Newcomers: Sports, with Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus - The Aviator (w/ Amy Nicholson)

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Lauren and Nicole take a wild ride in the sky covering Scorsese’s The Aviator (2004) with a very special guest: film critic, author, and podcast host Amy Nicholson (Unspooled)! After all independently coming to the realization that this is neither a war epic nor an Amelia Earhart biopic, the group assembles to discuss Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of nepo-baby Howard Hughes, the theatrical debut of Gwen Stefani, and the clever invention of the bathroom stall. Follow Amy: Instagram, TwitterNext week tune in for our next episode covering The Departed (2006)!Like the show? Rate Newcomers 5 stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Nicole and Lauren to read on the pod!Follow the podcast on Letterboxd.Advertise on Newcomers via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Original. Ladies and gentlemen, Howard Hughes. I feel like a little adventure. Do y'all words, Mr. Hughes. We could build a plane with the ability to fly into the substratosphere. You're losing $25,000 a day doing this. You could lose everything. I won't.

What does controlling interest in TWA cost me? You want to buy the airline. Why should I let someone else have all the fun? How have you mad, man? I have heard some disquieting rumors about Mr. Hughes. Hey! I'd like to know everything there is to know about Mr. Hughes. See, I want to learn what pleases you.

What's this? It's a present. You can buy me dinner, how about that? My investigators have turned up a lot of dirt. We are in a street fight. I'm not gonna lose. He owns Pan Am. He owns Congress. But he does not own the sky. She'll go faster.

Newcomers We also have our producers here, Ali and Anya, and they're going to be chiming in, having hot takes. And we're doing 10 Martin Scorsese movies, and that's where we draw the line. Yes. No, we could only pick 10. So Anya and Ali did their best to pick the best 10 essential movies. Not maybe not the best, the most essential movies for us to watch to get a full scope of what's going on here. We can't get to everything, but today we'll be discussing the film based on the nonfiction book Howard Hughes' The Secret Life by Charles Higgum, The Aviator. And you better believe The Aviator is available on Paramount+, YouTube Primetime. YouTube is a primetime thing.

Amazon Prime or the Roku channel. And we're going to spoil it. We're going to spoil the film. Every one of his movies is based on a book. Did anyone realize this? This is fascinating. He said, for my friends who can't read, I'll make it a movie for you. We are so excited for our guest today.

Amy Nicholson is the co-host of the podcast Unspooled and critic for KPCC's Film Week. Formerly, she was the chief film critic for MTV News and LA Weekly, and her other credits include the New York Times, Variety, LA Times, Washington Post, and The Guardian, as well as the podcast miniseries Zoom, The Canon, and Quentin Tarantino Presents, Halloween Unmasked, and Skillset. She's also the author of the books Tom Cruise, Anatomy of an Actor, and Extra Girls. Amy, we're so excited to have you. Amy, hi. Hi, guys. Hello.

Wait, tell me about this Tom Cruise book. Yes. Oh, yeah, happily. So about 10 years ago, I had a random email in my mail, email that looked like spam, and it was from some French people from Cahay de Cinema being like, do you want to write a book on Tom Cruise? And I was like, never thought about it. Isn't he kind of like a mediocre actor who's always playing the same guy? Sure. I'll write a book on that. I'll write a book on like, how does a guy who's not a great, like not a great actor, like will himself and being the biggest star in the world. And then I did all the research and wrote the book and realized i'm an idiot so it's actually a book about how he's the greatest actor in the

world and we've never noticed oh my god i love that that is so funny because i thought it was a hot take to say yeah but then you were like i'm actually wrong i what is that movie with um jamie foxx in that taxi he's driving jamie foxx is driving him around what movie is that movie with Jamie Foxx in that taxi? He's driving, Jamie Foxx is driving him around. What movie is that? That's Collateral. And I had to pick 10 films and I left it out. And when I tell you all my film bro guy friends gave me so much grief about that.

Because it's his turn as like a bad boy. And he's so hot when he's like psychotic and jumps on that train in that one scene. Ooh, wait, I love Tom Cruise. Oh, I'm so glad. I mean, I would say he was, he turned evil in when he's like psychotic and jumps on that train in that one scene oh wait i love tom cruise oh i'm so glad i mean i would say he was he turned evil in interview with a vampire or i would say yeah that's always kind of an evil did you know like when he started his whole career stereotyping was that he was a psychopath with broken teeth and a total redneck no no yeah yeah his first turn was from like redneck psychopath in the outsidersutsiders to like, hey, I'm the suave guy in Risky Business.

And then he like had to, I don't know, he's been changing his image all the time. And we've always just been like that fucking guy. Oh, can I say that? I'm sorry. Yeah, of course you can. You can say anything that you want to say. That is truly crazy, though, that he he I've never seen The Outsiders. Me either.

I've seen that picture because people try to go like his teeth really look like this or something. And then it's like, I don't think they did. They did. They did. If you want Tom Cruise fun facts, I am your girl. Like he actually broke his teeth doing a wrestling match when he was in high school. Wow. He did have messed up teeth. Like he actually broke his teeth doing a wrestling match when he was in high school. Wow. Oh my God.

So he did have messed up teeth. Because I think the thing that always stands out to me about his teeth is that there was a point in history when everyone was like, did you know the center of his front teeth is off center? So his like smile is actually like moved over like a centimeter or something. Oh, I didn't know that. And then he got braces. There was like that period where he had braces right yeah and that was like a really bold move because i was like it was like before

invisalign like he could actually first of all nobody cared that his teeth were off center because he's so hot like nobody was like going like hey did you ever notice his teeth it's like who cares like but um he got those braces and then it was like oh now he has braces that was like such a like like you gotta be really hot to just be like an a-list star and just go get full-on like silver braces i didn't know he had braces this is wild i mean what do you think is the bigger challenge for an a-list star is it getting braces or leaping off a cliff on a motorcycle because i almost feel like braces might be the bigger risk because braces are like a daily issue that you're dealing with like you're like got food stuck in there i'm like this is that's it's did he do movies with braces and he must have taken

them off and then put them back on like oh my god yeah it might have been in that problem that period where he wasn't even making a ton of movies because like i can go real long and real hard on how he didn't actually jump on oprah's couch but we'll think we'll definitely be talking about that all day if i get started no no no no no no no no because i saw it i saw him i saw him on the couch but is this like the mandela effect and we didn't actually happen you are both right he got on the couch but he never jumps on the couch in my? You are both right. He got on the couch, but he never jumps on the couch. In my mind, I was always like, oh, he gets on the couch and he's bouncing up and down, right? He stands on the couch and then he jumps off the couch.

And then he stands on the couch again a couple of minutes later and he jumps off it again, but he never actually jumps on the couch. And I love the idea that we have this picture of a thing happening that didn't happen. And also, if I'm going to go real deep and like stringing wires around my room about it, it wasn't even his idea to get on the couch. Because if you watch the whole Oprah episode, what happens is she's saying, I just saw you at this banquet. Oh, my God, it was wonderful. You were so excited to be at this banquet. And I saw how happy you were at the guest of honor that you got on your chair and stood up and cheered for her. And so she's like seeding this idea of him getting on chairs and standing on things.

And then a couple minutes later, he's like, I'm so happy about being in love. And he does kind of, he's a people pleaser. He does what Oprah seeds in his idea for this crowd that's like cheering because he's in a room of thousands of people. Well, hundreds. And like gets on the chair and then gets down. So that's what happened. And I love how memory gets rewritten. That's my favorite thing on the chair and then gets down so that's what happened and it's i love how memory gets rewritten that's my favorite thing on the planet wow really that that moment is yeah in my brain he jumps up and down like it's a couch trampoline and then he runs down a long

maury-like hallway and and pulls katie out and she's like i don't want this i don't want this and like drags her on stage is that true that that part's true yeah it takes a minute for her to come out and it's wild that they didn't edit it down just a touch no there's yeah there was another interview i was watching with him and i will only talk about him for the full hour there was um where he's like being interviewed and it's kind of like a sassy interview and then katie's like off screen and he is motioning to her and then she's involved like there was like some i feel like she was getting roped into a lot of his appearances when she didn't want to be um it just felt that way from the way she's kind of like reluctant to like respond. She's like, am I supposed to talk?

And like he wants her to, you know, like. Do you go into his relationships in the book? I didn't because I figured that was like the one thing that's really, really been covered. But as you were describing that, I was thinking like, man, there's something about brunettes named Catherine where they just keep getting stuck like with kings and movie star kings being like i'm just gonna smile here how can i get out of this situation i don't want to be named katherine now that i think about that just sounds like a curse no oh no katherine anybody named katherine who's listening you're you're doing great or just be careful powerful men yeah yeah okay well i guess we should talk about the topic we all came here for, which is Martin Scorsese.

