Speaker 1: I'm gonna show you a picture, but before I show
Speaker 1: it to you, I want to paint a picture.
Speaker 2: Okay, it better not be some part of your body
Speaker 2: that's falling off.
Speaker 1: I promise.
Speaker 2: Better not be like a like a like a toenail.
Speaker 1: This is this is not a picture of any part
Speaker 1: of my body in any.
Speaker 2: State, a gangrenous toenail.
Speaker 1: I'm in California. Stop into a CVS, have to pick
Speaker 1: up I don't know, face wash or something. Go to
Speaker 1: the checkout line. And in California they can sell wine.
Speaker 1: And this is the wine that is on display at
Speaker 1: the CVS.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's called Nashatwal and it's like the The image
Speaker 2: is very evocative of like a Matisse painting, like two
Speaker 2: women buzzomy ladies, missay, buzzom me ladies dancing, which is
Speaker 2: weird because it's a manaja toa There should be a
Speaker 2: third person.
Speaker 1: Are a third person?
Speaker 2: Oh that's the implication. Yeah, that's the implication. And they're
Speaker 2: like sales pitches. Join us in helping women thrive in
Speaker 2: work and in life because they are sponsored by Dress
Speaker 2: for Success. So much is happening, so much is happening?
Speaker 2: So much?
Speaker 1: A screw top bottle of wine called Mona and it's.
Speaker 2: A red blend. Just want everyone like, I don't know
Speaker 2: much about wine.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you go to CVS for your wine, y'all, but.
Speaker 2: I don't know if a red blend is going to
Speaker 2: be your top shelf. Hey in America?
Speaker 1: And this is that aged well.
Speaker 2: Yesterday's pop culture.
Speaker 1: Today dance movie August.
Speaker 2: I want everyone to know Paul's doing like a windmill
Speaker 2: like it's I think it's vogue, but it's that windmill
Speaker 2: motion expressing myself through movement. Yes, last Dance for Roman,
Speaker 2: Last Chance. I actually don't know the lyrics that one.
Speaker 1: You can dance if you want to. You can leave
Speaker 1: your friends behind because your friends don't dance, and if
Speaker 1: they don't dance, and no friends of mine.
Speaker 2: Dance month, Yes, one of the best months of the year, truly, truly.
Speaker 1: But before we get to dance movies Erica, we do
Speaker 1: have a couple of five star Apple podcast reviews to read.
Speaker 1: Shall I get to it?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: All right? This first one is from Moms to sm
Speaker 1: R eight A masterclass in yes ending and a meandering
Speaker 1: great time.
Speaker 2: See how that sounds like a compliment?
Speaker 1: It does?
Speaker 2: It sure did? Sound like a compliment.
Speaker 1: You're focusing on meandering and I'm focusing it on great.
Speaker 2: I'm focusing on meandering.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they write, thank you Paul for the instructions
Speaker 1: on how to leave a review, because this gen exer
Speaker 1: never would have figured it out. Well, you're welcome, and
Speaker 1: thank you for following the instructions on the show notes
Speaker 1: of this year podcast. Right now, If anyone's wondering, just
Speaker 1: click on the link. Rate this podcast slash that age. Well,
Speaker 1: all right, Moms to SMR O eight goes on. This
Speaker 1: is one of my top three go to podcasts because
Speaker 1: it's just so much fun. For those reviewers who mentioned
Speaker 1: the tangents and the off topic convo, I suggest you, says,
Speaker 1: sit back, relax, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.
Speaker 2: The title of your sex tape, Moms to SMR.
Speaker 1: This podcast is a masterclass in the game of yes
Speaker 1: and enjoy the true chemistry and brilliance of Paul and
Speaker 1: Erica's banter. And don't worry they eventually make it back
Speaker 1: from their side trips.
Speaker 2: What if we didn't, What if we didn't dropped a
Speaker 2: movie forever?
Speaker 1: Just if we didn't do it with the fifth element,
Speaker 1: we will never do it and the audience is like, wait,
Speaker 1: how does clue listen? Never have we wanted to drop
Speaker 1: a movie as hard as we wanted to drop the
Speaker 1: fifth element. Uh. They include fun info about all the
Speaker 1: movies they discuss, along with their thoughts on each movie's
Speaker 1: viability in today's culture, hence the title It's fair and
Speaker 1: balanced reporting, No notes.
Speaker 2: Ah, thanks mom, Thank you Moms.
Speaker 1: To SMR eight, this is a lovely review. It's complete
Speaker 1: because you know what it says. It says even the
Speaker 1: parts that you think are meandering are actually a feature,
Speaker 1: not a bug.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's part of the ride, man exact joy. You
Speaker 2: know that on roller coasters you have to do that
Speaker 2: slow bumping part up before you get to the crest
Speaker 2: and then the fall. This podcast I like to think
Speaker 2: of as all meandering bumping up. It's just that part
Speaker 2: of the roller coaster. Our next review comes from Samantha
Speaker 2: exclamation points. Do you think do you think they met
Speaker 2: Samantha Samantha? Or what if it's sex in the City
Speaker 2: Samantha Samantha. They write, I found this podcast in August
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty four and have started at the beginning.
Speaker 2: I notoriously do not like movies, the notorious not like
Speaker 2: movies are Yeah, the notorious anti film Samantha. But I
Speaker 2: love listening to these two dissect and discuss. It's well researched, funny, thoughtful,
Speaker 2: and relatable. I truly enjoy the rapport between Erica and Paul.
Speaker 2: They are funny and banter with each other without being mean.
Speaker 2: Well we are to each other, but not so. Just
Speaker 2: a really great podcast that I walk away from feeling
Speaker 2: better about the world, not worse. Jesus, this is nice.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. It's very nicely nice.
Speaker 1: Making listeners feel better about the world is why we're here.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, Jenny, I got a little choked up reading that
Speaker 2: last line.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Samantha and moms to
Speaker 1: SMR eight, thank you for these reviews. If you would
Speaker 1: like a that edgeball tope ick, just let us know.
Speaker 1: This is you. Let us know and we will send
Speaker 1: it off for you. Erica, all right, where are we
Speaker 1: headed this week?
Speaker 2: Tonight? On that age Dwell, We are headed to the
Speaker 2: White Knights of Russia.
Speaker 1: The Soviet white Knights. All Right, White Knights was requested
Speaker 1: by Alicia and Josephine, Janette Valo, Sarah Parker, Karen Amy
Speaker 1: and Liz. And while I love all of our listeners equally,
Speaker 1: I just want to do a special shout out to Liz,
Speaker 1: who has been requesting this film for I am not
Speaker 1: exaggerating years. Wow years.
Speaker 2: Finally Liz has been heard.
Speaker 1: Liz has finally had her voice heard this. This shows
Speaker 1: the power perseverance. It shows when I say I hear you,
Speaker 1: I really do hear you. Even if I don't hear
Speaker 1: you for a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even if we can't shoehorn it in like to another,
Speaker 2: we will get to it. We could have shoehorned this
Speaker 2: in into Spy month Away, but that would have been
Speaker 2: rough though, But it would have been a weird left turn.
Speaker 2: It would have been a weird turn.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. So White Knights is a nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: five political dance melodrama written by James Goldman, Eric Hughes
Speaker 1: and Nancy Dowd. It was directed by Taylor Hackford and
Speaker 1: stars Mikhail Barishnikov, Gregory Hines, Helen Mirren, Jersey Skolamowski, and
Speaker 1: Isabella Rossellini in her film debut.
Speaker 2: Isn't that that blew my mind? When I saw and
Speaker 2: introducing Isabella ROSSLYNI I was like holy shit she had.
Speaker 2: I did look her up. She had like a couple
Speaker 2: of very small like like nothing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So this was her first like featured role in a film.
Speaker 2: White Knights was nominated for two Academy Awards, both in
Speaker 2: the Best Song category. I have thoughts, well, first of all,
Speaker 2: there should be a dance like. I know there aren't
Speaker 2: that many dance movies in a year, but there should
Speaker 2: be a choreography category.
Speaker 1: They should have gotten a special, a special Oscar special
Speaker 1: recognition for like.
Speaker 2: The amazing dance sequences in this movie. Yeah, okay. The
Speaker 2: two nominated songs were Separate Lives, sung by Phil Collins
Speaker 2: and Marilyn Martin. You know that song, that song you
Speaker 2: absolutely remember, Yeah, and then say You Say Me by
Speaker 2: Lionel Ritchie, which is, honestly, if you'd given me five
Speaker 2: hundred chances, ye guess what popular eighty song was the
Speaker 2: soundtrack to this movie that I don't think it would
Speaker 2: have made five hundred I would not have done it.
Speaker 1: I can think of two songs at the top of
Speaker 1: my head. There's a Shaka Khan song and a lou
Speaker 1: Reed song in this movie that are that are better
Speaker 1: than both of those other songs. Now, granted, I'm sure
Speaker 1: they were not recorded for the film, so they were
Speaker 1: not they were not eligible eligible, But I mean, but
Speaker 1: I mean, and.
Speaker 2: What's crazy is this One of them won, and it's
Speaker 2: Say You Say Me by Lionel Ritchie won the Academy
Speaker 2: Award for Best Original Song for a Movie that it
Speaker 2: has zero to do with.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 2: It's it's played over the credit to the end of
Speaker 2: the movie. Yep, and it just doesn't make any goddamn sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Separate Lives doesn't really make any sense in the
Speaker 1: in the movie either, because it's played over like a
Speaker 1: very romantic moment between Gregory Hines and Isabella Rossellini, and
Speaker 1: it's it's about a break up, like the song's about
Speaker 1: a break up, and they don't break up.
Speaker 2: Spoiler, they do not break up. This also, by the way,
Speaker 2: beat Say You Say Me beat Power of Love from
Speaker 2: Back to the Future, which feels wrong.
Speaker 1: Huey Lewis, check your purse.
Speaker 2: You've been robbed, Huey Lewis, check your news, Yeah, you've rob.
Speaker 1: Get the news together, it's time to storm the Academy.
Speaker 2: Because seriously, that like, fuck off, fuck off? How dare
Speaker 2: you not give it to power?
Speaker 1: The movie was criticized for its use of Finland as
Speaker 1: a substitute for Siberia and the Lenin Grave, to which
Speaker 1: I say.
Speaker 2: Are they supposed to fucking go to? Are they forgetting
Speaker 2: what was happening in names?
Speaker 1: But it was criticized in nineteen eighty five, so they
Speaker 1: have no excuse.
Speaker 2: That made no sense to me, no sense. That's like
Speaker 2: criticizing a movie now for not filming in current day Russia.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, yeah, In actuality, Taylor Hackford used exterior
Speaker 1: shots of the actual cure of theater and other Leningrad
Speaker 1: locations that he commissioned from a finished travel company, but
Speaker 1: he did not reveal this for years in order to
Speaker 1: protect the team he worked with.
Speaker 2: Brilliant and you can tell when you're watching the movie,
Speaker 2: you can tell, like there's some shots that are like
Speaker 2: legitimately like what we would now call Saint Petersburg, right,
Speaker 2: But like again that that drives me and said, why
Speaker 2: would why on earth would you? Why would you criticize
Speaker 2: it a film for this? Again, you didn't film in
Speaker 2: an actual war zone. Ew, there's other reasons to criticize
Speaker 2: this movie. That's the thing too. This movie is not perfect.
Speaker 1: I think I like this movie.
Speaker 2: You really like this movie, but it's not per it's messy.
Speaker 2: It is real.
Speaker 1: It is messy. Yes, I can admit that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes no sense.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm willing to go with it with it not
Speaker 1: making sense on this one more than you or I think.
Speaker 1: But we'll see.
Speaker 2: Maybe convince me, maybe we'll meet each other halfway. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like like Borishnikoff and high Hinds in the film, exactly, Yes,
Speaker 2: I'm Borishnikoff, I Callikov. White Nights has a very low
Speaker 2: forty six percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a perfectly
Speaker 2: adequate seventy four percent audience score no Cherry picks five. Yeah,
Speaker 2: forty six that's insanely low.
Speaker 1: That's insanely low. I think this deserves a seventy five
Speaker 1: to eighty percent critical rating, and it should have an
Speaker 1: audience score of one hundred.
Speaker 2: Audience scores should be. The only thing is it's a
Speaker 2: little long. It's a little It is two hours and
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes. Look, I don't know why you're watching this movie.
Speaker 2: If you're not ready to watch dance scenes, yeah, if that's.
Speaker 1: That's on you. If you're complaining about the dance scenes,
Speaker 1: that is on you.
Speaker 2: If you're like, why is there twenty minutes of dancing
Speaker 2: in this movie? It's like, bitch, it's a movie starting
Speaker 2: two dancers. But also like maybe and this is maybe
Speaker 2: a little bit where I land. It doesn't have enough
Speaker 2: dance for me. A forty six is criminally low because again,
Speaker 2: you're casting these people for their ability to dance. So, like,
Speaker 2: if you're complaining that Gregory Heines and Mikhail Parishnikov are
Speaker 2: not the greatest dancers of the greatest actors of their generation,
Speaker 2: fuck off. No actor can do what either of these
Speaker 2: two dudes can do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, and they also are both good actors, and.
Speaker 2: They're both very good. Actually was a little surprised by like,
Speaker 2: Gregory Heines got me. Oh there's a monologue Gregory Heines
Speaker 2: has in this movie. I was like, damn, you're really
Speaker 2: fucking good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Erica, when did you first see White Nights?
Speaker 2: I saw this movie when I was younger. I have
Speaker 2: no memory of where I was. I must have been
Speaker 2: at home, might have been on TV. Maybe my parents
Speaker 2: were watching it. We didn't see this in the theater,
Speaker 2: I'm sure of that. But like, so I remember, because
Speaker 2: there's certain just.
Speaker 1: Picturing little five year Old Erica in the theater watching this.
Speaker 2: And my parents are like, this is about ballet, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, shit, I'm listening. No, there's moments in this movie.
Speaker 2: I remember. One in particular is a climactic scene where
Speaker 2: Mikhail Berrishnikoff has to do like a jump across an
Speaker 2: alleyway that's like a stunt, and that really stayed in
Speaker 2: my head.
Speaker 1: I remembered that.
Speaker 2: But ninety eight percent of this movie I'd forgotten completely about.
Speaker 2: So it feels like I watched it for the first
Speaker 2: time yesterday.
Speaker 1: Okay, how about you. I had never seen this movie.
Speaker 1: I had never heard of this movie until a few
Speaker 1: years ago when Liz was like, do white Nights and
Speaker 1: other voices joined in the chorus for this month, so
Speaker 1: we are doing it. I went in pretty cold on this.
Speaker 1: I knew Mikhail Brishnikov and Gregory Heins were in it.
Speaker 1: I knew there was a lot of dancing. That's pretty
Speaker 1: much all I knew about it. Yeah, I really loved it,
Speaker 1: Like I really loved it. I know what you're saying.
Speaker 1: You're saying it's messy. It is messy. You are not wrong.
Speaker 2: It's it's shaggy because it's a movie about like real
Speaker 2: world implications to what's happening to these people in the movie.
Speaker 2: But the movie doesn't like treat it very It just
Speaker 2: doesn't make any sense. I'll get into it. This is
Speaker 2: not how the world. What is how spies work, This
Speaker 2: is not how Russia works, is not how anything works.
Speaker 1: Which I have no argument for it. I just don't care.
Speaker 1: I think I think I'm gonna don't care, and.
Speaker 2: You're absolutely right. Why am I complaining why? That's like
Speaker 2: the idiots were complaining that they didn't actually film.
Speaker 1: In Russia, So uh, Erica the tagline for White Nights.
Speaker 2: I can already tell you I hate it.
Speaker 1: I knew you would hate it as I typed it.
Speaker 2: As the length of it, I can tell you I
Speaker 2: fucking hate it.
Speaker 1: Two men, not soldiers, not heroes, just dancers willing to
Speaker 1: risk their lives for freedom and each other. No, that
Speaker 1: is a gay romance.
Speaker 2: The amount of times I was like kiss, kiss, which
Speaker 2: is unfair to poor Isabella Russelling, who's also in this too,
Speaker 2: but like the amount of time I want it. I
Speaker 2: wanted those two men to kiss.
Speaker 1: It is the end of the movie is a freeze
Speaker 1: frame and me going kiss.
Speaker 2: Kiss, because it is a. It is a non romantic
Speaker 2: love story, but it really is a love story between
Speaker 2: these two.
Speaker 1: Men and then understanding each other's perspective and like actually
Speaker 1: coming together and like meeting the middle and not really
Speaker 1: coming together. But you know, yes, I agree, it's not
Speaker 1: a good tagline. The tagline just be borishnakov heinz. Do
Speaker 1: you like watching dancers?
Speaker 2: Want to see them tap their way out of this one?
Speaker 2: I don't know. There's got to be a better, like
Speaker 2: Russian themed one.
Speaker 1: But they're red mccormicking in Russia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, done?
Speaker 1: Erica. Do you want to read the iTunes synopsis?
Speaker 2: Sure? This story of Nikolai Rodchenko, a Russian defector, and
Speaker 2: Raymond Greenwood, an American tap dancer who defected behind the
Speaker 2: Iron Curtain during the Vietnam War. Twist, twist. You don't
Speaker 2: expect that. You don't expect to see an American being like,
Speaker 2: I'm moving to Russia.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: That's one tiny thing I have against this movie is
Speaker 2: I'm like, there are many easier countries to be like,
Speaker 2: you know what, America sucks, They're racist as fuck. I'm
Speaker 2: going somewhere else. Yeah, I just like, maybe think this
Speaker 2: through a little bit more buddy, Yeah, look at a
Speaker 2: map before you're like Russia. I'm going to Russia. Artistic
Speaker 2: vision and political idealism collide as two great dancers make
Speaker 2: a decision that will change their lives forever. Yeap Paul
Speaker 2: Actual synopsis.
Speaker 1: Okay, Erica, I'm just gonna say I've had enough. I've
Speaker 1: had enough of the debates. I've had enough of the
Speaker 1: of the of the questions. This is just my final
Speaker 1: word on the matter. Mikail Barishnikov and Gregory Hines can dance.
Speaker 1: What that's it out. I'm done. I will not be
Speaker 1: taking questions. I was.
Speaker 2: I was of the camp that they're terrible, They're terrible dancers.
Speaker 1: This is this is the movie that will actually make
Speaker 1: you believe a man can fly, because when Mikhail Barishnikov leaps,
Speaker 1: it actually looks like he's defying gravity for like a
Speaker 1: second every time.
Speaker 2: And both these men are in their late thirties. The
Speaker 2: performances Gregory Heights like was born with old man face. Yeah,
Speaker 2: You're like, what is he fifty? You're like, oh no,
Speaker 2: he's thirty eight. He made this movie. But the moves,
Speaker 2: the dance moves, You're like, how can a fucking thirty
Speaker 2: eight year old be doing this? Yeah crazy and I
Speaker 2: think I I'm not sure, might even be a little older.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, damn, he hasn't lost a step No, no,
Speaker 1: all right, everyone. So that is your lead up to
Speaker 1: White Knights. Stick around. We have some commercials to play here.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to listen to commercials, you can
Speaker 1: go to our Patreon. That is patreon dot com slash
Speaker 1: that Age Weel podcast. You can join any paid level.
Speaker 1: You will get a free episodes delivered to your feet
Speaker 1: every Monday. If you don't want to do that, stick around,
Speaker 1: we will be right back and we are going to
Speaker 1: take you through White Nights and we're back. How do
Speaker 1: you say that in Russian?
Speaker 2: I have no idea.
Speaker 1: An Budka Borsh.
Speaker 2: We open on a close up of Nikolai ko Kolia
Speaker 2: is the nickname Radchenko played by Mikhail Barishnikoff, an up
Speaker 2: and comer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you may have heard of him.
Speaker 2: May have heard of him, Misha. He's in bed.
