The Top 10 Garbage Love Movies, ‘Companion,’ and ‘You’re Cordially Invited’

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Big Picture — "The Top 10 Garbage Love Movies, ‘Companion,’ and ‘You’re Cordially Invited’" (Released February 7, 2025)

Hosted by Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins from The Ringer, "The Big Picture" delves into the realm of cinema, offering reviews, top lists, and insightful discussions. In this episode, the hosts explore the concept of "Garbage Love Movies," analyze the thriller "Companion," and review the comedy "You’re Cordially Invited." The episode also features an engaging conversation with Drew Hancock, the writer and director of "Companion."

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1. Opening Discussion: Trailers Review

Timestamp: [02:22] - [05:31]

Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins kick off the episode by discussing the trailers for two highly anticipated summer releases: "Fantastic Four" and "Jurassic World Rebirth."

• Fantastic Four:

  • Rob Harvilla expresses his skepticism, noting the film's mid-century modern aesthetic and the ambiguity surrounding its timeline. He questions whether the movie is sincere or satirical, highlighting the challenges of reviving a legendary but arguably outdated Marvel brand.
  • Sean Fennessey adds humor by comparing their on-air personas to the Fantastic Four characters, jokingly assigning roles like the Invisible Woman and Reed Richards to the hosts.

  Rob Harvilla [04:11]: "Fantastic Four is one of the most legendary Marvel comics created in the 1960s... but it’s a little hard to convey that story."

• Jurassic World Rebirth:

  • Sean Fennessey discusses the film's lead actors, including Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, noting their strong performances despite the franchise's fluctuating quality.
  • Rob Harvilla praises the film's visual effects but criticizes its script, comparing certain sequences to Godzilla in water.

  Sean Fennessey [07:44]: "I guess they did just a better job with the CGI and that’s cool."

2. Introducing "Companion" with Drew Hancock

Timestamp: [14:37] - [38:29]

The conversation shifts to the main topic of the episode: "Companion," a thriller-horror-sci-fi hybrid written and directed by Drew Hancock.

• Overview of "Companion":

  • The film centers on a group of friends who encounter a robot designed to be a companion, exploring themes of AI ethics and relationships.
  • Amanda Dobbins and Rob Harvilla discuss the movie’s premise and its balance between entertainment and underlying messages about technology and human connection.

  Sean Fennessey [16:54]: "Here is my advice to aspiring filmmakers. If you don't want your movie released in February, find a different angle."

• Themes and Execution:

  • The hosts commend the film for its clever writing and the way it handles the robot character without overtly preaching ethical lessons.
  • Rob Harvilla likens the movie to works by the Coen Brothers and Terminator, praising its ability to blend humor with thriller elements.

  Rob Harvilla [24:08]: "But it's really more of, like, a comedy thriller, I would say."

• Character Analysis:

  • Sophie Thatcher’s portrayal of the robot is highlighted as a standout performance, effectively conveying the character’s transformation from passive to empowered.

  Sean Fennessey [27:14]: "There's a bit of Anya Taylor-Joy about her in her... there's a reason she was cast as a robot."

3. Exploring "Garbage Love Movies"

Timestamp: [51:13] - [80:53]

Sean Fennessey introduces the concept of "Garbage Love Movies," defining them as genre films that attempt to incorporate love stories, often resulting in poorly executed narratives aimed at attracting female audiences. The hosts categorize these films into horror, action, and science fiction, discussing various examples and their shortcomings.

• Characteristics of Garbage Love Movies:

  • Rob Harvilla describes them as "a specific brand of genre movie utilizing the framework of classic romance stories, but usually in a craven bid to get women to come see genre movies."

  Sean Fennessey [51:50]: "Yes, this is a perfect definition."

• Notable Examples Discussed:

  • "Passengers" (2014): Critiqued for lacking chemistry between leads despite a compelling premise.
  • "The Adjustment Bureau" (2011): Mentioned for its convoluted plot and forced romance elements.
  • "Twilight" Series: While the original is defended as good, subsequent installments are labeled as garbage love.

  Sean Fennessey [57:09]: "So, Twilight is deeply important to the American canon of cinema."

• Action and Horror Variants:

  • Movies like "Shotgun Wedding" and "Zombieland" are discussed, with a preference for action-based garbage love movies over the ponderous sci-fi ones.
  • Amanda Dobbins expresses her disdain for the overuse of recognizable stars in these poorly constructed narratives.

  Rob Harvilla [65:38]: "Do you have a preference out of horror, action, and science fiction that you prefer here?"

4. Conversation with Drew Hancock: The Making of "Companion"

Timestamp: [84:21] - [127:12]

The episode transitions to an in-depth interview with Drew Hancock, the creative force behind "Companion." Drew shares his journey from an Omaha upbringing to Hollywood, detailing the challenges and serendipitous moments that led to the creation of his directorial debut.

• Background and Inspiration:

  • Drew recounts his early passion for movies, inspired by classics like "Pulp Fiction," and his non-traditional path into filmmaking.
  • He emphasizes the importance of perseverance, self-awareness, and adaptability in the entertainment industry.

  Drew Hancock [85:05]: "I was yearning to create content and immerse myself in the process."

• Development of "Companion":

  • The script took over a year of writing and rewriting, reflecting Drew's desire to blend multiple genres without overloading the narrative with heavy metaphors.
  • Drew Hancock discusses the influence of Channel 101, a monthly film festival format, on honing his storytelling skills.

  Drew Hancock [98:56]: "Self-awareness is, I think, one of the most important qualities for someone to have."

• Casting Choices:

  • The selection of Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher was a pivotal moment. Drew highlights their chemistry and commitment to bringing depth to their roles.
  • Sophie Thatcher's nuanced performance as the robot was particularly lauded, adding layers to the character's journey from subservient to autonomous.

  Rob Harvilla [114:21]: "She makes the movie."

• Themes and Messages:

  • "Companion" serves as a metaphor for toxic relationships and the quest for self-empowerment.
  • The film also comments on the dehumanizing aspects of technology and social media, portraying AI characters with empathy rather than as mere antagonists.

  Drew Hancock [111:10]: "It's about love, but also not being allowed to have sex and like, really wanting it, which is interesting."

• Challenges in Production:

  • Transitioning from a writer to director was fraught with uncertainties, but Drew credits Zach Kreger and Roy Lee for believing in his vision and allowing him to helm the project.
  • The collaborative process ensured that the film remained tightly constructed, avoiding common pitfalls in genre filmmaking.

  Drew Hancock [117:11]: "We should listen to Drew talk about it too, because he... the movies having ideas but not being obsessed with their ideas is interesting."

5. Closing Remarks and Call to Action

Timestamp: [127:12] - [End]

The hosts wrap up the episode by encouraging listeners to participate in future segments and promoting upcoming content.

• Upcoming Segments:

  • A mailbag segment is teased for the following week, inviting listeners to share their thoughts and suggestions for garbage love films.

  Rob Harvilla [127:09]: "Email us at bigpickmailbagmail.com if you wanna tell us some garbage love films that we forgot about."

• Final Thoughts:

  • The hosts briefly touch on award shows and personal anecdotes before signing off, maintaining their signature blend of humor and insightful commentary.

  Rob Harvilla [130:00]: "But I do agree with you. I found this movie quite mediocre, but I didn’t hate it."

---

Notable Quotes:

• Rob Harvilla [04:11]: "Fantastic Four is one of the most legendary Marvel comics created in the 1960s... but it’s a little hard to convey that story."
• Sean Fennessey [16:54]: "Here is my advice to aspiring filmmakers. If you don't want your movie released in February, find a different angle."
• Sean Fennessey [51:50]: "Yes, this is a perfect definition."
• Drew Hancock [98:56]: "Self-awareness is, I think, one of the most important qualities for someone to have."
• Rob Harvilla [114:21]: "She makes the movie."

---

Conclusion:

In this episode of "The Big Picture," Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins provide a critical yet entertaining exploration of so-called "Garbage Love Movies," dissect the intricacies of the film "Companion," and offer candid reviews of current releases. The insightful interview with Drew Hancock offers listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges and triumphs of bringing a genre-blending film to life. Whether you're a cinephile or a casual moviegoer, this episode offers valuable perspectives on the evolving landscape of romantic genre films.

Transcript

[Rob Harvilla]

Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 songs that explain the 90s. Except we did 120 songs and now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The strokes, rihanna, jlo, kanye. Sure. And now the show is called 60 songs that explain the nineties.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Colon, the 2000s.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wow. That's too long a title for me to say. Anything else right now, Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s. Cole in the 2000s preference, preferably on Spotify. This episode is brought to you by the White Lotus Season 3. It's enlightened, it's twisted. And this time we're finding the dark side of an exclusive wellness resort in beautiful Thailand. Expect some picture perfect travelers that are anything but and some cheerful staff that have got a secret or two. Same luxury, new reservations. We can't wait to see what happens. Watch a new season of the Emmy Award winning HBO original series the White Lotus, premiering Feb. 16 at 9pm on Max. You found your person.

[Sean Fennessey]

Now let the Knot help you with everything else. The Knot connects you to the wedding inspo vendors, venues and planning tools you need to make your day.

[Rob Harvilla]

Totally you Having helped plan 25 million weddings, we've got your back when it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Comes to every little detail like RSVP's, budgets and more.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because your wedding comes to life with.

[Sean Fennessey]

The connections that matter the most.

[Rob Harvilla]

Get [e-mail] audio the Knot let's plan your wedding together. I'm Sean Fennesee.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm Amanda Dobbins and this is the.

[Rob Harvilla]

Big Picture, a conversation show about lovers and friends. Later in this episode, I'll be joined by Drew Hancock, the writer director of Companion, a clever new thriller horror sci fi hybrid that I quite enjoyed. We'll talk about it momentarily. Drew has been a writer and director in Hollywood for years. This is his debut as a feature filmmaker. He's got a very cool story of getting companion to the big screen. Great hang. Stick around for that convo. But first, I've just watched you, Amanda, watch trailers for two upcoming summer films. Yes, two July releases that we will be covering on the Big Picture. What were those trailers you just watched?

[Sean Fennessey]

Fantastic Four and Jurassic World Rebirth.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Brought to you by the Marvel and Universal corporations, respectively.

[Rob Harvilla]

Let's talk about those things. Let's start with Fantastic Four. I haven't had a chance to talk about this yet. I did get a chance to talk about Jurassic world on a YouTube video that I recorded with Bill and Chris yesterday.

[Sean Fennessey]

Cool.

[Rob Harvilla]

But I wanted your thoughts as well.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Fantastic Four, do you know who they are? Do you know what that's all about?

[Sean Fennessey]

You have explained it to me, I think, several times in an attempt to get me to remember the details. And investors, I have not held on to any of that information. So I did just watch the trailer. So it seems like Hallmark Jetsons, like, but they all have special powers. But, like, is this sincere or is this satirical? Like, what's going on?

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a very good question. It's unclear the timeline in which this story is happening.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, great.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because there's a. You know what?

[Sean Fennessey]

You know what? I love the answer to any question. Be like, well, we're not sure what timeline.

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't just mean that it's multiversal. I mean, I literally don't know what yet year it is. Because the story as we see it, looks both mid century modern and retro futuristic.

[Sean Fennessey]

They did a nice job with the mid century modern set.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. So some of this stuff looks cool. The Fantastic Four is one of the most legendary Marvel comics created in the 1960s in the era of the space race, four astronauts go into space. They then receive these powers because of this experience that they've had in space. And then they become heroes. Reed Richards, the smartest man in the world. Pedro Pascal in the film. Sue Storm, his wife, also a scientist, she's the Invisible Woman. Her brother, Johnny Storm is the Human Torch. And Ben Grimm, Reed's best friend, is the Thing. Ebon Moss Bacharach playing the Thing.

[Sean Fennessey]

Wait, so they go to space and.

[Rob Harvilla]

Then they come back with powers.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do they get like hit by a meteorite?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, there's like an event. I forget specifically what the space event is, and I don't know what they'll show us here, but, you know, this is a very legendary brand. There have already been two different versions of this story in movies in the last 25 years. It's been really bad, really bad. One by Tim Storey and then one by Josh Trank. You know, they both had big stars in them. They both were big swings and misses. A lot of people have made the case over the years. Fantastic Four is not really a very modern brand and it's a little hard to convey that story. So I think it's smart to like pitch it in the past. Here's my problem with it. It's directed by Matt Shackman, who is one of the most accomplished and successful TV directors of his generation. He's directed everything from Game of Thrones to WandaVision and everything in between. He's done lots of network dramas. He's done lots of prestige tv. This looked like TV to me.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

It just, like, looked like TV with a Marvel budget. You know, everything's very flat. A lot of, like, you know, obvious single shots with multiple people talking in them just didn't have a ton of pizzazz for me. I know that some fans seem really excited about it, and maybe I'm just been so down on Marvel for so long. And part of it is this is my birthday movie this year, and I like to have a cool movie on my birthday weekend.

[Sean Fennessey]

I get the pta.

[Rob Harvilla]

I was hoping this would be cooler. You get the pta?

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, technically, it's one week later, but I'm claiming it as my own.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, well, I think you're luckier this year. Fantastic Four, the first steps. What do you think those steps are? Where are they stepping to?

[Sean Fennessey]

Wherever those, like, 40,000 missiles are coming from.

[Rob Harvilla]

Could be. Could be. Do you know about Galactus?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes. Because Chris and Andy talked about him once. He, like, eats the world. He's so powerful.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's pictured at the end of this trailer. We see that guy with a giant helmet. We see behind his head.

[Sean Fennessey]

Cool.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think you think it was an homage to the brutalist. He was looking at the Statue of Liberty.

[Sean Fennessey]

So this is just about, like, hey, it's nice to have a family.

[Rob Harvilla]

Family is a significant part of the story. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, I like my family, too.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. But the family, they choose, too, you know?

[Sean Fennessey]

Sure.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a buddy and a brother and a wife and a husband.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's. I mean, that's beautiful.

[Rob Harvilla]

But, like, kind of like how I think about you and Bob and Jack. You know, you guys are. You're my fantastic partner.

[Sean Fennessey]

That makes me the Invisible Woman.

[Rob Harvilla]

No, you're the Thing.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. What's the Thing?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Doesn't that have to make you one of the four? Which one are you?

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm obviously Reed Richards. The smartest man in the universe. Set me right up, Bob. Thank you very much. Human Torch.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's what I'm here for, you know? I'm here to set you up, throw you some lobs.

[Rob Harvilla]

Appreciate that. The Invisible Woman, of course. Editing video for us. Thank you, Jack. I wish it looked a little better. I think our friends at the Ringerverse seem very excited.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Will you be covering this show on the pod with me, or will you set it out?

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, I'm here. I don't think I'm on vacation yet. Vanessa Kirby we haven't pinned it down. I vote for her. I'm like, is she really just playing a 50s trad wife?

[Rob Harvilla]

She's so much more than that.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, great. Well, aren't they always?

[Rob Harvilla]

They are, you know, they honestly are. They contain multitudes and we'll see. Jurassic World Rebirth.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

This movie's coming out earlier in July. This is, I think July 2nd. And this is the seventh Jurassic World film. And I know exactly what happened in every Jurassic World movie, as you know, chronologically. And it comes to us from Gareth Edwards, a very gifted director who sometimes struggles with story. He directed Rogue One. He directed the creator a couple years ago and stars Scarlett Johansson.

[Sean Fennessey]

The creator was. Which one was that?

