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Speaker 1: We're terrible, Lorenzo, and this is the Bitter Kitten Movie Club.

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Hello Kitten's welcome back to another edition of the b

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k MC, A supplemental edition of the PSO where we

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take a look at one film and give all our

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thoughts on it. I think that is the smoothest I

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know b k M c intro I have ever done.

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Speaker 2: Like your hair right now?

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Speaker 3: Your hair?

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Speaker 2: Your hair.

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Speaker 3: Okay, that's a little weird.

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Speaker 1: Anyway, this week's film is Little Miss Sunshine, and we

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before we flipped on the mics, I said to Lorenzo,

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I was like, I think this might be the shortest

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one we've ever done, the shortest b k MC podcast

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we've ever done. I picked this film for the lineup

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for this month. You know, we try and mix it

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up a little bit. Genres, styles, eras, that sort of thing.

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Speaker 2: So I'm not going to.

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Speaker 1: Really get into anything older than the nineteen eighties on

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this in this project for now at least, because it's

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very difficult to get people to watch old old films

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any and I don't want to going for a more

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popular right.

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Speaker 2: We don't want to fall into the same cliche of

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like old movies, classicals and stuff. Like that, at least

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not for now.

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Speaker 1: I never forgot a bitchy queen who was a friend

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of mine but it's no longer who said when our

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blog first launched. He was like, it's nice, but it's

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all like the obsessions of middle aged gay men.

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Speaker 2: And I was like, fuck that queen said that. You

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know who I'm talking about, right, but New York queen

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that we don't talk about any well, of course, of

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course the New York queen, but anyway, that's another subject.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So the reason I picked this this film is again,

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you know, I wanted to a range of styles and everything,

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but also I had seen this film once, probably around

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the time it came out. It came out in two

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thousand and six, and I really really didn't like it.

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And it was critically acclaimed.

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Speaker 3: I mean it was.

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Speaker 1: It was nominated for Best Picture, it won Alan Arkin

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won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in it, and

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that was a deserved win.

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Speaker 2: But the thing is that I respect critics, I mean,

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believe me, I do. That's what they do, their professionists,

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But sometimes they get too much.

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Speaker 1: Well in love with some especially around this time when

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it came to indie films, and this was kind of

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what set me off back then. It just if I

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I and Okay, I look at it. I looked at

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it in two thousand and six, I looked at it

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in twenty twenty six, and I had largely the same reaction,

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which was, this feels like a checklist of indie film markers.

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Like you have adorably quirky little girl, you have the

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teenager who does not speak that's sort of god, teenager

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who doesn't speak their grandfather, the grandfather who's inappropriate. Everything

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about it felt checked off a list and felt like

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something I had seen before.

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Speaker 2: Everything the fat having trouble with its job, you know,

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it's like everything it.

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Speaker 3: Just you know what.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to get too deep into the weeds

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of my critiques yet, I want to talk about first

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what I liked about the film, because this is what

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I'm trying to get at is I picked the film

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to see if I could reassess it two decades later,

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like maybe I was wrong about it, Maybe I you know,

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et cetera, et cetera. So and I admit that a

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lot of the stuff that I didn't like about the

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film immediately popped up in the first twenty minutes, and

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I was like, shit, it's exactly what I remembered it as.

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But I have to say I will unpack a few

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things about the story as it goes along, But when

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it gets to the end, I was like, all right,

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this is worthy. This was worth my time. It was

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worth it spending it with these people.

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Speaker 3: The cast is just the castle.

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Speaker 1: I mean, come on, that cast is stacked and nobody

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gives a bad performance. I do think Steve Carrell's Sad

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Gay is a bit of a It was a cliche

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top to bottom.

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Speaker 2: It was a weird take.

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Speaker 1: It was a weird take, but honestly, he was an

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up and coming comic actor at that time. Okay, see

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what it was a little and in two thousand and

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six it was still kind of a big deal when

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a straight actor played gay, So it was kind of

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a brave creative choice for him to make to play

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that character. I just didn't think he added any I mean,

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but it's really well acted. Everybody's great in it.