Speaker 1: Open all movies on a shirtless Mikhail Barishnakov in bed
Speaker 1: for some reason, when he smokes a cigarette, I love it.
Speaker 1: I don't like it in real life, but when he's
Speaker 1: I'm in the.
Speaker 2: Amount This person smokes for being a professional dancer. And
Speaker 2: I know professional dancers do smoke, like like that's been
Speaker 2: a thing the whole the whole existence of professional dancers.
Speaker 2: But he's just crazy, Like, there's my lungs hurt watching I.
Speaker 1: Was like smoking and the fact the man is still
Speaker 1: alive and kicking and in good shape, And I'm like,
Speaker 1: did he not was this just for the movie?
Speaker 2: But was he smoking because everyone smoked back then?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Or is he just one of those people that
Speaker 1: just like smoked his whole life and lived to one
Speaker 1: hundred and six and like, yeah, it just doesn't doesn't take.
Speaker 2: My great grandfather lived to be over a hundred. He
Speaker 2: smoked cigars every day of his life. That's that's a
Speaker 2: real thing. That's a very human thing. It's a real
Speaker 2: fucking thing. So Nick is in bed, staring at the ceiling,
Speaker 2: blue eyes, a blazon, cigarette, a blazon. He's just smoking
Speaker 2: a cigarette, looking pensive, looking off into the distance, and
Speaker 2: then we hear music begin and the camera pulls back
Speaker 2: and we see that he is not actually in bed, well,
Speaker 2: he in bed, but he's on a set because he
Speaker 2: is on stage performing a ballet. He is performing a
Speaker 2: ballet sequence called in apologies my French is frankly non
Speaker 2: existent Le junoumes de la et la morte, which I
Speaker 2: know that was bad. I could tell like as I
Speaker 2: was saying, and I'm like, oh, if anyone who speaks
Speaker 2: French is like, girl, you are hurt in my ears.
Speaker 1: The young Man in Death.
Speaker 2: The young Man in Death, Yes, originally choreographed by Roland
Speaker 2: Petit in nineteen forty six. This is a very famous
Speaker 2: ballet performed by Borishnikoff. I think in the sixties or
Speaker 2: seventies he revived it and now they're putting in in
Speaker 2: this movie. And it was filmed actually in the Bristol Hypodrome,
Speaker 2: like because the movie starts in England. So it's all
Speaker 2: very I mean for the inside baseball nerds in ballet,
Speaker 2: this is all very very cool. The rest of this
Speaker 2: film has unbelievable dance numbers, and this is still the
Speaker 2: best one, like they say, is this is my I mean,
Speaker 2: it's so good and it's Polish, And all the other
Speaker 2: dance scenes in the film are generally except for like
Speaker 2: a couple like with Gregory Hines are rehearsals or like
Speaker 2: him like Borushnikoff, just like the character like riffing while
Speaker 2: on stage, so they're not as like tightly choreographed as this. Yeah,
Speaker 2: fair enough, because it would make sense story wise. This
Speaker 2: it is just so good. Also bleak. It is the
Speaker 2: most bleak dance sequence.
Speaker 1: I took this way too much to heart, and I
Speaker 1: didn't I realized he was doing a performance immediately, but
Speaker 1: I didn't know what its place was in the movie,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was like an artistic telling of
Speaker 1: the movie that I'm about to see like a prologue
Speaker 1: or something.
Speaker 2: Oh no, he's going to kill himself.
Speaker 1: I was literally like this, this is going to end
Speaker 1: in a suicide and like and then and the woman
Speaker 1: betrays him. Like I had this whole I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is so interesting, and I was like at the
Speaker 1: end of we were like, oh, that wasn't it. I've
Speaker 1: thought too much.
Speaker 2: As is your wants, Yes, but the the movie gives
Speaker 2: you it tes tip of tand a little bit because
Speaker 2: this is opening and then there's opening credits either I
Speaker 2: can't remember if it's during this or just after this
Speaker 2: that calls out that all the other choreography in the
Speaker 2: movie is swila sarp yep. And this was particular to
Speaker 2: this scene. The general plot is the man is smoking
Speaker 2: a cigarette. He's joined by a woman. They dance a
Speaker 2: potter Do you find out she's a faithless lover? She
Speaker 2: leaves him. He decides to end his life. The walls
Speaker 2: of his Garrett apartment start to rise into the rafters,
Speaker 2: revealing a Paris skyline in the background, and the dance
Speaker 2: partner re emerges in a white gown with a red
Speaker 2: cape and a skull mask. I in my brain she
Speaker 2: has a sickle too, but she doesn't actually have a
Speaker 2: sickless icycle because it is death. It's the same dancer
Speaker 2: from before, only now she is portraying death itself. She
Speaker 2: takes off the mask and places it on him. As
Speaker 2: the curtain descends, it's so dark. The dancers take their bows,
Speaker 2: The audience and Erica go fucking wild.
Speaker 1: She stands up from recouched. It is incredible to be
Speaker 1: reminded what an actually like perfect male body looks like sons,
Speaker 1: like steroids, and like the mar marvelification of like of
Speaker 1: what of what a man could possibly look like with
Speaker 1: these systems of drugs.
Speaker 2: I feel like ballet dancers generally are more live than
Speaker 2: they are muscular.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, for obvious reasons, but like, that's what
Speaker 1: a body can look like through exercise and eating well,
Speaker 1: and probably a lot of cigarettes for.
Speaker 2: A lot of cigarettes. Well, and don't forget the twenty
Speaker 2: hours a day of dance.
Speaker 1: Right right, speaking of by the way, male bodies and
Speaker 1: twenty hours a day of dancing, I would just it's
Speaker 1: just a PSA. I don't know how the Instagram algorithm
Speaker 1: has decided that what I want to see is short
Speaker 1: videos of Italian ballerinos in skin tight dance skin skin
Speaker 1: tone boy shorts, like stretching their legs so their taint
Speaker 1: moves towards the camera. Uh huh, don't. I don't know
Speaker 1: how it happens.
Speaker 2: Instagram's got you girls.
Speaker 1: Someone is sneaking into my room at night and playing
Speaker 1: these videos and teaching this Instagram algorithm something like it's short,
Speaker 1: so tight you can see the individual hairs around their
Speaker 1: asshole as they stretch towards you. So we cut to
Speaker 1: Nick on a plane with its agent and Wyatt played
Speaker 1: by Geraldine Page. Geraldine Page is in.
Speaker 2: This movie, that's right, she is.
Speaker 1: They're en route to Tokyo, and the pilot announces that
Speaker 1: if they look out the window, they'll see the famous
Speaker 1: Soviet white nights, which is a time of year when
Speaker 1: the sun never sets. Right because of the way that
Speaker 1: Earth spins.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah, Arctic circle.
Speaker 1: Arctic circle, angle of the Earth spinning. You know what,
Speaker 1: you know what we're talking about?
Speaker 2: And also, Paul, I don't know if you know this.
Speaker 2: Uh uh, it's also the title of the movie. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: I know. Does that blow your mind? Also, the movie
Speaker 2: we're watching is called what I Know?
Speaker 1: I know they should have called it. Mikhail Berishtakov holds
Speaker 1: his legs above his head.
Speaker 2: Let that sinking.
Speaker 1: Let that's sinking, all right. So they're over Siberia when
Speaker 1: the plane suffers an electrical malfunction.
Speaker 2: It's a bad place to have an electrical.
Speaker 1: Truly, of all the places to have an electrical malfunction,
Speaker 1: this is one of the worst. Nick leaps up. He
Speaker 1: sprints to the bathroom against the olders of the flight crew.
Speaker 1: They're like, what are you doing? What are you doing?
Speaker 1: And he frantically starts tearing up his identification, his passport,
Speaker 1: anything on him that has his name on it, putting
Speaker 1: it in the toilet and trying to flush it down
Speaker 1: the toilet. The plane barely manages to get clearance to
Speaker 1: isn't it isn't a better idea to be like, Ann,
Speaker 1: I need you to shove my passport like in your
Speaker 1: unmentionables and pretend you don't know me.
Speaker 2: I mean he was panicking, but you're right, that is
Speaker 2: the move that or give it to, Like, well, no,
Speaker 2: because they probably do search the flight attendance. Yeah, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: Anne would be the person to because Geraldine Paige, although
Speaker 2: I don't know, he's famous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know how he thought he was going to
Speaker 2: get away with this, because it's not like he's nobody.
Speaker 2: He's like a random Russian defector. Like yeah, he's a
Speaker 2: very very famous Russian defector.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That's like if Martina Navratulova was like it was like,
Speaker 2: sh don't tell anyone who I am.
Speaker 1: All right. So the plane barely madges to get clearance
Speaker 1: to land at a Russian military base, but the runway
Speaker 1: is too short for a truly safe landing. They have
Speaker 1: no choice. They have to go. I really want to
Speaker 1: just take a moment to appreciate the man playing the
Speaker 1: pilot in this in this scenario, because he remains very
Speaker 1: calm the entire time, and I was like, that is
Speaker 1: exactly what I want my pilot to be doing.
Speaker 2: That's a Sully.
Speaker 1: That's a Sully.
Speaker 2: That's good, that's a Sully pilot.
Speaker 1: Excellent, well done, sir. The plane hits the ground. Nick
Speaker 1: is trying to scramble back to his seat and buckle in.
Speaker 1: There's too much turbulence. He's thrown backwards and then the
Speaker 1: beverage cart is knocked loose and it it rolls towards
Speaker 1: him and it hits him in the head and it
Speaker 1: knocks him unconscious. The plane comes to a stop after
Speaker 1: it crashes through like a couple of like small buildings.
Speaker 1: It appears that no one on the ground is hurt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Ann rushes to Nick, who's bleeding extensively from a
Speaker 1: head wound.
Speaker 2: We cut to mustache twirling villain of the film, Colonel
Speaker 2: Chaiko of the Russian Army. He's playing with a plump.
Speaker 2: This guy excellent. Like, I love a villain who leans
Speaker 2: in and after who leans into, playing like a fun villain.
Speaker 2: Jersey Skolimowski Skolamowski, I apologize. That's a rough name for
Speaker 2: me to say.
Speaker 1: We apologize to the entire Skolamowski clan. For what just
Speaker 1: happened on this podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we apologize to anyone who speaks French, anyone who
Speaker 2: speaks Russian. I'm just gonna cover my tracks English. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: anyone who speaks any of those languages.
Speaker 1: We're so sorry.
Speaker 2: We're so sorry. It's not gonna be good.
Speaker 1: I apologize those ballet dancers for objectifying them, But you
Speaker 1: are the ones putting the videos online. You know what
Speaker 1: you're doing.
Speaker 2: Colonel Chico arrives at the base and is debriefed on
Speaker 2: the situation. Captain Kerrigan, another Soviet official, reports that there
Speaker 2: was one passenger on the plane with no passport. Huh,
Speaker 2: one guy who just had zero identification on him, and
Speaker 2: they did find something. We don't know quite what yet,
Speaker 2: and Carrigan gives Chiko the something. Still the audience does
Speaker 2: not see what it is, and he tells his superior
Speaker 2: I have him isolated. Chiko walks into a hospital room
Speaker 2: where Nick is in bed, bandage around his head, kind
Speaker 2: of woozy still from his massive head wound. Nick is like,
Speaker 2: I am a French to descend, I do not speak
Speaker 2: your Russian. I do not understand what you are saying.
Speaker 1: Oh, he doesn't say that in French, not in French
Speaker 1: with an English accent to.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, that's how that's how I heard it.
Speaker 2: I don't know how you all heard it, you know.
Speaker 2: He says that in French in the movie. Chico's like,
Speaker 2: it's crazy how you didn't have any identification on you,
Speaker 2: and He's like, I don't understand. My name is Pierre.
Speaker 2: It should have been in my wallet. Perhaps I haven't
Speaker 2: been a baguette go.
Speaker 1: Hard for because you refuse to break.
Speaker 2: Just like it was in my copy of Being and Nothingness?
Speaker 2: Did you not see it?
Speaker 1: Lavine Rosecombs?
Speaker 2: And Nick is like, perhaps the French ambassador could help,
Speaker 2: could you get me to the French embassy? And Chico's like,
Speaker 2: nice tried, dick wad and he tosses the findings from
Speaker 2: the crash onto the bed and it's Nick's torn up identification,
Speaker 2: which I you know it would be. I imagine a
Speaker 2: passport would be very difficult to get down.
Speaker 1: It is way. Those are tough. You want what the
Speaker 1: real move is to eat it, but you're never gonna
Speaker 1: get You're never gonna choke that down during a plane crash.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those leather bound is not why they make passports
Speaker 2: so thick actually, so no onah can't eat it. You
Speaker 2: never thought about that before. Those are indestructible. Chiko's like,
Speaker 2: you can drop the act. I know you're not French.
Speaker 2: I know that your real name is Nikolai because of
Speaker 2: your and also, I don't know if you know this, sir,
Speaker 2: but you're fucking famous. We all clocked you the minute
Speaker 2: you came in here because you're famous. Nick does finally
Speaker 2: drop the act and he tells Chico, listen, I'm an
Speaker 2: American citizen now, and Chico's like, oh cool, fun for
Speaker 2: you being an American citizen here in the Soviet fucking Union.
Speaker 2: You know you are a criminal, a defector. Nick says
Speaker 2: the world will demand that he be returned to the
Speaker 2: United States, and Chico scoffs. He's like, no one cares,
Speaker 2: to which, I say, Britney Griner, this just happened. Like
Speaker 2: a ballet dancer and a basketball player. I think I'm
Speaker 2: only saying this because the world sucks and is misogynistic,
Speaker 2: but it was a woman basketball player. I feel like
Speaker 2: they're on equal footing. Yeah, this does make a level
Speaker 2: of sense. He does have an argument, like, if enough
Speaker 2: people in the United States start to give a shit
Speaker 2: about this. They will figure out a way to get
Speaker 2: him back. Yeah, And Chiko continues the the Soviet Union
Speaker 2: is having a wonderful moment of excellent pr because we
Speaker 2: just saved hundreds of lives by allowing a foreign plane
Speaker 2: to land where it wasn't supposed to. So shut it.
Speaker 2: And he leaves Nick in the bed underguard.
Speaker 1: Yep. He goes out there. He addresses the other plane
Speaker 1: crash victims. He tells them that they'll all be flown
Speaker 1: to Moscow, and Ann asks after Nick, and Chico says, look,
Speaker 1: he was gravely injured in the crash. He cannot risk
Speaker 1: being moved. He could die. Yep, and Anne kind of
Speaker 1: feels like this is bullshit, but she has a no power.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no recourse here, yeap to only.
Speaker 1: Island in Siberia. That's only, not only, There may be
Speaker 1: more islands. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Is it the Lonely Island?
Speaker 1: Is it the Lonely Island? Can you imagine the Lonely
Speaker 1: Island in this movie?
Speaker 2: Genuinely, that would be an amazing comedy. If the Lonely
Speaker 2: Island did a movie where they had they were.
Speaker 1: Stuck in Russia, it was if it was the sequel
Speaker 1: to Pop Star, Never Stopped, Never Stopped.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, that guy gets it, ends up in Russia
Speaker 2: and we have to trade him for someone.
Speaker 1: We meet Raymond Greenwood played by Gregory Hines, and he
Speaker 1: is performing there's a boat that's leaving soon for New
Speaker 1: York from Porgy and Bess. Now with a tap break
Speaker 1: added into it.
Speaker 2: I am very surprised there is a Russian audience that
Speaker 2: like wants to see Porgy and Bess. That just seems
Speaker 2: so American.
Speaker 1: It does well, it is very America now, it's certainly true.
Speaker 1: I was caught up in this because he's singing and
Speaker 1: dancing or like greedy with enthusiastic applause, and then and
Speaker 1: then they bow, and I'm like, that's not the end
Speaker 1: of Porgy and Bess. There's like one more scene after that,
Speaker 1: because this is when when Bess goes to New Or
Speaker 1: with I can't remember this character's name, after he gets
Speaker 1: her addicted to drugs, and then Porgy gets released from jail,
Speaker 1: I think if I remember correctly, and then he's like
Speaker 1: he has to go to New York to look for Best,
Speaker 1: and that's that's the end of Porky and Best. It's
Speaker 1: a whole other scene that's supposed to happen.
Speaker 2: I really get the impression from this film that he
Speaker 2: is a the only American and be the only person
Speaker 2: of color for like like black Americans, for many miles around.
Speaker 1: Oh I think that, yes, I think that is certainly clear.
Speaker 1: His co star snarls that he's a show off as
Speaker 1: she exits after the bows, and backstage his wife Daria
Speaker 1: played by Isabella Rossellini, looking so young and beautiful and
Speaker 1: yet somehow exactly the same as she does now she's
Speaker 1: waiting for him. They kiss and they laugh and they
Speaker 1: clearly have this loving relationship. And then who should enter
Speaker 1: Erica dun dug Colonel Chico? What Colonel Chico definitely sounds
Speaker 1: like a Sonic the Hedgehog villain, right A thousand percent?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Colonel Chico sounds like like a villain in like
Speaker 2: a the back of a Cereal box. So that's like
Speaker 2: like a G I.
Speaker 1: Joe Greatest Greatest animation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like like when they were trying to indoctrinate children
Speaker 2: to hate the Soviet Union when we were little, which
Speaker 2: fully happened, by the way, and they were like watches
Speaker 2: Captain Crunch beats the Evil Colonel Chico. Raymond and Daria
Speaker 2: clearly know Chico and they're like, oh, this guy. They're
Speaker 2: apprehensive about his sudden appearance in his life. Nothing good
Speaker 2: ever happens when this fuckers around. He tells them, hey,
Speaker 2: you should both come back to Moscow, like we have
Speaker 2: some stuff for you to do in Moscow, and they
Speaker 2: both are like, okay, that seems like good news. And
Speaker 2: then Chico says he remembers that when Raymond first came
Speaker 2: to Russia, he seems so nervous and Daria was just
Speaker 2: his interpreter, and He's like, in a in a way,
Speaker 2: I made you two fall in love. I brought you
Speaker 2: two together. You owe me, and and Daria's like suddenly like, okay,
Speaker 2: this trip to Moscow doesn't seem so great anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Daria leaves, and Raymond is like, hey, I've been trying
Speaker 2: to get in touch with you, Tchiko. Remember about my
Speaker 2: situation and how I shouldn't be fucking stuck here in Siberia. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and Chiko's like, girl, sorry, I have been swamped. Girl
Speaker 2: has been crazy.
Speaker 1: Girl. You would not believe the number of emails I
Speaker 1: am getting a day, I am under seas.
Speaker 2: I am underwater.
Speaker 1: I'm under what I am in the weeds?
Speaker 2: Girl, girl? It is so let's circle back on this later.
Speaker 1: Girl, girl, can we just put a pin in this? Girl?
Speaker 1: I just I have so much do my inbox. My
Speaker 1: inbox is an in tower, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: He's going, sorry, my phone is ringing. I'm so sorry,
Speaker 2: and Raymond's like, there's literally not a phone in the
Speaker 2: room where. It's nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3: In Siberia, In Siberia, there are no phones here.
Speaker 1: We are in the place that the entire world uses
Speaker 1: as shorthand for the middle of fucking nowhere.
Speaker 2: Chiko's like, but you know what, I'm so glad I
Speaker 2: finally came out to Siberia, beautiful Siberia, to drop by
Speaker 2: and see you. After all, there is actually think this
Speaker 2: is crazy, there's actually something you can do for me.
Speaker 2: And he's like, why don't you go wait outside, Raymond,
Speaker 2: and I'll tell you what it is. And now you
Speaker 2: see the look of panic on Raymond's face. What the
Speaker 2: fuck do they want from me?
Speaker 1: Yep? Raymond heads in to find Daria. She does not
Speaker 1: want anything to do with Chico. She's like, we can
Speaker 1: just stay here. We don't have to do this, and
Speaker 1: he's like, well, I don't know if you've you've been
Speaker 1: rushing your whole life, so I thought you would know this,
Speaker 1: But we don't so much have a choice with what
Speaker 1: this guy tells us to do.
