Moonrise Kingdom (w/ Thomas Pears)

Eli Price (00:38.128)
Hello everyone and welcome to The Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies. We are on episode 8 today, our 8th ever episode, and the 7th movie in Wes Anderson's filmography, who we've been going through movie by movie. So yeah, we're going to be talking about Moonrise Kingdom today. Really excited about it. And I'm excited about...

Our guest today, Thomas Pears, spelled pairs, but not pronounced pairs. Don't you have like a really bad joke about your last name?

Thomas Pears IV (01:16.078)
Correct.

Thomas Pears IV (01:21.274)
Uh, no, it's just, uh, no, it's just whenever you call and you're making reservations for like dinner or something, you have to say like, it's like peers, but like Sears with a P or ears with a P in front of it.

Eli Price (01:21.948)
I feel like you did when I first met you.

Eli Price (01:29.05)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:38.118)
Yeah, yeah, I guess I've never thought about that before. Yeah, never thought about that before, but like, yeah, it is weird that you say pairs, but then you don't say heirs or sayers.

Thomas Pears IV (01:39.886)
It's nothing too special. Right.

Thomas Pears IV (01:53.506)
hairs. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:53.724)
That's weird. Yeah. Yeah, Sayers department store.

Thomas Pears IV (01:58.651)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:01.036)
But uh, but yeah Thomas is here in Lafayette with me one of my friends here and Yeah met Thomas a few years ago and he's kind of in a little group of Movie buffs if you will with me and some others. So yeah Thomas tell us a little bit about yourself Who you are what you do?

Thomas Pears IV (02:22.135)
Absolutely.

Thomas Pears IV (02:28.734)
Yeah, my name is Thomas Piers, like Sears with a P. I work in marketing and I've been doing that for about a year now. But you wanted me to dive into what now? Me being a movie buff, is that right?

Eli Price (02:49.572)
Yeah, yeah, how'd you get into movies? Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:55.474)
Okay, well, it all began around the time I watched Star Wars for the first time. No, I'm kidding. But I mean, a little bit. So, uh, when I was a kid, uh, I didn't really feel like I fit in that much with everybody and I didn't really know how to connect well, uh, but the one thing that I really did love was watching movies with my dad. That was like the one thing that we really bonded over quite a bit.

Eli Price (03:04.412)
Ha ha ha.

Thomas Pears IV (03:24.906)
And it did start with Star Wars. I do remember going to the theater for Attack of the Clones and then dressing up as Anakin Skywalker for Revenge of the Sith. I know, right? I was freaking awesome. But we also went and saw like Lord of the Rings. And it was just fun getting to go to the movies with my dad. And then...

it turned into actually watching some classics like, or like older films. Like one we would watch very regularly was It's a Wonderful Life. Dive into like Monty Python. I love those movies. I probably shouldn't have watched them as young as I did, especially like Life of Brian, but it's okay. But, and then also Hitchcock, Hitchcock films like Psycho.

vertigo and Hitchcock scared me a little bit. I wasn't able to take a shower after psycho without bringing my baseball bat into the room, but and then my dad introduced me to like rear window and that freaked me out even more. But, but yeah, I really exactly. But

Eli Price (04:22.776)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (04:33.405)
Uh... Nice. Yeah.

Eli Price (04:42.476)
Yeah. Close your shades, you know.

Thomas Pears IV (04:51.766)
With movies, I was always incredibly fascinated more so with storytelling. Because I watched movies with my dad so much as a kid, my dad was also a really good storyteller. He loved telling jokes and recounting just really funny events. And I wanted to be like that. So whenever I actually started paying attention to films,

Eli Price (04:58.373)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (05:12.314)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (05:19.35)
I really started admiring more and more how they told the story, which actually is really fun because I think it was junior year of high school was when I actually started paying attention to film more than just watching it. And that was because of the Grand Budapest Hotel. So Wes Anderson actually is like the guy for me, like, oh, I love Wes Anderson. That made me.

Eli Price (05:24.499)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (05:38.389)
Okay.

Eli Price (05:45.436)
Ha ha ha.

Thomas Pears IV (05:48.45)
turn watching stories and hearing storytelling to like, oh, let me find the deeper meanings of this and analyzing it, looking at small details and directions that they took. And yeah, I just, I love storytelling so much because of film.

Eli Price (06:03.76)
Yeah.

Eli Price (06:09.656)
Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, I didn't know that was such a pivotal movie for you. That's really cool.

Thomas Pears IV (06:19.202)
Oh, absolutely that and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Let me tell you.

Eli Price (06:21.094)
Ha ha.

Eli Price (06:25.308)
Yeah, that's really cool. You know, I feel like storytelling is something that like, it's something that like some people are really into analyzing and some aren't, but it's something that is important like to everyone. Like because we, you know, we all hear and listen to stories our whole lives and like we tell ourselves like stories about

who we are and who other people are and how we fit into the world. It's just a really incredible medium, whether it's books or maybe just audio, some sort of audio form of storytelling. But movies really bring it all together. The visuals, the audio, the dialogue. It just brings everything about our world together.

to tell stories in such different ways. Yeah, I really think that's really insightful. Especially as a, I don't know, you said you were a junior in high school or something. Yeah, to recognize the importance of storytelling. That's really cool.

Thomas Pears IV (07:37.088)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (07:43.822)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and especially just in film, it brings storytelling to such a deeper meaning, because you actually get to see the reactions of like and how emotion is depicted and it can either bring you in or bring you out or make you realize something more. And I just I love it.

Eli Price (07:50.693)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (08:02.038)
Right.

Eli Price (08:09.34)
Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah, and you know it's like the visual aspect of a movie like it's just we all like take in information and like react emotionally and like from different senses and like visual the visuals Add so much to that. I think and like Wes Anderson for sure is someone who packs a lot

visually into his movies a lot of details so but yeah, so Yeah, so I Speaking on West we can transition into our movie content today, which is the his seventh movie That is right. I'm checking my I'm checking myself in my mind and I am right. It is his seventh movie Which is Moonrise Kingdom?

Thomas Pears IV (08:39.291)
Yeah, absolutely.

Eli Price (09:06.232)
Yeah, Moonrise Kingdom. I think I shared this on the first episode. I'm pretty sure it was the first Wes Anderson movie I ever watched. And yeah, it was years ago. I think maybe Grand Budapest was coming out and or had come out or something like that. And I wanted to watch another, I was like, I hadn't seen Grand Budapest yet.

Thomas Pears IV (09:17.675)
Really?

Eli Price (09:34.576)
But I was like, I want to watch one of this guy's movies before I see Grand Budapest and Moonrise Kingdom, I guess, was just like ready and available on whatever streaming service I use most. So I just put it on. But I don't really remember much about that viewing experience. I just remember that I watched it. But yeah, so it was it's been a while since I had seen this movie. And yeah, I didn't really know like.

I've seen all of his other ones more recently. And so I was like, I don't know where this one's going to fit in for me. But yeah, this was really fun, a really fun and interesting movie for sure. But yeah, the background of this one is kind of similar to a lot of Wes's other ones, which is just he has all these ideas, and they just kind of come together in a movie.

Thomas Pears IV (10:33.536)
Yeah.

Eli Price (10:33.9)
Uh, yeah, like he, um, he talks about, uh, in an interview, he talked about how, like, most of the time for him and probably, and he kind of said probably most like filmmakers, it's not necessarily like, oh, we have one idea and then we make a movie based off of that. It's just like, and he said the way he described it was like, it's an intersection of ideas. So like he, he had the idea, uh, like he has some friends that had like a.

Thomas Pears IV (10:57.239)
Mm.

Eli Price (11:03.232)
summer home or something on an island. And it was like this island where there were no cars and it was kind of like frozen in time sort of place. And like, so he had an idea of like making a movie somewhere like that on a New England Island. And then like, he had this idea of like a powerful experience of like childhood romance that he wanted to put in a movie.

Thomas Pears IV (11:21.335)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (11:31.748)
and he had this idea of a girl who like reads books and like her life kind of follows like the sorts of books she reads and so like all these ideas just like intersect and then you end up with the moonrise kingdom which i think is a really cool way that you know movies happen you know

Thomas Pears IV (11:41.449)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (11:50.726)
Mm-hmm molding it into what it actually is

Eli Price (11:55.104)
Yeah, yeah taking all these like you know seemingly disconnected ideas and like Yeah, molding them together into something like coherent. It's like Yes, it's pretty incredible Yeah, this one This one was shot in Rhode Island Several locations in Rhode Island actually He he shot They actually they

Thomas Pears IV (12:05.972)
Mm.

Thomas Pears IV (12:16.245)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (12:24.276)
Most of the time they were I think in Newport, Rhode Island And uh like they bought an old or they I don't they didn't buy it but they like leased out an Uh old department store. I can't remember what it was, but it was like this old department store That was like completely emptied out and they built all the like interior sets in this old department Store and shot in there. Yeah. Um, so it was cool seeing like

Thomas Pears IV (12:28.055)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (12:48.515)
Oh, awesome.

Eli Price (12:53.64)
And some of the special features like the behind the scenes stuff, they're just like, it's just this huge room and then you have like all these sectioned off like sets kind of that they're filming in and lighting and whatnot. Yeah, it was pretty cool.

Thomas Pears IV (13:10.774)
I would love to see photos of the warehouse like that. Cause all I'm picturing are, like you know when West, like in Life Aquatic, when they show the full size of the ship, that's what I'm picturing just with this island in Rhode Island of just all these different sets. I think that'd be so interesting.

Eli Price (13:19.438)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (13:23.192)
Yeah, it's.

Eli Price (13:30.133)
Yeah. Yeah, so it's all like the into. So it's mostly like the house. So the rooms of the house and all that sort of stuff, they all just are built in this warehouse. But yeah, I'll have to let you borrow sometimes the criterion disk with the special features so you can watch that behind the scenes stuff.

Thomas Pears IV (13:38.514)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (13:54.694)
Yes, that would be awesome.

Eli Price (13:58.2)
Super interesting. But yeah, the exterior of Suzy's house is this old lighthouse that's now a house in Jamestown, Rhode Island, which is pretty cool. So all of the exterior shots where there's kind of looking at it from the ocean is there. They shot a.

They made like the Camp Ivanhoe Scout Camp in this like old farmland somewhere else in Rhode Island. It's like a preservation sort of place. But yeah, it's really like, it's funny, like the, I guess plot and like themes are kind of a meld of ideas, but so is like the sets. They're like kind of a melding of these different places in Rhode Island.

Thomas Pears IV (14:54.274)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (14:55.988)
Yeah, it's super interesting. Just like seeing, you know, I don't know, maybe you can find on YouTube just some like behind the scenes stuff from them making this movie where they were in that warehouse. But one of the things that like stood out to me about this one, and yeah, well, we can just jump into that is that it.

More than I think any of his other movies. It's like kind of like He so he shoots a lot in nature In this one And so like all the outdoor scenes, you know are obviously really outdoors They're shot, uh, like in nature like that farmland was the camp. Ivanhoe, but They um, you know, they shot a lot in like some woods and some state parks and stuff like that

Thomas Pears IV (15:34.072)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (15:54.652)
And to me, that was super interesting because Wes is known for his control and his detail. And it's one of those things where it's like, OK, but now I'm in nature. I don't have complete control over everything. Yeah, I don't know. Was there anything that you noticed when you watched this, being familiar with more of Wes's stuff, where this one kind of stands out as like,

Thomas Pears IV (16:10.476)
Right.

Eli Price (16:22.976)
Oh, this is different, you know, than his other ones.

Thomas Pears IV (16:26.446)
Oh, absolutely. I mean, you hit the nail on the head, especially with nature. But immediately, I mean, the Grand Budapest has always been the first film that I've seen, which is. Arguably my favorite movie ever. And when you watch that, especially like the scenes when they're like running up to the Budapest and they switch to like models and.

Eli Price (16:54.275)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (16:54.89)
that way and it's still a storybook-esque. It's still making you see like this magical world. And what's so different for me when watching Moonrise is it almost takes you out of the magic and brings you into like little glimpses of reality of falling Sam and Susie, like running away and doing all these things. Like...

Eli Price (16:58.108)
All right.

Eli Price (17:18.756)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (17:25.014)
But there's still really magical moments even in nature, like around the camp, the tree house stuff, but like there are little glimpses of reality, like when they're hiking or when they find that little lagoon that I'm forgetting the name of, but like, it's like, oh, this seems a little more real than Wes recounting this story to us.

Eli Price (17:31.45)
Right.

Eli Price (17:35.535)
Yeah.

Eli Price (17:43.644)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (17:50.576)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (17:55.266)
two kids that are in love. So I find that super interesting.

Eli Price (17:55.81)
Right.

Eli Price (17:59.288)
Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so he, one of the things he did was he would go out with like, just like one other person, I guess maybe a couple other people, and they would shoot kind of like mock West acting out what would happen in the places. And so that way they could like take out like kind of skeleton crews out.

when they were shooting. He didn't want to keep having to like bring so many, because if you don't know what you need, then you have to kind of bring everything. So he would go and make sure he knew what he needed to wherever he was going to shoot next. And they would bring out only like, he wanted to bring out small crews as much as possible. So that was something that was probably a little different shooting this one. And also he shot this one on,

Thomas Pears IV (18:38.04)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (18:50.292)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (18:57.96)
16 millimeter Yeah which Super 16 millimeter I think is what I read somewhere Which is something that like I'm not super familiar with like Film and like the way it works exactly but one of the things that I did notice was it wasn't is like I noticed it like I Don't know maybe like 10 minutes into the movie all of a sudden was like wait a second

Thomas Pears IV (18:58.882)
16. Yeah.

Eli Price (19:23.844)
This isn't like the widescreen that I'm used to seeing with Wes Anderson. That super like widescreen ratio. It was like a full like screen. And I was like, oh, this is interesting. You know, and I think one of the things that gives you. Well, for one, the obvious thing is it's a smaller camera he was working with. And so like you get a lot of those like more handheld.

Thomas Pears IV (19:28.567)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (19:46.569)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (19:51.512)
shots like in nature, like when you're following them down the trail and stuff. And then the other thing is just like it gives you it opens like the screen up, you know, top to bottom, like vertically, it opens up, you know, your viewing window, I guess, of these scenes and sets. And so like to me, it was like, oh, I bet like kind of a

Other than just the practical, I need this smaller camera to follow people around, like documentary style. The other side of it is, and you know, no, just thinking about Wes, he probably thought about like, you know, I'm getting more of nature in this picture. I'm like, I'm getting the height of the trees because I'm spreading out the ratio vertically a little more. But yeah, that was

Thomas Pears IV (20:40.91)
Mm.

Eli Price (20:50.32)
That was something that I noticed that was different. Just another thing. But yeah, I don't know if there's anything super profound with the way it was shot. It's just different than a lot of his other stuff.

Thomas Pears IV (21:09.502)
Yeah, I wouldn't. I'm not one to like, I won't act like I know the difference between 16 and like, I don't even know. I just know every like what's on the screen. Yeah, and it looks good. But yeah, I'm sure there is some sort of or maybe there isn't maybe there's a meaning maybe there isn't, but.

Eli Price (21:22.656)
Yeah. The way it looks. Yeah. Right.

Eli Price (21:39.17)
Yeah, yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (21:39.562)
Maybe that's a, I think Harrison, previous guest of yours, would know something about that. He is, he and another one of our friends are definitely film snobs, I think.

Eli Price (21:45.627)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (21:54.184)
Yeah, yeah, I've had a couple people on that know. Yeah, right I've had a couple people on that know way more about this stuff than I do. So that's always good So it's good to be on level playing ground again with you times Yeah, I wanted to mention too you mentioned that the tree the tree house So what so that tree house they actually built it

Thomas Pears IV (21:56.042)
in a good way.

Thomas Pears IV (22:04.553)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, thank God. I appreciate that.

Thomas Pears IV (22:18.86)
Yeah.

Eli Price (22:24.28)
So yeah, so yes, they built that tree house and it is so it's two trees They took they took the trunk of one tree and then they put another trunk on Top of it from another tree and then they have you know, obviously the branches up top and then they actually built that tree house It's not a model like West was talking about I could have easily like just built a miniature of this

Thomas Pears IV (22:24.678)
No way. That's a real tree?

Thomas Pears IV (22:32.161)
Ha ha!

Eli Price (22:52.48)
But I wanted them to build the actual thing. And if you look like in the middle of the tree, there's something like wrapped around it, which I didn't notice when I was watching, but I noticed afterwards. And so I bet like where that wrap is, is where like the two trees are attached to each other.

Thomas Pears IV (23:03.167)
Oh my gosh.

Thomas Pears IV (23:10.87)
That is hilarious. I had to look up a picture real quick just so that I could. Oh, my gosh. I did not know that. That is hilarious. It brings what brings what the Scoutmaster, what's the name Ed Norton's character, Scoutmaster Ward. Is it? Yeah. When he's like, yeah. Well, what do you what do you want us to do? Make it lower.

Eli Price (23:12.714)
Yeah.

Eli Price (23:17.296)
Yeah.

Yeah. Right. And so.

Eli Price (23:29.632)
Ed Norton, yeah. Ward, yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (23:40.541)
Yeah, yeah, he's like he's...

Thomas Pears IV (23:43.358)
That just is so much funnier to me now.

