Multi storylines is the theme . Ron Howard's "Parenthood" (1989) is a comedy in Steve Martin's wheelhouse. Supported by a stellar cast and screenplay, Martin gets to show off his comedic and acting skills as an insecure dad who desperately doesn't want to be like his own dad. Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman" (1994) is one of his classics; not one of his many stinkers. Sunday night dinners is must for chef and widowed father of three adult daughters who all have secrets and dreams, but are held back by a sense of duty.
Next, in honor of the release of Oppenheimer out theme is nuclear war or aftermath with "On the Beach" (1959) and "Fail Safe" (1964).
Have your own recommendations? Contact the show:
24theroadshow@gmail.com
Multi storylines is the theme . Ron Howard's "Parenthood" (1989) is a comedy in Steve Martin's wheelhouse. Supported by a stellar cast and screenplay, Martin gets to show off his comedic and acting skills as an insecure dad who desperately doesn't want to be like his own dad. Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman" (1994) is one of his classics; not one of his many stinkers. Sunday night dinners is must for chef and widowed father of three adult daughters who all have secrets and dreams, but are held back by a sense of duty.
Next, in honor of the release of Oppenheimer out theme is nuclear war or aftermath with "On the Beach" (1959) and "Fail Safe" (1964).
Have your own recommendations? Contact the show:
24theroadshow@gmail.com
1, 1, 2 Welcome to Two for the Road movies with Matt and Adam. I am Matt and I am Adam We are a movie pairing podcast every week. We pick a theme Recommend a movie to the other guy He has not seen based on that theme watch and discuss and we have a 25 year age difference So we come each with a different set of films And this week the theme is all about that multi-plot Yeah, pretty much. Yeah hard to pull off Yeah, you have to be a pretty good writer to pull it off. Well Is it the writing is that is that where you like? We don't like I think I think I mean you have to have a good cast I mean, well, okay, you know, but it has to be well written to What do you think the writer has to pull off like? Pull off I guess is what I'll say like to like make it work. Well, you have all these Storylines that are kind of Singular on their own and but they all have to tie in at the end You know like does our first film really does, you know, it all ties in at the end. So That's what I think. What do you think it is acting or directing? No, I mean, I will I mean, I don't know I have no idea. Mm-hmm I was also thinking about from like a writer's perspective and just there like how do you balance? Like the weight of every each character every story every story Yeah, and how do you make it? So like at the end the audience is not like god I wish I I wish I knew more about like what Rick Moranis was thinking, you know, yeah, or whatever the fuck, you know, right? but Yeah, I was just mmm both of these movies. I think did it well We'll get to like your opinion a second, but I think they did it in different ways if that makes any sense, but Yeah, just like that that balance of Whose perspective are we using? How is it shifting? When is it? When is it the old man? When is it his daughter? When is it this person? Right, you know like the the second movie did a little bit differently. This movie was pretty much Steve Martin's perspective Yeah, I mean he He was the center of the of the film and In our second film You know the the male lead Was Heavily in in the center, but not so much Yeah, well let's get to that when we get to that yeah, yeah, okay so our first movie is parenthood Steve Martin vehicle from 89 I think. Yeah. I think so. Have you ever seen this before? No. All right, so this. I think I've seen clips of it, but I've never seen the whole thing. This hit me right in that sweet spot where I was like 9, 10, 11, 12, this movie was like always on HBO or whatever TNT, whatever the vehicle was back then. And like, I've probably seen this movie a thousand times. Really? Wow. As a nine or 10 year old? Yes. Yeah, okay. And like after 1994, I've never seen this movie. Right, right, right. And then I was like, actually I was reading a book and this movie was brought up. So I was like, ah, it kind of made me think about stuff. And I was like, okay, maybe I want to revisit this. And I was like, I think I asked her, you'd never seen it. I was like, okay, this is good. And then also this is the kind of movie that I can watch with my wife. Yes. Like no one got shot. There's no duplicitous dames. I could have watched it with Gloria. I didn't. Really? Yeah, I could have. I just, I don't know. I just watched it by myself and watched it pretty much in one whole chunk. Yeah. There's no Japanese guy kicking hookers heads off. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I've kind of missed that. Yeah, I was telling her on the way back when we were talking earlier. I said, yeah, nobody got murdered in our movies this week. Yeah. I don't think. A bummer? Yeah. There was a shooter. Yeah. A potential future shooter. So yeah, this movie is the story of Steve Martin basically figuring out like what does he want out of his life? Right. Do you want family? Do you want success? Do you want something else? Like what is it? I think what he doesn't want is to be like his father who was a complete asshole. Jason Robards. Brilliantly by Jason Robards. Yeah, so this is my first Jason Robards. Oh really? Yeah. Oh my God. He's one of the best. So as a young man, I was like, oh wow, what an asshole. Yeah. Now you're like, huh? Yeah, he's still an asshole. He was nice and something. Was he in 12 Angry Men? No. No, okay. I don't think he should have been. Yeah, he could have been. He should have been. Maybe he was in the second one, I don't know. Anyway, that's not, that's besides the point. So yeah, this movie's about Steve Martin trying to figure out I don't want to be my dad, essentially, and what is my relationship with my kids? Well, he's got a kid who's got an issue. He's got sisters and a brother who all have issues. Everybody has issues. That's pretty much the way families are, I think. Right, so he's got his one sister who's single, single mother. Single mother. Her husband left her. She's raising the daughter on her own. Daughter is... Martha Plimpton, played by Martha Plimpton. And she is what I imagine what her mother was like as a young woman, right? Sort of a free spirit, a little bit, I would say promiscuous, but how can you not be promiscuous when you got Keanu Reeves right in front of you? Keanu Reeves, playing Keanu Reeves brilliantly. He was great. He was funny. And then also a younger guy who, future school