The Bechdel Cast - The Room with Barbara Gray
Episode Date: August 31, 2017Oh hi, listeners! Two's great, but three's a crowd! Except when Jamie and Caitlin invite guest Barbara Gray to talk about The Room. We did not leave our stupid comments in our pocket...we say them all... on this episode! Hi Doggy!(This episode contains spoilers)Follow @BabsGray on Twitter! While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @hamburgerphone  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. On the Bechdelcast, the questions asked if movies have women in them. Are all their discussions
just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effing vast.
Start changing it with the Bechdelcast. oh welcome to the back dog cast i just did a can open of mike's heart that was almost as long as a
tommy wiseau sex scene this is the back dog cast my name is jamie my name is caitlin and this is
our podcast that we have and we release on a weekly basis and we talk about the portrayal of
women in movies and maybe you've seen them maybe you haven't seen them it's up to you which ones you listen to we don't know we're not the police
i think you should watch every movie we talk about we are now your new religion you have to follow us
you have to believe everything we say yeah and that is the bechdel cast my therapist is calling
right now do you need to answer the phone? I do.
I have to tell him. Okay. Beer. Wait. Okay. Let's pause. No, let's not pause. Okay.
Let's not. I'll be back. Okay. I'll just chat for a moment. We have a podcast. It's inspired by
the Bechtel test, which is a test that requires that movies have at least one scene where there
are two female characters.
They have to talk to each other.
Those characters have to have names.
And their conversation has to be about something other than a man.
Hey, guess what?
No movies pass.
Not a single one has ever passed the Bechdel test.
Just kidding.
But rarely they do.
Anyway, Jamie is off talking to her therapist, which means there's not much left to do except for me to introduce our guest.
She is one of the co-hosts of the super great Lady to Lady podcast, Barbara Gray.
Hello.
Hi, Barbara.
What's up?
Thank you for being here.
There's so much drama so far.
The Mike's Hard Lemonade opening, the therapy phone call.
I feel like Wizzow would be proud of this.
Right.
There's no rhyme or reason to anything that's happened so far.
And it's very...
Complete nonsense.
Yeah.
So talk about your history with this movie.
When did you first see it?
How many times have you seen it?
I first saw it, I grew up in Salt Lake City.
And we were hanging out in my friend's basement.
And my friend Bob was like, you got to see this movie. told us about it and this was like a this is a while ago I mean
like fifth well it came out in 03 by the way we're talking about the room I don't know if that was
ever established I guess this was maybe like Jamie's back this must have been like 2005 or
something there 2006 okay so he just shows us the flower shop scene that's all he shows us and then hello
doggie yeah like the craziest scene of all time the weirdest timing you've ever seen in anything
like oh hi you're my favorite customer but it's just and i was like i need to see all of this
immediately i want to see this movie so we watched all of it so the first time i ever watched it was
like a basement with my friends and then when i moved to la we went to the five-year anniversary
screening of it and um it was just like a magical experience because people were doing all the interactive
stuff at the perfect time we just had a really good theater and it was all like
really fun and right because people like to throw spoons at the screen or something there's so much
people have written like weird interactive stuff that works really well like there's a scene in
the movie you know that scene where she's like, I'm going to get you drunk, which he's obviously
never drank before, so he doesn't know what alcohol is.
So she brings out...
Yeah, she brings out two glasses
of what looks like whiskey,
and then she puts vodka
on top of it. And he goes,
it tastes good.
And he gets drunk immediately, and he's like,
it tastes good. It's an amazing
use of symbolism, because we're led to believe, oh, they're drunk because there's a tie around someone's head.
That's how you know.
That's the symbol.
And also they drink the entire bottle of vodka.
You would be like having alcohol poisoning at that point.
But I love you so much and I am wasted.
I'm wasted.
I love you, darling.
You have nice legs.
You have nice pecs.
It's so weird.
Oh, man.
But the first time, so I saw that screening and this guy like stood up in a robe and he was like, here's how you make a scotchka.
And he had this whole thing.
It was just this really fun interactive aspect to it.
And I have seen it so way too many times.
Like I hadn't seen it in a while.
I watched it last night and I was like, oh, my God.
Like I know I remember too much of this movie.
Yeah, but I've always it's, you know, it's got a special place in my heart for sure.
Watching it with this intention was different.
Oh, sure.
It was I had to watch it two times.
I usually only watch it once before that.
But it was like you can't I hadn't seen it in years.
And so it was like I couldn't just watch it.
Like, oh, this time I'm watching The Room for its female characters.
I just had to watch it once for fun, and that was great.
And then the second time was almost better.
It was a totally different experience.
Yeah, well, I had never seen this before until a couple days ago.
And I have since watched it four times.
You have?
Yeah.
That makes me so happy.
That's a new record.
So I watched it once by myself.
The next day, Jamie and I watched it together.
We were drinking Coors Lights.
In bed.
Right.
Yeah, we were in bed.
That's the way to do it.
It was sexy.
You watched it in bed.
Then I watched it the following day again, the Riff Trax version of it. And then I saw it again this morning because I keep I'm like, I don't know what this movie is about. It's impossible
to follow. So you just are like, what am I what? Where am I going? I still feel unprepared. And
I've watched it four times in the past three days. So we don't even need to talk about like
how terrible it is. It's already been discussed on a million different platforms.
It's going to be very hard to find something to say about this movie that has not been said already.
That is an interesting challenge.
But we at the Bechdel cast are always challenging ourselves.
We're always pushing.
We are very challenged.
Wait, we are challenged?
We have a lot of...
I don't know.
I drank a Mike's Heart before the episode started.
And I talked to my therapist. He's mad.
Oh, no.
Did you not show up to something?
No. He's a phone therapist.
He lives inside my phone.
And he was like, did you go to the pharmacy? I was like, no.
And he was like, well, go.
I was like, fine.
What if the character Peter from this movie was your therapist?
Don't be a psychologist, Peter.
Even though two seconds ago he was like, give me your opinion as a psychologist.
Yeah, there's just no rhyme or reason.
Everything he writes contradicts itself two seconds later.
Right.
Really quick before, I know we should try to go into some sort of summary of this movie oh
right but i've seen this movie i would guess six times now because i've seen it twice in the past
couple days is the guy in the flesh-toned sweater who shows up at the party scene is he supposed to
be he's supposed to be peter yeah it's concerned white shirt is what we always called him and he
he definitely replaced peter because i
don't think peter could show up or something and so that guy takes the role of peter being like
you're ruining our circle of friends and it's like who are you who are you i just come from
absolutely nowhere i registered with me for the first time on the last viewing i did this morning
of it i was like oh he's supposed to be the guy that kept looking into the camera that i thought
was cute he thought peter was cute he looks like david wayne i feel like david wayne
should play him in the news i don't know he well we were talking about this when we were watching
the film in bed together that that guy was the most my type and then i think we decided that
the guy who replaces that guy was the most your time i want to make it clear that no one in this movie is my type.
First of all, they're all white.
Not even Mark.
Mark is a chode.
He's a brawny paper towel.
Mark is a chode.
Mark is understudied.
He is a chode.
They're all...
Let's not rule out chodes.
If we rule out chodes...
I mean, I wouldn't have any history
of having no life if I ruled out chodes.
I would still be a virgin
if there were no chodes.
Don't count the chodes out.
This movie, there's too many white people and therefore none of them are my type.
Anyway, I think...
I guess Wiseau is white.
I honestly think he's an alien stuffed into a human being's body.
Even the sex scenes.
He's chicken's cutlass.
It's like there's like things moving under his skin during the sex scenes.
He's literally a mannequin from the bodies exhibit.
It's not good. It's bodies exhibit. It's not good.
It's really bad.
It's so bizarre. Well, he has such an alien's
understanding of what masculinity
is and like, oh, I guess men throw
footballs around. Yeah, men throw footballs.
Like, love means roses and
chocolate. The chocolate scene is so
weird. When the two random people show up to make out,
they put full pieces of
chocolate in like a Snickers bar in their mouth and then they make out who has ever done that my favorite part
of that scene is don't judge i did that yesterday my favorite part of that thing is when they're
burst in on by lisa and lisa's mom and then lisa's mom is like this is weird this is gross and then
she sits in what very well could be
probably a big puddle of cum i didn't think about that and she's like oh my god i all i could think
of was the maybe squishy noise that could have happened wait i want to hear a summer are you
gonna do one because i want to hear you try like i just want to hear what this this might be the
one that i don't interrupt just to here we go caitlin's famous recap the room is about a man
named johnny and his fiancee lisa so far so good they live in the room a room the room
the room but also a lot of the scenes take place on the roof so i'm waiting for a sequel
called the roof oh my god yeah we should see what's happening on the roof i thought during
what's happening oh please yes the roof is the roof of the room right yes i guess they were
living in an apartment building even though they are always going directly outside they're never
going into i mean it's not out of the question
but they're always coming in they're always either in the room or emerging from a little
shed on top of the roof the roof that weird illumination of shed that they all have to like
duck if you're searching for logic or continuity you won't find it in this movie okay but sorry
so these two people have been in a relationship for seven years.
Between five and seven.
Between five and seven.
This actress who plays Lisa is 23 when this movie is released, which means.
I'm 22.
Oh, God.
It's worse.
I crunched the number.
She's born in December.
Tommy Wiseau is like 48 when this movie is released.
So he's dating a literal child.
It's not good.
They're in a relationship and they're engaged.
She's his future wife, as is said in the movie 8,000 times.
Future wife.
So they have sex.
It was one of the first things that happened.
Oh, yeah, they sure do.
And then...
In case you forget, they have sex again.
They take the same footage from the same sex scene and put it later.
Right.
But even though they seem to be in love, shortly after the first time they have sex, Lisa talks to her mom and she's like, I don't love him anymore.
That was more life than you put into that reading of that line.
Right.
And her mom Claudette is like, stay with me.
But Johnny's good for you.
He's your financial security.
Meanwhile, she's calling this guy Mark, who is Johnny's best friend.
Again, we only know this because it's said in the movie.
Yeah, they say, but he's your best friend.
But she has apparently been having this affair with Mark.
So she loves Mark and she doesn't love Johnny anymore.
But Johnny's busy.
Not Johnny. sorry, Mark
is busy. I'm really busy
right now. And then they also have
a little boy
slash college student.
But he's 100% 30 years old.
His name is Denny.
Denny. He comes over and
likes to watch them have pillow
fights. Yeah, he's in love with Lisa.
He's in love with Lisa, but he also has a girlfriend who he mentions.
And he's like, I can't wait to marry her and have kids with her.
That's the idea.
As with any relationship.
This premise of her not being in love with Johnny anymore and instead being in love with mark repeats itself for about 45 minutes
in a in a bunch of different vaudevillian setups right sometimes these scenes are punctuated by
men tossing a football around or going to a flower shop from what i can tell there is not a scene that
takes place on the roof where there is not a man with a sports ball because the first when we see
Denny on the roof and he's in
trouble with the guy in the tank top and the beanie
right which has nothing to do
Chris R
his name official name
oh hi Chris R
I'll get the money
and then that really protracted
scene between Claudette
and Lisa and Denny of like, what kind of money, Denny?
And he's like, I don't know.
It doesn't matter.
And then they're like, what kind of money?
What kind?
It's like, what are you talking about?
But U.S. American dollars.
But lest we forget at the beginning of this scene, before Chris R. enters with his gun and his body um denny is on the roof alone dribbling a
basketball yeah right and then later mark's got the football yeah you're right i think every single
time but i think when mark and peter up there it's just a joint that's the oh the prop and peter
we changed the fuck out of mark but that's neither here nor there. I love Peter.
I'm in love with him.
He's the only one who's not in love with Lisa.
Is it because of his very tiny glasses?
He's not like the other guys.
His hairline is...
Leave him alone. Leave Peter out of this.
There's that great...
In the first part where Tommy and
Peter are talking, Peter's such
a bad actor. Tommy's like, Lisa's cheating on me Tommy and Peter are talking, Peter's such a bad actor.
You know,
Tommy was like,
Lisa's cheating on me.
And Peter's like,
Lisa?
And the implication is supposed to be,
but Lisa is such a good person.
But with the way Peter says it,
it just sounds like,
does someone else want to fuck Lisa?
Like the whole time.
Like you just like her. Cause he keeps,
yeah.
The whole time he keeps,
I was like, I know she is cheating on me with my, and then it cuts back to Peter again.
He's like, wait, Lisa?
Really?
I was like, okay, we get it.
You don't think Lisa's hot.
Mayonnaise?
Yeah, you should put that in there.
But everyone else thinks Lisa's hot because it's, said in the movie 1400 times also if you're having
a hard time following this recap don't
worry the movie's also impossible
to follow there's one of my
favorite parts in like seeing it live was that there is a
I can't remember what scene exactly it's after
but there is a about
20 to 25 minutes where
absolutely no new information
is given it's when him and Mark
are playing football
and there's a scene with the mom again.
And that was the part they called the seventh inning stretch
where they were like, go have a cigarette break,
go to the bathroom.
You will find out nothing new for the next 20 minutes.
So just like hang out.
And then we finally get to the birthday party
that they've been talking about for like the entire.
Right.
Okay.
So yeah.
So here's what happens.
Basically, she's cheating on
johnny with mark johnny overhears her talking about this with her mother lisa is like i'm in
love with mark and i had sex with him so he's also lisa starts talking about johnny hitting her she
starts making up right she makes up a story but then he does push her and then it's like well i
guess this has become a non-issue right she. Turns out he was capable of it. Yeah. But then she also makes up,
she tells him that she was pregnant
and she's like,
I just made that up
to make things more interesting.
This plot point never comes back,
not even at,
spoiler,
the end.
Yeah.
Where Johnny kills himself
never knowing if his girlfriend's
actually pregnant or not.
Right, right, right.
So he overhears Lisa being like,
oh, I had sex with Mark. And Johnny's like, well, right. So he overhears Lisa being like, I had sex with Mark.
And Johnny's like, well, okay.
And then he taps his own phone.
Yeah, I'll record everything.
And then later on, the party has happened.
He sees them canoodling.
Like Johnny sees Mark and Lisa.
Yeah, they're like making out on the dance floor.
And then he and mark fight a couple
times everyone leaves and johnny's locked himself in the bathroom and lisa calls mark and she's like
i love you i can't just a minute bitch right oh yeah he's like who are you calling a bitch
you and your stupid mother and she's like oh and mark takes a total turn he's not johnny's best friend anymore he's like
why don't you leave that loser what a creep yeah i'll leave that creep innovations are so weird
my favorite part of johnny setting up that whole tape recorder in that protracted scene that was
for some reason not edited at all where he's making weird kissy faces while setting up a tape
recorder in 2003 where tape like they were already obsolete anyways he
sets that up but what is he hoping to discover that hasn't just been stated yeah that she was
like i'm cheating on you and he's like proof of like a murder like you could just say i heard you
said you're cheating on me right like where he's just like and now i'm gonna set something up so i
find out if she's cheating i was like you just already knew and then at the end and this is like a fun part of the riff tracks too
he sneaks back up the stairs when he knows no one is there like well he also takes out the tape after
like weeks of it being recorded on one they're like oh yeah this this audio cassette automatically
fast forwards to the pertinent parts also it's
capable of recording hundreds of hours of i mean it knows there's there's ai at work here
let's bring him and why where is he i know he's doing a show story yeah i was watching his insta
story he's in new york right now whatever well we'll be there soon we can hang out with him he he wants nothing to do with me i just
have to accept it have you tried to contact him i oh yes oh man and at this point it's like
you have very strange taste i really love hayley you're like tommy wuzow and he's lisa
i don't know if he's accessible but i feel like you could find peter pretty easily
from the movie peter's 100 around i found recent pictures of him and he looks the same
oh good well anyways so basically we must press on johnny records this conversation
where lisa calls mark and is like i love you and johnny. And then he has this recording and then he freaks out.
He trashes a room.
Lisa's like, I'm leaving you.
She leaves.
Johnny kills himself.
He shoots himself.
He humps her dress.
Right.
And then he, yeah.
And then he shoots himself in the head.
Mark, Lisa and Denny all come back.
They're like, is he asleep wake up
wait is he dead i'm almost upset that like not the whole cast of the movie comes into the room
because like claudette should come in and just be like what's going on here like yeah oh claudette
i love claudette she's my she might be my favorite character yeah and that's the story uh
that was pretty concise i know it feels like we spoiled the end by saying
he kills himself, but I forget every time I watch it
that that's what happens because there's just so much
It has almost no bearing. Oh, you did too
when we were watching it and you're like
I had this film like two years and I was like
oh yeah, that is how it is.
Well, because it has no consequences then.
Like, I guess Mark is like
oh, I don't actually want to be with you after all.
Mark's like, fuck you, Lisa.
But that has, I mean, not that anyone's emotionally engaged with this story,
but no one gives a fuck that Johnny dies.
Mark takes no responsibility at any point.
It's so funny how every point, after he and Lisa fuck for what we understand,
it's happened before.
And then he's just like, I can't believe that happened.
And I was just like you you're fucking
his best friend you willingly participated first of all mark is johnny's yeah i got
i got mixed up but it was like it was like she he's acting at every point where it was just like
lisa just like tripped and like fell on his dick and he's just like i don't understand how this
happened well she's like she seduces him like 14 different times and each time he's like what's going on he's like have you
i don't even know if he's a misogynist he might just be dumb as rocks he's very stupid he's very
stupid everyone they're all very stupid and let's use this as an opportunity to transition into the
conversation about women so we we have like three.
Three women.
Three.
Yeah.
Lisa, the main character.
We'll get into her.
Then her mother, Claudette, and Michelle.
Love her.
Michelle, I also like a lot.
Well, Michelle barely has a personality.
But Michelle's like the best actress in the entire movie.
Yes, that is true.
That factors into it.
Yeah. Maybe it's just because she has so little screen time. We don't see that much. Right, that is true. That factors into it. Yeah.
Maybe it's just because she has so little screen time.
We don't see that much.
Right, she's up against a lot.
The bar has been set below surface level.
And so she does fine.
Right.
But if we're just sort of giving an overview
of these characters,
Lisa is like...
I mean, Lisa is probably like...
They call her a sociopath in it.
Yes, but her character arc makes no sense.
I guess she's like...
Her motivation changes from scene to scene.
Right, exactly.
So, I mean, again,
this is like a crazy movie to talk about
because usually we're discussing movies
that have gone through a couple drafts of the script.
They've attempted a full character.
Did you know
the first draft
of this movie
was a 600 page book?
What?
I mean,
I'm not surprised
because he doesn't cut,
I don't think he cuts anything.
The deleted scenes
on the DVD
are just the same scenes
that were shot
somewhere else.
So he did not
delete anything.
Because this whole movie
was shot in 35mm
and digital.
And digital.
At the same time.
For no reason. Two cameras next to each other.
What? Why?
And there are some shots where apparently neither of the shots are focused because they've turned it off.
It's, oh boy.
So Lisa is, yeah, I suppose a sociopath, even though it just sort of seems like she doesn't love johnny anymore and she'd rather
be with mark but she's manipulating definitely johnny but either way her character's poised is
this like very she's bored and she's just trying to like mix shit up right i mean and she would
be bored because she we never see her outside of that house literally the only information we get
about her outside world is that she says you you're right, the computer business is tough.
And that's what apparently her job is.
She's trying to break into the computer business.
Because she's like, I didn't talk to anybody today.
Like, yeah, she's very isolated.
Right.
And Denny and Johnny are like her only.
Denny, did they find Denny just like masturbating in a library somewhere?
And they're just like, you're a kid now.
And they're like, come with us.
Come here.
Come here.
And he's like, I'm 14.
But he's clearly like 28.
And she's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's just got that little penis haircut.
That goes a long way.
That down the middle.
That down the middle, like old school JT2.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's a big old middle part.
Yeah.
All of the female characters are either...
So, like, Lisa, she's selfish.
She's a freeloader.
She's callous with people's feelings.
She's very conniving and scheming.
She's manipulating everyone.
Meanwhile, her mom is, like, controlling.
She's overbearing.
She's judgmental.
And then Michelle, again, like, doesn't really have a personality she sort of
she also doesn't come into like kind of right and she has like three scenes only handful of lines
like she's trying to handle the situation she's trying to be like lisa what the fuck yeah she's
kind of the moral center where she's like but she also fluctuates in the space of one scene where
lisa's like he's hitting me and then two seconds later
she's like oh but no you can't break his heart and it's like michelle she just said even though
it wasn't true until it was later in the movie your friend just said that they're like her
fiance's hitting her and he's like but you he's so excited for the wedding it's like man yeah
everyone sucks everyone's terrible yeah that's basically the everyone sucks is the tagline for this yeah the men and the women but the women are poised as
these evil succubus controlling manipulative beings which is pretty clearly how tommy
sees women who broke his heart i want to meet her oh my god who this could have been in the victorian era
because no one knows how old he is yeah he's very mysterious figure nobody knows where he's from it
turns out the birth date i turned up for him is strictly speculative he won't tell anyone how
yeah he won't right the one i found on wikipedia apparently is like not confirmed it's this
speculated if i had to in this movie looking at him if i had to
guess i would say he's 52 but he looks this exactly the same now is a scary yeah he's an
alien yeah i do think he's an alien i think honestly he's an alien he might just be like a
bunch of sentient like sewn together chicken cutlets yeah it's just like a bunch of snakes
stuffed into people's skin we're doing an episode i think pretty soon of men in black i think he's like
like a little alien creature he's like operating a giant what they think is a human god that would
be so if he showed up in a men in black like sequel that would be so fucking funny will smith get on that yeah basically tommy does not see women as good
people nice people maybe not even people he definitely sees himself as very perfect like
it's like i'm a provider i love him he's the victim of this scheme and he's like obviously
he has all these scenes just like i'm an incredible lover like it's very to prove it he's
like i love i love you denny i want to adopt denny you know he's like i'm an incredible lover like it's very to prove it he's like i love i love
you denny i want to adopt denny you know he's like always trying to give these weird speeches
about how like how if everybody just loved each other the world would be a better place
that and then there's a scene between um lisa and her mom where for the first few beats of that
lisa's like oh johnny hit me and i don't love him anymore and he's boring and i hate
him and then denny shows up and her mom's like what's this kid's deal and then lisa like does
a complete 180 and she's like yeah johnny's so generous and he's paying for his college tuition
and he's a really caring person what what it's like there's no consistency of course there's
not in this movie but tommy's always like my character's the best because I'm the best.
I'm a good guy.
I'm a good guy.
There's a bunch of lines that I wrote down.
Like when Lisa's doing her weird whatever it is she's doing.
There's like several times where she makes these broad statements about all women.
Meanwhile, every time Mark is on screen, he's like, I don't understand.
They're so confusing.
And women are just, I'm so busy.
What does he say?
He's like, they're either psychos or they're, I can't.
Oh, I wrote it down.
I just can't figure women out.
Sometimes they're too smart.
Sometimes they're just flat out stupid.
Other times they're just evil.
Which is just like, oh oh this is just a thesis
statement of how tommy was so understands women and then later on lisa when she's having her
crazy moments you know tommy comes in when michelle is you know they're drinking wine
and their wax fruit is on the table and the same like an above they have a shot from like teetering above them like
it's the fucking war room yeah and michelle's like poison this weird thing and tommy comes in
says what secret are you talking about and then lisa's like it's between us women like these
like it's girl talk secrets yeah it's girl talk i just told you that and then what do you think women change their
minds all the time it's just like and then if you write that into the script then i guess
i also wrote down how people view women or how like whenever someone's like this is how women
are lisa looks hot tonight uh right it happens 8 000 times one of the first times it happens is where lisa is talking about
her mom i think to mark and she's like she's a stupid bitch and she wants to control my life
and then johnny and peter and then later mark comes into the scene but johnny is like i don't
understand women do you peter and then Peter says, what man does?
In my professional opinion.
Yeah, in my professional opinion as a trained psychologist.
What man does?
And then Johnny says,
they never say what they mean
and they always play games.
And then Mark shows up
and then Mark says,
In all denim.
And he's like,
women are confusing.
Women confuse me. And then he sort of mentions that he has And he's like, women are confusing. Women confuse me.
And then he sort of mentions that he has a woman and Johnny wants to meet her.
And then Mark's like, no, it's an awkward situation.
Johnny says, do you mean she's too old?
Or you think I would take her away from you?
Those are the only two options that a woman could exist in the world.
A living gargoyle was like, she too old that's a perfect like yeah
that's all women can be to me they're too old or i have to have the chance to steal them i
my i love that okay so it is repeatedly vaguely referenced that johnny works at a bank right
but i think he works as a gargoyle on the side of the bank oh my god he's totally a
gargoyle he's a real car and he just crawls out of the third story window and purchase
because he says there's a part where they're like oh did you get the promotion he's like no but
they've already put my ideas into practice so it probably means like, yeah, I came up with ideas to get the pigeons away from the bank from crawling
after them.
How would you promote a
gargoyle?
I don't know, but a gargoyle and a tie.
Now that's fuckable. That's amazing.
Especially
if that tie ends up on
a lady's head. You have have great legs you have great pecs
that i love that scene where they're where all the guys are talking about women is one of my
favorites because they are like how did you meet lisa meet and it's and the story is like well i
moved to san francisco i had no money and i had a two thousand dollar check and i couldn't cash it anyway i saw lisa uh sitting
she was having a coffee she's so beautiful and that's how we met and they're like what but what
was weird about it and she's like oh on the first date she paid yeah so good for lisa yeah for
autonomy she i know but also he could be her father father. I didn't realize she was that young in it.
If she's 22, we don't know how old Lisa's supposed to be,
but the actress is 22.
And at the end, at some point in the middle of the movie,
they do say five years.
But then by the end, they're saying seven years.
Well, it feels like the movie lasts for two years.
So I guess that's like, yeah, we don't know the timeline for sure.
Yeah.
But with that logic, Tommy Wiseau, who is at least 100 years old, has been dating her since she was 15 years old when he first spotted her in that coffee shop.
It's the whole Edward Cullen, Bella Swan thing all over again.
Ugh.
But worse.
Because it's with a cadaver.
He's not even hot.
It's okay when you're hot.
Anytime someone, like a guy with long hair,
dyes that hair jet black,
it is the most off-putting thing I can possibly think of.
It's so sinister.
It's so gross.
Wait, here are a few more mentions of how women are.
They're confusing, dude.
Women be confusing.
There's a scene where Mark and Johnny are in a, what I can only assume is a cheesecake shop.
Yeah, everyone orders cheesecake.
Yeah.
And Mark goes.
We also have to talk about Lisa's pizza order at some point.
Oh, yeah.
Mark goes, I'm so tired of girls games.
Relationships never work.
It's interesting because I do want to know.
I mean, obviously, there's a lot I want to know about Tommy Wiseau,
but I would love to know his history with women
because he obviously is very off-putting as a human being
and I think pursues women probably very intensely,
and they're like, fuck no.
And to him, he's like, oh, she's playing a game.
It's like, no, you're fucking terrifying.
She genuinely does not want to be around you.
He's like, oh, the process ensues.
Yeah.
He's like, I'll bring you a dozen red roses or whatever.
He's probably dropped off so many roses to so many women.
Oh, he's spending $18 all over the place.
I feel like he took that weird.
Okay, here's our here's our phantom of
the opera 2004 joel schumacher reference of the episode they have a weird phantom of the opera
candelabra in the bedroom it's very phantom of the opera like love yeah and it's always lit
like when even when they're shit drunk on whiskey vodka the phantom of the Opera candelabra, all 45 candles are lit.
And they also
have that like rain window
machine. Yeah.
It's a very like Pier 1 set.
Yes. Lots of candles
and like weird waterfalls and the
canopy bed. The budget for
this movie was six million dollars.
What?
Six million dollars. And that's one of the
other big mysteries is no one knows how that money was gotten tommy wiseau said that he might have
raised it through a leather jacket business but that's as close as anyone's gotten to finding out
i wonder he must have just been like independently wealthy also he could have been working a minimum
wage job for 300 years we don't know that's probably he's have been working a minimum wage job for 300 years. We don't know.
That's probably it. He's just been saving his pennies for this masterpiece.
He could have acquired, yeah, all this money. I would like to say that if I had been given
this draft of the script, I would have written great coverage on it. I could have found ways
to make it into something that resembles a movie. Could you have punched up the line,
me underwears? You know know what i would have left that
exactly as is okay i love that too this is one of the only movies i've seen where you see an entire
scene play out and then someone describes the entire scene later i don't think i have ever
seen that happen in a movie right because it's not supposed to no you don't need to repeat
information 8 000 times uh me underwears that guy what that guy's deal? He was plucked out of a UCB 301 class.
But he had frosted tips in 2003, which I feel like was over by then.
I think so.
Guys.
Well, at least where I was living, frosted tips were thriving into the late 2000s.
I guess they were still.
It just feels...
Well, what's confusing about him and his character and how we meet him is that he and Michelle come into the room and have sex.
Is that the room that we're talking about?
That's the room.
I guess.
Or is it the upstairs room where bad things happen?
No, I think it's the room.
I think it's the main...
The downstairs room.
Yeah, the downstairs.
It could have been called...
The framed spoon pictures.
Honestly, the movie should have been called The Apartment, which leads me to...
Billy Milder.
Well, Mike and Michelle come into that apartment to have sex, but it's like, do they have some sort of arrangement where they rent the room out to these couples?
Are they room-sitting?
Well, that's another thing is like when Lisa comes in from a more lit area, we don't know exactly where she reacts to them fucking on her couch the same way she reacts to finding out her mother has cancer, which is don't worry about it.
Yeah.
People say don't worry about it so much.
I realize he never answers a question in the movie.
Like even when one time when Denny says, what movie are we going to see?
He goes, don't worry about
it he couldn't even bother to write the movie title things don't always work out as planned
i'm like what do you don't want to date this movie in time at all and like but people have
frowsy tips and flesh-colored sweaters we know when this is taking place yeah i do think like
talking about writing coverage and like helping it become a better movie it is because it's obviously very like lifetime movie-esque
and you know all those kind of like older lifetime movies where the woman was like this manipulative
you know woman who's kind of like taking over and like it like has that essence and it could have
been that if somebody had taken the reins and fixed it right right there was no hope so what
do we know about
because i didn't do any research about the development or production or anything of this
movie was tommy waso like bananas was he like an authoritarian sort of yes okay he was an
authoritarian and he also couldn't do anything like so the disaster artist which is coming out
as a movie is a book written by Greg Sestero, who plays Mark.
But also, if you look in the credits, is the line producer and assistant to Tommy Wiseau.
Right.
Like, he had to wake Tommy Wiseau up every day.
Yeah.
So he, like...
And then managed the budget.
He basically became friends with Greg Sestero and was like, I want to make this movie, blah, blah, blah.
And, yeah, was just totally, like, I think, you know, had his hands in every single part.
Would never, you know, had to have it his way.
But also a terrible actor who made everything go.
Like, that scene where he comes out on the roof and is like, I did not hit her.
I did not.
That's bullshit.
They had to do, like, dozens and dozens of times because he could not do the line right.
But it still seems to be 80 yards.
And then it's still dubbed over.
She's like, what were you actually saying?
Yeah.
When the line could have just been like,
I didn't hit her,
throws water balls
into the ground.
But like,
his insistence on apparently
overcomplicating
all the dialogue
is hilarious.
And then,
I love how like,
80% of the dialogue
in this movie
is just like,
unnecessary throat clearing.
Hi, how are you?
I'm good, how are you?
And then the rest of it is like
insanely on the nose,
expository.
What kind of money?
What?
What kind of money?
He definitely has...
He's my best friend.
Oh, you're my future wife.
Right.
I have cancer.
Don't worry about it.
Yeah, I got the results of the test back.
I definitely have breast cancer.
I love Claudette.
Claudette is great.
She lists that off like any of her 400 divorces.
She's like, I got the test back.
I definitely have breast cancer.
I'm so glad I divorced that other guy.
And then later on in the movie, she's like, I'm tired.
I'm blah, blah, blah.
It's like, yeah, because you have cancer.
Yeah.
But it's never brought up again.
You're going through a tough time.
Well, I feel like Tommy was like, we got to throw more drama into this.
Make the mom have breast cancer.
Make Denny be involved in some drug scheme.
Right.
Zero of it pays off.
Exactly.
Yeah.
But he's like, I know there should be drama, so I'm just going to shoehorn it in here.
He just, like, threw the plots of every, every, just like scrambled around a bunch of words.
And we're like, okay, drugs, cancer, cheating, Guy in a beanie, psychologist.
And even that shot where it seems like Mark might throw Peter off the building.
Off the roof.
And Peter makes eye contact with the camera.
And then it's like, oh, no, he's fine.
And then Mark just says, sorry.
It's a movie.
Oh, sorry, man.
Sorry for that attempted murder.
Yeah, you guys have gotten into a fight with a friend and almost thrown them off a roof, right?
It happens all the time.
It's fine.
As long as you say sorry, don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
You're fine.
Anyways, I will say, okay, for some more background,
I was doing research on the actress who plays Lisa,
and she has done her darndest to try to capitalize.
Yeah, but at least to hopefully, like,
because a lot of, like, the early stuff for this movie,
from what I was reading was, like, I mean,
people were making fun of her, obviously, but they were they were also like making fun of her body and all this stuff
and she was like i hope that i can turn this into a thing about body oh did she try to do that she
did i wouldn't say she was necessarily successful but i i would like to cite the fact that she did
attempt to say hey my body is not the worst part of this movie by a long shot
because i guess like the very early early early people to this movie were like especially i think
the screen yeah there was like some mean stuff at the screenings yeah people yell out yeah yeah
i can see it both ways where it's like they're being no meaner to her than they would be to
tommy wiseau but also like yeah she's not her she's just on screen it's ways where it's like they're being no meaner to her than they would be to Tommy Wiseau. But also like, she's not her fucking...
She's just on screen.
It's not like...
She's not fucking up.
She's just being there.
Right.
She's basically a kid.
Yeah.
Being humped by this fucking stone ghoul.
I would love to see her like in something else.
Because when I watch it again, like her acting isn't great but she's given
such bad stuff that sometimes her acting
is okay in the movie.
The material is so bad that I would like to see her
in something normal.
She moved back to San Antonio a long time ago.
I'm sure.
Yeah, this wrecked her.
I did see though, the last time I looked her up, which was a few years ago
so it's probably not happening anymore, she was trying to sell
paintings of spoons and footballs and stuff.
No!
Yes!
She was making art of the room-related shit.
I guess.
I mean, I guess if Greg...
Is it Sestero?
I think Sestero.
If Greg Sestero can sell a book to James Franco, sure, sell a painting of a spoon.
Right.
Why not?
Jesus Christ. sure sell a painting of a spoon right why not jesus christ one of my favorite parts of the
movie is when it's either the first or second time that johnny and mark get into a fist fight
at the same party but something gets knocked over or broken or a glass gets broken or something
like that and then they sort of calm down and then john Johnny goes to Lisa. Lisa, clean that up. Because, like, that's what her role is in the story.
Women be cleaning.
Women be scheming.
And that's all women are good for.
And then we already kind of touched on this,
but, like, eight different characters throughout the course of the movie,
some of them more than once, will be like,
Lisa, you're so beautiful.
She's looking so hot tonight
you look great in a red dress which is like okay fine i don't know if you guys caught this but red
means she's bad sorry whoa um it's fine to tell a woman she's beautiful i suppose but if that's the
only thing about her that they're ever commenting on to be fair she provides them with nothing else
other than she might be seeking a job in a computer business but you're right because
tommy is like oh he's provides he's got he's this and this and this and she's got nothing besides
right okay so it's established early on and then it keeps being repeated especially
by claudette that l Lisa can't provide for herself.
We don't know why.
Or why Claudette believes this is true so vehemently.
Right.
Sure. It's like Claudette's getting divorced.
Like, what are you doing, Claudette?
Yeah.
Besides purchasing cream-colored pantsuits.
But, like, sure, maybe Lisa's struggling to find work in the computer business,
but also, like, she seems perfectly capable to find work elsewhere.
You know, some other type of job.
The cheesecake shop, the flower shop.
One of the shops.
Tommy's got friends everywhere.
Johnny's like, he's his favorite customer.
He can find a job for Lisa at this flower shop.
But instead, she stays in the room all day.
And it's like, why would you make this character?
I was like, are you just sweeping your friend's cum around?
Like, what are you sweeping?
This place is clearly filthy.
Like, it's a filthy place.
She also can't unload groceries and talk at the same time.
She has to pull something out of a bag.
I'm looking out for number one.
Pulls out another bag of chips.
Wouldn't you?
But it's just unclear why the choice was made, as with any choice in this movie,
why she is incapable of providing for herself or holding down a job or anything like
that but it's like the whole thing is like she has to stay with johnny because he provides for
her at his gargoyle job at the bank so she's just been with him for so long since she was 15
that she's just used to him providing her with all the necessary carbs and plastic apples she needs to survive
and she just i guess doesn't know what it's like vodka there's bottles of whiskey there's everything
she found the bottle of vodka outside it was denny's yeah there's a good fan theory where
denny is lisa's dad and that's why there's no scene. I went back and every scene between Denny and Lisa's mom, for some reason, is very contentious.
And she comes in and she's like, who's that?
And then he's like, you're not my mom.
You're not my fucking mom.
You're not my fucking mom.
It's like because she's his lover.
Also, she's like, don't you have a kitchen in your own house?
Because he comes in to borrow a half a cup of sugar, some flour, and some butter.
To obviously turn into some sinister sex instrument.
I really like, I like that scene a lot because like Denny comes in.
This is right after they find Mike and Michelle making out.
And then Denny comes in.
And Claudette is like, this is worse than Grand Central Station.
And you know that Tommy thought that was the funniest line he had ever written.
He was like, now this is fucking funny.
And it was just like, if I were a burglar, you'd be my best friend.
Like, I feel like he thinks these are hardcore jokes.
I'd never even occurred to me that those were supposed to be funny.
I think it was supposed to be funny.
Yeah.
And then, but then the response to like what
is this grand central station like denny's sort of like oh what a bitch i'll come back yeah because
i'll come back for this free shit later denny and claudette i would pay so much money to see
between them i loved that was the only one that jumped out at me it's like we don't know how old
denny is we just don't know it's impossible he's like We just don't know. It's impossible to say. He's like the opposite of Tommy on the Benjamin Button scale.
They're both kind of just like crossing each other with the body.
And in Denny's first scene, he's just like, but I want to watch you guys fight.
And then they're like, aww.
Two's great.
Denny, Denny, Denny.
Denny, Denny, Denny.
Johnny goes, two's great, but three's a crowd.
You know, that famous saying. Right know that famous saying that goes exactly like that
that's how I get out of threesomes
so you want me to leave
and he's like haha that's the idea
that's the idea
oh my favorite line
in the entire movie is when
Michelle comes in and
Lisa and Mark were about to have sex
and his like pants are undone
and she goes,
hey, XYZ.
And he's like,
what are you talking about?
And she's like,
examine your zipper.
That is so funny.
Which totally goes against
what you say earlier,
which was like,
don't cheat on Johnny.
But then she's like,
he, he, he, he, he, he.
I caught you.
Well, I mean,
if they're already going to do it,
she's got to help her friend.
XYZ. I think she was saying examine your zipper like about their whole thing. She's like, hee hee hee he the bank i can't talk about it it's confidential
anyway how's your sex life just like the most insane i would love to copy a bunch of those
lines and just go on a date and like completely use totally all of those lines.
Just completely like go for it. You'll find your one true love that way. I think I will.
My favorite line is in that same scene
between Michelle and Lisa
where Lisa's just saying like
I love cheating on Johnny.
Blah blah blah. Mark's hot. And then
Michelle says your point of view is so different
from mine.
And then these two scenes back to back are amazing.
Because it's like this scene of what Tommy Wiseau thinks female friendship is like, which is a woman being like, I'm terrible.
Aren't we all?
And she's like, your point of view is so different from me.
Secrets.
And then cut to Tommy Wiseau's version of what he thinks male friendship is like, which is jogging around talking about stocks with Mark.
That's the thing about this movie.
Like, women are not portrayed well by any stretch.
However, neither are the men.
No one is portrayed.
Except for Johnny's character, who is like put on this pedestal and is like, I'm just the victim. I'm the provider. I'm a great guy and I'm caring for everyone. But everyone portrayed me. Apart from that hard to be like, well, the women aren't portrayed well because, well, neither are the men.
But he does seem to have an extremely limited understanding of how women think and interact and relate to each other and relate to other people.
Humans, however, yeah.
Right, exactly.
Again, he is an alien and he does not understand human interaction in general.
He's had so many millennia to observe humans. It's amazing he doesn't understand them better.
True. He's perched up there on a ledge.
Have you guys ever seen him in person or anything?
No. Does he live in LA?
I think so. I mean, I don't think they do the midnight screenings anymore, but he used to be there every week.
And he wears, like, five belts at once it's very weird he wears like five different studded
belts all kind of like crisscrossing over his body i've heard i've seen like pictures of him i i
almost saw him once many years ago in boston but then i didn't but like he he has toured with it
right yeah he's gone around with it i I did once. I was home once.
I was about to settle in and show the guy I was dating Friday Night Lights for the first time.
We were about to get in.
It's like a big commitment.
And then I got a text from Tess, who's my co-host on Lady to Lady, that's like, I'm at a party that Tommy Uzo is at.
And I was like, this is a fucking crossroads.
Do I go to this party right now?
Wait, did you go?
Yeah.
Okay, of course.
I had to.
And it was close. We were like, we have to go. Friday Wait, did you go? Yeah, we Okay, of course. I had to and it was close
we were like, we have to go.
Friday Night Lights will be there.
Yeah, yeah
but we just showed up
to this random party
like did shots with Tommy
who took pictures with him
and then left.
Do you still have the pictures?
Yeah, I'll show
you guys can put it on
put it online.
Get out of those.
It's really funny.
I wish I had hung out
now in retrospect
we should have just hung out
at the party
and tried to get drunk with him
but I didn't I was focused on getting back. I mean, well Friday Night hung out at the party and tried to get drunk with him but I didn't
I was focused on getting back
I mean
well
Fran I lie
yeah
I'm not going to lie to anyone
does anyone have any other thoughts
about the portrayal of women
in the movie
I will say
see it
like I feel bad
if you haven't seen it
because it's
it's very
obviously like you said
it's like very confusing
it's hard to follow us
if you have
but you have
just see it
just fucking
give it a watch
give it a watch with your friends.
It's a really fun, stupid movie to watch.
I enjoyed watching this more than I enjoyed Gigli.
Yeah, it's one of the most fun bad movies of all time, I think.
Gigli is a blast.
Hey, speaking of really bad movies, I saw most of a movie called Titanic 2 last night,
which I know that exists.
Oh, yeah.
Wait, can you break it down?
Is it like a Titanic 2 to the James Cameron movie
or just to the event?
To the event, although there are many different visuals
and lines of dialogue that are directly lifted
from James Cameron's Titanic,
where the story is like there's a group of Coast Guard people
and scientists who are sort of tracking this giant glacier and shit's falling off of it.
Big chunks of ice are falling off of it and creating these tsunamis.
Tsunamis?
Yeah, tsunamis.
Tsunamis.
That's the technical term.
They're creating these tsunamis that are fucking everything up in the Atlantic Ocean.
Meanwhile, Titanic 2, a ship that was created to sail across the ocean.
Who's going to get on that, by the way?
You're really going to be like, yeah, let me buy a fucking ticket to Titanic 2?
As if there were a more ominous name for any.
Yeah, what the fuck?
The Challenger.
Leave it right on the Challenger 3, please.
Jesus. So there's all these people on board the Titanic 2,
and the icebergs start to fall off into the water,
but it's not really that the ship hits an iceberg,
but that's not really the threat.
It seems to be more of the tsunamis that are happening.
Anyway.
Is this like a sci-fi channel movie?
Who made this?
It's like Shane Van Dyane van dyke which i think
might be dick van dyke's offspring or grandson or something like that directed it and then uh
it's like a very like d okay so they know it's like sharknado most yeah exactly like most of
the ship is like cgi'd very poorly but it's incredible. It's my new favorite movie.
Check out Titanic 2
and borrow it
at your local library today.
I will say
I watched The Room last night
with a guy
and I didn't want to
I didn't want to start making out
during it
because I was so worried
about one of the fucking
sex scenes starting
because in the movie
all the sex scenes
have moaning put over them.
Yes.
ADR moaning. Yeah, it's ADR moaning put over them. Yes. So it's like
ADR moaning.
Yeah, it's ADR moaning
of Mark going like
mmm.
Four months later.
Lisa.
Yeah.
And I was like
I can't afford
to start making out
with this guy
and having like
one of these weird
sex scenes start.
Because they happen
every few minutes
when you least expect it
because it's always like
oh finally
one ended
we have at least 20 minutes but you never do
you never know i mean the first one is three minutes in i think yeah and then it lasts for
like seven minutes i tweeted last night that i was like oh what's the opposite of an awakening
because i just saw the room for the first time and now i'm in a sexual coma so there's a great
tweet thank you so much you guys great yeah. Follow me on Twitter at Caitlin Durante.
Anyway.
Oh, should we talk about whether or not the movie passes the Bechdel test?
Amazingly.
Yeah.
It does, right?
It does.
Because they talk about, she talks with Claudette about like work and business and stuff.
I say it passes surely on the amount of filler dialogue in this movie but it does pass in the first scene
with two women yeah there are honestly i am very surprised i was i counted all the scenes where
women are interacting and there are like 10 or 11 scenes where when you edit nothing out of your
movie yeah you pass the bechdel test if you leave absolutely everything a lot of them are duplicate
exactly like lisa and her mom have the same conversation where Lisa's like, I don't love Johnny anymore.
And her mom's like, well, you need to stay with him for financial security.
That conversation happens like four times.
So most of the scenes, they are talking about a whole slew of men, either Johnny or Mark or Denny or one of her mom's ex-husbands.
Or her brother.
Yeah.
Men get talked about a lot.
But yeah, in the first scene, Lisa's mom comes in and Lisa's like, hi, mom.
How are you?
She's like, fine.
How are you?
Hmm?
Okay, let's go sit on the couch.
I love when a Craigslist actor clundet is.
Oh, yeah.
And she's like, well, now what's happening with you?
Oh, nothing much much do you want
some coffee what's wrong i don't feel good today and then they start talking about how she doesn't
love johnny anymore but the first few those exchanges those first few lines of dialogue
pass the bechdel test and then pretty much every scene after that where women are talking because
then lisa talks to her mom a bunch more times lisa talks to michelle a bunch of times they almost always are talking about some combination of
johnny or denny or mark but like very barely passes barely yeah but it's crazy to think that
the room the best movie ever made passes the bechdel test it really and and like multiple
times right because there's a few other like scenes that will either be talking about a guy and then the topic shifts to,
then they start talking about Lisa and then they have a pillow fight out of nowhere.
Or they start talking about something else and then they transition into talking about Johnny or something.
But yeah, it happens a few different times where they're not talking about a man the
whole time. And also, to be fair, while most of the time, if there are women talking to each other,
they are talking about one of the male characters. But the reverse of that is when the men are
talking to each other, they're often talking about Lisa. It's either stocks or mostly Lisa.
And they are, to qualify qualify the qualification talking about either how
confusing or what a bitch what a bitch yeah she gets called a bitch a tramp all different names
but i would also say she's called confusing just as many times it's just i feel like it's just like
a weird mirror like i said that's me he just doesn't yeah he's like but they're so confusing right he's like she's a bitch but also i don't get it i wish i understood oh poor tom he
needs to take like some gender studies classes yeah yeah go to the college that denny's at and
take a class you're paying for you're paying for the tuition you might as well sit in on it. You can auction.
Audit class.
I don't know words.
What is Denny majoring in?
I think baking.
That's where he had to borrow all the sugar and the butter.
For homework.
He bought drugs to then sell drugs
so that he could make money
even though Johnny's paying for everything for him.
Yeah, small business owner. It's complicated.
Yeah, he's studying business. He knows all about...
He gets it.
Whatever happened to Chris R., though?
I mean, I feel like he's definitely started a rapping career because he was very Eminem-inspired.
He was provided with the wardrobe to start a rapping career in 2003.
In San Francisco? I mean, come on.
The gun that he pulls on Denny is the same gun
that Johnny shoots himself with.
They clearly had one prop gun on set.
And they're like, well, let's use this again.
Well, I mean, Chris R. did get arrested, apparently.
Like, would take him to the police.
So maybe they just were like, eh, we'll just keep this around.
You know, because burglars obviously want to come in
and out of the room.
You gotta have a gun. And they have a way of getting up to the roof. Right. this around you know because burglars obviously want to come in and out of the room you gotta
have a gun and they have a way of getting up to the roof right i made a list of things i thought
the room might smell like oh no well that's the ups that's the bedroom the is the room the bedroom
what no the room is downstairs but also i guess they could probably could be connected because
they're connected by a spiral staircase but i don't think there's a door i don't think there's
it is sort of one continuous room well no there is a door because we see when
he oh that scene where you like see his dick basically he gets out of bed he gets i think
he's going into the bathroom though i think he went into a bathroom i i made a list of cat food
jerky oh yeah curdled gravy oh god there's some There's a cat in there somewhere. Living or dead.
Spilled laundry detergent that someone spilled cereal in.
The floor is 40% toenails.
Oh.
A dog visited this apartment three years ago and shit somewhere.
There's at least four chain wallets somewhere in this apartment.
Someone at one point spilled a vat of vinegar in some place.
Oh, and this was something
we talked about
when we were watching
the movie together.
All of the furniture
in this movie
is covered in brown sheets
and I presume
underneath plastic sheets
in case someone
just has to pee.
Say someone
molded themselves
over a rug.
They rent out that room
to couples to come in
and fuck in.
Everything's covered in sheets.
A la the apartment.
Which at first I was like, oh, low budget.
They were probably renting the furniture.
But then it was like, you find out there's a $6 million budget.
And they were filming these couches covered in sheets in 35 millimeter and digital.
Like, yeah.
That was a deliberate choice for some reason.
And also I said it might smell like Misty Menthol 120s, which is the cheapest but most femme form of cigarette.
Oh.
Fun fact, my mom smokes some.
I feel like also a lot of dead flowers smell, obviously.
Yeah.
A lot of dead roses.
Those are flailing rose petals all over the place.
There's certainly not an air conditioner in this place.
What about, we didn't talk about the music,
the soundtrack that plays during the sex scenes.
The vaguely Eastern European pop music.
I own the soundtrack.
Do you?
I do.
No way.
Someone gave it to me as a gift.
They found it at Goodwill.
But I get the songs in my head.
The rose one, I was singing along to it last night next to that guy, and I think he thought
I was fucking insane.
Oh.
The music is like, yeah, it's a popping.
I want to know about the soundtrack, because I want to know if he hired one band to write
it all, or what.
Impossible to say.
Impossible to say.
I don't care enough to do the research.
It's out there.
If you want to find it go find it
to find it tweet go find it get finger to that song go crazy yeah why not or finger someone to
that song right right let's not limit you yeah or simultaneous it's a finger yourself i've never
pulled that off usually when it's like we're gonna do it at the same time one person's like
i'm not really gonna do it though but you know. One person's like, I'm not really going to do it, though. But, you know, maybe you're not like me.
Maybe you can actually pull off your end of the bargain.
Yeah.
Yeah.
At least push yourself for Tommy's sake.
Right.
Right.
Challenge yourself.
Just as Tommy is challenged by the English language and human behavior.
Right.
Challenge yourself.
Should we rate the movie? Oh, my God. A yourself. Should we rate the movie?
Oh, my God.
A million.
Let's rate the movie on our nipple scale.
We determine how the movie fares based on its portrayal of women.
Zero to five nipples.
I mean, there are two nipples in the movie.
Well, two female nipples in the movie.
We see a whole bundle of nipples.
Well, it's really just Lisa's nipples, female.
Well, sure.
We've seen Johnny and Mark.
We've seen...
And Mike.
I'm amazed that Mark
figures out how to put
a short mic on.
We've seen Mike's nipples.
Is Mike frosty tips?
Yeah.
We do see his nipples.
So we see eight nipples,
which is the number of nipples
a single cat has.