We came here for Marty. Amy, what's your relationship? Oh, you're getting into it. No. Please. Lauren. Oh, Amy, what's your relationship to the work of Martin Scorsese? I mean, you know movies really well.

So what, yeah, where do you land with Scorsese? really well so what yeah how where do you land with Scorsese I have been slowly coming around him on like a more gradual pace than probably a lot of critics because I got introduced to Scorsese through all the the bro films and didn't love them and then it took me a while to work my way around to the Scorsese films that are more my alley. You know? What are your favorites? I really like Silence, honestly. Like, Silence was the one where I felt like I really sunk into it. Oh, it's this one where, like, Andrew Garfield goes to Japan and, you know, discovers, like, he's talking about religion and samurais and codes of ethics.

It's a really, really quiet movie. Andrew Garfield? Oh, gosh, I hope I have that right. I think so. That guy who was Spider-Man gosh i hope i have that right i think so that guy who was spider-man yeah spider-man i think so oh no i mean i believe you i just was like i've never heard of this movie me either you mean it came out silently it was just a whisper of a release but i wanted to tell you guys up at the top of this i have never seen The Aviator either.

This was my first time watching The Aviator. And up until the morning I hit play, I genuinely thought this was a movie about Amelia Earhart. So I really thought that Cate Blanchett was playing Amelia Earhart. I mentioned to my boyfriend, I'm going to go watch the Amelia Earhart movie. And he was like, what are you talking about? I didn't. I thought it was like a war movie. So I was also really surprised by this yeah i guess i thought it was just about airplanes and leonardo caprio just like

maybe making the first airplane but like that's not it either nope we were all wrong um before we jump into it do let's just talk about our you you know, experiences watching the movie, just a quick sort of taste of what we're going to get into. Nicole, how'd you feel about this? I really think Martin is good at world building. Like I felt very in the world and also it was very, very beautiful. It's a pretty film.

It is a little on the long side yeah but it's pretty and then it was filled with so many actors that i know and like uh but also i found some of it to be a little distracting and i don't know if it was like the makeup and costume i don't know some. Some of it was like, it felt, I couldn't like fully get into it. Does that make sense? Yeah. Some of the casting took me out. Yeah. What did you think?

I can hear that. Are you thinking of like Adam Scott showing up and being like a boo buffet? Well, that's always tricky because when we like know the person, it's really weird because I wasn't expecting to know anyone in the movie and then to be like oh he looks really great in that time period but then i'm also just thinking like oh wow he's in a martin scorsese movie oh wow yes i was like cool yeah you're

doing great things i mean i love this time period like the early the first like 20 30 years of hollywood are my favorite like the teens through the 30s and so i loved seeing this movie and just like getting to go into stuff like the coconut grove and seeing how nuts this town was because this town was crazy like this town was absolutely crazy and then it got boring and then like the the 50s came and everybody's like it's so like tepid here and stuff and i feel like now we live in a pretty boring time. Or maybe I just don't get invited to the right parties. But when you think about like what it was, I love the movies like this or like Babylon

that are like, no, people were nuts. This was a town where all the crazy people came to do crazy, crazy things all the time and have parties where they threw snowballs at each other in nightclubs. It looks so fun. I mean, I guess it's like a foam party, but it just seems so much better than a foam party.

I agree. Yeah, I agree. Lauren like a foam party, but it just seems so much better than a foam party. I agree. Yeah, I agree. Wait, Lauren, what did you think about the movie? I agree. The glamour of it was really fun, the glitz and glamour. I didn't expect there to be anything connected to Hollywood with this movie. I thought it was going to be like literally like war planes or just like, you know, the Wright brothers or something.

I didn't know what was going on. So like the aviation part was actually the least interesting to me but uh yeah i mean i i i think my overall feeling was again it was a bit long for me um with the with this specific story i did i wasn't intrigued to watch leonardo do this after we watched kings of new york it was like it was called leonardo it was like it was like a very like different period piece character sort of thing um but the story just it wasn't really great like i didn't i didn't really care about howard hughes i feel like i that was a that was a roadblock for me with this story where i was kind of like i don't really care what he does like it's he's like a rich crazy guy like

so i don't know he's like an early leon musk right he's like i want to get into entertainment and hot flying high and i'm gonna use all my daddy's money to do this yeah maybe it's like we have too many examples now of like these people but like so i was thinking about other people like that in real life as i was watching him be like well this movie's gonna cost two million dollars and i was like well it's 1913 or whatever i was like that can't be like that's a lot it's a lot it's like two billion dollars in today's money and they're all kind of making fun of him which i i like which i like that part yeah um i also really like this era um and i was looking at all the women that howard hughes

dated and all of them had like four or five husbands and then i was like oh yeah that was like the norm and that's like fun and people getting remarried um it's just yeah i really love this era and it is crazy like talula bankhead is uh an actor or an actress from that time and she was known for like showing up at her door naked and cruella deville's based on her because she would drive through the hills at like incredible speeds and never ask anyone for directions and she was constantly lost and she was a raging alcoholic um yeah everyone was just drunk and having a really nice time that sounds they were wild i love that you're picking out like the divorces thing too

because i feel like that's something i'm always yelling at people about because they're like oh you know in the modern age people get divorced in hollywood and i'm like they were always getting divorced in fact everybody was getting divorced when you go back i do a lot of work with like old census stuff for this book i'm doing and everybody is just getting divorced right and left normal people like what i think the 50s are a lie it's because they came in and they're like we're all fine we're stable like no we were never stable i love imprinted on us that we were yeah why what why why did america have that rebrand yeah it's so tedious right trying to make it like everything's perfect like when it's so much more interesting when did world war ii end 45 so maybe the 50s happened because everyone had sustained trauma from a war and everyone leaving and then coming back and

people were different and it was like we're different but also we're okay and we're pure. And this purity is a thing that I can attain while putting the memories of war behind me. I don't know. Listen, it was a thought. I think that's actually probably true. Like if you're 35 and you're a dad in the 1950s, you probably fought in war and you grew up during the Great Depression. And your dad was probably in World War I. So he was probably screwed up. And I mean, all you want is just to like peace out and have a yard right right go bowling twice a week like sounds sounds nice that does make so much sense okay i'm

i guess i get it now so this is our segment called spotted where we see if today's movie has any of the following celeb sightings do we get one of marty's boys one of his reoccurring actors that he works with all the time robert de niro no harvey kytel no joe pesci unfortunately no leonardo dicaprio yes and we get a lot of him including his full butt do we we see Marty himself? I don't think so. I don't think so. There are some guys I thought were Marty and then they weren't him.

Yeah, he's hiding. He didn't want to be in this one. He said, sorry about it. I'm going to stay on the ground. We do have to take a break. we're back this movie the aviator was released december 17 2004 limited release with a wide release on christmas day nicole it was a christmas film, jingle bells, we're in the sky. We have noticed that he likes a Christmas really. He's just a gift to us all.

It was written by John Logan. Well, let's hop right into it. So it's 1913 in Houston. Eight-year-old Howard Hughes, mother Amy Sloan. Who's Amy? What else has she been in? Why do I know that name? Anyway, gives them a bath and teaches them how to spell quarantine.

And I said, wow, this is relevant again. Do you know what's crazy? She was spelling and I was going, what is she getting? I literally was like, it was so many letters and so slow. I was like, what? I was so surprised that that wasn't more of like a gift during the quarantine years. That I didn't just leave that like the tooth thing that you're talking about.

Totally. And I was thinking like, is this scene like formatively kinky? I was almost preparing myself for him to do like more bath play later in the movie. Yeah, because he has like an obsession from this. Warning him about the recent cholera outbreak. 14 years later. later in the movie like that yeah because he has like an obsession from this yeah um warning him about the recent cholera outbreak 14 years later so this means he's 18 because i think he was eight then um 20 24 20 wait 24 i did that math so poorly anyway in 1927 he's now played by leonardo dicaprio howard uh begins to direct his film hell's Angels and hires Noah Diedrich, John C. Reilly, who's great in this, to manage the day-to-day operations of his business empire.

