144: Lily Was Here

Hi, this is Lily Tomlin, and I'm on Movie Meltdown with Brian. The following program is a proud member of the Palover family of podcasts. Check out all the shows over at palover.com. That's P-A-L-A-V-R dot com. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America.

It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one. Million kilowatts of power. To provide more cooling in the containment chamber. To your sentinels, we've rebelled.

It was a bit earlier on that you missed when I distracted him with the cuddly monkey and then I said, playtime's over, and I hit him with the peace lily. You're off the fucking chain! Way down among Brazilians Coffee beans grow by the billions So they've got to find those extra cups to fill They got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil. What's up, and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I am Brian.

I'm Marlena. I'm Fred. I'm Greg. And we're back for another fun-filled movie geek festival. I don't know.

It is, though, time for another edition of the Caffeinated Movie Geek. Cappuccino my butt. I still drink coffee. The last fucking thing you need is another cup of coffee. It's time for Decaffeinated Movie Geek.

We're coming to you live via digital recording from Nancy's Bagel Grounds, where we, as usual, are going to get hammered on coffee. We're already, what, a cup and a half, two cups in, just before you've even started, so we're really, really wired, is what I'm saying. And talk movies, so. And with a big thanks to our friends at Columbia River Coffee Roasters, we have a new blend of coffee this week. So, get excited.

So, Marlena, I ask you... What blend of coffee are we drinking this week? Pacific Blacktail. Ah. Well, she gets a cue card.

It's because she won't remember. I would have remembered that. Are you joking? Actually, I remember. You didn't tell me beforehand.

That's why you had to hand. Me a cue card. And I remembered a minute ago I didn't tell you, so I'm trying to write it down while we were doing our thing. Didn't give her. Time to think of something obnoxious to say about it.

That's the best part. I know. See? Is that why Brando did that? Yeah.

Anyway, so yes, this is our new blend of coffee. So thank you to the guys for loading us up with new and special coffee. I keep getting more. As we all know. All right, so I guess we can get away from that and roll on into the geek activities.

For mine, I watched... One that I've been meaning to, I guess, ever since... I don't think I knew about this movie until the remake came out, which is usually not a good thing, and one I usually don't fall into. Normally I'm one that's on board with the original well beforehand, but now I watched the original, The Taking of Pelham 123. Again, sort of tying into a couple of different things.

Number one, sort of action-y movies with Walter Matthau. Right. Although not as much action as you... I'm assuming the remake has a ton more action, because this one's a lot of, like, old guys sitting in a room talking into phones and microphones. I mean, that's like two-thirds of the movie.

It's just, like, them in the control room talking back and forth to the train. And that's a good portion of the movie right there. And it's a good movie, actually. I mean, not saying that as a knock, but it's just, it's not an action movie. There's action that comes about and kind of later, but, yeah, it's more of a heist kind of movie.

It's It's probably a little closer to Charlie Berry, because that one was a little more heist-related, but not a ton. I mean, there was action, but yeah, it sort of falls in line with that one. You get Matthau's a little more of his sort of subdued, like, just-another-day-on-the-job kind of guy. And then every once in a while, there's one time where he grabs a guy by the collar and shakes him around, and he's one of the other guys on this side. So it's, yeah.

He plays a tough guy a little bit, but to me, the whole movie was Robert Shaw, who I sat there the whole time. He's one of the guys who takes over the train, and I'm just like, that guy is awesome. And I'm sitting there not even really recognizing him from his other most well-known role, and I'm sitting there going, damn, he's good. And then I get to the end, and I'm like, Robert Shaw, son of a bitch, no wonder I know who he is. He gave the fucking Indianapolis speech.

No wonder he's damn good. So, yeah, he's, like, amazing. He's just sort of this cold, calculating, you know, everything is about the plot. And here's our demands. Here's your time limit.

I could care less what your problems are on the other end. We're going to start shooting people. And he pulls that off really well. It's just very believable and, like, just sort of in control all the time. And then some of the other, you get Hector Alonso. who's sort of known now for more of his, I mean, he plays kind of the same guy in every movie now.

Who the hell's movie is he always in? Gary Marshall that puts it, I mean, in the credits it says, and as usual, you know, Hector Alonso. Like, he really, and he plays almost that same kind of guy. Like, he's always the bellhopper. You know, he's always the one that's sort of there to just sort of, be the father figure to the main character and guide them down the road and explain why things go.

So to watch him in this as the hothead terrorist, he's not even one of the terrorists. He's the one that's like the fucking loose cannon that just goes off and starts shooting people. So very different role for him. It's not exactly what I expected to come out of Hector Alonso. So I guess it's good to know he could do that back in the day.

He still doesn't really look much different. He's slightly younger, but yeah, he kind of always looked like that. There's two other guys, but the other one surprised me, and it's one of those I don't think I recognized him. Again, it was much younger for him, but as you got into it, the name came up, and it sort of sounded familiar, and I was like, he did look... There was something about him that looked weird, and so I'm like, okay, I'm going to have to look it up.

Earl Hindman, who in later years you would know as Wilson... And you would only know him by the top of his face as he looked over the fence at you. Wilson took control of the train and held people at gunpoint. That's... Cool.

I didn't expect that out of Wilson either, but... Yeah, it's funny to see his face. That's why he couldn't show his face anymore. He was still running from the law. Well, luckily, so was Tim Allen, so...

They were both, you know, had each other's backs. It was cool. So, yeah, that one's actually... pretty good. I have to say it was entertaining. I think I just like that type of movie.

I mean, Heist in general is kind of entertaining in its own cheesy way. And then I think the 70s era of those were just like. I don't know. There's something about them. There's like a style that is totally different from even like 80s and 90s and now.

It's like each generation kind of has its own weird stamp that it puts on these movies in general. But even like those type of action movies. And these. I don't know, there's something about the, you know, that's taking place in New York in 1974, you know, that's a very different vibe than probably what the remake was like. I have this impression of the 70s as definitely being dirtier.

Than everything else. Well, New York in the 70s, dirtier. It was, yeah, a different city. Crime was a lot higher. Everybody talks nowadays like crime is going up and Tina, no.

