The Player (1992) - A Satirical Masterpiece of Hollywood

0:00 The critics are calling The Player a masterpiece. Be funny, Yeah, it'll be funny, smart. You're gonna have to have a little sexisms. Hen sure if we'll get all sophisticated. Have you seen someone else? No? Two hardy group and several hundred of my best friends. Brilliant, It's out of Africa. It's pretty Woman, a delectable high comedy fascinata. We do not arrestaurant ours s LA four stars. Yes, Robert Altman's The Player ready. Ar in a world where podcasts reign supreme. Two friends dare to ask Do You Even?

0:43 Movie? Hosted by filmmaker Enrique Kuto and movie officionado David Denyer. Spoiler alert, Hey my friends, and welcome back to Do You Even? Movie? I'm your host Enrique Kuto here with double D David Denoyer. Greetings, who is now art movie? David? This week? Is that a fact? Well, you picked the film and it's a bit of an art film.

1:24 It's a bit of an art film. I would not call it an entire art film now, but I would call it it has art film tendency, which I think most of Robert Oltman's output has that. Even mash Yeah, which is a raunchy comedy, has kind of artsy film tendencies to it, like the way it's shot. His voyeuristic thing. I struggle with if I love it or it annoys me. It was it was interesting to watch you throughout this movie because this, like as you pointed out, the pacing in this is not exactly like lightning fast, but it's purposeful. Ya, So it's not like it's slow because they don't know what they're doing. And that's not the problem. Yeah, I mean you're the problem.

2:06 I'm always the problem. But yeah, So this week we are talking about nineteen ninety two's the. Player, That's when I was born. Which have you ever heard my theory that ninety two for movies ever? You got Terminator two, you got Eddie Presley, two of my all time favorites, favor same year and they couldn't be more different in every Waysolutely, I used to sit up at night on two B when I was really really bored during the pandemic. Yeah, and I put in nineteen ninety two, and about half of your results will be from the year at least back when I searched it back then. I don't know if it works as well now, but so I would watch I would just like get my fill of like nineteen ninety two, cable movies, nineteen ninety two, this nineteen ninety two. That there was a period of time where I was watching only movies for ninety two every night before I went to sleep, Remember that period, And so that was like very fun. But yeah, so ninety two. I have a soft spot for nineteen ninety two, at least the home video era of ninety two, because I was watching Terminator two again and again and again and again, and I just realized I was trying to for the lighting set up of the office or of the studio round. I was trying to come up with something that could vaguely fit this, and now I'm looking at it, it's just Halloween.

3:27 God damn it. This is the perfect light setup for when Halloween comes. But why is it here? Everybody? If you're listening to this out loud, sorry, Alexa, back lights, daylight, just want to I'm just gonna make it look more because we're not talking about Monster Me. No, we're not talking about I know what you did last summer. Were essentially talking about all movies. The way the film goes in a sense. Well, and I have to say this is part of our somehow, yes say it. I was gonna say our Martin Mole Appreciation I was not going to disgusting. You're not find gross. It sounds like something you would find like that you would scrape off of your foot.

4:09 Are you going to bring up something every time that we say m augusts now too late? It just sounds like, you know, like like uh, like you like if your foot was so infected you have to cut it off with a knife. Is not the foot the infection You have to sit there with a potato peeler just getting that mull gust off you. But you can also make it, make it a fun time. And you know, we could do the Old West solution. What was it of basically inventing a sickness by having an animal and then the. Any an animal and a body part is an Old West sickness. I got rabbit foot, huh ah, he he got tortoise toe, tortoise you got, he got, he got shrew knows they all sound like actual ailments from back then. No, but uh, but so as this is your pick for Martin Mole Appreciation Month, because we're appreciating the late great Martin Male.

4:58 He doesn't even speak. He does not speak in this movie. That this full disclosure at the top of the episode. This was a pick because I solely wanted to talk about this movie because I just saw this movie for the first time this year, and I remembered that Martin Maull was in it. Plus it appeared on his filmography on letter. So you thought, why not dance on Mal's grave and use his death as an excuse? Is he not in the movie? Not really? I mean, he doesn't say a word. Is it in this movie? There are a lot of celebrities in this movie that are are not saying anything. We'll get into it, but I. Was shocked when Male popped up because I actually made a joke to you. I was like, watch him just be an extra and You're like, no, he is, and I was like, we said.

5:43 This last week. Male's filmography is a bit of slim pickings, and I unfortunately have not seen FM, which is it has gotten good reviews on letterbox and IMDb, so I'm curious about it. My bodyguards a possibility that we talked about Missus Dufire's possibility, like his his filmography is so limited that for for for film, we we kind of have to go with what we know. I mean, at this point we could have just went would Dance with Death? At least he said something, and dance with Death? I actually really like dance with death. Death is still an option. We'll see, Uh. I mean I I try to pick movies that are vaguely accessible. Yea, and hey, this is accessible on two services. Mind you though to pay services of course.

6:24 Uh. If you want to watch yourself some the player, you can catch it on Max or the Criterion channel. So uh yeah. So if you're if you're like, well, I don't want Max. I want everybody to know I'm better than you the Criteria period. Which shout out to our buddy Matt van Deist who lets me use his That is a crime, is it? That's against the terms of use. Well, you shouldn't have said his full name. That was a good luck with that. You you learn how to edit the podcast, you can bleep it out. I was not gonna like sell out a buddy for sharing that. Given yes, I did sell him out. You just sold him out hardcore. That's okay, It's okay, he doesn't anyway, Well, but Criterion does Criterion totally does they do so. But before we get to all that really quick, we just got back from the theater and we were seeing M Night Shamalan's newest film, Trap.

7:22 Which we will say we recorded this on the night that the movie did come out. Yeah, we saw it opening night, well, preview night, and uh, this is the thriller with Josh Hartnett about a pop concert that is being secretly turned into a police sting. And our main character, Josh Hartnett, is a serial killer and he's trying to escape because they figured out he would be there, but they didn't know who he is. They had like five descriptions they were looking at. Basically, they end up checking every man, every man, every adult man that's there. So we went and saw it opening night, preview night, and I thought, unlike David, No, no, I'm just being straight up because it's important to be like unlike you. I really loved that. Oh yeah, yeah, I thought it was. It was a solid thriller. Huh. It returned to form for M Night Shyamalan. I didn't dislike Knock Out the Cabin.

8:17 It was. This is terrible for me to say it wasn't it? Is it wasn't forgettable, but it's not high on my list at all. Really, I liked it. It was tense as hell. Oh, it was extremely tense, and I liked Old as well. Old as Old is one that I really really like. It's gotten way better on a couple of watches with me too. It's it is a genuinely terrifying movie for me to be honest afraid of getting old. It's just the way that the way that movie goes with its story, its characters, and everything in between of a day and what it can do to somebody's life terrifying. Yes, I'm afraid of getting old. There happy thirty one? Huh thirty TWOHI when.

9:00 I think better is when you're older. So but so Trap is out. I loved it. I think it's one of my favorite films I've seen in the theater this year, especially in the horror realm. I'm the outlier. A lot of people have been shocked to hear this because they hear me seeing Long Legs and Maxine and Staying and Late Night with the Devil all these scenes in theaters. Yeah, and then they're like, what's your favorite horror movie of the year, And I'm like, Oh, that would be a quiet place day one, and they're all like what. And then it's funny because at first I was like, I guess it's weird to have that be a favorite. Hey, it outsold all of those other horror movies combined, and it was just damn good. And then I and then I found out a month later that it was directed by the writer and director of Pig, and that's a phenomenal.

9:45 Film, possible. Stay tuned on the show that Could be, That could be. Pig is an excellent film. Yeah. So but no, So I love Trap. You I know you didn't I get it to say five stars on Letterbox while I was in the THEA. Yeah, that's just because you want everybody to pay attention to you. No, it's it's more so because this Trap is my favorite horror film, if not possibly favorite film. With twenty twenty four so far, it's the first film that I've given five stars to on Letterbox for the year. Do you want? Do you want me to be quiet so you can tell Ty West to fuck himself? No, it's not Ty West. N Ty West is not at the fuck himself. We've already had the discussion of Maxine on the show. We did like it. Yeah, Maxim is far and pearls of goddamn masterpiece.

10:25 But Trap got me so good because I can't say anything without giving away too much. But if you go by the two trailers that have been released so far, you have an idea what the movie is gonna be. You have no fucking idea what the third acts gonna be. Yeah, No, that's absolutely true. Yeah, and it all works. Josh Hartnett is so terrifying in this movie, Like I was getting uncomfortable with the close up shots of it. Well, he's off putting. He's so off, which is really fascinating. The way and the way they filmed him and the way they filmed his dialogue scenes. Yeah, like makes you uneasy. Yeah, And I mean I was telling you in the theater that, Like, I've been playing a lot of Hitman two recently because it's a great stress reliever for one, but also trying to get all the goals met on that game is very tough but a lot of fun.

11:08 This movie is just feels like one giant Hitman level for a bit. It's the most white boy thing I've ever heard. Anne is a great stress reliever. Bro dude, I don't give a shit. It is my fail listen olymp biscuit until my dickhead stepdad comes out. By If I fuck up a mission, I can just kill everybody, which is always nice. Yeah yeah yeah. And also you can run through those mines. Bruh. People are like, why don't you like playing video games? Because my friend is Dave. Well, real quick, before we finish up our points about Trap, yes, do you want to plug your friggin' letterbox because you you know you have one and you just said you did. I mean, you can find my letterbox at David's watching movies again, which is David s w wm A yeah WMX.

11:53 I keep forgetting it because they wouldn't let me put the full title in there, like it is on my Instagram. So if anybody wants to be really unhappy David S Pumpkins at at David S Pumpkins. So anyway, but Trapped cannot or Trap rather, ye cannot recommend enough to go see it in the theater. I hope it kills this opening weekend. But me, as we said, we're recording this before it has been reported, so I have no idea what's gonna happen. And we also, for the record, did see a new trailer for Speak to Evil, which I told you I found out recently as a remake of a twenty twenty two foreign film. But the new trailer really step things up for me, with a lot more of Macavoy talking and not just being menacing.

12:36 No. It that's what they that's what they've gotten really good at doing at these smaller studios that are putting out horror movies like Neon and stuff like that, is getting really good at giving you the least amount the first trailer, like really the least amount, to the point where when the next trailer drops, you kind of like, even if you're sitting there like eating your popcorn talking your buddy, you look go, oh, I haven't seen these scenes? Yeah what is this? Yeah, And that's the way I felt when that trailer drop tonight. I was like, oh, man, I'm like learning what the movie's really about and not just getting a sense of the tone. Yeah, so yeah, that looks really good. But yeah, Trap highly recommend. You think it could be thrown trap in your mind. I doubt it. I don't know. I don't know, man, Trap. Trap met every expectation possible for me, and then some because I was already going into the idea of it essentially being what we've discussed off Mike. I don't want to give me spoilers, but we thought it was gonna be what it turned out to be. Blew me away. And that's all I can really say about it.