During the shooting, Hughes makes sure all the flight scenes are filmed with the most realism as possible. After the release of The Jazz Singer, the first partially talking film,es becomes obsessed and decides to convert the movie to a sound film unhinged a movie is cut and then you said hey we gotta get back in there and reshoot and fucking talk now i feel like all of us were just presumably shocked by what was happening because i feel like we all came into this not knowing what this movie was at all uh-huh and then we're like wait what he wants to make a movie like i was like what okay okay let me catch up he's he's uh spelling quarantine i didn't it was it was such a leap yes to then him being like a billionaire or whatever he is or he

i guess he doesn't have he's not a billionaire he just gets money from people his parents both die and and he gets left this like empire okay i googled thank you because i was like didn't catch that yeah it's his daddy's money howard hughes senior oh okay that makes it and it's drill bits money drill bits i think yeah like drill bit taylor yeah his daddy started that franchise. Exactly. And so, son of Drillbit Taylor franchise. John C. Reilly is really great in this. And really, it's almost like a role we don't see out of him that often,

where it's a really natural role. Yes. He's not doing a huge character. It's really fun. And when he's fighting for wanting more money, you see how absurd he is. But he also, like, you can't tell at this point if he has power or not as a person.

Yeah. Yeah, he kind of just seems not, like, a nerd-ish. You know, like a rich guy who bought his way into Hollywood. He shows up and he's trying to impress Louis B. Mayer and they're just looking at him. And I was kind of thinking watching this, because I'm really interested in this five-year window of Leonardo DiCaprio from like Titanic to here-ish when he goes from floppy hair Leonardo DiCaprio to like slick back Leonardo DiCaprio. How he made that shift that

he's just like never undone. And so this movie I think kind of captures that like he starts his floppy hair and then he gets slick trying to become an adult. This is so important because we don't ever see him floppy again. No, we don't. In life. And I'm like, we loved that. We as a culture loved that. Where's the greasy flop?

It was good. Yeah. It worked on his face because he's like me. He's got a gigantic forehead. You know, he should be flopping around. I have bangs for a reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He should be flopping around.

I really, yeah, I'm intrigued by this. It feels very serious to be like, now I'm slicked back. Yeah, it's almost like it imprinted on him. Like, if you want to be taken seriously, you have to slick your hair back. You can't be flopping. So he attends the premiere of Hell's angels with star gene harlow played by gwen stefani that took me right out i did not like it uh but i will say i did love how awkward he was when they were asking him questions when it's like yeah was it fun filming hello i. I know, he's so strange. And then Gwen Stefani, yeah, she looked beautiful,

but it's also kind of like her glam style anyway is kind of throwback, like 30s. Yeah, I heard that how she got cast is that Scorsese was driving around while he was getting ready to make this movie and he saw a billboard with her on it and he was like, that girl, put her in as Jean Harlow. And he didn't know who she was, which to me, I was trying to do the math. I was like, that's eight Put her in as Jean Harlow. And he didn't know who she was, which to me, I was trying to do the math.

I was like, that's eight years after Gwen Stefani became a thing. Like, he just missed eight years of her. And I was like, who's that girl? And they're like, come on, Martin. Don't you know this shit is bananas? B-A-N-A-N-A-S? What do you mean they're shit? My bananas are shit?

What's going on? Q-A-R-I-N-T-I-N-E. Oh, my God. That is so crazy he didn't know i love that though i mean i also like he just he just he was right he picked her based on her look and her look is that so makes sense old hollywood glam uh despite the film being a hit hughes remains unsatisfied with the result and orders it to be recut after its hollywood premiere he then approaches actress katherine hepburn played by kate blanchett on set of her upcoming film i did not i i did google and then go oh she's oh duh yeah oh you didn't know i don't know what i didn't get about she's doing a like she does it of course the second i like looked i was like oh but i think the short hair threw me for a loop like i've never really seen that look on her oh that's true i always think

of her the longer hair too yeah kind of fat low big round curls yeah that voice i that voice that just doesn't exist anymore i know it sure doesn't and she spoke like that until till I think until she died I watched an old interview because I was like uh yearning for more Katherine Hepburn after this movie and I it's just it's so fun to watch her old being like yeah yeah like it's have you seen Atlantic yeah yeah have you seen an interview with her and Barbarabara walters where barbara's like so do you ever wear skirts like she's like she's like you love wearing pants and she's like yes i do and then she's like do you ever wear a skirt and she was like i'll wear one to your funeral oh wow she goes i have one i'll wear it to your funeral it was like so amazing that's funny i mean she is i have like two style icons in this world and they are kate

blanchett and also katherine hepburn and so i don't know if that was in the back of my head subconsciously but seeing them fused together in this was my fashion dream like the little that's cool little vests the big pants like that is how i want to dress all the time they do look cool it's like annie hall inspo yeah and yeah katherine hepburn was a lesbian she was um what is his name carrie not carrie grant spencer tracy spence yeah spencer tracy they were partners for a super long time i think she was bisexual yeah i don't think she really answered to any of like social norms. So I do think Spencer Tracy was her partner. I think they were romantic and in love,

but they were never officially together. And he stayed with his wife, although they were separated, never officially got divorced. I personally think they had an understanding. I think it was open. I think it was an open partnership. Okay.

I love how much you think about that. I think you're right. I mean, cause they keep doing movies together all the way up to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner which is right when he dies I don't know enough about this era what? do you love old movies?

it's so incredible Bringing Up Baby is a great movie I've seen that one if you've seen Adam's Rib that's a great movie. What am I thinking of? The Philadelphia story.

Oh, yeah. I haven't seen that. Oh, that's so good. And a weird fun fact about that one is like, you know how she says in here that she's box office poison. She buys her way out of box office poison by having Howard Hughes buy her the script for Philadelphia story because it basically just her, like a woman who lives in that same kind of family that he visits, like Loud and Madcap and everybody's yelling. So he buys her the rights to that. And then that film puts her back on the map.

But doesn't she buy herself out of that contract? Because she doesn't do that movie with Howard Hughes. Oh, I didn't know she re-bought it. Oh, she doubled down? That's such a boss move. I could be very, very wrong about this, but I'm 90% sure she... Maybe I'm wrong.

I love it. If I could do a Katherine Hepburn voice, I would say, like, print the legend or something, but I can't do it. Well, I didn't know if they were trying to hint at her romantic life when she breaks up with Howard Hughes

and she's like, I just have to do something else now. She was like... The way she said it, it Hughes and she's like, I just have to do something else now. Like, she was like, the way she said it, it was so kind of, like, vague, but, like, resolute, that it was like, it felt like it was supposed to be, like,

implying some historical thing that I wasn't aware of or something. I did just look it up. The Philadelphia story was done by MGM. That was the production company. so either he got it for her and then she took it back uh but whatever we don't have to get into that yeah honestly i was just shocked by how much you knew about that nicole this is like secret knowledge i got a little interested and did some digging and oh that was all stuff you learned as of last like

as of like watching this are you okay no okay just the katherine hepburn stuff uh is what i learned today or yesterday okay okay so they get so she gets involved with howard hughes after a few dates and one of the dates includes letting her fly his plane while sharing a bottle of a bottle of milk i would have said take me home land this plane at my door i was wondering if he had real milk in there it's like it's so funny because now we're so like almond milk whatever like it's so easy to get fake milk but like i it was so white that i was like it's got to be real milk and then i was like guys gonna drink milk a hundred times like it just seemed like some people don't have that problem, I guess.

People like milk. But I just haven't, I haven't had a regular milk, a glass of milk. No. In 25 years. I'm like, I don't know. Like, it's just. You don't get like, I get a once a year craving where I have to have a glass of milk. And it just kind of comes on real strong.

And I have to pour a glass of milk and then just chug a glass of milk and then I'm over it. Whoa. Yeah. Oh, no. I like almond milk and then I'm over it. Whoa. Yeah. Oh, no. I like almond milk in my cereal, but I wouldn't even drink. I wouldn't drink almond milk. No, I'm not a milk head. But I did like the scene where he watches her drink the milk and then chooses to drink

after her and is like, I like that moment because I felt like Howard was like, oh, I'm going to allow this woman in my life personally and not shy away from anything. Yeah. So this is also saying that he it helps him ease his symptoms of his worsening OCD and germophobia. So she's like, because he, I guess, likes her and he's willing to like just push through that and try to be like,'ll just drink it even though it's kind of nasty that you just that's really romantic i mean and i like how he orders the milk when he goes to bars with just such authority he's like milk please in the bottle with the cap still on like that's just that you'd be like yes sir you wouldn't even question it you'd be like okay sure how bad is your germophobia everyone everyone? No. Probably should be worse, honestly. Yeah.

I think I'm too chill. I just don't shake hands. I don't know where people's hands have been, and I touch my face a lot, so I just don't do it. Oh, I don't mind that. I think sharing a toothbrush I don't like. No. No, some people don't care.

