How Did This Get Made? - Hypnotic LIVE!

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

Paul, June, & Jason try to avoid a migraine while attempting to break down the 2023 Ben Affleck thriller Hypnotic directed by Robert Rodriguez. LIVE from Largo in LA, they ask is this movie Dumb Incep...tion or Dumb Manchurian Candidate? What’s the difference between a hypnotist and a hypnotic? Are we in the construct or out of the construct? WHAT IS A CONSTRUCT?! WHAT WAS THE DIVISION’S PLAN?!? AHHHHH! All this and not much more, on this week's How Did This Get Made? HDTGM is going on tour in August! Buy tix at hdtgm.com Follow Paul on Letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/paulscheer/HDTGM Discord: discord.gg/hdtgmPaul’s Discord: https://discord.gg/paulscheerCheck out Paul and Rob Huebel live on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/friendzone) every Thursday 8-10pm ESTSubscribe to The Deep Dive with Jessica St. Clair and June Diane Raphael here: listen.earwolf.com/deepdiveSubscribe to Unspooled with Paul and Amy Nicholson here: listen.earwolf.com/unspooledCheck out The Jane Club over at www.janeclub.comCheck out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hdtgmWhere to Find Jason, June & Paul:@PaulScheer on Instagram & Twitter@Junediane on IG and @MsJuneDiane on TwitterJason is not on Twitter

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Are you ready for dumb inception? We saw him not it, so you can hit the hoops control J.M.B. Born in the old school June When I take you from the old wall the way that you roll Bring me down the street by the hoped your poor wall sting Just to suck a bunch to our life at the time It's a great shot
Starting point is 00:00:38 It's a birthday, we can't be staying alive They call me when you're bad ass and he's on the line Breaking eight big limits cause they cool his eyes Cause they're bad, assing these on the line Fricking eight big limits, cause they cool the sides Cause the bad jiffony, looking kind of night All the shoes in the middle will chase him, he's getting late Dumb as paper shower, the monkey shots in the paint They're just a bunch of movies, while they making the grade There's a real question on the out of this kid, man
Starting point is 00:01:04 Hello, people of Earth, and hello, people of LARGO! We are live here in Los Angeles to talk about a movie that just came out a mere few weeks ago. As millions of people race to see book club two, a handful of people scattered themselves into a theater to see Robert Rodriguez's hypnotic or hypnotic, probably hypnotic, and hereic, probably hypnotic, and here is the plot. It's complicated. I'll give you what maybe they would say on the poster.
Starting point is 00:01:55 Ben Affleck is a sad cop trying to find his little girl who loves braids in her hair. That's where it starts. It goes off the rails very quickly. There's a bank robbery, there's a psychic, there's something called hypnotics, and there's something about Ben Affleck that allows the hypnotics not to affect him. Everyone's turning on everyone until the movie turns on us, the audience. 95 minutes of twists and turns, some people say you need to watch it again, and I say, why?
Starting point is 00:02:34 But we are going to break down every little twist, every little turn, and get to the bottom of why Ben Affleck does the Batman voice for 45 minutes. But to help me break this down, I'm gonna need my co-host, please welcome to the stage, Richard Jason Manzooka! What's up, jerks? How are we doing, Largo? Oh, holy cow. Watching a movie that asks,
Starting point is 00:03:12 what if the sad Ben Affleck meme became a character in a movie? The only thing this movie is missing is a cup of Dunkin' Donuts and a pack of six. Truly, truly, he appears to be miserable in this movie. You know what? But you know who's never miserable with a twist in a turn. My other co-host, Miss June Diane Raphael.
Starting point is 00:03:39 Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Hello, June, how are you? I'm okay, how are you, Paul? I'm well, thank you for asking.
Starting point is 00:03:53 June, I heard you laugh out loud while watching this movie. I just said to Jason backstage, and you said it earlier. You said hypnotics. And I want to spend roughly the next two hours just talking about the language that this movie is. The jargon. I wrote. I wrote.
Starting point is 00:04:16 And it has forced us to accept. The division. Well, you want to make me talk about the constructs that make you see what the hypnotics want you to see, but some people have psychic walks. Yep, yeah, which is obvious. So the hypnotics were sniper. But wait a second, but I guess this is what
Starting point is 00:04:31 let's start here, though, because to be a hypnotic, is it that you are hypnotist who's insane? No, it's as if you're a hypnotist who is, who's power set is this? There is like a, I feel like there's an X-man who has this power set. Basically, a hypnotic can just by saying it's hot in here without any previous post-hypnotic suggestion or anything
Starting point is 00:04:59 convince you it's hot and so they have, it's almost a super power. But no, but the hypnotic in this movie will say it's hot in here and not make you, it's almost a superpower. But, no, but the hypnotics in this movie will say it's hot in here, and not make you think it's hot, make you think that you are on fire and then cause a traffic accident. Like, what they say one thing is like,
Starting point is 00:05:14 it's the afternoon, quick and time. Well, what I'm trying to understand though, is what is the difference exactly between a hypnotist and a hypnotist? Okay, a hypnotist. Yes. You need a buy-in from the person too. Like, they're gonna give you a suggestion.
Starting point is 00:05:34 They need to work with you prior. Prior to what? Well, like, you would have to be open to a hypnotic. I think the idea of a hypnotic is, they live. Okay, but you have to have consent. It's like you have to have enthusiastic consent. Or, so this movie is like the Manchurian candidate, right?
Starting point is 00:05:50 Except the Manchurian candidate needs to be reduced to nothing, built back up and then given a trigger word that they are then in the thrall of somebody else. But in this movie William Fickner can just be like, go kill that guy and you're like, okay, no. No, well, well, William Fickner can just be like, go kill that guy and you're like, oh, you don't. No, well, well, William Fickner could go like this. You're suit jackets tight.
Starting point is 00:06:10 Then the guy back, I'm gonna go kill that guy. Like it never, it never was the direct fit. I think you were saying so. So you got the wrong guy. I see what you're saying. So you were saying that if a hypnotist wanted that to happen, a hypnotist would have to work for multiple sessions. Oh, a very long time.
Starting point is 00:06:27 On that trigger. A hypnotist is doing something. A hypnotic is like the superhero version of a hypnotist. OK, so it's not like, oh, I'm a psychologist, and I'm working through your trauma. And then now I'm a psychiatrist, and I'm giving you a pill. No, they are. They have a truly, I believe, that movie is trying to suggest clumsily so,
Starting point is 00:06:48 that they have a super, a truly a superpower, that they can... They are genetically prone to hypnotize you. They are like X-Men. Yeah. But here, let's hear the explanation that the movie gives. Which one? Which one? Which one?
Starting point is 00:07:02 Poor O's is Alice Braga. Poor Alice Braga has to do at least six full exposition dumps, all of which contradict each other and are infuriatingly opaque. Here is one. Maybe the first one. Are you familiar with the concept of hypnotic constructs? Okay, pause for a second, too. Sorry. One of the other things that's wild about the movie is that the hypnotics, that's the rules of the movie even with all the exposition dumps are infuriating. What they not only can the hypnotics compel you to do things or believe things and basically take control of your entire Personnel or personality they can also Convince you of an artificial world that you're currently
Starting point is 00:07:55 Oh, I want to talk for an hour about the fact that the division is basically a shitty production company. No, I'm all a dog shit. The half of these people in the division are memorizing lines. They look like executives who worked at Target in their own jackets. I wrote down Target too. And then I was like, no, I'm boycotting this joke.
