CINEMISSES! Bottle Rocket

In this episode, Matt and Tug explore Wes Anderson's debut film "Bottle Rocket." They delve into the short film it was based on, how it moved through the film festival circuit and eventually became a feature. They pontificate on how much of what would appear in later Anderson films was there -- in some form or fashion -- from the very start. They also touch on Luke and Owen Wilson, and how their older brother Andrew kind of got thee short end of the stick when it comes to Hollywood success. All in all, a cool convo about one of the world coolest filmmakers. Grab the yellow jumpsuit and let's go!

Check us at INSTAGRAM

Find us on X

Visit our WEBSITE

EMAIL: Cinemisses@gmail.com

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Tug McTighe (00:00)
You're listening to Cinemissa's a podcast about movies that one or the other of your two hosts just never got around to seeing. I am Tug.

matt (00:07)
I am Matt, reminding you that anybody can make a podcast about movies they have seen. We are here because we haven't. Thank you for joining us on season four of Cinemas and Action.

Tug McTighe (00:16)
Wow.

This was our thirty first episode. Yeah, I know, right?

matt (00:21)
That's crazy.

Yeah, this so statistically, I think most podcasts don't get past one. They do one.

Tug McTighe (00:28)
I

I hundred percent agree and I have no Yeah, I'm I'm assuming. I'm assuming for sure. Yeah. So we're you guess what? We're we're we're bucking the trends, Matt, you and I.

matt (00:32)
Yeah. So we're thirty one times as good. That's pretty good.

We're

so so kicking this off, can I tell a little related anecdote?

Tug McTighe (00:44)
Please, we've had a little bit of a break here, right? We've taken a little bit of the month of June off. I've been watching the World Cup. and you've got a July fourth story.

matt (00:49)
Yeah.

I do. so you have a dog, I have a dog. I think your dog could eat my dog. ⁓ so Luna's a nine pound just a terror, just a terrifying yapping dog. but she freaks out during thunderstorms or fireworks. So this fourth it was the worst of both worlds 'cause it just rained to beat the band and

Tug McTighe (00:57)
Right, probably.

It rained

and thundered all day and then boom boom boom fireworks. And yes, yes. The whatever the rules are regarding these municipalities and fireworks, they do not apply. And yeah, a hundred percent. exactly the same. He hates the f thunder and

matt (01:17)
Yeah.

Yeah, like was your neighborhood just smoke filled? Ours was too.

No, it was like a it was like the purge, but with fireworks.

Tug McTighe (01:36)
He hates the fireworks. So w we just went down. I have to br come down and sleep in the basement with him. Yeah.

matt (01:42)
Okay, so

our dog is small enough that she would actually sleep with us. So after twenty, twenty-five, thirty minutes of yapping, which my wife can sleep through with no problem. but I can, of course, I'm you know, I'm just up at the first yap. So after 25 minutes of this, I'm like, fine, it's four a.m. I'll just let her out. And she did something she's never done.

Tug McTighe (01:53)
Right. Right. Right.

matt (02:08)
She sh and pardon my language, Mom, she shot the bed. Yeah, so I opened up

Tug McTighe (02:11)
She shat her bed. And they say dogs

they say dogs don't shit where they sleep. She couldn't she poor thing. She couldn't help it.

matt (02:17)
This one did. So I opened up the kennel and it's

I know. The dog bed's full of dog dew and I had to make sure she wasn't covered in it because she was gonna run and jump into our bed. so while I'm walking around the house to ensure that she had not tracked it through the house or in the bed, eat on our bedroom floor. So that said, you know who did not shit the bed in this in his film debut?

Tug McTighe (02:27)
Right.

a Wes Anderson. I like it. Hey ladies and gentlemen, that's known as a a c a quarter turn. Matt Matt quarter turned that story into where he needed it to go. Very good. No, yeah, yeah, today's Yeah, that was a long ride. But yeah, Bottle Rocket, which you had not seen. I had seen a long, long I think when it came out.

matt (02:46)
Well Wes Anderson, his debut film, Bobble Rocket, is the subject of today's episode.

Yeah, I I hope you had comfortable shoes 'cause that was a long walk to get

Tug McTighe (03:08)
ninety six or whatever and I'd never seen it again so I was interested to watch it again. So as always we asked the person who hasn't seen the movie, the Cinnamisser, that's you, what they think they know about this film. So Matt, you had not previously seen this. Give us the deeds.

matt (03:23)
Okay, I knew this was a Wes Anderson film. He's one of our favorite directors here at Cinemasis. and not only that, but his debut film as a director. I knew it starred Owen Wilson, who was Wes Anderson's roommate at UT Austin, as well as Luke Wilson, who was and is Owen Wilson's brother, and it turns out their their other brother. Andrew.

Tug McTighe (03:28)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Andrew. They're th I think Andrew's the oldest, I believe.

matt (03:49)
Right, Future Man. and I suspected it was set in Texas or thereabouts, and I figured it would feature at least some of the Wes Anderson directorial flourishes that we've come to expect.

Tug McTighe (03:51)
Future Man. Yeah.

And it

Yeah,

so so there's a lot of those Wes Anderson, you know, directorial flourishes or ticks or behaviors. and yeah, this this did have s it had some. I don't think it had all, but we'll talk about that as we as we get into it. ⁓ and like I said, I I saw this a long time ago when it came out and I remember liking it and going, Man, this is just a weird movie, right?

matt (04:16)
Mm.

Tug McTighe (04:25)
'Cause we ha we had no idea what Wes Anderson was going to become. And then Rushmore was a couple years later, and I think Rushmore just blew everybody's socks off. Yeah. it just sort of you know, he knew what he was doing at that point. so yeah, I'm I'm interested I'm interested in this. this this feels like a di a debut. Right? This feels like a first film, feels like a first album of a band who two or three albums later, like, my god, they crushed it on that third record.

matt (04:29)
Right.

You just tightened it up, right?

Tug McTighe (04:53)
Right? They they became themselves. at the and like I said, the the pieces are a lot of the pieces are there. They're just not quite in place yet. They're not quite polished.

matt (05:04)
Right, but it was encouraging to me, and maybe you feel the same way, as a creative person, in a creative field where our job depends on creativity and being good, that he wasn't always Wes Anderson as we know him today. Like we we have talked about when we did when we did Isle of Dogs. It's like he knows what he wants us to look like from the start and where he wants it to go, and everything goes exactly the way it's supposed to and it looks great. this didn't quite have that, as enjoyable as this was. ⁓

Tug McTighe (05:17)
That's right.

Right.

Yeah. Yep.

matt (05:33)
And and I will say this too, a lot more enjoyable on a second viewing. I watched it the first time and I was like, Then I watched it again and I'm like, okay, this is great.

Tug McTighe (05:37)
Yeah. Just to just

Yeah, just to see. So guys when we do these these these watches it it's hard to watch it and think it through and take notes. So a lot of times that second viewing is really good or or even like a just a buzz through it a second time. But yeah, you could just just watch it and enjoy it, right?

matt (05:54)
You can just enjoy it more. You know, you could take it you know where the

story's going. You don't need to track that. ⁓ yeah. So all right.

Tug McTighe (06:00)
Right, right. All right, let's

go with the log line, Matt. three friends plan to pull off a simple robbery and go on and then go on the run. Which seems a little light. We also found another one in West Anderson's first feature film, Anthony has just been released from a mental hospital, only to find his wacky friend Dignan determined to begin an outrageous crime spree. After recruiting their neighbor Bob, the team embarks on a road trip in search of Dignan's

matt (06:08)
It seems a little simplistic.