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Speaker 3: I actually.

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Speaker 1: It made me go to IMDb and check out Greg

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kinnear because I was like, what happened to him? He

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doesn't seem to you know, but he actually has been working.

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I just haven't been paying attention to what he's been.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's what I like about watching these movies is

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that you forget about these people were there.

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Speaker 1: She was in everything, Yeah, for like fifteen years there.

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I mean he, like I said, he's still working. He

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he was in Marco's Got Money's Troubles.

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Speaker 2: Or they're so young, you know, Like I'm like, oh

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my god, they're so young. Yeah, like what's his name,

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Poet Pole? You know, my god, he's a child.

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Speaker 1: Well he's I mean I looked it up. He was

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like in his twenties, but he was playing a fifteen

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year you look like a.

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Speaker 2: Fifty look like a teenager. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And Abigail Breslin adorable, and Tony Kolett. Man, it just

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never goes wrong. If you want a harried mother, she's

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your gal. She is the one to play.

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Speaker 2: And she does American so well, like America does America

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really very well. I love her since day one. Yeah,

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she's she's been incredible.

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Speaker 1: So uh, I think it's a perfectly enjoyable film.

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Speaker 3: I really do.

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Speaker 1: I think it's I really don't have I'm not going

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to rail against it, but I will talk about what

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I didn't like about why it sets me off. Let

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me just say before I get into that, I want

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to talk about the story itself, which.

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Speaker 2: We need to explain that. Yeah, well no, I mean

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if you watched it, if you're listening, watch a summary.

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Speaker 3: No, I'm not giving a summary.

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Speaker 2: Sorry. What I mean is, ah, he's laughing, but he

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wants to kill me. I know that laugh mister. No,

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I'm not going to sum it up.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the whole point here is that we're we've

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all watched it, and now we're talking about it. My

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issue with the script, with the story is that there

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are times when I feel like it just didn't feel

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very believable. And you know, that's not the most salient

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critique in the world, because it doesn't necessarily have to

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be a believable film. But for instance, like when you

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get to her act at the end, her dance act,

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which is I mean, it's a really funny paloff.

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Speaker 2: I thought it was some some other member.

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Speaker 1: They all danced anyway, right, but I'm talking about her act.

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When you get to that, it's a great payoff. It's

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really funny. But you have to sit there and think

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they went on this entire trip and none of them

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knew what she was going to do when she got up.

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Speaker 3: There like that. The whole film hinges on that, and

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the whole time I'm watching that scene, I'm.

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Speaker 2: Like, I don't know. Considering the family, I get that

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they are completely checked out on a lot of things,

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but I don't know that really it hinged on on

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something that I first out left it because it caught

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me completely off. It is really funny, it is really,

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and I give them credit for going into the joke,

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but not the joke never goes somewhere uncomfortable, like they

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never made Abigail Breslin do something where I was like, Okay,

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that's okay, that's al too much.

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Speaker 1: It's it's relatively innocent all around. It's just you know, inappropriate.

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Speaker 2: That's song. It's a song.

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Speaker 1: She's slapping her ass while she's dancing and everything. I mean,

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it's really, really funny, and it's a shame because it's

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the funniest part of the film and it's the most

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memorable part of the film.

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Speaker 3: So I just kept waiting for it.

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Speaker 2: But what I love about that scene is the hypocrisy,

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you know, the whole hypocritical attitude of the other ones,

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because I mean, all these girls look like adults with

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all that makeup and hair and everything, and they sexualize

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these girls. So to react the way they reacted with

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what she did, it's a little too much. I mean

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it is. It is a little too much, but coming

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from where you guys come from, like dressing these little

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girls like like adult.