Starting point is 00:08:25 Wait, I do want to break down the reveal, but let's just, can we just listen to the, yeah. Sure, sure. First of all, fortune telling, no sense. It's not hypnosis. Hypnotics have abilities far beyond anything we have a name for. Hypnotics.
Starting point is 00:08:42 People with the ability to actually influence the brain over a psychic bandwidth. Mictilepathy. Telepaths just read the mind. Ipnotics reshape its reality. They got the bank. You said he spoke four words to a woman in Chundrest. Just share with them on. No.
Starting point is 00:09:01 Those were cues. Sound. Voice. Lock were cues. Sound, voice, locking eyes. If not excused, I'm to make you see a version of the world that doesn't exist. Your behavior conforms with this hypnotic construct. So everything that you see and do feels perfectly normal. How is it that you know so much about these hypnotics? Because I am one. Boom!
Starting point is 00:09:29 Bam! Affleck is borderline inaudible. This movie borrows and steals so much from Christopher Nolan movies. So much so that Affleck's voice is inaudible in the mix. I think it's basically very close to the brown. I would say that this... I did ship myself four times. That one really slept. You got slept on it at first. That one rippled through. I described this movie to myself, because I wrote it down, as the state that you're in when you are not yet asleep,
Starting point is 00:10:12 but not fully awake. It's like that moment, I'm almost asleep. It just has that feeling. But it's not even that interesting. No, this movie thing, it's fascinating, and it's a moron. Yeah, and there's something, but that really felt like I was back in the pandemic. Like I felt like the pandemic movie. It is a pandemic movie, and I just, while I was watching it, I was like, it's locked down.
Starting point is 00:10:39 Like, it's locked down. Just so you know. Toilet paper, like it's scary. It isn't truly a pandemic movie. It was going to be shopped before the pandemic, they shut down, and when the pandemic lifted, they went into production. So this is post pandemic.
Starting point is 00:10:54 This might have been, we're wearing some masks on set, but this is, we're back in the world. People are happy. Okay, I just, I think the big switch is, it was supposed to be shot in LA, and then they had to shoot it in Texas, and maybe that's what we're getting from Ben. Maybe.
Starting point is 00:11:11 Well, I would assume it would be Texas, because this is clearly Robert Rodriguez's whole setup, right? This is what's it called, his, his, he's got a whole like studio outside Austin that I built. It's like rebel productions, but I mean, ketchup production is produced. I think you noticed ketchup productions was
Starting point is 00:11:28 what was the title? Well, so you're saying that studio has like a bank and that studio has like a police department and that studio has like a back lot. The division has a back lot. But here's the crazy thing. What was that? The division have a backlog.
Starting point is 00:11:45 That? Like a New York City street. You're OK. So if you're the division, have you built all of that? Just for these. Just for Ben Affleck. Just for Ben Affleck. Over the last four years.
Starting point is 00:11:58 And here's the meeting. Here's the meeting. Guys, we're pulling you off of all your active sewing world chaos missions. We've got everybody's got roles. They are like places, everybody places. Everything they do, please, like they're doing, they're doing like a play. At one point, there were two adults in red blazers throwing a ball to each other. That was my, I wrote that down, the basketball guys.
Starting point is 00:12:25 But this is what doesn't make sense. For some things, like when they go into the bank, the bank is later revealed to be like two pieces of PVC piping with bank on it. Right. But then the Mexico City is fully built. Like a full, like why did they need to fully build that? And then like the truck is fully real.
Starting point is 00:12:47 I had to justify that because it was so crazy. And I felt like you know what happened? There were some red blazers who were like, I want to spend some time on Mexico City. I want, because they all have to be skilled to a certain degree at set design. No. Mental set design.
Starting point is 00:13:07 No, the division is like a black ops operator. They're like a mercenaries. I can say, and as a side hobby, some of them are artistic. No, I'm with June. I'm with June. Every one of them, those two guys playing basketball, they're going basketball, basketball, basketball, and Ben Affleck's going, oh, basketball, that.
Starting point is 00:13:27 They're imposing their will. So they have to, to some degree, they have to be creative and artistic to get across the semblance of basketball. Bob, we're wearing the movie fall. OK, one of the things that's very important that we've just jumped straight to and have not explained at all, is that for so much of the movie,
Starting point is 00:13:48 we are watching a police procedural where Ben Affleck and Alice Braga are being chased by Bill Fickner and the division. And blah, blah, blah. Because his daughter was kidnapped. Yes. And it's all related. It's all related.
Starting point is 00:14:03 It's all related to the city. But is it? Because like he wants's all related. It's all related, isn't it? I mean, because like he wants to get, like his daughter's kidnap, first of all, he has a relationship with a therapist who calls him by his last name. Rort. Hey, Rort, I think that that's pretty,
Starting point is 00:14:16 like I think that that seems rough. I imagine. My therapist calls me Zeus. I imagine that he must have introduced himself as work, because I do feel like we see that a lot in movies with cops. Like, it's too feminine to have a first name. They only go by their last names. Just to return to the kidnapping that we open up with, that was the fastest kidnapping I ever did see.
Starting point is 00:14:36 And I was... Because it didn't exist. And now I know that. Well, look at that pinwheel. Now look at that pinwheel and she was gone. I think this is a journey back to the movie. And I was. Because it didn't exist. And now I know that. Well, look at that pinwheel. Now look at that pinwheel and she was gone.
Starting point is 00:14:48 I think this and turned back on. The movie is so clumsy because the reveal happens so late in the movie that the entirety of the movie you've watched so far is one of these imaginary constructs. Yes. These constructs that the division has created, they're all in his imagination, and he's just walking around. So they should have walked a parking lot
Starting point is 00:15:12 in the back of the division, where everybody's scurrying around in bright red jacket. Like fucking assholes. So just being like. OK, but why did they have to be in red jackets? It didn't, no, no reason. No reason. No reason.
Starting point is 00:15:29 No reason. It actually seems like an aggressive color. They looked like cater waiters. And they looked like an entire fleet of people who are like, do you need to valet? No. Why was this choice made? It was the strangest choice,
Starting point is 00:15:43 because it wasn't scary, it wasn't, it didn't feel like, oh, they're blending into the background somehow. It made them be a less threatening. I was like, these fucking idiots. Yeah, I was moving. This movie, River was wearing an eye patch and his crazy gear, I was like,
Starting point is 00:15:59 oh, this guy's crazy. When he's wearing his red blazer and red tie, I was like, fuck this idiot. I feel like this movie was made on a budget. And someone said, hey, Robert, we can get you 250 red jackets. He's like, perfect, let's do it. He still has that indie rebel without a crew spirit. Get me red jackets, I'll figure out a way to use them.
Starting point is 00:16:20 And here's the thing. There is something. So I guess, you know, what's hard about this movie is you watch it for the first hour and 20 minutes and you're like, aha, this sucked. And then, and then they go, no, we know it sucked. And you suck because you fell for it. Asshole.
