Last Looks: Megalopolis

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How Did This Get Made?" – Episode: Last Looks: Megalopolis

Release Date: January 31, 2025

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1. Introduction to the Episode

In this episode of "How Did This Get Made?", hosts Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas dive into their latest cinematic curiosity, Megalopolis. Paul opens the show with vibrant energy, setting the stage for an in-depth exploration of the film and inviting listeners to engage with their reflections and critiques.

Paul Scheer [00:24]: "This episode is going to truly a mind-blowing one."

2. Deep Dive into "Megalopolis"

The primary focus of the episode centers on Megalopolis, a film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The hosts dissect various aspects of the movie, including its themes, character dynamics, and underlying messages. Paul highlights the ambitious nature of the film and its attempt to create a "perfect utopia."

Paul Scheer [01:18]: "It's like Tommy Wiseau's The Room, not Brie Larson's Room."

The discussion touches upon Coppola's meticulous attention to detail, exemplified by subtle callbacks and foreshadowing within the film. Jason and Paul explore the blending of mythological elements with modern storytelling, pondering the feasibility and execution of constructing a utopian society within a densely populated city like New York.

Jason Mantzoukas [06:23]: "Like Middle Earth, where they all live."

Paul Scheer [06:26]: "Whatever the fuck is going on."

3. Listener Feedback and Corrections

The episode incorporates listener interactions from their Discord community, presenting corrections and omissions related to Megalopolis. Multiple listeners contribute insights that shed light on overlooked nuances and inconsistencies within the film.

• Rob from Long Island clarifies the origin of "Dingbat News," connecting it to another of Francis Ford Coppola's works.

  Rob [Bombay Beach Revival] [04:22]: "Dingbat News was the name of Sofia Coppola's newspaper..."

• Mitch Coppa discusses Coppola's dedication to continuity and character development, particularly highlighting a scene involving Dustin Hoffman's character.

  Mitch Coppa [06:29]: "Francis Ford Coppola really cared about what he was making..."

• Angriest Hiki points out Megalopolis's connection to the Godzilla franchise, noting the appearance of Megalon.

  Angriest Hiki [06:31]: "Megalopolis is one of Godzilla's foes..."

• Maximum Clark addresses the symbolism in Dustin Hoffman's credits, debunking the notion of hidden significance.

  Maximum Clark [10:15]: "This was clearly an artistic choice by the title company with no special significance."

June Diane Raphael and Paul Scheer engage humorously with these corrections, acknowledging the depth of listener involvement.

4. Additional Media Discussions

Beyond Megalopolis, the hosts transition to broader discussions encompassing television shows, audiobooks, and comic books.

• Television: The trio discusses standout TV series such as SAS Rogue Heroes, Billions, and Wolf Hall. Jason expresses interest in SAS Rogue Heroes, while Katie praises Gentry Chow versus the Underworld and Wild Robot for their storytelling and character development.

  Katie [14:53]: "I loved the first season a couple of years ago when it came out."

• Audiobooks and Films: Jason shares his current audiobook endeavors, including a Kubrick biography, while Katie recommends the animated film Look Back and discusses the emotional impact of Wild Robot.

  Jason Mantzoukas [25:05]: "It's called Kubrick and Odyssey. It's supposedly the definitive Kubrick book."

• Comics: A lively segment on recent comic book releases features titles like Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragoda, Legacy of Vader by Charles Soule, and various Star Wars expanded universe novels by Timothy Zahn. The hosts emphasize the richness and diversity of contemporary comic storytelling.

  Katie [29:01]: "The book Doom by Jonathan Hickman and Sanford Green is a great one-shot Doctor Doom story."

5. Listener Recommendations and Personal Takes

Listeners contribute personal endorsements and critiques of current media trends. Jason discusses the resurgence of The Onion in paper form, lauding its commitment to humor and quality journalism without ads.

Jason Mantzoukas [43:50]: "The Onion is back, and you can get it in paper form... get another subscription to The Onion."

Katie shares her enthusiasm for anime titles like Dan to Dan and Dead to Dead Demons, alongside documentary recommendations such as Jon Ronson's Kubrick's Boxes. The hosts engage in a dynamic exchange, highlighting their diverse media interests and encouraging audience exploration.

6. Upcoming Episode Preview: "Passion Play"

Concluding the episode, Paul Scheer teases the next installment, which will feature Passion Play, a film starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox, and Bill Murray. The brief plot synopsis underscores the film's reception, noting its low score on Rotten Tomatoes and critical disapproval by Mickey Rourke himself.

Paul Scheer [47:12]: "Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 3% score on the Tomatometer."

The hosts warmly invite listeners to continue engaging with the podcast through ratings, reviews, and social media interactions, while also acknowledging their production team and announcing their upcoming live tour.

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Notable Quotes:

• Paul Scheer [00:24]: "This episode is going to truly a mind-blowing one."

• Jason Mantzoukas [06:23]: "Like Middle Earth, where they all live."

• Katie [14:53]: "I loved the first season a couple of years ago when it came out."

• Jason Mantzoukas [25:05]: "It's called Kubrick and Odyssey. It's supposedly the definitive Kubrick book."

• Paul Scheer [47:12]: "Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 3% score on the Tomatometer."

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Conclusion

This episode of "How Did This Get Made?" offers a comprehensive and entertaining examination of Megalopolis, enriched by active listener participation and a broad spectrum of media discussions. The hosts' insightful critiques, coupled with their engaging dialogue, provide both existing fans and newcomers with a thorough understanding of the film's intricacies and its place within the larger entertainment landscape.

Transcript

[Paul Scheer]

Knight, King Kong versus Adam Driver. And Jason and I talking audiobooks. All this and more on today's how did this get made? Last Looks hit the theme. Last lunch.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Last looks. Last looks. Last Looks.