13:33 Blew you got it, blew me swim me hard. So with all that out of the way, Yes, shall we dive into nineteen ninety Two's the player? We shall? So we're talking about the Player from nineteen ninety two, two hours and four minutes, rateed R for language and for some sensuality. And you'll notice every minute, yes you will. There are two scenes that are pretty heavy on it. Our director on the film is Robert Altman. It's on this man's resume, with his directing starting in nineteen forty eight with Bodyguard, he got a story credit for his directing doesn't start until fifty seven, though, with The Delinquents, where he was writer, producer and director on He did a director on Albert Hitchcock Presents to fifty seven m Squad Maverick Bonanza, Combat The Cold Day in the Park mash in nineteen seventy which you already talked about the feature film, the feature film TV TV show, yeah, which if you have not seen the feature film of Mash, it is absolutely worth the watch.

14:26 Oh yeah, no, it's it's a it's a great film. But it's just it's so different from everything else that was out. I can't believe it was a huge hit because it was so odd, and I can't believe that anybody would watch Mash and go, you know what, this needs to be a sickles track, Like, let's make it a sitcom. Every week people are going to watch these guys do uh you know, surgeon death stuff. Mash also containing the first instance of fuck ever being united no film? Is that real? Accurate? That is the first f bomb ever on film, ever on film, ember on film, on a major motion picture. Oh okay, okay, so now the qualifiers come out. What on a studio studio movie? My apologies? What other I'm not even get into this.

15:14 Do You Even? Movie? Will be right back, welcome back to Do You Even movie? Brister McLoud in nineteen seventy mccab and Missus Miller in seventy one, which he is writer and director on Images in seventy two, writer and director, The Long Goodbye in seventy three, Thieves Like Us in seventy four, California Split, Nashville in seventy five, Buffalo's Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History, Lesson in seventy six, which he's writer and director on Three Women, A Wedding, Quintet, The Perfect Couple, Popeye in nineteen eighty. Then he does. Beyond Therapy, which he's writer and director on Basements, The Player in ninety two, Shortcuts in ninety three, Ready to Wear in ninety four, can A City in ninety six, The gingerbread Man in ninety eight, Not the Ginger Dead Man, Thank God, Doctor t and the Woman in two thousand, Gospel Park two thousand and one, The Company in two thousand and three, and Prairie Home Companion in two thousand and six. He unfortunately passed in two thousand and six as well, at the age of eighty one, due to do leukemia.

16:14 I can't believe how few of his movies I've watched in the same in the nineties. I was really surprised. I thought this might have been the only film he did in the nineties. Use I had no idea. Yeah, he was going for a while there, which I'll get into a little bit more about The Player in shortcuts when we get into the trivia at the end of the episode. Moving on down to our writer, it's Michael Tolkien who did the novel for The Player. He gets his start, ironically in Delta House seventy nine. Oh, we talked about that last week. Yep. He was a writer on that Taxi in eighty Gossip in eighty two, Gleaming the Cube in eighty nine. I don't know that Christian Slater skateboard crime movie. Oh lord, yeah, okay, yeah, The Rapture in ninety one, which he's writer and director on, The Player in ninety two, which he eats, novel and screenplay for Deep Cover in nineteen ninety two, which he wrote the screenplay for Deep Cut.

17:00 Laurence Fishburne is the undercover cop with gold Bloom. Oh yeah, that's a good one. That's a really good one, very good movie. The New Age, which he's writer director on in ninety four, The Burning Season in ninety four, The Player in ninety two, Deep no the Player TV movie in ninety seven. There's a TV movie by. The way, what, yeah, how does that happen? Five years later? There's a TV movie called The Player, which I kind of wanted to track down, but also I don't know if I want. To, you know, I'll dig up some info about it while you're deep. Impact in nineteen ninety eight, Changing Lanes in two thousand and two, Masters of Science Fiction in two thousand and seven, Nine in two thousand and nine, which she's a screenplay writer for Ray Donovan episodes in twenty fourteen. Oh okay, Escape at Dana Rama in twenty eighteen, and he most recently created the offer, the TV series about the Godfather, The Making of the Godfather in twenty twenty two.

17:46 Really that was him. That's a really good series. Yeah. Moving on down to our cinematographer. It is Jean Lapine. He gets his start as assistant camera and come back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean in eighty two, Lucian Brolliard and nineteen eighty three, Streamers in eighty three, Secret Honor Mario in eighty four, Full for Love in eighty five, Shoots the OC and STIGs in eighty five, The Boy in Blue, Nowhere to Hide, the Cane Mutiny, Court Marshall cinematographer On Tanner in eighty eight, which is another Altman productions of the TV series he did, Vincent and Theo, another movie he did in the ninety The Player in ninety two, Bob Roberts in ninety two, A Home of Our Own in ninety three, Ready to Wear in ninety four, Habitat Hysteria A cool, dry place to walk with lions, The Intruder in nineteen ninety nine, Coast to Coast two thousand and three, Ambulance Girl two thousand and five, and Crossroads A Story Forgiveness in two thousand and seven. Huh Yeah, not a lot that I recognized.

18:33 Yeah, which is really rarity. Yeah, this was a guy that Altman used a lot from from what they said on the bonus features. Well, before you continue, yes, I looked up The Player in nineteen ninety seven TV movie, So it wasn't a TV movie. Okay, let me tell you. Don't look at the fucking screen. I'm not looking. I'm not looking at apologies. We're having a conversation conversation here. Yeah. Well, so nineteen ninety seven TV movie it was actually a pilot. Oh, based on the film The Player, which means that somebody thought this should be a series, but you got it. Guys. Remember we're not talking about the heyday of HBO. We're talking about the heyday of episodic TV being very consistent and a little boring. Yeah. So apparently it was written by Michael Tolkien, as you said, starred Patrick Dempsey and Michael Parks.

19:27 Holy shit. So Dempsey, I'm guessing is Griffin Mills and is Parks Levinson? Yeah, no, shit, that's really cool. Although it says Frank Levison Levison instead of wasn't. He Joel Jolson? Yeah? Yeah, so it's a different name. But I can't find much info. I don't know if this is available anywhere to watch. Probably I can hunt it down if you want me to. Possibly. I did find out La Confidential also got a pilot series that was a total dogshit from what I've read about it. Apparently there were a lot of movie pilots that just everybody forgot about, and thank goodness that they did. So. Moving down our IMDb synopsis, it says a Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected.

20:10 But which one? That's pretty good, I mean, considering it's impossible to really say what the hell the Player is about. This is true. My synopsis says, when studio executive Gryffin Mill begins, Gryffin Mills begins to receive threatening postcards from a writer who screenplay he didn't accept. Griffin has pulled into a web of blackmail, murder, and movie pitches. All right, that's cute, that's cute. We'll give a little. That was cute. I like that. I found one two minute clip from the Player in nineteen ninety seven on YouTube. So well, I mean, I can I can check my sources. I might be able to find a whole episode or the whole video or whatever. I have no idea how long it is. It's weird that it's listed as a TV movie. Yeah, but and it doesn't have there's no run time on IMDb or anything.

20:55 Probably three hours long at least. So but no, not a bad breakdown. Well I appreciate that. So moving on to our cast. We have Tim Robbins who plays Griffin millin this. He gets his start on in nineteen eighty two on St Elsewhere, Quarterback, Princess in eighty three, Santa Barbara in eighty four, The Love Boat in eighty four, No Small Affair in eighty four, appears in the Short Thing in eighty five, Moonlighting, Fraternity Vacation, Amazing Stories in eighty six, Top Gun in eighty six, Howard the Duck in eighty six, Five Corners eighty seven, Bull Durham in eight eighty eight, Twister, No, not that Twister, the one from nineteen eight nine, Cadillac Man in ninety, Jacob's Latter in nineteen ninety, Jungle Fever ninety one, does the Player in ninety two. Same year, he writes and directs Bob Roberts in ninety two, Short Cuts in ninety three, The Hudsucker Proxy in ninety four, Shawshank, Redemption in ninety four, Ready to Wear in ninety four, IQ in ninety four, Dead Man Walking, which he's the director on in ninety five, Nothing to Lose in ninety seven, Arlington Road in ninety nine.

21:50 He does autoin Powers This is by shagm Me in ninety nine, The Simpsons Mission to Mars, High Fidelity, Anti Trust, and of course missic River in two thousand and three. As a well, my lord, he was busy, He was a very busy. Did he just die? No, remember I'm only I'm only going a certain amount on some of these actors. Oh, okay, so he died, he did not die. Dave says he died. I'm basically only a decade after the movie to see what happened with the movie in regards of his career, and everybody else's. What I'm just looking at you. We've discussed this before. Moving on down. We have Cynthia Stevenson, who plays Bonnie Chirou in this. She gets her start in eighty seven on Max Headroom, New Heart in nineteen eighty nine, Cheers in eighty nine, Double Your Pleasure eighty nine, Empty Nest in nineteen ninety, Major Dad ninety one, The Player ninety two, Watch It ninety three, dream On in ninety four.

22:35 I vaguely remember her on dream On. Forget Paris in ninety five, Home for the Holidays in ninety five, Yes, Yep, Hope and Gloria ninety five, Aliy mcbeale ninety eight, Happiness in ninety eight, Airbo. Course, Oh yes, soon to come to the procritarion. No, you don't want to talk about happiness, not not really? No, what a letdown? Airbud Golden Receiver in ninety eight, Oh Baby, ninety eight, King of the Hill two thousand and two, A Cody Banks two thousand and three, according to Gym two thousand and three, Dead Like Me in two thousand. That's what I remember her the most is dead Like Oh no, I fully remember because I watched Dead Like Me all the way through multiple times. Did you ever see the TV movie The Show's Up? Yeah? What'd you think? I mean? I liked having a wrap up. It wasn't it wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed.

23:16 It was fun. Six Feet Under two thousand and five, The L Word in two thousand and six, and Monk in two thousand and six. As well, Oh okay. And wrapping us Up, even though I say wrapping us up because everybody's in this movie. But the last big one is Fred Ward, who plays Walter stuck Allen. This he gets to start in seventy four, and Ginger in the Morning, Quincy Mme in seventy six, Tilt in seventy nine, Escape from Alcatraz in seventy nine, The Incredible Hulk in seventy nine, Carney in nineteen eighty, Southern Comfort, The Right Stuff, Silkwood, uncommon valor, swing shift Remo Williams. The adventure begins a god damn right, hold the yeah, Remo Williams, that's the first applause. Yes, that movie. Back when I lived in Jersey, I had a buddy who was obsessed with that film. It's a fun movie, and he would he would put it on like when we were all like tired and starting to conk out. He'd be like, time for Remo Williams.