Tug McTighe (06:24)
pr previous boss, Mr Henry, but the more they learn, the more they realize that they do not know the first thing about crime.

matt (06:31)
Okay, I know that's not a log line, but I it's a lot more descriptive. Right.

Tug McTighe (06:33)
That's a synopsis, yeah. But that that's

that's that's better, yeah. so yeah, Dignon. We'll talk about the names in a minute. ⁓ But all right, so what's it about, Matt? It's a nineteen ninety-six American crime comedy film, directed by Wes Anderson in his feature film debut, written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. It was based on Anderson's nineteen ninety-two short film of the same name. it also marks the acting debut

matt (06:41)
For sure.

Tug McTighe (06:58)
of brothers Owen and Luke Wilson who obviously have become household names. also featured is their older brother Andrew, Robert Musgrave, Lumi Cavazzos, and James Kahn out of the blue. Which is

matt (07:11)
yeah, I didn't I thought

this was like a student film until James Conn showed up. ⁓ wait, it's a real movie. So did you watch the original I think I say like the short Yeah, so they had pitched that to that to James L. Brooks and ⁓ he's like, Yeah, redo all this

Tug McTighe (07:15)
Right. Right.

The like the twelve or thirty yeah, the twelve or thirteen minute short. Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

I like it, but we're not gonna use that. Yeah. Yeah. It's but it's it's largely there, right? In that twelve minute film, it's largely there. The the Yeah, yeah, really great. So that's worth a watch, guys. you can find it on just you Google it and it'll be there. to your earlier your earlier assumption. principal photography took place in various locations throughout Texas.

matt (07:35)
Right.

And the diner scene is totally there.

was not a commercial success due to its limited release in theaters by Sony Pictures releasing on February twenty first, nineteen ninety-six. I don't think it ever showed in more than forty-nine theaters. Like it was never gonna make money. Yeah. but it r received acclaim from critics. It launched the film careers of Wes Anderson and Luke and Owen Wilson. not as much. Andrew Wilson. I think he's been at a couple things, but Martin Scorsese

Tug McTighe (08:06)
Right. So it was a really small movie.

Right.

matt (08:22)
named Bottle Rocket one of his top ten favorite films in the nineties. So high praise there. ⁓ Owen Wilson initially had no plans to act in the film at all and after it bombed he considered joining the Marines 'cause he figured he had no future as an actor.

Tug McTighe (08:26)
High praise indeed, yeah.

Boy, speaking of a quarter turn, that would have been a whole different life. A whole different world without Owen Wilson. so this came out in ninety six. For me, this and we talked about this, Matt, with Snatch, where t when Tarantino exploded on the scene with Reservoir Dogs and then Pulp in ninety four, sort of ushering in this Fuck, I don't know, Maverick, new n the new new Maverick indie f writer, director.

matt (08:41)
Right.

Tug McTighe (09:03)
Doing their own thing. This feels and then Guy Richie's like, Well, if he can do it, I can do it. And then this feels like with Wes I know he's I'm just sure he saw that movie and is like, well, I got hold on, I got it in me. We got the short. I I know I can do this.

matt (09:19)
Right, but I love that it's not I'm gonna imitate Quentin Tarantino 'cause obviously But I think Tarantino deserves a lot of credit for inspiring people to do their thing. Like

Tug McTighe (09:22)
One hundred one hundred percent. But

To

just yeah, to not rely on this kind of not rely on the system, if you will. Like, you know, th famously in Rocky, he you know, Sylvester Stallone wrote that movie and was shopped it around and it was gonna get bought because his crypto's great. and he kept turning all these offers down because they wouldn't let him be in it. It's like at one point it's like, we're gonna have Burt Reynolds be Rocky, we're gonna have so and so be Rocky, and and he's like, No, it's me, and he took away less money.

'Cause he was betting on himself and I just like that I'm betting on myself, says Wes Anderson. I'm a kind of a weirdo and my friend Owen's kind of a weirdo, so let's go make our weird movie and see what happens.

matt (10:01)
Yeah.

And it nobody d looks like Wes Anderson. Nobody does what he does. He's the only one I can th I'm maybe I'm wrong and I'm not a pr I'm not a professional people, I'm not a licensed professional. And that's How did how did the movie do?

Tug McTighe (10:10)
Nobody. No one.

Right. we can tell. Everyone.

All right, eighty-six percent on the tomato meter. ⁓ that's a critic, so they liked it. And then seventy-nine percent on the popcorn meter, fifty thousand plus fairfied ratings. So yeah, not bad. Not bad for a a little bit rough around the edges, definitely a tour, a different kind of filmmaker doing a weird thing.

matt (10:25)
Pretty good.

Sure, but

also I suspect like the vast majority of these ratings are people that were acquainted with Wes Anderson from other films and then went back and watched this and that rate. Right. So like yeah, it's pretty good. Rushmore was we should do Rushmore. That was so good. Yeah. All right.

Tug McTighe (10:50)
Right, exactly. And then are like, yeah, that was pretty good. It's no rushmore, it's no, you know, Isle of Dogs or whatever, but yeah. my god, I'm gonna have to watch it again. So great.

All right, again, so here's how it got developed. We talked about it. 92 Wes directed a thirteen minute short with title Bottle Rocket, Black and White with Owen and Luke and Musgrave, right? The same guy Bob. similar plot to the film, just expanded.

Went to Sundance in ninety three, James L. Brooks was there and saw it, really liked it, said, yeah, let's go make a let's go make a real version of it.

matt (11:26)
Yeah, so you and I know James L. Brooks from The Simpsons. because every time they would do the Halloween special, he would beat James L. Brooks. I remember that coming up. But I did not know this, but he was a writer in Hollywood a billion years ago. notably on the Jerry Van Dyke comedy My Mother the Car, which is

Tug McTighe (11:30)
Yeah.

James Hale Brooks, that's right.

Right. ⁓

matt (11:46)
Considered one of the worst TV shows of all time. I've never seen

it. But then he created the Mary Tyler Moore show and Taxi and all the spin offs like Lou Grant and Rhoda and the spin offs of Mary Tyler Moore. And he wrote films like Turns of Endearment and As Good As It Gets. So kind of a Hollywood legend. Like he had a lot of weight. So as I mentioned, he insisted on major rewrites from

Tug McTighe (11:55)
Yes.

Yeah, no, no. I would yeah, not kind of. Yeah, he's a definitely a legend.

matt (12:10)
Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. I thought this was funny. So the I mean, these are college guys, right? They're just out of c they're twenty five years old. Twenty I think twenty five or twenty six is how old Owen Wilson was. So he bought them first class tickets to Los Angeles and Owen Wilson tried to trade his tickets for coach so he could keep he'd never flown first class. He's like, I can you know fly coach and just keep the the money. ⁓ and then they they told him, you know, it just goes back to the card holder, the person that bought

Tug McTighe (12:15)
Right.

Right.

Right. Right.

Right.

Keep the money. Yeah.

matt (12:39)
So I guess

Tug McTighe (12:40)
Right. That's not how this works.

matt (12:41)
I guess I'll fly first class. And then they entirely rewrote and reshot the bottle rocket short for the new feature.