[Paul Scheer]

Welcome all my circumstances, Caesar fans and Cicero fans. A place where you can both live together in one. A perfect utopia, if you will. This is Last Looks. I am your host, Tal Jon Shear, AKA Paul Scheer. And this is the only show where we break down how did this get made films even more. Why? Because it involves you. You call out all the things that we might have missed. And honestly, there wasn't enough time to get into everything we wanted to talk about in Megalopolis. So this episode is going to truly a mind blowing one. Now before every show starts, we like to give somebody a chance to maybe have an alt tagline for the movie that we just did. And I gotta say that Discord user Zilla21 had the best tagline when he said it's like the room with a view.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Ooh, I love it. That is. That's great.

[Paul Scheer]

Look, I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. He means Tommy Wiseau's the room. Not room. Brie Larson's room. Thank you Zillow21 for that tagline. Remember, if you have an alt movie tagline or title, submit it to us on our Discord and we may just read it on the show and I might over explain it just like I did. Now coming up on today's episode, we will be hearing all your corrections and omissions on Megalopolis. And believe me, there are a lot. Then Jason and I will chat about all the stuff that we've been watching and we've been watching a lot of TV and yes, we're watching Sas Rogue Heroes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You'll get into all that more in.

[Paul Scheer]

Just a little bit. But before we get into anything else, I want to give a big shout out to Sean Fogle who created that amazing opening theme song. Thank you, Sean. We love these songs. If you have any Last look episode theme songs, please, you know the drill. Send them to how did this get [e-mail] Keep them short. 15 to 20 seconds is best. All right people, how did this get made? Is on tour. It's a giant spring tour. We are going to Austin, we are going to San Fran. We are going to the Tree Fort Music Festival where you can purchase a festival ticket or a regular ticket. That's right, Boise. We are taking care of you. Plus we're going to go back to Denver finally. We have been excited to hit Denver again. So we will be there. San Francisco, I said we're going to be there, I think. Or maybe not. Portland, Seattle. We're doing it all. Go to hdtgm.com so far the only movies that have been announced are for the LA shows. But as we get closer, we will tell you exactly what to watch. Also, I want to plug a brand new show that Rob Huebel. How did this get made All Star and I are doing? It is called the Dark Web. You can go to my website, Paulshear.com to find out how to enter the Dark Web. You can also go to EntertheDarkWeb.com it is a weekly YouTube show where Rob Huebel and I watch the craziest stuff that we can find. But not like in a disturbing, upsetting way and not like in a ridiculous way. These are things that just make us laugh. And it's a big new show, so watch it. It's completely for free on YouTube. Again, my website. Or EntertheDarkWeb.com to get right to it on YouTube. All right, now enough of plugs. Now it's time to get into Megalopolis, where there are no plugs. It's a perfect world. It is now time, though, for you to tell us where we went wrong. Just like Mayor Cicero told Caesar when he developed a perfect plan for whatever they called New York. Anyway, it is now time for corrections and omissions. Hit the theme.

[Katie]

Just wait one minute.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I can't believe you missed something, so I must correct you and clarify what you all meant. Can't believe you missed it.

[Paul Scheer]

My friends and yours. Bombay Beach Revival with another banger. Thank you, Bombay Beach Revival. Let's go to the Discord. Rob from Long island writes, Dingbat News was the name of Sofia Coppola's newspaper that she did with her friends. It appears in another one of Francis Ford Coppola's films, but I can't remember which one. So this is kind of an inside joke. Okay, Rob from Long Island. There we go. I like it. But I have to say, when it's so prominent, that kind of a callback or that kind of. It would be better, like subtly implanted there. But okay. Mitch Coppa, that's a chunk style writes. I like the continuity and Francis Ford Coppola really cared about what he was making and he wanted to make sure that Dustin Hoffman had a line during the wedding saying that Jon Voight's character has a huge dick. So later when we check out that boner when he has that hidden bow and arrow, the audience would all have thought, yes, this is the boner I would expect, given the previous information. Thank you, Mitch Kappa. You're right. He is a stickler for details. And you know what we call that in the literary world? We call that foreshadowing. But maybe when it's about dicks, we call that dick shadowing, which is what a lot of guys do to their dicks to make it look girthier and longer. Anyway, the angriest Hiki writes this. I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but Megalon is one of Godzilla's foes. He is featured in the classic Mystery Science Theater 3000. Classic Godzilla versus Megalon. Holy hell. Wait, it's not spelled the same way, is it? I guess it is. Oh, my God. The universes have collided. The dark universe has opened. We need the characters from Megalopolis in one of those new Godzilla, King Kong, you know, whatever it is.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like Middle Earth, where they all live.

[Paul Scheer]

Whatever the fuck is going on. I love those movies, but I.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know, it's kind of ridiculous at this point.

[Paul Scheer]

So let's get Adam Driver in a King Kong vs Godzilla verse Megalon, because maybe Adam Driver's wife becomes the creature that Godzilla's gotta fight. I don't know. I'm open to pitching on the idea. Anyway, let's go to the phones. Katie from Seattle, what do you got?

[Zenobia]

Hey, guys, this is Katie. I watched Megalopolis seven hours ago, and I literally. It's like 1am And I cannot sleep because I am haunted. I feel like Adam Driver's relationship with his mother in this movie really needed more discussion. Like, every single interaction that they had left me just, like, physically and emotionally, deeply, like, uncomfortable. And honestly, like, watching this entire movie and then the seven hours following, it feels like I tried a new drug where it's like I can't get a good answer from anyone about, like, how long the trip's going to last. I desperately, desperately would like for it to end, and I'm honestly scared it's never going to. Loved the book, Paul. Love listening to the podcast. And, yeah, thanks for everything.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Bye, Katie. That's what we call art.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. It's supposed to keep you awake at night. It's supposed to fuck you up. I still haven't slept since seeing Megalopolis. All right, let's go to Zenobia from New York.