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Speaker 1: So similarly, and again I guess this goes to how

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checked out the family is. They know the grandfather's doing Heroin,

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I know, so they're like, you're rooming with Grandpa Intel

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tonight with the little six year old girl. I'm like,

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what it just it helps the story if she has

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to go and wake them up the next morning and

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say Grandpa won't wake up. Yeah, everything, and sometimes those

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things they were really hard against the characters, because yes,

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they are checked out. They are not Their marriage isn't great,

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their family structure isn't great. They're not emotionally supportive of

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each other throughout most of the film. But that's a

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level of irresponsibility where you're just getting it and it's

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actually it's the same thing with Greg Kinnear's character in

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that scene where he berates her for eating ice cream.

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I'm like, all right, we're getting into full on. He's

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a villain here. Right, And the best way to end

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this story is to have her his wife walk out

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on him because he is literally abusing his daughter. We're

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watching him do that, but.

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Speaker 3: It's quirky, and we forgive him.

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Speaker 1: And I'm like, I do think the film sometimes loses

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sight of how people act in real situations because it's

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so caught up in it's quirkiness, in its little twists

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and turns and everything.

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Speaker 2: Guy, I hate when a script has milestones to be reached,

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you know, and and they use the characters for it,

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you know what I mean, Like instead of developing the

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what do you mean by that? Like like when okay,

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you write a script and you're like, all right, we

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need to do this, We need to make this point,

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we need to write, you know, like you establish what

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you need to cover.

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Speaker 3: And then and then fill in the blank.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you sort of like use the characters for it

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instead of having the characters being characters, right, you know,

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you know what I mean. I mean it's hard to

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explain what I'm science say, but instead of having characters

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being real people quote unquote real people and have them

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act like real people, you create a script that Okay,

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well they need to do this. The grandfather needs to

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die now, and then she needs to do and then

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something's gonna happen with the kid, you know what I mean, like, uh, instead.

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Speaker 3: Of thing's gonna happen to make Paul Dano speak.

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Speaker 2: Right right, And that was a bit of a I

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do like some of the stories I do.

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Speaker 1: And like Steve Carrell they're in a gas station when

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he runs into his old boy what stuff like that,

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where it's like, Okay, I get it. It's a quirky

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little tail. It doesn't have to be realistic, but you

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are taking me out of it. I think sometimes.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I was like, how they be there?

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Speaker 1: The same coincidence of that is just a little bit

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too much for me to take that.

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Speaker 2: Stuff like that was a little too much. The whole

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cop thing finding the porn and just letting them go

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and keeping the porn. Come on, it's again, it's a comedy.

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It doesn't have to be realistic. But I think tonally,

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sometimes the film doesn't know where it is where you

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know where it lands. Are we doing an unrealistic comedy,

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like a broad sort of comedy, or are we doing

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a quirky indie film about family dynamics? And I think

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sometimes it tries to do both and it doesn't work.

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And that cop scene is perfect example of that, where

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I was like, all right, you're taking out of this.

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I mean, if this was some goofy dumb and dumber

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style in my film, then fine, that scene works. But

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within the context of this one, right, it just I

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don't know. I have a loved hate thing with road movies,

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like you know, road Trip, I agree with. I love

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them in a way, I mean, but they are cliches.

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Those are my favorite when it comes to in the

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national movies, because first of all, you get to see

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those beautiful scenes in landscape and all that, and the

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characters sometimes they're rech but its.

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Speaker 1: Characters also go on a journey. It feels very cliche.

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Speaker 2: But it's the same. Everybody hates everybody to get on a.

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Speaker 1: Car, and then by the end they all learned a

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pall love each other.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, let's.

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Speaker 1: Take a quick break and we'll come back with some

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more critiques. We'll be right back. We're back talking about

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Little Miss Sunshine. And when Lorenzo started talking about road

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movies and everything, I just said to them with the

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MIC's off, I was like, I know, you want to

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mention Central Station. Well, there's Central Station is one of Lorenzo's. Well,

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we'll have to put them on the list. We are

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one of Lorenzo's favorite films. And it is a Brazilian

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movie from like nineteen ninety six, I think, And it's.