And then I think drinking a's like it's really specific especially after COVID I've been ignoring all of that but I'm like before that I feel like it's kind of like I would feel kind of gross about it with just person to person like it's not about the person being gross it's like my level of knowing them or something like I have to like be really comfortable to like share a drink even a sip you know so people are very like free with like here try it i'm like that's me i'm one of those people i'm like share everything but i'm also always sick so i'm not really a person to trust on this i'll take a like a sip from a glass but i'm not or get your own straw but i'm not sharing straws with with too many people yeah yeah yeah

i want to have a fork i feel like fork is kind of my limit i don't really want to share a fork fork's not for me use your own fork yeah and also get all your food off of the fork before you come to my plate definitely don't like remnants of their food and it's coming to my plate i'm like get out of here get i don't want someone i actually don't even want someone to pick off my plate if i'm being i guess i have do have more problems than i realized wait does your child pick off your plate um yeah that's fine i mean but like that's a different yeah that's a different level i feel like it would be very funny if you're like that's a different, yeah, that's a different level. I feel like- It would be very funny if you're like, that's mommy's food. No, I let her eat it.

I'm like, just happy she's eating, you know, take it where you want. I mean, that makes sense. Because I always imagine like having kids from what I've seen really breaks most people of any kind of fluid nervousness. Because it just seems like kids are so fluidy all the time. Oh, yeah. I've been like thrown up on and pooped on. That doesn't really even bother me as much. It's almost the idea of being at a restaurant with friends and

then people trying to reach over to my plate and grab things I'm kind of like I don't love it I'm not gonna stop it but I'm not loving it fair fair I like if you're asking beforehand then I can go hmm okay but the worst is because I'm a professional fat person so i have decided what the best bite is going to be and i'm saving it for last and when someone takes my best bite i i turn into howard hughes and i'm like um yeah no that's not cool that's that's a thousand percent a true thing absolutely or like when somebody cuts you a bite of their food and they cut you a slightly bigger bite than you were planning to give them and then you're like oh or if they give you a shitty bite and you're like that's what you think i i've earned being your friend what if you're giving me a

piece of lasagna i want all the layers yeah you know yeah not just like a wet noodle. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So in 1935, Hughes test flies the H1 racer, pushing it to a new speed record, despite having to crash land in a beet field when the aircraft runs out of fuel. This scene, I was like, wait,

I thought he was going to die, but I was like, there's still an hour and a half left. So I guess it's not going to happen. I was like, you understand your gauges are all fucking up and you're still like oh oh this baby's fast oh god damn oh i know i was like you like it this much that you don't care that you're like literally crashing right in flames i was so caught up too in the idea of like he's afraid of all these things

that wouldn't make me blink but he does stuff that i would never do in 9 000 years yeah like i'm terrified of private planes no one's like beating me down to try to get me to go into one but like i never want to go in like a two-seater or like i have no interest in that i think it's scary so many bad stories it's just scary helicopters freak me out too i've been on a helicopter and i like them uh three years later he breaks the world record by flying around the world in four days but i'm like what you stayed in an airplane for four days that also wasn't like uh focused on enough. Sure wasn't. It just happened.

I wonder if that's where he learned to pee in a bottle. Oh, my God. Probably. Yeah. He subsequently purchased Majority Interest in Transcontinental and Western Air, TWA. Juan Trippi? Juan. Alec Baldwin?

Interesting. I didn't catch that his name was Juan. I didn't either. But okay. Company rival and chairman of Pan Am gets his crony, Senator Ralph Owen Brewster, Alan Alda, who's great, to introduce the Community Airline Bill, which would give Pan Am exclusivity on international air travel which seems insane yeah this i really just wasn't as invested in the airplane element of the aviator

which i guess i should have like him crashing in the beat field i was actually more intrigued by like how katherine heppern reacts and like their interaction after. Like that was like fun where she's cleaning his foot and stuff. She's excited for him and is like, you're amazing. You're doing it or whatever. Yeah. All that congressional stuff. It just felt like Oppenheimer again, where you're watching a really cool movie about people doing cool things.

And then you're just in a courtroom for a long time. Okay. Yeah. We both haven't seen that. We didn't see it. Oh, it's fine. We'll do newcomers Oppenheimer. But when he crashes in the beat field and everyone's like, there's our meal ticket.

And then they find him just like legs crossed like, oh, wow, look at what I did. I was like, oh, that's funny. Yeah, wait, that's not the one where he's in flames. That's later. Oh, no, that's later because he crashes an airplane twice. Yeah. But that is that scene too afterwards, the one that you like in flames that's oh no that's later because he crashes an airplane twice yeah but that is that scene too afterwards the one that you like where she where katherine hepburn is like warning him about what being famous is really gonna be like like that that the tears of fame because he already thinks he's hit one you know and going into that tom cruise level of notoriety

i that that's to me that's a terrifying thing yeah well i felt like he there was always a weird look on his face whenever she would talk about the fame stuff like when they go to that event and then she he gets more recognition than she does or something she's like i'm used to being like fame was my thing and he kind of just looks like kind of serious like i'm like i don't know what he's thinking about it. Like, I don't, I don't feel like I was aware of what the character like wanted. They don't comment on it. Oh, also that the scene with Jude Law and Adam Scott,

where he orders his steak and like ate like peas. And then he takes a pea, which I was like, that's psychotic. You don't take someone's pea. That's not what. And then he was like, well, now I can't eat it. And i was like that's psychotic you don't take someone's pee that's not what and then he was like well now i can't eat it and i was like i get it i actually get it connects very well to our conversation that was like when they when he took it off his plate i was i mean anytime that happened to me he's like done with like the thing like he's like

you have this spot on your jacket like you have to wipe it off and i was like oh okay he's like you didn't get it wipe it off like you didn to wipe it off. And I was like, oh, okay. He's like, you didn't get it. Wipe it off. Like you didn't get it. And then like use this rag or whatever. And then he's like, now throw it out. Like he's very controlling. I mean, obviously we know he has OCD.

The way it like unfolds is interesting. Of course it gets to a whole nother level a bit later. Yeah. But it is kind of, I feel like the movie does a good job, at least in showing us, we understand why he's freaking out,

but we're not sure that other people understand why he's freaking out or they just think he's an asshole. Yeah. Because you can understand,

you can imagine somebody walking away and being like, I was on crutches and he wouldn't hand me a paper towel. What a jerk. Right? And that would be

your one story about Howard Hughes is what a mean guy he is because you would have no idea what's happening in his head. It's a good example just for life of like, you don't know what's going on with somebody. And just judging someone off of one encounter is probably not fair. But the bathroom.

How slick was it? Oh, sorry. In the bathroom, he really could have just held his hands up and been like, still soapy. Sorry. I know. He could have had some excuse. I did Google. The bathroom was so nice that I Googled when did bathroom stalls get invented.

And because I was like, it looks like a bathroom you'd see now. Like a building. It was like 1904. Like Frank. Hold on. Wait. I got to see who it actually was so I don't take this wrong. Oh, it filled it in for me.

Oh, it knows my Google. Okay. Who's watching me who's watching me frank okay so it was frank lloyd right 1904 so he right invented the bathroom stall he came up with an innovative way to make it easier to keep toilet enclosures clean oh no so he did the first ceiling hung toilet partitions and suspended toilet bowl sinks so i would say that that is the stall like yeah so i guess it probably was just a bunch of toilets in a room before that that would be tough for me like he should get a lot more respect for that right i know you only think of him as as beautiful houses but i'm like you allow me to poo privately yeah that comes up all the time

wow so katherine heparin grows tired of hughes's eccentricity workaholism and rumored romances with other hollywood starlets and leaves him for actor spencer tracy okay so that must be the moment she's saying that but i didn't get that it's a very abrupt goodbye yeah kevin o'rourke hughes quickly finds a new love interest with 50 now this this was like 15 year old faith dummer goo kelly garner and later ava gardner played by kate beckinsale okay the 15 year old thing she's like auditioning or like something comes in and then he's like he's like stricken struck struck by her and he's like how old are you and she's like auditioning or like something comes in and then he's like he's like stricken struck struck by her and he's like how old are you and she's like 15 and he's like perfect yeah

i was like ew wait also he burns all his clothes after uh catherine breaks up with him yeah and i was like was it to get her like are you burning her away or are you burning away her germs? Also, this man fucks so many women being a germaphobe. I know. I do think, yeah, I think it was like he was like wanting to start fresh germ wise after her. Oh, that makes sense. Because at first I thought they were her clothes. And given how much I love her clothes, I got really, really mad. And then he does that like thing that I guess Steve Jobs.

