World's Oldest Profession

On this steamy episode of Pass, Pirate, Pay, we’re turning up the heat with three films that dive into the world’s oldest profession. First, we swoon over the ultimate 90s fairytale Pretty Woman, where Julia Roberts redefines “shop till you drop.” Then it’s time to two-step back to the 80s for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, a musical romp that’s as spicy as Southern barbecue. Finally, we get raw and real with Sean Baker’s latest gem, Anora, starring the electrifying Mikey Madison. Grab your popcorn and join us for a sultry, cinematic journey that’s sure to leave you blushing.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Pretty Woman
• 21:46 Best Little Whorehouse
• 35:43 Anora
• 1:01:43 Anora Review

Transcript

[MUSIC]
>> All right, hello everybody.
>> Hello.
>> Welcome once again to Pass Pirate Pay,
the movie discussion show.
My name is Ken, I'm your host,
alongside my co-host Andy.
>> Hello there.
>> How are you doing today, Andy?
>> I'm pretty good, how are you, Ken?
>> Excellent, thank you.
>> Nice.
>> So today in honor of the new Sean Baker movie,
"Anora," we're going to be discussing three movies
about prostitutes.
>> Yes.
>> We got some pay for play movies going on today.
We're going to be discussing "Anora"
along with "Pretty Woman" and the best little
"Horhaus" in Texas.
>> Yes.
>> So yeah, this should be a fun one.
>> Yeah, oh yeah, a lot of fun.
[LAUGHTER]
>> All right, we should charge for this hour, our listeners.
>> Oh yeah.
>> Yeah, it's an honor system kind of thing, right?
So if you go to the website,
you can put some money in.
If you feel like we've satisfied you.
>> Oh, I don't want to add that yet.
>> We will after this episode though.
>> If we feel in satisfied.
>> We are horrors as well, Ken.
[LAUGHTER]
>> Oh man, all right.
Well, let's jump right into it, what do you say?
>> All right.
>> All right, let's do it.
Let's start with "1990s Pretty Woman."
>> All right, now I didn't want to do "Pretty Woman"
when we first discussed that we're going to do
prostitute movies.
>> Yeah.
>> I said you'd never seen it.
>> Never seen it.
>> Which is amazing.
>> Yeah, it's crazy, right?
Because this is an iconic movie, right?
>> Yeah, like everybody saw that one.
>> Right.
>> And I consider myself something of a movie person, right?
>> Yeah.
>> I've probably seen more movies than 99.99% of people
on this planet.
>> Probably.
>> But this is one of, you know, whatever,
the 100 most iconic movies in the history of American cinema.
>> It's pretty iconic.
>> And it never once saw it.
So I watched it again to familiarize myself with it.
And as I'm watching, I go, have I seen this?
>> That's funny.
>> I'm like, I might not have seen this.
I might just have seen all the clips from all time.
>> Right.
>> And just thought, oh, I'd seen it.
But I'm pretty sure I saw it.
>> Yeah.
>> But I have no recollection of seeing it now.
>> Yeah.
>> There's a lot of things I had no recollection of.
>> Yeah, certainly my not having seen it
did not prevent me from knowing a lot of the really,
really iconic scenes, you know?
Like when she goes back into the department store that snubbed her.
>> Yeah.
>> Like that's, I knew that, knew exactly what was going to happen there.
>> Yeah.
>> That's, you know, seeped into pop culture a lot of stuff as, you know?
>> Yeah.
>> But yeah, no, I had not seen it.
It's crazy.
>> All right, well, let's get into it then.
>> Let's do it, right?
Okay, so this movie came out in 1990,
it's directed by Gary Marshall.
And I want to start, I want to start here.
Because this movie is so iconic,
when you hear the two words, "Pretty Woman,"
it's just like you know it's, the image of Julia Roberts pops into your mind.
You know this is exactly what you're saying,
what you're going to be seeing.
You know what this movie is.
And it never really occurs to you that this is an all-time stupid title for a movie.
>> It's a pretty bad title.
>> Right?
Like we, it's become so part of our consciousness that we don't really think about it.
>> Yeah.
>> But it's just like, why the hell is this movie called Pretty Woman?
Right?
Like I guess the Roy Orbison song is the idea.
And the song is used a little bit in the middle of the movie.
>> Love it, yeah.
>> But like, I don't know, like fairy tale of Los Angeles or like,
the movie starts with the song King of Wishful Thinking.
So why not wishful thinking?
Why, like that's eating you up.
>> Equally as good a title if not better.
Like yeah, it's like they put zero thought into this.
>> That's a studio head title.
>> Right, it's so ridiculous.
Like Pretty Woman's so stupid.
>> Yeah, this Julia Roberts, he's a real fox, right?
I got a great title for this.
>> I got like Pretty Woman.
>> Yeah.
>> It's just, I mean, so ridiculous.
I just, I don't know.
It's one of those things that you never think about.
>> Like Harvey Weinstein came up with that.
>> [LAUGH]
>> Oh man.
>> But yeah, so it's like, come on, we can't do better than this.
We're, I think if they had known that people were going to be talking about this movie 35 years later.
>> Yeah. >> And we're like, maybe we could do a little better than this on the title, right?
>> Yeah. >> Maybe we could have tried a little harder.
But I guess they probably had no way of knowing what this movie was going to become.
>> So far the title is bad.
>> It's just bad.
>> It's just a bad title.
>> Not a good start for Pretty Woman.
>> [LAUGH]
>> Really, you can't talk about this movie without just digging into Julia Roberts, right?
>> Yeah, this is what launch to her is.
>> This is it.
>> She's, she was barely in anything before she was in this.
She was like one of whatever, however many people in Mystic Pizza, you know?
And she just, she was in a star and then after this movie she was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.
>> And stay that way for a long time, forever, yeah, exactly.
So basically, the reason I never saw this movie is because I had like romcom allergy when I was a kid,
whereas it's like if something was like, that's a, that's a chick movie.
I have no interest in that.
>> I'll older you than this came out.
This was what 1990?
>> 1990, so I was 11.
>> Okay, so I was maybe a little bit older.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, I had the same thing.
>> Yeah, it is.
>> I think to teenage boys, romcoms are just a complete way.
>> Yeah, exactly.
And, and you know, as I got older, I started to realize that those movies can have some value.
>> Yeah.
>> But when that happened, I just never went back and visited the old classics, you know?
So like Julia Roberts' experience is pretty different from what other people like I've never seen this.
I've never seen my best friends wedding.
I've never seen Notting Hill.
I've never seen America's sweethearts.
I've never seen any of her big romcoms.
>> Which are all like big heavy hitters in the romcom panty arms.
>> Yeah.
>> All those.
>> And so Julia Roberts is just her stardom has always kind of baffled me.
Where it's just like, because the movies I've seen of her is I've seen like Oceans 11 and
I've seen the Pelican brief or conspiracy theory like the non-romcomy stuff.