[Rob Harvilla]

John David Washington. Oh, right. And the small child robot.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, yeah. What do you. I want to be free. I want all robots to be free.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

What about ice cream? Oh, yeah, that was some good stuff.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. That movie was probably one of the best looking movies of that year.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I watched it on a plane.

[Rob Harvilla]

Very bad script. Nevertheless, he's here. He's kind of born to make a Jurassic movie in many ways. He's great with CGI and, you know, less good with actors, but not terrible.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And the actors in this movie are quite good. It's Scarlett Johansson. It's Mahershala Ali. Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend. Quite a cast they've assembled. I don't know what happened to all the other people from the last Jurassic World movie. I guess they all died like in a plane crash or something like that, wasn't it?

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, I mean, Chris Ryan famously described it as sort of like a detente. Right. And the dinosaurs get, you know, Costa Rica and. Or this fake CGI island.

[Rob Harvilla]

And they didn't have Yalta, though. Like, I think they were just like, we'll see you later, dinosaurs. You know, they didn't actually hash it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Out well, but then I guess everyone else moved on, you know.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, yes. But for some reason we have to go back to the island to get.

[Sean Fennessey]

DNA from a dinosaur egg. I wasn't paying attention because I had some notes on Scarlett Johansson's line readings, but she wants to be Lara Croft. That's cool. I guess.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you think?

[Sean Fennessey]

Never seen a Lara Croft movie. So it's really just.

[Rob Harvilla]

When we did the video, I was like, why did she do this? Like, she's just so much better than this movie. And she just spent 10 years in the MCU. Why are we just going back to franchises? It was pointed out to me that she loves Jurassic park and when she heard there was a New Jurassic park movie that she was like, I want to be a part of this. That that's her favorite blockbuster. And so she's really passionate about it.

[Sean Fennessey]

That is good taste. And also, she has two children, I believe at least this was Bill's point. Schools are expensive.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, I think it was more that what Bill was saying, which makes sense. You know, the old Ben Affleck, I was Batman for my kids thing where he was. She could be a hero in a Jurassic park movie and her kids could see her be the hero.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, I wish you would just go make another marriage story or Ghost World personally, but that's just me.

[Sean Fennessey]

This seems fine. Everyone seems slightly miscast to me, with the exception of Mahershali, who just seems to be having such a fun time that it doesn't matter.

[Rob Harvilla]

But, like, he seems comfortable.

[Sean Fennessey]

Jonathan Bailey, like, charm master is like the nerd science guy.

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't know. I mean, you know, in theory, that's what Jeff Goldblum was once upon a time. Can he bring that same energy?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, but it's a different thing.

[Rob Harvilla]

I agree with you.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

So will you be seeing this movie?

[Sean Fennessey]

I will.

[Rob Harvilla]

Will you be doing the podcast about it?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes. You know, that's cool. I like my job and I like seeing all of you.

[Rob Harvilla]

Strictly to retain your position here at the Ringer. You'll be seeing both of these.

[Sean Fennessey]

I also have children who need health insurance, so.

[Rob Harvilla]

Good to know.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you remember to hear that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

You guys remember when Marshawn lynch showed up to a press conference and was every answer that he gave to every. Every question was, I'm here, so I don't get fined?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, that's you talking about. You're being held against your will all summer is what you're saying.

[Sean Fennessey]

Just, I meet my obligations, and the definition of my obligations are to see these films and talk about them and ask questions.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, what? I enjoyed Jurassic World, the first movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was the first one with blue.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. And it's a little silly, but it was a fun CGI adventure movie. I'm like, I'm good. I'm good. Now we got it. Dinosaurs are scary, and you shouldn't go near them because they might eat you. We got. Can we do more than that? Is there anything else left to say there? Well, don't go near them.

[Sean Fennessey]

Have there been water dinosaurs before?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, come on.

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't. I mean, I don't remember, like, the Moranosaurus or whatever it is at the end.

[Rob Harvilla]

Mosasaurus, the idiotsaurus. I. The thing I didn't like, about that sequence, which looked kind of cool, was it just looked like Godzilla minus one. Remember when Godzilla's, like, in the water chasing the boat? I'm like, we just saw this in a movie two years ago. Probably a better movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

So that's kind of annoying, you know, I don't know what to say to you.

[Rob Harvilla]

Dinosaurs are not Godzilla. I want to point that out. Godzilla is a different thing.

[Sean Fennessey]

They are borrowing a lot from Godzilla at this point.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Even the whole, like, Middle Earth, where the. Or like, below the core. Where do they keep Godzilla or. No, where do they keep Kong?

[Rob Harvilla]

Is it inner earth?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, that sounds right.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's inner world.

[Sean Fennessey]

And Godzilla they let roam around. Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

What's. What's it called? It's like, inside the earth.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm going to look it up, I promise.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think it is inside the earth.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's a Rebecca Hall CNN appearance filmed for the movie that explains it all perfectly.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. She is the exposition queen of the guys. I got it.

[Sean Fennessey]

I got it.

[Rob Harvilla]

What's it called?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Hollow Earth.

[Rob Harvilla]

Hollow Earth.

[Sean Fennessey]

Hollow Earth, sure. Well, you understand, like, hollow Middle Earth. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Would you be interested if Warner Brothers and Universal could get their shit together in a Jurassic World Kong Godzilla crossover movie?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, I think. I think that that's, like. Just think about all the exposition that they would have to do. Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. They should cast, like, Tilda Swinton and Mark Rylance in it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Team Godzilla. Godzilla is so powerful. Like, just nukes everybody else.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's a huge brat who always naps. That's what we know about Godzilla.

[Sean Fennessey]

And then when it's time to save the day or do whatever needs to be done, Godzilla just shows, takes care of it and goes back to sleep.

[Rob Harvilla]

Not like Kong, who uses his heart and his mind to save the day.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Wasn't there a plotline in Godzilla vs Kong where there was, like, a podcaster there? He was, like, doing content.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Brian Tamriel. Yes, yes. Over multiple installments of that franchise.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, and like, Millie. Bobby Brown was really into it in the first one.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. He was making, like, Last House on the Left podcast. You know what I mean?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then her dad was Kyle Chandler and she tried to get Kyle Chandler to listen to it, and he wasn't a part of.

[Rob Harvilla]

Stop listening to this darn podcast.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right. And they moved on. I think they, like, you know, healed, like, you know, whoever was in the last three Jurassic movies, you know?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, yeah. And they all sank on a yacht together.

[Sean Fennessey]

They said thank you. They moved on. But, yeah. Brian Tyree Henry was still there, like churning out the podcast and doing pod reads. I mean, it was a really brutal parody of a podcaster.

[Rob Harvilla]

Super into meundies. Bomba socks. What were his other sponsors?

[Sean Fennessey]

Bomba socks actually do stay on a baby's foot. If you need that.

[Rob Harvilla]

If you need that interesting spawn from you. Thanks for sharing that. All bombas, please send to Amanda Dobbins courtesy of Spotify.

[Sean Fennessey]

All the other socks fall off.

[Rob Harvilla]

Are you doing the read right now?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, I'm just like, I'm just, you know, I'm living my life. I'm sharing my personal experience.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's good. You are retaining your position here at.

[Sean Fennessey]

And now I'm available to go to Hollow Earth.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is there anything else in the world of movies you'd like to hit before we get into the topic at hand for this episode, which was your idea.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you want to say anything about the Academy spoiling the Brutalist on its. I didn't love it.

[Rob Harvilla]

I didn't love it. Did you see that, Bobby?

[Sean Fennessey]

Bobby's so mad.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I did see that. Well, number one, that's like the worst written scene in the whole fucking movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

We spent time on it, on the.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Episode, and then they scroll the script underneath it for that. Being nominated for Mona and Brady.

[Rob Harvilla]

For listeners of the show with knots seen the Brutalist, do not look at the Academy's social media handles because in an effort to, you know, they do this, they show us the scripts of films that are nominated for original screenplay and adapted screenplay and then they put the scene side by side. They often do that during the telecast too, which is a cool thing. The scene that they chose for the Brutalist, pretty important scene with. Yeah. In a three and a half hour movie, it happens in like three hours and 14 minutes.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's very true.

[Rob Harvilla]

So don't watch that if you haven't seen it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

There's straight up no defensible reason for not just choosing the exchange between Adrien Brody and Guy Pierce.

[Rob Harvilla]

Totally agree. That should be the scene.

[Sean Fennessey]

I will say though. So you, you sent me this and I was driving and so all I saw at first was like, well, my phone read to me, Sean has sent a link to x.com and the comment, WTF? And I was like, oh no, they postponed the Oscars. You know, like, oh no. Like something truly terrible has happened. And I was like, oh great. Like someone spoiled. You know the worst part of the Brutalist?

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, it's really more so that it's a critical moment in the movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Everything is about perspective, you know, it is about Perspective, the brutalist. And also your response to that tweet.

[Rob Harvilla]

The Fantastic Four first steps. It's all about perspective. What timeline are we on, Amanda? We're trying to figure that out every day. So today on the show, we were thinking about how just the word love appears in a bunch of movies that are being released this month and that Hollywood is always trying to hit their marks, timing wise, for what the world is thinking about. And you know me, like, every morning I wake up in February and I think Valentine's Day, this is super important. It's really important that I reflect on love and those that I do love in my life and also go to movies with those people that are about love. And so you had the idea, as we bundle these titles together, to talk about garbage love. So we're going to talk about some new releases.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

That are clearly using the love conceit.

[Sean Fennessey]

Exactly. Or they had some of the love conceit and then got shunted to February as a result.

[Rob Harvilla]

Very good point. We don't know if these films were made for this calendar.

[Sean Fennessey]

Here is my advice to aspiring filmmakers. If you don't want your movie released in February, find a different angle.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. Perhaps Christmas.

[Sean Fennessey]

Find a new slant.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. Or Halloween. Those might be better times in the release calendar. Nevertheless, the first movie we're talking about today, I've already mentioned, it's Companion, which is written and directed by Drew, who I mentioned, who's on the show later produced by Zach Kreger, who directed Barbarian and Boulderlight. It's kind of the crew, Roy Lee from Vertigo, the team that made Barbarian, which was one of the breakout surprises of 2022. Chris and I, at length, explained that film to you on a podcast while.

[Sean Fennessey]

I had a concussion.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, it was fun. That's right. It was shortly after you smashed your head into a beam here at Spotify hq. Very memorable times in America.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was right after my return from maternity leave. Number one.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

So it's like we're in a similar place in our lives.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. Let's recreate it after this pod smash you right into a beam. You might feel that you need to after talking about all these movies. The stars of this movie are Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid, Lucas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen and Rupert Friend. You know, Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid on a big upward trajectory as young stars in Hollywood. Two interesting people. I wonder, would they make our 3535 lists, given where they're going right now?

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Sophie Thatcher was just in Heretic last fall. A modest Success. And she's on Yellowjackets and she's been in a few other horror movies over the last couple of years. Jack Quaid, in addition to being on the Boys and being Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan's son, has developed a reputation as like one of the good people in Hollywood. Have you followed that?

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, no, just that he seems like.

[Rob Harvilla]

A cool guy and Drew, even when I talked to him was like, yeah, Jack Quaid just like met me for coffee and we just hung out and he was super cool.

[Sean Fennessey]

He does seem like a great guy who is also developing an on screen Persona as like not Gen Z cuck, but Gen Z asshole of. In a. In a really effective way.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's.

[Sean Fennessey]

He's really good.

[Rob Harvilla]

He leans deeply into that in this movie. So the premise of the movie is it's about a bunch of friends taking a weekend getaway to one of the girl's rich boyfriend's house. And they all get together and they make dinner together and drink. Something you and I have done many times. This is a common vacation strategy.

[Sean Fennessey]

Not a rich boyfriend's house yet.

[Rob Harvilla]

No. If there are any billionaires that would like to host the hosts of the big picture in their homes but don't want to murder us, then we're open to that, right?

[Sean Fennessey]

I love a vacation.

[Rob Harvilla]

This reminds me, if Steve Cohen, the owner of the Mets, would like to host me, at least to talk about the signing of Pete Alonso.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, you guys did finally sign him.

[Rob Harvilla]

We did.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, congratulations.

[Rob Harvilla]

And Bob texted me late at night on the east coast and he was the one who made me aware of the news. Let's just say we were elated.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. Do we know anything about the financial specifics?

[Rob Harvilla]

We do. Let's just say they are advantageous to the Mets.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I bet.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Two years. 54 million. 30 for the first year and 24 if he opts in, opt out after the first year. I don't know. You want me to keep going? We could get really down in the nitty gritty.

[Sean Fennessey]

How is that advantageous to the Mets?

[Rob Harvilla]

Because it's short term.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, he's already 30, so he's going down.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, he's going down at this point. Does that make you feel bad? Like you're getting there?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I'm not trying to hit 99 mile an hour fastballs. I'm just cutting pro tool sessions.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, that's. I mean, listen, I just, I like we're creeping closer. Do you know what I mean?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm aware.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, I feel it. Ever since you crossed 40 you just want to drag everyone with you. I see what you're doing. Yeah, I do.

[Drew Hancock]

I.

[Rob Harvilla]

So Companion. Anyhow, shout out to Steve Cohen. Appreciate what you're doing for the Mets. Really just changed my life, if I'm being totally honest. I really like this movie. This is a perfect February movie in many ways, which is it's like a really tidy 90 minute genre movie that is fun and feels very informed by movie history and gets great performances out of its two leads. It's a tough movie to talk about without ruining it. Did really well at the box office and is probably going to continue to do pretty well. So some people have seen it. But the thing is is they made a choice here in the marketing of the movie. So I wanted to ask you, did you know about the sort of first act premise twist of the film?

[Sean Fennessey]

I either did or I have seen a lot of movies and it was like immediately apparent how immediate.

[Rob Harvilla]

How quickly did you. Because this is an interesting part of the dynamic of the movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

So full disclosure, I saw this one at an amc so I timed my arrival a little bit later in order to listen. I'm a woman on a schedule. And then I got there a little bit late and then I was like, did I miss the part of the movie where they explicitly say what's going on? Because it's very apparent to me sitting down and watching it. And I would say I got there as they are driving to the vacation.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, so what you missed at the beginning of this film is something that we see later in the film is the meet cute between the Jack Quaid character and the Sophie Thatcher character.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right?

[Rob Harvilla]

And then I think it goes right into them like packing for the trip and then going, yeah, I saw this movie some, some time ago. I saw it before there was a trailer. I think they're just a poster. So I didn't know anything. If you don't want to hear anything about Companion, a movie that's been out for seven days now and is also has a trailer that reveals what we're going to talk about.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

Turn off the show. I guess I don't really know how to talk about this stuff anymore.

[Sean Fennessey]

So here's where I don't know like spoiler, spoiler, don't at us.

[Rob Harvilla]

Spoiler war.

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't know whether like I think it must even be in like the one line ticket description or something.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think this like in the tagline.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, this info is like so widely available that I must have somehow seen or known or even like a description of it. Like I mean, even the title sort of.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, which. Which is. Okay. I didn't diminish the. That reveal for me. But anyway.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. I think the point is that that reveal is actually not supposed to be super. I mean, it's important to the story, but it's not supposed to be some Shyamalan twist of some kind. Anyhow, as you said, spoiler warning. It turns out that the Thatcher character is, in fact, a robot who has been programmed to be a girlfriend, companion, sex object for the Jack Quaid character.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

You could tell, basically, on the car ride.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, instantly.