Eli Price (23:46.948)
uh man and yeah obviously the tree is funny like when you when you see it you're like what are these kids thinking making this tree house this way um but then yeah but then like when you realize they actually built this with two trees it makes it even funnier

Thomas Pears IV (23:59.446)
Yeah, it's obscure.

Thomas Pears IV (24:05.78)
Hahaha

Thomas Pears IV (24:09.078)
Oh my gosh, I love that. That is too funny. Yeah, I do see it like thicken up halfway through like wrapping around. That is so freaking funny.

Eli Price (24:11.138)
Yeah.

Eli Price (24:17.182)
Uh-huh.

Eli Price (24:20.684)
Yeah, I don't know how they got it to stand up like that, but bravo, you know. Yeah. One of the things, one of the cool things, too, was like the casting. So he had some different casts. You mentioned Ed Norton, who. Yeah, yeah, he talked about.

Thomas Pears IV (24:26.086)
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. That made my day.

Thomas Pears IV (24:40.226)
Mm-hmm. I love the cast the repeat cast of in Wes's movies

Eli Price (24:47.136)
Edward Norton is actually like a bit of an outdoorsman, like enjoys hiking and stuff like that, and just like a really smart guy. So he was like, he just had him in mind for that role. The other kind of new person on the scene, I guess there's a few people as far as like the adults go. You have Bruce Willis as the police. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (25:00.496)
Mm.

Thomas Pears IV (25:14.526)
Yeah, which is so strange to me. Just doesn't feel like he'd be a character in a Wes Anderson film.

Eli Price (25:17.921)
Yeah, it's-

You know, right. Yeah, but let's talk about how like he wanted someone that could play that kind of I guess like Quiet kind of defeated kind of personality which Bruce Willis definitely can do But also like be believable as a police officer Which Bruce Willis is? Right, right, which Bruce Willis is definitely believable as a police officer. So

Thomas Pears IV (25:34.359)
Mm.

Thomas Pears IV (25:40.734)
Right, because of his work in Die Hard.

Thomas Pears IV (25:48.754)
It's like ingrained in my mind. If I don't think actor, I think cop that can blow up a helicopter with a car.

Eli Price (25:50.955)
Right.

Eli Price (25:54.476)
All right Man and uh, yeah, so that was an interesting choice to me. I Don't know. I don't know how I think Edward Norton was great I don't know still how I feel about I haven't decided how I feel about Bruce Willis in this movie. I think he is a Pretty good choice for the reasons West talked about that I just mentioned but I can't I still can't decide if his

Thomas Pears IV (26:07.096)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (26:23.916)
performance entirely works for me in this in this little world, you know

Thomas Pears IV (26:27.768)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (26:31.074)
For me, it's almost like a distraction because at this point with how long has Bruce Willis been an action star?

Eli Price (26:43.544)
At this point, I mean, probably a couple of decades, I would think.

Thomas Pears IV (26:49.106)
It's like ingrained in me just to think that some sort of action is going to happen and he's going to pull out a gun. So to see him in a different role, yeah, whimsical, there's no way. But it's also really praiseworthy just that he does have that ability so he can show his depth in portraying.

Eli Price (26:55.96)
Alright. But they're on this quaint island.

Eli Price (27:04.367)
Yeah.

Eli Price (27:13.312)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (27:18.782)
kind of a cop that's struggling in a different kind of struggle. It always seems like he's playing a cop that's struggling. So, really ripping Bruce Willis to shreds here.

Eli Price (27:22.089)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Eli Price (27:32.036)
more Yeah He hit it, you know, hey When you find your role, you know, just play it, you know, get your money's worth out of it, I guess But he's definitely playing a different sort of character here to me Like he's a police officer, but he's a different sort of character a much more like I Don't know he it's almost like he

Thomas Pears IV (27:42.559)
Oh yeah.

Absolutely.

Thomas Pears IV (27:49.417)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (28:01.412)
He doesn't really belong on the island in a sense. Yeah, I guess that's, yeah, he's alone and he doesn't really, and maybe he does work because of the, maybe I should rethink that he doesn't work that well because he doesn't feel like he belongs in the movie, performance-wise to me, but maybe that just goes along with him not belonging, feeling like he belongs in this community, I guess.

Thomas Pears IV (28:09.375)
He's alone.

Thomas Pears IV (28:14.742)
Hmm.

Eli Price (28:31.8)
Um...

Thomas Pears IV (28:32.002)
That's a very interesting take. I like that. It's made me think more about that because, I mean, he really does not fit the typecast of someone being in Wes's storybook and it plays more into his loneliness that you were just talking about. That's, I like that take.

Eli Price (28:34.498)
Yeah.

Eli Price (28:39.824)
Yeah.

Eli Price (28:45.774)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (28:50.62)
Sure.

Eli Price (28:57.656)
Yeah, yeah, I doubt that's like on purpose and like it might just be like My own personal take kind of opinion on it like um, like i've seen other people Like talk about they like bruce willis in this and I don't dislike him in it. Um, i'm just I don't know. I'm not fully convinced by his performance, which we'll get more into that. Uh, When we get into like some of the things that happen in the in the film, but yeah

Thomas Pears IV (29:15.358)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (29:26.06)
I did want to quickly mention the two kids. They're both first-time performers, and they both pretty much got the parts from first audition. And for different reasons. Wes talks about how he liked Jared. I can think of his last name, Jared Gilman, I think. He liked his kind of, yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (29:26.796)
sure.

Thomas Pears IV (29:34.215)
Yeah, I saw that in an interview.

Thomas Pears IV (29:44.023)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (29:52.831)
Jared Gilman, yes.

Eli Price (29:55.172)
He liked his off-screen personality. So I guess he obviously was good enough in front of the camera to get the part, but Wes said he chose him because of his off-camera personality. And then Kara Heyward, who plays Suzie, was almost the opposite. She got on camera, and Wes said he immediately knew she was the best.

Thomas Pears IV (29:58.254)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (30:23.204)
the right one for the part because the way she said those written lines that were in front of her made it seem like those lines were improvised, which is pretty impressive for a 12-year-old to pull off. And so he was like, oh yeah, she's definitely the Susie for this movie. So that's always cool to see kids jump in and really knock it out of the park.

Thomas Pears IV (30:28.615)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (30:37.121)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (30:43.945)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (30:50.761)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (30:51.5)
in a role like this. And Wes too, Wes enjoyed, he talked about how one of the last things they shot were stuff like in the church. And so even the flashback scene where he's getting out of the play and he runs into the dressing room and he's asking Susie what kind of bird are you. That scene.

Wes was said he was like watching that scene and you know, this is one towards the end of shooting and he is like just really impressed by like Jared like kind of took control of that scene As like this kid actor he just like took control was in complete control of what was happening and like the intonation and everything and Yeah, so it's always just really cool to hear

Thomas Pears IV (31:34.222)
Mm.

Eli Price (31:48.068)
Like yeah, this kid jumped in and like grew and just like was really awesome to work with so I Don't know. I like a good. I like a good child performance And I'll it's hard to get like great child performances that don't feel I Don't know right? Yeah

Thomas Pears IV (31:56.075)
Yeah, absolutely.

Thomas Pears IV (32:00.723)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (32:09.13)
store reading the line straight off the page. But I mean, it's

Eli Price (32:13.568)
Yeah, or like just too fake, you know?

Thomas Pears IV (32:17.566)
It's difficult to force that on a child because you don't want to ruin the experience for them. And there's been plenty of examples of ruining, you know, performing for children later on in their life. But I mean, especially like I did hear that interview as well about Kara Hayward. Heyward. Yeah. And I was like, that's very impressive for like them casting kids that were just in the area.

Eli Price (32:20.696)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Eli Price (32:30.672)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (32:36.64)
Mm-hmm. Hey, word, yeah.

Eli Price (32:41.454)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (32:48.303)
It's impressive and she did great. Both of them did great.

Eli Price (32:48.908)
Yeah. Yeah, and a lot of you in the criterion, you can see a bunch of clips from the auditions from most of the kids. Obviously, not all of them, because there's some scenes with tons of kids, but all of the ones that have real camera time. And it's funny, you could kind of tell that the crew was going to be working well with these kids because the question was, like, what

like their audition that ended up in the special features was mostly like, what's your favorite subject in school or something you're interested in? And just like the kid talking about that. And that was like, I guess a big part of their audition. That's what made it on the special features anyway. Which is cool because then I guess like as someone casting, you get to see, oh, this is this kid's personality.

Thomas Pears IV (33:19.458)
Ahem.

Thomas Pears IV (33:38.871)
Right.

Eli Price (33:48.804)
this is the role he needs to be in or this is, you know, their different personalities kind of fit in different sorts of roles. So it was interesting seeing like, oh, I would have never thought that this would be such a huge part of the audition is just talking about your favorite subject or something you're interested in as a kid, but it makes total sense. Yeah, it makes total sense when you think about it because then you're getting like,

Thomas Pears IV (34:10.206)
Yeah, to give him perspective. Right.

Eli Price (34:17.444)
their real like presence in front of a camera, not them like trying to like say these lines in the way that you want them to say them. They just get to like kind of be themselves. Yeah. Some of the other things, just random things that I had written down for like the making of this was the.

Thomas Pears IV (34:31.971)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (34:45.392)
There's a couple of miniatures, so you do still have some models. One of them, when it was happening, I could totally tell. I guess from watching so many Wes movies recently. It was the dam that broke with the flood. When I was watching that, I was like, this has got to be a little model that they built. And it was. It was fun watching them. Yeah, it was fun watching them.

Thomas Pears IV (34:50.25)
Yeah, absolutely.

Thomas Pears IV (35:00.123)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (35:10.395)
Oh, for sure.

Eli Price (35:15.268)
like watching it happen, like them filming that little scene. But one that I did notice was the tent when the, I guess, commander scout guy, when his tent explodes. That was like a little miniature thing. So I had no idea when I was watching it. I just thought they just blew up a normal-sized tent.

Thomas Pears IV (35:20.041)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (35:36.873)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (35:45.665)
Well, I say it with confidence, but I didn't know the treehouse was real.

Eli Price (35:50.944)
Right, yeah. Yeah, I mean.

Thomas Pears IV (35:52.39)
Yeah, I thought all of them were miniatures.

Eli Price (35:55.782)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (35:57.966)
It's crazy.

Eli Price (35:59.296)
Yeah, but um, and then like really a lot of that flood scene too was like these miniature models Of the flood like the water kind of flowing through these areas I mean, I guess like when you think about it, it like makes total sense like oh like of course they You can't flood a forest For for a movie so you have to either like cgi it or build a build a model And west just isn't interested in

Thomas Pears IV (36:09.919)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (36:18.908)
No.

Thomas Pears IV (36:24.323)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (36:27.12)
doing CGI water, he wants to make, he wants it to be like real. So he's going to make a model.

Thomas Pears IV (36:33.986)
But it just seems so much more satisfying to see that. And I love that. It's like, it just plays more into the whimsical nature of a dam breaking. Like it just, it's like, oh, that's terrible for them, but it's kind of amusing just to see it roll in and like the cabin exploding.

Eli Price (36:38.395)
Yeah.

Eli Price (36:48.678)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (36:59.328)
Right.

Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (37:03.092)
It's just silly.

Eli Price (37:04.812)
Right, yeah, and he kind of talked about that at one point. He was kind of asking about making these miniatures and models instead of like CGI in an interview. And Wes was just kind of saying, you know, either way you're gonna watch it and know it's fake. Like whether I make it look really realistic CGI or whether I make a miniature, like you're gonna watch it and know that what you're watching is fake.

And so he's just like, so I would rather just like make the model because it's more interesting to me to have that kind of like, like homemade, I guess, like tangible feel to it than the CGI, which, you know, I've always appreciated about him. Yeah. The other thing I noted was he actually like

Thomas Pears IV (37:41.296)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (37:47.669)
Right.

Eli Price (38:00.376)
Something that he did with Mr. Fox that we talked about briefly last episode was before they started like using the puppets and like filming all the stop motion stuff, they actually like took the storyboards and like animated out the whole movie with like these little sketch drawings with the voices behind them. And so that they could like visualize the way they needed to shoot all of the stop motion stuff.

Thomas Pears IV (38:20.514)
Wow.

Eli Price (38:30.192)
And he actually brought that to this movie too. He had storyboarded out like the whole movie and then he had a team do the same thing with, I don't know, it probably wasn't to the same extent as it was with Mr. Fox, but a lot of the stuff he kind of like had them do, it's called an animatic, which is I guess the taking the storyboard and like making sketch animation of it.

Thomas Pears IV (38:41.922)
Wow.

Eli Price (38:59.256)
which it's very, you know, when you watch it, cause you can watch it on the Mr. Fox disc for Criterion. It's like very like jumpy, like minimal movement sort of stuff, but it's still animated, you know? And so that was interesting to see, like he liked doing that with Mr. Fox and he felt like it would help him here and like brought it to this one too. But yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (39:09.447)
Mm-hmm. Gives you the idea.

Thomas Pears IV (39:20.478)
Yeah, that's interesting.

Eli Price (39:24.504)
Um, yeah, the, the music in this was interesting too. Um, it's a lot more like classical stuff than, than most West's. Um,

Thomas Pears IV (39:34.14)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (39:39.841)
Yeah, it didn't feel like it had like I Don't remember any like huge needle drops in this one Like

Thomas Pears IV (39:50.354)
There's the French song when they're dancing on the beach. Le temps de l'amour, that's the name of the song. I saved all the French songs from Wes Anderson's films.

Eli Price (39:55.368)
Right, yeah, there's that, for sure.

Eli Price (40:02.211)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (40:09.184)
Oh, and yeah, there's the Hank Williams stuff too in there But yeah that it but that yeah, but for a West movie that's really bare-bones as far as like a soundtrack goes It's mostly like the Benjamin Britten classical stuff and then Alexander de Pla's score Which you know, I'm so glad West teamed up with mr. Fox with

Thomas Pears IV (40:09.262)
It's a little.

Thomas Pears IV (40:17.386)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (40:24.939)
Yeah, it's-

Thomas Pears IV (40:33.387)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (40:37.06)
De Pla and has been using him because he's a great composer for film. But yeah, he was, Wes was talking about like Benjamin Britten was interesting as a composer to him because he would, he would do stuff to like help kids understand, um, you know, uh, orchestras and like composition of, of the music and how it worked.

Thomas Pears IV (40:41.935)
Oh, absolutely.

Eli Price (41:05.688)
Like so like that recording that the kids are listening to is like. Yeah, yeah, it's actually like, you know, it's not. Yeah, it's not Benjamin, I don't know when what era Benjamin Britton is from, but he's older, like I think that's the New York Philharmonics recording of that piece. But it actually it's called the young person's guide to.

Thomas Pears IV (41:06.134)
Mm-hmm.

beginning of the movie.

Thomas Pears IV (41:12.632)
Oh, I didn't realize that.

Eli Price (41:33.144)
orchestral or something or another.

Thomas Pears IV (41:41.157)
Mm-hmm. To the orchestra or something.

Eli Price (41:43.404)
Yeah, something like that. So it's an actual like, yeah, it wasn't like made for the film. That's, that's something that he like used because he liked that guy's music and his approach to like helping kids understand it, which I guess goes along with, um, with the theme here. Um, and the, I don't know how to say like the, the little play. I know it's like, probably translates to Noah's flood, but it's like noyays, fluid or something like that.

You know I'm talking about for the little play they do.

Thomas Pears IV (42:16.514)
Yeah.

Eli Price (42:17.848)
Yeah, it, um, yeah, he, so that apparently was made for like a few professionals to perform, but most of the people in that are supposed to be like amateurs and kids. Like that's the way that Benjamin Britten wrote it was for it to be performed in that way. Um, and he, and he wrote it to be performed at churches. Like it wasn't supposed to be performed like a big orchestra halls, but at like churches.

Thomas Pears IV (42:40.32)
Uh huh.

Eli Price (42:47.76)
with like mostly amateurs. So I don't know, it just feels like of course like Wes would find this composer that like was like kind of unique and doing his own thing as far as like

Thomas Pears IV (42:59.97)
that would fit perfectly into what he was trying to capture.

Eli Price (43:03.008)
Exactly. Yeah. So, yeah, the music is different in this one, too. There's a lot of, you know, I'm realizing, like in our discussion that there is a lot of like different stuff that he was doing with this movie that really stands out, I guess, in his filmography. Yeah, even like even with the ones after like he didn't he didn't like keep doing some of this stuff. It's like kind of a one off thing as far as like

Thomas Pears IV (43:21.166)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (43:31.656)
16 millimeter the music and all that sort of stuff. It's the nature even like it's very different and in his entire filmography

Thomas Pears IV (43:41.73)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (43:44.548)
But yeah, I guess as far as just themes or things that stood out to you from the movie, what were some things that stood out to you as far as that goes?

Thomas Pears IV (44:02.142)
Uhhh

Thomas Pears IV (44:05.898)
Well, there's a couple of things that I really like about this specifically, but also about a lot of Wes Anderson movies. The first kind of in relation to what you were mentioning earlier about.

Eli Price (44:12.732)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (44:24.174)
like with the dam breaking and stuff. Wes, so I've been told, and so he's mentioned in interviews, not to me, just to clarify. Obviously. He likes putting references into his films. So, I mean, it's very evident if you watch really anything and...