24:03 But of course my favorite it's credit of his is in here. The Hitchhiker in eighty seven, Off Limits in eighty eight, Big Business in eighty eight. Then in nineteen ninety he does a little film called Tremors. God damn right he does that. He does Catch Fire aka Backtrack in nineteen ninety, Mimi Blues, The Dark Wind, Cast a Deadly Spell in ninety one, The Player in ninety two. Same year he does Thunderheart, Bob Roberts, Four Eyes and Six Guns in ninety two, Shortcuts in ninety three, Tremor's Two Aftershocks in ninety. Six, Greatest Film of all Time, Chain Reaction. In ninety six, Best Man ninety seven, Invasion Earth ninety eight, The Chaos Factor two thousand, Road Trip in two thousand and The Crow Salvation in two thousand. As well, the best Crow film. It's one of my favorites. Actually, you haven't even seen it, and I'm going to show it to you, So don't worry, okay, I.

24:48 Mean, as long as we can still watch, I'll always know what you did last summer. It'll happen. I'm sure I know. The player is currently available on Maxic Criterion. As who says you can also rener by this river you get it. In regards to the Criterion, it is loaded with bonus content. Cannot recommend it enough. I watched to basically all of it to prepare for the show. We already know. Your first time watching was. Just now, wait you prepare for the show? I do, how rude? I'm going to click X to doubt. Oh yeah, dex to doubt. So my first time watching this, I was assigned this movie. I belonged to a Discord group that we do this thing called Mandatory Film School where basically, like two or three every two or three months, we do a like two month course where we all go through each other's letterbox list and pick movies depending on the assignment of the person running the class.

25:36 Sounds horrible. It's a lot of fun. It's how I've seen a lot of it. Sounds like being in school again. Anyway, the player got a sign to me. I had known about the movie. I had had heard it was good, but I hadn't seen it. And I mean, needless to say it, it blew me away the first time watching it because I just did not expect it to go to the levels it did. Also have the star power it did. And also I mean that that opening tracking shot, which we'll get into here in a lot little bit. It was pretty cool. Yeah, I know, it's pretty cool. And it's just got that old timey Hollywood feel the movie old timey, old timey studio, studio budget did studio. But granted that was thirty two, thirty two years ago, but yeah, studio. It's just got that studio Hollywood feel to it. And I love movies about making movies, so this is an easy one for me too.

26:18 It's barely a movie about making movies. No, it's a show business movie. Show business movie. But I'm not I'm not trying to crap on your point. Yeah, what I'm saying is a movie about making a movie has a set. I said, making movies. I still don't think it's we. Go to three different sets, by the way, barely maybe we do. You fell asleep for one, I did. I'm not gonna lie. I'm just saying, like living in Oblivion, that's a movie about movie. Yeah, that's that's entirely you know, that's the brutal yeah bow finger. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just saying this is more to me, more of a show business movie. Yeah, it absolutely is. That's all I'm saying. I'm not like it's it's it's just a little bit of better.

27:02 I will entirely fuck off the podcast now, it's fine. Awesome, all right, guys, good news. It's just you and me. Now, don't worry about here. I'll mute him. Here we go. Don't worry about everything, guys. So rude, what No, Dave's out and I'm gonna tell you all about your lifestyle choices. Baby, But no, I was immediately went over by the movie, and I was honestly excited to show you. I was kind of surprised you hadn't seen it, but especially since it was ninety two as. Well, I'm surprised I hadn't seen it as well. Yeah, so you want to get into it now, let's just wrap it up now, all right, Well, thanks for listening, all right, thanks guys, audios. No, but I will say I mean I liked the film. Yeah. I think that what really drives the movie to work better is that it's nostalgic. It's a snapshot of nineteen ninety two Hollywood. Yeah, and that makes it a lot more fun. I think if I had, well, if i'd see in nineteen eighty two, I would have been a child, a very young child.

28:05 But I think if I had seen it, I don't know, when I was like eighteen, I probably would have thought it was okay. But a little boring. Time has been kind to the film and definitely made it more exciting for me. And that's my initial opinion of it. It is a little slow. It is a little slow. And also I will say it is it is a dialogue driven film. In regards to specific things that are said, well not I'm going to try to recap them as best I can, but we can't cover everything that happens in this movie. Well, in a way, very little happens. Yeah, Because when there's a lot of dialogue, you know. It's a lot of movie pitches too well. Look, as a person who has has written a bunch of screenplays and developed a bunch of screenplays, you literally, when you're outlining a screenplay, you literally say what it's like, what you do, but in reverse where you narrow it down after watching it. When you're right screenplay, it'll be like the outline is literally like so and so and so and so meet up at a diner. They discuss blank and blank and decide blank, that's it. That could be four pages, that could be four minutes on screen, that could be five minutes on screen, that could be one minute on screen. It's very like that. So that's kind of my point of like I have a feeling this is gonna zoom by because most of it is people talking, and the point is kind of secondary. Altman's kind of tapping into like well he always was kind of tapping into like pre mumble core. Yeah sometimes, Yeah,

29:35 this one's a bit more mainstream. Sure, I was gonna say a bit more like disciplined. It's like a little bit less leading into like the super improvenus, which makes it honestly a little bit easier to follow. Not that I don't like the Cassavetti style and stuff. That stuff is fun and sometimes you get fucking gold from that stuff. Absolutely so. But I will say, yeah, there's there's a lot of that kind of like the camera's really far away, Yeah, it pulls in. We've got kind of a long Friday, long good Friday situation here again and with a Dave pick not un ironically. Yeah, but it's the same thing of like, yes, stuff happens in this movie, but the meat and potatoes of it is everything that's happening around the core plot.

30:20 Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean for sure, Yeah, do. You Even movie will be right back, welcome back to do You Even movie? Anyway, do what you must say. So we open with a shot of the clapboard. We hear quite on the set, and we just see a beautiful painting as we get the title of the player, and that's when we get a eight minute tracking shot of a studio lot. Was it really eight minutes long? Wow? It felt like five. I mean it goes by quick, but I mean it's it is. The First time I saw this, I was just enamored by how smooth it is. Like you don't even realize, honestly that it's all it's a crane shot.

31:06 Yeah, I mean I I mean it was good. Yeah, but I mean Goodfellas wipes its butt with it. That Remember the shot where they go through the inside. They go through the back door of the restaurant all the way to the front with any young men. Yeah, but they don't go around an entire studio a lot. No, it's harder to go through a restaurant than it would be to go they're outdoors. Not again, I'm not crapping on it. I'm just saying, like literally what they did was like they're on a crane, so like the camera goes way up and then it's like there's this turn go back down. It's not like they had to have a camera op walking through hallways and stuff. I mean, it was turning and zooming and turning and zooming, which Altman loved. Zoom loves zooms, so it makes sense. And it was a really cool way to kind of introduce the idea that everybody's doing every stuff all at the same time, absolutely, and that there there's not a lot of synergy and everybody's kind of a phony. I mean, I like all of that, Yeah, I do. I'm I thought that that was a cool way to open it, yeah, but I mean I've seen one shots that were way more.

32:06 Like well, and I think what I really like about this is it establishes basically all of our main players in the movie. I mean, because we meet everybody in this in this first five minute five eight minutes, the players, the players, because only the only person we don't meet is the love interest, but she comes soon enough. Well, the other love love interest. Yet you're not wrong. So we see a secretary getting scolded or an assistan getting scolded by the secretary of the studio. We see the huge studio. Lot, and then we watch somebody drive up in a range rover, and that's we meet Griffin Mills played by Tim Robbins. He steps out and he's immediately bombarded by a guy with the movie pitch. And this is one of a hundred movie pitches in this movie. There are so many movie pitches, and I do like that's a lot of them. They did in that mumble core kind of improvy way, because like they start talking over each other. And I don't even think I picked up half the pitches because of that. Oh yeah, I mean the pitchure I thought was funny. I couldn't even I couldn't even follow the pitch.

33:02 They're quick pitches too, Like, I mean, because he because Griffins are like five words or less. Yeah, So I mean Griffin steps out and he's immediately bombarded by a guy with the pitch and he walks past him. Then we meet Walter Stuckout, who's the head of security at the studio. Then we followed Griffin into his office, but we're outside of a window as he's getting pitched, which is the Graduate too, by the original writer of The Graduate by the way. Yeah, and his pitch is terrible. That's terrible. It just sounds like such a piece of crime. Like this is Robinson is in a coma but it's supposed to be funny, and. She lives with the guy and the girl who got married at the end of the Yeah, like what. So Griffin goes into his office, we see a bunch of movie pitches. We also meet Bonnie Chirou on the lot and she's tending to an injured guy who it gets hit by a male cart, so he's down on the ground.

33:42 There's a lot of chaos, had I don't. See how the gender of the cart is relevant. We see a lot of chaos on the movie lot, but also meet again all the players of the movie. Yeah. No, it's a great way to introduce everybody. Including Joel Levinson. He's the head of the studio. He arrives and he goes in for a meeting, and we also hear discussions people are walking past that somebody is moved being into the studio and that there may be a buyout happening. Larry Levy is or Levy is a name that's thrown around who is originally from Fox, but he has left Fox early to come go into the studio. Well, what they're saying is that right now the studio is in a downturn. Yeah, which they talk about how like it's happened to Universal, it's happened at Paramount, and right now we're having it. So they they because they mentioned as the plot progresses that that having anything that could put the studio in a worse position would leave them open to getting bought out or getting a hostile takeover or whatever. So they're very careful. They need. All they need right now is like nobody to do anything fucked up and for a hit top.

34:40 For a hit to happen. Yeah, So we keep hearing names being dropped on these pitches of who they want Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts over and over again. I don't know if you know this, but that's I mean, that's how you pitch. Oh yeah, no, but like I mean when you pitch to a studio sort even like a larger indie studio. Yeah, you literally your goal is to get them to visit visualize your pitch so that they'll say yes. Well, so that's also like keep comparing movies like what is it Pretty Woman meets Out of Africa. Oh yeah, that's a very common one too. But like you'll literally you could literally be in a pitch meeting and say, like, we have a daring, handsome, strong hero, Think the Rock. You may never in a billion years get the Rock. You just say think the Rock because you're trying to get them to see the movie in their stupid little brains so that they'll say yes and they'll give you some money. But like, it's funny because one of my favorite scenes is coming up a little bit.

35:37 When they pitch it, the guy is just going crazy. He's like making sound effects and all this stuff. Some of the best pitches are done that way. Yeah, because executives have zero, zero fucking imagination. So if you got sock puppets, pull them off your goddamn toe. Make your sale anyway. So we go. We hear Griffin as like possibly getting replaced by Larry Levy, and that's when we go into Griffin's office. He's getting another pitch for a movie. When we saw the guy get taken out by the cart, we also went into a close up on a postcard, and as Griffin sitting in the studio hearing this pitch from this other guy, he gets the postcard. He turns it over and it says, I hate your guts, asshole. It sure does, and that's when Griffin ends his pitch meeting.

36:25 He goes to see Joel Levinson walking into a secret meeting in progress that he had no idea was happening. Yeah, I'm not happy with the postcards. Yeah, I know you're not. I gotta be honest, I know you're not. So Levinson welcomes him and he introduces him to Reg Goldman, who is wanting to get into producing pictures. Griffin excuses himself and he goes to Levinson's secretary, Celia, who tells him, you know, don't ask what's going on, like, don't worry about it, and you know, don't feel threatened by Reggie, and Griffin tells her that he's not worried about it. He's more so worried about Larry Levy and she's like, oh, don't worry about Larry, Like he's just being brought in as you know, just somebody that we're using that just recently left Fox. Yeah, he's joining the team. He's joining the team. So Celia won't give Hi much information.