[Rob Harvilla]

More specifically, once they get into the house and we're seeing the dynamic in the room and how people are talking to and about each other. For example, how the Megan Suri character treats Sophie Thatcher's character. You're like, this is just weird. Something is off here.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. And then even there's, like, in that conversation, they're talking about power dynamics and relationships, and the Sophie Thatcher character says, I'm not built that way. And I was like, you know, And I was like, oh, so do we already know?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

And, like, we don't, but it is. It is, like, flashing it to you intentionally. Really, really brightly.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. And so the film kind of, like, tricks you a little bit. It is sort of a robot ex machina, you know, exploration of ethics in having a robot that you have sex with. Right. But not really.

[Sean Fennessey]

But, like, thankfully, not really.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, it's really more of, like, a comedy thriller, I would say. It's like, you know, Drew has talked a lot about the Coen brothers, and I think it's, like, a little bit Raising Arizona. You know, it's a little bit the Terminator at times.

[Sean Fennessey]

Sure.

[Rob Harvilla]

In terms of the Hunt and Destroy quality. And you're rooting for a robot, and.

[Sean Fennessey]

You'Re rooting for a robot. No, what I liked about it is that it's clever, and it's like. It definitely has some ideas about, like, robots or, you know, power dynamics in relationships or a generation of young men or whatever, but it's just like, clearly someone had, like, tiny thoughts about it as it was writing a very entertaining movie. And it's not, like, banging you over the head with any sort of intense metaphor or obvious moral lesson. It's just kind of smart and then is primarily interested in being entertaining and fun.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. It's not a treatise on ethics in robotics or anything like that. And I think there are a lot of very funny, specific choices that are made. For example, the revelation that Sophie's character is a rental and has not been bought. And, like, you could imagine in an economy like this that a sex robot could be rented and returned, which is super disgusting. Right. But is the kind of thing that would happen and like, the.

[Sean Fennessey]

The world building or the robot building of how she's controlled and, like, the choices that are made or that can be programmed. Obviously, the intelligence one is very funny and very well communicated. You don't get bogged down in any of it. But how this robot operates does become intentional to the story. So I thought it was very deft writing.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. And even though the film has a slightly silly tone, I felt like the actual specifics of the product and the way that the product is sort of, like, delivered and operates.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Feels real and absurd at the same time. Like, it felt very grounded and kind of credible in an upsetting way. And we know that there is probably a buying base for this product. You know, if this hit the market, some Jack Quaid's might. Might be interested in it. And then, you know, the film kind of.

[Sean Fennessey]

There are more reveals and more and more.

[Rob Harvilla]

There's one particularly really good one, very fun.

[Sean Fennessey]

Really, really good one. And I did not, you know, I didn't see that.

[Rob Harvilla]

So we won't spoil that one for anybody listening at home. It's really fun. It's just like a great genre movie for a February release. I hope more people get a chance to see it and you can. We should listen to Drew talk about it too, because he. The like, movies having ideas but not being obsessed with their ideas is interesting coming out of the brutalist discussions we've been having. You know, where it's like, this is about something, but it's not only about something. It's about having fun, too.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm really pro that.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, I know.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, what if we could have a nice time while also having brains? You know, we can have it all.

[Rob Harvilla]

What do you make of Sophie Thatcher? Does her flavor hit for you?

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, I mean, her flavor was playing a robot. So in this. And one who, like, shifts in programming throughout the movie. And so I thought she did a great job in that. I can't remember which one she was in. Heretic. I'm sorry.

[Rob Harvilla]

She was the seemingly slightly older, slightly more mature one. I'll say Chloe east, who is a little bit more sort of, like, buoyant and optimistic.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, exactly.

[Rob Harvilla]

And Sophie Thatcher. And that, I think is kind of her screen Persona is like, a little bit, like, taciturn but hardened and very final girl. She was in a movie called the Boogeyman where she's the final girl. She's really kind of like a Jamie Lee Curtis archetype, I would say. And she keeps getting cast and pursuing movies like this, which I think is often a tried and true pathway to getting bigger and bigger parts and all of these things.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's a bit of Anya Taylor joy about her in her. Like, there's a reason she was cast as a robot.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. Yeah. There's, like, kind of perfect imperfections, though. You know, she doesn't have perfect teeth. You know, she doesn't have, like, a perfect complexion, but she's obviously quite striking. I like her a lot.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think she. Her skin's pretty good.

[Rob Harvilla]

One thing I've been noticing is I've been watching my high definition television and 4K stuff like severance, for example. I've been watching Severance this season.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Excellent show. Really, like one of the first shows in a while where I'm really.

[Sean Fennessey]

Whatever. I'll literally never watch it continue anyhow.

[Rob Harvilla]

Just the number of pores that I'm seeing on people's faces is alarming.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, we've gone too far. And this is also my notes with, like, what's. Whatever is going on in these camera rooms. It's just kind of like we got.

[Rob Harvilla]

To, like, you know, some Vaseline on that lens.

[Sean Fennessey]

Technology is, like, not keeping up with or technology is not working with dermatology.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, interesting. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, and technology.

[Rob Harvilla]

Get the Liz Taylor treatment over here for Dobbins.

[Sean Fennessey]

Just like people trying to live their lives.

[Rob Harvilla]

I was noticing it with both Adam Scott and Britt Lauer on Severance, too. Just like, very attractive, successful actors. And I was like, I can really see, like, all the little imperfections on their face. It's just so strange to me.

[Sean Fennessey]

I was talking to a producer friend, my friend Colin, who produced Opus, and I was bugging him about a question I've had forever on film sets, which is like, is there a, like, standby dermatologist? Like, what happens if someone gets a zit?

[Rob Harvilla]

What do you say?

[Sean Fennessey]

And he was like. He was like a hair and makeup can, like, usually handle it, you know? You know, and like, maybe so he was like. He was like, no, there was like, no one standing around with, like, a cortisol shot, which was. Which is like, kind of what I dreamed, you know, like, when I become rich and famous.

[Rob Harvilla]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessey]

And when I'm Julia Roberts, like, I will have, like, a derm on my writer. But listen, you know, when it's coming, what are you supposed to do? But he was like, I. No, no. Most of the time, hair and makeup could deal with it. So I think that's what you would do. But I think with the new cameras, like, I, you know, I don't know if that's true anymore. Like, they're. We're getting too good, so.

[Rob Harvilla]

Depends on who's shooting it. I find the better the filmmaker, the more exposure on the blemishes, which is a tricky thing. That's the thing about severance. It's really well made so you can see things clearly.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right. And I guess there is also some, like, you know, maybe the filmmaker wants the blemish to be out there. At some point, it becomes a continuity issue, which is what my question is.

[Rob Harvilla]

Good point.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I, like, I agree with you, you know, everyone, you know, we need to think about people and skincare and life a little bit more.

[Rob Harvilla]

Speaking of blemishes and imperfections, let's talk about your cordially invited.

[Sean Fennessey]

What a segue.

[Rob Harvilla]

Thank you.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was really good.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is the new film directed by former guest of the show, Nicholas Stoller, who's directed a lot of funny comedies over the years, forgetting star Marshall, most recently Bros. It's streaming on Amazon Prime Video right now. It stars Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, two very big movie stars. Geraldine Viswanathan and Meredith Hagner and Celia Western are also in this movie. It's about two families who have double booked an island destination vacation for their weddings. For Will Ferrell, his daughter. For Reese Witherspoon, her sister. And what happens when these two crazy families get stuck on an island together and they've double booked? Will anybody fall in love? Maybe. Even though opposites are attracting? I don't know. We'll find out. This movie has all of the component pieces to be good, right?

[Sean Fennessey]

And yet do they need to be. Here's the thing. That's what it is. It has all of the component pieces.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm like, good director, good movie stars. And it even has funny idea.

[Sean Fennessey]

And it even has many good component pieces.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, some of it is entertaining and it just.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's like mishmashed together. And it does really feel like the Reese Witherspoon character and family were like boiling over here as one idea for a movie. And then the Will Ferrell and Geraldine Bispanathan character were like boiling over here. And it was like, what if we just had them fall in love at a wedding? You know, it's like, yes, we had all of the.

[Rob Harvilla]

Almost like two scripts came together.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, that's kind of what I agree.

[Rob Harvilla]

With you It's a real. They forgot to put the yeast in the bread situation. Like, this just didn't rise well.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, I think so. I think it's smushed together. I think that Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon are independently very funny and good in these independent movies.

[Rob Harvilla]

Doing their archetypal thing and doing it well. My question for you about that, because I agree with you.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is are we just too familiar with this archetypal performance from these movie stars? Like, that's obviously a feature of being a movie star, is like you have a certain kind of on screen Persona. You know, with Will Ferrell, it's like the sort of daffy, dopey, overly sincere, kind of dim, but ultimately good natured guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

With Rhys, it's like kind of like hard exterior. Go get her. Go get em. You know, woman in charge. But deep down there's a sweetness that you need to. You need to get past the exterior.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, I thought that that was the good part. I think the problem is that ultimately you're supposed to. Spoiler alert. They're supposed to find love and like. No, they don't. The characters don't make any sense. Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell don't have any sort of chemistry. Respectfully. Like, they are funny, isolated, and I laughed several times throughout this movie. Also, Reese Witherspoon is supposed to be. They're being honest that they shot in Atlanta. And so this is all like, Reese Witherspoon is from outside Atlanta and there's a Southern family.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did you relate at all to the Southern family?

[Sean Fennessey]

I did. I was like, this is good.

[Rob Harvilla]

And even like Celia Weston in particular, who often plays this part, but she's really good in this movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

And when Reese Witherspoon is like, talking about her career and Celia Weston is like, I just never understand a single thing you say. And I was like, wow. You know, and then like all the names and the, the three names in the families. The Garden and gun joke. That is a real magazine. That is like, that is genuinely funny. So a lot of that stuff was very good. I mean, Will Ferrell and Geraldine Viswanathan, like, doing Islands in the Stream, like, that was funny.

[Rob Harvilla]

They had great chemistry too, as father and daughter.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, all of the bits were like, pretty funny. And then the actual. And even like the wedding stuff of the dueling weddings and like, I'm gonna, you know, delay the. My ceremony as long as possible by reading Dr. Seuss. And then there's like funny, funny stuff. Yes, but like, the basic we just smushed all the. The basic structure of the movie just didn't make any sense. Well, the left, like, the romance part of it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, the romance doesn't work as well. And we're talking about this because this is basically like a slapsticky Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon, like, stolen set piece comedy movie. But it is about love, and it needs love to make sense. And, of course, the people who are, like, getting married, or maybe not the right people to be getting married, but the people who hate each other or the people who really love each other. Tried and true convention and Hollywood romantic storytelling. But I. It raises some funny questions about, like, is it better for a streaming movie to have big stars? And then you're like, that was a cool time passer with characters like figures who I like. Or is it better if a streaming movie is, like, maybe a little bit better, but not as relying on the fame and the recognizability as much? Because we kind of get. We're getting two versions of that right now. We're like, oftentimes the most popular movie on Netflix. It'll star two people. I'm like, who are those people? And it's like, well, they were on the Outer Banks for three seasons. That's why this is the most popular movie in America. And then there's this where I'm like, in 24 of the last 25 years, this movie would have opened in July and made $78 million.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right. Also maybe would have been noted in a way that made slightly more sense.

[Rob Harvilla]

Very good point. You, once again, you are standing up for the executives. Thank you very much. These creatives have run amok in Hollywood.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm just like, you know, some of this just didn't make sense. With respect, but that's okay. Yeah, I prefer to have the stars doing funny stuff and being themselves, even. It doesn't come together because the randos in, like, the randos don't cut it often in the film.

[Rob Harvilla]

I tend to agree.

[Sean Fennessey]

And I find myself especially watching all of this, you know, often aimed at women, like streamer content where they haven't spent enough money on production and costume and, you know, whatever design. So everyone, nothing looks as good as it should. And I'm just like, where did they find these people and particularly these men? And this might just be like a me and a Gen Z issue where, like, once again, like, children, wake up. You know, but just like, wake up. Like, you are all just, like, walking around asleep, but there's just like, a real lack of Charisma.

[Rob Harvilla]

And we have a lot of listeners who are part of that generation.

[Sean Fennessey]

And. And those people are on our frequency and they're dialed in. And I love you guys and I would say to you just like gently nudge your have one cup of coffee.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, yeah, it's okay to have one.

[Sean Fennessey]

Cup or don't and then don't be a performer. You know, like, both are fine.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I. So all the randos, like, the people that they keep finding just like, are. Are not there. And I notice the cost savings, shall we put it that way?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. This is obviously canon.

[Sean Fennessey]

Actually does this, like, companion has a twist on this in a way where for a long time I was, you know, I was like, where are we finding these people?

[Rob Harvilla]

Who are these people? Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

And.

[Rob Harvilla]

And there's a smart twist on that. I completely agree. There's actually an inside joke about that that I could explain to you, but I would spoil part of the movie that I would tell you off Mic. That makes it even funnier, honestly. Great. So, yeah, this movie I thought was really deeply mediocre, but I didn't hate it. And I think I tend to hate a lot of the straight to streamer movies where I'm like, this just is a real waste of time. And this was a time passer, so it's not so bad.

[Sean Fennessey]

I chuckled, you know, like, that's the thing.

[Rob Harvilla]

I have a big relationship to Will Ferrell, though, and I just want more for him. And he did something very funny this week where he basically said, f you to the academy for not nominating Will and Harper, which was very amusing. And he's just a significant part of my adult life as a movie fan. And, you know, this is okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's okay. Reese Witherspoon is also important to me. I guess this is like, slightly better than some things she's done. So.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, she better or worse than the morning show?

[Sean Fennessey]

Way better. Okay. And. But like, not ultimately as like, avant garde as I think that the morning show unintentionally is. You know, like, we are reaching new levels in something over at the morning show. And I won't be watching. I'll keep.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. For what severance is to you is the morning show to me.

[Sean Fennessey]

But this was more enjoyable. I think she looks fantastic, by the way. I was literally like Reese Witherspoon, you know, like, age, you know, workout, whatever. Like, what do I have to do?

[Rob Harvilla]

Called the substance Amanda.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, she looked. No, but she looks, you know, like, appropriate. Like, she looks her age. Ish. But like, the Best version of her.

[Rob Harvilla]

She's a multi, multi millionaire.

[Sean Fennessey]

I do understand that. I understand she has access to treatments and resources that I do, not some dark arts. Perhaps she's just using them prudently.

[Rob Harvilla]

She looks great.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Neither of us saw the movie Love Hurts, which is another movie that technically qualifies for this. But I had just been told by a great number of people it is not very good. And I'm looking at the reviews. This is the new film starring Kiwi Kwan and Ariana Debose that comes to us from 87 north, which is the company that brought us the fall guy and John Wick. And I guess 87 north didn't make John Wick, but David Leitch who is the founder of that company with his wife. And they made Nobody and they made Atomic Blonde. And so you know, you know there's going to be some really good hand to hand combat and fight choreography in this movie. Apparently the story of the movie itself, the actual plot is barely there. So we're not covering Love Hurts. We are covering Love Me.

[Sean Fennessey]

I went to see it. You told me to.

[Rob Harvilla]

I can't believe you went to see it.

[Sean Fennessey]

You told me to go see it. I appreciate it, you guys. Like I said, I have obligations and I meet them in order to provide dentistry for my children.

[Rob Harvilla]

Great. I'm happy to hear it's not your passion for cinema or your friendship with me.

[Sean Fennessey]

Only one of them has teeth right now. But you know, we're any day now. We're hoping he's doing his best.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, any day now. One day the one who has teeth will lose those teeth.

