Megaflopolis

Summary

Red Scare Podcast Summary: "Megalopolis" Episode (October 9, 2024)

Hosted by Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova

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1. Personal Anecdotes and Mood Discussions

The episode begins with Anna and Dasha sharing their personal experiences related to their menstrual cycles, highlighting the impact on their moods and daily lives.

• Dasha (00:27): "I'm honestly, like, in a daze from menstrual cramps. It's crazy."

• Anna (01:04): "Menstrual seclusion isn't going too well."

This segment sets a candid and relatable tone, emphasizing the hosts' openness about their personal struggles.

2. Political Commentary: JD Vance Debate

Anna and Dasha delve into the recent political debates, particularly focusing on JD Vance's performance.

• Anna (07:03): "He did [well] really well was that he restored us to the time when debates were more intellectual."

They commend Vance for bringing a more policy-focused and articulate approach to the debates, contrasting him with more spontaneous figures like Donald Trump.

• Dasha (11:35): "He clearly is very well spoken, very well prepared."

The hosts express optimism about Vance being a positive development for the Republican Party, noting his potential to shift the party towards a more moderate stance.

3. Review of Francis Ford Coppola's "Megalopolis"

The core of the episode centers around Anna and Dasha's in-depth discussion of the film "Megalopolis," directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Aesthetic and Narrative Analysis

They critique the movie's aesthetics and narrative coherence, describing it as a jumbled and outdated portrayal that fails to deliver a coherent Randian narrative as anticipated.

• Anna (49:06): "Megalopolis is Francis Ford Coppola's Lost in Translation."

• Dasha (62:58): "He cannot offer a critique of the right."

The hosts argue that Coppola's vision is a mishmash of outdated styles and incoherent storytelling, comparing it unfavorably to classics like "Fountainhead."

Character and Performance Evaluations

Shia LaBeouf's performance is highlighted as a redeeming factor amidst the film's shortcomings.

• Anna (71:34): "Shia LaBeouf is what people think Joaquin Phoenix is."

Aubrey Plaza is also praised for her role, contributing positively to the film's overall impact.

Themes and Political Allegories

Anna and Dasha explore the film's attempt to parallel contemporary political issues, such as immigration and abortion, but criticize its execution as superficial and inconsistent.

• Anna (57:13): "There are very striking parallels with Fountainhead, but they're very superficial, cosmetic."

They express disappointment that the movie doesn't fully commit to its intended ideological narratives, resulting in a muddled thematic presentation.

4. Abortion and Immigration Discourse

The hosts transition to discussing real-world issues like abortion laws and immigration policies, drawing parallels to the film's themes.

Abortion Laws

Anna and Dasha debate the complexities surrounding abortion legislation, emphasizing the nuanced positions they hold.

• Dasha (27:39): "The medicalization of the abortion is perhaps a little extra."

They critique both extreme pro-life and pro-choice stances, advocating for more pragmatic and compassionate approaches.

Immigration Policies

The conversation shifts to immigration, where they analyze political maneuvers and rhetoric surrounding deportations and migrant treatment.

• Anna (24:05): "If you say that, yes, we're gonna deport them all, then that implies that it's gonna be brutal and Holocaust-like."

They argue against hyperbolic narratives and stress the importance of humane and realistic immigration reforms.

5. Additional Topics: Elon Musk and Modern Culture

Anna and Dasha briefly touch upon figures like Elon Musk and cultural phenomena, expressing mixed feelings about their influence and representation in media.

• Dasha (44:30): "He rubs me the wrong way, mostly due to being South African."

• Anna (45:04): "Elon is like the first industrial scale technologically advanced genocide." (Note: Potential misquote or context lapse)

Their discussion highlights a skepticism towards modern tech moguls and their societal impact, aligning with their broader cultural commentary.

6. Concluding Thoughts on "Megalopolis"

Wrapping up their review, the hosts reiterate their disappointment with "Megalopolis," citing its lack of coherent storytelling and failed ideological execution.

• Anna (123:15): "It's a very big book." (Referencing Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" in relation to the film)

• Dasha (123:55): "It's better to move on and not blame other people for holding you back."

They conclude that while the film attempts to tackle significant themes, it ultimately falls short in delivering a compelling and unified message.

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Notable Quotes

• Anna (07:03): "He did really well was that he restored us to the time when debates were more intellectual."

• Dasha (11:35): "He clearly is very well spoken, very well prepared."

• Anna (49:06): "Megalopolis is Francis Ford Coppola's Lost in Translation."

• Dasha (71:34): "Shia LaBeouf is what people think Joaquin Phoenix is."

• Anna (57:13): "There are very striking parallels with Fountainhead, but they're very superficial, cosmetic."

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Conclusion

In this episode of "Red Scare," Anna and Dasha provide a candid and critical analysis of Francis Ford Coppola's "Megalopolis," intertwining their discussion with contemporary political issues like abortion and immigration. Their insightful commentary underscores the challenges of translating complex ideologies into mainstream media, all while maintaining their signature blend of humor and sharp critique.

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Support Red Scare on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RedScare

Follow Anna on Twitter: @annakhachiyan

Follow Dasha on Twitter: @nobody_stop_me

Transcript

[A]

We're back, we're back, we're back.

[B]

I'm honestly, like, in a daze from menstrual cramps. It's crazy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm on day one of my period. Day three.

[A]

Over here.

[B]

Nice. We're sinking. That's good.

[A]

The most synced podcast.

[B]

I had a pretty rough luteal phase this month. Feminist.

[A]

That's real red. Scare hours up in here.

[B]

Scared of myself, to be honest. Scared of what I'm capable of.

[A]

Menstrual seclusion isn't going too well.

[B]

I was pretty. I spent a lot of today like. Yeah. Like, gathering my strength.

[A]

How's the mood?

[B]

The mood's better. It was really, really bad prior. And then you get your period, you're like. Yeah. I was like, oh, yeah. I was like, I'm doomed.

[A]

Not this again. Yeah.

[B]

Same every month. Women being a woman.

[A]

I know. It sucks, dude.

[B]

It sucks. And then I, like, I'll be such a. To my boyfriend. And then I get my period. I'm, like, docile and scared because I'm, like, in pain and want to hide and stuff.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I get really nice.

[A]

Yeah. And you, like, want him to comfort you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Resent him.

[B]

Once I'm into my period, I'm way.

[A]

It's fine. Yeah.

[B]

It's the.

[A]

You wake up on day two or three, you feel skinny and ready to take on the world.

[B]

It's crazy. It's.

[A]

But, yeah.

[B]

The blindsides me every month.

[A]

I know. Every month I'm like, I'm finally gonna go through with it. I'm gonna detonate the vest.

[B]

Yeah. I can't go on.

[A]

You guys are going to be sorry.

[B]

Yeah. Exactly.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

She.

[A]

She died as she lived. Getting clowned on by leftists.

[B]

Getting clowned on by Azalea. B. Can I just say, I don't want to really address it, but it is my. I'm scared of black people laughing at me and calling me a rizzless insult and stuff like that is. I'm not even racist. I am scared of black people laughing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And saying, aren't we all? I'm bad at sex or.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, like an autistic squirrely loser or something. You know? So it's. I was like, oh, no. It's finally happening something in you.

[A]

Yeah. I'm just scared of Geminis.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

I think Azalea is a brilliant, beautiful woman.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I wish her the best. I want her to win. But, man, that takes me back to being raised by a Gemini mom real hard.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Cowering in the tiny chair. Like Shinji.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

The one day I log off.

[B]

You weren't online that day.

[A]

No, not at all. I went to a nice family dinner with Eli and the baby in Little Ily.

[B]

I had also a very. I went to the young professional. Young Catholic Professionals gala.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Salome. You know, I feel peaceful day. And then I came home going about your business. Went on my phone at night, about to retire and was like.

[A]

Like, why the are you sending this to me, Perry Abasi.

[B]

Someone's saying I don't know how to get the back shots.

[A]

I know.

[B]

Which of course I do.

[A]

I think you handled it well.

[B]

Well, because. Yeah, I don't. I don't want to be in a position where I'm like, I do swallow the load. It's like, no, I. I'm sexually active. You know, like, that's. You've already lost. It's very.

[A]

I have had sex.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Boop. My heart's palpitating. I feel like I took some Adderall just by thinking about. I purged that incident from my mind when I fired off a bunch of, like, unrelated tweets, you know?

[B]

Yeah. Barry, it. No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I just came to mind. I. For, you know.

[A]

No, you had, like, the best possible response. I chose not to respond at all because I'm almost 40 and a mother. I mean, I can't be going on the computer like, I am the throat go. My voice is, like, cracking. I just. I do want to clarify that I haven't given a hand job in, like, over a decade because who gives hand jobs?

[B]

I do. I have.

[A]

We all have. It also brought me back to, like, the early days of the pod, when we were much more crass and vulgar. And, like, my mom would call me up and be like, maletzi, you girls are doing so great. I'm so proud of what you and Dasha have accomplished in such a short time.

[B]

But.

[A]

But why do you have to talk about dick sucking? What's wrong with you?

[B]

We still do some blue humor.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now and then. But, yeah, I think we were. We were nervous, so we were deflecting.

[A]

Being vulgar, like, call her daddy or Madonna. Everyone's scared of black people and getting roasted by them.

[B]

It's real. I was like, no.

[A]

And as a. No. As like a famous black person, you have to know and you have to not feel so great about the fact that people walk on eggshells around you. Cuz everyone's too scared to clap back.

[B]

Yeah, same. I mean, I'm definitely scared. I'M I'm shaking like a leaf. We're going to review Megalopolis.

[A]

More like Megaflos.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Yeah, but it does kind of dovetail nicely with the Eric Adams BlackMail and the JD Vance Tim Walls VP debate.

[B]

Yeah, it's actually, I don't.

[A]

I frankly don't remember either of those, but.

[B]

I thought the debate was a. Entertaining. Yeah, Van's really locked in.

[A]

Yeah. He really won that thing.

[B]

Yeah. The Yale really jumped.

[A]

And I was like energized.

[B]

He was giving and serving Ivy.

[A]

I was pumped. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He was serving Dasha at the ill date.

[B]

He was being coquette.

[A]

He was being coquettish looking in a cable knit sweater.

[B]

Oh yeah. I want to see him dress like an anime character.

[A]

I thought Usha looked great in her little maroon get up. Indian girls love jumpsuits and they love jewel tones.

[B]

Oh yeah. Well, they look great in there. Yeah. A nice Marigold.

[A]

She just like me for real. She like dyed her roots for the event.

[B]

Fresh. I didn't really catch her, but I.

[A]

Believe it was all the way at the end and I was like, who's that girl with the nice body and the skinny arms and it was Usha Vance.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

Lighting it up like Diwali. I guess there's.

[B]

I think it was Diwali recently.

[A]

I always get that in my like six months. I know, dude. I don't know. I don't know if Diwali is like one of those cyclical things or if it's like on a stable calendar. But yeah, I noticed that even like Vance's biggest enemies had to admit acknowledge that he really nailed it. Like David Fromm and David French and all those guys.

[B]

I mean the optics were undeniable. Which is most of winning a debate is just the side by side.

[A]

All the hoes were saying he was weird and now they're saying he's hot.

[B]

He. He did. Yeah.

[A]

I was like, God, I hate women. Like, can you ladies not make it about sex for once? Like you don't have to fall in love with every single guy who demonstrates basic competence and intelligence. I know we ladies love a man with a high iq, but come on now.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I. His like Coquettish Gym from the office. Esque side glances.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

To be some nice millennial representation. Yeah, he was kind of. Yeah, yeah. The.