Starting point is 00:16:44 Because like you're like, what's this voice Ben Affleck is doing? He's like, it was a choice. He thinks he's in a noir. I know. And then it was like, OK, guess jokes on me. I'm in a construct. Like, OK. But what I couldn't get out of or what
Starting point is 00:17:02 I could never find my way out of is like, why can't, why is the division going to these links? I am confused and I do want, I want you to explain this to me, but I am confused as to why, understand he can't be easily hypnotized. Okay, that's okay. Why did they, what do they think they are doing in that construct to get him to reveal where his daughter is? They've put him into a situation where he's a policeman trying to find his kidnapped daughter. Right. In any case, he will lead them to her by solving the misfinding the clues.
Starting point is 00:17:44 Okay, so when he goes to find that clue, that's a real clue. Real clue. That he actually put it in a bank. See, so where's the bank that he put that in? No, see what I think what they're trying to do is. No, I know that it is the cost of the product. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, guys midsection and the guys like the movie I wish I want you know what got let thrown Robert Rodriguez I want Rosen Krampson Gildenstern our dead style
Starting point is 00:18:35 movie from the point of view of the division. I want to see all these things but with no artifice. Okay because what we know to be true is... I want to hear you finish this thought, yeah. OK, so what we know to be true is people not in the construct, we know that Ben Affleck, as a hypnotic, has placed a trigger for himself in the bank of Austin. Correct? Well, yes.
Starting point is 00:19:02 So can I just... No, I don't think so. I have an idea. I don't think so. I have an idea. Wait, June Holen, I have an idea. Let me, I think I can see what's going on in the beginning is he believes he's chasing Bill Fickter, who is essentially standing in for him. They're saying he has a raised memory. And Bill Fickter has put this thing in there.
Starting point is 00:19:23 So I think what they've done is they followed him around, they found one piece, which was the photo, and they retreated. Where did they find that? Well, maybe when he said it. They say it at one point, who remembers? The daughter said it. The, oh, that's right.
Starting point is 00:19:37 Where? That's the daughter's trigger. At the exhibition, okay, so there's a final Exposition dump. Because at the end of the movie, everybody's like, Wait, what the fuck just happened? And so there's a full like, I'm gonna say 9.5 minute Exposition dump that explains the movie you just saw, which was this. At a certain point, Ben Affleck and Alice Braga are like,
Starting point is 00:20:02 our daughter is being turned into a weapon by the division because she can control people. Great, we have to savor from this. The only way to do that is to kidnap her, hide her, erase our own memories so that she, but we're gonna have to wait three plus years because she's more powerful. She's more powerful enough in control of her powers. At which point, she will begin a series of events that lead to the events of this movie.
Starting point is 00:20:27 Wait, wait, wait, wait. She will. Yes, by sending that picture. Because she is the most powerful. She's the tricker. So, okay, so that picture, that polarer that he finds is the domino that un-starts to unlock his. Okay, so you're telling me that the girl
Starting point is 00:20:45 from that safe house, the little girl who's now four years older. Okay, has put that photograph in- Lauderdale Ray photograph. In a bank vault? No, no, no. No, the bank vault is a part of the pawn shop. She, I think she sent it to the division.
Starting point is 00:21:03 Yes, she sent it to the-. Yes. She sent it to the... That's such a bad idea for her. No, because it's... Oh, she knows. She wants them to inevitably come to her. It's the first domino, so she starts the chase. Okay, thank you. And that's why...
Starting point is 00:21:17 All right, I'm both in the concert and I'm now out of the concert. I got it. By the way, this is... I got it. You and Juner reenacting Robert Rodriguez pitching this. Yeah. And somebody being like, somebody being like,
Starting point is 00:21:31 well, I don't know, maybe when I read the script, it doesn't matter, no script. We don't got a script. It's all in a backyard. The whole movie takes place in a backyard. What about the safety? But there are no banks. By the way, can we just look at what the hypnotics have done?
Starting point is 00:21:45 They have created violent uprisings at Shake Wall Street. They are anti-government forces. I don't know that they've done any of this. They are, it says a coordinated test. But this is River's version of, he says he's reporting on them. He's part of them. This is a hypnotic thing. This is the inside, but I think part of it is half truth, half lie, right?
Starting point is 00:22:06 I think, no. I think you're in a construct. I think you're in a construct. I want to just say this, and I know, because we can pick apart a lot of this, and it's the fault of the movie for not making sense. We're trying to make sense out of it, and the movie is constantly being like,
Starting point is 00:22:22 don't look too close at that. Look over here, look over here. Right, if you say it quick enough, you might just forget it. Like, you might not question, why does Ben Affleck say I want to get a safety deposit box? They go in. He's like, oh, I forgot my paperwork.
Starting point is 00:22:37 All right, like, like, it's like, no, that's not what happens. He's, I want to get a safety deposit box. They go in. The guy says I forgot my keys, but Ben Affleck had stolen his keys so that want to get a safety deposit box. They go in. The guy says I forgot my keys, but Ben asked like, it's stolen his keys so that he could open the safety deposit box. This is the division.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Again, getting him to this place. To this place. Yes. I understand they have to get there, but there are some things that are clunky. Oh, get the whole movie. Right. Well, you have to imagine the whole movie is right in. And you have to imagine the poll. If in. You have to imagine the Paul.
Starting point is 00:23:06 If you are, I know it seems clumsy, but if you're a hypnotic, your job is not actually to create a movie set. They do your acting. I think they're doing a wonderful job. I want to hit my hat to some of the odd choices. There's one point where he's recollecting how him and his wife were so distraught with his child as kidnap,
Starting point is 00:23:30 and figuring prominently in the frame is just a margarita glass, a comically large one. Like, it's like, I can't believe our daughter's missing. Two frozen margaritas. Uh. I want to be... You said Jimmy Buffett machine, please, yeah, yeah. I want to be crystal clear just so I think everybody's
Starting point is 00:23:51 on the same page. Yes. The totality of this movie takes place at two locations. The divisions back lot. Yes. And the farmhouse that what it looks like a quarry or something, that's the only two places people really are ever. Yes.
Starting point is 00:24:12 Yeah, that's true. There is no banks, there's no cities, there's no Mexico. There's no elevators, there's no heart. But why does the elevator have to have like little one button? What, what do you need and what do you not need? Why? You can create a fucking train yard with fucking cars and you can't just imagine an elevator bus.