It's been dropping steadily for decades. Since the 80s. Yeah, they Disney-fied up that whole, you know, the whole Times Square and all of that stuff. It's like they kind of specifically made it a point to clean up a lot of what made New York so, like, scary and grimy, which was sort of what made the 70s movies in New York so awesome. So it is interesting to go back and look at it pre, you know, when they stepped in and sort of cleaned everything up.

I think just the 70s in general, not just New York or big city, but I just have a feeling when I watch movies, shows, that everything was just a little bit edgier, a little bit rougher. And everybody was on edge culturally, too, because things were changing and nobody knew. And it just makes you uneasy. I think it's also that is that turning point for film. And I think it's because we As people in general and definitely as the generations that followed, that's when everything got...

You watch movies in the 50s and 60s, it's still pretty clean cut. There's still normal little happy melodrama going on. It's rare that you get anything really weird or really edgy sometimes, but rare compared to most of the bulk. And then the 70s came along and it's like independent cinema stepped in and it's almost like, okay, gloves are off, we're going to do whatever the fuck we want. And the big studios really weren't making money anymore, so they kind of let the independent filmmakers make.

And you get a lot more. I mean, there was a ton of cinema that came out of the 70s that nothing like it had ever existed before. And some of it still hasn't, you know, we haven't even returned to some of the levels of the impressive stuff that was put out even now. It's... It is that era that's kind of gone, and I don't know that we can get back to what it was.

It was just something that kind of, the right time, the right place. And it's kind of cool that we have these movies that sort of captured it. Yeah. But that was most of what I have watched this week. Marlena, I know you've got some sort of crazy stories.

Yes. So I'm talking about one movie. I'll talk about the movie Hesher. I watched that movie. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I've loved.

It's probably my longest-running Hollywood cush. Yeah, I've liked him for quite a while. Probably not in the same way, though. Maybe. I don't know.

Oh, did you say you've liked him? No, I said, yeah, I said you've liked him. I didn't say I had the same kind of crush. Y'all look this out. I mean, I like him and all, but I don't like him.

I thought you said I've liked him for quite a while. And you sort of tensed up. Like, what? Yeah, I was moving in on your man. How dare you?

No, no, no. No, in Winnie Cooper terms, I don't like him like him. Yeah. I just like him, really. Throw down.

Earrings are coming off, bitch. Okay, that was a gross misunderstanding. But you can have moments like, ooh, I was watching our man, you know. Like my mom. Yeah, you can shit our man.

That was kind of a callback, wasn't it? Yeah. Anyway. Anyway. So you've liked him since he was a long-haired little dork.

And this, he's a long-haired little dork, but kind of like a sociopath. Interesting. It's kind of interesting. I have to write a paper about a movie that is mostly negative reviews and kind of do this rhetorical thing where I respectfully disagree with the critics. So I chose this movie because pretty much every critic hated it.

But I watched it, and it kind of, like, the bleakness of it and the coming-of-age kind of drama thing, it really makes me think of, like, Welcome to the Dollhouse or any movies like that. But I didn't... For some reason, when I watch a movie, I don't think too deeply about it until afterwards, and I have to think about it. But it kind of made me, like... after I was watching it, he's just like this totally off-the-wall, ridiculous character who shows up out of nowhere and does all this ridiculous shit that no one in the real world would actually do. But it's like, he's almost like a physical embodiment of the kid's, like, teen angst.

You know? So that's kind of what my paper is going to be about. If you analyze the movie in that way, it's actually a really good movie. It's about this kid who's lost his mom, and his dad is like... has totally lost it. You know, he doesn't get off the couch.

He's so depressed about his wife dying. And they live with his dad's mother, who's crazy. And it's really sad. The boy just starts kind of, like, getting in trouble, not necessarily through, like, his own fault. You know, he's got this bully that picks on him.

And then he kind of accidentally stumbles upon Hesher one day. And the movie is about T.J., so it's, like, confusing as to why it's called Hesher, because he's, like, not even the main character in the movie, really. But if you think about it, like. I guess nobody would go see T.J. T.J., yeah.

But, like, the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure... Like, there's even a part in the movie where they're talking about symbolism. Yeah. You know, and I really just think that was the point of the movie that most people kind of missed. Like, he's just so ridiculous.

He's more or less like a living, like. It's not necessarily that he's supposed to be a figment of TJ's imagination, because he's very much, like, real in the movie. That's what I was going to ask. How much of it was taking place in the real world? Yeah, it all takes place in.

The real world. Interesting. It's not that he's, like, a figment of TJ's imagination. It's not like a Fight Club alter ego thing where you're, like... It's not like a split personality thing where you're trying to, like, deal with stuff so you create this alter ego thing.

It's more or less he's like this just kind of representation of his trouble and his angst and his sadness and stuff like that. So if you think about it like that, it's a really good, really powerful movie. Most people don't. They just think it's kind of ridiculous and over the top. Anytime there's a serious moment, I sure will, like, come up with a story about something.

And you think, like, anytime someone tries to chime in with a story when you're having, like, this really horrible thing going on, his story is, like, number one, it's a lie. And, like, Natalie Portman, she'd just gotten into a car accident, and she gets in his van, and he's like, yeah, once I was banging these four chicks, and I got really tired, and she's like, is this, like, a, are you trying to make me feel better? I don't understand your story. And he bonds with the grandmother, and he tries to tell her dirty jokes that she doesn't get. I don't know.

I think upon first inspection, the movie is ridiculous. But if you really watch it and think about it, it makes a lot of sense. And I think it was a really good movie. I probably wouldn't have thought that I had to write a paper on it, but it's one of those triangles. You just watch it and you're just like, I'm confused.

I want to take a nap. And then the more you explore it, you're like, holy shit. I want to take a nap. Exactly. It would be very intimidating.

Overrated. It depends on if one is Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Have you seen him in Brick? Yeah, I love Brick. Brick is on the list.

Brick is a great movie. It's on the list. Yeah, we need to get to Brick. We need to get to Brick. That's so much fun.