[A]

The age of the elder millennial is upon us. Gen X and Shambles Consumers and Suicide.

[B]

Watch walls look really scared, which made me sad.

[A]

Yeah, he looked red faced and panicked. And then I was again like, Anna, you're being such a woman. I saw your tweet and I had the same reaction. It was like, I almost feel sorry for him, and people were clowning on me for saying that, but it's like I said, I felt sorry for him. I didn't say I was going to vote for him.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm not a liberal. I don't, like, respond to pity.

[B]

Of course not. No. But it's. Yeah. I mean, it just makes me feel like I do feel bad for him the way I feel bad for, like, Biden. Like, you know, the Dems, like, trot someone out and, like, just put them in the line of fire, like that. And then.

[A]

And, you know, as expected, this debate was like, a slightly higher iq, more policy focused version of the presidential debate, which is good. And I think, like, what Vance did really well was that he restored us to the time when debates were more intellectual, and he made people remember that, which is positive. And he did that again today. And Butler or PA at the Trump rally when he gave his speech, like, he's obviously a guy who is not as funny or spontaneous as Trump, who's, like, a once in a lifetime genius.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, comedically, aesthetically speaking. But he does bring, like, a more, like, sober, moderate, articulate vibe to the whole thing. And he really is, as I said several episodes ago, like, the future of the Republican Party, which is good.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's a positive development.

[B]

I mean, yeah, he needs to refine his, like, improvisational skills, but he clearly is very well spoken, very well prepared.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, it does feel like when he's speaking that he's, like, memorized a speech, unlike Trump, who's always speaking off the cuff, but.

[B]

Yeah. And, like, meandering. And also, that's.

[A]

To me, that's. There's a silver lining in that, because I can't memorize anything for. Because I have inattentive adhd, much like you, and I'm, like, completely, like, I'm.

[B]

Trying to beat this thing addled by the Internet.

[A]

So it's nice to see, like, a person in my age group.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Not be, like, it was, like, thorough and articulate. Yeah, for sure.

[B]

Yeah. He doesn't seem like an alcoholic.

[A]

Yeah. And I also like the thing that he did where he praised walls for having, like, a normal human reaction to things and for wanting some of the same things because that made him look classy and elegant.

[B]

Yeah. And then it also kind of, like, undermined the Dem strategy of, like, making Vance and Trump seem, like, extreme and weird.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Because it's like, If Vance is such a, like, dangerous incel extremist and like, why you guys have so much common ground?

[A]

Yeah. And why are you guys shaking hands?

[B]

I think they didn't shake hands.

[A]

No. Like at the end. Oh, at the end, when the debate was over, there was a moment before the wives took the stage where they were like, really cordial and almost congenial. They looked like they were having a good time chatting, which was also, I think, positive and uplifting because we're so used to, like, having such a polarized and divisive political climate.

[B]

Well, that I think I would attribute some of to them. Midwestern sensibility.

[A]

True. You know, just two nice Midwestern boys seething with rage. Walls quoting Trump about climate change being a hoax and joking how it'll create more beachfront properties also played to Trump's advantage because it, like, affirmed his comedic genius. Yeah.

[B]

Whenever they, like, remind you of something funny, Trump said, yeah, we clap and.

[A]

Cheer like circus seals. Vance also, like, committed that massive unforced error of admitting that he misspoke about the China timeline. But he was so Walls. Yeah.

[B]

The thing is, their names also.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And Colder had that too, where she called him Tim Vance.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then said something about the bimbo moderator. But Walls and Vance do have, unfortunately very similar. Like, I do get my wires. Tim Walls, Jade Vance. It's like, it's all been the same, like, sound.

[A]

Yeah. And honestly, when. When they first appeared behind the podiums, the podia. Whatever. I. My first impression was like father and son. This is like the Aristocrats. And then the moderators were like mother and daughter.

[B]

Right. They looked similarly aged to me.

[A]

Yeah. I like, couldn't tell which one was younger, but they. But Vance and Walls are both these jolly, moon faced but secretly rage issues guys.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, very true.

[A]

The most amazing part of the debate was when Vance talked over the female moderators and like, had like Jessica Valenti and Anne Applebaum and all these feminist lived hards in a tizzy.

[B]

Right. I mean, they really set him up for that with the bimbo moderators.

[A]

Yeah. And he was talking about. He was like, clarifying the legal status of the Haitian migrants in Springfield. Was that the idea?

[B]

I don't remember.

[A]

But, you know, they were doing some.

[B]

Nebulous fact checking to. Which is not. They should stop doing that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The lies. Let the lies flow.

[A]

Yeah. But it's like, how do you fact check a debate? It's like if one guy says something that's like, patently false, it's up to his debate opponent. To fact check him on that. Right. That. That's like the nature of the debate.

[B]

Format, unfortunately, like with the state of politics, I feel like there's so much flagrancy in the. You know, it's like, it would be hard, I think, because kind of both sides, the walls really was dropping. It's like they're. They drop so many lies that you can't like derail to like debunk every single thing they say. You have to like address kind of like the substance of their claims.

[A]

Yeah. But they do literally like bombard you with lies.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To incapacitate you.

[B]

I mean, the Project 2025 really drives me nuts.

[A]

Yeah. And the immigration bill, which they keep bringing it up and they're talking points.

[B]

Yeah. Really make me feel gaslit.

[A]

Yeah. And I. I was like mildly disappointed in Vance because he also failed to deliver the kill shot, much like Trump. But in his case it didn't really matter as much because he was so like put together and articulate during the whole thing. But. Yeah. And it's like all the femme tards were freaking about about how this is a Handmaid's tale type scenario where men talk over women and mansplain. But it's like you. This is what equality looks like. You wanted equal rights and representation and.

[B]

You have a mute button.

[A]

Yeah. And they didn't mute him for a while.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They like let him go off because they were aware of the entertainment value. Come on. And.

[B]

Yeah. And how it would make. He already, you know, he's trying to beat the, you know, misogynist incel allocations. So it's like beneficial to the Dems to let him kind of.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Chimp a little.

[A]

Yeah. And I like Walls. It's funny that the whole JD Vance is weird narrative was allowed to go on for as long as it did because if anyone is weird, it's Walls. I mean, he has like the mouth of a pedophile.

[B]

I know, but Walls is. Yeah. He's very middle America in a way that I think is fun familiar to people.

[A]

Yeah. And I was trying to figure out what about him rubs me the wrong way because obviously he's like an inveterate Democrat liar. That goes without saying. That doesn't bother me so much. Like kind of par for the course.

[B]

Whatever.

[A]

And I was thinking like, well, is it his normal guy, salt of the earth tone that feels so fake. Like when he's like, oh shucks, I just have bad grammar and I'm a knucklehead.

[B]

This self effacing.

[A]

Yeah. And I think Everything. I think his tone is actually pretty authentic to him. It's just that you can tell that underneath his bearing, he doesn't actually believe anything that he's saying.

[B]

I'm. I can't tell, honestly.

[A]

Yeah, it's hard to say. I was trying to articulate it for.

[B]

Myself because he might. Honestly, like, I'm sure he does think, like, you know, I think like the.

[A]

The nicest, most charitable thing you can say about him is that he believes. He believes, but I wouldn't even go that far. And that's like the creepy and weird part.

[B]

It does. I mean, Anne, like, he really let like, Minnesota burn, you know, and you wonder, like, every time I see him.

[A]

I'm like, he's giving Doug Henwood. He's like an OG leftist posting king who's got to be in his 50s or 60s, and he's like polyamorous.

[B]

Right. Yeah. I can envision his profile picture.

[A]

Yeah, I sure can. I, I. We're both envisioning it. Right.

[B]

I have to go to the bathroom.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

I'm back. Sorry.

[A]

Oh, yeah. I. I wanted to say, like, the way also that he handled the abortion and immigration questioning was really good. Yeah. Like, abortions just.

[B]

He's in a tough spot.

[A]

Yeah. And it was right on the heels of Melania announcing that she's pro choice, which she. Because a woman's greatest freedom is her body, you know, allegedly.

[B]

Yeah. She espouses her pro choice views in her book.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But the video that she actually posted, which I've been enjoying a lot of her.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Her, like, book, her memoir, promo content. But she's not really overtly saying that she's.

[A]

I don't think she cares and I don't think Trump cares. And like, I'm sure Vance is pro choice.

[B]

Of course.

[A]

I mean, come on.

[B]

I know, but with Vance, it's like, yeah, he's just in a jam because he's Catholic.

[A]

Yeah. But he's. He's right to point out that if you want to minimize abortion, you have to give people and families. I know, but that's more options and choices that actually mean something.

[B]

I know, but to Walls's credit, he did point out that you can, like, have like pro family policies and still not, like, have an abortion ban.

[A]

Right. Yeah, but I think everybody would, like, low key agree with that, except for Vance, possibly because he's a Catholic.

[B]

But also, it's just not, you know, it's like there's not even that much stuff that contemporary Catholics are, like, required to believe. But being pro Life is sort of like one of the central tenets, and it's just not a viable political position. I read an essay he wrote a few years ago about his conversion to Catholicism because. Yeah. People were in the Catholic community texted me both about. Yeah. Vance and the Melania thing, which. Yeah. I also saw, like, Catholics on Twitter being like, she should be deprived of communion and stuff because she's not. Because she's also a Catholic. But it's like she married a. A twice divorced, like, Protestant guy.

[A]

Yeah. And she's like a super bottle. Possibly an escort.

[B]

She's obviously not a trad cat.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, she's doing her own thing.

[A]

She's a fierce and powerful contemporary woman.

[B]

But I saw people treating this, like, admission promotional material as some kind of.

[A]

Like, betrayal of Trump was like a gotcha. Right. Like, smoking gun.

[B]

Like, I think there's no way that, like, they didn't. The Trump didn't read her memoir or, like.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Know what's in?

[A]

Like. Yeah.

[B]

I don't think she's, like, gone rogue.

[A]

No.

[B]

I think it's all, you know, pretty strategic.

[A]

Yeah. It's, like, designed to sell her book.

[B]

Which I pre ordered months ago.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know.

[A]

And you haven't gotten it yet.

[B]

No, I don't think it's out yet. She's going on Fox tomorrow, on Sunday.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

To do, like, a. An interview about.

[A]

She just like me for real.

[B]

She's going on Truth with Viva Cross for me.

[A]

And then the. The immigration point. I. The way that he handled that was really good because he failed to or didn't take the moderator's bait about family separ operation.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

And he said that, like, in Kamala's America, 320, 000 migrant children are already lost. They're being, like, trafficked as slaves or used as drug mules. And he really, like, masterfully dodged the trap of explaining how deportations would be carried out.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which was like, the specific question that they really wanted him to answer because they wanted him to paint himself into a corner of cruelty and sadism.

[B]

And with the abortion thing, he did as well as he could have as well.

[A]

Yeah. And it's like a slippery slope because if you. If you say that, yes, we're gonna deport them all, then that implies that it's gonna be brutal and Holocaust, like, and families will be separated and children will be on their own and da, da, da. And it, like, of course that's, like, not gonna happen.

[B]

I mean, it might.

[A]

I mean, I saw a Twitter buddy of mine having an Interesting conversation about the idea of deportation and how it needn't be like, cruel and sadistic because you just have. All you have to do is basically turn off the spigot, turn off the faucet of benefits, and give people like a 500 ticket to go back. It's not like people are going to be rounded up in cattle cars and like summarily executed. And I doubt it'll even ever come to that. Come on.

[B]

I mean, there probably won't even be that many deportations.

[A]

Like, yeah, they're not good.

