0:20

Oi mate, welcome to FRAME, right?

0:22

Where we write FRAMES, g'day. This

0:25

has become fully the Australian show for a

0:27

bit now. We've been doing a

0:29

lot of them. Yeah, we did, Wake and Fright.

0:31

Well, if you come to our Monday movie nights,

0:33

we also just watched The Snowtown Murders, a very

0:35

grim Australian movie. So, yeah, we're

0:38

here today with yet another nightmarish

0:40

glimpse into what it's like in

0:42

Australia. I'm

0:44

Michael Swaim, that's Abe Epperson. We're two

0:46

pals, we watch movies. And

0:49

if you patronize us at the Pick

0:51

the Flick tier, we watch movies that you tell

0:53

us to watch, and this is one of those.

0:55

So thanks to James McLeod for picking Dead End

0:57

Drivin', 1986's Dead End Drivin'. I

1:00

was one years old, so I didn't see this

1:02

before. Abe, you seen this before? When

1:05

I was one years old. You saw

1:07

it? Yeah, really? Yeah, and I was

1:09

just like, man, I was PlayStation films.

1:12

Man oh man, I know I'm just a

1:14

baby, but they

1:17

got a lot of politics in them. I'll say, I'll

1:19

give them that. Yeah, and Mad Max was not the

1:21

only one, it turns out. Yeah,

1:23

there's more movies like that, there's more where that

1:26

came from. Let's get our guest

1:28

in here, because he's one of the biggest beings

1:30

around. We know him, we love him. It's Adam

1:32

Ganzer. Come on in. I'm here! Get in here,

1:34

buddy. Oh, crikey, I'm here! Do you believe that

1:36

shit? Who's a good boy? That's... Who's that... Whoa,

1:40

wait a fucking minute. He's

1:42

a little condescending. I've been wanting to

1:44

do that for a while now. Just see

1:46

any podcast guest. Who's a good boy? Come

1:49

on. I'm a very good

1:51

boy, but fuck you, bro. Oh

1:53

my God. Aves

1:57

been eating my lunch this week and really enjoying it.

2:00

Yeah, it would get me hard. I really like trick

2:02

is the point on your lunch. Yeah, I'm kind of

2:04

kind of a terror You're

2:07

definitely being terrible. Definitely

2:09

being terrible you

2:11

know It's customary for us

2:13

not to shit on the movie that the pick

2:16

the flick person selected correct It's right even

2:18

to the degree that you shouldn't have said

2:20

that cuz that is why you do want

2:22

to shit on it I don't want to

2:24

shit on it. I'm just I'm just I'm

2:26

just leveling my tone. I'm holding it. Yeah

2:30

I think we outsourced that if they really

2:32

dislike it the guests can say what they

2:34

want. I'm level I'm leveling it out

2:36

of it. Oh, here's one thing that stress

2:38

me is wild about this movie. It's one

2:41

of Tarantino's favorite films. Oh I

2:44

know that's pretty wild. That's why we know

2:46

about it because he okay was really into

2:48

this film and it started That's why I

2:50

got a re-release and stuff because

2:53

of Tarantino Well, I

2:55

think we should kind of walk people through it because I don't

2:57

think they're gonna know it unless they're

2:59

real Tarantino Apparently, but it

3:02

takes place in the future futuristic world

3:04

of 1990 only four years from when

3:06

it was made so very grim pro

3:09

nation about and

3:12

What's interesting to me about it is I would

3:14

not call it post-apocalyptic It's

3:17

mid-apocalyptic which I've read I don't think

3:19

I've seen before Like I kept getting

3:21

surprised because the am like people get

3:23

injured and an ambulance comes so there's

3:26

still some Super structure like society is

3:28

not disintegrated completely Yeah,

3:32

I mean they're like there's some

3:34

films that there's just a shitty

3:36

society Yeah, like Mars in total

3:38

recall. I wouldn't call that current

3:40

apocalypse, but it's pretty hellish

3:43

Yeah, and I don't know what it is

3:45

about Australia. I've never been there from

3:48

what I hear fine people But

3:50

they seem to in their Exploitation films

3:52

of the 70s and 80s seem

3:55

to be drawing a kind of Get

3:58

us out of here kind of vibe Or it's

4:00

just easy to shoot a hellscape in that

4:02

location, yeah. Yeah, and almost all their films

4:05

are kinda like, the theme is, well you

4:07

can't leave, so you better fucking love it.

4:09

Yeah, so deal with it. Everything

4:12

looks like the desert or the city of Vernon,

4:15

California. The city of Vernon! Yeah,

4:17

remember Vernon, California? Oh,

4:21

we didn't expect that Vernon would get

4:23

strayed this morning. Well, the city of

4:25

Vernon, California, for those of you who

4:27

are not Los Angelenos, is like a

4:29

city that's next to Los Angeles where

4:32

like 500 people live, but 50,000 people

4:34

work. It's

4:38

literally just an industrial wasteland. And

4:42

it's kind of a joke, everybody in Los

4:44

Angeles is in on, where it's like, that's

4:46

not really a city. Also

4:49

there's probably financial crimes going on over there.

4:52

There's definitely like a whole

4:55

season of the wire just in

4:57

Vernon. No doubt, no

4:59

doubt whatsoever. I raise that point

5:01

because it looks a lot like this place

5:04

looks. If you drive through you're like, yeah,

5:06

yeah, it looks just like that. Yeah,

5:08

the protected streets especially. It's

5:10

wild. Yeah, but

5:12

the scene is our hero jogging through

5:14

basically just orange mist and giving us

5:17

a tour of this hellscape. He

5:19

boxes with a dog. He shares a

5:22

kiss with some random ladies. Turns out to be

5:24

his girlfriend, but I do like that he just

5:26

rolled up onto the gas station and got a

5:28

kiss. I love how 80s it

5:30

is to be like our protagonist's main identity

5:32

is, hey, I'm a fitness guy. Also

5:36

his name is Krabs. Krabs-y, yeah. You're

5:38

zipping right past the fact

5:40

that everyone in this world hates that dog.

5:43

Like that dog gets treated real

5:45

bad. Real hatred. Because

5:48

that dog fucking knows what he did. Clearly,

5:51

clearly. This was like the end of

5:53

the third act of that dogs movie

5:55

starts right at the beginning of this

5:57

film, right? Where like vengeance.

6:00

came back for him. Well you're referring to

6:02

the dudes who come by with a flaming board and

6:04

hurl it at the dog for the reason that's been

6:06

happening to dogs. After our protagonist

6:08

kind of like teases the dog in a way

6:10

the dog's like hey I can't let that go.

6:13

I can't let that shit go right? That's right.

6:15

And you're like what's wrong with that dog? We're

6:19

blown past the absolute whiplash this

6:21

movie has because it's like Sydney

6:25

1988 51 people die. Africa a

6:27

year later the great white massacre

6:30

a thousand hundred

6:32

thousand die and gold and diamond

6:34

exports cease. Short as is unemployment,

6:36

crime wave and then funky 80s

6:39

synths rock and a dude

6:41

just jogging. Just like

6:43

wham! He's of his world. He's

6:46

of his world for sure. And his world

6:48

includes punks who drive around throwing ninja stars

6:50

at people which has to be yeah

6:52

you immediately nothing tips off what kind of

6:55

movie it is like a ninja star. Oh

6:57

yeah you know yes that's correct. Also

7:00

if you have ninja stars and your main

7:02

goal is like I will use this ninja

7:05

star if you don't give me your shoes.

7:08

That is a very particular thing about you.

7:11

That is that you have a lot of

7:14

ninja stars and not enough shoes. See it

7:16

seems to me that that guy only owns

7:18

one ninja star I think he was out

7:20

after that. He's recycling it. Also

7:24

this is my boy Brent he's fucking

7:26

sick with the nunchucks. Yeah

7:28

there was a nunchuck thing. Flailing

7:30

them about like so confident and

7:34

so undeservedly. That's when it sort of

7:37

tips off that to me

7:39

that it wasn't a

7:45

full apocalypse which is a really interesting

7:47

middling space because it's not Mad Max.

7:49

There's some infrastructure for example the punks

7:51

run off to hassle some cops and

7:53

you're like oh there's cops in this

7:55

world that's weird like who

7:57

in this universe would decide to be a

8:00

on the side of law and order. Apparently

8:02

grifters and people who like shoulder pads.

8:05

Those are the two groups of people. I felt

8:08

like it was essentially like a prom with a

8:10

loose chaperone was kind of the level of apocalypse

8:12

we were at here, you know?