I definitely would like to keep story watching. I mean, it was such a strange crime noir, like modern age. But it's also such a strange comedy because you just forget it's a comedy. Yeah, kind of. Because it's not funny.

It's just you get so involved in the noirishness of it, and it's so intricate, and it draws you in, but every now and then you. Go, this is fucking ridiculous. And you just. Start laughing, but you. You laugh because you get so caught up in it, and yet it's so, and every now and then just something in the story will bump you out of it, and you'll go, God, this is hilarious.

Yeah, I love that. It's a great movie. Yeah, it was a really good movie. But back to Hesher, though, like, in the movie, he just does the opposite of everything you think, and it's just so ridiculous. You're, like, almost tired of watching it.

But for some reason, I couldn't stop watching it. I don't know if that's just me. I mean, I definitely was not attracted to Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this movie, with his long, stringy hair and his, like, really shitty prison tattoos. What, those are awesome? You know you like those.

No, they were like stick figures giving the middle finger, like, just a huge stick figure on his chest. That's classy. What are you talking about? Stick figure giving the middle finger? Yeah.

That's a little hard to picture. Yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, how do you know he's not just holding a stick? Yeah.

Yeah. That's true. Oh, you know. Well, you know because he had a giant, more realistic yet crude as well, actual just hand giving the middle finger tattooed on his back. Nice.

So it's his thing. I'd love to give people tattoos on their backs. Just think what you could do. Yeah, that would be fun. I don't want you to do that to me.

No, I don't. Films. But it took me like two days for it to sink in, but after I had to think about it, and I still haven't written that paper. I don't normally procrastinate this much on homework, but it's fall break, so I'm like, fuck it. I'm not going to do anything.

I'm going to eat caramel apples and persimmon pudding, and it was like this harvest homecoming thing. So that's what I did, and I took a break, and I didn't do shit. But now tomorrow, I have all this stuff to do, and I'm going to have to write the paper in like three hours. I wish I could write papers for school about movies. I never took a class.

Oh, I did. I took one class that was about movies. Well, it's actually not a class about movies. Like, we've been, this is just our, it's just one assignment. It's actually been really grueling because I had to write, like, a five-page paper about a Neutrogena ad.

Wow, that would be lame. Yeah, kind of. It was extremely lame. So I'm kind of excited about this, and I know it'll go by fast. That's why I knew I could kind of procrastinate if I was able to, like, pull five pages about a fucking Neutrogena ad out of my ass, I can definitely analyze this movie.

Just get the audio from this and transcribe it. You just about have it. Done and done. I think that about sums it up for me. Oh, hey.

How's it going? Yeah, I watched some stuff. I may have mentioned before that one of my favorite movies is Boogie Nights. But I quit following that guy because I didn't like his other movies. Oh, really?

I didn't like Magnolia. I didn't like There Will Be Blood. To me, it all got ponderous and heavy. And I've heard people, like, somebody was really, a friend of mine was really disappointed. I didn't like Magnolia.

Not nearly as disappointed as I was. But I just didn't like it. What about. Punch Drunk Love? That's the one I watched.

That's the other movie of his I like. Good. I like that movie. That's a good little movie. All this other stuff, it got, like, ponderous and heavy, and it reminds me of that area in Boogie Nights when bells are ringing and Roller Girl is kicking some guy's head.

I kind of like that part. I like it as part of a movie. I just don't like it as, you know, if it was a three-hour movie unto itself. Yeah, that'd be too much. No, it's kind of a drag.

And I understand like, you know, Magnolia has its coherence, but I just didn't like it. I don't want to watch it. And then Frogs start falling. I don't give a fuck. Have you ever seen Hard Eight?

No. That was the one right before Boogie Night. I think it was his first kind of breakthrough movie. I remember it being pretty good. I have not seen it since it initially came out on video.

And since then, I've heard him tell stories about it. He doesn't like the way it turned out, and the studio sort of changed the end. So I don't know if it's a perfect movie. But to me, it felt very similar to Boogie Nights when I watched Boogie Nights. You could definitely tell it was the same guy.

I think it's much. Less in the style. It's much more conventional. And less stylistic. Well, that's what I was thinking.

It doesn't get as crazy as, like, Magnolia and as hardy as There Will Be Blood. I had a hard time with Magnolia, too. So Hard Eight's a little more of a normal movie if you like Boogie Nights, probably, so. Yeah, I love Boogie Nights. It was my favorite movie for a long time.

But then I watched this movie called Catfish. Do we need to throw out the spoiler alert? Well, I think I can avoid that. I've been avoiding what it is, and it's been hard because I listen to a lot of shows about movies. Yeah, but it was a really good movie.

I was surprised by it because I kept the suspense for it. And for me, like plot... I generally don't really care about spoilers because I don't care. About surprise endings. But this one, there was something about it.

The suspense for me was like, they're going to fuck this movie up. They're going to ruin this movie. Oh, and it's going. So well, but they're going to mess it. And I guess maybe I need a spoiler alert, but all I'm going to say is.

It didn't get fucked up. It was really a good. Movie, and it was kind of shocking to me. I've heard a lot of good things, and then everything's like, it's best to not know what you're going in for. But here's something weird about it.

I didn't even know that there was some question as to whether it was really a documentary or not. It got thrown out there in the beginning. It was kind of that.... I never for a minute thought it was really a documentary. I think it was just like marketing.

I mean, when you watch Blair Witch now, you know, people for a long time, that's what they kept pitching that. It just didn't even feel like they even wanted you to really think it was. No, I never thought that about it, but I did think, oh, well, it starts out, you know, and they have their little, you know, production company names and their little graphics, and you think, These guys think they're so with it. They think they're so smart. But it goes along and it's like, no, this is pretty good.

They are kind of smart. It's all right. Yeah, they don't overdo it. It's like every time I think, oh, they're going to get cute. No, no, it's a good little movie.

I was really pleased. That sort of like made my day that that movie just didn't go off the rails and Well. Good, then it's still on my list to eventually get around to, that God knows when I actually will. And I'm sure it will be ruined before I actually get to it. But so far, it's still on the list.