Tug McTighe (12:48)
So it was all shot in Dallas, Fort Worth and Hillsborough, with the exception of the when he escapes the mental hospital, which he's allowed to leave because he checked himself in voluntarily. and then fun fact, all the scenes at Bob Maplethorpe's house were filmed at the John Gillen residence, which is the only Frank Lloyd Wright residential home in Dallas. There you go.

matt (12:54)
This is a great.

So I found that out ⁓ after seeing

it the first time and on the second rewatch, that's all I could see. I was like, Of course that's a Frank Lloyd Wright home. ⁓ it was so cool. Yeah, and mid century modern stuff everywhere, it was very cool.

Tug McTighe (13:13)
Right, once you You couldn't unsee it right, you saw it. Yeah, I love it. And then Yeah, right.

And then of course this is true, because Wes had a lot of his ideas in place. He tried to get Bill Murray to be Mr. Henry. ⁓ he hadn't he hadn't yet met Bill Murray, but he did cast him in the next movie, Rushmore, and then

matt (13:34)
Right.

Tug McTighe (13:40)
pretty much every other Wes Anderson movie. Yeah. So he was only not in Asteroid City, man, he had COVID.

matt (13:47)
Right. And as of April twenty twenty one, he reportedly still had not seen Bottle Rocket. So I guess he just doesn't if he's not in it, he doesn't want to see it.

Tug McTighe (13:52)
Bill Marie. See the the

every every story I hear about Bill Marie I choose to disbelieve.

matt (13:58)
Right. I love that and we talked about this before, but Wes Anderson likes working who he wor wants to work with. So when you talk about Rushmore, you're gonna see Bill Murray and you're gonna see Luke Wilson again. Remember? These are OR scrubs, are they? That's a great

Tug McTighe (14:03)
Yeah we have. Yep.

Yes. You you're yeah yeah. Yeah. D y yeah, right. yeah,

you're good he likes the people he likes. And they show up again and again and again.

matt (14:20)
Yes.

So his cinematographer that he used in Bottle Rocket is the same cinematographer he's used for every s single movie. Right.

Tug McTighe (14:28)
Every single one. Yep. Not if it ain't broke, right? ⁓

speaking of his favorites, he's very musically inclined as well. And he is a great to my ear song choice needle drop guy there's always a killer needle drop or two in in all of his movies. So one of his favorites to work with is a fellow by the name of Mark Mothersbaugh.

he's done a million scores for a million movies and a million cartoon shows, kid shows. But he's also famous for being the founder of Devo, Mark Motherspa. Out of I believe Cleveland or Columbus is where Devo came from. ⁓

matt (15:02)
Mm-hmm.

Cleveland sounds

weird to me.

Tug McTighe (15:06)
But yeah, he

Mothers Ba, dude, the Lego movie, four, Ragnarok, Claudio with a chance of meatballs, The Royal Ten of Moms, Moon Moonrise Kingdom, Life Aquatic, Steve Zizou, yeah, Mothers Ba's all over Wes Anderson as well.

matt (15:19)
Yeah. There was another song, not included on the soundtrack, but it was Two Thousand Man by the Rolling Stones and Seven and Seven Is and Alone Again or by a band called Love, with whom I'm unfamiliar, but they were a late sixties psychedelic band from the West Coast, and you know I'm a a huge Rush fan. ⁓ Rush did an album of covers of songs that inspired them.

Tug McTighe (15:38)
Yes.

matt (15:44)
And Seven and Seven is was on that album. So ⁓ very well.

Tug McTighe (15:47)
Huh, okay. I'll have to check it out.

That that two thousand man Rolling Stones needle drop is fantastic in this.

matt (15:54)
It is.

it was really good. and he does such a good job of choosing songs in you know, in the same way that Edgar Wright on Hot Fuzz had a lot of kink songs in there and it just really fit fit the vibe. yeah.

Tug McTighe (15:59)
Yeah.

It i it fits and James Gunn, of course, right? Right, we're

we're we're all pretty sure that Yacht Rock was floating around there kind of as a thing that some people liked. And then those Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks came out and everybody's like, This is fucking great music. Like he's he's an expert at curating that stuff.

matt (16:24)
Yeah, absolutely. But it's worth noting that other directors like Wes Anderson were doing this twenty years ago. Yep.

Tug McTighe (16:30)
That's right.

Alright, box office. Not great, as we said. ⁓ it made five hundred and sixty grand in US and Canada and five hundred and sixty grand worldwide. so

matt (16:34)
No.

But it's five

hundred and sixty twenty twenty six worldwide. There's an it's another hundred and fifty seven dollars.

Tug McTighe (16:45)
Yeah. Yeah.

Right. It was five hundred and sixty and five hundred and sixty thousand and sixty nine dollars in the US and Canada. And worldwide it was five hundred and sixty thousand dollars and two hundred and twenty six. So yeah, one hundred fifty seven, there you go.

matt (16:59)
Yeah.

Like in in Greenland they showed it on a screen and they s hundred and fifty seven dollars.

Tug McTighe (17:05)
It just yeah. Right,

right. They made one fifty seven that day and then they just yanked it out of the out of the out of the box office. ⁓

matt (17:13)
And that was a five

million dollar budget. And how much of that went to James Conn? I would think so.

Tug McTighe (17:17)
Well you gotta think a lot.

Right. critical response was generally positive. as we talked about Rotten Tomatoes, eighty six rating. everybody's well and here I you know, I mentioned the Tarantino thing. Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes rather calls it Reservoir Dogs Meets Breathless with a West Texas sensibility. So just a kind of a weird

Again, crime caper thing, kinda funny, kind of odd. you know, Metacritic, sixty-six out of a hundred. Like you said earlier, Martin Scorsese really liked us. That's one of his favorite movies of the nine favorite movies of the nineties. and he said that Scorsese said he likes Wes because he can convey the simple joys and interactions between people really well and with a lot of richness. So again, when Martin Scorsese's telling you you did a good movie, you did a good movie.

matt (18:03)
Yeah. And I would say too, we've talked before about setting and a city or a location being a character. Te this is really Texasy.

Tug McTighe (18:11)
A hundred percent. One hundred percent. 'Cause it's

there's they're they're in that that motel for so long in the middle of nowhere and it's just gigantic and big sky and flat and yeah, a hundred percent, man, I agree. and speaking of agreeing, I'd like to agree with you that our sponsor is fantastic. That's a little bare graphics to everyone. In Bottle Rocket, Dign assembled a crew that included a guy who forgot the plan, a guy who questioned the plan, and Kumar who couldn't crack the safe.

Well this is certainly one way to run a business. Here at Cinemissus we think you should hire Little Bear Graphics instead. They're a creative team, a crew, if you will, that handles everything from logos to websites to social content and branded gear, so your marketing actually works together instead of feeling got three different people showed up to the same heist with a different plan. Check them out and check out their work at Little Bear dot graphics today.

matt (18:59)
Love it. Perfect. Perfect. let's talk about the cast. Owen Wilson as Dignan. He was twenty six years old during filming. He had a these guys look younger than you've ever seen them in anything. the name Dignan came from their friend Steven Dignan, who pops up in bit rolls in this movie and in Rushmore and Royal Tenorbombs. I don't think he's an actor. I just think he's Yeah. I did

Tug McTighe (19:02)
All right, Matt. Yeah, top cast.

No, you ain't kidding.