And it's just like, I don't know, I just, I don't really get it with her.
I never really got it, right?
>> Aaron Brockovich?
>> Aaron Brockovich was good.
>> Aaron Brockovich is okay.
It's, yeah, I think she's good in it.
I think she robbed Ellen Burston of an Oscar, but that's because because Ellen Burston
in wrestling for a dream.
>> Ruffing for a dream.
>> It's one of the best performances in the history of movies, I consider, you know?
But, you know, that's neither here nor there.
But yeah, she's, I mean, she's fine in the Oceans movies.
She's just, I don't know.
She just never really clicked for me.
I never really understood it.
And then this movie, I get the feeling, the way this character Vivian is written, it's
seems like it was written for an entirely different kind of person than Julia Roberts.
>> Yeah.
>> Like, she's incredibly awkward.
Like Richard Geerick's character is constantly telling her to stop fidgeting.
She's very, she's fidgeting all the time.
Like she seems to have a lot of insecurity.
And she's also like, straight tough at times.
You know, like when she's at the polo match and she does the Arsenio Hall dog pound,
woo, woo, woo, you know?
>> Yeah.
>> It is like, these are not qualities I associate with Julia Roberts, right?
Like this tall, gorgeous woman being like awkward and fidgety.
It does, it seems very strange to me.
All that being said, I watch this movie and I look at her performance and I totally get
it.
>> Yeah.
>> She is undeniable in this movie, I think.
>> Okay.
>> She is so charming and so captivating on screen that I just, I can't deny it.
I totally understand how she became the biggest woman movie star of the entire 1990s, based
only on this movie.
I think she's absolutely phenomenal in it.
Just like all of the stuff that she's doing, even the fidgety stuff or when she's like,
everything she does is just so endearing.
I just, I can understand why the world fell in love with her.
Like, I kind of fell in love with her in this movie.
It's unbelievable.
>> I have kind of a different opinion on it.
>> Okay.
>> I think all the things you're saying is true.
I think all that is true.
I just didn't believe that she was a hooker.
>> Yeah, I agree with that.
I totally agree with that.
>> I totally agree with that.
>> I totally agree with that.
>> I don't think her past, even though they touch on it a little bit, I don't think
her past drives her into it as much.
It feels like the hooker thing is kind of like a playground and not gritty at all.
>> I agree.
I think, yeah, I think she is.
>> But I think because of the whole nature of this movie, that it's kind of like a fairy tale.
>> Exactly.
You don't really what I was going to say.
>> Gritty stuff.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
Exactly what I was going to say.
This movie is, so she says one of the famous lines from this movie is, I want the fairy
tale, right?
This movie is a fairy tale.
It totally is.
And what you're saying is the entirety of Los Angeles in this movie is totally sterilized,
right?
It's absolutely not believable as a hooker.
I agree with you.
I guess Holly would boulevard Street Walker.
>> It's the trope.
>> It's hooker with a heart of gold.
>> Totally implausible, right?
Like I said, it seems like the movie was not written for her.
Laura Sanjakomo plays her friend, her fellow prostitute.
It seems like the role was written for someone more like that, right?
She's shorter.
She's a little more street looking.
She's like, less obviously beautiful.
>> She's a little quirky.
>> Yeah, exactly.
It seems like that's the kind of person that the role was written for.
>> Yeah, Julia Roberts is way too hot to be a street walking hooker.
>> Yeah, she's just gorgeous.
She's like, she's like statue-esque in this movie, you know?
But yeah, so it's really weird how sterilized everything is in this movie.
The movie, we're first introduced to the world of Julia Roberts' hooker cohort.
There's a murder.
One of their, or an OD or something, I don't remember.
But one of the hookers is dead.
>> Which is as gritty as it gets.
>> And Haga's area is a detective.
And he's like, chewing tourists away or taking pictures of the dead body.
But this is like, there's a dead hooker here.
And Laura Sanjakomo is talking about how she's addicted to coke.
There's hints that that's going on.
And she owes money to this pimp.
And she's trying to like, not be under his thumb and all this stuff is going on.
But at no point do we feel any kind of danger in any way for any of these people, right?
>> Yeah, it doesn't feel at all dangerous.
It doesn't feel like this is gritty or or.
>> No, it feels like they put that stuff in at the beginning just to go see it's gritty.
>> Yeah.
>> And then they threw it all away.
>> It just doesn't feel like anything bad can possibly happen to them out there at all,
right?
Like, at one point towards the end, after Julia Roberts has decided that she's going
to stop being a hooker and she's going to move to San Francisco.
Laura Sanjakomo is looking for a new roommate and she's talking to another hooker about
it and the other hookers like, no, I don't really have any of those possessions because the
pimp guy that they all know burned all of her stuff once he did.
But it's just like, this is all just jokes, right?
This is like, none of this is scary at all.
It's just, it's nothing, right?
But yeah, you're right, it's totally unbelievable.
But I think that's kind of the point, right?
This movie is a fairy tale.
And I realize that like this movie is meant to be a fantasy for women, right?
This is not a movie that was made for me, right?
And I can back when I was a kid when this movie came out or even in my teens of 20s, I'd
be like, screw this.
I don't need any, I don't need this movie.
What is the point of this?
But now, you know, you get older, it's like, I can understand how things can be good even
if they're not made for me.
And like, you know, I think that this movie for what it wants to do succeeds fantastically.
Yeah.
You know, it is a fairy tale.
If you think about Richard Gears character, he is total wish fulfillment, right?
He is like almost impossibly handsome and dashing in this movie.
Like he just, he looks perfect.
He's perfectly put together at all times.
Yeah.
But he's also broken, right?
He doesn't, he can't figure out.
He's a figure out of his own success.
Yeah, he's, you know, he's a corporate raider guy and he's an, he's an asshole and he can't
have any success in relationships because he doesn't value women or anything really.
Yeah.
It seems like, you know, the central joke of the movie is that, of his character anyway is
that he treats all of his girlfriends like prostitutes.
So then when he hires a prostitute to be his girlfriend, that's when he actually figures
out how to be a fallen love.
Yeah.
Right.
So the fantasy is that Julie Roberts comes into his life and is able to make it all fall
into place for him.
And now, once he figures out how to love, he's like the perfect man, right?
Yeah.
Up at the end in the limousine with the tuxedo and he climbs up the staircase, overcoming
his fear of heights, the fire escape.
And it's just like she did it, you know, she fixed this man and now she can have the happy
ending that she's, that she's always wanted.
And yeah, it, you know, it's a fairy tale.
It's just, it's crazy.
It's, you know, and I don't know.
It just, the whole thing is preposterous.
It's like, it's a very silly story, you know, like everything that happens just seems
totally happening just perfectly to fit the story of the movie.
You know, like Jason Alexander is Richard Gears lawyer and he's like the total asshole guy
who finds out that she's a prostitute and immediately just starts being a sleazeball
towards her, you know, at one point he tries to rape her.
