The Cars That Ate Paris

Summary

Blank Check Podcast: "The Cars That Ate Paris" (March 8, 2026)

Episode Overview

This episode launches a new miniseries exploring the films of Australian director Peter Weir. Hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims (with producer Ben Hosley) dive deep into Weir's 1974 debut feature The Cars That Ate Paris, unearthing its origins, tone, and legacy. They also reflect on the Australian New Wave, share personal stories, and chart out the future of their director-focused podcast adventures. The trademark Blank Check banter, running bits, and tangential asides are all here in force.

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1. Introduction: Setting the Tone & New Miniseries (00:01 – 05:50)

• Cold open riffing: Griffin gives a faux-gritty intro parodying the film’s small-town setting, with the hosts spinning out into jokes about shame and Michael Fassbender.
• Banter about episode delays due to dental surgery, travel mishaps, and Ben's tardiness—playful self-flagellation and inside humor.
• Official launch of the Peter Weir miniseries.
• Griffin and David discuss "Blank Check" concept: directors given creative freedom due to early success.

Key Quotes:

• [03:04] Griffin: "You're a dear friend and I'm sure you would never, ever try to run me off the road and take the intro."
• [05:51] Griffin: "A podcast about filmographies: directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want."

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2. Who Gets a Miniseries? "The Guys" Draft & Director March Madness (06:00 – 14:50)

• Recap of past Blank Check director brackets: hosts recall their favorite "candidates."
• Griffin and David swap picks and reflect on completed series (Lynne Ramsey, Tim Burton, Jane Campion, Danny Boyle, etc.), debate future candidates (Tony Scott, Jim Henson, Mike Leigh).
• Ben’s bracket picks discussed (Carpenter, Dickerson, Penelope Spheeris, Harmony Korine, Spike Jonze, Danny DeVito): affectionate ribbing about podcast scheduling and future plans.
• Shared excitement for the "Weir" bumper sticker bit (“Blank Check... Weir’d Again”).

Key Quote:

• [08:23] David: "The Archers. Powell and Pressburger. Would love to do them. Something that's a shared dream."

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3. Introducing Peter Weir & the Australian New Wave (15:00 – 35:00)

• "Podnick at Hanging Cast": the miniseries title.
• Griffin’s first exposure to The Cars That Ate Paris via TCM as a curious teen, expecting metaphor but encountering literal weirdness.
• David’s context: only watched the film after Mad Max: Fury Road came out, pointing out the iconic spiky cars’ influence.

Key Quotes:

• [15:45] Griffin: “Owner of one of the best titles in the history of film.”
• [21:20] David: “Because of the Mad Max connection...I was like, so this is going to be like a gnarly car movie about fucking gangs...and then it’s not quite that.”
• [22:51] David: "England is so derisive of all, like, former British colonies...in a way that's a little shocking sometimes."

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4. Peter Weir’s Background & Path to 'Cars That Ate Paris' (25:00 – 53:00)

• Weir’s childhood: Sydney suburbs, comics (The Phantom, Scrooge McDuck), no TV, love of movies and storytelling games.
• University drop-out; famous experience dissecting Blake’s poetry, which later influenced Dead Poets Society (“That's Dead Poets Society. Like, I put that into Dead Poets Society.” - [35:02] David).
• European travels; working random TV/doc jobs in Australia for 10,000-hour “apprenticeship.”
• Early shorts and anthology film (Three to Go).
• Transition from comedy/sketch to film: trip to London; meeting Ken Russell and Alfred Hitchcock, witnessing Monty Python’s TV revolution (“He sees Monty Python and he’s like, these guys are pretty good. I’m not going to do anything remotely approaching this.” - [49:06] David).

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5. Genesis & Making of The Cars That Ate Paris (53:20 – 56:30)

• Idea arises from Weir’s eerie detour on a misty French road, sparking the “town that engineers car crashes” premise.
• Script development with Keith Gao & Piers Davies: a comedy morphing into a “thriller with an underlying social comment on capitalist way life and motor cars...But above all, I want to make an entertaining story.”
• Context: Australia’s film industry was nearly dead, but government initatives (Australian Film Development Corporation) rebooted funding.
• Small budget, backwater shoot in New South Wales, and the learning experience of pitching & promoting a genre-defying movie.

Key Quotes:

• [56:03] Griffin: “Not you have to make a movie with a poster in mind first but a little bit..."
• [55:06] Ben: “His vibe is beef tallow.”

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6. The Film: Plot, Tone, and Cast (62:00 – 71:00)

• Terry Camilleri (Arthur) in his debut—later Napoleon in Bill & Ted, also appears in The Truman Show.
• The central set-up: a quiet man, ensnared by a seemingly normal, insular town with a deadly secret.
• The mayor (John Meillon)—cartoonish, classy, and morally bankrupt.
• Early crashes set the uneasy tone; ambiguity about whether the accidents are engineered.
• Arthur’s passivity: “He's a really passive character. He's really quiet, and he kind of goes with the flow...doesn't feel like he's trying to solve a Mystery.” - [70:45] Griffin

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7. Themes, Visuals & Cultural Context (72:00 – 92:00)

• The film as an allegory: small-town fear, generational divides, and Australia’s struggle for identity.
• The Mad Max connection: Bruce Spence's presence (gyrocopter pilot in Road Warrior) and proto-Mad Max car aesthetics ("spiky cars").
• Young people's chaos vs. older townsfolk’s hypocrisy; both groups complicit in violence, but only one pretends civility.
• Extended digression comparing the movie's commentary to both Australia’s history and America’s current moment for generational/cultural stasis.

Key Quotes:

• [89:19] Griffin: "...through line in all of his movies of this sort of, like, clash of cultures that is very in conversation with the weird short history of Australia..."
• [91:47] Griffin: “Everyone’s doing the exact same thing and they’re having a philosophical disagreement—being hedonist and owning the chaos versus...etiquette.”

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8. Legacy: Release, Cuts, and Influence (103:08 – 106:51)

• Released in Australia, then recut and released in America as The Cars That Eat People by New Line, losing about 15 minutes and adding narration (Weir: not thrilled).
• Influence on Roger Corman ("Death Race 2000") and, via proxy, Mad Max.
• Picnic at Hanging Rock developed simultaneously; both films together launch Weir into international prominence.

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9. Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Michael Fassbender’s penis as a running shame gag ([01:41] Griffin)
• Blank Check scheduling tribulations ([04:31] Griffin: “The first time it was bumped...my third dental surgery in 12 months.”)
• Bumper sticker bit ([08:28] David: “Like, they better come in. Really? Are we charging $400 per bumper sticker?”)
• Griffin explaining his non-drinking of milk since age five ([75:22] Griffin: "Oh cool, I’m never drinking milk again.").
• Extended Bruce Spence appreciation ([86:03] Griffin: “He’s in the good P.J. Hogan Peter Pan...He rules. And you should have been excited the first time I brought him up.”)

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10. Box Office Game & 70s Context (107:00-117:50)

• The hosts play the Box Office Game for June 1976, the U.S. release of The Cars That Ate Paris as The Cars That Eat People.
• Notable titles: Mother, Jugs & Speed, All The President’s Men, The Missouri Breaks, Jackson County Jail, Lipstick—a grimy, edgy 70s lineup that mirrors the roughness of Weir's debut.

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11. Closing & What’s Next (118:10 – End)

• Next episode: Picnic at Hanging Rock, with filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun as guest.
• Future plans: "Weir Train," Mandalorian commentary, Griffin’s plan to binge live-action Star Wars series for an upcoming Gethard episode.
• The usual sign-off: reminders to rate, review, subscribe, and upcoming schedule teases.

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• [15:45] Griffin: “Owner of one of the best titles in the history of film.”
• [21:20] David: “Because of the Mad Max connection...I was like, so this is going to be like a gnarly car movie about gangs, and then it's not quite that.”
• [49:06] David: "One reason he says he moves away from comedy is when he's in London, he sees Monty Python and he's like, these guys are pretty good. Yeah. I'm not going to do anything remotely approaching this."
• [91:52] Griffin: "The commentary is that everyone's doing the exact same thing and they're having a philosophical disagreement about...owning the chaos versus putting on airs. Which I think is very in line with...hostilely taking over a country, pushing the indigenous people aside and then being like, and we are a society of manners."

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Recap for the Uninitiated

This episode is rich in context for both Australian film history and cult genre movies. It’s also a textbook example of Blank Check’s tone: reverent but irreverent, research-driven but highly digressive, full of running inside jokes and genuine cinephile passion. Even if you’ve never seen The Cars That Ate Paris or heard of Peter Weir, the hosts make a case for why this weird, jagged little film matters.

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Want to Prep for Picnic at Hanging Rock?

Stay tuned: the genuinely acclaimed Picnic at Hanging Rock is next—Blank Check tradition is to dig even deeper.

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Blank Check with Griffin & David – “The Cars That Ate Paris” Main theme: A town’s weird relationship to violence, cars, and modernity, launching Peter Weir’s career and sparking waves in Australian (and global) cinema.

Transcript

[Griffin Newman]

Blank check with Griffin and David. Blank check with Griffin and David. Don't know what to say or to expect. All you need to know is that the name of the shadow is Blackjack. 148 people live in the township of podcast, and every one of them is a murderer. Where exactly is podcast? What kind of people live there? What are they trying to hide? Why do cars mean so much to them? What are these cars? They're the cars that ate podcast.

[David Sims]

So the town's podcast, but the people are also podcasts at the end of the day.

[Griffin Newman]

What in what I just said. Yeah, you're wrong. I in fact kept the word people.

[David Sims]

No, but you said it's the cars that a podcast. I guess instead of Paris.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. The only word I was subbing out was Paris.

[David Sims]

Good job.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you.

[Ben Hosley]

Damn it.

[David Sims]

All right.

[Griffin Newman]

So clean as hell.

[Ben Hosley]

I All right.

[Griffin Newman]

Trying to fucking logic police me. My logic's airtight.

[David Sims]

I said.

[Ben Hosley]

Actually, before we start thinking about recording, I showed up very late to today's recording session, and I checked with Griffin.

[David Sims]

David, this has been.

[Griffin Newman]

You don't introduce the show.

[David Sims]

I just did it.

[Griffin Newman]

What is happening?

[Ben Hosley]

Well, that's what I'm saying. We needed to just provide some context that I was quite, quite late and I am shaming myself currently at this moment.

[Griffin Newman]

Shame.

[Ben Hosley]

Shame on me.

[David Sims]

God, Steve McQueen must be here.

[Griffin Newman]

Shame on you.

[David Sims]

He made a film called Shame.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. Oh, wait a second. Knock, knock, knock. Ding dong.

[David Sims]

Oh, no. Who could it be?

[Griffin Newman]

It's Michael Fassbender's giant flaccid penis. And he's here to shame you, Ben.

[David Sims]

Faint Shame. Wow. I almost said fame. This is his penis.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I do mine?

[David Sims]

I was trying to do like, you know, kind of cheap flapping.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I do my impression of it?

[David Sims]

Yeah, go ahead. These are such outdated jokes. Fassbender dick jokes. Jesus, it's 2026, guys.

[Griffin Newman]

This is how we start a new miniseries.

[David Sims]

It's great.

[Ben Hosley]

So, yes, we're kicking off a new miniseries. David noted me and I. I'm sorry, I wasn't noting.

[Griffin Newman]

You tried to me doing the intro. Ben Shames himself. We all do impressions of Fassbender's penis. Just the sound.

[David Sims]

Well, I mean, what else is there to do an impression.

[Griffin Newman]

And this is why we're not going to video.

[David Sims]

And this is why. Listen up, venture capital.

[Griffin Newman]

I know you all want to see David's impression of the whale poster.

[David Sims]

You do, and believe me.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, can I take a picture fast enough?

[Ben Hosley]

It's too late.

[David Sims]

Did you get it?

[Griffin Newman]

No.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

My phone was Front facing. Fuck.

[David Sims]

Why was your phone front?

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know. Ben slept in.

[David Sims]

Okay, well, I want to say a few things, but first I want you to just introduce this podcast right away.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, that's so kind of you to suggest. You're a dear friend and I'm sure you would never, ever try to run me off the road and take the intro.

[David Sims]

Just anxious because it's a new. New miniseries.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, that's why we're starting off strong.

[Ben Hosley]

We're starting off so strong.

[David Sims]

I'm wearing all of my clothes backwards.

[Griffin Newman]

Ben has shoes on his hands and gloves on his feet. He's got. It's. It's quite cold outside, so he's wearing a beanie on his butt and long johns on his head. It's quite a sight to see, my friends.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, my face is coming out of like the little back porthole Y. Yep, yep.

[Griffin Newman]

It's really good. And once again, this is why we're not going to video, because it's theater of the mind.

[David Sims]

What's the podcast called?

[Griffin Newman]

The podcast is called Blank Check with Griffin and David and thank you. It's a very professional podcast. It is rigid, it is formal. It, of course, is, according to Time magazine, one of the 100 greatest podcasts of all time. Do you think they'll listen to this and rescind it?

[David Sims]

Yeah, take us off.

[Ben Hosley]

And you know what? We were at a pretty tight ship.

[Griffin Newman]

We do.

[Ben Hosley]

And I'm not actually certain what a tight ship is.

[David Sims]

I'm going to say when I look

[Ben Hosley]

around, I say, yep, I'm going to push back.

[David Sims]

And let me tell you why.

[Griffin Newman]

A ship can both be tight and riddled with holes. We are doing today two separate things.

[David Sims]

We're recording an episode that was originally, I think, scheduled sometime in like October or November.

[Griffin Newman]

The first time it was bumped. It was bumped because I had had my like, third dental surgery in 12 months.

[David Sims]

Yes, you bumped it then.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Then it was scheduled for a couple days ago. You bumped it again.

[Griffin Newman]

Ben and I had just flown back from LA the night before you agreed

[David Sims]

to the scheduling of it when you knew you were traveling.

[Griffin Newman]

That's optimistic. Here's another thing I do. I book travel and I'm like, yeah, I'll take a 6am flight.

[David Sims]

I said, this is a bad idea.

[Griffin Newman]

You correct. But I always think that tomorrow is the first day of me being the most high functioning man in the world.

[David Sims]

Finally, today is. It's time to record this episode. Then Ben's an hour late because he slept in.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

So I really feel like this episode. Yeah, right.

[Griffin Newman]

I was doing the Fast Bender Slenders.

[David Sims]

Oh, God.

[Griffin Newman]

This has been the episode that felt impossible for a little while.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Which is dumb because it's like a guest free episode about a. A rather sort of small short movie. But that's why just the beginning of things.

[Griffin Newman]

It's easy to just spike it over the. In my opinion, next week's problem.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Well, again, this is a mindset. I don't. But okay. All right. So there's my little shame. That's my shame. Fingers been pointed and wagged and.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I shame you for a second?

[David Sims]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Griffin Newman]

It's time for me to introduce the podcast. It's called Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin.

[David Sims]

Sorry, I'm David.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a podcast about. Filmography is directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce, baby. We are finally kicking off our miniseries on the great Peter Weir, one of your favorite filmmakers. One of your pet projects, I would

[David Sims]

say more a pet project than a favorite filmmaker. Obviously. He is a filmmaker I like a lot and he's made a lot of movies I've made, but I've just.

[Griffin Newman]

He's made a lot of movies that

[David Sims]

you have made that I've made that I've liked. But he. I have long just also looked at him as like a perfect blank check. Perfect blank check candidate because of the variety of movies he made. Like the kind of the genres you love.

[Griffin Newman]

An app sampler platter director.

[David Sims]

I love a genre Hopper.

[Griffin Newman]

You're just boils your on leaves.

[David Sims]

I love a poo poo platter.

[Griffin Newman]

I feel like those are the ones you love to push. Can I ask you now that we're is happening, who is your next.

[David Sims]

Someone else asked me this question and I couldn't tell them the answer. Someone asked me that. They're like, okay, you got Weir over the line. That's where that has been your. And I was like, fuck. I don't know. I. I. Do you. I mean, like, I feel like I.