I feel like he is like the template for all the crazy tech people because he is like, I'm going to have a uniform now and it's going to be white and beige with white kids. And that's just a thing that tech guys do. It's like you've made it when you're just like, I have a uniform now. Yeah. So he still has feelings for Hepburn and he bribes a reporter to keep reports about her and the married Tracy out of the press. bribes a reporter to keep reports about her and the married tracy out of the press um but he's dating a 15 year old and taking her out and she's like i'm trying to get i'm trying to finish high school and howard says that's great or whatever and she's slurping down a sunday and i was like this is gross it is so weird thinking about those eras where that was fine. And like even Raging Bull,

he wants to be with like a high schooler. And you're like, it just isn't, it's not a good sign about a guy. No. I think it's a red flag. I think it's a red flag if you want to date a teenager. That's just me.

Yeah. I know. But it's like, there's an endless supply of teenage girls who think it's cool to date an older guy. And I'm only saying that because I was one. Do you know what I mean? Because nobody tells the teenage girls that the older guy is crazy. I don't know how to get that message to the teenage girls that if the older guy wants to date you.

I dated a 28-year-old when I was graduating high school. Like, I don't know what I was doing, you know? No, you were fine. It's like he was a 28-year-old. But it's like you pay taxes. You. He was a 28-year-old. But it's like, you pay taxes. You have roommates to manage and shit. And then you took your SATs. What the fuck are you talking about?

I know. I remember being like 19 and people who were like 29, 30, like liking me or wanting to date me or something. And it's like that looking back, I'm like, I didn't have anything to talk about. Like, what are you? What is what it is like it's a really weird really weird thing yeah you're convinced it's because you're really smart and yeah i'm like oh i'm amazing i'm so cool but it's like like it's just if you are a teen girl listening to this it's a sign of arrested development in that person and it's

probably not going to be good for you and they might be trying to groom you you know yeah you're like oh this older person said this thing so i guess i should do it no you don't have to yeah yeah they they automatically get docked five points out of ten if they're older like yeah yeah like if you think they're like an eight they're actually a three yeah and just don't they're not worth it they're not worth it yes that was some quick math thank you in the mid-1940s hughes contract contracts two projects with the the army air forces one for a spy aircraft and another for a troop transport unit for the use in world war ii in 1947 with the h4 hercules flying boat what the fuck what is a flight like does it go from the air to the sea that's my only assumption but well it's still in construction

hughes finishes the xf11 reconnaissance aircraft and takes it for a test flight however one of the engine fails mid-flight and he crashes in Beverly Hills. But then I looked on Wikipedia and the Wikipedia for this movie says Beverly Hills, but then in his Wikipedia, it says Burbank. So I don't know which one's actually true. Oh, maybe they just thought Beverly Hills seemed better in the movie.

Maybe. I'm looking at the H4 Hercules right now and it's really just a plane that goes into water it doesn't i wouldn't call it a boat by any means i didn't realize that that was the same thing as the spruce goose for a really long time for this entire movie because like i heard of the spruce so the spruce goose i'd always heard that howard hughes built the world's largest plane out of wood and so i didn't know that that was the plane they're talking about here. Have you guys ever been to YouTube headquarters here?

Like out of Santa Monica? Oh, one time I did go there. I don't think so. And it's like this crazy gigantic wooden building that's really huge. It's huge. It's huge. It's huge. They put YouTube headquarters in the hangar where the Spruce Goose used to be.

Like they specifically, talking about tech people, being crazy and loving Hughes and maybe not getting the right message from Hughes. Like that's where their headquarters are, is Spruce Goose Central. But I always thought that it meant the plane was made out of wood. So my whole life I've just pictured like a wooden plane,

but not a wooden plane with- Oh, it's the airplane hangar. Yeah, with the- Or what was wooden? I guess the inside of the plane was wood because he couldn't get the aluminum but the plane looks metal on the outside I didn't know the inside was wood

and I just pictured a giant like a wooden pirate ship but a plane and so it was interesting learning that I've been wrong about this forever Yeah, and then when he crashes you definitely think he's going to be seriously injured and he's not learning that i've been wrong about this forever yeah and then when he crashes you definitely think he's gonna be seriously injured and yeah not um i will like the crash for me i think leonardo

cabrio could have been more in peril uh because he he's pretty chill as he's slicing into people's homes yeah he's like so nutty for planes that he just doesn't really care when it goes completely awry. There's like women running for their lives because their houses are burning down. And he's like kind of fine about it. Can you imagine? He's covered in blood and looks at that man and goes, it's me, the aviator. Yeah, just tell him it's the aviator. Oh, okay.

Have you guys gotten to Wolf of Wall Street yet? We have already seen that one, so it's not on our list for this. Okay, then we can still talk about this. The way he climbs away from the fireballs, you know, he's like limping and rolling. I was like, oh, this is him and Scorsese working out his like super high on narcotics crawling to the Lamborghini scene. That's like the best scene it's such a movie i definitely it's it's so amazing how he's crawling and yeah and i love yeah in his brain he drives home perfectly but then he's just crashing like truly like pinballing this car around the street it's

so wild i would like to re-watch that one i really liked that movie. I liked it too. That one's really good. Me too. That might be my favorite now that I'm thinking about it. Yeah. It's up there with Goodfellas for me. Yeah. It gave us Margot Robbie. Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah.

Margot Robbie's great in it. Yeah. So Hughes miraculously survives this crash, which is insane. Truly unhinged. The army cancels its order for the H4 Hercules, although Hughes still continues to develop it with his own money. Diedrich informs Hughes that he must choose

between funding the airlines or his flying boat, which is just funny. Pick a legit business or your flying boat. So Hughes orders Diedrich to mortgage the TWA assets so he can continue with his flying boat, baby. And now here's where it's this story starts to turn a little bit. So Hughes grows increasingly paranoid with his OCD, planting microphones and tapping Gardner's phone lines. The FBI searches his house for any evidence of war profiteering, provoking, which also reminds me of Wolf of Wall

Street when the FBI comes into their offices and he's just, like, looking around. But in this one, he's like, they're touching things. They're putting cigarettes out on my carpet, which is rude. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't like that anyway. Yeah, it feels like by this point,

people are messing with him. Like, now they know about his OCDs. They're leaving fingerprints to make him freak out. They're, like, trying to break him. You know? Yeah. Yeah, so he's watching them search his house and track dirt through it. And he's having a psychological response of panic.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. The OCD storyline was really interesting to me because, again, I didn't know anything about it, but I really didn't, I didn't see that coming. And it's kind of a subtle, slow reveal. Like you kind of are picking up on it and then we get to this point where it reaches like a complete head but it's it's an interesting story from that time i feel like we're so aware of that now

like you probably like pinpoint that in somebody kind of quickly if they were, if you saw them do a lot of his behaviors. But I don't imagine people were diagnosing him. No, they weren't diagnosing him, but also he was addicted to codeine. So after his second crash, he was burned on a bunch of his body and was taking codeine and painkillers. So it was like OCD and then addiction compiled with that. So it was like if you thought he was erratic before I'm sure it was just increased by his addiction yeah that's just what I picked up from Wikipedia yeah but you're right I'm always fascinated in that time 100 years ago when people

felt things and we didn't have words for them or even 200 years ago like I you know now that we are more conscious of things like depression I always wonder what was it like if you were a frontier woman settling America, you know, in the 1800s? You might have had it as well, but nobody knew and nobody cared. You just, what did you do? You just had to keep milking cows. Like, how did it need to work? Like, I don't understand. Imagine doing that and not being depressed.

Yeah. Well, it's kind of like Greta Garbo i think said something about like i just like there's a sadness to me i see friends i go out i have a life but there is a sadness in me and i think she's just trying to articulate that she's depressed and that's why she chooses to be alone a lot of the time um yeah it's like the bell jar which i loved in college so much and it's did you ever read that, Nicole? I did. I loved that book.

And then she killed herself in real life. So I guess it all pretty much spelled itself out. But I love the description. I remember at the time where I probably was depressed in my own college way of just loving the description of how it feels to feel that way and just feel alone. Just loving the description of how it feels to feel that way and just feel alone. Yeah, and I thought it was interesting how here his OCD almost seems like it's – it makes OCD, a thing that I wouldn't say I understand very well, seem almost more like a depressive episode where things can tip over and then bloom, and then you can pull yourself back a little bit here.