[Sean Fennessey]

Sure. I know which one will grow back. So I'm like, why do we really have to take him to the dentist right now? But that's another thing about like how I think dentistry is a scam. At least preventative.

[Rob Harvilla]

You, you dangerously into the black pilled zone as soon as you start talk. You especially should not talk about dentistry. You have a, you have a party of one in your mind.

[Sean Fennessey]

If there is something wrong and, and there is pain, you can help me. But like I, I'm not going to like just go to have you use an electric toothbrush on me and insult me, you know, and then charge me money for it.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is one of those like Amanda so crazy. I love her opinions where it's like, no, you're people like go to England. That's my take on this. See what happens. All right. Love me. I saw this movie 12 months ago at Sundance. I'll be remembering it off the Top of my head based on that viewing, because I will not be watching it a second time. It's written and directed by Sam and Andy Zucchero. One of the biggest reasons why I think it's worth discussing here is that it stars Steven Yeun and Kristen Stewart.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, it does.

[Rob Harvilla]

Two of the most interesting, exciting, I don't know, not quite young actors, but successful, interesting actors.

[Sean Fennessey]

No need to be rude.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, you're trying to drag the 30 year olds over the line with you. How old are they? They're 37.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know what, it's sort of like the grownups are talking. I need the children to just sit and, you know, wait.

[Rob Harvilla]

They don't play humans in this movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, I mean, that's the question.

[Rob Harvilla]

Thank you, Amanda. That is the question. They play a buoy and a satellite.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm trying to be productive. I'm trying to not.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's okay to hate the movie. I want to talk about it.

[Sean Fennessey]

I found it very irritating.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is very irritating. I'm with you on this. They play a buoy and a satellite in a post apocalyptic world. And they are a sort of artificial intelligence that is able to exist in a world where there are no humans. And they build a bond in this desiccated world and they learn what life was like on earth together because I guess the Internet has documented everything and so they can read about it and watch videos and they. Eventually.

[Sean Fennessey]

The cloud is still alive.

[Rob Harvilla]

The cloud is alive. Right. Which is why you should put everything in the cloud. So that one day a buoy can learn about you and then come to represent you in a love affair with a satellite that looks and acts like Zach. This is. Think about the possibilities here. Sign up for the cloud.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Sign up for face id.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, just. I have to get a new phone, but I'm like, am I going to be able to just use a passcode still?

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't think so.

[Sean Fennessey]

I honestly didn't go to the store because I was like, they're going to try to put all this bullshit on my phone and I don't want it. Okay, But I'm running out of storage.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, hard to believe. Good. Good luck to you. This movie is incredibly bold. Takes a lot of chances in how it tells its story. I think it features actually two kind of interesting and very odd performances from the stars because they're trying to meet the moment of the big ideas of the movie, which is sort of like, what is consciousness? What is existence? What is. And what is love? What is a relationship? What does it mean? To be connected to someone or something. All of which I think is like rich material for a movie. And yet, I did agree with you. I found this movie quite annoying.

[Sean Fennessey]

One problem with it is that for, well, a couple of things, for half the movie, they're voice performances, and that is difficult. And especially this type of sort of evolving performance because this buoy and this satellite are learning how to be human in real time. So there are shades to what they're doing. And Steven Yennen, Kristen Stewart are really good at that and really good at acting. But you still only get to see these two great actors for like 40 minutes. The rest of the time, they're sort of like an animated fake YouTuber style. And then, you know, the way that they are learning, quote, how to be human is from leftover social media. So then for a while it becomes this sort of like, half baked, like, treatise on what is social media influencer culture to us and how do we express ourselves? And like, look at these babies laughing. That was really cute. I liked it when the babies are laughing. And it's one of those things that is a continuing problem in movies that try to say something profound about social media, which is that this social media itself is more profound than whatever you have to say about it in your other movie. Like, it's not insightful and it's just sort of annoying watching your montage.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. It's interesting too that both of these movies, this movie and companion, are both AI movies, but they're not movies at all about the evils or dangers of AI.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

In fact, they have a kind of empathy for AI at least the way that they're framed in the story. And they're not meant to be taken, you know, seriously. It's not like this is not the representative point of view of the filmmakers, but I wonder if these movies were made in different times, if they would have a different energy around some of these ideas. It's funny that, you know, while this has become such a hot debated topic in Hollywood in particular, over the last 18 months that these two movies have hit, and they're sort of like, maybe this robot is the hero, you know, maybe this robot is more decent than the corroded soul of this beta cuck or of this planet that has been abandoned by humanity because they destroyed it. Just notable aspects of it. Love Me, I think, was ultimately not very successful.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I mean, I didn't really take away anything about social media, the world at large, or, like, love, I guess, besides, like, I don't know, like, what was I Supposed to learn about what it means to be human.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think that there was a couple things in their performance when things are kind of falling apart for them that felt more like a classic 70s movie about, like, the difficulties of a relationship that I thought were kind of interesting.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, it's interesting.

[Rob Harvilla]

I would have liked more of that.

[Sean Fennessey]

But first of all, it was, like, very sexist because the Steven Young character is just like, the person who can build a nice world and is like, I know what water is. And Kristen Stewart is then finally, like, yeah, isn't water amazing? But, like, she just has to be chastised into go off queen. Well, I mean, if you want me to, like, learn something from the movie, that's what I'm learning.

[Drew Hancock]

Right.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is that, like, only the man, like, can. Knows how to live a pure life that can.

[Rob Harvilla]

Richard's the thing.

[Sean Fennessey]

Find water or whatever.

[Rob Harvilla]

Absolutely.

[Sean Fennessey]

So that sucked.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'll tell you quickly about Heart Eyes, which I did see, which also fits the bill here. Heart Eyes is, I guess, the horror movie of this month. A lot of examples of these kinds of movies. We got an action movie. We've got kind of a sci fi thriller tie in.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, we gotta sell this stuff.

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't remember having, like, multiple tree movies for Arbor Day. You know, like, this is. What is it about Valentine's Day?

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, you do, though. You guys really celebrate the holidays in your house.

[Rob Harvilla]

We do.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, because it's like, you just gotta have something to orient around.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

And I remember Eileen explaining that to me, like, we still have the leprechaun that you guys got us for St. Patrick's Day several years.

[Rob Harvilla]

Even though I don't respect St. Patrick's Day.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's between you and your people. Yeah. And I.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's the problem. It's the people who are not my people. I just showed a mockery.

[Sean Fennessey]

I just showed up with some cupcakes and took home a stuffed leprechaun that Knox still likes. But we are celebrating that because, you know, it's like, gives your kids something to look forward to. It does. And all human brains were like that. Not just children.

[Rob Harvilla]

You're right. I would not recommend any children watch Heart Eyes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Which is.

[Sean Fennessey]

Look at you. You will not just undeterred track.

[Rob Harvilla]

No, I. You can't break me. This is why this works. This is why this works. You know, I am. I am. I can only go in one direction, and you can't go in any direction. Heart Eyes is a horror movie directed by Josh Rubin. It's a pretty talented horror Filmmaker. He's made a couple of movies. Scare Me and Werewolves within stars Olivia Holt, who I'd never seen before, but I think was also on one of those Netflix or Amazon series. And Mason Gooding, who you may recall from the recent Scream reboot movies, Jordana Brewster makes an appearance in this movie. Devin Sawa, Disney Channel. Disney Channel. Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Kickin it. Disney Channel original movie, Girl vs Monster and Disney Channel original series. I didn't do it.

[Rob Harvilla]

I didn't do it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Interesting. That was also biopic.

[Sean Fennessey]

She was on Runaways. Was that a. That was like an MCU thing.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. Soft MCU is like on freak form.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. She's also a singer and she's had some voice roles.

[Rob Harvilla]

Interesting. She's a pretty good lead in this movie, which is like, I think a perfectly adequate slasher with a sense of humor about a crazy killer. I love a holiday themed slasher movie. You know, we talked a lot about them with Eli Roth back when he was on the show for Thanksgiving. This is a tried and true format. In this case, Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt play coworkers who are mistaken for lovers by this crazed killer.

[Sean Fennessey]

So it's like a kiss cam situation.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, yes. Well, I think they kiss. I think the premise is they kiss because she runs into her ex. So she's like, kiss me so I can make him jealous.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, shenanigans.

[Rob Harvilla]

And then that leads to shenanigans. And there's like a little bit of rom comy ness to this movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Great.

[Rob Harvilla]

Plus people getting stabbed in the head with a knife, which is cool. Which for me is lovely. I enjoy seeing at the cinema. And I thought this movie was pretty good.

[Sean Fennessey]

Great.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's pretty much all I have to say about it.

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, it's. Oh, Devin Sawa's in this.

[Rob Harvilla]

He is. Wow. Who is also obviously, I'm sure lives in your heart forever.

[Sean Fennessey]

Hugely important now and then. And Casper the Friendly Ghost, like if you know.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, I think also his work in, you know, Final Destination and a lot of other. The Stan video, you know, the Eminem video.

[Sean Fennessey]

Stan, that is really important.

[Rob Harvilla]

Obviously he's an icon and it's nice see him in this movie. Jordana Brewster, she appears in the worst movies ever made. The fast and fan franchise. Fast and Furious franchise.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Couldn't even get it out. You couldn't even get the franchise out because you don't believe it. You don't believe it's the worst franchise ever.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do it is. It destroyed movie culture. It is. Literally. Because we didn't have to do Nine versions of those kinds of movies. You want to do it for the interconnected universes? Fine. Fast, terrible.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They drag the safe, you know, the rock punches Vin Diesel. I don't know what else to tell you, dude.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, I agree. Don't tell me anything else. Okay, here's what I'll tell you about Garbage Love.

[Sean Fennessey]

There we go. You found it. I want some sort of like. Like, bell or thing, you know? Like every time you nail it, you can just be like, ding. Yeah, yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Something to think about, you know, we.

[Sean Fennessey]

Can just, like, start cutting. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

We got a chiron here.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's really gifted.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I got a college degree so that I could make a button for Sean to press when he does a good segue.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, I'd like to press it.

[Rob Harvilla]

We're all monkeys.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, you want to press the buttons?

[Sean Fennessey]

I want to press the button.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. We're all monkeys. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's what I'll do with my college degree.

[Rob Harvilla]

So you came up with the idea of doing Garbage Love for this episode, which I thought was a great idea. And when you said it, here's what I thought. And tell me if you agree with this. I wrote down it's a specific brand of genre movie utilizing the framework of classic romance stories, but usually in a craven bid to get women to come see genre movies.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is that right?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, this is. This is a perfect definition. Because once you put it in that way and we made the list, I was like, it is crazy how many of these movies I've seen, even though they are. And you isolated three categories, like the horror, romance, action, love, and sci fi. Sci fi sensuality, which is such a gross word, but it's like, wow. I mean, I've seen so many of these movies because I will go and put up with this shit if you have. And I think it is a little bit like the romance framework, but it is also, if you're doing a love story, then you got to have two stars who you recognize, so. And two people. So you don't have a lot. It's fewer randos.

[Rob Harvilla]

Right. We want to see them together.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right. It's like. It's fewer good movies. But almost all of these films star people who you would go to a movie to see.

[Rob Harvilla]

Interesting. So do you have a preference out of horror, action and science fiction that you prefer here?

[Sean Fennessey]

I. I think the action. I also think those are, like, the most successful.

[Rob Harvilla]

They're certainly the biggest of the movies.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

And I guess the horror one, some of these are good in their own ways, but it's just Kind of less of what I'm into. The action romance can. Or, you know, romantic action movie can tip into rom com as well. It can be funnier because a lot of the action scenes can be the sort of winking action that you hate or you can build comedy around them. The sci fi ones are like really, really, really ponderous.

[Rob Harvilla]

They are. You know, there are a lot of examples of this. I barely scratched the surface on this because it's always like, if you were stuck in space with only one other person, would you be able to discover love in an undiscoverable time?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. And some of the sci fi stuff is like, well, we'll do fake deep philosophy for the boys and some romance for the girls.

[Rob Harvilla]

So there's also little Solaris, little Casablanca.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, there's probably also one. I think fantasy films don't qualify for this because they already have like the romances baked into that genre.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. So this is the number one example of this in the culture right now is Outlander, which is a TV show. A long running TV show on Starz. My father and his wife are huge fans of this show for reasons that are fascinating to me. Cause this has nothing to do with anything my dad has ever liked, but I hear it. He's like, you caught up on Outlander? I'm like, I'm sir. I've not seen one minute of one episode. But those. And obviously Romantasy is a huge. It's like the category in fiction right now.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's so wild.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. It's so popular. But it has.

[Sean Fennessey]

Are they gonna make like the dragon fucking movies? Have they?

[Rob Harvilla]

Mallory and I were just talking about this. I think so.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's like Oinks is that. But that's a different one. I mean, there's a lot of different.

[Rob Harvilla]

Like, dragon fucking movies, but it hasn't really hit films.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, which is interesting because you think that's a great place to tell these stories. Not these janky TV budgets where they can only kind of sort of do some of the fantasy elements. Outlander isn't pure fantasy. It's, you know, it's more of like a historical amalgam. But there's just not a lot of those to go into.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. That is another subcategory that I didn't quite think fit. But there are a lot of historical dramas and what I would describe as like dadcore movies that then do also fold in a romance in order to develop the character and. Or I suspect, hold the attention.

[Rob Harvilla]

I will Find you, love you, marry you. Exactly like that's Last of the Mohicans. Which one do you want to talk about first? You like sci fi the least?

[Sean Fennessey]

I think so.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, some good examples.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, no, no. It's not that I like it the least. It's just that it gets so weird so fast and you threw one here that I genuinely laughed out loud when I was reminded of the existence of this movie, which is called In Time, starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. I don't know anything. I mean, I saw this movie in the theaters. Like, and it's in. It's shot in some sort of like, boring, futuristic, you know, it's like a steampunk era movie. And there are a lot of watches and like, otherwise I don't understand. I don't remember the conceit.

[Rob Harvilla]

The conceit is that time is currency and that you have a certain amount of time to live and that that is represented on your forearm, your wrist. And the Justin Timberlake character is constantly trying to buy more time to stay alive. I don't remember much more. It's notable because it's written and directed by Andrew Nicholl, who also wrote and directed Gattaca, and he is one of the classicists of sci fi sensuality. He's done a lot of different kinds of movies, but those two movies, to me, represent the absolute heart of do you want to go see a romance between Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman? And also, do you want to see. Learn about the futuristic devastation?

[Sean Fennessey]

One is a cool genre movie and one is garbage Love, you know, In Time is garbage.

[Rob Harvilla]

Gattaca is cool. In Time stinks.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. So that is part of it for garbage purposes. Right. As soon as you said in time, I thought of a contemporaneous film, the Adjustment Bureau.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Which again, all I remember. So it was Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, John Slattery, and they wear hats for, like, time travel. And they are. They're adjusting. Are they like insurance people in the future? I don't really know. But at some point, John Slattery is like, chasing Matt Damon and Emily Blunt with hats and they are in love and they have to, like, get away to save the world.

[Rob Harvilla]

Matt Damon's character learns that he is facing the powerful agents of capital F and glimpsing the future laid out for him must either accept a predetermined path that does not include the ballerina Elise, played by Emily Blunt, or else defy capital F fate to be with her. Crazy movie. Absolutely crazy movie. Absolutely. Going in the garbage.

[Drew Hancock]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Matt Damon and Emily blunt, like, at 2011 or something. Like, they were really powerful at the.

[Rob Harvilla]

Absolute height of the daemon. Like, this guy does not miss, like, every movie. He makes rocks. And he made the Adjustment Bureau, which isn't bad, but it's not good. It's not good. How do you feel about. About Time?