37:07 So Gryffin has were going to lunch, and that's when we see he's at this place and once again surrounded by celebrities. We see Martin Maull and Jelicie Houston, John Cusack, I mean just Griffin goes to introduce himself to Houston and Cusack and they really don't want. Anything to do with him. They're pretty quick, yes, And. The entire reason we're supposedly watching the film. Martin Maull is sitting at a table diagonal. And he's like drinking some water or something and laughing. He does laugh maybe, So that's when he requests, like they sitting now with his friends and he requests, you know, can we talk about anything this on Hollywood. You know, we're we're civilized people. And the table goes quiet for a little bit and then just erupts into laughter. Yeah it's a pretty good moment. Yeah.

37:48 So that's when he also goes to his car. He gets his car from the valet, and this time he has another postcard on his car with the Humphrey Bogart on the thing and it says, I told you my idea, you told me, you get back to me, well with a question mark. Gee, I wonder what's up with these postcards? I sure hope that it's not a waste of time. Not a waste of time. When I started watching the movie, I thought the whole point of the movie was gonna be the postcard. Well, we'll find out, I guess. I mean, in a way it is, And in a way it's not me. I'm not that's being as. Fair as Yeah you're you're critiquing. Yeah no, but I mean, like, in a way you could argue that the postcards are so important. Yeah, that I'm way off. But I just think that the when we get there, that final payoff on the postcards. Not a fan, just not a fan of the payoff I get it. I get it.

38:34 So we find out he's gotten five of these postcards now in two weeks. Jan His one of his assistants is telling him, you know, why don't you talk to security, And Griffin's like, you know, well, I don't really have a reason to go to them. Like what am I gonna say? Like I'm being stalked by somebody, but I can't figure out who it is. Yeah. Really, So he basically says that he's just gonna figure the sun on his own. So then Bonnie comes in, sits in his lap, and she asked about going to the Springs this week, and he says, you know, well, actually I got invited to a party at Dick Mellon's house tonight, which we'll find out is his lawyer. I was so excited when I first heard because I thought he said Dick Miller's yeah, And I was like, oh, man, We're going to a party Dick Miller's. Hey, I got some I got some can soup. Do you want some soup? Hey? Only twenty five cents. So they run into Marley Mantlin at the party and Griffin also introduces Bonnie to Dick Mellon. Griffin then tries to talk to Dick about the postcards, but he's telling him you know again, he's like, you know, I don't know what's going on. I think it's a pissed off writer.

39:24 And Dick Mellan kind of again like he's like, you know, well, you shouldn't worry about it. You know, if it comes with something, it'll become a something, and kind of waves him off again. Yeah, well, it seems like nobody likes him very much. Yeah, which, by the way, just in reflecting on this film, Yeah, that's the way it is. Like nobody in the Hollywood system. It's like if you're not a winner, nobody gives a fuck about you. Yeah, then your studio has a hit or two, and then all of a sudden, Burt Reynolds will be nice to you again. Yeah. Yeah, you're not wrong. So that's that's the way it is. So when you're when you're down low, people love to walk on your neck, yeah, and then when you're up high, they love to walk on your cock. I guess. I will also mention at the party, we do see Jack Lemon playing piano. We never talked to him. He's just there playing piano, I.

40:10 Know, but he also he looks miserable. Did you notice that, like a little bit like And the funny thing is I looked at was like, man, Jack Lemmon looks rough, and I was like, this is not was it? This was right before grumpy old Yeah, I was gonna say, right before he looked way healthier at the old men. So Griffin notices also Larry Levy as they're actually talking to Jeff Goldblum with the party playing Jeff Goldbloom. Wearing amazing, wearing a sweater that I cannot publicly comment on. So my lord, Yeah, that's when he notices Larry is there and at the party, like Dick confirms, you know, hey, like the rumors are true, because Griffin has been saying for the first couple of scenes like you know, well, you know's anything happening. They're like, oh no, no, it's just rumors. And he's like, you should always believe the rumors.

40:52 You're just the last person to believe them. Yeah, yeah it was. And he's like, but his response is I'm the last one to hear the last one to hear about it. Yeah. Yeah. So it's clear that Griffin's job is actually in jeopardy now, and he gets this confirmed. So that's when we cut to Bonnie and Griffin back at his place and they are together in jacuzzi as Bonnie is reading a sex scene from a script that she's reading, and she's also nude, and they're just listening to the script as she reads it, and then he also starts talking about a script idea that he has, but in reality, he's actually pitching his own problem with a postcard stalker. It was a weird scene, but I liked it, yeah, because basically it's like he needs advice on his life, Yeah, but he won't tell her that it's his life, so he presents it as a work problem. Yeah, and then she tries to solve it as a work problem by basically telling him what she thinks the next logical step in the story.

41:44 Would be, and how long he's going to be stalking him. Yeah, she says, like, I think five months is like what she gives it. Yeah, but it's it's such a weird moment where I feel like it really suggests how he cannot be real. Yeah, how is whole life is a fugazi because this is literally a woman that he's openly dating. They're spending a lot of time together. They they're clearly not just a workplace flame. Yeah, she like sits on his lap in front of people. Yep, they all know that they're dating. And then he has a real serious personal problem and he presents it as a script problem. Script. Yeah, why not just tell her, Hey, somebody's harassing me. And honestly, it wouldn't even hurt his his status because he pisses a lot of people.

42:31 Off well, and not to mention too, Like she even asked. She's like, you know, well, why don't you guys the writer? He's like, oh, I don't know who it is. She's like, you don't know the writer of the screenplay you just pitched me. I mean it's some kids from a TV. Yes, So she kind of sees through his shit right away. So then we next see he's out to another lunch and going to a meeting with Levinson this time, and Burt Reynolds is now out to lunch with I didn't recognize who it was, but. Burt Reynolds is there, Yeah, and uh, and he says hello to Bert and when Bert says hi, and then as he walks away, he goes fucking asshole. Fun fact. Reynolds none of the people in the film that are cameos read a script or anything like that, so that was just an improv on on his part. Well, I'm sure Altman told him, like you hate him? Yeah, you know. Yeah. So he goes to a meeting with Levison and Grifven tells him that, you know, he's he's flat out and not gonna work with Larry Levy and if he has to work for him, he'll quit. And Levinson then threatens him with the breach of contract, and he says that he'll follow through.

43:20 With it, threaten in a he it's a very lighthearted way. He just goes, now, you know, I'm not gonna let you do that. And then when he's like, you know, I will, I'll quit, he's like, you have a year and a half left on your contract and if you don't show up, I will sue. You'll find you for every day and sue you. Yeah. Yeah. So he's not like yelling at him, he's just kind of informing like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you got a lot of bluster, but this is what we're doing. And we should say too that. Uh. Levinson is played by the Great BREONN James, who unfortunately left us. But I mean he every time that guy is on screen, he always just steals my attention. Yeah, I mean he's so much more like type cast to be just a criminal. Yeah. And in this movie, not only is he playing a movie he's it gonna but he's playing like the least sleez bag you have the whole film.

44:04 Yeah, it's it's surprising for. Yeah. So he tells him that he wants an answer by this afternoon. Griffin at the table gets another postcard and in the name of all the writers, it says, I'm going to kill you. So that's now three postcards that we've gotten since the start of the movie. Okay, maybe it's an unrelated death threat. Could be, who knows. So Griffin decides he wants to try and track down the postcard delivery because he realizes that it's not Postmark. So he talks to Jan and the mailroom delivery guy, and he's like, you know, I want you to go to the mailroom see if you can find out who handed this over to the delivery service. I want to name, you know, go on to the mail room and see we can find somebody. He starts frandally searching his past calendars because he realizes it's somebody that he's had to have talked to because they're saying, you know, you haven't called me back. So he finds out that the guy's name is possibly David Kahane. So he drives out to his house because he has his address. He sees he's not home, but he sees a woman inside, so he calls outside the house.

44:51 And this is where we get one of the creepiest scenes of the movie. And by calls outside the house, we mean he calls the house's phone on his cellular phone. And stands outside the house. Yeah, he's a very it's a very it's a good scene, oh very, But it's a very off putting scene because he's crying on her and she has no idea he's anywhere nearby. But I liked the scene. It was just, yeah, it was off putting, and I think that's the point. Yeah, Do You Even? Movie will be right back. Welcome back to Do You Even? Movie.

45:34 So he calls her and we meet June and he asked for Griffin. She tells him that he's not in. Griffin then introduces himself as Griffin Mills and she says, oh, the dead Man, and he's like, what did you say? And she's like, oh, that's what David calls you. I mean, that's what I call you. This is true. That is my nickname, so I would never call you a man. So the two talk on the phone while Griffin stalks outside the house. Finds out her last name is a Goodman's daughter and that she is from Iceland is what she says. She also tells him that David went to Pasadena for showing of The Bicycle Thief, and she states that she doesn't go to movies because life's too short. Because he has a whole conversation with her, and she basically gives him the point of telling him where David is. She talks about her art because we find out that she's an artist because she's doing that well. She's literally like in the middle of painting while she's talking to him on the phone.

46:16 So Griffin makes his way to the screening of The Bicycle Thief. He goes into the theater. He's looking around and he sees this guy leave as the film's over with a ponytail. He follows him out, names him as David Cahan, and he's like, oh, I'm sorry, you have me mistaken. That's when we see Cahan walk out, played by Vincent. Dinafrio damn right, and a young. Donophrio, Yeah, young Danafrio. And he introduces himself to Cahan and he's like, oh, you know, so your six months passes. Now you want to talk to me about my script. He clearly sees through his bullshit right away, but. He's and he's coming at in heart. He's like, no, I want to hire you to do something, Like I want to hire you to write something. I can't guarantee anything we'll get made, but we'll work together. Yeah. And he hasn't even confirmed that he is actually the writer. He's just the number one suspect, but he's the writer of the postcards postcards.

46:59 Yeah. So through conversation, they go to a bar and that's when he tries to pitch him one more time. He's like, you know, hey, I'll buy the I'll buy the script from you. I can't promise it'll get made. And he's like, you know, I see right through you, dude, Like why are you doing this? Like why are you chasing me? Like you didn't even want to come see the bicycle Thief? Like you clearly had other motives to be there. He mentions like I saw you come in. Yeah, like in the last five minutes you tripped over my foot. Yeah. So he's like, you're you're still on my list. Nothing's going to change, and he gets up and leave, so Griffin follows him out, and Griffin goes to his car and we see cahan is right by the car in an alley way pissing, and Cahane comes at him full full. Boar, starts really yelling at him and starts saying, basically saying that that guy what was his name, that's coming to Larry Levy, that Larry Levy is taking over. And he's like, how do you know that? Why you said He's like, read the trades marriage, dude, you're out, Larry Levy's in.

