I think the original plan was to set Wade up for murder.

And then he's in prison. They have $350,000 down in Mexico. They can live Oh. Good. But once Wade dies, she's like, well, now I have a lot more than $350,000.

Let's just get everyone off our case, drop the money off. That makes more sense. Well, the divorce would have cost her a fortune. She wasn't planning on him killing himself. She might not plan no.

She wanted him to She wanted him to. I think she didn't want him to I think she planned on him going getting set getting, Institutionalized? Charged with the murder. Or charged with the murder. Yeah.

Or putting a person in that Philip Marlowe would Yeah. She wanted Philip Marlowe to figure to Okay. And Philip Marlowe loves Terry, remember, and is fiercely loyal. Right. So she's like, he's gonna side with that.

So she kidnapped yourself, man. Oh, fucking hell. Yes. Correct. I will not abide another toe.

This gold bricking, I've seen Speaking of a gold brick. Finals in my dude. My dude. Gold bricking son of a bitch. But go Schwarzenegger in the gold underwear and everybody's stripping naked.

This is part of why I love the Marty piece of this. The tension or, like, what the fuck is potentially gonna happen with this coke head, like, doing whatever, and it's massively entertaining and feels like it is part of the world still as you guys have been talking more about world building at times. That one, to me, like, that's what it's taken me out of it. All the Marty scenes don't take me they don't take me No. You're fine.

They're fun, and they're weird, and they're very Altman. Right? Because, like, he is just likes weird characters, and he likes Sure. This absurdism to a degree. But I'm like, his whole when he the scene we talked about is where he cuts the girl's face.

Like, that was his way of intimidating the guy who he didn't cut. You know? It's like, just cut his finger off or something. You know? Later on romance scene with Gary Old man.

Later on, he says to another guy, cut this guy. He doesn't wanna do it himself. And he's willing to hit this woman that well, and it is. I agree. And this whole thing where he brings her back in and sits her down, me as an audience member, I'm like, what the fuck is gonna happen?

And then it ends up just being this weird thing where it's like, why are all these guys what is this about? Like, why does everyone have to how is this apologetic to whom? It just seems like a fucking crate. It's like boogie nights where he's like, yeah. That's Cosmo.

He's Chinese and he's popping firecrackers. It's not on that same level, but it's like, oh, this, like, brushes up against that for me. That is at least drug induced. Right? Like, you know that it's like these people are I I assume Marty chips cocaine, but that's why assumption.

That's me assuming. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

Yeah. No. I assume so too. But it's also very, like, why what is what does he hope to accomplish with each of these things he does? Yeah.

I don't know. In in his one, really to intimidate. He's like, that's someone I love, and I don't even like you. So imagine what I'll do. It's brutal.

It's so brutal. It's also There's also Brian De Palma shot. It's It is. Ugh. Yeah.

But there's also a theme of violence to women throughout. Right? Which is Yeah. Kind of part of the genre. Like, noir is usually Yeah.

It has to do with a dead woman. I guess that's also sort of power dynamics between individual. Right? Like, that's where Yeah. Philip Marlowe in this version is not attuned to those power dynamics.

Right? He's just like He's not. Right or wrong. Right, guys? You know?

Let's Yeah. It's all okay. It's okay with me. But he also seems very, very anti violence to women. Like, it seems, like, baked into his character.

Like, if someone does speak to women, he's gonna fucking kill them. And he does. It's time. Like, spoiler. Take out the trash.

He goes and fucking kills his friends without, like, any real conversation in the Yeah. What'd you guys think of the ending? I loved it. I love that he gets hit by a car. It's brutal.

I love that he goes back to Mexico Tiny harmonica together. Tiny harmonica was awesome. Harmonica Yeah. From the dude. And this is the thing.

Even though I knew everything that happened, I'm I put it all together. I knew. I put it all together. The immediacy and the brutality in which he shoots Terry where he's just like, dude That's why it's so iconic. You are cartoon level evil.

Like, what you did is so unimaginably horrible. Yeah. And you're already dead. This is Ashley Judd, like double jeopardy territory. I'm just gonna blow you away, Bruce Greenwood.

Fuck it. I didn't do anything. I don't care. I like that a lot. I love it.

I mean, it's also the I think it's like the time he kill my husband. The time he makes a real decision in a weird way. Like, it's the time he's, like, just meandering, wandering, and beyond. No. Totally.

I'm okay with it. And he just, like, does it the guy says, this is you're you're a fucking loser or whatever he says. Right? You're always gonna be Born loser. Or born loser, and then he shoots him in the future.

