FLICK'N'BEANS

EP 120: ZODIAC - Love a Good Cipher, Hate a Giant Bowtie

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Good Morning!!!!!

Yayyyy! Alyssa's back to guest host this week! Listen in as we discuss the movie Zodiac - the still unsolved case of the Zodiac Killer. Yes, yes it does star our respective heartthrobs - Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo, so that's something nice to look at at least, if you can stand the plaid blazers. 

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Bridget:

Good morning.

Alyssa:

Hi. Good morning. I'm Bridget and this is Alyssa. And this is Flickin Beans.

Bridget:

Welcome back.

Alyssa:

Thank you very much. I'm happy to be back.

Bridget:

You brought beans, but not the kind we're used to.

Alyssa:

That's right. I brought the musical fruit beans. This week's beans are the great northern beans, I believe.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Alyssa:

Friend of mine made some white chicken chili and he brags about it all the time and offered me some. I took him up on it. And I knew that since you were on your chicken journey, you're getting back into the meat, that maybe you would like to try it. And we did. It was really delicious.

Bridget:

Why do they call the beans great?

Alyssa:

Because they're not. Not great.

Bridget:

I don't know.

Alyssa:

They're maybe cuz they're big.

Bridget:

Where is the great North?

Alyssa:

Up there. Maybe Canadia.

Bridget:

Oh, that's why they have no color. Cuz there's.

Alyssa:

That's true. That. Yeah. It's from that portion of Alaska with six months of darkness. Right.

Bridget:

I was gonna tell you. I have a real problem cooking chicken since I started eating meat.

Alyssa:

What's the problem?

Bridget:

It's dry.

Alyssa:

Because you're overcooking it. You're afraid.

Bridget:

I'm afraid.

Alyssa:

Do you have a meat thermometer?

Bridget:

No.

Alyssa:

It doesn't have to be a meat thermometer. It could just be any type of cooking kitchen thermometer. You just need to temp it. It needs to be at 165. That's your chicken temp. And you won't get sick when you're cooking it. Also, it will. I don't know how to describe it. Like this is how. You know, as a chef, you would. Right now she Squeezing the web between my thumb and index finger. So there is a doneness. Like there's rare, medium rare, medium well.

Bridget:

I remember that from beef.

Alyssa:

I don't think I saw that. Or from cooking beef. Are you. What is a beef? A movie? I don't know. I was thinking for a second.

Bridget:

Beef is a show.

Alyssa:

It is.

Bridget:

Yes. There's a star. She's an Asian lady. I haven't watched it, but I like the idea of an angry woman. And it's called Beef.

Alyssa:

Oh, it's a. It's a movie on Netflix, isn't it? There's like a car accident or something. I don't know. I'm gonna look that up quick because I know it's a dramedy and it has Ali Wong and then Steven Yen, who was in the Walking Dead. Glenn. And then he died. Terrible death. I didn't want Glenn to die.

Bridget:

When I walked by my painting of Rick Groz, I was like, God, that is a screenshot from episode one, season one. And I was like, back when it was good.

Alyssa:

Back when it was really good.

Bridget:

Yeah, it got weird, and I didn't like it anymore.

Alyssa:

Like, season three, I was really out of it. And then I was just annoyed I couldn't keep up with all the side groups.

Bridget:

Did Rick ever come back?

Alyssa:

Was it all a coma? Fever dream? I don't know. I never finished. Yeah, I never finished watching it. I. I couldn't. I got like. No, I was just over it.

Bridget:

Okay, me too.

Alyssa:

So I don't know how it ends. And that's fine.

Bridget:

I don't even have that channel anymore.

Alyssa:

That's fine.

Bridget:

Yeah, I had to pay for it. Sling sponsor us.

Alyssa:

All right, well, this week, the movie we watched is Zodiac, filmed in 2007, directed by David Fincher, who had some classics like Fight Club.

Bridget:

Oh, okay.

Alyssa:

Gone Girl. Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. Not the original Swedish one.

Bridget:

Did you say Barn Girl?

Alyssa:

Gone Girl.

Bridget:

Oh.

Alyssa:

Heifer is the lead character in that one. And then Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, which was from a book. Do you know that book series? No. You should read it.

Bridget:

I never saw the movie either.

Alyssa:

Well, you should read it.

Bridget:

Okay. Maybe that'll be the next one that we cover together.

Alyssa:

I don't know. That's really dark and intense.

Bridget:

Sweet.

Alyssa:

Right? But you should read the book. It's really good. There's a. It's a trilogy anyway. Super good. So those were some really great films. He's an iconic director. What I had read was some trauma from his childhood kind of sparked the obsession with Zodiac, which, as it stands today, is unsolved. Right. Like, who is Zodiac?

Bridget:

Do you think he's still alive? No, because that was in what year? Like the seventh?

Alyssa:

Yes, the late 60s and 70s. The Google tells me that as I asked for a short summary because I can be long winded. So they said that it follows journalists and detectives obsessed with identifying the real life Zodiac killer, whose cryptic letters and unsolved murders terrorized Northern California in the late 60s, 60s, and 70s, slowly consuming the investigators lives without delivering definitive closure. And that's true. Like, that's what this. This.

Bridget:

It's a slow burn and then nothing.

Alyssa:

Yeah. Yeah.

Bridget:

So if I were a serial killer, why would I want to put those nuggets out there for the police to try to find me? Because I'm so. I think I'm so smart.

Alyssa:

Yep. You think that you're smarter than everybody Else. This goes back to a serial killer that I find very fascinating. And backstory. I'm tr. True crime obsessed. Like, I consume it all the time. I love documentaries and interrogation videos. I mean, it's right up my alley. I consider it sometimes professional skill building. So I'm not the headline of. Of a case here in Iowa. Btk. That one is. That's fascinating. But he did the same thing. Absolutely. He.

Bridget:

Cereal box.

Alyssa:

No. Yeah. Well, yeah, there was a cereal box, and then he put a note and was like, dear police, can a floppy disk be traced? Idiot. And then they were like. He's like, please respond in the newspaper. So they put in an ad, you know, said whatever, to tell him that it wasn't. And then it got traced back to.

Bridget:

Him and he should know that. Police are allowed to lie to you. Are they allowed to lie at you in that situation or just in the interrogation room?

Alyssa:

They're allowed to give you misinformation in any way. There are certain tactics on getting information from people or having them talk, and they can say, well, your partner's over there in the other room giving us all the stuff. And, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. They could also leave out information that someone that maybe you're being, you know, interrogated by or, I don't know, someone's at the hospital, the victim actually did die, but, like, maybe the suspect doesn't know that yet and they don't have to disclose that to you.

Bridget:

I mean, I love the times when they catch somebody. This happened just on a recent one where they set the person up with undercover guy, and the person was trying to get a murder for hire, so. And so they let that person believe that they. It was accomplished and they caught her and they were like, you know, she's like, boohoo, and has no idea until he walks in the room. Was like, you are screwed.

Alyssa:

Was this one where they actually had him like, lay down with, like, fake blood and stuff? Like, something caught her outside.

Bridget:

You know, the police had swarmed her house and she was coming home. It. You know, that she had an alibi.

Alyssa:

Oh, gotcha. I was gonna say I didn't know if it was the one, because I've seen one too, where they actually had act as if they were dead and took photos and stuff. And they were like, here. Yeah, that one too. Gosh, it's crazy. I. I do. I like. I like watching interrogation videos and just. I don't know. I'm fascinated by people because I don't know how you could do the Things that they have done right. And I think there's always that chance that, you know, I'm going to listen to it and we're going to find that clue that, that gene. We're going to discover it or something like to figure it out. But it's, it's not. You're either born that way, you could be made that way. Like, that's the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths. And we're never going to know. But I still want to find out. Maybe.

Bridget:

Well, that's why I like Dateline and I like Forensic Files. Because they show you how they're solved.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And like, I can watch Forensic Files before I go to sleep because I know that they solved it. But in this case, it's crazy to think how scared people were probably at that time.

Alyssa:

Yeah. Yep. Same thing with Dennis Rader in Wichita, Kansas, btk, like at that time, you know, women don't be at home alone. You know, check your phone when you get home, like all sorts of stuff. And yeah, it's crazy. In the Zodiac, part of the, I think lure behind it is or about it is just the cryptic letters that were sent with symbols and people still are looking at them, not sure if what they have solved before is truly what it is.

Bridget:

Right.

Alyssa:

And I think that that's very fascinating as well. Just, it's like sometimes a married couple in, in like North Dakota or something, you know, they're just like, let's do this for our Sunday puzzle. And it's like figured out. Right. Word. Yeah, yeah.

Bridget:

Forget wordle codes and things like that.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

I used to mess around with little codes, but it would be in, you know, kids, the Cracker Jack.

Alyssa:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Bridget:

You know, I had those big fat ones.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

But it would be like A is 26, B is 25.

Alyssa:

You know, and then figure it out. Yeah. Back to the film. We're both very excited to watch this because it stars two of our main men. Mine is Jake Gyllenhaal. I've been in love with him since Donnie Darko and everything he's done since. And yours is Mr. Mark Ruffalo. That's correct. There isn't a time that I see Mark Ruffalo and I don't think of you, Bridget, man.

Bridget:

And he is very outspoken and politically aligned with me.

Alyssa:

I love that. It is fantastic.

Bridget:

No, talk about. He is a smart a** man.

Alyssa:

Like a good. He's a. Yeah, he's a good famous person, you know, like not a. I don't know.

Bridget:

I don't Know like brain cancer once.

Alyssa:

I didn't know that part. Oh, boy. Yeah.

Bridget:

I know everything.

Alyssa:

I know. You know? I know. Yeah. And then Robert Downey Jr also is in this, and he is really good. More information. I read about this movie was that the screenplay was. Or the script was 200 pages long, which is very long, so. Because obviously this movie is like almost two and a half hours long.

Bridget:

It's a lot of talking.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

I could see it be long, but.

Alyssa:

Instead of cutting anything out, David Fincher just asked for the actors to speak faster. And I was like, well, that's right up Robert Downey Jr's, you know, alley.

Bridget:

That's what they do on tv. Yeah, I noticed, you know, like you watch Criminal Minds or what's the other one? Csi? Is that the one? Law and Order? Yeah, I noticed that they never say the word the right. Yeah.

Alyssa:

Well, it's. It's all very fast paced. Yeah.

Bridget:

You know, not. The coffee's in there. They'll say, coffee's in there.

Alyssa:

Yeah. I didn't realize that that would be a word that they cut out. It just because it all sounds normal, like. Yeah, why not? It's very casual.

Bridget:

I'm like, h***, I wonder how much time you could save.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

By taking out just little seconds here and there. And they. There is never a pause between when two characters are talking to one another, and they also never talk over each other. So that's very not like real life.

Alyssa:

Right, right. David Fincher kept really close to the actual story. The screenwriter, James Vanderbilt, he spent 18 months researching police reports and witness statements. David Fincher even consulted with real investigators and survivors. Fun fact, survivor Brian Hartel, he was a survivor at the Lake Berryessa attack. The male who was stabbed, he actually is an extra in this film.

Bridget:

What? I know, the actual guy.

Alyssa:

Yeah. The actual real Brian Hartel. Yeah. And I know at first, between him and Mark, I can't remember his name. He was the other survivor in that first attack. They were not interested in this becoming a film because they didn't want to have to think about it again. They're being re traumatized by all of that.

Bridget:

What I was going to ask is how would that feel? I mean, being in the movie, being an extra is one thing because, you know, you're just there for that little time period. But if you sat there and watched the movie and you've been through it.

Alyssa:

Yeah. They also had consulted Jake Gyllenhaal's character, Robert Graysmith. He was the author of Zodiac, and he had to take lots of breaks. Everybody that was a consultant that was part of the actual crime. When it happened, they had to take lots of breaks because it was just like so overwhelming and having some of this emotion come back heavy. Yeah. So Robert Graysmith is a cartoonist at the paper, the Chronicle, whatever. San Francisco Chronicle, I think it is, or something like that. And Robert Downey Jr. Is one of those long term guys. He's been. He's been around forever. He is their crime reporter. Kind of seems like he's kind of already been at the top of his game. But all of these letters start coming into the newspaper, which is factual. And this cartoonist, he's hanging around and he kind of hears some information. He loves puzzles. Like you, Bridget, he loves puzzles. So he's fascinated and interested in the letters that are coming and he's putting stuff together. He is divorced at. At the beginning. He's divorced with a couple of kids. What?

Bridget:

I never saw your tattoo before.

Alyssa:

Oh, yeah, that's me and the girls.

Bridget:

Well, yeah, I can tell because the one little bear has pink glasses. Yeah, Audrey, that's very nice.

Alyssa:

So I'm going on Monday to get some more stuff done.

Bridget:

All right. Okay. You're good. I digress.

Alyssa:

So Robert Gray Smith was divorced at the beginning of this film. He has a couple of kids. And something that really hit home for him, I remember, was that there was the letter that was sent saying, you know, hey, a school bus seems like a good target. These little darlings hopping off. I'll take them out one by one. And you actually see a scene where he was going to take his son to the bus, and at the last second he pulls him off and he's like, I'll drive him to school. Yeah, that's reality for then. And they almost didn't. Well, that's true, but they, they didn't, you know, that they almost didn't release that information. And then they felt that they needed to, which is terrifying, I think, all the way around. Yeah, I mean, it is scary. Children right now are going through, you know, in elementary they do lockdown trainings for active shooters. They don't tell them that that's what that's for.

Bridget:

Well, I even get a little, a lot of anxiety going through those active shooter trainings. I'm just like, please, please never let this happen.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And after the shooting in Minneapolis, they made their school go remote. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I don't want to talk about this world.

Alyssa:

But no. Which is funny because one of the quotes from this film, and I think that it was Dr. Green. Anthony Edwards, who plays Mark Ruffalo's partner. Like, I see him and I'm like, yay. I think it was him. When they were kind of like, I don't believe this. And he was like, well, do you know how I know it's real? Because I saw it on tv when now. We can't trust anything that we see on TV or the Internet. But that's the way that, like, it was for them back then. It's just insane how flipped it is. I think. Yeah, everything is. Yeah, this really does show. And I think it does a good job of having you understand that some of these cases can really consume the people who are working on them. And this does not only consume, you know, the detectives lives, but also Robert Graysmith. I mean, he's a cartoonist, but he is consumed by trying to figure this out. So much so that he, through the film, he does get remarried. He goes on a date with Chloe Savanny or whatever. I don't, I saw her and was like, I don't know. Anyway, personal opinion and acquired, I guess.

Bridget:

She's very smart.

Alyssa:

I know.

Bridget:

She's like, genius.

Alyssa:

That's great.

Bridget:

Smart. That's great.

Alyssa:

But I see your face on my TV and I'm like, I'll pass.

Bridget:

Well, if it makes you feel any better, weird doctor on American Horror Story cut her legs off.

Alyssa:

Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I, I got lost there for a second.

Bridget:

I know. That was really an aside.

Alyssa:

That was another side quest.

Bridget:

That's okay.

Alyssa:

Yeah, we can. So he marries her. They go on a date, and he marries her later. But his marriage deteriorates because of his being so obsessed. And I can understand that. I mean, there are some cases at work that sometimes I think about a lot at home. And maybe there's some sleuthing, you know, that I'm looking at just curiosity. But also something is kind of sticking with you that you're like, I feel like I could figure this out. You know, I could.

Bridget:

It would be kind of cool to be a cold case detective, but at the same time, it would be so frustrating because how many people have looked at it before?

Alyssa:

I know two of the cold case guys from the Iowa AG's office. No, one of them, I call him Bestie Chad and then Uncle Steve, and they're some of the coolest guys. And just knowing the stuff that sometimes it's just time that, that you need to have a break from that and some of time from the original people thinking, you know, constantly about it. And it's just. It's interesting. They get to kind of go back in time, but then also with fresh eyes and putting it together a little bit differently, maybe.

Bridget:

Plus, when it's that old, you know, there were times when obviously you didn't have DNA, and then you didn't have mitochondrial DNA, and you didn't have 21 and.

Alyssa:

Yeah, yeah, 23. Andme. And ancestry. Yeah, yeah. Right. But, like. But there are also the cases where older cases where people they thought to collect that they're like, there may be something. And I know that that was one of the clues they had eventually. So there is a suspect, and it's Arthur Lee, and he is. Man, he seems good for it. Right. He's wearing a watch that is Zodiac brand, which has the same symbol that was on the letters. Letters stopped being written when he was in prison for. I think it was, you know, sexual assault, rape, and. Or something like that. But he was convicted and sent away. And then letters happened to come again once he was released. And when they're talking about, like, you know, how suspects want to involve themselves in the case, you know, stay close to it.

Bridget:

He's like, hey, have you. Have you gotten any leads?

Alyssa:

Well, he's the one who wrote a letter to the investigator, Dave Tosche, and he was like, hey, if there's anything I can do, let me know. He's the only person that did. I mean, just, like, a lot of things. Yeah. It's just the more you want to help. Yeah. The guiltier sometimes it seems. But it's just there's. It's a lot of circumstantial. But going back to DNA, they had gotten a hold of his DNA and tested it against DNA that was found in a fingerprint on an envelope, but it didn't match. And Robert Graysmith refused to believe that it wasn't him. And so he actually. Because he thought, like, if you see. So he. He was thinking, you know, a lot of people are handling these letters and these envelopes.

Wendy:

Sure.

Alyssa:

What are the chances that it could be someone else's? Which are very high, because as the letter comes to the newspaper, they don't set it aside and say, okay, police come and look at this. They hand it around. They pass it around. Everybody's reading it. Yeah. When we are watching the film and the detectives are going in and they're doing a search warrant on Arthur Lee's. No gloves. They're going. They're doing a search warrant on his trailer. They don't go in with guns drawn. They don't. But they're pulling guns out of the cabinet with bare hands. And that's the first thing I thought was just like, contamination. Now, they didn't know. They didn't know.

Bridget:

They didn't know. And now we have aphis. So if you have been arrested and.

Alyssa:

Convicted of a felony, it's required. That's what's required, then. But then there can still be search warrants to collect DNA to test it against something else. And maybe you're not the suspect. But now it's on file, and mine. I'm happy to do the genealogy stuff. I think it's fun. I think I do the ancestry gene. Ancestry DNA sponsor us. But I. Again, people are like, well, you know, it's gonna be out there. Here's the thing. I'm not that interesting. And if I have a family member who turns out to be wanted for something, you're gonna be like, yeah, sorry, you know, third cousin twice removed. I don't even know. Like, go around.

Bridget:

Yeah, guess what. Guess what.

Alyssa:

I mean, that's how they caught the Golden State Killer, Robert d'. Angelo. Like, come on. I just. It's insane how far it can go. And I know. I don't know. Some people don't want to do it, but, yes, I'll spit in all those cups. You know, I'll swab my cheek.

Bridget:

Spitting all those cups.

Alyssa:

It's not. It's not as easy as it sounds. I try to do it for Covid once, and I. Like, I couldn't make. I couldn't make spit. Yeah. Okay.

Bridget:

So it slowly slides down the side.

Alyssa:

So in the film, obviously, we turn. We still don't know an answer.

Bridget:

Right.

Alyssa:

It seems like Arthur Lee was a likely suspect.

Bridget:

Okay, so what. What, finally? Why is he not the killer?

Alyssa:

Well, I don't think that there was physical evidence to tie it to him. They had. I mean, there. Potentially. I mean, it depends. You know, there were gloves on the scene. There was something else that was there. I think it was at the cabbie killing, maybe. There's a lot of circum. Circumstantial evidence. And I know circumstantial cases aren't always that easy. Consider it to be. Here's one toothpick. Well, that's one piece of circumstantial evidence. When you get 50 of those together, the one toothpick can be broken. Get 50 them together, and it's a. It's pretty strong. You can't break them all that way. So maybe there just wasn't enough. But he also ended up dying out after he got out of prison, stuff like he was severely diabetic and he ended up passing away. I think complications of diabetes.

Bridget:

But.

Alyssa:

But I just think that maybe they let it rest with that, even though they still were trying to test that DNA and saying it wasn't a match. But it didn't clear him, it didn't completely exonerate him as a suspect.

Bridget:

You know, it would be kind of cool in a not cool way. What if you had like a huge framed poster of one of the ciphers?

Alyssa:

That would be. I've been looking for like, what type of artwork could I put in my office?

Bridget:

So true crime artwork.

Alyssa:

But the thing is too like. So I'm, I'm not. Well, I'm not a csi.

Bridget:

The. The artist's rendering.

Alyssa:

Oh yeah. Like a sketch. Yeah, yeah. Sketch art. Yeah. So I'm a civilian property and evidence officer, so I maintain the integrity of over 28,000 items for a municipality, you know, locally here, in, in Iowa. And I've been like, I'm like, what could be a cool piece of art to go in there? And I've gone to Etsy, I've gone to temu, and I just really haven't found anything that stands out for something. You know, maybe I'll just make my own evidence tape, something. Okay.

Bridget:

I'll paint you a bunch of serial killers playing poker.

Alyssa:

But they gotta have evidence tape in there or something to make it like, you know, the evidence part. Oh man, like the dogs playing poker. Poker. Are they playing poker at the Stanley Hotel? Sure.

Bridget:

Okay.

Alyssa:

Yeah. No, I'm, I'm one of the many true crime obsessed persons and just I, I want to know, I want to know what makes it happen and why and. Oh, ye.

Bridget:

Well, in my opinion, if you stab once, you're going to keep on stabbing.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Because you'll be like, ooh, that felt weird. Well, and then you get full of rage.

Alyssa:

Yeah. I was watching something with my wife recently and I was just like, I know, you know, that if they did it once, they were likely going to do it again. Like if they didn't get caught already. But then also there's like, if they did it twice, then they've done it thrice. You know, like it just continues. Like, how do they ever not. I think I'm also fascinated because how serial killers, they're definitely. Their brains aren't wired appropriately. How do they assimilate, you know, how do they operate through life? And there are so many that had red flags.

Bridget:

I think you can just really compartmentalize if you're a killer. You can be like, I know how to present at my job and at my home.

Alyssa:

There's always something where someone sees something or they notice something and they are like, well, I, you know that there was this weird time when this happened. But like Dennis Raider was somebody btk. He worked for government. He like, was like a compliance officer, like code enforcement, animal control. He had to deal with people all the time. Then he became, when he got fired from his job, you know, working for the government, he was working in his church.

Bridget:

Yeah, I was thinking that he was like a Sunday school teacher.

Alyssa:

Well, he was, he, he had some full time job in the church, but.

Bridget:

It'S just, it's like you have a job that makes it unlikely. Well, you know, like we think about boy scouts now and always. Now I'm leery of a person in a position working with children, but back then that was your cover. Yeah, well, I work with children. Of course I love them and I would never hurt them or groom them. You know, that would have been the mindset.

Alyssa:

And Dennis Rader use those campouts multiple occasions as a cover. And instead of being dirty and nasty with children, he then left and went and murdered people.

Bridget:

Right.

Alyssa:

And, and, and raped them.

Bridget:

And it's pretty smart. You know, kids sleep pretty hard. They didn't notice.

Alyssa:

Yeah, I, it's just, oh my gosh. Anyway, yeah, it's wild.

Bridget:

It is wild.

Alyssa:

It is crazy.

Bridget:

Brazen as coffee break. Let's talk about our beans.

Wendy:

Are you enjoying Flickin beans? Don't keep it to yourself. Spill the beans. Movies are better shared and so is coffee. Can you drop our pod into a friend's inbox? A group chat or just tell that cashier at your coffee shop that you love our podcast. A little worth of mouth goes a long way. Let's spill the beans. Thank you, bean flickers.

Bridget:

Love you.

Alyssa:

Bye. So, yeah, I, I, I, I'd have to say that this film too, it, it was like you said, slow burn. But what I also noticed was there wasn't a lot of music telling me how I should feel next. You know, I, I didn't notice that there was a lot of like suspenseful music where you're like, oh gosh, something's going to happen. I think that the actors did a great job with their facial expressions and just reading that and, you know, specific camera pans and the lighting and all that. It was really well done. It was a slow burn at the beginning and I was thinking of it going like, I remember watching this early on when it came Out. I thought it was great. And now I'm like, kind of bored, you know. What's this over here? And then I'm watching some more and I'm like, it's fascinating to see it differently and be thinking about it from the way that I normally see other movies.

Bridget:

Can I tell you some. Can I admit something?

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

I didn't finish watching it last night. I was so tired.

Alyssa:

Are you glad that I told you how it ended? No, I already.

Bridget:

I've already seen it. Yeah, but I thought that was funny.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Can I tell you another thing?

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Okay. So it has to do with Jake Gyllenhaal.

Alyssa:

Okay. Go on. I'm. I'm here for that.

Bridget:

No, you won't be.

Alyssa:

Oh, no, I swear.

Bridget:

It was like Saturday Night Live and I feel like it was during the news and it was someone being Jake Gyllenhaal and someone being Maggie Gyllenhaal and they were arguing with each other. No, I'm more off putting. No, I'm more off putting.

Alyssa:

They get a bad rap. I. Back when we were still working together and I was living in Ames, Amazon wasn't a big deal, but I did. I sure did go to ebay and I found myself a Jake Gyllenhaal magnet. And I paid shipping and handling for that thing. And I still have it. He was. He's so hot. He's great.

Bridget:

But I don't. You know, I disagree with Wendy on Jack, Jeff Goldblum and likely many others.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

But it's. Yeah, it doesn't.

Alyssa:

More for me. I'm not mad about that. We're not arm wrestling for him.

Bridget:

Make him a bad actor.

Alyssa:

No, he's fantastic.

Bridget:

To cover Brokeback Mountain again. I mean, not cover it again. What I mean is see it again.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Because it. I haven't seen it since it came out.

Alyssa:

That was a very moving film.

Bridget:

It's. And sad because it's just like this. It's like. Focuses on the times and the mindset and the lies you have to tell yourself in order to, you know, be authentic.

Alyssa:

Yeah. And you're not, because you're. You are masking all of that. But it is an interesting film. Okay. The last little fun fact I have is that when this movie opened, it reached second at the box office.

Bridget:

Wow.

Alyssa:

Any guesses on what Beat it?

Bridget:

What year was it?

Alyssa:

2007.

Bridget:

2007. What? Beat it. F******.

Alyssa:

I don't know. Batman, Wild Hogs with Jim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy.

Bridget:

Hilarious movie.

Alyssa:

I find that ridiculous. That it.

Bridget:

Here's what I think is that you've got your group of people who are just looking for something lighthearted. And then you have this group of people who are like. Yeah, that's f****** unsolved. Who like true crime. And true crime has just.

Alyssa:

Yes.

Bridget:

Blown up.

Alyssa:

It's become more acceptable to be.

Bridget:

They were decent involved.

Alyssa:

Yeah. Yeah.

Bridget:

You know, when you actually think about what's gone on with someone's family and just that's. And the word horrific has lost its. It's lost its gravity.

Alyssa:

What is what is considered horrific anymore? Literally everything. What's not horrific? Every single time you turn on the news. And that's problem with a 24 hour news cycle. Not only am I watching the news, but I'm reading the ribbon at the bottom. And then there's new stuff popping up on my phone. And you're never not removed or you're never not a part of it. And you. Everything is awful. It's. It's not a.

Bridget:

Like the Lego Movie.

Alyssa:

No. And not, you know, check on your empath friends. You know, we're not well and we're feeling all the things and we don't know how to manage it and process it and what to do with it. And we want to do something positive. But anyway, so I. I still like this film. Oh, last thing. Which I find. I'm sorry, I. Squirrel Dave. Investigator Dave. Toshi. He has the perfect recall. Do you know what that is?

Bridget:

No.

Alyssa:

The Mary Lou Henner thing. Perfect recall is when you remember literally everything. Everything. There. There are fewer than 100 people globally.

Bridget:

Mary Lou Hannah.

Alyssa:

She is the well known example.

Bridget:

Are you s*** in me?

Alyssa:

No, I'm not.

Bridget:

Well. And what the is she using it for now? I haven't heard out of Mary Lou Henner for ages.

Alyssa:

Well, have you not been watching like Inside Edition? Because she's been featured on there when she talks about it.

Bridget:

Are you kidding me? No, no, I've never heard that.

Alyssa:

No. She can remember any date, anytime. And when Mark Ruffalo savant thing. Yeah. And when Mark Ruffalo was. He at first was not interested in the film. Jennifer Aniston had told David Fincher about Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal because she had worked with them both. Jake was on board. Mark Ruffalo was not. Then there were some rewrites and then he learned a little bit more about Dave Fincher's direction that he was trying to go and he became interested. Then he met Dave Tashi and found out that he had perfect Recall. But it was after all of that that he was on board then.

Bridget:

You know, I imagine if you meet a character in real life, and obviously he wouldn't have known anything about him in advance, and then you find out how interesting they are. I could see that swaying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's cool.

Alyssa:

Yeah. Where Jake Gyllenhaal just, like, met Robert Graysmith. Recorded him, like, videotaped it and then just watched it for his mannerisms and the way that he spoke and everything. So he doesn't sound as interesting as David Toshi, but perfect recall. Right? For sure. But apparently the big thing.

Bridget:

Perfect pit.

Alyssa:

But David Tosche, like, the big, big thing was that he always remembered what he was wearing and what other people were wearing. Like, that was, like, the big key for him, like, his special interest and whatnot. Yeah.

Bridget:

And the clothes were so ugly back then.

Alyssa:

That big bow tie.

Bridget:

Oh, and the plaid blazer.

Alyssa:

Yeah. Oh, the movie theater back then. Movies were fancy. Yeah. That was, like, a big deal. People went to see movies together, and the lobbies were so fancy.

Bridget:

Oh, and they certainly didn't eat burgers.

Alyssa:

What a time to be alive.

Bridget:

No, they didn't have a butter station.

Alyssa:

No. They didn't get beer served to them at their seats. I mean, it was probably more like. Yeah. Like just having a glass of wine in the lobby while you wait for your show to come on.

Bridget:

Wait, wine?

Alyssa:

I don't know. I'm guessing it was fancy. They dressed up for that.

Bridget:

Oh, I would imagine people are going.

Alyssa:

In their pajamas right now.

Bridget:

Yeah. Oh, that is absolutely true. People dressed up for everything.

Alyssa:

Bridget. When I went to the Dollar Theater in Ames at the North Grand Mall, I would see what I could sneak in. One time, I brought in a whole frozen pizza that I had cooked and.

Bridget:

A 40 in what?

Alyssa:

I can't give away all my secrets. You know, I always carry a satchel.

Bridget:

You know that who we worked with, whose initials are C.M. told a story about bringing a bottle of wine in her coat to the movies.

Alyssa:

I love that. I know I brought a 40.

Bridget:

Good people be in bed.

Alyssa:

I know I brought a 40. Paula and I each had one, and it was that classic, if anything's gonna happen, it's gonna happen to me, where I knocked over the empty and it goes all the way down the. The aisle. And you're just. Movies, they weren't the same.

Bridget:

Better than when I had to get up and puke three times.

Alyssa:

Oh.

Bridget:

During Barbie.

Alyssa:

Oh, you were hungover.

Bridget:

Oh, very much so.

Alyssa:

Yeah. That's right.

Bridget:

And, you know, you can't action there is.

Alyssa:

How do your eyes. You. You're tracking it with your eyes. And you're hungover at the same time. It's loud.

Bridget:

Open my mouth. And bright hold it all the way up the aisle from the front row. Oh, it was so bad. And I had had vegetarian chito never ever again.

Alyssa:

Well, I hope that person who cleaned it up got a raise.

Bridget:

Oh, nobody cleaned it up.

Alyssa:

You made it to the toilet every time.

Bridget:

I made it to the trash can outside the door. And there were three employees just standing there chatting. Nobody even looked my way. And because I'm ralphing.

Alyssa:

Because that's what movies are now. We don't. We don't go fancy anymore.

Bridget:

We don't care.

Alyssa:

No.

Bridget:

And that's what employees are now. They don't really care.

Alyssa:

They're there because their parents told them to go get a job.

Bridget:

Huh?

Alyssa:

They don't want to. Have to. Why do I have to work?

Bridget:

Well, they gotta buy their vape somehow.

Alyssa:

Sad truth.

Bridget:

Well, anything else?

Alyssa:

I don't have anything else. I think we did it. We flick some beans. Okay.

Bridget:

Love you.

Alyssa:

Bye.

Bridget:

Bye. Party all night long.

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Bridget

Co-host
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Wendy

Co-host