Last Looks: Troll 2
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Seth ain't old and the truth about Jack Frost from the person who wrote it. That's right. All this and more on today's episode of How Did This Get Made? Last looks. Hit the theme. How did this get made? Trash can fires in Jacob's Ladder. Starring out bad, now it's getting badder. Jason's standing up. Down at the locker is where I seen him. How did this get made?

Tall John Shearer and Jason Zook. Bounty monster's about to puke. Should I ask what's its mission? And where the butt stops is another question. Babe, how did this get made? Hello all you trolls posing as goblins. Sheriff Gene Freak, take a seat. Because Sheriff Tall John Shearer is here to welcome you to How Did This Get Made?

Last looks where you, the listener get to voice your issues. And there are many on troll to a movie that discord user rocket Wesker love rocket thinks could have been called. Are you there? Grandpa? It's me, Joshua.

Of all the things that we could have picked as a tagline, that might be my favorite one. Thank you, Rocket, for that alt title. And remember, if you have an alt movie title or tagline, submit it to us on our Discord. We may just read it on the show. And you'll get a genuine laugh from me because that's the first time I'm seeing it. Coming up on today's show, we're going to talk about Troll 2.

Of course, we're going to have a deleted scene from our Troll 2 virtual live show that has nothing to do with Troll 2, but rather another How Did This Get Made classic. I'm talking about Jack Frost. Get ready for the truth about Jack Frost that we never knew existed.

But I'm going to save that for later. Plus, Jason will stop by to chat with me about all the movies and TV and books. And we're watching. And we haven't talked about that in a long time. So get out a pen. Get out a notebook. Because Jason and I are going to lay down some really fun stuff for you. Plus...

I'm going to reveal the movie for next week's episode. Of course you know that. Of course you do. But I'm telling you nonetheless, this is what we call teasing it out. We're teasing out this episode. Also, people, How Did This Get Made? is going to be in Philadelphia at the Miller Theater on November 16th. Tickets are on sale now. Jason, myself, Nicole Byer, Rob Hubel,

and so many more are going to be performing improv for you in Boston, Brooklyn, and DC. Now the Brooklyn shows are sold out, but there are plenty of tickets in DC and Boston. You can get your tickets for us doing improv with dinosaur. If you go to hdtgm.com, these shows are super, super fun. And, um,

I think you're going to have a good time. So come on out. See Jason, myself, Nicole Byer, Rob Hubel, Owen Burke, Chad Carter, and so many more. We bring a big show on the road. It is not financially responsible in any respect, but...

even more reason to come more bang for your buck. I think you're getting like 10 people on stage. Carl Tart's going to be there. Oh my gosh. So many good people, Lisa Gilroy. Oh, I'm remembering them all. Um, also people, my book, joyful recollections of trauma, uh, is out and I am blown away. I just checked out, uh, the download numbers for the audio book. Thank you. Wow. As of last week, we kind of hit a max point more than,

in the last two months. And if you've been listening, if you've been reading, keep on reviewing it. The Goodreads and the Amazon reviews, they actually really, really help. And just keep on spreading the word. So let's get on with the show.

Last week, we talked at length about Troll 2, a movie that many people consider the best, worst movie ever made. It was our first time. For many of you, it was not your first time. And you came at us with some serious corrections and omissions. So let's get into it right now. John Cohen, hit the theme. Corrections and omissions. Corrections and omissions.

All right, we're going right to the phone. Brad from Nashville, what do you got? Hey, Paul. I wanted to mention one thing that y'all didn't talk about. There's a really weird scene where the boys are in the RV and they're watching television and there's like a monkey, a really crappy monkey suit, and

and the monkey grabs a golden egg and then rockets up into the air. Me and some friends who have a bad movie group watched this like 10 years ago and did some research and found online that that is from a movie called Grunt, which is a 1983 Italian film about

by the same production company about a bunch of cavemen who find a golden egg and they run around and push each other and grunt for about an hour and a half and

and then suddenly they all burst out into a full musical number at the very end of the film. So it's like an hour and a half of just shoving and grunting for this one-note joke. Also, you didn't really touch on the soundtrack, and it's a fucking banger, and I just want to suggest working out to the opening theme of Troll 2.

because it's really inspiring and you run faster when you imagine that you're being chased by some trolls. So, thanks.

Thanks. Keep up the good work, guys. And I'll talk to you later. Bye. Okay. First of all, that means that I'm going to have to replace my normal Frank Stallone workout or my P.S. Adora song from the Rock Aliens movie because those are my workout songs now. All right. I got a new one, the Troll 2 opener. And you know what? You said pretend like I'm running from trolls. I

I think I should be pretending that I'm running from goblins to keep it real. But also, holy shit, that movie Grunt from 1983, I looked it up on IMDb and wow, wow. I mean, we would never do it on the show, but I mean, if you think about it, that kind of is the opening of 2001 as well, right? I mean, without the musical part of it.