shooter, but that never happens, thankfully. Kids are just angry. He's just camo, brown paper bag. Played brilliantly by Joaquin Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix. That's who that was? Yeah, he's another name, a different name, but he changed his name. Holy shit, that was Joaquin Phoenix? Yeah. Okay, it was, wow. I mean, you can't, I was telling Gloria, I said, you know, I watch movies with kids in it, and mostly you say, that kid is selling cars now. That woman is working in a restaurant now. And I watched this and I said, that kid is one of the greatest actors this country has ever had. I never knew, now you say it, it makes sense, because he was like a little kid with an old man head. Right. His name was Leaf Phoenix, that's his real name. Okay. His brother was River, he's Leaf. But yeah, that's Joaquin Phoenix. Holy shit. I mean, check out the movie and look at him, go, oh yeah, there he is. Because he's got the kind of, the lip, the hair, the lip a little bit. But I'm watching him going, man, he is such a good actor at this age. Wow. I mean, that's what I was telling Gloria, I said, man, this guy, this had Jason Robards and Joaquin Phoenix, two of the greatest actors this country's produced, and it's called Parenthood. Hey, but okay, you say that, but. But I mean, it's a light comedy, that's my reasoning. And I mean, I'm not trying to be sarcastic, but it's like, Rick Moranis. Yeah. Who, I know no one's gonna say he's the greatest actor of all time, but he had a moment, he had like a six year run where he was just. He was big. He was big and. He's perfect for this part. Yeah. Who hates Rick Moranis? Yeah. Well, maybe he hated his character a little bit, he was kind of a jerk, but no, nobody hates him. A jerk, but he did it well. Yeah, he did it really well. He was great in this role. So then that's his, his family is, he's married to Steve Martin, another Steve Martin sister, and. Oh, Diane Weiss was another great actress. Oh yeah, yeah. Who is she? I don't know her very well, I only know her for this movie. She won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for one of Woody Allen's movies called Hannah and Her Sisters. Which is really, really good. Better than Parenthood? Probably. Not as funny. All right. Yeah, good job calling her out, because she was amazing too. Yeah, she was really good. Early on in the movie, there's a blackout, and they're reaching for flashlights and stuff, and someone pulls out a dildo from her house, nightstand. Yeah, her reaction, classic. Yeah, that was funny. Some little kid's like, God, it's really big. The old grandma's like. Oh, it's an ear cleaner. Yeah. She goes, what is that? It's an ear cleaner. And the old grandma's like, sure is big. I like grandma. Yeah, she was good. So, the other family is, so yeah, it's Rick Moranis, his wife, and their, who's Steve Martin's sister, and they're raising this little genius, is their deal. And then the other brother is Jason Robards' favorite son, could do no wrong, Tom Halls, who we know from Animal House, and Amadeus, and who's no longer in the business, I believe. And his whole thing is, he's always got a scam going, and he shows up with Cool. Cool, a great name for a kid. Little mixed race kid, yeah. Now, in my memory, Cool was the star of this movie. Oh, of course. Yeah. But he's barely in it. Yeah. Yeah, he didn't get much screen time. Yeah, in my memory, he had this outsized role, and like, everyone, Cool showed up, but no, it just never hits. So, the whole, I mean, the basic, what makes this movie work, oh, actually, did you like it? Yeah, I did, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I had some pretty funny moments. It's a good story. I think the writing, and the directing, and everything, it's directed by Ron Howard. It all works. Yeah, we know that because there's his brothers in it. His brothers in it, yeah, of course. But it all works. You know, it's not great, but it's funny, and it gives Steve Martin the chance, I mean, my favorite scenes were Cowboy Gil, you know, where the guy doesn't show up for the birthday party, so he has to take on the role. And it was funny, because the whole balloon thing, he's one of the greatest balloon characters, blowers in the world, and in this movie, he just can't do it. Cowboy Gil, I'm slipping and sliding over all their guts. Yeah, it gave him a chance to be the Steve Martin that is funny. You know, the way he moves, you know, the voice, and everything. Yeah, I thought that was funny. So, yeah, it works, I mean, yeah, and I can see that in the movie, So, yeah, it works, I mean, yeah, and I can see how you liked it, especially as a kid. It was better than I thought it would be. That is a good point about, like, that Cowboy Gil did get him, he could do a little bit of his stand-up, because the rest of the movie, he's so tight, you know, because he's supposed to be. He's uptight, yeah, he's really, wife tries to take care of that, but. Another good scene, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I enjoyed it. It's got a great cast, like I said. So, what I think this movie works, like, writing-wise, if we want to talk about that, is that it keeps coming back to, if I think about the chapter markers, it's like these baseball games. We start at one, as a fan, and then we keep going back to these Little League games, and you can see the progression of Steve Martin as a understanding, caring human being. Right, different from his father. He is growing up, if anything, he's got some problems, but anything, he grew up not to be like his father. Yeah, and those Little League games brought a lot of back, a lot of memories for me, because, I mean, that was the most fun thing I ever did in my life, was play Little League. It kind of reminded me that I showed up with my teammate once, and at the end of the game, we were winning, bases were loaded, it was an easy fly ball to center field, center field drops it, we lose, I get so mad, I throw my glove on the ground, I'm playing second base. My father is the second base umpire. He sees me do this. He picks me up, and I thought he was gonna knock the shit out of me, but he starts screaming at me about showing up your teammates. And he wouldn't let me play in the next game. I had to sit on the bench. It broke my heart, but I never showed up a teammate again. I try not to do that on a bocce court. No, I mean, sometimes you have to. No, no, but that, yeah, but that reminded me of, because I was kind of like the son there. I was having to, you know, I was one of the, I was playing baseball, but it was also one of the worst times of my life. I was so screwed up. I was really messed up. Well, you make it sound like you were the good kid who like, you were