It's great. No. I I've decided who I am. His facade, like, starts really starts to break down when he realized JCPenney tie and everything. Truly he was truly got.

And, like, his Yeah. Feel like he as a person, I feel like he has a really strong wall of believes believeies. He is Well, and he's always the smartest guy in the room. But I don't know if but the Well, nobody's not. He thinks he is.

He thinks he is. And it's right it's right if you ask him. Well, I don't know about Smartis, but he thinks he has the moral code down, and he and I think he Mhmm. Yeah. And this and he finally realizes that there is no moral code.

Things are all fucked up, and people are out for themselves, and things are not, like, gray. And And fuck you. And then fuck you. So I'm it's actually a really depressing ending if you put it that way. Like, he's, like, broken by the world a little bit.

She Yeah. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. He, I think, even knows as Aileen goes by him in a Jeep to go reunite with Terry, and he sees her and just does not break stride.

Fucking by. I love it. He's just like, I'm over I'm over being part of being used by these fucking people. I'm done. Dances with a rando.

It's great. I I I don't know if I understand why he does that. Like, he's still the same guy, but also cynical. I mean, I think, like, to me, it was he got to the truth, which for me, the character is constantly just trying. It's not about winning to him.

I feel like it's finding truth. Yeah. But I think Same difference to me, but I yeah. I know what you're saying. The moment he shoots Terry, though, you can tell he's a little bit it's the one time he's, like, clear eyed in a way, but in a negative way.

Like, he doesn't seem happy about it. Yeah. There's a little disappointment. Have to do this because this guy's a monster, and I hate that there are monsters. Feels like.

Yep. And so I'm always you know, this is the time I've seen it. I'm always like, oh, he shoots Terry. He's like, this guy's a monster. Gotta get rid of him.

I've made a decision. He walks by Eileen. He's like, she's complicit. She's a monster. I made a decision.

And then he keeps walking and dances with the old lady. And I'm like, every time he dances with the old lady, I'm like, wait. What? Why did he do that again? That.

Yeah. I mean, I liked it too, but I wonder if that was a improv improvisation. I I don't think it's Let's do some improvising. Dancing. Oh, funny guy.

I'm like, I don't know. I'm sure I mean, to me, I think the character just not looking at her as she passes feels like a purposeful choice. Right? Yes. Like, he's making the choice of being like, oh, you thought you got me, but I got you.

Yeah. Again, like, not about winning, but, like like, in the end, actually being the smartest, like, figuring it all out. I don't know, like, a verification. But Because she she had played him. And I think Yeah.

A 100%. I think there there is a little bit of I I agree what you're saying, Matt, where it's like, yeah, he was, like, emotionally fucked up because he has to kill this dude, and he didn't want to, but fuck. This guy sucks. He doesn't wanna kill anybody. Yeah.

Yeah. But maybe it's something Especially not him. Right. Maybe it's maybe it's too that he's, like to give the viewer a little hope too. Right?

Like, there is this k. He got broken by the world. There it's a cynical world. This is modern. This isn't 1946.

This is 1972 or whatever it is. Like, we're we're a little more cynical and in in for ourselves and not trusting. So maybe it's just the viewer. That's how it ends. And then, actually, no.

Philip Marlowe is still gonna be charming, and he's gonna be okay. Maybe that's what it's saying. It's a movie that I hate the ending to is Mel Gibson's Braveheart, where this guy's getting his intestines ripped out and being tortured and yells very clearly, freedom, which I think he's just telling us here's some freedom, I think. I don't know. But in this movie, it makes sense to me that he to this random lady, he has this lightness, like, oh, this is this is over.

Yeah. I I I feel free of this. I'm probably thinking Then you put it in a good way where it's like, you thought you got one over on me, and I got one over on you by just having this not this is done. Yeah. Yeah.

And on that note, that's it. That's the movie. Good night, everybody. See you later. No, friend.

Come back. You borrowed my underwear. I can't leave. I'll give it back to you. I'm I I swear.

Yeah. Real friend. We all switched underwear throughout this. I'm just like I'm not getting it back. Just like in White Lotus.

The brothers. White Lotus. Spoilers. Need to support my boys. Okay.

So we've just talked about this movie ad nauseum. We're gonna go around the horn. I believe we started with Paul and see if anyone's ratings have changed. Paul? Mine has not.

Okay. I really enjoyed talking about this movie. I'm gonna wanna watch this movie again. We all hit little things, I think, like, where I had realizations when people were speaking yada yada yada of things that maybe I didn't appreciate or notice or things that I was like, oh, maybe I I ended up just coming back to that even four. I also wanna say, Matt, that I really love when you mentioned the thing about the camera constantly moving.