[Griffin Newman]

I have in my head who. I thought you would say, is it Tony Scott time?

[David Sims]

Oh, that would be good.

[Griffin Newman]

But he's the opposite.

[David Sims]

He's the opposite.

[Griffin Newman]

He is the opposite.

[David Sims]

He could not shake his inherent right, you know, like which I feel like

[Griffin Newman]

the Griff picks are usually a person who does one distinctive thing so fucking well that I love and can't get from anyone else.

[David Sims]

Puppet man.

[Griffin Newman]

Excuse me.

[David Sims]

Sorry, Jim Henson.

[Griffin Newman]

That many should be comprised of two puppet men, one of whom eventually put the puppets down.

[David Sims]

My.

[Griffin Newman]

The ones I've. The ones I've pushed over the line up until now as well, are, like, Lynn Ramsey. Tim Burton. Tim Burton, certainly. Yes.

[David Sims]

Like. Okay, so when we did the. You know, we did our March Madness tournament a few years ago where we each got.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, this is a good guys, right? Yep.

[David Sims]

So the guys in my region.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Let's see how many of them have done.

[David Sims]

Three of them. Okay, so we've done Peter Weir.

[Griffin Newman]

It's happening now.

[David Sims]

Jane Campion and Danny Boyle. Right. Those were three guys on my. My list.

[Griffin Newman]

Give me your other five.

[David Sims]

Karen Kusama, who you know was an eighth seed and she's making another movie, I hear. You know, we could do her someday.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, she might be on the bracket this year.

[David Sims]

Can't remember. No, because she beat Peter Weir, Remember?

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, right. Weird. Weird.

[David Sims]

The Archers.

[Griffin Newman]

And by the way, we're gonna make it. Weir. This whole miniseries.

[David Sims]

The Archers. Powell and Press Burger.

[Ben Hosley]

Blank check. Weird again.

[Griffin Newman]

Yep. David, you're unhappy right now, but think about how happy you're gonna be when those bumper sticker sales come in.

[David Sims]

They better come in high.

[Griffin Newman]

Keep.

[David Sims]

Like, they better come in. Really? Are we charging $400 per bumper sticker? What's our plan here?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, premium.

[David Sims]

Do Catch. Do a catchphrase too many times on podcast. Create bumper sticker, question mark profit.

[Griffin Newman]

Ben and I covered in flop sweat.

[Ben Hosley]

They're.

[Griffin Newman]

They're really premium. Look how shiny we used hollows.

[David Sims]

Powell and Press Burger. Would love to do them. Something that's a shared dream. Yeah, exactly.

[Griffin Newman]

That's.

[David Sims]

That's not quite a.

[Griffin Newman]

That's meeting in the middle.

[David Sims]

Wong car y. Probably the closest answer I have to your question. Steve McQueen. I'm kind of disinterested in Steve McQueen right now. I haven't loved the last couple things he made. Mike Lee maybe my true answer. But, you know, a hefty lift. A big filmography. A guy who, you know, made challenging movies. Big. Ish film.

[Griffin Newman]

My big takeaway from Burton is if I'm pushing my guys up a hill. Tight series, right?

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Burton really asked a lot where I'm like, double up. The Keatons. Lynn Ramsey's five. Okay. Wait, is that the rest of you? Did you.

[David Sims]

That's it.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[David Sims]

Who's on yours?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Yes, please.

[David Sims]

He asks very reasonable question.

[Griffin Newman]

And I said please like a gentleman.

[David Sims]

Thank you. That's a big thing in my house right now, so thank you.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, you're teaching the please and thank yous.

[David Sims]

Well, we've been trying to teach it for a very long time. Feels like there's been been some backsliding

[Griffin Newman]

from the boss baby.

[David Sims]

Yes. For my daughter. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, to be fair, time is money.

[David Sims]

I know, but she's on the bottom. But maybe she doesn't need to as she's almost five point at her water bottle and go empty. Maybe she could say please can you get me some water? Something along those lines.

[Griffin Newman]

That's kind of funny.

[David Sims]

And I go like what was that? And she goes, it's empty. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I wasn't asking for meaning. I was asking for maybe a different wave, different tone.

[Griffin Newman]

That is how the boss baby would act though. That's some swimming with sharks shit.

[David Sims]

Your your guys. So some as with, you know, some of your guys. We've now done. We've now done Martin Breast, we've now done Lynn Ramsey and we've now done Buster Keaton. Your remaining guys that you had on

[Griffin Newman]

your wild that this is like an even balance of it is.

[David Sims]

This is the job we do, right?

[Griffin Newman]

This is the job we do. They people think they pay us for the podcast. No, no, they pay us for the

[David Sims]

schedule you had Terence Malik, I think also a bit of a shared one for us.

[Griffin Newman]

I'd love to do and. And one that we've come close to. We'll do it sometimes we've thrown them on the spreadsheet.

[David Sims]

Where's my Jesus movie, Terry?

[Griffin Newman]

That's the real thing.

[David Sims]

Where's my Jesus?

[Ben Hosley]

He's making a Jesus movie.

[David Sims]

He's been making it for 10 years.

[Griffin Newman]

Ben.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh.

[Griffin Newman]

Principal photography wrapped February. February. February 2020.

[David Sims]

Oh shit.

[Griffin Newman]

It is the last completed unreleased film shot entirely in the before times.

[David Sims]

He's been tinkering away at it ever

[Griffin Newman]

since cuz the guy doesn't really do reshoots. Presumably he has shot no post Covid footage.

[David Sims]

No, I think he's just.

[Griffin Newman]

He's just in the edit for finding his rhythms. But I just love that there's one movie that is still from the before times that we haven't seen and so

[David Sims]

maybe that will be the moment for Terry. You've. We've also got 70s Altman of course long a pet product Feud Cassavetes similar Joe Dante who We are always in this liminal thing. I think again a guy we both kind of want to do but we're just like could he just make another movie, please?

[Griffin Newman]

I transparently hate his. You don't like film and I don't want to End on it.

[David Sims]

And then Preston Sturgis, another say, shared one, but a fun, exciting one. Ben, by the way of your guys. We have only done.

[Griffin Newman]

Ben won this year in Mar.

[Ben Hosley]

With John Carpenter, a very, very strong contender. Yeah, my number one.

[Griffin Newman]

See, when we put the bracket together, we were immediately like, Carpenter probably takes this. Yeah, Ben's. Ben's winning.

[Ben Hosley]

The other picks, I don't know if they're at the top of the list.

[David Sims]

David S. Ward, I feel is never going to happen.

[Griffin Newman]

We've ruled him out.

[David Sims]

We're kind of doing him piecemeal.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

Do Major league.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I.

[David Sims]

We'll do Major league on Patreon.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I see if I can guess the other ones, if I can remember correctly.

[Ben Hosley]

Go ahead.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay. So. So David S. Ward Carpenter. Ernest Dickerson. I remember vividly being in there.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes, correct.

[Griffin Newman]

Penelope Spherus.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Harmony Corinne, I assume.

[David Sims]

Of course, Harmony Corinne.

[Griffin Newman]

Spike.

[David Sims]

Spike Jones.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, Spike Jones.

[David Sims]

Another guy where I'm kind of like, can he make one more thing? Like it's, you know.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, it would be.

[Ben Hosley]

That's what it feels like.

[Griffin Newman]

It would be nice. At this point, we'd probably have to combine Spike Jones and Charlie Kaufman. Sure.

[David Sims]

But that, that's kind of fun.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it's kind of fun, but Spike's just working too infrequently.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I, I feel like you dropped Link later at the last second or was he on there?

[David Sims]

Linklater was not on. Okay.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Mike Judge was correct.

[Ben Hosley]

Correct.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[David Sims]

The other one. I do not. Did not remember that Ben picked this guy.

[Ben Hosley]

One more.

[Griffin Newman]

There's one more now. Oh, Danny DeVito. Yeah.

[David Sims]

How do you remember that one? I didn't remember that was a Ben guy.

[Griffin Newman]

I remember anything Ben has ever done. Well, there you go.

[Ben Hosley]

Thanks. I mean, and DeVito, I would say, out of the whole bunch, feels like the one. That would be something we could do eventually as a, like a palate cleanser between it's miniseries.

[Griffin Newman]

It's fun.

[Ben Hosley]

It's a nice little like four movie short little series.

[Griffin Newman]

I would love to do it as, as, as a shorty, as friend of my life, friend of the show. Past and future guest Sarah Rubin said. Danny DeVito, short series for a short man.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. And then there's some good stuff in the guest region.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I've never done any of those.

[Griffin Newman]

We've done none of them. Oliver Stone, Jackie Chan, Joe Johnston, Kelly Reichert, Gore Verbinski, of course. That's five. And then the other three would have been. I'm trying to remember who we asked. Yoshida picked. Oh, Wait, did someone pick Wolfgang Peterson?

[David Sims]

Richard Lawson did.

[Griffin Newman]

Richard Lawson did Yoshida picked? Huh? Tell me. I'm blanking.

[David Sims]

Coron, who is a big issue to favorite. And then JD Matta picked Jack Dati, of course.

[Griffin Newman]

Obviously dumb.

[David Sims]

Haven't done any of those dumb for me.

[Griffin Newman]

Not put those together. Peter Weir is finally happening.

[David Sims]

Peter Weir is finally happening. And what is the title of this miniseries, Griffin?

[Griffin Newman]

The title of the miniseries is Podnik at Hanging Cast.

[David Sims]

That's so true.

[Griffin Newman]

That is of course his guarantor. But it's a weird case where this is his first film and yet Podnik. Excuse me, Picnic at Hanging Cast happens kind of like irrelevant of this.

[David Sims]

It does. That's true. We will discuss that on this episode.

[Griffin Newman]

He doesn't begin developing this picnic when he has finished the script for this movie and is prepping it based off his short film work.

[David Sims]

That's right. And we can delve into all of that. But today on Podnick at Hanging Cast, we are of course discussing his first theatrical film and Cars that Ate Paris.

[Griffin Newman]

Gonna say owner of one of the best titles in the history of film.

[David Sims]

It's a good title and it's a more literal title than you'd think with a title like that.

[Griffin Newman]

Here is my history with this movie. I'm a movie obsessed teenager. Can you believe it?

[David Sims]

We need some like, you know, fucking ass Woody Allen music over this, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Like some like dream gershman ass Woody Allen music. Like a clarinet played via butt.

[David Sims]

You know, I'm a child in New York. I love the movies, you know, I can't. I can't do it.

[Griffin Newman]

The. The digital set top box takes over for cable.

[David Sims]

Okay, sure, yeah. Kind of TiVo esque device is what you're referring to.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. And there's now also the ability to like scroll through the. The digital guide. The guide Y. And so what I do every day when I come home from school is I check out the next week of TCM programming.

[David Sims]

Very, very, very good little cinephile.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you. Because I'm getting activated and I'm like, what's the furthest I can go ahead in the schedule and mark to record anything that feels like a good watch? And I'm going like, oh, paper moon. Da da da da da. Oh this, oh that right? And then I'm like, the Cars that ate Paris.

[David Sims]

Num num num.

[Griffin Newman]

I see that title. I hit record family dinner. I go to my parents here. I. I did hit record Joseph. I go to my family dinner table and I say to my parents, I just found like the movie with the weirdest title of all time on tcm.

[David Sims]

You're not going to believe it. It's called the Cars that Ate Paris.

[Griffin Newman]

I guess they're playing some weird junky like, genre movie. That must be what this is. And my parents were sort of true. But then my parents were like, that's Peter Weir's debut film.

[David Sims]

Well, they knew.

[Griffin Newman]

And I'm like, Peter Weir, the director of Master and Commander, who at that point I just think of as like Tony Awardsy.

[David Sims]

Sure, you probably knew him for Dead Poets, Truman Show, Master Commander.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm like, this is like a sophisticated grown up director who makes like popular films that are smart and literate. And so then I go, oh, the title must be metaphorical.

[David Sims]

Right, Right, right. When you say the Cars Ate Paris.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. This isn't going to be like a Roger Corman movie. I'll watch it and it will be about like a divorce. And for whatever reason, that's the title. And then I watch it and I'm like, oh, it is. It is actually about a town called Paris. It's not Paris, France. It's a fictional Paris in Australia

[David Sims]

and

[Griffin Newman]

a town where cars kind of eat up everything.

[David Sims]

So you watched this as a teenager, eh? Correct. Because I didn't.

[Griffin Newman]

I did.

[David Sims]

I'd never seen it until Mad Max Fury Road came out, which has the spiky cars. And people were like, ah. As you might know, that is an homage to fellow Australian new wave, you know, you know, peer Peter Weir in his first film. And I was like, oh, yeah, right. I guess I've heard. You know, And I like, when I was a teen, when I was in college, I famously did a course of New Zealand cinema. And I had dug deep into that, but I've never really dug into.

[Griffin Newman]

Play some Peter ass music.

[David Sims]

Well, except he's from Australia.

[Griffin Newman]

Say Peter Jackson. I up the whole thing. I should have said, ask Peter Jackson music. Also, what does Peter Jackson music sound like? Howard Shore.

[David Sims]

You're. You're lost, right?

[Griffin Newman]

I'm lost.

[David Sims]

And I'm not going to help you

[Griffin Newman]

go on with your story.

[David Sims]

I'm good. Well, I'm gonna open the dossier.

[Griffin Newman]

Actually, I was going to say, yeah, but no.

[David Sims]

So I didn't watch until then. And I. And I think I. I sort of checked it off, them being like, all right, I've never seen Peter worse.

[Griffin Newman]

When we cover George Miller, it was a pre JJ Era. A much lighter, easier era for us. Right.

[David Sims]

JJ Our researcher who sucks. Hate.

[Griffin Newman]

He sucks.

[David Sims]

He's great. We love him.

[Griffin Newman]

He's like the ass Woody Allen. Music of men, I was gonna say. Look, JJ has done the podcast a great service with his research, and when we did George Miller, we didn't have his help.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

He just makes our lives a lot more difficult because we have the added burden of needing to fire him every day.

[David Sims]

It's a lot of paperwork.

[Griffin Newman]

It's so people don't understand. Our HR department is. Is like, literally on fire, trying to process the firing and rehiring every other day.

[David Sims]

Well, it's just a gerbil that Ben has. That's our hr. We just stuff the papers in there and he just shreds them, which is, you know, great for the gerbil. He's building like a nest. But it's no good for us because

[Griffin Newman]

then we have to hire an assistant to the gerbil, has to tape the papers back together and file them. In theory, we should fire the gerbil. The gerbil's kind of the bottleneck of the.

[Ben Hosley]

No, we can't fire the gerbils in a union.

[David Sims]

Intricate system we've developed.

[Griffin Newman]

Close friend of his. And it's like a whole interpersonal mass. What I was going to say, J.J. yes. It's the kind of context we probably would have had had JJ worked on the show in the George Miller era. But George Miller, like, basically fully cites this movie as the thing inspiring him to make Mad Max.

[David Sims]

Right? Because when he makes Mad Max, it's because he was out there doing like, kind of DIY ambulance work or whatever, piecing together a little bit of money, making this movie over the course of.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's both seeing Peter Weir and being like, this guy's from Australia. He just went out and made this.

[David Sims]

Right? I can do this too, maybe.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. There's the sort of like kind of Richard Linklater slacker slacker style activation that happened for a lot of young American filmmakers in the 90s. But also he sees, like, spiky cars and he's like, fuck, what room an entire movie out of.

[David Sims]

But that's the thing. Because of the Mad Max connection and because of the Aussie new wave Aussie Ozploitation, you know, rep. I was like, right, so this is going to be like a gnarly car movie about fucking gangs and shit. It'll be mad maxi. And then it's not quite that.

[Griffin Newman]

It's an odd film.

[David Sims]

It's an odd little sort of social comedy.

[Griffin Newman]

I like it a lot.

[David Sims]

With a bit of car, you know, antics. A bit.

[Griffin Newman]

Quite a bit.