But again, that whole scene because I don't know because it's Jason Alexander.
It's just like, you know, a woman afraid of George.
Because it's not rape in this one.
This is not happening, right?
It's the whole thing is cream or maybe, but not George.
The whole thing is, is not at all played for dramatic effect.
It's just meant to heighten her awareness and allow Richard Gears to come in and save a
day and punch him in his face and just like, hey, you know, you're scumbag.
So that, that whole thing, that whole character's ridiculous, Hector Elizando as the manager
of the hotel where they're staying.
And Josh, you're trying to figure out where we've seen him before, but he's been in everything
right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I don't really know him too well, but you're right.
He's definitely familiar to me.
But yeah, he's there.
And when he, when he comes in, the first time we see him, he's like, sees Julia Roberts
walking by in her hooker outfit and he's like, immediately his radar is up.
He's like, what the hell?
He, she's staying at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, like super fancy hotel.
And we know what my thought is.
This guy is going to be like, well, we know hookers in my building.
We can't allow this to happen.
That's right.
And that's where you think it's going to be.
Right.
And he's just going to be an asshole, but it turns out he's just as charmed by her as everybody
is, right?
So he's just like, well, Richard Gears is a very important client of ours.
So you just don't be so obviously hookery and, and then once he's gone, you don't come back
and do your tricks here.
And we're going to be getting along just fine.
But every time he interacts with her throughout throughout the rest of the movie, it's just
like, oh, these people are cool.
Like they're cool with each other.
She's like, he becomes like her buddy, you know, he helps her get her fancy non hooker clothes
and he's, yeah, he's just, he's just super cool to her.
So there's no real drama there either, right?
But it's kind of what I like about all three of these movies is they don't look at sex
work as a negative thing.
Yeah, for sure.
You know, they look at it as a thing, right?
A functioning part of us, which it is.
Right.
Exactly.
Yep.
That's what I like about all these.
Yeah.
Like this movie is also weirdly not sexy.
Like, like the, for a movie about a man falling in love with a prostitute, it's just there's
no nudity.
There's no, there's a little, I think I saw Julie, Julie Roberts nipple one time and it's
a flash.
Really?
You must be looking a lot harder than I was because I certainly didn't notice that.
But like, like the first scene where she and Richard Gear get together, like she gives
him a blow job, but I love Lucy is on the TV in the background while it's happening.
It is.
And I love Lucy blow job.
It's they avoid everything.
You're right.
Exactly.
Nothing is happening.
And the first time we see them having sex, it's done on top of a piano and they're both,
like we both, we see them both as fully clothed and like she's sitting on the piano.
So the keys are plunking as they're as they're getting into position and it's just flunking
fun.
No, just just little tinkles.
Right.
Not like punk, right?
Right exactly.
It's not.
This is not a hardcore movie.
This is, you know, but yeah, it's just it's the whole thing is very, is very sanitary, you
know?
Yeah.
And I think that was all by design.
I totally agree.
I think you're probably shooting for a PG 13, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like this is the kind of movie that they're making, right?
It's back when ratings kind of mattered.
Right.
I don't think they do much now.
I don't know.
When I went to terrifier, there was like a 10 year old in there.
Oh, well, that's that stuff.
Sure.
It doesn't matter.
But I think studios still think it matters somewhat.
Like, I think studios are still afraid to make a really expensive movie within our rating
because they don't want to, they don't want to kill their audience.
Even though you're right.
Most people just go see it anyway.
And this, this like had like everything else about this movie had the appeal to reach big
giant audiences.
Right.
So I'm sure that's why they tone that down.
Yeah.
The thing about this movie is that on paper, it shouldn't work, I think.
Like everything about it is generally stuff I don't like in movies like a slick Hollywood
production without a lot of reality without a lot of real kind of formulae drama, very
formulaic.
Yeah.
You, yeah, you know where it's going immediately and then it just goes there.
But I don't know.
Like, I don't think Julia Roberts based on everything she's done in her career is a great
actress.
And I don't think that Richard Geer is even a good actor, but they're both so perfect in
this movie.
Yeah.
And their chemistry is so great.
And Julia Roberts is so charming that I just couldn't help myself.
I just really liked this movie.
Yeah.
It just really works.
I kind of did.
Yeah.
From what I remember, I liked it a lot more.
And when I rewatch it, I kind of didn't like it as much.
Yeah.
But I think all the things you're saying are right.
Yeah.
Like I think the same thing.
Right.
Yeah.
It's funny.
Somebody was at work.
Somebody asked me about about this show and they're like, what's the next movie?
What's the next show you're doing?
And I was like, prostitutes and I was like, yeah, we're doing pretty woman.
And I had never seen it before.
I just watched it last night and he's like, Oh, it's great, right?
And I'm like, yes, really good.
And then we're both like the same way.
We're both like, yeah, those two, those two people are just so charming.
It's amazing.
That's cool.
Yeah, it was great.
It's cool that we've got fans of the show.
Yeah, it's wonderful.
What's coming on next.
That's right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, you know, but yeah, I don't know.
I guess I kind of like this movie in spite of myself, right?
Like I was able to, it was able to bypass the critical part of my brain.
That is movie magic.
Yeah.
That's what they're supposed to do.
Right.
Yep.
Exactly.
You give you the suspension of disbelief and you were, you bought in.
Yep.
Yeah.
Which is great.
Totally.
I totally, I totally get it.
It's just, it's, yeah, it's just a movie that works.
It does the thing.
It doesn't set the bar for itself very high.
It's not setting out to change the world.
It just wants to be a good story and make you fall in love with these people.
And on that grounds, it totally succeeds.
I think.
Yeah.
But all three of these movies and movies in general, I like it when a movie takes place
in one little span of time.
Oh, yeah.
You know, whenever they try to do this big, spanning epic of all these years, you feel
like you're getting just a little dash of all the things you want to see more.
Right.
And I love when a movie goes this takes place in a week or a day or two days or an hour.
Yep.
Yep.
I love movies like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I with you.
I like that too.
That's really cool.
It's the scene where it's the first morning after they spent the night together.
Yeah.
And Julia Roberts is in a bubble bath singing along to her walkman, singing Prince case.
I mean, how fucking adorable is that?
But she's like doing this off key falsetto.
And then Richard Geer comes in and walks in on her singing.
And she just like gets this super sheepish embarrassed look on her face.
And she's like, you got to love Prince, right?
Yeah.
So adorable.
It's so amazing.
She's a really good actress.
Yeah.
She's really good.
In this movie, I couldn't agree more.
Yeah.
She totally gets the job done.
Yeah.
All right.
So is that it?
Yeah.
That's it.
That's pretty woman.
All right.
So what is the rating on pretty woman?
Can is it past pirate or pay for you?
Pretty woman to my great surprise is a pain to my great surprise for you.
That is a great surprise.
Yeah.
I did not expect it.
I did not.
I did.
I did.
I really didn't expect to like this much.
I was watching that movie like, oh boy, can is going to hate this.