47:48 Then he mocks and he's like, hey, can I bar your cellular phone? He acts like he's calling Levy and just starts bad mouthing him and basically saying like, you know you're never gonna be anything. You know, I'm a writer. What do you still have? Which is one of my favorite moments in the film because he's like, you know, hey, I can write, what can can you. Do so Griffin trying to reason with them, He goes to his car and that's when Cahane swings his corridor over and knocks him over into the side. Like what would you call it? Like a gulch, A gulch. I'm like, I can't think of a word at all. No, I really can't, Potato, shut up, I'm just giving you a word. No, he falls over a there's a break in a guard rail. It's it's literally a stair concrete staircase that goes downwards. Yeah, I don't know what he got. It's like an alley, like an alley that goes underground, and he falls pretty far.

48:38 Falls far into it and freaks out. Well, yeah, because he dropped him like a good six feet onto concrete. Although they didn't put a sound effect in when he falls, which I thought was really weird. Is odd. Uh So yeah, he pushes He pushes him, but then realizes that he accidently made him fall, like this guardrail was missing a piece, so he just falls right off and goes right down into this like concrete space. Some water is filled in, like there's a huge puddle down there, and so he goes down to check on him and that's when Griffin just takes his moment and just starts beating the shit out of him, putting his head into the puddle, and he's just like, you know, you're not gonna tell anybody, like basically, keep it to yourself, Keep it to yourself, holds him down until the bubble stops coming up.

49:19 Not entirely, not entirely, no, no, no. As he leaves, he leaves him with his face in the water. Yeah. And then as he's about to actually leave, he notices like he has not lifted his head up out of the water. So he comes over there. Homie is dead. He's dead. So David Kahane is dead at this point. So seeing his handprint on the car, he'd go ahead, takes advantage of the moment and grabs his wallet, takes the cash out basically stage as a mugging, smashing his passenger window of his car. Yeah, which because to get rid of his fingerprints. And just leaving him directly there. So he goes to leave, and then that's the end of David Kane. Yeah. It was a brief but powerful cameo cameo. Indeed, so we here echoes across a boardroom as we see Bonnie and Reggie and the rest of the crew in Levinson's office. They're discussing events and everything, and that's when Celia goes to Levinson, who is outside the office, and she's like, hey, I know that Griffin's not here, but we really need to start this meeting. So that's when they go in to start the meeting. We see Levinson sit down and in the window behind him, Griffin's car pulls up.

50:15 He apologizes for being late. Jan hands him a big package, but he gives it back to her, so then he joins the meeting, introduces Griffin to Larry, and he states that he got out of Fox a week early and now he is on board with them. So officially, Larry Baby is on the set. Oh yes, well he's on the lot on the lot. Yeah, yeah. So Larry comments on it's preposterous that they're spending millions and millions of dollars on screenplay when they could. Just come up with the stories themselves. It's a pretty it's a pretty perfect scene about like just how dickish, Yeah, these types of studio people can be. Because he's literally like, why are we paying writers for ideas? Hand me that newspaper read me a story. Yeah, So they read like the headline of a news story. And then he just says like, oh, it'll be a tear jerker, the kind of thing this guy would direct about this and this.

51:00 They go around the table like three times. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And and but as they're doing that, the paper gets in front of our homeboy Griffin, who sees the headline of man murdered in Pasadena. In Pasadena Alley. Yeah, so he knows. Immediately that the body's been found. He knows that they've identified him. And Griffin also makes a joke. He's like, you know, well, if we're gonna get rid of the writers, you know, I guess this is could just buasy and now we just need to start. Getting rid of the actors and directors. He was everything out was. He said, if we could just get rid of the actors' directors, we really have So we beyond to somebody, which is so good. We beyondo something. So Griffin returns to his office, he finds Walter waiting on him, and Walter brings up David Kahane talking about his murder. And then Walter's like, let me give you a scenario here he goes, you know, basically accuses Griffin.

51:44 He's like, you know, you were mad at this guy. You drove out to Pasadena, you confronted him, he wasn't happy. You know, one thing led to another and he accidentally killed him, Like it just happens. Yeah, shit like that happens every day. So then Gryffin's like, you know, I don't think it's how it went down. He's like, what did the police think? And you know, Walter states he thinks it's a botched robbery. Griffin states that he didn't kill him, but he does then admit to meeting him, and Walter's like, you know, why did you lie to me? And he's like, man, I'm not in a good place right now. This is not a good time. Yeah, there's a lot of shit going on, and Walter questions him about the girlfriend. He's like, you know, well, did you know June by chance? Like did you know who she is? And he kind of denies everything, but he comments on acting like you're somebody that's acting guilty. Just as Griffin's facts in the office starts up with another message from the same guy that says surprise, so Kahane was not the postcard writer.

52:28 No he was not. No, he was not the facts machine foo in this film, Yes, car Fax machine Foo. Oh god. Yeah. So we cut to Kahane's funeral. We're seeing a shot which I love this opening shot because we see a giant deadfish in this pond and all the other fish are just feeding on it. Yeah, it's very symbolic, very symbolic. We see June sitting in the front row as Griffin approaches. We see a guy who's dressed like a Haynes giving a speech of like one of Kahane's last writings that he have that he didn't finish. And then we also see another guy approaching him the side. So June walks past Griffin notice him and she's like, you know, do I know you? Like you're not a writer? And he introduces himself as the guy that she was on the phone with the other night, right, yeah, and she states that he's the only person that she knows. Here. He shares this condolences, stating that you know, Cahane was a very talented writer, and June disagrees, staying that she thinks that he was the most untalented writer.

53:18 Oh who doesn't love a fine woman? Like that. She throws shade pretty quickly to him. Oh yeah, without a doubt, so he'll remember he referred to Kahan, referred to her as the ice Queen. As the ice Queen. Yes, yes, so he apologizes. Also that he was the last person to see him alive, and June states that she doesn't feel bad because she relates this back to her parents dead, that she wasn't sad, she just immediately felt the absence. Sounds to me like she's cold blood. So she asked Griffin if he would take her home. Griffin notices the other gentleman off to the side as he helps June into her car, and that's when we find Griffin and June at her house, admiring her art, and she states that she has no gallery. She just does the art because she enjoys it, and also none of the pieces are ever finished in her eyes.

53:58 Yeah, she sounds like an insufferable. So she comments on the police talking to her about him, asking him why he was meeting with David and why it was so urgent. He comments that he really liked his script and lies, and he also wanted to pitch an upper ending because apparently David's original script had a very downer ending, which does not work in Hollywood. No, it sure doesn't. June comments that he was never one for happy ending. She takes a couple of polaroids of Griffin, telling him that she might paint him into one of her paintings as an Icelandic warrior but a thief of fire, and he probably wouldn't like that because as a studio head, he wouldn't, you know, like the fact that a thief or a person of criminal behavior is one that is being I guess appreciated as. A hero I mean in Hollywood.

54:40 So Griffin questions, should thieves pay for their crimes? And June questions, isn't knowing you committed the crimes suffering. Enough, isn't it? And Griffin calls her a pragmatic anarchist, which. I mean, I stand by insufferable true, but that works too. We cut back to Griffin's office where he meets Detective Susan Avery played by Whoopi Goldberg with Walter and she's admiring an oscar that's on display in the office. Griffin welcomes her into the office and they sit down and she he apologizes for not contacting her sooner and she questions, you know, why didn't you contact me, like you know that you were a suspect, Like, you know, why didn't you reach out to us? And he's like, you know, oh, it was just a bad time, and also, you know, I didn't know what to say. So she asked what he met with Cahane about, and that's when he tells, you know, the screenplay that he wanted to produce, and Avery asked him more questions about a personal nature of knowing if he knew anything about Cahane, and he denies that he did, and that's when she starts to get a little uneasy with him and questions if he saw cahan in the parking lot that night, and he comments that no, he drives a range Rover, so he parks it on the street because ali's are dangerous, and she goes, oh, so if you're driving a shitty car, you would have parked in the back, and he's like, if I was driving a shitty car, I might not have been alive the next day. Yeah, So immediately does not set well with Detective Avery, and that's when he goes to watch dailies as he's discussing things with Levinson at the screening room, Griffin gets a call for a dinner meeting with a Joe Gillis and he says he's not familiar with that name, and Levinson's like, oh, well that was Oh I can't think of the actor's name. Uh, one of the actors from Sunset Boulevard. That was an alias he went by in the film.

56:06 Okay. So immediately he knows that this is possibly the post most likely the postcard guy. So he goes to the meeting and he. Runs into Malcolm McDowell, who greets him and he's like, hey, next time you want to say something behind my back, say it to my face. Face. Yeah, you Hollywood types are all alike. So Griffin is then spotted by Andy Savella played by the late Great Dean Stockwell, who introduces him to Andy McDowell and Tom Oakley, and we also see a gentleman. The gentleman from the Funeral has followed him to the bar as well, and Savella wants to give him a pitch that Oakley has and Griffin states, like, he's got a meeting, he doesn't have time. So we see Griffin go to a table by the pool. Savella follows him out and basically makes even think that like he set up the appointment when he confesses like, you know, no, like I don't know what you're talking about, Like you're just here, I'm seizing opportunity.

56:49 Yeah, he starts bringing up postcards and he's just like, has no idea what he's talking about. It, has no idea what he's talking about. So Savella comes out spooking Andy. He's got a great pitch reintroducing Tom Oakley, and that's when we get this pitch. Base about a. Prisoner on death row that is has a DA that she's fallen in love with, and the DA thinks that she's innocent, and a whole fiasco happens. There's just a huge it's it's a touching initially racial story. Yeah, although that goes away really fast when he gets made. It's a it's an intense, uh racial drama about the death penalty and justice and all that shit. We hear an opening about how they're standing in the rain and they have camels on their umbrellas and Japanese lanterns and all this stuff, and he here's this pitch and he's like, you know, call me tomorrow. We'll absolutely talk about this. But the one thing that I do want to mention is Tom Oakley is adamant that there are no stars in this picture. This is not a Hollywood picture.

57:45 We get unknowns only. And it's a very sad ending that the woman does not survive the death penal. No Hollywood ending, no Hollywood ending at all. And they're calling it habeas corpus. Habeas corpus baby. I mean, it just flows right off the tongue. It's the rural jurorm. That's when Griffin at the table gets a post car with a death valley and a rattlesnake on it, and in bold letters it says, I told you not to come alone. So Gryffin excuses himself and tells them to call the studio tomorrow. He gets his car from the ballet begins to drive it down sunset, and that's when his car phone rings. But it's actually his fax machine in his car. That was the first thing is said, like, is that a fax machine in his car? There's a fax machine in his cars? So the fax prints out and states, look under your raincoat. So he picks his raincoat up to find a box label don't open til Christmas. As he lifts the lid and finds a live rattlesnake inside the box.