Speaker 2: And I think on some level too, he's like, I'm
Speaker 2: so sick of Siberia. I can't live in Siberia anymore.
Speaker 2: If it, whatever it is, if it gets me to Moscow.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Fine.
Speaker 1: The movie doesn't like ever really enumerate exactly what happened
Speaker 1: to Raymond, but essentially he winds up in Siberia because
Speaker 1: once they're done with his pr blitz for having defected
Speaker 1: to Russia, they basically, you can fuck off to Siberia.
Speaker 1: We don't care anymore.
Speaker 2: And like I should mention the performance he was just
Speaker 2: doing was in like a theater smaller than my high
Speaker 2: school auditorium. Oh yes, thy people in the audience who looks,
Speaker 2: who were looking kind of dead eyed at like what
Speaker 2: the because the whole show is an English porkain Bess,
Speaker 2: So this most of this audience, there.
Speaker 1: Is no Russian translation of porkin Bess yet.
Speaker 2: Yet guess what I'm learning Russian. Give me a minute,
Speaker 2: I got this I got it. But yeah, like, so
Speaker 2: this this existence, even though he gets to quote unquote
Speaker 2: be the star of the show here, the show is
Speaker 2: the most ragtag, fucking little little dumpy theater in the
Speaker 2: middle of Siberia, He's like, I gotta get the fuck
Speaker 2: out of here.
Speaker 1: Uh So he assures Daria, Look, it's gonna be all right.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna be in fucking Siberia anymore. So they embrace,
Speaker 1: but Daria still looks very unconvinced of the intelligence of
Speaker 1: this plan.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she remember she has been Russian her whole life. Yes,
Speaker 2: she gets how shifty they are. I say, I said it, y'all.
Speaker 2: Shifty shifty, yeah, shifty Russians.
Speaker 1: She knows when she looks at Colonel Chico that he
Speaker 1: looks like like the second to last guy that.
Speaker 2: James Bond kills in the movie one hundred.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: We cut to the American embassy in Moscow and is
Speaker 2: there with the ambassador Larry Smith. Perfect yeah, like what
Speaker 2: a name, the first not name. They're like done, Larry Smith,
Speaker 2: we don't care, played by Shane Rimmer and god bless
Speaker 2: this movie. Agent. When Scott played by the great and
Speaker 2: Good John Glover. Okay, I love John Glow. He pops
Speaker 2: up a lot. Now. Yeah, we're covering more eighties movies
Speaker 2: and I'm so here for it.
Speaker 1: He was just in Batman and Robin playing a mad scientist,
Speaker 1: and his hair in Batman and Robin was four times
Speaker 1: less thansane than it is in this movie. This is
Speaker 1: the flattest flat top. Yeah, I have ever seen it.
Speaker 1: The plane could have landed on John Glover's hair.
Speaker 2: Tell me you're a spy without telling me you're a spy.
Speaker 2: Tell me you're a military man working as a quote
Speaker 2: unquote bureaucrat. It's genius, because he could not look more
Speaker 2: like a spy.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 2: So they they're examining the X rays that the Russians
Speaker 2: have sent over, claiming they are nicks. Right, nikolais and
Speaker 2: the X rays are telling the story of a massive
Speaker 2: brain injury, and Anne points out correctly, but of course
Speaker 2: she can't back this up that we don't even know
Speaker 2: that these are nex She is insistent that they have
Speaker 2: to appeal to the UN and schedule a press conference.
Speaker 2: We have to let the world know what's happening here.
Speaker 2: The men advise caution, They're like, look, this is a
Speaker 2: tenuous situation. Why don't you go back to New York.
Speaker 2: Let us figure this out, let us work on it.
Speaker 2: And she's like, fuck you, I'm not going. This is
Speaker 2: the best agent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she really is.
Speaker 2: Like I am staying in enemy territory in Siberia waiting
Speaker 2: for my dancer, and I will not leave without my dancer. Bitch,
Speaker 2: get yourself a friend as good as Anna.
Speaker 1: It's true, but it also also does give the give
Speaker 1: this sense like is he your only client?
Speaker 2: He only client. She's definitely in love with him. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: she's one hundred percent. She was like kind of flirting
Speaker 2: with him earlier, and I'm like.
Speaker 1: Girl, girl, I mean, look, shoot your shot.
Speaker 2: You gotta shoot your shot.
Speaker 1: You're gonna sleep with zero of the Russian world famous
Speaker 1: Russian batle dancers.
Speaker 2: That you don't try to fuck.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I got mixed up in the middle, and
Speaker 1: you're right there for me like a great dance partner.
Speaker 2: I'm your Anne, You're my Ann. If you get stuck
Speaker 2: in Siberia, I will stay there. I will stay there
Speaker 2: till you get out, my friends.
Speaker 1: And if you get stuck in Siberia, I will campaign
Speaker 1: for your release from the comfort of my home. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: because you know what I will say, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I told that bitch not to go to fucking Russia.
Speaker 2: I was going to Tokyo. I tried to eat my passport.
Speaker 2: They didn't sit well.
Speaker 1: With my tom tone too much ruffige.
Speaker 2: I'm onto zempic. You guys, it's really hard to eat
Speaker 2: a passport when you're autosimpic.
Speaker 1: Fucking drown that shit, and Caesar Dressing couldn't choke it down,
Speaker 1: all right. So we cut to Neck. He's waking up
Speaker 1: in a new room. He stands up, he kind of
Speaker 1: he walks out from behind this kind of drawn curtain
Speaker 1: that they have, and we realize he is in Raymond
Speaker 1: and Daria's apartment. And Raymond's like, hi, am Raymond, and
Speaker 1: he here's the American accent, and he is like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: did that actually work? Did they actually give me to
Speaker 1: an American? Yeah?
Speaker 2: He's like, oh my god, am I in the embassy?
Speaker 1: Are you?
Speaker 2: Are you the ambassador?
Speaker 1: And Raymond's like, na, where no? Nick asks if he's
Speaker 1: under arrest. Raymond's like, no, You're as free as a bird.
Speaker 1: Nick asks, are you my guard? Raymond's like I'm a
Speaker 1: tap dancer. Okay. So can I take a walk? Go ahead?
Speaker 1: So Nick leaves and Raymond's like fuck and and he
Speaker 1: gets his jacket. Nick rushes through this sparse island settlement.
Speaker 1: It's it is. He sees no people. He runs all
Speaker 1: the way through this. It just looks almost looks like
Speaker 1: a series of bars, like.
Speaker 2: An abandoned neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Raymond follows him from a distance. Nick eventually finds
Speaker 1: the theater where Raymond was performing Poor Game Bess, and
Speaker 1: he finds a telephone. He tries to make a phone call.
Speaker 1: Raymond appears, he disconnects the phone and Nick laughs. He's like,
Speaker 1: I know what's going on. You are here to inform
Speaker 1: on me. The Russians want me back. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: being so good at an art.
Speaker 2: Form literally anything, literally an art form, literally anything, because
Speaker 2: I'm like ballet is till like there's very few people
Speaker 2: who are very good at it. So that's but genuinely,
Speaker 2: what would you be good enough that that a foreign country,
Speaker 2: a foreign enemy would be like, you can't leave. We
Speaker 2: don't have anyone who does this as well as you.
Speaker 1: We refuse to allow you to leave because we want
Speaker 1: the international prestige that you being from our country lends us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in my case, it would be binge watching television.
Speaker 2: It's the only thing I'm genuinely good at.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with making bitchy side remarks under my breath.
Speaker 2: Falling asleep in a crowd full of people. No one
Speaker 2: else can do it as well as you, ma'am. You
Speaker 2: have to say, it's a skill we need.
Speaker 1: How you got your genius immigration grant?
Speaker 2: My MacArthur grant came from back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: They go back to Raymond's apartment and they have dinner
Speaker 2: with Raymond and with Daria.
Speaker 1: Barishnikov is going after this herring and onions like it
Speaker 1: is made out of ham.
Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly, I like this this bit because it made
Speaker 2: a little like a He probably hasn't had this type
Speaker 2: of meal since it defected, so it's and it's a
Speaker 2: home cooked Russian meal. And he's like, this is really good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So yeah, he's going after his herring. Not a euphemism.
Speaker 1: Raymond's so sadly.
Speaker 2: Sadly, Raymond is just drinking vodka, just slowly staring at
Speaker 2: this man and drinking vodka, and he gets angrier and drunker,
Speaker 2: and he starts to mock Nick for being americanized. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Nick says, it's a wonderful country, America he means, and
Speaker 2: Raymond's like, psh, wonderful to you maybe, And then they
Speaker 2: really like give Gregory Hines a lot to work with
Speaker 2: in this movie, and he I think he's really good, right,
Speaker 2: Like he has this monologue about like, man, you don't
Speaker 2: know shit about America and how fucked up and terrible
Speaker 2: and racist it is. And Nick is like, why did
Speaker 2: you defect to Russia of all places? Of all places?
Speaker 2: All again? I like that is so important? Why why
Speaker 2: like famously like Josephine Baker was like Paris, And I'm like, yes,
Speaker 2: that makes fucking sense to me, Like why would you
Speaker 2: pick Russia?
Speaker 1: I guess you. And look, the movie does not make
Speaker 1: this argument at all, so I'm not trying to say
Speaker 1: it does, but like you could think that that would
Speaker 1: be the if you want to stick it to the
Speaker 1: US government.
Speaker 2: I think that's what it is.
Speaker 1: That's the that's the one that hurts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he wanted to be splashy about it. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Anyone can move to fucking England, Yeah, I mean that
Speaker 2: is what Edward's Noden did, right, Yeah, Like potentially had
Speaker 2: other countries he could have gone to, but he's like,
Speaker 2: this is gonna hurt. Yeah, so he went to Russia.
Speaker 2: But he's not a black man. So Raymond continues the monologue,
Speaker 2: and the movie blessedly has him tap dance while he's
Speaker 2: doing it.
Speaker 1: Did you notice the credit at the end of the movie,
Speaker 1: No tap improvography by Gregory Hines.
Speaker 2: Im proography?
Speaker 1: Improvography?
Speaker 2: Is that a word?
Speaker 1: I think it's choreography that's been improvd pvography.
Speaker 2: Cool, Yeah, can't you just say choreography whatever? Moving on, I.
Speaker 1: Didn't want to make the point that he did. He
Speaker 1: didn't work it out in advance. He was just doing it.
Speaker 2: He's just Riffin. So Raymond tells Nick the story of
Speaker 2: his disillusionment with America. First of all, starting when he
Speaker 2: was a child, he got work as a tap dancer,
Speaker 2: and then you know, aged out of it because no
Speaker 2: one wants to see an adult tap dancer, is what
Speaker 2: he actually says in the movie. And I'm like, counterpoint,
Speaker 2: I'd pay a lot of money to watch you tap dance, buddy.
Speaker 2: He then he grew up and he wound up in
Speaker 2: the army, and he was excited. He believed in America.
Speaker 2: He was a patriot. He wanted to fight for his country.
Speaker 2: Then they sent him to war and perhaps not our
Speaker 2: finest hour, the Vietnam War, and they made him a murderer,
Speaker 2: and they made him a rapist, he says, And they
Speaker 2: made him, they made him, they made him someone who
Speaker 2: burns villages. And he and you can see like the
Speaker 2: light go out of Gregory Hines's eyes as he's talking
Speaker 2: about it. And he realized that the government was using him.
Speaker 2: And he says, they didn't even see me as a
Speaker 2: human being. They saw me as is like a killing machine,
Speaker 2: and they wanted him to die so that they could
Speaker 2: get more money and more power, and he starts to
Speaker 2: break down and cry and Daria comforts him. This is beautiful.
Speaker 2: This scene is incredible, yep. Nick says that he actually
Speaker 2: does remember Raymond's defection in the news, and Raymond says
Speaker 2: bitterly that he was big news while the Russians needed him,
Speaker 2: but now not so much. And Nick repeats himself that
Speaker 2: America is still better than the Soviet Union, still a
Speaker 2: better place to live, and Raymond says that Nick wasn't
Speaker 2: a hero. He just wanted to be where the pay
Speaker 2: is better. He's like stop trying to paint yourself as
Speaker 2: like an idealist, Like you have no ideology, as neither
Speaker 2: do I. Neither of these men are like I'm a
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a capitalist, I'm a communist. No, they
Speaker 2: don't give a shit about that. They just wanted to
Speaker 2: go where they could, like one where he could succeed
Speaker 2: and the other where he could like hide it in
Speaker 2: a way and like become become a part of something
Speaker 2: that was anything but the United States.
Speaker 1: Yep. We cut to the next day. Raymond is in
Speaker 1: a car with Colonel Chaiko, who looks like he's about
Speaker 1: to go give a report to m Bison. Chiko asks
Speaker 1: if Raymond has pitched Nick on the idea that he
Speaker 1: could live the life that he used to live, right,
Speaker 1: So this is this is what we're hearing for the
Speaker 1: first time, Chiko. The job that Chiko gave to Raymond
Speaker 1: was you were going to convince Nick to come back
Speaker 1: to Russia and dance for us. That's what he wants.
Speaker 1: Raymond's like, I haven't even brought it up yet. It's
Speaker 1: the first day. Like, if if I go too hard,
Speaker 1: if I John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons, this he's just
Speaker 1: going to tell me to fuck off. It's not gonna work.
Speaker 1: Chiko tells the car to stop, and he asks Raymond
Speaker 1: to get out, and that the edge of this enormous
Speaker 1: like stone quarry slash labor camp slash mine something whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Chiko asks him, what do you mean last night when
Speaker 1: you said you were big news while we needed you,
Speaker 1: which means that he's listening to all these conversations, and
Speaker 1: Raymond says, oh, I was drunk. Nick's a pain in
Speaker 1: the ass. I can't just come out and tell him
Speaker 1: he has to dance in in Russia. He's a diva.
Speaker 1: He's like, it won't work. I have to convince him,
Speaker 1: and Chiko looks out at the quarry and notes, you know,
Speaker 1: a man gets old before his time in a place
Speaker 1: like this. It's better to work in a theater than
Speaker 1: at a mine. So basically, being like, step on it,
Speaker 1: get him to agree to dance, or you're winding up
Speaker 1: in a labor camp. Cool, cool, love this country.
Speaker 2: You know what? Us is starting to look a little
Speaker 2: bit better now, isn't it. Buddy. Back at the apartment,
Speaker 2: Daria is anxiety cleaning house. She's terrified. She's deeply relieved
Speaker 2: when Raymond walks back in. Raymond apologizes to Nick for
Speaker 2: his behavior of the night before. Raymond tells Nick, look,
Speaker 2: everyone's really glad you're here. We're glad you're back. We're
Speaker 2: all very excited for you this, for this reunion of
Speaker 2: you and your homeland.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: And I think people, many.
Speaker 1: Many people, so many people.
Speaker 2: Would absolutely love it if you danced again, if you
Speaker 2: danced here for a minute. I mean, think about the
Speaker 2: comfort you would bring to your former and fellow countrymen, yes,
Speaker 2: and women like, wouldn't that be something that would warm
Speaker 2: your heart?
Speaker 1: And Nick's like, it's a very roxy heart response.
Speaker 2: I feel like Maria Kallis would have given the same response.
Speaker 2: Don't try to fuck with me. Raymond keeps pressing. It's like,
Speaker 2: I think your situation, and by your situation, I mean
Speaker 2: my situation would greatly improve if you played a little
Speaker 2: fucking ball, ye, Nick, I think from the jump, Nick
Speaker 2: is very smart. He kind of cottons to what's going on,
Speaker 2: and he's like, okay, sure, but you know what, Ugh,
Speaker 2: I can't really play ball here. This is not the
Speaker 2: place to play ball. And why don't we go to
Speaker 2: Leningrad to see what my status is?
Speaker 1: So we cut to the trio arriving in Leningrad in
Speaker 1: a car with Chico. Chico is up front. They're being
Speaker 1: driven by Kerrigan, and Chico gives Kolia his luggage, all
Speaker 1: the luggage they recovered from the plane. And he's still
Speaker 1: playing very nice but like this with a crocodile grin
Speaker 1: on the whole time.
Speaker 2: Remember this is Colonel chaik Go. He is the villain
Speaker 2: in a very very very janky offshoot of the X Men.
Speaker 1: That's right. So they drive past the Kirev Ballet where
Speaker 1: Nick was trained, where all of these famous ballet dancers danced,
Speaker 1: gorgeous theater. It's a gorgeous, beautiful building. He tells Nick
Speaker 1: that the season opens in ten days. Nick's appearance there
Speaker 1: will be a great moment. No one's gonna hold your
Speaker 1: past mistakes against you. Look, you're not even in jail,
Speaker 1: and you're a convicted criminal.
Speaker 2: How cool is that?
Speaker 1: Aren't we just the cat's pajamas?
Speaker 2: Honestly, like Russia, I see your point. Yeah, get you
Speaker 2: let a convicted criminal just roam the streets and dance
Speaker 2: the ballet. But here in America we make them president.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's what we do.
Speaker 1: That's what we do.
Speaker 2: That's how we honor our convicted criminals.
Speaker 1: Come on, now, come on, now, one off that.
Speaker 2: Are many many times convicted criminals.
Speaker 1: They arrive at an apartment building and we find out
Speaker 1: it's the same one where Nick used to live. Even
Speaker 1: the landlady Pasha is the same land lady.
Speaker 2: Boy, that old lady she's just she could not be
Speaker 2: less impressed. She's like, well she genuinely she's like, oh,
Speaker 2: you're back. That's nice.
Speaker 1: Anyway, moving on, moving on, They bring him to his
Speaker 1: old apartment, which has been kept, he says, just as
Speaker 1: he left it.
Speaker 2: Creepy, creepy as fun. What do you think did they
Speaker 2: really actually keep it the way he's like, like in
Speaker 2: case he came back, or did they just quickly like
Speaker 2: read they kicked the family out that's living there now.
Speaker 1: No, they kept it because the way he walks around,
Speaker 1: like his pictures are in the same spot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the archivist would have had to be so
Speaker 2: they would have had to take photos of it just
Speaker 2: in case, and like Mark like, okay, this is a
Speaker 2: blue post.
Speaker 1: It just goes over here where the blue post it goes.
Speaker 1: They just kept it. Wow, they didn't give it to
Speaker 1: any of the fucking proletariat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some vintage porn in that.
Speaker 1: Excellent, just just bush and tan lines in that porn.
Speaker 2: Ladies with pick and potatoes. I don't know what Russian
Speaker 2: porn looks like. Jet skiing.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing absolutely old Russian lady naked on a jet skate.
Speaker 1: What a picture?
Speaker 2: What if that's their port old like like like just
Speaker 2: granny an old babushka got on and that's it, and
Speaker 2: that just wearing a babushka and a and a at
Speaker 2: a bottle of vodka.
Speaker 1: Chiko reiterates that the Soviet offer is sincere. Nick will
Speaker 1: have his old life back. Everything will be at his disposal.
Speaker 1: He will have a car, food will be cooked for him.
Speaker 1: He will have to worry about nothing. All he has
Speaker 1: to do is dance. So Nick kind of like wanders
Speaker 1: through the apartment. He finds a framed photograph of him
Speaker 1: with a ballerina with a with a photoshopped version of
Speaker 1: Elimeirn's face on upper body. It definitely looks one real
Speaker 1: you guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is not weird, bad photoshop, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: Chico goes over to Raymond and he says, you need
Speaker 1: to get Nick into shape starting tomorrow in the studio,
Speaker 1: and Raymond's like, I'm a tap dancer, and Chiko's like,
Speaker 1: that's your fucking problem. My fucking problem is getting this
Speaker 1: damsel tied to the train tracks in the next fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my fucking problem is trying to steal the uranium.