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Speaker 2: A yeah, I think too.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a road movie. It's about a woman and

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a boy who travel across Brazil. And it's not a comedy, no,

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absolutely not. That is an example of how to do

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a movie like that correctly and not lapse into cliche

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the way I don't want to.

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Speaker 2: I urge everyone to watch it. So I'm not gonna

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we'll put it on the list for next month. I'm

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not gonna give it away how it ends, especially, and

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I love that movie because of that. You know, it's

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it's it's a journey. That one is a journey.

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Speaker 3: It is, and it feels like an epic one.

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Speaker 2: Right. So it's a beautiful movie. The scenery and the traveling,

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it's just incredible. It's a beautiful story. It's definitely one

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of my favorite movies of all time anyway. But so

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I do like those movies. There's so many international movies

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like that where people get on a car and they travel.

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Speaker 1: So many American movies, yeah, and they tend to all

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be focused on the American West because you have all

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those wide open spaces. So this was Albuquerque in California,

279
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and it was all very much And that's fine, But

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like I said it, it feels like a cliche of

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indie films around two thousand and six. It feels like

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the exact kind of film that critics went crazy for

283
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twenty years ago. Because it checked off all of these boxes.

284
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That doesn't make it a bad film, but I don't

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think it's a great film.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a perfectly enjoyabah. It's funny because I

287
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rewatch it. It was my second time watching it, and

288
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I have to say Paul Dana's character is my favorite.

289
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Speaker 1: I think he's great, and I do think Steve Correll

290
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is good. I do, and I did like their scenes together,

291
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but I was like, there's something very dated about the sad,

292
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tragic gay figure played by a straight actor. I'm just

293
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not impressed by it anymore. We act too much of

294
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like a zombie to me. You know, well, he's post suicide.

295
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Speaker 2: I get all that, but I didn't get much emotion

296
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from him. But the lines are dead on. I really

297
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like the script, the stuff he says and related to

298
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the family and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do

299
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like that, but he's acting. I don't know, it's just

300
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fell off a little bit.

301
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Speaker 1: I want to talk about what my because I haven't

302
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really talked about what pisses me without this film and

303
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what originally pissed me off about this film and it's

304
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and the reason I put it at the back end

305
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of this is because I don't want to over emphasize

306
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this critique. It affected my viewing of the film, but

307
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it is ultimately an easy one for you as a

308
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viewer to dismiss. This is my thing, whether you agree

309
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or not. We should mention that this was directed by

310
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Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, a couple who have directed

311
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a bunch of music videos and a bunch of other films,

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and it was written by Michael Aren't. And I'm bringing

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this up because I'm kind of taking those three people

314
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to test.

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Speaker 3: Here's an example. Michael Aren't, the screenwriter.

316
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Speaker 1: He said he chose the iconic YELLOWVW bus for them

317
00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:54,720
to drive in and for it to constantly break down

318
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because that was the bus his family. It was like

319
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thirty five year old bus at the time of two

320
00:16:01,799 --> 00:16:03,720
thousand and six. And this is my issue with the

321
00:16:03,759 --> 00:16:06,240
film is that the aesthetic of the film is completely off.

322
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And I said this to you last night, well while

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you were watching it, we watched it separately.

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Speaker 3: I said that family would not have that. He would

325
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not have that van. He's such a striver and he's

326
00:16:17,159 --> 00:16:21,799
so image obsessed and success obsessed. He would, you know,

327
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mortgage his house to have a fancy car. He would

328
00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:25,840
not have a thirty five year old van like that.

329
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Speaker 2: And especially the van falling apart, you know.

330
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I know they don't have money. I

331
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get that, But this is my issue with the film

332
00:16:33,919 --> 00:16:38,399
is the clichde way they indicate that this family doesn't

333
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have money.