8:14

Because it's like a world run by tow

8:16

trucks. Tow trucks run

8:19

the entire world here. Am I wrong? It's

8:21

true. That one scene, the scene

8:23

that's kind of amazing in this movie that

8:25

it kind of stuck with me is

8:28

the scene where it's just like everyone's

8:30

just scrapping. It's very Mad Max in

8:32

that way. There's roving

8:34

gangs, but it's like the roving gangs are like,

8:36

I'm going to get you tires. I'm going to

8:38

get you your wheels and

8:41

your car doors. Yeah. And

8:43

that's like gold. The cowboys. Like a warrior,

8:45

the warrior like gang who just goes around

8:48

to the scenes of

8:50

car accidents, trying to strip the cars apart

8:52

before the ambulance and police arrive. So

8:54

the tow truck drivers form this alternate faction

8:57

where when they get to the scene of

8:59

a crash and they're going to make money

9:01

towing the wreckage away, they have to fight

9:03

the carboys to keep them from dismantling the

9:05

cars. And then like the ambulance will

9:07

show up and they have to give interviews. And

9:10

we find out that Crabs' brother, Frank,

9:12

I think is one of these dudes, one of these

9:14

tow truck drivers. He's very good at it. Yeah, he's

9:16

very good. Journal interviews tow

9:18

truck drivers. That's who they interviewed. Tow

9:20

truck drivers. That's who they interviewed on

9:22

the news. To find the facts about

9:24

the accident. Well, I guess that's my

9:26

question is when it's the apocalypse, are

9:29

people at home watching the news caring

9:31

about car accidents? Yes. So

9:33

I guess I can I ask this question to

9:35

slightly broader way because I agree with you, Mike.

9:37

I agree with everything you're implying. I

9:39

think this movie has what I'm going

9:41

to call the lobster conundrum. Okay.

9:44

The lobster conundrum is, is

9:46

the premise, do I

9:48

agree enough with the premise to like

9:50

the movie? You know what I

9:52

mean? Or is the movie like

9:54

the premise is so

9:56

unclear or like flawed

9:58

that I'm. I'm going to

10:01

nitpick it to death. You

10:03

know what I mean? And I think that's like, the Lobster

10:05

is a great movie for this problem where like, you get

10:07

on board with it or you really don't. Yeah, you buy

10:09

in. Yes. You have to buy in. Yes.

10:12

You send that disbelief enough. Yes. I think

10:14

this movie, in part because we

10:16

had all the scenes before the drive-in,

10:19

was problematic enough on a concept

10:22

level that I never got

10:24

on board with it entirely. Never got on

10:26

board. Yeah. Interesting. That was my problem

10:28

with it. See, I didn't get on

10:30

board for the rules of the world outside

10:32

the drive-in. Right. But once they

10:34

were in the drive-in, once they were in the

10:36

drive-in, I was on board completely. Yeah, I'm right

10:39

there with you. Okay, great. Because we

10:41

can have a debate about that. That will be fun,

10:43

I think, later on. Later on. I

10:46

just want to point out that Frank's

10:48

character introduction is he picks up

10:50

some weights and he pumps twice and

10:52

then he goes, fuck it, I'm strong

10:54

enough. I'm strong enough. I'm strong enough.

10:57

Holy shit, strong enough. For

11:00

what? What are you doing? To

11:03

tell Kirk. The naturally established that Krabsie's big

11:05

character arc is that he's too small. His

11:07

mama tells him he's too small and he'll never

11:10

be big and strong. And he begins to fix

11:12

it by shoveling spaghetti in his

11:14

mouth in a way that is impossible. Like,

11:16

it's turbo loading. Holy shit, man. He's turbo

11:18

loading. He is small, though. Like,

11:21

if you look at him. He's lean. Yeah,

11:23

yeah. He's like 120 soaking wet. Yeah, yeah.

11:26

You know, like, he's a little cowboy, that's for sure.

11:30

Yeah, that's why he pivoted to fitness

11:32

guy. He's like, I'll never be strong

11:34

guy. That's my brother. He's

11:36

also a foot shorter. It's like, no spaghetti

11:39

is gonna fix the foot difference between you,

11:41

bro. That's not gonna happen. You

11:43

know, you need some lifts. Man,

11:45

I just remembered the nunchucks guy has a

11:48

flintlock pistol. I love, what

11:50

an assortment of weaponry. Nunchucks ninja

11:52

star flintlock pistol. It

11:54

sounds like a D&D campaign

11:57

character. There's something about the

11:59

fashionization. that's going on in this

12:01

movie. Yeah, absolutely. Like

12:03

neon lights, but there's a nostalgic aesthetic

12:06

for the 50s. There's the Cadillacs and

12:08

like the diner look. And

12:11

the music is like 60s, 70s, and 80s. We

12:13

covet Frank's Chevy. Yeah, the Chevy is a big

12:16

deal. The Chevy is a big deal. Some

12:19

people are in the Sex Pistols. It gives it,

12:21

like you mentioned, that Warriors vibe. But

12:24

it doesn't stop there. I

12:27

think something was wrong

12:29

with Australia, honestly. Was.

12:32

Where they were just like imbibing all of

12:34

Americans' culture and they were like, yes to

12:36

all of it. Yeah, but 50s, we will

12:38

take it. The 50s had kind of a

12:41

comeback culturally in a bunch of stuff in

12:43

the 80s. Like

12:45

Top Gun is a 50s comeback movie. Back

12:47

to the Future. Yeah. Like

12:49

the 50s had like a 90s-esque

12:51

Renaissance. And I'd say 90s because the 90s

12:53

are having a Renaissance now. Yeah.

12:56

Where like, so

12:59

I think Australia was just like a touch late

13:01

to it is all. Because I would say everything

13:03

here feels like four years out of date. Like

13:06

four years in the 80s out of date.

13:08

You know, like it's like early glam rock.

13:10

It's early 50s nostalgia. And that kind

13:12

of all feels a little late to me. And

13:14

plenty of punk. Plenty of Brit punk.

13:16

Yeah, totally. Yeah, New York

13:18

Dolls and stuff. Yeah, absolutely. The Flock

13:21

of Seagulls haircut on the

13:23

secondary antagonist. Beautiful.

13:25

Like if they could have picked, they could

13:27

have picked anybody to put that haircut on. You know

13:29

what I mean? Like that was going on somebody. The

13:31

person I picked it on, it was the worst haircut

13:33

for him. And I was

13:35

thrilled by that decision. Like deeply thrilled

13:37

by that. Anyway, I could

13:40

spend all day on the makeup and hair of this

13:42

movie because it is great. Well

13:45

really great. Which they did. It's high

13:47

effort for a movie with this budget range. It's

13:49

high effort. It's a thing. And by

13:52

the time they get to the drive-in and

13:54

you're seeing dozens of cars and they've basically

13:56

outfitted this entire compound to look

13:59

apocalyptic. It's quite

14:01

a hard movie to make, honestly, in some

14:03

regards. Yeah, absolutely. The amount of space you

14:05

have to control, like it seems like

14:08

you could make this for less than $5 million now,

14:10

I don't think, right? No,

14:12

just securing locations of

14:16

this magnitude, which are just so

14:19

cool. Like at

14:21

one point, before they even get to

14:23

our main location, the drive-in itself, there's

14:26

a train yard that includes

14:28

driving smaller vehicles through train

14:31

cars. Yeah, for real. So

14:34

they're ruining, it's a train car

14:36

graveyard, but they have the ability

14:38

to destroy train cars and just

14:41

blast through their balsa

14:43

wood doors and such. Like

14:45

that's fucking a lot. Which again begs

14:47

the question, was this high budget or

14:49

is Australia just lousy with ruined stuff?

14:52

I think it's just as lousy with

14:54

ruined stuff. No, so like they spent

14:56

75 grand on a single stunt at

14:59

the end of this film, which is more

15:01

money than it ever made at the box

15:03

office, just one stunt. So

15:06

like this movie lost money. Is this their car jumping through the sign?

15:09

Yes, the final getting out of the

15:11

spoilers, he gets out of the drive-in.

15:15

He's locked in. Right, that's right.