Eli Price (44:26.64)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (44:41.08)
Hehehehehehe

Eli Price (44:46.799)
Right.

Eli Price (44:50.545)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (44:51.55)
No one would go as far to say that he's stolen anything for obvious reasons, but he does it in a way that's respectful and kind of like a nod to the person that gets it, which I really like. And I heard one person comparing like the dam breaking scene to two moments, like when it zooms in on Ed Norton, when he's realizing that the dam is breaking, looks very similar to Indiana Jones.

Eli Price (44:54.786)
Right, right.

Eli Price (45:02.394)
Right.

Eli Price (45:13.52)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (45:20.985)
Yeah, yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (45:21.11)
seeing the boulder roll down and then the way the water crashes over looks... They don't know if that is actually... This is actually the case or not, but he may have taken inspiration from the blood coming out of the elevator and like the shining. So there's... Yeah, I mean, if you put them side by side, which I haven't, which I might do, but...

Eli Price (45:40.064)
Yeah, I can see that.

Thomas Pears IV (45:50.386)
It's just cool. It makes me think that there's more rewatchability to the movies and kind of motivates a viewer to dive into other films that he may have been inspired from. So that when you rewatch it, you could see, oh, that's where he got that from. Oh, that's such a cool thing. But it's not like if you don't get it, you're upset because it still is just such a phenomenal film.

Eli Price (45:57.283)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (46:04.912)
Right.

Eli Price (46:10.192)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (46:16.717)
Right.

Yeah, you don't really miss out on anything if you don't get the references you just Yeah, it just adds more if you do get them sort of thing Yeah, but yeah I could definitely see the Indiana Jones like kind of zoom in with the way that Norton looks over there and that like that harkens back to like when he was a kid he had talked about Um, I think we mentioned this on the first episode. He had like a little super 8 camera

Thomas Pears IV (46:20.385)
Um

Thomas Pears IV (46:25.417)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (46:34.326)
Uh-huh.

Eli Price (46:47.716)
uh, that he like him and his friends made indiana jones s kind of little movies with Uh, so yeah. Yeah, you definitely have that inspiration going on for sure

Thomas Pears IV (46:54.805)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (46:59.134)
Mm. And then the other thing was, when you started talking about casting with Bruce Willis, it also makes me think a lot of like, what's his name? Bob, the narrator. You know, I'm talking about Valadane. Yeah.

Eli Price (47:18.892)
Oh yeah, Bob Baladan. Baladan?

Thomas Pears IV (47:26.058)
It's so interesting how he comes into the story. Like he, of all people in this cast does seem, and has been in many Wes Anderson films, but like seems like someone to be a part of that story, but is the narrator. And I actually watched the film today before coming on the pod.

Eli Price (47:44.195)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (47:52.548)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (47:54.998)
And I noticed something that I didn't notice before, which was, I've always believed that Wes Anderson gives characters meaning. Like they always have some sort of, whether it be like the most insignificant thing, they're doing something. There's never really just like only extras. Like the extras are always just doing something.

Eli Price (48:22.716)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (48:24.106)
But I thought this was so interesting that the woman who plays like the telephone operator, if you pay attention to that, she actually becomes like a love interest to Scout Master Ward and like progressively gets more intertwined into the story. And I think that's so interesting how he brings everyone together. I don't know if that's exactly what you were asking for, but.

Eli Price (48:41.325)
Right, right.

Eli Price (48:46.012)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (48:54.087)
of went on a tangent there, I apologize.

Eli Price (48:57.112)
Yeah, yeah, the narrator is super interesting. You know, he. He kind of like pops up and. You know, gives you kind of like a rundown of the island and like he's almost like prophetic in a way with that, especially with that first appearance, he's like talking about this impending doom of the storm coming and the date it's coming. And it's like he's like this like.

Thomas Pears IV (49:13.46)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (49:25.126)
Yeah, you wonder if he's real.

Eli Price (49:27.084)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. You wonder if he's real like is this guy real and then like Yeah, yeah, then he like he shows up He shows up on the little pier there and like starts like talking to the characters and you're like wait Okay, this guy like actually lives in this town And actually there's a couple of shorts that go along with this movie and one of them is

Thomas Pears IV (49:33.63)
and then he just pops up at the store. It's so funny.

Eli Price (49:57.252)
Bob Beladan's narrator, who you find out is actually like the town librarian in that short. It's him like reading sections from those books that Suzy reads and like they have them like animated in different ways. Yeah, so like there's a couple of places in the movie where she reads like a short section of the book.

Thomas Pears IV (50:15.782)
Oh wow. I love that.

Eli Price (50:23.236)
And those are actually like fake books that Wes wrote those wrote those little like passages. Yeah, he wrote, like he had artists make the covers and he wrote like those little passages for the movie that were supposed to be from those books. And so yeah, there's a little short, you can probably go find it. I don't know where you would find it, maybe on YouTube, where yeah, Bob Baladan's like reading.

Thomas Pears IV (50:28.494)
Those titles for... Oh, right.

Eli Price (50:50.628)
those passages and like they have the little things animated in different ways for those different books. So it's pretty cool. And it's just one more like West touch of like, oh yeah, this these books. He's like writing passages for these fake books and having like artwork done for the covers and yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (51:12.542)
Yeah, the attention to detail is unreal. Yeah.

Eli Price (51:16.572)
Uh-huh and then the narrator character he actually like was inspired. I have to find it in my notes It's something I did. I'm not like familiar with at all but yeah, he's He's inspired by I think it's right here in my notes Mostly by there's this play called our town and there's um There's a guy that his like the character name is like the stage manager

and he's like this sort of he's a sort of guy that's like narrating the story but also is Like there for real and you're not sure if he's real or not sort of thing And it's very much that same feeling you get like with the with Bob doubt ballad an's narrator here and he's like the only one and like he's probably got like the best costume in the whole movie like

Thomas Pears IV (52:05.237)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (52:15.756)
Maybe other than like the scout, like the scouts, like that, that red. Yeah, it's, it's great. Uh huh. Um.

Thomas Pears IV (52:16.961)
I was su-

bright and vibrant pops. Very life aquatic with the beanie.

Eli Price (52:28.96)
Yeah, and I loved too that scene where the storm is like on its way And uh, he's kind of like silhouetted in the dark like looking out like talking and then he like walks up to the camera and like turns on a light and um, like pulls the camera like to follow him and it's just like It's such a west touch and it's just one of those moments where I was like, I love this. This is so fun like It's very documentary style

Thomas Pears IV (52:38.926)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (52:55.295)
Yeah, it's...

Eli Price (52:58.488)
Like, you just get, I don't know, it's just fun to watch those, you know, moments where you're like, yeah, I'm watching a film and I'm having, like, I know I'm watching a film and Wes wants me to know I'm watching a film and it's just a fun, like, little, like, I guess moment that you kind of have. It's like a moment with Wes, like, that you get to have, where he's like.

Thomas Pears IV (52:58.496)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (53:23.309)
Yeah.

Eli Price (53:24.964)
Hey, remember you were watching a film and you're like, yeah, I know I like it. It's we're having fun Yeah

Thomas Pears IV (53:30.316)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (53:33.884)
But yeah, there were two of the other Yeah, there's several people in here that pop up again in his other movies like you have Lucas Hedges it makes his appearance here as the kind of the nemesis of Sam In the Scouts, yeah Redford that's his name, right but then

Thomas Pears IV (53:47.918)
Francis McDormand.

Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (53:57.846)
Redford.

Thomas Pears IV (54:02.258)
Yeah, did you know that's like an homage to Robert Redford because of him on the bike? I forget which film Robert Redford did of like he was on a motorcycle for like all of the movie but apparently Wes loved it so much that he named him Redford.

Eli Price (54:03.856)
Go ahead.

Eli Price (54:20.473)
Yeah.

Eli Price (54:24.064)
Yeah, um, yeah, I don't guess I put like two and two together watching it but that makes total sense um Yeah, that makes total sense now that i'm now that you mentioned that Uh, i'm trying to remember it seems like I know the movie you're talking about but it's not It's not coming to me. I was trying to pull up uh imdb to see if it would I could remember but Oh, well, it's not that important. Um, but yeah, so

Thomas Pears IV (54:32.077)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (54:53.976)
But you also have like some a few like so the two that stand out are Francis McDormand and Tilda Swinton So this is their first West movie, but then they start popping back up in the other ones and they're like Those two I feel like are just like perfect West's um like cast collaboration Actresses like they have the right amount of um

Thomas Pears IV (55:03.086)
Hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (55:17.969)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (55:23.092)
I guess like they have the right amount of emotional weight that they can carry but also like not take themselves too seriously, which you kind of have to do in a Wes Anderson movie. But yeah, I love seeing them in there. Tilda Swinton obviously has like a very small role as a social services worker but is great in it.

Thomas Pears IV (55:38.044)
Oh yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (55:47.572)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (55:51.716)
And then like Frances McDormand as the mom is great, too you I Don't know. So like the part the moment that like really made me appreciate her role was Where Suzy's back home again after they ran away and she's in the tub and they kind of have this moment Where like you realize oh, it's like they're both the same really like the mother and daughter like she the mom is kind of like

Thomas Pears IV (56:10.254)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (56:16.939)
Exactly.

Eli Price (56:21.008)
feels trapped in this like domestic life and wants to get out. That's why she's having the affair with Bruce Willis's Captain Sharp. But then, you know, Suzie's kind of feels the same way. Like she feels trapped in this house. Yeah, she wants to like experience something. Which you notice, like so something I notice when I watch this, you know,

Thomas Pears IV (56:37.23)
trapped here.

Eli Price (56:50.82)
you open up on those shots inside the house and you're panning through the house and turning and looking at the different rooms of Susie's house and her family and her brothers. And they all end with her looking out of the house with the binoculars, which obviously you get like...

Thomas Pears IV (57:12.055)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (57:19.072)
a bunch of different references like, um, Wes mentioned a Satcher Jet Ray movie where there's like a wife that's stuck in a house and she has these binoculars. Um, I haven't seen that, but, um, but that's a reference he mentioned, but also like you, you think of like, um, uh, rear window, like looking out of the windows with binoculars, just like, but it gave me the feel of like right from the beginning, you get the feeling that okay, there's this girl.

Thomas Pears IV (57:29.588)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (57:38.339)
Mm.

Eli Price (57:48.388)
She lives in this house with this family, but she's always looking out with binoculars. Like she wants to see what's out there. She doesn't feel like she belongs where she is. So that's a touch that I... Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (58:01.246)
Right. There's little subtle things too, like the fight she has at her school when she's recounting to Sam. She's wearing a different colored uniform than all the other girls as well. It was bright red to like kind of show that she does lash out and stuff like that. So.

Eli Price (58:09.313)
Yeah.

Eli Price (58:16.537)
Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Eli Price (58:23.148)
Yeah Yeah, but that's some that's another thing that like I Thought was like super well done was that little montage where you're getting the letters They find like the letters back that they had been writing back and forth to each other before they ran away. That's like That's incredible filmmaking because for one No, go ahead

Thomas Pears IV (58:40.047)
Oh yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (58:47.455)
It almost feels, I'm sorry.

It almost feels like you're Bill Murray reading the letter, like trying to skip ahead of like, see what's going on until you get to these single word letters of when, where, and then you finally, it's like, oh, I'm just going to get past all these other details and what the hell is this? Watercolor.

Eli Price (58:56.632)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (59:05.495)
Uh huh.

get to like the present. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's so, so like you get, I mean, it's so, I guess the best word for it is it's efficient. Like you get so much information in that, but you don't feel like dizzy at all. Like you feel like you're get, you don't feel like disoriented from it. But he's just packed so much information in.

Thomas Pears IV (59:25.283)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (59:37.528)
And he doesn't feel the need to read out all the letters, which part of that is just like, just smart filmmaking. Like he gives you, it's something that Wes is really good at. He gives you just enough information so that you know what you need to know so that you can move on to the next thing. And then like, but also it plays into, like you were saying, like the father's like, it's almost like if I was a father reading these letters, I would almost like do the same thing. Like,

Thomas Pears IV (59:53.876)
Right.

Eli Price (01:00:06.344)
I don't want to know too much. Like, like I don't want to know too much about what what's been going on here. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Uh huh.

Thomas Pears IV (01:00:08.447)
Yeah.

Just get me just help me find my daughter. I don't want to know about the correspondence. But the mom knows everything. Like if you notice that he's the one reading all the letters and then it finally gets back to all three of them standing in front of the house. And he's like, what the hell am I looking at? And what's her name? And Mrs. Bishop, the mom, is just like, what does she say? She says, oh, he's very good with watercolors.

Eli Price (01:00:34.107)
Yeah, yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:00:40.666)
He's done a lot of landscapes, but a couple nudes and it's like How did you know that? What's going on here? Because they get yeah, they get back to the house so she's had plenty of time to To find out all the details and mr. Bishop is just like what is it going on? It's just such a funny moment

Eli Price (01:00:43.612)
Yeah. She's like studied through that. She studied through that private box of letters and paintings.

Eli Price (01:00:58.362)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:01:05.334)
Absolutely. And Bill Murray's great too. You know, Bill Murray is just like the quintessential Wes Anderson actor for sure. And he

Thomas Pears IV (01:01:15.09)
Oh yeah, I love how much he loves Wes. Like I listened to y'all's, you and Hayden talk about how much he made just on Rushmore. And that was like unreal to me. I never knew that. So, I mean, he definitely loves what he does.

Eli Price (01:01:18.658)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:01:25.564)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's.

Yeah, he it's he just yeah, it's just You can tell he loves working with West and like he loves his like the way he writes and that sort of thing And he's just like yeah, you know makes it's almost like you wonder if bills like whatever you write next Make sure you give me a role Because he's in it After I mean after Yeah, after a rush with Rushmore on I feel like he's in everything

Thomas Pears IV (01:01:52.973)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:02:02.278)
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, he'll take something as simple.

Eli Price (01:02:04.161)
I can't think of one that he's not in. Is he an Isle of Dogs? That's the only one I can't think of. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:02:09.642)
Um, no, he's in everything. He's one of the main dogs. He's the, he's the one, he's the dog that used to be like the mascot. Um, if I remember right, it was like, uh, boss was the dog's name.

Eli Price (01:02:20.544)
Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah, so.

Eli Price (01:02:27.688)
Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's been a while. I haven't seen Isle of Dogs since theaters since it came out in theaters So that'll be another fun one to dig back into um, but yeah Bill is just great. Um Yeah, uh, I think um I and I guess we can kind of get into it. Um Well, I guess before we get into like sam and suzy um one of the things that

Thomas Pears IV (01:02:37.351)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:02:56.768)
I read somewhere and like kind of noticed myself was that In a lot of West movies you have draw you have drama and comedy, but a lot of times they're like

They're not super intertwined. He maybe jumps from one to the other really quickly, and it's stunning, whether it's from a funny line to something very serious and emotional really quick, or from, and it's mostly a lot of times in dialogue, sometimes with the way something's shot. But in this movie, they're very intertwined. You have a lot of stuff happening that's very serious and dramatic, but also very funny at the same time.

And I think like the apex of that is Captain Sharp, Bruce Willis, Captain Sharp, like hanging from the steeple holding, like holding on to Sam and Susie. And it's like a very like dramatic and serious moment, but also like when you think about it, just kind of really funny that they're hanging off of this church. Like it's so, it's so bizarre.

Thomas Pears IV (01:03:50.75)
Listen. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:04:02.453)
Yeah.

about to commit suicide. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:04:08.676)
that it's just like a bizarre, like, I don't know, comical scene that also is like, like all mixed up with this, like, dramatic, like climax of the movie sort of thing. But it feels like there's a lot of that sort of stuff happening in this movie, more, maybe more than some of his other things, which is maybe

Thomas Pears IV (01:04:26.77)
Exactly. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:04:37.728)
Another way this movie is different kind of stands out but yeah Yeah, I don't know what I guess just getting into like Sam and Susie who are you know the two kids in this movie They're they're meant to be like 12 years old You know Sam is the Boy Scouts or the khaki Scout as they're called here khaki Scouts

Thomas Pears IV (01:04:42.388)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:05:03.542)
Techie Scout, yes.

Eli Price (01:05:06.2)
You have Sam and then you have Susie, who's, you know, obviously lives with her family in this, this pretty nice house. Her parents are both lawyers. She has a few brothers, like, and she feels kind of like more like, I guess, suburban, I guess is the best way to describe her and her family. Like kind of like upper middle class suburban sort of family that likes to read and like

Thomas Pears IV (01:05:35.538)
Yeah, and listen to music.

Eli Price (01:05:35.716)
I don't know that you have these two characters and it goes into like what I mentioned earlier of Wes having this idea to have this experience of childhood romance in a movie. And yeah, I mean, the question when it comes to this is just like, does it work for you? And I think that's something like everyone has to ask when they...

like while they watch this and then after is like, does this childhood romance work for you? So I have my own answer and everyone will, because I don't think it'll work for everybody. But yeah, does it work for you?

Thomas Pears IV (01:06:22.046)
It does. I can elaborate on it, or you can share as well, and then I'll elaborate. It does work for me because it's much different with intent as well as the way it's depicted. What I mean by that is with intent, I'm sure you've seen the interview,

Eli Price (01:06:26.757)
Yeah, go ahead.