334
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Speaker 2: And it's very clear that they don't have money right now.

335
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But look at the house. I mean, look, well, that's my.

336
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Speaker 3: Problem with the house is.

337
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Speaker 1: And this was my problem back then. I was like,

338
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that's not what poor people look like. I'm sorry that

339
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not in two thousand and six. Let me just say

340
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in two thousand and six, that was about when we

341
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were furnishing our home. I mean, we were ten years

342
00:16:57,679 --> 00:16:59,840
into our relationship at that point, but we were in

343
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that mode where we were decorating and that sort of thing.

344
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And we live in a section of the Philadelphia Old City,

345
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which at the time it had a lot of chic

346
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vintage stores. In fact, the last Sheikh vintage store just

347
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left our neighborhood, oh last year, and we furnished our

348
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place with a lot of stuff from those places. And

349
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when you walked into a vintage store in two thousand

350
00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:28,599
and six, a high end vintage store where everything was

351
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well curated and expensive, it looked like their house. Right,

352
00:17:32,839 --> 00:17:35,519
That's not what the Salvation Army looks like. That's not

353
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what like, That's not what Porpi. That was an extremely

354
00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:43,599
well curated house of vintage mid century Brady Bunch, you

355
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know esthetic, and it absolutely was wrong for our family

356
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in two thousand and six. I think I might have

357
00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:53,200
mentioned this before for some reason. I remember talking about

358
00:17:53,200 --> 00:17:55,680
this on this podcast. It's you know, we've been doing

359
00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,680
this a long time. But I once compared the a

360
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set of this film to do you ever see I

361
00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:06,319
know you've seen it the Lord video for Royal Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,

362
00:18:06,519 --> 00:18:11,079
which depicts poverty, modern poverty in the way I talk

363
00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:15,480
about this because I have in my life, in my upbringing.

364
00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:17,799
I have been part of a poor family. I have

365
00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:19,599
been part of a poor working family. I know what

366
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it looks like and it doesn't look like that quirky

367
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art directed house. And I bring up royal because it

368
00:18:27,079 --> 00:18:29,279
shows them living and they don't have anything, like they

369
00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:34,279
just literally don't have anything because they're poor, and poor

370
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people don't have quirky, curated mid century stuff. They have

371
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plastic shit that they bought, you know, or they have

372
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really old, broken down shit. That's what the house of

373
00:18:43,799 --> 00:18:47,559
a poor person looks like, not this curated. And that

374
00:18:48,599 --> 00:18:50,759
bothered me right from the beginning. And honestly, the film

375
00:18:50,839 --> 00:18:53,319
is there's only one scene or maybe two scenes set

376
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in the house and the rest of the film is

377
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set out of the house. But it really turned me

378
00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:02,200
off right And then when I read that about the van,

379
00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:04,200
like that was the van from my child. Well, that's

380
00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:07,519
the problem here. You're you're depicting poor people in nineteen

381
00:19:07,559 --> 00:19:10,160
seventy five and this is two thousand and six, so

382
00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:11,640
it doesn't feel correct to me.

383
00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,319
Speaker 2: It goes back to what I said, it's it's just

384
00:19:14,559 --> 00:19:16,880
because you have to do something, so you just throw

385
00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:19,799
these characters, you know, into and it looks good some

386
00:19:19,799 --> 00:19:22,599
sort of situation. Yeah, the fact that, okay, we really

387
00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:25,480
need them all in a van, so they can't afford

388
00:19:25,519 --> 00:19:28,240
ticket airline tickets, you know, like right flight, they can't.

389
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Speaker 1: It be interesting to have them in some nineteen ninety

390
00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:34,519
five you know, Ford aerostar. No, we have to put

391
00:19:34,519 --> 00:19:36,759
them in a quirky thirty five year old gen X

392
00:19:37,119 --> 00:19:41,200
signifier because you know, it looks good on film. That

393
00:19:41,319 --> 00:19:43,400
was my issue with the film, and it remains my

394
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,559
issue with the film is that it is overly quirky.

395
00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:50,799
It has an interesting story, great cast, but the aesthetic

396
00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:53,880
and that the sort of indie quirkiness, it sort of

397
00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:54,599
overwhelmed me.

398
00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,440
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, I mean it gets into a lot of cliches,

399
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,000
but I you kind of enjoyed it every now and then,

400
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,319
you know, the dialogue and the situation. I agree, I

401
00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:08,799
don't want to trust us now. Abigail's adore She is adorable.

402
00:20:08,839 --> 00:20:11,599
I mean her face when you look at her face, yeah,

403
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:13,240
she conveys all.

404
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:15,839
Speaker 3: And she's not allous or anything like that.

405
00:20:16,319 --> 00:20:19,400
Speaker 1: No, she's literally everybody and it's good. I don't know

406
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:22,680
that Alan Orkan deserved an oscar for that performance, but

407
00:20:22,759 --> 00:20:25,319
he's always watchable and they probably handed it to him

408
00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:27,720
because you know, it was a lifetime achievement.

409
00:20:27,279 --> 00:20:30,480
Speaker 2: Thing, right. But she's adorable. I love her. H the

410
00:20:30,559 --> 00:20:34,200
Abigail again, she's just Adora. But when she's on the

411
00:20:34,279 --> 00:20:37,000
van and she's asking, like at the table, when she's

412
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,920
asking all those questions, I mean, it's just it's just nice.

413
00:20:40,039 --> 00:20:41,559
I agree, it's a nice performance.

414
00:20:41,839 --> 00:20:44,559
Speaker 1: And just to go back to my think about the aesthetic,

415
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,039
the reason that sets me off, as I indicated, I

416
00:20:48,079 --> 00:20:50,160
grew up in a family that struggled, you know, a

417
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:52,759
low income, working class family, and it didn't look like that.

418
00:20:54,759 --> 00:20:56,559
And the other thing I want to say about the

419
00:20:56,559 --> 00:21:02,000
film is that I really don't know the backgrounds of

420
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:06,039
the people involved, the directors and the screenwriter, but to me,

421
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:13,000
it felt like this was an image of blowing come

422
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,599
working class people produced by people who don't actually respect

423
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:21,079
the lives that they're living. I felt that the movie

424
00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:23,799
was sometimes a little cruel in the its assessment of

425
00:21:23,839 --> 00:21:28,680
those people. Here's an example, A really good example is

426
00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:32,480
Roseanne the TV show, where a the house looked like

427
00:21:32,519 --> 00:21:35,920
a poor person's, a poor working class house. It was

428
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,599
shitty furniture and things were broken down. It wasn't this

429
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:44,000
quirky Brady Bunch House and be that show. I haven't

430
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,119
seen the Connors, but that show back in the day.

431
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,079
It respected that what the struggles of what these people

432
00:21:50,079 --> 00:21:53,279
were going through. It respected the perspective of what it's

433
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:54,799
like to worry about your bills.

434
00:21:54,839 --> 00:21:56,799
Speaker 2: They weren't making fun of this, They weren't making fun

435
00:21:56,839 --> 00:21:58,960
of them. They were laughing with them exactly.

436
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,559
Speaker 1: And I do feel like this film sometimes is making

437
00:22:01,599 --> 00:22:04,519
fun of it's low income, working class people, and I

438
00:22:04,559 --> 00:22:06,599
it just set it. I was like, I don't like,

439
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:10,759
there's something very smug about that's the word. There's something

440
00:22:10,839 --> 00:22:13,759
very smug about this film, and that's what I kind

441
00:22:13,759 --> 00:22:17,440
of It's a well made film. If these things don't

442
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:19,680
bother you, it's worth your time. But for me, it

443
00:22:19,759 --> 00:22:21,759
was like this, I think it's.

444
00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:25,119
Speaker 2: A lovely movie. I actually enjoyed watching again. The only

445
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:28,200
thing that I don't like is that they make such

446
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,920
a big deal about her winning and how important that

447
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:35,119
is for everybody, for her, for her grandfather, and they

448
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:37,599
kind of dropped that conversation towards end and.

449
00:22:37,519 --> 00:22:39,759
Speaker 1: We never see her reaction. I mean, she should have

450
00:22:39,759 --> 00:22:41,759
been a little devastated by how that played out.

451
00:22:41,839 --> 00:22:45,279
Speaker 2: I missed that conversation. Where's she at least she says,

452
00:22:45,319 --> 00:22:48,240
you know, it doesn't matter, grandfather, grandpa whatever, blah blah blah.

453
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,559
I mean I needed that, some kind of dialogue, some

454
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:55,279
sort of like conversation about and they just show them

455
00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:56,720
dancing and the movie ends.

456
00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 3: I agree, I missed that part. I agree. It's cute.

457
00:23:01,599 --> 00:23:02,559
It's a cute film.

458
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:03,440
Speaker 2: It is a cute feel.

459
00:23:03,519 --> 00:23:07,559
Speaker 1: Everybody is doing good work in the film. But ultimately,

460
00:23:07,599 --> 00:23:10,680
for me, the perspective of the film seems a little

461
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:15,319
smug and removed from the people it's depicting, and that

462
00:23:15,519 --> 00:23:17,319
is my That has always been my issue with it,

463
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:20,799
along with the aesthetic of it, which just that is

464
00:23:20,799 --> 00:23:23,880
not what poor people look like in two thousand and six.

465
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:25,759
Speaker 3: It's just not it's it's it.

466
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:30,240
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just little things like the grandfather dies and

467
00:23:30,279 --> 00:23:33,039
they had everything planned back where they're from, you know,

468
00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:35,920
for the funeral and everything, but the grandfather died, and

469
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:37,680
all of a sudden he has money to ship the

470
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:39,839
grandfather and all that, and it just I mean, call

471
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:42,960
someone to exactly, it's just all right, where is this

472
00:23:43,039 --> 00:23:46,720
money coming from? Yeah, it doesn't. It goes in and out.

473
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:47,559
Their money problems.

474
00:23:47,599 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 1: It's like it just goes in or out, like they

475
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,519
have money problems until the film needs to do something,

476
00:23:52,519 --> 00:23:54,240
and then they don't have money problems anymore.

477
00:23:54,799 --> 00:23:57,799
Speaker 2: I mean, like, yes, we only order something that you know,

478
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,359
up to four dollars, you know at the dynas exactly,

479
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:04,160
you're going to go to that level, and then they did. Yeah,

480
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:08,000
it just doesn't or you're getting three hotel rooms like that.

481
00:24:08,039 --> 00:24:10,079
I was like, you know, my parents did not get

482
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:12,319
three hotel rooms. They piled us all into one. Oh

483
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,920
my god. All right, so I think that's it. Yeah,

484
00:24:16,039 --> 00:24:18,720
all right, So I enjoyed it. I enjoyed watching it again,

485
00:24:18,759 --> 00:24:19,720
A right did too.

486
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:20,599
Speaker 3: And maybe you did.

487
00:24:20,599 --> 00:24:22,599
Speaker 2: Two. Would love to hear your thoughts on it, especially

488
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:24,960
your thoughts on like the class depiction and whether or

489
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:26,839
not I'm out of line for thinking the film was

490
00:24:26,839 --> 00:24:27,519
a little smug.

491
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,480
Speaker 3: We'll be back next week with Blue Moon, which I'm

492
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,440
actually looking forward to because I haven't seen it.

493
00:24:32,519 --> 00:24:33,319
Speaker 2: The great movie.

494
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,039
Speaker 3: And uh, until then, take care of yourself, love you

495
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:37,160
mean it. Bye bye bye