[Sean Fennessey]

Which one is that?

[Rob Harvilla]

That's the Donald Gleason and Rachel. Rachel McAdams, the Richard Curtis movie?

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, yeah. Man, did I cry. But Rachel McAdams is also in the Time Traveler's Wife.

[Rob Harvilla]

She is?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes. Okay, so it's.

[Rob Harvilla]

She had a little bit of a.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Someone should have stepped in and done something about that, because I. How can you possibly keep these movies?

[Sean Fennessey]

I. I don't know. I absolutely wept during About Time, but was, like, really mad about it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, can you remember the premise of the movie?

[Sean Fennessey]

So Bill Nighy's in it. Someone's dying and goes back to, like, see their family, but they know they're dying, but they're, like, reliving their life as if they're, like, trying to give more time or something. So it's like. I remember it being, like, very grounded time travel.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

And very, like, sentimental family. And Richard Curtis is a very talented filmmaker, especially at just, like, manipulating your emotions and making you cry over complete bullshit, which is, like, what love actually is and is also love actually. It's like a different. I guess it's not really a romantic comedy, but I guess it would be garbage.

[Rob Harvilla]

More of a crime film to me. Like a crime against humanity.

[Sean Fennessey]

I cry every time.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, and I'm just, like. I'm, like, really angry about it. But what are you gonna do? They start doing the.

[Rob Harvilla]

One of the worst things in that movie is that there's, like, a super hot woman that works with Hugh Grant, and they're like, she's too fat. It's like, this woman is hot. Like, what are we talking about?

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, it's fine. Because they end up. He does. The Prime Minister of England does end up manipulating foreign policy in order to make out with his assistant at the children's Christmas pageant in which Emma Thompson's child plays the second lobster. I've seen this movie so many times.

[Rob Harvilla]

I can't talk about love, actually. I can't. On the pod. This is more than I even wanted to do.

[Sean Fennessey]

Emma Thompson crying to Joni Mitchell because she found out that Alan Rickman cheated on her with another assistant.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, just incredible acting.

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't have a segue. I need you to get back on track, please.

[Sean Fennessey]

Richard Curtis. About time. So I just remember that, you know, you get it, you gotta go back in time. Cause you love your family or something.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's not nice.

[Sean Fennessey]

I love my family.

[Rob Harvilla]

Donald Gleason's father, Bill Nighy, tells him, I think at near the end of his life that the men in this family can time travel. They can go back and they can make changes. That's the premise. And so in doing so, he goes back and he falls in love with a girl who's played by Rachel McAdams. But that still doesn't mean that just because he has these powers, he can control everything. And so there are some realizations about, okay, fate, destiny, love, the power of choice.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Two great actors.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Richard Curtis. Real hit or miss for me personally. Some good ones, some not so good ones. I like this one. I think it's pretty good. It's really weird that it's four years after the Time Traveler's Wife.

[Sean Fennessey]

I have not revisited it because I'm looking more for, like, you know, blunt force sentimentality.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Than you just want to be told.

[Rob Harvilla]

I am a woman staring at a man telling him that is one of.

[Sean Fennessey]

The best rom coms of all time. Notting Hill is really important. Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Absolutely.

[Sean Fennessey]

Fuck off. I did immediately think about Passengers as soon as we said garbage.

[Rob Harvilla]

This was my first.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is like, one of the worst movies ever made. And everyone was sure that they just, like, had it locked down. Right. And it's like Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are. Again, I didn't Google any of these, so this is just fun me recapping what these movies are about. They're astronauts or they're like, you know, space travelers. Space travelers. They're going to, like, start new life on some planet or Mars or there's like, there's a greenhouse. So maybe they're just living on the station. I don't really remember. But they're supposed to be like they're in cryosleep or whatever for a while and is there like an accident? And so, like, someone wakes up and then he wakes her up, and then they're together. But, like, other bad things happen and they can't grow the garden or something. And I don't know.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. First of retaining employment once again.

[Sean Fennessey]

You remember that garden?

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

The whole, you know, the big nasty twist for anybody who doesn't want 2014's passengers, both for them is, you know, that he doesn't tell her that he woke her up. Oh, and he wasn't supposed to wake her up.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right. Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

And she didn't want that. And so she gets mad at him because then they're doomed to a fate together.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right, Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

And alone at the same time. And then ultimately they come to learn that they do in fact love each other. These are two people with no chemistry.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think this is like a really hot script. And honestly, on paper, I'm like, this rocks. This is what movies should be.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, like, I think it was Morton Tyldem was the director who's coming off of the Benedict Cumberbatch movie about code breaking. What's that film called?

[Sean Fennessey]

The Imitation.

[Rob Harvilla]

Imitation.

[Sean Fennessey]

That is a family holiday. Crowd pleaser.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Absolutely. Whatever you say. One of the last remnants of the Harvey Weinstein era. Salute to you for.

[Drew Hancock]

Sorry.

[Sean Fennessey]

Shouting it out that my in laws and I both liked it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Passengers is in. I think About Time is in. I think Time Traveler's Wife is in. I think all these movies are just.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like in Time and Adjustment Bureau have.

[Rob Harvilla]

In, you know, Gattaca, Vanilla Sky. These movies are a little too good for this, in my opinion.

[Sean Fennessey]

Palm Springs, you put on here for too good and also Rum. But it's not garbage. It's just good.

[Rob Harvilla]

But it is the case of a rom com sci fi movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. But it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because it's a Groundhog Day.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I. Sure. But I think Groundhog Day is also first a rom com and then.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, so you think if a movie is first a rom com.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think that's its primary genre.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, I like that. Okay. That's a good call. Thank you. Do you ever see Seeking a Friend for the End of the World?

[Sean Fennessey]

Is that the Aubrey Plaza?

[Rob Harvilla]

No. Keira Knightley.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, I did.

[Rob Harvilla]

Steve Carell.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, I did. Yeah. Not good.

[Rob Harvilla]

Not successful.

[Sean Fennessey]

No.

[Rob Harvilla]

But kind of in the same.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is the Aubrey Plaza Marc Duplass1 Safety not guaranteed. Yes, that's sort of.

[Rob Harvilla]

There's Jake Johnson as well.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's time traveling in that. Right?

[Rob Harvilla]

There is. Yes. That is like. That's the movie that got Colin Trevorrow. The Jurassic franchise. That Jurassic World film we were talking about earlier. Right.

[Sean Fennessey]

Did he make that? Or he got fired from that and then made the Book of Henry?

[Rob Harvilla]

No, he made the first one. He got fired from Star Wars.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

He was supposed to make, I think the Rian Johnson Star wars movie, the Last Jedi or maybe the third film.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, he was supposed to make the.

[Rob Harvilla]

Rise of Skywalker, the third film.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, that turned out great.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, so they switched back to JJ There on that one. Anyhow. Okay. Let's pivot to action.

[Sean Fennessey]

Are Paul Besco and Gracie Abrams still dating? Bobby? Let's just have our Gen Z check in.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm glad you asked.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm not the man.

[Rob Harvilla]

I was just told yesterday that they are not by Magdalena, who we.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, now who's Gen Z? You know who Gracie Abrams is or isn't dating.

[Rob Harvilla]

There is a very specific reason for this that I cannot reveal.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wow. Because it is related to work that should not be revealed. Transpiring at the ringer. How's that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

For example, he's the Segway King and.

[Rob Harvilla]

He'S the teaser king.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Love action.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

So should this be called Love Action instead of Action Love?

[Sean Fennessey]

Sure.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, help me out here. Fall guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I like the fall guy. But I do. I know what you mean.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's got a little whiff of garbage.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, but a little garbagey. I mean, your other examples, this means war. Shotgun wedding, which honestly is like another straight to Amazon. Like rom com with some elements that I chuckled at. Shout Out. Lenny Kravitz, Lost City. Ghosted.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, the Lost City. I forgot about that. Big call. Yeah. Ghosted stinks, though. I won't even put it in on any list. That movie stinks.

[Sean Fennessey]

But it was trying to do this.

[Rob Harvilla]

It was. It was good call.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think Mr. And Mrs. Smith is too good for this.

[Rob Harvilla]

The Lost City is a great call.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because it's, like, definitely not bad.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Pretty entertaining.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Pretty janky.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

But hit its marks. People liked it. They went to go see it. Big movie stars. Premise is goofy, but good enough. Fall Guy is, like, right on the edge.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. I mean, like, we could do it. I think that this means War is too Rom com. A terrible movie, but interesting. Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Anything else? More recent vintage that has these elements? Because it feels like these movies in particular are kind of all riffing on Lethal Weapon, but they actually just replaced Danny Glover with a blonde lady. Right.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. What was that? I mean, Back in Action is like the family version of this.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is.

[Sean Fennessey]

It is. Also stinks.

[Rob Harvilla]

It does.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's not so much about love as it is about the nuclear family.

[Sean Fennessey]

But that's what they're iterating, you know, they're iterating on that.

[Rob Harvilla]

You're right. It's a subset of that, for sure. These movies are not good. It's tough. I mean, the sick delight that Chris and I get out of, say, like, you know, trash Special Ops, where there's like, a man with an earpiece is being told like, kill, kill, kill. And we're like, fuck, yes, kill that guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

I got. I was delighted in my own way by fall guy. Fall guy was fun. Fall guy. But also Lost City.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, these are fun.

[Sean Fennessey]

And even, like, I mean, Shotgun Wedding is not going in, but I like that they. The streaming, you know, for the streaming category, it was a pretty good version of that.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, okay, I like that. Now. Now. Horror.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I mean, Twilight.

[Rob Harvilla]

Twilight is the most important movie, I think.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because as much as these movies have a huge fandom, like, they're not good. They're not actually good.

[Sean Fennessey]

Twilight. The first one's good.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is it?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, the. Catherine Hardwick. Thank you. Thanks, Bob. I mean, it's like a teen, you.

[Rob Harvilla]

Know, there's a caveat, you know, like it's not.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, but it's like, good. Listen, are you. Teens have feelings too? We don't always accept them at the table, you know, because the.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, they got to wake up. Right, Exactly. They had to wake up a coffee.

[Sean Fennessey]

They had to listen to their elders.

[Rob Harvilla]

But you know, people who loved Twilight when they were teens are like 34 now, you know, this is not. We've come a long way.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What are you talking about, bro? I'm not 34 yet.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, not just you. You're not the only person. What year did Twilight come out?

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's a good question.

[Rob Harvilla]

2010? 29.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Earlier than that, I think.

[Rob Harvilla]

2006.

[Amanda Dobbins]

2008.

[Rob Harvilla]

2008.

[Sean Fennessey]

I was like young 20, so.

[Rob Harvilla]

2008. Yeah. If you were 18 when you saw Twilight, you're 34.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessey]

Turning 35.

[Rob Harvilla]

Damn.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know? Well, I mean, it's just that's like sometimes that's a new box. You gotta check. Yeah. So 35 to 39.

[Rob Harvilla]

Welcome 35 year old man or woman looking at us movie podcasters and saying Twilight is deeply important to the American canon of cinema. To usa. No, in this context, absolutely.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Just so you know, we will have a Now a new audio drop of you saying Twilight is good and Twilight is an important piece of American canon.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yep. Twilight is the most important movie. Twilight is deeply important to the American canon of cinema. Put it right alongside my litany of brilliant segues. And me saying I'm the Reed Richards of the big picture.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right. But so. So here's my question, because Twilight is obviously one of the first things that I thought of. But aren't all vampire stories love stories?

[Rob Harvilla]

I think they're all sex stories.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, this is about sex too, and not really about love. Well, well, it's about. It's about love, but also not being allowed to have sex and like, really wanting it, which is interesting. Also every vampire. So that I understand.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, maybe then maybe it's like Twilight 3 and 4 and she like becomes.

[Sean Fennessey]

A vampire so they can.

[Rob Harvilla]

What's like Breaking Dawn? Remember when they were dropping like Bony Ver and Licky Lee on the soundtracks? These movies, These movies are insane.

[Sean Fennessey]

Dakota Vanning is like the Italian vampire queens.

[Rob Harvilla]

So crazy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, bro.

[Sean Fennessey]

What is that baby named Renesmee.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And Michael Sheen is cooking in these.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Movies some of the worst CGI ever made for the. For the baby.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was so, so bad.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's worse than when they just.

[Sean Fennessey]

When.

[Amanda Dobbins]

When Clint was like, here's this doll. You know, it's worse that they actually tried to make the baby look real cgi.

[Sean Fennessey]

Time out, time out, time out. Let's. Let's get this right. So Renesmee, the baby.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, that was our first choice for Alice, but our next door neighbor's baby is Renesmee.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is Renesmee. The product is, does Kristen Stewart have her? Is she conceived before or after Kristen Stewart, AKA Bella, becomes a vampire?

[Rob Harvilla]

Before. Before.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And then Bella critically is dying as she's giving birth and they turn.

[Sean Fennessey]

She can't get. But so then how do they arrange the having sex, like between a vampire and a human? Because, like, the whole thing is like, she's so powerful that they can't buck because, like, he would break her.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This is when Stephenie Meyer really started hunting.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But so, but so how do they work around that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

They go on like their honeymoon and they're like, Edward's like, I've been training for years to show self restraint, and yet still she comes out of it worse for wear is what I'll say.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, so it like, gets a little kinky. Oh, interesting. Man, these books are fucked up.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And I was just in sixth grade art class. Like, let me read another one. You know, keep them coming. Stephanie Meyer.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, and so then. So she's like, so the child is conceived. She's like a special human vampire dog. And so is that why the werewolf can like, picks her? Does he pick humans or does he pick vampires or.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, that part is totally random. But that is why the Dakota Fanning Volturi Italian clan are pissed. Because they're like, we don't like, half human, half vampire. That's bad.

[Sean Fennessey]

Are there other examples in history?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, they just.

[Rob Harvilla]

They kill him.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They get rid of them.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, no. Okay, but so. But then Taylor Lautner shows up at.

[Amanda Dobbins]

His, and he's like, I love this baby.

[Sean Fennessey]

I love this. I Love. This baby is my soulmate. This baby. This CGI goblin. That's a baby.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's so funny that we're like, here. This one choice the filmmaker made in the Brutalist is a hugely problematic and completely destroys the film. Like, Renesmee is going to get married to a giant wolf man who's 40 years her senior, and it's one of the best movies ever. It's fucking stupid.

[Sean Fennessey]

I will only defend the original Twilight as a good movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

So Twilight is not in, but the all, like, 14 other Twilight movies are in.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, as garbage love. Yeah. Okay. But so anyway, you're.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Breaking dawn. Part one is the most garbage love. That's when they get married. That's when they had the needle drops, you know, that's.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's the one.

[Sean Fennessey]

There we go. I accept that.

[Rob Harvilla]

But, Sue, Breaking dawn part, when they split it into two parts, I remember.

[Sean Fennessey]

We took all of Zach's young cousins to see every installment of this at Thanksgiving because they released them at Thanksgiving.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, God. Fun for the whole family.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I think that after they ended, then, like, we got to take his cousins to see Lady Bird, so that was nice. One year, we had to take them to see Allied, which does fit into garbage.

[Rob Harvilla]

Garbage espionage.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, garbage dad. Cinema garbage.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, but is it. Is it garbage love? Allied?

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, that is if we're doing. If there's like a world history one.

[Rob Harvilla]

Does the love come first in Allied?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, I don't think so.