It's like a disease you almost live with, and it can take charge, and then not. It could style down a little bit here. It's like a disease you almost live with and it can take charge and then not. It could style down a little bit after that. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. I don't feel like I know enough about it to... No, me either. I also thought it was interesting

that it seemed to manifest a lot in his work. So then it was like he was this genius who was like annoying and like demanding like when he was like i want all these buttons on the thing flat and then he like ran his hand over it and they're like oh my god we're gonna have to fucking work on this again and he's like no it's perfect but it's like yeah that was like his ocd kicking in i think yeah because i'm always fascinated about depictions of like genius bosses where what you really see in most of the movie is them having an idea and then just making other people figure it out you know right because

they're just like i have this idea you do the work of figuring it out you know it's it's the seems like an amazing spot to be in yeah just delegating you do it right like i have a great idea i have no skills to execute this, but someone does. I'll pay you double. Figure it out. Yeah. I mean, I will say, like, when we got to the part where his OC was really taken over and he was in the movie theater, just live, which feels like my life a lot of the time. I was just, like, here watching things, losing my mind and not getting to go anywhere.

getting to go anywhere he i paused when he got that pan of all of his urine bottles because i really wanted to count how many bottles he had because that's one of my ocd things i guess as a critic is i like oh you like to pee in bottles also that's like reveal it's crazy you're just um but i counted 61 which i was really well that's so many more than i thought and yeah of course is making me think of the viral TikTok sensation from now a few months ago with Risa Tisa. Did you watch this whole thing? I didn't watch the whole thing.

I watched the first two. I spent a solid four hours watching. You sure did. It was 50-something videos. I watched on double speed. It was seven or eight hours long. I watched, I got sucked in by this woman's story she's talking about her lying ex-husband who was like a pathological liar and

like whatever the story ends with him like peeing in like a million powerade bottles in his room and there's just so much going on but that is what I was thinking about powerade bottles yeah he like has this knee injury and then is like bedridden and then he sleeps in the other room because they're like fighting and then he keeps only drinking powerade and not eating and like losing a ton of weight and it's like really odd and then he's she goes in the room at the end when she finally is like gonna confront him and there's like just tons of piss wow it's so weird oh what't she has been signed by caa i know so the story will be told and i will play her in the movie let me in yeah you really should oh my god that'd be so good

what happens to the rest of it i'm trying to ask this in the most, no, not the pee. Oh, the poo. Yeah. Where, where's that? I think when you're only drinking Powerade, I don't think you're too healthy and I don't think you're passing solids. He might, he might not have been, or maybe he would have gotten up to go poop, but. You think for Hughes too?

I mean, I guess he's only, he's having milk. Yeah. No, he's drinking milk. Yeah. You,

I don't know. There's gotta be the first poop that you are you're ignoring like you know what i mean like yeah yeah i don't know i don't know i mean i like the staging they do in this scene though where he's trying to get his like six bottles of milk that are all lined up and it's on the other side of the room but between him and the room is his screen and it's this desert and it's like you have to it makes you think of those old cartoons like the comic the little cart the guy like crawling through the desert to get to the oasis yes it's like he has to visually like cross this desert to get his beloved milk so is this when he's naked yeah he's in the germ-free zone for three months

um and this is after they offered to drop charges if hughes sells twa but he refused um trippy and brewster summon him for a senate investigation certain that hughes will not show up gardner visits him and personally grooms and dresses him in preparation for the hearing and she does a lovely job of walking into the germ-free zone and not commenting on it yeah yeah it's like a person on hoarders just being like hello um she he he's this scene i was like it felt like teen wolf like he's like having a transition like he was like his hair and beard were all shaggy and then he had really long nails and he's nude he's nude and he's peeing in bottles. I was like, it felt like he was turning into a werewolf. And that would have been a turn I would have been here for.

If Leonardo DiCaprio looked at the camera and was like, a-woo! Right down the barrel. This is then where they got the idea for Wolf of Wall Street. Yeah, yeah. Teen Wolf of Wall Street? Teen Wolf of Wall Street. Yeah, yeah. Teen Wolf of Wall Street? Teen Wolf of Wall Street. That's a movie.

An invigorated Hughes defends himself against Brewster's charges and accuses the senator of taking bribes from Trippi. He concludes by announcing that he has committed to completing the H-4 aircraft and that he will leave the country if he cannot get it to fly. Brewster's bill is promptly defeated.

Yeah. Here's where i'm starting to go let's wrap it up let's wrap it up all right we're doing this so after successfully flying the aircraft hugh speaks with deidre and his engineer glenn odinkirk matt ross about a new jetliner for TWA however he begins hallucinating men in germ resistant suits and has a panic attack as Odenkirk hides him in a restroom while Dedrick fetches a doctor Hughes begins to have flashbacks of his childhood his love for aviation his ambition for success compulsively repeating the phrase the way of the future that part didn't really work for me. I don't, I'm so curious how this film did because I felt like I was going like, huh? Like I liked a lot.

Like we go back to the Hollywood glam. I loved a lot of that. I loved them. And I always feel like, like Scorsese does an amazing job with period pieces and like getting, like you said, like world building and like this, I feel like there's a whole,

like it's, it, it, he really takes you there and it's really beautifully done i just felt like this story i was like i didn't expect i guess i just i just was like oh so it's all really about him kind of like deteriorating like what yeah and i would have preferred to see him deteriorate in the relationships. Like when the 15-year-old comes back and rams the car into him and Ava Gardner, I was like, oh, that's fun. I love, I want to see more of that. And he's like, no, I love you. And it's like, but you're out with her. And yeah, I just wanted to see more of that, less of the plain stuff.

And then I guess the way of the future was a callback for when he's like show me all the blueprints show me all the blueprints show me all the blueprints to be like that's how his ocd manifests and then i read he never urinated in toilets he would always pee on the floor and just throw kleenexes over it for someone else to clean up and then else to clean up better and then he spent uh i believe three or six months in some hotel. I can't remember where, but nobody saw him for the whole time he was there. And all people were trying to do was get a picture of him. But he had his own crew of people who like brought things into him, but he never left the room.

Whoa, that's so fascinating. Peeing on the floor and just putting a tissue on it is next level. It's so rude. The jars were one thing. Yeah, why would you think that that is cleaner? It's hard for me to understand that. And it's also, also, I would love to know how much he paid his housekeepers to make it worth it. You know?

Like, he should be paying them like engineers for that because that's just mean. It's mean to be doing that. Oh, no, it is. It is. I mean, you hear these stories like I'm sure we've all heard some stories of like celebrities who do like really gross things. I'm not going to say any of them because I feel like it's like illegal. It reminded me of these people where you're like, it's interesting because he's suffering from a compulsive disorder, which is a different thing than a lot of these stories that you hear of like rumors of people doing something gross. It kind of just feels like a way of wielding power. But with this, I mean, maybe there's some element of that because of how his personality naturally was.

He was so like kind of demanding of everyone. But the, yeah, peeing on the floor that that really feels like it would fill a room really quickly like you just you know where to step yeah but i mean i like the points you guys are making about what hugh's story do we even decide to tell because yeah it does take that shift where it becomes less about the people more about the planes and i don't i would be happy if they had shortened all of the twa fighting to like and then he flew around the world you know just made it that short yeah i think so because i i do feel like the relationships were the most interesting

part yeah um and and and then yet we didn't even get much about being around the world which i'm like that's actually crazy he flew around the world like that's for four days yeah yeah i days. Yeah. I always wonder if there's something in, like, the great directors, you know, since, like, Nolan did the exact same thing, then with Oppenheimer, which maybe someday you'll see, maybe you won, it's fine, it doesn't really matter. Like, where maybe they spend so much time dealing with lawyers or people questioning their work that they're just like, I need a scene that shows what it's like to be getting an inquisition.

Like, they're just drawn to these scenes of genius men getting questioned and then proving that they're right and i find that a weird touchstone that they just keep going to it's like there's something in these ideas of powerful men telling other powerful men's stories where they almost get a little samey they try to be like here's a eclectic one-of-a-kind genius who broke the world but then they just keep redoing it and copying it themselves and yeah i mean y'all just finished batman right like your batman series you know christopher nolan wanted to do a howard hughes movie you know and one of the things that happened is like he was trying to write a howard hughes script he had a whole idea where it was going to star jim carrey as howard hughes which would have been awesome.

I really would have found that interesting. Yeah. And then when he never got to do it, he took his idea of Howard Hughes and he turned it into Batman.

So Christopher Nolan's Batman, his Bruce Wayne, is Howard Hughes. Oh, and we love it. Yeah. That's what we love. Yeah. But it's this idea

of like a billionaire inventor who's kind of broken in the head, doesn't like to go outside, and uses his money to do stuff, and of like a billionaire inventor who's kind of broken in the head, doesn't like to go outside and uses his money to do stuff and is like a hero at the end of the day. Right. I love it. Lauren and I just got so delighted. We're like, you're really connecting the dots for us here. That was really interesting.