Yeah, so there was that. I don't know. There was something else I watched or did, but now I've forgotten it. You just had to be there. Yeah.

Shut up. Yeah, you had to be there. Don't you mock me. Oh, yeah, I. Watched Bridesmaids, finally.

I only got around to that. That was fun. We've said nice things about Bridesmaids. Good movie. Someone I worked with said she really hated it because she didn't like Chris Booth's delivery.

It's kind of important. I think she's quite good. Yeah. She's quite good. There was something about it like they were really hitting you over the head with making you like her character.

Yeah. I mean, they had it down, but it's almost like watching Les Mis. You know, and it's like, okay, he was in jail for 19 years for stealing bread. Uncle, okay. You know, they just keep pouring it on.

He's a victim. I get it. And they just keep hitting you with it. After a while, there's just something in me that rebels. It's like, it's too much.

I hope he fucking dies. I hope he gets beat to death with a tube sock full of quarters. I'm sick of this. I think that's the Les Mis director's cut. Right.

Yeah. They edited that scene out later. It was a tube sock full of frames. Yeah, frames. Right.

Yeah, it's just too much. But, you know, not that I want Kristen Wiig to be beat to death. I just, you know, they really win you over to her. They really make you like her. They really make her hurt. roommates just so disgusting.

There's that English accent that just makes you want to puke, especially when they start doing the F instead of the TH. No, we're not doing anything. Oh, shut the fuck up. It said TH. Shut the fuck up.

Yeah. Anything. That's how we rebel. We start doing our Fs like a TH. Yeah.

Shut the fuck up. You just sound like Daffy Duck. I know. It makes it even more awesome. Who doesn't like Daffy Duck?

Yeah. So that was most of my Geek Week. I could talk, you know, endlessly about things, but I think I'm going to pass on that for now. Let's control ourselves. Till next time.

I liked Punch Drunk Love. It was a great little movie. The use of color in it, I could just watch it with the sound off. I think that's what. If you just watch for, I think I've even mentioned on this show before, just the camera work alone.

Yeah, it's so beautiful. Oh, and I would like to mention the one scene where they're walking to the room and they're going to have sex for the first time. That's one of the sexiest things I've ever seen in film. It's just to pick that moment instead of like doing the sex scene. She's not, neither of them are terribly attractive people.

But just they both know where they're going and what they're doing. And they're just sort of walking along together, and it's, oh, that's excellent. Nice. Yeah, that's a nice scene. He does awkward well in that movie.

Yeah, he really does. And then there's that unexpected superhero scene. Where he wrecks the car, and he just gets out and picks up a tire iron and beats the living. Crap out of those guys. It's like, yeah, that was a good moment for that.

Yeah, great movies. I'm still distressed that you don't like There Will Be Blood because I can I think we had Showtime or whatever when it was out for free and every time it was on I ended up watching it and didn't turn it off every single time and I the score in it or lack of score sometimes in it is just is fantastic. Is you know Just so different. What about the score in Magnolia? You have this music that keeps telling you that something heavy is going to happen.

Dun, dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun. Frogs fall out of the fucking sky. Come on. Come on.

It's so heavy. I don't know. Did it really take that long to beat that guy's head in? I mean, is that where we were going all that time? There will be blood, but it took long enough.

That was a tough sell for me from the beginning. I still... I mean, I can watch it. It's all watchable. It's all riveting.

Everybody loved it when it was in the theaters. It's not satisfying to me. See, even that last scene, I could completely throw out that whole last scene and still the rest of it, the whole development of... his character, and I don't know. Yeah, I really like, especially the first 25 minutes, I don't think there's a word spoken. And it tells a really good story of him, you know, finding and developing.

Yeah, I just thought it was well done. Oh, yeah. You want me to start? Are you handing it off? Yeah, I'm good.

There's a ton of stuff that I have, but I'm not going to go into it. I do want to mention I did. Watch, on your recommendation, since we talked about Mel Gibson a couple times ago, I watched Apocalypto, which my wife asked me what I thought of it, and my official. Review is Mayans won. Through the woods for a long time and then running through the woods for a long time.

The end. The end. But does it look pretty while they walk through the woods? No, it's done well. It's done well, and.

Yeah. I was looking for those moments, like you said, of Jesus inventing the table. There are a couple of those moments in Apocalypto, but I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone. Oh, go ahead. I know.

I thought... Well, never mind. I don't want to talk about that. A couple of things that you've all talked on the show, I'll go through quickly. Battle Royale and Stakeland, scene of both. um, I think they're both definitely worth watching.

Battle Royale is amazing. Battle, Battle Royale is, is, is you're just happy that somebody did that in a movie. Yeah. It is really what, you know, I would just, yeah, I was thinking about it cause I was watching part of the second one and I was just like, it just doesn't compare. I mean, nothing, I just really was impressed with the first one.

It's, it's amazing. Um, the whole, my favorite part though was the, um, The instructional portion. With the little girl. It's very fun. The one that I didn't want to talk about was a movie that I was going to watch.

I'm going to go back and I'm going to watch a classic movie or I'm going to watch something good. And I was like, no, I don't want to watch that. I don't want to watch that. You're flipping through your queue. And I came across Simon Pegg and David Schwimmer movie called Big Nothing.

I'd never even heard of that. First time I'd seen it. Anybody's heard about this. I know. And I said, okay.

And I looked at one of the reviews and it said, lots of twists and turns, dark comedy. Okay, let's watch it. And that's pretty much what it is. It is a. Heist set up that goes bad from the first second they even start talking about it until the last second of the movie.

And it's, you know, two minutes don't go by where there isn't another complete twist in the plot. And it's just one after the other, after the other. And it's, it's, um, you know, one of those bad timing, wrong situation, kind of like the Charlie Barrett, you, you, you, uh, bank heist and you end up, you wanted to steal a couple thousand and you end up stealing millions. Yeah. That sort of, that sort of plot thing.

Um, David Schwimmer plays your typical David Schwimmer, but not as annoying as he normally is. That's nice. Sometimes he pushes that a little too far. Yeah, and maybe not so, you know, like that OCD, woe is me kind of guy. He's not Ross?