[David Sims]

I mean, it is Solid amount.

[Griffin Newman]

It's like the core of the movie.

[David Sims]

But it has way more, like, fusty Australian guys than, like, Mad Mad Max does. I feel they both have Bruce Spence.

[Griffin Newman]

Of course, I joke that you think of and talk about Australia, the continent, as if it is really the world of Mad Max at all times. But in reality, I feel like this movie is what you think Australia is like. You're like, there's crazy, spiky, crashing cars sometimes, not all the time sometimes.

[David Sims]

Well, and also, I think I have. I, I. We talk about this a little bit on the next episode because we just recorded that one. I was raised in England, and I, like, I think I have, like, their prejudices. You guys relax towards Australia coded into me in a way that surprises me sometimes. Does that make sense? You know, England is so derisive of all, like, former British colonies or, like, you know, whatever vassal states in a way that, like, is a little shocking sometimes.

[Griffin Newman]

The one time you activate, like, grandpa who fought in Vietnam mode, and you're like, the.

[David Sims]

Is this the thing?

[Griffin Newman]

Where's this coming?

[David Sims]

The thing, remember, was my father, who was a very, like, tolerant and liberal man. His disdain for the Welsh, I shouldn't laugh because it's not like he was, like, racist, because, of course, the Welsh, it's a very tiny nation of people, you know, attached to England that are very obviously, you know, very, very similar in many ways. But he had this, like, little kind of like, oh, they're so silly. You know, where I was just like, what did they ever do to you? You've never, like, had a bad experience with Wel. And he. It was clearly just from his childhood. Like, it had been like, you know, drilled into him, like, oh, well, the Welsh are very silly. You know.

[Griffin Newman]

One of my favorite bits in Austin Power.

[David Sims]

Yes. I mean, that's, that's what it's making.

[Griffin Newman]

There are only two things I truly hate. People who are intolerant of other races and cultures. And the Dutch.

[David Sims]

And the Dutch. I do 100 what he's making fun of just that thing of just, like. Also, it's like, you're English. You don't get to have this opinion, you know, like, you, you need to sit down.

[Griffin Newman]

But that's why I'm saying this movie feels closer to your perception of the Australians because it's like sometimes they're wearing a mayor sash and being like, we run a proper town and this is

[David Sims]

a normal town where nothing weird happens.

[Griffin Newman]

Swastikas in it and they got ropes pulling.

[David Sims]

I'm gonna open the dossier.

[Griffin Newman]

Please do, Ben. I assume you had not seen this before.

[Ben Hosley]

No.

[Griffin Newman]

Did you like this?

[Ben Hosley]

I did.

[Griffin Newman]

Feels like a.

[David Sims]

It's very weird, though.

[Griffin Newman]

It's.

[David Sims]

It's weird. It's a little. It's got a weird energy. It's got like a weird pace to it. That again, doesn't suggest exploitation movie. Exactly right.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a little weird.

[David Sims]

Boy, oh, boy. Boy, oh, boy, oh boy. So, Peter, Lindsay.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, interesting.

[David Sims]

Lindsay. We're like from Freaks and geeks.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, JJ's rehired. That's the kind of we wouldn't have found out on our own.

[David Sims]

His middle name seems to be from his cool that his father was Lindsay Weir as well. So his father was this kind of like disaffected Michigan teenager in like an army jacket. That's interesting again. Lindsay weir was born 1944, Sydney, Australia.

[Griffin Newman]

The capital.

[David Sims]

The capital. No, Canberra is the capital, but Sydney is the biggest.

[Griffin Newman]

The capital.

[David Sims]

Canberra. Canberra. I'm sorry, I apologize to all listeners if I fuck up Australian pronunciations. I believe Canberra, which I'm sure I'm saying wrong right now, is one of those classic, like, shibboleth words for Australian accent, you know, like shibboleth words. You know, like a shibboleth is like, oh, for fuck's sake. I now have to explain. This is. It's from the Bible. It's like a password that you would say to prove your faith. It's like, what's the inglorious bastards? Where he holds up like. If you say Canberra wrong, which I think I am continually. It's like one of those words that you say a little differently.

[Griffin Newman]

I think it's pronounced Cthulhu.

[David Sims]

Anyway, his dad is a real estate agent, served in Australian for the Australian army in World War II as an air raid warden. But obviously Weir was born in 44, so near the end of the war. Both sides of his family are from Scotland, from the United Kingdom mostly. But they were Australian through and through. They were not like backwards looking. They were fourth generation immigrants. So, you know, very, very deeply Australian. He remembers at a certain point trying to dig through his family history just out of interest, and was kind of astonished that, like, they didn't have records on where they came from, where all this. And he feels like this is an Australian phenomenon. He's like, I've asked lots of Australian what records they have, and it's kind of like, no, they left their past like tabula rasa. We left where we came from. Records are gone. We left our myths behind. He says it helps me understand why Many of our films are period films. Why Australian audiences are so drawn to them because of this need for myth. We don't have lineage to be snobbish about.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[David Sims]

Like it's like kind of we're rebooting all interesting. Moved around throughout his childhood, mostly in the Sydney area. It seems they settled in a place called Vaucluse. Not sure. Eastern suburb of Sydney. So his. His dad was a real estate agent again. So they would keep like flipping houses. He was kind of a house flipper. No television. Pre TV kind of generation. So he says he grew up on the streets bouncing balls around and I don't know, the gang of kids running about and jumping on trams and exploring caves.

[Griffin Newman]

Cool.

[David Sims]

It sounds pretty funking. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Goonies ass childhood.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Seriously.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

They lived at the top of a little hill. There was a big suspension bridge. He says he was always in the water. He was snorkeling, he was fishing. That he would watch the ships go out.

[Ben Hosley]

This is so similar to your upbringing

[David Sims]

by water course. For Griffin, it was Fifth Avenue.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. The wild waves of fifth Avenue. I also obviously never watched TV as a child.

[David Sims]

No. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

You weren't. Yeah.

[David Sims]

You weren't a big TV kid. He.

[Griffin Newman]

My parents owned one and I said, no, thank you.

[David Sims]

Here's something he might have shared with you. He loved comic books.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[David Sims]

We're back in the Phantom, our famous, you know, the purple clad hero of pulp adventure. He loved Scrooge McDuck.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, the Carl Barks books.

[David Sims]

I guess so. I mean, feels like he would been too old for those, but whatever. Whoever was writing Scrooge back then, maybe Carl Bark was.

[Griffin Newman]

I think so. And if not. Yeah.

[David Sims]

And he loved to pictures. He loved to go see the pictures.

[Griffin Newman]

He loved to go see the talkie

[David Sims]

pictures, Westerns, the cereals, you know, all that stuff.

[Griffin Newman]

Can we throw out our buddy Sean Fantasy past and future guests coming up on this very miniseries.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Was in New York. We went to a bar with him. We got drinks at a Hollow Nickel.

[David Sims]

Yeah, we did. That's right.

[Griffin Newman]

And they had big screen projector.

[David Sims]

Yeah. And they were doing a pope series.

[Griffin Newman]

We walk in.

[David Sims]

I mean, I think they didn't announce it or anything.

[Griffin Newman]

No. But we walk in, they're playing Dick Tracy.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Cool.

[Griffin Newman]

In the time that we're there nerding out about the dorky Ish.

[David Sims]

We were there for a while. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And my girlfriend was like, how many drinks did you guys have? And I was like, two. Two. And then we have like four hours sat at the table for an additional Three hours after our second beer and we're just like, have you ever looked at the box office weekend? It was, this is true, incomprehensible. But in the time we're there, they play Dick Tracy. They go straight into the Rocketeer and then into the Phantom.

[David Sims]

Yeah. As we were leaving, the Phantom was really just starting to pop off.

[Griffin Newman]

But we're like, this is the fucking.

[David Sims]

I was like, is the shadow next series?

[Griffin Newman]

We pitch in in chronological order.

[David Sims]

I know. So if. If you work at the Hollow Nickel and you were programming that.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, the bartender did when I, when I closed out, said, hey, man, love the cast.

[David Sims]

Oh, wow.

[Griffin Newman]

And he snapped and pointed his finger at me. And I had never heard anyone say apostrophe cast before.

[David Sims]

Oh, like, drop the pod, it's cleaner.

[Griffin Newman]

He just went, love the cast. And I was like, does it look like my arm is broken? And I made him repeat it four times because I didn't understand what he was saying, which then made me look like a narcissist.

[David Sims]

Sounds like a real Griffin story.

[Griffin Newman]

David, this episode, don't act so surprised because it's a familiar friend.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

This episode's brought to you by Mubi.

[David Sims]

Yawn. Just kidding.

[Griffin Newman]

Comfortable?

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

We love them.

[David Sims]

They are a global film company that champions great cinema. Iconic directors, emerging auteurs. Always something new to discover with Mubi. Each and every film hand selected so you can explore the best of cinema. Nothing more to say, I guess.

[Griffin Newman]

Wrong. There's a new film coming to theaters.

[David Sims]

Yep, movie theaters. February 13th. The first Nigerian film ever in official competition.

[Griffin Newman]

Again, that's pretty wild.

[David Sims]

This is a film by Akanola Davis called My Father's Shadow is BAFTA nominated poetic tender portrait of a father son Bond framed within the political landscape of 1993 Legos in Nigeria. It is about a father and two young sons as they journey into and around the vibrantly rendered Nigerian metropolis, reckoning their relationship, navigating the city that's in the middle of a democratic crisis. Written by real life brothers Akanola Davis Jr. And Walleye Davis.

[Griffin Newman]

Love it.

[David Sims]

Brothers co wrote this groundbreaking feature debut. And you've got Sofie Derricu. Oh. From Slow Horses. I love him. I hope I'm saying his name right, but he's a really good actor and he's the star. It's worth seeing. It's in theaters. It's great to go to a theater.

[Griffin Newman]

It's in theaters. We love that Mubi puts Mubies in theaters before ultimately ending up on their wonderful platform.

[David Sims]

Dang. Right.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm just looking at some of the stuff they got right now. Die, my Love. Of course.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

An important watch, a necessary watch for any blankie. La Graza La Grazia, the new Paolo Sorrentino movie which I missed in theaters. Good moment to catch up with it. The great Shall We Dance? Oh, the classic, the original.

[David Sims]

Oh my goodness, that's fun. Like a restoration.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. And look what they. They got a collection called Heartthrob. Nicholas Cage. It's young Dreamy Cage.

[David Sims]

Wow. Still dreamy to me.

[Griffin Newman]

Hey, you're very open hearted.

[David Sims]

Anyway, to stream the best of cinema, you can try MUBI free for 30 days at MUBI.com blankcheck that's M- dot com blankcheck for a whole month of great cinema for free. And then go see My Father's Shadow in theaters. Please. Thank you for listening.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you.

[David Sims]

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you. Very kind. Peter Weir loved comic books. This is where you pick up the.

[David Sims]

Oh yeah. And he loved the pictures. He liked, you know, American movies. He liked Hammer horror films. He distinctly remembers seeing the great French film the Wages of Fear. One of the greats. Did he watch a lot of Australian cinema? Not really. He says he mentions movies like Bush Christmas and Jeddah. But I think like this is point

[Griffin Newman]

to the fallow period. Yeah.

[David Sims]

There's not a ton of Australian cinema maybe for him to even touch on. He loves Jacques Tati. Right. And that actually suggested what his earlier, his interest was, which is performing. He wanted to tell stories, but like, you know, by performing them. And then he liked to plan these sort of elaborate games. He would play like war games with his friends that he would kind of set up. He was very creative.

[Griffin Newman]

He. He talks about how he felt like he explored enough kind of areas leading up to landing on film directing that helped him understand different aspects of it that he worked in plays, he was doing sketch comedy. He was doing all these different things that ended up feeding into filmmaking.

[David Sims]

He went to sort of all boys boarding school, which he didn't really like. He did about a year at the University of Sydney and dropped out. You know, he was sort of into the student life, but it seems like he wasn't that into, you know, whatever freaking work. Yeah, exactly. He had, did have a cool experience with some professor who was teaching about William Blake. And he like took a poem apart in front of them and he was like. He was basically like deconstructing the swimming Blake poem. And Peter, we got really mad and was like, I love this poem. Like, I hate how he's like Dismembering it to like show us the technique. And he's basically like, that's dead poet society. Like I put that into Deadpool society.

[Griffin Newman]

Many years later, dismembering it like, like taking a part structure or like style ripping it.

[David Sims]

Who knows? I mean, there's no mention of a gerbil, but who knows?

[Griffin Newman]

Call that a callback.

[David Sims]

He leaves college, he goes into real estate, the family business. A little bit of money, you know, basically like 18 to 20, buys a one way ticket to Europe, wants to go just check it out, you know, and gets on a ship. I mean, back then I think traveling by air from Australia was basically impossible because it was so fucking far, right? You would have had to stop to refuel so many times. So you would travel by boat. You would get on a boat that would go for weeks to get you to, you know, wherever you're going.

[Griffin Newman]

My grandmother talks about this all the time. She is in her mid, late 90s. Yes, right. Excuse me, early 30s. She's maybe started to listen, but she is like, I don't know why you take all these expensive flights. It's so nice to go on a boat. I went on a boat to Australia and it's great. You just go to the docks with a suitcase and you wave at a man and you give them just whatever money you have in your pocket, what? And they give you a room. And she just thinks that's a thing we could do.

[David Sims]

Unfortunately, I think that truly doesn't. I think there's only one passenger liner left, which is the Queen Mary, which goes from New York to London, you know, whatever. Like not even New York. It's like Southampton to New York or whatever. But that's the only ship that remains, the cruise ship that remains. That's like we go from one place to another. All other cruise ships are like, you know, we go to a bunch of vacation, we talk you back and then we take you home. Right?

[Griffin Newman]

No, I think she went on the Queen Mary once and most of the time she just like wave down the King Kong ship. She brings us up all the time.

[David Sims]

Good for her.

[Griffin Newman]

Do it. It's fun. I mean, it's like, do you have a time machine?

[David Sims]

So he arrives in England and it's a cool time for England because it's the mid-60s, flower power, anti Vietnam, swinging London, you know. He meets some cool guys like Austin Powers and. No, I'm joking.

[Griffin Newman]

Basil exposition.

[David Sims]

Yeah,

[Griffin Newman]

Mrs. Kensington.

[David Sims]

Right, the, the, the earlier Kensington. Right, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Quite groovy.

[David Sims]

So he has fun, but then he Says at a certain point he just runs out of money and he decides to come back to Australia in 1966 with his wife to be what? He has a fiance, Wendy Stites.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[David Sims]

Who he's still married to. That very.

[Griffin Newman]

A long running marriage. That's impressive.

[David Sims]

And basically they, you know, they sort of wrestle with it, but they decide he. The way he puts it is we decided we could just deal with the shortcomings of Australia. My guess is it's just like Australia is a less like cosmopolitan place back then again, just because, like, it's fucking far away and there's not jet travel as much.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, we're also talking about a guy who's like the tip of the spear in the Australian new wave, which wasn't just, oh, here's like a new wave of voices in Australian cinema. It was basically, here's Australian cinema starting up again a little bit, I think, you know, so like he. There's not really a culture supporting the thing he does yet.

[David Sims]

So he comes back, he tries to do some TV work, starts writing letters and shit, starts working for Australia's Channel

[Griffin Newman]

7

[David Sims]

and does like sort of news stuff, I guess, for them, working. And. Well, he says he kind of like worked as a stagehand. Then he makes a tiny little short film. Basically gets his hand on a camera that he can use on the weekends. Right. A film called Count Vim's Last Exercise. Don't know much about it, do you? No, neither do I.

[Griffin Newman]

Great. Moving on.