[B]

They're not gonna build the wall. They're not gonna really send them back. Like, they're just saying that they might like a little, but, like, there's no. It's just no way.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Come on.

[A]

Yeah, but like, long story, don't get your hopes up. He really, like, evaded all the traps and the bait that they laid for him.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, yeah. Even with abortion, I think it's just, you know, short of saying like, yeah, I'm pro life.

[A]

Yeah. You know, he's like Liz Bruinig on our pod. Like, yeah, I'm privately pro life, but publicly I'm kind of pro choice.

[B]

Or. Yeah, kick it back to the States. Yeah, that seems sound to me. You know, and then you can always tell, like, I really the. I mean, everyone does this, but Dems especially the selection cycle have been, you know, giving you like the harrowing little anecdote and like saying their name.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like telling you some twisted little tale about a woman bleeding in her car.

[A]

Driving a girl who was raped by. They failed to mention a migrant, but. Laughs.

[B]

It'S just not. It's really. I find it like insulting.

[A]

Yeah. It's like insulting to the intelligence of the public and to women especially. But I think I said this already again on a previous episode to us. Yeah. It feels like baroque and vulgar to go down that road, but I think like, for Libs, it's catnip and they really eat it up.

[B]

I mean, my honestly pretty centrist take. Yeah. Which I probably tried to articulate before, but I don't really. Like, no one's. I don't really see people saying this, but it's like much like birth.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The medicalization of the abortion is perhaps a little extra. And like women have sort of self administered abortions in times of like peril and need.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And they're not. I don't think it's. Obviously there's risks of complication, much like other things that like, you know, you go to the doctor for ostensibly, but. And I personally don't know what the methods are, but, you know, if you were in like a red state, you can definitely go on like some witchcraft Reddit or something and like, find a way to have a board like you.

[A]

Yeah, I know. I can already. I don't think the leftists, like, piling on, on the subreddit and being like. But that's the whole point. That people were dropping like flies before abortion became like an industrial scale phenomenon.

[B]

But obviously, like, yeah, we have the like back alley coat hanger associations, but at that point, if you're, you know, then it probably is a little too late for you to like, have the abortion, you know, but that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Like early in your pregnanc pregnancy, like, you can probably figure out a way to make that that was bang, less viable. I don't endorse this. I'm just, I'm just telling it like it is, you know, like women you.

[A]

Have to hawk to your bleeding fetus. No, there was that story a while back that I think we mentioned of this young girl and her mother who were sentenced to jail time and they frankly got a slap on the wrist because they were in a red state and they like aborted her fetus and buried it in like a shallow ditch in the middle of a field somewhere. And at that point, I think she was like over 30 weeks pregnant, which is just like bizarre and monstrous and like an outlier. Like, why would you even wait that long?

[B]

I mean, that seems nuts. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

And then there was like, the story that was going around recently of like, that beautiful young woman which, like, brought tears to my eyes, who died because she. The Democrats were making it seem like she had like, bled out because the health practitioners refused her medical care because they were worried that it would be like a legal liability. But it turns out that she had gotten sepsis from complex complications due to the abortion pill, and she had already come to them in like an extremely sick and dire state and ended up dying and leaving behind a six year old, which is like, really tragic and sad.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And like, I feel for her. But as always, these stories are outliers and very often falsified.

[B]

Right. Or like cherry picked. And I mean, the anecdotal evidence is just. Yeah, I don't know. You know, when I was at Yale, we don't find that kind of thing, like, really admissible in the Ivy League.

[A]

So, like, what's the statistic, like, like 1% of abortions in the country or something? Like that are like late term abortions.

[B]

That sounds about right.

[A]

I mean, like, like most abortions take place in the first eight weeks of the pregnancy, like by like something like 93%. So it is like monstrous for places such as my home state of New Jersey to have abortion laws in place that allow you to abort at the bitter end. I don't know if anyone really makes use of them, but it's like, it's the thing that Trump said at some point. I don't remember where or when he said this, but he made it very clear that he's for abortion in extreme cases where there's like the life of the mother is concerned or it's a case of like rape or incest or there's some serious congenital deformity.

[B]

Like Ronald Reagan. Yeah, I believe this. But he's obviously pro choice, broadly. Like, he doesn't.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's.

[A]

My feeling about it is that like, you know, like, we've been over this a million times. I don't even know if I need to repeat myself. But like, you know, once, especially once you have a child and you know what that's like. Like, you become privately very pro life. But you can't like hand people something like abortion and then take it away.

[B]

I mean, there's just no via viable way for there to be like a full abortion ban. That's crazy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

She's not gonna fly.

[A]

My only point is that it is a tragic ethical concern. Anytime it goes down.

[B]

Of course. No, it's a. But the decision that people make, that is an extreme concept. It's a ramification matter of life or death, truly.

[A]

But I can't sit here and tell anyone that I think there should be a nationwide abortion ban. And you personally can't get an abortion because I changed my mind about it.

[B]

I mean, I wouldn't either. And I'm, you know, it's. It's probably more like pro life than the average person, but even so, I'm like, I just. The unforeseen consequences of legislation don't necessarily make like a hard moral rule to be the best outcome.

[A]

Yeah. And it's like, it's one of those not that simple, annoying, intractable problems that shouldn't be at the forefront of a political campaign, but here we are. It sucks. I hate the abortion debate.

[B]

I know.

[A]

I wish we could handle it like Europe.

[B]

How do they do it? They love it.

[A]

Eight weeks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They have way more stringent abortion laws than we had in the United States.

[B]

Yeah. But they have as more of a safety Net. Some of them, yeah.

[A]

But they require it. Like, after a certain point, they require, like, a doctor's note, a legitimate reason to abort. But up until then, it's on demand, no questions asked.

[B]

I mean, yeah, I don't know. It's. I'm not a policy wonk, you know, I don't have. I don't know. Like, I can't really take a hard. A hard line, though maybe, like Vance, I should as, you know, to Coquette. Catholic Trad. You know, edgelord Millennials.

[A]

Two. Two anime eyes icons. He does have, like, insane anime eyes. Eli actually had a good take on this because he was very, like, fair weather on Vance up until he saw the debate. And he was in his kind of, like, dumb but profound man way. He was like, oh, yeah. Like, I get why people thought Vance was weird. It's because he has those big, beautiful, like, piercing blue eyes of a Siberian husky that look like he's wearing, like, eyeliner and mascara, and it just look like Uncanny Valley, you know?

[B]

Yeah. The Double Lash mutation he's got. Yeah. His lashes.

[A]

He must have been a beautiful baby. What can I say? I also think he's weird in the context of the American, like, political discourse because he is, like, highly intelligent and articulate, which you don't really see anymore.

[B]

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I thought Walls was also, you know, he wasn't like Kamala. He don't.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Pretty articulate. Like, that's why it was a good debate, because they both sort of. Once they advance, it's impossible to say he didn't win. Yeah, but, like, Wallace was. You know, he, like, held his ground. He made good. It was. Yeah, it was a night. It was like. I found the debate enjoyable just because it was sort of like. It felt relatively matched in terms of.

[A]

Like, they match each other's free.

[B]

They match each other's free. And there was, like, decorum, which the Dems love to claim they're bringing back, you know, and, like, in that way. Well, Vance. Vance. Tim Vance was great.

[A]

JD Walls.

[B]

Should we talk about Megalopolis?

[A]

Do we want to touch on Eric Adams, or is there really nothing to say?

[B]

I mean, I was gonna. I guess. Yeah, he. I don't know, actually, what's transpired lately. Yeah, but he took bribes from the Turkish government that weren't even monetary. It's the. What I read in the New York Post, the paper of record.

[A]

He got, like, a shipment of Zins or something.

[B]

He got some Zins? He got some. He upgraded to business class.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And he got to stay like the four Seasons in Istanbul. They basically gave him like free upgrades onto the Turkish Airlines business class, which I would do the same thing.

[A]

I know I would take.

[B]

I do. You guys know how nice business classes. It's totally worth corruption, anything.

[A]

Yeah, once. Once you fly business class, you can never go back.

[B]

It's not even about money. It's about sending a message.

[A]

Yeah. And Eric Adams start a podcast.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Get those perks, get those partnerships. He can run ads. He's not above that. My two cents on this is that like every politician, especially at his level, is involved in some self dealing and graft. So why him and why now? And the speculation was that he came out against unlimited immigration to New York.

[B]

That's why he was targeted.

[A]

I don't know if that's true because if I remember correctly, he was very wishy washy and mealy mouthed about that whole thing. It's not like he came out full force and was like, I'm a foundational black American and I don't want those weird, scary Africans up in my city. He said like a very reasonable and moderate thing, which is like, we, the city is incapable of dealing with the influx and you guys in D.C. are gonna have to do something about it. But he wasn't like, particularly extreme or dramatic. I actually found his remarks at the time, I think, to be like a little disappointing. So I don't know if that whole story adds up.

[B]

I mean, maybe. I don't know. Yeah, I think it's possible that he was just sort of like sloppy, maybe in a way that made it hard to suppress. When like a Jewish guy's the mayor, he's a little better at the corruption. You know, their networks are a little more, you know, Turks and a black mayor, like, come on.

[A]

Yeah, my, my favorite subplot of that is that he had.

[B]

They said don't mention there.

[A]

He couldn't mention the Armenian genocide.

[B]

I keep calling it the Armenian Holocaust.

[A]

It is.

[B]

Although, yeah, it was really the first kind of holocaust.

[A]

But then, you know, Armenians are very fond of reminding the Jews that Hitler took inspiration from the Turks and that this was the first industrial scale technologically advanced genocide. Which is probably true. I haven't really looked into it myself. But yeah, that was. That was hilarious that these like, Turkish, like consultants and diplomats even had that at the back of their heads, like that it would even occur to them to tell Eric Adams to not mention the Armenian genocide. Like, who cares?

[B]

Like, what else did he. Oh, I guess they let. Right. It was in there like Some Turkish, like construction interests.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I think the embassy, they like, he cleared the way. He cleared some red tape for them to like, do some construction.

[A]

Yeah. But it's like, okay, my feeling about this is like a politician, because he's a politician, is entitled to some corruption and bribery as long as the city that he's in charge of runs well, as long as the streets are clean and crime free, which, like, I guess he gave us trash cans, but he's not doing too hot.

[B]

Yeah, but how? I don't know. I've struggle. I. It's hard for me to. I. I haven't had strong feelings about Eric Adams besides sort of enjoying him. Yeah. But it's hard for me to tell how much like a mayor can really do. You know, he's got that Kathy Hoch.

[A]

Well, yeah, that's the thing. It's like if they remove him, they're going to replace him with something that's so much worse. It's like, yeah, they got rid of Cuomo and replaced him with that Kathy Hochul.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

So.

[B]

So, yeah, I don't know. It's hard to say, like, oh, this stuff, like, business in the city is bad. It's the mayor's fault. You know, I feel like the mayor in a lot of ways, like a scapegoat or.

[A]

Yeah, sure, Yeah. I mean, the best thing that Eric Adams ever did was that like 2013 video where he was like demonstrating how to search your child's room for like, drugs and guns and other contraband. That was so funny. I saw like a reaction video by Theo Vaughn and Shane Gillis to it. And they're both, I guess, like kind of comics, but they were so much less funny than the original video. They were just like rephrasing it, restating.

[B]

It is extremely funny. I mean, I love the. He's on some talk show talking about how New York is an amazing city. You, anything can happen. You can see a plane flying into the World Trade center or you can see a small business celebrating diversity.

[A]

And I love in that video where he's like, look behind the picture frame, there could be bullet casings. As if like the kind of kids who have guns and drugs in their room also have like a well stocked bookshelf. I know, it's so funny. The popular knapsack. And it's like literally the most unpopular knapsack that kids definitely knapsack. It's like a black rolly case that.