catching the balls, and like, you know what I mean? Yeah, well, I was. I was a good player, but later on, I lost the ability to throw the ball to first. I was, didn't have any confidence. Young man with the yips? Yep, I had the yips. I had the Steve Sacks or whatever, the Steve Blass or whatever you wanna call it. I couldn't throw it to first. I threw it over their head, I threw it in the ground. Just lost all, you know, and I was a really good all-star second baseman, but it just, you know, I was going through the same thing this kid was going through. Also, in another scene, where the, Ronnie Howard's brother, you know, and tells his son, whatever you do, if the ball goes near him, you go out there and catch it. So I did that. We had a right fielder who couldn't catch anything. So when it was a fly ball out there, I would run like hell, catch the ball. Now I feel really horrible about it, you know, because I showed him up. How old were you? 10. Well, I mean, okay, like, as a 10-year-old. 10, 11, 11, yeah, right around. You're looking at points on the board. You're not thinking about like, you're not thinking like, what does this other human feel about this situation that just unfolded, right? Yeah, yeah. I think you can forgive yourself about that, man. Oh yeah, I don't feel too bad about it. You're not carrying it, so. But yeah, you know, everybody cheered and everything, but I showed Dennis up, and I just now, you know, I wasn't thinking about it. I was thinking about winning the game. Where's Dennis now? He's gone. He's passed away in a car accident. Probably should have not shown him up. Maybe he'd still be alive. But yeah, that was kind of cool watching. I think that's a big part of why I liked the movie was the whole Little League scenes. It kind of brought back both those kind of memories for me. And I like them as like touch points. It's like, okay, we're starting here, we're moving on, you're getting a little bit of it, and then that final Little League scene where like Robart shows up, and it's like, okay, it's the culmination. Right. And everything kind of comes together. Yep, yeah. And also, another thing I liked about this movie is that Steve Martin was a dick. I mean, he wasn't always a dick. Like, you liked him, but. He could be a dick. He was a dick to his wife, he was a dick to his kids. He had moments. Yeah. Yeah, his kids were all kind of weird, but he was a dick to them. He was a dick to his brother. What's his wife? Who's the actress who played his wife? It is Harley Jane Kozak. No, that's the actress who played his wife? Oh, his wife, yeah. She's super famous. Mary Steenburgen. Yeah. Yeah. She's gorgeous, man. She is. She's head dancing, very lucky. Oh, is that who? Yeah. So, there's a couple moments in the movie where I'm just like, wow, she's just flawless. Somehow, around this time, Susan Sarandon became the sexpot, and I'm like, why her? Yeah. Where's Mary Steen, whatever the hell is going on? Steenburgen, yeah. Like, she's way more in my mind. Do you ever see What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Yeah, yeah. What, 35 years ago, I saw it? Yeah, she's pretty hot in that. Oh, she's in that? Yeah, she plays the woman that keeps Johnny Depp bringing groceries over when they're having an affair. Oh, okay. Yeah. Might have to go check out those scenes on YouTube. Leonardo DiCaprio, it's worth seeing, because of him in that. But yeah, she's pretty hot in that movie, too. She's always hot. Yeah. Probably still, to this day. Yeah, the other person I named, she played the other sister, and I don't know who she is. Yeah, I'm like, oh, I've seen her in stuff, but I just didn't know, I don't know who she is. She's famous for arachnophobia. I mean, I saw it as a kid. Yeah, I saw it on John Goodman. Parenthood, when Harry met Sally, I don't remember her in that. But she's still working, so. She seems like a good friend of a romantic comedy lead. Yes. A new Thelma Ritter. I just remember, I imagine her schlepping in with some bags, like, oh, you wouldn't believe the day I had. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, what were we talking about? The baseball, the whole, how it connected, everything connected. Yes, I like. And Steve Martin was a dick. Steve Martin was a dick, and I like that. So, his big conflict is, is he gonna have another kid, right, which was kind of a tough subject, right? Do you ask your wife of however many years to have an abortion? That's not light fare for a 1989 comedy. Yeah, and he already thinks that he's screwed up his other kids. And then he looks, who is the fourth kid in his family? The most screwed up kid. His brother, Larry. What am I gonna have Larry here? And also, I think, so, Steve Martin has the oldest kid who's like a nice kid, just gets nervous, and then he's got the middle girl who had no screen time, basically, whatsoever. And then you have the kid who's got, like, just banging his head into stuff. And he was pretty funny. He was funny, he was funny. I think that if it was, so that was three kids. The middle girl, I think, only was there to be a number. Because if he's talking to his wife, he's like, oh, we're gonna have our third kid. It's like, okay, you have your third kid. But if you talk to people who have your fourth, I think most of America's like, fuck that. That's way too many. Yeah, she doesn't really progress the story at all. She doesn't have much to do. She's not, yeah. She's cute, whatever. It's like an afterthought. You're right. So I think she was just like a plot device. And the little kid, who would keep beating his head against the wall and all sorts of, he was compared to his cousin, who was the brilliant one. You want your daughter to grow up to be like him? Why not? You're right, I think so, because she was not in the story. I can't remember anything she did, except being in the play. And that was, the little kid stole that. Yeah, exactly. When you were growing up, did you have that experience where different cousins and stuff were all hanging out and doing that whole thing? Yeah, there was five of us. I was the middle child. I know, we all were massive. And I had, on my mother's side of the family, I had 42 first cousins. Wait, hold on. On my, say that again? My mother's, on my mother's side, my grandparents. You had 42 cousins? My grandparents had 47 grandchildren. You have 42 cousins, you had half. I had 42 cousins on one side of the family. I think I had seven on the other side. Who I hardly even know, my father's side. But yeah, we used to come up from Florida. We'd have reunions, and there's like 35 of us, kids. And did you all know, were you like, oh, I can't wait to go see Johnny, or whatever? I'm still very close to most of them. A lot of them, not