[David Sims]

It got him a promotion. He gets a job directing film sequences for a variety show called the Mavis Bramston Show, a sketch comedy show. I'm sure it was subtle stuff. I have no idea. Then he produces a second little irreverent short film called the Life and Flight of Reverend Reverend Buck Shot, which is the story of a birder turned Christian evangelist. It has not been widely screened, but it won him a Young Filmmaker Award. And so he leaves Channel 7. He has no idea where his career is heading. He doesn't have a grand plan. Gets another job in sort of government film unit doing documentary filmmaking. Does some of that. I mean, It's a real 10,000 hours thing of. He's really working with very little sort of money and sort of semi professional stuff and just slowly building his craft and all that. Makes some little documentary movies. Makes a comedy television film called man on a Green Bike. I don't. Jesus.

[Griffin Newman]

What? David, Are you angry that he paid his dues?

[David Sims]

So angry? No, it's so impatient. Very long.

[Griffin Newman]

Darcy just start making features already.

[David Sims]

Gets asked to direct a segment in an anthology television film called Three to Go. This segment is called Michael.

[Griffin Newman]

I have seen this because it is on the. There is a French Blu Ray of Cars today, Paris and the Plumber. That is I think the only high def disc that exists of either movie in any country. But it has the Michael segment on there. I have not seen the full anthology, but it's like three different portraits of the young person in Australia at the time. And Michael is interesting because it's kind of a bit of it. It's a little analogous to Ambling and

[David Sims]

because it's about like kind of a countercultural guy.

[Griffin Newman]

It's about a guy who can't hang with the counterculture.

[David Sims]

Right. He's trying to be a cool 60s hippie, but isn't is a bit.

[Griffin Newman]

He's a rich kid, right, who feels like he should be engaged with the sort of like politically.

[David Sims]

And John Travolta's an angel.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. He chain smokes. He's a little unconventional. This guy hasn't shaved in two days.

[David Sims]

So this film wins an Australian Film Institute award for best film.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I finish my observation about this film quickly? Because I took the time to watch it, of course. Amblin, you know, is like a very short, kind of like poppy, funny, stylish, almost music video where the reveal.

[Ben Hosley]

Spielberg.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, the Spielberg. The reveal is dialogue that this guy's like a dork and a poser. Right. And it's very much like, I can't do this. Even though the girl wants to sleep with him, he like runs off and the guitar case is empty. And it feels very telling of Spielberg being like I'm a kid, like playing pretend. Michael does not feel autobiographical. Michael feels kind of satirical of a type of someone who does a dalliance with performative politics.

[David Sims]

Right. Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

It starts off kind of like docudrama style. A lot of like newsreel footage and sort of music, rock music and whatever. And then it goes into this guy trying to go to like meetings and protests and things like that. And he just like it. It feels interestingly kind of critical of people who don't actually give a shit. For a guy who I think retains a sociopolitical interest throughout all of his films.

[David Sims]

He does, yeah. So the film does pretty well. And so he gets some money to make another film which some sort of argue is his debut. It's a 50 minute film, Filmsdale.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. This is what gets him both the Juice to make Cars Day at Paris, but also gets him on the radar to be offered Picnic at Hanging Rock. So it's the real calling card.

[David Sims]

Holmesdale's 50 minutes. As I said, it's about the staff of a hunting lodge that's kind of like torturing their guests. I think they made it for like a few thousand dollars. It was an unhappy, like, process. Everyone was stressed out and tired and hungry and all this shit. But he says it probably kind of fed the story in a good way. Like, that they were all just like, in this decaying estate, like, at each other's throats. He says it's his closest thing to, like, a Hitchcock movie. Like, it's like a, you know, weird little black comedy.

[Griffin Newman]

You can watch it on YouTube. I think it's quite good as well. It is interesting that his early work, and this kind of stops at Cars de Paris is more kind of like heightened comedic, satirical. It's not straight up comedy and it's dark and there's still some grounding, but there's a sort of stylization to these movies and tone.

[David Sims]

Yeah. After this, he goes on another trip. He wants to visit both la. You know, he goes to America and London. Visits, like, film studio, you know, try. He's trying to get more info, more skills, more whatever, exposure to big stuff. He goes to London. He works at El Street Studios on Ken Russell's movie the Boyfriend. The Twiggy movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

God bless Twiggy.

[Griffin Newman]

We love Twiggy.

[David Sims]

He meets Alfred Hitchcock, who's making Frenzy.

[Griffin Newman]

Normal movie and Alfred Hitchcock, normal guy.

[David Sims]

But it's like Frenzy is an amazing, interesting movie. But it's like Hitchcock being like, well, it's like the 70s. And he's like, I can't. I can just kind of be out in the open with what a fucking freak I am.

[Griffin Newman]

Nothing has to be coded anymore.

[David Sims]

And he makes it. Everyone's like, whoa. He's like, oh, I guess go back to coding.

[Griffin Newman]

It's just so funny that he was like the king of, like, the visual metaphor.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

And then he, like, sees Brian De Palma and he's like, oh, I can tell people what I jerk.

[David Sims]

Gets off on fucking strangling ladies. And people are like, relaxing. Sorry.

[Griffin Newman]

Do you know what's one of my favorite bits of all time? The. The great Steve Martin gonna put on a show tonight. SNL opening monologue. Do you want to talk about this? Of course I do. Yes. In the 90s where it's like, I've decided I'm gonna care again.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

It's maybe the best SNL hold open, like non political cold open ever. But all the cast Members come out one by one, are inspired by the fact that Steve Martin gives a again and they're like reinvigorated. And Farley does his bit of the song about how he's not going to get drunk and everything. And then Phil Hartman comes out and he's like, week after week I put on these wigs and these makeup, but tonight I'm going to let the real Phil Hartman shine through. And Steve Barton goes, that's not a good idea. Fell and goes, all right, it's funny.

[David Sims]

It's pretty funny.

[Griffin Newman]

I like it. I don't know, it makes me laugh.

[David Sims]

So he works on these movies. Okay, look, he meets Hitchcock. I don't know.

[Griffin Newman]

You do know. It's in the dossier. It's right in front of you.

[David Sims]

It's an, it's a formative trip for him. It's great for him to meet people like, you know, Hitchcock, even though he's just like, but how do you do? And he's just like, you know, but nonetheless, like Peter Weir is like, this is. This cements for me. I want to make movies.

[Griffin Newman]

To be fair, Hitchcock was attempting to answer the question, but he had a full roast turkey in his mouth. The man liked to eat food.

[David Sims]

He was a big boy, God bless him.

[Griffin Newman]

It's not just he was big, it's the stories are that he would have like four dinners in a row.

[Ben Hosley]

That's the famous thing where you would have a big like multi course dinner, right? And then when the waiter would come at the end, he'd go, let's do it again.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah, just run that back, baby.

[Griffin Newman]

All the courses again. You go back to salad.

[David Sims]

You know, maybe people should do that more. Do kind of a, like we climb the mountain, then we descend, you know, start and end with salad.

[Ben Hosley]

I mean, our version, our contemporary version is the bang bang.

[David Sims]

Yeah, but the bang bang is just, that's just like, that's like people being like, I'm awful. But I found a word that. So now it, now it's okay. We're saying I got a burger and then I got fried chicken. I'm like, well, that doesn't sound like a good idea. But it was a classic bang bang. Yeah, no, but then again, I did a bang bang recently. I did. So you know, so you know, I

[Griffin Newman]

did a comedy bang bang recently.

[David Sims]

Well, I haven't listened yet. It's in the feed though.

[Griffin Newman]

It's. I, I'll say this Reddit is calling it an episode

[David Sims]

has already ruled it out as a contender for the best.

[Griffin Newman]

Maybe one Day I did it.

[David Sims]

But, yeah, I went to the Village Cafe, which is a place in. In South Brooklyn. You know, it's a Azerbaijani food, right? Got some lamb skewers, some rice. I was like, this rocks. But I was so deep in Brooklyn, I was like, you know, there's this pizza place I've been meaning to go to, and, like, I'm never here. And I went and got a slice of pizza. What are you gonna do to me? Are you gonna nail me to the cross? That's why they. That's why they killed Jesus. Too many bang bangs.

[Griffin Newman]

Bang bangs. So while they killed Jessie J as well.

[David Sims]

While he's.

[Griffin Newman]

Bang bang.

[David Sims]

Oh, the song. Right. Bang, bang. And what happened to her?

[Griffin Newman]

They killed her on the ground.

[David Sims]

You're right. Six months in London, he says he wrote the outline for the Cars that hit Paris, the treatment for the Last Wave, and the treatment for the Plumber. So these are all movies he entered.

[Griffin Newman]

I love, like, it's like a creatively

[David Sims]

fertile moment for him.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

It shows to him. Yes. I am a director. I'm not. I don't want to perform. I don't. Right. You know, it, like, cements that for him. It also shifts him away from comedy because a lot of the early stuff he'd done was a lot more, you know, openly, nakedly comic.

[Griffin Newman]

He never made Mod Nights. He did. Yeah.

[David Sims]

You know, whip this at you. I'm joking. I would never do that. I would only throw something at David Ehrlich, which famously.

[Ben Hosley]

Last time you threw a wall.

[David Sims]

I threw it a wallet. And I needed him to be quiet.

[Griffin Newman]

You still haven't gotten your credit card back from, have you?

[David Sims]

Wait a second. He also. One. One reason he says he moves away from comedy is when he's in London, he sees Monty Python and he's like, these guys are pretty good. Yeah. I'm not going to do anything remotely approaching this.

[Griffin Newman]

It's also funny to imagine seeing Monty Python in TV and being like, oh, fuck. So they did it. They got sketch comedy on tv. Guess that's no longer an option.

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

They're the ones who get to do that.

[David Sims]

He returns to Australia and, in fact, Graham Bond, who's an old collaborator of. Has said, I'm about to do something called the Anti Jack Show. I mean, truly, I'm trying not to make fun.

[Griffin Newman]

I think it sounds very good. It's, of course, a show where men had their hands taped to their thighs and couldn't jack off.

[David Sims]

I don't know what the Anti Jack show would have been, but it's something they had done on the radio sometime.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And he's like, we got to work with episode order. And Peter Weir is like, I'm out, man. Like, I don't. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do sketch comedy. I want to concentrate on film. So he turns down what sounds like a fairly guaranteed thing. He makes one more documentary for the Commonwealth Film Unit, the sort of government group he was working for, which is called Whatever Happened to Green Valley, which is about an area, like a working class area where people have been moved out of the city into state provided housing. So he does a little documentary. Cars that Ate Paris, though. Let's get to that. The idea came while he's traveling through Europe. He's driving through France. He comes to a little section of road. There's a barricade, there's a heavy mist. There's two frightening looking characters behind this barricade. They had highway jackets with, like, you know, red crosses on, whatever. Like, they look official and they stop the car, direct us down a detour, and they go down this fucked up detour. And our. And then like, as Peter's driving, he's like to his wife, like, why did we accept that? You know, like. Like we just kind of went along with what they told us to do. But, like, why, like, they. They barely presented anything to credentials or anything like that. You know, they didn't ask for the permit, they didn't tell us why we were, you know, not allowed to go down this road. And he just starts like, inventing the crazy, you know, conclusion of that. Right. He's like, what happens if it's basically like a town is doing that for like a nefarious reason.

[Griffin Newman]

Right? The sort of like core hook to this movie, if there is one, is a town that is somehow benefiting financially and structurally from people crashing their cars?

[David Sims]

Yes. It doesn't totally make sense. No, that is the idea.

[Griffin Newman]

It's not. It's not a literal.

[David Sims]

It's sort of like what if, you know, you wanted to kill people but you knew you would get in trouble if you went around shooting them with a gun because you could get caught. But what if you just basically made them all have car accidents? Then it's just like, well, they had a car accident, not our fault.

[Griffin Newman]

And then there are like, you know, corpses that can be experimented on. There are junked cars that can be rebuilt. Like basically the whole spikes kind of societal structure of this town is built around the things they're able to pull from the wreckage of the car.

[David Sims]

One scavenging, yes. One inspiration for him.

[Griffin Newman]

Economy builds around, but it's also not just like, oh, they. They make people crash cars so they can steal their wallet. If they wanted to do that, they would make David upset. No, but. But yes. There's this whole complicated system of all the different things they extract from the cars and how it feeds.

[David Sims]

There's this lore that this would happen in Cornwall and the British coast, like, long ago, that they would, like, like have lighthouses and then they would move them or turn them off to have ships wreck on the coast and they would go, like, loot the ships. Right. It's the same idea. It's a weird kind of scavengy, piratey thing. He writes out these, like, what he calls short stories, but they're basically treatments. They're intended to be turned into movies. He would record the scripts onto tapes, do all the voices and sound effects. Funny to think about because, again, I do think of Peter weird as a serious guy.

[Griffin Newman]

I was not like, you know, some special features yesterday. You came into the office.

[David Sims]

Yeah, not like deadly serious, but, like, you know, he's a. He's like a. He makes these, like, prestige movies. He seems very smart and, like, sophisticated.

[Griffin Newman]

I got this interview up on the big screen. We look at each other and we're both like. I find him very relaxing.

[David Sims]

He is relaxing. He's got a very calm tone, but

[Griffin Newman]

he seems very like, just kind of like straight, focused, blunt.

[David Sims]

So sort of hard for him to. To imagine him, like, doing bits into a tape recorder. But that's apparently what he was doing.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And so that's how he's kind of processing this story. He thinks it's going to be more of a comedy. As it develops, it's like, gets darker and darker.

[Griffin Newman]

You feel him pivoting within this movie, like, starting it out, thinking that he's primarily going to be a comedy filmmaker and finding some other voice along the way.

[David Sims]

He takes it to Keith Gao, an old friend. They work on it together. They take it to a third writer called Piers Davis, who had worked on Holmesdale. And they all, you know, they're the three credited writers. You know, they all kind of build the script up together. He calls it, eventually, a thriller with an underlying social comment on capitalist way life and motor cars and how we place this importance on them in our society. But above all, I want to make an entertaining story. Okay. Australian film production. It's hit a low point. Griffin in the decades following World War II, Australian Prime Minister in the. In 1970 John Gorton. Let me look up was he a good guy or a bad guy? He pioneers the Australia Australian Film Development Corporation to try and start making like homegrown movies again government subsidized and this is sort of the beginning of things

[Griffin Newman]

called the Aussie New Way basically slowed down to nothing. There's a real incentive to. To kick start the industry back into gear.

[David Sims]

Yeah Seems like he was kind of kind of center right guy.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[David Sims]

I don't know. Sorry, I can't. I can't really get quite a look he does.

[Griffin Newman]

What was his opinion on beef Tallow

[David Sims]

have checked the only position 70s everyone was pro. Yeah, right. That. That goes away later.

[Ben Hosley]

I mean his vibe.

[David Sims]

His vibe is beef talent. He's a bulldog. Yeah, he's got a bulldog kind of look. So they. The. The Australian Film Development Corporation invests about 125000 Aussie bucks. The total budget was about 200 grand. Small budget but you know it's, it's. Well, you know they get to make a movie.

[Griffin Newman]

They made a movie. They did in fact make a movie. And he talks about. And his producers on this talk about how they learned a lot from hal and Jim McElroy specifically who work with him on the next couple of movies. How they learned a lot from how hard it was to pitch this movie both in getting money and in getting an audience that it's like. It's hard to explain. It's not really focused on a specific thing and that you know, in a big way like not you have to make a movie with a poster in mind first but a little bit like

[David Sims]

they want something that will sell and that will matter to people. They shoot it in New south Wales about 250 miles from Sydney, you know to you know, a more sort of obscure or backwater part of the country. I guess I don't, you know they make the film. We're going to discuss the film now.

[Griffin Newman]

The lead actor in it, Terry Camilleri, it is his debut film.

[Ben Hosley]

Sure.

[David Sims]

He's Napoleon. Damn it. Sorry I took it from you.

[Griffin Newman]

Did you recognize this? Did you clock this, Ben?

[David Sims]

No.

[Griffin Newman]

The lead guy in this movie is the man who delivered what might have been the finest supporting performance in film in 1989. Napoleon Bonaparte in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

[Ben Hosley]

Nice.

[David Sims]

The only thing I remember is when he's piggy wigs.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh no. Bowling. Yes.