He's not Ross. Yeah, it's a not Ross thing. But still a little bit of it. Still a little bit of it. I don't know if he can not do a little bit of Ross.

Down on his luck, though. And then Simon Pegg, he plays. You know, a grifter, and. Plays almost a white trash asshole, American asshole, and he does a pretty good job. Does a good American accent, huh?

Yeah. I don't know if I've heard him do that. Yeah. Interesting. He was fun to watch.

I've not seen him in something that I hated. He's always entertaining, even in stuff that's not as good as some of the stuff he's... His better work. He's always entertaining. I mean, the real reason to watch this movie is to see their reaction to.

That, fuck, now what? Over and over and over. And it takes a lot of actual acting skill, because it wasn't the script that did it. It takes a lot of acting skill to have that, oh shit, over and over in a movie. So that was fun, especially for something I wasn't, like I said, never heard of, never had anybody.

Mention anything about. Okay, let's just watch it. I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting crap. Yeah.

And it turned out really quite good. And one thing real fast. I watched a movie called The Wild Hunt. It's like your role-playing world where the guys go off and fight the with, you know, the fake swords and all that sort of role playing out in the woods for a weekend or whatever. And it's about a guy who his girlfriend has gone off to do that.

And he goes back to, he goes out to get her and he immerses him, you know, he's trying to get through this world of geeks that are in full character, full costume. And his brother is one of the people that are there. This is a Canadian, a Canadian movie. And it's, um, and he has to then start the role playing even to get to her. I think there's another one coming out or just came out recently.

That's kind of along the same. Yeah. Cause I think Misty sent me a link to a trailer for it. So yeah, it's a lot darker than I thought it would be. Um, there's some comedy in it.

It really kind of pokes fun at a, that, you know, you know, put your plan around. With this stuff. Something really serious is going to happen. Um, And I don't know the production. I don't think they had a ton of money to do the movie, but it doesn't look like it was poorly made.

And for something that most of it is shot at night, you can see the production value is good enough that you can see everything. It's worth a watch, especially after that. Oh, what's the name of the documentary? I even mentioned it before about the guys in Baltimore that play the role-playing world, The Wire. Anyway, after you've seen that and you see that, oh, this can happen and what would happen, it's just kind of a warning to those people.

Get up out of your life. Quit pretending so much and finally... Go out and do something. It was another one that was one of those spur-of-the-moment watches that I think was worthwhile. Interesting.

You said that about David Schlemmer always having that Ross to him. I think that element is almost like a Peanuts character. I don't know which one he would be, maybe Pigpen, but one of them grew up and became that sort of wealth. Belchnertsy, whatever it is that he has going. But it also reminded me of something I'd like to plug.

It's a website called 3Nuts, and it's just Peanuts cartoons with one frame removed. which is the one that makes it a joke. So it's just despair. It's just little kids having moments of despair. That's really what Peanuts was, joke or not. It's genius.

I so wish that I had done this, but my son found it for me, and he's just laughing, and he shows it to Len, and he said, yeah, Mom didn't think it was that funny. And later.... I'm looking at it, and I'm like, oh, this is, and she's like, yeah, Jim showed me that. And I'm like, he said you didn't think it was funny. She said, I don't really see the difference.

Oh, my. Well, I mean, it can be a pretty downer of a show anyway. There are some hard lessons learned in the peanuts. It's just little moments of, sadness and despair yeah there's no joke nothing lightens the mood it's just terrible nice yeah and it reminds me of one i used to say that one wasn't quite as brilliant but it was family circus except it was uh with uh quotes from the philosopher nietzsche And it was just a little family circus, but whoever, whichever kid was saying something, it was a quote from Nietzsche. That's just not right.

What? And family circus? Family circus cartoons, but all the captions are replaced with quotes from the philosopher Nietzsche. That would be fascinating. I'd have to find that.

Or wrong. Evil. Jeffy doesn't have anything important to say. Come on now. I wonder what not me would say.

I don't know, but there's a little line that leads to it, whatever. All right. So does that round out the Geek Week? Eventually, I'm going to cover everyone who was on Friends and give what my take of their essential quality is. Next week, Joey.

Yeah. Oh, that will get deep once you get into Joey. All right. All right, so we'll take a break and be back with this week's interviewer. Jesus said, don't come back.

Jesus said, don't come back. Jesus said, don't come back. Don't come back to my life. In the mood for hot coffee? When you are, nothing else will satisfy.

Coffee has a flavor, an aroma, a deep-down satisfying goodness all its own. And our coffee has something extra, the care with which we brew and serve it. You'll enjoy the show more while you're enjoying steaming hot coffee. Come and get yours now. Along the hot, dusty Arizona road he came, to the edge of the desert, Homer Smith.

The roving ex-G.I. who carried his home on four wheels. God, the scotty has sent me a big, strong man. He didn't say anything to me by sending me any place. I was just passing by. Yeah, you did not pass.

A big, strong man. Just what five lonely women were looking for. Just the man to patch a leaking roof. Just the man to make their prayers and dreams come true. Prepare yourselves for something deliciously, refreshingly different.

With people it's a. Pleasure to be with. Schmidt! See why a big, strong man like this couldn't resist five lonely ladies like these. Lilies of the Field, the story of five wonderful women who waited for a miracle and the man from nowhere who made it come true.

Now stutter and make it quick! Hold on one minute. You just hold on one minute? I mean, I ain't no nun. I'm nobody you can boss around.

See, I get up when I feel like getting up. And if I don't want to work, I don't work. Now, if you just let me see, I'll be gone. Lilies of the field. The sweet smell of laughter is right here.

Tweaked Audio, your source for high-performance, noise-reducing earbuds. Available in three styles and seven colors, durable and designed to sound great for both music and those chatty podcasts, like the one you're listening to now. Tweaked Audio earbuds come with a one-year warranty, and now there's a special deal for Movie Meltdown listeners. Just go to tweakedaudio.com, and when you check out, enter the discount code MELTDOWN. Then you'll get 33% off and free shipping.