Eli Price (01:06:38.576)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:06:51.346)
Wes, when he talked about something as simple as like Susie with her books, she he talked about how like when he was a child, he would read and. Out of nowhere, this story would become his world, like there was nothing outside of the story, it was just that was what it was. And you kind of see that in Susie with the three books that she brings with her and offers to share.

Eli Price (01:07:08.706)
Right.

Eli Price (01:07:13.596)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:07:20.866)
with Sam alone to him at any time. But also in their relationship, you kind of see it take place and it kind of reminds you what it was like to have your first crush and like think that you were in love for the first time. Like, I mean, I remember my first crush, I was just like, this is the furthest that I could see. Like this girl is just everything to me. And I mean, it's...

Eli Price (01:07:35.791)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:07:49.571)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:07:50.71)
very, very funny in the way that Wes depicts it because you're watching it as an adult, but it's almost as if the story as a whole is told, like this kid is telling an adult what has happened and then the adult is recounting the story. And it's very interesting and I think it's fun. I think the dance scene and the scene on the beach

Eli Price (01:08:07.695)
Right.

Eli Price (01:08:20.444)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Ha ha.

Thomas Pears IV (01:08:20.69)
is very odd. I'm not a huge fan of that. But the movie as a whole, I mean, it works very much so for me. I think it's a great and fun and funny, but also very deep way of looking at love and first love.

Eli Price (01:08:31.053)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:08:40.796)
Mm-hmm Yeah, yeah, I don't I don't know if I saw the same interview you did Mine is a I read mine in a in the Wes Anderson collection book, but um, it's West talks about how Yeah, it's really great It the first volume goes from like from bottle rocket to moonrise all in one but yeah, it's

Thomas Pears IV (01:08:53.271)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:08:56.618)
I need to get that book.

Thomas Pears IV (01:09:08.489)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:09:10.344)
He talks about how he... I'm trying to remember exactly how he put it, but it was basically like this idea of this romance isn't something that he experienced like an actuality as a kid, but it's something he would fantasize about. And so it's almost like he's like...

Thomas Pears IV (01:09:34.26)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:09:38.864)
thinking back to like when he was 12 and 13 and like the sorts of like romantic things he would fantasize about and like putting it in a story and giving these two kids like the opportunity to have what was just like a fantasy for him when he was that age. And you kind of get that idea like it's funny like the sorts of things they do like together like

Thomas Pears IV (01:09:50.733)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:10:01.428)
Right.

Eli Price (01:10:08.28)
He's like painting her and like he has this like nice little like setup for dinner like in the little like inlet that they've found. Moonrise Cove I think is what it's called. Yeah Moonrise Cove I think is what it's called. But yeah he does do the little setup on the cliff too before they get to the Cove. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:10:24.138)
Off of the cliff. Oh, oh yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:10:35.182)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:10:39.712)
It's really, I think it's, I don't know, it's probably not a great word to describe it, but a lot of it is very like cute. And I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean it in like the best way possible, like it's super cute. Like you, and I think one of the things that works best for me is the dialogue. And it's, I think it's like Wes, and he wrote this with Noah Baumbach. So it's like Wes and Noah's dialogue, they're like short.

Thomas Pears IV (01:10:48.903)
Yeah, no, it is.

Eli Price (01:11:08.908)
weird awkward quippy dialogue sometimes can be like a bit much for people. Which I get it. It usually works for me personally. But but the way they wrote the I think the way they write dialogue works really well for this sort of like. Preteen romance, preteen, like falling in love, where like you don't really know exactly.

the things you're supposed to say yet, you're kind of trying to figure it out as you go. And so it's kind of awkward. It's like a lot of times like straight to the point, like they don't know how to like go around, like say things in a roundabout way, like you kind of like learn to later in life. And I think it brings like a real like innocence and purity to like the love that they have for each other. Cause it basically boils down to like,

you don't belong and I don't belong, so let's get together and not belong together sort of thing. Which, you know, doesn't sound like much in common just saying that out of context, but in the context of a movie and especially a Wes Anderson movie, that's like a very, that idea of people not belonging is like a gravitational force that...

pulls people together in Wes Anderson movies. It feels like in all of his movies you think about the characters and how strange they are and different they are, but yet they always end up coming back together in some way. And you definitely feel that here. But yeah, it's just like their love isn't... It's not tainted by any sort of doubt.

Thomas Pears IV (01:12:43.272)
Oh yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:12:56.023)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:13:06.84)
or regret, or it's not tainted by life experience in any way. It's just pure and innocent, which I think is really, like I said, cute, but also it's thinking about things in a childlike way sometimes lets you see the trueness of something.

And in this case, like romance and love, like, um, we, we as a, like the older you get, the more jaded you can become. And it's easy to forget like how pure and like light and easy love can be because it starts to get burdened down with just life experience. Um, you know, you think about that scene where, uh, Sam is living with Captain

Thomas Pears IV (01:13:58.227)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:14:05.016)
And you know, he's Captain Sharps like talking to him about like Losing like losing someone you love And like or being like rejected by someone you love sort of thing Okay, remember exactly how he says it but Sam like he's talking about that Like he's like, you know, you're not old enough. You don't you don't know what that's like yet and Sam kind of like feigns understanding he kind of goes like

And you can tell like, oh, he has to pretend he understands because he really doesn't have that experience yet. But I feel like there's.

Thomas Pears IV (01:14:42.61)
Mm-hmm. But he thinks he does.

Eli Price (01:14:46.584)
Yeah, and so you get that. But I think that's a very important moment because you kind of see there's a mutual learning going on there. Sam is learning, oh, maybe this isn't all easy and pure and happy-go-lucky. And Bruce Willis is also learning because he's getting...

that perspective that he probably used to have, like Sam, like maybe I am letting too many things weigh down, like my willingness to jump into love sort of thing. Yeah, I don't know. It's very interesting.

The scene with Sam and Susie on the on the little cove beach is for sure like I would say like It's not something that's like stayed in the conversation Like in culture, i'm not sure I don't I wasn't really tuned into it back when it came out So I don't really know if it was a big topic of conversation then but it seems like it probably was pretty controversial as far as like I don't know I

You know, wonder how much talk there was about, is this like exploitative of these kids or not, you know, you have Sam, like she tells them, Oh, you can like, you know, touch, you can like touch my boo basically. Yeah. Touch my chest is what she says. Yeah. And like they're French kissing and.

Thomas Pears IV (01:16:27.854)
touch my chest, kiss me in a certain way. And she's like, they'll grow in later. Like, it's like, it's kind of funny, but it's just really weird.

Eli Price (01:16:37.666)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's awkward. It's awkward to watch and I don't know how I feel about it. I think there's a degree to which. Maybe it's a little too far, but also like it plays is still is like very much playing into like the innocence and purity of like their love and their relationship. So it it's like.

It's awkward and I'm not sure how to feel about it, but also like it works for what he's trying to do And it's not like it's not like rapey or weird in any sort of way like that It doesn't feel like it's like gaze II like making it like You know like you know what I mean like it doesn't feel that way But yeah

Thomas Pears IV (01:17:16.658)
Exactly.

Thomas Pears IV (01:17:32.448)
Of course.

Eli Price (01:17:35.392)
It is something that's like interesting in Wes's like filmography of like Was this appropriate or not? And yeah, I don't really know where I stand. I don't I don't guess I like stand on either side of that. It's just kind of like a question For me that I don't really have an answer to you. Honestly

Thomas Pears IV (01:17:58.11)
I have a little take on that if there's time for me to share. So the reason why I think it's okay, like that scene of them in the lagoon is because of how Young Love was kind of depicted before that. And you made a great point earlier of mentioning...

Eli Price (01:18:01.891)
Yeah, yeah, sure.

Eli Price (01:18:11.269)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:18:26.946)
the awkwardness. And I think that is, like goes back to the intent. Like Wes is showing how like awkward it actually is, but what was so like strong as a kid. Like when, like what you said earlier of like, he, he fantasized about this of like what he at that time thought was the pinnacle of romance, like painting.

Eli Price (01:18:28.511)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:18:42.163)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:18:56.794)
painting your girlfriend and like dancing with her on the beach and going to sleep under the stars. Like those are all romance stereotypes that of course are romantic but when paired with 12 year old it's like oh this is very awkward. So there is a it's a it's it can be controversial but

Eli Price (01:18:59.932)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Eli Price (01:19:18.496)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:19:24.742)
it works within this film. But then if you take something like, I've never seen this film, but I've heard quite a lot about it. And I have made the judgment not to watch it, but The Blue Lagoon. It's a movie from, I think, the eighties, and it depicts two kids that were shipwrecked with, I think, an older person. But then the older person died.

and then they grew up together and they discover sexuality. And with the way people have described that, and I may be totally wrong about this movie, but basing it off of what I've heard, that seems way more wrong to me of romanticizing and watching kids, because I know there's nudity in the film as well.

Eli Price (01:20:08.379)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:20:20.099)
Yeah.

Gotcha.

Thomas Pears IV (01:20:23.734)
That seems way worse. And comparing it to that, to Wes Anderson's Minerized Kingdom, his intent was simply just to show the awkwardness and as you put it, like the purity of, like the intent of running away and starting a new life. And like the absurdity of it too, like when they're like about to get in the boat and or like at the chapel.

Eli Price (01:20:35.93)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:20:42.714)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:20:46.306)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (01:20:53.262)
And I forget which Khaki Scout says it, but he's like, I think they should take the nickels. I'm worried for their future. Like, it's a tennis can full of nickels, but like, you're worried about their future. And he's like, that's my fee. Yeah, it's so funny.

Eli Price (01:20:59.708)
Yeah, that marriage scene is great.

full of nickels. And Jason Schwartzman, Cousin Ben. Yeah. Jason Schwartzman is great in that little sequence. Oh, man. Yeah. And I love.

Thomas Pears IV (01:21:17.638)
And it's those things that like bring you into like, oh, it's okay, because it's absurd.

Eli Price (01:21:22.86)
Right, yeah. Yeah, and I love how like, they're like saying like, we wanna get married. And he's like, well, it's not gonna hold up any, like for any state court. Yeah. He's like, but the ritual is very meaningful. And yeah, the ritual is very important and like morally important for you. And so, but then they're like, yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:21:34.726)
Yeah, in any court state.

Thomas Pears IV (01:21:39.606)
But the commitment is very so, yeah.

Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:21:49.226)
Now go talk it over at that trampoline.

Eli Price (01:21:51.788)
Go talk it over there and they like go and like for like half a minute and walk back and they're like Yeah, we want to do it But uh, and then like all the all the Scouts like are on board with it. They're like, yeah We're gonna be the witnesses for this. But yeah, it's really I don't know like I've said several times very cute and but I think it also like I think one of the big things of this movie is How

Thomas Pears IV (01:22:00.544)
Oh my gosh.

Thomas Pears IV (01:22:07.606)
Mmm.

Eli Price (01:22:22.192)
There's this tension, I feel like, between these kids, both Sam and Susie and then all the Scouts that end up helping them, there's this tension between them and their outlook on life, and then the outlook of the adults and the social systems in place. And I think one of the things cool about this film is that it seems to, for one,

Thomas Pears IV (01:22:43.438)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:22:51.036)
All the nature use that we've talked about that kind of clashes with what West normally does with all the control the nature like clashes with this social systems both in the filmmaking and then like literally with the flood and the storm But also like just like the juxtaposition of how these kids see life and how the adults see life They're

You know, the adults are obviously way more jaded and like cynical and the kids much more like innocent and pure and like ready for something new. And yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:23:30.462)
Ready to grow, optimistic, ready for the next stage of life.

Eli Price (01:23:34.644)
Right and I love that and I was reading an essay and it said something to the effect of like Sam and Suzy It's not so much about like that. They lose their innocence But they like awaken to like this mature intelligence But at the same time to the recognition that the world that they live in is like either hostile or indifferent to

this new mature intelligence and romance that they found. Which I think is really relatable, I think when you think about, when you think back to being a kid and thinking about like, you think about all the possibilities of what I can be and what I can do, and then you jump out into the world and the world is like hostile to that.

Thomas Pears IV (01:24:27.804)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:24:27.84)
in a way, like the just the systems that are in place and the way that adults treat you when you're young. It's very like hostile to that kind of pure wonder of what I can be and what I can do. And I think that's a very important thing being explored in this movie. And you know being, you know, I'm a parent of two young kids and you're about to have a kid.

yourself, your first kid. And so like, being parents, you think like that's, that's one of the things I was like taking away from this movie is, man, I don't, I never want my cynicism and jadedness with that comes from my experience. That's kind of like inescapable in a way to like crush the dreams and the wonder that my kids might have with the world and they're what they want to do.

Thomas Pears IV (01:25:01.837)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:25:27.341)
Alright.

Eli Price (01:25:28.172)
Yeah, that you know the little line that Suzy says that she wants to go on adventures and not get stuck in one place Is a great line And I think very much You know there as a theme in this film But yeah, I guess just for final thoughts to wrap up the Moonrise talk the adults in the film. You know we've kind of been hinting at it

With this what we were just talking about but they're like so many of the adults are like afflicted by You know anxiety fear and their personal failures And you know, they yeah, they end up it feels like they kind of perpetuate their problems down You know, they send these kids out who have access to in an interview like the interviewer

Thomas Pears IV (01:26:07.69)
Absolutely.

Eli Price (01:26:25.548)
Yeah, and these scouts have They end up having weapons and Wes's responses. Yes, they have access Which I thought was really funny Wes is like, yes, they have access to the weapons But yeah, like they're so like they're perpetuating Their values into these kids thinking And their fear into these kids and like sending these kids out into the woods almost like on a manhunt for these two kids

Thomas Pears IV (01:26:35.906)
I like that.

Eli Price (01:26:55.244)
And it just shows how your fear and anxiety and anger can manifest in a kid in such a blatant way. Obviously, the parents wouldn't go out with weapons, but the kids see the way that the adults are acting about it. And in their mind, it's justified to have weapons because they're seeing, this is how they're reacting. It's serious. These kids are bad. We need to take weapons.

Thomas Pears IV (01:27:17.816)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:27:25.704)
And I don't know, like it just makes you think on the one hand, like I was just talking about, you never want to like perpetuate those negative things into like the younger generation. But two, like it just shows you something that I think is a common theme in Wes movies that like the grownups or the adults and their institutions are like unfinished just as much as the kids.

And their worlds are unfinished, too. There's always room to grow, I think, is something that Wes touches on a lot in his films. Yeah. And so like, I guess, like just those closing thoughts of just like. Just thinking about that as a as an adult that interacts with kids and has kids of my own, just like. I don't want to perpetuate.

Thomas Pears IV (01:27:58.466)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (01:28:04.244)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:28:25.04)
the negative things about me down to them. And also at the same time, I wanna learn from them that more pure outlook on life, you know. Yeah, did you have any final thoughts along those lines?

Thomas Pears IV (01:28:37.545)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:28:42.634)
Well, I mean, tying into what you just said, it just reminded me of the scene when Suzy is opening up to Sam and she says something along the lines of like, her life is incredibly hard or something like that. And Sam says, I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about. And earlier,

Eli Price (01:29:00.72)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:29:04.154)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:29:10.084)
Well, yeah, she's she says she said talks about how she reads a lot about orphans and she thinks that orphans life lives are more interesting. She wishes she was an orphan. And and that's when he says, like, I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about. And she says, I love you back. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:29:18.47)
Oh, that's right.

Thomas Pears IV (01:29:23.416)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:29:30.182)
Yeah, I love her response in that moment because and I think it's something that, you know, even as an adult, I think you can take away and just be like, oh, my gosh, the response and how. I hear love like earlier, they had a little fight about when she showed Sam like the pamphlet that said, like how to deal with a troubled child and he laughed.

Eli Price (01:29:33.07)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:29:56.028)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:29:58.762)
And she was like, oh, you really know how to make friends. But in that moment, there was love actually genuinely expressed and told blatantly, and instead of fighting over the, um, the comment of, you don't know what you're talking about, she focused in on the love and I don't know if I'm overthinking it or not, but I mean, even something that I could do with my wife of like looking more deeply into.

Eli Price (01:30:06.844)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:30:14.924)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:30:19.789)
No, I don't think so.

Thomas Pears IV (01:30:27.626)
sharing love more intentionally, I think is a beautiful thing and something that was really captured well in that moment between Sam and Susie and something that I think is replicated well towards the end of the film of like you realize that really all of these characters really just want to be known and accepted and loved even down to the policeman, the scout master.

Eli Price (01:30:49.092)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:30:54.033)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:30:54.114)
these kids and then ultimately in the end, you just see ways in which they can do that. Like Bruce Willis realizes that like after his conversation with Miss Bishop, when she's like, I have to do better. He does better in adopting Sam. And he realizes there's love that can be shown in that way. Sam and Susie still continue their first love by.

Eli Price (01:31:10.405)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:31:13.819)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:31:22.838)
being close to one another, but in a respectful way to their parents. And then the two lawyers of Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, like Mr. Bishop was getting drunk and chopping down a tree. But now that like in the church, they've like come together, reciting laws and. They're having dinner together. And I think it's a beautiful thing that West was able to capture a struggle. Of so many different people, but ultimately.