Speaker 2: Excuse me, excuse me, you do this, I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: bond villain. Okay, this is This is the point of
Speaker 2: the movie where Eric is like, I'm.
Speaker 1: Sorry, what okay, yeah, this.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, excuse me, excueeze me.
Speaker 1: I can't I can't defend it because I don't. I
Speaker 1: can't tell if Chico is just fucking like trolling Raymond,
Speaker 1: Like why is this his job?
Speaker 2: This should not be his job. No, you know who's
Speaker 2: gonna convince Raymond to go back to the United States,
Speaker 2: This other guy who loves the United States and is
Speaker 2: also a dancer that he looks up to, Like, this
Speaker 2: is all a very big mistake.
Speaker 1: The only thing that makes any sense about it is
Speaker 1: that he he doesn't actually care about Nick getting back
Speaker 1: into shape or whatever. Nick is in shape, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: he had.
Speaker 2: This dancing two days ago.
Speaker 1: He was dancing. Yeah, exactly, so like he's just literally
Speaker 1: trolling Raymond, Like he's just psychologically torturing Raymond for funzies.
Speaker 2: Which does like the performance, yes, yeah, does support that.
Speaker 2: But it's just like the Russian government can't be this
Speaker 2: bad things, right, Like they would give him a handler
Speaker 2: who's an actual, like like Soviet military handler to watch
Speaker 2: this guy.
Speaker 1: This is the one part of the movie where I
Speaker 1: really can't defend anything, Like, you are one hundred percent right.
Speaker 1: The only thing that makes any sense because we will
Speaker 1: find out in a reveal later spoiler alert, you guys,
Speaker 1: Chiko is a big old racist. I bet you didn't
Speaker 1: know that. But and like the only thing that makes
Speaker 1: sense is he's fucking with him. He's fucking with him,
Speaker 1: but but like just fuck with him a different way.
Speaker 2: Nick, it's too important of an asset him to be
Speaker 2: like this random amateur can totally handle it. I'm sure, yeah,
Speaker 2: it just is like and and like there's just no
Speaker 2: like I know that things can get a lot worse
Speaker 2: for Raymond, and they do spoiler they fucking do. But
Speaker 2: like there's just not enough the stakes are not high
Speaker 2: enough at this point in the movie for me to
Speaker 2: believe Raymond isn't like, come on, man, just let me
Speaker 2: go back to Siberia if anything else. Yeah, So Chico
Speaker 2: leaves and Nick immediately checks all the windows to see
Speaker 2: where the guards are, Like he finds them all stationed,
Speaker 2: Like where they're all stationed And to the Russian government's
Speaker 2: credit is a sentence, I.
Speaker 1: Say so much, I know. Yeah, if I had a nickel,
Speaker 1: if I had a nickel, if I had a shekel
Speaker 1: for every time I heard that, like the.
Speaker 2: They did put a lot of guards on them, at least,
Speaker 2: like they put these fucking people together in an apartment
Speaker 2: together just to like let them simmer, and then they
Speaker 2: put like ten guards on the outside. I would pose
Speaker 2: it you should put one guard on the inside.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just saying, what if there was a lot more
Speaker 1: Challengers infused into this movie? What if what if Daria
Speaker 1: was like playing the two of them against each other
Speaker 1: and they would well like.
Speaker 2: The movie Challengers to the Tennis movie. Yeah, what if
Speaker 2: there was like a real psychological like what if this
Speaker 2: was the Dreamers? Yeah, and they all decide to form
Speaker 2: a thrupple together and then two of them find out
Speaker 2: their siblings. Yeah, what a fun movie, What a fun
Speaker 2: with the Dreamers is a crazy movie, you guys. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: while like Nick is actually being smart and like figuring
Speaker 2: out where all the bugs are and where all the
Speaker 2: microphones are and shit around the apartment, Raymond and Daria
Speaker 2: geeze out the window, and Daria's like, I wish we
Speaker 2: could lose ourselves somewhere and not be under like the
Speaker 2: watchful eye of Chaiko. I want to go to a
Speaker 2: place where no one is watching us ever again, like
Speaker 2: she's really seeding some shit that's gonna come to Ruth later.
Speaker 2: She wishes they could just disappear, and Raymond says, don't worry.
Speaker 2: Things will be much better now that we're in Leningrad,
Speaker 2: like far better than they were in Siberia, which is
Speaker 2: such a low bar to clear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we cut to the next day, Raymond and Nick
Speaker 1: go to the dance studio. Raymond is like, come on,
Speaker 1: work out, you have to get in shape for opening night.
Speaker 1: He's really not putting a lot of effort into this
Speaker 1: whole thing, and Nick says, I only dance when I
Speaker 1: feel like it. You only dance when you're drunk, and
Speaker 1: he takes out his boombox that he got back from
Speaker 1: his luggage. I guess it's boombox and his luggage.
Speaker 2: This is the most insane. This boombox must have seemed
Speaker 2: so fucking high tech, uh huh cool in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 2: Can we describe it real quick release? So it's obviously enormous.
Speaker 2: Is a fucking boombox, right, But it's not just boombox.
Speaker 2: The case that it comes in like opens up like
Speaker 2: like from the from the bottom up, like a like
Speaker 2: the door of a Dolorean, And there's like a case
Speaker 2: for all of his tapes. So it's got like dozens
Speaker 2: and dozens of tapes in there from the United States
Speaker 2: of music that you can't get in Russia. Yeah, So
Speaker 2: it's like that will come back over and over again
Speaker 2: because it makes it also makes a lot of sense
Speaker 2: why the movie and how the movie has all this
Speaker 2: music that's American, Like how are they dancing to a
Speaker 2: song that doesn't exist in Russia? That's how it's brought in.
Speaker 2: It's crazy to me that the Russians let him keep
Speaker 2: it because the amount he could have recorded of like
Speaker 2: private conversations, yes with high Russian officials and hidden behind
Speaker 2: a Linel Ritchie record collection is shocking.
Speaker 1: I also think that I think he has it because
Speaker 1: they are trying to they're trying to sweet talk him,
Speaker 1: They're trying to lull him into a false sense of security. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he is so rightfully paranoid, as we will find
Speaker 1: out that he's not buying anything that Chiko is selling.
Speaker 1: He's just he's trying to string Chiko along. He's trying
Speaker 1: to buy enough that Chico does not bite. Basically, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Nick puts on My Love is Chemical by Lou Reed,
Speaker 1: which this song is queer as hell because there's no
Speaker 1: there is no pronouns in it. Yeah, and it's just
Speaker 1: talking like and lou Read also did Walk on the wild.
Speaker 2: Side, Got a little Yeah, I love that this song.
Speaker 1: Is sexy and queer and I really like it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And he's like, oh, you want me to dance ballet?
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna attempt to do Michail Gooberchov's accent, you guys,
Speaker 1: because I'm not even gonna try. He's like, you want
Speaker 1: me to dance ballet? He starts to jokingly dance fake ballet,
Speaker 1: and Raymond is like, Wow, I like this song, and
Speaker 1: it's like whoa, whoa, whoa plug your ears? This this
Speaker 1: music is dangerous. People might be watching if they see
Speaker 1: you enjoying this, that's going to be a problem. And
Speaker 1: he gestures above the mirror and we see we see
Speaker 1: a camera filming the two of them, but it's so prominent.
Speaker 2: It's like they move.
Speaker 1: It moves so like you can you can almost see
Speaker 1: like the intern behind it trying to like smoothly move
Speaker 1: it with like just by pulling on a fishing line.
Speaker 2: Nick offers to get serious and do some real ballet,
Speaker 2: and he tells Raymond, I'll bet you seven rubles that
Speaker 2: I can do seven pirouettes in a row. And of course,
Speaker 2: the movie's like, we know he can do it. He's Barishnikoff,
Speaker 2: and if he fails, Raymond can have his boombox and
Speaker 2: all the tapes.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: That is even though Raymond is dirt fucking broke. He's like, okay,
Speaker 2: that's a really good price.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He starts to take money out and he's like, I'll
Speaker 2: tell you what. I have eleven rubles in my pocket.
Speaker 2: I want you to do eleven pirouettes. Nick's like, okay,
Speaker 2: don't get fucking serious. This is not an ice skating arena.
Speaker 2: I cannot do eleven piroetes on this floor. And raymond'sh,
Speaker 2: you're the great Nikolai like Rube ta Chenko, I think
Speaker 2: you can do eleven pirouettes. But Nick's like fine, and
Speaker 2: he agrees to the bet he sells. He sets himself up,
Speaker 2: and Erica fucking counts eleven piroettes easy as pied with
Speaker 2: you counting along with absolutely everyone was.
Speaker 1: And it's incredible because that the tenth pirouet he starts
Speaker 1: to slow down, and I mean talk about giving someone
Speaker 1: a middle finger through dance. He slows down, and the
Speaker 1: eleventh pirouet is slow, and then he just puts his
Speaker 1: foot down. Easiest pie. He does this easier than I
Speaker 1: get out of bed in the morning.
Speaker 2: He does this easier than I get out of this
Speaker 2: chair I'm sitting in right now. Every time I get
Speaker 2: out of this chair at my knees buckle.
Speaker 1: And like, oh, I'm trying to think of the thing
Speaker 1: I do as easily as he does these eleven piroetes.
Speaker 2: Mine is belching.
Speaker 1: Should I put a little super cut at the end
Speaker 1: of this episode, because I usually cut them out, But
Speaker 1: in case anyone's wondering, we had Shawarma and I for
Speaker 1: dinner before recording.
Speaker 2: Here's Sharman and I'm still drinking my soda. So there's
Speaker 2: been some purping this evening in the studio. Raymond's jaw drops. Yes,
Speaker 2: as says most people watching the movie, because like this
Speaker 2: is really well written, because they must have gone to
Speaker 2: like bers Off and be like, what's the like high number,
Speaker 2: like top level here what you can do? And he
Speaker 2: probably has like a number like thirteen or fourteen, but
Speaker 2: he's like, let's try eleven, just to make it easy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And so we're gonna start at seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Nick gloatingly collects his winnings. He's like, mm, eleven, hole ruples,
Speaker 2: I gonna buye so many things with my new money.
Speaker 2: I finally have money here, and he dances mockingly at him.
Speaker 1: If you don't know how to dance mockingly, allow Mikail
Speaker 1: Barishnikov to show you. The man truly can dance anything.
Speaker 2: He really can.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's such a dick in the scene is really good.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: It's so good.
Speaker 1: It's so good. The door opens and Galina Ivanova played
Speaker 1: by Helen Mirren, the ballerina from the photo and Nick's apartment,
Speaker 1: or at least the face of the ballerina in the
Speaker 1: photo from Nick's apartment enters, She claps her hands at
Speaker 1: the mocking dancing and says, very impressive.
Speaker 2: Nick is embarrassed. That's excellent, excellent to have this moment
Speaker 2: happened right before she walks in.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Nick is shocked. He's embarrassed. He's like, stop the music.
Speaker 1: He even says please to Raymond, please stop the music.
Speaker 1: Galina asks Raymond to please wait outside, and he does.
Speaker 1: He just gets up and leaves. He's not not super
Speaker 1: interested the two of them. Okay, So Helen Mirren is
Speaker 1: the sully that lands the plane of this movie. I think,
Speaker 1: like like she is able to bring the Russian tragedy
Speaker 1: mellow drama and like ground it very shockingly easily. She
Speaker 1: makes it effortless, aren't you.
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: There are two scenes been her and Mikhail Brushnikov that
Speaker 1: are heartbreaking. Yeah, And I truly do not mean to
Speaker 1: take anything away from him when I say this. It's
Speaker 1: just she's so good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, no, I'm taking things away. You can't be
Speaker 2: that good of a dancer and a good actor.
Speaker 1: It's not fair and that hot.
Speaker 2: No, unfair. No, you get one, you get one, Misha.
Speaker 1: So Nick approaches Galina, he embraces her. They break apart
Speaker 1: and they make small talk for a moment in Russian,
Speaker 1: and then Galina says, well, why are we speaking in Russian?
Speaker 1: You're American now, aren't you. Nick says, I thought I
Speaker 1: would never see you again, and she calls him a bastard,
Speaker 1: and she explains what she had to go through in
Speaker 1: Russia when he defected to the West. So essentially they
Speaker 1: went on a trip to dance together and he did
Speaker 1: not go back yep. So when she got back to Russia,
Speaker 1: the KGB was extremely interested in what she knew and
Speaker 1: what she knew about him leaving. She was interrogated by
Speaker 1: them every week for three years and had no passport
Speaker 1: for four so she underwent a lot of shit because
Speaker 1: of Nick's defection. And he points out, well, you must
Speaker 1: have answered the questions well, because now you run the
Speaker 1: Kire of Ballet. That's the beautiful ballet theater that we
Speaker 1: saw before she takes a deep breath, she calms herself.
Speaker 1: She offers him a place at the care of She says,
Speaker 1: it's a generous offer and you would be intelligent to
Speaker 1: take it, And at this point she believes it's an
Speaker 1: actual offer.
Speaker 2: She's done. Well there, yeah, just do I mean my
Speaker 2: life is not bad. Yeah, like just do what you're
Speaker 2: told and it's fine. And it's the doing what you're
Speaker 2: told part that's the that's actually the sticking point. He's
Speaker 2: not concerned that he's gonna live better in Russia, then
Speaker 2: he'll live anywhere else. It's just like I want to
Speaker 2: be able to do what I fucking want to do
Speaker 2: with my life.
Speaker 1: Yep. He says he can't take it, and he goes
Speaker 1: over to her because remember there's still a camera in
Speaker 1: the room and they're kind of standing at the bar
Speaker 1: in front of the mirror and they're kind of facing
Speaker 1: away from the camera, and he whispers to her, get
Speaker 1: word to someone in the west, tell them that I
Speaker 1: am well and I am being held captive. Please, and
Speaker 1: she scoffs that she would do anything to help him,
Speaker 1: and he promises that he didn't want to leave or
Speaker 1: he says, I was in love with you, and she
Speaker 1: just oh, she walks out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well she seems really hurt. Yeah, like, the first
Speaker 2: chance you get to talk to me after breaking up
Speaker 2: with me and breaking my heart eight years ago, and
Speaker 2: you're asking for something, you're asking for a favor, like
Speaker 2: like you're not even trying to apologize, like sincerely for
Speaker 2: what he did to my life, Like this is a lot.
Speaker 2: I actually feel really bad for this woman, Like I
Speaker 2: get it. This sucks. I mean, who hasn't been left
Speaker 2: by their lover after they defect a country and then
Speaker 2: your country, Yeah, interrogates you relentlessly and hounds you and
Speaker 2: makes you feel like a like a second class citizen
Speaker 2: in your own Like, girl, if I had a nickel, if.
Speaker 1: I had a ruble for everyone.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Galina gets into a car with Chiko and he's like, well,
Speaker 2: did Nick agree to dance at the care off? And
Speaker 2: she's like, what position would he be given at the
Speaker 2: ballet if he danced at the opening? I'm curious, like
Speaker 2: how much am I gonna actually have to keep working
Speaker 2: with this guy who continues to break my heart over
Speaker 2: and over again?
Speaker 1: Oh? Do you think that's why she's asking?
Speaker 2: I think she's asking two reasons. I think part of
Speaker 2: it is, Yeah, part of it is like she's like
Speaker 2: this guy, imagine this is still her ex, so there
Speaker 2: is like a deeply personal thing here, and she's like
Speaker 2: how closely am I gonna have to keep working with
Speaker 2: this person? And also I think she is now curious
Speaker 2: as to like what the plot is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think she's asking because she wants to be
Speaker 1: sure that he's not going to be hurt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, a little bit. I think it's this performance
Speaker 2: to me leads me to think it's both things happening at.
Speaker 1: The same Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Chiko says, well, I don't think Nick would be
Speaker 2: a available after opening night. He's gonna have to take
Speaker 2: some time off after opening night for a very long debriefing.
Speaker 1: I know this is meant to sound threatening, but Misha
Speaker 1: Barishnikov getting a long debriefing.
Speaker 2: I I'm sorry, I don't see the problem start.
Speaker 1: And while we're on the topic, these Instagram videos that
Speaker 1: are being served to me of these men pulling off
Speaker 1: their underwear to have another pair of underwear underneath. Who
Speaker 1: thinks that that's what I want to see?
Speaker 2: That's tachi, it's gross, it's ghosts. What a counter these? Okay,
Speaker 2: thank you, I'm just getting cat videos. I'm getting the
Speaker 2: internet wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm literally they figured it out. It's it is just
Speaker 1: men like in spandex stretching their legs over their heads
Speaker 1: and then looking at the camera and everything short of
Speaker 1: full genital So Nick tells Raymond that he's going to
Speaker 1: take a shower. They're still in the studio. Raymond heads
Speaker 1: back into the studio while Nick climbs out of a
Speaker 1: window in the shower. In the shower room, Raymond puts
Speaker 1: on music on the jukebox and he starts to tap dance.
Speaker 1: He starts more tap improvography. He starts dancing harder and harder,
Speaker 1: and harder and harder. He is Wren mccormicking to the
Speaker 1: end degree.
Speaker 2: He's letting all his feelings out.
Speaker 1: Dancing out his feelings. Meanwhile, Nick sneaks through the kira
Speaker 1: of ballet. He gets up out onto the roof. He's
Speaker 1: trying to find.
Speaker 2: Some contact that he can he knows.
Speaker 1: Someone he knows. Yeah. So while Raymond is finally dancing
Speaker 1: because he feels like it, Nick winds up in a
Speaker 1: ballet class with all girls and one little comrade Helen.
Speaker 2: Fucking mean little bitch. That is my hero.
Speaker 1: Because we know, we know that Nick is not a pervert.
Speaker 2: However, that girl is like, get out of here. You
Speaker 2: discussed because.
Speaker 1: He comes in through the fucking wind the windows, like, oh,
Speaker 1: who's your ballet teacher? And some one of the girls
Speaker 1: says that Semyonov or something like that, and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I know him, I know him, and he keeps towards them,
Speaker 1: and this girl is like.
Speaker 2: Fuck off, brilliant little Regina George head, bitch in charge. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this kid is my favorite person in a whole movie.
Speaker 1: She's great, she's she's.
Speaker 2: Such a ballbuster. She's like, get out. She's nine, you guys,
Speaker 2: this is not a fifteen or eighteen year old. She
Speaker 2: is nine. And she's wearing a le a dancing guitar
Speaker 2: and she's like, get out, you pervert, so we will
Speaker 2: report you.
Speaker 1: He says, I'm Nikolai Radchenko. I danced here and they
Speaker 1: have never heard of him. Yeah, crucially, and that that
Speaker 1: pulls him up short, right, that is like, what do
Speaker 1: you what do you mean? I'm I was one of
Speaker 1: the greatest dancers in Russia? What do you mean You've
Speaker 1: never heard of me? And she's like excuse me, and
Speaker 1: she goes and she grabs a curtain rod and she's
Speaker 1: like get out, and he's like, I'm going. At that point,
Speaker 1: he really is already walking back to the window, and
Speaker 1: she's like, keep going, bitch, and he's like, Jesus an asshole, this.
Speaker 2: Is my hero. I aspire to live every day like
Speaker 2: this bitchy Russian girl. Be this girl. Be the bitchy
Speaker 2: Russian ballerina in your life, Like, be that person for yourself,
Speaker 2: advocate for yourself and your friends. None of the other
Speaker 2: ballerina's just saying shit. No, they don't have to. No,
Speaker 2: they have a fucking hell cat at the helm who's
Speaker 2: gonna take charge.
Speaker 1: They know Olga's gonna take care of shit. Olga's the
Speaker 1: Queen Bee.
Speaker 2: I love this kiss.
Speaker 1: If you just do what Olga tells you to do,
Speaker 1: everything is fine.
Speaker 2: Everything's fine. I wish Olga was in the United States
Speaker 2: just so she could be on our side. Yeah, because
Speaker 2: we need more. We need more Olga than the world.