58:32 Yeah, which, by the way, does elevate this beyond adorable harassment. Yeah. I mean that could kill I could kill him, But luckily Homie is just enraged. He pulls the car over, grabs a stick of some sort it's his umbrella. Oh, it's his umbrella, yeah, and just beats that snake to death. Yeah, strips his coat off, beats the snake to death, and then pulls the snake out of the car, gets back in the car and drives goes to June's house and she sees that he is clearly distressed, so she pours him a drink, and that's when we see the June painting him like she said she was going to. He comments on stick scared the shit out of him, and she's like, you know what happened to night and she that's when he tells her that, you know, it isn't easy for him, and he tells her that he came close to dying tonight and all he could think about was her, confessing that she has been the only thing on his mind and since the first time they spoke that he was outside the window, confessing that he was watching her the first time they had the phone conversation.

59:21 Yeah, she's okay with like a lot of fucked up things. She gets very moved by finding out that he was that he was there. Yeah, I don't uh, I don't get it. So we see June reacting flattered as she asked, you know, and does he want to make love to her? At Griffin states that he does want to make love to her, and she comments that it's too soon, but it is strange how things happen, but she would go anywhere with him if he just ask, adding they mustn'thurry this, and tells him that he better leave because she thinks she's going to cry. So she opens the door for him, telling him to go home, get some sleep and call her to invite her out for a proper date tomorrow. Ah, because she's a right good lady. So the next morning, Savella and Oakley and Gryffin's office and they call Larry Levy Levy on his car phone and do the pitch to him over the phone. Larry's like, you know, hey, Griffin, take me off speaker and he's like, you know, what do you think about this? Thing with no stars, and Larry is immediately won over. But he asked about the stars. And that's when Griffin's like, you know, well, Levinson, his first two really popular pictures had no stars in it made a bunch of money. So Leevy is like, all right, let's do this, like you know, cal Levinson, let's get this greenlit. Let's let's act on this quick.

1:00:20 And that's when he's like, you know, can you call him? And he's like, actually, on my way to an AA meeting. He goes, I know you were an alcoholic. He goes, well, I'm not. It's just that's where all the deals are being made. Yeah. No, that's a great line. But and for real, what was the guy the guy who ran Disney through the nineties who no Touchstone and everything? Oh damn Itisner? Mike Eisner, Michael Eisner? Was it? Michael Eisner? Michael Well. He joked that they cast Touchstone pictures out the back of the Betty Ford Test because that's like they would They would be like, oh, Robin Williams just got out of rehab, He'll do it half his rate. Good Morning Vietnam.

1:01:01 That was like a real thing, especially in the late eighties and early nineties that it was just you would go to where somebody had just gotten out of rehab and you'd make a deal with them, which I don't know. I don't think that happens anymore. I think it absolutely does. Are you kidding? Oh wait, yeah no, I had to think. Yeah, no, it absolutely does. I mean I think it's just different now, yeah, much different. But no, it's just like when they're at their most vulnerable, it's like, hey, wouldn't you like to work again? And on one hand they are helping you, but on the other hand, it's like, so, why'd you become a drug addict? Hollywood was stressful? Want more?

1:01:43 Do You Even? Movie? Will be right back, welcome back to Do You Even? Movie? So Larry is in on all the risk of a reality picture. So Levinson states that you know, they have a meeting with him, and he states, you know, if we're gonna do this, is there is there fucking in the picture. There needs to be sex, Like if we're gonna have a prison drama, there has to be set. If it's gonna be so dry, it's gotta have some of that. So he offers Larry the picture as Bonnie tries to defend it as Griffin's project, but Griffin is fine giving it up because he unveiled in a previous scene that his idea is that he's gonna give this project to Levy. Levy is going to fall behind on it, and then Griffin's gonna come in and basically save.

1:02:26 The boy, and they're gonna do it in New York, right in New York. So yeah, yeah, So he actually sends Bonnie to New York because she needs to get a book optioned for a movie. So Bonnie is questioning why, you know, is she giving the product? Why is he giving the project over? And also why he s enter to New York? Questioning, you know, is is he seeing somebody else? So he tries to get rid of her, gives her a peck on the cheek, but she is just not having any with his but she has to go to New York anyway. So that's when we also see that we are going to a gallon now and we see celebs out. The ass, we see share, we see Garry Bucy. With the mullet. Yeah, you see with a mullet. This one. I was not expecting Elliott. Gold Nick Nolty, so Griffin shows up and he has Junas's date. Levinson goes up giving a speech about how they're doing a huge donation to the museum and this is a big turning point for the studio. He invites Griffin up to give a speech, as we see more celebs and attendance, but also the man from the funeral is also at the gallow as well. Griffin concludes his speech by saying that movies are now art more than ever, and he is complimented as he sits down by Cher and Larry, but he's he's definitely out of touch with this moment.

1:03:27 He's still a little on edge. Yeah, I would agree. So he receives then another postcard, tries to wave it off, taking June to the dance floor, and that's when we see a limo pull up later, dropping Griffin and June off outside of June's house, and we also see that the man from the funeral is now tailing them and Gryffin asked about coming in and June says not tonight, but soon as the share a kiss and Griffin says that he's going to take her. To Alcapoco this weekend. Yeah he is. They're gonna get away, and that's when we see the man the next morning in front of Griffin's house. As Gryffin's getting ready to go into his car, he checks his mailbox. The man does, and that's when Griffin goes out to the front gate, and that's when the man's ups out, revealing that he is actually a police as he shows his badge a police, a policeman, a detective, a detective policeman.

1:04:09 Was his last name with policeman, detective, policeman, detective policeman, any law. So he's introduced himself as Detective DeLong Prix and that is played by the great Lyle love It. Ah. Yes, I hadn't seen Lyle love It in forever. In a while. Yeah. So he invites him to the station to look at mugshots, asking him to fall into Pasadena and also please put on his seat belt. Yeah, well he's a cop. So we cut to the police station. Griffin has reintroduced to Detective Avery and Griffin questions if there's a break in the case, and Avery questions, if not, why would they bring him here, And that's when DeLong Prix reminds him of you know, you're looking at mug shots so Goldberg shows him the mug shots. But the police station is just chaotic. There's a whole dialogue going on about Todd Browning's freaks, about a search for tampons.

1:04:50 Yeah, it's just a whole mess. It's a whole mess. So she questions if he went out with you know, if he went out with June, and also he also questions if they have a witness. He confirms he did go out with June, and Avery questions have they known each other long? It's a little suspect that he's going out with the dead man's girlfriend, so quickly you think, just a little bit, I don't, So he states they did meet after Kahane's death. She questions if Griffin has fucked her. This gets him completely. He's offended by this question. He's like, you know, well, I guess I would answer that if my lawyer was here, and even my lawyer was here, I wouldn't answer that. So she questions him again and that's when he he starts, you know, question like you know what's going on here? And we end the scene really weird with everybody laughing at him at the station, and he's just paranoid. Yeah, it's really weird. But he was like crazy jumping, crazy jumping, which is weird. It's almost like he murdered the guy murdered somebody.

1:05:34 It's weird. So we next sek Griffin in his office as Walter tells him to get a good lawyer, especially if he went to Pasadena with the intent to kill. Walter also finds out that he's got a plan trip to pul Tavirarta, now calling it risky, and Jan questions why he's going there, as Griffin comments, because Larry could take the office in three days. That's why you know it's risky for him to leave right now, and Bonnie returns and states that she got the book. Ask Griffin, you know if he's going to Mexico this weekend because she heard commenting that, you know, he took his girlfriend or is June to a party with hundreds of several of her closest friends. So how did she think that he wasn't going to find out. So it's at this point then that we see that they are kind of just on the outs, like Griffin is really being cold to her, and that's when comments that you know she got the book and also tells them to have a good trip before we see her storming out. We see Griffin arrive at the airport, but he spots Detective long Free also at the airport now with police ye watch, so he makes a lie at that he forgot his passport and instead they're going to drive two hours out into the desert to a hot springs resort that he has. June questions if they're hiding, and he comments that they're hiding from everybody. So we see them driving through the desert. They arrive at the Hot Springs resort and we see them sitting down to a nice dinner. June has clearly went over and asking, you know, do places like this really nice? Like this really exists, and he says only.

1:06:46 In the movies. So romantic cringe. So Griffin explains it's all about the calls and the pitches, basically as they go out to side and they're dancing, and she wants to know more about like what he does for the movie business, and he says, you know, it's all about calls and pitches, and they only have one thing from him. They want him to say yes, but the studio can only say yes to twelve pictures a year, which makes it very difficult. That's that's rooky numbers. And they hear fifty thousand stories a year, so it's hard to sometimes, you know, be a nice guy. And because of that, he makes enemies, adding that David was apparently an enemy of his, and she says, well, what makes a successful movie? He says, suspense, laughter, violence, hope, heart, nudity, sex, and happy endings. And that's when June questions, you know what about reality? And we cut to probably the steamiest love scene of the entire film.

1:07:34 We literally mean like body heat bodies, because it's the entire scene is just their faces mushing into each other and heavy breathing into each other's faces. Yeah, as they're making love. But then he confesses to killing during the love scene, and she's just fine with you. She's fine with it. She even tells him that she loves him, and she tells him and he doesn't have to say it, but he can. He telling her, and so he confesses and she's like, that's fine, I love you. So the next day they're in a mud bath together. Of course they are, and did I mention just hainus shrew. Yes, yes you did. Okay, So Griffin also gets a call from Dick Mellon, who tells him that Levinson was fired and he's packing up his office. Reggie went home with the clap and that he also needs to question him about Khane, asking him why he didn't tell him, and he's like, well, I tried to tell you, and he's like, apparently didn't try hard enough. Anyway, you need to be back here in four hours and go to the police station in Pasadena for a lineup because they have a witness from the night Khan was murdered.

1:08:35 Yeah, they do, or somewhat so something. We cut to the police station and we meet mister Gerard and we also see Walter is there. Gerard is his lawyer, appointed by Dick Mellon, and Gerard tells him there's nothing to worry about, as the woman is old, she lived across the street, but she can't see very well. So then we see Griffin take his place in the lineup with six other guys, one of which is Detective too Long to. Fore and literally Lyle Lovett's in there, Lyle love. It's in there. So we see the woman come in and she is coached by Detective Avery, and then that's when the woman mistakes number three, which is DeLong Pree as the guy I knew he was a villain. Detective Avery is not pleased. Walter and Gerard tell Griffin that he's lucky. He's free to go, as the detectives watch him walk away from the police station from the top window. We then cut to one year later, as we are now inside of prison.

1:09:20 We see a gas chamber, we see Susan Sarandon, we see Peter Falk and we panned to a cell revealing Julia Roberts as an inmate with Ray Walston at giving her last rites. Yeah, so now she's going into the gas chamber. Yes, And as the gas chamber fills, Bruce Willis bursts out with a shotgun. Kilsp from ac guard. He burst into the room. Shoving guards out of the way, blows open. The glass and that's when we cut to a screening room as we see they are watching this movie, Levy, Bonnie, Shrew, Griffin, all of them are watching it. He blows the window out, saves Julia Roberts and she goes, you know what took you so long? And he goes, traffic was a bitch. The end the the Chef's Kiss of how ruined. The concept is is the traffic was a bit because that's so just like, what is this a diehard? Yes, well it's supposed to be some like serious emotional film and everything they said is not happening.