[Raphael]

This is Zenobia. First time, a long time. I'm just calling about the last episode, Megalopolis. I wanted to Share the experience. My husband and I had going to see the movie in IMAX on opening night. Before the movie started, the lights all came on and the manager came out and he said, without any fanfare, he goes, ladies and gentlemen, very special guest, please welcome Francis Ford Coppola. And Francis Ford Coppola came out. He proceeded to tell us to all call him Uncle Francis. And then he said, this is a film about asking questions. It's a film about being curious, asking questions. Maybe questions that don't even have an answer, but posing them. And so because of that, we really should be open minded about this movie. We really shouldn't judge this movie the first time you've seen it. Let it sit with you. And also maybe don't ever judge it because all this movie is doing is asking questions. And isn't that in and of itself something that's worthwhile even if you didn't like the content of the movie? So I just thought that that was a, a fun thing, a fun thing to experience before the movie and to sort of hear. Francis almost felt a little bit like defending the movie before anyone had even watched it or criticized it.

[Paul Scheer]

You know what, I want to take.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

This as my rallying cry.

[Paul Scheer]

It's you're not.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, no judgment.

[Paul Scheer]

This is a no judgment film. This is a no judgment TV show. Look, just tell people. It's like a little title card comes up. Like the jackass warning is like, can't judge this one.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Sorry, this is off the table.

[Paul Scheer]

Thank you, Uncle Francis. I love you, Raphael.

[Ghostbag]

Hey there. My name's Raphael. It's about Megalopolis and the live participation aspect of it. So I work at a movie theater that had to do this. One thing that you guys mentioned that wasn't correct was that the live participant actually didn't read anything we weren't allowed to. I had to do this. I had to go up in front of the crowd and pretend to talk and mimic and mouth everything. The notes to do this are some of the most insane things in the world.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's wild.

[Ghostbag]

The live participant component begins precisely at 1 hour, 22 minutes and 29 seconds into the feature. There is a run of show that is down to the second of how we were supposed to do this. Obviously that's impossible. I didn't care enough to do it that way. My technical director here at the theater didn't really care enough staff to do it that way either. We still did. Was confusing to us. It was confusing to the audience. It didn't add anything. It was just weird. And then for the rest of the night, I had customers coming up to me and thanking me for my performance in a very mocking way, which, yeah, I kind of deserved.

[Paul Scheer]

What? No, that's. That is truly a bummer to me. How dare he? How dare he let something so interactive be so staged? What are you, some sort of character that walks around Disney World? No, no, no, Raphael, you need to live. You need to be out there. You should have done more lines. All right, thank you so much for calling in. Let's go back to the discord. Ghostbag writes, the boner under the sheet is actually a weapon. Scene was completely ripped off from the Paul Verhoeven film Black Book in 2006. Nice try, Coppola, but you can't outperve the master. Well, you know what? Here's what I'll say. It seems like Megalopolis has been in his head since 1976, so he might have thought of it before Verhoeven Quantum Jazz writes, did anyone else find it confusing that Caesar insisted on constructing his new utopia in the densely populated city of New York? Why couldn't he have built a smaller, more manageable sample city in New Jersey or Long Island? It seems crazy to conduct such a large scale, unproven experiment in Manhattan before testing it out in a less densely populated area. Quantum Jazz, you don't get it. That would be a suburb. Then we don't want a suburb. We want a suburb in a city. We can't take the suburb out of the city. Then it's a suburb. That's Megalopolis, baby. Maximum Clark writes. Correction. An audience member tries to point out symbolism in Dustin Hoffman's credit scroll, stating he didn't have a name and that it fades in and out weirdly when in reality he is credited as Nush the Fixer Berman, and every featured cast member's character name disappears halfway up the credit scroll. With Dustin Hoffman being no different than the rest, this was clearly an artistic choice by the title company with no special significance. Thank you, Maximum Clark. Wow. So many great corrections and omissions this week. But there can only be one that is the best, one that exceeds all of them. And you know, truthfully, it is the person who is in Megalopolis, and that is Raphael. Raphael, you are the winner and you get nothing. But you do get this amazing song from Case Silva. Hit it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You win. Are you proud? Think you'll stand out from the rest of the crowd. But now, here's the thing. All you get through that is just them talking. Nothing.

[Paul Scheer]

Now, if you want to chime in with your own thoughts about the latest episode, hit us up on the discord at Discord GG HDTGM or calls at 619 Paul A S K. All right, coming up after the break, Jason will stop by. We'll chat about all things on tv, audiobooks and movies that we've been loving. Welcome back, people. I want you to check out our matinee episodes. Those are re releases of old how to get made episodes and I think you're going to enjoy them because this week was one of my personal favorites. That's right, the old villain Ron Silva shows up with time cop Nick Kroll guests on that episode. It's episode 166. And next week will be Gods of Egypt with Aaron Gibson and Brian Safy. So keep on checking out our replays of classic episod every Tuesday. And without any further ado, it is now time to welcome Jason for a little just chat. Antoine Wellen, play us in.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Church. Jason, how are you?

[Katie]

Paul, Here we go. Boom, boom, boom. Couple of great TV shows coming back or have come back. SAS Rogue Heroes, the Steven Knight World War II series.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Katie]

Fantastic. Back in action.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

A lot of people have asked us if we have seen that. I have not seen that. So I'm happy that you.

[Katie]

Oh yeah. I loved the first season a couple of years ago when it came out. I love Stephen Knight, who did Peaky Blinders and a ton of other stuff. One of the most prolific writers working right now. I love that show Rogue Hero. So I was thrilled it came back. And so far this season two has been terrific. Boy, did I love every insane second of Taylor Sheridan's Landman.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I need to watch that. I've only heard it is great.

[Katie]

The two shows that I've watched that are that feel to me as though they are somehow connected are Landman and I'm currently watching Billions.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, Billions. Wow.