Tweaked Audio. Sounds better. Choosing a family movie is tough. It seems like all Hollywood can do is make mindless drivel that rots kids' brains. Who wants to see a movie like.

What my dad watched when he was a kid. Those films are so boring and the special effects are horrible. The movies he grew up with are. Sometimes a big surprise. I at times feel uncomfortable watching movies I loved when I was younger with my own kids because I forgot how much cursing, sex, and violence they showed back then.

All we want to do is watch a fun movie that we all like. That's why we created Family Movie Night, a podcast where we review movies from an adult perspective. And from a kid's perspective. So you can find movies for your whole family to enjoy. We review new movies.

Old childhood favorites. Cult and foreign films. And Godzilla. So check out Family Movie Night on the web at fmnpodcast.com or find us on iTunes. Bye.

We are family. We are family. Hi, this is Louis Gossett Jr. This is Movie Meltdown. One man, one goal.

One mission, one heart. It's part of your problem, you know. You haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles. Are answered in the movies.

And now, on with the show. I think he's going to lie out. Looks like about it's 150 out. I'd use an eight iron. I was going.

To say. That. Here. I don't know what these references. Are you're making.

I don't either. I'm just looking at you guys like, this must be what golf's like. I don't know. It's a real Cinderella story. Nah, I got that one.

Okay, I'll figure it out. That makes sense. Thank you. This is in the hole. That makes sense.

I don't, I don't even understand that. That was a Caddyshack reference. I don't think I've ever seen Caddyshack. Blasphemy. Well, we were doing golf.

And so, to, to, To clarify, we went to Caddyshack. That's the only way to put it in a cup, which would have been... And I wouldn't have remembered anything from that. I've heard that Murray improvised that whole thing. They asked him, can you imitate?

He's, oh, I'm going to head up. Yeah, just let me do it. You can kind of do that with anything. So we were back, and this time, yeah, it was kind of. Even I was surprised I pulled this one off.

This week, I talked to what I would consider to be, at least in the comic circles, if not many, many circles, a legend in the business, Lily Tomlin. It's kind of surprising. She was here during the Louisville Film Arts Institute put together this international film festival, and they brought in a ton of films and had them show on at several different venues. And as sort of the big main kickoff, I think this was the first night that it started, they brought in Lily Tomlin to do a whole, one of her one-woman show kind of performances. And again, never one to miss an opportunity, I decided to try to get a hold of her.

So yeah, somehow along the way, I ended up interviewing Lily Tomlin. So that was pretty awesome in its own right. Then I'd I knew she'd done a lot of stuff, but in looking up her info going into it, listen to this. Her list of awards include a Grammy, two Tonys, six Emmys, an Oscar nomination, two Peabody's, and the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Whoa.

Yeah. Whoa. I was like, okay, I didn't know about a lot of those, actually. Right. So, yeah, she's pretty impressive.

So I thought it was kind of cool that we could work this in, especially with, you know, focusing more on her film work, which she's done some really good film work over the years. So I thought this would be kind of cool. So now we will talk to Lily Tomlin. Okay, we're here with Lily Tomlin. I wanted to, I guess, start from the very beginning.

You were born in Detroit, and... I guess I just try to get a feel for what people were, what kind of kid they were. Were you the kind of kid that liked to go to the movies? Did you like that type of performance? Well, yeah, sure.

We only mostly went on the weekends. Your mother and dad would usually drop you off at the movies or you'd walk up to the corner movie house when you got old enough. But when you were young, I guess we would go with... other kids from our neighborhood, you know, a big gang of us or something. And, of course, it was an opportunity to act up. We'd run up and down the aisles and throw jujubes at people and all that stuff, you know.

But, yes, it certainly was a transporting experience when you really were watching the movies because I remember the first time I ever stayed to watch a double feature again It was for Sitting Pretty with Kristen Webb. My mother and I went to the movies together, and we thought it was so funny. Mr. Belvedere, you know? Yeah.

That we stayed through the second feature, and we stayed through the first feature so we could watch that feature again, however you do it. And the next time I did that in my life, it was for Harold and Maude. Ah, so you can't go wrong with that. No. Was it something that early on you could already tell?

I mean, you were already sort of drawn to it? I mean, even though it would be years before you would get into it, was there something there that early? Well, I guess I put on shows and stuff, so I guess I kind of understood about performance or especially probably comedy or something. I probably was responding to something. Like Mr.

Belvedere was supposed to be very comedic, and. Then, of course, Harold and Maude is very funny in an off-the-wall kind of fabulous way. So all that span of all those decades, and they were in it with several decades, I was... Yes, I think I was always drawn to something really entertaining. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, your sensibility evolves over time, of course, with your age. But even then, I imagine back in that day when I was 9 or 10 or something, sitting pretty was probably considered fairly funny. So that was, I guess, more like college when you actually started to take it seriously and go into performing. Yeah, no, no, it was, because I never thought as a kid putting on shows on the back porch or in the yard... or in the garage, it never occurred to me that you could actually make a living doing it.

Was it something your parents were okay with that idea at that point? Yeah, well, they enjoyed it. I mean, my dad used to, I mean, my family's blue collar, it wasn't like, you know, they weren't expecting me. I wasn't conditioned to become a lawyer or a doctor, even though I was in pre-med at some point. You know, it's just not, it's very working class and you're, everybody's just trying to do the best they can.

And so, yeah, putting on shows, it was just something I did. It was sort of second nature to me. And I would, my dad would take me to the bars and I would sing, you know, when I was just a little girl, two or three years old. And I would, sometimes he would put me up on the bar and I would sing a song. And I even had somebody, I was on NCIS last week and Mark Harmon's wife, Pam Dauber, who's from Detroit, her grandfather, she told, she regaled me with this story because she said her grandfather had worked with my dad and that when I got on Latin, for 30 years he would tell the family that I know that kid.

I knew her. Her dad used to bring her in the bar and she'd stand on the bar and sing. And so I never had anybody outside the family. validate that story before. So it was sort of incredibly amusing and coincidental and everything for it to come around on NCIS. Yeah, years later.