Okay, well, there it is.
There it is.
Cat facts with Caitlin.
Anyway, I'm going to give it...
I mean, I can't give it any more than zero.
Like it's zero nipples.
Like it's not.
Oh, okay.
You do whatever you want.
I'm going to give it zero nipples.
We can't even really seriously discuss this movie in any way because it barely is a movie but it's clear that the creator of this movie does not see
women as dynamic multi-dimensional people he's just like they confusing they're confusing
manipulative traitorous shrews who only care about taking my money they They're too smart. They're too dumb. Or they're just crazy.
Or evil.
Yeah, I mean,
that plus the movie
being easily
one of the worst movies
I've ever seen.
Four times
in one week.
Four times.
You love this movie!
It goes without saying
that it's the worst thing ever
and it does not treat women well.
It doesn't treat men well either either but it's just a stupid
stupid movie and it gets zero nipples and those nipples uh belong to oh there aren't any so they
don't belong to anybody there aren't any nipples i'll say three nipples this one i'll say two
nipples and like a few like areola bumps is that a thing? Sure. A couple of areola goose bumps.
Is that what we call these?
I don't know.
I think so.
Whatever they are.
You know what I mean.
So two full nipples and a few little bumpies.
Wait.
Why?
Why so many?
Because this movie, it's just a personal thing.
It's like I've had a lot of really, really fun experiences in my life with this movie.
And so I can't help but relate it to that.
You know, lots of different experiences with friends and like some good nostalgia for me with this movie.
And just it's unlike anything I've ever seen.
I can't, you know, I mean, obviously related to the point of the podcast.
It's not it is not probably get any nipples, but it's so hard to qualify because it's such nonsense.
Right. That I'll give it a pass in that point. I'm going to give it a nipple and a half. probably get any nipples but it's so hard to qualify because it's such nonsense right that
i'll give it a pass in that point i'm gonna give it a nipple and a half and this is i will
acknowledge apologist to an extent but i don't think that tommy was out does not want to understand
women i think that he does he would like in a perfect world he would understand how women work
but the way it's portrayed in this movie is not but like he just doesn't and but i feel like at
least he expresses through every male character and what are women like it's confusing what isn't
confusing jogging sports balls, roofs, banking.
Like, these things he understands.
It does pass the Bechdel test a number of times,
which probably says more to the flaws of the Bechdel test than anything else.
But I think Tommy Wiseau would like to understand how women are.
He never will.
It won't happen.
It's crazy because he will live at least another 500 years
he never will but men don't understand women what man does what men to quote my boyfriend
that's peter that's the name of peter's like book he was like what man does
understanding women he appears on oprah one time i'll give it a nipple and a half.
One I'm going to give to Lisa's just because I can summon the image of it to my mind so quickly.
And then the other half I'm going to give to Peter because we never get to see his nipples.
But, you know, they're weird.
I feel like they look just like his face, like a miniature version of his face.
Yeah, it's a mirror version of his face.
Just shrunken down.
With like a receding hairline at the top.
Oh, he has a receding nipple hairline.
I love him.
He's cute.
Anyways.
You're tearing me apart, Jamie.
Sorry, Peter's cute.
Well, that just about does it for the room amazing go watch it if
you haven't seen it truly it is a marvel to behold experience yeah yeah no one can but barbara thank
you so much for being here it's been a delight thanks for choosing this one i'm glad we were
able to i'm glad to put you through that yeah Yeah. Well, you were like, Total Recall.
And I was like, that would be fun.
Total Recall, three nipples at once.
You have to give Total Recall three nipples.
I mean, no matter what.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah, you do.
Like I said, I was just like, yeah, what are movies I've seen a million times?
Yeah, Total Recall would be an interesting one.
But I don't think it would pass at all.
Probably not.
But most movies we talk about don't.
Don't. Except for The Room, which now joins the hall of fame of movies we've done that inevitably, somehow, usually by mistake, pass the Bechdel test.
I mean, I'm surprised that there were more than one female character in the movie.
There's three!
There's three.
And, like, they all seem to get along pretty well.
So, hey, Tommy
did something right, I guess.
I mean, also if you count the interactions
with the cheesecake waitress and the other woman ordering
cheesecake, there's a whole cheesecake
scene. Oh, but we don't
know their names. Oh, yeah, yeah.
But, hey, Tommy was like,
look, women
can be flower shop
employees.
Women can be flower shop Tommy woke employees women can be
trying to break
into STEM
but they can't
quite figure it out
well yeah
but they're trying
the computer business
they're trying
oh no it's that dog
at the flower shop
some woman
oh no
that's true
bye doggie
I'm really going for it
I want to add the doggie
I want to have a sex scene
as efficient as the flower shop scene.
That's my,
like they're like,
fuck,
fuck in and out.
Bye Dougie.
I do like though that you see Johnny both go into the flower shop and come out of for a scene that didn't need to be there at all.
You do see every step.
Yeah.
Every step.
Yeah.
At least now I've seen this movie.
Shane Van Dyke, by the way, is Dick Van Dyke's grandson.
Okay.
Well, check out Titanic 2.
Check out Lady to Lady.
I think we're interviewing Dick Van Dyke soon.
Oh, really?
No way.
I don't know, but we're supposed to. He came to a comedy show that I did in Malibu.
Oh, really?
Shout out to Chris Crofton's Malibu comedy show.
I did it recently.
I got yelled at.
By Dick Van Dyke? By Shane Van Dyke.
By a Malibu drunk.
That'll happen at that show.
Dick Van Dyke was one of like six people
in the audience that night and the other four
were a bunch of drunk people who heckled everyone
the entire time. Anyway,
Barbara, where can people find you online?
Where can people follow you? My Twitter is at babs gray i probably don't pass the bechdel test on
there in most of my regular life with myself and my website is my jokes are up here.com you can
find me there and yeah lady to lady podcast and i have a show every friday called sauce at dasano
pizza in hollywood californ California at 8 p.m.
Yay! I used to do paint
night events there anyway.
Oh yeah, and then you hooked me up with that paint job.
Paint night job.
I gave you the best paint job of your life.
Oh no!
You hooked me up with that paint night job before
we were real friends. I know, yeah.
And then I trained and I was like, this job sucks.
And I never did it.
Hey, you can follow us on Twitter
at Bechtelcast. What? Also on
Instagram. Also on Facebook.
Also, also, also on
our new, new, new website.
Pew, pew, pew.
Bechtelcast.com
Yes. Bechtelcast.com
period.
You can go there
for information
about live shows
that we have coming up
including
a show at the
Cinderblock Comedy Festival
in Brooklyn, New York
on September 9th
we're gonna be talking
to Ray Sonny
about the movie
Get Out
and then we're gonna
go to Boston
that's right
the next day
on September 10th
we bought our
Megabus
oh I have to Venmo you
for our Megabus. Yeah, you owe me like $20.
Oh my God, this is so embarrassing.
But we have another show on September
10th in Boston at
Improv Boston for the Boston Comedy
Arts Festival. How many more times
can I say Boston in one sentence?
We have guest Sam Icke,
very funny comedian, talking about
men in black, baby.
So yeah, check out our website.
Sorry, I just Venmoed you $20.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
Check out Bechtelcast.com.
You can also donate money to us there.
Please.
And do all kinds of stuff.
But please.
Please?
Question mark?
Please?
Please.
Period.
Check out Twitter for the latest of whether Alfred Molina is going to hang out with us or not.
Yes.
Yes.
Anyway, oh bye.
Oh bye, doggie.
Oh bye, doggie.
Oh bye, doggie.
Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated.
Crooks everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks.
She exposed the culture of crime and corruption
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Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years.
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