[Katie]

Which is straight crazy and an absolute blast. And they both have that feeling of unhinged kind of machismo and bravado, constantly being like kneecapped. It's a blast.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, and Billions is kind of like in my limited watching of it, I've caught episodes across the years. It is like a high stakes Entourage. I think that the dig that you would often get at Entourage is, well, nothing really happens. This show is like everything happens. But the bravado. It's a heightened, I mean, it is, it's a heightened entourage but with stakes and craziness and it truly is fun.

[Katie]

It's absolutely nuts. And both of the thing that I love about both of these shows, Landman and Billions, is that they are every single character monologues constantly. Everybody's given minutes to just give full throated crazy monologues and everybody's like, yeah, yeah, it's a blast.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's definitely a show. Both shows are writer forward. Like, you know, you could tell. You're like, oh, yes, this is what? Yeah, this is.

[Paul Scheer]

Got it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I got it. I'm here.

[Katie]

It's wild. It's wild. But both those shows are a blast. Super fun. Landman, though Billions obviously is long since over. But. But Landman I just had so much fun with. And it's a. Don't put, don't give it too much thought. You know, again, that's why I like Tulsa King. Yes, yes, exactly. This is. This is Tulsa King. This is mayor of Kingstown. This is Yellowstone. It's not lioness. It's not as violent. It's not. It's got a lot more lioness, is a lot more intense. This is fun. Well, Ally Larder, incredible performance from Ali Larder in this show. Absolutely unhinged. It's a blast.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I gotta watch it. I've been so like watching Academy Award movies, trying to catch up. This is like my period where I AM Just like ODing on those films, which I'm loving and it's great. But I am missing my shows and the only one I'm really keeping up on right now is Traitors American Traders.

[Katie]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Which only gets better and better. I will say.

[Katie]

Is that the one that is Alan Cumming hosting or is that the other one?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Alan Cumming hosts the American Traders. Now will I say. I'll be very honest and say it's still not as good as UK Traders and the best of all of it, season two of Australia. But I'm saying all that to say that America is a great season right now because they bring on some characters from a bunch of different shows and some great characters. They upped the ante in the right way on season two. I, I highly recommend it. If you know these people, great. If you don't know them.

[Katie]

Is this the one that Vanderpump Scandal. Scandal, yes. Is that's what he's on? Right? Okay, I saw this on.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Great. Oh, good. He is. I mean, one of my favorite things about Vanderpump is watching him react to things. He's. He always looks like a guy that is guilty in, in a police interrogation room. And I thought, oh, you know, because I haven't watched all of Vanderpump I've watched a lot of it. I always thought, oh, this is maybe because he's really under the gun or he's really under this eye because of, you know, the scandal. No, that's how he is in general. He feels constantly being zoomed in. By the way, I'm going to pitch a show. Well, not pitch a show. I want to talk to you about a show to get your reaction to it. I have not watched it, but I saw a commercial for it yesterday. It's a new show on Fox. It's called. It basically is Alone. Right. People are put out into the world, but their family is in a base station watching them. And their family gets to manipulate certain things in their environment, a la Truman show. And they get to call the extraction or not.

[Katie]

Oh, God, wait. But it is similarly like they are alone. They are in the wilderness. It is still a kind of problem solving in the wilderness survival show.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And they're not connected to their family, but their family is in like a NASA control room where they're watching live feeds of their person.

[Katie]

Okay, oh, I'm in, I'm in.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Basically dealing. And I was like, ooh, this looks. I mean, clearly someone was like, all right, how do we capitalize on Alone.

[Katie]

Everybody Alone has been such a big smash success, both on history and then once it started airing on Netflix, it was so big that Netflix themselves developed their own Alone, which I hated because it was mean spirited. It was like every. It was a competition. It had a competition and one of the teams was like all villains and they. Instead of like playing the game, I mean, this is the game, I guess, but not a game I'm interested in. They're in. Their game became their, their team's thing became sabotaging other teams, like cruelly. And I was like, I don't like this at all.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

You know, you see, so this is the, the Extracted idea. I'm just, I'm googling it. The show is called Extracted. It's a survival competition show where family members watch and decide their fate of. Of their. Of the people out there. And it's very similar to alone. 12 untrained contestants.

[Katie]

That's the biggest. Oh, that's interesting.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And, and the contestants are given more challenges. Like they have to do things that are, you know, so it's, it's kind of mixing and matching.

[Katie]

Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to check it out, but my guess is I'm not going to like it simply because I think the thing that attracts me to Alone is how Capable. The people are.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Right.

[Katie]

You know what I mean?

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Katie]

Watching people. The things that I love about alone are when someone solves a problem, not when someone fails. You know, I don't take joy from like, ha, ha, you. They got you, you know, like, or you failed or you're out. I. I love it when someone is like, I have this problem and now I've turned this problem into an asset.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Or, and you want to watch somebody be good at something. Like, there's a difference between watching someone who's never fished learn to fish. That's fun. But there's something about watching a person who knows how to fish create a fishing net and create, like an ecosystem that can fuel them. Like, there is. There is something that alone does that is a celebration of incredibly smart people in an extreme situation. Whereas it seems to me, on the basis of what I just read about extraction, it's Survivor skills. I always watch Survivor and I go, oh, I realized this recently. Cause I watched it when I was younger and I'm like, oh, these people are just. They're not. They don't know how to do anything. They don't. Like at one point in Survivor, most of the times when they have to make fire, it's like, oh, geez, I gotta make fire. You know, it's like they're not even coming on the show with that level of knowledge.

[Paul Scheer]

No, no.

[Katie]

And that's, you know, that's, that's, that's. And that's a little bit why I didn't watch or why Survivor. I think I watched the first maybe three seasons, you know, when it came out because it was such a new, you know, sticky thing. But then I fell off of it. But I mean, alone, I devour also alone. Australia is fantastic.

[Paul Scheer]

Why is Australia always better?