15:18

That stunt, which I read

15:20

when I was doing research, set

15:24

a world record for like a truck's

15:27

leap, a leap of a truck, which

15:29

I'm surprised. That's amazing. I

15:31

mean, I guess it was 1985 or 86 when they made it. You

15:37

think Grave Digger is beating it by now? You

15:39

think Grave Digger is definitely beating it by now,

15:41

right? Hell yeah. No doubt. Grave

15:44

Digger for life. That stunt is

15:46

the poster and like when you load

15:48

it up on Amazon, that stunt is

15:50

the picture in the description. That

15:53

doesn't surprise me. I

15:55

just talked about the entire landscape. Among

16:00

those shook among the

16:02

Trump got in driving right among truck

16:04

jumping aficionados It's definitely the stuff they

16:07

were like heard about that jump set

16:11

Quite fantastic for a movie you say I

16:14

want to get very silly and continue talking about gravedigger

16:16

But I'm not gonna do that because I want to

16:18

ask a question that's on point Yeah,

16:21

that question is why was he at the

16:23

train yard? Get somebody help me with that

16:26

just I yeah, I don't know like he's

16:28

just cruising and Frank Chevy He

16:31

was in a different car for the train yard He

16:35

wasn't in the show is but that's it

16:37

But that's like a cultural like that's the

16:39

thing is a hot hodgepodge of fashion, but

16:41

it's also like Throw

16:44

back to the heart like what hearkens to an

16:46

older type of film because like in the 50s

16:48

and 60s like

16:50

even like Karate kid I

16:52

would say does this kind

16:54

of thing where like in the story What

16:57

are you doing as I guess a teenager

16:59

or in a young adult? You're

17:02

just driving around and stuff and we're

17:04

just depicting That right

17:06

that doesn't happen as much anymore because like

17:08

I guess no one goes outside But

17:12

that may be just me getting older, but

17:14

it's just interesting that like that's that's

17:16

what he was doing He was doing just

17:18

cruising around Weird that

17:20

it's in the face of the apocalypse right

17:23

because that's the other thing is it's kind

17:25

of a friendly apocalypse meaning It's

17:27

not dudes are out here trying to kill you But

17:30

everyone acts like their life is normal everyone

17:32

just does the normal things that they were

17:34

gonna do anyway and kind of act bewildered

17:36

And surprised when apocalyptic shit happens that's

17:39

what's make it gives it a very unique

17:41

tone because For example,

17:43

why is he jogging out through the hell's

17:46

like isn't he scared of getting rolled by

17:48

these gangs and indeed gangs do come And

17:50

roll him yeah, but he stays optimistic. He's

17:52

like I'm nothing's gonna stop me from jogging

17:54

and boxing this dog. I gotta take my

17:57

life Murder

18:00

the dog. I gotta take my girl

18:02

to the drive-in. These are the things that matter

18:04

to me. It's funny because he's already got a

18:06

pretty courageous heart to start the movie.

18:09

Exactly. You know? With that hair?

18:11

I mean, okay, so like I'm not gonna do

18:13

this the whole time, but I'm gonna ask this

18:15

question now because it matters. How

18:19

do people make money stripping car parts in

18:21

this world? I don't know. Who's

18:23

buying the car parts? Who's buying the new parts? Yeah.

18:26

Is there no system for a building?

18:28

Maybe there's no factory anymore, right? Yeah,

18:31

I mean that's the kind of thing that they were

18:33

talking about. They were like, Wall Street crashes, world economy

18:35

is fucked. So I guess it's just

18:37

what's there. But like all

18:39

these cars are gonna die anyway. It's

18:42

weird. It's not as consistent as

18:45

Waterworld where like you know why

18:47

people are stripping things for parts

18:50

because you go to the place where they sell them

18:52

and stuff. It's like, okay, I get

18:54

it. You know? That

18:56

is one thing I find super interesting

18:59

about this type of apocalypse. And there

19:01

was a, what was that? Justin Timberlake.

19:05

Crimea River. Sci-fi in time.

19:08

Like on time. Was it called in time? I

19:11

forget. It might be in time.

19:13

You're on alleged. The idea of like

19:15

a mid-apocalypse that is or a depiction

19:17

of a society and it's almost always

19:20

Huxleyan or the other

19:22

one. Orwellian.

19:26

And the idea of restricting not just

19:28

thought or you know a lot of

19:31

these apocalypses have that but mobility specifically.

19:33

Like you're only allowed to go in

19:35

this section. I know there's

19:37

a lot of like sci-fi about like, oh yeah,

19:39

you're just on the road. You're in a car

19:42

and you can travel like

19:44

eight feet over the

19:46

span of a year and you're trying to get to

19:48

the next lane or something like that. That's

19:51

something we were really focused on. Matt

19:54

Max carries that through as well. Well,

19:56

I think it speaks to what is

19:58

exciting about a zombie apocalypse. any

20:00

kind of apocalypse is that all the

20:02

rules of society would break down, right?

20:04

So even as we're scared of the

20:06

apocalypse, there's a thrill in thinking of

20:08

how free you would be. You would

20:10

just be free. And what's freer than

20:13

mobility? Like the ability to go fast

20:15

and get out of here. It's such

20:17

a big part of the apocalypse. Like

20:19

once you're in your tiny little zoo cage, you can

20:21

just do wheelies. Yeah,

20:25

and you can trick your car out and so

20:27

make it a little movable fortress, which many of

20:29

the people in this movie do. Yeah, that

20:32

you're walking right into the next question

20:34

I have. Yeah, that's interesting. Restriction as

20:36

freedom. Which is why there's so many

20:39

tow trucks because tow trucks are beefy.

20:41

That's a good kind of car to

20:43

be driving around. Right, and they're literally

20:45

like the, you know, they have a

20:47

passage of the thing that you're driving

20:50

to. Like their purpose is to move

20:52

the car. If they didn't

20:54

have news broadcasts, I think I would go

20:56

all the way with you on this. That's

20:59

the weirdest one of all that I cannot

21:01

wrap my head around is who the fuck

21:03

is sitting at home watching a news broadcast

21:05

that there was a car accident when there's

21:07

dudes with ninja stars and flaming boards and

21:10

shit. Who cares that there was a car

21:12

accident? So, and again, this

21:14

is a question that occurred to me about 15 minutes into

21:16

this movie, maybe 20 minutes. It

21:18

was like, why would

21:21

anyone ever want to leave

21:23

this drive-in? It's

21:26

kind of sweet. What is out in the world

21:28

that he needs to get back to? Well,

21:33

he just can't be incarcerated, man. He chased

21:35

at the idea of being told where to

21:37

be. I understand that. And I understand- I

21:39

understand- I understand ethos. Yeah, yeah, and right,

21:41

but like if you're gonna do a political

21:44

satire, I think you got to do a

21:46

little better than that. You know what I mean? Like,

21:48

I think you got to do a little bit like the

21:50

dystopia needs to ring a little more true

21:52

for us to be like, yeah, good point.

21:56

Not in Australia, dude. They just need a little bit

21:58

of teeter than over the edge. Put a

22:00

wall of their men there in terms

22:02

of apocalypse. They're already at 87 They

22:05

just need like cool like 12 12

22:09

to 15 points and they're fucking a couple of

22:11

sections of fence and there's fury everywhere. Yeah So

22:14

just so people know what we're talking about

22:17

We then get the thrust of the movie

22:19

which is he takes his girlfriend to the

22:21

star drive-in to watch a movie and Well

22:24

that night while they're making out and boning

22:26

in the backseat of the car frankly if

22:29

I can be frank Thank you. Thank you

22:31

for your friend Well,

22:38

they do that great shot of every single

22:40

car in a row just rocking back and

22:42

forth this rock yeah Yeah, she also shows

22:44

off what I believe and I only mentioned

22:46

it cuz it's insane Carmen, yeah,

22:48

yes. Yeah, she's like like them

22:51

And it was like young I guess Your

22:55

nipples are gold. Yeah, is that new? Change

23:01

it was on the clear to me that her

23:03

her name is Carmen and especially funny

23:05

Yeah, just because it's like everything we

23:07

love about this movie is car. Yeah

23:11

car boy Carboys

23:13

one of my favorite bad guy names ever

23:15

the cowboy. Yeah, so the the

23:18

Cowboys Presumably the carboys,

23:20

but we don't actually know exactly who Steal

23:23

their wheels in the middle of the night the

23:25

police and then the police know the police. Yeah,

23:27

but we don't see the action That's true. Yeah,

23:29

he just pieces it together later. He finds out

23:32

if the cops but So

23:34

I guess that's why you would be a cop in

23:36

the apocalypse because it's a real time to be a

23:38

corrupt cop Yeah, three wheels. Yeah. Yeah

23:41

Anyway, it turns out that that's that

23:44

you can't leave you can't fucking leave

23:47

You can't leave the drive-in you now live at

23:49

the drive-in that's the main premise of this film

23:51

Which is and that's like a catch-22 Air

23:54

like cuz that was like it is Orwellian.

23:56

Yeah that the whole setup is that it's

23:59

it's No, yeah, when you piece

24:01

it all together, yes, it just means you can't move.

24:03

But like every little bit that takes

24:06

you to like get there in the

24:08

order of operations, nothing is

24:10

insane. It's like, no, you can't get

24:13

on that, you can't get on

24:15

that piece of road because it's very,

24:17

very dangerous and you have to have

24:19

like a police chaperone or you go

24:21

during these times, you know, like they

24:23

cut out little holes of things that

24:25

like kind of make sense. So you

24:27

go mad with like the bureaucracy of

24:30

it. That's a very, very

24:32

like, I would

24:34

argue probably like a libertarian ethos,

24:36

like very carpenter as well. You

24:38

know what I mean? Yeah,

24:42

the bureaucracy in this case is embodied entirely

24:44

by one man named Thompson, who is the

24:46

manager of the drive-in and basically

24:49

gives you a 1984-esque run around like

24:51

you can't do this without this form.