[Rob Harvilla]

You think it's the spy stuff? Yeah, I think I'm with you. Underrated. Actually, I revisited it when we did the Zemeckis episode. By the way, here is streaming on Netflix right now. It was number one on Netflix for, like, a hot minute. I think it's good. I watched it again, and I was like, this movie is good. I don't know what people are talking about. Honestly, it made me cry. I think it's really deep and interesting. I know people think it's, like, the worst movie of all time. I can't really argue with them. But I really do think it's okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

I. I don't recall thinking Allied was good.

[Rob Harvilla]

This the revisit when I was less worried about why it looked so modern and fake.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

It revealed some quality.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Just putting that out there. But I don't think it's garbage love.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Because it's, like, cold anyway. Vampires, cold mouse.

[Rob Harvilla]

Not garbage love.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, but it's garbage history. Yeah. And there is, like, a romance element.

[Rob Harvilla]

Garbage civil war is a great idea for the show coming up.

[Drew Hancock]

Next.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Ryan Rosillo. Garbage. Civil War. Let's do it.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's garbage. World War II.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, my God. One thing I want to do. I know you've got some garbage plans, too. I really want to do Garbage Scorsese for the Alto Knights, the new Barry Levinson movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, my God.

[Rob Harvilla]

The Scorsese Ripoffs.

[Sean Fennessey]

Come on.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's excited about that film.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

I mean, it looks horrendous, but I'm into it.

[Sean Fennessey]

But my dad is just like, wow. Barry Levinson directed a movie with Bobby De Niro, who he still calls Bobby. Doesn't know him.

[Rob Harvilla]

That sounds like me. That's something I might do.

[Sean Fennessey]

I got a lot of messages about that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

While he's at it, he could provide his defense of Amelia Perez.

[Sean Fennessey]

I told him that I shared his opinion, and he was like, oh, I didn't know whether that. He was like, I'm not sure that was meant for public consumption. And I was like, well, dad, that's.

[Rob Harvilla]

What it's like being in the blast.

[Sean Fennessey]

Radius your grandchildren need.

[Rob Harvilla]

Dennis, you can't reveal anything to Amanda now. I just text her something with some vulnerability, and she's like, I'll be reading these vulnerable thoughts aloud to the listeners of this show. Your dad's on Front Street. Who else can you reveal?

[Sean Fennessey]

My friend Molly's dad, who loved Conclave.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, that. Oh, yeah, that was dope, though. We agree with that. Conclave is great. Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

A couple other horror vampires are.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think they're all about sex. I think Twilight is a romance, ultimately. And I think vampire stories are often, like, weird metaphors for getting syphilis.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, where it's like, the blood is traded, and now you have my disease. You know, it's like a different kind of a thing. Okay, all right. Not all of them. There are some vampire love stories, of course.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

But for the most part, they're about something different.

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, Twilight and vampire movies are also about. They're both about repression, but, you know, interesting garbage repression.

[Rob Harvilla]

I mean, I would do really well with that one.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's all American cinema.

[Rob Harvilla]

Warm Bodies, which is zombies. Nick Holt. Our guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

Our guy.

[Rob Harvilla]

And Teresa. What's her name? Come on. She's a good actress. Australian.

[Sean Fennessey]

Palmer.

[Rob Harvilla]

Theresa Palmer. That movie's pretty good. It's, like, maybe a little too good.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. For garbage.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, this is the thing where these are all genre movies that are so close to the, like. The genre is, in fact, garbage Love. You know, it's like, not a bad version of it. It is just the thing Itself.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Vampire. And even, like, a lot of zombie movies are, in fact, you know, you have bones and all in here, which is, I think, like a good example.

[Rob Harvilla]

Of a good film, but inherently garbage.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, it's abusing the genre. And it's like, here are two teens trying to find themselves, and also they're zombies or vampires.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think you're right about that one, because there is no movie that is about cannibals. That is like high class cannibals.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's right.

[Rob Harvilla]

That movie is about cannibals.

[Sean Fennessey]

And Mark Rylance is here, and he's really creepy.

[Rob Harvilla]

Deeply, very effective in that film. I put Fresh on this list. Did you end up seeing this? No. Daisy Edgar Jones and Sebastian Stan. Oh, yeah. Also a cannibal.

[Sean Fennessey]

Really?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. Oh, and pretty fun.

[Sean Fennessey]

People really wanted us to talk about that. I got a lot of interest and I. And Instagram reels fed me a lot of content about the two of them. When that movie was out, people were like, ooh, fresh.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's okay. I saw it at Sundance, I think, in 2022. Very. As always, very amusing. Sebastian Stan performance. Not sure Daisy Edgar Jones quite up to the task of that movie. Nevertheless, it's pretty good. Okay. Life After Beth, which is directed by the late Jeff Bena, who just died. Aubrey Plaza's Husband, which is a movie that I really like, was one of the early A24 movies, if I recall correctly. That is also, I think, a zombie romance movie where Aubrey Plaza dies and comes back from the dead and confronts her boyfriend and is like, yo, I'm back. And he's like, I moved on with my life. Which is kind of a funny movie that I really like. Again, maybe, like, not. You're right that they're kind of all garbage because of what they're doing, but they're also kind of good. Like, this is the next step, because every story's been told that we need to just keep smashing genres together and making them make sense. So I don't know. I don't know. The whole. The Twilight movies might just occupy the entire horror stretch for us.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is there. How many? Fourteen you said.

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, Bobby's the expert.

[Rob Harvilla]

How many, Bob?

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm just.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Five.

[Rob Harvilla]

Five. Four books.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Fourth book was split into two.

[Rob Harvilla]

Got it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Got it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Right.

[Amanda Dobbins]

At least they haven't shamelessly gone back and made, like, a TV series out of it. You know, they're protecting that valuable people like myself.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's gonna come.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, I know.

[Rob Harvilla]

When will that come? Who will be the stars?

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't know the children who won't wake up, you know.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Would you put Zombieland in this horror romance? It's more of a comedy.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think it's comedy first, horror second.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But it is a romance.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is. It is. My beloveds, Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone. Really? Really. My faves. Maybe Zombieland 2 double tap is probably a better fit.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I could vibe with that. That is more garbage.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a garbagio, but it's, like, pretty fun. And I want to watch it again. If you put Double Tap on right now, I'd be like, yeah, let's watch it.

[Sean Fennessey]

I would watch the Adjustment Bureau again.

[Rob Harvilla]

If you put it on anytime there's a movie where if I can scream into the other room, yo, can you get me a Miller Light? Or you say hun, can you please bring the Campari over? We're watching garbage.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And that's not how Amanda asks for the Campari from Zach. That's how she does it.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's actually not.

[Sean Fennessey]

No. I ask him to make me a proper drink. He's getting really into it. He got glasses. Yeah, they're very fancy. And then now Knox knows. He's like, will you have a drink in a fancy glass?

[Rob Harvilla]

Hey, mom, how's your crippling addiction going? Any other thoughts?

[Sean Fennessey]

This was fun.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is a good one.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Bob, any additions beyond Zombieland?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't think so. None that come to mind. I feel like I've made my piece. We've got Twilight for Twilight.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, I don't think we. This is not the definitive. Maybe listeners want to send some because programming reminder. We're doing a mailbag on Monday on the show Segue.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Segue Bang.

[Rob Harvilla]

Don't forget, email us bigpickmailbagmail if you wanna tell us some garbage love films that we forgot about. Or maybe even a subcategory. Yeah, don't be rude. Amanda will be rude to you, but you don't have to be rude to us. And that'll be fun. And there's like a lot happening over the weekend.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes. PGAs. Are you going?

[Rob Harvilla]

No, no. CCAs are on Friday.

[Sean Fennessey]

The critics choices are rescheduled.

[Rob Harvilla]

CCAs, but those votes all before all the Emilia Perez stuff. Oh, so like, they might win a bunch of awards. Yeah. So watch out for a weird CCAS on Friday and then PGAs and DGAs on Saturday night.

[Sean Fennessey]

You going?

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm not going. You have to enter a lottery to get a ticket to the PGAs. And I've never entered a lot and.

[Sean Fennessey]

You don't get a Plus one.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think you might if you win the lottery. But it's like a. Thousands of people go, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I assume they're like, past apps and stuff, right?

[Rob Harvilla]

I believe so. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

So that would be funny.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm not going. I told Jack Sanders yesterday. I was like. Like, Jack. The saddest part of me wants to go live on YouTube after the PGAs and DGAs and just be like, here's what happened. It's crazy. But I'll. I'll hold it for Monday.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's a big weekend at my house, so I sort of have to part.

[Rob Harvilla]

Part of the reason why. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Sunday is like a pretty emotional roller coaster of a day.

[Rob Harvilla]

We got. We had birthday party for the big guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm hosting a child's birthday party.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yep. And then we got the super bowl for the other big guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And the Eagles. Who. Who's your pick for the Super Bowl? Who are you taking? The line's one and a half.

[Sean Fennessey]

In which direction? What does that mean? I don't know what that means.

[Rob Harvilla]

Chiefs by one and a half.

[Sean Fennessey]

Almost ten years.

[Rob Harvilla]

Chiefs favor by one and a half.

[Sean Fennessey]

Listen, we gotta protect the heart. We gotta. I'm in a defensive position right now. I'm trying to make sure that everyone is okay and behaves and doesn't.

[Rob Harvilla]

In your home, you mean?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. And doesn't ruin my sweet son's birthday with disgraceful Philadelphia behavior.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

So I'm. I'm operating from like. Like a cautious pessimism sort of thing, but I would be thrilled if. If Jalen figures it out. Can he. I don't know, Bob.

[Rob Harvilla]

Any picks for the Super Bowl?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm not going to make any picks for the Super Bowl. That's not my area of expertise. Go listen to the Ringer NFL show if you'd like to hear more about.

[Rob Harvilla]

That Ringer gambling show feature from Justin.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Charity about Kendrick Lamar.

[Rob Harvilla]

There you go.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Producing.

[Rob Harvilla]

Kendrick Lamar is performing at the halftime show of the super bowl, which, honestly, is sick. Just great. Can't remember the last time I was like, this is actually good. I like Rihanna and I like Beyonce and everything, but Kendrick is one.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, that's all right. We're done. Kendrick's good, too, but, like, Beyonce's. Beyonce. Sure.

[Rob Harvilla]

I just. I feel like I get a lot of Beyonce.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was a good show.

[Rob Harvilla]

It was good. I had no notes. Just. I'm excited about Kendrick.

[Sean Fennessey]

All right.

[Rob Harvilla]

My pick is the jets will miss the playoffs again next year. That's the only pick I'm willing to make here. But I Can't say the same for the Mets. Okay, let's go to my conversation with Drew Hancock now.

[Sean Fennessey]

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[Rob Harvilla]

So if you're into growing your business.

[Sean Fennessey]

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[Rob Harvilla]

Drew Hancock is here with his directorial debut companion. Thanks for being on the show.

[Drew Hancock]

Thank you for having me.

[Rob Harvilla]

Drew, there's just not a lot about you on the Internet. Yeah, you've been working for a long time, but I love talking to first time directors on the show. I always ask questions like, what were the movies you obsessed over? How did you get interested in this world? Walk me through how you got interested in making movies.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, so I'm originally from Omaha, Nebraska and the idea of working in entertainment never crossed my mind. Like, I mean my joke, my go to joke is like my come from a family of like life, the board game occupations. Like it's lawyers and accountants and teachers. And so I grew up in the 90s. You know, I'm 45 years old. Like success came very late for me. But in the 90s was when I was like developing my taste for movies. And I, you know, very vividly remember seeing Pulp Fiction for the first time and it just blowing my goddamn mind. Like, I remember being in the theater, being like, I checked my watch to be like, I want there to be so much more of this movie. Like, this is like, I didn't know you could do this. I don't know if this was possible. And I was under 17 at the time. And I look young now and I look like I was like 10 years old. And so me and my friends would go to different theaters to just want to see it as many times as possible. I'd get turned down. Like, they'd be like, no, you're too young, you need a guardian. So we would drive around Omaha like trying to see Pulp Fiction at like a third or. And I was like bringing everyone down. I'm like, I'm so sorry guys that I look this way. But that was like my, that was like my appetizer into like, oh my God, like, this is amazing. And then it was just a great time to grow up as a, as a movie lover. Like I worked in movie theater in 1999, you know, that, that's, that that's Just, you can't beat that. Every, every week it would be like Magnolia being John Malkovich, the Matrix. It was just you just feasting on wonderful movies. And, and yeah, so it never occurred to me that I could do this or that it was even attainable. It just feel like, felt la, felt like a walled city that I just couldn't breach. And why try? But just by chance, I was on this track to do the, like as a very space cadetty kid, and I knew I needed to do something creative. And the track I was on was like, I guess marketing, advertising, something like business oriented. And I went to college at Colorado State University just because my cousin went there. I had no interest in education. And just by chance, one summer took an elective. It was like editing news packages, like, you know, tape to tape editing. And it blew my fucking mind. Like, literally. I was like, oh my God, like after the first class, like, what is this? Like, I need to saturate myself in this. And called my parents up. They're very supportive. I was like, I've been wasting my time. I need to do this. Can you, like, do you. Will you support me just, just, just going down this path? And I have very supportive parents. They're like, yes, like, whatever, whatever you want to do.

[Rob Harvilla]

Was it just the actual technological aspect of cutting that you got interested in specifically, but not like, I'm gonna make.

[Drew Hancock]

No, no, no, no. It just was like, oh, being in that room and just never wanting to leave it and just being like, enamored by the process of taking clips and, you know, like, like putting them next to each other, you know, like scrubbing through the footage. It was, you know, we wasn't even on an Avid or Final Cut Pro, which doesn't even exist anymore. That's how I'm dating myself now. But that was the, the moment that was me going like, okay, I don't care, you know how this, how this happens. I don't care what I do within this universe, like, whether it's like, produce, direct, write. I knew I didn't want to be in front of the camera, but. But I tried to cobble together a film school at a school that had no film program. And so we did have Asian film studies classes. And so I'd take one of those. And then I discovered the basement of our library had this one shelf of screenplays. And so I would every day go down there and just read movies I still haven't seen. Like this script for My Beautiful Laundrette. I've never seen it, but I Read the script in college or like A Boy and His Dog. Like all these scripts that just mishmash of just really weird eclectic collection because they were just probably. I don't even know why they had them. And. Yeah, and as soon as I graduated from college, I packed the car up and moved to la. And I didn't know anyone here except for two guys that worked their job. Their entertainment job was they boxed porn at the Hustler Warehouse. And so that was in an inn. That was no inn, but that's couch. It could have been a different career. And I just, I slept on their couch. And it's so funny, the night I slept on their couch, they were filming Biker Boys, the movie with a Z with she Rock being filmed in the parking lot. And I was like, oh my God, they're making movies everywhere.

[Rob Harvilla]

What a town. Hollywood.

[Drew Hancock]

Like some like shitty apartment building on Lankershim in the Valley. Yeah, and I just PA for a bit and you know, bought a camera and just started. Started screwing around and.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, what like roughly what years? Like, oh, three.