That's cool. That's cool. Yeah. I mean, with Martin Scorsese, we've like noticed how like all the men that he chooses to highlight have like a downfall. Like where it's like their lives seem amazing and then like it's really sad at the end in one way or another. I didn't really feel bad for Howard Hughes, though. I think in like the mob movies, I tend to feel for the characters more than in some of these period movies like that are I think it's because you see more of their family and relationships and that people love them like in Goodfellas when uh Joe Pesci's character is murdered you get to see De Niro cry and yeah like be mad and knock over a telephone booth because he can't do anything about it.

And then I think this film could have been helped by, you know, maybe seeing a, like more than Catherine Hepburn's affection for him. Was there another one who actually had affection? We do see Ava Gardner be like, no, I'm not marrying you.

I don't love you. Which was another, that was like a call back to what we just watched. Casino. Yes. Yes. Yes. Where she's like, he's like, marry me. And she's like, I don't love you which was another that was like a call back to what we just watched casino yes yes yes where she's like he's like marry me and she's like i don't love you and i was like same lines i thought that was fun that's true that is a good scene in casino i love that yeah i mean and i liked i like this ava garner just being like i will take dinner from you like when he buys her that sapphire and he's like and it matches your eyes and you see that shot where it's very clear that her

eyes are brown. She's laughing so hard. It is funny. It's like, this man doesn't even know the color of my eyes and he wants to marry me? Get out of here. Take the sapphire. My eyes are blue. I'll take a sapphire. But yeah, I admired her independence.

I mean, I feel like in the margins of this movie is a story about how the women of Hollywood of this time were also cool as hell oh yeah no I feel like he really makes the women look awesome and they don't give a shit about this guy and it's like kind of great um I and that's again I think why I was so drawn to all their stories I'm like they're so strong like I liked them like Gwen. Like Gwen Stefani. Who was she in it? She was... Jean Harlow. Jean Harlow.

When Howard, like, couldn't talk and she's like, whatever, I'll take this opportunity to get a good soundbite. I was like, that's great. I love that. Not even helping him one bit. No, that was pretty fun. I did hear that there was a version of this that also actually had Amelia Earhart in it, which made me feel a little better. Like, yeah, Jane Lynch gave an interview once where she said she was in this movie playing Amelia Earhart, but then they cut her out. Whoa.

I want to see that. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then she became Sue Sylvester. I see it. They were like, it was a direct line. I was so excited to come in here and talk about an Amelia Earhart movie because they think they maybe found her plane recently. What?

Wow. Yeah. I was like, oh, that's so neat. This guy's been trolling for planes for a long time. And he thinks he's found it. The LA Times had a big piece about it. And it's not proven. They haven't drug it up yet.

But the idea of this woman being so cool that people are still trying to figure out where she landed, you know, almost 100 years later. That's really cool. I love that. I mean, she just seems amazing. But I guess I got it. Hilary Swank did an Amelia movie, but I never saw that either. Yeah, I was going to say. I think there's another one.

I got them all confused. Never seen it. No. Well, let's talk about the reception. This film has 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Many had tried to produce a Howard Hughes, a biopic before this among the failed attempts are a companion piece to reds from 1981 planned by actor and director Warren Beatty,

John Malkovich and partner Russell Smith attempted in 93, the adaptation planned by Alan Hughes and Albert Hughes who wanted Johnny Depp in the lead. Then there's a Brian De Palma directeddirected biopic with Touchstone Pictures, which fell through because of the $80 million price tag. Everyone's obsessed with this guy. In January 2000, it was announced that Milos Forman was to direct a biopic with Edward Norton as Hughes.

I love Ed Norton. That's one of my celeb crushes. Ooh, good crush. It's good. In January 2002, Jim Carrey, and then you said Christopher Nolan, tried to start the project with Castle Rock Entertainment, but it dinked off the ground soon enough to beat this movie into production. Really crazy how many people have been trying to tell this story for that long.

People love Howard Hughes. I guess Martin Scorsese was probably really excited when he got to do it. He was like, yay! I beat everyone. The film was nominated for 11 academy awards winning five for best cinematography best editing best costume design best art direction oh yes uh and best supporting actress for kate blanchett it won five well best editing his and i love his editor is it the same editor is it the greatest yeah that's so cool um here's a little trivia for you so director martin scurr says he designed each year in this

movie to look just the way a color movie from that time period would look achieved mainly through digitally enhanced post-production he recreated the look of cine color and two strip technicolor if you watch in particular for the scene where Howard Hughes meets Errol Flynn, Jude Law on the club, Hughes is served precisely placed peas on a plate, and they appear blue or turquoise just as they would have in the two-strip technicolor process. As Hughes ages throughout the movie, the color gets more sophisticated and full-bodied. That's interesting. That is interesting.

I have to say, I didn't love that, though. Because when stuff was just blue i know the peas were blue yeah and the grass was blue and the sky is orange and all of that it just i mean this is also a movie from the early 2000s when everybody was getting really into digital cinematography and everybody's just tinting stuff blue and orange anyway do you remember that like when i think of movies from this period they're all this color so i just in my brain before i just assumed it was bad tinting like we're so excited to be doing dramatic tinting now that we have the option yeah maybe maybe it was kind of coming out of that though just being like well let's do it

let's do every year let's have fun wait so martin scorsese does have a cameo in a tuxedo and slicked hair, pulling a woman from behind Hughes as he walks the red carpet with Hepburn. Scorsese also provided the voice of the projectionist to whom Hughes talks in the screening room. Wow. We miss him every time. Every time. He's getting sneaky. Is this your Where's Waldo? It is Where's Waldo and he's missing.

Well, we got to take another break. And we're back. It's time for the new Academy Awards. So despite his films having been nominated for over 100 combined Academy Awards, Marty himself has only won one. We are here to correct the record, presenting the prestigious first annual New Academy Awards. So we're going to read categories and nominees,

and then we'll pick who we think should win. For Best Dressed, the nominees are Howard Hughes, Leonardo DiCaprio, Katharine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett, Ava Gardner, Kate Beckinsale. Beckinsdale? Beckinsale?

Beckinsale. Beckinsale. Faith Damarugi. Kelly Gardner. Oh, man. I mean, I think Katharine Hepburn's outfits were the best. Yeah.

You know where I'm going with this. That mustard dress she wears with the strong shoulders and the little gold dots over her butt. Oh, it's really beautiful. And then when they're about to hook up and he's like, you're the tallest woman I've ever been with. And she's like, and I'm all elbows and knees. And the New Academy Award goes to Catherine Hep hepper um okay best line delivery the nominees are

the way of the future the way of the future the way of the future the way of the future howard hughes nothing's clean howard but we do our best right ava gardner to howard at the bathroom sink and there it is now now we both know the sordid truth. I sweat and you're deaf. Aren't we a fine pair of misfits? Katherine Hepburn to Howard Hughes. I mean, I think I have to give this one to the weight of the future, because, I mean, I counted that too obsessively. He says it 37 times.

And when I imagine him trying to figure out different intonations, which he kind of does. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. That's a tough, yeah, as an actor, And when I imagine him trying to figure out different intonations, which he kind of does. Yeah. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. That's a tough, yeah, as an actor, it's a tough scene to pull off. So I think we got to give it to him. All right.

Congratulations, The Way of the Future. Best Flight. And the nominees are Howard and Catherine's Date Night, where he teaches her how to fly and they drink some milk the H4 Hercules flying boat ride Howard breaking the sound record then crashing into a beet field Howard's test flight of the FX11 reconnaissance aircraft and then crashes into Beverly Hills and or Burbank I am kind of leaning towards the milk because it's like more interesting oh absolutely the milk if a man offered me milk in an airplane I would run away or marry them it depends on their personality I absolutely have to go milk and I and I love her line delivery in this one where she's like that's a rather alarming mountain headed our way yeah then he's like yeah they're literally about to crash and then he's like oh

yeah you should press like this pull up oh what is it like to be so chill it has a couple they're just like full of things i want to say all the time the way they leave the restaurant right before this and their excuse for getting away from errol flynn total creep is we just, we have to be somewhere, somewhere else. Yeah, somewhere else. We have to. It's not a lie. Okay, it's time for our score. Sezzy, it's our reviews section. This is where we will read a review from Letterboxd, and then we will each give a one-sentence review ourselves

and a star rating. And if you're out there going, what's Letterboxd? I've only heard you tell me so many times on this podcast. It's a social platform where people write reviews of films. You can follow us on Letterboxd at Newcomers

and see all of our reviews from every movie we've watched. Amy, you got to be on Letterboxd, right? I can't, man. I'm just on Rotten Tomatoes. Everything I see goes up there. I can't imagine writing things again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't need to. You're you put your stamp out there. I hear it's fun

though. Paul's always yelling at me and I hear that like letterbox is the new social media for people who just think all the other social media is exhausting. Oh my God. Do you think I could get swept away for hours on there? I don't imagine that happening. I think you could. I think you could find a way. Probably could. Done. You're right. All right.