all of them, but yeah, most of them. I'd drive at Jamestown, New York to see my cousins. I love them. They're just the greatest people. Or Northeast Kingdom. I see them all over there. Yeah, it was great. Cousins were the best. Yeah. It's like low maintenance? Yeah, you just hang out. We were on a farm, so whatever was going on, we'd just go out and shoot guns. My cousin, my younger cousin taught me how to ride a bike. What? Yeah, I couldn't ride a bike. Your younger cousin taught you how to ride a bike? Yeah, my cousin Scott, yeah. My brother Pete and I both had to ride a bike. He's like, what are you, a wuss? He was like two years younger than me. That's funny. Yeah, I liked it. Yeah, I liked this movie because it really did show that idealized family. I did not experience that at all. I have a couple cousins. I'm not in contact with any of them. Barely in contact with my brother. You know what I mean? So, it's like we just weren't, we didn't have that big full relationship. I just sometimes fantasize about that. Oh, what if I grew up in a city where all my cousins were there and my father's family was there? It was chaos, but it also seemed very loving. One of the greatest things in my life was my cousins. To be honest with you. I'm still really close to them, like I say, a lot of them. You know, they're great. You're lucky to have brothers and sisters that you actually like. Who do you think stole the show? Let's take Steve Martin off the board. Okay, Steve Martin's off the board. A lot of contenders here. There is, I mean, it's kind of a mixed thing. I don't know if anybody took it all, took the title. Yeah. Might be a tag team. You know. I think Diane Weist was wonderful. Yeah. As the sister. Jason Robards as the dick father. I really thought they should have, the whole mother was not in the. Jason Robards' wife. Yeah. Yeah, she was like. I think it was supposed, I got the feeling she was portrayed as a wife who just got kind of beat down by her husband. Not physically, but, you know. Yeah, he's in charge, and he's an asshole. Yeah, so. But Rick Moranis was really good in that part. Yeah. You know, Keanu Reeves. Yeah. I mean, it's like I'm saying, I can't pick, you know, if you pick Steve Martin off the table, who I think is the star. How about this, how about this? Who was the best kid? And I'm taking Joaquin off the board. You better, because that's who I was gonna pick. Because he was like a teenager. He's a young, he's a mid-teen. Yeah, yeah. She was a little girl, a smart girl. She was great. She didn't blink an eye. No. I wonder if she's still working. Yeah, look, I love that. Yeah, she, that's actually who I was thinking. Because she had the most to do. Her name was Patty, I think, right? I think so. Yeah. Ivy Ann Schwann. Selling cards in middle America. Yeah. She's really good. But actually, she's running a pharmaceutical company in Denver, and she's worth $8,000 million. Yeah, she's only got three acting roles. And two of them are parenthood. One was a TV show. The other was Problem Child 2. Ooh, not nearly as good as Problem Child 1. You ever seen Problem Child 1? I have not. Yeah, you wouldn't like it. Yeah, she was just a young girl. She was great. I don't think you can't pick anybody who was bad. Tom Hulce was good. I mean, we're not talking about kids anymore. You keep saying his name like I should know it. Well, he was, you know, back in the late 70s, 80s, you know, he was in one of the biggest movies of the 80s, which is Amadeus. I mean, he had not the lead role. He was Amadeus, but that's not the main character. Mozart isn't. He was Amadeus? Yes, he's Mozart. You can just talk or whatever for a second, while I sit back and just be like, what the fuck? Oh, yeah, well. His dad was Amadeus? That doesn't make any sense. Yeah, but you know, that's who he was, you know, Tom Hulce. But then he hasn't really, like I said, he's not even acting anymore. Heroin? Moved to Canada, I don't know. With drugs? What's going on here? But yeah, I mostly remember, I think, for Animal House is one of the guys in the house. One of the many. Yeah, we're running late and I feel like we just had like a rambling conversation about this movie, which is fine. That's kind of what we do. It's like kind of like on brand. But to circle back to like where we started, I just really appreciate this movie from the perspective of managing all of these plots. Everyone's, they're not getting equal weight, but they're getting proper weight. They're getting some weight. Like they're getting proper weight. And it all just, it all made sense. And like in the next, I start talking about this movie, let's talk about the next movie. The next movie, like it really depends on the oldest or the middle daughter, right? She's kind of the hinge point. This one, it's Steve Martin, I guess, but I don't know. It was just, it just felt very fluid and effortless that like, you're just kind of peeking in on like this family just doing their thing. Yeah, I agree. It was all done. The endings, you know, good clean wrap up. Feel story, but you know, I have, it was a funny movie, you know, not airplane funny, but what is. Right. Good point, Matt. It's not the funniest comedy of all time, but okay. It's not even on the list, but right. But it's funny enough. It's amusing. It's got a good story. It's yeah, you're right. That's exactly right. It's funny enough, but like, but like it's funny enough, but also like I was kind of touched watching it. I don't know about you. Like I felt like, oh, okay. That's it was a very emotional movie. It brought back a lot. Like I said, it brought back memories for me that some are weren't very good. So have you ever seen the second one? The remake? No, no chance. Yeah. Steve Martin in it? No, no, no. Who's in it? Is he Martin? Who's in it? Like I don't trifle with sequels. Yeah, I don't know. So having said everything that we said about like how the movies were touching, also included a young Adam's first introduction to Roadhead. Oh yeah. Roadhead. So there's that. Yeah. Did you know it went at the 10 year old with that? 10 year old? I have no idea. I'm like, why they wrecked the car? I had no idea. Watching it again, I'm looking at my wife. I'm like, well, I mean, I don't know. Like these are these are things people do. But yeah, she was not into it. Yeah. So you looking at Parenthood 2? Yeah. Oh, that's a show. Oh, here it is. Ed Begley. Oh, man. God, talk about like the freaking like B minus Steve Martin. That's Ed Begley Jr, right? Leonardo DiCaprio. Oh, this is a show. What are we doing here, man? I don't know. I keep getting the wrong one. That's fine. Yeah. Anyways, there is another one. So and we will never speak about it on this show. It does not exist. But