[B]

Like.

[A]

Chump civil servants take on the acela to travel between New York and dc. It's like, what I'm going to be carrying. The kids don't have that. They have like Paw Patrol and Spider man or like Jan Sport maybe still Herschel.

[B]

Yeah. Herschel seems kind of y'all.

[A]

Robin.

[B]

I don't know if the kids are rocking the Fjallraven. That and Herschel both feel like millennial 35 year old.

[A]

Like low T Google employee creative. Or like the content creator people.

[B]

Or like girls who go to Europe.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like NPC checks in Europe with the Fjallraven. But much like Eric Adams, the mayor in Francis for Coppola's, Megalopolis is black.

[A]

It's literally Gus Spring from Breaking Bad.

[B]

Yeah. It's that guy.

[A]

And you're like, is he leftist? Is he conservative? Wait, I have to pee now, so. And then we can get into Megalopolis.

[B]

Sounds good.

[A]

Oh, Elon. I love the photo of Elon jumping in the air. Yeah. Where he looks.

[B]

If the shoe fits, he's quite off the high. Off the ground. I was impressed by. I was like Faustian the way he's. I. I see he wants to.

[A]

With Elon. I'm sorry.

[B]

I mean, I. With you, I just. I have a realistic. I don't know. I don't dis. He rubs me the wrong way. Mostly due to being South African, I think, even more than the autism and stuff.

[A]

I mean, he rubs me the wrong way, but I find it in that he's like a corny and poorly socialized person, much as myself, so I relate to him. But, like, it's nice to see a guy like that winning.

[B]

For sure. No, it's endearing, definitely.

[A]

He's not like Trump. Like, Trump is just naturally suave and charismatic.

[B]

I know.

[A]

And like, lights up any room. And then Elon is like this. Like, there is that point during the rally where he's like, I'm not just maga, I'm dark maga. And like, no one clapped or cheered.

[B]

Well, he just. When Anna came back from the bathroom, I showed her a tweet he made about an hour ago that said, make America based again.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I'm like, that's. That. I'm like, that is endearing.

[A]

It is. Yeah. And like the photo of him and Trump and Vance where Trump is somehow inexplicably, like, the shortest guy because he's, like, shrunk due to old age.

[B]

So cute.

[A]

It's very cute. I like to see. It makes me feel comforted to see a bunch of, like, corn fed, nice, tall white guys just hanging out in charge of the country.

[B]

I mean. Yeah, I've. I really oscillate.

[A]

Yeah. That's like the effect he should have on you.

[B]

Yeah. I'm like, when things aren't going well, I'm like, I do. I hate the cyber truck. When I see a cyber truck, I'm like, I hate him. I'm like, he put this eyesore in my line of sight, this like, horrible truck.

[A]

Yeah. It's always like some annoying Indian or Chinese guy driving it.

[B]

Most of my issues with him are obviously, say, aesthetic and like the Teslas I'm warmed to but don't love.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't like the way if you're like, Tesla's not charged enough, it, like, won't let you. It like drives you to a charging station. It's like the safety ism mechanism that really makes me. I'm like, I should be allowed to drive my Tesla into the night.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And let it die. Me as well. Like, I. I should be able to drive. I mean, I can't even drive a car, but if I imagine. Yeah, if I could, I'd want the freedom to drive it wherever I want.

[A]

Yeah, totally. Well, it's like when he had the Twitter space with Trump and he was like, we should have like a committee of regulating this and that.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, it's really.

[A]

Do we really need more committees?

[B]

I mean, it's unfair the way. I mean, I guess not, because he is sort of, you know, I guess he's the richest person in the world and does have this power. So maybe it's not completely unfair, but I like, when the Trump space wasn't working, I was like, elon, he messed everything up. He broke X. He broke. He ch. I was like, he's. Oh, he took away the likes. Yeah. You know, I'm like, I hold him, like, personally responsible when I'm like, oh, how could he not have seen this coming? He's so stupid. Well, I have to say I was.

[A]

Annoyed by like, the new updated version of X where, like, you have to like, like, hover on something to see the likes and retweets. And then I was like, wait, no, this is actually good because, like, I shouldn't be looking at that anyway. And it like, literally introduces another obstacle and makes it unenjoyable and inefficient. So props to him for that.

[B]

I mean, props to him in general for making X, like, harder to use and more racist. Shitty. Yeah. And like, like, he is, like, accelerating potentially it's decline, which would maybe be good for all of us.

[A]

Yeah. I agree. But Megalopolis.

[B]

Oh yeah, Megalopolis. Also kind of a Muskian figure potentially. And though I'm.

[A]

And that he's corny and poorly socialized.

[B]

Yeah. In the Adam Driver character. Okay, so. Yeah. Megalop is a movie. Yeah. By an old man named Francis Ford Coppola who spent $120 million.

[A]

Word Cope a lot. Which is really what this movie is about.

[B]

I wasn't ex. I didn't go in necessarily with high expectations. I'm not a Coppola fan, to be honest.

[A]

Uh huh. Am I a fan of Francis Ford Coppola? I have to ask myself that question.

[B]

Like, I don't give a shit about. My God. Yeah. Pretended for like a boyfriend's benefit in the past, but I kind of don't. I mean, I love Sofia Coppola. I think she has surpassed her father in talent and taste.

[A]

Well, another interesting take that Eli had was that Megalopolis is Francis Ford Coppola's Lost in Translation. And I kind of. I kind of see where he's going with that.

[B]

That's really interesting. Okay, say more because it's a.

[A]

So a lot of people were under the impression that this was going to be like a. A right wing dog whistle of a movie. It had these like kind of overtly Randian overtones. The fact that he's wunderkind architect, of course, harkens back to Ayn Rand's Fountainhead. The book I kind of haven't read.

[B]

But I know the, the vibe, Utah. The utopia, the whatever. There's a philosophical. Ben. There's an architect.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And like that's like what I understand the Fountainhead.

[A]

There was like some. Some random ass like Hitler footage in the end that was.

[B]

Well, did you notice? Okay, this is digressing a bit. But. And spoiler alert, I guess when they. When the mayor's mixed race daughter marries the brilliant architect, like fusing the dynasty of their two families together. There's like a celebratory sequence.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And the first thing you see is people lighting like Hanukkah candles.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And I like. I literally. I like.

[A]

And then like two gay Indian guys.

[B]

I grabbed my boyfriend. I was like. I was like, they're all Jewish. I was like, what is this? And he's like. I think it's meant to show that they're like all celebrating in different ways, but because it like the. For. I was like. I was like, whoa, whoa. I was like, this whole. It's been Jewish the whole time. Yeah. And Adam Driver can also control time. With his mind.

[A]

Yeah. Is very Jewish, and it's Jewish coded. Yeah. He's like.

[B]

Is this.

[A]

He's like, Jason Biggs? Is that his name? He's like a guy who's, like, historically confused for being Jewish, even though Jason.

[B]

Biggs leaned into it by, like, playing a proxy for Woody Allen and Anything Goes with Christina.

[A]

But people were really, really excited about how potentially right wing this film would be. And to me, it was just like kind of a confused and jumbled centrist clown show that. That really was a missed opportunity and didn't.

[B]

I wasn't expecting it to be right wing. Well, I guess. Yeah. Because he self financed and, like, casted canceled people like Shia LaBeouf, I guess, and, like, was sort of going outside.

[A]

Of the studio and, like, he sold his family winery.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To, like.

[B]

Yeah. He.

[A]

To make this film and compensate his team, which I guess is very sweet.

[B]

I think it's selfish, but admirable. I know.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, tourish way.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I guess. But, yeah, I think the only. It's clear. Yeah. He has gripes about, like, cancel culture.

[A]

There's, like, a me too.

[B]

There's a me too.

[A]

We should get into that. Yeah.

[B]

But there's nothing. I think. Yeah. To me, the film was, like, pure dementia. I was like, this is.

[A]

Yes. This is senile.

[B]

This is what. Boomer was so senile from the jump. And I was like, oh, this is like. But it did give me insight into. Yeah. How I think Boomers really do view the world.

[A]

Yeah. Like. And it was.

[B]

It is.

[A]

Yeah. And like, for me, the more interesting allegory was not the Roman one. It was the Randian one, obviously, because there are so many, like, superficial parallel similarities to Fountainhead. Someone said to me that their first reaction.

[B]

What is Fountainhead about?

[A]

I will get into that. They said to me, this is not a good movie, but I can't stop thinking about it. And I would agree with that same. That stuck with me because, you know, like I said on Twitter, it's like a testament to, like, the kind of rantings and ravings of an old lunatic, basically, who, like, his programming hasn't been updated and he cannot cope with the contemporary world. And that was like, the most interesting part for me about the movie. But totally.

[B]

No, he finds, like, you know, populist strains of thought to be really, like, frightening, which I think is true.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Affluent boomers. He's really. The film is really. There is like, he is obsessed with, like, legacy. Yeah. Right. Because the Coppolas are all about, like, kind of, like, Institutional nepotism.

[A]

Yeah. And he has all his, like, minor Coppola nephews and cousins up in there. It's like Talia Shire, Jason Schwarzman. I think Sofia Coppola's like, tik tok daughter has a little camera, really cute.

[B]

But he. I think he's. I mean, there's literally a part where the black mayor is like, my name is Frank. Frank.

[A]

Yeah. And then. And when he's a total pro, like, the.

[B]

He thinks he's the black mayor.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Who, like, likes to do things the old way, but he's become progressive, and he's willing to join forces to defeat, like, a kind of, like, Trumpian street in contemporary life with, like, an ultimately more authoritarian, like, progressivism.

[A]

Yes. And he also identifies, obviously, with the Adam Driver character, who's, like, a brilliant genius, but he calls it a fable. And it opens up with, like, that homage to Kubrick 2001 A Space Odyssey with all, like, the satellites and in the air.

[B]

You know, actually, who I saw right after, who was in the movie theater with me, was front of the pod, Christian Lorenzo.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And he was like, I loved it.

[A]

Yeah, he would.

[B]

And he brought up something that sort of escaped me. Upon my watching of it, though, I clocked it as being, like, weird. But he was like, the Soviet satellite is about how. Yeah, like, boomers secretly still want to get, like, nuked by the Soviets.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So they can, like, rebuild society in their own image. They want, like, the distraught. They want.

[A]

But the real lesson of Soviet satellite is more of, like, the Lindy man take. The history is stuck. We live in a stuck culture. So, like, there are all these, like, very striking parallels with Fountainhead, but they're very superficial, cosmetic. They, like, don't live up to the hype. That, like, powerful cover image of Caesar Catalina played by Adam Driver, holding the T square.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That, like, promises a Randian narrative, but, like, totally fails to deliver it. And, you know, the. The whole idea of Fountainhead is that it's the story of, like, an original once in a lifetime genius who is thwarted every step of the way by leftist groupthink. And I think a lot of people probably assume that this is what that movie would be, but it actually, to me, again, was, like, a movie that's essentially about how out of touch our legacy filmmakers are.

[B]

Well, they're so old. He's so old.

[A]

Does, like we said, it feels senile. Like, it's. It's the rantings and ravings of a confused old man.

[B]

It starts off with people utilizing this, like, Shakespearean dialogue that then just. He abandons, basically. And then. Yeah, it still has this very like. They're kind of like. Like ragtag kind of gangsters too, with like cocked fedoras, which is very quaint and old fashioned too. Like the. Well, corruption is very like old timey, but also like a futuristic Roman thing.