So maybe this is just like an elevated art movie and you just don't fucking get it because you don't speak Italian, Brad. Well, no, I can't wait. I need to go on a deeper dive of grunt. By the way, it's grunt from 1983. There is also another grunt, which I found out, which is from 1985 called.

called The Wrestling Movie. Grunt! The Wrestling Movie. I mean, two great choices. Grunt is a perfect title. All right, next up, Vicky from Winnipeg, Canada. Hey, Paul. I just wanted to come to your defense. On Troll 2, you were talking about freckles.

kind of this offshoot conversation and you had mentioned broccoli freckles and everyone was thinking, why would you bring that up? Where did that come from? But that actually is a TikTok trend. People will dip a floret of broccoli into bronzers or an eyeshadow and use it as a stamp on

on their face to get a freckled look. Because when you think of a broccoli, a piece of broccoli, it's got the little dots on it. So it makes a freckle pattern. So just wanted to come to your defense on that. Broccoli freckles are a real thing. Love the show. Loved your book. Keep up the good work. Thank you, Vicki.

This is the kind of validation I need. I'm up on the TikTok. I get it. I understand what's going on. Jason and June, they don't get it. June's following hospice workers. Jason doesn't even have social media. I know about the broccoli freckles.

And I appreciate you coming to my defense, Vicki. All right. Next up, Sarah from Bridgeport, Connecticut. I have a PhD in anthropology and I would like to shed some light on the Jessica Sinclair high levels of Neanderthal DNA. She has no need to worry. Humans of European descent have some percentage of Neanderthal DNA that

That suggests that humans and Neanderthals definitely got it on about 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals have since become extinct, but their DNA does still live on in our beloved Jessica St. Clair. Thanks so much. Sarah, look, I'm no genealogist. I've said that a million times in this show. I mean, I practically say it every show, but

I'm going to say you're wrong. I think Jess is straight up cave person. It seems too odd. That's so high, too high, normal levels. Sure. But she has high levels. We have to be watching her because I think Jess might be a cave person in disguise. Look,

That's the way I feel. Anyway, I don't want to go out there and start accusing people of being, you know, cave people. But, you know, if the label fits, wear it. Anyway, let's go to the Discord. Mark G. Oh, he's got a theory here.

A different theory about Jessica Sinclair's DNA. Well, that's what I like to hear. Mark G and I are thinking a little bit out of the box from our friend Sarah. What do you got, Mark G? Okay, well, Mark G says, if Jess has more Neanderthal in her lineage than the average person, does that explain why she's so against trash can fires? Because something deep, deep down in her genes...

is still afraid of fire. Mark G, you hit the nail right on the head.

Wow. Yeah, makes sense. It's all starting to come together. That's why she can't use tools and technology. She is a straight-up cavewoman. DrGuts1003 writes, I am surprised there was no discussion in the episode of the film's ending where the family has returned home, the boy's mother ends up being killed and eaten by goblins, which begs an important question. If the goblins could poison the food at their home and travel to...

their house to eat the mom, why go through the effort to trick the whole family to come to Nilbog in the first place?

Dr. Guts, I've been asking this question from the very beginning, but I have a feeling that this is like a haunted mansion situation. This is like a hitchhiking goblin. Like he definitely like rode under the car like Robert De Niro in Cape Fear and he got back there. I mean, I also think that that end might just be a dream. Am I wrong in thinking that? I think the end might be a dream. It might be.

Probably is. Definitely is. Definitely not. Who knows? All I know is this movie probably just wanted a last scare and they wanted you to feel like the family was safe until the ending. Because I don't think it was about this family. I don't think they wanted this family.

I think they would take any family. They just got this family. So, but now I guess maybe they're feeling like a revenge thing. Is it like Jaws where like the shark is now after the Brody family? I don't know. Pokemon creationist writes, like Paul, I'm not a botanist. So Paul acting incredulous about these trees not having green sap made me curious. I did some research and there is in fact one tree on a South Pacific island that has a bluish green sap tree.

Now, the name here I can't pronounce. It seems like Picandria acuminatae has an abnormally high amount of nickel citrate in its sap, which makes it bleed varying shades of green slash blue.

Bam. Paul, you've been corrected. Hey, hey, hey, Pokemon creationist. You found one tree? Was this movie taking place in the South Pacific? I don't think so. I don't think so. And I would say that no one knew that. And you probably had to do a lot of Google searches to figure that one out. So I am still right. But

slightly wrong. Anyway, Whiskey Street writes, I'm still hung up on Grandpa Seth, not the character or the acting, but his name. I don't attribute Seth for a grandpa name around the time this was made. This came out in 1990. And I will conservatively say that Grandpa Seth is around 75 years old. That would put him at being born in 1915, plus or minus a couple of years, according to the social security name database. Oh, wow. We're going there.

Seth was not even in the top 200 names for the decade of the 1910s, and it only lists the top 200, and I speculate it wouldn't crack the top 300 or 400. The top five male baby names of the 1910s were John, William, James, Robert, and Joseph.

Some classic names also in the top 20 were Walter, Harold, and Albert. Surely any of those names would have made more sense than Seth.

I suspect the writer threw in the name of their son or something as a nod to them. Wow. Whiskey Street going deep. I know Seth did. It also seems like a young name. Not very many old Seths. But maybe Seths get old.

but they appear young. I don't know, but you're right. And I love that you went, you went and researched a movie that clearly has never been researched, but you didn't research the other part of it, which was who wrote it. And do they have anyone in their family named Seth? Because then we would have gotten the full circle answer here. But anyway, yeah,

I digress. For our final submission, let's go back to the phones for a different type of call than usual, but one that we all thought you should hear. This is Gabby from Salt Lake. Hi, Paul. I just wanted to call about Troll 2. Less a correction, more an affirmation, I guess. Yeah.