as a multi-plot movie, I thought this was. I mean, I was like, I want to watch this again. It was surprisingly really, really good in my mind. Like, I think I like like we're about to talk about the scores. I think my score is way higher than yours. Like I thought this was like really, really well done as far as like capturing that. And it's nice that, you know, the 10 year old Adam who saw it repeatedly still loves it. Oh, yeah. And because that's not the case all the time. No, no, no, no. There's often a bunch of garbage. But OK, let me look this up real quick. So what do you think about? Parenthood, the score? Yeah. Anything that you want to say? No, no, I'm good. I think it's worth saying it's good family fun. You can watch it with your wife. You know, nobody's murdered. But especially I think if you're a Steve Martin fan. Because he never gets out of control like he can sometimes. But he's really good in this. Also, if you're a Rick Moranis fan. Yeah. All my Moranis fans, Moranis heads stand up. Also, all the Mary Steenburgians. Oh, yeah, yeah. All right. What do you think about the score? All right, I'm going to go. 53,000 people checked in. 7-1. I think this is like 7-5. Yeah, maybe 7-4. Maybe 7-4. OK. Yeah, I mean, that's not too far off. Because if we think about this genre, it's really effing good. My wife and I were laughing. I was kind of choked up at points. It's hard to do all of those things in a movie. They don't make these kind of movies anymore. No. They're not funny. You know, they're not touching. They're not... I was telling Gloria the other day, I said, comedies in America are a joke. Well, now they're just like raunchy. Yeah, they're just raunchy. It's like, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick. Yeah, they don't have... Yeah, it's the same guys are doing them all. I mean, not all of them. There's some of them are still pretty good. But I watch British comedy, which is funny. French is really good. Italian is good. But the films, I just don't find American films all that funny. After this period, I think, you know, the 90s maybe hit. But after, you know, since the 2000s, I don't... Yeah, it's pretty crass overall. I mean, the cowboy dance scene enough. Like, oh, Cowboy Gil. Cowboy Gil, sorry. Yeah. Even before that, there's a scene where they are beating the hell out of the movie. Beating the hell out of a piñata. Right. And that... Yeah. And that's Steve Martin. That made me laugh so hard. As I was watching it, I was trying to think, like, that's... Like you said, like, Steve Martin's idea. Steve Martin made that idea. Right. You know, and it's just, it's so funny, but it's also so subtle. It's great. Yeah. Yeah, it's all real easy at first. Kids are hitting it or missing it. You know, he's even taking the blindfolds off the kids so they can hit it. And he's hitting it. He's got a saw out. Yeah. Yeah, it was good. That's Steve Martin. You know, he's so funny. Yeah, he's... You know, film loves him. Yeah, he's pretty much undefeated, right? Right. Well, well, I don't know. Yeah, he did a lot of great comedies right around that. Dead Man Don't Wear Plaid. I've never seen that. Never heard of that. Yeah, it's a take off on film noir. So it's pretty good. Putting the bank, man. Yeah, I forget about that. Roxanne, great love story. I love Roxanne so much. Yeah. Again, this is a movie I've seen a thousand times, have not seen once since 1994. The writing in that is so good. I was just like, oh, this is what firefighters are like. I have no idea. Like, they're all sensitive gentlemen. I have no idea. So anyways, that's Steve Martin right around that time was doing great comedy. Anyways, let's get to the score. Sorry, Matt, let's get to it. TomatoMeter. Yeah, TomatoMeter, we have only 60 reviews. I'm gonna go 84. 92. All right, good. I'm on the side of history here. And then audience 25,000 people checking in. 90. 76. You know, fuck the people. They don't know. You dummies, you don't know what you have. You let the meat cake. Yeah. Ignoramus. All right. So this is the Critters Consensus. Bolstered by a delightful cast, Parenthood is a funny and thoughtfully crafted look at the best and worst moments of family life that resonates broadly. That was clearly written by a robot. That means nothing when I chat. All right, well, if I gotta say, everybody should watch it. It is one of those movies where I think even if you're me, if you're a 40 something dad and probably you have children who are of age to consume movies, watch it with them. I think it'll resonate. I think they'd enjoy it. Introducing your kids to Steve Martin is a good thing. It's never too early for Steve Martin. Yeah. All right, man, you ready for a break? And we'll come back and talk about Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. Yeah. Alright, we're back. Our second multi-plot movie of the week. Not sure we even said that was the theme. Can't remember. I think that's what it was. The second one is from Taiwan. Taiwan, I believe. Yeah, this did not feel like China. Ang Lee. Yeah. One of Ang Lee's early films. Yeah, it's Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. And so, I was watching this with my wife and we were like, Is this China? And then there's the Christian scene and I'm like, That ain't China. No, that ain't the China. So, this is the story of a family again. A chef. I thought that might catch your eye a little bit. Well, I saw this when it first came out. I hadn't seen it since. It came out in what, 1994? Okay. Mid-90s. I'm just talking about that first five minutes of the film when he's cooking a Sunday dinner. Oh, man. I would kill for that meal. Yeah. There is food porn in this movie in a way that's maybe unexpected. And you're just like, God dang, can I just get this guy to come over for a night? Yeah, this is a movie about an aging chef. A single aging chef. Which, I don't even know if that would be considered controversial. As far as that time in East Asia. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I don't either. Especially the way it ends. And his three daughters and how they are. They seem to have affection for their father, but they are each individually frustrated with him and each other. Correct. They're not cohesive at all. And the father's very grumpy and stern. He wasn't always like that, but he's just not very warm. Although, the center of the movie is Sunday dinners, which him being a chef, he puts this spread out that's unbelievable. But they all have to show up. They all feel like they have to show up, no matter what they're doing. Yeah. I might throw you off of this question, Matt, so feel free to just pass. Do you have a love language? Do you know what I mean when I ask that question? No. So there's several love languages. I express my love with acts of service, kind words, time spent together, and there's two others. So this guy is definitely acts of service. He shows his love through cooking. Cooking, for other people. Yeah, that's his love language. And his daughter's love language is... It just doesn't necessarily jive, right? Right. Well, one did, but he wouldn't allow it. She wanted to be a chef, and now she's a big works-first airline somewhere. Yeah, he's not happy. And her father won't allow her in the kitchen. But the other two, yeah. And I love that we start this movie with... They're already criticizing him. Like, oh, you forgot this. It's interesting because right from the jump, he's taken down a peg. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, they say you've lost your taste. And that's the thing he keeps saying. Was that a thing? Is that a thing that happens to people as they age? They lose their taste? Matt, have you lost your taste? I just think that these kids had grown up with this food. And they were probably just as knowledgeable as the father after watching him do this all these years. And they know when something doesn't taste the same way. As we get older, we lose taste a little bit. His taste was off. But I also thought that was kind of a good plot line to take him down a little bit. Yeah, they take him down. And then at the same moment, he gets raised up. He gets called in from this restaurant. Which I was unclear if he worked for the restaurant. He did. I thought he was a consultant. It was his day off. They bring him in. Oh, there's a general here. We need to bring you in to actually make the menu. And they screwed up everything already. He comes in like Superman. He comes in, he looks at the ingredients. He's like, this, this, this, this. Do it like this. And he fixes it. Everybody's happy. So he's the man outside of his home. In his home, he's the old loser who lost his taste. And they don't really want to be around him anymore. I think even more than the previous movie, Parenthood did have that set structure of baseball. This one had these recurring scenes, gags, bits, whatever you want to call them. And I thought it really helped ground it. So every morning, he was waking his daughters up. Even though they don't like him, he still yells at them. He yells at them. You think about it that way. Maybe this is my age, Joey. But also, if he's not there, what, you're going to be late for work? He's waking them up. You don't have an alarm clock? That's true. You're like your dad waking you up. Be a professional. Get up. Figure it out. So I like that. And then also the Sunday dinner, as you said. I have an announcement. Plus, he goes out for jogs. Goes and gets massages. Things like that. Then, in another big part of the story, is when he helps out one of his daughter's friends and her daughter. Okay. Be honest. As soon as that woman showed up with her short hair, did you know that they were going to end up together? I was like, they're hooking up. No. I had it. I was like, okay, that's clearly... No, not at all. There was a vibe between them that just made sense. Well, now, the announcement, I go, oh, yeah, there was. There was a kind of very much respect between the two of them. But it wasn't just respect. It was affection. Right. And he was so kind to her daughter. It wasn't even his daughter, granddaughter. And then he puts up with her mother, the woman's mother. Smoking a thousand cigarettes right in his face. So, I guess we'll kind of briefly talk about the plot. It's a long show. So, there's three daughters. Oldest one is somewhat... Is it okay to say prudish? She is. But she's religious. I always hate to equate those two because... Yeah, I know. Some of those Catholics really like to bang, man. I know. I'm a Catholic. Those are bad. Those are bad. It's okay. But no, that's part of it. She was prudish. She was the oldest. She also wasn't all there, I don't think. And also maybe overwhelmed by a sense of... Duty. Yep. Being the mother. Taking care of the father after the mother. And the oldest one would usually do that. Yeah. I'm not the oldest. You aren't either. No. My mother was. And that's what happened to her. She was the oldest girl. She was the second oldest child. So she ended up taking care of her brothers and sisters. All the time. It was a big farm family. There was ten kids. And then during the summer, when she got old enough, she got shipped out to other families to take care of kids. God damn. And then she had five of her own. And she told me, this is a true story. A couple of days before she died, she told me that... She said, no offense, but one of my biggest regrets was having kids. No! She goes, I love all of you. But I wanted to do other things. But in that time and era... I said, that's okay, Mom. I understand. She's like, you know what would have been more fun? Smoking a cigarette on the back of a motorcycle in France. Right, right. She wanted to be a writer. She wanted to be a teacher. She was just an old farm girl from the northeast kingdom of Vermont. And in the late 40s, she took care of... She got married and was miserable. Well, without being miserable, I think that most people can relate to the idea of... You don't just get to do what you want to do. Right. Not that you're miserable, but hopefully she... But I also think that's the oldest daughter. It's her duty to take care of the father. And that's what's driving her crazy. And also, I thought it was smart to couple that sort of family fidelity with religion. Of course you would find that. Because you weren't brought up with that. You found it later. That's not her father's religion. That's not her mother's religion. That's your religion. It gives you cover. Middle daughter. Sometimes we are sexist on this show, Matt. I'm sorry if I'm doing that, but she's clearly the prettiest person in this movie. Supposed to be. I mean, for the plot, I think. And later on, she isn't the prettiest. So, she's the prettiest person in the movie. And she's got the highfalutin career. She's doing something that... I was watching a movie and was like, oh, that's a job. That's a job. That's a job. She's determining airline routes. Right. How to figure out how to make money off them and all those things. I was like, okay. I guess a person gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that. So, anyway, she's determining that. And she's the only woman in the room. Oh, Matt. It's the 1990s. Taiwan. Like, come on. Yeah. And so, she's doing that. And then she's also the least connected to her father. And it wasn't always like that. She was the most connected at one time. But her father, like I said, wouldn't allow her in the kitchen. He's pushing her away. He