[A]

Yeah, it's like, well, the city, New Rome, which is like a thinly veiled, barely allegory for New York, Gotham, Rome time. It's like a very stylized mashup, you know, of. It's like ancient Rome, 1940s, WPA, the New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Franklin Cicero, I. And then it's mixed also with today's like, vicious, cutthroat reality TV America. And the vision of like contemporary America that Coppola portrays is basically the America of like 15, 20 years ago.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, it's like a kind.

[A]

Of a mashup of like indie sleaze and steampunk aesthetics.

[B]

The steampunk trappings, of course, rub me the wrong way as usual. And then the styling I found to be very chintzy and bad and just.

[A]

Like tone deaf and out of touch from. Honestly, it's what Francis Ford Coppola thinks Dime Square looks like.

[B]

There's no way he even knows.

[A]

No, no, of course not.

[B]

But the first thing that I clocked was the. In the opening scene of Adam Driver on the Chrysler. First of all, I'm a big fan of the Christ. I. You know, I can see the Christ. I see the Chrysler Building and enjoy it. And this movie sort of dampened some of my enthusiasm for the crisis they're building, which I won't forgive Francis Ford Kopolivo. But yeah, when he's on the roof doing his time stop thing, I immediately. It was like his like, pristine stupid.

[A]

Boots and his weird ugly, like, Topshop top man outfit that's also like 20 years old. Like a Nehru collar shirt and like a kind of sateen tuxedo jacket that just looks bad and unstylish. And it looks like something like a bridge and tunnel person would wear. All of the extras look like people who work in flatiron, like circa 2005. And also that weird, like, opening scene that's like a J. Varma covert orgy where again, it's like the misshapes.

[B]

What do you mean?

[A]

Like, it's 2000, which was like, the last time that Coppola was sentient. It looks like limelight or the tunnel, like late 90s, early 2000s. Like, why, like, not even Y2K aesthetics.

[B]

No, no, no way. Yeah. I mean, a lot of nice crown work. I'll say. There was some nice floral.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Crowns.

[A]

There were some very memorable cinematic moments, like the Times Square time ticking sequence where the statues crumble in like an anamorphic way, which kind of is almost like a meta reference to like 1940s, 1950s noir cinema.

[B]

But again with Adam Driver, like driving to see his wife's ghost.

[A]

Yeah, that's the scene I'm talking about. Yeah.

[B]

The statue. Statues melt. Oh, is that when.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, right. But yeah, there were these explicit parallels with the Fountainhead down to like the. The character, his love interest, who is like this kind of Meghan Markle ass mulatta actress. And she's obviously clearly lifted from Dominique Francon, who is the love interest of Howard Rourke and the Fountainhead. She's like a Nepo baby woman reporter. And it's. Her role throughout the film is very ambiguous. It's unclear whether she loves him or wants to ruin him or a little bit of both. And at the very end, they walk into the sunset together, like that sort of thing. I mean, the whole idea, the basic idea of the Fountainhead, say what you will about Ayn Rand, but her vision was nothing if not coherent. Like to the point of over explaining and like connecting the dots.

[B]

Well, it's a really big. It's a big book.

[A]

Yeah. You know, she has a very unambiguous vision of the world where there is a clear cut distinction between good and evil. Good are elitist, entrepreneurial, exceptional individuals. And bad are leftists who worship mediocrity because they're fueled by jealousy and resentment. And that's like, really the reason that the left hates Ayn Rand because she, you know, has clocked them. She has their number. She's like Azalea Banks. And like, they're obviously mad at her because they're triggered by her. But anybody who was looking for like a Fountainhead, like story arc from Megalopolis will be sorely disappointed, obviously. And yes. Sorry, I don't know where I'm going.

[B]

With this, but it's like, I mean. Right. Well, I, to be honest, I've like, tried to read Ayn Rand in high school. I read the title the Virtue of Selfishness, which sounded good to me as a teenager and kind of, you know, I was like, nice. I was like, okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I think, you know, she's. She knows what she's, you know, the virtue of something she knows she's doing.

[A]

She's like, yeah, well, I mean, whatever. She's Provoking her, whatever you say about her. Yeah, she had a very. She's taking on a visionary vision, you know.

[B]

Yeah. But she knows that she's sort of inhabiting, like, villainous kind of role in advocating for things.

[A]

Yeah, but I'm gonna read excerpts from Jack's review, which was the best one later, so whatever. No, she knew she was, like, kicking the hornet's nest, obviously, but. Oh, yeah, but I think. I think the big problem is that, like, Francis Ford Coppola is fundamentally like a dated liberal boomer, and he can't pick a side or take a stance. And, like, he can't offer a critique of left. That's totally fine in his prerogative, but he also similarly can't offer a critique of the right. And so it becomes this kind of, like, giant mucky nothing burger.

[B]

I mean, there is. I mean, his critique of the right is, I think, that they are kind of like a vulgar populist movement that rubs, like. And in that way, maybe it is Randy, I guess, because, like, the elitist sort of establishment that's represented by the technocracy of Adam Driver's character and the sort of establishment liberalism of the mayor that, like Trumpianism, populism is like a direct threat to a kind of, like, cohesion and unity amongst, like, the legacy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The elites, the unwashed.

[A]

Mass squash or beef and join, like, a multicultural mixed race.

[B]

Exactly. And his. Yeah, his critique is that they're, like, deplorable.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, but there was like, a lot of, like, vaguely right wing sounding dialogue. Like when the Laurence Fishburne character says in the voiceover, when does an empire die? Does it collapse in one terrible moment? No, but there comes a time when people cease to believe in it. Or when Julia asks Caesar, Marcus Aurelius three times. Yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me, of all the institutions your utopia preserves, which is the most important to you? And he says, marriage. We're gonna solve the fertility crisis and raise the fuck. Right. There's a point where Steve's Caesar levels, like, the immigrant neighborhood for his megalopolis. And like Claudio, his cousin and rival, seizes on that fat, on the fact that, like, immigrants can be leveraged to buy votes. There are some really, like, frankly, Nietzschean moments when Caesar says to Julia, you find me cruel, selfish, unfeeling. Well, I am. I work without care for either one of us. So go back to the club, you hood rat. Greed is but a word jealous men inflict on the ambitious Coppola. Ultimately, at the end of the day, is like, too much of a libcook to. To know what he wants either way and to enforce his vision. And like the way it ends with like that stone inscription that's like, I pledge allegiance to our human family. It's like, it's like those yard signs that libtards have in their front yards that are like, in this house, we believe that black lives matter, science is real, no person is illegal. Like, he should have just like put that sign in like a marble engraving.

[B]

I know. Yeah. We believe in all people, indivisible and for justice for all and education. It was like. So I was like, whoa.

[A]

But the best reviews of the movie that I've seen so far were by Jack Mason, Norman White. Jack said, it's awful. Some hot guys and chubby shorts behind me said, that's the worst movie I've ever seen in my life. And I can sympathize. Something this self consciously, willfully obscure will have a built in contrarian fan base claiming it's misunderstood. But the weirdness feels insincere and ginned up as a masking agent for how uninvolving and milquetoast the story is. It ends with Adam Driver giving a speech on a CGI lotus flower about how what we need is debates. That's what we need, debates. We can't forget our humanity. And given to Trump symbolized by maga hats and some minor coppola cousin with a black sun forehead tattoo. We also need mixed race babies. We have to have a future for mixed race babies in love. A future for debates for mixed race babies in love. It's awful and a chore to watch. There's a generously well lit scene of Shia's pubic hair, which we've seen before, but which is always welcome sticking up from the side.

[B]

I love. Yeah, he always brings it back to the male frontal.

[A]

I know, I know. But it was, it was really a drag and a slog to watch initially. And then like, it's sort of grew on me and I warmed toward it because the bar is so low. And also, like, you've already paid for the ticket and have like two hours to go, so you may as well make the best of it.

[B]

Yeah, I, like, maybe 40 minutes, 45 into the film, decided to drink a huge beer really fast and I said to Allison, this movie's about to get a whole lot better. And yeah, I was like, sort of, yeah, like disgruntled and bored.

[A]

Confused and bored and disgruntled because you were bored and bored because you were disgruntled.

[B]

And, like, bristling.

[A]

It's like mad tv lowered expectations.

[B]

But I will say I can't really. I don't know if I can actually say that it's bad.

[A]

It's weird.

[B]

It's interesting because it was interesting. It's like, I truly. It did keep me. I didn't really know what was gonna unfold in part because it was, like, kind of incoherent. And some of the, like, plot points that were brought up then got, like, very quickly resolved or not resolved.

[A]

And the plot, all this random shit happening and shuttling. He, like, does cocaine and.

[B]

Yeah. The.

[A]

Gets beat up.

[B]

And when Adam Driver's, like, drunk and doing bumps and having his. Like. I was like, oh, my. Oh, no.

[A]

Am I watching the Joker too?

[B]

Like, this is that. I'm like, really? I was. I suffered through parts of it. But then, as you said, like, I kind of kept thinking about it. And there was, in part because of, you know, the legacy of Coppola and, like, the hype around the film and it being self finance and stuff. It did feel not fresh. Oh, Richard. I didn't read the Armin White review, but I read the Richard Brodies, which made me feel extremely gaslit because he was like, this is Coppola's youthful. He says that it was like a very youthful movie. I was like, it's not. It's like a senile movie, but that's interesting. It's like the.

[A]

The second wind, the burst of life you get before you expire.

[B]

And it is. I text you after I saw. I was like. I was like, you got to see this. Yeah.

[A]

And so did Eli. Like, so many people texted me, like, you have to see this.

[B]

And in that way, it is. Is a successful sl. Good film because it was.

[A]

It makes you think.

[B]

It makes you think. It stays with you. It. Cat. It is like, encapsulated cultural moment.

[A]

It is really like when you buy a loaf of bread at the farmer's market and you forget you bought it. And then it grows mold in these really beautiful and interesting ways. And you're like, oh, I didn't know that, like, life forms could flourish in such a way on the decaying, bloated corpse.

[B]

And I thought the performances were very good.

[A]

I thought there was, like, literally one good performance in that film, and that's Shia LaBeouf. I thought my hot take. Shia LaBeouf is what people think Joaquin Phoenix is. He is such an incredible. He was effortless, amazing actor that you forget he's acting and you're really in it. With him. And he plays this kind of like as Jax's trans coded gender goblin villain who's like a kind of cross between Buffalo Bill and Pee Wee Herman.

[B]

I.

[A]

He's like an autogynephile.

[B]

I saw Jack saying that I didn't find Shia's character to be trans coded. I saw. I thought that he was pretty heavy handed in his like, depiction of like decadence.

[A]

Yeah. But it's a very stylized, excessive vision of decadence that doesn't really pertain.

[B]

Well, it's meant to be futuristic and fableistic and like Rome, you know, it's the lady boys of Rome, you know.

[A]

In the Decline, the eunuchs and castratus and the.

[B]

I thought Aubrey Plaza was fantastic.

[A]

Aubrey Plaza delivered the second best performance.

[B]

She was very good.

[A]

I thought Sheila Buff and Aubrey Plaza carried the movie. And I agree with Armand White when he says that like the sex scene between them was probably the highlight of the film.

[B]

I found. Yeah. Also those. That sex scene for sure. But also sort of the sex scenes with Plaza and Driver and then Driver.

[A]

And that mulatto actress Natalie Emanuel. I googled her in general.

[B]

The horniness in the film also gave it a kind of boomerish charm.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, that I was endeared to.

[A]

But like my.

[B]

It was a little kind of like.