[Katie]

I mean, I was, you know why? Because they've got all these crazy animals that's just like. It's nuts. You're like, whoa. Giant spiders. Whoa.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I. Man, oh, man, oh, man. I am.

[Katie]

Let me shout out just a few more things, if you don't mind. There's a new animated show on Netflix that Ali Wong, our friend Ali Wong is the star and producer of called Gentry Chow versus the Underworld.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, I don't know about this.

[Katie]

Fantastic. It's an absolutely dynamite show that I can't recommend enough to everybody. If you've liked a lot of the other kind of animation stuff that we've talked about, I think this fits solidly into that. It is a wonderful coming of age teen angst story while also being a fantastic Girl has powers that she didn't know about. And as those powers come to bear, how does that influence and change her life? It's got a great, like, it's not quite a superhero story. It's got magic. It's got coming of age. It's got family history. It's got everything going for it. And it's also very funny. Gentry Chow versus the Underworld.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That's on Netflix.

[Katie]

On Netflix. I don't remember what network this is on, but the TV show Laid, I believe it's really funny with Stephanie. Is it Shu? Stephanie Shu?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

From.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

She is great. She was in that. Oh, my gosh, I love all these people.

[Katie]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a. And.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And Zoe Rock, which I really enjoyed.

[Katie]

Yes. Fantastic. Yes. And it is Stephanie Hsu. Stephanie Hsu is so fucking funny in the show.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Hilarious.

[Katie]

Absolutely. Just crushes everything in this show. And there is. I was watching it, and this is. This made me laugh. Just because it's a bit that. That was part of our episode is There's a bit in one of the episodes about Malignant, and Stephanie Shu keeps calling the character Malignant, like we were doing on the podcast. And that alone got a laugh out of me. But the show is fantastic and very funny and absolutely worth checking out. It's on Peacock, like you said, Paul. I just looked it up. You're right, it's great.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Can't recommend enough if you've not seen Wild Robot. Holy.

[Katie]

Oh, yes. Wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

That movie crushed me, like, in the best possible way. Like, I read a review that someone said, hey, if you want to cry for an hour and 42 minutes, this is a great movie for you. My son came home so upset in a wonderful way. Like, he loved the movie, was so moved by it, and I was like, oh, I want to watch this. And, you know, I'm sure it'll be sad, but it won't be. It destroyed me in a great way. A beautiful movie. Wild Robot. She's one of the actresses in it. Bill Nye, Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill. I'm mispronouncing it.

[Katie]

Mark Hamill.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Mack, Mark Hamill, Peter Pascal, all the classics. It's a great movie. It's great. Matt. Matt Berry is very good in it. Lupita Nuongo is in it. It's great. I highly recommend Wild Robot.

[Katie]

I will shout out as well. I'm like, a lot for me, TV is going down real smooth. The Diplomat on Netflix.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, you're talking like June right now. This is.

[Katie]

I know. Fantastic show. Loved it. Goes down smooth. I will shout out two shows that are about to return, so if you want to catch up on them, go right ahead. Shore as the season four, as I mentioned earlier, coming soon, Unstoppable, the best comedy on television. And then a show that I think is one of my favorite shows. And I've just started rewatching it again in preparation for season two coming out, I think 12 years after season one. The British masterpiece Wolf Hall.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, I love Wolf Hall.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I didn't know that was coming out.

[Katie]

Season two comes out in March and it is a continuation of the Hilary Mantel books.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And if you're not like, this is where I met Mark Rylance.

[Katie]

Boy, oh boy, the best.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He is amazing in this. Or maybe I saw him on Broadway and then I saw him on this.

[Katie]

But this is, it's an incredible performance. This is a. This is, this is the story of Thomas Cromwell. So it's the court of King Henry viii, it's Anne Boleyn. It's all of that era of history told inside of the story of Thomas Cromwell, who's a lawyer who Rylance plays. And what's fascinating is there's so much going on and everybody in the show is a straight up home run murderer actor. And Rylance, though, is the focal point of everything and has, I'm going to say, a quarter the amount of dialogue as everyone else. He's speaking so infrequently, but you're watching his face constantly. It's riveting performance.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It's so funny that you say this show because I remember that I bought the DVDs of it. That's how long ago I was watching this show and watching it in a trailer in a cold Canadian set wherever I was and just love and couldn't stop watching it. Like one of those shows where I was like, gotta get back to my trailer so I can watch more of Wolf Hall.

[Paul Scheer]

Wolf Hall.

[Katie]

You know, it was a PBS Masterpiece. It aired here on Masterpiece, you know, on pbs. And I think that's how I found it first. And I just remember because it's also like, it feels like Barry Lyndon.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes.

[Katie]

All lit with candles and natural light. It is beautiful and slow and it is just a blast.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

It also feels like that. I mean, it has a similar feeling of the favorite too, which I loved and is a great, great.

[Katie]

It's kind of the opposite of billions, you know what I mean? Like, it's the, it's.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Katie]

So it's like, it's a good. Or the Diplomat or these other shows that I'VE mentioned just because it is slow and thoughtful and incredible. Anyway, okay, I'm just gonna throw out a couple of comics that I think have come out in the last bunch of time that I think I've been catching up on my. I've been catching up on my unread pile of comics.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, I love that.

[Katie]

And so there's been a bunch of good stuff. Our friend Tom King. You know what? Tom King, you can go to hell. Has a new book. Is writing a new Jenny Sparks book over at dc. It's fantastic.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Jeff's book, by the way. I just got that, Jenny. I. I had had it on my list of things to get, and I really loved it. I thought that was great.

[Katie]

That's fantastic. Yep, it's a great book. Tom King always doing super interesting stuff. It's. It's a great read. The art is fantastic. Scott Snyder and Nick Dragoda are doing a book called Absolute Batman. This is the biggest comic book of the year, I believe, just in terms of sales. And, you know, it's a huge book. It's a big success. I'm just gonna shout it out just because it's great and it looks fantastic, by the way.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Do you know. And you know Charles Soul, who I'm a big fan of as well.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Is coming out with a brand new series called Legacy of Vader, which is gonna be. Can't wait for that. And these Star wars comics are always a gang. Gang.