wants her to do more. And then the youngest, who is just kind of like... I think in this movie, sort of got the short shrift of it. Like, didn't have a lot to do. But I enjoyed her plot. Like, her sort of like accidentally stealing her friend's boyfriend. Yeah, accidentally. But that was realistic, I thought. I thought so, too. She's working at Wendy's. I love that there's a Wendy's in Taiwan. Yeah, there's a Wendy's. And it's her and her friend. It's just, you know, it seemed real. Yeah. So when I was first watching, I was like, oh, she must be like 14. I was like, oh, no, she's like 20. She's also like an adult. Right. But when you first look at her, you don't think so. I thought she was like 16. Yeah. But later we find out she's not. Yeah. And so I'm not even sure how to continue the plot of the story. Because it does branch off and things sort of cycle back. We keep coming back to him waking them up. We keep coming back to Sunday dinner. Maybe it makes sense to talk about each plot separately. I don't know. What do you think, man? Well, you know, the one thing we want to mention is the oldest daughter who believes that her heart was broken by this guy. And it turns out he ends up working with her sister. Now, does she believe that or is she lying about that? Well, I don't know. She's lying about it. I'm sure she's lying about it. But maybe by now she believes it. Because it explains, you know, she doesn't want another man. Yeah. But, yeah, to me that was just sort of like that cover of, well, I'll just throw this dude under the bus because who will ever see him again? Yeah. And he shows up. Yeah, he shows up. And so he's working with the middle daughter. Right. And they have a bit of a romantic engagement. Just a quick one. That's not what you're thinking. It's just, you know, yeah. And then she, I think, yeah. And then he told her, you know, she said something about, you know, you broke my sister's heart. He's going, what are you talking about? Who? I wasn't sure if we were supposed to think of that as the audience. Should we be questioning his honesty? I took him at his face value. I didn't question it at all. He's telling the truth. Okay. That's how I did it. But I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be like maybe this guy is just really full of shit. It seemed like, no, the older daughter was just sort of, you know, like it's a – I mean, this whole movie is about like these stories we tell ourselves, right? Like she told herself that story, like I'm this kind of person and she just kind of just became it. The father said like, you know, I'm just going to be an alone, miserable old cook and he just became it. The middle daughter is like I'm the person who must be different and carry on this, you know, like people just become stories of their own. Highest succeeder kind of thing. Yeah. So the – well, I guess we'll start youngest because she was first. So we – every Sunday dinner we get a new announcement. And I loved this construction because first of all, it's funny. It's believable and it's like consistent. Where else would you do it? Yeah. It's like I have an announcement, you know. It's like people standing up like – It's like the one time you're together all week. You had to make the announcement. And so we find out the young daughter who stole her co-worker's boyfriend. Got married. Pregnant. Pregnant. Pregnant, getting married. Yeah. And I found it really interesting that a lot of like the quote, unquote, action totally off screen. Right. Like we never saw anything. We knew they were getting romantically involved. But we never saw any of it. They had been in the same room. Yeah. We didn't have to see any of it. There was no like him like pushing her bra strap off her shoulder. It was just like, no, no, we don't need to see that. Yeah. I think that's great. Yeah. You don't need to see it. And it's great when it surprises you. Yeah. What? Because we were as surprised as the father and the family, you know. Then the next one, the older sister who had been sort of interested in this volleyball guy. And there were like these love letters left on her desk. And like it was like this pretty weird situation. She didn't know if they were from him because he kind of gives her the glad eye when he sees her. So she's interested. But, you know. But they were not. They were praying based on some kids that she slighted earlier. But, yeah, he's still into it. Still into her. Yeah. Right. They're getting married. And we end up with just this middle sister and the father. Who's got a job, a promotion to go to Stockholm or someplace, you know, to work as a vice president or something. But she doesn't do it. Her father sells the house to her, right? Because he's hooked up with his oldest daughter's friend. And, again, brilliant writing. It all goes back to that first scene where he gets this phone call. And he's like, no, no, no, no. There's some negotiation in the phone call. And you're like, what is that? And then the rest of the scene and everything just starts happening. You kind of forget about it. And then you look back and you're like, oh, he's talking to that woman. He's trying to tell her, let's just tell them today. And she's like, no, no, no, no, no. So I love a nice bow. Kind of subtle. Yeah. It's a nice way of letting us know if we're paying attention or we remember things. Oh, yeah. I love when movies do that to me. Oh, yeah, now I see it. Right. When you watch the second time, you're like, oh, it's all so clear now. Yeah, I do also appreciate that. I think Ang Lee is always really good at pretty much everything he does. I mean, Ang Lee. Some of the best movies? Some of the dog shit. Yeah, he's got some horse shit movies. Does this dude have gambling debts? What the fuck is his deal? What the hell? I mean, I can't think of anyone who's that up and down. I mean, he's the Nick Cage of directors. Is that fair? Yes, because he's got some fantastic films and he's got garbage. He made one of the worst. I think we talked about this on this podcast. Was it Gemini Man? Gemini Man. One of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. Terrible. Yeah. Does he have gambling debts? He's awful. He is so bad. That film is just awful. But this movie, fantastic. I think so. Okay, we forgot to ask, did you like it? No, of course I loved it. It's a family story set around food. I actually loved it more the second time I saw it. I mean, I saw it in the theater. Right down at San Fran? No, it's here at the Nickelodeon. It's a Roxy now, I think it's called, downtown. When you say Nickelodeon, I feel like you're a billion years old. No, when I first moved here, that was the name of the theater. And then I always go out to, no, I don't want to get into