[David Sims]

And he misses and he goes like. Like he's like that. I remember that being really.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm not exaggerating. That performance is.

[David Sims]

He's very fun.

[Griffin Newman]

Top to bottom fire. It is unbelievable. He is the water slide pushing past kids to go down first.

[David Sims]

Not to. Not to spoil, like way ahead. But he is the guy in the bath in the Truman show big time. Like, you know how the Truman show has all the viewers that we keep cutting to. He's the bathtub guy.

[Griffin Newman]

He's got an incredibly distinctive look. It does weird to see him in this movie because it is one of those guys where you're like, supposed to

[David Sims]

be sort of an everyman in this one, but.

[Griffin Newman]

But also you're like, Wasn't he born 45? And you're like seeing him in like 30. And you're like, we're almost there, David. Right, right, right, right. I am correct. That's your name. It's time to take a break from your school or work routine. But stay consistent. That's the tough balance.

[David Sims]

We should have a school routine. Take me back to school, baby.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, you have a school. You gotta get kids to school.

[David Sims]

That's true.

[Griffin Newman]

That is a school routine.

[David Sims]

Well, can I take a break?

[Griffin Newman]

No, you can.

[David Sims]

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Take a break from that while staying consistent with your health.

[David Sims]

I do need to do that because

[Griffin Newman]

AG1 provides easy support with travel packs to celebrate the adventure. We love you, AG1.

[David Sims]

AG1. You know, you're a big fan. We've talked about all the time.

[Griffin Newman]

It is a load bearing product in my life. Exactly.

[David Sims]

It's holding this batch of popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners that I call Griffin Newman together.

[Griffin Newman]

And. And they've been a sponsor for so long. It makes me so happy every time they reopen. And it makes me so happy every time a new bag of powder gets delivered to me via mail. And they've really leveled up, you know, it used to be. Oh, blank check. Needs to get the word out about AG1. They got Hugh Jackman as a sponsor now.

[David Sims]

That's true.

[Griffin Newman]

Hugh Jackman's doing video ads saying that's how he stays healthy.

[David Sims]

He needs it.

[Griffin Newman]

And we have the same Griffin body. We look the same. AG1 has the same effect on the two of us. Ding dong.

[David Sims]

All right. Hello? Creek. Who's at the door?

[Griffin Newman]

Hello. I thought I could maybe offer my support to help be an ad read character for her to age 81.

[David Sims]

Okay. Are you Hugh Jackman?

[Griffin Newman]

No, I'm Do Gray Scott.

[David Sims]

This is weird.

[Griffin Newman]

Is it?

[David Sims]

It's a little awkward. Do Grace Got. You're married to someone? I was recently.

[Griffin Newman]

Claire Forlani.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Love it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, I love her. I don't call her it. I say I Love her.

[David Sims]

Well, that's good. Yeah. Hey, you've been happily married for almost 20 years, so congratulations to you. We'll see you later. Appreciate this Sports Slam. Anyway, AG1, you know, it's a daily health drink clinically shown to support your gut health, fill in some nutrient gaps. It's got 75 more than 75 ingredients, including clinically studied probiotic strains. Replaces the need for multivitamin probiotics and more. So it's one consistent scoop, right? That's why you like it.

[Griffin Newman]

Just one scoop and it's over with. I dump it into my shaker filled with 8 ounces of water. I shake it up and I drink it and it goes down real nice.

[David Sims]

Look, we've showcased that AG1 fits very deeply into your life. Okay, so go to drinkag1.com jack to get an AG1 flavor sampler and a bottle of vitamin D3K2 for free in your AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order only while supplies last. That's drinkag1.com check.

[Griffin Newman]

David.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Watch this, Watch this.

[David Sims]

Can you tell me what's going on?

[Griffin Newman]

I'm trying to hit home, but it's a foolish effort because nothing hits home like home cooking.

[David Sims]

That's true. Oh, boy. Well, it's really tough, man. Wait, Griffin, what are you doing?

[Griffin Newman]

I'm trying to hit home, but nothing hits as hard as home cooking.

[David Sims]

I just need a way to beat the winter blues, not get delivery. Something kind of unsatisfying. It's much easier if I could choose from maybe 100 recipes every week. Cuisines from around the world.

[Griffin Newman]

Let's see, I have 99 right here on my desk, but that's not 100. And we might have to outsource this job to someone else. How about our friends at HelloFresh?

[David Sims]

Yes. HelloFresh is a place that makes it easy to do more home cooking every year. With recipes that feel good and taste delicious night after night. They got more than 35 high protein recipes each week. Mediterranean options, GLP1 friendly options. They've got sustainably sourced seafood. They've got 100% antibiotic and hormone free chicken. They got three times the seafood for no upcharge.

[Griffin Newman]

That upcharge is gone.

[David Sims]

They're beefing up the seafood. They've got grass fed steak, ribeyes. They've got seasonal produce, pears, apples, asparagus.

[Griffin Newman]

I love to entertain, of course, at my palatial estate.

[David Sims]

Yeah, of course. I've been there.

[Griffin Newman]

So my manor. I love nothing more than when I can impress guests. By whipping out a great recipe that I have cooked all by myself for the dinner parties that I throw nightly. And hellofresh is great for that, but also great just if you want to treat yourself. Ben, any. Any recipes you've been jamming on hard recently.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, yeah. Actually I was just checking out old school barbecue pork sloppy Joe's. Ooh, that's a super high protein item.

[Griffin Newman]

Slop it up.

[Ben Hosley]

Yep. And we mentioned seafood. There is of course, prep and bake, Tex Mex, salmon tacos.

[Griffin Newman]

That is exciting because I'm on a bit of a seafood diet right now, if you catch my meaning.

[David Sims]

Seafood. You eat it?

[Griffin Newman]

No, I'm eating mostly, of course, creatures from the sea.

[David Sims]

So go to hellofresh.com check10fm to get 10 free meals and a freeze willing knife. That's a $144.99 value. $144.99 on your third box offer. Valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That is hellofresh.com check 10fm. 10fm. All right, so Cars Day Paris. So, yeah, how do we describe this film? It's a. It's a start 90 minute movie. Although apparently there's a US cut that 74 minutes. What the hell is that? That must be just like trying to get all of it, you know, like be as all action.

[Griffin Newman]

I think that this was an early new line release. They retitled it the Cars that eat People. It was several years later and they specifically sold it as a thriller like. As like a is going on in this town.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Ben Hosley]

The poster has so much information.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, but there are many posters. Dave and I were just going through this. That we both become, as David put it, when I walked into the office

[David Sims]

on time, Presumably Griff was 15 minutes late. I was on time.

[Griffin Newman]

You're not one to raise your eyebrows today. That's all I'm gonna say.

[David Sims]

I guess you can raise his eyebrows.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. David's allowed to weird. His eyebrows just hit the ceiling.

[David Sims]

Yeah, my eyebrows are perma raised. I would say.

[Griffin Newman]

David said, I've gotten your sickness. And I said, what do you mean? We both now obsessively, methodically choose the posters for every log on letterboxd. Because letterboxd gives you a default poster graphic. But very often it's not a true poster.

[David Sims]

No, it's a poster with all the words removed and all the title billing.

[Griffin Newman]

It's sort of like an itunes poster block. It's not a theatrical one sheet.

[Ben Hosley]

But then. Do you upload your Own image.

[David Sims]

No.

[Griffin Newman]

Other people upload them. We haven't quite gotten to the stage of uploading our own.

[David Sims]

I believe you can if you truly.

[Griffin Newman]

You absolutely can. And sometimes I look and I go, these options aren't great. Do I. Do I go hunting? But the posters for this movie are wildly different. Some of them are very informational, that very long tagline I read. Some of them are super graphic. The new Line 1 the cars that eat people is like a car eating a guy. Like depicting things that don't happen in a movie.

[Ben Hosley]

But I feel like it's the spiky car.

[Griffin Newman]

The spiky car is the big thing. Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Which is so cool.

[Griffin Newman]

It's very, very.

[Ben Hosley]

Because it's a car, but it's covered in spikes.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. That is kind of the thing it has going on. The movie opens with like a kind of like picturesque drive. Happy couple. And then you watch them get into like a big wreck and you immediately see the way the town gets to work and extracting them and the, the. The. The vehicle, the wreckage.

[Ben Hosley]

But the town doesn't cause or sabotage. It seems like it's just a. A random accident.

[David Sims]

Am I wrong?

[Griffin Newman]

It's not like he.

[Ben Hosley]

His tire pops.

[Griffin Newman]

What is your read on it, David?

[David Sims]

I. I think it's all. I mean you're right that like it seems accidental but like we do learn that, you know, this is their whole ploy. Right, Right.

[Griffin Newman]

So it does. I read it as. Not that there's like something supernatural going on, but that they have perhaps just

[David Sims]

put all over the roads or something.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know, twisty turns. Like they're rigging it in a way that it's sort of like a skill course.

[David Sims]

They're closing roads, I guess so that you have to go on the bad roads maybe and they're just strewning nails about. Yes, yeah, maybe they are.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, this is a good movie, but it also is like a first film and feels like a first film. And it's one of those things where I wonder if you talk to Peter Weir, he'd be like, yeah, I watched the cut and realized we didn't explain that.

[David Sims]

Truly. No idea. Don't know what his like, you know, I mean I think he's. If he wants of this movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Like I remember us seeing Buckaroo Banzai at Nighthawk. A movie we both like a lot.

[David Sims]

I like that movie a lot. But that movie is. Is more, more extreme than this one in terms of like you're like, oh, they just didn't know how to make a movie for this, right.

[Griffin Newman]

And a lot of times when we cover first films on this show, they're varying levels of like, fluency. And like, Peter Weir is absolutely someone who already at this point knows how to put images together, knows how to work with actors. But like, you hear these stories of like first time filmmakers who then watch the cut of their movie and they're like, oh, I didn't explain that at all. Now I understand storytelling.

[David Sims]

You know, Buckru Banzai, which is a unique object anyone can agree, is also just. Right. A specific scenario where you're like, it's like someone trying to make a movie sort of five times more ambitious than Cars. Nate Paris, in terms of the storytelling, just in terms of like, there's aliens, there's government employee, you know, government secret societies. There's musical sequences, there's where you're just like, guys, this is a lot to put on your plate for movie 1.

[Griffin Newman]

Complex visual patterns, right? This sort of like reveal of the true forms of the aliens.

[David Sims]

There's moments. Oh, there's.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh yeah, just the looks. I mean, the rolled up sports jacket.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

The rolled up sleeves on a sports jacket.

[Griffin Newman]

Cowboy Jeff Goldblum.

[David Sims]

Just the whole concept Bakaru Banzai has of like, he's a sort of Internet intergalactic secret agent and he has the coolest band in the world. What's his band? Well, it has three saxophones. You know what I mean?

[Griffin Newman]

You forgot he's also a surgeon.

[David Sims]

Yeah, that's like that. But I love the idea, of course, piling it on. But then they're like. And he's got the coolest band in the world. His band has three saxophones. And you're like, that doesn't sound cool. And they're like, does this look cool? And I'm like, yes, it does.

[Griffin Newman]

It actually does.

[David Sims]

It's the coolest I've ever seen.

[Griffin Newman]

That is A true. The 50 years ahead of its time movie where you're just like, now the culture is caught up to a point where you're like, here's the pitch. It's like it's the eighth movie. It's like we all know this.

[David Sims]

Diving into the middle. Meet Buckaroo Banzai. But you already know him.

[Griffin Newman]

Or it's funny that he's everything at the same time. I cannot imagine how insane, insane that movie felt upon release. You know, I know. Like friends of ours like, like Hodman have talked about it, like being the weird kid at school and seeing it and being like, I get this. This is like a transmission from a future. I want Right. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Everyone else is angry, but I. I got it.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

But this. This has a little bit of that energy where you're like, you know, there are first films that are like the first album syndrome thing of, like, someone's been waiting to make a movie their whole life.

[David Sims]

They've got all their bangers, and they

[Griffin Newman]

know, like, there's a very specific story they want to tell. And then their first movies that feel like a drafts folder and a little bit like, you're still in film school in the sense where you're like, I got a bunch of ideas I want to try out.

[David Sims]

You know, Very interesting.

[Griffin Newman]

And I think this movie is fairly cohesive, but it's also inscrutable at times.

[David Sims]

It's cohesive in that it has a. You know, it has a good narrative engine, which is this guy gets trapped in this town.

[Griffin Newman]

Right after you see this original crash. You see this guy and his brother driving. They get in a similar crash. His brother dies. He survives, wakes up in the hospital,

[David Sims]

and it's him basically learning the up thing about this town.

[Griffin Newman]

This town's sort of bringing him in

[David Sims]

closer and then weighing, do I participate in the up thing about this town?

[Griffin Newman]

It's a little.

[David Sims]

Or whatever. Right. Like, am I wrong?

[Griffin Newman]

No, you're right. The narrative engine of it is like Twilight Zoney, where it's like, you wake up in an accident. Something weird has happened. It's a normal town that's inviting you in, and then you start to realize how many weird things are going on beneath the surface. It's just the weird things that happen are, like, varying levels of abstract.

[Ben Hosley]

But do you think he's aware all along, or when. When does the character figure out what this town is really up to?

[David Sims]

It's kind of when he starts working at the hospital. Maybe he starts to feel like.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[David Sims]

Like it's sort of there. Right.

[Ben Hosley]

It's unclear.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, I. I like Terry Keller.

[Ben Hosley]

He's a little bit of a dope, too.

[Griffin Newman]

I was gonna say I like him a lot. I think this is a fun performance. It's another thing that you feel like you make one movie and then learn a big lesson from it, which is he's a really passive character. He's really quiet, and he kind of goes with the flow. You know, he's sort of, like, in a trance with the whole thing. There's not a lot of him, like, getting seduced by the town, nor is there him being suspicious and, like, putting up his guard. So you don't feel like he's trying to solve a Mystery. And you also don't feel like there's a clear sense of this guy that's getting corrupted. It does just sort of feel like he's sleepwalking through the whole situation until things get very scary at the end.

[David Sims]

It is not a movie. Right. That's heavy on action until the big climax. Right?

[Griffin Newman]

No, but there are crashes throughout. Yeah. Yes. And they're. They are excitingly constructed. You can see it sparking. Miller. Not just, oh, look, someone shot a car in Australia. There's a language to the car crashes that is very visceral.

[David Sims]

Part of the thing he has to overcome is, like, he's now scared of driving. So he can't escape because he's, like. Doesn't want to get back in a car because he was in a car crash.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, he reveals also that he hit someone.

[David Sims]

Right. Right. He's. He's got, like, trauma, I think he

[Ben Hosley]

says he hit and killed an old man. So very traumatic experience.

[David Sims]

In Australia, that just would happen all the time.

[Griffin Newman]

I do think this is part of what I like about this movie is it does feel like it's texturally engaging with how scary cars are.

[David Sims]

Oh, that's what you like, right? Because you're like, I don't trust them cars. They've all got spikes to me. Right.

[Griffin Newman]

But also that he's just like, I shouldn't have this amount of power in my hands, which is the reason I don't drive. It's the number one reason I don't drive. The, like, my psychological anxiety about the act of driving is secondary to I don't trust myself to do it correctly and not cause damage.

[David Sims]

I love driving. It's so fun.

[Ben Hosley]

Me, too.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a lot worse. It's all yours.

[David Sims]

Because my thing with driving is, like, I don't. You know, I think cars are bad for society. I don't like the way that cities are built for cars, the way the country depends on cars.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't like that they have eyes on.

[David Sims]

Very pro mass transit. Very pro. We need less cars in our life. But if I'm driving a car, I'm like, beep, beep. Exactly. I'm like, here we go. Like, I mean, I guess I don't like being in traffic, but I don't hate it that much.

[Griffin Newman]

I also just need to remind you guys that I grew up in New York City, the mean streets of Greenwich Village. My father was, like, pot committed to having a car in the city and driving, which is a terrible experience.