[A]

Unrestrained and like overheated. But like the. The mixed race multiculturalism stuff to me was like particularly grating and insufferable. Not because of like any racist reasons, but because, as Armand White says, defies credulity. I'll read some excerpts from him. When far left publications from the New York Times to the Washington Post praise Coppola for his aspirational determination, you know that something idiotic this way comes. Praising megalopolis is a new form of elitism. Preview screenings for Coppola's Hollywood surrogates prove that no one there understands artistic ambition anymore. So illiterate that they miss the film's too obvious parallels to contemporary politics. Coppola's emphasis on white protagonist Caesar in Hollywood liberal terms is facile and archaic. We don't even recognize clear thinking anymore. Expectations are diminished, contaminated by politics. Had Coppola focused on the dilemma of a white idealist challenged and intimidated by a black power player, setting off political subterfuge that nearly destroys the dynasty Caesar was born to, Megalopolis might have ignited pop recognition and excitement. But his idea of conservative black urban mayor defies credulity. Coppola snatches unassimilated ideas from current political paranoia and recent Cultural catastrophes, manic news media promoting celebrity insanity, all tossed into the mix with demented incoherence. So true. And as Jack pointed out, it's also a missed opportunity because, you know, it's historically an important film because it's like the first production that deliberately broke with the MeToo backlash. And he says he wishes, like, the final product reflected the courage necessary to do that. And like, one of the better plot arcs in the movie is how Caesar's enemies cook up this, like, cancellation campaign against him with, like the doctored footage of him committing statutory rape against the vestal virgin pop star. And then it turns out that she's not even a citizen and has doctored her birth certificate.

[B]

I know. But once again, to speak to the incoherence, it's like if it's doctored, you know, it's like it's kind of wraps it up with this. They really quickly found this person. It's.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then it's like. But I thought I, I at that point was very like, so was it Doc? Like, well, yeah, it seems insignificant.

[A]

It was doctored.

[B]

If it's like resolved like these legalistic sort of.

[A]

Yeah. And it's also, it's also like unclear. Like, it's basically his evil, scheming gender goblin cousin who's leading the campaign that ultimately works in the favor of the leftist and or conservative mulatto mayor. The mayor's black, whose hands are clean, but who leans into it. But also, I mean, I thought one of the more faithful elements of the film that didn't defy credulity was that the ruling class was this kind of mixed race mulatto class. It was very Kamala Harris, Paw Patrol Mayor Goodway.

[B]

Okay. Yes.

[A]

Because it, it is these, it's not, it's not actual black people or white people. It's like this new Benetton race of like Yale educated lawyers and consultants.

[B]

Right. I mean, the Shia LaBeouf's character, I didn't, I hesitate to call him like a gender goblin because he's not really motivated by like a trans identity based ideology. He's like meant to sort of be in cap.

[A]

He's just like polymorphously perverse.

[B]

Well, he, his sisters, that's what like sort of reiterate is like, they're, they're.

[A]

Part of their, that brother sister duo is very Peter and Betsy.

[B]

But yeah, he's like incestuous. He's. Yeah. Polymorphously perverse. He dresses up like it's, it's. He's not he doesn't map exactly onto, like, a corollary, I think, for Coppola necessarily, of, like. Because I don't think he even really knows how bad. I don't think he knows how bad it is. I think he just. He's, like, depicting excess and.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Roman style decade.

[A]

But I think what matters is that he's, like, kind of aesthetically gender fluid and non binary, but, like, actually straight.

[B]

Yeah. He's in love with the mayor's daughter. He's trying to rape her all the time and stuff. And his sisters. And he's this, like, horny, lecherous guy who then becomes very overtly like a Trumpian political candidate who, like, goes into the crowds of, like, the disempowerished and handsome, like, dollar bills to win them over to his.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Cause which.

[A]

That's another thing I didn't quite understand because it's like, is Gus Fring Trumpian or leftoid? Is Claudio Polker Trumpian or left?

[B]

Who's Gus Fring again?

[A]

It's the Giancarlo Esposito, the guy who plays Franklin Cicero.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. I. I mean, with Shia's character, he's. There's literally the. The swastika, the black sun, the tattoo. It's like. It's still. It's. And also.

[A]

But he's also kind of like a leftist figure because he's leading antifa mobs to burn down Minneapolis.

[B]

I thought that was more January 6th. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I was like, oh, he's doing a January 6th thing.

[A]

Which.

[B]

Interesting how, you know, it's all mini parallels, and it really just depends on.

[A]

Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. It's so jumbled and incoherent because you don't know what's what.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, there is no, like, clear cut line, which, granted, I mean, the black.

[B]

Sun is a pretty overt symbol.

[A]

Yeah. But he's also, like, kind of antifa coded.

[B]

Well, just because. Yeah. He's got a rat tail and a face tattoo.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He's like Joseph Rosenbaum that. Like a pedophile felon. That Kyle Rittenhouse.

[B]

Exactly. We can't tell what his politics really are. But they're also. Okay. Like, Shia. Sorry, I don't know their names. Shia LaBeouf and Adam Driver's character are cousins.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So it all like. Yeah. There's a point in the movie where you're like, oh, it's all this kind of, like, familial squab.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, it is. It's still. Yeah.

[A]

Because it's it's like ta Nehisi Coates, like Coppola thinks he's making a film about the contemporary political situation, but he's really making a film about his own ordeal of civility.

[B]

It's like so obsessed with his own legacy and political legacy and yeah, I think he is ultimately such an establishment, like, elitist at the end of the day that he isn't able to make, you know, as hyper coherent.

[A]

And he's also, you know, let's call a spade a spade. He is an establishment elitist, which makes him basically liberal, a progressive, but he's also an Italian American, which makes him kind of like naturally constitutionally conservative. I tweeted this, but it's like if. If Fountainhead was made by like a high strung, histrionic Italian American versus like a cold and bloodless Russian jewel. Though to be fair, Ayn Rand was by all accounts highly passionate about both political ideologies and blowjobs. So. Yeah, but, you know, but like the kind of stereotypical image of her is like a cold, cruel, unempathetic figure who's like, rational and calculating.

[B]

Right. I don't think her horniness eclipses. She's definitely leading with like, rationalism. No. Once again.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

I find her prose to be. To be tough.

[A]

Yeah. It was hard for me to get.

[B]

Through, but I don't have anything against her, you know, it's just not my.

[A]

I mean, she's like Elon Musk to me. She's a person who is incredible and exceptional by virtue of inflicting her artistic vision upon the world and sticking with it, even though there were like, armies, legions of haters mobilized against her from the very start. Especially now. She's obviously just objectively, technically speaking, a remarkable human being.

[B]

Well, of course. That's why she rose to a position of like, extreme prominence.

[A]

I'm honestly, like, between us girls, not that interested in her or her work to have, you know, a strong, clear cut opinion.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But my knee jerk instinctual reaction is always that when, like, leftists hate you, you're on the right track, like always, without fail.

[B]

Right. I mean, in that, like you said, Elon Musk also kind of leftists love to talk about how he's like, dumb and stuff. And like, yeah, he is like, dumb in some ways. He's obviously not that dumb. He's not poor.

[A]

Well, it's. Yeah, it's like that. That's beautiful. It's so true.

[B]

He's definitely smart enough to figure out a rich. And unless you, like. Yeah. Are like A total Mark Zoid. Who really thinks that like, like it's totally rigged. Yeah. And he's been given some kind of like you obviously his dad was an arms dealer or whatever. Maybe not. I actually don't even know. But yeah.

[A]

And his wife or his mom was a trans model in New York City.

[B]

I don't know. Yeah. He's. He's not like a rags to riches story, but it's, you know, kind of a tough. A materialist.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Cell to be like, you know, he hasn't, he doesn't have any merit or it hasn't. Doesn't deserve.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The things that he's like accomplished at the end of the day he's a game. He's figured it out. I don't know. I'm.

[A]

It like defies basic reason to argue that he's dumb and a loser.

[B]

Yeah. There's plenty of like privileged people who are like fail sons and yeah. Don't become Elon Musk. Like he is like.

[A]

Yeah, there's. There's plenty of like fail sons and Nepo babies who basically succumb to like womanizing and drug addiction and make nothing of themselves.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I figure even if you are a failson or a Nepo baby, if you make something of yourself, that counts for a lot in this world.

[B]

I mean it's. Yeah. You can't just. Yeah. The way that leftistry, both and Randy and Elon Musk is very confused and short sighted.

[A]

Well, it's upsetting. Not even because I like want to defend Brand or Musk, but because of what it says about them. It really is. It's like the most profound line that was uttered on this podcast secondhand. Was your father, Dimitri, you permit yourself too much. These people permit themselves too much. Literally proves Ayn Rand's point.

[B]

I know that they're like, they live.

[A]

For competition but hate the idea that anybody could out compete them. So they demand, they're like core demand is that all competition be eliminated and everything be like shitty and mediocre.

[B]

I mean that's where I really take issue with this kind of like sensitive young man talking point that emerges every so often where right wing guys will talk about how they were like uniquely conspired against by their school teachers and stuff. And that.

[A]

Which by the way is. Is objectively true. It is true, like the modern school system favors girls over boys. But you are right that like if you are an exceptional person, you will find creative ways to triumph over that.

[B]

To me, it's very to use. You know, it's Very, like, spiritually leftist to be like, oh, like, I could have been a genius, a great man of power, if only my, like.

[A]

Well, it's like the drama of the.

[B]

Gifted child, fourth grade teacher didn't scold me and crush my fan spirit or something. It's like, maybe you're not as high as you think. Maybe, you know, maybe school isn't fair, obviously, but, like, life's not fair.

[A]

Yeah. And the sad thing about it is that, like, there is, like, a truth. You. Aria, there. There is a truth to that that, like, when you desegregate schools by sex, everything becomes tailored to the lowest common denominator, which is like, the. The needs of women, and then it entropies from there. You could probably make the equivalent case about racial desegregation, which I will not be making on this podcast. But you are correct that in the Randian model, if you are an exceptional individual, you find a way to adapt to the circumstances that, like, life hands you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like the. You know, when life gives you lemons.

[B]

Exactly. Like, you're.

[A]

You have a lemon party.

[B]

But, like, I can believe that all of that is basically true. I don't think in terms of childhood development at least, like, in early schooling, that girls are the lowest common denominator. I think that they're. They just. By biologically, they surpass boys in terms of.

[A]

Yeah, they do better on the whole. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. So it's not a matter of, like, this, like, separating girls and boys. It's just like, school isn't about. School's not fair. School's not fair. And school's not even.

[A]

School's a test.

[B]

School's a. Exactly. School's a test. That's a proxy for life.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's. If you're really high iq, as you claim to be, then you'll figure out how to survive. Like, you have to just sort of, like, fortify yourself against it. And if you get. If you're an adult who's upset about something that happened to you as a. Well, that's.

[A]

That's the whole problem with. It is a proxy. It's literally like a dry run, a dress rehearsal for life. It's like a diorama that you make in school, a miniaturized model of what.

[B]

Real life will be like an autist. Don't like to hear it, but it's like. Yeah, it is testing your kind of, like, social adaptability and conformity in some ways. But also, like, even if you. If you're smart, you can figure out how to conform and excel at the same time, you can. It's. No one's actually hinder. You're not as damaged as you think you are. No one's hindered you.

[A]

Yeah. This is like Melania Trump's philosophy.

[B]

I just can't like, imagine people in the Soviet Union being like, oh, well, the Soviet Union was really unfair. Like, no one would ever fucking say.

[A]

That was historically my problem with leftists, that their, like, core identity was formed around these, like, formative expressions. Experiences from like, elementary school or high school. I don't remember either of those things. They're like a blip on my radar. And not because I don't think it's brutally bullied or oppressed, but because just like nothing happened.