Starting point is 00:24:33 I also like what I would love is to have seen like all of our hypnotics, the red blazers, like get to decide like are they casting those roles? Do they? How did they those roles? Do they? How did they lose it? How did they get fucking it? Do they have to audition? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:50 I want to be his partner. Make me his partner. I want to be the woman who gets to be on runs across the screen. No, I'm on. That woman was incredible. But I don't want to also, well first of all, it would have been great if they revealed the head of the
Starting point is 00:25:00 hypnotics was like, Max from Rushmore, the main character, he's like, this is as main, like, you know, he used to build those sets. What's really, yeah, that would be very funny. It's all. Because he was wearing a red blazer too, right? And Rushmore, what I really wanted, what I really blew my mind was so much of the movie
Starting point is 00:25:20 you spend primarily with William Fickner, but then also Alice Braga, with two people who are consistently using this hypnotic power. A power they have over people to command them, to get them to kill each other, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay? And so you're like, okay, I live in a world in which at least very clearly this is a power set that exists. But once the twist happens,
Starting point is 00:25:45 all those people that have been killed are now alive. So nobody was hypnotized by a hypnotic. Bill Fickner didn't successfully do any of that stuff. All of those examples of what hypnotics can do were fake. Wow, Jason. And that really loved it. No, yes, yes, yes, hold on. That was all acting, yes, but it's But yes, I understand, but it's like
Starting point is 00:26:14 It's like saying death of a salesman is fake. Yes, but salesman exist and then they get depressed that they don't sell enough stuff and they kill themselves Like that is true. So, I think what they're doing is writing a play based on their own experiences. Wait, whoa, whoa. Can we rewind that? If not, it's our creating a play,
Starting point is 00:26:44 but it's based on the things that they can and can do, like the way that we wrote the play, Death of a Salesman. A salesman is a concept that we all understand. That exists. OK. And sometimes you'll get depressed if you don't sound a stuff.
Starting point is 00:26:59 But here's. And then you'll kill yourself. That's the thing. Paul, what you're saying. It's a little different, if I may, than death of a salesman. We all understand what the American dream is, which is what that play is about. And if you're all having an understanding.
Starting point is 00:27:16 So when we watch that, we all understand whether we're salesman, whether we're ham? Anything. Yes, whatever we want to do in our lives, we understand the pain of not being able to take care of our families, that the world, feeling outside of a world moving faster than we can
Starting point is 00:27:34 and that we can't keep up and making those difficult decisions and being, having personally failed ourselves. I don't know, I haven't seen it. That's different for my... We haven't seen it. We haven't seen it. He know. I have seen it. That's different. But I haven't seen it. He just said he hasn't seen it. What the hell's going on? What I'm saying, Paul, is that we all understand the idea of the American dream. We all have
Starting point is 00:28:00 that cultural understanding. We don't have a cultural understanding and an understanding of what it is to be hypnotic. So what Jason is saying is absolutely true. And, and, and June, I do hear what you're saying, and I appreciate you explaining to me, but I think you're missing my point, which is this. Death of a salesman. He's gonna say the same exact thing. Let him go. Let him go.
Starting point is 00:28:23 Is... Can he get a spotlight? LAUGHTER Death of a salesman is a play for who? The American audience or worldwide audience who understand what the American dream is. Ben Affleck is a hypnotic. This is a play for one person. He understands what the hypnotics are.
Starting point is 00:28:44 So the way that an American audience understands the American dream, that play is for them. This play is for one person. He understands what the hypnotics are. So the way that an American audience understands the American dream, that play is for them. This play is for hypnotic. He understands, oh right, I can mentally control this shit. Like so, yes, well I'm thinking, it's not, we're only, wait, wait, wait, but William Fickter's not actually doing it, but he can do it because in that reality,
Starting point is 00:29:03 he's just gonna go and like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like he's triggering his mind about it. But remember, remember, it's remember time. I agree with you. That's the t-shirt. It's remember time. It's remember time. Up, it's remember time somewhere.
Starting point is 00:29:24 You wanna drink? It's remember time somewhere. You wanna drink? It's remember time somewhere. My point though, Paul, is a movie that's been so much time with so many people exhibiting a superpower that you then say at the midway, or further than the midway point, actually they've never done any of this. They can believe me you.
Starting point is 00:29:47 They can. But everybody we've seen in their thrall is acting like they're in their thrall. Now I can't believe this, but I have a different theory. Not yours and not yours. Paul, you're just absolutely wrong. Like, there's no, first of all, that makes no sense. Well, you make me the idea that they would create a movie
Starting point is 00:30:06 for one of the characters in the movie. They did. That's what they did do. That's the end. I understand that that's what happened. But what I am saying is I believe that everybody in the construct, every red blazer, is probably actually being hypnotized
Starting point is 00:30:26 within the construct. So, thank you. Well, I do. Because. Because. Because I do think they're killing themselves and I do think that they are getting erased multiple times.
Starting point is 00:30:41 So if you are a red blazer and you're there, like your mind is not your own. So if you are a red blazer and you're there, like your mind is not your own. So Bill Fickter is controlling everybody? I don't think so. No, definitely not because Alice Braga has to say, look, the reason why Ben Affleck has the power of hypnotic, right? Alice Braga has the power of hypnotic. They fuck, they make a baby who's super powerful. That's the whole thing. So everyone in that red blazer is a hypnotic. This is a small grouping of people who put on plays, also create Brexit, and do whatever. But that's not that small of a group. But that's my thing is I can't, I don't think they are ever... Yeah! This is why the movie's bad.
Starting point is 00:31:25 This is why the movie's bad. In their, like let's jump back before all the events of this movie, right? Let's say the event prior to the events of this movie when Ben Affleck and Alice Braga are themselves agents within the division, right? What is the division doing then? Are they bringing people in the Mexico City
Starting point is 00:31:44 back lot to do stuff? No, no, no, no. They're out in the world, James Bond, right? But they lost their most powerful weapon. Correct. So they have to take a break from all of them going out there. All right, everybody, come back.
Starting point is 00:31:58 This is what I'm saying. This is what I'm saying. They're taking all these field agents out. It's like the CIA being like, we're pulling you back. Here is a script. You're gonna be a police partner. You're gonna be a bank teller. You're gonna be a police partner.
Starting point is 00:32:11 It probably takes 12 hours. They've done it like 12 times. They've done it 12. This is a fucking nightmare. My question. That's been years. It's been aged four years. No, no, no, no.
Starting point is 00:32:20 This is what they've been doing for four years. I know, no, I think. They've been doing this when they got the photo. Yes, but they've been in pre-production for three years. Yeah, probably. These motherfuckers are building sets. Yeah, that is. They're learning lines.
Starting point is 00:32:36 They're auditioning for the, I don't want to be the teller. Can't I be the partner? Why, why does they're clearly playing multiple roles? Why does Nick have to say- Why do they have to say the same lines every time? Look, why does he have to say like, Did you wipe your shoe before you got in?
Starting point is 00:32:51 The golf cart? They don't even have coins. But yeah, they're the best. What a golf cart! But the fan is real. Did anybody go back and rewatched to see if any of the same actors were being used as background in the other scenes, like the dying of your people? Yeah, hundreds of people in Mexico City.
Starting point is 00:33:16 Right. Hundreds. No, because everyone can construct a couple more. No. There's like ten of them together. Pull up Mexico City, please. Kind of them together. Pull up Mexico City, please. Kind of them together, hold each other by the waist,
Starting point is 00:33:26 and that's a train. Well, that's the thing is, that's the thing is, they can get you to imagine, and there are no rules, and that's what's hard, even though there's so much ex-position, they can build a construct, they can build a house, but they can't put people inside of it. They need breathing, living people to be, and they can't make you imagine a conversation with someone.
Starting point is 00:33:49 You have to have the conversation. They can make you imagine. Well, that's why this makes it even more confusing because Jack Earel Hailey seems to be an ally who then is revealed to be billfector. But like, it would have been better if billfector didn't reveal that he was, he killed him.