[David Sims]

Yeah. I mean. Yeah. Having a car in Manhattan that you actually want to use. That is dumb.

[Griffin Newman]

And he was, you might be really surprised to hear this, an incredibly anxious driver.

[David Sims]

Well, it's Meyerowitz stories, right? Yeah, it's. It's the opening scene where Sandler's just melting down, right? Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Since that movie came out.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's like the entire car became an extension of his tense body. And every part of it was stressful to him. Like being in traffic was.

[David Sims]

Every time you've got some hang up. It's just your dad was stressed out as your kid all the time about that thing, buddy. But how does this relate to milk and eggs? No, you like milk.

[Griffin Newman]

No, I don't.

[David Sims]

Yeah, right. Milk and eggs. Is your dad yelling about eggs?

[Griffin Newman]

No, eggs I just think are gross and all of you are insane.

[David Sims]

I'm just trying to see if there's like a child.

[Griffin Newman]

I told you the milk thing, Right. I just did this on Dirty Laundry at SF Sketch Fest, the dropout show. Thank you for having me. Where you had to get people to guess whose dirty secret was.

[Ben Hosley]

Was whose.

[Griffin Newman]

I loved the bottle, much like your daughter. I tap the table, I'd go empty, right?

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And I wouldn't drop the bottle because I was such a creature to comfort. And my parents were like, you are too old. You gotta drop this.

[David Sims]

It is a classic moment that comes. You gotta wean.

[Griffin Newman]

And they were doing anything to wean me. And I was just. I was. I was immovable on this issue. And one day I woke up and there was a glass of milk on the table. And I was like, the. Is this. And they were like, this is milk. And I was like, I'm. No worries. But you've made a mistake. Milk actually comes in a bottle. This is a cup of some I've never seen before in my life. Milk has a nipple at the top. And they were like, no, this is what milk is now. And I was like, oh, cool, I'm never drinking milk again.

[David Sims]

How old were you?

[Griffin Newman]

I was like five.

[David Sims]

You were still drinking from a bottle.

[Griffin Newman]

That's the point. And my parents were like, enough is enough. And I was like, yeah, I'm not drinking milk. And they were like, okay, you're five. Let's see how that goes. And I haven't had milk in over three decades.

[David Sims]

I would say by the time you're five, you certainly do not need to be drinking milk anymore. It's a personal choice at that point.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know. I'm five, six, and my bones are made of glass. Mistakes might have been made we were kids.

[David Sims]

When we were kids, the predominant thinking was pump your kids filled with milk.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Every celebrity had the mustache.

[David Sims]

Now you are very much told, like, do not do that because then your kids won't eat food.

[Griffin Newman]

Why am I tiny?

[David Sims]

Because your parents are tiny.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, so it all goes back to

[David Sims]

my dad, doesn't it? Your mother is the tiniest person I've ever seen.

[Griffin Newman]

People don't understand how tiny my mom is.

[David Sims]

Hardly. Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Like, he's not a huge guy himself.

[Griffin Newman]

Although now it's funny to imagine my dad doing Dwayne the Rock Johnson.

[David Sims]

It's funny to imagine.

[Griffin Newman]

It is funny to imagine. What if they announced Rampage 2? But we're replacing Dwayne the Rock Johnson with Peter Newman.

[David Sims]

I'm into it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

So what happens in the Cars? That a Paris. So our main character, as you say, it's Arthur, played by Terry Camilleri.

[Griffin Newman]

The mayor is sort of taking him under his wing.

[David Sims]

The mayor is named Len Kelly. He's played by John Millan, who's like, I think a sort of legendary at the time. Like, Australian character actor. Guy had done lots of theater. Did you know British stuff as well?

[Griffin Newman]

Crocodile Dundee.

[David Sims]

He is in Crocodile.

[Griffin Newman]

In Crocodile Dundee. But he's also. He's in Billy Bud. He's in the Longest.

[David Sims]

In fact, Crocodile Dundee too, I think, is basically his last performance. He's like the buddy.

[Griffin Newman]

He's Walkabout. Like, he's in most of the iconic Australian movies.

[David Sims]

Oh, right. He's the dad in Walkabout, which is not an important role because they die.

[Griffin Newman]

And tremendous amount of tv.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

He's playing like a cartoon idea of an old timey mayor. Like top hat, holding on to, like his like, jacket, lapels, big sash that says Mayor.

[David Sims]

He's pretty funny.

[Griffin Newman]

He's funny, yeah. But he's. He's got a wife and two daughters who Arthur finds out are not actually his. That they are children that they adopted from Wreckages.

[David Sims]

Okay. Yes, that's right. Yeah. It's all part of the sort of weird scavenging that they're doing.

[Ben Hosley]

One of the daughters has a scar, you can see that the mom insists she hide. That was clearly caused by an accident.

[David Sims]

Like, however they got her and then. Yeah, and then they give him the hospital job.

[Griffin Newman]

Can we acknowledge, like, you can work at the hospital.

[David Sims]

It's kind of like Doc Hollywood.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it's exactly like Doc Hollywood.

[David Sims]

You know the movie Doc Hollywood. Michael J. Fox is a big shot plastic surgeon or what? You know, he's like a doctor Right from Hollywood. And then he's driving his hot rod right somewhere, and he crashes it in. It's. I mean, it's also the premise of cars. He crashes it in, like, a small town and he, like, wrecks some fence or a gazebo or whatever the.

[Griffin Newman]

And they're like your sentences, right?

[David Sims]

You gotta work. Work off your. Your debt by being a local doctor.

[Griffin Newman]

And he's like, what? I mean, I'm cool. Big shot.

[David Sims]

I'm Michael J. Fox over here. I got fungal outside.

[Griffin Newman]

I gotta fix this fence.

[David Sims]

And then he falls in love with the small town. He loves this one instead. They're like, okay, you can work here. You can kind of get your strength back. You can, you know, wait to be ready to drive a car again. But he's in the worst town, right?

[Griffin Newman]

And the movie Cars, Ben is about kind of a hotshot car who's a race car. He's driving too fast. He wrecks a fence in a town.

[David Sims]

He does.

[Griffin Newman]

And the cars are like, you gotta stay here. And he's like, what? I hate this.

[David Sims]

Wow.

[Griffin Newman]

And then he. He comes to love the town. And the cars don't eat Paris, but they do eat food.

[David Sims]

Yeah. So the town, of course, is called Paris. That's why it's called that.

[Ben Hosley]

Which is very funny. And it's a thing we find in America as well, of course. Where you'll. I mean, Paris, Texas.

[David Sims]

Well, yeah. New York is. Is littered with it. Where they would just be like, well, we need names for these towns upstate. Let's just name it after famous old cities.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Paris Hilton.

[David Sims]

That's a person's name. That's true. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

But she's American.

[Ben Hosley]

One of my favorite examples of this is in Pennsylvania. There's a town called Jersey Shore.

[Griffin Newman]

That's really funny.

[Ben Hosley]

And so you'd see this road sign, like, Jersey Shore, 50 miles or whatever.

[Griffin Newman]

Do you feel like you've gone through a wormhole like that?

[Ben Hosley]

That's crazy.

[Griffin Newman]

Didn't we.

[Ben Hosley]

We're so far away from that.

[Griffin Newman]

I just want to call out one of the. The vehicle wreckage scavengers, kind of the main one. In the film, Charlie is played by the actor Bruce Spence. And I don't know if you put this together, but he was the gyrocopter pilot in the Road Warrior.

[David Sims]

So that's one of our oldest bits. Because you said that to me, I guess, when we were talking about Matrix. Or was it Star. No, Star Wars, Episode three.

[Griffin Newman]

On me.

[David Sims]

On. Yeah, Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Then I bring it up again in Matrix Revolution.

[David Sims]

But the first time you brought it up to me. I was kind of like, okay. But then, of course, we have basically covered every iconic film that the unusual looking man, great actor Bruce Spence has been in. But for one Griffin, we have.

[Griffin Newman]

We have more coming up.

[David Sims]

Well, well, of course, he's. What do we have coming up?

[Griffin Newman]

I'm. I'm not going to say it, but we have a Bruce Spence movie on the calendar again later this year.

[David Sims]

That's right. We do.

[Griffin Newman]

We do.

[David Sims]

We do. But there's one guy, he's the voice of the mouth of Sauron in the extended edition of Return of the King,

[Griffin Newman]

which, when we cover Peter Jackson, we have to do the extendeds, right?

[David Sims]

We do. Although I think they are. It is very worthy of debate whether the extended editions are better. I think that that's a debate.

[Griffin Newman]

But we have to do them.

[David Sims]

We do. But it's going to be an interesting bridge to cross because, like, they're. They're different and it's interesting to consider the differences.

[Griffin Newman]

And Ben, you're gonna have to do two cuts of every episode.

[David Sims]

I mean, I think six different argument for something. Like. I think the problem is that the Hobbits also have extended editions.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And no one's really out here being like, those are all so good. Has anyone never heard anyone say, they're really worthwhile? They. I believe they exist because they were like, we'll just do what we did with Lord of the Rings. Right. Well, people love extended editions.

[Griffin Newman]

What if Peter Jackson put out compressed editions of the Hobbit movie?

[David Sims]

I compressed it to one fucking movie. That might win people over that.

[Griffin Newman]

I know it's been said a thousand times and I have no new observations. It is one of the craziest things that's ever happened. It's like three giant books, three movies. And it was hard to whittle the books down. And they were like, you're ready to adapt the Hobbit? And he's like, yeah, three movies. And you're like, you know, Hobbit is like a third the length of Lord of the Rings books. And he's like, it's gonna have to be three movies that. It even went from two to three that he shot two.

[Ben Hosley]

We got smog.

[David Sims]

You mean we got him. You mean we shot him?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, we caught him.

[Ben Hosley]

But we got one of the finest performances. Mo Cap performances maybe of all time.

[Griffin Newman]

It is the funniest of all time.

[Ben Hosley]

I watch that. You always say this on the show. I mean, you both do. You're like, I watch that once a year. Like, like, thing I just. I watch the behind the scenes, The mocap scenes.

[Griffin Newman]

But my favorite thing is all the people at Wetter were like, yeah, I mean, this. It wasn't usable.

[David Sims]

They. They do say, like, we. We did our best, but it's not. It's not like the dragon's face is this.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, it's just like. They were like, look, Gollum is like. He's a hobbit, but he's got the basic anatomy of a human being, right? He's like a weird, like, zombie hobbit, but he's got arms and legs and a head and, like, eyes and nose and mouth in the right place. You can transfer those tracking dots, and you're like, Benedict Cumberbatch gets on his tummy and you're like, well, his mouth is 15ft long. He doesn't have arms.

[David Sims]

He's the dragon.

[Griffin Newman]

His legs are tiny.

[David Sims]

I mean.

[Griffin Newman]

And, you know, you're like, you transfer that data onto the model we've already built. No, like, he was always a dragon, right? He was like, so mocap, right? And they were like. I think just like.

[David Sims]

They were like, we haven't even turned it on yet.

[Griffin Newman]

He was apparently so enamored with the idea of what Andy Circus had done that he was like, I've always wanted to do mocap. And they were like, cool. And just let him do that. And we're like. It was helpful to, like, we could reference it. We could look at it.

[Ben Hosley]

I mean, they use the audio.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, they did.

[Ben Hosley]

And I'm sure that audio compared to what you could have captured if he was just standing in a quiet question.

[Griffin Newman]

No question.

[David Sims]

And he's superior.

[Griffin Newman]

No question.

[David Sims]

He. He does the Necromancer as well. Like, he. He plays multiple, like, mo cap parts in those hobbit movies, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Much like he played Dormammu in Doctor Strange.

[David Sims]

Remember?

[Griffin Newman]

He was a big head.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

What's Dormammu up to these days?

[David Sims]

I'm sure we'll find out. I'm sure he'll pop up in Avengers. Doomsday be like, I'm still here.

[Ben Hosley]

Do.

[Griffin Newman]

Mamu will return in Avengers.

[David Sims]

I'm seeing better. Dormammu rocks.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, drama was good.

[David Sims]

So the cars that ate Paris. What happens in this film? What are. You know, like, what. What. What do we need to fill in?

[Griffin Newman]

Bruce Spence is rad as hell in this, and it's important because it's like, George Miller sees this.

[David Sims]

Yeah. And it's like, I want this, guys. Because Bruce Spence is in Mad Max's one and two, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. He plays different Characters. Yes, but. No, but there's like 100. A straight line to George Miller seeing this being like, oh, my God, no,

[David Sims]

he's in two and three. I always say, okay, yeah, he's not in one.

[Griffin Newman]

George Miller had to feel like he had built up his bones enough to be able to ask the great Bruce Spencer.

[David Sims]

The other films Bruce Spence is in just to shout him out. So the whole thing with him is that he's like. Is he 7ft? He's not quite that, but he's really tall.

[Griffin Newman]

He's got one of the longest.

[David Sims]

He's got this elongated head.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

That just is so interesting. He's got this sort of big mouth. And he plays, like I said, in the Mouth of Sauron. He plays the train man in the Matrix Revolutions and he plays. What's the guy in Star wars called? Tion Madonna.

[Griffin Newman]

Tion Medon. He's also. He's in Dark City. He's in Ace Ventura. When Nature Calls.

[David Sims]

Yes. That I cannot remember.

[Griffin Newman]

He's in the good P.J. hogan. Peter Pan.

[David Sims]

Right. He was in, apparently. Pirates of the Caribbean. Dead men tell no tales. Can't say I remember that one.

[Griffin Newman]

I haven't seen that one. Mayor Dick. Gods of Egypt. He's of course, an I. Frankenstein.

[David Sims]

Apparently. He's in the Chronicles of the Narnia, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I will be watching Narnia project this year.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

I'm reading all the books.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. And he's the. The voice of Chum and Finding Nemo

[David Sims]

and he's done a zillion TV shows and stuff. And he's just an interesting guy.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. He rules. And you should have been excited the first time I brought him up.

[David Sims]

Never gotten over it.

[Griffin Newman]

It's taken you 11 years. You acted like. What the are you talking about? Who gives a.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

He's a legend.

[David Sims]

He is a bit of a legend.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, he is. Thank you.

[David Sims]

He's good in this. He plays one of the freak guys in the city.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Guess what? Good casting.

[Ben Hosley]

He collects Jaguar. The metal.

[David Sims]

The statue. Ornaments.

[Griffin Newman]

Ornaments, yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

I love how for the. The gang, the young people gang, their cars are all covered in graffiti, all up. They look like they're. They could be in a roller derby.

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Ben Hosley]

Roller derby, absolutely.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

But I mean.

[David Sims]

Wait, do you mean like a destruction derby?

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Although there's another word for it, which is gymkhana.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Which is like an Australian motorsport.

[Griffin Newman]

It's the sport of driving as fast as you possibly can. And it's. It's an evolution of them. A history of doing the same thing with horses. And it's not that it's like, specifically like destruction Derby, it's that you're just like, you just go as fast as you can and whatever happens, happens. And then at some point, I think that evolves into like, oh, wouldn't it be cool if we just tried to wreck as much as possible and made it a little safer? It's just wild that there was a sport that's just like, how fast can this horse go? And then they create cars and they're like, I mean, obviously, let's just push it to the limit.

[Ben Hosley]

Really fun. But what I wanted to say is the design of the young people gang, they all wear car emblems.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Ben Hosley]

That they've pulled from the various cars that have been.

[David Sims]

And what would yours be?

[Ben Hosley]

What would my car be?

[David Sims]

Or.

[Ben Hosley]

I don't know.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. If you could design any hood ornament.

[Ben Hosley]

If I could design any hornet.

[Griffin Newman]

Hood ornament.

[Ben Hosley]

Hood ornament. I guess I would just do a pig.

[David Sims]

Or a big bone.

[Ben Hosley]

Or a big bone.

[Griffin Newman]

Or a big bone.