[Katie]

We say it a lot, but, like, we cannot recommend enough. If you are a Star wars fan and you maybe feel burned by the hot and cold shows and movies, some are good, some are bad. You can't always count on it. You can't predict it. The comics are phenomenal. So really, really good. Dial yourself into the comics. It's an absolute blast. And I'm also like, I'm on my last Timothy Zahn book, Star wars novel. I've now listened to all of them on audiobook.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

These are the ones that came out when we were kids, right?

[Katie]

Yeah, when we. Well, not just when we were kids, but when we were kids all the way through our adult. They've been coming out for years.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, wow.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Looking at this.

[Katie]

Yeah, exactly.

[Paul Scheer]

Okay. He.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

He basically is. All right. So all the Thrawn books are basically.

[Katie]

He is Thrawn. He is Thrawn, but he's also Mara Jade and the. Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker. That whole thing is storyline, you know, so there's all these connected books inside of this is. And to be clear, these are non Disney. These are the de. Canonized Legends stories, the expanded universe, whatever they call it, I can't remember now, but. So these aren't in line with the current canon, but they are great stories, fantastic books. And the audiobooks specifically are incredible because they audio design everything. Mark Thompson does incredible voices for everybody. They have the John Williams score. They have the TIE fighter and lightsaber sounds. So it feels very rich. So they're a blast to listen.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Maybe I should listen to this. Right now, I'm listening to a great. I'm reading and listening to a great Kubrick book. It's kind of like the. It's supposedly, like, the definitive Kubrick book. It had come out, I believe, a couple of. Maybe a couple months ago. It's called Kubrick and Odyssey. And it. You know, I. I kind of prefer. When I listen to, like, a biography like this, it goes down smooth. I mean, there's no sound effects, obviously, but it goes down smoother because it's great.

[Katie]

If there was.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, like, Monolith.

[Katie]

It's Red in the Hal voice. Kubrick is really interesting also because I feel like lately it's been coming up a bunch. Oh, Action Boys. The podcast just did the Killers, and so they were talking about Kubrick a bunch, and I feel like that's. It's a great. Oh, and Eyes Wide Shut. I just watched Eyes Wide Shuttle.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, we just did Eyes Wide Shut on Unspooled, which. Oh, yeah. Which found its new home at Realm. But I will say this. It was fascinating to rewatch that movie. And then, you know, there's a lot of talk about the Shining and, well, this. And he was hiding this. I love listening to people's theories on Kubrick because whether or not it's true, like, who cares? It's just that people have gone this deep into it.

[Katie]

Well, that's. That whole documentary Room 236 is just people trying to find larger meaning in Stanley Kubrick's work. Kubrick is like. He's such a. Such a powerful filmmaker that he has caused an entire industry below him of people who are like, I have unlocked or I have unpacked the puzzles that are in the Kubrick canon.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, and what's so interesting about this book is they basically have fun with this idea. Like, you know, actually, as a matter of fact, he was a devout family man who was so happy at home, wanted to be with his animals and his family and this. Like, he just kind of was like, oh, I don't need to be in Hollywood. I don't care about that. And because of that, he got. He got labeled as this, you know, and so everyone's like, yes, he was trying to tell us all these things. And it's like, the truth is, like, he just. So far from reading the book, he's like, oh, he just loved, like. Like Hitchcock to research and get in and exactly.

[Paul Scheer]

Create a world.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And it was very personal because he loved it.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Katie]

It's his world. That's the thing is like, that, like, oh, Eyes Wide Shut. It's like, well, that's not New York. It's not. It's this weird New York Kubrick created. I can't recommend enough if you're into the Kubrick thing, if you haven't watched it. There's a. There's a million documentaries about Stanley Kubrick. All of them I've seen and are terrific. But there's one that is a British TV documentary that Jon Ronson made called Kubrick's Boxes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I literally would share my screen with you right now that I brought that up because I was like, oh, I gotta recommend that doc.

[Katie]

It's Kubrick's Boxes.

[Paul Scheer]

Kubrick's Boxes.

[Katie]

It's incredible. Jon Ronson, who you might have heard on this American Life or his own podcasts, or he's the author of so you've been publicly shamed or all these other great books, really interesting documentarian, really interesting journalists, has that sing songy British voice. And it is a great documentary about how he is invited, after Stanley Kubrick's death, to go to Stanley Kubrick's house and look through what would become later years, years later, the Stanley Kubrick archive that then toured the world.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

As somebody who has many things in boxes labeled just like this, this movie had a profound effect on me. And I will tell you this, if you want to watch it, it is on YouTube the entire 48. It's only 48 minutes, not even a long documentary. But it's an amazing.

[Katie]

It was a TV documentary. I think it was just an episode of a TV show. Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And it really is a wonderful way of looking at this guy who was constantly researching and working on these projects. And, you know, and I think what's so kind of fascinating was, like, he was mercurial, but he wasn't without humanity. And he was actually, if anything, full of humanity and deeply.

[Katie]

Yeah, very funny. Very all about connection. Like, you hear all these stories about, like, Spielberg and Sidney Pollock and all these people who had relationships with Kubrick that were based on phone call, long phone conversations, or fax conversations. Like, Kubrick was always wanting to be in touch with other filmmakers and other people. But the way he did it was always through like technology, which is super interesting because it's the 60s or 70s or 80s.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, I mean, the fact that he was writing and never got to make AI Spielberg made it, but. And God knows it's not the same.

