The Good, The Pod and The Ugly

Our Darren Ssarfinale!Season 11 of The Good, The Pod, and The Ugly concludes on an odd note, both mathematically and colloquially, as the boys wrap up their Darren Aronofsky season with Episode 9 covering PERFECT BLUE (1997), joined by frequent guest Ryan.The debut film of famed anime and short-lived director Satoshi Kon released one year prior to Aronofsky’s debut (PI), Perfect Blue is an adaptation of an edgy YA thriller novel popular in Japan. Taking liberties with plot, Kon deepens the twists of the source material, adding in his own layers of the nascent internet anxieties and troubling the idea of identity visually and thematically, and in so doing turns what was meant as a Japanese OVA into a feature released worldwide. TGTPTU takes on directly the movie scuttlebutt sites posting slander since Requiem for a Dream (with a resurgence after Black Swan) and claims Kon himself on occasion supported (although he would die at age 46 months prior to Black Swan’s release), that The Scarf lifted shots and scenarios directly from Kon’s first masterpiece, and the strident conclusions the hosts and guest reach are definitely not going to stun and probably won’t impress you, our listener. But stay tuned afterward for Ken, Thomas, and Ryan’s rankings of Aronofsky’s eight-film filmography, a teaser for next season, and this season’s bestowal of the much-coveted Squeaky Chair Award. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

DARREN ARONOFSKY CH. 4 E2: THERE'S A LITTLE BLACK SWAN ON THE SUN TODAYSeason 11’s temporal pincer movement by The Good, The Pod, and The Ugly draws to a close with tricky reflections on BLACK SWAN (2010). Listen to our opinions double, pirouette, and morph during Chapter 4, Episode 2, covering our final Darren Aronofsky movie but not our season’s finale, with No-Longer-Special Guest Ryan and his squeaky chair understudy. Long-time Aronofsky collaborator and pod-fav cinematographer Matthew Libatique returns to shoot this tale that’d be like if Dostoevsky’s “The Double” mated with Tchaikovsky's “Swan Lake” and their kid was kept in a Barbie-pink child’s room as her mother painted her portrait and put mittens on them to keep them from scratching at the feathers erupting from their skin when they won the part of Odette and Odile.Reality fractures (as do opinions during the pod) for Natalie Portman’s Nina Sayers in her Oscar-winning performance, causing consternation for one host and glee for others. Ambiguities extend and multiple as Aronofsky claims the ending tragic while Portman believes it triumphant and Host Thomas in front of a car. Is this a story about womanhood and autonomy? The dangers of obsession? The need for a well-balanced meal?Trigger warning for hangnails and those who have allergies to shattered glass. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

SCARF SEASON: ARONOFSKY 7Alright, brother. It’s the smackdown, drag-out matchup you’ve been waiting for all season long as THE WRESTLER (2008) jumps into the ring with The Good, The Pod, and the Ugly for Chapter 4, Episode 1. In this final chapter, we watch with teeth and sphincters clenched tight on the edge of our folding chair seats as the subject of Season 11, director Darren Aronofsky, make his comeback with a comeback star.For the first and only time in his professional career, Darren “The Scarf” Aronofsky tags in a new camera partner, cinéma vérité cinematographer Maryse Alberti. The Scarf also sets aside pen and paper, giving the writing credit to another while allowing for script punch-ups from his main star, the long thought retired leading man, the ex-professional boxer, the small dog aficionado, the one, the only, Mickey “Whiplash” Rourke.But Aronofsky’s not done building his veteran team of newbies. For the wrestler’s love interest, he’ll recruit Marisa “My Cousin” Tomei, a former winner of the big belt (the Academy Award), garnering her a nom again as well as Rourke. And starring as Rourke’s estranged daughter, Evan “Once & Again” Rachel Wood.And just you wait, all you wrestling fans, all you who appreciate watching performers go a little crazy, who want to see athletes going to the mat and love the choreography of the ring, for The Wrestler is only Part 1 of this final chapter. Next week, it’ll go head-to-head, round-after-round with pod fav: Black Goose.Are you ready to rumble?!!!!!!THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

ARONOFSKY SEASON! NOAHChapter 3, Episode 2: So the Voice of Kenneth spake unto The Good, The Pod, and the Ugly, and it sayeth: Let there be NOAH (2014); and all the peoples then of the world rejoiced for Darren Aronofsky for his blockbuster that bringeth forth He of the Scarf his firsteth and onlyeth picture to be No. 1 opening weekend at the box office.As the temporal pincer movement winds down, guest Ryan returns with an extra squeaky chair to discuss this bold and big-budget entry into the Aronofsky canon. According to research by Thomas, Paramount’s marketing budget for Noah was over $100M, nearly as much as it cost to shoot the film, airing advertisements during commercial breaks in the Super Bowl and the 2014 Winter Olympics. This Easter weekend release would also have YA and graphic novel tie-ins.Russell Crowe, who as offered the lead role of The Fountain, plays the titular Noah, Anthony Hopkins plays his grandfather Methuselah, and Logan Lerman is a joke to Ken’s begats for some reason. Ari Handel returns to produce and puts quill to parchment with Aronofsky for their second corroborative writing credit (their first being Chapter 3, Episode from last week’s The Fountain), Matthew Libatique shoots, and Mark Margolis plays a Watcher (a stone angel fallen from Heaven during the Creation that lusted for Earthly women and would father the Nephilim because—you know what? not worth your time reading). And Jennifer Connelly returns (last seen in Requiem for a Dream).  Listen closely for the glee in Thomas’s voice as the hosts comb through repetitious verses of Genesis desperate for the dry ground of understanding after being flooded with Lord of the Rings-style imagery for 2 hours and 18 minutes. Stay awake for when his dogs reacting to Ken’s fond desire to adopt an armadillo dog. And hear Ryan suggest that Tubal-Cain had some good ideas. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