[Drew Hancock]

Oh, yeah, oh three, I think is when I moved out here. And so that's. I would PA'd for like the first two years. Realized very quickly that if you're good at PA, you're just gonna get more PA jobs. And if you're, you know, you have to separate yourself by creating as much content as you possibly can. And so by like, you know, scrounged together as much money as I could, bought a camera and then, you know, use my friends as actors. And there was this just. There's a lot of luck involved or good timing, I should say, in my career and finding this thing called channel 101 that had just started right around the time when I was getting interested in making comedy videos. And it was the perfect thing to discover. And for anyone that doesn't know what that is, it was like a monthly film festival where you would make a five minute show, like a little mini TV show screened in front of an audience and they would vote for their five favorites. And then the next month, if you got voted back, you'd have to make a second episode. So it was like the best thing I could find because that really became my film school because I was just making as much, I was just making as many comedy videos as I could. And then you'd start get that instant gratification of what works and what doesn't work, which that's the closest I'll ever be to a standup comedian because, you know, I wrote Companion four Years ago, you know, we, we. I finished it three years ago. We shot it two years ago. I edited it one year ago. And it, like, now I get to see it kind of being released. But, you know, channel 101 was. You made. I would be making things that day and show. And show it that night. And you would just like the, like, you know, I've never done heroin, but I imagine it's very similar. It was like the high of, oh, my God, I gotta laugh. And just. Just euphoria, like, kicks in and you get this adrenaline rush and you're just like, oh, I can't wait for next month. And you learn. That's where I learned everything about how smart an audience is and they'll feel when a joke is being reached for something is too sweaty and obvious, or if you're coasting, if you're get really cocky and you're like, oh, I don't have to worry. You have that audience share. It was treated like a little. Little like, was like the Nielsen's ratings or something. You just say, oh, I had an 80%, like, last screening, and now I have 55%. I gotta step my game up. And meanwhile, like, everyone else is your age and as hungry as you and you're making things and trying to make them jealous and competing and, you know, just getting better together. And I'm still friends with a lot of those guys. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And was that. Were you working on Yacht Rock at that time as part of that?

[Drew Hancock]

Yacht Rock is part of that.

[Rob Harvilla]

Part of that.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah. So I just acted in that. I saw the documentary. It was fantastic. Yeah, thanks.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, I was wondering, like, what your role was on it, because I saw your name attached to it. But were you just friends with those guys at that time and appearing in the series?

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah. You would just.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Drew Hancock]

You would hire each. Hire each other. You would just ask, hey, would you be in my thing? Like, J.D. risner was in a couple of my shows, and I was in his, I think, because Wade, who played hall and I. And I played Oates, I think because we just. Just I was short and, you know, like, I had dark hair and. Yeah, that was really fun. I actually got to meet Hollow Notes because of that. That was a really fun.

[Rob Harvilla]

How did they feel about your portrayal?

[Drew Hancock]

Oats was great. Oats. The first thing he said to me was, you're too tall to play me. And that was like the, The. The best compliment I could ever get from anyone. I've never been called too tall.

[Rob Harvilla]

Darrell. A little trickier, you know, Reputation.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah. And you felt it? Yeah, it was. It was. We went to the Hollywood bowl, so I was them, like, however many years ago that was. And their manager was a big fan of us. And so we got to go backstage and meet them. And Oats was just, like, taking photos with us and he was really nice. And then he brought hall over and hall is like, arms fold. Like it. Oats goes. He thinks you guys are making fun of us. Like, oh, this is awkward. This is weird.

[Rob Harvilla]

Hopefully the documentary assuaged some of Daryl's concerns.

[Drew Hancock]

Oh, I doubt it. Did you. He was on the. That Bill Maher show.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, I didn't see it.

[Drew Hancock]

He's full of bitterness.

[Rob Harvilla]

So crazy, given the incredible success he's had. Anyway, we're down a rabbit hole that I asked. I led us to. So you're making work with channel 101, like, at that time, are you thinking, like, I gotta start writing screenplays to be making movies? Do you want to work in series television? Like, where did you see your career going?

[Drew Hancock]

Well, I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do within it. Like, I loved editing. I loved the editing process. I love the directing process process. I love writing, though I never really considered myself a writer, honestly. And then, yeah, like I said, like, we were. We were all at this stage where we were young and starting out in Hungary and as. As you know, some of us are getting successes, we're pulling each other up with us. And two of my friends created this show, Blue Mountain State, and that, you know, like, they. They were looking for writers and they just asked me to. To write for it. And I was like, sure, I'll try it. And I still. Writing was something I did. I always felt like I would either do it be a director or an editor. The writing part of it was just like, oh, I would do it just to have content and I enjoyed it. But I never really thought of myself as a writer. But working on Blue Mountain State, that really solidified. I really enjoy this part of it. I'm a very introverted person, so I like to be. Be, you know, in. In my office, like, by myself. Like, you know, turn on, like. Like dim the lights and just like, be in my head. I've. I love that. And that's. Yeah, that was the beginning of. Of my writing career. And I. And I treated it, I think, because I didn't really think of myself as a writer. I treated it as like an experiment. And that's why my IMDb is just kind of a shit show. It's kind of just like all, every different genre, every different style, like kids shows, animated shows. Because I was like, oh yeah, I want to, I want to write everything. Much to the chagrin of my agent who was like, you need to develop a brand. I'm like, I don't care about a brand. I want to learn. I want to write for a Nickelodeon like Villain of the Week show. That sounds awesome. Let's do that. Like I'll never get that opportunity again. And so I was just taking every job to, as a way to just, just to learn.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, that's really interesting because I, by looking at someone's IMDb can usually suss out sort of like what their goals are, how they see themselves, where they're going with their career, what their brand is, and did not have any success with that. With you.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Good luck. So then are you essentially doing that like jumping from writing job to writing job over the course of the next 10 years?

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, yeah. And doing, I mean there's big gaps in my IMDb but I'm like doing rewrites for movies and I developed a show for, for MTV that didn't go through. So you know, so I'm working and I'm living, living comfortably. I have a low cost of living. I don't have a family. So I was, you know, like, I could be choosy as far as like, I didn't have to take like the low hanging fruit. I could, I could be a little picky based on like the jobs that excited me, but still I was not getting like the, what I really wanted to write. Like I've always been a gigantic fan of genre movies, specifically like, like horror, sci fi, thriller, any of that. It needs like a robot or a serial killer or a ghost or something to get me excited. And I just wasn't getting those opportunities. And I was at a place in my career where this opportunity came and I was like, oh my God, they're rebooting. Are youe Afraid of the Dark? I loved that show as a kid. Please. And begging the company like every day, please let me like just give me a chance. I'd like, like this is what I want to do. This is a company that knew that I, like, right, was a decent writer. I never even got a meeting about it. And that forced me to sit down and go like, what, what's going on right here? Like people recognize that I can write, but I'm not being given the opportunities to do what I want to write. I just assumed if you're a good writer you could, you know, Write whatever you wanted. And that's not true. You get put in a box and, you know, it's. It's my own fault for not having the proof. You know, that was like the. Took the pandemic for me to sit down and go, why are you creatively, at least, unfulfilled? And it's because I didn't have a writing sample that represented, like, the kinds of movies I liked. And it was, you know, it's that 15 years of just bouncing around and not having a brand and, you know, I. But it was all learning. It was all great. I made tons of mistakes. And so when I actually sat down to write something that reflected my voice, you know, I had a. An amount of confidence to get through it because there's a lot of pain involved, there's a lot of questioning in the process of staring at a blank page.

[Rob Harvilla]

You seem very centered and reflective on the part of your career.

[Drew Hancock]

Self awareness. Self awareness is, I think, one of the most important qualities for someone to have. I try to constantly take inventory of my life, like every couple years to make sure I'm where I want to be and what I need to do to get in that place. I recognize that I feel very centered. But up here now, it's chaos. It's crazy. There's insecurities and imposter syndrome and craziness and.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, well, from an outsider's perspective, like I said, we have some friends in common. So I was aware of the fact that this movie was happening, but I didn't know anything about you. And when I sat down to watch it was just incredibly impressed and would not have thought that it was a directorial debut or anything like that. And, you know, in a lot of ways, it's like, it's a high concept genre studio movie, and that's very unusual for an original to go right now. So, like, maybe you can walk me through the arc of. I guess in Covid you wrote this screenplay and it found its way into the right hands. Like, what was the. How did all of this happen? Happen?

[Drew Hancock]

Essentially, yeah. I mean, everyone's going to hate me because there's a lot. There's so much good luck involved in this. But, you know, just don't Forget about the 20 years of toiling.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's useful to hear that first.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, if you, if you're, you know, put the work in, you'll eventually get discovered. It took me a long time and I made a lot of mistakes. But I'm here now, and I feel very grateful to be here talking about this movie. But, yeah, so. So I wrote this movie, and. And it came from a place of, like, you know, this might be the last thing I write that people read. You know, it could just. I would just think very realistically, thinking I'm in my 40s. I remember going to a Dodger game, being like, is this it for me? Am I done? Like, and I had an editor friend, the guy, a very close friend who's an editor. I was like, should I talk to him about pivoting to editing? Like, I was very close to giving up. So I put all my eggs in this one basket, which was companion. And I think that's why there's so many tones within it, because I was like, well, you know, if I only get to make one movie, not even make. If I only get to, you know, write a movie that people take seriously, let's show them that I can do a heist movie. I can do a comedy. I can do a thriller, sci fi, put it all in one movie and see if it works out. Never in a million years thinking I would get the opportunity to direct it, which is insane. Yeah. So I spent a year writing it and rewriting it and rewriting it, and, you know, the very terrible draft after terrible draft until it got to a place where I'm like, okay, I recognize that this is. This is good. This reflects, like, my voice. And the day I finished that, that final, that last draft, I. JD Lifshitz from Bolder Light, Just a friend of a friend. I was like, oh, he's having a moment right now with Barbarian. I'm hearing great things about that. I'll send it to him. And he read it that night and called me the next day. So this is 24 hours after finishing this script. He's like, we want to produce this. And then he sent it to Roy Lee. And then. So 48 hours after finishing the script, I had Roy Lee attached. And then over the weekend, they sent it to Zach Krager, and he read it, and there was a brief moment where he was going to direct it. And so I had five producers attached within a week of writing it, which is not something that happens ever. And I didn't think it was going to happen. This was purely a writing to get a job that was similar to Companion. I never thought that it would get made.

[Rob Harvilla]

So that happens. And Zack is attached, but it's going to be a movie that's going to happen. His next movie, I Guess after Barbarian. And then that doesn't happen. So what happened? How did you become the director of the movie?

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, so I worked with Zach closely for five, six weeks, just kind of polishing it, talking about it. And a barbarian had not come out yet. And through that process, I think that because I'm very protective of my stuff, like, well, for making it, you know, like, I'm not going to, like, just, like, just, you know, just hand it off. I'd already seen Barbarian. I knew it was amazing, but I just was like, you know, I've been burned so many times at directors, kind of, you know, fucking my shit up. Which it sounds awful, but it's just. It's like gut wrenching when you have an idea in your head of what it is and then you see it executing. You're like, oh. Oh, my God. Like, these decisions that were made, they're just. They're not coming from a place of story. There's just like, these. You're putting all the energy in, like, these cool shots, and that's not what the scene's about. So I just was. I was very protective in going through each scene and being like, well, how would you shoot this? And whose moment is this? And he's big on pov, and I'm big on pov. And I don't mean, like, literally, like how you shoot, like a POV shot. I mean, like, every scene should, like, you should know whose moment it is. And. And so I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page at that stuff. And I think through that process, he realized, oh, like, maybe he'd be better suited as a producer and just step aside. And I didn't know this was happening. He was, like, wrestling with this. And I got a phone call from him, like, a couple weeks after Barbarian had come out. It might have actually been the weekend after Barbarian came out. And he was like, I'm sorry, I'm not going to direct this, but I wanted to stay on as a producer. I was like, okay, yeah, I understand. You can do whatever you want. And then he said, but I've talked to Boulder Light and I've talked to Vertigo, and I've gotten them, like, their permission. If you want to direct it, we think you could do it. And I was like, oh, my. You know, like, I didn't know the movie was going to get made. I didn't know that I would ever be a director. I wanted to direct. I wanted to come back to directing at a certain point because, you know, in my 20s, I directed a lot. But I thought it would be. I had three ideas. I thought I would write this. First idea, companion, maybe it gets made, maybe it doesn't. Not going to direct it. Second movie, maybe it gets made, maybe it doesn't. And hopefully the third idea I can direct. I just leapfrogged over that thanks to Zach's generosity. And yeah, like I wouldn't be sitting here if it wasn't for cragger realizing like this would be better if I directed it. And it worked out for him too because weapons is. Is awesome.

[Rob Harvilla]

Sounds like an exciting. Yeah, I love Zach. So that's very cool. That's a pretty wild story.

[Drew Hancock]

It's so wild.

[Rob Harvilla]

Like you weren't. Would you say you were? Especially since you're a self aware type. Would you say you were angling or communicating, like, here's my vision or here's what I would do or anything to kind of signal like in the event that Zach, you fall out because. Or is it just like genuinely serendipitous and they just believed in your vision and that's why it happened? You know what I'm asking?

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, no, I think it's a little bit of both. I think unconsciously I was like angling for it, but I wasn't. You know, I've been in this business a long time and I've learned every. I've lived every cliche there possibly could be about like, you know, working in entertainment. Everything from having my first job and like thinking that the jobs will never end and like getting like this paycheck and then going like, let's go to Costco with all my friends and we have like, like fucking grocery carts full of flat screens and Xboxes and iPads and iPhones and that money's gone in three months. I've lived that. So I've made every mistake you possibly could. I truly have. So when it started to seem like the movie was getting made, I know that a first time director, you're suddenly committing to a lower budget. It's gonna be harder to get a studio interested. It just becomes a different movie. So I didn't want to stand in its way. I just wanted it to get made. So I was taking a very zen like approach. Just being like, guys, getting the movie made is the most. That's the prime directive here. I don't care who directs it. Let's just, you know, if like the best director is the one who gets this movie made, that was my kind of movie. So yeah, so it was a little bit of. But then, yeah, like Just the battle scars from having seen my stuff get kind of, that sounds so pretentious, but just having it got burned. So I am very protective. And I learned very early on how to direct on the page without directing on the page because I learned if you put like close up of a glass with like two ice cubes planking in it, the directors immediately, you just screwed yourself because the director is going like, you can't tell me what to do. And then you're not going to, you're not going to get a close up. It's going to start with a wide. But if you write in like little phrases, little phrases are like, like, like the shorter the phrase, you can, you can kind of signify tempo and you can, and you can also like, like, you know, use onomatopoe and be like, clink, clink, like two glasses fall into, or two ice cubes fall into a glass and you're kind of subconsciously like planting the seeds. If that's a close up, that's a close up. So like I, I just, I just want to make sure because I, I, I, when I write, I, every, all the blocking is done in my head. I, you know, I don't do like chase scene happens here, action scene happens here. Like, I need to figure out every punch, I need to figure out every little detail. So it's already in my brain. I need to know that, that, that I needed to know Zach and I were on the same page, like throughout the entire script.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, it's interesting because the movie does feel very, it's not that it's constructed, it's very tight, you know, like it doesn't feel leaky at any point. And like a lot of, as I'm sure you know, like many genre movies are kind of notorious, even the ones that we love for having these kind of leaky components. But the movie also, it feels like a real agglomeration of a lot of influences while also being its own thing. Maybe you could talk a little bit about just the actual origin of the idea, what you were thinking of and what you wanted to do with it.