Speaker 1: Be the Olga you want to see.
Speaker 2: Haha.
Speaker 1: All right, Erica, it's halfway through the movie Raymond. Raymond
Speaker 1: is coming alive. Nick is is that loose ends? Oh
Speaker 1: my god, he's been stunned by this revelation. Has been
Speaker 1: a race from history. Is it time for commercials?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: All right, stick around, We'll be right back to take
Speaker 1: you through the end of White Knights.
Speaker 2: Enjoy these commercials for Russian vodka that was just like
Speaker 2: the count from Sesame Street. That was bad.
Speaker 1: And we're back white liness connected to Mama. Do you
Speaker 1: think they approached Grandmaster Flash to ask him to do
Speaker 1: like a remake of White Lines.
Speaker 2: It's called white knights, called white knights, white nights.
Speaker 3: Not so what they end at nine pm a night,
Speaker 3: so white they don't season their potato salad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now are you thinking k I N I T HG.
Speaker 2: I misspelled that.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: You get what I'm saying. Like a man in a
Speaker 2: in a full suit of armor making potato salad. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: but he's bad at it. He season it correctly. That's
Speaker 2: a white knight making some potato.
Speaker 1: Salad, all right, Erica. When when we last left Raymond,
Speaker 1: he was dancing his heart out in the studio. When
Speaker 1: we last left Nick, he was being chased out of
Speaker 1: the ballet dance room by comrade Helean.
Speaker 2: Bye, Olga, the Great, Olga the Great. Oh God, that kid,
Speaker 2: that's the best kid Nomina. I know she's a small
Speaker 2: part in a movie, and she's technically one of the
Speaker 2: bad guys, but I don't care. I fucking love this.
Speaker 1: She's great. She's a little too dictatorial. I love where
Speaker 1: she's going. I need some of the edges shaved off hah.
Speaker 1: All right, So Nick returns to the studio. Raymond is
Speaker 1: none the wiser about his little adventure with Comrade Olga.
Speaker 1: Raymond is listening to his music. He's like, don't you
Speaker 1: miss this music? Come on, and Raymond admits that he does.
Speaker 1: He says there's nothing left in America for me, and
Speaker 1: Nick is like, that's bullshit, and Raymond says no, actually,
Speaker 1: like I'd be arrested if I went back. And also,
Speaker 1: my father won't speak to me, and my brother is
Speaker 1: ashamed of me. And my mother got sick a few
Speaker 1: years ago and I tried to call to speak to
Speaker 1: her and no one would even take the call. They
Speaker 1: all blame me for her dying. They think meat affecting
Speaker 1: to Russia killed my mother.
Speaker 2: And then Nick's like, oh, really, hard to think of
Speaker 2: a counterpoint, buddy.
Speaker 1: Well, I guess you do have a point.
Speaker 2: However, Big Max, how about that? How about Big Max? Buddy?
Speaker 1: We got Big Max the pop music of nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 2: Genuinely almost, yeah, almost. I feel like England would give
Speaker 2: you just as much of a.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get to England like you go to England.
Speaker 2: It's just as good. Yeah, but yeah, no, that's the
Speaker 2: scenes where Gregory Hines gets to drop in and like
Speaker 2: he's so good and so effective.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The next day at the apartment, a large feast is
Speaker 2: brought in for Nick, Raymond and Daria. Do they know
Speaker 2: where it comes from? Like, I don't really recall it
Speaker 2: brought in?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Nick seems to think that he's being
Speaker 1: awarded for something.
Speaker 2: So they're trying to like seduce exactly. They're like, how
Speaker 2: about instead of Big Max? Yeah, how about Borsch?
Speaker 1: Have you considered aspect?
Speaker 2: And Nick suggests to them that they all enjoy it
Speaker 2: because that's what life for the elite is like in
Speaker 2: the Soviet Union, because they are just as decadent as
Speaker 2: every everywhere else in the world. And Daria says, well,
Speaker 2: just for tonight, I just really want to be decadent, guys.
Speaker 2: This is caviar. Like the food they brought it is beautiful.
Speaker 2: And she's like, I just really want to try this
Speaker 2: caviar because it looks like.
Speaker 1: I've been in Siberia for five years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've eaten so much herring. So her excitement is infectious.
Speaker 2: She's adorable, right, And Nick's like, you know what, You're right,
Speaker 2: Let's enjoy it. So he toasts them with a welcome
Speaker 2: to my house, to my apartment, and just then, fucking hell,
Speaker 2: the door slams open and Chico appears, fresh from killing
Speaker 2: the rainforest. Colonel Chico's here and he.
Speaker 1: Is determined to catch Carmen san Diego. This time. She
Speaker 1: is not going to slip through his fingers one more time.
Speaker 2: Chico is furious at Raymond and for Nick's little detour
Speaker 2: in the ballet studio the day before, and of course
Speaker 2: Raymond still doesn't know what happened. He's like, well, I
Speaker 2: don't literally don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This is when he finds out that while he's supposed
Speaker 2: to be was supposedly taking a shower, Nick went on
Speaker 2: a little a little escapade.
Speaker 1: A little side quest, if you will.
Speaker 2: Chico is pissed, and he tells Raymond, well, you'll see
Speaker 2: now what happens when you cross me and the men
Speaker 2: take Daria away, as she's like pleading with Raymond, don't
Speaker 2: argue with them, don't fight, like I'll be okay, I'll
Speaker 2: be okay, I'll be okay. And Raymond is genuinely terrified
Speaker 2: and furious, so like, what are you doing with my wife?
Speaker 2: Where are you taking her. Oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: So Daria is gone now, and Nick admits to Raymond
Speaker 1: what he did. Raymond kicks him in the gut and
Speaker 1: he I mean go. He slams him up against the
Speaker 1: bureau and he's screaming at him, I will kill you
Speaker 1: if they hurt if they hurt Daria, I will kill you.
Speaker 1: I'm just now remembering realizing that Daria because it's spelled
Speaker 1: d a r y a. But it also just sounds
Speaker 1: like Daria, like our Daria.
Speaker 2: The cartoon character. Yeah, the laconic teenage girl.
Speaker 1: And and picturing like that Daria in this situation is
Speaker 1: pretty funny.
Speaker 2: I don't think she would have eaten the caviar.
Speaker 1: I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I think she would have been deeply unimpressed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she would have been like, it's just fish. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not even that impressive.
Speaker 1: So Nick spits back that this is life in Russia.
Speaker 1: The implication here they didn't quite say, is that Daria
Speaker 1: is in this situation because she's married to Nick. She
Speaker 1: could have married someone on a better upward trajectory and also.
Speaker 2: Under the radar, like Nick's on the Ray is on
Speaker 2: the radar, whether he.
Speaker 1: Likes it or not exactly, And so Raymond starts to
Speaker 1: break down. Nick sits him down. He's like, look, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be all right. He goes over to the boom box.
Speaker 1: He turns on some loud music and he's like, okay,
Speaker 1: now I will trust you. Yeah, And then we cut
Speaker 1: away and we don't know what. We don't know what.
Speaker 2: Transpires next, what they're cooking up.
Speaker 1: Do you think they make out?
Speaker 2: God, I wish. I feel like that's a bad time.
Speaker 2: That's a bad time for Nick to approach that subject.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: It's like, I look like, look, this might be too soon. However,
Speaker 2: do you want that we've got rid of doi?
Speaker 1: Just we're just two men alone.
Speaker 2: We're just two men alone in this giant apartment, all
Speaker 2: this eighties music, syncopated eighties music.
Speaker 1: And I basically don't have hamstrings.
Speaker 2: So this my favorite trope, by the way, in any
Speaker 2: of these movies where someone just plays music really loudly
Speaker 2: and like the bugs in the room can't hear them anymore.
Speaker 2: It happens so much of this movie where they get
Speaker 2: away with so much, just like turning the volume up
Speaker 2: to seven on the boom.
Speaker 1: Box, it's like universal movie language for all surveillance has
Speaker 1: been canceled.
Speaker 2: Like if I were surveilling them, and they're like, the
Speaker 2: thing is, it's not like the guys like, it's not
Speaker 2: like they're not supposed to know they're under surveillance. They
Speaker 2: know they're under surveillance. So if I was the guy
Speaker 2: surveiling them, I'd just walk in the room and be like, guys,
Speaker 2: turn it down. Turn down, guys, no higher than a three.
Speaker 2: We have to be able to hear what you're saying
Speaker 2: at all times. Remember, we're surveilling you. Yeah, come on now, hey, everyone,
Speaker 2: just keep me cool, otherwise we're taking the boom box away. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: come on next time. My neighbors have like the music
Speaker 2: playing at top volume, and the apartment above me is
Speaker 2: literally thumping the amount of people dancing and moving up there.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to be mad at them for having
Speaker 2: a party late at night and keeping me up. I'm
Speaker 2: going to be mad at them for being Russian spies,
Speaker 2: because they are obviously Russian spies. Clearly, the only reason
Speaker 2: to have your music on that high you're you're evading
Speaker 2: the US government, sir, and.
Speaker 1: I can't hear you through the bug anymore that I
Speaker 1: placed in your apartment.
Speaker 2: Yes, how dare you? How dare you?
Speaker 1: How dare you?
Speaker 3: Am?
Speaker 2: I unofficially an American agent? Maybe Aberative? Perhaps is my
Speaker 2: code name spinster Lady? Yeah, yeah it is. I'm on
Speaker 2: the knock list. We cut to Nick as he visits
Speaker 2: Galina at the ballet.
Speaker 1: Can I interrupt you for one moment here? Sure? May? Okay,
Speaker 1: So we're at wet We cut to the care of Ballet.
Speaker 1: Galina is there. She's on the stage like like most
Speaker 1: executives are when they do their work. She's looking at drawings.
Speaker 1: She is in It's not a pencil skirt, but it's
Speaker 1: like a Maxie skirt of it and like.
Speaker 2: A blouse, not a Maxi skirt. It's more of a
Speaker 2: pencil skirt because it's fitted.
Speaker 1: It's fitted.
Speaker 2: It like tapers down to her knees.
Speaker 1: Yes, and a pair pumps. But she's sitting on the
Speaker 1: floor of the stage, just posed in the most seductive way.
Speaker 1: She goes over drawings. This is a this is a
Speaker 1: romance novel. No, yeah, people did my back. Hurt's even
Speaker 1: looking at Helen Mirren sitting in that she was a ballerina.
Speaker 2: She could do anything.
Speaker 1: Sure. She also like she doesn't feel pain.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we mentioned this, but her she
Speaker 2: married the director of this movie. This is how they are,
Speaker 2: Tylor Hackford. Yeah, and so I feel like Taylor Hackford
Speaker 2: maybe was falling in love with Helen Maren during this
Speaker 2: project and kept putting her in like poses he wanted
Speaker 2: to see her. He's like, for this scene where you're
Speaker 2: having a conference call with fifteen executives, yeah, I need
Speaker 2: you to unbutton a few more buttons.
Speaker 1: No reason, I need some decoltage.
Speaker 2: Nick points out that the music she's listening to, which
Speaker 2: is a Russian artist, is forbidden music because I guess
Speaker 2: it's abversive Russian artists like another defector, and she's like, listen,
Speaker 2: we've made progress. I know what you think, I know
Speaker 2: how you think, how backwards this all is, but I've
Speaker 2: managed to push the needle forward.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 2: Look at these drawings. Therefore, an evening of work of Balanchine.
Speaker 2: That's what I've been trying to get them to do
Speaker 2: for years. For anyone who does know the backstory, George Balanchine,
Speaker 2: famous Russian choreographer who defected very loudly and famously and
Speaker 2: moved to the United States, and then became head of
Speaker 2: the New York City Ballet, so like they're gonna finally
Speaker 2: let me do his work and like here and Nick's like, girl, girl,
Speaker 2: that's never going to happen. It's just it's a dream
Speaker 2: you have. And they keep hold hey, dangling this carrot
Speaker 2: in front of your nose basically, and she's like, well,
Speaker 2: when it happens, because it's definitely gonna happen, I hope
Speaker 2: you'll dance in it. And Nick asks her have you
Speaker 2: ever danced balancine in your career? And she goes, no,
Speaker 2: of course not, and he goes, well I have.
Speaker 1: Galina asks him if any other theater or audience in
Speaker 1: the world has compared to the care of He says,
Speaker 1: of course. It will always be a part of me.
Speaker 1: But I have been free for eight years, really free.
Speaker 1: And he says, I won't go back to these restrictions
Speaker 1: that they're here in the Soviet Union, and Galina starts
Speaker 1: to cry, and he turns on the forbidden music and
Speaker 1: he says, God, I'm a dancer. There a dancer dances
Speaker 1: and he starts to dance around the stage defiantly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's read mccormicking, he's read mccormicking again, dancing it out.
Speaker 2: He's getting all those emotions out through dance.
Speaker 1: The music ends and he asks her, he doesn't really
Speaker 1: ask her. He says, you're working for Chico and he
Speaker 1: thinks that Judge Doom and Roger Rabbit had a point.
Speaker 1: And she's weeping. She admits that she is. She says
Speaker 1: that look he forced me. I had no choice. She says,
Speaker 1: you ran away. I had to face the government. I
Speaker 1: had to live here. And Nick says he's just a dancer,
Speaker 1: and he knows the government won't let him dance for himself,
Speaker 1: no matter what they promise. Galina says she can't risk
Speaker 1: helping him, and he says, I understand, and he sits
Speaker 1: down on the stage and she crawls to him and
Speaker 1: she's sobbing. It's Helen Mirren, just sobbing. He says she's
Speaker 1: too frightened, and he says it's all right, and she
Speaker 1: lays her head on his shoulder and she says, I
Speaker 1: won't let them destroy you. How can I? And he
Speaker 1: kisses her hand.
Speaker 2: The scene works so well, I yeah, I buy them instantly.
Speaker 2: Instantly we cut to a gala, some event for the
Speaker 2: theater Chico enters with Galina on his arm, and he
Speaker 2: introduces her to Win Scott, the flat topped John Glover,
Speaker 2: who's super definitely not an ex military spy. The funny thing, too,
Speaker 2: is like his whole cover is that he's this like
Speaker 2: golly g gosh darted an American. So he's playing it
Speaker 2: up so high. It's like, well, hi, so nice to
Speaker 2: meet you. Is Clark Kent ing so hard?
Speaker 1: I think the flat Earth movement started when they saw
Speaker 1: John Glover's haircut.
Speaker 2: In this movie and they were like, you know what,
Speaker 2: this feels right? This feels right, This feels like the
Speaker 2: planet I'm living on. Absolutely, Yeah, it's just so funny.
Speaker 2: The performance is so Clark Kent it's over the top.
Speaker 2: Chico steps away for two seconds, big mistake. Why would
Speaker 2: you leave Galina with a fucking spy?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't like. He must really trust her, like she's
Speaker 2: doing a really good job to like hide her allegiances
Speaker 2: enough that he like will leave her alone with this dude,
Speaker 2: even for seconds. And guess what, it bites him in the.
Speaker 1: Asshole, because it's hard to get bit in the asshole.
Speaker 2: No, right right up the asshole. Spread the cheeks I'm
Speaker 2: biting your asshole.
Speaker 1: I'm picturing a snout to.
Speaker 2: Get It's one of those dogs with a really long snout.
Speaker 2: It's like pincher. Yeah, that can also spread cheeks gnawing
Speaker 2: on his assholes. Chiico walks away for two seconds. Galina
Speaker 2: gets really close to win, big fake smile on her face,
Speaker 2: and she's like, Nick is healthy and he's in Leningrad.
Speaker 2: Wynn absorbs us quickly. He has a moment of shock
Speaker 2: on his face, which immediately goes away because he's a spy.
Speaker 2: He's very good at his job. And he's like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, I have friends at the Minneapolis Opera House.
Speaker 2: They would love to have some Russian ballet maybe there
Speaker 2: at some point, Like maybe we can we can offer
Speaker 2: some kind of exchange program. How can I get in
Speaker 2: contact with you? Should? I just call your office to
Speaker 2: set that up? And she gives him a meeting time.
Speaker 2: She whispers, Friday at this bizarre, this open air like
Speaker 2: flea market. And then Chico returns just as the man
Speaker 2: is still blathering on about the Minneapolis ballet and she's like,
Speaker 2: God that I can't believe that Hick wants me to
Speaker 2: go all the way to Minneapolis.
Speaker 1: Win brings the information directly to the embassy and is there.
Speaker 1: The ambassador is there, and it's like, fantastic, we have
Speaker 1: to go public, and the men are still skeptical. They say, look,
Speaker 1: all we have are the words of Nick's jilted ex
Speaker 1: girlfriend that he's even still alive. Win points out, look,
Speaker 1: if we push too hard, the Russians could just if
Speaker 1: he's alive, the Russians could just assassinate him and tell
Speaker 1: the world he died of his injuries from the plane crash.
Speaker 1: So we have to play this carefully.
Speaker 2: We cut back to the Leningrad dance studio for the
Speaker 2: whole reason to watch this film. Nick puts on some
Speaker 2: Cheka Khan and he tells Raymond come downce with me.
Speaker 2: Raymond's like, I'm freaked out about my wife who's been kidnapped.
Speaker 2: I'm really not in mood right now, and Nick is this.
Speaker 1: Is this the point where Nick is stretching the stretching
Speaker 1: seductively and you know, while we're on this topic, Erica,
Speaker 1: uh huh, I know I've already brought this up, but Instagram, how.
Speaker 2: Dare you how?
Speaker 1: I don't know why you think you should be serving
Speaker 1: me videos of men in jockstraps and mess shorts, pointing
Speaker 1: their grundles at the camera and stretching for you think
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna grumble at a grundle, I.
Speaker 2: Will grundle grumble.
Speaker 1: I will. That is obscene. I don't want I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be peering at the peranaeum.
Speaker 2: It's perverse.
Speaker 1: It's perverse.
Speaker 2: It's stop it, perverse.
Speaker 1: Stop it.
Speaker 2: Paul sent me three of those videos this morning to
Speaker 2: look at, and I co sign thank you. I also
Speaker 2: would not like that on my algorithm. So even though
Speaker 2: I liked all those videos, yes, do you not start
Speaker 2: sending me seductive videos of foreign dancers pointing their dicks
Speaker 2: at the camera and stretching on a bar. I don't
Speaker 2: want it. I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I don't want it.
Speaker 2: I don't want those apple bottoms in my face. Stop it, Internet,
Speaker 2: I just want more tradwife content. Yeah, this is the
Speaker 2: scene where Nick is like stretching on the bar, and like,
Speaker 2: I personally have never really been into borish. I think
Speaker 2: he's an attractive man, but I don't get it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: now I get it. Yeah, I get from watching that
Speaker 2: just him like stretching on the bar, Like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I actually really get it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've always gotten it, and I got it, dare
Speaker 1: I say real hard?
Speaker 2: And you know who can get it?
Speaker 1: Misha, Misha, Misha can get it. Yeah, anything you say, Misha.
Speaker 2: So he's trying to get Raymond to dance with him.
Speaker 2: Raymond's like, look, man, not now, I'm too I'm pissed
Speaker 2: at you for putting me in this situation. And I'm
Speaker 2: pissed at the world right now. And Nick points out
Speaker 2: all the cameras that are watching them. Of course, every
Speaker 2: time they cut to the camera, it's like zooms in on.
Speaker 1: Them, so it's like, yeah, yeesh, it's like the robot
Speaker 1: from Short Circuit, it's so clunky.
Speaker 2: Johnny five, Yes, Johnny five is in the room with them,
Speaker 2: along with a girl from Small Wonder, and she's like,
Speaker 2: I'm not watching you, don't worry. So he's like, look,
Speaker 2: you you have to at least pretend to be teaching
Speaker 2: me tap dance or something so that we can like
Speaker 2: get out of this and stay together, right, So keep moving,
Speaker 2: keep moving. So the two of them start to dance
Speaker 2: this routine together and it is probably five minutes long. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's riveting, it's so good. It's a mix of ballet moves.