Starting point is 00:34:08 Well, but they figure it out. Alice Braga figures it out and she's like, wait a minute. But it wouldn't have been better for the story of Ben Affleck's character. Like a real movie. That would have been cool to figure it out. But what the hypnotics are doing seems like, oh, why are you upending your own shit? Like, you know, it's like-
Starting point is 00:34:28 Well, here's what you're really confusing. Okay, so let's talk about the post-credits scene. Yes. Because- Post-credits. So, at many points in the movie, people seem to be jumping into each other's bodies and just taking over physical space.
Starting point is 00:34:41 And then at points, other people are jumping into each other's bodies and are right there when another person was there. Now once we realize what's going on as much as we can understand it, it's clear that, oh, that was all a part of a construct and they were just hopping in and hopping out to their parts, except for that last scene. So in the last scene, we see the dad is walking, and then all of a sudden, the scene changes and the camera moves, and we realize he's actually dead. Now, my question is this, at that moment,
Starting point is 00:35:18 what, we are no longer in the construct. So how are they switching bodies? Okay, so they, okay. So there is no body switching in this movie. It's just full stop. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Full stop. There is no body switching.
Starting point is 00:35:40 What there is is masking. They are convincing you I look like the person you think you. We're having a conversation, but I am, I look like Jason. Yes, the hypnotics are using their power to make you think you're seeing a different person. Okay, but in the construct, the people that are playing... No, the constructs are unstrucked out, because they don't need to be in the construct in the people of the Red Blastor. No, no, the construct out. Because that's what's, they don't need to be in a construct.
Starting point is 00:36:09 The construct is just for Ben Affleck. Yes. We are only ever in the construct in the movie. What, I don't know. When are we out of the construct? At the, in the post-credits scene for one, in the backlog. Okay, so that was my question. No, I guess the idea is this.
Starting point is 00:36:24 It's that one where we create a construct. If not, it's create a construct. So if I wanted to create a construct for you that I was Jason, and you were talking to Jason, that would be a construct that I, the hypnotic would be creating for you. So, you don't need to be anywhere, you don't have to be in the back lot. I am all powerful.
Starting point is 00:36:40 These people, the 36 of them, are all around the country doing that all the time. It's like, oh, I thought I was in a bathroom. Yes, yes, yes. No, you're at Walt Disney World. You know, it's like that. So basically Bill Fickner has gotten here first, killed Jackie Earl Haley.
Starting point is 00:36:56 And but he's, he's, this scene, yes, yes. And then when they arrive, he's making it appear to them as if he is but but hold on jesus not in the actual haley's body he's just it's as if he's wearing a mask of this had you know that he's killed him he says it
Starting point is 00:37:15 yeah but but you'd have to also but you'd also have to say uh... that not this is clumsy yet to be clear This is not like what you'd have to say is, Bill Fector got there first, but then Alice Braga, I don't think that you need to kill somebody take over. I think Alice Braga can be on the other side of the door and do that fist pump and then become the woman
Starting point is 00:37:38 who makes the tamales. Oh yeah, then in a closet. Right. That's that I have questions about. I don't know how she She's But she was making tamales she was hungry and he said that tamales in the fridge I don't think Jack Earl Haley is making tamales, but when she was in the closet and they opened the door It looks like she was again
Starting point is 00:38:02 All-con struck she's making a sandcastle yeah, cuz it goes she's on it this she is all constructs. She's making a sand castle? Yeah, because it goes, she's on a beach making a sand castle. Yes, Alice Braga says she's on it. Again, that's in a construct. They're in a construct. That's where the movie is on real fuck you. So now we're cutting to the end. Because the end, we're not in a construct.
Starting point is 00:38:20 Correct. So everything is a, any time hypnotic uses their power, it is a construct. No, I don't think that's true. I mean, because to say that would mean, you are implying that that last scene, they're making a construct for no one. For us, the audience at home? Yeah, that's part of it. Part of it is that they're cheating all the time For you, for us, the audience at home? Yeah, that's part of it. Part of it is that they're cheating all the time in the movie for us, the viewer. They're cheating the rule of the movie
Starting point is 00:38:52 so that we don't, the movie is joyless in the sense that each time I was like, oh, I guarantee it's this. And it was, I was like, yeah, because it's dumb. It's not satisfying, you're not, it's not satisfying to be ahead of it or figure out. And you believe that a const, like, I believe that hypnotic, this is my understanding of it. A hypnotic creates a construct
Starting point is 00:39:16 that you both literally think. A certain reality. They rewrite your reality. That's what the hypnotic's power is. Okay, so I think, I see what you're saying, and I think you're right. It's a terminology. I think I thought of construct as this reality
Starting point is 00:39:31 that they occupy that they are inside of, but I do think the hypnotics can convince you, you are someone else, make you sign something, walk away. I don't think that's a construct. I think that's just a hypnotics power. They are able to convince you of something else. The construct is the immersive world. They have him inside of.
Starting point is 00:39:50 Okay. But I think the two are absolutely right. Okay, right. So we can, we can, tomato, tomato. But we can agree that hypnotics can do multiple things. They can make you do anything. they can make you see anything, and they can make you believe that you're in a place that you're not. In the sense that the young girl, the most powerful,
Starting point is 00:40:13 the second most powerful is Bill Fickter, right? But the most powerful girl has made them believe that they flew their helicopters to a small farmhouse and saw this. Now that's not a construct because it didn't build a fake farmhouse. They were just in a abandoned house where she was living. No, well, I think it is a construct. Oh, so they need to build a construct. The construct is like, it's almost like the AI or something.
Starting point is 00:40:38 You know, like, okay, so whenever they want to do a bigger, what's it called, a mind palace. Okay, so whenever they want to do a bigger... It seems like a construct you need, like you need some scaffolding, some real life scaffolding. And then you can make people really believe they're somewhere. Yeah. That's what I think a construct is.
Starting point is 00:40:58 I think that's it. It's really like you are putting a skin on the reality and saying, I'm this person or you're in this other place when in reality, It's really like you are putting a skin on the reality and saying, I'm this person, or you're in this other place, when in reality, what was interesting? It's a real, it's almost a total recall. This movie is almost a total recall in the what's real and what's not.
Starting point is 00:41:18 Is he really, is he still at recall? Or is he, it's like the Matrix. I was trying to see if anyone had written anything about constructs and hypnotics. No, surprisingly. It's like the Matrix. I was trying to see if anyone had written anything about constructs and hypnotics. No, surprisingly. Exactly. What? No, but-
Starting point is 00:41:29 No, but- But so to- I'm sorry to head back to the last scene again. The Matrix, everybody is in the pod of goo. But they are like, oh, I'm working, I'm going to the club, someone's knocking on my door, the boss, something- That's why I loved when the movie would have made so much sense, so much more sense.
Starting point is 00:41:49 If Ben Affleck was only in the white room, where if he only exists in the white room, and everything else is a construct for him to mentally engage with, that's not what this movie does. This movie says, we need him up and moving around. And as a result, we have to build an infrastructure around him. I don't know if I ever made you go on this thing,
Starting point is 00:42:13 but it's like that Star Wars VR thing where you put on these VR goggles, and you have to fucking fight Darth Vader and you're walking over fire pits, but if you sneak a peek under your VR glasses, you're just in a little room. And there's this little squishy part and then it feels hot.