that. Where else are you going to get into it? The guy who worked in the parking lot next to the movie theater. He's like this movie savant. I think he's a professor over there at UVM now. No, he had no desire to be anything except a parking, you know, he did it. Until they finally laid him all off, I think. Because I always leave the movies and go talk to him. He'd ask me how it was, maybe he'd seen it. He was really interesting. So, anyway, that's at the Nickelodeon. But no, Ang Lee, the writing's tight, the stories, everything connects, everything works. Nothing's out of place. Even those scenes where he's walking through his house to wake people up, and he has fewer people to wake up. I don't know if it's my inner desire for things to be systematic, but it seems like something that people would actually do, but also it's a really good way to sort of... I like a movie that has the same kinds of sequences, but are slightly different based on the happenings of the plot. It was really great. Because they're not repetitious. There's some movies that do it repetitiously, it doesn't change. These change slightly each time. It keeps your interest. We should talk about The Little Girl. Matt, you are on record for being notoriously anti-kid in movies. I mean, we've had a good day, right? We had some really good kid actors in the first one, and this kid is fantastic. I agree. Good kid actors all around. Even the little kid put his head against the wall a couple times, whatever that was, in parenthood. Who's that? Is that Johnny Depp now? Yeah, yeah. I didn't even know that was watching Phoenix. So you even liked the kid actors. That's amazing. Yeah. I liked everything about this film. When you were watching them making the food, was there something you were like, I could probably make that. Probably. But I always thought, oh, I could eat that. Yeah, of course, I could eat that. I don't know, it's Taiwanese food. Taiwan is a place where, yeah, they cook some kind of oil that makes me want to vomit. Really? Yeah. But that's just me. Other stuff is really great. It's just this one smell that happens in street stalls. It looks like you're looking up something, Matt. I was looking up the actress who I think played, what was her name? Oh my God. Was it Rachel? The middle child? No, the young girl. I was looking up, she was still working. The child actors. This is a good question. I'm sorry. I don't think her name was Rachel. I think Rachel was the middle child. But I don't know. Anyways. Furiously typing. Let me see. I don't know. It doesn't matter. But she was wonderful. And the old man. He was good. He must have done a ton of stuff. I just don't know what it was. Well, this is, I mean, this, Taiwanese films were just becoming popular in this country at that time. Like he did a movie called, the movie Ang Lee did before this is called The Wedding Banquet, which is also very good. A lot like this one. So you saw that also? Yeah. Is it similar? Is it multi-plot? Well, it's mostly about this gay couple who want to have a wedding banquet, but their parents are Taiwanese. So they put this fake wedding on. So he's just pushing the fucking boundaries, huh? I think so. I think that's what the plot is. Is Ang Lee gay? No idea. I mean, because he did Brokeback Mountain. He might be. All right, Matt, we are going long. Would you like to guess the scores? We have 22,000 people checking in on IMDb. Seven, five? Seven, eight. It's up there. I think, well, okay. Well, let me finish my thought and then I'll answer your question. I think this is the kind of movie that you don't stumble across. So I think that people direct you to it, and then based on that, you're more likely to give it a higher rating. Here's my question for you. Is it better than Parenthood? It's just different. You know, it's not a comedy, for one thing. I don't think so. It's funny in its own way, but it's more of a drama, I think. With great food. I don't know. But that's what was Parenthood on a scale? It was like 7-1. That's too big of a difference. I think that if you are an Asian person, which is, let me make it more specific. If you're in Taiwan and you watch this movie, you're like, oh, okay. But if you watch Parenthood, you're like, oh, wow, that's mind-blowing. I don't know. I just feel like the exoticness of it maybe contributes to the inflated score. Did your wife like this? She loved both of these movies. Oh, good. But actually, I would say that she liked Parenthood more. She thought this movie was like, oh. But we watched this one first. I think she was like, oh, that was cute. That was fun. No one, oh, cool. No bullet holes in anyone. So she was kind of down with that. You got a lot of laughs in the second one. Yeah. If you watch Parenthood. You remember that. Yeah, I think she liked Parenthood more. But it's hard to say because, I mean, Taiwan is not Korea, but she probably felt more like everything happening in this movie was more familiar. So maybe she's just like, yeah. Yeah, okay. Bad thoughts. Well, I mean, the things that we think are interesting to her are second nature. Yeah, definitely. So I don't know. It's hard to say. All right, so 7.8 on IMDb. That's good. Going over to the Tomatometer, we have 50 reviews. 94. 88 critics. Really? Low. That is low. Audience, 10,000 plus. I'll go 88. 92. 92. Audience likes it. Yeah, I don't know what to say about those ratings. I don't know. They don't even make a lot of sense to me. All right, I'll just do the consensus real quick before we get out of here. A richly layered look at the complex interactions between a widowed chef and his daughter's Ang Lee's generational comedy offers filmgoers a tasty cinema. This is nothing. It means nothing. These are two terrible. Yeah. The AI is failing. I bet that's what it is today. It used to be better. Well, yeah. It just depends on the movie. All right, so Matt, next week we are getting dark. In honor of Oppenheimer coming out, we're going to do a couple of nuclear. Nuclear? Nuclear? Nuclear? How do you say it? Nuclear? Okay. We're going to do a couple of movies. Failsafe and On the Beach. We're going to do a couple older films. I haven't seen neither. Matt has maybe seen one. Failsafe. I've never seen On the Beach. So, yeah, buckle up. That's it? Okay. All right, peace. Bye. He's a philistine. What's a philistine? It's a guy who doesn't care about books or interesting films and things. Then I'm a philistine. No, you're interested in books and things. No, I'm a philistine. You've been shitting in my yard. I have not. You want me to hold the chicken, huh? I want you to hold it between your knees. So, Jane, what you do here in effect is count boners. Yes, sir! Yes, sir! I'm in the kitchen. You in the kitchen. It's fun!