Eli Price (01:31:33.753)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:31:41.427)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:31:46.253)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:31:52.034)
finding love and intentionality in so many different ways. So yeah.

Eli Price (01:31:53.681)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and that's such a common theme for west is like these characters that are very flawed Somehow like finding themselves in a place of reconciliation Whether they were looking for it or not Which I love and uh Yeah, bruce will I think that moment goes back to that conversation that we talked about earlier Where they're talking about his young love and you know, it's

Thomas Pears IV (01:32:12.29)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:32:26.936)
Maybe Bruce realizing like this is something I can do that's like maybe doesn't make sense, but is exciting and maybe like Something new but also like a way that I can find like purity of love again By you know taking this kid in I don't know like and like I said before like

Thomas Pears IV (01:32:48.866)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:32:53.456)
The emotion, like the emotional heaviness of that, like doesn't entirely hit for me when I watched it, at least when I watched it this time. And I think part of it is tied to, I don't totally buy into Bruce Willis's performance in this role, which is unfortunate because I think he does a good job. I just like personally wasn't able to like connect with it. But I do think that's a very like important.

Thomas Pears IV (01:33:11.412)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:33:22.692)
in the film and I do like see the meaning there for sure. But yeah, yeah and you know just with Sam and Suzy's love as we're wrapping this up, you know, one of the things that I had written down that I saw somebody write, I can't even remember where it was, was that like part of the great part of their, I guess love for each other is that they're headstrong, but they're always willing to bend to each other's needs.

Thomas Pears IV (01:33:28.528)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:33:52.46)
And that ties it back into what you were saying of something you can take away from their love for your own, you know, love with your spouses that, yeah, you know, I might be headstrong and I might think I'm right, but I always need to be willing to like bend to the needs of, of others. And that's something that you learned from these kids and their romance, which is a really cool thing. Um, but yeah. Yeah, that's.

Thomas Pears IV (01:33:52.991)
Mm.

Eli Price (01:34:21.848)
Moonrise Kingdom. There's a lot. There's so much more we could talk about. Just like we didn't talk a ton about like the scene in the church. We didn't talk a ton about like just like walking through the camp ground for the scouts, which is just an amazing, incredible, like tracking shot following Ed Norton through the camp. Man, there's so much great. And this movie is really like I don't know that we like really touched on it a lot. But.

Thomas Pears IV (01:34:26.655)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:34:42.57)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (01:34:50.94)
There's a lot of comedy in this movie. There's a lot of funny stuff that goes on.

Thomas Pears IV (01:34:54.29)
Oh yeah, when he opens up the tent and he's like, he flew the coop. Like he cut a hole out of the tent.

Eli Price (01:34:59.34)
Yeah, you feel the coop. And it just, and it cuts. Yeah, it, it whip hands back to the kids and they're all just like crowded around the tent hole, like looking. But yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:35:11.212)
Yeah.

It's very Shawshank Redemption-esque to it.

Eli Price (01:35:16.072)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So what would you rate Moonrise Kingdom and where does it fit as far if you were having to like place it in like maybe top, mid or bottom tier West? Like where would you place it?

Thomas Pears IV (01:35:34.89)
Ooh, well, I think on letterbox, I gave this either a four or a 4.5 out of five. I really do like it. I just pulled up Wes's films just so I can get a visual of it.

Eli Price (01:35:42.587)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:35:53.808)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:35:57.582)
That's... hard.

Eli Price (01:35:59.424)
It is tough for sure. That's why I said tears and not like necessarily like a specific spot.

Thomas Pears IV (01:36:07.743)
Yeah, um...

I'm going to totally write off Asteroid City because that's not out yet at the time we're doing this.

Eli Price (01:36:15.644)
Right. Yeah, you can't really rank it yet.

Thomas Pears IV (01:36:20.426)
Let's see, let me just.

Eli Price (01:36:22.46)
So I'll say this while you're thinking about it. I personally gave it a four stars. Like I said, like I didn't emotionally connect with this. Like I do some of other Wes's stuff, which is, you know, just for me personally, emotional like connection to a movie plays really heavily into what I rate it. Other people might not count emotional connected as like,

Heavy in their rating. That's that's cool. Ratings are very subjective and don't really mean anything Like i've said so many times, but um, but yeah, I give it a four um a four out of five uh stars and um, and I guess to me like I struggle with whether it's like mid to low tier um And part of that is like we were talking about I don't really have any of wes's films rated

Thomas Pears IV (01:36:58.019)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:37:22.136)
like lower than four stars. I just like really enjoy all of them. So it's kind of hard. Like I have my four that I think are the like, just like top tier, I love these, they're the best. And then all the other ones are kind of like, it's almost like there's only two tiers, my favorite ones and then the rest of them for me.

Thomas Pears IV (01:37:24.883)
Exactly.

Thomas Pears IV (01:37:43.282)
Yeah, exactly. Like I didn't hate them. I actually enjoyed them. But these are like the quintessential. Like I could watch these all the time. Yeah, after you mentioned that and after I did like some math on my fingers, I'd probably rank it kind of the mid. I mean, on the on the verge of being a top tier, but right in the middle, I think is a safe spot because I mean.

Eli Price (01:37:46.541)
Right.

Eli Price (01:37:50.62)
Sure. Right.

Eli Price (01:38:02.808)
Yeah, I can agree with that.

Thomas Pears IV (01:38:12.11)
There are so many other ones that I've watched so often, like the Grand Budapest Fantastic Mr. Fox, the French Dispatch. It's just, it's so hard for me. And then him adding another one in two weeks is just gonna be.

Eli Price (01:38:21.443)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:38:32.91)
pleasantly difficult, I would say, for me to rank him, because I'm just so happy there's another one with an even bigger cast. Like, it's so exciting.

Eli Price (01:38:35.02)
Yeah, right. Exactly.

Eli Price (01:38:43.276)
Yeah, I think actually, um the i'm trying to think when this recording is going to come out For the listener, you know, I record these ahead of time And so the astro city might be hitting live release The weekend this releases so um, you know

Thomas Pears IV (01:38:54.862)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:39:01.59)
Yeah, it'll be June 23rd when it comes out.

Eli Price (01:39:04.668)
Yeah, yeah, and I'm that's when this episode is Slated to release so yeah, so maybe um you're listening to this and you already know how good asteroid city is because you've already seen it So this might this might not age well, but who knows Yeah Yeah, yeah, I don't honestly don't know how I wouldn't want like it, you know

Thomas Pears IV (01:39:19.127)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:39:23.946)
I hope it's fantastic.

Thomas Pears IV (01:39:33.268)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:39:33.568)
Well, this is just one of those directors where I can just count on liking the movie. So, yeah, so, yeah, maybe you can, if you've seen Asteroid City and know what you think about it, which we will cover at the end of this series, you can go ahead and like reach out to me and let me know what you thought about it on, on social media. But yeah. Um, so yeah, just to wrap this up, uh, we, you know, we talked about Moonrise Kingdom up next.

Thomas Pears IV (01:39:38.412)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:40:03.064)
We have Grand Budapest Hotel, which Thomas has mentioned a couple of times. Um, it's Wes's biggest film, both like in, I guess maybe scope, uh, but also in, you know, it's reception, you know, uh, how well, how well it did. Uh, so yeah, I'm excited for next week to get into Grand Budapest Hotel. Uh, but for now we're going to take a quick break.

Thomas Pears IV (01:40:18.146)
budget and yeah.

Eli Price (01:40:31.88)
and come back with some movie news in our movie draft segments. So we will see you in a minute.

Eli Price (01:40:42.032)
sweet. Yeah, do you if you need to use the bathroom or whatever or take care of anything. Yeah, cool.

Thomas Pears IV (01:40:49.034)
Yeah, I'll be right back. I'm gonna go... uh, probably just say goodnight to my wife and then grab something. Okay, I'll be right back.

Eli Price (01:41:00.493)
I might be doing something to you.

Thomas Pears IV (01:41:02.894)
Okay.

Thomas Pears IV (01:46:13.776)
Oh.

Thomas Pears IV (01:46:17.014)
there.

Thomas Pears IV (01:48:36.77)
Dude, have you seen the memes that have come out about... I don't know the guy's name who voices Miles Morales, but he's been like really trying very hard to like shoot a shot with Hailey Steinfield. But I don't know if you know this, but Josh Allen is dating her now.

Eli Price (01:48:47.918)
Nah.

Eli Price (01:48:57.923)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (01:49:04.316)
That's funny.

Thomas Pears IV (01:49:06.178)
But he keeps saying like, I'm gonna send you it on Instagram.

Thomas Pears IV (01:49:16.75)
Are you not? There you are. He's like, it's really easy flirting as miles with Gwyn when I'm looking at Haley. And it's like, she just keeps getting more and more like, hmm, it's just like, you should just stop. It's not, it's not working for you.

Eli Price (01:49:40.912)
very happy to work with Haley. Yeah. I gotta do this. I gotta make, I gotta make the movie. I'm gonna watch Paper Moon, just so I. So you know. Just so I can like, be closer to Haley. It's easier looking at Haley than being miles trying to get to me.

Eli Price (01:50:00.068)
Dude, that's great.

Thomas Pears IV (01:50:02.134)
Hehehe

Eli Price (01:50:07.878)
Oh man.

Thomas Pears IV (01:50:08.266)
Very funny stuff. Okay, I'm ready to take you down.

Eli Price (01:50:14.968)
Alright yeah, we'll do um When we jump back in we'll do the movie news Which uh I don't foresee spending too much time on that Just kind of like touch on thoughts and Then move into the draft So what let's do let's do Let's start with seven each for the draft and then if we're just really feeling it will go to ten

Thomas Pears IV (01:50:15.751)
and my uh

Thomas Pears IV (01:50:20.952)
Okay.

Thomas Pears IV (01:50:43.648)
Okay.

Eli Price (01:50:45.016)
Yeah, it just depends on like how long it's going, you know?

Thomas Pears IV (01:50:47.291)
Okay.

All right. OK.

Eli Price (01:50:52.196)
But yeah, so let's do this. Let's pause for a second so that I can find this when I'm doing post-production. And then I'll just jump in, welcome people back and whatnot.

Eli Price (01:51:24.408)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the establishing shot. I'm still here with Thomas. We really enjoyed our discussion on Moonrise Kingdom. There is still so much about that movie left on the table. But alas, we had to move on to moving news, which we are gonna start right now. So this is something that I noticed. I-

I guess not that I noticed, but that I've just thought about recently. So the thing that sparked it was there's this new kind of, it feels like a traditional comedy coming out with Jennifer Lawrence, No Hard Feelings. I don't know if you've seen anything about it.

Thomas Pears IV (01:52:16.062)
Is that the one where she's like trying to get a kid ready for like life away from home?

Eli Price (01:52:22.924)
Yeah, yeah, it's I think the premise is like this boy's parents, you know, he's not like a boy I guess like he's a like Yeah, young adult these parents of this guy Hire Jennifer Lawrence to like date their son sort of thing. So I think that's like the basic premise But yeah, it's like it's just like it's a comedy, you know and

Thomas Pears IV (01:52:31.982)
teenager.

Thomas Pears IV (01:52:42.979)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:52:51.956)
It got me thinking about how like we really don't see a ton of like big like Bring people to the theater hit comedies anymore You see a lot of comedies Or like rom-coms go straight to streaming these days And yeah, I was just thinking like why is that like why is there not? such huge comedies anymore that like

So like, you know, when I was growing up, in the 2000s is when I was in like middle and high school. And so like, you know, from, you know, 2002, really, to 2009. So that whole 2000s era, I was in middle and high school. And then there's like so many comedies that like were the conversation of like everyone in the culture, like

Quoting these comedies talking about them laughing about them with people and it just doesn't feel like that's like a Cultural conversation anymore like and it was so huge back then And yeah, it were sort of like a decade removed from that era now But yeah, I was just I don't know. Do you do you have any thoughts on to like why is it that there's not these huge? comedy hits anymore

I have a few thoughts on why it might be, but yeah, I wanted to hear what you might think.

Thomas Pears IV (01:54:28.986)
Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't really know for sure. Uh, I, me being

comedy snob, I guess. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna gatekeep comedy, but like, I just, there's an interesting YouTuber named Drew Gooden who did a video essay about the differences between SNL when he was a kid versus now and how he's like, oh, well, there's just nothing funny anymore.

Eli Price (01:54:39.804)
Hehehe

Eli Price (01:54:44.218)
Right.

Eli Price (01:55:03.384)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:55:08.346)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:55:08.498)
Um, versus when growing up, like with like Andy Samberg and Bill Hader, it was like, this is like the height of comedy. Um, basically what he was talking about was like comedy changes for different generations, um, which I agree to an extent, but I also feel like everybody can be funny nowadays, like.

Eli Price (01:55:19.108)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:55:26.808)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:55:35.403)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (01:55:35.43)
I go on TikTok regularly and there are some guys that would make me cry laughing just off of a ten second joke. And it allows me to fill in my imagination of what happens after the skit. But there are so many jokes nowadays where it's almost like syndrome in The Incredibles where it's like when everyone's super.

Eli Price (01:55:55.074)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (01:56:04.926)
no one will be. And that's kind of like my thought process on the comedies at the very least. But if anything, comedy has just kind of become superhero movies, which I'm not complaining about, but like.

Eli Price (01:56:06.547)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (01:56:15.77)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:56:22.124)
Right. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about like the generational thing. So like comedy is very much like changes from generation to generation. And so I don't know, maybe that's so like one of the things that like. For so for me and then like people that are like anywhere from five to ten years younger than me, there's this like gap where. Like.

I understand surface level memes, like a picture of something with words on it that makes sense, that's the meme for me. But that generation, like I said, five-ish to 10-ish years younger than me, there's just so many layers of what memes can do for jokes that is just beyond me. And I think if they were to explain it to me, I just would be like, okay, like...

Thomas Pears IV (01:56:55.714)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:57:20.288)
I guess I see how that might be funny. But by that point, I'm like, it's not funny because you had to explain it like for five minutes to me. But that but that's just like a generational gap. It's not to say like that. The jokes I like are better than the jokes and memes they like. It's just different, you know, and that might be part of it. It might just be like the comedy that works for people in this next upcoming generation are just like.

Thomas Pears IV (01:57:23.595)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (01:57:30.614)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (01:57:41.355)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:57:50.564)
It's just like different. It doesn't, and it's not in a traditional, what you would call like straight comedy movie anymore. But yeah, I hadn't really thought about that aspect of it, but that's definitely something that might be in play there. One of the things I had written down, just a couple of maybe like theories. So for one,

You know, one. So one of the things I think there's two main reasons I think that this might be the case. One is very much more like. Superficial commercial, you know, capitalist sort of reason, which is just that like comedy, just like we were just talking about, it's generational. It's also like cultural, like culturally specific. So like.

Thomas Pears IV (01:58:47.139)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:58:47.804)
things that are funny for Americans aren't gonna be funny like most other places. Unless it's like, maybe like slapstick is just funny to everybody. But like, you know, a comedy that is made here for Americans that have an American sensibility and American like sense of humor is just not gonna be funny anywhere else. And so like when these big studios

are these big studios are focused so much on foreign markets today. So like when, uh, illumination like teamed up with Nintendo to like do a Mario movie, it's just like, they're like, oh yeah, we have this character that is world a worldwide known character in video games that just no one's tapping into that market. So I was like super smart business decision, like, and we just saw like Super Mario Brothers hit.

Thomas Pears IV (01:59:34.638)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:59:44.509)
Like it hit the billion mark worldwide as far as money made And I like I want to say that puts it in like the top

10 to 20 like all time, which is incredible. But that's what studios are focused on these days. They're focused on what can make us money everywhere because like if you're only tapping into one market, which is the American market, then you're not, I don't know, they wanna make a bunch of money is what it comes down to. And so when you make just a straight comedy, you really can only make money here.

Thomas Pears IV (02:00:00.117)
Mmm.

Eli Price (02:00:21.956)
It's not going to do well in foreign markets. People aren't going to see it. They're not going to get it. And I think that plays into what you were talking about. You see a lot of like comedy and superhero movies or action movies these days. And I think that's part of the reason is because they still know, they know that people still want to laugh at the movie theater and the movie theater. And so they, they're like, well, how can we still work comedy?

Thomas Pears IV (02:00:27.308)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:00:47.456)
into these movies we're putting out, but still tap into foreign markets and make a lot of money worldwide. And I think that's how they're doing it. They're just plugging in comedy into action movies, into superhero movies, even into like dramas to a certain degree because there's a degree to which like dramas and human emotion is similar worldwide. But yeah, I think that's one reason.

Thomas Pears IV (02:00:53.984)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:01:17.6)
and I think it's I think it's a very like plausible reason why These movies that are like mostly straight comedies or rom-coms are mostly just going straight to streaming And I think I think they're like Lesser quality because of that to be honest They're not as funny and they're not as like good I don't think but um but another reason I think like is just because of

Thomas Pears IV (02:01:31.916)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:01:39.614)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:01:47.012)
I don't know, it's kind of like the day and age we live in with just like, you think about guys like Dave Chappelle, who is like so over, like people telling him what he can and can't joke about and is going to make. Yeah. And then he goes ahead and does it because he's, he's Dave Chappelle, but it's a, it is a problem. Like for comedians these days is like, there's jokes that they

Thomas Pears IV (02:02:01.554)
And then he goes ahead and does it.

Eli Price (02:02:15.832)
that would be funny that they could tell and people would laugh because it's funny. It's maybe like hitting on a truth or an aspect of seeing things or a perspective. Like that's what comedy is. It's taking things that we see and like making a joke about it, which isn't saying like making light of it necessarily. A lot of times when you make jokes about things like it actually makes it more prescient and makes it more like.

Invisible it makes it more like it's good to laugh at bad things sometimes because You know it brings it to view it makes you see In a different light or a different perspective But just like the kind of culture we live in which is so ready to Cancel someone for saying the wrong thing. I think I think people are scared to put out straight comedies that might offend someone

Um, you know, and that's one, that's one thing that like I've been in, like, you know, I, I guess I get to a certain degree, like should a comedy be like super sexist? Well, no. Should a comedy be like super racist? Well, no, like, and I think there's a degree to which like growing in that way is good. Um,

Thomas Pears IV (02:03:19.042)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:03:43.351)
Right.

Eli Price (02:03:43.892)
in culture, growing in our sensibilities in that way, like, OK, maybe this isn't funny to do in this way anymore because we've grown and we're more aware of.

Thomas Pears IV (02:03:54.99)
Right. OOF

Eli Price (02:04:00.283)
You good?

Thomas Pears IV (02:04:01.077)
Oops.

Eli Price (02:04:07.461)
I'll probably just cut that out.

Although it would be funny to just keep it in there.

Thomas Pears IV (02:04:15.218)
a YouTube video from, did you hear the YouTube video playing?

Eli Price (02:04:21.3)
No, I didn't. All right, I'm going to pick. I'm going to.

Thomas Pears IV (02:04:23.274)
Okay, great.

Eli Price (02:04:27.824)
I'm gonna pick back in where I left off.

Thomas Pears IV (02:04:31.374)
Sorry.

Eli Price (02:04:34.728)
Yeah. Yeah, I guess like just studios in general are just like. You know, scared to make these sort of movies and put them out there these days because of who it might offend or, you know, they're trying to make money. They're not interested in putting something out that might offend someone, which is one reason like I wouldn't say I'm impressed, but I am like.

Wow, Netflix really has some cojones to put out those Dave Chappelle specials that make people so upset. And when people do get upset and complain to Netflix, they're like, we don't care, we're putting his stuff out because he made it and we're going to put it out there. So yeah, it's really interesting.

Thomas Pears IV (02:05:25.793)
Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like Netflix teeters the line, though, with, like, they'll put just about anything out, in my opinion, and it'll offend. And then if it's too much of offense, like if it offends, like, an entire religion or, um, like, uh, gender identity or whatever, it's like, Ooh. Or like, for example, like the, um, the documentary that came out recently about.

Eli Price (02:05:32.41)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:05:37.305)
Yeah, that's true.

Thomas Pears IV (02:05:58.158)
Cleopatra and it like offended all of Egypt. Yeah, like I saw people on the news that were like part of Egyptian government. They were like, we do not support this documentary. And I was like, okay, like at some point you should just like take it down if you've if you've offended an entire country.

Eli Price (02:06:03.022)
Wow.

Eli Price (02:06:26.272)
Yeah, maybe so. But yeah, it's an interesting conversation for sure. Like why are big hit comedies that are like a cultural phenomenon just not non-existent? And, you know, I think I think it's probably a combination of all the things we've talked about and probably some things we haven't really thought of between the two of us. Maybe someone, maybe a listener out there has.

Thomas Pears IV (02:06:28.545)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:06:45.377)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:06:55.524)
different theory that they want to share When this releases and I'd love to hear it, but um, but yeah Going ahead and moving off of that topic into our movie draft Which is right along with the topic of comedies Thomas and I are gonna be drafting two thousands comedies which I might be biased because I grew up with these movies, but

Thomas Pears IV (02:07:16.171)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:07:20.79)
Hell yeah.

Eli Price (02:07:25.516)
I really think like that the 2000s were the heyday of the comedy like the 90s Had some really good comedies, you know The 80s had some pretty good comedies and there's good ones after but 2000s It's just like there's so many

Thomas Pears IV (02:07:31.699)
Oh my gosh, they were phenomenal.

Thomas Pears IV (02:07:46.814)
Yeah, when going through my draft list and like the limitation of years, I was just like, oh my gosh, if this had gone to 2016, my list would be probably triple what it is now. And I have 30 movies on my list just because I was like, oh, well, Eli's 100% going for that one. So I need to add one that's like either equal or...

Eli Price (02:08:04.272)
Ha ha.

Eli Price (02:08:13.008)
Ha ha ha.

Thomas Pears IV (02:08:16.618)
something to settle on, I guess.

Eli Price (02:08:18.144)
Right. Yeah. So, yeah, actually, Thomas earlier today texted me. We have a little Google Doc with like the outline and notes for the show. And Thomas texted me and was like, Hey, hey, you haven't looked at the Google Doc this afternoon, have you? And I was like, no. And he was like, oh, good, because I accidentally put my whole list of movies I wanted to draft on. Oh, man. Oh, man.

Thomas Pears IV (02:08:26.742)
Hahaha

Thomas Pears IV (02:08:40.955)
I was like, you idiot! You idiot! You gave it all away!

I was yelling that at myself.

Eli Price (02:08:47.676)
So that, yeah, that gave me a good chuckle when I read that text. But yeah, we're gonna jump in. If you're tuning into the movie draft segment for the first time, you know, basically the way this works is Thomas and I are trying to draft the best team of movies within this category. And so we'll take turns drafting one and then once it's off, once it's been taken, it can't be taken again, you know?

Thomas Pears IV (02:08:53.25)
Gave me a good fright.

Eli Price (02:09:17.624)
And so, and we'll definitely be putting up a poll to see who has drafted the best team of 2000s comedies. And this always, not always, but a lot of times this bites me because the person that takes the first pick gets to take the possibly best one. But I like to give my first time guess the first pick. So Thomas, you have the first pick.

Thomas Pears IV (02:09:40.411)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:09:47.19)
That's very kind. Because if you had taken this one, I probably just would have quit because this one is by far.

Eli Price (02:09:47.737)
What's it gonna be?

Thomas Pears IV (02:09:59.266)
the most, like the best one on my list, which is...

Eli Price (02:10:05.436)
drum roll.

Thomas Pears IV (02:10:06.478)
Tropic Thunder.

Eli Price (02:10:08.124)
Tropic Thunder, okay.

Thomas Pears IV (02:10:11.666)
Yes, I love Tropic Thunder.

Eli Price (02:10:11.872)
This is, I have actually not seen Tropic Thunder.

Thomas Pears IV (02:10:17.382)
No. You haven't? Oh my gosh. Eli, you need to watch Tropic Thunder. My dad showed me this movie. Oh, there are so many funny parts of this movie that are just like so terrible, but so incredibly funny at the same time. The star-studded cast, Tom Cruise has a

Eli Price (02:10:18.396)
I haven't seen it. I have not seen Tropic Thunder.

Eli Price (02:10:25.248)
Yeah, it's got a great cast.

Thomas Pears IV (02:10:46.814)
And he said the only way he wanted to be in it is if he could have fat hands and dance. And he got that. And it's just so, it's so absurd. It's a movie about a movie making the movie. And it's just, it's very, very funny. I'm very surprised you haven't seen it though. You definitely need to add that to your list.

Eli Price (02:11:05.434)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:11:10.138)
Yeah.

It's just, yeah, it's just one that kind of slipped through the cracks, I guess, unfortunately. But yeah, I'll definitely add that to my list. Because I did not expect you to take it number one, because for one, I haven't seen it. But yeah. Well, man, you've left me with a conundrum because I think there's two that are probably towards the top of my list of like ones that I feel like are definitive for the.

for that decade of comedies, but I'm gonna go with probably, I'm gonna go with the one that I think is like the, one of the most definitive ones and a great one, which is Anchorman. Anchorman is, I mean Anchorman is like, like I still to this day, like quote things from Anchorman. Like all the time, like someone will,

Thomas Pears IV (02:11:56.566)
Dang it. Okay, that was my next one.

Thomas Pears IV (02:12:08.012)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:12:11.192)
you know, someone will do something, you know, whether it's my kid or my wife or something, and it's like, um, a bit much. And I'll say, well, I'm not even angry. I'm sort of impressed, which is, you know, what Will Farrell's Ron Burgundy says to Baxter, the dog who ate the whole wheel of cheese out of the fridge, you know, um, just like

Thomas Pears IV (02:12:23.516)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:12:32.123)
Mm-hmm. 60% of the time it works every time. Of like Sex Panther. It's absurd, but it's the it's such a good movie. I agree. I quote that movie all the time. I wish people... it's a good judge of character I feel like to quote Anchorman and if they get the reference then you know, oh, okay well, I have a guy or a girl that has good taste in humor.

Eli Price (02:12:34.928)
Yes, it's just.

Eli Price (02:12:41.597)
It's great.

Eli Price (02:12:51.38)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:13:00.65)
And if they say what, you're like, okay, well, there's still room for you in this friend group, but maybe I'll, I might have to put it in a little more work, so to say.

Eli Price (02:13:00.821)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:13:12.652)
Yeah, you have some homework to do, you know. Yeah, that's my pick at number two. So at the second overall pick, my. Yeah, well, my first pick, but second overall. So where are you going for your second pick?

Thomas Pears IV (02:13:16.108)
Mm-hmm.

Shoot, now I'm thinking hard.

Thomas Pears IV (02:13:23.396)
Okay, our number one. Oh, your number one.

Thomas Pears IV (02:13:32.554)
Well, I find myself in a little bit of a conundrum as well, because Will Ferrell is such a talented comedian, that I find myself bouncing around a little bit. But.

Eli Price (02:13:42.52)
Yes.

Thomas Pears IV (02:13:56.299)
Hmm.

I think.

I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go with all reliable, which is natural libre.

Eli Price (02:14:11.841)
Nice. Okay.

Nacho is great. It's one of my personal favorites to be honest. For me, I remember sitting, I'm pretty sure I saw this in theaters with my mom. She took me to see Nacho Libre. Bless her heart, you know, having to sit through that with me. But I remember the scene.

Thomas Pears IV (02:14:20.51)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:14:36.892)
Oh, I may have made a grave error.

Eli Price (02:14:42.052)
Well, you already took your pick now.

Thomas Pears IV (02:14:42.134)
I just saw, I just saw another, I know, I know. I hope you don't take the one I'm, I just, I put so many movies on a word.

Eli Price (02:14:45.784)
You should have ordered them. But but, yeah. I yeah, the. I remember sitting in the theater and it was like maybe half full, and there's the scene where he's singing the incarnation song and he does the line of like, I use I ate some bugs, I ate some grass, I use my hands and he's going up.

Thomas Pears IV (02:14:54.503)
Oh, this is terrifying.

Thomas Pears IV (02:15:08.147)
Incarnation

Eli Price (02:15:14.86)
He's like going this way down. I use my hand to wipe my and then he comes back up to his eyes to wipe my tears. And I laughed so hard and like no one else in the theater was like. Laugh laughing with me and I just like felt like Deanna, I get that how hilarious that was and the way he pulled it off. But I love Nacho Libre. It's a personal favorite. I quoted all the time. And so, yeah, I'm definitely.

Thomas Pears IV (02:15:18.883)
Mm-hmm.

My eyes. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:15:43.604)
is threshing pain.

Eli Price (02:15:45.348)
I'm definitely a little upset that you got nacho libre. But, uh...

Thomas Pears IV (02:15:49.694)
Okay, well that makes me feel a little better. Okay, well this is where.

Eli Price (02:15:52.48)
I'm gonna go with...

Another one that I feel like was very definitive for the decade. You didn't take the one I was thinking of. And that is the movie, the phenomenon of a movie, which is Borat. Borat, the subtitle being cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan.

Thomas Pears IV (02:16:14.491)
Oh, okay.

Thomas Pears IV (02:16:26.266)
I do love Borat. I actually watched Borat for the first time this past year. I had never watched it before and it was hilarious.

Eli Price (02:16:27.866)
BORAT

Eli Price (02:16:33.697)
So I have seen, yeah, I have seen scenes like here and there, like since it came out. I've seen like a scene here or a scene there, but I actually didn't, I did some homework for this. I was like, if we're gonna draft 2000s comedies, I've gotta sit down and watch Borat all the way through, which I had never done. And so I did that this past week and I was like, okay, I get why.

I was quoting this movie without even having seen the whole thing with my friends all the time. And I did want to mention with Borat, it's one of those movies where it's kind of like, I don't know what to do with it because I know when I was in... Let me see when this came out. I think I was 2006. So I want to say I was in like...

was maybe a freshman or sophomore in high school when this came out. And I know me and my friends. It was totally over our heads what Sasha Baron Cohen was Cohen was doing with this movie, which is like showing kind of the underbelly of America by like catching people in their prejudices and in their like, you know, that sort of thing. And but we just thought it was funny.

Thomas Pears IV (02:17:46.423)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:18:02.436)
So it's like it's like I don't know what to do with it because you have people that are laughing at it because They don't get the joke, but it's still funny because of the way it's pulled off And I don't know if that's a good thing or not, you know I Don't know if that makes a whole lot of sense, but uh Yeah, so but it's just so good

Thomas Pears IV (02:18:03.541)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:18:14.648)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:18:22.822)
No, it makes a ton of sense. It's good and yeah, it's so many quotable things from that movie. My God, like, I mean, it's good to comment on what you said. Wow, wow, you. It's good in the sense that it's like it's so absurd that it just it you can't do anything except laugh. But then

Eli Price (02:18:31.944)
Yes. Wawa wee wah.

Eli Price (02:18:44.603)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:18:48.576)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (02:18:50.65)
Also, it's good in the sense of like, good and bad of like exposing, like you said, prejudices, but also when he would interview politicians and stuff like that. But some of my favorite moments from Bora were like when he like sat down at a dinner table and he was like talking about like how his wife, what did he say? It was like...

Eli Price (02:19:02.96)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:19:12.099)
Yes.

Thomas Pears IV (02:19:21.462)
the most beautiful whore or something like that. It was like so absurd and like disrespectful, but they're like, oh, he's from a different country. And like the rodeo, that was pretty funny too.

Eli Price (02:19:24.139)
Yeah

Eli Price (02:19:31.606)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:19:34.98)
The rodeo. So I actually read like a little I think it was in like the IMDB trivia But like he they had to like flee that place Because like the crowd was the crowd was like so like upset And it's so funny because at first they're like cheering for him and it starts like when he gets to the part where he's like George Bush will drink the blood of every man woman and child

Thomas Pears IV (02:19:45.678)
That w- that makes sense.

Thomas Pears IV (02:19:59.63)
singing the anthem and stuff. Drink the blood and tears.

Eli Price (02:20:05.252)
Yes, like there's still people cheering but it does wane it does wane off a little bit but they're still like he's still here cheers and then when he gets into the Yeah, the Kazakh national anthem to the tune of the US national anthem. That's when like everything went down but uh, the yeah Borat

Thomas Pears IV (02:20:13.17)
Yeah, I go, what did he just say?

Thomas Pears IV (02:20:24.386)
starts to go wrong.

Eli Price (02:20:27.944)
Not to not to commandeer the conversation, but yeah, Borat is, I think a definitive movie of that decade and very funny. So, yeah, that's my second pick. Where are you going for your number three pick?

Thomas Pears IV (02:20:39.832)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:20:44.626)
Okay, I'm between two.

Eli Price (02:20:49.34)
Will you take one and I'll take the other one?

Thomas Pears IV (02:20:54.006)
That sounds good. The thing is, both of these movies that I'm trying to decide on, I do think that you will take one of them this next, this round. But they're so polarizing. Okay, well then I will go with the first one, because it's the first one that like really set the bar for me.

Eli Price (02:20:55.74)
Ha ha.

Eli Price (02:21:11.384)
Maybe, but maybe not.

Thomas Pears IV (02:21:24.982)
laughing very hard. I mean the other one really made me laugh like die-hard laughing as well, but it wasn't until I was older. So with this pick I'll go with another young favorite which is Hot Rod with Andy Samberg. Was that where you're going? Okay.

Eli Price (02:21:32.485)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:21:38.916)
Oh man. I was hoping to get that later. No, but I was hoping to get it later because it's a per it's that and Nacho Libre were probably two of my like ones that I watched the most as a kid, as like a teenager.

Thomas Pears IV (02:21:52.522)
Yeah, same. Like, Hot Rod was just so freaking funny. And like, I mean, all the side characters in that movie were, I think, so underrated. But like, the two scenes that made me laugh, probably the hardest where, like,

Andy Samberg continuously falling down a mountain basically, but when he was dancing in the woods.

Eli Price (02:22:18.188)
Yeah. And and after yeah, after he punched dances raged out in a in a wooded glen. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:22:27.826)
Yes, it was so funny and it was probably that movie that made me love timing and humor and comedy and subversion of expectations.

Eli Price (02:22:39.28)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:22:45.686)
Oh, he just tripped. Oh, he's still going. Oh my gosh, he's still going. And then the same.

Eli Price (02:22:48.38)
He's still going. It's like, it's that point of comedy where like, there in some, like some comedic filmmakers have that gift of like knowing, okay, I'm gonna push this joke too far. And then, but it's gonna get to a point where if I can just push right beyond that too far, then it's gonna be even funnier by making it last that long. And like knowing how to do that well. And I think that scene is one of those where it-

Thomas Pears IV (02:23:05.923)
Right.

Thomas Pears IV (02:23:12.626)
Oh yeah, 100%.

Eli Price (02:23:18.24)
It just becomes comedic how long he's falling.

Thomas Pears IV (02:23:22.694)
Oh, for sure. And then the other one is even better when like they're starting to sing in the streets and then a riot breaks out. That, oh my gosh. When I saw that, I was crying laughing. Like, I mean, even to this day, I rewatched it a couple months ago and I was just like laughing so hard. Julianna, my wife and I, we like to watch that movie. It's a good repeat movie.

Eli Price (02:23:31.235)
Yeah

Eli Price (02:23:52.648)
Oh yeah, for sure. I like to stay, say stay sweet. Sometimes, you know, when I'm leaving, stay sweet. Yeah, great movie. Man, you took two of my personal favorites that I was hoping to grab. Oh.

Thomas Pears IV (02:24:00.995)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

Thomas Pears IV (02:24:09.29)
So far you've gotten one of mine. So I'm nervous where you're going with this. So what's your, what's the six overall pick?

Eli Price (02:24:16.224)
I guess I'll go to one that was one that I didn't like as much as Nacho Libre or Hot Rod, but also watched a ton, and that was like a huge cultural, like everyone was quoting, which was Napoleon Dynamite.

Thomas Pears IV (02:24:37.502)
Dang it. Okay. I knew we were on the same page with.

Eli Price (02:24:39.173)
Uh, yeah, I mean like.

Like, Tina, you fat lard, eat your dinner. Like, you've got some, like, I see you ate all the freaking chips, Kip. Like, I still have all of these quotes, like, in my head from this movie that I watched over and over. But yeah, Napoleon Dynamite was such a strange, like, there's no reason that movie should have been as successful as it was. But it was just so strange and hitting this weird

Thomas Pears IV (02:24:47.455)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:24:54.569)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:25:10.647)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:25:12.54)
comedic tone that like it just became a cultural phenomenon like Everyone that was growing up During the 2000s watched Napoleon Dynamite at some point whether they wanted to or not

Thomas Pears IV (02:25:25.228)
Oh yeah.

Yeah, I had a vote for Pedro shirt when I was a kid.

Eli Price (02:25:30.893)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:25:34.814)
Yeah, there are, I mean, I love that. That's a good one. Okay.

Eli Price (02:25:35.204)
But yeah, that's my third pick, so.

Eli Price (02:25:40.668)
Where are you gonna go with your next one?

Thomas Pears IV (02:25:44.318)
Well, I'm going to go with the one that I was debating, which is step brothers.

Eli Price (02:25:50.036)
Yeah, step brothers is a good one. It's not one that I've like I Don't know that I've actually seen step brothers like all the way through I think I've seen most of it, you know kind of watching it on TV back in the day So yeah, I guess that's maybe why it's not one of my like favorites, but yeah, it's a good one

Thomas Pears IV (02:26:04.984)
Mm. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:26:12.126)
Yeah, there's so many... One of my favorite things to do with Will Ferrell movies is just look up the bloopers that happen afterwards. And like if I'm ever, ever having a bad day, I'll just look up like Anchorman bloopers and then also Step Brothers bloopers because they start riffing off of each other. So like an Anchorman, I like... I can't...

Eli Price (02:26:22.477)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (02:26:32.827)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:26:42.234)
I'm going to keep it PG, but like Will Ferrell said like some of the most heinous things to like Paul Rudd on Anchorman. And it was so funny because all they were trying to do was just make everyone break. And with Stepbrothers, it's just like, it's too, it's

Eli Price (02:26:48.284)
Ha ha

Eli Price (02:26:54.231)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:26:57.74)
Uh huh.

Thomas Pears IV (02:27:10.418)
John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell just take it to a whole other level of like trying to make each other break and Like but it's It's so absurd because it's these grown men acting like kids And like there's a there's a blooper of them Yeah, like they're just sitting in their What is it called? Treehouse talking about like

Eli Price (02:27:17.826)
Yes.

Eli Price (02:27:26.224)
Hehehe

Eli Price (02:27:37.916)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:27:40.05)
all the sex that they've had. Knowing goodwill like that, that's never happened for them. It's just, it's so funny. They like constantly are breaking character. And they just come up with them like, so the most absurd things possible. And it's, it's very funny. But Step Brothers has also created one of the funniest songs ever.

Eli Price (02:27:47.993)
Right.

Eli Price (02:27:54.62)
Hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:28:10.214)
written which is Boats and Hoes and that was a pretty hilarious song that friends and family I like have sang along to that song because it was just so dang funny.

Eli Price (02:28:13.041)
Yes, I do remember that.

Eli Price (02:28:25.367)
Oh yeah.

Yes. All right, I'm got to, man, there's so many good choices. That's the thing with this decade of comedies. It's just so hard to choose.

Thomas Pears IV (02:28:28.894)
Okay, your fourth.

Thomas Pears IV (02:28:37.674)
I know, and we wrote out so much that it's hard to narrow down.

Eli Price (02:28:43.616)
Yeah, we said we're gonna start with seven and if we don't go too long We'll just keep going because there's so many to choose from I think Man it's

I think we're at the point where... Okay, I know where I'm going. I'm realizing I have skipped this movie, but it's another one that I think for me is in a similar vein to Anchorman that I loved growing up. And there's a song towards the beginning of this movie that still will randomly pop in my head. Which

is you'll know probably what I'm talking about when I say the movie and that is Zoolander. Zoolander is so great and I still have visions of them drinking that orange drink and the song like, wake me up before you go blank. That song pops in my head all the time. But man so many great like.

Thomas Pears IV (02:29:33.634)
That was my next pick. Dang it.

Thomas Pears IV (02:29:48.19)
for you go and they have the gasoline fights

Eli Price (02:29:53.772)
What is this a center for ants like when he sees the model for the

Thomas Pears IV (02:29:58.35)
How can we teach kids to how to read if we can't even fit them in the building? There's so many great quotes from Zoolander.

Eli Price (02:30:01.377)
Read good.

Eli Price (02:30:04.944)
Like, I think I have the black lung. Or not yet. Is that saying he's a mermaid and he's like, man. Oh, man, just so many good, so many good quotes from Zoolander. Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:30:12.386)
Black lung pop. Merman.

Mm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:30:23.234)
Do you think I'm a good oogoogeleizer?

Eli Price (02:30:28.444)
Oh man, that Hans is really hot right now.

Thomas Pears IV (02:30:36.338)
It's too funny and I mean everything from that movie has become a meme Yeah, yeah

Eli Price (02:30:37.881)
We should probably not quote all the quotes, right? But yeah, before we quote all the quotes of Zoolander where you don't feel the need to watch it, let's move to your next pick, Thomas.

Thomas Pears IV (02:30:54.546)
Okay. Well, I kind of wish I had taken Z-Lander with my previous pick. Um, cause I was thinking that.

Eli Price (02:31:06.456)
Little did you know, I haven't seen Step Brothers that much.

Thomas Pears IV (02:31:11.758)
Yeah, I know. You haven't seen like two of my movies that I was like certain you were going to go after. You really do need to watch Tropic Thunder though. It is, I have it, I'll loan it to you.

Eli Price (02:31:20.969)
I will promise.

Thomas Pears IV (02:31:28.15)
Um...

trying to go maybe off of how much I watched it versus just pure comedy. Uh, and also before I make this next week, I have to say that like, I made a longer list and then I realized that like 15 of my picks were from 2010. So there are 2010.

Eli Price (02:31:42.609)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:31:58.105)
Oh no.

Thomas Pears IV (02:32:01.138)
has an unbelievable amount of really great comedies. One of which is the other guys. I was like, oh, I wish that was 2009. Oh, it's so funny. Okay, well.

Eli Price (02:32:11.1)
The other guys is good. It's funny. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:32:18.828)
Yeah, 2000s is 2000 to 2009 for those listening.

Thomas Pears IV (02:32:24.919)
Yes. Um, I guess...

Thomas Pears IV (02:32:32.546)
I'm going to go with Talladega Knights.

Eli Price (02:32:37.788)
Good one. Great one. You got both of the great Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly team ups there.

Thomas Pears IV (02:32:47.07)
Yeah, I mean, as we're making this list, I'm realizing more and more how much Will Ferrell has dominated the 2000s just in comedies. Oh my gosh. And everything he's still in is still pretty dang hilarious, but shaking bank, but I just, I love to picture my, my Jesus just, just likes to party.

Eli Price (02:32:55.652)
He was, he dominated that decade, for sure.

Eli Price (02:33:02.616)
Shake and bake. He was shaking and baking.

Eli Price (02:33:14.577)
Oh man. Okay.

Thomas Pears IV (02:33:17.17)
Everybody look away. We're about to get Frankie. Don't you put that juju on me, Ricky Bobby. There's so many great quotes in there too. That is the question.

Eli Price (02:33:23.329)
Oh man.

Eli Price (02:33:28.068)
Alright, where should I go next? That's the question. Because I've shot myself in the foot thinking I could get hot rod later. I should have known you with your sense of humor that hot rod would be right up your alley. So I'm going to have to go with man. Oh, there's so many good ones. I'm going to go with.

Thomas Pears IV (02:33:40.099)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:33:59.064)
Superbad. Superbad is... I don't know, it's just another one of those ones that like kind of took over the cultural conversation when it came out. And like kind of became like a... It feels like people that are more knowledgeable might come at me and say like, no, you're wrong. It was this movie that defined...

Thomas Pears IV (02:34:01.75)
Ugh.

Thomas Pears IV (02:34:13.359)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (02:34:27.332)
this way to do this genre, but it felt like it like redefined the way to do like the coming-of-age like teen comedy where like a bunch of movies that came out after this in that vein were like kind of copying what Superbad did. And so yeah, yeah I love the... Superbad is a very funny movie. I don't know if I would say it's like one of my favorites from this era, but I feel

Thomas Pears IV (02:34:44.088)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:34:57.632)
I needed to take it because of how important it was. And I do still think it's very funny.

Thomas Pears IV (02:35:05.806)
Oh yeah, no doubt. I mean, there's a bunch of, I mean, McLovin became such a cultural phenomenon. I mean, they were selling t-shirts still with his fake ID on the back, or on the front of the shirts. Yeah, no, I love Superbad. It's a great movie. Bill Hader in that freaking movie is hilarious as well. Like, just such a hilarious support role as a cop that's trying to like...

Eli Price (02:35:11.044)
McLovin. Oh yeah. Chicken yeah.

Eli Price (02:35:19.936)
Mm-hmm. Yep, yep.

Eli Price (02:35:29.924)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:35:34.648)
Yeah, yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:35:36.162)
help McLovin out, but they're, him and Seth Rogen are just absolutely terrible police officers, but it's just another absurdity that makes this like setting so funny. Oh.

Eli Price (02:35:54.892)
Next pick. This is your sixth pick. We're in sixth deep now.

Thomas Pears IV (02:35:59.382)
Sixth.

Thomas Pears IV (02:36:07.182)
See, I'm at the point where I just, I feel like the 10 that have been picked so far are just.

Probably like I mean Zoo Lander was a big one I wanted Same with Anchorman

Eli Price (02:36:23.384)
I have a few still that I think are like really, really good ones.

Thomas Pears IV (02:36:29.422)
Um, same. It's just, well, I have still pretty good list of them. I just, it's hard to, for me.

Eli Price (02:36:29.852)
So you gotta step your game up. Heh heh.

Thomas Pears IV (02:36:42.962)
see which one's better. I feel like I've kind of hit the threshold of like, these are all in my eyes, still very good. I know it's hard. I wasn't as organized as you.

Eli Price (02:36:49.637)
Pick your favorite.

Eli Price (02:36:57.016)
I'm not organized. I'll show you my list. I just wrote a bunch down.

Thomas Pears IV (02:37:02.566)
Okay, then we are the same. We're just better at uh, you've had practice at this.

Eli Price (02:37:08.941)
That's what it is. Sure.

Thomas Pears IV (02:37:09.595)
Okay, how about...

Oh, you know what it is? I've got it.

Eli Price (02:37:18.288)
Hit me.

Thomas Pears IV (02:37:19.214)
going with bridesmaids.

Eli Price (02:37:22.32)
Oh, bridesmaids. I didn't even realize that was 2000s.

Thomas Pears IV (02:37:28.882)
Yeah, it's a...

Eli Price (02:37:30.093)
I've only seen it once.

Thomas Pears IV (02:37:34.842)
Oh, wait. No, 2011. Never mind. It was, whoops, not bridesmaids. Sorry. Who said that? We'll edit that out. Yeah, don't tell them I got the year wrong. Sorry about that. Um, OK, well, then I guess I will go with.

Eli Price (02:37:35.18)
No, it's not, it's 2011.

Eli Price (02:37:42.064)
Get out of here with that.

Eli Price (02:37:47.147)
Which is a very funny movie.

Thomas Pears IV (02:38:05.406)
Rush hour. I'm gonna go with rush hour.

Eli Price (02:38:08.184)
Rush Hour. Okay. I didn't even have Rush Hour on my radar because I just, I guess, I mean, it is very much a comedy. I just did not have it on my radar, I guess, probably just because it's.

Thomas Pears IV (02:38:20.171)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:38:27.512)
Like primarily like a. I don't know. I guess it's just as much comedy as it is action. When you think about it.

Thomas Pears IV (02:38:36.454)
Yeah, the way you're describing it is not making me feel better about my decision.

Eli Price (02:38:39.196)
Hey, wait a second. That's why it's not on my list, because it's 1998.

Thomas Pears IV (02:38:42.918)
Oh.

Thomas Pears IV (02:38:46.226)
Okay, third time's a charm.

Eli Price (02:38:49.953)
You you're really trying to pull a fast one on me. I feel like

Thomas Pears IV (02:38:50.566)
It was in the 2000 list. I know, I know, I know, I know. Okay, this one definitely was in, uh...

Let me just check before. I'm telling you, it was on my 2000s list on Letterbox. So.

Eli Price (02:39:04.63)
Ha ha.

Thomas Pears IV (02:39:13.358)
I'll have to look up the person. Okay. Okay, I had two that were wrong.

Eli Price (02:39:13.552)
Your list is wrong.

Alright, what's your real pick?

Thomas Pears IV (02:39:21.646)
Hot fuzz.

Eli Price (02:39:23.536)
Hot Fuzz, thought I could get that one later too. Hot Fuzz is a fantastic movie. Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, oh man. A buddy cop comedy where one of the buddies is a guy that loves buddy cop movies and wants so bad to be in a buddy cop movie.

Thomas Pears IV (02:39:30.899)
Oh, it's unreal.

It's great.

Thomas Pears IV (02:39:46.65)
Yeah, it's great. Like, it's such a subtle joke, too. But when he's getting another one, it's like when Simon Pegg's character is getting transferred, and how he like constantly has to go through the hierarchy of everything. And they're like, Do you really want me to call right now? And he's like, Yes. And he's like, Hey, you need to come in. And then like, there's like four people behind the desk at that point. And they're just like, you're going. And it's just

Eli Price (02:39:51.158)
Yes.

Eli Price (02:40:00.915)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:40:04.694)
Yeah, yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:40:15.994)
It's so funny to me. I mean, great movie. I love it a lot. I actually haven't watched it in a while, though, I'm realizing. Definitely worth the re-watch.

Eli Price (02:40:24.6)
Yeah it's been a while since I've seen it.

Eli Price (02:40:32.956)
Okay, with my what pick is this? This is my sixth pick. So number 12 overall I have I have maybe One or two that I at least one that I definitely like more than this movie But I'm going to risk it again and see if I can get it later and I'm going to go with a more popular one

Thomas Pears IV (02:40:41.623)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:40:59.952)
that is very good and very funny. And I'm gonna go with Mean Girls. Mean Girls.

Thomas Pears IV (02:41:09.711)
Oh, I didn't even have that on my list. Mean Girls is great.

Eli Price (02:41:13.236)
Oh, Mean Girls is fantastic. The heyday of Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams opposite her is just great. Like, it's a very funny movie. And like. Like, I know, like my wife and sister, like, could definitely quote this movie better than I can because they've just seen it more times, but.

Thomas Pears IV (02:41:27.159)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:41:41.678)
Stop trying to make fetch happen.

Eli Price (02:41:41.812)
It's also a very quotable movie, like the line that I just like some of the others, but the line that I. Yeah, the one that I always go back to is she doesn't even go here, which, you know, can play out in life in certain ways, like replacing the pronoun. But yeah, Mean Girls is a great one from that era, for sure.

Thomas Pears IV (02:41:51.239)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:41:59.817)
Mm-hmm.

Oh yeah, fun fact about that movie. My mom made me watch it before going into high school because she thought that it was a somewhat accurate depiction of what high school was like.

Eli Price (02:42:14.444)
That's great.