Years and years and years later. What was it, I guess, early on, you studied acting with Charles Nelson Reilly? I did. You know, I actually had one class with Charles, and then I went away. I got this job to go to L.A. to be on Music Scene.

But I was friends with Charles Nelson, and I know he... I was always listed as one of his students, and I would like to have been, because he was a really marvelous teacher. And I had lots of friends who studied with him. He was really considered one of the very best musical comedy teachers. I tried studying with two or three people, and for years, in the beginning, I couldn't do it.

I didn't understand... what it was that they were kind of imparting to us. Later, when I was more experienced and I had already invented my own technique, sort of, then I was able to study. And I worked with a woman named Peggy Fury. She founded the Actor's Studio on the West Coast, but she was an original member of the Actor's Studio. And she played the doctor in all of me. where i played the rich woman she was my doctor my physician who because i was an invalid in all of me yeah yeah and she was attending to me and that's how i met her i started studying with her and her i understood.

You you mentioned your movies there we usually go through a couple of different ones i was going to see if i could mention a few and then see if you had any any stories one of the bigger ones had to hit uh nine to five what was that going into. That like Well, you know, that was, Jane had developed that specifically for the three of us. Yeah. And it was just, it was sort of blessed from the beginning. Yeah.

Although we didn't really know it, but I mean, Dolly's song, everything that came about, I got, I suggested Dabney for the boss. and Elizabeth Wilson for Roz because they were like two of my favorite comic actors. Yeah, Daphne's so good in that. Oh, he's so good. He was on Fernwood in those days, and I just loved him because he was such a sleazy, kind of sexy scoundrel. Yeah.

There was something about him that was sexy and just, oh, he was just a rogue. Anyway, I loved him, and of course, he's a very funny comic actor and a good actor, period. But, so, you know, we just became friends. We stayed friends all those years. I mean, we knew each other before that, but then we kind of became pretty palsy.

And, yeah, you never know. Because when the movie came out, it was like third, an opening week or something, and then it just skyrocketed. Yeah. It really was sort of a key moment for, you know, sort of noting the shift in, you know, the... Business, politics, and women moving in, and definitely, like, it really, it's stuff that had been going on for years, but you really didn't see in the movies very often.

No, no, right. And for it to be a woman-driven, you know, a female-starring vehicle, to be such a big box office, it was great. Definitely, definitely. I mean, that's unusual, too. Still is, unfortunately.

Well, I wanted to. skip ahead a little bit and see how you first got involved in the celluloid closet. Oh, yeah, sure. Well, Vito Russo was a good friend of mine, and in fact, I had bought a new house in L.A. during that time, and I wasn't living in it yet. It was being remodeled and everything, and actually Vito stayed in that house for quite a while during one period, and he was writing on the book, but... I knew him, I had first met him as a journalist.

He was, you know, an interviewer for The Advocate and different other gay publications. And we just became great friends. And so then, after Vito had died, Jeffrey and Rob, you know, Rob Epstein, you know, who produced and directed that movie and many other documentaries. Yeah. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey, with Jeffrey Friedman.

And so they were, you know, I did fundraisers, some of the fundraisers to raise money to make the Cellulary Closet. And then as they progressed, they were pretty far along. And then they really didn't have enough money to finish and distribute and everything. And so we went to HBO and got the rest of the money there. because I had relationships at HBO and also Howard Rosenman was very pivotal. He got all the clips basically for nothing.

And we all went up to HBO and Michael Fuchs and Sheila Nevins, I guess they said, yeah, we'll do it. And they just gave it. We had a whole big script worked out while we were going to pitch it. And we never got to say it. We hardly said two words.

And they said, yeah, we want to do it. and they provided all the finishing money and everything, and then it ran on HBO, and that's how it came about as far as I know. It was really the impetus of Rob and Jeffrey, I mean, because they were really filmmakers, and they were also very close to Vito. Well, is that something, I mean, you've been with Jane for years now. Is that something that you. Ever were faced with early on.

That it potentially could hinder your career somewhere. Along the way? Oh, I'm sure it had its potential, but, I mean, silly, silly things, if you really want to get into all that. I mean, back when we were working, when we were first working on, we had television specials. We had, you know, we did four at CBS and two at ABC, and when we were shooting those specials, because in this, particularly the ones in the 70s, as I recall, we did We did some in the 70s and some in the 80s.

And in the 70s, I mean, people, like well-meaning friends would say to us who were working on the shows, they would say, you know, maybe you and Jane should drive to work in different cars. And I'd say, well, why would we do that? And she said, well, people talk. You know, they're talking. And I said...

Well, they'll just have to talk. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was no more than that. You know, it just, I can imagine people, it was, there's a lot, there have been a lot of leaps made in 40 years. Definitely, yeah.

But it's still an issue now. Oh, it's still an issue, definitely. But not like it was, yeah. No, not like it was. Well, you've done a lot of different mediums.

You've been on stage and TV work and films. Is there still one place that you... feel more at home or you find more rewarding or uh. Probably i probably love this stage more just because it's uh it's it's organic to me and it's uh much more personal and you know and i and i can do it myself anytime i want to yeah I mean, to make a movie is a much larger undertaking, to say the least. Definitely. Well, I mean, unless you're really doing...

I guess if you were doing a great big production musical, you'd have just as much logistics and coordination and staffing and everything else, you know. But working as I do... When I'm able to work as I do... and which I've done since I was a child, really. People would say, when you're touring, when does this tour start? And I'd say, well, it probably started, you know, back in the 40s when I was a kid, and I would put on a show.

It's an ongoing project. Right, right, a working process. Well, I was also going to let you go ahead and tell people what kind of new projects you've got coming out or things to look. For with you. Well, I don't have any movies at the moment.

I did some television this year. I did Web Therapy, which is Lisa Kudrow's show. I played her mother, and that was great fun because it's largely improv. That was on Showtime. And then I just did an NCIS the other night, and I also did a couple of shows.

Do you know the show Eastbound and Down? Oh, yeah, yeah. So I did a couple of shows, but they don't come on for a few months, so I haven't started talking about them. I play Kenny Power's mother. I love Kenny Power.