I'll do it. This is four stars from Josh Lewis. Solid movie about an extremely normal guy just being a cool dude. Flying planes, dating teenagers, drinking milk, making movies, talking about titties. Oh, yeah. We didn't talk about that scene where he was like, her breasts, they need to be more bulbous. Is that what he said? It was something like that.

And llamas having crippling disorders that can be traced to visions of American success ingrained in childhood, exasperated by an industry and culture that celebrates wealth and quote-unquote progress above anything else. Wow, Josh is snarky. Someone's got an opinion. Letterboxd is the place to put it. I think he captured really well, though, like how

this movie is kooky. This movie is so much more kooky and fun than I was expecting it to be. Yeah, it's much crazier than I thought. And it was a fun ride in that sense. Anya and Allie are also going to join us with their reviews of the film. But if anyone wants to go first, feel free to take it. I'll go first.

I'll give it three stars and say it was very long, but the pants were incredible. Okay. Yeah, I think I want to give it three stars as well. Beautiful set design, beautiful glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Could use less aviation. I'm going to give it three and a half stars. I wish it was hornier because it had the potential. I loved the music and I want it more Hollywood.

Also too long. Long, long movie. Yeah, I'm going to go with three and a half as well. I would cut out the congressional scenes, but actually they were kind of satisfying. Watching him just sort of lecture the squares. I guess I get a thing that I have like a secret tech bro in me. I'm like, yeah, you stick it to them.

You stick it to the normals. Is Anya here or do we lose Anya? She had to hop. But I know that she loved the Rufus Wainwright cameo. Yes, we didn't talk about that. The singing. It's right at the top. I don't know what a Rufus Wainwright cameo yes we didn't talk about that the singing and it's right at the top um i don't know what a rufus wainwright looks like he i just knew from his voice honestly and um he recently

was selling his home in la and you could see it online because they were it was all like publicized and it was had lots of taxidermy it was really interesting house though oh okay yeah i kind of like taxidermy some people do it's i think it's a pretty um you know polarizing yeah it's a choice yeah i don't like hunting but i feel like if it's an old animal that died a long time ago i think i think it's like respectful to collect old taxidermy cool does that make sense that's how i feel about old fur coats like if it says yeah it's already it already exists it's not you're not killing an animal to make it yeah definitely like my benchmark for fur coats is like if if it died before nirvana's nevermind came out then i think it's okay

and you're like honoring the animal yeah but if it's newer than that i think it's too new yeah yeah i don't need to be making new fur coats yeah yeah so um wool comes from a sheep are sheeps just roaming around naked oh you know i mean yes i would say all animals are but like but are they like just skin without i think their wool grows pretty fast right right? So they're able to shear them and then use the wool and it's not killing them to use their skin. No, but I'm like, are

they walking around like looking like mole rats? Like are they sad and cold? I think they're, I think they God, I don't know, but I guess I've always thought that with like farms that they like shear sheep as part of the like care process, but maybe that's not. Maybe that's like farms that they like shear sheep as part of the like care process but maybe that's not maybe that's like only for making things well I mean I've seen the

sheep when they haven't been sheared like you know if you go to Ireland they're kind of wandering around everywhere and they are real gross you know they're like yeah I think it's kind of like grooming a dog or something yeah yeah like it looks miserable to be inside whatever they're wearing yeah okay so it's so might be good this okay great it might be i'm glad we solved it here on newcomers that's what everyone came here for yeah um amy do you think you want to oh wait please go yeah well to that i actually just wanted to say real fast how much i admire the concept of of newcomers and i oh thanks i really wanted to say that because, you know, I've been a critic myself since college. And I mean, I grew up without, sorry, I'm nervous.

I'm like excited to talk about how cool it is to say that you're seeing something new for the first time. Oh, thank you. Because I just, you know, I grew up without streaming and you can imagine like coming up as a critic, I really faced a gauntlet of people being like, you haven't seen that and you haven't seen that because I didn't watch a lot of movies growing up you know it wasn't my thing I was out hanging out with crusty older dudes at coffee shops like I wasn't like watching movies because I had to I would have had to go to a video store and rent them all the time as a child and so I've had to deal with a lot this idea of like what do you do

when you get that you haven't seen this because that comes up in my life all the time you know and I used to just play along with it and not mention that I had no idea what they're talking about which sometimes I will still kind of do but I've really tried to like lean into just saying no like it's not a big deal because I think it's perfectly normal to not have seen everything because movies are really long and if you have seen everything like what else have you done like Like that's too much time. You know, that's way too much time in your life to have watched literally everything. Thank you so much. It means a lot.

You know what nobody does? Defends us. What? They should. I think everyone's like, you haven't seen all the Marvels. And that's honestly where it started was that we hadn't seen star wars and people that comes up enough times that people can't believe it that then you're like let me just let me just tell you i'm gonna watch it i'm gonna tell you all about it okay but um i love that you appreciate it that really means a lot and

especially with what you do so thank you it means a lot i mean it's like not having seen something yet just means you get the chance to experience an awesome thing for the first time like that's how people should react when they hear you haven't seen something

like oh cool if you ever get a second you're gonna love it like I hadn't seen Showgirls and my friend Mark was like come on over we'll have dinner

and we'll watch Showgirls and it was delightful and now it's one of my favorite movies Showgirls and Goodfellas are my two top movies that I've seen this year. That's so great. I still need to see Showgirls.

Lauren, you'll love it. It's on Cartoon Night now. Also, Freddy Got Fingered, which I saw for the first time this week. Because I'd never seen Freddy Got Fingered. Me either. I thought this whole time that Tom Green was playing Freddy, but it's not. It's his brother. And he says his dad fingered Freddy.

That's where the title comes from. I didn know it was about a joke about sexual molestation anyway i didn't either and i wait my husband got a criterion collection subscription for christmas now my understanding was that was like all movies that are like is freddie got fingered in the Criterion Collection? It's on the streaming app as part of their Razzie selection. They're doing a thing on like Razzie. Oh, okay. Because I was like,

I thought it was supposed to be all like the best movies ever. And so that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Okay. But Showgirls is also there. So then it is also the best movies ever. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, that's true too. A good bad movie is great. It's always a good time. Well, Amyy do you have anything you want to plug specifically other other than all the amazing things we listed at the top and unspooled which people need to listen to yeah not so much i'm just writing stuff every week right now i'm writing pretty much every week for the washington post new york times and la times or a mix there and it's very very hectic right here. Wow. That's amazing. I would love to see it. Love it. That's so cool.

So whenever people say you haven't seen this good classic movie I can also be like do you know the nonsense I reviewed this week? Do you know the Zach Braff movie I saw this week? Do you know what I've been through? Right. Yes. What's your take on Madam Web? I haven't seen it yet. Oh okay. Wait Amy I just have to ask, was the Zach Braff

movie the one with Vanessa Hudgens? Yes, it was. Yes, it was. What did you think? Oh, it's so daffy. I mean, it's so daffy. Like he gets attacked by a swan. Vanessa Hudgens is great. Vanessa Hudgens is like, I am in a big bad movie and I get to be the bad person. And he's like, love me anyways. And so it doesn't really work. And at the end, he does so much evil stuff that you're just furious. You're so furious. And the movie is like, but he's charming. What movie is that?

It's called The French Girl. It's about him being a New York kid who falls in love with a girl who's French Canadian. So he goes to her family. And Vanessa Hudgens is her ex-girlfriend in all. Oh, okay. Yeah. So that's what I saw this week instead of watching, I don't know,

sneakers. I've never seen sneakers. Sure. It's like, this is part of like with what we're doing even with this podcast. It's like this podcast, I then am watching all these movies

so I don't have time to watch whatever's coming out now that everyone's very excited about. And so now I'm behind on something else and then, you know, then we get to have another season. And this is the cycle. That's how it works. Well, Amy, you're the best.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for doing this. Oh, guys, thank you so much for having me on. This is such a pleasure. Thank you. And if you're out there listening, please write us a review on Apple Podcasts or rate newcomers on on Spotify five stars only.

And we'll be back next week with The Departed. So watch that and get ready. Get ready to depart. See you then. Newcomers is a HeadGum original hosted by us,

Nicole Byer and Lauren Lapkus. Our executive producer is Anya Konevskaya. Our producer is Ali Khan. Our theme music, editing, sound mixing, and mastering is done by Faris Manji. Listen to new episodes wherever you get your podcasts every Tuesday. Thank you. That was a Hiddem Original.