24:53

It's illegal to go there. You can't

24:55

have this wheel because this is not

24:57

in the system or whatever. And

25:00

he represents pre-apocalypse, I guess, he

25:02

reminisces about before things were apocalyptic

25:04

and he seems totally unfazed by

25:07

whatever happens. So

25:09

by the morning, by the time the morning

25:11

comes, we realize that this drive-in during the

25:13

day is just like an

25:15

open air prison with it's mostly depopulated

25:18

with a population of people who aren't

25:20

able to leave. And we

25:22

find out people who want to be there because

25:24

as I think Adam said, there's

25:27

worse places to be than inside the

25:29

drive-in. You get free movies, there's a

25:31

diner. Everywhere else is worse than this

25:33

drive-in. Right. Honestly, like that was

25:35

my big problem is like, and I know this

25:37

movie has to walk sort of a tenuous balance.

25:39

I'm not being a dick here. Like

25:42

it needs to, you need to feel the sense

25:44

like about you're trapped. But I

25:46

think the problem is there, the real life

25:48

is so much objectively worse. You

25:51

know, like you have to work for money. Every

25:54

step you take, you could die at the

25:56

end of a nunchuck apparently. You know

25:58

what I mean? kind of gets

26:00

along other than being racist. You

26:03

get meal tickets. Yeah. Yeah,

26:05

that's just one. Yeah, it's like

26:07

a legitimate communist society that financially

26:09

seems difficult to understand. What's

26:13

the downside? They sleep as well as

26:15

they sleep in the real world, you

26:17

know? Yeah. And so obviously

26:19

our protagonist is very like, no, I'm not going to

26:22

let this stand. I got to get out. It's my

26:24

main deal. I got to go. Well,

26:26

Andy's worried his brother Frank will get upset. Because he

26:28

took his Chevy. Yeah. But

26:31

I love the addition of the

26:33

character, well, the character detail for

26:36

Carmen, who's completely uninterested the

26:38

whole movie in solving the main plot's central

26:40

problem. She does not care about getting back

26:42

to her old life. No, yeah, she doesn't

26:44

care if they stay there, which is a

26:46

very unique vision. I

26:48

find that actually refreshing, just the character

26:50

is like, yeah, this is the reality,

26:52

I guess, man, in the face of

26:55

all the Logan's runs and running

26:57

man's in the islands. She gets

26:59

her hair done by the other women at the garage.

27:02

I guess I'm one of these now. She seems happy

27:04

with her hair. She seemed happy. Like, look

27:07

what they did for me. But you need it

27:09

too bad. Which is a bunch of industrial springs

27:11

woven into her hair. No, I don't think so.

27:13

I don't think that would hurt him. Yeah, I

27:15

don't think that would hurt him. The character who's

27:17

just like down with anything, the only problem is

27:19

that it's just too bad when she meets a

27:21

racist cold. I couldn't figure out why our lead

27:23

character was not madly in love with this woman.

27:26

Like she was... What

27:28

else do you want? She was really kind and

27:31

like, you know, really liked him. Pretty

27:34

chill about everything. You know, asked very

27:36

little of him was supportive of his...

27:39

That's just not him, man. He's about

27:41

fitness and kale and like she's into

27:43

burgers and fries. He's blowing it real

27:45

hard. He is blowing it real hard.

27:47

Yeah, Carmen's the catch man. I

27:51

don't love that she has the

27:53

like mental fortitude to be convinced by

27:55

random racist colds. Agreed. But

27:59

you know, other than that, she's great. I don't know if

28:01

he's convinced or she was always that way. That's

28:03

because what the movie goes along with it so

28:05

quickly. Yeah Do

28:09

we even know if Jimmy crabsy I

28:11

love his name is crabsy because he thought he had crabs

28:13

once but he didn't It

28:15

was a great origin cool It's

28:19

believable cool story, but believable though because

28:21

nicknames are done, but you don't like

28:23

that You guys that want that nickname

28:25

then right? He should have his own nickname

28:27

like call me dragon or whatever dude I had

28:29

one of those in my life, but not crazy

28:32

There was a kid we called speckles and it

28:34

was not a good story, and I'm not gonna

28:36

tell that story But he

28:38

went by speckles. He's just like yeah,

28:40

and then teachers started calling him speckles

28:42

The motherfucker's name was Robert. That's wonderful,

28:44

but honestly that's because there's a tide

28:47

of fate He couldn't avoid this man

28:49

brought his own doom to the party

28:52

You know I mean well speckles would

28:54

introduce himself as speckles sometimes well.

28:56

That's called learned helplessness Bring

29:00

that man to a drive-in see how he reacts

29:02

to it. Oh boy the child Well

29:06

crabsy, I'm sorry Mike I

29:09

derailed your point please I

29:11

was just gonna compare it to being trapped at

29:14

Burning Man which recently happened when people were trapped

29:16

at Burning Man And I wanted to know the

29:18

deal of the guy dressed like a banana There's

29:20

one guy who's dressed like a banana and many

29:22

times just walking around But

29:25

that's actually the equivalent of the

29:27

costume for the Grand Master Dragon

29:29

of the KKK He's

29:36

King racist The

29:39

other thing that reminded me of more than anything

29:41

is the ache would sing the great outdoor fight

29:44

which is a webcom Lightful

29:47

everyone go buy that read that online

29:50

yeah read the great outdoor fight Which

29:52

is basically this but without a post-apocalyptic

29:54

then it's just you're locked in a

29:56

big area and everyone's fighting For

30:00

someone wins. Yeah, for someone wins. Can I

30:02

ask for the joy of fighting? Which is

30:04

what reminded me of it because these people

30:07

seem to take genuine joy in

30:09

their lifestyle. Jimmy is the only one who

30:11

wants to leave, who desperately wants to leave.

30:13

Right! Everyone else thinks this is pretty cool.

30:15

We like it here. Right. It kind of

30:17

feels like a slam dunk of a solution.

30:20

Yeah. Let that guy go.

30:22

Everyone's happy. Yeah.

30:24

This is a movie without a

30:27

real conflict. You know, where it's like,

30:29

let him out. And

30:31

then your carboy

30:34

trap will continue unhindered. I

30:37

think the only assumption is that the

30:39

cops are, you know, an arrogant force

30:41

that is not going to, you know,

30:44

bow down to any one specific desire

30:47

of one man. Because we lack the freedom

30:49

because it's, Well,

30:51

and it's the manager, right? Like, the literal

30:54

reason he can't leave is because Thompson won't

30:56

let him. Correct. Otherwise, no one

30:58

else would give a shit. Exactly. Thompson's

31:00

very short-sighted as the owner of

31:03

a corrupt drive-in prison camp. And

31:06

I like how everyone kind of deals with

31:08

them. Like, they are kind of, there

31:10

is this tone, as it was

31:12

true in Wake and Fright, which we covered a few, you

31:15

know, like a month or two ago. And

31:18

like, it has this tone where it's like, you

31:22

got to love it. And what's your

31:24

problem, dude, for wanting to change things?

31:26

You have an interest outside of just

31:29

drinking beer and hanging out? Yeah, that's

31:31

weird. Yeah. Which I think exists in

31:33

all cultures and all societies somewhat, right?

31:36

It's the idea of the bogan

31:39

or in America, the bougain, you

31:41

know, like, it's that vibe. But

31:43

like, that's, I

31:46

don't know, I find that kind of

31:48

interesting that they choose to focus solely

31:50

on that, almost in their lore of

31:52

their apocalypse. It's what's true to

31:54

Australia, which, you know, I guess

31:56

it's just copium, just dealing with

31:58

the idea of like, It sucks

32:00

here. I mean Australia

32:03

largely sucked that hard. No,

32:05

I mean looking at it. It seems pretty

32:07

great This is I mean like right

32:09

that looks pretty Yeah,

32:12

it's a part. It's a party night. Yeah,

32:14

I mean even just a night with the Cowboys would be a

32:16

pretty fun knife You know There

32:20

is it is covered in barbed wire that's

32:22

electrified. So there is something keeping them in

32:24

physically Yeah That's the thing that

32:26

seems to send the crabs you over the

32:28

edge of outrage like they're they've electrified the

32:30

fence mate You know, it's like that

32:33

seemed like that's the bridge to yeah, yeah,

32:35

not not the toll road. Yeah They

32:39

kept telling them verbatim. Listen, man, you can't

32:41

leave ever and he kept being like we'll

32:43

see about that Until finally the

32:45

electric fence. He's like wait a minute. They

32:47

trapped me here. It's like yeah, bro They've

32:49

been telling me that we're 30 minutes. It's

32:51

amazing with the exception of the main like

32:53

three assholes You know the

32:56

guy that's like yeah There

32:58

are antagonists. He does run afoul of some

33:00

guys that we don't like one ever swastika.