1:10:19 It did not happen there. It's nothing but stars. I mean, I remember when it cut to the to that scene. I was just like Peter Folk. I was like Susan Sarandon and Colomba. So immediately the room lights up with applause. But Bonnie cannot believe that Oakley sold out. She comments on you know you changed the original ending. He's like, well, yeah, it was a fucking disaster. You don't remember when we permme heared it and nobody liked it. We reshot it, and now everyone likes it. And Savella is now questioning you know who Bonnie is, and Larry Levy is like you know, oh, Bonnie, like, you know you've crossed the line this time. Pack your shit. You're fired, and Bonnie is like, you know you can't do this, and he's like no, like I told you, you're fired. She says fuck you walks out. Bonnie walks across the lot, breaking a heel, and she enters the office, begs to speak to somebody through Celia, and that's when we reveal that Griffin has now taken Levinson's job.

1:11:06 He's the studio head. He is the full blown head of the studio. So Griffin realizes that Leevie fired her. He states that he can't see her now and he will get back to her. So he leaves the office. Of course, he's bombarded by Bonnie and he's like, you know, oh, don't worry about it, you'll land on your feet. Bonnie begs him, chases after him, and Gryffin's like, you know, I gotta get home until my wife would beat home early. So as he's driving home, he gets a call from lev and Levy is like, hey, man, the screening went well, but hey, I've got a writer here. I think you need to hear his pitch. And that's when we hear the voice of the postcard guy come on the phone. Yeah, and he states that you know, hey, you know you remember me. He's like, you know, I was in the postcard business. And he's like, yeah, I remember you. He's like, you know what's going on. He's like, well, you know, I got a script for you, and he pitches the entire plot of The Player.

1:11:47 Well kind of. Yeah. Basically, he pitches exactly what happened to what happened there? Yeah, sure that that he murders a screenwriter, he gets away with it, lives happily ever after. And that's when he pulls into his his new house. We see that he's married June. Now, who I think is pregnant. You think June's pregnant. Maybe she just likes to play dodgeball, but the ball's got to be warm first, so she's using a pregnant Now June's pregnant, now very clearly pure. It comes out of the house and Griffin ends his call. He's like, you know, what do you call this? And he's like, oh, I call it. The player hangs up with him. He's like, oh the Player. I like that. Well, there was one important element I want to bring up about that conversation, yeah, is when he says, like it has a happy end, happy ending, and he says, can you guarantee that? And he says, if you buy the pitch, yes, yes, which is a clear I'm not going to blackmail. He's not going to blackmail him as long as they do business with him. So I just want to mention that because I really like that exchange.

1:12:41 So he says, I like that title. June comes out and goes, what took you so long? And Griffin goes, traffic was a bitch? The end that is the player from nineteen ninety two. I don't hate this movie. Yeah, but I hate this No, I'm just kidding, but no, but I just felt like all of the intrigue and excitement that we got from the postcards, Yeah, it was kind of wasted. I mean, I'm not gonna say you're wrong, because you're not. Just what I like about the ending is that it's fucking bold. Oh it's very bold. Yeah, well, I mean not as bold as another movie I love about Show Busy. Yes, that's fair too, that's yeah.

1:13:25 So would you like to know some notes about the movie and some fun facts? Pass? Too bad? What do you think the budget was. The five range eight million dollars? Oh okay? Opening? It opens April twelfth, nineteen ninety two, and makes three hundred and two thousand at the box office. Opening weekend box office totally takes in twenty one million. So it's a pretty good hit for a movie that size. It's not a bad hit. Or at least as close to a hit. Writer Michael Tolkien got the idea for his novel driving Down Sunset Boulevard, and he thought up a serial killer in la who targeted. Unproduced screenwriters, coming up with the first set. Just as Griffin suspected, there was a meeting in Levinson's office without him. Oh wow, okay on his drive.

1:14:06 Tolkien originally had no intention to allow the adapting of the book to screen, as he wrote it to basically distance himself from his work in Hollywood. That was when he wrote, then. That's really interesting, yeah, okay, But they quickly found out that studio executives also doubted the appeal of a narrative about Hollywood, so he thought the movie was never going to get made. Some years pass and Kerry Broke Hall, the CEO of Avenue Pictures, rejects the script twice in nineteen eighty nine and nineteen ninety. However, in ninety one, after witnessing Altman's work on the British film Vincent and Theo, Broke Call approached Altman, who eagerly embraced the project. Wow. I think it's hilarious that he was like, I'm going to write a novel. Fuck Hollywood, Yeah, Hollywood's like we might make that so. Altman also successfully persuaded a plethora of A list actors to make cameo appearances in the film based on his esteem reputation in the industry. These stars agreed to participate without reviewing the script, and contributed their union scale salaries for one day of filming to the motion picture in television country house and hospital or retirement community for the industry professionals.

1:15:00 Wow, well, that's nice of them for once. Do You Even Movie will be right back. Welcome back to Do You Even Movie. The handwriting on the ominous death threat letters and postcards received by Griffin Mills belongs to none other than director Robert Altman, who took great pleasure in writing those notes. I believe it. The writer pitching The Graduate Part two to Griffin is a cameo by Buck Henry, who co wrote the screenplay for The Graduate. I mean, you know, I love little gags like that. Yeah.

1:15:40 The roughly eight minute opening uncut tracking shot was played with models before production began. It was noted that Altman would light a joint and spend hours playing with Tonka trucks to arrange the shot, so no time was wasted once they were in the space. The area of the studio a lot was a Hollywood general former site of Francis Forcoppo Zoetroupe Studios. Oh okay yeah, and was recently condemned due to earthquake. New roofs, landscape and a repaving of the lot was done to bring the image up but also allowing Dolly moves to be smooth. The scene was rehearsed with cast and crew the day before shooting. It was sixteen takes there were shot, five prints were made and three were perfect. Oh wow. In the eight minute long tracking shot that opens the film, Fred Ward character appears twice, each time talking about the importance of tracking shots and how he hates how they aren't used in movies like they used to be.

1:16:24 Yeah, I thought that was fun, but I also kind of found out a little cringe. Yeah. Moments of impact with characters within the opening shots served as signals for the crew to address the next section of the set quickly so the tracking shot would remain uninterrupted. A Chapman crane was brought in and fitted with a seat to operate as the Dolly. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely on a crane. Yeah, it's very clear that the camera's way up and then down low. The film has more OSCAR winning actors and actresses in the cast than any other movie in history. There are twelve, including Cher, James Kober and Louise Fletcher, will Be Goldberg, Joel Gray and Jelkie Houston, Jack Lemon, Marley Mattlin, Jim Robbins, Julia Roberts, Susans Rand and Rod Steiger. Thirteen when you count Oscar winning producer and director Sidney Pollack, who also makes a cameo appearance. Also includes Karen Black, Dean Stockwell, Michael Tolkien, Gary Busey, Peter Falk, Terry Gar, Jeff Goldbloom, Elliott Gould, Sally Kirkland Buck, Henry Sally Kellerman, Burt Reynolds, Nicknolty, Richard Ye Grant, and Lily Tomlin.

1:17:17 Boy Howdy, I'm dizzy already. Julia Roberts, among others, did her cameo for nothing? Well that's not true. I know it's not, but that's what the trivia says. I I know they're not allowed to work for nothing because of the union, but if they did it for the lowest amount of pay. The famous instance of that is that Bruce Willis is not credited in Four Rooms because Sag threaten to sue him because he did it as a favor for Tarantino. I mean, but I'm just saying, like, yeah, I mean, I don't know how the legality of that or whatever would work. But SAG, you're not allowed to work for free for your friends. But but them taking a minimum pay day is still pretty nice, especially when they can usually command like a million dollars.

1:17:58 It is estimated if alsolebrities who do cameos were to charge their normal asking prices for the budget of the film, it would have been in the excess of one hundred million on the salaries alone. Could be I mean a lot of the celebrities didn't even speak no and they probably worked a half a day. Yeah, so I don't know, if what I think, really it'd be more like twenty million dollars a bit. That's just my button math. Though Tim Robbins's Griffin drives the range Rover in the film, due to the actor being too big to fit into a Mercedes for camera shots from the front of the car. Yeah he's a big dude. Chevy Chase was interested in starring in the film, but Warner Brothers passed on him. Later, Chase would go on to say he was worried about the sexuality of the character damaging his career as a comedian and was happy he did not end up taking it. Uh, we're all happy too. Yeah.

1:18:39 The banquet scene at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was catered by a real catering company, despite the fact that many of them were SAG members. No banquet staff who worked at the event were told that they would be filmed until they arrived for the work at night at the museum. The scene was filmed a year before SAG assumed jurisdiction of extra work on West Coast, and the banquet waiters who appear in the scene were not paid for the extra work, not even on saguages. The only compensation they received was the regular compensation for real life catering company for their hours worked during the fake banquet. Damn, that's kind of harsh. Yeah. Every time Griffin enters a bar, a restaurant, or a party, he orders or has served a different brand of bottled water. Robbins. At some points even begins to make up names for the waters that don't exist. Altman originally approached Tim Robbins to be a part of the film Shortcuts. Altman invited Robbins out through his Malibu home and he had seen Tim do work with an actors group called the Actors Gang.

1:19:28 He offered him Shortcuts. They smoked a joint to celebrate, but funding unfortunately fell short for Shorts Cuts, and Robbin's got a call from his agent sometime later stating he'd either be in The Player, which wasn't guaranteed much money, or he could be in this other project that was guaranteed a million dollars. Robin originally agreed to do the million dollar project, woke up the next morning calling his agent stating that he did not want to do the project and he wanted to work with Altman. Shortcuts was then made due to Altman's success on The Player. Okay, I mean that's pretty cool. The famous banquet and party scenes in the film had no script of dialogue for the actors. Altman allowed for much improv on set and discussed beforehand with certain actors on how they'd like to run the scene so Altman could figure out the shots. While this makes the film very active in scenes. Altman would go on to later say that it also led to the biggest shooting time constraint in the movie, as he wanted the feature as many big names as he could. Altman was also very pleased that none of the cameo actors never asked for a screenplay or a script, and would simply agree after Altman told them the synopsis of the film.

1:20:20 I mean, well, that helps when you're Robert Altman. Yeah. In the scene where Tim Robbins stops to say hello to Burt Reynolds in the restaurant, Reynolds improvised the scene, not knowing anything about Griffin, but manages to know he's an asshole. Well, yeah, yeah. In the funeral scene, a man named Phil is giving an angry eulogy about how Hollywood led to the death of Kahane. If you listen closely during the ending of the film, when Griffin is speaking to the postcard writer about his movie Pitch, you can recognize the actor who played Phil, Brian Broffy's voice. Robert Oltman confirms in the Criterion collection commentary that Phil is indeed the one responsible for blackmailing and threatening Griffin. And that's why I get annoyed. I get that, so it's not even actually you're not actually even told who the card writer is. It's just kind of a easter egg. Yeah, but the card writer was such a major point of the film, and granted, the card Writer leads to the death by mistaken identity and something like, that's why I get that. But I just thought there would be something better.