Speaker 2: It's a mix of and tap moves and jazz moves
Speaker 2: and like a little bit of everything. Everything these two
Speaker 2: men can do. There's flips, there's jumps. It's so good
Speaker 2: and it's.
Speaker 1: So wonderful to see the two different styles as they
Speaker 1: do the same steps next to each other, but they
Speaker 1: look so different doing them. They both look fantastic.
Speaker 2: Athletic in very different ways. Well, because like tap is
Speaker 2: like a very like like the.
Speaker 1: Energy goes down. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Gregory Hines is so tall. I wonder if this is
Speaker 2: part of it too, But he has it's like naturally
Speaker 2: like hunched over, like shoulders hunched like yeah, Like he's
Speaker 2: like like, yeah, the movements are going into the round
Speaker 2: as supposed to out into the sky the way with
Speaker 2: ballet is and but also like it's like internalized and
Speaker 2: it's it's like it's like it's so good. It's just
Speaker 2: genius watching them, the two of them dance together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so we cut from that from that incredible
Speaker 1: high every dance. Earlier you had said that first dance
Speaker 1: was your favorite. This dance is my.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is my second favorite because it has the
Speaker 2: two of them. Yeah too, and it's but it's so
Speaker 2: fucking good.
Speaker 1: We cut to Galina at the bazaar. She's contacted by
Speaker 1: a spy disguised as an Estonian potato farmer who.
Speaker 2: Excellent fucking grags. I genuinely was surprised this man is
Speaker 2: trying to sell her potatoes, and she's like, leave me alone,
Speaker 2: and he's like, I'm an American. He cuts her, speaking
Speaker 2: Russian to me and speaking at a clearly well enough
Speaker 2: with an Estonian Ish accent that she was convinced she
Speaker 2: did not know she was talking to an American. And
Speaker 2: then he drops out and he's like, I'm with the
Speaker 2: American embassy, blah blah blah, and he gives her like
Speaker 2: information about like help us find.
Speaker 1: Nick, tell us where he is. Right then we cut
Speaker 1: back to the studio. Raymond and Nick are with the dance,
Speaker 1: and now they start to argue over what happened with Daria.
Speaker 1: Raymond accuses Nick of being romantically interested in her. Nick's like,
Speaker 1: you're fucking crazy, You're a loser. They can't stand each other.
Speaker 1: All they feel for each other is disdain. In this moment,
Speaker 1: door opens, Chiko, fresh from fresh from giving giving Boris
Speaker 1: and Natasha a new assignment to try to take down
Speaker 1: that goddamn scirrel. And Moose comes in and he hears
Speaker 1: the talent of the argument, and he sends Raymond to
Speaker 1: the showers.
Speaker 2: Chiko just coming back from the Jolly Roger where he's
Speaker 2: finally gonna get that. Peter Pan asks Nick, Hey, what's
Speaker 2: happening here? I thought you two would be bessies. What's happening?
Speaker 2: And Nick, in my opinion, lays it on a little
Speaker 2: too thick. I think they do it on purpose so
Speaker 2: that the audience knows it's fake.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Basically, Nick pretends I can't take this guy anymore. I
Speaker 2: find it repulsive that that beautiful white woman would be
Speaker 2: married to that guy. M Chiico's like, well, you know,
Speaker 2: some women like shock value. They want to shock their families.
Speaker 2: And then Chiko says, and I shit you not. He goes,
Speaker 2: you know what they say about black studs.
Speaker 1: A black man have huge Dick's joke.
Speaker 2: In this economy in Russian, I guess that. I guess
Speaker 2: that stereotype is worldwide.
Speaker 1: Chiko tried, like keeps trying to explain it in the
Speaker 1: Russian accent. He's like, you know, they have the the pendulous,
Speaker 1: the giant dog is a black. You know what they say,
Speaker 1: Once you go black, you never go back. You know
Speaker 1: you'll get it. You'll get it, Nick, you get it.
Speaker 2: It's as big as a bottle of Smirnoff.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, you got to see this guy in
Speaker 1: a pair of gray sweatpants. Nick. I don't know what
Speaker 1: accent I'm doing anymore.
Speaker 2: It looks it looks like moose an ble. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying that You're gonna look at
Speaker 1: it and your jaw is going to drop. Nick.
Speaker 2: It's as large as a blugo whale.
Speaker 1: Have you seen one of those really big pepper grinders
Speaker 1: that they had take you to the table. It's like that, Nick,
Speaker 1: a pepper grinder, Nick, or one of that swinging pendulum
Speaker 1: things on a grandfather clock. Nick. You wouldn't believe it.
Speaker 2: I think I'm trying to think of Russia things. It's
Speaker 2: so big. Even Catherine the Great would have been.
Speaker 1: Like, no, thank you, it's so big. Catherine the Great said,
Speaker 1: one horse cocket is enough for me in my life.
Speaker 1: Thank you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Because she was a slut who fucked the horse, Nick.
Speaker 2: And Nick plays right into Chaco's racism, and he's like,
Speaker 2: I'm sure Daria regrets marrying that loser. That man, he's
Speaker 2: so over the top that I, as a viewer of
Speaker 2: the movie, am worried that he's giving himself away. But
Speaker 2: thank god it works. Chicho buys it, hook line and sinker,
Speaker 2: so much so that the scene ends with Chicho dropping
Speaker 2: an end bomb well you know, and bombs and then
Speaker 2: walks away. To his credit, Nick is like, Jesus, that
Speaker 2: was a lot.
Speaker 1: It's funny. I had a different reaction because he is overplaying,
Speaker 1: I agree, but overlaying. But to me, it's it's nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty five, like it's it's forty years ago, Like was
Speaker 1: this really overplaying? At forty like this was? It was
Speaker 1: more acceptable. And and he knows, like he knows Chiico's
Speaker 1: a racist, Yeah, And Raymond is trying to act as
Speaker 1: if Russia isn't racist. Yes, he knows that if Chiko's
Speaker 1: being friendly to Raymond, or friendly enough that Raymond believes
Speaker 1: that he knows he can get them. And he knows
Speaker 1: that Chico believes that he's that Nick's a racist too,
Speaker 1: because they all everyone is, because who wouldn't be who
Speaker 1: wouldn't be right.
Speaker 2: Yes, the world, Yeah, I get no, No, I fully
Speaker 2: get it. But genuinely it was like the scene is
Speaker 2: so over the top from Nick's perspective that I was like,
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, don't if you overplay
Speaker 2: this hand, they're gonna know. They're like, well, he thinks
Speaker 2: I'm he thinks he can get me with this racist
Speaker 2: this fake racism that he clearly doesn't actually feel.
Speaker 1: We cut back to the apartment in Leningrad as Nick
Speaker 1: and Raymond arrive home and Daria is all ready there.
Speaker 1: She and Raymond fall into each other's arms they head
Speaker 1: into their room. I really wasn't sure if we were
Speaker 1: going to see her again in this movie, so I'm
Speaker 1: glad we did. Yeah, this is where Separate Lives starts
Speaker 1: to play. It could not make less sense as a
Speaker 1: song in this movie. This is about the couple like
Speaker 1: returning to each other after a scare, and the song
Speaker 1: is about a couple splitting up. Doesn't make any say
Speaker 1: because from.
Speaker 2: The Russian perspective, she's splitting up with Raymond to get
Speaker 2: with Nick. That's the reason she's back. To be clear,
Speaker 2: is Chico's like, ooh, I'm a messy bitch that lives
Speaker 2: for drama under I am dropping the lady back in
Speaker 2: the apartment with the two men to see them fight
Speaker 2: it out over her.
Speaker 1: He is the original reality TV show producer who's like,
Speaker 1: let's bring in a bombshell on Love Island. That's an
Speaker 1: ex of someone who's already on it's already coupled up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Let's put more vodka and more caviar and
Speaker 2: more oysters in that apartment for them.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 2: Let them fight it out.
Speaker 1: So Raymond laments to Daria that they're living like rats
Speaker 1: in a cage, and he blames himself for her living
Speaker 1: under scrutiny like this, and she says, look, if it
Speaker 1: wasn't you would be someone else. I could not be
Speaker 1: happier with someone else. And I am with you. And
Speaker 1: then she says I'm pregnant and they embrace again. They're
Speaker 1: they're both thrilled at this, at this forthcoming blessing.
Speaker 2: Yes, So the two of them were banging went out
Speaker 2: in the Raymond and Daria our bangan went out in
Speaker 2: the bedroom.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, Nick is like in the living room with loud
Speaker 2: music playing, probably because his roommates are banging, went out
Speaker 2: next to him. He is fashioning a rope from an
Speaker 2: area rug. He's taken an area rug apart, and it's
Speaker 2: like creating a Rapunzel situation out of it. Raymond emerges
Speaker 2: from the bedroom and he quietly thanks Nick for helping
Speaker 2: him get Daria back. So there's definitely a truce now
Speaker 2: between these two. These two are in it together. Nick
Speaker 2: is like, look, I'm leaving, whether you two help me
Speaker 2: or not, just so you know. And then Raymond's like,
Speaker 2: can you trust Galina? Like I know, she's like the
Speaker 2: lynchpin of this plan, and I'm not sure she can
Speaker 2: be trusted. And Nick is like, yes, I can. I
Speaker 2: can trust her. I loved her once, I still love her.
Speaker 2: I believe her. She can be trusted.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And then Raymond makes a decision because he sees how
Speaker 2: like confident Nick is in his ability to escape, and
Speaker 2: he's like, you know what, Daria and I are going
Speaker 2: to come with you, And Nick's like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no no. I'm willing to risk my own life, but
Speaker 2: I'm not willing to risk your and your wife's lives.
Speaker 2: Like I don't have that much of confidence in this plan, buddy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then Raymond's like, listen, Darya is pregnant, and for
Speaker 2: the first time in my life, and for the first
Speaker 2: time in a long time, I feel hope. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: Nick is like Okay. He realizes how important it would
Speaker 2: be for these two to get away.
Speaker 1: We cut back to the dance studio. The two men
Speaker 1: continue to stage more arguments for the camera, but even
Speaker 1: though they're arguing they're dancing together in Unison. Oh, we
Speaker 1: we were wrong before that first dance, they're not in Unison.
Speaker 1: This is the Unison dance.
Speaker 2: Oh, is this the really riveting dance?
Speaker 1: Yes, this is the really Sorry. That other dance is
Speaker 1: also good, but they're like they're dancing around each other
Speaker 1: and not dancing with each other. This is the dance
Speaker 1: that they dance with each other. This is the great dance.
Speaker 1: Our apologies. We can't be right one hundred percent of
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: We can only be right thirty five percent of the time.
Speaker 1: We aim for thirty six, but we guarantee thirty five.
Speaker 1: At the end of the dance, Nick just walks past
Speaker 1: Raymond and says, tonight.
Speaker 2: We cut back to the apartment and Raymond finally tells Daria,
Speaker 2: girl who has not been read into the plan because
Speaker 2: he rightfully assumed that she would have resistance to it,
Speaker 2: and like, and he's like, listen, Nick is escaping tonight.
Speaker 2: We're gonna go with him. And she's like, uh, the
Speaker 2: fuck we are. I'm Russian, I'm from here as only
Speaker 2: place I've ever known. I'm not gonna risk my life
Speaker 2: and my baby's life to go into another unknown I
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't even know what the rest of
Speaker 2: the world is like. And he snaps that he's not
Speaker 2: gonna be able to do any good to his kid
Speaker 2: while he's working in a labor camp, and she smacks
Speaker 2: him in the face.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She immediately apologizes.
Speaker 1: She shocked.
Speaker 2: She's like, I can't believe I just did that. He
Speaker 2: embraces her. He's like, listen, we just have to get
Speaker 2: to the American Embassy tonight. Once we're in the American Embassy,
Speaker 2: we're home free. Nick is very famous, and once he
Speaker 2: is like on his way out, we can like hitch
Speaker 2: our coattails to his hitch our stars, hitch our wagons
Speaker 2: his coatails. Yeah, the thirty five percent really kicking.
Speaker 1: It right now. We're gonna get there. We're gonna get here.
Speaker 2: Hitch my coattail to his wagon. Start that's it, that's it,
Speaker 2: got it? Yeah, He's like, if I'm finally going to
Speaker 2: do something right, and then Daria kisses him and tells
Speaker 2: him that she loves him. She's like, Okay. In the
Speaker 2: course of two minutes, this woman has just gone from
Speaker 2: absolutely I will not leave my home country to.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, sure, it's the power of Gregory Hines. Nick
Speaker 1: goes to see Galina at her office and they immediately
Speaker 1: start to stage an argument the same way he's been
Speaker 1: doing with Raymond this whole time, where he says, I,
Speaker 1: if I am going to dance, I will be in
Speaker 1: charge of what I dance. I will dance when and
Speaker 1: where and what I choose, and she tells him, your
Speaker 1: ego is out of control. You're gonna dance whether you
Speaker 1: like it or not, and if you're smart, you're gonna
Speaker 1: alienate me because I'm in charge, bitch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm olga. Well one day take my place, but
Speaker 2: until that, until that happens, I'm the head, bitch in charge.
Speaker 1: She puts on a tape of him dancing as a
Speaker 1: young man and says, now your backer, you belong And
Speaker 1: this is an actual tape of Mikhail Brishnikov dancing as
Speaker 1: a young man, probably at the Girl of Ballet. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she turns up the volume universal movie language. From now
Speaker 1: no one can hear anything else that's going on.
Speaker 2: Again, these her valance guys have to be able to
Speaker 2: just be like, excuse me, knock knock, knock. Hi everyone, Hi, Hi,
Speaker 2: We're gonna need you to turn it down. We're trying
Speaker 2: to listen.
Speaker 1: We're we're trying to hear what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Or here's a counter offer. Understand, if you need the
Speaker 2: music for choreography purposes, why don't we just put a
Speaker 2: stenographer in the corner of the room. Yeah, so that
Speaker 2: they can just write down everything you're saying for us,
Speaker 2: and then you can listen to your music or whatever
Speaker 2: volume you like.
Speaker 1: It's up to you. Well, it's airba. We are indifferent.
Speaker 2: The amount of times this happens in movies is like
Speaker 2: any time volume is played above of five in any
Speaker 2: of the Russian territory, the Communist Tarra Block territories. I
Speaker 2: am shocked. There isn't immediately a knock on the door.
Speaker 1: Knock, knock, knock, So the volume is up. They sit
Speaker 1: together on the couch and she whispers instructions of where
Speaker 1: he should meet her American contact. You're gonna meet him
Speaker 1: at the Lion Bridge. His name is Scott. You have
Speaker 1: to be here at this time. Blah blah blah. Nick says,
Speaker 1: thank you. He calls her my love, and he asks
Speaker 1: if I had asked you to come with me eight
Speaker 1: years ago, would you have come And she says probably not.
Speaker 1: And I can't come now my place is here, and
Speaker 1: he says, I'm never going to see you again, and
Speaker 1: she says, don't forget me, and they kiss and he
Speaker 1: says that he'll always love her, and she tells him
Speaker 1: go go now, go, and he leaves.
Speaker 2: I mean, we know now that like seven years later,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be able to teach other.
Speaker 1: Don't ruin the moment.
Speaker 2: Erica Toiler for history. It's nineteen eighty five. Currently around
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three, you'll be able to see each other again,
Speaker 2: just saying. Nick goes to the stage at the Kire
Speaker 2: of Ballet one last time to you know, get say
Speaker 2: goodbye to his beloved theater. It must be kind of
Speaker 2: incredible too. They do have moments in the movie where
Speaker 2: like he takes in the fact that he's home and
Speaker 2: he's he has missed it. It was his home. It
Speaker 2: was the food is what he loves. Yeah, like this
Speaker 2: is his theater where he became a star, and like
Speaker 2: it's it means.
Speaker 1: Something to him, right where he trained.
Speaker 2: There's one ghost light on the stage. It's very cool effect.
Speaker 2: It's stark. There's like a white backdrop with a stark
Speaker 2: spotlight in the middle. He gazes out at the empty audience.
Speaker 2: He does a leap, he does some spins, He stops
Speaker 2: and leans on the side of the stage, tears rolling
Speaker 2: down his face. Yeah, it's very sweet.
Speaker 1: Very dramatic, Yeah, dramatique. He returns home to the apartment
Speaker 1: and there's this moment where he walks in and one
Speaker 1: of the guards whispers to him in Russian, we're getting
Speaker 1: rid of your friends tomorrow. Like what this goes nowhere?
Speaker 1: It doesn't. It's just funny like.
Speaker 2: Oh, I heard friend uh I I both of them.
Speaker 1: It was a it was a subtitle, I think, and
Speaker 1: subtitle said friends bank.
Speaker 2: I heard it wrong because in my I thought this
Speaker 2: meant we're getting rid of Raymond so you can be
Speaker 2: with Daria.
Speaker 1: Don't worry.
Speaker 2: We're taking We're taking the obstacle out of your way.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh. Nick walks in and Raymond in a very
Speaker 1: anxious Daria already. They put on music and they start
Speaker 1: doing another one of their fake arguments while putting their
Speaker 1: plan into action, the argument, really, they should be better
Speaker 1: at this, They should have written down some lines.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is actually very funny because the two men
Speaker 2: are better at it because they've been doing it. And
Speaker 2: also there was like some natural antagonism to begin with.
Speaker 2: Daria's trying and she's the sweetest, kindest person, so she
Speaker 2: doesn't It's like they she doesn't know how to yell
Speaker 2: at someone, right, and so she like I found this
Speaker 2: really amusing, Like when she like tries to fight back
Speaker 2: and then she looks immediately at them like was that good?
Speaker 1: I have had enough of your vulgarity? Is that good?
Speaker 1: Did I do it?
Speaker 2: She puts on her loudest red sweater.
Speaker 1: Okay, this sweater is not fair.
Speaker 2: She puts on her loudest red sweater to go undercover
Speaker 2: in Like, now, I know it's after midnight, but you
Speaker 2: remember it's the white Nights. White n It's a night
Speaker 2: so white it drives the Volkswagon.
Speaker 1: Exactly. It's a night so white that all all a
Speaker 1: dog wants to do is piss into the into it
Speaker 1: and make it yellow.
Speaker 2: You're going with snow, with snow, what you did?
Speaker 1: You're like, look, sometimes the brain just goes where it goes,
Speaker 1: and the words start parting out of your mouth and
Speaker 1: it makes sense in your head.
Speaker 2: It's a night so white. It pronounces it chopotle.
Speaker 1: It's a night so white. It only wants lobster rolls.
Speaker 2: It's a night so white. It's listening to Crosby Stills
Speaker 2: a Nash.
Speaker 1: It's a night so white. It's listening to the Anne
Speaker 1: Murray Christmas album.
Speaker 2: So as I said, it's daylight. It's full fucking daylight still,
Speaker 2: even though it's one am. When they're trying to escape,
Speaker 2: and this bitch puts on her loudest red sweater, I'm like, girl,
Speaker 2: you're gonna get caught.
Speaker 1: All right. So they they gather the woven rope while
Speaker 1: Nick fashions a hook from I think a fireplace poker.
Speaker 1: I think it's how he makes this. I'm not entirely sure. Yeah. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: despite their preparations, Chiko is listening. He has he has
Speaker 1: fulfilled the latest ACME order that's been sent off to
Speaker 1: Wiley coyote and now he's just killing time listening to
Speaker 1: them in the car, and his Spidey sense starts tingling
Speaker 1: and he tells the car to turn around. K again.
Speaker 1: Remember Kirigan, he's the aide we met in the beginning
Speaker 1: of the movie. He's the one who gave him the
Speaker 1: stuff from the plane crash. Kiragan is like why, he says,
Speaker 1: just do what you're told.
Speaker 2: This will bite him back in the ass.
Speaker 1: And this is the ass the asshole this time.