33:02

So Oh,

33:06

yeah Guys got a bolo tie

33:08

that has a swastika on it and it's just

33:10

casual We're just like oh, these are just some

33:12

like chill guys and then the fun stuff. So

33:14

let me see that guy Yeah,

33:17

Haza. Yeah, I

33:19

have logistics questions, but I can save them if

33:21

you're not ready for them Well,

33:24

I was just about to launch into one which

33:26

is that I love how everything is

33:29

actually not damaged that much By

33:31

which I mean the diner has

33:33

a neon sign pretty good. She has the

33:35

name of the diner How the hell has

33:37

that not been destroyed how it's still work

33:39

Oh, and so like all of the destruction

33:42

and chaos These punks care

33:44

about their environment and they love the drive-in

33:46

they treat the drive-in with respect. It's their

33:48

home They're pretty creative that onks actually, you

33:50

know, like even when they tag something it's

33:52

like well that made it a little bit

33:54

more unique And artsy and fits in here better Yeah,

33:57

they're artsy punks. They're not just destructoid

33:59

punks Yeah, but that's the kind

34:01

of destructive ethos that's going on

34:03

with our protagonists in these films.

34:06

Is it's that, like, yeah, it

34:08

sucks here so you better love it. That's

34:11

that mantra we keep finding in these movies.

34:13

But it's exactly what you're saying, right? You

34:16

gotta love the place you live, otherwise what

34:18

the fuck are you doing here? You should

34:20

get out of here, because, like, otherwise

34:23

why are you just shitting on our parade?

34:25

You know? Right, it seems pointless. Kind of

34:27

true to life. We're playing cricket with pieces

34:29

of trash, you know? Don't let us rain

34:32

on our parade. That's kind

34:34

of what the appeal of this

34:36

thing. Now it does kind

34:38

of allow things to run rampant, like

34:40

racism. And that's, I think, what

34:42

the film's trying to say at a larger point. But

34:45

that...they're not wrong about that. They're

34:47

not wrong to be like, Hey

34:50

man, why are you being a

34:52

dick? You know, just allow

34:54

us to have our cool time and our

34:56

neon signs and our TV and small... Like,

34:59

oh my god, the small structures that

35:02

they built out of cars. Oh, that are

35:04

extensions of the cars. Yeah,

35:06

that was great. Like, cool production design. Absolutely. I

35:09

actually think this is why the racism

35:11

for me didn't fit into this movie.

35:14

Is because I feel like the only

35:16

reason you would bus in a bunch of, like,

35:19

racist problems, you know what I

35:21

mean, into this movie is if the place was

35:24

so hard to be around

35:26

that you needed a drum-up conflict to

35:28

deflect from that problem. Right?

35:31

Yeah, that is like...but I think

35:33

it's just a bureaucratic kind of, once again, all

35:35

these loopholes. It's not done

35:37

with any intention. It's just like, I don't

35:39

know, send them here. I don't think that's

35:41

what the filmmaker thinks. I think the filmmaker

35:43

thinks he's making a comment on, like,

35:46

how racism is a distraction that's being used to

35:48

keep us from looking at the... you know,

35:51

dire nature of our circumstances. A

35:54

comment that I don't even necessarily disagree with

35:56

entirely as a philosophical point of view, but

35:58

I didn't agree with it. with it in

36:00

this movie because it was

36:02

like... Yeah, just to be clear, because I just

36:05

keep assuming no one's seen this except

36:07

McCloud. The

36:09

police bust in a bunch of

36:12

Asian refugees, and this immediately makes

36:14

almost everyone, including Carmen, as we've

36:16

alluded to, start chanting

36:18

racist slogans and having hate meetings to talk

36:20

about how they need to limit how many

36:22

can come in here. It's wild. My question

36:25

is, is it still a functioning drive-in? Do

36:27

people show up and pay for tickets to

36:29

watch movies? Dude, I have it. Right. Thank

36:32

you. We've got the refugee corner

36:34

over here. Thank you so much. I also

36:36

enjoy the thing. So that

36:38

brings me to one of my questions I

36:40

wrote down. Thank you, Mike. Mine is, what

36:42

if your job was to make the movies

36:44

for this place? Do you take that job?

36:47

Are you excited about that? They show movies. Multiple

36:49

times we see them project movies. Yeah. Yeah,

36:52

it's still a functioning drive-in, so do you mean like who's

36:54

the projectionist? No. If your job

36:57

is out in the carboy world where things

36:59

are a hellscape, you have to make these

37:01

films. Yeah. Well,

37:03

it does. It clearly does. Another

37:06

conspicuously absent thing from this place

37:09

that I think is problematic

37:12

is, what are they doing with all the babies? There

37:16

are 100% babies all over the place.

37:18

I didn't even think of that. There

37:20

have to be. That's upsetting. What are

37:22

they doing with it? Most apocalyptic radiation

37:24

rendered them all sterile because the alternative

37:27

is too fucked up. Yeah.

37:29

Yeah. But I mean- They're

37:31

using babies as car parts. They have to be. That's

37:33

the only way the economy here makes any sense, right?

37:36

Yeah. It's no piercer, but you

37:38

need to keep the drive-in going, so you

37:40

need some orphans. Yeah.

37:43

Yeah. That's why it's a satire, the

37:45

missing babies. So

37:47

Jimmy's car slowly gets hollowed out. More

37:50

and more stuff is stolen until he has no engine.

37:52

He finally gives up on the idea of returning Frank's

37:55

car to him on harm, and all he wants to

37:57

do is escape. He

37:59

siphons gas from the cop car, right? Yeah.

38:02

Yeah. While they're doing a drug deal, Thompson

38:05

and the cops are doing drug deals, which

38:07

that's the thing. Oh yeah, they're bringing in

38:10

drugs. The drive-in is that you can get

38:13

access to drugs a

38:15

lot easier than outside of the walls,

38:18

so it's kind of designed for

38:20

druggies and, you

38:22

know, misfogans. Well, again, it's like trying

38:24

to keep a population unaware, right? That's

38:26

the satire of it. I

38:28

mean, that's the satire of it, but

38:30

like that's the distraction while he siphons

38:33

the gas. Well, yeah. I

38:35

like when he attacks the convoy while a fight

38:38

film plays behind him. Yeah. Like

38:40

in the foreground, he's fighting his way across the

38:42

screen, and in the background, there's guys fighting. Pretty

38:46

cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty cool, little cool maneuvers.

38:48

I think there's some really great filmmaking in

38:51

this. Like it's really cool and fun. I

38:53

love this outside studio kind of

38:56

international cinema for this very reason. Like

38:59

they're just trying weird shit. Why? Because

39:02

no one's saying to not do that, you know? No

39:04

one's saying don't just put like rig

39:06

a camera to basically

39:09

to a chicken so you can get the shot

39:12

of where a car drives over the chicken and

39:14

the chicken's unharmed. Yeah, I wondered about that. That

39:16

shot's really cool. Because we were just talking about

39:18

in Snowtown, there's a shot of a snake

39:21

eating a mouse, and

39:23

then in the other one we watched, Wake and Fright,

39:25

they killed a bunch of kangaroos, and it's real footage

39:27

of dudes shooting and flitting the throats of kangaroos. Oh

39:30

no. Very upsetting.

39:32

Oh no. Getting that shot of the

39:35

car driving across the chicken, I feel

39:37

like only in Australia, or at least not in

39:39

America. Yeah, no, you can't

39:41

like do that live. I think

39:43

the rules about that in

39:46

America changed in like the early

39:48

80s after Apocalypse Now. Because

39:50

Apocalypse Now, they actually killed a cow. Everyone has

39:53

like a cow getting cut in half, right? Yeah,

39:55

and I think that if I'm not

39:57

mistaken, because I didn't research this, I

39:59

think that prompted some changes

40:01

in the, like, that

40:03

there needed to be an infrastructure to protect

40:06

animals, but that's not a worldwide phenomenon. So,

40:08

like, it's possible it hadn't gotten all the

40:10

way over to Australia yet, you

40:12

know? Gotcha. I'm guessing, though. I don't

40:15

know for sure. But I too

40:17

noted that shot as a notable

40:19

shot. It was a cool shot.

40:21

Yeah. Real cool shot.