[Katie]

Thing, but the Napoleon movie, the ghosts movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

But I'm just talking about AI as like he was. This is not. You know, Kubrick has been dead for a very long time that he was on, like, this was his. He was there. Like he was looking at like. I wouldn't say even Jules Verne. He just was like, he was a man who read a lot and I think he saw certain things coming. And like the Coen brothers, I think, you know, his movies get better and better with each watch because everything is a choice. And you may not get it the first time you watch it or you may not appreciate it, but man, oh man, it comes back and it just gets. It's. Yeah, it really just gets.

[Katie]

These are. There are some people for whom you can keep watching those movies and it's diminishing, returns it, it hits. Oh boy, wasn't that just as fun as when I saw it the first time? And then there are movies and I think Kubrick movies are really up there for them and Coen brothers as well, that feel like every. When you revisit them, you learn more about yourself. Especially you learn more about yourself as an older person. Like, I've just been. I just have rewatched both Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors and as a middle aged person, boy, is it different to process these movies than when I was younger. And they are incredible.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, I mean, I will also say, like, you know the interesting thing about Eyes Wide Shut when I watched the first time, you know, it, I guess it's not a sexy movie. Like, it, like, it was like kind of really built as that, but it really is.

[Katie]

It was sold to us as an erotic thriller. Kubrick.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And it's not that at all. I mean, in many respects it's like a fucking guy who gets spirals because his wife tells him she had a dream. It's like, it's like, it's a, it's. It's such a, a wonderful like, look at like a man's insecurity of his wife's sexuality.

[Paul Scheer]

It's like.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And you're like, that's a hard film to sell. Obviously. You can't just say, ooh, you want to watch a guy lose his mind because his wife said that she had a dream where she was fucked by somebody else.

[Katie]

I remember it so vividly. Going to the Court street movie theater in Cobble Hill when I lived in Brooklyn when it came out, seeing it, there couldn't have been more hype. Couldn't have been more excited and being like, whoa, that was not what I thought it was going to be.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

No, not at all.

[Katie]

Really having to process it in a way that was like, huh? And it's simply because Kubrick wasn't interested in coming out ahead of time and being like, everybody keeps saying this is an erotic thriller. It's not. Yeah, he just didn't say anything. And yeah, even though he was.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Even though he was involved in the marketing of it, which I think is very much a true look, that's the biggest argument that people can make is like, was the movie done, finished the way he wanted it to be finished? And I've not gotten up to that section of the book, but they allude to certain things. And the truth is, is like, probably there might have been some small. Like, I don't think that he was into the. It wasn't gonna be like a slashed and burned, like, you know, like 2001. Like he had. I think that original sequence of like the space ballet was like 12 minutes and he cut it down. You know, it's like, I think he was past that. And it was a lot more like coloring notes and sound mix. It wasn't like, we need to redo the sound.

[Katie]

I'm so curious. I gotta read that book. Are you. You're reading the book or you're listening to the audiobook?

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm listening to the audiobook. It's a. Yeah, again, it's. Cause it's sort of like the book is really big. And so I started reading it. I was like, oh, this will be more interesting to listen to as I'm driving around.

[Katie]

I love that. Yeah, that's great. I just have been reading a bunch of like, pulpy detective books that have been super fun.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Have you read Jonathan Ames's new book? I love. Oh, I love Jonathan.

[Katie]

I didn't even know there was a new Jonathan.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yes. So he had this, like, trilogy. I'm just going to make sure I'm getting all the names right here.

[Katie]

While you look that up, I'm going to just shout out a couple of other comic books.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, go for it.

[Katie]

Yeah, I can do them quick. The book Doom by Jonathan Hickman and Sanford Green is a great one shot doctor Doom story. I talked about Jenny Sparks. Our friend Scott Aukerman's astonishing. Spider man is absolutely terrific and he's written me. You are in it, podcaster. I am Jason Manzuka's podcaster, who hosts a podcast with J. Jonah Jameson. Couldn't be more excited.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Love that.

[Katie]

I think that Jason Aaron's namor is fantastic. I'm a huge fan of this guy, Rom V. His book Dawn Runner, I thought was absolutely terrific. And last but not least, it is my favorite book going right now just because I can't beat Chris Somni's incredible artwork. Batman and Robin year one, Mark Waid, Chris Somni, a team that just absolutely crushed Daredevil many years ago. Back in action for Batman and Robin year one. The book is absolutely.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I gotta get into some more. I've been bad on comics lately and I been trying to catch back up. This is the book that. It's called Karma Doll and it's the third in this trilogy that is very much l A Noire in like. It feels like a Michael Connelly book. Who wrote Bosch? It feels like if Chandler.

[Katie]

I started watching Lincoln Lawyer, by the way.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh. Which people love, right? I mean, love it. People love it.

[Katie]

People love it. And, you know, he's Bosh's like, half brother. The Lincoln Lawyer is literally Bosch's half brother. It's fucking. It hasn't. That hasn't come to bear in the show yet, but it can't wait.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, I cannot wait. I hope it does. I know that the. I play tennis a lot here in Los Angeles and. And there's a guy that I often play next to who is the showrunner for a Lincoln Lawyer. I don't know him, but I hear him talking about Lincoln Lawyer all the time and the issues that they have on Lincoln Lawyer and the success that they're also having. But so I'm incredible. I like to listen in.

[Katie]

So funny. Anything else? I'm still on my anime kick. I'm still watching Dan to Dan. I have rewatched Frieren again. Fantastic. I want to once again recommend look back, the incredible anime movie from last year. It's only an hour long and it is absolutely beautiful. And then I just started a new show, the title of which is Dead Dead Demons. Dead to Dead Destruction. What? I don't know, but I had a blast watching it. I've only. I've only watched a couple of episodes.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I want to call out one thing that I really enjoyed and I was mad at myself that I didn't watch it earlier, which is the. The. Please don't destroy movie. The Treasure of Foggy Mountain. Super funny.