Speaker 2: This no, I take it back. I'm sorry. I realized
Speaker 2: my mistake. This will actually take a giant chunk out
Speaker 2: of his asshole, out of his perfectly round asshole, out
Speaker 2: of his red puckered asshole.
Speaker 1: Dog nod on, asshole.
Speaker 2: Be kind to your underlings. Yeah, will risk going to
Speaker 2: the gulag just to get back at you.
Speaker 1: Later agreed.
Speaker 2: This is the scene I remember vividly from watching this
Speaker 2: movie when I was a kid with my parents. Like
Speaker 2: they're on like the fifth floor of an apartment building,
Speaker 2: sixth floor maybe high high up. They secure the woven
Speaker 2: rope around Nick's waist and he does this like daredevil
Speaker 2: thing where like he goes out the window onto some
Speaker 2: like exposed beams on the side of the building, like
Speaker 2: the building was in mid construction when they just stopped.
Speaker 2: He leaps to the fire escape ladder using that beam.
Speaker 2: So he uses that beam to like propel himself onto
Speaker 2: like a fire escape ladder. He climbs down a bit.
Speaker 2: He secures the rope to the ladder, and then Daria
Speaker 2: uses that makeshift hook because I was, I was, I was, like,
Speaker 2: what's that hook for? As a like zipline, and they
Speaker 2: zipline her from the like apartment above to Nick down
Speaker 2: slightly down below on the ladder.
Speaker 1: Before they do that, she does change the tape in
Speaker 1: the tape recorder to a pre recorded argument. Crucially, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: she almost gets stuck in the mill. There ever been ziplining?
Speaker 2: Paul, have you met me? You're but not that kind
Speaker 2: of adventures.
Speaker 1: Because I've been ziplining and I'm not adventures.
Speaker 2: Oh really, I don't like to I don't like my
Speaker 2: feet dangling in the air.
Speaker 1: I usually assume anything I've done you've already gotten.
Speaker 2: No, that's you're good. That's the one thing I have
Speaker 2: not done that. I will not be drungee jumping. I
Speaker 2: will not be ziplining.
Speaker 1: Ziplining bungee jumping. Absolutely not. But I went ziplining and
Speaker 1: it didn't didn't. I was not afraid at all, but
Speaker 1: they do tell you like you have to kind of go,
Speaker 1: and like because she gets stuck in the middle, they
Speaker 1: have to kind of like scoocherr them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Gregory Hinds at one point like grabs the top
Speaker 2: of the rope and it's like changing. I'm like, oh my.
Speaker 1: God, it looks like she did this stunt, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: It looks like all of them, like, well, Gregory Heines
Speaker 2: will not have to work, see, but like it looks
Speaker 2: genuinely like Borishnakoff did that stunt. Yeah, Like it couldn't
Speaker 2: have been right because it's so dangerous, but like it's
Speaker 2: so realistic.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So eventually she does make it down to Nick. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: the clock is racing because we as the audience, know
Speaker 2: that Chico, fresh from menacing the teenage mutant Ninja Turtles,
Speaker 2: is now on his way and will it will catch them, right,
Speaker 2: So she makes it to Nick, Raymond starts to crawl
Speaker 2: his way down the rope, and just as that's happening
Speaker 2: right below them, Chico and his men pull up and
Speaker 2: get out of the car. Luckily none of them look
Speaker 2: up to see this weird fucking tablow ahead of them,
Speaker 2: and they go into the building. Raymond, realizing that they're
Speaker 2: gonna have he's gonna have to distract Chico in order
Speaker 2: for the other two to get away, gestures at them
Speaker 2: to go without him. He says I love you to Daria,
Speaker 2: and he gets back in the apartment by himself, and
Speaker 2: Daria is like, no, no, no no. She tries to
Speaker 2: get back on the rope. She's like, I can't leave
Speaker 2: without him. I can't leave without him, and Nick convinces her,
Speaker 2: you have to go.
Speaker 1: Yep, he says, Raymond's only hope is for us to
Speaker 1: get to the American Embassy. So he gets her down
Speaker 1: onto the ground. They can't sneak out the back as
Speaker 1: they as they had planned, because now there are guards there,
Speaker 1: because now Chico has returned, right he has He has
Speaker 1: successfully a given skeletor the power of Gray Skull, and
Speaker 1: he is back. They have to go through the lobby.
Speaker 1: But meanwhile Raymond goes back into the apartment and he
Speaker 1: turns the tape with the recorded argument onto side B
Speaker 1: and then he starts playing that. So it's just music again,
Speaker 1: and then he bursts out into the hall before Chiko
Speaker 1: can actually come into the apartment. He starts yelling that
Speaker 1: he can't take it anymore, and the guard tries to
Speaker 1: stop him, but he starts to push through the guard
Speaker 1: and make his way downstairs. Chiko buys it. He's like,
Speaker 1: all right, come on, come on, let him go, let
Speaker 1: him go, let him come downstairs.
Speaker 2: So out in the hallway, Raymond loudly complains to Chicho, Look,
Speaker 2: you have got to get that man away from my
Speaker 2: wife and out of my life. I do not want
Speaker 2: him here. He is trying to steal. He's trying to
Speaker 2: ruin my marriage. Now, fuck this guy forever. Chiko buys it,
Speaker 2: hook line and sinker. Raymond is very convincing. He brings
Speaker 2: him into the office for a drink. Babe. I think
Speaker 2: he is hoping that the two of them shag upstairs,
Speaker 2: because otherwise it doesn't make any sense. So I'm trying
Speaker 2: to like in my head, I'm like, why would he
Speaker 2: do that? And that's the only thing I could think
Speaker 2: of is he is like such a messy bitch.
Speaker 1: They've also like established earlier that in Raushaw wants you
Speaker 1: to open bottle of vodka. You must finish bottle of vodka,
Speaker 1: which just PSA for this episode. Kids, you don't have
Speaker 1: to do that. That does agree.
Speaker 2: Hey, when in Russia do as Russians do. Kids, don't
Speaker 2: go to their country and tell them how to drink.
Speaker 2: Chiko brings Raymond into like an office in the surveillance
Speaker 2: room they have set up in this apartment building specifically
Speaker 2: for their So he's basically showing him behind the scenes
Speaker 2: and the death Star. He's like, so, that's the guy
Speaker 2: that's been listening to you from eleven to twelve. Yep,
Speaker 2: that's the guy that's been listening to you from twelve
Speaker 2: to one. Yep, like they like in shifts. Unfortunately, while
Speaker 2: this is happening, we cut to upstairs and the boom
Speaker 2: box like stops. The tape ends and it's set to
Speaker 2: continue his play and it has auto reverse capabilities.
Speaker 1: Goddamn it. Goddamn it.
Speaker 2: Technology goes from side A to side B, and what's
Speaker 2: on side B the music with that fake argument that
Speaker 2: they've already been listening to.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So the men downstairs like start to hear the same
Speaker 2: exact words over and over again. Meanwhile, Nick and Daria
Speaker 2: take a chance to sneak out the front door. They're
Speaker 2: spotted by the landlady. Remember that old grizzled landlady who's like, yep,
Speaker 2: still here, Yep. She does nothing, She doesn't raise the alarm,
Speaker 2: and she she kind of looks at the men like
Speaker 2: in the surveillance room, and then she looks back at
Speaker 2: them and says, go now.
Speaker 1: Kerragin that underling, that that that Chico decided to be
Speaker 1: a dick to. Here's the conversation with Raymond's voice. He
Speaker 1: realizes it must be a recording. He goes right in
Speaker 1: to tell Chico. Chiko dismisses him. He says, I'm busy.
Speaker 1: I'm drinking a bottle of vodka with Raymond h Kerrigan's
Speaker 1: hatred for his boss and ambition for his own advancement
Speaker 1: overrides his Communist ideals, and he just says, as you wish.
Speaker 2: Truly, like this man hates his boss so much he's
Speaker 2: willing to risk going to like a work camp. Yep,
Speaker 2: because this is some deep shit he's about to pull.
Speaker 2: Nick and Daria sneak out the front door. They meet
Speaker 2: up at the spot on Lion's Bridge. At first, they
Speaker 2: don't see anyone, but as soon as and and Daria
Speaker 2: starts to go we have to go back. We have
Speaker 2: to go back. No one's here. This is a trap
Speaker 2: and Nick is like, no, wait, give it a moment.
Speaker 2: They start to cross, and when Scott appears, he's like,
Speaker 2: come on, come on, I'm Scott, I'm your contact. They
Speaker 2: run across to him and he's like, whoa. This was
Speaker 2: for Nick only. I don't know who this lady is.
Speaker 2: And Nick is like, I'm not coming if she doesn't come,
Speaker 2: and like they've like fine, fine, fine, and they get
Speaker 2: Daria in the car, so they start to head for
Speaker 2: the consulate.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Raymond and Chico finish the vodka bottle. Chiko is
Speaker 1: he's very busy. He has to get out. He has
Speaker 1: to he has to foil those damn ThunderCats once and
Speaker 1: for all. Raymond's like, let's open another bottle. Chiico's like, no,
Speaker 1: the ThunderCats. I gotta go. He tells kerragin he can
Speaker 1: deal with whatever Kerrigan was talking about now, so Kerrigan's like, okay,
Speaker 1: come on, come on this way goes to the command center.
Speaker 1: Chiko listens to the recording for about four seconds. He
Speaker 1: obviously hears Raymond's voice on it when Raymond is standing
Speaker 1: right in front of him. Raymond tries to tackle Chiko.
Speaker 1: This is you know, all systems go Now he knows
Speaker 1: he's caught. Just delay for as long as you possibly can.
Speaker 1: He gets tackled by agents as Chiko shouts commands to
Speaker 1: cover all Western consulates, and Kerrigan takes a moment to say, I.
Speaker 2: Tried to tell you, but you were being a cunt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2: Super on you. We followed Nick and Daria in the
Speaker 2: lime green sedan. As they drive towards the consulate, Wind
Speaker 2: tells them there's a lot of Third World diplomats at
Speaker 2: the consulate. They did that on purpose. They like, look,
Speaker 2: we invited everyone from other countries to over for dinner,
Speaker 2: so that when you arrive there's so many non aligned,
Speaker 2: unbiased witnesses from many countries that you have arrived. They're
Speaker 2: within eyesight of the embassy. They can see it. Two
Speaker 2: police cars who I don't think this has anything to
Speaker 2: do with the drama. There just happened to be two
Speaker 2: police cars. They pull out in front of them, drivers
Speaker 2: not paying attention because there's some tension in the car,
Speaker 2: and he accidentally crashes into one of them.
Speaker 1: I thought the police were arriving on the with the
Speaker 1: orders to cover the Western consulates. Oh thought, I.
Speaker 2: Thought this was actually like two policemen that they get
Speaker 2: into their speeding and they get in the way and
Speaker 2: like it could be either way, and the guy's not.
Speaker 2: The guy fucks up and he accidentally hits a cop car.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but both work. Wind tells Nick and Arya get
Speaker 1: out of the car, try to be seen. Your best
Speaker 1: hope is that all of those non aligned diplomats that
Speaker 1: have started pouring out of the American consulate because for
Speaker 1: some reason they know now is the time we have
Speaker 1: to pour out of the American consulate. Chico arrives and
Speaker 1: their driver tells Nick and Daria start walking towards the crowd.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about like me and when we're fine, we
Speaker 1: have like diplomatic they're not going to hurt us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they grasp pants and they start walking towards the consulate.
Speaker 1: Wind shouts at Chico. There are dozens of witnesses. Should
Speaker 1: anything happened to Nick and Daria, like this is now
Speaker 1: in that we can just hear him telling Chico. Chico
Speaker 1: leaves Wyn and he loops his other arm through Nicks
Speaker 1: and he hisses, I will have you shot, and Nick
Speaker 1: tells Daria keep walking, and Win shouts that Moscow will
Speaker 1: hold Chico responsible should an international incident be set off.
Speaker 1: He tells the police to arrest Daria and she is
Speaker 1: tackled to the ground as she tries to flee. There's
Speaker 1: like four men tackling this. One Isabella Rossalini. And normally
Speaker 1: I would put my money in Isabella in that case, but.
Speaker 2: She's playing Daria here. Yes, Zaria is a meek and
Speaker 2: gentle woman exactly, and shouts, there he is.
Speaker 1: From the gates. We're moving. He's close enough now there
Speaker 1: can be a positive identification that is Nikolai Rodchenko.
Speaker 2: There's cameras, there's like there's strong lenses that can capture
Speaker 2: a positive idea of Nick. So he had to walk
Speaker 2: close enough to get within the camera range.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Nick tells Chiko, look, if you let Daria go,
Speaker 1: I'll keep my mouth shut about what happened that you
Speaker 1: kept me, that I was being held here against my will.
Speaker 1: I won't tell anyone. I won't talk about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Chaiko pauses for a moment, and then he tells them.
Speaker 1: He starts yelling at police release, sir, really sir, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? What are you doing? And he walks
Speaker 1: them both the American Embassy. He puts his arms around them.
Speaker 1: Daria looks like she's about to burst into flames. She's like,
Speaker 1: what is happening?
Speaker 2: She's so afraid.
Speaker 1: He hisses to them under his breath, don't forget we
Speaker 1: still have Raymond, and then he announces that he's sure
Speaker 1: the return of a convicted Soviet criminal to America would
Speaker 1: count as proof of the Soviet Union's commitment towards peace,
Speaker 1: and the two of them shuffle inside the embassy.
Speaker 2: We cut to the end of the White Nights.
Speaker 1: They found the salt.
Speaker 2: They've had their camamil tea, their sleepy time tea. They've
Speaker 2: watched the Daily Show. They're ready for bed.
Speaker 1: They've listened to NPR. They've they've they've they've taken their
Speaker 1: pajamas out of their PBS tote.
Speaker 2: There. Yeah, they're they're having their melatonin. They're ready to
Speaker 2: take a nap.
Speaker 1: They've ordered the lands End sheets that they need.
Speaker 2: The sun goes down as Chico drives through the dark
Speaker 2: with a terrified Raymond in the back of the car.
Speaker 2: So at this point I would I would say it's
Speaker 2: been about a few months, if not a year, like
Speaker 2: six months. Raymond looks bad. He looks thin, he looks pale. Ye,
Speaker 2: he's not he's not well.
Speaker 1: He looks twitchy.
Speaker 2: He looks twitchy. Yeah, so he it's clear that he's
Speaker 2: been in like some kind of either work camp or
Speaker 2: prison this whole time. He's freaked out. He thinks he's
Speaker 2: about to get assassinated. I actually was worried that that's
Speaker 2: where this movie was going. He was gonna get a
Speaker 2: I didn't think so, because honestly, I was like, there's
Speaker 2: no way this has a bad ending. This movie is
Speaker 2: American propaganda. There's just no way, Like I get it
Speaker 2: like that, Like that would be very strong propaganda. Like look,
Speaker 2: they assassinated him anyway. But I'm like, that's just such
Speaker 2: a goddamn bummer, Like it can't be. It must be.
Speaker 2: American propaganda always has a happy ending.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's just our way, that's how we roll.
Speaker 2: So Raymond, who's been kept in the dark about all
Speaker 2: of this, doesn't know what happened to Nick, doesn't know
Speaker 2: what happened Daria. He starts to ask questions did they
Speaker 2: get out? Is she safe? And Chico just cryptically says,
Speaker 2: we'll send your things to your wife. The car stops
Speaker 2: and Chico tells Raymond to get out. Raymond's terrified. He's
Speaker 2: positive he's about to get assassinated. In the woods, a
Speaker 2: group of soldiers appear. There's a spotlight. Lights go up
Speaker 2: in the middle of the night. This this screams firing
Speaker 2: squad about to happen. He's terrified, he's shaking. He refuses.
Speaker 2: He's like, no, I'm not going. I'm not going. I'm
Speaker 2: not going. And they push him. They're like, go walk
Speaker 2: into the woods. He's like, don't shoot me in the back.
Speaker 2: Don't shoot me in the back, please, And Chico goes
Speaker 2: just walk.
Speaker 1: Another spotlight turns on from a distance and Gear walks
Speaker 1: forward right to Chico, who welcomes him as a comrade.
Speaker 1: And Raymond walks forward and four silhouettes appear and we
Speaker 1: hear Daria call his name, Raymond, Raymond, Raymond. Raymond runs
Speaker 1: to her. She tells him he's across the border. He's free,
Speaker 1: and Nick is also there, and Nick says, you've been traded.
Speaker 2: Yes, so this is a prisoner exchange.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The guy who goes up to Chico is speaking in Spanish,
Speaker 2: and I think he's supposed to be a Cuban, so
Speaker 2: they've traded him for a Cuban communist dissident. And again,
Speaker 2: I hate to bring it into the real world, but
Speaker 2: it does remind me of the Britney Griner exchange. We
Speaker 2: exchanged a harmless WNBA player with a fucking arms dealer.
Speaker 2: So this shit does happen. In case anyone's watching this
Speaker 2: movie and they're like, that's so unrealistic. They wouldn't they
Speaker 2: wouldn't bother to give Raymond back. Yeah, they would, because
Speaker 2: I guarantee you they got someone way worse in return.
Speaker 1: In fact, Chico, who would have gotten away with it
Speaker 1: was one for those damn kids sneer that they exchanged
Speaker 1: scum for a hero of the people. And Nick is like, look,
Speaker 1: pretend anything you want you lost, and you know it.
Speaker 1: Raymond and Daria embrace and he says, I'm going home.
Speaker 1: For better or for worse. I'm going home. He is
Speaker 1: absolutely frank and furder at the end.
Speaker 2: Hah. He takes off his overcoat and you see him
Speaker 2: just wearing black panties.
Speaker 1: He's about to ascend. He goes to Nick, he hugs him,
Speaker 1: and he says thank you, and the movie freeze frames
Speaker 1: and that is the end of the movie.
Speaker 2: If movie freeze frames not with him and Daria and
Speaker 2: Nick together, just him and Nick facing each other. It
Speaker 2: is so the ending of Casablanca. They've sole in the
Speaker 2: ending of Casablanca. It's these two men and like there's
Speaker 2: there's smoke around them. Nick's wearing like a trench coat,
Speaker 2: just like ye, just like Bogee in that movie. Like
Speaker 2: it could not look more like that. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: this is a love story between these two men. I mean,
Speaker 2: I get it. There Daria's there, and she's there, she
Speaker 2: and Peggy, but like, this is these two men story.
Speaker 1: All right, everyone stick around. We will be right back
Speaker 1: with our random observations and final rankings for White Nights.
Speaker 1: And we're back alright, Erica, any last fates, any less
Speaker 1: pirouettes to to sprinkle upon us about white Knights.
Speaker 2: Well, we open this bottle of capol. We gotta finish it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do them rules. Those are the rules. I
Speaker 1: didn't make them.
Speaker 2: I have a couple of fun like dance ones. So
Speaker 2: in the middle of the scene when the two men
Speaker 2: are in the in the workroom and they're kind of
Speaker 2: dancing around each other while they're arguing. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of karate Kid reminiscent moves.
Speaker 1: There is a lot of kicking.
Speaker 2: There's a lot, Yeah, there's a lot of It feels
Speaker 2: like Karate Kid came out right before this movie and
Speaker 2: they're like, you know what's hot right now?
Speaker 1: Karate karate is so hot right now.
Speaker 2: Genuinely, And I think Borshnakov's like, yeah, I do that.
Speaker 1: There's one point where like one of them they actually
Speaker 1: do like a little choreographed almost fight choreography, or one
Speaker 1: of them like ducks under a punch, the other one kicks.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm.
Speaker 2: Talking about, is that it is straight out of Karate Kid.
Speaker 2: It's very funny because they're like clearly like karate is
Speaker 2: in the zeitgeist and they were in Twila Tharp's like,
Speaker 2: Karate Karate. I'm seeing karate.
Speaker 1: I already I already sang the praises of the pilot.