40:23

Glad the chicken seems to be okay. I

40:26

don't really actually get a shoot about chickens,

40:28

you know. I won't personally kill a

40:30

chicken, but I'm not going to kill a chicken. You'll run

40:32

over a chicken? I

40:35

wouldn't run over a chicken. No, I wouldn't do anything

40:37

too prompted. So there was

40:39

a rooster that used to just come marching into

40:42

my house when we would film Escort Mission. Do

40:44

you remember this, Mike? Yeah. There

40:46

was just some feral rooster that nobody claimed,

40:49

that just strutted all around. And he really

40:51

did bring us to the limit of, like,

40:53

what am I willing to do to a

40:56

chicken? It's like an answer with

40:58

nothing. Yeah. The answer

41:00

was nothing. We let him

41:02

do it. The chicken wins. Respectful to

41:04

the rooster. Yeah. He would

41:06

show up, literally walk in the house when the door was open,

41:08

kind of look around, be like, all right. Did

41:11

you just bully by this rooster? Yeah. Yeah,

41:15

he knew it. He knew what was going on. He was

41:17

like, yeah, fuck these guys' sound. I

41:20

feel like we haven't talked enough about the cadre

41:22

of goons that goes against him. Yeah,

41:24

yeah. And end up leading the racist cult. The

41:28

one that I really

41:30

want to talk about, who we haven't mentioned, is Haza,

41:33

who is a tall, lanky man who

41:35

just screams like a wolf. That guy.

41:37

Yeah, that guy. Who? That guy.

41:40

Ended up fighting him with a wicked car. Is that the wicked car guy? Yes.

41:44

And he gets beaten with a brick, which felt good. That

41:47

felt good. I wanted to see him die. Yeah.

41:50

He was a guy- Obnoxious. Was

41:52

he, like, mildly famous before this movie?

41:56

Gosh, I don't know. He positioned that way. Not

41:58

to me. He, well, he's a- saxophonist

42:00

I'm looking him up right now he's a

42:02

saxophonist television personality and radio presenter I'm wondering

42:04

if he's kind of like a John Lurie

42:06

type guy or like a Tom

42:08

Waits type guy like it's fun that

42:11

he's in the movie kind of thing

42:13

yeah I mean like if you're big

42:15

into the saxophone cuz otherwise I like he blew

42:17

my mind like I was like how could this

42:19

guy be in this movie doing like a non

42:22

actor so yeah that makes sense yeah yeah yeah

42:24

yeah I know what you're picking up I'm just

42:26

wondering you know and then

42:28

was it the very primon proper chubby bolo

42:30

tie guy that had the swastika no

42:33

she's got it with this

42:35

guy a silent swastika man

42:38

yeah just there their leader

42:40

is like surprisingly well put

42:42

together he looks nice yeah

42:44

for the haircut he's down as we may face

42:47

Wolverine haircut yeah

42:49

yeah flock of seagulls haircut yeah

42:51

yeah and he leads the racist

42:54

tirades for the most part puts the

42:56

meetings together and in the charismatic and

42:59

maybe the most likable thing that crab

43:01

he does is defend an Asian man

43:03

in the bathroom when they're half-ling him

43:07

yeah and that's a good

43:09

thing obviously and yet I kind of didn't

43:11

believe crab you would do it really

43:14

not that crab the why would

43:16

he distant well

43:18

I see I just he up to make some peel

43:20

to Carmen he's like why would you fucking do

43:22

that what right right I'm not saying that the

43:24

logical I'm with you I'm not saying that the

43:26

movie didn't say that he was against racism it

43:29

definitely does say that what I'm saying is it

43:32

doesn't feel like this guy would

43:34

be so distinct on those views

43:36

from the rest of this crowd

43:38

when everyone else like without any

43:40

question is racist you know

43:42

I mean so it's this weird like why is this guy

43:44

like you know 20 years ahead or whatever culturally

43:47

from the rest of it like I mean just

43:49

that kind of depends on your interpretation of the

43:51

movie is like it's is it just a guy

43:53

trying to get out or is it a guy

43:55

trying to make a stand against you

43:58

know like is it a guy trying to True

44:00

to his morals in the midst of a difficult

44:02

situation or is he just want to get out?