[David Sims]

But no. But, yeah. No, also, like, if you were going to steal a hood ornament and have it be your totem,

[Ben Hosley]

Just want to put that right on the record, you

[David Sims]

know, Never happened, you know? Do you? Yeah. Do you want a Jaguar? Do you want a little Beamer shield? I'm trying to think of, like, what the hood ornaments are.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, I'm like a swan. I mean, they're all Mercedes Reprise.

[Ben Hosley]

Just because when you're kid, you don't know anything and you're like, that's fancy.

[David Sims]

I think it is pretty fancy, isn't it?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it is. I found one of Bugs Bunny holding a shotgun. That would be mine, but I just

[Ben Hosley]

mentioned it because I. I think it's so visually striking and feels very proto. Mad Max.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I don't admittedly know enough about Australian culture in the 1970s and what this movie's coming out of to completely parse what I think Weir is working through. But it does feel like there is a through line in all of his movies of this sort of, like, clash of cultures that is very in conversation with the weird short history of Australia, as you said, David, that it's like a hard reset town of people just landing there, like, pushing the indigenous aside and being like, this is ours now and we're gonna try to, like, model it off of other successful colonialist societies. And so this idea of there being this town where they're just like, yes, we know how to be a town. This is a town where town things happen and then there's this weird going on.

[David Sims]

Oh, right, right. Like I was lifting my hat.

[Griffin Newman]

It is this town that is like only in conversation with itself and hostile to the rest of the world, but also the town is at odds with itself. There is this kind of ongoing war between the older and the younger citizens of the town. And the younger citizens feel more chaotic,

[David Sims]

they want to be crazy and the older citizens just want to have like a nice fanc town where they can have fancy parties, etc. Etc.

[Griffin Newman]

But everyone's doing the crazy up thing. The only disagreement is that the old people are like, let people die. Rummage their bodies and their wreckages and then have a very nice dinner because it's all.

[David Sims]

The whole movie is building to this like, party that they are doing this weird pastiche of like a fancy high society British sort of ball or whatever. And like, obviously it's all ludicrous, but. Yes, that's.

[Griffin Newman]

But I think that's a little bit of what was happening in Australia in the 70s at the time. And what his early films seem to be commenting on is this idea of like. Much like in America, there is like a new wave of politically engaged, motivated, kind of like boundary pushing young people who are questioning the structures around them,

[David Sims]

you know, and sometimes you push boundaries and sometimes you miss.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, that's what the movie's about. This movie's really about getting fired from snl. If you, if you, if you watch it really closely. He was a sketch comedian.

[Ben Hosley]

These young people, though, are also part of the murders.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Oh, no. They're doing.

[Ben Hosley]

They're guilty.

[David Sims]

They're very guilty.

[Ben Hosley]

They're just people.

[Griffin Newman]

That's what I find interesting.

[David Sims]

It's more than the old people to me are pretending they're civilized. That young people really.

[Griffin Newman]

Commentary. The commentary is that everyone's doing the exact same thing and they're having a philosophical disagreement about like being hedonist and owning the chaos versus, like trying to put heirs on top of it. Which I think is like very in line with like hostilely taking over a country, pushing the indigenous people aside and then being like, and we are a society of manners, we are now going to build nice houses and rules of like, proper etiquette. And this is a moment where I think, like, younger Australians are sort of carving out their own identity and being like, why are we fucking doing these like, impressions of like old British people from 200 years ago? What is this shit? I don't know. That's my read.

[David Sims]

I think it's A good read.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm so tempted to connect it back to what's going on in America right now.

[Griffin Newman]

Do it.

[Ben Hosley]

It's very, I don't know, make America great again vibes. You have like the old guard people who are just like, we need to go back to win.

[David Sims]

Right. They're going along with it because they just have these. Right.

[Ben Hosley]

You know, and it benefited me. And then you have like the psychotic people who are extremely online who are basically also supporting that, but wanted to go even more extreme.

[Griffin Newman]

This is my take.

[David Sims]

They're black pilled, one might call them.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. My. My take is that those people, whether they're conscious of it or not, what seems to be driving them is a desire to go back to like, caveman type games. Like, everyone is just looking backwards and being like, this isn't working. Right. And there's like one side that's like, we agree this isn't working. Can we push past this and like, fix this? And the other side is just arguing about how far back they want to go.

[David Sims]

I disagree. I think all those guys just have our best interests at heart.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, so then everything's good.

[David Sims]

Don't you think so?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

We should actually do an ad read. Young Person's Blood. If you put it into, you will make you live forever.

[David Sims]

Great read.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, we're. We're so happy to be working with our new sponsors. Young Person's Blood. They're. They're a scrappy little startup and here's

[Ben Hosley]

what they do, but we trust them.

[Griffin Newman]

They're based out of a small town with winding roads. People get in car crashes. They take all the Young Person's blood and you can get it shipped to your door once a month in a box the size of a mini fridge.

[David Sims]

They'll spin it right into your blood.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a lot of blood, but my favorite part is unpacking it. And the blood just all kind of like unfurls. It's an online mattress joke.

[David Sims]

Yes. That was funny. The conclusion of this film, the big party that I was referring to.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. The young people show up with some swastika cars. It is a subtle indication that perhaps they are not of the most sound mind, judgment and morals.

[David Sims]

Yeah. And there's. It's called the Pioneers Ball. It's like their dumb, you know, fancy dress party or whatever. Everyone goes insane and starts killing each other, I guess.

[Griffin Newman]

Right?

[David Sims]

And Arthur finally, like, gets the guts to go behind the wheels of her car again.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I mean, we're not talking about Earth that much because he just Us kind of watch the movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, I think they kill each other. But because there's been so much tension that's been building because the young people have continued to kind of with the town, keep driving through, honking their horns.

[Griffin Newman]

The inciting incident for the, the final like melee is the young guys damaging this aboriginal statue. And that is taken as like this great disrespect and offense by the old people who also clearly do not care about the aboriginal at all. And then that kind of leads to the all out war.

[David Sims]

Yes, it's exciting stuff. It's cool. It, it's cheap. I'm not mad about it, but like, you know, it does not have even the bravura of Mad Max where Mad Max is cheaply made, but because it's like stark empty roads, deserts, you know, like where it's like the, the car action is so like striking.

[Griffin Newman]

George Miller does the exact inverse of this, which is like. That's the point exactly. I'm designing this entire movie around that stuff being as high impact as possible. And I'm marrying it to the simplest plot imaginable, which is guy needs revenge.

[David Sims]

Guy needs revenge. Cause family dead.

[Ben Hosley]

It's got. One of my favorite things you find in low budget movies. There's a part where our main character, he finally gets behind the wheel and he's being told by the mayor to keep crashing into one of the gang members. And it's done in this way where the, the gang member could just get out of the car because he keeps like backing up and then like putting it, you know, it's like a manual. And then crashing into him again and he's just doing that thing of like, no, stop. Oh please stop. You can't do this to me.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a low budget film thing. I also think it's an inexperienced film thing. I have certainly been on productions where you're like rehearsing the scene and you go like. And just humor me for a second. Why wouldn't I just get out of the car and the Director, we have 10 minutes. The director, swear to God, the director like looks at you with panicked eyes and smiles and goes like, I think it's for this shot to work. I think they just won't. Even the audience isn't going to be thinking that. And then you screen the movie in. The first question everyone has is why didn't they open the door? It's enough when I'm talking about these things you recognize only after you've made one film and then watch it back.

[David Sims]

You know, you and again, you, you can only budget so much time like

[Griffin Newman]

and you start to get like smart. Just you have the instincts in you from going through that process of like, which things are an audience going to bump against and which things will they not care about? Foreign. It's time to believe in the hail Mary. Go long. 2418. Three and a half hike. I don't know if that's proper football terminology. I like to say Hail Mary Pass. It's one of those sports phrases I like to reappropriate without really knowing what it means. But here's something I do know about Project Hail Mary, one of the most beloved adventure stories by Andy Weir, is soon becoming a major motion picture. And because this major motion picture is about to be released, there has never been a better time to immerse yourself in the bestselling audiobook. Here's the basic log line. As the sole survivor on a desperate last chance mission, Ryland Grace must save the Earth from disaster in this incredible science based thriller. Fan favorite narrator Ray Porter brings every moment to life with humor, heart and pulse pounding tension. He's a great actor with an incredible voice. With the blockbuster movie's release date approaching, and that's a blockbuster movie starring Ryan Gosling, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, scripted by Drew Goddard. There has never been a better time to start listening to the universally acclaimed audiobook. Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, emphasis on interstellar project, Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation and survival. It's also kind of about two friends. Not the two friends, but there are two friends. Listen to the audiobook, available now on Audible. Before the movie Stars starring the aforementioned Ryan Gosling hits theaters on March 20th. Project Hail Mary. Listen. Watch. Save the world. That's a really simple three point actionable plan. Anyway, listen [e-mail] Hail Mary. David this.

[David Sims]

Ah, who's that?

[Griffin Newman]

No David. In fact, I see why you were confused. It sounded like a doorbell or perhaps even the ringing of a phone to introduce an ad read character. But in fact, it's not an ad read character. It's an exciting new ad read prop. My hand chimes.

[David Sims]

Okay. What? Oh, then why are you ringing those?

[Griffin Newman]

Well, I'm ringing my ceremonies chimes to announce our new sponsor on the podcast Chime Chime.

[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

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[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

Add that to the stack.

[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

you go, good job. Thank you for that. Good service.

[David Sims]

Sounds like you're sort of dragging out the call there, but I mean, that's nice enough. And they've got a great way to build credit history with your own money. They've got a new card that unlocks safer credit. Building cash back.

[Griffin Newman]

That's the sound of me running the card against the chalk times again.

[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

There are strings attached to the chimes. The structure of how chimes work when

[David Sims]

you get qualifying direct deposits. Okay. My younger self would have benefited from this. I needed something like this back when I was overdrafting once in a while. Little David with those fees.

[Griffin Newman]

The adventures of Lil David.

[Ben Hosley]

I was a little bit odd in those days.

[Griffin Newman]

You're a little odd.

[Ben Hosley]

Little odd.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[Ben Hosley]

I was ODing over drafting.

[Griffin Newman]

It took a while to get there. Ben.

[Ben Hosley]

And you know what?

[Griffin Newman]

It could have meant some other things.

[David Sims]

And I'm.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm glad I did it.

[Griffin Newman]

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[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

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[David Sims]

Let me see if there's anything here in the about the release of the film. Okay. Right. Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

A big thing about this movie is

[Ben Hosley]

which sort of suggests it goes to

[Griffin Newman]

the Cannes Film Festival. It makes quite a splash. Roger Corman is interested. Cars the Day, Paris. That sounds like the kind of movie I would put out. He sees it, they're sort of talking about a deal. It falls apart. And then very shortly after, he hires the great Paul Bertel, and he goes, I have a title for you. Death Race 2000.

[David Sims]

Great movie.

[Griffin Newman]

And obviously, this movie does not have a ton to do with Death Race 2000, but in much the same way that it sparked Mad Max for George Miller, I think Roger Corman saw this and is like, I could take this and try to recut it into being more the kind of movie that I

[David Sims]

put out or make.

[Griffin Newman]

What if I just made a movie 100% crazy the whole time?

[David Sims]

Fucking wacky races, right? With guns, right?

[Griffin Newman]

But I think this movie sparked him to be like, oh, you could do this in live action.

[David Sims]

So the cars at 8, Paris, you know, Weir says, I made this to be released internationally. Like, I'm trying to bust out of the Australian, you know, bubble. Yeah, a little bit. Film was shot in fall 73. It premieres at 74. Probably the Sydney Film Festival. Opens in theaters, was not a big commercial hit, but it kind of like, you know, just starts to play. Then it gets taken to Cannes. What you just described happens if Corman gets interested in. Backs out of the deal at some point. New Line Cinema releases it in America in 1976 titled the Cars that Eat People. They cut it. They add narration. I think they cut it to the bone. Yeah. Weir's pretty bummed out by all of

[Griffin Newman]

that, but Picnic is already moving.

[David Sims]

Absolutely. Oh, my God. Right at the bottom of this dossier, JJ has put our old employee and pal Nick Laurianu, who's now a lawyer. Like, went to law school, did, like, kind of a year of research for us and was like, think it's time for me to go to law school. Went to law school, graduated, passed the bar, is a lawyer. We love you, Nick.

[Griffin Newman]

Blank check. An incredible stepping stone.

[David Sims]

Seriously, what kind of lawyer is he? I'm actually not sure the kind. I mean, like, I think he's, like, he graduated maybe last year, so he's still doing. You know, he's still early in.

[Griffin Newman]

Didn't you have to Write him a job reference. We got, like, emails from the bar.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Just being like. He says he worked for Blank Chat. Check for the. You know, And I was like, he did.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[David Sims]

You know, I just had to confirm.

[Griffin Newman]

You had to respond and be like. They were like, we're just curious. We know there were some mistakes on the Elaine May series. Was he on staff?

[David Sims]

No, not at all. Not at all. He was not. Love you, Nick. Love you, Masha. They're living. They're doing great. Nick's doing great. But he. He did write a giant overview of the Australian sort of new wave in the film industry and all that. But I am not going to repeat that, because that would be crazy.

[Griffin Newman]

Very kind of you, but no, I just think it's an interesting case where he designs this to be a calling card film. But the But Then has already gone into movement because of the same short film he used. I know, but then to get this

[David Sims]

made, he makes two different calling card movies that speak to different skills he had.

[Griffin Newman]

No, it helps him tremendously.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Because

[David Sims]

feels like him, you know, pushing off of cars. That ain't Paris.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

But also, I've shown the range that now people trust me that.

[David Sims]

But then, like, the big prestigious stuff he's gonna do next feels like it's pushing off of Picnic. And then when he arrives in Hollywood to make Witness, he is a full package. And he makes Witness. If you made Witness, I hang your head in shame.

[Griffin Newman]

I am ashamed to say. I'm ashamed to say I've not made Witness even once.

[David Sims]

I'm going to play the box office game, Griffin. This film came out in America, so

[Griffin Newman]

this is the new line, Cut the cars.

[David Sims]

That I suppose so. On the 11th of June, 1976.

[Griffin Newman]

So first of all, let's say Happy birthday to America.

[David Sims]

Oh, that's true. It was the bicentennial year. Fun. I'm not seeing it in the top 10 here.

[Griffin Newman]

America is not in the top 10. America's always number one at the box office, in my opinion.

[David Sims]

Number one, however, is a movie with wheels.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay. In 1976. Is. It is. No. Wow.

[David Sims]

I just said Wheels and he's guessing.

[Griffin Newman]

Let's know. Because I'm like smoking the band at 77.

[David Sims]

That's famously 77.

[Griffin Newman]

Of course, because it's the second highest grossing film behind Ben. Behind what was the highest grossing film of 1977? I thought if there was any Star wars, he nailed it. I was right. That's the one. You would know.

[David Sims]

Star wars was the most successful film of that year. But Smokey and the Bandit, which I recently watched for what I think is the first full time. And Sally Field. Call me hot stuff.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, how's she gonna call you if she doesn't have your number?

[David Sims]

Okay. And My number is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. The film. This film I'm discussing, though, it's not a bird.

[Griffin Newman]

No, it's a car movie.

[David Sims]

It has a. It has a vehicle in it. Oh.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's not. You wouldn't primarily identify it.

[David Sims]

I've never seen this film, and I know it mostly for its sort of memorable title. It's a very interesting sounding movie in that, like, the director is interesting, the stars are interesting, and Tulane Blacktop, it's. No, that's an awesome movie. Yeah, that's like a crazy, you know, exploitation movie.

[Griffin Newman]

The stars are interesting.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Well, so the first star is a comedian.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, good.

[David Sims]

And as. As with all comedians of yesteryear, nothing weird ever happened with this guy. Oh, actually, a bunch of weird shit happened to him.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, so is this one of the Sidney Portier Bill Cosby movies?

[David Sims]

You're right on the second in that the second star of this film is Bill Cosby. But no, it's not directed by Sidney Poitier.