Yeah.
But I'm glad that's nice.
Yeah, it's great.
I'm a pay too.
I'm a very tentative pay though.
Okay.
I'm right on the line.
Yeah.
But it's a pay for me.
Great.
That's great.
We did it.
Pretty woman.
All right.
Our second movie is the best.
Little Horehouse in Texas from 1982.
It's directed by Colin Higgins and stars Bert Reynolds and Dolly Parton.
Dolly Parton is the Madam of the titular Horehouse titular is the optimal word here.
Basically what happens in this movie is there's a Horehouse in this little town in
Texas and everybody knows about it and Bert Reynolds is the sheriff of this town and he is
carrying on the grand tradition of all the sheriffs in this town is looking the other way
to the point where he's actually, you know, having sex with Dolly Parton on the right.
They have a very regular relationship.
I think though it's he she is a mistress, right?
She's the Madam of the of the of the.
No, I mean Bert Reynolds mistress.
Is that correct?
So he has kind of a girlfriend where he like spends thanksgiving at at this woman's house
and he's like a father figure to her son.
But at one point in the movie, he says that he hasn't had sex with anyone other than Dolly
Parton for three years.
So I'm guessing this relationship with this other woman is very chased or something where
it's just like and they are sneaking around.
They are.
Yeah.
Nobody in town theoretically knows that that he and Dolly Parton have this relationship.
Not even Gomer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's very strange.
I don't really understand what his relationship with this other woman is, but it's clear that
this woman wants to marry him.
But he's just like, I'm not the Marion kind.
You know, right.
So again, if you're if you believe what he says, he's not even having sex with her.
He's just hanging out and watching football with her son.
Yeah.
Who's like 10 years old or whatever.
Yeah.
That's all.
Yeah.
That's for this whorehouse to carry on its business, but then some TV journalist guy, you
know, hard copy type person.
He's going to do an expose on this whorehouse, played by Dom Delewese.
I think played brilliantly.
Yeah.
So he Dom Delewese comes in and he's he's doing an expose on this whorehouse and he goes to
the governor of Texas to get this whorehouse shut down in the governor of Texas.
You know, he's he wants to be politically as side stepping the issue as much as possible.
There's a whole number about it.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So he's going to do whatever is politically expedient, but eventually what happens is Dom Delewese
sneaks a camera crew into the whorehouse and films some some dudes getting off, including
like a state senator, you know, and everyone is pretending to be outraged about this whorehouse
and the whorehouse has to be shut down at some point.
But yeah, so basically we got a whorehouse and everybody's okay with it until this guy
goes on TV and makes everybody pretend that they're not okay with it, right?
That's that seems to be the thing.
So this movie starts, like you said, you mentioned Gomer Pyle.
It's Jim neighbors.
Jim neighbors.
He plays the very Jim neighbors.
He plays the deputy of this town, but basically he plays Jim neighbors because that's that's
what he does.
He's just doing his Gomer Pyle voice the whole time.
And it starts with like he's looking through like this old timey viewfinder thing and it sets
the scene as it this movie is a very old timey feel.
It's very it's a very weirdly conservative movie like for a movie about a whorehouse, it
does a weird little trick where it paints the whorehouse as wholesome Americana, right?
There's a song and dance number that starts the show about how about all of the rules that
Dali's a madam has for the whorehouse and you know tattoos and yeah, you know, don't don't
dress like sluts.
You're these are these are ladies even though they're you know, even though their prostitutes.
But yeah, so weirdly the whorehouse is on the side of conservatism and like the Dom Delewis
character who is exposing this stuff is played as like this liberal East Coast Yankee coming
in to disrupt the wholesome family values of the whorehouse, right?
It's a very strange.
It's a very strange line to be walking.
And like there's like there's a lot of just very strange conservative things in here.
Like like there's a scene where Burton Dali are laying out in the grass, drinking beers
and staring up at the stars and they have like a five minute conversation about Jesus and
how great Jesus is and how wonderful America is and how Burp still believes this is a great
country and he's going to run for for elected office is becoming state senator or legislator
or something one day and and it's very strange.
This is like it just shows you how things have shifted in the country.
Maybe maybe in the 80s in the early 80s, that's that's how conservatives felt about sex
work.
Yeah, I think maybe not about maybe not about sex work, but I think like there is a very
Reagan era thing where it's more libertarian than conservatives conservatism like where it's
just like keep your nose out of my business, right?
Whereas just like these women aren't hurting anyone like they're very careful to make sure
that nobody has the clap.
Yeah, we're not spreading any diseases.
It's run, it's run well.
It's a well run brothel.
Yeah, right exactly.
As long as the black prostitutes are still having sex with the black johns, you didn't notice
that because there's one there's a grand tradition in Texas where there's the Texas University
of Texas Texas A&M football game and when the winning team gets to go to the horror house,
right?
And then the game wins the football game and the dudes are all excited and they're going
to the horror house and there's one black dude on the team and there's one black prostitute
and which is which is unrealistic on both sides.
Right.
Of course, exactly, but you know, but so when we're pairing off with the prostitutes as long
as the one black dude stays with the one black prostitute, everybody can do what they
was a scenic.
There was a whole song they cut out the dolly saying called no mix in y'all are you sure?
No, no, I believe it.
But yeah, so I, okay, so here's here's here's where we're going to get into this.
This movie is is a comedy, right?
I don't understand what is supposed to be funny about this movie.
You didn't think that like that Dom Deli.
We've seen was funny in the dressing room.
No, I thought Dom Deli was really funny.
Terrible.
I thought Dom Deli was awful in this movie.
Oh, that's crazy.
I thought he, I thought he was like the best part of it.
Oh, I, I was so irritated by his character.
I could not be less amused by his antics like he's so, he's so over the top.
Everybody in this movie is playing it very big.
And I don't mind.
I can like a broad comedy.
It's, it's totally possible.
But man, I just didn't think it was funny.
I didn't think any of it was funny at all.
What did you think of Dolly in it?
I, boy, you're gonna, you're gonna be so mad at me.
You're gonna get my mama hard at that.
You're gonna be so mad at me.
I thought she is terrible.
She's so bad.
I thought she was a treasure.
I, I know you love her.
And I, you are crazy.
I think she, I think as a, as a musician, as a singer, yeah.
Okay.
She's a legend, right?
What about the songs?
I, I don't know.
I guess if, because was I will always love you written for this movie?
No.
Okay.
But hard candy Christmas was and I love hard candy Christmas.
I, I, the song, her song wrote a few songs and then in addition to the one that was already
part of the play.
Um, I, I thought most of the song and dance numbers in this movie were very bad.
The football player song and dance for in particular to me was so annoying.
I just, and long, it was so long, so long.
It just kept going from locker room.
And then they get on the bus and then the bus has a black bus gets a flat and they're all
in the truck and the song is still going.
It's like holy shit.
And then there's a big dance number at the whorehouse.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
No.