[B]

I mean, that's not exclusive.

[A]

And I'm old to leftist, like, a lot, but that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Like now you see like the equivalent but like inverse tendency or whatever forming on the right of being like, yeah.

[B]

I was traumatized by going to school. And it's like, well, then you aren't gonna make it.

[A]

Wait, what was the original post you were responding to?

[B]

Was it like some long mini paragraph thing about how boys are uniquely discriminated against in school? And especially very high IQ boys? Of course, yeah. Because it's not that they have shortcomings of their own that they've had to confront in their life. It's that they were like, thwarted every step of the way by the long house or whatever.

[A]

I mean, there is like a lot of truth to that. To the extent that, like, boys like, that are discriminated against by like, midwit, middling teachers who cannot understand their potential and are therefore for. Hostile to and resentful of it. It's like the thing that I was tweeting about. The woke. The woke. And in heavy scare quotes, people come up against their own intellectual limitations and have to rationalize it as like, external oppression or discrimination, which is like the bread and butter of wokeness. Right. It's like saying, oh, there's like systemic or structural racism at hand.

[B]

Exactly. Or like gender discrimination, misogyny or misandry, whatever. The public schools.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They think that they're like, there is like, actually being a kid is really hard for boys and girls.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And everyone has uniquely traumatizing experiences. And it is up to sort of you on an individual level ultimately to move, like, I didn't.

[A]

Which is cruel and unfair, by the way.

[B]

It is, but life's cruel and unfair. I didn't like going to school. I was extremely tormented. I Hated being around my peers. I was like a Chopin. How in teenager as well. I was very sensitive and I graduated early. I went to summer school. I finished high school in two years and I moved out of my parents house and left Las Vegas. Cuz I. And then I just never thought about it again. But I can't. I'm not like hung. I couldn't, you know, I'm not.

[A]

But this goes back to what we were talking about in the last episode that like, it's like a bitter pill to swallow because what it comes down to at the end of the day is that like all men are not created equal in terms of potential though they are created equal in terms of their political rights and their value in the eyes of God.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Provided they have the correct legal paperwork.

[B]

But you would think right wing people would, you know, understand that. But somehow when they, when they, you remind them of.

[A]

But then, but then you have to remember that like a schoolboy, probably like a vast majority of the right wing is like very young and very brown.

[B]

Well, I mean, that's for sure.

[A]

Do you have another cigarette?

[B]

No. I thought we had enough between the two of us to make it through this show.

[A]

It's okay. I'll get some.

[B]

Anyway. Sorry to digress.

[A]

Well, I like, I think like I would split the difference and say that they're like a way, there's a way to talk about these annoying intractable issues without making it like part of your identity. Like. Yeah, like it is absolutely true. It is correct and true that boys are discriminated against in the modern Western school system. But you can't chalk up your own failure and disappointment strictly to the fact that you were like longhoused by some like fat mixed race teacher.

[B]

And if you were actually a genius, probably like much like Elon Musk, you'd find a way to like maneuver. You're not, you know, if you're high key, you're not hung up on what happened to you in grade school.

[A]

Well, the thing, the thing with Elon Musk, crucially is that he doesn't much like Azalea Banks, actually. Sorry, no, wait, that was a bad reference. I meant to say Candace Owens. I got them. He doesn't seem miserable or bitter.

[B]

No, he's playful.

[A]

He just seems angry. Which is a. Yeah, which is a good and righteous emotion.

[B]

He doesn't even seem that angry to me.

[A]

Well, he seems, he's like obviously very annoyed. Irritated by certain things that are going on in the world.

[B]

But ultimately I think he has a kind of, you know, he has. He's has a. I think we've always maintained that even though his sense of humor isn't always our taste, at least he, like, has one.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And he's. Yeah. I think the most endearing thing about him is that he, like, is able to retain a kind of, like, playfulness in the face of adversity.

[A]

Yeah. And, like, keep. Keep on going. Keep persevering in spite of it all. Yeah. Move on.

[B]

You're done. You don't have to go to school anymore. And life's gonna be. Also be full of, like, it's over, man. Move. Go. Move on. You. I believe in you. I'm like, It's. I know I'm, like, taking, like, kind of, like, a cruel line, but I actually. It's.

[A]

You sound like Ayn Rand.

[B]

You know, I sound like you. Actually. It's because I care so much, but. No, it's actually, I'm like, I believe in you that you can overcome this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you really are this, like, Dasha.

[A]

My biggest hi in the world is that I give people too much credit.

[B]

I know.

[A]

I really do believe in all of you morons and retards.

[B]

I'm like, you're gonna, like, straight up, same. I'm like, I'm so sorry you've had some traumatic experiences. But I believe in men and women, that they can overcome them, that they ultimately can, like, harness the will to be better. Be best.

[A]

I know.

[B]

Why not be best? Why not try that and now blame other people for holding you back? Left or right?

[A]

Yeah. Why not just let go of your grievances and resentments and give in to God?

[B]

And guess what? God made you as smart as you're supposed to be.

[A]

I saw a tweet. Maybe you think you are this, like. No, he actually had down syndrome, this guy. He had down syndrome. Sorry. And it was like one of those fake viral tweets, but it was like, some guy with down syndrome who had a normal, like, normally abled son who later became a dentist.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

And I was like, okay. Like, if that guy can do it, so can you for sure. Like, I don't know where I'm. Where I'm going with this.

[B]

Wait, so a guy with down syndrome had a son who became a dentist? That's what you're talking about.

[A]

I just thought that was, like, cute and uplifting.

[B]

It's an uplifting anecdote.

[A]

And there was, like, a photo.

[B]

Keep your head up. You know you're going to make it. You might have a son who becomes.

[A]

A dentist or A son with down syndrome.

[B]

I mean, dentists are. Yeah.

[A]

Well, are they. It seems like a lucrative enough profession.

[B]

I don't mean, like, materially. I mean, like, something's wrong with dentists because they look in people's mouths all day. They kind of like.

[A]

They're like sexual sadists.

[B]

I think possibly pedophiles in some cases. I wouldn't be surprised. But more so, I think there's something about, like, gazing into, like, the abyss of another person's mouth and skull and stuff that causes.

[A]

Imagine being Tim Walls dentist, psychological decline.

[B]

You know, it's just like, it's. I don't think it's a healthy profession.

[A]

To be, like, you're, like, getting back shots of spittle even though you have the mask and the goggles on.

[B]

I wouldn't. Yeah. I just can't imagine choosing a profession in which I like looking, had to.

[A]

Interact with, like, not only interact, but.

[B]

Like, just the mouth.

[A]

Look into the gaping holes of. It's very, you know, thousands of strangers.

[B]

It's Freudian, you know, to be so obsessed with the mouth and. I mean, someone's gotta do it, I guess. Though I don't believe in dentistry. I'm medicine skeptical. And dentistry is especially, like, very low on the totem.

[A]

Polio, though.

[B]

I understand that. Yeah. You have. You can have the teeth somehow the nerves. It's your whole body. It's a holistic thing.

[A]

But this is why we are the way we are.

[B]

Haven't gone to the dentist. I haven't.

[A]

Like, the sepsis has literally traveled to our brains.

[B]

My wisdom teeth grew in on top because I only got my bottom ones removed and.

[A]

Wait, what?

[B]

Remember, like a couple years ago, maybe a year ago, I guess I was like, my wisdom teeth are going in and they hurt.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And now they just. I didn't go to the dentist. Nothing. They just grew in. I have these.

[A]

So underage. You were teething.

[B]

I was teething. I know randomly when I was. Yeah. 32 years old, my wisdom teeth grew in and, like, were. Yeah, that's when I got my elf bar. I had the allergic reaction. The elf bar.

[A]

Oh, yeah, I remember that. I still have, I think, my wisdom teeth. That's why I'm so wise, you guys.

[B]

I only have half, but, yeah, I think it's because my wisdom teeth were, like, poking through and my mouth was raw and the vape juice had an adversarial effect. Who knows? Once again, it's a mystery what happened with the elf bar. But my. There. Yeah. I have, like, wisdom teeth now and they just grow all good. Fine. Never had a cavity. Just not. I think it's a sham.

[A]

Yeah. I think like psychiatry.

[B]

I think giving birth. No, psychiatry is real. But dentistry, giving birth and having an abortion are overly medical. But I need. Yeah. Psychiatric drugs for my adult.

[A]

Psychology, not psychiatry. That's what I meant. Yeah. Freudianism.

[B]

Right. Also real. More real than evolution or climate change.

[A]

So true.

[B]

I mean. Yeah. I do think Freud was more right than I knew.

[A]

I knew that movie was over for me when they, like, beamed the. The shadow of the evolutionary chart on the building.

[B]

Yeah. No, the. For me, the big clock.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, I get a whiff of steampunk and I'm. I'm checked out. I'm, like, squirming. I don't know what it is.

[A]

Like, your. Your artistic vision has been reduced to, like, Canal street souvenir shop antics.

[B]

Yeah. I think it. I think Las Vegas. There's something very steampunk about sort of people with, like, high futin idea. Like, there's like, art galleries that look. The Las Vegas airport that have like, very, like, lx gallery. Geiger.

[A]

Like the circus meets Moulin Rouge.

[B]

Exactly. I think that's really what it is about. It's like I have some childhood trauma where I can't. If I see gears or anything. That's my. Was my problem with poor things too. I was like, miss me with the blimps. Miss me with that old steam. It's not for me.

[A]

So I'm, like, sympathetic to that whole esthetic, even though I personally hate it. And it makes my skin crawl. Because it's like life makes boomers of us all. And one day, whatever aesthetic we're repping will be for sure extremely corny and outdated and people will be clowning on us.

[B]

That's so true.

[A]

We won't even suffer the fate of, like, a Kim Gordon. It'll be so much worse.

[B]

I know. I mean, my secondary issue with steampunk aesthetics is that I do, like Edwardian garb.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I'm walking.

[A]

It's the narcissism of small differences.

[B]

I'm walking a very thin line where sometimes I'll put on one of my, like, tea dresses, 19th century tea dresses, and just one wrong move and I tip over into steam Hungary. Yeah. Yeah. It's projection for sure, but. Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine. I have no idea what it's like to be 80 years old and making him. You know, I'm sure I'll have some crazy ideas about what's going on out there. And like you said, I think it's like, you know, he's. I respect legacy too. He's allowed. He financed it himself. No one, you know, no one wanted him to make this. Yeah.

[A]

And he's been trying to make it for 10 years against all odds.

[B]

So good. Not.

[A]

Not even like. I think he would like to think that he's like the Adam Driver character who's a proxy for a Howard Rourke type character who's thwarted by mediocre administrators and bureaucrats every step of the way. But the reality is, like, no one wanted him to make this film because it was a bad idea, but he made it in spite of himself. And that's why Elon Musk is such a wonderful and amazing genius and why I stan him in the end.

[B]

Yeah. Because he too.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Can make a hideous car. What's the. I guess what's the substance called again? That Megalon?

[A]

We've. Nobody ever. None of the reviews I read, at no point in this podcast has anybody mentioned the central plot device, which is like Adam Driver coming up with this new radical substance called Megalon, which has the potential to stop time.

[B]

No.

[A]

Right.

[B]

No.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

It's more vague than that. He somehow is able to stop and control time, but the substance is some kind of. I mean, it is very yeast coated. It's very like sprawl. It's just as this kind of like healing. Utopian.

[A]

Yeah. Like when he survives his like Trumpian assassination attempt.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

He is able to. To heal himself using like a Megalon patch.