I love Danny McBride. And then you're still out doing the one-woman show, different tours as it goes on. Oh, yeah. No, I do it whenever I... I usually book 30 or 40 shows a year if I have the time for it.

I just kind of carve out... a little time here and there. And I was able, I mean, I knew Conrad from LA, Conrad Bachman, who's heads up the Louisville festival. Yeah. And, uh, and so Conrad, we were talking, we just talked about the festival and, and he said, he asked if I could, you know, could I do a fundraiser? And I said, sure, I'll come down.

So then I book a couple of days. I say, well, I say to my agent, I'm going to go to Louisville since I'm out, book a couple of dates and I'll go do them after Louisville. Um, it's just like it made when i thought of when i said that was when i first started out went to new york i used to do waitress temping and what you do you get up in the morning you like force yourself out of bed like at six o'clock and you call this temp agency and they'll get you a lunch job as a waitress so that you could you know and then you go and work lunch from like 11 to 2 or something and uh You go back to bed and then get up and go to the burger joint or whatever it was, and you do waitress temping. And you'd pick up $ 10 or $ 12 in tips.

So you'd have cash for that day. This is just a more elaborate version of it. Elaborate, right. Instead of calling Marv, who is the waitress agent, I call up ICM or William Morris, I'd say. Get me a couple of dates around October 5th.

Nice. You're right. My life has changed very little. It all comes full circle. Well, I think that was about most of it.

Oh, well, hey, with your name moving meltdown, don't you want to talk about Huckabees? Oh, yeah. What was that? I guess working with David O. Russell, who's gotten.

Well, I mean, I worked with him on working with Disaster, too. Yeah, yeah. And I hope to work with him again. I mean, I think David's just one of the most talented guys making movies. Yeah.

And so, naturally, you know, we didn't know that a big fuss was going to be made about an old piece of film from four years previously. When it first got on the... When it went on the Internet... But yes, that was... In fact, I hosted the Independent Documentary...

IDA, I think it's called, isn't it? Independent Documentary Association. I hosted that a couple years ago, and I was able to have a lot of fun with all those filmmakers talking about that experience. Because a lot of things happen on a movie set, you know. Yeah, definitely.

And it's really, again, it's like a family. You think it's a family affair, but in this day and age of the Internet, it's not always. As many different actors find out. Yeah. Anyway, I just thought I couldn't pass up movie meltdown and not mention that.

If you want to have some sort of reenactment of it. No, I'm not going to do it, damn it, Brian. You're going to have to pull some audio from the other thing. I didn't even go listen to that. I don't know what you're talking about.

Plenty of people have. But yeah, otherwise I guess we can just, you know, for all your projects, tell people to go to lilytonwin.com and check it out. Yeah, sure. I'm going to have a new website very soon. I mean, my old website will just be an adjunct, you know, part of it, but I haven't started a whole new website, but I don't know when it's going to launch.

But my old website is interesting. I mean, I'd spent, I'd had it for years and years and years and it's full of stuff that's, I really made it for the fans. You know, I didn't make it, I didn't make it for that much promotion or anything. I made it really a lot of, you know, all the stuff that's in it. I don't know if you've ever looked at it or not.

Oh yeah, it's, it's, it's well put together too, yeah. Yeah, no, no, and it's, kind of of uh of that period meant to be with all that you know kind of punky animation and yeah stuff i love it i mean i've always liked it anyway thank you brian all. Right thank you for talking to us. All right thank you to lily and uh thank you to kate who actually kind of got the ball rolling on this she was working with them at the uh the louisville film arts institute so Thank you to them for putting on the event and giving me the opportunity to talk to Lily. So they do that as their annual event, but I think they've got stuff going on all the time.

So for more on them, go to louisvillefilm.net. And again, thank you to Kate, and thank you to Lily for talking to me. Okay, kids, get out your decoder pens. I'm getting out my decoder pen. You're supposed to be making the fanfare while you do it.

I thought somebody else could do that. You can splice that in. You guys suck. South Dakota. It is time for the movie meltdown secret circle reveal of the next exciting feature, which will be exciting because it is our annual, I believe we're up to our third annual Halloween special.

So next time out, I don't know who's going to get there. I don't know who's going to be able to watch it, but I think I'm going to have to bust out trick or treat. Oh, you mean the, okay. Not trick-er-treat. Oh, okay.

We already did that one. We're going to do that again? Trick-or-treat, which is not even massively Halloween-y, but I mean, it's trick-or-treat. How can you not do it? Trick-or-treat is the one with the little vignettes and the little pumpkin kids.

It had some good stuff. It's got some really good stuff in it. Trick-or-treat, on the other hand, is a... A thrilling movie starring Mark Price. That'd be skippy to you.

And he plays a record backwards, and he unleashes a dead demon spirit rock star, and it's got cameos with Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons. Come on. I was going to say, is this that cartoon that was on Nickelodeon about, like. It sounds like Danny Phantom in the My Dad is a Rockstar put together. Well, you'll have to watch it and see.

Maybe it is. Maybe that's where they stole it from. So, yeah, I think in our true ridiculous fashion, we should watch Trick or Treat for this year's Halloween special. I don't think I ever. Realized that the movie with the little Sam guy is called Trick-er.

Trick-er Treat. And that's specifically why. Because there already is a movie called Trick or Treat. It's Trick or Treat, not Trick or Treat. Even though people say trick-or-treat.

Trick-or-treat. But it's trick-or-treat. It's just kind of one of those things that run together. I never noticed that. I just assumed it was trick-or-treat.

I'm really confused. Remember, there's an apostrophe in Halloween. People forget that. It's evening. Between the two E's, there's an apostrophe.

The look on your face is so podcast-like. There it is. I'm not making that up. Oh, Lord. Otherwise, that about does it.

We will return next week. Same geek time, same geek feed. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Thank you. so so.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Fuck you, motherfucker. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.

Get the fucking thing together. Fuck you. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown. Produced and edited by the Oddity Studios. With opening music performed by the Empires.

For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard!