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HONKYTONK MAN

TGTPTU continues to play its old hits with Episode 5 of Season 14, its redux series season celebrating five years and don’t you worry about us, hoss, we’ll get through this pairing of Eastwood flicks starting with HONKYTONK MAN (1982).

Originally discussed toward the end of the epic run covering all of Clint Eastwood’s filmography (Season 3, Episode 12), founding cohosts Ken and Jack invite the show’s newer hosts Ryan and Thomas in to session with fresh ears and silver tongues on this adaptation of the Dust Bowl era, vaguely veiled retelling of the final years of country wester legend Jimmie Rodgers novel by Clancy Carlile adapted by him and Eastwood into a semi-comedic bildungsroman road trip movie.

Two years prior to the creation of the PG-13 rating by the MPA (né MPAA), this Eastwood-directed and starring flick brings in Eastwood’s own son Kyle, roughly 14 years of age at the time, to play the nephew of a singer/songwriter who gets into all kinds of trouble with his honkytonk uncle man, from underage driving to poultry theft to jailbreaking and whoring (procured, not proffered) and contact marijuana highs and hit song composing between f-bombs and s-words and statutory rape.

Original ep guest Patrick drops in with some words of encouragement before the gents figure out on mic that this movie was Ryan’s other rewatch flick pick and the show gets on the road with recently promoted host Ryan having things to say about the music scoring; Thomas checking facts like a hockey enforcer checks bodies on the ice; Ken having a spell during which he actively hallucinates Eastwood wearing his hat backwards and suppresses coughs; and Jack, staying mostly awake for this retirement home movie that borders on a “lead paint flick” designation, brings the low energy by the bushel. Also of interest, pod fav Tracey Walter appears “right chair” in the movie and “black pill” is the word of the day.

Find out what these four have to say now that the dust has settled and chickens come home to roost and learn why this Depression Era coming-of-age and one final hurrah adult-teen road trip movie with musical act interludes might be one of the least watched of Clint Eastwood’s films.

CONTENT WARNING: The hosts say the titular “h word” a lot.

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THE WHALE

It’s the fourth episode of Season 14, and our hungry boys are still going for seconds with their rewatch of the recently covered THE WHALE (2022), original episode from TGTPTU’s initial pairing that started the epic scarf/Darren Aronofsky season (S11, E2, Airdate 2/17/24).

Jack sits out this first of host Ryan’s two redux picks, leaving Ken and Thomas to rehash the original episode. That episode marked an early, and soon to be recurring, appearance by Ryan (this was before he was made a provisional host, which was before his becoming a host and now teetering again on provisional status).

As a gentlemen’s agreement between Ryan and Thomas, Season 14 was premised on Ryan agreeing to have The Whale be one of his picks and to actually watch the movie being discussed this second time around, watching the movie being something he was reluctant to and didn’t do the first time around as our guest caller at the top of the ep points out. And it wasn’t just the caller who got upset by that original episode released just over a year ago: Ken, too, related how he regularly wanted to destroy his device during his relisten. Meanwhile, Thomas repeatedly repeats himself to say again and again how he was impressed by his ability to keep calm during that original episode, if he hadn’t mentioned it before.

TGTPTU retreads old ground in covering the adapted play’s script and the re-viewing experience (second time for Ken, third time for Thomas). With greater time elapsed, hosts are able to speak more on lead actor Fraser’s “Brenaissance,” or lack thereof, and to find new insight into the family dynamics and semiology. A deeper consideration and attention is given to Ellie, the teenage daughter role played Sadie Sink.

So what did Ryan think upon fully watching the film he’s reviewing? Wait, did he watch it before recording this episode? No spoilers!

Instead, know that Ken continues to support listening to the podcast at 1.5x speed and recommends getting insurance or at least the extended warranty on your phone in case the temptation to throw it against a wall in rage or smash it under your heel is too great. Thomas, if he hadn’t said so, was really impressed by his restraint that initial episode. And Ryan gets personal with addiction while Thomas is a little less calm and Ken gets mileage out of how often someone if coming, going, or knocking on the movie apartment’s door.

So find an old Zune in your junk drawer or an iPod or phone you won’t mind destroying, put your earbuds in, and come and knock on our door. (Three’s company too.)

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.

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PIG

Season 14 continues serving up second helpings of movies previously covered on TGTPTU with PIG (2021). Jack’s flick picked this week pulls from his, Ken’s, and then recently added host Thomas’s post-Eastwood season CAGE UNCAGED (S4, air date 7/23/21).

As established in the original episode, the Nicolas Cage movie is set and shot in Portland, Oregon prior to it burning to the ground just shortly after shooting wrapped; while the city remains in rubble, the movie is remembered by the original hosts (Ken, Jack, Thomas) fondly as a film they returned to theaters post-C19 to watch in-person and honor the memory of the city that was, a place of underground restro markets and fight clubs. Now, nearly 3-1/2 years later, the hosts reconsider their predictions for Cage’s career and their responses to the film after watching again at-home.

Enjoy Ken, doubled-up NyQuil, and his takes on the flick, including recasting as a Charles Bronson movie, and his quoting Twin Peaks Season 3 (Lynch - rest in power); listen as Jack Letterboxd-checks Ryan about where he was the Summer of 2021; hear for the first time what Portland-area transplant TGTPTU’s new and increasingly provisional host Ryan thought of the quiet film; and celebrate with Thomas finding the secret snore-track on the DVD from Multnomah County Library.

Bon Appétit.

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DEATH BECOMES HER (1992)

For the second episode in TGTPTU’s Season 14 redux series, the film choice was Thomas’s. As he explains at the top of the ep, he wanted to do a Streep rewatch with recent co-host Ryan, specifically and especially a comedy. His first choice of Adaptation got nixed as it had previously been covered twice, first during the Cage and then again in the Streep season. So paired with the previous episode’s High Plains Driver, this week TGTPTU (re)presents SHE-DEVIL (1986), the laugh-out-loud revenge story featuring Roseanne Barr as—

Oh, apologies. We just lost half of our hosts and all of our listeners.

Okay, let’s try again.

For the second in our Season 14 redux series, the choice is Thomas’s and I guess we’ll go with DEATH BECOMES HER (1992), originally recorded in 2023 as Season 8, Episode 12. And although during that Streeps of Fire season surprise special guests and Jack recorded an excellent episode in all but audio quality, none of the three current hosts (Ken, Thomas, or Ryan) were on to talk Robert Zemeckis’s special effects comedy starring the co-billed Streep, Hawn, and Willis.

So grabs some fresh takes on the film (e.g., Death Becomes Her structured a TV dinner) as Ken beefs with writer David Koepp; Ryan with Zemeckis; Thomas with olds telling youngs how to spend money on food; and Jack with the ghost of Maggie Thatcher. Thomas also puts Jack on blast for not watching films he mentioned going to watch during the original episode’s recording while, don’t worry, She-Devil receives plenty of mentions throughout. And if that’s not enough ep for you ingrates, cohost throughout Season 8 and the voice singing the first three seasons’ intro songs, the illustrious and always opinionated Andi drops in briefly to say some unkind words of demotivation to the boys. Stay flaccid, y’all.

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High Plains Drifter (1973)

TRIGGER WARNING: HPD features sexual assault as a plot point.

Season 14, a new season with a hefty helping of old, comes to town as the TGTPTU hosts return to movies they undervalued and/or missed over the thirteen seasons, beginning with Jack’s pick to rewatch HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973). In that original episode released as S2, E6 in 2020, then hosts Ken and Jack were joined by a special guest, and now ongoing host, Thomas.

High Plains Drifter, Eastwood’s second directed film, left a bad taste in Jack’s mouth five years ago when the Eastwood character appears celebrated early in the film during a rape scene, one of arguably multiple instances of sexual violence in the film. As TPTPTU-celebrated director Alex Cox shares in a commentary track on the HPD Blu-ray, while such things were common in and to be judged as of their time, “It is hard to discuss these scenes in an enthusiastic way.”

Now five years older and perhaps some the wiser, Jack returns as a guest to weigh in on his rewatch and is joined by new and ever-so-provisional host Ryan who contractually has to relate any and all films shot in the early 70s to ‘Nam. This one is no exception.

Hear the frustration as Jack gets his head stuck in plastic bag and how half a decade can change one’s take on a movie.

Season 8 guest Maggie Thatcher also drops in to offer her two pence.

So paint the town red and get the pigshit outta your ears: it’s time to go full Western gothic with Malpaso Productions’ giants Eastwood, Geoffrey Lewis, and Buddy Van Horn.

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BOSS OF IT ALL (2006)

Well, as the famous playwright Antonio Gambini once wrote: All good things (and Season 13 of TGTPTU) must come to a close. And what better stage for which our four hosts to give their final thoughts and review of the four directors covered this 4x4 season, as well as their general opinions of Lars von Trier, than with LvT’s office comedy THE BOSS OF IT ALL (2006)? (Sorry, we can’t hear you response. This isn’t a radio show, and you’re not live on the air and it was a rhetorical question as The House that Jack Built would have been better, your author of the Show Notes knows, but the movie was banned from discussion by the TGTPTU’s boss of it all.)

Before LvT’s crippling depression set in (see previous episode covering 2009’s Antichrist), while mainly dealing with anxiety, and in-between his second and still unmade third installment of his America Trilogy, the enfant terrible and Cannes darling challenged himself with a genre he’d yet to, and hasn’t returned to, film: a comedy. While edited using his Dogme 95-influenced time-cut style, instead of hand-held camerawork by LvT himself The Boss of It All was another- first-and-only for the filmmaker in using Automavision. This LvT invented technique let a computer decide focus and movement as replacement for a cameraperson. Allowing the blame to be put on the computer instead of himself, LvT symbolically repeats the conceit of his comedy where the character of Ravn hires an amateur actor and playwright Gambini stan Kristoffer, played by Jens Albinus (mentioned previous ep), to pretend to be The Boss of It All, an absentee owner that Ravn created to pretend he did not own the company and to shunt unpopular decisions but now needs Kristoffer to pretend to be in order to sell the company. Hilarity ensues.

Join the fearsome foursome for their collective explorations of neoliberal capitalism while, individually, Ken predicts beyond the new year into the near future by betting LvT has sent drones back in time to shoot the comedy that will be Year 2025; Thomas nearly learns Danish; Ryan reveals he hates the look of a $20k engine inside a Datsun; and Jack stays awake for the entire film.

And keep listening past the wrap of our fourth movie by our fourth director to enjoy a surprise visit from a musical guest--the Boss himself--who introduces hosts’ LvT four-film rankings and Season 13 reflections.

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.

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4X4: Lars von Trier #3

Breaking our own arbitrary rules just like Lars von Trier, the enfant terrible final director of Season 13’s 4x4, the TGTPTU crew for our final pairing breaks with release date order to review the later paired film earlier, giving you this week ANTICHRIST (2009).

From the throes of depression, LVT emerged to sink the world into his vision of grief, anxiety, and madness with the horror story of a couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg), their gendered power dynamics, and a totally normal depiction of married sex life. Not only are these two main husband-wife characters unnamed (something host Jack hates), with the exception their child who won’t survive the movie’s Prologue, all other characters are extras who appear with faces blurred, maintaining the isolation and focus on the archetypes of a controlling male and a woman who cannot find herself in the narratives of motherhood. Or, that’s one interpretation of many readings Antichrist allows as it questions, potentially: whether human nature is good or evil, if there is a different nature for women than men, how nature influences nurture, and if nature itself can be framed in terms of good or evil. Also left to questioning: the crew on this film as to whether LVT would finish the movie as his struggle with depression persisted.