Speaker 1: The pilot of the plane in this episode, he remained
Speaker 1: very calm during the plane crash. I appreciated that. I
Speaker 1: just want to call out one really excellent line that
Speaker 1: he has during it. Because they're they're getting closer to
Speaker 1: the ground, it's it's clear there's not enough space in
Speaker 1: the runway. His co pilot's like, we're gonna hit them,
Speaker 1: We're gonna hit them, and the pilot just goes, you're
Speaker 1: not wrong.
Speaker 2: Genuinely, like the best pilot I've ever seen on film.
Speaker 2: You're right. He crashed that plane and is like, we
Speaker 2: are going.
Speaker 1: To We're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: Another bit of excellent Barishnikoff dance moves. This truly is incredible. Well,
Speaker 2: they do a close up in the scene when he's
Speaker 2: in the theater and Galina's on the floor looking at
Speaker 2: the drawings and he's kind of dancing around her. They
Speaker 2: do a close up of his feet and he goes
Speaker 2: on point. He's in like he's either I can't remember
Speaker 2: barefoot in the scene, or he's wearing like like dance shoes.
Speaker 1: He's wearing like white sneakers, like.
Speaker 2: Or white sneakers something like that. Yeah, he's not wearing
Speaker 2: point shoes, is my point. He goes on point. He
Speaker 2: managed to do that, and then he bends his toes
Speaker 2: forward like back and he's on the front of his
Speaker 2: toes and he's dancing on the front of his toes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Ouch, And like the camera does a close up of it,
Speaker 2: so it's clearly like a Misha Barishnikov special. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: can do this, and it's really it looks really impressive
Speaker 2: when you when you see it, and it does because
Speaker 2: it's like, God, that looks so painful. But he's bouncing
Speaker 2: around on the fronts of his toes. Yeah, agreed, incredible, incredible.
Speaker 2: I just have one more and it's a line I
Speaker 2: really like in the movie. And I look, I hate
Speaker 2: to bring this into real world and everything, but I
Speaker 2: think it's important to like point this stuff out. Okay,
Speaker 2: So at the very beginning of the movie, when Raymond
Speaker 2: is arguing that the Soviet Union is better than the
Speaker 2: United States, and He's arguing back and he's like, well,
Speaker 2: you're a Soviet, Like, what are you talking about. He goes, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: Nick says, I am a Russian. I am not a Soviet. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's a difference. I'm proud of the culture I come from.
Speaker 2: I am not proud of what it has become. And
Speaker 2: I think just keeping that in the back of our
Speaker 2: heads currently no reason, no reason. But I am an
Speaker 2: American and I'm proud of the ideals that we purport.
Speaker 2: At the very least, I have to say, and so
Speaker 2: like the moments like that are like kind of beautiful
Speaker 2: and important to me.
Speaker 1: I agree, yeahah, very well said, I have a very
Speaker 1: stupid one to bring us back down.
Speaker 2: Love that love after everyone.
Speaker 1: So in the Last Big Dance, when they're dancing in
Speaker 1: Unison in the studio, we watch and it cuts away
Speaker 1: from the dance briefly and it cuts to Chiko watching them,
Speaker 1: but he is like kind of dancing along with them
Speaker 1: as he watches them on TV.
Speaker 2: And he's wearing his exercise outfits.
Speaker 1: An exercise outfit that makes him look like a Miami
Speaker 1: area senior citizen going on a run walk like it
Speaker 1: is so funny and weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like a running suit that you would wear
Speaker 2: in the eighties that in the eighties would not have
Speaker 2: seemed dumb and all. It just seems it seems so dumb.
Speaker 2: It's a windbreaker.
Speaker 1: It's so much windbreaker.
Speaker 2: It's a wind breakers as he walks like plastic pants,
Speaker 2: tearaway pants, but they're all like neon yellow. Oh man,
Speaker 2: the eighties.
Speaker 1: So so delicious, and the fact that they bothered to
Speaker 1: put that, like we know he's watching, so why why
Speaker 1: is this here?
Speaker 2: What is this accomplishing show that they are his entertainment like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, favorite.
Speaker 1: This is like workout video, they are his Richard Simmons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, Paul, how shall we rank white nights?
Speaker 1: How about one to ten? Instagram that I absolutely do
Speaker 1: not want on my feed.
Speaker 2: Listen algorithm, don't send me any more videos of tanned,
Speaker 2: shirtless men baking vanilla cupcakes and then eating them slowly
Speaker 2: into the camera. I don't want it. I don't have
Speaker 2: to be fair. I haven't gotten any of those yet. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but I don't want them. I'm putting that out there
Speaker 2: right now. I don't want it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to see a thick, hot ass man
Speaker 1: making a thong and then modeling it.
Speaker 2: Disgusting, gross, gross, indecent. Yes, do not send me hot
Speaker 2: women in their forties wearing nothing but underwear in a
Speaker 2: trench coat. I don't want it.
Speaker 1: Don't send me naked yogis whose bits and bobs are
Speaker 1: only covered by their thighs being extended in a certain way.
Speaker 2: Gross and absolutely no more videos of Pedro Pascal destroying
Speaker 2: my ovaries.
Speaker 1: Done.
Speaker 2: I don't want it. No more, no more, no more
Speaker 2: with that man. I've had it. I've hit my I've
Speaker 2: hit pak Pascal. How about one to ten Colonel Chico's resume.
Speaker 2: Oh items on Colonel Chico's resume, like.
Speaker 1: He was Megatron's aide de camp.
Speaker 2: How one of his hobbies is getting foiled by.
Speaker 1: The A team, Oh yes? Or how how he he
Speaker 1: once studied magic at the feet of Magic at the spel.
Speaker 2: Wow, good, deep good. How he's too busy staging a
Speaker 2: coup at the Rhythm Nation to be doing anything else.
Speaker 1: He is actually Gargamel's cousin. How about one to ten
Speaker 1: Knights that are so white.
Speaker 2: So white that they have a closet full of patagony.
Speaker 1: Vests, so so white that they give interviews after Shen
Speaker 1: Yung shows about how magical it is.
Speaker 2: So white that they need to speak to the manager.
Speaker 1: So white that they will sue at the drop of
Speaker 1: the hat. They will just suit.
Speaker 2: They will sue you right away, right away, blanket suing everyone.
Speaker 2: So white, Paul, they don't see.
Speaker 1: Colors, so white, they brag about having a black friend.
Speaker 1: Should you do this one?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So white?
Speaker 1: All right? Do you want to go first or should
Speaker 1: I go first in this one? All right? Spoiler alert?
Speaker 1: I think this age does really well. It doesn't have
Speaker 1: everything that we talk about. It spectacularly fails the Bechdel test.
Speaker 2: I think the only time two women talk to each
Speaker 2: other are when the actress from Porgy and Bess comes
Speaker 2: off stage and like grumbles to someone about Raymond being
Speaker 2: a show off. Yeah, and the other someone is a woman.
Speaker 2: But neither of those two are named.
Speaker 1: Correct, that's very possible. Pasha is named, but Pasha does
Speaker 1: not speak to anyone except Nick. So yeah, AND's obviously
Speaker 1: a much more supporting character. But the two main female
Speaker 1: roles in this are excellently drawn characters, I think, even
Speaker 1: though they don't interact with each other, played by two
Speaker 1: Oscar winners and an Oscar nominee. So like the juice
Speaker 1: is there. Yeah, there's no gay content. That is fine.
Speaker 1: This movie has enough on its mind. We're good.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's no gay context of what's happening in
Speaker 2: my brain. Yeah, when I'm watching the movie, except I'm
Speaker 2: watching those two.
Speaker 1: Dance, Except that mikaal Barishnikov dancing is fundamentally gay content.
Speaker 1: I know he's straight as an arrow.
Speaker 2: I don't care, except for the end of the movie
Speaker 2: when I'm like, kiss.
Speaker 1: Kiss, Kiss. But the movie it has like race with
Speaker 1: a capital R on its mind, I would say, and
Speaker 1: the sins of America and the sins of governments at large,
Speaker 1: and the sins of Russia. And it has a lot
Speaker 1: of big ideas that it's packaging in this kind of
Speaker 1: little bit of a silly way, right with these two dancers,
Speaker 1: and like, you know, but I appreciate that. I like
Speaker 1: that about it because it makes it makes the very
Speaker 1: serious stuff go down a little bit easier and you
Speaker 1: can be entertained by it as opposed to simply horrified
Speaker 1: by it. And it's still horrifying, to be clear, It
Speaker 1: just it. It's spoonful of sugar with the medicine. I
Speaker 1: liked that they talked a little bit when I was
Speaker 1: doing research on this. They talked a little bit about
Speaker 1: how they wanted to make a movie where like Russia
Speaker 1: was not portrayed as like just full of horrible people,
Speaker 1: and try to be like fair minded about the Russian
Speaker 1: and American governments. Look in nineteen eighty five, maybe that's
Speaker 1: what they did, because very clearly Raymond calls out the
Speaker 1: American government for the Shenanigans in Vietnam and the racism
Speaker 1: inherent in the American society. It is still absolutely the
Speaker 1: utopia that we are driving charts. In the movie, they
Speaker 1: make it very clear that the citizens of Russia are
Speaker 1: not the Soviets, to use the movie's parlance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, that there are good people working within this
Speaker 2: extremely bad system.
Speaker 1: Yes, And I do think they accomplish that. They don't
Speaker 1: make any apologies for the Russian government, but they don't
Speaker 1: implicate all of the citizens in it, which is pretty good.
Speaker 1: So yeah. Like I for the fact that it actually
Speaker 1: is a kind of complex movie, I don't think there's
Speaker 1: much to say about it because I think it I
Speaker 1: think it accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish fairly well.
Speaker 1: Like Gregory Hines is the only person of color in
Speaker 1: the movie, but he is the lead of the movie,
Speaker 1: and the fact that he is the only person of
Speaker 1: color in the movie is part of it. Yes, so
Speaker 1: it's not just we have our token black person here.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, there would only be one black person
Speaker 1: in Siberia.
Speaker 2: I'm curious now what the numbers are.
Speaker 1: So I loved this movie. I loved watching them dance.
Speaker 1: I loved watching them dance even more than I love
Speaker 1: the movie. Like the movie by itself is an eight.
Speaker 1: Them dancing is at seventeen, Like you were saying, it
Speaker 1: kind of resonates today and it maybe it kind of
Speaker 1: aged into something that we would have thought was very retrograde.
Speaker 1: I don't know, let's pull a number out of thin
Speaker 1: air eight years ago and now it feels much more
Speaker 1: of the moment. I'm gonna give it a nine out
Speaker 1: of ten nights that are that are so so white
Speaker 1: that they clap on the one in the three these
Speaker 1: nights they're so white.
Speaker 2: So white?
Speaker 1: Yeah, how about you it?
Speaker 2: So it does not pass the Bechdel test. As you said,
Speaker 2: there's like there's a damsel in distressedness to Daria's character
Speaker 2: that I don't love. Thank god that Galina is in
Speaker 2: the movie. Yeah, and Anne is in the movie, and
Speaker 2: Anne really does get relegated to like the background, but
Speaker 2: like at least they're there, because if the movie only
Speaker 2: had Daria is your female representation would have been real
Speaker 2: fucking annoyed, because it's wonderful as Isabella Rousselini is, like,
Speaker 2: there's just a there's a doe eyed innocence to that
Speaker 2: character that would drive me insane if that's the only woman.
Speaker 2: You're right, like, they do a good enough job of
Speaker 2: not being like yay America, boo Russia. But it is
Speaker 2: so American propaganda in this movie, and there is you
Speaker 2: know what I also I thought was interesting is that
Speaker 2: there is also a conversation in the movie, although it's
Speaker 2: not explicit about elitism across the political spectrum, of like
Speaker 2: ballet is an elite form of dance and tap is not.
Speaker 2: Because there's a line when Gregory Hines is first talking
Speaker 2: about like his life is a tap dancer, He's like,
Speaker 2: white people don't want to pay for tap. They don't
Speaker 2: pay one hundred dollars ticket prices to go see tap dancers,
Speaker 2: Like it's not an art form that makes money, which
Speaker 2: is why he had to get a second job, which
Speaker 2: is why he had to go into the military, because
Speaker 2: he didn't have the He couldn't make it as a
Speaker 2: tap dancer, whereas ballet is rarefied and ballet dancers tend
Speaker 2: to be white and tap dancers tend to be black.
Speaker 2: And I thought that was really interesting. It doesn't seem correct.
Speaker 2: But then I think about it, I'm like, yeah, I
Speaker 2: guess I don't really ever go see just tap dance
Speaker 2: much ever, Right.
Speaker 1: Like that's when bringing the noise, bringing to funk was
Speaker 1: such a thing, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like there are tap numbers in Broadway shows. Obviously
Speaker 2: there's you know, anything goes and uh, you know you
Speaker 2: were saying earlier, I haven't seen it yet. The Boop
Speaker 2: musical is all it's like a big tap showy tap
Speaker 2: dance thing they integrate it into. But I never I
Speaker 2: would go see a ballet. But I don't think i'd
Speaker 2: ever I've ever gone seat to see a tap show. Like,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that's even an option. I don't think
Speaker 2: so yeah much very often. But I think there is
Speaker 2: something inherently racist and the elitist about that. Like they're like,
Speaker 2: why is a tap not commonly shown to white, wealthy
Speaker 2: audiences ever? So they're like, the movie is smart, like
Speaker 2: it really like it even uses the language of dance
Speaker 2: to explain what's happening in the like in larger context.
Speaker 2: So I actually I do. I do think it ages
Speaker 2: pretty well. I don't know if it's at nine for me, Okay,
Speaker 2: Also because like in order to get these like really
Speaker 2: beautiful salient points across the movie, so Rinky Dinky in
Speaker 2: terms of its plot, and it's Chiko is the only
Speaker 2: person we meet of the like Russian like government in
Speaker 2: the film really real, like we like he has his underlings,
Speaker 2: he has like that guy who like turns on him
Speaker 2: at the end a little bit. But like there's no
Speaker 2: like they don't talk about the Russian president at the time,
Speaker 2: you know, there's no like, Yeah, it's just this like
Speaker 2: one guy's vendetta against this one ballet dancer. It feels
Speaker 2: like and it just is so rinky dink. And in
Speaker 2: terms of it being like American propaganda, sure it every
Speaker 2: Hollywood movie is. In a way, I'm almost fine with
Speaker 2: it because I'm like, yeah, what did I expect? But also,
Speaker 2: you know, the movie gets some shit right about the
Speaker 2: Soviet Union, and it gets some shit right about even
Speaker 2: current day Russia, and and.
Speaker 1: And it does get some shit right about America, and
Speaker 1: it gets some shit right about America. And I think
Speaker 1: when I'm watching it, I'm taking a lot of what
Speaker 1: saying about the Soviet government and seeing it reflected in
Speaker 1: certain policies of our current government, and like it's echoing
Speaker 1: in that way.
Speaker 2: In that way, yeah, it's not fair and balanced, but again,
Speaker 2: it is an American movie, so like you have to
Speaker 2: sort of go into it with your eyes open a
Speaker 2: little bit. Yeah, that's a tough one. You gave it
Speaker 2: a nine. Huh, I'm gonna give it. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 2: like pretty diverse, not pretty diverse, not diverse, but like
Speaker 2: a main character is a person of color. I do
Speaker 2: love movies about dance, so I'm just naturally gonna like
Speaker 2: inclined to give it more. The dancing is so good,
Speaker 2: by the way, Yeah, we really didn't talk about it.
Speaker 2: The dancing is so good. Like if this movie gave
Speaker 2: me fifteen more minutes of dance, I'd be thrilled, or
Speaker 2: an hour more of dance, I would still I would
Speaker 2: watch it happily, watch a three hour cut.
Speaker 1: If this movie was just a dance piece of ballet
Speaker 1: being men being melded with tap and they told the
Speaker 1: entire story through that, yes, with.
Speaker 2: No words, I would say, be a way better movie. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like way better movies.
Speaker 1: They should, they should. They should do that at at
Speaker 1: at the at the met next year or something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah that would work.
Speaker 2: New York Theater Workshop, get on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, are you listening.
Speaker 2: We have an idea and it's gold.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm going to give it an eight. Okay,
Speaker 2: eight out of ten. Knights that are so White. All
Speaker 2: his furniture comes from West elm Okay, I'm struggling with
Speaker 2: my like conflicted feelings about the propaganda of it all.
Speaker 2: But honestly, I think the movie is pretty fair and
Speaker 2: it's wonderful. Yeah, it's stupid, don't get me wrong. It's
Speaker 2: well a stupid, but it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: I feel like dance movies, the stupid is built in.
Speaker 1: You almost have to have us at least a sousson
Speaker 1: more than a sous a ladle of stupid. Yeah, on
Speaker 1: top of it, right, because I love dance. I love dance,
Speaker 1: but it's not serious.
Speaker 2: That's the thing that this movie actually succeeds in is
Speaker 2: that it doesn't treat dance that seriously. There's no sense
Speaker 2: that like he's going to dance his way into teaching
Speaker 2: these people about love.
Speaker 1: Right, you know what I mean? It doesn't go that far.
Speaker 2: Most dance we do or like we're gonna work out
Speaker 2: this beef on the dance floor, We're.
Speaker 1: Gonna stomp the yard. Do you want to offer a
Speaker 1: palate cleanser? No, me neither. Watch it. Watch this movie, heye.
Speaker 2: If you don't have the time to kill maybe there's
Speaker 2: a super cut on YouTube. Of all the dance movies.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, scenes, I would watch that. I would watch
Speaker 2: this out.
Speaker 1: Of that absolutely. I'll probably watch it tonight. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Erica. That is the end of this year show.
Speaker 1: Everyone listening can follow us on social media. We're on
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Speaker 2: That age Well is produced and edited by Paul Kayola, comrade,
Speaker 2: we would officially like to thank that is not Russian.
Speaker 2: I cannot do a Russian accent straight up. Literally, my
Speaker 2: brain doesn't know how to do one.
Speaker 1: I did learn in college. We did have it because
Speaker 1: you know, doing like you know, check off plays and
Speaker 1: stuff like jo do this in a Russian accent, even
Speaker 1: though that makes no sense.
Speaker 2: We made no checkof jokes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, we should have made one at the beginning
Speaker 2: of the episode and not followed through. That would have
Speaker 2: been the ultimate checkof joke. Motherfucker. You know what.
Speaker 1: We're recording this again, start again.
Speaker 2: We would like check off. Would like to thank Alicia
Speaker 2: and Josephine, Jeannette Vallo, Sarah Parker, Karen Amy, and Liz
Speaker 2: for reaching out and letting us know what you want
Speaker 2: to hear. If you, yes, you, I'm talking to you.
Speaker 2: If you want to have a say in the topics
Speaker 2: we discussed in the films we talk about. Join our Patreon.
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Speaker 1: Now is when we would normally have a thank you
Speaker 1: for one of our patrons. We don't have one of
Speaker 1: those today. But if you want to get on that list,
Speaker 1: you want to get in that thank you list. You
Speaker 1: want to you wanna get in the list, and ask
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Speaker 2: One of Paul's recipes.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he'll do that. Yeah, I have nothing.
Speaker 2: I have nothing to offer, but if you want something
Speaker 2: from me, just ask I'll probably.
Speaker 1: Do it, all right, Erica, any final thoughts on white Nights.
Speaker 2: Well, Paul, all I know is I'm gonna go smoke
Speaker 2: a pack of cigarettes and then do a thousand Valet moves.
Speaker 1: That's the plan.
Speaker 2: That's the plan, he says, this is I.
Speaker 1: Think this is where the Shaka Khan. I think this
Speaker 1: is where the Chaka Khan. Why am I saying Chaka Khan?
Speaker 2: Because you're so New York I like everyone's while in
Speaker 2: a New York A since slips through keep it.
Speaker 1: He asks, Wow. Wow, I think it's mama.