1:21:17 I was hoping the card writer would be his girlfriend. Ye dump, Yeah, that's why I kind of hope to him the card writer. But that's just me. Griffin, while talking in June one point, names Ellen's for a successful film as being suspense, laughter, violence, hope, heart, nudity, sex, and happy endings, mainly happy endings, all of which Altman was happy report and made it into the player, even if they were in different basises. Oh, fair enough. All pitches made in the opening of the film to Griffin were not scripted and were done by writers on the fly as and exercise to get projects out of their heads that they knew were not marketable. Okay. Tim Robbins claims the final ending scene of The Blackmailer pitching Griffin the story of the film came from him himself and Altman gleefully told Robbins, I am never giving you credit for that. That sounds like Altman.

1:21:58 During the museum benefit sequence, all did not call action or cut the entire time, Keevin Robbins in a constant state of pressure to stay in character even when the camera wasn't on him. Robin's recalls his main focus was the lovely lady at his side. Geez yeah. Scenes in June's apartment with Griffin behind plastic as she takes pictures came from Altman's love of diffusion with cinematography and also seeing a camera covered with plastic protection sheeting one day on set. Robbins recalls Altman walking with him on set, stopping to admire the camera in plastic, stating, I want to shoot through that. That's so weird. I actually thought my glasses were dirty during that opening shot. Yeah, he had diffusion over that thing Dolly shot. No. I mean right at the begin at the beginning of Ye no, No, I actually thought my glasses were dirty because it was diffused.

1:22:40 Whoopy Goldberg personally called Altman stating that she wanted to be in the movie, and Altman said he would love to have her, but he didn't have a part for her. Whoopy was quick to tell him that she would play the policeman in the film, which Altman agreed to. It was noted later that Whoopy's involvement in the film led to the film getting more money behind it to be completed. I believe that she was becoming a huge name at that point. And finally, after the movie received multiple award domined, Robert Oltman remarked to Tim Robbins, I think we were too nice to Hollywood in the film. It shouldn't be the successful. I think that's a really good point. Yeah. Yeah, Honestly, they didn't pick them as horribly as they could have. They could have. Yes, So what are your final thoughts on the Player? I mean, I think it's a it's an interesting film. I think the story is interesting and I like it, but I think that it doesn't have the amount of payoff I would like. Yeah, but it's time capsule of the nineties really is a great treat. All the cameos are a great treat. The performances are really good. So, I mean, for me, it's a stream it It's it's not a I don't think you desperately need to see it, But I think that it would not be a bad idea and if you love movies, it's definitely one you'd want to watch.

1:23:46 Yeah, I am also in the same with this. I'm a stream it with a caveat to rent it. This is one of those movies that if you're a movie fan, a Hollywood fan of like I said old Time at the at the beginning of the show, but if you're a nineties fan of Hollywood, this is one definitely need to see. From the cameos alone, I think the story, even though the pacing is a little slow at times, I think the story unfolds it a pretty fun way. Yeah, and genuinely, I really just am rocked by Tim Robbins performance in this because you really don't know if he's just gonna snap at some point. Yeah. Oh, he played it very well. Yeah for sure. Yeah. So yeah it is. It is a stream it with a Bayott cave or a rented caveat for me, and that is it. As we always like to wrap up the show with a couple of recommendations, I have two this week, the first one being adaptation from two thousand and two. A Love Laurence screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean for the screen.

1:24:35 Second one I'm gonna go with is Bofinger from nineteen ninety nine, when a desperate movie producer fails to get a major star for his bargain basement film, he decides to shoot the film secretly around him. Those are both really good films, but the best one. Did I introduce you to this film? I think I did. I think you did. Yeah, yeah, which maybe is why you, respectfully didn't choose it as your as your suggest would be. But for all of the good of the player, And just a few years later, Swimming with Sharks did it all better. Oh that wasn't the one I was thinking of. Oh what were you thinking of? Oblivion? Oh no, no, no. No, it's not Swing at Sharks. I saw I saw before you. Oh, I don't know if that's true.

1:25:16 It's true. I saw it on WGNA. Actually, how did you not choose Swimming with Sharks? I didn't even think about it, honestly, to be honest, because like adaptation, I just rewatched recently and it really stuck with me. And Bowfinger. I got to show you that's been always one of my favorite movies for a good while. So two years later, in nineteen ninety four, Swimming with Sharks would happen. Yeah, and it's a satire film about Hollywood, starring Kevin Spacey Frank Whaley and and it's it did everything that they were doing with The Player and way more serious. It's serious, it's dark, breaking, it's dark, it's poignant. Has one of the bleakest yet perfect endings of all time. Yeah. I mean, according to this it only has seven hundred thousand dollar bunch. It was completely indie wow. And it does more with that seven hundred thousand dollars yeah, than the Player did with all of its budget.

1:26:08 I'll give you that. And this will be on the show. Inevitably, We're gonna do Swimming with Sharks because it's one of the best films I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. But the reason I feel like it's the perfect combo is because it is almost the same movie. Essentially. It's a movie about climbing the studio ladder, not being a creative but being the studio people yea, the executives and what it takes and how the assistants are abused and stuff. Like that. Swimming with Sharks would be a perfect double feature with this movie. Especially watch Swimming with Sharks second because it'll wake you back up. Yes, you're not wrong. I love the player, but it is a bit slow. It's a little slow. Yeah, yeah, but that is it for the player. You want to know what we're talking about next week?

1:26:49 Of course? Not well, too bad because maulgust continues as we are going to go with a personal favorite of both you and I as we dive into nineteen eighty five's Clue next week. Five. Yeah, Clue Clues a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun, a lot of plot. Hey, and Martin mull actually speaks in it. Speaks in it. Yeah, it's featured on Cameron for more than thirty seconds in it. It's true. So uh, speaking of all that, we have an email. Oh I want to remind you while you can email us at do you even movie pod at gmail dot com or go to dooevenmovie dot com and send us a message through there. This is from our good buddy Patrick. Okay, Patrick said, uh. Commenting on the movie month title, what about mulling around? I don't think it's worse than your current title. Thanks.

1:27:36 Uh. And then and then Patrick asks, would you guys ever do Deadpool? I don't think you would. I do not like that. You're not You're not a fun I like Deadpool and Deadpool too, but I'm not the biggest fan of either those movies. They're fun. I've seen them both a couple of times. I do enjoy them, but I don't know, like I they're those movies. While they do you present a lot to talk about, I feel like also they don't. I did not find Deadpool very funny, which is weird because at the time I was in love with Marvel and I've always loved Ryan Reynolds. Yeah. I just don't find Deadpool to be a very compelling character. You know what I would like to do on the show, except I think we would have to cut it before the final end the voices, Oh god, that means perfect until.

1:28:25 Yeah, I know it's a genius film, Yeah yeah, and then the ending is total crap. So to answer Patrick, I don't think Deadpool will will come to the show, unfortunately. But maybe maybe I'll suck it up and go see Deadpool and Wolverine and then we'll do a we'll do I don't I doubt it. I didn't think. I'm just not a big fan of the I'm literally not a fan of the movie the first Deadpool movie. I never saw the second one because I could not stand the. First one, well could I stand? Strong? I didn't find it funny. And the weird thing is I saw it in a packed theater on opening night. Yeah, and I wasn't the only one not laughing. I thought it was really weird. I felt like the audience wasn't into it either.

1:29:05 Would you entertain the idea of a double feature, possibly to prepare us for Deadpool versus I know, I know, I know, I know, but I'm just I'm just throwing that out there. Life is short. You can you can quote the film. You can take drugs or whatever you need to me. Okay, I'll take my aunt to Histo me. Yeah, that's part I'll take. I'll take a I'll take a bunch of benadrill and invite the hat Man along for the ride. And the hat Man's like, I don't even like that. The hat Man's like, he's just kind of annoying. But no, I'm I'm I do want to go see the third one, but I'm not rushing out. Uh, well, it's not going anywhere.

1:29:46 Yeah, it's not going Yeah, but no, I mean I I do enjoy the film's patrick, but yeah, I don't think they would be ones to come to the show just because somebody doesn't like them. And it's rare that I don't like a movie. It's the one that you won't tell me is my favorite? Right, Ah, it can't be slaughter eg right, you're you wouldn't even tell me. If I got it right at this point, probably. I would tell you you would ye. But but but telling you does not mean giving you hints or suggesting it. But I could, But I could. I could throw out titles and you would get and and and I could guess sure, I'm gonna need time to prepare. Then oh okay. I I the best part, guys, because a lot of people have been writing and how hused they are. Uh was after we recorded that night, we were sitting down getting ready to start watching another movie night Shift, and I just turned to Dave and I'm like, I'm like, you'd really like a hint when you and You're like yeah. I was like, yeah, I just watched the movie, que guys, Yes, it's true, It's true.

1:30:48 So Enrique is right and also handsome. So but before we get out of here, is there anything else you want to get across. Davy, I think that is it. I do. I do want to add that I am really loving the interaction we are getting both on Facebook and Instagram with some of our clips that we've been putting up. Unfortunately, like I've said on the podcast and previous, we've been banned from TikTok, so that's where the clips are gonna be for now on. Yep, Yep, yep. And I do want to mention I'll go ahead and tease this now the month of October. Yes, obviously we're gonna do something related to Halloween, obviously, but I decided to take it one step further because some people sometimes if there's a space on the feed, I'll release us reviewing horror films on Weekly Spooky Yeah, because a lot of those listeners that's how they want to hear about horror movies. Yeah. So this October, we are going to do a combination Weekly Spooky do you even movie combo every week, and we're going to talk about only the finest, most quintessential, fun and accessible Halloween film.

1:31:52 Hell yeah, we are so they will every single one of them. This I'm making this criteria right now. Every single one of them will have to be readily available, relatively easy to access, ideally to be pluto stuff like that on Halloween, which we have our great list that you've already compiled of that, and we're just gonna have a blast with it. Yeah, and we're gonna, of course mention them ahead of time, so you have homework for next week. So they will be publishing on the regular Tuesday at here at Do You Even? Movie, whether you're watching it on YouTube or listening on your podcast app, They'll be publishing on Tuesday at Weekly Spooky as well. So I'm very excited. I think that's going to be a really cool thing because last year do You Even Movie didn't exist in October not so you did a special where you gave your quintessential horror movie list, which people still are praising.

1:32:42 I appreciate it. But this time around, I think we're gonna just we're gonna hit it hard. So that's something to look forward to. And of course, like we said, next week is clue. So remember to leave us a comment. If you're watching us on YouTube, leave us a five star rating on your favorite podcasting app. We're going to push it when you comment. Please comment over at YouTube because it drives more audience. I noticed some people are commenting on Patreon, which I appreciate, but if you comment on YouTube, it'll it'll drive the algorithm up. So but we will be back here next Tuesday with even more do you even movie? So until next time, traffic was a bitch. Traffic was a bitch. Bye guys,