[Drew Hancock]

You know, every project is different, how it pops in your head. This one, I don't know why, but like the full logline, like day one popped in my head. Three couples go to, we're gonna spoil it cause it's in the trailer. But three couples go to a cabin in the middle of the woods. One of them finds out they're a robot going to be shut down and things become like, go haywire. And you Know, like, I knew it was gonna have like a horror structure where every 10 pages somewhere going to get picked off. That just popped in my head. Like, I didn't. Sometimes it's a visual, sometimes it's a character, sometimes it's a scene that. That was just like the fully baked idea popped in my head. But the, like, the. My first instinct, and this is a year and a half before Megan had come out, was to make her the antagonist. It just seemed obvious, like you want to make the robot like, like that's going bad be, you know, the AI gone wrong. It's just my brain immediately went there and so I'm starting to break the story and, and thinking about her journey. And I get to the scene where she shows up at the cabin with Josh and she's afraid to go inside and she's feeling alienated and alone and like she doesn't belong and she's worried about, you know, just started tapping into like the first time I would meet like partners, friends and families and I'm like, oh my God, I'm starting to relate to the robot here. And at that moment I'm like, oh, could I do this? Could I make a movie where the most sympathetic character is a robot, the most human character is a robot? And that became the, the kind of. As soon as I had that, that's when I fell in love with it. And I was like, oh, I could tell a different story here.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's interesting because the conversation around AI is very noisy and very angry at times, especially from a lot of writers perspectives in this movie. It's not exactly AI in the traditional sense that we talk about every day, but the what if AI gone right is a risky proposition. How did you think about that? Where you like, conscious of it, whether you were writing or in production on any of those ideas?

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah. Constantly thinking about, like, how is this going to be take? And I'm also like, AI does scare me as a writer and I toy around with ChatGPT just to see and every week I feel like it's like getting better and better. And I dismissed it like a year ago. And now I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know. It's improving by the second. And so it does scare me.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wait till your movie comes out and then it has all that information and then it gets to.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, I know, but, but, but like the, it's a metaphor in the movie, you know, it's, it's representing like the story. I never think I didn't do a ton of Research. I just needed to know if this technology could exist and when it would exist. And then as far as, like, I didn't want to bog it down in technical details. I didn't want it to be like the X and the machina talking about Turing Tests. I wanted it to be. Be very real and feel like characters. It's like iPhone Generation 5 or 6 where you just don't question it anymore. That's the exciting thing about it. And then the fun became telling two different stories. The one story is Iris, and it's literally or not literally, it's metaphorically the story of a woman realizing she's in a toxic relationship and through self discovery, like, takes agency and empowerment. And then there's the B side, and that's the Josh and his friend side, which is. It's not so overtly like said in the movie, but it's what would happen if your phone looked like a human being and how would that affect your viewing? Not just the robot, but all other human beings. And there's no accident why Josh is not being affected by some of the things that are happening within the story. It's because everything's been dehumanized. Because when you look at your. Your. Your robot and it looks like a human, suddenly everything just kind of becomes objectified. And that's that. That was fun. That was like. That's that. I love that part.

[Rob Harvilla]

I did want to ask you about the. The specificity of the. The specs, for lack of a better word, are really, really good and really clever. And I hadn't quite thought of it like. Like Iris is a phone. But that actually does make it more. Make more sense that you would think about all of these different components and apps and can you talk about just kind of like developing these very specific, detailed ideas that go into building out this. Because even if you didn't research it, somehow it feels like you have designed a product that feels legible in the world. Even though the movie is a metaphor and satirical and all the things that it is, a lot of the details, I was like, I haven't seen this quite done this way before. And it seems like this is what it could be.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, I mean, I hope not. I mean, I don't know what the future is going to be like, obviously, but yeah, that's just what makes my brain tingle. That's like what I just follow. My first drafts are a mess because I throw every single idea I have, and then it just becomes of like, like refining and focusing. And so, yeah, like, that's the fun stuff just to talk about, like. Well, like, filter everything through story, filter everything through character. And you talk to. You know, it's easier to talk to Jack Quaid about his. About his character and his motivation if you. If you have reasons behind it and, you know, you're giving him, like, you know, directing is not really about giving someone a directive. It's like giving them the guardrails. Like, you know, like, it's within here and within this, like, here, parameters, you can have as much fun as you want. And my job is to make sure you don't drift on either side.

[Rob Harvilla]

Interesting. So I feel like you got some good fortune and probably expressed some good taste by getting Jack and Sophie, I guess, when you did. Sofie, in particular, is kind of on the rise as a scream queen. It's a fascinating thing. I haven't seen this quite done this well in terms of the parts that she's picking and the project she's a part of, and just feels like. Like sometimes the timing just seems perfect. How did you get these? And obviously, Jack Quaid has been doing great work for, like, 10 years now. How did you get these two in the leads?

[Drew Hancock]

You never know how it's going to happen. Like, I don't write with anyone in mind because I've just been heartbroken so many times when you, like, have this specific actor in your head and you're like, it has to be this character, this actor. And then they always say no. And then you're like, oh, I don't have plan B. So I kind of want the characters to feel like I've used this metaphor, and maybe it's not quite right, but like a. A deflated balloon, you know, like, it doesn't have a full shape to it, but it's, like, enough there that then you can have hand it to an actor and they can fill it and give it shape and shading. But I assumed, wrongly, that Iris was going to be really easy to cast and Josh was going to be really hard to cast, because my thought being, like, it'd be really hard to get a. Like, someone, a man in his early 20s, late 20s, to want to play such a toxic character because it goes into, like, you know, dark places. And Jack Quaid and I have, like, the same agency, uta, and his agent slipped him the script, and he read it before we even started casting and requested to sit down with me. And so we met for coffee. And, you know, again, the deflated balloon to me was he needed to have. He needed to be, like, boyish. He needed to have a very charismatic smile. And he needed to be someone that. He's saying awful things from the get go. He's saying, smile, act happy. Like that's a. That's. There's no version of that where it's likable, but there is the most likable version of that. Like he, you know, it needs to come across not with any maliciousness. It comes from, like, you know, the J. Baruchell school of, like, I'm doing this because I'm oblivious. Like, I don't know any better. Like, I'm just like a man child. And sitting across from him, I'm like, oh, my God, this is perfect. Like, he's great. I love this guy. And he's nervous. I'm like, why are you nervous? You're the son of Hollywood royalty. I should be the one nervous. We talked for like 40 minutes about jaws. We didn't really even talk about the movie. And yeah, it's just like, it's. Yeah. And he passes the most important test, which is he was fun to be around because you're going to be with these people for four months. So, you know, like, you don't want assholes because that's like super. You're gonna butt heads and it's gonna be difficult for everyone. And I just could feel like he's a really good person and I want to. Want to be around him. And so, yeah, before we even started, like, the, like, the real casting, it's like, oh, we have Jack Quaid attached. He's perfect. He's great. And then Iris ended up being so much harder. I assumed that there's so many young women that are just extremely talented, which is true. But I didn't realize that the character is really two characters in one. It's the first half. She's very docile. She's very passive. You need to believe that she's weak and she's not standing up to him. And then there's like a literal moment where she, like, you know, flips the switch and she becomes, like empowered and has agency. And you need to feel when she's standing up to Josh in the second half, you need to, like, she needed to buy it. And there were so many actors. We had 300 self tapes we had. We did a ton of chemistry reactions with Jack. Nail the first half. Oh, my God, you're amazing. And then for additions, you do scenes throughout the movie. We did one in the middle or, sorry, one at the beginning, one in the middle, one in the end. And they got to the End where they're supposed to finally stand up to Josh. It just felt fake and false. And I was like, oh, I just don't buy it. And then the reverse would happen. You would find an actor that just nailed the ending, just nailed that. Like, oh, my God, you're a badass. You're an action star. And then you tried to do the docile part and you're like, I don't buy it. I don't believe you. And then, yeah, Sophie, her name had been kind of banded about and finally set up a chemistry read with her and Jack, which I don't recommend to anyone to do this, but we did a resume, which, you know, the point of a chemistry read is to see if they have any chemistry. And it's really hard to have chemistry when it's like a tiny little box. But we had to because he was in London, I was in New York in pre production, and Sophie was in la. And it's. It's like that Hollywood cliche of, like, she just fucking, like, nailed it. And I'm so negative and I know I seem grounded, but I'm so pessimistic that I'm like, oh, we're going to screw this up. Like, she. I've fallen in love with this actor in this role and it's not going to happen. Like, like, something's going to go wrong. Like, she's going to get a better part or what? Like, like, and just immediately, just glass half empty. And luckily it worked out.

[Rob Harvilla]

She's really great.

[Drew Hancock]

I think she's amazing.

[Rob Harvilla]

She makes the movie.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, I, I can't imagine anyone else in that role. And she was scared out of her mind, specifically that the, the moment when, like halfway through the movie when she. I guess it's earlier, but when she discovers she's a robot, like, there was like, five. It's easy to write, like, emotional, like, like, you know, swerves. But for her to, like, start in, like, a place of fear, like, like confusion and fear. And then. And then it turns into kind of a comedy because she's like, I'm a robot. Disbelief. And then it turns into, like, real pathos. Like, you're. You're like, oh, my gosh. She starts ple. I think the saddest part in the movie is her, you know, I think any other movie would be like, her accepting she's a robot over, like, you know, like 50, 60 minutes. She accepts she's a robot immediately. And the important thing is, like, I know, okay, I'm a robot. That's fine. But, like, how is that gonna affect you and me? Like, Like, I will do whatever it takes to get you back. And. And that she was really scared of. And. And. And she nailed it. Like, she makes, like, you know, once we had that scene down, I was like, oh, yeah, this. This movie will probably.

[Rob Harvilla]

In the. Back in the house when she's in the chair.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we shot it all in one. You know, there's like a two minute flashback that happens within it, but we shot the whole scene all at once. So she's doing all the. And she's speaking foreign languages and. Yeah, it's. It's so.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. So the last thing I want to talk to you about is a feeling that I had while watching the movie, which is I watched the movie, I think before I saw. Maybe I'd seen the teaser but had not seen the trailer, had not read anything about it. And as I was watching the movie, two things occurred to me. One, in the first 10 minutes, I was like, I think I know what's going on here. I'm not totally sure, but like you, I watch a lot of genre movies. I love genre movies. Very interested in how they're constructed. And I was right. But I'm curious to hear you talk about how much you want us to be right as the viewer. And then the second feeling that I had was this would be an amazing movie to stumble on cable and not know anything about.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

But inherently, like, you got to sell this movie, you got to market it, you got to give away certain things that when Zach Kreger read it for the first time, he didn't know anything. And he was like, holy shit. That every 10 pages construction is so mind blowing. And even in our conversation, you're just talking about the events of the film. This will come out a little bit after the movie comes out, but not too far afterwards. And so that balance between the reveal and this art that you've learned as a screenwriter to get people invested in what you're writing and what they're ultimately seeing, versus you got to get people to show up and understand what the movie's going to be that they're going to pay for, because it's very delicate balance.

[Drew Hancock]

Welcome to my life. As soon as you have Warner Brothers, or I guess it's the new line logo at the beginning of your movie. It's not. It can't be. Don't worry, darling. You have to sell what it is. It's going to be an imax. It's not a word of mouth movie. When it's an imax, you need those tickets. You need to sell those tickets. So it's tough to talk about that part of it. But then also, like, I wasn't super precious with that as. As crazy as. As that's going to sound because when I was writing it, I like, it was very important to me that we didn't fall under like the. Don't worry, darling. Like, like tr. Like, like you're selling this movie as a twist movie. Because one like, I think people watch twist movies differently than they watch just a regular movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's true.

[Drew Hancock]

They're watching it as like puzzle boxes and they're, they're not really getting in. They're not, they're, they're not letting themselves get like kind of immersed in the story. They're just. Every character that enters are like, who's this guy? Like, oh, he's acting weird. So everyone's under a microscope.

[Rob Harvilla]

I feel like Shyamalan is so, so much is held against him now when you sit down to watch his movies, whether you like them or not, for that exact reason, I love him.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah. And I think that unfairly, sometimes they call things that happen in his movies twists and it's just. No, that's a reveal. It's not a twist. You know, the aliens being, you know, like the water, like hurting the aliens is not a twist.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, it's just a part of.

[Drew Hancock]

The story that's their weakness. Yeah. But yeah, so just, you know, again, I think it's, I think when you're writing, especially when you're writing at spec, like, you have to be very calculated because you need to like one, you need like, you know, even though I say that I didn't know if it was going to get made, you also have to, you know, like I made. Speaking of mistakes I've made, like, my first spec was $150 million, like sci fi family movie. Like, and I was like, you know, I spent a year writing it and never, nothing ever happened with it. It's like, yeah, of course nothing happened. It was $150 million movie not based on any kind of pre existing IP. That was crazy of me to do that. So companion was me being like, okay, I'm going to engineer this to be something that could get made. So we're going to keep it all in one location, limit the characters. And then also knowing that it is kind of movies hinging on a twist, needing to kind of engineer the movie to still be entertaining after that's been laid out. And so before Writing it. You sit down and you go, what is this movie? Does she find out in the third act that she's a robot? What point is it a midpoint? And then when you have that, you know what movie you're telling, this is a first act twist. This isn't doing anything other than getting the story started. And so everything before that is just set up to that to. To. To. To what this, like what the. What the strangeness is. And then, you know, if it happens earlier than people expected, that's great because then they just turn their. They, they, you know, their guard goes down and they just start enjoying it. And then a twist happens within that. And then suddenly they're like, oh, I don't know what this movie is. And it. Like that.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, like that's exactly the feeling that I had, which was almost like I feel like this is telegraphic in a smart enough way that I can feel like I'm ahead of the story, even though I'm not ahead of the story. And then you have other twists or reveals or storytelling moves that we don't see coming or we're shocked by. But so bravo. I thought it was really good.

[Drew Hancock]

Thank you very much. Yeah, I appreciate that.

[Rob Harvilla]

Drew. We end every episode of this show by asking filmmakers what's the last great thing they have seen.

[Drew Hancock]

The last great thing I saw was Oddity, which I thought was unfucking believable. I saw that on a plane, which is not. I just was so busy that I couldn't go to the theater to see it. And I heard it was great. And I watched on a plane on an iPad. And the visuals are so, like, just hypnotic and just draw you in that there's a jump scare that happens in the first half. And the guy next to me went. So I was like, oh, yeah, this guy's watching my iPad. And so I was really blown away by that. So that's the last great thing that I've seen. But I just finished William Friedkin's memoir today, and that was. I loved. I listened to it and it was so special to hear him talk. And I'm just a huge Friedkin fan and I feel sad that I'm done with it.

[Rob Harvilla]

I've read that book. It's so funny that you say that because I was reading that book this week as well for something else that I'm working on, and that's just a great. The director of memoir is a bit of a tricky proposition. You know, a lot of them are like a lot of self mythologizing and his is like, such straight talk. It's very, very entertaining.

[Drew Hancock]

Like, his movies, they're raw and, like, unfinished. And I just rewatched French Connection. It's just so sloppy. But that just adds to the charm of it. And you know, this day and age where you're using AI for cleanup and you know that you. The movies could be perfection and flawless. It's. We're losing something a little bit with that. But I recommend listening to the audiobook because he does the audiobook. You know, he doesn't go off book, but they're like, his personality comes through and he's like, ah. This is a chapter where I talk about this. Yes. You're a great man. I loved him so much.

[Rob Harvilla]

I felt very lucky to get to talk to him before he passed on the show. And he lives up. It was a really special experience. Great recommendations, Drew. Congrats.

[Drew Hancock]

Thank you very much.

[Rob Harvilla]

Thanks for coming on.

[Drew Hancock]

Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[Rob Harvilla]

Foreign. Thank you to Drew Hancock. Thanks to Jack Sanders. Thanks to our producer Bobby Wagner for his work on today's episode. As we said, next week on the show, Mailbag Time. Email us@bigpick mailbagmail.com we'll see you then.