Yeah.
The football dance number was a bit long.
Oh my God.
The only number of the only, and it was a big gay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The only value I found to any of the songs was the governor's number, governor played
by Charles Dernig.
He liked it.
He does this number about, it's like about side stepping where it's just like he's just,
again, this is round Ronald Reagan era, right?
Where so the government is the enemy at all times, right?
And so he is a sleazy politician and his whole thing is, I'm not going to take a stance
on anything.
And he's just, he's doing this dance where he's, he's about, he's constantly switching
directions.
And he has this recurring bit in the song where he keeps putting the hat on sideways and
then like rotating his body 90 degrees really fast so that the hat stays in the same direction
and is now sitting perfectly on his head.
And he does it like three or four times.
It's just really funny.
So that was it.
That was the highlight of the whole thing.
That was it.
That was my, that was my favorite part by far.
I was, I, and I was ready to dislike it.
And then once he starts doing his dance and he keeps doing the thing with the hat and I'm
just like, okay, this is really funny.
This is really good.
See, it's like the chemistry between Burton Dolly.
Oh, man.
I, I, I thought it was really fun.
I think, I think it was just this cannonball.
All run era of actors having this great time.
I thought it was really fun.
It was a good movie.
It was not fun for me at all.
And I, I think this is the only Dolly Parton movie I've ever seen.
And boy, I've never seen steel magnolia.
No, no.
Oh, again, Julia blind spot.
But yeah, I just, yeah, I do not appreciate her acting ability anyway.
I thought she looked great.
I thought she, I thought the songs were good.
Yeah, I, I was not into it at all.
Like, I think Bert Reynolds is not doing his best work either, but I thought he was acting
circles around Dolly to be sure.
Like, I just, I was just so, so not into it.
I, I, I liked Dolly Parton.
I like her as a singer.
I like, I like a bunch of her songs, right?
I mean, and I wanted to like her in this movie.
But boy, it just, it did not work for me at all.
I was so unhappy while I was watching this movie.
Oh, that's a, I don't know how you could possibly be unhappy.
And so long.
So like you said, like you said with the, with the football player's musical number, there
are so many of the musical numbers in this song that, in this movie that just drag and drag
and drag.
I thought that was the only one.
I thought, I thought the other ones were just fine.
And then like, this is a movie where a Texas
law man, a journalism, a journalist comes into his town and he tells a journalist at gunpoint
to get out by shouting, I am the law.
Right.
And this is the guy was firing the gun.
He's firing the gun, but he gets in the air for that.
Like, it's never reflected well, except by the townsfolk.
Everybody loves him, but not that, not when it was on TV.
And then the movie ends the whorehouse closes down at the end of the movie, which I didn't
think happened.
Yeah.
I don't know.
This is another one I thought I'd seen and I haven't.
Huh.
But yeah, the whorehouse closes down and the movie just ends with Bert and Dolly riding off
into the sunset to get married.
So again, it's just like you're saying this movie is positive towards sex work, but in the
end, the sex worker can only have a happy ending if she gives up the sex work and submits
to traditional marriage.
I didn't say it treated these movies treated like sex work.
I said they viewed it in a positive light.
And I think they still kind of did.
Yeah, I guess, but like in the end, she can't be happy until she stops being a madam, right?
She has to settle down and become a traditional one.
And then she ever wanted to stop, but she does.
But she was forced to.
Right.
And but that's when she gets what she always wanted.
She just gets to marry the man she always wanted and go off and live this traditional
life.
I don't know.
It's just it seemed, eh, it seemed like a big cop out the ending, the ending to me.
The whole first segment, I thought, oh, his heart grew three sizes that day.
And then this comes along.
Snaps us back into reality.
Yeah, I, yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
I just this movie, like I said about, about pretty woman, the stuff that doesn't work for
me was totally passed over because the performances just were able to make it work for me.
Yeah, this movie, nothing about it worked for me.
The performances I thought were just not good, the songs were not good, the jokes were not
funny.
It, everything about this movie was a miss for me.
I thought the absolute opposite.
Yeah, I was really happy watching this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is absolute opposite.
I thought it was really fun.
I loved every part about it.
Yeah, except for the long football number.
That was too long.
You read about that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's all I had to say about best of all of our Austin, Texas.
I think it's just not a movie that's not a movie that I can get behind.
I can't do it.
All right.
So just to make it official, let's make it official.
Is it past pirate pay for you, Ken?
This is definitely a pass.
I do not recommend anyone ever watch this.
I'm 100% pay.
Yeah.
100% pay for an opposite side's inspector on this one.
Yeah, yeah, it happens.
All right, our final movie today is 2024's.
A Nora, written and directed by Sean Baker.
Yeah.
Stars Mikey Madison as a stripper slash prostitute who meets the son of some Russian oligarchs
living in New York and they kind of have a whirlwind romance.
Yeah.
And before we get into this, can we discuss Sean Baker's previous works?
Yeah, let's do that.
What are they?
Okay, so the ones I have seen, the first movie I saw of his was Tangerine.
Is that was that one that was filmed on an iPhone?
And on iPhones takes place in LA, it's about two transsexual prostitutes on the streets of
LA.
That's a very different LA prostitute movie than Pretty Woman.
Sounds like it.
Yeah, very good.
I really liked it.
His next movie was The Florida Project, which I hate it.
Yeah, I, we've never talked about this, but somebody told me that you hated The Florida Project.
I hated it.
I think The Florida Project is very good.
I really don't know what the pitch was for that movie.
They're like, hey, it's a hooker in a hotel.
Yeah.
Can I have my money now?
No, it's the kids.
The kids are the main point of movie.
She has a kid.
Yeah, the kids are just so like, the, the family just frozen it.
Yep.
So can I have my money now?
The Florida Project, it's, it's these kids living in like Kissimmee or one of those tiny
shit hole towns right outside of Disney World.
Yeah.
So like these kids are growing up in the shadow of Walt Disney World, but they're living in
like this white trash hotel environment.
Yeah.
And they're just like running around with all, in this theoretically magical place, living
their shitty little lives.
But the kids, so they're enjoying themselves.
I thought nothing happened.
I thought it was a terrible movie.
Yeah, I love The Florida Project.
Yeah.
And then his next movie after that was Red Rocket.
I think I've seen that.
Red Rocket's really good also.
It's about a male porn star who returns to his home and like the Texas Gulf Coast and
starts getting into trouble there.
He like, he befriends this like teenage girl and they start a relationship and.
Okay.
Yeah, that's a really good movie too.
And then now this one.
Okay.
So I really like Sean Baker.
I was very excited for this movie.
And then I saw is this movie won the Palm Dorit can film festival this year.
And you know, that's those movies aren't always great, but like the Palm Dorit was won by
parasite and pulp fiction and apocalypse now.
It's like these are some, these are some heavy hitter movies.
Yeah.
So I was very, very excited for this movie.
Then I saw the trailer and.
The trailer did not make me want to see it very much.
Yeah, I was very excited.
So that's why I decided I don't usually press for us to for things that I want to
do, but I was I was very impressed.
I very much wanted for us to talk about this movie even before I had seen it.
Okay.
So sex worker Annie Anora.
She meets this kid Ivan Vanya.
He's a he's the son of these Russian oligarchs.
And they meet at her strip club and then he makes an arrangement for her to come and have
sex with him at his mansion and they do that.
And then he decides he wants to pay her to be his girlfriend for a week.
I love pretty woman.
There was a lot of similarities.
Yeah, with this movie obviously knows how indebted it is to pretty woman.
Like there's a scene in the movie where they're negotiating her price for the week and he
says 5,000.
She says 10.
He agrees.
And then she's like, I would have done it for five and that's right.
It's the same exchange.
Yeah.
He said, I would have done it for five and he says, if I were you, I would have done it for
less than 20 and it's just like right out of pretty woman.
It's a same exchange.
Yep.
And I forgot about that.
Yep.
And in the way that pretty woman is a fairy tale.
So after they spend the week together, he reveals that his parents want him to come back to
Russia and he doesn't want to do it.
So he's like, well, if we get married, then I can have a green card and stay in America.
So they get married.
They come to they're in Vegas and they go to a wedding chapel and they get married.
And then she goes back to a world strip club to turn in a resignation and somebody makes
the point.
It's like, oh, it's just like a fairy tale, you know, and she's talking about how they're
going to spend their honeymoon at the at one of the hotel rooms in Disneyland.
And she's like, we're going to get the Cinderella suite, you know, and it's doing pretty woman
like for the first third of this movie.
This movie is very clearly broken up into three distinct acts, I think.
And the first act, one of the things that this movie, I usually don't like movie trailers.
I think they have a tendency to give away way too much of the movie.
And for this movie, I think the trailer did a great job of basically everything that
happens in the first third of this movie is in the trailer.
But the first third of the movie is basically just setting the table.
Even though most of the main plot points of the movie take place in the first third and
like you said about movies that take place over a distinct period of time.
The first third of the movie takes place over like maybe a month where it's it's little snippets
of things happening where they she meets Vanya and then they spend the week together and
then they get married and then they're living together.
And then the second and third part takes place over like a period of 24 hours.
Yeah.
So the first third is everything you see in the trailer and then nothing else that you see
in the trailer happens for the rest of the movie and it's just I think the movie did a great
job of not giving itself away.
You know, and I like the first third, even though it's not the main important part of the
movie.
I think it's a lot of fun.
Like you get to know who Vanya is.
He's like this goofy kid.
He's just got a lot of money.
So he has no sense of responsibility whatsoever.
And anything he wants to do, he's just like, let's go do this.
Did you find him likable?
At the beginning I did.
Did you know I didn't find him likable?
I thought it was a douchebag through the whole thing.
Really?
Yeah.
I thought at the beginning he was kind of likable.
I thought he was, you know, he seems like a lovable goofball to me.
Yeah.
I got a little bit of that, you know, and a little bit of that.
But I got a big douche too.
And he's just the movie is so much fun.
There everybody in the movie is having so much fun in the beginning parts.
Like there's a scene.
I saw a movie twice.
And the first time I saw it, I didn't, I was like, what is this scene about where Annie
and Vanya and a couple of their friends are out on a beach and it's like January.
And then there's this old woman who's a polar bear of some kind, I guess.
She's going out into the river, into the river to do some swimming in January.
And they're like, what are you doing?
This is crazy.
And it's just, but it's just like, I'm thinking about it the second time I saw it.
It's like, okay, I think we're just supposed to be watching these people.
And they're just young kids having fun.
And like it made me feel like an old man, a little bit worse.
It's like, shit, man, I remember when things used to be fun.
But going out of the strip and seeing weird shit.
Yeah.
Right.
And it just seemed like the movie did a really good job of putting you into their, into
their shoes and being like, this is what it must be like to have infinite money and
be able to have a good time in any way that you want.
And, you know, so that stuff is a lot of fun.
So then the second act of the movie comes after they're married and they're back in New
York, Annie and Vanya are on the couch.
He's playing video games because that's what he does.
It's like, it's this typical thing where you think that you, if you think the guy's a douche,
this has got to be a big part of it where it's just like, he's got this beautiful young
wife, newlyweds.
And all he wants to do is sit there and play video games.
Well, she's like laying on really douchey.
Yeah, he likes, but so he's sitting there playing video games and there's a knock at the
door.
And this is, this is where the movie really takes off.
His parents in Russia are concerned about what's going on.
They hear rumors that he might have gotten married.
So they send his godfather who is this guy, Toros, who's a some kind of placed in this Armenian
church.
Uh, like, he's supposed to be looking after Vanya and he's like, no, he's not married.
I just saw him.
Of course, he's not married, but he doesn't know what's going on.
So he sends his brother, Garnik, to come in and check on Vanya and be like, what the hell
is happening with this guy?
And Garnik gets this, like, henchman guy named eager to come in.
Yeah.
And they're knocking on his door and they're like, they're like, okay, if you're really married,
we're going to have to talk about this because your parents are not happy about it.
So they come knocking on his door and they say that they, they want to see the marriage
license and they know he shows the marriage license and like, oh, shit, it's true.
He actually is married.
So Toros, he's performing some kind of like, christening at his Armenian church.
Yeah.
And he's getting all these text messages while it's going on and in a really, really funny
scene in the middle of this church ceremony, he like pulls out his phone.
He's like, oh, shit.
Because he finds out that this kid is stupid kid Vanya that he's supposed to be responsible
for is just fucking him right over.
Yeah.
Oh, God, I got to go take care of this stupid kid.
And he just starts excusing himself from the church ceremony.
He's like right in the middle of it.
He's holding the baby and he hands it to his wife.
And he's just like, I got it, I got to go, I got to go.
He takes off his robe and he's walking out of the church.
Sorry, sorry.
I'm very sorry.
I have to do this.
That's really funny, really funny.
So the two guys in the mansion, Garnock and Eager, they tell Vanya, his parents are on their
way from Russia and they're going to take care of this and he's getting an ennormon immediately.
And the shit is going to hit the fan.
So Vanya's response is bail.
He just like, he just like, he throws on a jacket and Annie is sitting on the couch.
She's like, what the fuck is going on?
And he's like, we got to go, but she's not wearing pants and it's January and it's just like,
we have to go now.
And she's like, what do you mean we have to go?
I don't even have any clothes on.
And she's like, she starts to go to try to get some clothes on, but he's already out the
door and he's gone.
Yeah.
So then we spend the next, the next third of the movie where with Toros and Garnock and
Eager and Annie driving around trying to find Vanya.
And these scenes are hilarious.
Like really, really funny.
I really find Kristen and she goes, it's like a Cohen brothers movie.
Yeah.
It's like the Cohen brothers made pretty woman.
I saw both times I saw this movie.
The theater was very crowded, which I was really surprised at because you know, this is shit.
It's a small movie.
It is with no one you've ever heard of in it.
Yeah.
It's doing, it's, yeah, I think it's doing very good business because when I saw it,
it was only playing at one or two theaters in town and now it's playing everywhere.
But yeah, both times I saw it, everyone in the theater was just cracking up during all
of these scenes.
So like once Vanya bails and the two dudes are in the house like trying to calm her down,
she is a maniac.
Yeah, that's a whole thing.
She's a whole part of the movie.
Like Eager is his, he's trying to restrain her because the, like he's standing there trying
to calm her down and she like wails him.
She slaps him in the face twice.
Like, after she hits him, like he's got a little cut on his face and he's bleeding.
He's like, wow, that was really impressive.
But like so he's trying to restrain her the whole time and at one point he ties her up.
But she's still trying to run away.
So then Garnik is trying to tie her feet up and she kicks him in the face.
She breaks his nose and for the rest of the movie, he's like bleeding from the nose and
he's got a concussion and he is just constantly chiming in these really stupid and hilarious
comments.
But the whole thing is so funny, just really, really funny.
It's a, it's a real crowd pleaser, the second, the middle of it.
By the trailer, you wouldn't have guessed.
Yeah, exactly.
The trailer makes it look like a heavy drama.
Yeah, absolutely.
And especially when she's like, because you could tell that there's, there's pressure from
these big scary Armenian guys, you know, in the trailer.
And then when you watch a movie, it's like, this is just a bunch of doofas.
This is with a hooker.
Yup.
Yup.
And it's, it's great.
It's looking for a douchebag.
It's, it's so, and yeah.
So eventually they get her calm down enough to go out on the road and looking, looking for
Vanya.
And like at one point, they park illegally and their car, their, their car is getting towed
and Toros, the priest guy, he starts yelling at the tow truck operator and, and the guys is
not having it.
He's like, I'll give you some, I'll give you money.
However much money in the tow truck.
Guys like, no, can't, I can't take it.
So he like backs the truck off of the tow truck and then while it's on, yeah, and then backs
it up and like rips the front bumper off the, off the truck so that he can get away from
this tow truck and it's just like the, and, and the whole thing is just played for laughs.
And it's, it's done really great.
So yeah, the, the middle third of this movie is definitely the most fun, I thought, you
know, it's really, really fun.
Spoiler warning, spoilers ahead.
Skip to the next chapter or minute marker one hour, one minute and 36 seconds to hear
the verdict.
You have been warned.
So then the final third of the movie, they find Vanya.
He is at the strip club where Annie used to work and getting lap dances from her rival
at the strip club.
And they when, when she finds out she and her, this other stripper get into, we get into
a bit of a scrum.
Yeah.
is totally shit faced. And they're like, no, this is it. diamond. We're getting an
annulment, and then they drag his drunk ass into this courthouse. And it's like, again,
not just a really funny scene with a judge. It's a circus. It's a total, a totally may
have a It's crazy. And the judge is like the lawyer has no idea what's going on.
And they're trying to pretend that Bonya isn't drunk and Annie keeps doesn't want to get
the marriage annul, right? Because she married to the super rich dude. And we should kind
of like, and she thinks they're in love. Yeah, exactly. But so she's keeps talking and
try to say, my husband is intoxicated. You can't believe anything that's happening. And
Toros is keeps like, this woman should not be talking. This is not. And he's wearing a
camel hair coat and the judge keeps going, camel man, sit down. So that's really funny
too. But then Bonya's parents show up and they realized that since they got married in
Vegas, they have to fly to Nevada to get the marriage annul so they get on their private
plane and they fly to Vegas. And the marriage gets an old actual law. Yeah, I don't know.
I honestly have no idea. This then the movie starts to get a little dark, right? Where
it's just like the movie is the opposite of the the pretty woman fairy tale, right?
Which is what I kind of loved about it. I agree. Totally. Right. Where it this movie feels
entirely real, right? All of the people in this movie feel like real people level of hotness
of anora matches the level of a stripper hooker. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. She looks like
a stripper. She yeah. And all of the other strippers in the movie are actually played by strippers.
Okay. Like he just he didn't hire actors. He actually hired to do that. Yeah. Yeah. He uses
real people to play these real parts. But even the other actors in the movie like Eager,
the henchman, he just looks like a dude who would be like working for a guy who works for a
Russian oligarch. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's just like I knew the casting was pretty perfect.
Yeah. He's like, I need somebody who could conceivably be muscle for this, this guy in
Russia. Right. And he's like this guy. And he looks exactly like the part. You know, this
movie just, it movie just feels real. But then the marriage is a null and they tell Annie
she can stay one night in the mansion and they're going to give her $10,000 for her troubles.
But that's it. She's never going to see Vanya again. And it's it's all going to be over.
Yeah. So the movie ends with Eager driving her back to her apartment and he stole the engagement
ring back. They they took the engagement ring off of her finger. She has this giant rock
that he bought that volume bought her and they take it back. But then then Eager steals
it and gives it back to Annie is like this really nice gesture. And it's clear.
That he's like, kind of smitten with her. He like, he has this. There's been a little thing
between. Yeah. He's got this tremendous amount of affection for her. So then after that
happens, he's been really, really sweet to her. Yeah. He's been a total twat. Yeah. Through
the whole movie. Yeah. This the last night they spend in the mansion together. She keeps
talking about how, oh, you wanted to rape me, right? You wanted to rape me. And she's
being like really, Mikey Madison is playing it is like really super aggressive and spiky.
And you're a Boris off who plays Eager is playing it really low key. Yeah. Really great, I think.
And he's and he's like, no, I wouldn't rape you. He's like, well, why? Why wouldn't you
rape me? It's not the rape. It's not a rapist. Just like really simply just a really great
line to the delivery. I think he does. Yeah. I think he's just a really great job. So
the movie ends. He gets back in the car and she climbs on top of him and just starts riding
him. And then he like grabs her face and goes to kiss her and she breaks down and sobs.
And that's when the end of the credits roll. She's breaking it. You know, so what did you
take away from that? So this is what I think number one, I feel like it's the upending of
her fairy tale, right? Yeah. Like this is like what would have happened in pretty woman
if Richard gear climbed up the fire escape and they have their magic moment and then
Richard Gears wife shows up and says, uh, no, you have to come home to your wife and kids.
Right. And he'd be like, Oh, shit, I forgot I was married. And then she goes back and rides
the hotel manager and starts crying. Well, no, but it's just like, it's just like this
life that she had she thought she had managed to get herself into is just all taken away
from her, right? Because like Annie, you could tell, like throughout it, she was like,
after she met him, after she saw where he lived, yeah, after they hit it off, right? She's
like, this is it. Right. This is my ticket out of all of this. Yeah, exactly. And you could
tell that her wishful thinking was dominating until reality. Yeah, exactly. Especially when
she was signing the enolment papers. Yeah. And it was just like, this is it. You know, this is
the end of it. Yeah. So yeah, I got that too. So yeah. So that part of it, I think is just
the fairy tale comes crashing down and that's what she's going in. But the other part, I think,
is that it seems like the movie is setting it up that she only finds value in herself for her
looks and for her body. Like Vanya didn't really love her is she's just she's just like this hot
woman who happens to speak Russian that he can have as a thing. So she's not she doesn't really
know anybody who values her as a person. But eager seems to really, really care for her. Like,
he seems to actually like who she is. And so she wants to thank him, I guess, by having sex with
him because that's just what she does. Like her body is just this transactional thing. It's it was
interesting to me that she doesn't start crying until he tries to kiss her. And it's just like,
she's so used to only being valued for her body that when someone actually seems to care about
who she is, it just kind of all comes crush come like coming out of her. Like the just emotion just
comes flooding out and you know, she just she just can't take it. She doesn't know how to react
to this thing, you know, and I found it incredibly moving like I'm a person who cries at movies a lot.
But usually when I'm crying in a movie, it's like something is emotional happening happening,
something emotional is happening. And I'm just like kind of caught up in it. But something happened
to me when I was watching this movie that has never happened to me before where I'm watching the movie. And
then the end happens and she starts crying and then the credits roll and then like five seconds after
the credits roll, I just started sobbing. Like I think that the movie does such a masterful job
of creating empathy for her. Yeah. Where it's just like because it's so much fun, right? The movie
so much of the movie is spent having a great time. It's so fun and we're just on this ride. Yeah.
That it's just go go go go go the whole time. But then the ending we just becoming more and more.
It's slowed down. We're realizing the reality of her situation. And it's just like I you realize that
you've been rooting for her this whole time because her character is just so likable. And then when she
starts to break down, I just broke down along with her. I couldn't help myself. Like I've never had a
movie hit me this emotionally hard ever. Like it just killed me. The ending absolutely killed me.
Like I was supposed to go see another movie right after this movie. And I was just like I went to see
my friend Mark with our friend Mark. And I was just like I'm not I can't go see another movie. I
need to live with this one for a little while longer. You know, I just couldn't I couldn't handle it. I
couldn't emotionally get over that movie. Wow. Yeah. I couldn't believe it. I think this movie is kind
of a miracle because it's not often you you can marry such humor and empathy at the same time.
Whereas just like usually because these guys these henchmen, there should be cartoon characters,
right? And all of these things that are happening shouldn't be emotionally resonant. But like I
actually kind of you kind of understand everybody like everybody is very clear motivation. Yeah,
like the the Armenian dudes are there as much caught up in Vanya's bullshit as she is, right?
You get the feeling that this is just the latest spill that these guys have to clean up. Like Vanya
is just this tornado that destroys everything he comes into contact with. And these poor fucking
Armenian dudes have to clean it all up every time, right? And like one of the things that
when Toros is trying to tell her he's he is pissed off at her for not understanding what she's
getting into. She's like, you don't even know this guy. And he's right. She doesn't know him. She
doesn't realize that he is not actually in love with her. He's just he's just a rich asshole who
can do whatever the fuck he wants. And as you know, concept of consequences. Yeah. And as the movie
goes on, you just realize you just start to realize like fuck these these guys are they're the antagonists
kind of but at the same time you kind of feel bad for them. They're like, they're just cleaning up
this bullshit. It was a giant mess. Yeah, to figure it out. Yeah, exactly. And so it's really weird that
the tightrope that this movie walks between being hilarious and being empathetic. Yeah, I
it's like I said, I think it's a miracle. I don't understand how it pulled it off so well. And yeah,
I like miracle. I can't. I just just way I feel about it. I think that's a that's a big word. Yeah,
but I but you're not wrong. I think everything you said is right. I felt the same way. I legitimately
like fuck, I think this movie is a masterpiece. Yeah. How do you think it stands in Oscar season?
I honestly don't know. I think it's got good chance before the parasite wind happened. I would have
said there's no way that this doesn't feel like an Oscar kind of movie. No, but then parasite and
everything everywhere all at once. Yeah, it's like, yeah, the Oscars seem to be doing better. I think
I think Mikey Madison has an absolute chance. I think she's got to be the favorite to win best
actress. Yeah, I think she's totally remarkable in this movie. I my experience with she was the
oldest daughter on the Pamela Adlin show Better Things, which I think is a good show, but she
she wasn't really remarkable to me as a character. And then she's also in one spot of time in Hollywood.
Yeah, she plays the Manson family member who gets flamethrowered. And I thought she was kind of
bad in that movie where she's like freaking out and screaming for most of the second half of her
part of the movie. And it's like, I've kind of find her obnoxious and irritating. So for her to come
in and do this thing where like for her to it felt it felt really real. Yeah, like it felt like a
documentary sometimes. Yep. And she pulled off that role really well. Like she was a
hooker from where were they at New Jersey? It was in Brooklyn. Brooklyn. Yeah. Yeah, it felt like it.
Yeah, I agree. I totally agree. So yeah, I think she, I think she should win. And I think she
has a really good chance. But sometimes, you know, the Oscar acting, acting categories are stupid
where it's just like if somebody does an impression of a famous person, they have a 50-50-perch
or a Holocaust movie. Yeah, like, yeah, yeah, right. Like, you know, if Michelle Williams stars in
Rotten, the Hillary Clinton story, then she's going to win the Oscar for no iftips because,
oh, I know what Hillary Clinton looks like. It's just like that. And that's like, but yeah,
that's the kind of thing that sometimes wins at the Oscars, but Michelle Williams would be a good Hillary.
I think Michelle Williams is great. So there's nothing against her. But it's just so stupid that
that's the kind of thing that when I win the acting awards, sometimes. But yeah, I think, man, if this
movie is not a best picture nominee and if Mikey Madison doesn't win, I think it's going to be,
I think it's going to be very disappointing. I mean, I haven't seen a lot of the Oscar stuff.
Yeah, just still a bunch coming out probably, right? Yeah. Yeah. But man, if I see a movie,
this year that is better than this one, I, I will be very surprised. That's what I think.
All right. So is that it? Yeah, that's it. So, uh, we've got to have to go through the formality.
Yes. Let's do it. Is it a past pirate pay from you, Mr. Franco?
100% pay. Yeah. I mean, I can't stress this enough if you are listening to this show and have not
yet seen an aura. Go see it. It's amazing. It's really good. All right. So, um, next week in case
uh, in case y'all who are listening would like to get a head start on our conversation, we are doing
religious themed movies. Yes. So, we're going to be watching heretic the new Hugh Grant horror movie
and to go along with the religious themes. We're also going to be watching St. Maud and Red State.
Yeah. So, if you haven't seen those or would like to refresh your memory, that's what we're going to
be talking about. So, uh, we will see you then.
Thanks for tuning in to past pirate pay. This episode was produced by the one and only Andy Morris.
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