But what is not open to question is how visually arresting the film is. In combination with the Dogme 95-inspired handheld camerawork complemented by the time-cut style discussed last episode with Dancer in the Dark (also with no preproduction rehearsals for actors), LVT introduces two visual styles new to his filmography. The first, shot in a repetitive extreme close-ups, is a sequence reminiscent of Aronofsky’s hip-hop montage (see Season 11) and 2024’s Cuckoo (see future Season 19 Singer vs. Singer) that captures the feelings of anxiety experienced, initially, by the wife. The second stylist tone, and the one that opens the tragedy of their neglected child falling from a window while they are having black-and-white penetrative sex, uses high resolution slow motion for gorgeously crisp imagery that later is repeated but spectrally layered as if in a dream.

From the hosts this week: Thomas demonstrates effectively totally knows what sex is; Ryan goes Cartesian; Jack receives a visit from the Sight and Sound people about putting Audition on his list; and Ken is a grump who wants LA to burn to the ground. Join one pair of hosts in praising the film or perhaps pose the question as a reporter for the Daily Mail did at Cannes (available on the Blu-ray) to LVT: “Would you please, for my benefit, explain and justify why you made this movie?”

What does it really matter? Chaos reigns.

Content Note: While a forest retreat where Dafoe’s character discovers a mommy deer, a helpful crow, and a talking fox might sound like a family-friend animated film, the genital mutilation in the film definitely veers toward adult content. So CONTENT WARNING: while you might enjoy this film as two TGTPTU hosts did, you’re not going to leave this film content.

Final Note: At the release of this episode (late-January 2025), Bob’s Big Boy in LA has been booked solid and the front of the building covered with flowers, but at the time of this episode’s recording David Lynch had yet to slip into the ether.

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.

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DANCER IN THE DARK (2000)

Broadcasting live from 1964, and entirely in song, this week’s very special episode of TGTPTU covers Lars von Trier’s sixth film (but only our second of his covered this 4x4): DANCER IN THE DARK (2000).

It’s been over a hundred episodes, since Season 1’s Paint Yer Hereafter ep during our Clint Eastwood coverage, that TGTPTU has covered a musical. Dancer in the Dark, the third entry into Lars von Trier’s Golden Heart trilogy, follows LVT’s preceding two film both in being shot à la the Dane’s handheld style developed during TV show The Kingdom and in their general plot of a woman who sacrifices more than most would believe conscionable. And starring in Dancer as that woman, an immigrant named Selma with diminishing eyesight who takes on extra shifts at the factory and side work to finance her son’s secret surgery and slips into worlds of musical fantasy, is Björk.

At perhaps the height of her stardom (and somehow choosing to be in a relationship with TGTPTU’s previously discussed avant-garde director Matthew Barney), Björk in her first major movie role had a stake in the production and her own interpretation of Selma, which caused friction on set with the notoriously controlling Danish director, but likely contributed to her winning Best Actress at Cannes and the film the Palme d’Or. That friction may have been caused by her taking on an emotionally fraught role, especially in the second half of the film as Selma faces execution for a murder she did not intend for reasons she cannot share or else risk the wellbeing of her son. The situation onset may have also not been helped by alleged events that came out during the #MeToo, which while referenced in the episode can be found more fully here:

https://www.nme.com/news/music/bjork-lends-voice-metoo-campaign-detail-sexual-harassment-hands-danish-director-lars-von-trier-2150898

As to that handheld camera style, often held by LVT himself, its digital video and potentially jarring, anti-Hollywood time cuts are complimented with a second camera aesthetic reserved for the musical moments, called “100 cameras.” This technique involved using a hundred stationary DV cameras of lesser quality than the one used for handheld footage. The hope for this multitude of cameras was for them to capture a single take of a performance without different setups. These cameras were remotely operated on ten monitors hardwired with a toggle switch inside a special construction trailer hidden in the background of the shot. Alas, this hope, unrealized, for the capture of movement to allow smoother cutting than the time cuts LVT used for the handhold was not to be. Yet the hundred camera experiment would still allow for a different feel and aesthetic from the handheld footage, especially when their transfer to film used cathode ray tube (verses the sharper laser transfer for main handheld DV camera).

So tune in on your home system or your crystal radio on the a.m. dial, close your eyes, and let the dulcet voices of our four hosts’ song set against industrial percussion transport you up through your ceiling and into cinema heaven.

Clang! Bang! Clatter, crash, clack!

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.

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