He's just her buddy. Yeah.

matt (19:27)
Lower thirds for documentary. So if you go if you search my name on IMDB, I will come up. Yeah, is that cool? Yep. Luke Wilson as Anthony Adams, twenty three years old in this movie. and I I don't know who's the lead. I think it's kinda I think it's him, but

Tug McTighe (19:34)
I love it. I'm gonna go look at it after this compot.

Man.

it's it's Anthony for sure. He makes the biggest change in its right, his arc is the ba is the main arc.

matt (19:52)
Yeah, a thing I love about the Wilson brothers is they don't take themselves too seriously. I feel like they're like ability's always been a thing for them. ⁓ one of my favorite, all-time favorite X-Files episodes is when Mulder and Scully investigate a supposed vampire situation in a trailer park and Luke Wilson plays the sheriff and they keep flashing they keep flashing back in memories

Tug McTighe (19:57)
Yeah.

Yeah.

very good.

Huh.

matt (20:20)
so Mulder will tell his part of the story and when he tells it, Luke Wilson has these big stupid buck teeth on and he's just kind of an idiot. And then when when Scully tells her part of the story, he's really handsome and charming. It's pretty great. ⁓ but yeah, TV movies, animated stuff, they're on board for it. ⁓ you know, when Wilson did wedding crashers and he

Tug McTighe (20:31)
He's handsome Luke Wilson, yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah, yeah.

Zoolander

and yeah, he's f happy to make a fool out of himself. Yeah.

matt (20:46)
Yeah, he's just

I think they're just enjoying life. ⁓ I know Luke Wilson did some superhero stuff on you know, the CW or something, so Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Robert Musgrave as Bob Maplethorpe. Talk about him.

Tug McTighe (20:49)
I I think so too.

He was illegally blonde and the sequel, right, in a role right.

So I was glad

to see him back. He was the same character in the short. could have been easy for Anderson to find a quote unquote name actor to take on this role, but he didn't, and I again I admire him for it. another in other

matt (21:13)
The name is remind

me of something. Whoops the name from Bob Maplethorn.

Tug McTighe (21:17)
Yeah, in other Robert Maplethorpe namesake

news, Robert Michael Maplethorpe was an American photographer best known for his black and white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits, and still-life images. His most controversial works, Matt, documented and examined the gay male BDSM culture in New York City in the late 60s and early seventies. And he had an eighty-nine 1989 exhibition, The Perfect Moment.

Sparked a debate in the United States concerning the use of public funds for quote unquote obscene work and the constitutional limits of free speech in the United States.

matt (21:51)
I do remember this. when you say Robert Maplethorpe, I get a mental image of a man with a bull whip inserted into his buttocks. Right? That was kind of the face of the controversy. ⁓ I didn't like Bob Maplethorpe's character. I like nothing against Robert Musgrave, but I just he just wasn't great. Like I know it's good that they brought him back and 'cause he was their buddy and he probably worked at scale. But at the same time

Tug McTighe (22:00)
Right. Very good. Yes. That that's exactly right. So

No no, no, no, no.

Right. Or he got paid

fifty got paid fifty bucks. Right.

matt (22:19)
Right, or got paid in beer or something. But ⁓

I just thought he was I maybe would have preferred somebody a little more dynamic, thank you. All right.

Tug McTighe (22:26)
A little more dynamic. Yeah. All right,

J James Conn was A Mr Henry, Abe Henry. ⁓ he he is just eating the scenery when he shows up.

matt (22:33)
Ha ha.

Yeah, Luke Wilson, on an interview with Conan O'Brien, discussed this and he he said he was pretty sure James Conn was there only because James L. Brooks was involved. And the first couple days he's like, Why am I here? What am He said he warmed up to him after a while.

Tug McTighe (22:47)
Right.

Yeah, he just

Right, right. a woman by the name of Lumi Cavazos was Inez. I thought she was awesome. ⁓ a lot of people we don't know. Kumar Polana was Kumar. ⁓ Andrew Wilson is John Maplethorpe, Bob's brother, aka Future Man, big douchebag. I they never tell ya.

matt (22:57)
I thought she was too.

Nice.

Why is he man?

I and I love that too. Also, like when like there's a lot of things they don't tell you and I love that. Like I don't need to know why I don't need to know what really put Luke Wilson's character, Anthony, in in the nuthouse.

Tug McTighe (23:13)
Yeah.

Just let it

In the mental

hospital. Yeah, no, we we don't need to know. We just know that he was there and he seems like he's feeling better. Yeah. and then you got Steven Steven Dignan of Dignan, the name as Rob. you've got Donnie Caiciato as Rocky who was translating for Anthony Ninez. And then my favorite name in the whole movie is Jim Ponds as Applejack. One of the one of the crew members.

matt (23:29)
I don't care.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Tug McTighe (23:50)
So tight like y we've talked about before. Tight, w not many locations, not many actors. We're we you know, we got three or four key locations and five or six actors, mainly three guys. That helps keep the budget down, that helps stay stay tight. And when you're a when you're a novel filmmaker or a novice filmmaker rather, the tighter I think the better. Right? So it doesn't get sprawling and get out of control and you you kinda lose yourself.

matt (24:16)
Let's steal let Spielberg do that stuff. ⁓ also Brian Tenenbaum is another buddy of theirs that they just put in in their movies, and you know, Royal Tennenbaum was named for that guy. Again, I don't think he's an actor, I just think he was in this movie because he's their friend.

Tug McTighe (24:18)
Right.

Yeah, I love it.

He was one of their pals. Alright Matt, start the plot.

matt (24:35)
In Arizona, Dignan rescues his friend Anthony from a voluntary psychiatric unit where he's been staying for self described exhaustion. Dignan has developed a seventy five year plan that he shows to Anthony the plans to pull off several heists and then meet up with a mister Henry, a landscaper and part time criminal known to Dignan. Now we don't know that now, that he's a landscaper. So Dignan's talking about his crew. Mr Henry.

Tug McTighe (24:53)
Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah, his crew. Mr.

Henry's the boss. Yeah, yeah. so like I said, you you can see right away when Anthony's talking to the the doctor who catches him trying to escape, and he's like, What are you doing, Anthony? You can just walk out the front door and he goes, my buddy's out here and he he thinks he's helping me break free. Can we just can we just play along? He's like, Okay, good.

matt (25:10)
Right.

Tug McTighe (25:21)
And he jumps out the window and he he does the old sheets, right? The decades old ties the bed sheets together. Can you does that work? Can you turn can you turn it into a rope? ⁓

matt (25:28)
It must People do it all the time.

I thought that was a funny scene and a good way to start it. and it's you know, it's show don't tell. So it's as he's repelling down, you hear Doctor Nichols say, You can't save everyone. ⁓ so we're getting a sense of not only what Dignon's like, but really what Anthony's like.

Tug McTighe (25:43)
Right.

Yeah, you're you from from very minimal dialogue and very minimal scene work, it's just you're starting to go, Okay, Dignon's a little loony. Anthony is obviously troubled, but maybe feeling better. Yeah, a hundred percent. I I really like it. yes, we also get the seventy five year plan is in in Dignon's notebook, spiral notebook. And this is a very consistent Wes Anderson tick.

where you see the plan to escape whatever. We jump over the tree and there's a drawing and there's a spring or whatever. There's a lot of that in these Wes Anderson movies. so you start to see that throughout his filmography. You will see that later coming back.

matt (26:26)
Yeah, so it was neat to see some of these directorial flourishes that he has. that top view of a hand placed object and kind of a map and this is sort of that. So as this goes on, once you're looking for him, it's almost like you know, like bingo, like, there's another one.