[B]

Yeah. So, yeah, the Megalon is sort of this like very utopian universalist substance that's able to kind of mend all things and heal them. And I think you're right that it's like if progressivism. Exactly.

[A]

Was a material.

[B]

I mean, so true. And I think you're right. I think Coppola sees himself as like a synthesis. Right. Of this like, progressive genius, but also this like more conservative old timey. When the mayor is literally like, my name is Fran Frank. It's Francis. I was like, his name Francis?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I was like, okay, so you gave. You named this guy Francis and he's this like.

[A]

Well, I don't remember if I said this already because I'm drunk, but when the beautiful mulatta Meghan Markle wife announces that she's pregnant and it's like the redemption arc from his wife who he witnessed drowning when she was pregnant and the mulatto wife's dad had falsely prosecuted him for it.

[B]

Oh, right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That was like, also confusing. And because then he kind of moves on. I don't totally buy the love between them. Yeah, very. You know, then they're on the bound the beams.

[A]

Yeah. And I was just like fucking push her off of it and let her fall to her death. It's annoying. I remember her from Game of Thrones, which is a show that I personally enjoyed and didn't like her because she was, she was like a stand in for like the Obamas or something. But she's, it's like, it's like a, A kind of sentimental, unironic replay of, of that scene in the Sopranos where Ralphie tells his 19 year old stripper girlfriend, like, if it's a boy will name him after me. And if it's a girl and like beats her to death in this retelling they're like, oh, if it's a girl, she'll have this weird gay and annoying Ta. Nehisi ass name. I don't remember. And if it's a boy, we'll call him Francis. And of course it's a girl because any baby born in the future has to be a girl and mixed race. But like every.

[B]

Yeah, little.

[A]

Everything is. Everything is like a reference to Francis.

[B]

Yeah, no, it's very. It was. I'd be pissed if I was a Coppola grandkid or had any inheritance on the line. I'd definitely be like, you spent what, how many months by your inheritance?

[A]

Like you squandered our family. Yeah, yeah, about.

[B]

I mean, literally, it's like it couldn't be a more heavy handed metaphor for progressivism ultimately with like the moving sidewalks. They all have to like get on at the end. They all just have to like get on the, you know, Yeastian architecture. The very like vaginal.

[A]

Well, that's the other thing. It's like this was my biggest quibble, triggered my trypophobia. It did. Well, because, you know, I know Francis Ford Coppola is an Italian American who as I said before, is constitutionally conservative, respects and honors the legacy of the Roman Empire and is making like little nods and homages to Ayn Rand Fountainhead. And then I have to wonder why, like no one in the history of cinema, it seems easier in cinema than in architecture to build a beautiful city according to your personal vision. But no one in the history of cinema has actually really ever built like a utopia. Like this particular utopia looks so much worse than what we already have. It looks like a longhouse termite nest.

[B]

It looks like the meme.

[A]

Yeah. Of like a better society. Yeah.

[B]

This is what it would be like if Anna and Dasha didn't exist. Yeah, but. Yeah, no, it's. But that's very like a futurist kind of architectural idea that it'll be like, amorphous and kind of like not.

[A]

And like organic and rounded and yeasty. Feminine. But like, the city that the supposedly, like, visionary Adam Driver character creates is literally like a mud hut in the ground with lotus pods. Yeah. With like, bells and whistles. It is. What is that thing that you mentioned? The fear of trypophobia? Yeah, it is. It's like literally like an insect den.

[B]

It looks like a yeezy, like, slide.

[A]

It does. Yeah.

[B]

Which also grossed me out due to the clustering of holes.

[A]

Yeah. It's so, like, ugly and like, the cycle is so much better. Like, and. And then you realize, like, oh, we already have a beautiful city.

[B]

I know.

[A]

We've just failed to maintain it.

[B]

I know.

[A]

By keeping it free of, like, migrants and vagrants.

[B]

Yeah. And not, you know, like, New York.

[A]

Is already a beautiful city. You don't need a visionary utopia and.

[B]

You need, like, a robust investment in, like, restoration and like, preservation, you know, like. Which we just don't have.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So a lot of, like, beautiful buildings end up, you know. I mean. Yeah. Decayed. And.

[A]

I mean, I get. I get that the. The final megalopolis city at the end of the film is supposed to serve as like, a metaphor for. For an actual utopian city, which no one knows what that looks like.

[B]

Well, yeah, it's. It's a fable, you know, but it's.

[A]

Actually so, like, grotesque and depressing.

[B]

No, it's horror. It's a nightmare. I would like.

[A]

Would you want to live in that city?

[B]

Absolutely not. No. I don't want to live in any kind of like, global homo prefab. I don't want. I like. The way in which I'm the most constitutionally conservative, I think is in my, like, enthusiasm for, like, period architecture. I like the way things used to be and think it's kind of preserving them on an aesthetic and, like, cultural level.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, the way I don't want constitutionally conservative is that I have a. A one woman jihad against the open floor plan, which is like, one of the greatest horrors ever visited upon human civilization.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And when I look at apartments or properties, I have to go full Karen and yell at the realtor and say, I want discreet rooms with doors that close behind you.

[B]

Yeah. Why'd we knock down these walls.

[A]

Mr. Gorbachev? Blow out my walls. My Tim Walls.

[B]

I am with. I am with you. Yeah. I love a enclosure. I love a nice room with like careful details, you know, I don't want the like IKEA showroom. I don't want the floor to ceiling window. I don't really want the high rise.

[A]

Yeah. I hate being manipulated and bamboozled by evil realtors who try to make it look like this is a design or aesthetic decision when it's really like a cost cutting thing, which it may. Somebody schooled me on open floor and was like, it's actually not cheaper than having like normal structural borders. Or I'm. I'm such a. I'm so not an open borders person in every possible way. I hate open borders and I'm not even talking about immigration.

[B]

Yeah. You are a person who values your, like, boundaries and privacy.

[A]

Yeah, it's like, it's very Earth sign. It's very like politically conservative love of boundaries. But somebody told me that basically it's actually possibly more expensive to have an open floor plan because you have to have like various structural supports where you least expect them.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Like it's. It's very easy to build like a box, right?

[B]

Yeah, probably.

[A]

And then you like, you know, you put a bunch of boxes together and you have a house.

[B]

I think it's more complicated than that. But yeah, I mean, the open floor plan is most often favored sort of by like skyscraper, like in New York, the loft, you know.

[A]

Yeah. But. But walking out of this movie, I was like, I would rather live in like an open floor plan loft. Like the kind they had in like Michael Douglas, Glenn Close movies in the 90s.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Versus like this pod. Disgusting Polycule. It's a polycule.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And there's like one extremely like, large and fat Venus of Willendorf termite queen lodged somewhere in there.

[B]

Yeah, no, it's. I found the, the architecture to be gross, Objectionable.

[A]

Yeah. And not what you would expect from a Coppola, frankly.

[B]

I mean, I guess he's like venturing into like a vision of the future. So he's like thinking outside the box. And it's not exactly like futuristic or utopian to like make, you know, New York's a gorgeous, gorgeous building with a right angle that's like, you know, I guess we're sick of that. We're. We're trying a new thing in the new realm. Oh. I was also immediately confused when it was like the blah, blah, blah year of the third millennium. And I was like, what? I was like, what year? Like, what does that mean?

[A]

Tell me the Year.

[B]

Are we in the third millennium now or is this a thousand years into the future? Right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I was like, miss me with that. I don't. Just tell me what year it is. Like, what is what year? What do you mean?

[A]

And you still haven't figured out how to have positive canthal tilts and non recessed maxilla that far into the future.

[B]

I know. Well, there weren't a lot of fat. There weren't.

[A]

There weren't any fat people. That's true.

[B]

And in that way, the movie was good.

[A]

Actually, it was bad because if, if he really wanted to stay faithful to his circus steampunk vision, he would have had one guy that was like Newman from Seinfeld. The most obese guy in 1910 who's like. This man was considered radically obese.

[B]

The vomitorium. I thought the whole like gladiator sequence was kind of fun. Yeah, they had nice moments.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But then that quickly gave way to the like circus freak show of Adam Driver's mind. I was like, I can't wait for this to end. Why is this going on?

[A]

This movie felt like watching a Nick Fuentes live stream, but way less funny and entertaining.

[B]

I wish it felt like that.

[A]

But it had the same effect. We were like, I feel dirty and like I was just molested, but it really makes you think.

[B]

I mean, I be watching fun times. To be honest. I do tune in. I, you know, I take it, I take it with a grain of salt. But I, you know, it makes me feel kind of like peaceful and like pleasant, to be honest. I'm going to like. He's got the little pumpkin on his desk now for the season. Oh yeah, he's doing his thing.

[A]

We out here pumpkin maxing.

[B]

I mean, I also, because I'm too low IQ to figure out how to like stream something I, I need to bait or like conference. I've watched this election season has been on. On Rumble slash Nick Fuentes. Because I like, I'm like, I don't know how to. Why? I'm like, he's gonna stream it. And the nice thing about Nick Fontes is he's quite, he is like quiet. He doesn't, he's not like, he doesn't.

[A]

Opine all the time.

[B]

No. When he's doing a stream of like a presidential debate or the VP debate or like the Democratic National Convention, he's like, you know, he's very like, he quit. He has his, his quips are well timed and he knows kind of on the commercial breaks he'll sort of talk. But Then he, like, lets. It's a good way to watch Stream for me because I'm so scattered that I can't focus on the thing that I need, like an extra thing and to look at my phone.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that's been working. But how does he make money? I guess people donate money to him.

[A]

Yeah. He seems rich.

[B]

He seems. Yeah. But I don't understand. He doesn't, like, do ads or a Patreon or anything.

[A]

Like, he has, like, a big economy.

[B]

He must, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Well, good for him.

[A]

Nick Fuentes, the Howard Rourke of our time.

[B]

Just a bright, ambitious boy. Everyone's Ben Shapiro. Get your boot off my neck. Can I sell a hat? When he said, can I sell a hat? I was like. He's just like me, for real. But, yeah, sure. He's imperfect and talk. Well, yeah. And toxic. Anyway. Do we have any more remarks on Megalopolis?

[A]

No.

[B]

How many doggy bones?

[A]

Minneapolis.

[B]

Minneapolis. Yeah. Five out of five, star.

[A]

You go first.

[B]

Three.

[A]

Like Megalopolis. It's like my beauty. It can't be rated on the normal scale.

[B]

Yeah. It's avant garde.

[A]

Extreme. Extremely.

[B]

I. Yeah. Mid.

[A]

I don't know. It's a really bad movie.

[B]

I mean, I don't believe necessarily in, like, you know, like, very declarative, I guess.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Statements about whether or not films are good or bad. Because ultimately, you know, they are like a vision, which this movie is. They only truly, like, it's worse to be, like, middling.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like a movie that's neither here nor there. At least this had, like, badness on its side. At least it had.

[A]

Well, okay. I will say one nice thing about this movie. That is it's like the perfect bookend to the Biden era.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It is truly Biden core.

[B]

I know. It's like a guy in a coma having, like, a fever dream.

[A]

Yeah. It's like, what must be going through Biden's mind. But Italian, not Irish.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I'm just sad Robert De Niro couldn't be in it.

[B]

I know, but he did, like, a Q A on opening night where he, like, fully was like, imagine, Trump couldn't make. He said, like, Trump couldn't make a movie like this. He's got, like, his Trump derangements.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So late stage that he can't help himself. But I wonder why he wasn't. Everyone else, you know, Dustin Hoffman, John Voight, they're all. They're making. Everyone else kind of showed up anyway.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, we'll see you in hell, Sa.