It just felt like this movie was always kinda moving and shaking like it had that's where part of the LA feel comes from. I feel for me is how kinetic the movie is. But, I still wanna stick with the four. I I really like the weird Marty shit, and I like the way that the story kind of logically, in a way, kind of unpacks. It's very satisfying.

Four boxes of brownie mix. I came in at three and a half, and I'm going to move up Yeah. To a four I'm going to go go to four dogs humping. You know, I think I was already talking you guys were talking me up at the beginning, but I didn't wanna I didn't wanna, you know, I don't wanna get there too fast. We gotta have some suspense in this.

Let it burn. Yeah. I gotta let that cigarette burn all the way down and then light another one. Yeah. But I do I I think that, like, this was a nice surprise, and I'm really happy you brought this to me because of my love for the genre and how this movie kinda picks it apart and how Elliot Gold really, really carries this movie through.

And it's fascinating that the screenwriter was part of the big sleep, you know, like, fascinating to me. So, anyway, I'm gonna go to four dogs humping. I wanna watch the big sleep. I don't think I've ever seen it. And, Matthew, you were saying how this is, like, this is, like, kind of a sequel almost where it's, like, character wakes up and here we are, like but, almost like a continuation.

However you wanna interpret it. That's how they looked at it. Yeah. I mean, I so I watched the big sleep last week because I was curious. Yeah.

I was curious. And it is weird. It's good. I mean, it's like classic noir, like Humphrey Bogart, charming as fuck, femme fatale, all of that stuff. It is one of the most confusing movies I've ever watched as far as the plot goes.

And Yeah. I I don't think I'm alone in that. I hope. Or No. Just I mean, Paul, you'll know the the outcome of good.

Yeah. But, I already know. I haven't seen wrote it. Wrote it. I'll I'll tell you what happened up, Mike.

Yeah. Yeah. My me and my grandson wrote it. But, Great grandson. I think it's cool.

I think it's also, like yeah. It's fun to to see in comparison to this Phil this Elliot Gould's Phil Marlowe, which is so different. Anyway, my rating is probably I'm glad yours changed, Ben. I will say that because 3.5 was too low. But I think mine stays a a 4.25, solid 4.25.

Okay. Great. Mexican corners. And the only reason it's not a five, honestly, is because there's a little bit too much of the too much slapstick stuff thrown in there. Oh, okay.

I like it. I have fun with it, but it takes me I don't know. It takes me out of it a bit too. I like the nitty gritty stuff. I love that you're saying that because it's like, if I could give it a 4.25 for some of that stuff, I would give it.

I can't do grace rule because I like how it gets, like, just kind of off the wall. I know I've said this a lot, but it's like I'm waiting for bounty hunter, name of ice to show up in the scenes in Mexico when go full Arrested Development and Arrested Development happened much later. But It's more like the when the when Harry is following Phil Marlowe and hangs onto the fence. And Yeah. I'm like, okay.

Funny. Great bit. But, like, not I don't know. It doesn't feel like Yeah. The movie that we I've been promised.

You know what I mean? At the beginning of the movie, there should have been a disclaimer that said the filmmakers involved in this film were microdosing, etcetera. And, like, there would have been a level of, oh, okay. Well, you can just assume every movie in the seventies, people were That's fair. Macrodosing.

But in those days, the potency wasn't as high as we have now. Matt, thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm so glad that we finally got you on here and Such a pleasure. That you Thanks for having me. Brought me this movie.

Anything we missed? Anything you would like to plug? Anything you like to say before we go? Thanks for having me. If you haven't seen The Long Goodbye, please see it.

It's awesome. And also see other Altman movies like McCabe and missus Miller or Paul. It's true. Yeah. The player for those who haven't seen it is we're talking about the movement.

Paul, do you like the player more? Do you like the player more than long goodbye? I I the player is a pretty solid four and a half for me. I like that movie a lot. I saw it in the theater about a year ago ish and was just absolutely blown away.

I loved it. Interesting. Okay. Longabais is probably number three on the Altman for me. Okay.

Number two, another Elliott Gould vehicle, California split. I have not seen it. Saw it on Fox. Wanted wanna watch that as well. Yeah.

Anyway, thank you so much, guys. Super fun to talk about an old movie. Absolutely. People, our music, our bookend music, our themes are by Jamie Henwood. Follow Jamie Henwood on Spotify.

That's a great idea. Our themes for what you've been doing, what are we watching are Matthew Foskett. Our interstitials are Benjamin McFadden, and our fun facts theme is Chris Olds. Thanks so much for listening. We really fucking people.

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