I love Troll 2. I have watched it so many times. Anytime I get a new friend group, I make them watch it with me. And one year, I got my father to watch it. His family comes from Morgan, Utah, which is where the movie was shot. And so the next time we went up to Morgan, he took us to all the film

filming locations and showed us around. And then from every year after that, whenever we passed the old church where the witch lady was, he'd always point and go, well, there's your movie. And my father died this last year. So I went up

to Morgan for the first time without him. And when I passed the spot that the church used to be,

I just was reminded of a man who didn't really understand his daughter's love for these dumb movies, but still connected with her. And I thought of all the friends that I've made watching that movie. And so I just want to say these dumb movies can really bring people together and like to ask people to share the things and the places you love and

With the people you love so that when they're no longer here, you can still have that connection. Anyways, thank you so much for the show. Love it. Keep up the good work. Thanks. Gabby, thank you for that call. That was truly so emotional and you got me and

I just appreciate that. I appreciate that. And you're right. You are so right. Share the things that you love with the people that you love. And you got me. I can't I can't say more than, you know, as a matter of fact, how can you top that? I mean, that has to be our best correction and omission, even though it's neither. It's just really like a clarion call to all of us.

to hold our loved ones a little closer, to say I love you a little bit more, and to share Troll 2 with the ones that mean the most to you. Anyway, Gabby, you win this week's corrections and omissions. And here is a song from Brendan Abella. Usually in this kind of scenario People want something But this time you with nothing

Thank you, Brandon Abella, for that song. And remember, if you want to submit a theme song to us, you can. You can email your theme at howdidthisgetmade at earwolf.com. We're accepting corrections and omissions, just chat and winner theme songs only. Please keep them short. You know the drill. 15 to 20 seconds is best. And if you want to chime in on the latest episode of How Did This Get Made, we'll head on over to our Discord and

at discord.gg slash HDTGM or call us at 619-P-A-U-L-A-S-K. All right, coming up after the break, Jason's going to stop by for a Just Chat. We'll announce next week's movie. But before all that, here is a bonus deleted scene from our Troll 2 virtual live show. Now, we had a very special guest, Whitney Holzman, who created the TV show My So-Called Life and wrote Wicked.

She made a very generous donation to our fundraiser. So we let her come on at the end of the show to share an exclusive story about the How Did This Get Made classic holiday film, Jack Frost. This is a good one. Take a listen. I hope it's okay to tell a Jack Frost story on such a troll night. It is. It is. It's okay. Because we finished the troll, so now we can get into a little Jack Frost. Okay. It's human interest. It's not a funny story. But what it is is that I was sent...

a script called Frosty by my agency. And they said, you know, Sam Raimi is attached and would you like to do a page one rewrite? And, you know, I'm a big fan of Sam Raimi. Sure. So I met with Sam. We hit it off like that. We clicked.

And we kind of talked out what we thought we could do. And I can't remember, you know, Paul, all the details of what we did because this is so long ago. But we...

we we were working in a way that made this into a really and you know one thing i think i can say about myself and i i don't like to brag but i think i know how to do something that's heartfelt you know amazing i mean yes my so-called life wicked you you you've proven you can say that about yourself yes you know and that and that is elicits genuine human emotion you know yes and we're

Working with Sam was incredible. He's got this amazing, you know, obviously visual brilliance. And he was teaching, you know, I felt I was learning from working with him. Anyway, so we...

We end up with this script that we're looking at each other like, wow, this is really good. Right. I did say one thing. I never said anything to the execs at Warners, but the one thing I said to them, the one thing is I said, you know, you're calling it frosty. What age of person do you want to come to this movie? Right, yeah. And they were like, and I said, well, you know what?

if you want it to be like a family film that everyone will enjoy, why don't you call it Jack Frost? Because it sounds a little more mature. I love it. And so they never really said yes or no. But then what happened is Sam and I are like, we nailed it. We hand it in and they fire us both immediately. Wow. They fire

It is funny. I'm so glad to see Jason laughing. It actually is pretty funny. Oh, it's perfect. We're busy with other things. It's not like we were devastated. Right. But we did kind of look at each other like, what are they going to now go do? And they threw out everything.

Everything we did. Oh my God. That could have been a legend. It would have been a huge movie. Did you ever see the movie? No, I never watched the movie. And you know why? Because life is too short. Yeah.

Yes. I agree. I agree. Winnie, you are. Winnie, but for 15 years we've been watching movies of that caliber constantly and our lives are impaired. You know what? Now I'll probably watch it. So, Winnie, you don't think you wrote the line, from Jack Frost, Snow Dad is better than No Dad? No, I don't think I wrote that. Oh, you won't claim ownership of that line? That gem? I cannot. Okay. I cannot. Okay.

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All right, people, welcome back to the show. I know that you know that every Monday is that name Monday where we release an old episode back into the feed. This week, we are talking garbage pail kids with John Lovett. You know him from Love It or Leave It or Pod Saves America. I was just on Love It or Leave It. Listen to that episode. It was a blast.

And next week's matinee will be the 2002 Dana Carvey comedy classic, The Master of Disguise, which has the unique distinction of shooting one of the most insane scenes in film. I'm talking about the Turtle Club scene on 9th.

9-11, 2001. And I think the crew took a break and then said, hey, we got a job to do. Let's finish the Turtle Club scene. But that's just one little fact about a very bizarre movie called The Master of Disguise, which I highly recommend you watch. All right. Without any further ado, it is now time for a Just Chat with me and Jason. Chris Finke, play us in. If your bookshelf's getting dirty, you better dust that.

All right, Jason, what is going on? Let's go. I love it. Yeah. Uh,

What's happening, Paul? We talked a little bit last time just about what you were into. And I feel like we went off on tangents. I want to go back because I always feel like you give me some of the best stuff. So what do you got? What do you got? More stuff. Let's talk about stuff. We talked a little bit about some Star Wars animation and stuff last time. But just in terms of animation, there's a couple of great things that I've been watching that I really would love to shout out. One of which is the French animated movie Mars Express.

that came out last year that's kind of like a Blade Runner-esque dystopian sci-fi future story that is fantastic. Beautiful, looks like Mobius art in service of a French sci-fi drama. Great movie. I can't recommend it enough. Another anime that is based on a graphic novel that I read called Blue Giant. This is...

I'm going to say maybe the best, my favorite movie that I've seen this year. Um, that being said, it came out last year, but I've only just seen it. It's only just become available. It's called blue giant. Um,

I think it's on Netflix now. And it is the best. I'm trying to think of how to say. I found watching this movie like moving. Like I got chills throughout and was like crying at multiple times. Wow. It's the closest. It's the closest I've ever seen to something capturing what it feels like to me to perform.

If that makes sense. Now, no, I know the movie is about jazz musicians. So, you know, it's not a one to one based on what we do. But but jazz is all about improvisation is all about going up with a group, an ensemble of people and doing something that is unstructured, putting something together that is in the moment.

And the movie just goes so deep into the playing of music and what it is to be listening and reacting and getting better and getting better as a group. And it is, I found it to be incredible. It's just dynamite. And the music is great. I'm also a jazz fan, so the music is very affecting. But it really is just what it is to be a performer and how each of the three members of the trio perform.

are perfect archetypes of how to be a musician or how to be a creative person and how to find your creative voice and how to build off of it, how to become who you are, how to find your voice and how to become the best version of that voice, how to learn. It really is incredible. That's amazing. Now, I was also thinking about that when you're talking about it, like that reminds me a little bit of the Beatles documentary, like that kind of in the process, like really getting into that thing.

Yes. And I love that documentary for the exact same reason. It is process, you know, and the Beatles documentary, you're watching process and it's very exciting. Blue Giant, you're watching process, but it's a it's a it's obviously it's a it's a it's animated. And so the music, all of it has this visual style and story.

scope and scale that is also beautiful and takes you on this ride. And, and I mean, it's the kind of movie that I cannot recommend enough, especially if you want to have a little bit of a gummy or something like that, right? Because it's a lot of it is music and the power of music and the power of working together and how that, how that can be both electrifying for the performer and the audience. And boy, I just,

I can't recommend it enough. Blue Giant. It's on Netflix. Love that. All right. Maybe you'll get June to watch that. I mean, you know, it's like the big try. I think the I think the barrier to entry on this one is your interest or your patience for jazz. Okay.

If that makes sense. No, you know, it's like, it's so interesting. I always say like process is always interesting no matter what, but I, but you know, with, but with June, my big win recently was getting her to watch the Adam Sandler special, which I don't know if you watched that. Did you watch that? I haven't watched it yet. I haven't watched it yet. It's a complete deconstruction of,

what it's like to do a live show that I found to be really, I mean, his standup set is great. We saw him kind of rehearsing some stuff at Largo before he did this. I saw it live. He did two and a half hours. The special is only an hour, but, uh, Josh Safdie, I believe. Yeah. Josh, right. Uh, directed it. And they put this stuff around the show that, uh,

I think captures

Two things interesting doing a show in a black box theater, doing a show like Largo or UCB on some level. Cause that's how small it is. And also what it's like to be Adam Sandler. So you have like these two elements that are running, but I thought that this idea, like there are moments in the show where things are going wrong, like AV equipment's not working, uh, like a piano breaks and the show keeps on going. And there was something about that. It's like, I've never seen anyone, uh,

do this it's a it's not like and and this is the thing that i found so interesting and i think that we can relate to on some level the show has to keep going and the show acknowledges and so you're like what's real what's not real but the show is like it's it's the show never derails and goes now it's all going to be about this and we go off it's like no no that hour of stand-up is

High-level, A-plus, great stand-up. But on top of it, dealing with... All this other stuff. Yes. Oh, I love that. And that is really... I've never seen anyone tackle... I thought that was so cool. Ooh, that's cool. I watched and really loved Conor O'Malley's special Stand-Up Solutions, which is...

Top to bottom, absolutely bananas and so, so funny. Just like relentlessly funny and absurd and exhausting to watch. Like I'm watching him. I don't understand how he can do that. It's it's such a physical endurance test. He's going so hard for so long. It's very funny.

I mean, he made that video, the mask video, which is like a 24 minute thing about a guy who goes crazy in LA. I mean, these are, he creates this personality of the most unhinged person that exists.

Oh, yeah. And everyone all about AI writing his stand up, writing a stand up. It's so fucking crazy. Oh, my God. It's a I mean, to even get into it is nuts, but it's absolutely worth watching. It's fantastic. It's super funny. It's called Stand Up Solutions. And he is somebody that when I watch his stuff, I I understand. I understand very much.

I understand that he's in on it, but when you watch it, you also don't know who is in on it around him. Like there are certain things there's like, and that's, and I, when I'm have a hard time figuring it out, I think that that's actually, uh, uh, you know, not to say that I'm the best, but I'm like, but like we're in the business, we understand like, okay,

Oh, no, it's exciting to watch. It's exciting to watch because it's like, I feel like there's, you know, Connor is one of those guys. I feel like Joe Pera is like this where I'm like so captivated by what they're doing. And I genuinely am also like, oh, I'm not sure I'm in on the on the big year. Like, I'm also coming at this as a true outsider. And that's a blast.

So, yeah. And I know they work together a lot and, you know, they're part of that whole New York scene. And it's, it's, I, Joe Perez special from this year that came out on YouTube, which you can get also fantastic. Um, and we're, I love that. Yeah. So good. Uh, what else? Oh, I wanted to, I wanted to mention, uh, wait, what were we just talking about? Uh, the jazz documentary and then going. Oh yeah, that's right. I was going to, if you're into, if like, if you're into my music recs, then,

Then I will also shout out on Criterion Collection, there's a documentary called Trances that I think I've mentioned before, but I just rewatched it again. And it's so good. It's a documentary about the Moroccan band Nasser El-Gaywan, who I love and I'm obsessed with. And it's an incredible documentary. And then there's another documentary I have now. Get ready, everybody. Huge announcement. I have joined MUBI.

Great news, Paul. I now have a Crunchyroll subscription, a BET Plus subscription so that I can watch Diara from Detroit, and I now have a Mubi subscription. And I watched this incredible movie, incredible documentary on Mubi that is called Crossing the Bridge, The Sounds of Istanbul.

Fantastic. It's from the early 2000s documentary about music in Istanbul, Turkey, and it is fantastic. I absolutely flipped out over it. Lost my mind. I'm going to come back to this and say that Seth Rogen recently reached out to me and gave me a subscription service that I should join, which is called Fossum.

Uh, F a F a W E like awesome. But with an F, uh, awesome. And he's like, dude, every types of the movies that you do on how this get made, this is where they live. And I'm like, all right. And, uh, okay. I'm excited to check out Fawesome. And I'll tell you this, uh, not as exciting as movie. I canceled, I cut the cord and I'm all on YouTube TV now. And it's changed everything.

It's so much better. And I'm angry that like as somebody who adopts shit early on, that is like, why was I waiting for this? Like, what was the interesting? I'm paying $149 a month for a direct TV. Yes. I've still got direct TV. I've still got a TiVo full of classic movies. No, I mean this, this, by the way, if you said like, oh, I want to watch,

Uh, you know, Hugo weaving, you put that into it. We'll take every Hugo weaving thing and it doesn't take up the space. That's cool. Okay. Then I like that. Cause here's what I'm, here's my problem. And it's, isn't a problem. And this is also one of my, one of the things I want to talk about, which is I'm having such trouble.

Um, decide with the, the, the complete reversal of how we grew up watching TV versus how we do TV now, which is, yes, there's only when I was a teenager, you turn on the TV, you could only go four or whatever, 10 places. And you had to watch what was on one of those things. And.

And now I have to decide ahead of time what to watch. And then I'm making bad choices. I loved being able to stumble on stuff or find a thing or blah, blah, blah, which is why I really like having cable to, I still flip, I still flip around and find this or that. I watched 20 minutes of this or 20 minutes of that. And I, I love that, that sense of discovery. I like getting turned on to new things. Um, and that's one of the reasons I've kept it, but somebody that's

Doing this is have you checked out Criterion 24-7?

Yes, I heard about this. On Criterion Channel, you can now just click a button and it just starts playing a movie that's in the middle. Who knows where it is? They don't tell you what it is. It's just you're watching a movie. And I watched a movie the other day called Dragon Inn, a fantastic martial arts movie I'd never heard of, just because I hit that button and boom, it was on. I watched 40 minutes until the end and it was fantastic. Absolutely incredible. I loved it.

See, I like this. This is like, I have been really enjoying this.

I'm trying to find that level of making choices and trying to find like that aliens expanded. That's why I think like these other services, you see something and you maybe just go down a rabbit hole for a second. Like, I don't want to know what I'm going to watch. I stumbled on long legs the other day and I was like, Ooh, all right. I've heard about long legs, but let me, I haven't seen it. Yeah. You know, and I'm enjoying it. I have the middle of it, but, uh, but I'm enjoying it. I like that. You know, I think, I think it's like, it's, you want to try to find these, uh,

I think discovery is important. I think it's really important. And I will say, you know, one of the things that was so much fun is my wife, June, you know, she. I've met her once or twice. Yeah, you've seen her. She truly has that ability. Like we went to go see and hopefully we will do it on the show. Trap, the M night movie in the theater and knew nothing about it.

At all, like to the extent of, and when she, when the, when the, you know, I think it's pretty well known that trap is about a, uh, a serial killer who is entrapped in a stadium. Uh, you know, and, uh, when, when it was revealed that he was like a killer or something. Wow. June's reaction was loud. And I, she's like, what?

And I'm like, and that's what I sometimes aspire to be. I don't want to. I don't want to know. I want to be able to be like, wait a second. This is not a movie about like Taylor Swift. This is a Taylor. This is a movie about like Josh Hartnett. Yeah, like way. I love that. And it's so pleasing to watch things through her.