Tug McTighe (26:33)
Yeah. Love a map. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, right.

there it is. there it is. Yeah.

matt (26:43)
As a practice heist, so this was funny too, the friends break into Anthony's home, his family's home, and they steal specific items from a a previously agreed upon list. afterward, Dignon reveals that he took a pair of earrings that were not on the list, and Anthony is upset because he bought those for his mother as a gift and left them off the list intentionally.

Tug McTighe (26:48)
Yeah, his his his his house.

That's right.

matt (27:05)
Anthony goes and visits his l little sister Grace at her school and asks her to return the earrings for him.

Tug McTighe (27:10)
Right. So this is again now in your second scene, you're getting more about who Dignan is. You're getting more about who Anthony is, right? Dignan is a bit of a loose canon. maybe doesn't have it thought through as well as he should, right? Even though he's got the big plan. He thinks absolutely thinks he does. So there's there's also a a Wes Anderson thing, Matt, that's kind of a Robert Altman thing too.

matt (27:27)
He thinks he does.

Tug McTighe (27:35)
They're at the diner recapping and it's often a multiple pardon me, multiple characters kind of talking over each other. and it's often Dignon and Anthony. Each of them sort of mon like they're saying a monologue and he's saying a monologue and they're not listening to each other, but they're both saying

matt (27:53)
he

I think he abandoned that. I I don't know that I've seen that and I could be wrong. I need to see his entire filmography again. so they're just kind of delivering their lines at the same time and it's confusing. ⁓ I it's one of those things where you look at it and say, I get what he's trying to do. I don't know if it totally works. ⁓ But regardless, it's interesting to see him try things. And say, this is it. I won't use this again.

Tug McTighe (27:55)
Yeah.

Right.

Yes.

Maybe it's maybe it's not quite working. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Right.

I love Grace in her limited screen time. She's like she's like ten years old and she knows ex she's like, You're not hanging out with Dignan, are ya? That guy's a moron, right? She totally gets who Dignan is. yeah, that whole bit looked really great.

matt (28:22)
I did too.

I love that he

I love that he treats her like an equal, even though they're obviously ten years apart or more. ⁓ you know, she lies to her friends and says her brother's a jet pilot. That was a great line. He says he tells her, I was just being treated for exhaustion. She says, How can you be exhausted? You haven't worked a day in your life. ⁓ Dead just that deadpan delivery. Yeah, I love that.

Tug McTighe (28:36)
Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Right, right.

Yeah. Dry yeah, dry as a bone, right?

Alright, so so Dignan then recruits old Bob Maplethorpe as their getaway driver. Why, Matt?

matt (29:05)
Cause he's the only person they know who has a car.

Tug McTighe (29:07)
So he's got the car. they then there's Yes. Very fun, very yeah. Yeah.

matt (29:08)
And there's a lot of throwaway lines like that that are just funny. Like again, that's why a second viewing is better because

you can appreciate just the throwaway lines. There's a two.

Tug McTighe (29:19)
Right.

So they then go b find find a guy to buy some guns they're out sh shooting and they're you know, it it's a really funny kind of montagey scene of them out at a in a field shooting stuff. ⁓

matt (29:33)
I'm gonna put a

that that scene here. We'll do a audio clip for that because that's pretty and I forgot to mention there's the whip pan is another another trademark, Wes Anderson, where we saw this on the bus, like the camera has the bus driver and then it whips around. Anthony and Dignan, they use that several times in this. so it's again nice to see the foundations of what is going to be his trademark style.

Tug McTighe (29:38)
cool. Very good.

Yep.

Shape.

Yeah. So the group is Dignon is laying out their plan for their next heist and they're all bickering. Again, sort of in that overlapping dialogue kind of way you talked about. ⁓ and they're struggling. It's a very complicated plan that he's laid out. but there's lots of good back and forth between the three actors. This is another example for me of how he he's looking for something. Even even then he's looking for it, but maybe isn't quite delivering it at this point. The j

matt (30:10)
Yeah.

But it's technique. Like

the concept's there. His technique's not there.

Tug McTighe (30:28)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. There there was some jump cutting that was a bit jarring in this in this part of the movie that he actually kind of abandoned later where you where where for a second you got taken out of the f out of the story because you're like, wait, is this a flashback or flat where are we? And then they'll jump back and you're like, okay, I got it now. But just a little bit weird. But i it gets a little better and like I said, I think he kind of abandoned it as a movie. The movie becomes a little bit more

matt (30:33)
Right.

Right.

Tug McTighe (30:56)
c clearly cut and edited as we as we get through the film.

matt (30:59)
I agree. I loved how cavalier they were with that gun on the table. It was always pointing at somebody.

Tug McTighe (31:02)
Yeah, just li keep

keeps picking it up. You're you're just you're you're watching it like this. my don't Jesus. Don't don't go off. ⁓ very good. Alright. One of my favorite phrases in all crime films is coming up. So they they g they go steal some money from a bookstore. Like it's just

matt (31:10)
Shoot here, one second. Okay.

It's

like not that much.

Tug McTighe (31:29)
No,

it's the dumbest. Okay, so they go and do it. And then he goes, Alright, part two of the plan, we gotta go on the lamb. Now, again, I'm not sure why they had to go on the lamb. I don't think they did. I don't think anybody's really after them the whole time until the final heist. ⁓ but

matt (31:36)
Yeah.

Right. Do you remember

the the tape on the nose? They never explain why he does that. But they do. He's like, Why are you in tape on your nose? Like, don't worry about it. Whatever. It was not what I would call the smoothest robbery in the world, but they felt really good about it. And this is where this is where Dignan first mentions joining the crew and he s shows a picture of Mr. Henry's crew and ⁓

Tug McTighe (31:49)
Right, yeah. Nope no milk. Yep. Don't worry about it. ⁓

Yeah.

Right.

matt (32:12)
Anthony shows it to to Bob and Bob says, that's the Lawn Wranglers. They're they're a land sleeping crew.

Tug McTighe (32:15)
Yeah.

Lawn Wranglers that that Dign Dignan

Dignan used to work for him, but he got and Dignan's like, Hey, I got fired, but don't tell Bob. Right.

matt (32:26)
it's so funny. and also,

this is since we did Heat, the Michael Mann movie, Dignon refers to Mr. Henry, aka James Conn as a thief. James Conn was of course in Michael Mann's thief in nineteen one. But anyway, then we get a traveling montage and there's a bunch of fireworks that they purchased along the way, which I'm sure have something to do with the title.

Tug McTighe (32:31)
Yep.

Famous movie. Yeah.

They're

Yep, they're shooting bottle rockets out in the field and Roman candles and stuff. and then you get another Wes Anderson classic, Matt. Yep.

matt (32:54)
the underwater shot.

Absolutely, when when Anthony's in the pool. So that's that comes a lot.

Tug McTighe (32:58)
So he so they're at this motel

in the middle of nowhere on laying low and he meets a a maid named Inez and she's cleaning the room and they spark up a little romance despite the language barrier. and I think this is a really cute subplot of the story and I liked watching it play out. and then spoiler alert knowing what I knew because I'd seen the movie

I was happy to know and remember that it was gonna work out for them 'cause I love it when the guy gets the girl. I always want the guy to get the girl.

matt (33:26)
I do too. Especially when they

they're both so great. she was and she's been in other things. I think she was in like water for chocolate or something acclaimed. But I she was adorable. I thought she was great. Yeah, I love Absolutely.

Tug McTighe (33:33)
Okay.

Very much so. Yeah. And real chemistry between them, I thought. ⁓

okay. Like I said. n p for for whatever reason Dingman's stupid plan contains they've gotta go on the limb. for no real reason, you mentioned he has all these behaviors tape on the nose. That just continue to tell us that he's a couple marbles short of a full bag. Right? He's not It's not g you know it's just not gonna work out in the end. If this guy's

matt (34:01)
But he's so convinced

of the logic. Like the logic makes sense to him.

Tug McTighe (34:03)
He's so earnest. He's so

He's so earnest. Yeah. It's yeah, it's really charming.

matt (34:09)
Absolutely. so Bob learns his marijuana crop has been discovered by police. He's growing marijuana at his parents' house. and his older brother, who's terrible, has been arrested. and even though he's a total dick, that's Future Man, played by Andrew Wilson. Bob still feels guilty about it, so he leaves to help his brother without telling Dignan.

Tug McTighe (34:14)
Right. Growing marijuana's backyard, yeah.

Right, he he takes off. And and we we hear from Rob or Bob rather, earlier in the movie that his brother's a dick to him. He tells them I Yeah. Yeah, him and his buddy are always coming around just bullying him and stuff. But he still feels guilty and he heads back. Yeah, he heads back to to help.

matt (34:32)
He just leaves. ⁓

we see it too. We see it a lot. Like

And and we never know why he's called future man. ⁓ and I I I love this. He has no problem creating a semi ridiculous or questionable situation and just rolling with it. Like for instance, when Bob tells Dignan that this has happened, he's in a barber. He's at a barber shop. He's just sitting there reading the paper at a barber shop. And then later he's like, Did you guys get haircuts? Like Anthony So I guess

Tug McTighe (34:52)
No.

they're in the barber shop, yeah.

Right.

Right, right. Yeah, he wanted

them to change their hair 'cause they were on the lamb. That was part of the plan.

matt (35:21)
Okay. So yeah, they both got haircuts while they were there.

I love that Wes Anderson doesn't feel like he needs to explain it all to everybody.

Tug McTighe (35:28)
Yeah, just show it and and then walk away and it just becomes an interesting piece of the it becomes an interesting piece of the pie. Yeah. So it's important to know here, Anthony and and Inez have been hanging out, they have sex at one point, they're starting to he's really starting to fall for her, and you think she's starting to fall for him, and then she goes he goes and gets Rocky, the guy working in the kitchen, to translate for him and

matt (35:30)
Tell your story and you'll take away what you want to take away from.

Tug McTighe (35:57)
Tells her, hey, I gotta leave, there's this and that, and the other thing, and then he he gives Dignan an envelope to give her, and Dignan gives it to her, and Rocky comes out and tells Dignan I love you. And he goes, What? And it was he was translating for Inez, who wanted wanted Rocky to tell Anthony that she loved him, but then

matt (36:21)
Tell me if you

don't love him. That was the line, right?

Tug McTighe (36:23)
Right, right. But then Dignan is like, Okay, cool man. Like he thinks Rocky loves him or whatever. So it's a little bit little bit confusing. And again, like does he fail to realize it, Dignon? Or does he realize it? Or is he just so thick? you know, I know he he loves Anthony though. He done wanna lose Anthony to the girl. ⁓ right, right. So anyway

matt (36:27)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

That's true. No, that's fair. ⁓ no, I

took it as him saying he thought Rocky was saying it for himself. It's funny either way.

Tug McTighe (36:49)
Right.

matt (36:49)
I felt like the motel sequence kind of took us out of the story. And then

Tug McTighe (36:54)
It was it took a long time.

matt (36:56)
I don't I think Wes Anderson would probably have tightened that up. But again, I like there's I I'm not saying it was wrong to have it, because I loved Inez and I loved what happened in that sequence. I just think he would have found a different way to do it.

Tug McTighe (37:00)
He'd written it up today if he was writing it today. You bet.

I think he would have yeah, it would have definitely been cleaned up. I agree a hundred percent.

matt (37:15)
For sure.

yeah. But but still, it was good characters and I like the dialogue. That there were there were some great interactions there, so take a

Tug McTighe (37:23)
Yeah. And like he

Dignan tells Anthony, We gotta get a car. Can you just have Inez grab the keys to one of the and he's like, No, I'm not g having her be a part of this right? So there's that scene where you that's when you're like, Okay, he's really developing feelings for her. but Dignan goes and finds this Alpha Romeo spider sitting on the side of the road and he hot wires the car and then he

matt (37:35)
Right.

Tug McTighe (37:48)
Is tr he finds a big giant Buick that he's trying to he he's tr got a coat hanger but he doesn't know how to break in the car. So more more I'm a bad criminal.

matt (37:58)
Right.

Have you ever heard of the is it the Kruger Dunning effect or the Dunning Kruger effect? ⁓ it's so you know that that this was coined in a phrase that was coined in nineteen ninety nine. it's where people that don't it's it's almost like you don't know what you don't know. So people over people assume that they can do things that they can't do. And I feel like there was a lot

Tug McTighe (38:07)
Yes, I have.

Yeah.

Yeah. The dumber you

the dumber you are, the higher confidence level you have. And the and the s and the the conver the it converse conversely, the smarter you are, the more you're willing to say you're wrong. It's in the same yeah, yeah.

matt (38:29)
Yes. So the he's not here to show up with the cooking here.

Fair enough. Yeah.

So I love that you see that a lot here where like him showing up with a coat hanger just assuming he'll be able to like pop pop the lock. Of course he can't he barely even tries. I just thought that was great.

Tug McTighe (38:46)
Right. Get get in get in the car. Yeah. Yeah.

So then of course they get out of town and the car breaks down because it's an old piece of shit. And he goes, How much money have you got? And he goes, I I I gave all the money to Inez. That was what was in the envelope. Dignan didn't even look in the envelope. So all the bookstore money was gone. so they have a confrontation here that I really liked, where this is their their big fight. It's one punch. And Dignan gets up and walks away, and Anthony walks the other way.

matt (39:03)
Yeah. Where's the five hundred bucks? Is like it's

Tug McTighe (39:17)
It wasn't dragged out, it told us everything we needed it to tell us, and then now you know that they're separated for now.

matt (39:24)
And there's a lot of realism in that. I mean, that's how a fight would go. I mean, it's not like an action movie where it's exchanging it's yeah, it was definitely unexpected. Yeah. For sure. It just felt real.

Tug McTighe (39:31)
No, we don't need a nine-minute scene. No. Again, hey, let's move the plot along, right? ⁓ we learn through a letter

that Anthony So Anthony's back home. He and Bob are both doing well. We don't see Dignan. Anthony's coaching a youth soccer team. He's working doing a job. Bob's got a job. Bob's kind of made friends with his brother. He's working it out with his brother. he's right we find this out. He's he's writing a letter to Grace, sister.

that Anthony's doing well, Bob's doing well, everybody's feeling great. No sign of dignity in this sequence. and this is when we're back at Bob's parents' house. Bob's parents are loaded and they're never they're never in town. At the shine house.

matt (40:08)
Yeah. They were in Portugal or

Yeah, I think he said they were abroad somewhere. So ⁓ this was the only voiceover narration we've really got, but I felt like it really worked here. Yeah it's basically the s the letter he's writing to Grace, yeah. I thought that was great.

Tug McTighe (40:13)
Yeah.

Yeah. Just a little bit of exposition. Yeah. Yeah.

you know what else is great? Little bare graphics. Dignan has a meticulous seventy five year plan. Does it make sense? Not really. But he believes in it.

If your business plan currently consists of we should probably post more on Instagram, or let's have AI designer t-shirts, we recommend connecting with our friends at Little Bear Graphics. They're a small but ridiculously talented design firm that creates websites, logos, social media campaigns, branded apparel and marketing that actually gets noticed. They won't ask you to rob a bookstore, but they will help you steal attention from your competitors. Visit Littlebear. ⁓

matt (41:00)
So great. So sometime later, Dignon, who's joined Mr. Henry's gang.

Tug McTighe (41:03)
Right.

Yeah, he shows up in a yellow jumpsuit on a minibike.

matt (41:09)
Which is great. And this is another Wes Anderson directorial trademark. The pastel colors, bold costuming, that sort of thing. And it's like a tiny bike. It's just this tiny little bike. It was great. I really like the way the reconciliation here is handled. It felt

Tug McTighe (41:17)
Yeah. Some yeah. And he tells Anthony, I got like six of Now I never have to decide what I'm wearing.

Right.

matt (41:31)
Again, being a guy, having guy friends, having feelings that are har sometimes hard to articulate, the way men interact with men, I thought this was very genuine. Everything about West feels

Tug McTighe (41:34)
Yeah.

Yeah. And Anthony Anthony

says, when he says, Yeah, I'm in, and the first thing you gotta do is get me one of those jumpsuits. Right?

matt (41:48)
Right.

yeah, we see Future Man show up and he's a dick. James Conn's over the top, he's wearing like like karate kimono type outfits all the time.

Tug McTighe (41:56)
Yeah, he's doing a karate

scene with his one of his partners. Yeah.

matt (42:00)
⁓

yeah, Anthony and Dignan decide they're gonna continue this life of crime together. yeah, Dignan getting James Conan ice cream cone. He goes and brings him like a drumstick. these could have been just mundane, ordinary scenes, and it's like, why not have something insane happening? And he does it and it's very Wes Anderson. I just loved it.

Tug McTighe (42:07)
Right. Right. Right.

Ches

very charming, yeah.

all right, so the four of them plan this cold storage facility robbery, rob the safe. Mr. Henry becomes a role model for the others. He is at the country club with with everybody and he tells Future Man he's gonna fucking kick the shit out of him if he fucks with with Dignan and Anthony anymore and Future Man walks away and he's trying to help Dignan learn about success. That that scene at the golf club is amazing. ⁓

matt (42:47)
You was.

Hey, I don't I hope I don't offend you, but your brother's a cocksuck. well that doesn't affect

Tug McTighe (42:48)
⁓

Your brother's a cocksucker. No, I know. I know I

know. Yeah. so Bob and invites them to a party at the Maplethorpe's house, they have a big house. Anthony learns Inez he he starts trying to find her and she calls him, he finally gets a hold of her at the hotel, he tells her how he's doing, I love you. She says she loves him, he's super happy, it's really f really fun moment.

her her her English has improved and they rekindle the relationship. I like I said this this is my favorite Luke scene in the movie. He's really happy. and remember that was that whole Dignan I I guess he meant she loved you. not not Rocky loved me. Like right trying to work it all out.

matt (43:22)
Yeah.

Right. Well, yeah, but I mean he

was the one that figured it out. He said, Wait a minute, was Rocky translating? Well, you can hear the w see the wheels turning in his head. yeah, I thought that was very sweet. and and also the fact that sh her English is so much better, she was doing that for him. She wanted to be able to communicate with him if she ever talked to him. That's so great. ⁓

Tug McTighe (43:35)
Right. Right.

Right. Right. She's tr she's tr that's exactly right. That's exactly right.

matt (43:54)
I don't know that anyone in this film aside from James Conn is what I would call a great actor. Even after twenty five years of I don't know how long the Wilson brothers have been active for they're fine. I don't know that they're great, but they're so likable. Like you can't help but root for them. You you can't help but root for Luke Wilson and Inez to have a g you know, a satisfactory reconciliation, which they do.

Tug McTighe (43:59)
Right.

Right. But they c they're doing their thing. Yeah, they're they're doing their thing, yeah.

Yeah.

So the group goes and performs their heist at the cold storage facility with Applejack and Kumar. They're part of Mr. Henry's crew. Everything goes wrong. Kumar can't crack the safe. Bob accidentally fires his gun, which in turn triggers a cardiac event for Applejack. He has a heart attack. and it like I said, this is an awesome set piece where everything that could go wrong goes wrong.

matt (44:41)
Ha ha ha

Tug McTighe (44:48)
the employees come back early from lunch, someone makes a delivery, they screw up the elevator. There's a great bit one or no cuts where they get in the elevator and the camera's in the elevator and he goes, All right, I'll meet you up there and he leaves and the el you see the he see him go up the stairs and as the elevator gets to the second floor he just runs to the elevator again. It's just like okay. it's just really funny.

matt (45:05)
It yes to the two.

That's a dunning criteria

fight again too. When he comes in, he's like, Why aren't you opening the safe? Because Kumar's just like sitting in a chair. He's like, ⁓ yeah, I can't do it. I don't have the right equipment. He's like, You don't know how to open a safe. That's the problem. So, I think I wonder if he just Kumar just thought he would assumed he'd be able to open it. How hard?

Tug McTighe (45:14)
I can't do it.

So

Right, right. So this is just

more examples, right, of how bad they are at this. and so 'cause then the they they get an apple jack out. Dignan d doesn't have the keys to the van, the escape van, Applejack had him. While while they're doing the heist, Mr. Henry steals everything from the Maplethorpe's giant house. Literally backs a moving truck up.

matt (45:48)
Perfect.

Tug McTighe (45:51)
and steals everything in the house. ⁓ pretty awesome and completely unexpected.

matt (45:54)
That was pretty great. That mu was that always his plan or

we did switch to slow motion for a bit on this and I'm not sure why, but that is another directorial which we'll see again at the very end. and this is all set I mentioned the song Two Thousand Man.

Tug McTighe (46:04)
Right, right.

Yep. Yeah.

matt (46:13)
So a little bit on that, that was a psychedelic Rolling Stones album from nineteen sixty seven called Their Satanic Majesty's Request, which I'd never heard of at the time was considered like this is just a Sgt. Pepper ripoff. but one track on that is She's a Rainbow, which has turned up in the last couple of years everywhere.

Tug McTighe (46:24)
Right.

Everywhere, hundred percent. So Dignan is everybody runs away, Dignan goes back to get Applejack. Dignan gets pursued into the deal he runs into the fucking freezer.

matt (46:46)
Right. He keeps thinking well, he keeps going through doors and thinking there's gonna be another door and he finally gets to the end and the only door is a freezer, so he's

Tug McTighe (46:52)
No. Yeah.

So

the piece the cops beat him up. and it's funny. Surprisingly funny Yeah.

matt (46:58)
It was really funny. They were just

taking they were just taking gut shots one after another.

Tug McTighe (47:02)
Yeah.

And then cut to Anthony and Bob entering a prison and they're visiting Dignan. They tell him that Mr. Henry robbed the Bob's house and all this. and so they're Anthony's like, I'll be out of here in thirty six months or whatever it is and thanks for coming to see me

matt (47:18)
Yeah.

He was like one month down twenty three to go. But I mean they were able to bring in like a burger and fries. It was pretty good.

Tug McTighe (47:21)
Right, glad you guys are doing well, etcetera, etcetera. Yeah, they brought him a hand yeah, sandwich, yeah. So, ⁓

as Bob and Anthony are saying goodbye to Dignan, he goes, Okay, listen. I'm gonna jump over the fence at nine o'clock. You gotta be out there with a with a rope and the thing and the dude and the di and he's got the the plan and they're like, What? And he goes, I'm just I'm just screwing with you guys. and then Dignan says, Isn't it funny that you used to be in the nut house and now I'm in jail?

And you're like, no, it's not funny. None of it's funny Yeah. Yeah. And then Yep, you get your slow-mo. So yeah, so for me this was a pretty satisfying ending. everybody got what they deserved. Like, Bob made amends with his brother, Anthony is corresponding with Inez and sh he says she's coming to visit soon, I'll bring her.

matt (47:50)
I don't yeah, I don't know that I got the joke, but maybe that was maybe that's the joke. ⁓ and then it goes to slow-mo.

Tug McTighe (48:12)
Dingman's in prison where he can g like I wrote, where he can get the care and feeding that he desperately needs. ⁓ yeah, it's a tight, tight little end.

matt (48:18)
Right.

Yeah, loose ends were all wrapped up. and it was surprisingly upbeat ending. Like I felt good at the ending and I didn't think I would considering how dysfunctional some of these people were. And I felt like Dignan was pretty good with his situation. Yeah. He wasn't upset about being in jail. ⁓ so yeah, I that was it.

Tug McTighe (48:30)
Right. Right.

Seem to be. Yeah. No.

matt (48:44)
thoughts. if not for the appearance of James Conn, I would have thought this was Wes Anderson's thesis project from film school. except he didn't go to film school. He got a BA in philosophy from UT Austin. ⁓

Tug McTighe (48:45)
Yeah. You go.

matt (48:59)
It was interesting to see not just Wes Anderson as kind of an embryonic writer and director, but first efforts by Luke and O Owen Wilson. And I didn't realize Owen Wilson was such a writer. Like that he was that was he does. I had no idea. so yeah, it's like if I saw a grade school picture of you. You know what I mean? ⁓ and I'm like, I it's you. I can see

Tug McTighe (49:12)
Right, yeah.

Right, right. You see you can see

You But it's different. But he but that person is different than this person, but you can see the connection. Yeah.

matt (49:29)
Yeah, and then it it just makes you think of all the it it just really opens your mind to like what this person experienced and how they changed and how they were different and what they must have been like. It just I don't know, I thought it was great. I liked it better on a second viewing. Like I said, it's not the best Wes Anderson film, but for a first effort it's great. I mean I I can't I couldn't do better. ⁓ like you said, all the pieces are on the table and then Rushmore is next and he just gets better and better at honing his crap.

Tug McTighe (49:49)
Right.

Yeah, so

so all the Wes Anderson parts are there. Everything's just a little less in sync than it like you just said about Rushmore. Rushmore's only two years. He probably started working on Rushmore as soon as this got done. 'Cause it only came out two years later and that one is locked in. And then just five years later is the Royal Tenabombs, which is my favorite Wes Anderson movie. like I said, it wasn't quite locked, but there's a ton of great shit in here that will come would would then come to represent

matt (50:09)
Right.

Tug McTighe (50:22)
Who he is as a writer and director. ⁓ is it called Bottle Rocket just 'cause of that heist and they shot the bottle rockets?

matt (50:24)
Yeah.

I I don't know. You think there's more to it?

Tug McTighe (50:30)
Yeah.

I don't yeah, I don't I don't know.

matt (50:33)
I don't either. I would also say from this movie that he made with his college buddies, it's not very long before he can get anybody he wants.

Tug McTighe (50:44)
Totally. I mean he has Bill Murray and Rush Moore next. Yeah.

matt (50:45)
Which is pretty great. Like three years later, five years later, he's like,

Ray Feines, you're gonna be in all my movies? Great. Bill Murray, who I wanted in this one, who I always wanted,

Tug McTighe (50:52)
Right. Well right the

Rushmore we got Bill Murray and Schwartzman. Bang. Right? So yeah a hundred percent. So all right, Matt, cine a hit or cine a miss. I think I know. Yeah.

matt (50:59)
Yeah.

It's a cine hit and ⁓

def for Wes Anderson completionists, absolutely. If you're new to the director and just want to dive in, I do rushmore before this. Or I do World Tenabombs and then go back and see this. But but man, the first work I ever did as a creative was garbage compared to this. We should all be so lucky to do such good work on the first time, so

Tug McTighe (51:17)
Hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Right, right, right. Just shit.

Alright. Thank you again for listening to Cinemisses. If you like what we're doing here, please help us grow the show by subscribing, sharing some episodes, or writing a review. It really does help. And even better, tell someone you think might like it to give us a try. And we want to hear from you. Follow and comment on socials, and please drop us a line cinemasis at gmail.com with ideas to make the show better and recommendations for movies we may want to cover. And please visit us at our website, cinemasis.com. Matt, what is our next Cinemas? And what does our Cinemaser think he knows?

matt (52:04)
Okay. I feel like I'm always the cinemacer.

Tug McTighe (52:06)
That's because you're a loser. Remember when remember when Bar remember when Barney did a project with with it was the Plow King song that was with Linda Ronstadt? ⁓ Plow King is a loser, man. I think he is a boozer. Or Mr. Plow. Barney was Plough King and Homer was Mr. Plough. Alright, so we got an audible here.

matt (52:09)
We are calling it audible.

That's right.

That's me. Mr. Plum.

Yes, because alright, so I get mad when the movies we choose are something I have to pay money for 'cause I feel like I have nineteen different platforms, but I recently learned that the Hail Mary project was available on Amazon Prime, which I have, so

Tug McTighe (52:36)
Fair.

matt (52:44)
Decided to do that. Tug has seen it. I have seen it since we talked about it. So what I knew at the time before I'd seen it is that it was based on an Andy Weir book, Like the Martian, from is that first season, second season? I think it's first season. So listen to that if you haven't heard it yet.

Tug McTighe (52:47)
I love that movie. I've seen it twice.

Yeah. I think first.

matt (53:05)
I know it stars Ryan Gosling, who is not an astronaut, but has to go to space because stars are being extinguished or disappeared or something, which is bad based on my knowledge of science. this would correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Gosling's third appearance on Cinemas is we did The Fall Guy and Crazy Stupid Love. Yeah, he's a Cinemas's All-Star, so listen to those if you haven't.

Tug McTighe (53:14)
Which I believe is bad. Yeah.

You're right.

Yep, Hall of Famer. Ryan Gosling.

matt (53:31)
and I believed there was a character in it whose name might be Rocky. I don't know what it is in his alien language, but in our language it's Rocky, and having since seen it, I know that's correct. and who I think is an alien, which he also was. So I was on board for that. the last Andy Weir movie we saw, which was The Martian, was did not have aliens.

Tug McTighe (53:38)
Right.

No aliens. Just humans.

matt (53:56)
Yeah, and I like a I like movies with aliens better than movies with no aliens. So Alright, so looking forward to that. otherwise, thanks for joining us. I'm Matt.

Tug McTighe (54:00)
As do I.

I'm Tug. That is a wrap.