[Griffin Newman]

But they also. They did buddy films.

[David Sims]

I'm not talking about that, though. That's.

[Griffin Newman]

This is something else. I was talking about it and I needed you to tell me that it wasn't one of those.

[David Sims]

No, but Bill Cosby is the star. Can I tell you his other two stars?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Raquel Welch and Harvey Keitel. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

This movie is called.

[David Sims]

Do you remember? And it's about them running an ambulance service, but like an indie ambulance service.

[Griffin Newman]

I know the poster.

[David Sims]

Yes, yes. It's got a very memorable title. And let me tell you that Bill Cosby's character is called Mother, and Raquel Welch's character is called Jugs.

[Griffin Newman]

Interesting.

[David Sims]

And what is Harvey Keitel's character called? I've given you two of the three words of the title.

[Griffin Newman]

Gnome.

[David Sims]

Speed.

[Griffin Newman]

Wow.

[David Sims]

Film is called Mother, Jugs and Speed.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, of course. There we go. Okay.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Took me a long time to put that together.

[David Sims]

Yes. I have not seen it. It's directed by Peter Yates, who's like, you know, a real director. And I assume it's a bunch of crazy car antics and stuff like that, but I mostly. I feel like I mostly know it because it's called Mother Jugs.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. It's a good time.

[David Sims]

Fuck is that?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

So that's number one at the box office. It's Crushing number two at the box office is the film that will win best picture in 1976.

[Griffin Newman]

Rocky. Nope. Rocky 75.

[David Sims]

Oh, you know, wait, wait a second. I take it back. Rocky wins best picture in 76.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you.

[David Sims]

However, this film is nominated for best picture and wins other Oscars.

[Griffin Newman]

It wins other Oscars. Is it network?

[David Sims]

Nope. Good guess though, cuz I think that is one. The Rocky year is crazy.

[Griffin Newman]

The rock.

[David Sims]

It's like the. The five nominees are all amazing, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Cuz Taxi Driver's in there as well.

[David Sims]

Taxi Driver is in there, but that's not this movie.

[Griffin Newman]

All the President's ban is in there.

[David Sims]

There you go.

[Griffin Newman]

There we go.

[David Sims]

The fifth, of course, is bound for glory.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Yes.

[David Sims]

Possibly the most forgotten but still good movie.

[Griffin Newman]

A movie I like tremendously.

[David Sims]

Hal Ashby and famous for early steady cam and all that.

[Griffin Newman]

It's like the first Hollywood steady cam. So that camera's smooth as hell.

[David Sims]

Sure is.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

But no, this is all the President's Men.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay. A terrific picture. Have you ever seen it, Ben?

[David Sims]

No.

[Griffin Newman]

It's. You're just like, why isn't every movie

[Ben Hosley]

this a little bit adding it to the list.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

All the President's Men. So that's.

[Griffin Newman]

Do you know what it's about back

[David Sims]

hilariously, a summer movie.

[Ben Hosley]

It's about what, what if the President's boys.

[Griffin Newman]

What if we couldn't trust the President of the United States of America? Oh, what if crimes were happening? Of course journalists would be able to hold them to account. We'd fix the problem. David, what's next at the box office?

[David Sims]

So that's number two. Number three at the box office this week is a western. Kind of a, you know, kind of a revisionist western.

[Griffin Newman]

It's not a Clint.

[David Sims]

No, it is not. No, it's two major movie stars.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, is it the two major movie stars, young or old?

[David Sims]

One of them's on the older end of his career. But he's had a, you know, in the 70s, he's had his big comeback.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[David Sims]

He's won an Oscar recently.

[Griffin Newman]

Is it a Wayne? No, no, no, it's not a Wayne.

[David Sims]

John Wayne.

[Griffin Newman]

He's had a big 70s comeback. Yeah.

[David Sims]

He's not. He's not like a western actor. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And then the other guy's young, younger.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. I would say he, he got his. He became a star a little later. Like he's probably in his 30s, but at this point he's a huge star.

[Griffin Newman]

At this point he's a huge star. Certainly, certainly.

[David Sims]

It is not a film I've ever seen. 1976, I think at the time it was seen, it was like, Missouri Flop. And, like, then it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it became Missouri Breaks.

[David Sims]

It's. The film is Arthur Penn's the Missouri Breaks, starring Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson and. Jack Nicholson.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

You've also got Randy Quaid, Harry Dean Stanton, Frederick Forest.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Must have been a dry set joke about how all those people like to drink.

[David Sims]

Oh, sure. Right, right.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know.

[David Sims]

M. Night Shyamalan.

[Griffin Newman]

Second episode to record today.

[David Sims]

We do M. Night Shyamalan's old. If you remember, Rufus Sewell keeps asking for the title of this movie, and it's like a sign of his dementia.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, sure.

[David Sims]

As he's getting old on the beach.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Just thinking about that recently.

[Griffin Newman]

No one does it like, M. Night,

[David Sims]

Missouri Breaks feels like a film I own on disc because, like, Radiance put out a gigantic box of it. I'm not sure if that's true, but even if it isn't, it will be at some point. Right? You know what I mean?

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Well, I'll look it up and it'll be like, yeah, this movie was a huge bomb. And I'm like. Like, interesting. $60, you say? Number four at the box office. How you doing, Bear?

[Griffin Newman]

How am I doing, Bear?

[David Sims]

Bear. Well, great.

[Ben Hosley]

Wait, that's the name?

[David Sims]

No.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh.

[David Sims]

Fourth at the box office is a film I've never heard of. I'm looking it up. It is a crime drama. Prison drama. It's got a young Tommy Lee Jones in it, I can tell you that much. Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Is it.

[Ben Hosley]

And he still, of course, looked like a old hound dog.

[David Sims]

He has looked like an old hound dog since he was born.

[Griffin Newman]

Is it Comer Le Jones, William Devane movie?

[David Sims]

No, that's Rolling Thunder.

[Griffin Newman]

That's the title I was looking for.

[David Sims]

No, it's a film I've never heard of. Directed by Michael Miller, starring Yvette Mimou, the sort of ingenue. It's got Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Carradine.

[Griffin Newman]

Is it called Lock Me up, why don't you?

[David Sims]

That's what it's called. It's called Lock Me up, why don't you? In the least surprising news of all time, it was at one point selected by Tarantino for the first Quentin Tarantino film festival.

[Griffin Newman]

Doesn't sound like his kind of thing.

[David Sims]

The film is called Jackson County Jail.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, sure.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Yep.

[David Sims]

And it's just one of those movies where I'm like, does Quentin Tarantino. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Yeah, he likes this one. Okay. It's Like a drive in movie, you know. And then number five at the box office is a film I have heard of but not seen. It is a. Another sort of exploitation movie. It's like a rape revenge film starring Margot Hemingway. Not Mariel. Oh

[Griffin Newman]

yes. Because I think this is Mariel's first movie.

[David Sims]

I think so. She plays Margot's sister in the film.

[Griffin Newman]

I believe we talked about this in our Star 80 episode Normal.

[David Sims]

That's an episode I definitely haven't erased from my memory at all.

[Griffin Newman]

I remember every episode vividly and I. Part of that's obviously I re. Listen to all of them every night. I cue them up like that one Flaming Lips album on different players around my room. And now I have a thousand players. This movie is. Is it the character's name?

[David Sims]

No, it's something a girl might wear.

[Griffin Newman]

Lipstick.

[David Sims]

That's right. The film is called Lipstick and I've never seen it. Lamont Johnson movie was also quite controversial at the time, I think. Think because it's a lurid film. You've also got One Flew over the Cuckoo Nest, which won best picture of the prior year. Still hanging out in June. Yep. You have a film called. And I'm going to guess this film probably wasn't an Oscar contender. Poor White Trash Part two. Scum of the Earth.

[Griffin Newman]

Who's got that ip? Is anyone working on that?

[David Sims]

Have no idea what the that is. Wikipedia is like. Never heard of it. Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Stars Lawrence Olivia.

[David Sims]

So I see it was. It was initially called Scum of the Earth and then it was re released under the popular title Poor White Trash Part two.

[Griffin Newman]

Great.

[David Sims]

Anyway, it looks like it's a movie about like Beethoven or something. And then you've got new this week, the. The Dario Argento film Deep Red.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, yeah.

[David Sims]

Which I recently watched my disc of that. I got a new disc of that one.

[Griffin Newman]

Congratulations.

[David Sims]

Pretty fun movie with David Hemmings and those big bushy brows.

[Ben Hosley]

I've never watched any of his films.

[David Sims]

Argento.

[Ben Hosley]

No.

[David Sims]

They're fun. Yeah, they're a good time.

[Griffin Newman]

You like colors, Ben?

[David Sims]

Do you like women getting impaled?

[Ben Hosley]

I would say I like colors.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[Ben Hosley]

Not a big and pale guy.

[David Sims]

Well, then you're gonna be, you know, up and down on these ones.

[Griffin Newman]

Come see.

[David Sims]

Come. Stop. They. You've still got the Exorcist. Oh, sure. Already hanging out.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And then you still have got a great movie. The Bad News Bears. Baseball class classic. That's what's in the box office when. But. But I mean it's. It's a gnarly box office. It's a lot of up 70s exploitation movies.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a grimy tent.

[David Sims]

Like, as much as you're like, okay, sure, there's also all the President's Men, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, but even those are, you know, edgier movies.

[Griffin Newman]

And those are, those are like disillusioned movies.

[David Sims]

Totally. And then you're like, okay. And then what was the kind of like, you know, sort of sillier fare? And it's like, it's a bunch of, like, really nasty stuff. Yeah, yeah, right.

[Griffin Newman]

Like movies. The movies with the one liner. What if a guy got shot? What if a person was bad?

[David Sims]

Entirely true.

[Griffin Newman]

What if crimes happened?

[David Sims]

What if crimes happened? Well, next week. Yeah. Pretty different vibe.

[Griffin Newman]

Pretty different vibe is approaching.

[David Sims]

Right. We don't have anything in the way. We're going right to Picnic and Hanging Rock next week.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. We're doing the vibe shift. We're taking a picnic. James Schonbron, the great filmmaker, returning to the show.

[David Sims]

That's right. To talk about picking a hanging rock. So enjoy that. And then, of course, yes, going forward, we've got Peter. We are. Peter. We are. Peter. We are. We're gonna take one little break from Mandalorian Grogu, but that's not till the end of May, so we're on the weird train.

[Griffin Newman]

We're on the weird, weird. Can we. Should we announce our Mandalorian guest?

[David Sims]

Yeah, sure. Because barring some, you know, future scheduling problem, he's on the spreadsheet.

[Griffin Newman]

Chris Gethard, main feed, Star wars movie.

[Ben Hosley]

He's back.

[Griffin Newman]

He's back. And I'm gonna promise all of you that we will spend 40 minutes at the top talking about Spider Man 2.

[David Sims]

We're gonna stay on topic. Yes, we're. We're bringing Gethin for that episode. And Griff is promising to watch all of Disney's live action Star Wars TV shows to catch up.

[Griffin Newman]

I have watched Obi Wan Kenobi.

[David Sims]

Yeah, he, he watched that one and weirdly, didn't feel motivated to watch a lot more.

[Griffin Newman]

You know, what's the worst feeling in the world to, like, watch a third Obi Wan Kenobi episode? Most boring I've ever seen in my life, and then be like, I. I'm still awake. Do you know what I'm saying?

[David Sims]

Like, how am I not in my Odin sleep, my eternal slumber, to be

[Griffin Newman]

fighting insomnia so hard, put on the most boring anyone's ever made and then still be awake at 3 o' clock in the morning?

[Ben Hosley]

This is the mistake I made. I Put on Antiques Road show last night when I.

[Griffin Newman]

Too exciting.

[Ben Hosley]

Too exciting.

[Griffin Newman]

Too exciting. Obi Wan has the opposite problem.

[Ben Hosley]

Do Obi Wan. Yeah, I know.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. It's. It's. It's like eaten. It's like eating a turkey, Alfred Hitchcock style.

[David Sims]

Genuine question. What is next for you?

[Griffin Newman]

I think.

[David Sims]

Which one will you tackle next?

[Griffin Newman]

I think it is. Is it and or season one I'm going through.

[David Sims]

And you're trying to go in release order.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, I think that's right.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I would assume so.

[Griffin Newman]

I think it's and or season one. Then Mando season three.

[David Sims]

Because you. Sorry, wait. Because, like, is the idea. We're doing live action only.

[Griffin Newman]

Live action only.

[David Sims]

So you've seen Mando season one and two.

[Griffin Newman]

Correct.

[David Sims]

And you opened the book of Boba Fett.

[Griffin Newman]

I opened the book and trust me, I closed it and put it back on the shelf.

[David Sims]

Yes. So the next thing for you to watch is and or season one.

[Griffin Newman]

It's happening, folks. You can stop haranguing me.

[David Sims]

And then you're going to make the incredibly foolish decision of not just watching Indoor Season 2, which is what you should do.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm going to space it out.

[David Sims]

That's a terrible idea.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm going to watch man. It is Mando 3 next.

[David Sims]

Then it would be Mando 3.

[Griffin Newman]

Then it's Ahsoka.

[David Sims]

Then it's Ahsoka season one.

[Griffin Newman]

Ahuh.

[David Sims]

As someone who did watch it. Oh my. Oh, my God. Then the acolyte.

[Griffin Newman]

You have seen Acolyte I have seen.

[David Sims]

So you don't have to watch that. Then Skeleton crew.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. And then Andor season two and or season.

[David Sims]

Carry on.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, I understand that I'm depriving myself of joy, and I think I'm forcing myself to crawl back through the Shawshank Redemption poop tube, but I think it will make it that much more satisfying. The other side. When I'm standing in the rain and the Thomas Newman music is, my fear

[David Sims]

is you'll just give up.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm not gonna give up.

[David Sims]

He's not gonna. I've.

[Griffin Newman]

I never give up. Never surrender. That's from Star wars, right? Anyway, yes, Peter Weir, we're doing it. Just with a little break from our friends the Mandalorian and gregu.

[David Sims]

There you go.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you all for listening. Please remember, rate, review and subscribe. Tune in next week for Picnic and Hanging Rock with Jane Schoenbrung. And as always, Kachow. David pushed his mic away in disgust.

[Ben Hosley]

Blank Check with Griffin And David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims, our executive producer is me, Ben Hosley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas, and our Associate producer is AJ McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeon and Alan Smithee. Research by JJ Burch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American Novel with additional music by Alex Mitchell, artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production house help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy. Join our Patreon Blank Check special features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at Blank checkpod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions. Okay. God, I'm rolling.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, wait a second. I'm not ready.

[David Sims]

I don't give a shit.

[Ben Hosley]

That's okay, you, but we're ready to go.

[David Sims]

I don't give a.

[Ben Hosley]

This is the first in the mini. God.

[David Sims]

Unfortunately, I'm.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm happy to shame myself as a cold open if.

[David Sims]

Oh, no, no. That'll be a little shame. There should be a little shame on the books.

[Ben Hosley]

And I. What was the shame? It was like a Channel 4, like, Eyewitness News, for sure.

[Griffin Newman]

Shame on you.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Remember this?

[Griffin Newman]

The big cartoon finger graphic.

[David Sims]

I do not remember this. My dad was grow up with.

[Ben Hosley]

It was like one of those classic things where the local news has some correspondent who, like, goes to local businesses, struggling local businesses and like, yells at them because they have, like, a dirty bathroom, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Or be like an old woman would be like, the pamphlet said bananas were 15 cents. And I went to the store and they charged me 20. And then he goes in with, like, a camera.

[Ben Hosley]

Crazy.

[David Sims]

What's the matter with you?

[Griffin Newman]

On a mic, he's like, you. You ruined this lady's experience with getting bananas. Shame on you. And then a big cartoon finger.

[David Sims]

Like, please.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes. That's what I want. I want you guys to. To burst in with the camera crew and shame me.

[Griffin Newman]

Big cartoon finger.

[Ben Hosley]

With a big cartoon finger.