I love that. That's great. I love it. That's fun to have that kind of, to have surprise, especially for a movie that has surprises. That's great. Yes. To not, to not know. Um, I love that.

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To continue a little bit of my music kick, I've mentioned him before on the show, Tumani Diabate, the Malian Chora player, passed away this year, just recently, as of this recording. And...

a huge loss and somebody that I, I cannot recommend that everybody please find either. He has so many albums, uh, that are out there that are so beautiful. Um, a true like master virtuoso musician on a, on an instrument that is absolutely incredible. The Cora, a, a, um, like, you know, somebody who is participating in, you know, uh,

perpetuating the history of this music for so long, passing it down to his sons who now continue to play. R.I.P. to Manny Diabate, truly incredible, incredible guy.

Oh, I love it. And yeah, his death has sent me on like a big re-listen to a lot of his stuff and it's just incredible. The new Bill McKay album is fantastic. I don't even know. I did an episode of All Songs Considered talking about music and got a very nice shout out from the band Dancer who I mentioned on that podcast. So I'm going to shout them out again. Fantastic album. Great band.

Did you have anything that you wanted to, were you just looking like you wanted to say something? No, I was listening to you and thinking about different things I've been into. And I just, I realized I did this podcast that was really fun. And I'm trying, I was looking for the name of it, where you break down one aspect

album. Uh, yeah, great. Oh, that reminds me of what I wanted to say. Yes. Thank you. Go ahead. Yeah. And we went and my, my episode is all about the strokes. Uh, I'm going to find out the name of the, uh, the podcast. Uh, but so it was the one that I wanted to mention is called life of the record. And every, every episode is a different album from an artist, um, completely D document, like a documentary with the artist.

So the way that Song Exploder, Rishikesh Heroay's show will dig into a song, this is applied to an entire album and with the artists. And so recently they've done the first Sunny Day Real Estate record, which is an all-time favorite for me. One of the early Deerhoof records, incredible. They do all sorts of, they did a Microphones record. They've done Built to Spill records. It's a great docu-series about albums. Really good.

I love that. I don't want to check that out. And I'll say that this guy's podcast is called the 500. It's Josh Adam Myers, who has done he does this thing called the comedy jam. Really? Comedians sing. But what I love about it is it's the what is the Rolling Stones top song.

uh, 500 albums of all time. Right. So we goes through, Oh God. So it's kind of a little bit like you originally unspooled was the AFI. Yes. So this is like Bill Burr talking about a highway to hell. Me talking about the strokes, uh, James Adomian talking about, uh, the best of little Walter, Adam Pally doing REMs murmur, you know? So it's, it's a lot of like fun people breaking down. And I hadn't listened to like the strokes was,

really influential to me in a weird way, because I think for the same way with you, it also captured a time that we were in New York and what the strokes were doing and what we were doing. And that's kind of like meet me in the bathroom. So it, like, it was really fun to kind of go and look at that and see what that just go back to that album, which I haven't listened to in a long time, but this, this show has been going on for years and it's like all your favorite comedians, you know, Eddie Pepitone talking about the who, uh,

Uh, Jim Norton, Jim Norton about black Sabbath. Uh, you know, it's a really, yeah, really, really fun people. Yeah. Really, really fun. Um, that's cool. I like that. Fred Armisen and craft work.

Oh, that's a good combination. I'll shout out a couple of other podcasts that I've been listening to and loving. The new season of the TCM podcast, The Plot Thickens, that's all about John Ford. The John Ford season is, I think, terrific. Really great. And then Ben Mankiewicz has a new show called Talking Pictures. I'm going to be on that. What? Yeah.

Oh, that's so great. Yes, very excited about that. Oh, when? Do you know? Well, you know what? I'm taping it next week, so that's all I know. Oh, okay. Oh, great. So soon-ish. Soon-ish, yeah. Oh, cool. Oh, I love it. It's a great show. It's a great show. I can't wait to hear yours. But he talks to people, and, you know, there's a great...

there's a great, uh, so we were talking about Soderbergh last time. There's a great Soderbergh episode. There's a great, um, they, he just talks to, to filmmakers and the, you know, actors and people who, you know, have film knowledge and want to talk about it. Uh, and it's terrific. I think that show is a blast to listen to. Uh, and then the show that I have absolutely loved and has sent me on so many hilarious, I will say YouTube, uh, wormholes is, um, the, uh,

I can't remember what they're calling it, but the podcast that's Seth Meyers and the Lonely Island guys talking about the digital shorts. Yes. Yeah. I love that one. So it's ostensibly a show that's about, you know, each episode is about the next digital short. They're going chronologically for all the digital shorts. But what I love about the show is they have the rundown of that episode of SNL. So not only do they talk about that

digital short, they talk about all the sketches in that episode and what sketches got cut between dress and air and how, what they remember about this musical guest or that. So it ends up being a ton of storytelling and behind the scenes process SNL stuff that

which is a blast. And then they will also, it's also wonderful to hear them talk so lovingly about, especially Will Forte sketches. And it's usually Will Forte sketches, just they all clearly get such a kick out of Forte. And so that has just led me to not just, them talking about sketches they love, I've just been going and finding and watching those sketches, which is a blast. Oh, that's great.

So that I recommend. I listened to a handful of them and I always will go back and listen. That's good to go back and dig in a little bit more because I listened to the beginning. It's a fun one.

I've been listening to this podcast, but I just want to shout out, which I think is really good. It's a group called like, sorry, the show called The Focus Group. Have you heard about this? Nope. Don't know it. All right. So it really is. It's somebody from Sarah Longwell from The Bulwark. Okay. She basically conducts like hundreds of hours of focus groups all across the country and talks about what they think

About things, you know, so it is like, um, it's, it's a very interesting, it's just fascinating to hear what people like, you know, like I think it's right now around politics. It's really fascinating because it really is about.

hearing it's, it's, it's, it's no spin. It's a, it's a focus group. What are, what are people saying? What are they like? What do they pull away from? What are they, what are they taking from this? And it's, and I feel like, you know, we often put that on TV very quickly, but this is a much more deeper dive in it. And if you're interested right now, obviously in politics and things like that, it's a fun, interesting podcast. It goes in a different direction than just like punditry. Yeah. That sounds very interesting. Um,

I am also watching a lot of like YouTube stuff. And one of my longtime favorite, like video essayists, um, has returned. Uh, every frame of painting is making new content. They are.

They are. They have one video, I think one, maybe two videos up as of this recording. I'm not sure. I for sure have seen one of them. And it's about the static two shot, which I think is a terrific thing to dig into. But Every Frame a Painting, like inarguably one of the great film essay, YouTube film essay, essays.

you know, essayists, I guess, uh, going. And so this is content that I think everything, the, the, what are the one about the eyes, how David Fincher's camera follows actors eyes is what is the, is the thesis of, of the video. It's great. Um, the videos are incredible. The, the, the, the, in the past and the new ones I'm so excited about every frame of painting. I can't recommend that enough. Um,

Offbeat. There's a channel on YouTube called Offbeat, and it's a guy that does music, like short form music documentaries that'll be about

A lot of times they're about drummers, to be honest. So it'll be about Tony Williams or, you know, it'll be a deep dive into a drummer, whether it's like a jazz drummer or a rock drummer or somebody really, really good, informative stuff. Somebody that I think is so fucking funny in the most bite-sized bits is this guy whose name I don't know, but the channel is called Man Carrying Things.

Um, they are like two minute videos that are so fucking funny and so sharp and so smart. And then every once in a while, I think his main gig is he's like a book.

He talks about books. He's like a big. So it'll be like these. It'll be a whole of these like one and a half minute, two minute, like like searing, scathing send ups of Internet culture. And then it will be a 15 minute video just about his favorite detective novels, which will which will also be called again.

It's called man carrying things. Okay. Got it. It is the majority. I believe. And I forgive me, man carrying things. If I'm misrepresenting this, I believe he was a book, a book person.

And then started making these shorter sketches. And I think the sketches took off. So now the channel appears to be more sketches than books. Okay. So it is, I think it is called man carrying thing singular. Oh, sorry. Thing. Uh, by the way, you know, I love these deep dives and, and, um, one of the things that, uh, I,

I got obsessed with, and I can't remember the exact episode, but last podcast on the left, that podcast, very good podcast, horror podcast. They do a really big deep dive into what is sci-fi horror and what is regular horror. They kind of parse where horror is and what we're doing more and less of in supernatural horror or sci-fi horror. And they really try to break down this delineation of horror

Like clarifying a definition of horror. I thought that was really cool. Oh, that's neat. Oh, I like that. And I like those guys. I haven't checked. I used to listen to that show and I haven't checked it out in a while. So that's a good reason to go back. Yeah. They have a, yeah, it's a really kind of a fun way of just deconstructing this stuff. Oh, can I just shout out one more thing? Yeah.

And then I'll shout out because we haven't talked about books or comics or anything like that. I'll shout out Cocaine and Rhinestones. The wonderful podcast that I've shouted out many times before has put out a book that's fantastic that I just got. And then I also really enjoyed the graphic novel. It's Lonely at the Center of the Earth from Zoe Thorogood.

I also just read and was terrific. I also want to pop in. I've been reading a bunch of books lately. I've been loving... I actually... I'm on Storygraph, which I really like. You know me, and I like my... Don't know what that is. All right, so I like these apps. I love Letterboxd, and I love Storygraph because it's just a way to keep track of what I've been reading and what I've been watching. And they both are just, you know...

They are social media in the sense that people can follow you. I'm, I'm anonymous on a story graph, but I don't want to be anonymous on a letterbox because I follow my friends and, uh, but,

But StoryGraph, I can just see, oh, these are the books I've been reading, and this is what I like, and this is my... It just keeps a track in it. Actually, it's nice for me to look back and see what I've read. Anyway... Yeah, what are the books? Well, the one that I just finished just this past weekend, which was great, was The Running Man. The original Stephen King Running Man. I always thought it was a short story. It's not. It's a full book. And man, oh man, I...

Man O' Running, man. Man O' Running. I enjoyed the hell out of it. It's such a different book than...

uh than the movie i thought it was so good and i also read um the making of airplane book the surely you can't be serious i actually listened to it uh surely you can't be serious the true story of airplane where it's just basically an oral history of uh of the making of of airplane and that was really uh fun oh that that's that must be fun i like that that's a good one but i've been reading a lot more and it's uh but yeah they've been but that one really was a

Uh, the running man just surprised me. I was like, Oh, I want to pick this up. I, you know, I heard about it and, uh, that's cool. I like that idea of law. Cause I log everything anyway. Yeah. But I, they, the idea of having it be interactive or something like that. Letterboxd is so interesting to me. I just wish it was not social media. I wish I could just, you know, look, so the idea is like on letterboxd,

Like, famous directors are on there. Like, Mara O'Reilly is on there, but you don't know who she is. Right? She can follow whoever she wants. I don't mind people seeing it, and I don't try to give serious reviews as much as I just kind of, like, log and watch other people's stuff. There is no...