Starting point is 00:42:30 That would make more sense. And you're right, the Matrix is the absolute gold standard of what that is. This is a movie that is essentially a simulation. A coolie structure is a simulation. Create, but the human computer is the drawing. Yes, yeah. The mind.
Starting point is 00:42:47 Death of a salesman. And that's the death. Boy, and cut all of what we just did out. This is really something. Yeah, when you think about actually how much work went into so little act like the movie is driving in car chases and gun fights and bank robberies and it's like full and rooftop executions and all of this adventure and then when you realize all of it just took place in a hundred square foot back, the parking lot in the back of an industrial facility run by the division where everybody's an actor,
Starting point is 00:43:32 I was like, I can't handle this. There's so many, I wrote, there's so many sets and so much acting, it makes this movie and the division seem absurd. The division immediately became not a threat to me when I realized most of what they were doing was bad acting. I was like, oh, these guys aren't bad at all. I don't, like, these guys are gonna be easily beaten. Between the blazers and their acting
Starting point is 00:43:56 and the fact that they just exist on set. See, I actually thought they were pretty good actors. I did too. But like that whole idea, when they put the young girl, when she was, I guess, how old do we want to say she is now? Seven? I think she's around seven or eight now. Okay. So say she was like three or four when they did that, like, that remembering where she was in that room and she had all the dominoes lined up. She's like, Plink, Plink, Plink, and everyone's like, you know, like, their hands are going up, they're falling over.
Starting point is 00:44:25 She's killing people with her mind. Like that whole thing, everyone's like, whoa, she's so good at three. We had to go to the back lot for a couple of months and work on our characters. Like, I feel like that's like, you know, like, that's like, it's like watching Michael Jordan. You're like, that's basketball, like that's what I...
Starting point is 00:44:46 But what she's doing is not acting. Like, that's where the disconnect is for me. I don't think... I don't think the division is about acting, except for this one case where they need information from Ben Affleck. It is! But they're all about acting, though. When they're creating- It's all about acting though.
Starting point is 00:45:05 It should be. When they're doing Brexit. When they're creating Brexit, they are backing. But no, they're not real acting there. It's not real. What is the division doing? We don't know. We don't know.
Starting point is 00:45:19 That's where the movies of failure. Do you guys think, never? No. No. Pop, pop, pop, pop. They're not doing Brexit, but I hope you don't think that they're so in chaos worldwide by creating these little sets and doing it that way. That's not what's happening.
Starting point is 00:45:35 No, I think they would go up to like Donald Trump and be like, hey. Yes, that's with their mind control. Yeah. But they're not acting there. They're doing their hypnotic work. Yes. This acting stuff is like they're doing despite the fact that Professor, but wait, draw the line. Draw the line for me because here's what I'm saying. If you are okay, if you are Willie Lohman and Paul is mad.
Starting point is 00:46:00 And I'm bad. You're Willie Lohman. Paul is half. Paul, you know the plague. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. What were you saying? I was going to say this. The idea that they can do masking in my mind means that they're always acting.
Starting point is 00:46:20 Because if I'm telling you that you're talking to Jason, but you're talking to me. I'm acting like Jason Yes, I'm using parts of your memory, but I'm also gonna go, you know, like I'll use my body And I'm in my body I disagree and again, I'm we're parsing very thinly a movie that is clunky and clumsy. So we're doing work for the movie that I don't think the movie has really examined. That being said, I don't think the hypnotics are acting at all.
Starting point is 00:46:57 They're making you think that the hypnotic by placing their in your mind, Charles Xavier style, making you think you're having a conversation with June, even though I'm the one doing it, I'm not acting like, I don't have to act like June. So you're just triggering her memories and you're manipulating the memories. Okay, what do you want them to be? You can make anybody do, when a hypnotist is.
Starting point is 00:47:24 So they're all Charles Xavier, that That's different. They're not misty. The difference is I don't know who I look Yeah, good. Yeah, good. Good. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't know about any of that, but I know that But I know that They are though that is their job as hypnotics. However, Ben Affleck can't be hypnotized. Well, recently, because he has a mental block, because he, first of all, he erased it. Well, until recently, that's right.
Starting point is 00:47:54 But I guess what I'm saying is they must show up as actors in that construct. So they are not, all of the red, this is where it gets so slippery. All of the red blazers are... Just like, death of a salesman. Oh my God. I need to go to the audience here. I need to hear what the audience has to say about this.
Starting point is 00:48:12 I'm gonna go out there. I don't know what we've talked about. It's the kind of movie that like, we spend all of our time arguing what it is, rather than like, we've talked about zero plot. Well, because it's a movie, it's a movie that actively tells you if you have any issues at the plot It doesn't make doesn't matter. It didn't happen. Yeah, and that's real
Starting point is 00:48:30 I just want I won't get to a bunch of questions But I just want you put your hand up if you think you can succinctly explain it Better than what we have done Okay, yeah, here we go your name again Jose Jose. Okay. This is your chance It's your moment. Don't be nervous. He's going. I'm not even gonna let this hear him out Okay, and then we can take your time take your time here we go Go for it. Okay, so they have to start how dare you to start how dare you. So every time they restart, they have to start from base zero, where he doesn't remember
Starting point is 00:49:10 anything. So he doesn't remember how powerful he is, but they have to trigger him to remember that he does have this power. So that's why they have these small little instances to break with the continuity of the scenario that they're creating. Like so? Oh, so they need the moment of the Mexico switcheroo because like, oh, he's getting, he's getting his power. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:35 So then he starts to remember that he has powers. So then he can start turning and then gaining power so that he can tell them where the daughter is. Respectfully Jose, I think the- With so much respect. With so much respect. With so much respect. The division doesn't want Ben Affleck to remember
Starting point is 00:49:54 he's a hypnotic because then that's closer to him realizing, oh, I hit her and I don't want you to find her. They want him to think he's just a detective finding his daughter. But how could he ever find her? He had the one clue, which is the photo. But that clue was gonna lead him back to his actual reality, which is that he hit her. Which is the daughter's, which is his own plan.
Starting point is 00:50:20 Which is Ben Affleck's plan. All right, next question. Is Oshoni here from Discord? Did you already ask? Did you already ask? No, you didn't. OK, this is a good question. I think it feeds right into this.
Starting point is 00:50:31 All right, you submitted your question on Discord. So I could know that this is going to be a good question. Here we go. Go for it. Yeah, so what would cause for childhood trauma to a young girl, be scenario where she becomes this like equipment for us, the people, or she doesn't grow up with her parents and then kills those. And she seems like she knows exactly what's going to happen that day.
Starting point is 00:51:02 He's like, are you ready? And she's like, yep. I'm wearing my black and white polka dot domino dress. He knows exactly what's gonna happen that day. He's like, are you ready? And she's like, yup. I'm wearing my black and white polka dot domino dress, and I'm ready to cause a bunch of people to kill each other. So they're freaking. I like when Ben Affleck, the goodest partner,
Starting point is 00:51:16 he was like, and the guy was like, pfff. What a terrible way to go. But then I thought that was terrible, but then Bill Fickard shoots himself in the belly. He was like, my man, my girl. And what's sad is that's actually Jeff Fahey, which is heartbreaking.
Starting point is 00:51:32 So sad. But one that the switch happened, we'll never know. This movie is bolstered so much by an incredible supporting cast of some of our greatest character actors. I also feel Fickner, Jackie Earl Haley, Jeff A.E. This is Home Run City. Truly.
Starting point is 00:51:49 Obviously we have opinions about this movie, but there are people out there with a different opinion. It is now time. I hope. For second opinions. Does anyone have second opinion theme? You got it. All right, there we go. All right, what's your name, sir?
Starting point is 00:52:02 I'm Hassan. Hassan, welcome. Okay, I'm going to get... Oh yeah, what do you... I've been a fan since I was in the eighth grade sir? I'm Hassan. Hassan, welcome, okay. I'm gonna get... oh yeah, what do you... I've been a fan since I was in the 8th grade and I'm 25 now, so... Wow! I love it. Thank you for entertaining me half-time. I am so excited to be a target.
Starting point is 00:52:28 What? That is chilling. Wow. I can't imagine listening to a podcast in eighth grade. Ladies and gentlemen, Hassan! I believe I'm a cop, but in reality I'm really not. Think about my daughter every night and day. Oh God, where did she go away?
Starting point is 00:52:57 Oh, wait, I just had a thought. She's not kidnapped at all. I had her hidden away for this very special day where I can kill the division, and that is my second opinion. Yeah! Hasan! Hasan! Hasan! Hasan!
Starting point is 00:53:20 Hasan! Hasan! Hasan! Hasan! Hasan! Hasan! Husson! Husson! Husson! Husson! Husson! A listener since eighth grade comes up with a second opinion song on the spot. We should be required reading, required curriculum,
Starting point is 00:53:40 not that stupid death of a salesman. All right, do you have one? Do you want to go? You want to go? That's fine. You can bail if you want. But we'll support you regardless. You'll do it.
Starting point is 00:53:53 Let's do it. Come on, folks. We will not critique you. How old were you when you started listening to Greyhaired Man? I don't know, 35. 35 gross. What's your name? My name is Ned.
Starting point is 00:54:11 Ned. All right, Ned, I'm excited. Ned or Nick? Ned. Ned, thanks. Ned, I'm excited for this because the amount of self-awareness that you felt like I don't know if I can follow that means that you're a good person.
Starting point is 00:54:28 Most people don't care. Like, fuck, Mike, let's go. So I wrote three verses and six choruses. Let's do this. So already Ned, you're good in my book. So obviously, people have a different opinion. It's now time for a second opinion. Please welcome Ned!
Starting point is 00:54:50 Ben Affleck can't recall. A single thing at all like his powers. Howard, how this braga tries to help But she's an easy act to about everything Oh, there's not a thickener, Domino's green backs jacket This is just scanners without exploding heads And we don't care, we don't care But maybe someone thought that this movie was genius just because it was made by Robert Rodriguez, but we don't care.
Starting point is 00:55:34 We don't care. And why did I decide to spend $20? Maybe this movie hypnotized all of us. I'm like, wow, we need a second opinion now all the salesmen are dead. Yeah! Get it up for me! Amazing! Man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man,
Starting point is 00:56:01 I'm dancing. Drop dead, Ned. Honestly, if only had, if only, team Fred, if only the division had Hassan and Ned to write their little plays. I just want to be at, like, I wish the movie had featured a scene at Division HQ where they were like, I think we should put a song in there.
Starting point is 00:56:29 Wait, what? I would have loved the music on the floor. I would have loved to see the people who played the newscasters. All right, we combined some reviews, some are from Amazon, some are from Letterbox, my favorite social media site here, but I'll give you the stats so far. Like I said, this is a pretty new movie.
Starting point is 00:56:54 Right now on Amazon, there are 109 reviews, and 49% are five star. All right, so there we go. And the average rating on Letterbox of 12,000 reviews, 52% or 5 star, all right, so there we go. And this one started by Moussa Chargary. I know this movie doesn't deserve 5 stars, but this dumb movie made me cry.
Starting point is 00:57:21 Cry. Because of its genuine sincerity, as it unravels a mystery that doesn't matter to unlock the emotional truth of the human experience and crashes with that filmmaking process in ways that it just did something to my soul. Rodriguez is having a blast as he piles on twist upon twist which he distorts reality on a whim and then waits for a house of cards to topple. It's a meathead inception, but I prefer this low-budget, weirdly textured attempt of Renollan's self-serious pretension on explaining itself, but there's no ambiguity left.
Starting point is 00:57:58 Rodriguez doesn't give a shit if it makes sense. He just wants to make something weird and interesting while dissecting the filmmaking process and intersecting that with a genuine narrative arc that really worked. I love this. Five stars. I mean, yeah. That person is right in the sense
Starting point is 00:58:17 that I don't think Robert Rodriguez is examining it at all to the degree that we have tried to do. No, tonight. He wrote it in a weekend and was like, let's shoot it. Frank Post in the parking lot behind my house. Frank Post, 6-1-1 writes, this movie was terrific from start to finish. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
Starting point is 00:58:39 The film was confusing, but you will understand it by the end. The plot twists are crazy and unexpected. It was so well written. The acting was superb. I suggest watching it high. Yes. I can't disagree with that. There's a mid-credits scene that affects the entire movie, and my friend and I were the only ones in our theater who saw five stars. And then this one, this one from Eagles Fan, it says, this was a really good movie. Very unexpected plot twists and turns. I do wish it was a bit longer though. I believe there will be a sequel of five stars.
Starting point is 00:59:30 And then this one, I just want to read the title. I expected less, but I was given more. Stand up claps. Five stars. Wow. There it is. I mean, people love this movie. I'll give you just a little bit of quick research on it. This movie came out May 11, 2023. The budget was $65 million. No.
Starting point is 00:59:58 Why? Open. Ben Affleck. Opening weekend. $2 million. I'm hearing Ben Affleck opening weekend to million dollars. I'm serious, where is that money? Computer screens, worldwide gross, six million so far, a little rough, a little rough. The screenplay was something that Robert Rodriguez came up with
Starting point is 01:00:22 in 2002, so it was one of his favorite stories and just came back to it. And in some of the translations of this movie in different countries, dormant mutiny, construction, mind hunting, hypnotic attack, and manipulators. Those are some of the titles. And I guess the question is to both of you, would you recommend it? Huh.
Starting point is 01:00:52 It's something to see, all right. I mean, it's $20. Pollinate purchased it separately. What? You bought it too? We talked about this last night. I only didn't rent it because if we both, huh.
Starting point is 01:01:12 Ha ha. You were on a phone call. I had to start watching it. And I had only on my computer with me and yeah, I bought it. We're on a family share plan. I know because I pay for your date line. Hey. I don't know why all of a sudden,
Starting point is 01:01:31 everything you buy, I have to buy on my credit card. I see every house lies. I'm like, we have to stop out. We can step out if you want. The movie was so shocking to me that I do recommend it because I couldn't believe when those golf carts came out. I laughed so hard. Yes, literally.
Starting point is 01:01:55 Because it's one thing to reveal it's on a back lot. It's another thing to put all those people in golf carts. It's like, and red blazers. And red blazers. But you can't not look a those people in golf carts. Like, and red blazers. And red blazers, but you cannot look a fool in a golf cart. There's no way to ride in one where you're just fooling. Especially when you see the first scene
Starting point is 01:02:13 where their cops and his partner pulls up and he's like, hey, did you wipe your shoes? Baa-baa-baa. And they're doing cop banter. And then you see the whole scene play out again, except as partners in a red blazer, and they're in a golf car And you're like you're telling hour into this movie. It's less cool
Starting point is 01:02:31 Yeah, it was just hilarious, so I would recommend it for that reason. It's pretty shocking. Yeah Yeah, I am a fan of Robert Rodriguez I I'm a fan of Robert Rodriguez. I would love to say this as well. Really incredible. And as someone who has, whose entire career has unfolded during the period of time in which I was paying attention to movies, you know.
Starting point is 01:02:53 And so his whole story from making the El Mariachi and all that stuff, his story is interesting. The L-ray network, the show he had where he interviews directors. I love it. I think he's an incredibly interesting, incredibly inventive filmmaker. And there's a lot of that at play in here. And that's what makes it worth.
Starting point is 01:03:14 I feel like all the effort we've gone to to try and figure this movie out is because there is a movie in this movie. Yeah. There's something here. Well, just so... Forgive me, Robert Rodriguez. It's so dumb that it just... I couldn't get it.
Starting point is 01:03:35 It just is like insurmountable that the slightest degree. But boy, I had fun watching it. It's fun. And I, a hundred percent think people should watch. And I'll just say this to just to go on the Robert Rodriguez train, I agree with everything you said. I think that the interesting thing about him is he is actively not taken apart in the Hollywood system at all, right?
Starting point is 01:03:58 And the movies he makes are in the vein of like a Roger Corman weird like he's still doing the weird shit. And I feel like that's and but he's doing it on his own terms and I do love it and he's made some great kid movies that are speaking of the connection between tonight and last night do we know it. Julie Corkey is the star of Spy Kids. Yes. A Robert Rodriguez directed series. So yeah, like there is a connection there.
Starting point is 01:04:27 But I think, yeah, the kid stuff he does is interesting. I think he- You can be heroes is legitimately great. I think Olyda Battalangel was really good. Oh, I love that. I think Robert Rodriguez is fascinating. And this movie, even though we spent all of this time trying to make it make sense. It still was a blast.
Starting point is 01:04:45 I wrote in my notes so often, ha ha ha, this is fun. Yeah. I also feel like parents. I'm having a great time. I don't know of Robert Rodriguez's smoke suite, but I will say this. I loved Elite of Battle Angel.
Starting point is 01:05:00 I saw that in a half empty theater in IMAX and 3D. And I was like, yes! But I could see him directing that and like looking around it like scaffolding and being like, what if that was a movie and That's what it feels like the guy who directed the lead of badelangelo going like Yeah, so here's I just want to say what I Want to say one thing about the back lot
Starting point is 01:05:28 before we wrap it up. Because, okay, so the back lot, some of the scaffolding and the infrastructure there, it said like police, bank, but not all of those fonts and signs corresponded to what he saw. So were those signs just for our actors? Maybe.
Starting point is 01:05:49 Or honestly, honestly what it really is is for us the audience at home. So much of what's being shown to us is not for the people in the movie. It's for the audience at home whether to misdirect you or whether to clue you into and make a connection that the movie, it's for the audience at home whether to misdirect you or whether to clue you into and make a connection that the movie itself hasn't made. What a dangerous game to play for an hour and twenty minutes to be like, you're watching
Starting point is 01:06:14 a shitty movie. Yeah. Like, and wait, like, this it? Yeah. Are you about to show the, um, the, I, I don't have, I don't have that stuff to do yet. You don't have any back lock on it. No, sadly no. But yeah, I mean, that's the dangerous game
Starting point is 01:06:28 in a time of streaming just to be like, I'm gonna wait for an hour or so before I let them in on this. That's pretty good. There's not even a matrix-y like brang, brang. It's like no. That reveal should, it happens in the middle of Act 2 and it absolutely should have happened at the middle of Act 2, and it absolutely should have happened at the beginning of Act 2.
Starting point is 01:06:47 Yeah. That reveal so that the rest of the movie was a sprint through, because what basically happens is it happens so late as to when they put him back under, he immediately comes back out. And we don't get to enjoy a version of him. Him figuring it out. What's that?
Starting point is 01:07:04 Him figuring it out and trying to enjoy a version of him. He's figuring it out. What's that? Him figuring it out and trying to rescue himself from that reality. And then what's going on? Let's go. 20 pages. Imagine 20 pages where he's, oh, it's like lucid dreaming, where he's aware of the construct inside of the construct and monkeying with it. That's a set piece that would be really interesting, but the movie doesn't do that, and that's too bad,
Starting point is 01:07:25 because I would like that. But that's also a lot of acting for Ben Affleck to do. And that's our show, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for coming out. That's our show, Live From Largo. If you want to remember the show for the rest of your life, well, then head on over to tbubble.com to get your own hypnotic t-shirt.
Starting point is 01:07:47 That's right, we made one from that live show. It's a sad, bad, aflick with the title. It's remembering time. You can pick that up right now. It is on sale. Check out all of our designs, which can be made into coffee mugs and t-shirts and hoodies and whatever you want. T-Pubblic, they've been doing us right for a very long time and a couple of big announcements.
Starting point is 01:08:08 You know that how did this get made is going on the road. The balcony monster tour is on the east coast in August, but we've added a show. We've added a show to New Jersey. We've never been in New Jersey. We're going to be live in Red Bank on August 11th. I wanna say something to everybody out there in Jersey, we are finally coming to Jersey, we haven't even gone to Long Island, we respect you more than Long Island and you didn't and I are from Long Island, but if you have any connections to the Smodcastle cinemas,
Starting point is 01:08:38 let me know because maybe we can figure out a way to screen the movie that we are gonna do at that show before. We can have a little, uh, smod cast synergy or something. I don't know. Get your tickets out. They are selling out very quickly. One Boston show is already sold out.
Starting point is 01:08:54 We have a special guest for the eighth. That's right. A special Boston guest. You don't want to miss it. Also, how did this get made all star? So what I'm saying is this come to one show come to all the shows Every night is completely different. We can't wait to see you there. We have so much in store We don't even know yet. That's how much we have in store anyway
Starting point is 01:09:16 Make sure that you are following us all on social media That's where we release all the good info and you follow me on YouTube to see all the Matt name Monday information that you need. And we'll have an update about Stitcher Premium very shortly. Right now we're just getting our Ducks in a Row. I am bummed that Stitcher Premium is not there. I don't know what we're going to do with our back catalog yet, but as soon as we have an official answer, I will let you know.
Starting point is 01:09:41 And now let's get into our big thank yous. I'm talking about the amazing producerial work of Scott Sani, Molly Reynolds, and our movie-picking producer, Avril Halley. People, they make the trains run and we love them. So we will see you next week for last looks. And, until then, bye for now

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