44:05

Yeah, cuz it does make that appeal a few

44:07

times He's like we should be

44:09

better and stuff like that So if you buy

44:12

it you buy you don't you don't yeah I

44:14

mean I'm not trying to like it's Obviously

44:16

you need it in the movie because the movie

44:18

falls apart if you don't have somebody who's like

44:20

a racist I'm focused on But

44:26

like It's one of

44:28

those things where it's like as a satire I start

44:31

to be like why is this guy the omniscient? Figure

44:35

other like he's a guy that's there baby because

44:37

somebody's got to be fair enough Cara

44:40

be the fitness man Well, I thought it

44:42

was quite a because what makes it confused

44:44

and is also kind of a bold move

44:46

Is that Carmen goes along with it without

44:49

a dating right? Like if Carmen had fought

44:51

the racism I would think okay the racist

44:53

people are the exceptions of the norm and

44:55

the norm is is You

44:58

know, whatever is non racism or latent

45:00

racism versus explicit racism But the fact

45:02

that Carmen immediately is like I don't

45:05

care. I want to stay here and

45:07

chant the horrible things about Asians When

45:11

they seemed like such a tight-knit I

45:13

really thought saving her was gonna be part of

45:15

his journey Like I thought he had to save

45:17

her. Yeah, yeah, they without even discussing it that

45:20

much just split up and she stays Yeah,

45:22

and she's just like I want to be here for

45:25

other reasons, but the racism doesn't bother me and yeah

45:27

like All of it Yeah,

45:33

yeah Which you're absolutely right to point out and

45:36

we do that a lot with these types of

45:38

movies where it does feel kind of defeatist When

45:41

you're like, oh so you're trying

45:43

to make it in all this political commentary

45:45

You're trying to make the statement that also

45:47

like we're not that far from here And

45:50

it's just if commonplace is that

45:52

racism that kind of open racism that's

45:54

a bleak view of Australia,

45:56

but you know as far as we know

45:59

and or human Humanity yeah, they could

46:01

be talking about all humanity. I

46:03

kind of I kind of appreciated

46:06

Like this is one of those times where I'm

46:08

like, yeah The movie audience in the 80s is

46:10

not is a very different audience than now So

46:13

you kind of do need to go really hard

46:15

at this point to make it effectively You

46:18

know, I mean like like you gotta

46:20

be like right. It's right. It's a

46:22

loud brash movie number one number two

46:25

It wants to be a satire which is kind of

46:28

a bold ambition for a movie like this Let's be

46:30

honest. So like the pivot has to

46:32

be pretty hard and feel like whoa So

46:35

it feels like cacophonous to me now But

46:37

I think it might have worked if

46:39

you were you know One of the 20

46:42

people who thought in the theater feels like a

46:44

surprising turn it feels like suddenly the movie got

46:46

real Yeah, you really thought the

46:48

stakes would only be him escaping and

46:50

fighting off gang members now And we're

46:52

talking about not who worked on is

46:54

Quentin Tarantino. Yeah, I mean right exactly

46:56

well, right I actually

46:58

just enjoys this era of throwback

47:00

and style, you know, this

47:03

is the movie when you realize these yes, I agree

47:05

with that it is Completely I

47:08

it's completely that he likes to throw back out

47:10

aspect of it I feel like this

47:12

is the moment where you realize the movie is

47:14

a satire Like you don't

47:16

actually totally get that before this And

47:19

it's like oh, okay, so I guess this is all

47:21

a big metaphor, right? Yeah Yeah,

47:24

it's one of the satires that takes itself a little seriously

47:27

So it's kind of yeah the tone isn't

47:29

there where it's like look how stupid that

47:31

is Maybe there's in jokes

47:33

of like stuff that we missed because we're

47:36

not a part of 1986 culture

47:40

especially Australian but

47:43

it does it does seem to be like Not

47:46

nodding to the satire as much as

47:48

a lot of stories do a little

47:50

bit like even like total recall They

47:53

talk about how Thompson has a computer file

47:55

and a computer file links to all the

47:57

other star drive-ins and that the police are

48:00

Potentially keeping people there, but we don't we

48:02

don't know why tiny little hints We don't know

48:04

why and we just know that he wants himself

48:07

wiped from the computer file So there is sort

48:09

of a 1984 esque thing

48:11

going on. It's just very diffuse and

48:13

it's hinted at Yeah,

48:15

well not really developed. Yeah building out

48:17

the world for this Absurd

48:20

premise is probably the wrong move You

48:23

know, I mean like if like if we need to

48:25

get on to all the lore of why the drive-ins

48:27

and blah blah blah We don't have a fun movie

48:29

has a computer and he's doing something bad with it,

48:31

right? would it be surprised

48:33

would it be surprising you guys to hear

48:36

that the Director

48:39

of this film Brian Tranchard Smith Was

48:42

working on a different film all

48:44

the way up to like a few weeks before This

48:47

filmed and then their

48:50

director dropped out dead-end drive-ins director

48:52

dropped out and he took over

48:55

That only have a few weeks of to prepare So

48:59

all these questions that we're talking

49:01

about are we're probably stuff where

49:03

it was just like yay Yeah, yeah, the

49:05

writer wanted to do I just gotta get

49:07

to the movie done. Yeah, that all makes

49:09

sense. So like some of these Attempts

49:13

may be truncated, you know, right? I

49:15

mean, right. What if he didn't even

49:17

like the casting? Yeah, I

49:19

mean, like how do you even fix that three weeks out from

49:21

production, right? Yeah, I thought as well

49:23

cast though. I Yeah, I

49:25

thought they did a good job. I thought

49:27

the direction was especially good for knowing that

49:29

fact, you know If

49:32

you are a fan of Mad Max, I think

49:34

you should watch this I do think like Quentin

49:37

doesn't have terrible taste This is notable

49:39

for its style points at

49:41

least just to go. Oh, wow. They made a film

49:43

like this. That's yeah pretty Kind

49:46

of awesome. It's still fun to like

49:48

despite all the like all the nitpicking

49:50

I'm doing like I was not bored

49:52

watching it Or not with

49:54

it. Yes. So, you know, it still works

49:57

in that regard. It's also a breezy

49:59

88 minutes. Yeah, you know, yeah,

50:01

you know, yeah. I

50:03

kind of wish that his brother had showed up one more time. You

50:06

know, could he be a little bit more strong brother?

50:08

I was waiting for that to happen too, or for

50:10

him to get the broken Chevy home, and for the

50:13

brother to go, what? What the fuck? You're into the

50:15

car. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or at least see the

50:17

mom again. We never see the mom again either. I

50:19

wanted her. Yeah. I

50:21

wanted her. Like all ladies

50:24

movies, it ends with just a triumphant freeze

50:26

frame at the moment of resolution. Which

50:30

is, it's just open

50:32

road baby. Yeah. Like he's just like, yeah,

50:34

I'm on the road that I'm not supposed

50:36

to be on. That's because I suspect that

50:38

10 seconds later it's like the graduate, we

50:40

just watch his face be like, why didn't

50:42

I leave that place? What did I do?

50:45

I have no car and no girlfriend. What am I

50:47

going to do now? But he's driving away

50:49

to freedom. I also want just like one

50:52

more, like if it's the society is as

50:54

oppressive as it really is touting.

50:57

What if standing was just another police car comes by

50:59

and is just like, you can't be on this road.

51:01

We got to take you back to that. Yeah. They

51:03

said it's

51:08

illegal to leave on that road. Well, Thompson

51:10

did. And then that's kind of satirical. I

51:12

think there is a statement being made about

51:14

the cops. Yeah, totally. It's a

51:16

pretty basic statement, but they're all pigs

51:18

basically. So you're lying. Yeah. Cause he

51:20

goes to do the thing that like,

51:23

honestly, if you wanted to escape the situation

51:25

at any time, just go hassle Thompson. He's

51:27

like a middle aged man with

51:30

no, he's not frightened. So finally,

51:33

finally Jimmy goes and pulls a gun on

51:35

Thompson, which is like, there you do. That's

51:37

right. That's how you escape the situation. You,

51:40

you're helper, but then a cop comes in

51:42

and he, the cop is such a fuck

51:44

up that Thompson and the cop end up

51:46

shooting each other. So our guy stays morally

51:48

clean and jumps his car through the drive-in

51:50

sign and he's on his way to freedom.

51:52

But I do think there's, yeah,

51:54

like we say, it hints at a

51:56

world of satire through Thompson and through

51:59

the cops. But it doesn't feel

52:01

like it has to belabor it. It

52:03

goes like, you know what I mean,

52:05

cops are pigs, you know? Yeah. Well

52:07

that's interesting. Because they're up to no good and there's

52:09

bureaucrats that are also up to no good and they're

52:12

all chummy and they... They have their computers. They have

52:14

their shit in the computer. They're the ones to blame

52:16

for all the shit. It's

52:19

not racism, it's greed you see. Which

52:23

is... Right. It's

52:25

a pretty basic, good message. But it's... Yeah,

52:28

for the time it was pretty far ahead of

52:30

it, right? Like I would be

52:32

annoyed with this film if it came out tomorrow.

52:34

It would be like, come on. You

52:36

know what I mean? But for 1986, you

52:38

know, it's like, hey, they're

52:41

making some interesting points here, you know? Yeah,

52:44

it's almost 50 years old. Right.

52:47

Yeah. Yeah. And

52:49

life warriors and like Mad Max, it's just

52:51

a fun world. It's just fun. It's

52:54

zane in a unique way that you don't usually get.

52:57

I think the... I mean, the allure of this

52:59

film, right? When we look back and say, why

53:01

is this film remembered? Why

53:03

is Quentin Tarantino such a big fan and

53:06

got it to be seen by a bunch of... Why

53:09

is it on this podcast? It

53:11

comes down to that warrior's vibe.

53:13

The idea of when we

53:16

have an apocalypse or we have like

53:18

a story where there's gangs involved... It's

53:20

gonna be fun. Escape from New York.

53:22

It's fun because they build their own

53:24

form of systems where it's like, we

53:26

are... The blank guys and we look

53:28

like this, you know? Like, and

53:31

there's something we love about the idea of,

53:33

I think... It's the

53:35

same reason we love Pokemon. We just love

53:38

collecting things that are like a set. Yeah.

53:40

And it's like, oh, look at that thing. Look at

53:42

that fucking thing. That guy with the ninja star or

53:45

look at that guy. He's got his hair in a

53:47

weird thing. They all rollerblade. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah.

53:50

And that's what is like the bread and

53:52

butter of the warriors. It's funny that this

53:54

one goes like starts to do that and

53:56

you're like, oh yeah, sweet. Okay. So

53:59

this is their vibe. And

54:01

then they immediately hard turn to like and

54:03

then also what if they were racist and

54:06

they all are Everyone is from

54:08

any of these other films were mentioning Racism

54:11

is the one thing that brings all

54:13

the disparate factions together. They all agree

54:15

that it should get out. Yeah, right

54:17

And that's that's why I such a

54:19

problem with it. Like I or I think yeah where

54:21

I that's where I Come from

54:23

well, not like I understood it. I

54:26

understood what he was trying to do I

54:28

just was like I don't think this world

54:30

has earned this that that's that was my

54:33

objective You just want it to be you

54:35

know, Super Mario Brothers the movie. Yes. Thank

54:37

you for that bad-faced summary of my position

54:39

I completely agree with that. Yes in the

54:41

sense that I really did just think it

54:43

would be Willie escape Won't he escape and

54:45

that's the whole movie which you could easily

54:47

do so bringing in

54:50

the satirical elements Halfway is

54:52

an interesting. It's extremely silly

54:54

It's an extremely silly and so I bet you and

54:57

I can't say for sure I bet you the person

54:59

who wanted us to watch this

55:01

would also point out. Well, no the

55:03

satire is building up to the racism

55:05

That's the part where that gets completely

55:08

unmasked. Right? There's a line there Yeah,

55:10

but like obviously the vending drugs the

55:12

cops are keeping you here Like there's

55:14

a sort of institutionalized like distraction slash

55:16

entertainment motif It's just that those

55:18

things didn't feel brought out in the same way

55:20

and like say the Hunger Games Or

55:23

some other right topia where those elements are

55:25

more Clearly Underlined

55:28

it's much more like a punk song that

55:30

just says fuck the cops, but it's right

55:32

explain that right detail Exactly

55:36

and that's a lot of punk songs, too And

55:39

I love a good punk song and that's where

55:41

I again. It's like the lobster conundrum, right where it's

55:43

like Dave for instance hates the

55:45

lobster because he thinks the world is like well, you just set

55:47

it up this way So why do I give a shit? I

55:50

like the metaphor enough to care about that movie

55:53

I think and that's you know, every movie world is

55:55

fakes and fakes that up So it's like you either

55:57

buy into that one or you don't want to me.

55:59

It's like Like when the premise

56:01

has unique observations built into it,

56:03

you know what I mean? Like

56:05

I'm willing to go with the weird offers more.

56:07

Except the premise for the sake of the things

56:10

that the premise will derive. Correct. And

56:12

for me, the lobster was on that line and I went

56:14

with it. For me, this movie is not enough,

56:17

you know? But again, that's asking a lot out of

56:19

this movie. No, it's interesting that-

56:21

Out of 1986 as well. Right.

56:24

Like I think of like Batman, you know, like

56:27

Fisher. Oh, so do I. Who does? Oh boy.

56:30

All the time. And then I think about

56:32

like Birdman, you know, and like how that's

56:34

a commentary on kind of like what we're

56:36

talking about, you know, like the idea of

56:38

like, well, are you turning like a

56:40

true fan takes it really seriously.