You could be anonymously on Letterboxd and just follow the people that you like, you know. Will then people understand just how many times I'm watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? I mean, look, but if you put your name to it, then they would. But if you don't put your name to it,

then it's fine. And I think that's the reason why I like it because it's like, there's no, like, I don't go like, oh, I saw your thing on Letterboxd. What I really will say is like, oh shit, my friend Ben David just watched this movie called Moontide. What's that? And I'll click on Moontide. Oh, that I like. And I'm like, oh, and this is like, we're talking about stumbling into stuff. So that's why I like Letterboxd. It's like everybody that I follow, I'm watching what they're watching. And like some weekends I might see everyone's watching Letterboxd

Or everyone's watching Harry and the Hendersons. And I'm like, ooh, maybe I should go back. It kind of feels like an event. It feels like you're participating in a cultural event. Well, here's a perfect example. I just opened it up right now. And it was like, oh, my friend watched and gave four stars to Hombre, which is a Paul Newman movie I've never heard of from 1967. And it's like, Hombre means man. Paul Newman is Hombre. Yeah.

And I'm like, well, I would never have found hombre. Right. And, oh, and you know, to that, to that point, the movie that I just found out about on this, um, which I believe is on Plex that you and I share Plex, uh, uh, is this movie. It's called cold Turkey. It came out in 1971. Okay. It's directed by Norman Lear and it's the only movie written by Norman Lear. Um,

Um, and it stars Dick Van Dyke, Tom Poston, uh, Bob and Ray, Bob Newhart. And the premise is it's, um, it is basically, it's, uh, it's a fictional town. And, uh, this company, this tobacco company stages of publicity stunt offering $25 million to any American town whose entire population can stop smoking cigarettes for a month.

And it's all about this depressed town of Eagle Rock, Iowa, who takes the challenge but then struggles to overcome its addiction to smoking. And it's like, whoa, I didn't even know that Norman Lear had a movie. And Bob and Ray, who I love. And there's a bunch of really fun people in it. So I have not watched it yet, but I wouldn't have found it

Unless it was. That's cool. You're right about that. That is as a methodology for discovery. I totally get why Letterboxd is good. That's maybe. Okay. Maybe I'll check it out. And by the way, just go, just go, just download it, go anonymous and it doesn't make any. And I'll tell you this much. If you like that, Randy Newman does all the music to it. Original music of that.

Oh, that's so funny. Oh, that's great. I love it. So there you go. Home run. All right. Great stuff. That was great. Great wrecks. Fun stuff. All right. Well, we'll talk soon. Thank you, Jason. And now it's time to announce our next movie. We're going to go from green trees to ETs. That's right. Coming up in our next episode, we will be watching the 1989 sci-fi horror film,

Starring Christopher Walken. Now, you might recognize this movie because this is a movie that I talk about in my book because I never saw the film, but I was on set for it being filmed. So this is a perfect moment to tie it all together. Anyway, a breakdown of the plot of Communion is simple. A novelist's wife and son see him changed by an apparent encounter with aliens in

Now, I will also say this is based on a true story. Yes, this movie is wild. I highly recommend you watch it, even though Rotten Tomatoes gives this film a 43% score on the Tomatometer. And Eddie Harrison from FilmAuthority.com writes, seeing Christopher Walken deep probed by aliens has a real curiosity value for gawkers and thrill seekers, but communion's intermittent sense of quasi-religious conviction is unusual for a film.

to say the least. Wow. You said so much there, Eddie. And I have to kind of agree and disagree with you because yes, and yes, but also no. What am I saying? I'm just saying that you're right, but I'm also fully engaged in this movie. All right. Take a listen to the trailer for Communion. It wasn't a dream. There's a group that meets.

Group? People who've seen the same sort of things you have. Which group of aliens abducted you? Bob, we are not victims. We are participants. I don't recall them being human. I've got to go! I'm screaming! You people, you sit there. You're in for one big surprise.

Communion is available to stream on Amazon Prime, Peacock, Freebie, Tubi, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Hoopla. In addition to Hoopla, Canopy and Libby are two more great digital media services offered by your local public library that allow you to consume movies, TV, music, audiobooks, e-books, and comics for free. Get on it, people, and start enjoying these films for free.

Don't let it mess up your algorithm on your streaming services. And I love to see when Letterboxd takes one of these movies. I'm going to see everybody on Letterboxd now watching Communion and nothing makes me more happy. Anyway, that is it for Last Looks. If you listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please rate and review us. Please also make sure you are following us and have automatic downloads turned on. It helps the show and we appreciate that. So again, I'm going to say it one more time. If you are following us and have automatic

Automatic downloads turned on. That helps us. Anyway, visit us all on social media at HDTGM. And I want to shout out the Action Jackson 5 for making our opening theme song. What a great one. I love it so much. And a big thank you to our producers, Scott Sonney and Molly Reynolds, and our movie-picking producer, Avril Halle, our associate producer, Jess Cisneros, and our engineer, Casey Holford. We will see you next week for Communion. I'm just gonna be here, Lord.

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