[Katie]

Conan O'Brien. Very funny in that movie.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Conan's great. It's just really funny people being funny. And, and I think I was like at first put off by it because I felt like no one was really talking about it. But I'm like, I like these guys on SNL and why am I not watching their movie? And I'm like, oh, it's great. It's really funny. It's really silly. It's really good. Like it's thumbs up. Just.

[Katie]

I had a blast. I had a blast watching and I thought it was really funny. And I like those guys as well on the show. And I'll recommend the documentary series on The Morgan Neville 4 part documentary series on SNL that's on Peacock is so funny. There's one entire episode that's just about the more cowbell. There's one entire episode that's about everybody's audition. There's one episode that's just about the weird year, the year when Lauren comes back.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, I got to watch all it's.

[Katie]

He got Anthony Michael hall and Robert Downey Jr. And there's a whole set episode that's just about that one failed year. It's great.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Oh, I can't wait. And I love all that SNL stuff. By the way, our. A good friend of ours, Carl Tart is writing for snl.

[Katie]

So good.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Two banger sketches in the last two weeks. If you watch the Chappelle episode, the evacuation episode or the evacuation sketch that was a Carl Tart, watch it. It's about Dave Chappelle goes kind of nuts when Ellie gets an evacuation order. And then this week they did a barista training one that killed me and another Carl. And if you like funny, let me ask you.

[Katie]

Yeah, go ahead, please. You finish your thought as a side quest.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

If you like funny stuff. I just want to keep on talking about the fact that the Onion is back and you can get it in paper form, which I am getting it delivered because I want to support journalism. But, but it's. They're ad free. They're. It's this guy who bought it, a.

[Paul Scheer]

Rich guy who bought it.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

And so basically like I want to bring back what I loved about the Onion. So he's paying people well. They're creating really funny articles. It's non stop. It's great. Just get, get, get yourself another subscription to the Onion.

[Katie]

I love that. How do you find out who. How do you know that Carl wrote those sketches? How do you find out who wrote what sketches.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Well, and this.

[Katie]

We can cut this from the episode or not, but I'm genuinely curious.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So sometimes there are snl, like, websites that will break down. Like, this person wrote this, this, and they. And that. You know, I don't go to that that often, but I. Last week, I had written Carl, and I was like, man, that chappelle evacuation sketch was hilarious. He's like, that was mine. I. And then. And then. And then this week, I was like, man, that barista sketch was so funny. And then I saw that Carl had. Had posted, like, I. I did this one. And so.

[Katie]

Okay. Like, on social media.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So I don't know everybody's sketches, but one time I did do a little bit more of a deep dive, and there's like, a couple of, like, it's a website called SNL by the Numbers, which is a fascinating. Like, if you like bar graphs and things, like, this person had this many minutes. This is what they said. It's a hilarious thing. But they sometimes will get like that. Not inside scoop, but they'll be able to say, like, this person wrote this. And a lot of the cast now, like, who is it? I really like Sarah Squirm. And Sarah. Sarah Sherman. And she. She had a sketch that she wrote this week where it's basically just cpr, but someone farts in their face and. Very funny. Very funny.

[Katie]

So funny. But that's the kind of thing that I'm like, because I watched it yesterday and I'm like, oh, who. I don't know who wrote this.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Yeah, I know.

[Katie]

And I wanted to ask you because you had sent the text message a while back about Carl writing one of those Chappelle sketches. I was like, I meant to ask you how you found out about that. Okay, that's great. That's.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So sometimes it's just sort of like I just catch it in different ways. But I feel like now I'm going to get it wrong for the rest of it. But there was this thing where I was like, it felt like both of those sketches felt like Carl's voices.

[Paul Scheer]

Like.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Like I was like, oh, oh. And look. And I just looked at this. There's a Reddit called Live from New York that breaks down every single person who is. Oh, that's who wrote it and stuff like that. All right, Jason, I think we talked.

[Paul Scheer]

About a bunch of great stuff.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Until next time, we'll meet again.

[Paul Scheer]

Thank you, Jason, for just chatting with me. But now it is finally time to announce our next movie. Next week, we are going from are you ready for this megalopolis? To I don't know what to say about this movie. Yes, that's right. We are watching 2010's Passion Play, starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox and Bill Murray. Yep, this movie exists. Here's a short breakdown of the plot. A washed up jazz musician becomes infatuated with a beautiful woman with wings. And then Bill Murray plays a gangster who's trying to steal her away. That's right, people. This movie is. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 3% score on the Tomatometer. And Nick Shager from LA Weekly says Mickey Rourke recently made headlines for dubbing Passion Play a terrible movie. A proclamation that's ultimately most notable for its understatement. Ooh, Nick Schrager. All right, let's take a listen to the trailer.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

So what happened to you out in the desert?

[Paul Scheer]

Some man tried to kill me.

[Katie]

I give you heaven.

[Paul Scheer]

How long you been an angel? And I give you hell.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

I'm not an angel.

[Paul Scheer]

If you'd like to get away from all this, you're welcome to go back with me. Man, I know you want me dead.

[Jason Mantzoukas]

Okay, so I get the angel and you get your life.

[Paul Scheer]

You can stream Passion Play for free on the Roku Channel or rent it on Fandango or maybe on Amazon Prime. In addition, you can check out Hoopla, Kanopy and Libby, which are digital media services offered to you by your local public library that allow you to consume movies, TV, music, audiobooks, eBooks, and comics for free. All right, that's it, everybody. Thank you for listening. And if you listen on Apple podcasts or Spotify, please rate and review us. Also make sure you are following us and have automatic downloads turned on. It helps the show and we appreciate it. Visit us on social media at hdtgm. Get your tickets for our live tour and a big thank you to our producers, Cody Fisher, Matt Apodaca, his last shows. Bye bye Matt. We love you. Molly Reynolds, our movie picking producer, Avril Halley, our associate producer, Jess Cisneros, and our engineer, Casey Holford. We'll see you next week for Passion Play.