56:43

But it's also like, but the whole point

56:45

of this was designed to be a silly

56:47

nonsense camp, right? So now

56:49

we're taking that seriously. What should I

56:51

be? Are

56:54

we all fine with this? This is all fine. You

56:56

know, like these are the questions one

56:58

might ask when they're looking at, you know,

57:01

some of the premises that we're like supposed

57:03

to take serious now, like the

57:05

Joker, the very concept of the Joker.

57:08

That's one that I think

57:10

is the same kind of suggestion or

57:12

like I think that the line that

57:15

you're drawing, which, you know, I'm fairly

57:17

agree with, you know, just that

57:19

idea of like you kind of have to petition

57:23

to the audience. You

57:25

want, you want this crazy

57:27

idea, but how laughable is it? And

57:29

also when the film talks about how

57:32

laughable is it, does

57:34

that air into the side of like

57:36

now you're making fun of the fandom for liking your

57:38

fucking film? Like that's, that's interesting. Yeah,

57:40

you know, yeah, I didn't feel like it was

57:42

condescending in any way. I

57:45

don't know. I also give it credit for

57:48

trying to be something. You

57:50

know what I mean? Like not every film, like this

57:52

guy, you know, and he's got,

57:54

he works. So who am I? The crazy,

57:56

but this guy's made a lot of like sequels to

57:58

stuff for like sort of knockoff versions of

58:00

things that are not trying to

58:02

be something. I think it's interesting that he

58:04

made so much out of this little film, right?

58:07

Like a scant 10 years later, he's

58:09

making leprechaun four in space. Ooh, yeah.

58:12

See, this is much more of a

58:14

calling card than that. Yeah. No

58:17

doubt. Well, it is in

58:19

space. It is in space.

58:21

You love space, Michael. Space, no one can hear

58:23

you wish. Is that his thing? He does wishes?

58:25

He didn't want his goal? You

58:28

think so? Space goal. Have you never seen any of the

58:30

leprechauns? No.

58:33

No leprechauns? I know there's a leprechaun in

58:35

the hood one. I've heard that. There is.

58:38

There is. Yeah. You

58:40

are very correct about the leprechaun franchise.

58:42

That's the world I'm ready to get

58:45

on board with. Yeah. I can take

58:47

that seriously. Dude, the Joker. The Joker is

58:49

so hard to take seriously for me. And the

58:51

fact that we've started taking him more and more

58:54

seriously, like,

58:56

you know, Joaquin's Joker is as seriously

58:58

as you can take that character, but

59:00

he's still a clown. Just funny. He's

59:02

still a clown. Right. It's the setup. And

59:05

I think it like if Heath Ledger wasn't

59:07

so fucking good as a

59:10

performance and Alan would have met in

59:12

Dark Knight, I don't know if we'd

59:14

be here. I don't know if we would have the Joaquin

59:16

Joker, right? Yeah. He asked us

59:18

that the Joker can be serious. Yeah.

59:21

Yeah. Because

59:23

it was just such a cultural touchstone.

59:26

And that's an interesting aspect

59:28

of fandom for me, is that like,

59:31

if you do kind of not

59:33

take it seriously, that is kind

59:35

of an affront to the fandom

59:37

itself. Now that is canon. It

59:39

is canon to be like, no, the Joker is

59:41

dead seriously. And the right, I mean, like the

59:44

killing joke and all these comics that have been

59:46

made. Part of that joy is that is a

59:48

great work of art. We as a group have

59:50

all agreed that this silly thing we like is

59:52

important. So you have to act like it's important

59:54

too. Right. It has a sacredness as an archetype.

59:57

Which is interesting because that's kind of

1:00:00

the setup of all these Ozploitation

1:00:02

films, right? Or some of them,

1:00:05

especially this one in Lake and Fright, where it's like, just

1:00:08

love it if you're here, you know?

1:00:10

What the fuck is... Don't shit on

1:00:13

our enjoyment parade. We enjoy the drive-in.

1:00:17

And I think that there's a toxicity that

1:00:19

comes along with... Just because you

1:00:21

have a criticism of something doesn't mean that... That

1:00:23

you don't appreciate it or have fun with it.

1:00:25

You don't... You can't appreciate it. Or even if

1:00:27

you don't appreciate it, you don't

1:00:29

have to be there also. I

1:00:31

mean, that's the case of this movie. But

1:00:34

yeah, I guess that's why I

1:00:36

won't be going to Comic Con this year. Well,

1:00:39

it's interesting because he escapes. He gets what he

1:00:41

wants. He gets out. Now I'm

1:00:43

wondering symbolically, what does that mean? Like...

1:00:46

Yeah. What is he escaping

1:00:48

from to what? I guess to Adam's

1:00:51

point. That's my point. Yes. What's the

1:00:53

symbolism there? What is he... Why is

1:00:55

it better to be outside? We

1:00:57

haven't really set that up. Right. And

1:00:59

I feel like the film can jump

1:01:01

at any time and just say, well, I don't know. It's just

1:01:03

a fucking... That's right. It's just

1:01:05

a fucking... It's dead end driving, bro. He

1:01:07

got out. I don't know what to tell

1:01:10

you. And he's not wrong about that. That's

1:01:12

like... You know, it's kind of like Carpenter

1:01:14

talking about this thing. Everyone's like, you did

1:01:16

this amazing treatise on paranoia and like, a

1:01:18

character archetype and how people deal with this

1:01:20

kind of trauma and you do this, you

1:01:22

do this. What's the answer? What does it

1:01:25

mean? Who's the thing and what does it

1:01:27

mean? And he's just like, I don't fucking

1:01:29

know. I just play PS4, man. It's

1:01:31

a monster movie. What do you want? Yeah. Ah,

1:01:34

damn you, Carpenter. Yeah.

1:01:38

Well, damn you, Carpenter. Yeah.

1:01:41

Damn you, Carpenter. I agree. An

1:01:44

interesting place to leave it. Yeah.

1:01:46

It's a weird way we pivot. Otherwise, Abe

1:01:48

will talk about the thing for another four

1:01:50

hours. You know, it's... It's one of

1:01:53

the best. Yeah. Here's

1:01:55

the thing about the thing. Yeah. No,

1:01:57

I'm just kidding. Bad dog. Yeah. Let's...

1:02:00

Let's let's give another shout out

1:02:02

to James McLeod. Thank you. James. Thank you

1:02:04

James. You heard it We

1:02:07

might be shutting down the pick the flare

1:02:09

tier pick the flick tier soon Just

1:02:11

temporarily because it's only Osploitation

1:02:14

films and we're we feel like

1:02:16

the audience wants more variety It's

1:02:19

it's as we're doing we're we're entering

1:02:21

a new phase of the movie Mike's

1:02:23

going on a honeymoon A lot

1:02:26

of big happenings in the small beans community

1:02:28

that we're just like, you know what? We'll

1:02:31

probably put a little hold on that for a few months

1:02:33

and then we'll be back in action You

1:02:36

know, we'll give you some light news as we won't

1:02:38

make a post about it but just keep listening here

1:02:41

and you'll when you start hearing a Will

1:02:43

announce again when it opens up. So okay.

1:02:45

I Think

1:02:47

that's a good way to do it. Okay. Yeah,

1:02:50

they previews anything coming up on the schedule. You

1:02:52

want to shout out? Oh, yeah So

1:02:55

this comes out Friday the 2nd

1:02:57

January or January the 2nd on

1:03:00

2024 so we got Right

1:03:03

up on deck is one up some and

1:03:05

ship on Alan wake to well, that's a

1:03:08

good one. Oh, well, we're gonna have an

1:03:10

Anderson's Continuation

1:03:13

but we're moving on to the Paul

1:03:15

Thomas Anderson movie the

1:03:17

master We

1:03:20

have the triumphant return of director Peace Theater, I

1:03:23

believe we're gonna be talking about salt burn

1:03:25

Oh, yeah, and or con air. Oh, yeah.

1:03:27

Oh, yeah and some

1:03:29

more Escape from the multi

1:03:31

curse after that And

1:03:34

that's you know, that's how it goes.

1:03:36

I mean it's pretty good That's the

1:03:38

beam also apparently grave diggers back on

1:03:41

February 3rd at Angel Stadium. So if

1:03:43

anybody's like, holy Google

1:03:45

search for great is February

1:03:48

3rd monster jam in Angel

1:03:50

Stadium Okay, so yeah,

1:03:52

you have like a month from when you're listening to this

1:03:54

if you listen to this day one Yeah, so you got

1:03:56

time. Well, no not you have like it like a minute

1:04:00

Like it's like February there. Yeah, so you

1:04:02

got to get over there and see grave digger In

1:04:08

real trouble Hey,

1:04:20

man, I know where I know who pays for my jobs.

1:04:24

I know butters my bread. It's a grave

1:04:26

digger