Thomas Pears IV (02:42:19.986)
Obviously, if you're listening to this and if you've had any experience in high school, you know, and have seen this movie If you haven't it is nothing like what a high school actually is But I like I was coming from a private school and I had like asked to go to our city's public school and they're like, okay, but my mom's like you just

Eli Price (02:42:20.858)
Ha ha.

Eli Price (02:42:45.628)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:42:48.194)
I would really like you to watch this movie. And I was like, okay. It was funny, but it was nothing. I mean, my mom's kind of cuckoo with that of like thinking something of what it could be. But yeah, anyway, great pic. I love Mean Girls.

Eli Price (02:43:12.388)
Alright, let me see. So we're at the seventh pick. I think this decade deserves to have more picks. So, seven is the most we've done in a draft so far on the podcast. I wanna go to 10, but if we're gonna go to 10, we've gotta rapid fire these things so that we don't end up with a podcast that's five hours long.

Thomas Pears IV (02:43:18.21)
Hahaha

Thomas Pears IV (02:43:26.704)
Oh.

Thomas Pears IV (02:43:32.247)
Okay.

Eli Price (02:43:40.948)
All right, so this is your seventh pick. Oh, refresh your page.

Thomas Pears IV (02:44:01.744)
Okay, am I good?

Eli Price (02:44:02.604)
Yeah, it'll probably make me do the same thing in a minute. When you go long enough, for some reason, it does that. Yeah, we're still recording, so we'll jump back in.

Thomas Pears IV (02:44:04.56)
Okay.

Thomas Pears IV (02:44:08.229)
Okay.

Thomas Pears IV (02:44:11.9)
Okay.

Thomas Pears IV (02:44:15.596)
Okay, so pick it up where I left off.

Eli Price (02:44:16.256)
Okay, what is your seventh pick? We're gonna rapid fire these so we can get to 10. Number seven, what you got?

Thomas Pears IV (02:44:23.051)
Okay, I'm going to go with the pink panther with Steve.

Eli Price (02:44:28.592)
The Pink Panther, Steve Martin.

OK, I actually haven't. I've seen like seen here or there, but I've never actually like sat down and watched that movie. I like the little scenes I've seen.

Thomas Pears IV (02:44:35.642)
I...

Thomas Pears IV (02:44:41.395)
Julianna. Oh, it's fantastic. I mean, Julian and I quoted all the time. It was like when we were dating, it was the movie we watched the most. But all right, your seventh.

Eli Price (02:44:55.148)
Alright, my seven, I'm gonna go with a movie that I think has only

Eli Price (02:45:23.203)
Alright, yeah, I told you it was gonna make me do it again. I should have just done it. I don't know if I can do it.

Thomas Pears IV (02:45:25.797)
Heh.

Eli Price (02:45:32.391)
before it asks me to do it. But, okay, I'm gonna start back. Okay, yeah, I'm gonna go with, yeah, my seventh pick. I am going to go with one that I think has maybe fallen this far simply because maybe it's just like, you don't think of it at first as a comedy, but it is very much a comedy. And that is the Coen Brothers, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Thomas Pears IV (02:45:39.251)
Okay, with your seventh pick.

Eli Price (02:46:01.659)
Which is a very funny movie.

Thomas Pears IV (02:46:03.467)
I had that on my list and I was like, you know what? I already had messed up my sixth pick when I said rush hour and then got to hot fuzz. So I was like, I don't wanna push it again. Dang it. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:46:19.197)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, a brother where out thou very funny movie. And I think like more than anything else, it is a comedy. But yeah, just make it in. It's a 2000 movie. So.

Thomas Pears IV (02:46:35.834)
Oh yeah.

Okay.

Eli Price (02:46:38.379)
Yeah, number eight, what you got? We got to go and go through these things.

Thomas Pears IV (02:46:46.18)
I'm gonna do...

Um, kicking and screaming. It's a Will Ferrell movie.

Eli Price (02:46:53.164)
Oh, kicking and screaming. Another-

That's a crazy movie.

Thomas Pears IV (02:47:00.521)
about coaching a soccer team and Mike Dick is in it and that is so funny to me. All right, you're eighth.

Eli Price (02:47:03.037)
Mm-hmm.

He is, yeah.

Eli Price (02:47:10.127)
All right, my eighth pick, I am going to take. You know what? I'm going to take School of Rock.

Thomas Pears IV (02:47:21.171)
Dang it.

Eli Price (02:47:21.243)
Jack Black, you got to get Jack Black in there. And School of Rock is just a great, I think it's still just a pretty funny movie. And so fun, just a fun movie. But all right, this is your ninth pick? No, yes.

Thomas Pears IV (02:47:39.899)
Ninth pick, yes.

Thomas Pears IV (02:47:47.973)
I'm gonna go with...

Thomas Pears IV (02:47:54.053)
Bruce Almighty.

Eli Price (02:47:56.523)
Oh, Bruce Almighty. Is Bruce Almighty 2000s? All right, have you made another snafu?

Thomas Pears IV (02:48:01.807)
Yes.

Thomas Pears IV (02:48:05.575)
2003.

Eli Price (02:48:08.655)
You're right, Dennis. I don't know why I was thinking it was earlier. Yeah, Bruce Almighty. That's a good one. Morgan Freeman as God with Jim Carrey as Bruce.

Thomas Pears IV (02:48:18.595)
I will say I had, yeah, I had tried very hard to put a bunch of Jim Carrey movies on here. But what I realized is he has a ton, like in the 90s where Jim Carrey's like, that was his decade. Like there were so many movies.

Eli Price (02:48:37.207)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:48:41.571)
Yeah, all of his funniest stuff was... Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:48:46.243)
in the 90s. It was just unreal.

Eli Price (02:48:46.767)
Alright, my... This is my ninth pick. Oh man, and I'm still gonna have to leave some on the board that I think are great and hilarious. Um, okay, I'm going to... I'm gonna go ahead and bring up the Holiday Cheer and take Elf. Elf is like... I mean it's a Christmas classic at this point.

Thomas Pears IV (02:48:57.316)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:49:12.205)
Alpha's good.

Eli Price (02:49:17.139)
Yeah, if you're going to have a 2000s comedy draft, you got to get another yet another Will Ferrell movie in Elf. All right. Last pick.

Thomas Pears IV (02:49:29.415)
Mm-hmm.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

hard.

Eli Price (02:49:40.189)
We'll do some honorable mentions.

Eli Price (02:49:46.555)
So that way we can mention some other ones we left off. What you got?

Thomas Pears IV (02:49:47.253)
I'm gonna do...

Thomas Pears IV (02:49:54.363)
Um, this is one that Julianna really likes and she told me that I really needed to have it on my list. It may not be everyone's favorite, but it's Meet the Fockers, which is a pretty funny movie. It's a Ben Stiller with being introduced to a family. And uh, it's, is it the-

Eli Price (02:50:02.972)
Do it.

Eli Price (02:50:07.871)
Okay, yeah. I think so. Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:50:21.075)
prequel or the sequel to Meet the Family? I mean, they have two movies back to back that are very funny.

Eli Price (02:50:28.271)
Yeah, Meet the Family, I think, is the second one, if I'm not mistaken.

Thomas Pears IV (02:50:34.397)
Maybe.

Eli Price (02:50:46.583)
Yeah, meet the parents is first and then meet the fuckers. That's right. Right.

Thomas Pears IV (02:50:47.203)
No, Meet the Parents is first, and then it's Meet the Fockers because they're married. Yeah. But yeah, it's just a little simple one. Yeah, I like the Fockers better.

Eli Price (02:50:57.603)
You're going with the second one.

Thomas Pears IV (02:51:04.327)
then meet the family. Okay. Yes. Well, that's the third one.

Eli Price (02:51:06.375)
than the parents. OK, so this is my last pick.

Third one? Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:51:13.039)
Okay, there's meet the family, meet the Fokker's, and then meet the parents.

Eli Price (02:51:20.559)
Gotcha. Okay. This is my last pick. Last pick of the draft. I'm going to leave off one that I think probably people think probably should have been on this list. And well, I'll mention it in a minute, but I'm going to go with one that I really like and I think is like a really, really good like new take on like a romcom and that is Juno. Juno is

Thomas Pears IV (02:51:50.832)
Mm.

Eli Price (02:51:51.755)
a really good movie just like it's very funny but also just like a very good movie in general like the way it like handles the comedy and the drama and the romance yeah Juno is a great movie yeah um so

Thomas Pears IV (02:52:06.254)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:52:10.991)
I haven't watched that since I was a kid. With a...

Eli Price (02:52:13.643)
Yeah, it's a you should rewatch it. It's really good. It'll probably like mean more to you now, probably than it did then, but still be very funny. Yeah. Yeah, so I was going to mention a few honorable mentions like the hangover probably should have been taken, but I don't know, just like not necessarily one of my favorites.

Thomas Pears IV (02:52:22.767)
Yeah, and all the orange tic tacs and such.

Thomas Pears IV (02:52:35.171)
Yeah, I had the hangover.

Thomas Pears IV (02:52:40.633)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:52:40.955)
Zombie Land is one that I really enjoyed during that era. I love you, man.

Thomas Pears IV (02:52:46.275)
Mm-hmm. That and Shana the Dead. Where am I? Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:52:51.479)
Love You Man is a good one. Dan in Real Life is a personal favorite. Probably not like a big hit, but it's Steve Carell. And I really like Dan in Real Life. It's a very sweet comedy about a dad with some daughters, and he kind of falls in love. But it turns out the girl he falls in love with is dating his brother. And they're at a family retreat. It's a really funny movie.

that I enjoy.

Thomas Pears IV (02:53:21.91)
It sounds something like what Steve Carell would get himself into.

Eli Price (02:53:24.409)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:53:28.463)
Yeah. And then the last one that I wanted to mention that I, being a teenager in middle school, watched this sort of stuff and thought it was hilarious. And it probably still is very funny, a lot of it, which is Jackass, the original Jackass movie.

Thomas Pears IV (02:53:53.892)
Yes.

Eli Price (02:53:55.111)
Yeah, it probably deserves to be on a list like this, so I wanted to make sure it was mentioned.

Thomas Pears IV (02:54:00.243)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, you mentioned pretty much everything I had left on my list other than Sean of the dead My wife

Eli Price (02:54:05.135)
Mm-hmm.

Shawn of the Dead is good. I only put Hot Fuzz because it's my favorite of the two, so I just I didn't put both. Both Ed Rigger, right? Yeah, same.

Thomas Pears IV (02:54:14.455)
I like Hot Fuzz better than Shaun of the Dead. My wife also had another input of Along Came Polly, which I actually do like. It's a movie with Ben Stiller and he gets cheated on. It's very funny. I really like it a lot. Super Troopers, which is kind of a cult classic. I really like Super Troopers. The 40-year-old Virgin. And

Eli Price (02:54:26.967)
Yeah, I've never seen it.

Eli Price (02:54:36.071)
Oh yeah, super troopers. Yeah, right.

Eli Price (02:54:42.175)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Another Steve Carell.

Thomas Pears IV (02:54:44.459)
And one that actually surprised me that like actually makes me laugh sometimes is the first Miss Congeniality. I like that one. I don't really like the other ones. The first Miss Congeniality is pretty dang funny. The second one just kind of is too much for me.

Eli Price (02:54:53.699)
Yeah.

Right. It is good. Yeah, it is very good. And um...

Yeah, another one that I remember seeing that I thought was pretty funny is 13 going on 30. That's a pretty funny one along those same lines. Yeah. But yeah, let me read out this list of our picks. So Thomas took Tropic Thunder, Nacho Libre, Hot Rod, Step Brothers, Taladega Knights, Hot Fuzz, The Pink Panther.

Thomas Pears IV (02:55:12.439)
Yes, I loved that movie when I was a kid.

Eli Price (02:55:33.531)
Kicking and Screaming, Bruce Almighty, and Meet the Fockers, and I took Anchorman, Borat, Napoleon Dynamite, Zoolander, Superbad, Mean Girls, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, School of Rock, Elf, and Juno. So those are our picks, and the people will decide who dominated the 2000s comedies draft.

Man, it's just incredible that there's, we took 20 movies and there's still like, there's still a lot more that like could easily have made it onto like someone else's list if they were drafting with us. Yeah, that was a really fun one. Right. But yeah, so yeah, let's jump in and give a quick recommendation of the week.

Thomas Pears IV (02:56:06.739)
Yeah. And there's still so much more.

Thomas Pears IV (02:56:19.395)
and ones that we wouldn't even have thought of. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:56:34.755)
Actually today, this past weekend when I'm recording is when Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse released and I made it to the theater today to see it. And it was just, it was incredible. They like upped the animation game somehow from the first one and the visually just like stunning and like so much cool stuff happening.

still very funny, like some very like cool interesting emotional threads going through. It's just it's such a good movie like the hype for it is real and that's my recommendation if you haven't already seen it or if you have to see it again because I want to watch it again honestly.

But yeah, what's your recommendation of the week?

Thomas Pears IV (02:57:25.213)
Awesome.

I'm going to cheat and I'm going to give three. One is the French dispatch. It's the next, not the next, but I really like it. Yeah, I think it's phenomenal. I really think it's beautiful in the ways that Wes takes certain directions and kind of experiments with what he can do. I really like it.

Eli Price (02:57:31.6)
Okay.

Eli Price (02:57:40.743)
couple down the line.

Eli Price (02:57:55.152)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (02:57:57.335)
is Lady Bird because all this talk of Moonrise Kingdom has gotten me wanting to watch Lady Bird again. And it's so funny and so just, it makes you think a lot more and I love it. I think the performances were phenomenal. I think the story is just excellent. I think all around it's a movie that everybody should watch.

Eli Price (02:57:59.975)
I love Lady Bird.

Eli Price (02:58:24.003)
Yeah. My wife and I rewatched it on Valentine's Day. We were like, let's watch a movie. Watch Lady Bird. So good.

Thomas Pears IV (02:58:25.583)
And then the final one is...

Thomas Pears IV (02:58:30.017)
Oh yeah.

Yeah, I watched it with my wife the first time I ever watched it and we both teared up a little bit and laughed very hard. And then the last one is an older film, but it's called Ikiru. It's Japanese film and it made me cry. It is an absolutely, absolutely beautiful film. And it really made me think deeper just about, oh my gosh.

Eli Price (02:58:47.607)
Yeah. Kurosawa.

Eli Price (02:58:57.836)
I haven't seen it actually.

Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:59:03.835)
It's very good. I mean, I kind of, my wife doesn't like really watching black and white films, or just older films in general. So I watch it by myself. And I just kind of had, I think that's kind of what the film tries to make you do. But like, had this existential moment of just thinking about my life and

Eli Price (02:59:11.568)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (02:59:29.755)
Yeah.

Thomas Pears IV (02:59:31.047)
wanting to, I started thinking about like a quote Gandalf had said of just all that matters is the time that like butchering the quote. Oh my gosh. Coming from the guy that is obsessed with Lord of the Rings. It's just the time that we have, what are we doing with it? Is it making an impact? If not, find something that is. And it's a beautiful movie. And those are my recommendations.

Eli Price (02:59:44.628)
Yes.

Eli Price (02:59:50.917)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:59:59.207)
Cool. Yeah, great ones. Um, yeah, where can the people find you if they want to see what you're up to on the socials?

Thomas Pears IV (03:00:09.995)
They can find me at Thomas likes movies on Instagram. I really I Yeah, yeah, I had a kind of a month a few months stint of just not being able to Sit down and just write something but I do very quick unapologetic and

Eli Price (03:00:14.827)
Yeah, you just picked that back up, huh? Right?

Eli Price (03:00:31.495)
Mm-hmm.

Thomas Pears IV (03:00:37.819)
Simple reviews of just films that have just touched me and recommendations. So I try and keep it as short and sweet as possible without any spoilers and give a rating out of, yeah, no spaces, no capitalizes. Just Thomas likes movies. And you'll see me with a Anduril, which is the sword, the flame of the West from Lord of the Rings. It's a goofy little photo.

Eli Price (03:00:39.352)
Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (03:00:49.879)
Yeah, Thomas likes movies on Instagram.

Eli Price (03:01:05.39)
Right and you're on letterboxd too, right?

Thomas Pears IV (03:01:08.819)
I am. I do not, I don't really post there as much as on Instagram though. That's where I put all my movie reviews.

Eli Price (03:01:14.449)
Gotcha.

Eli Price (03:01:19.107)
Yeah, well then just follow them on Instagram. Don't follow them on Letterboxd. Or do if you can find them.

Thomas Pears IV (03:01:22.347)
Yeah. No, you probably won't. I mean, if you want, you can on Letterboxd. I feel like I'll disappoint you though on that.

Eli Price (03:01:29.551)
Ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha.

Yeah, yeah, that's great Thomas likes movies on Instagram go give him a follow Interact with them in the comments Yeah Yeah, I like your little short reviews there They're simple and quick and yeah, it's and visually pleasing to usually you the way you kind of put them up In your post. So yeah, yeah Yeah, absolutely So yeah, that's all we have

Thomas Pears IV (03:01:57.895)
Thank you. Appreciate that.

Eli Price (03:02:05.243)
for this episode. A lot of fun talking about Moonrise Kingdom. Next week we will pick up with Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel. So I'm looking forward to having that conversation. But until then, I've been Eli Price, and for Thomas Peers, you've been listening to The Establishing Shot.