THE FOUNTAINNo one expects the Spanish Inquisition, and no one expected Darren Aronofsky to follow up the success of Requiem for a Dream with a genre-breaking, scyfy-romantic-period-spiritual-medical drama (kinda? maybe?) entitled THE FOUNTAIN (2006). Join your hosts Ken and Thomas along with returning guest Ryan for Season 11, Chapter III, Part A as they drink from The Fountain, a movie garnering no award nominations and would, after wrapping, temporarily break up Aronofsky’s partnership with cinematographer Matthew Libatique. Aronofsky’s biggest (and only) flop to date, The Fountain concerns three timelines. These intercut stories are populated by then-girlfriend Rachel Weisz and then-between-Wolverines-and-musicals Hugh Jackman (in three iterations of the name “Thomas”) where they play Spanish queen and her loyal conquistador servant, a terminally ill wife and super-science primate neurologist, and a tree (or apparition) and hairless yoga enthusiast in a bubble travelling to an exploding star. These past and future timelines may or may not exist, perhaps part of a pretentiously hand-written, leather-bound manuscript by the dying Weisz-wife character, who left the final chapter incomplete for Dr. Tommy to compose after her death.Pod-favorite actors Mark Margolis returns as a priest and Ellen Burstyn returns as Dr. Tommy’s boss and tree/cemetery owner, while Clint Mansell returns to score the film. The movie also marks the beginning of Aronofsky’s ongoing writing partnership with Ari Handel.Join the hate watch as our three cineastes yell in unison from across timelines: “Finish it!” THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

SCARF SEASON #4: GARDEN OF EDITS: mother!Rejoin Ken and Thomas along with guest Shannon in the rebirth of Season 11, Chapter II as they tackle (figuratively) Darren Aronofsky’s MOTHER! (the 2017 film, not the parent of Darren!).After the big budget success of NOAH, and having not made a movie with a female lead with whom he was romantically involved in well over seven years (if rumors about Black Swan are true), Aronofsky returns to lower budget filmmaking with a bottle story about JudeoChristian terror or the inherent evils of humanity or perhaps a home improvement show gone terribly wrong, casting Jennifer Lawrence as the titular Mother.SPOILER! ALERT! Mother defends the house she’s rebuilding for Him (not a pronoun but the name given in the credits to the unnamed Javier Bardem), her romantic partner in a tasteful callback to late-90s Eastwood film in age discrepancy! Him’s house was badly burned and Him is a poet. All is idyllic except Him can’t write. When “man” played by Ed Harris intrudes upon their remote home mistaking it for a B&B and then man’s wife “woman” played by Michelle Pfeiffer shows up looking for her smoking doctor husband and gives Mother a hard time for not being a mother and not being a drunk like her and Mother wants them out of the house.SPOILER! ALERT! CONTINUES! Mother eventually gets her wish and, after being ignored, has angry staircase sex with Him, which results in a wanted pregnancy and his ability to complete the poem. Soon, visitors arrive, as it turns out that Him has quite the cult following, including his publicist played by Kristen Wiig in a very unfunny role. Eventually, Mother gives birth, her baby is ripped to shreds, and she is burned alive and harvested as a crystal before it all starts over again. Hey, we warned you there’d be spoilers! So follow along as the three mortals recover from REQUIEM FOR A DREAM and unpack Aronofsky’s latest (but earliest discussed by Ken and Thomas as Season 11 matches the first with last films moving inward in a temporal pincer movement) allegory, Shannon gives a new title to BLACK SWAN, Thomas pointlessly cites passages from critical theory books, and Ken sings the 1988 Danzig classic. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

DARREN ARONOFSKY CHAPTER TWO, PART ONE:Deuce by you! Deuce by you! Whoa #2! REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000), Darren Aronofsky’s second film, follows these three simple rules for success:#1 Adapt a novel you love. – As a college student, Aronofsky fell in love with Hubert Selby, Jr.’s LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (1964). He’d owned a copy of Requiem but hadn’t finished it until he lent it to his producer (Eric Watson) wanting something to read while on vacation who said they had to make it into a movie. Talk about worst beach read ever!#2 Reuse successful techniques of your first film. – Experience the return of the Snoricam and hip-hop montage but now in color! Experience Clint Mansell’s movie score, but with strings! And bring back your actors from Pi: the concerned neighbor (Samia Shoaib) now cast as a nurse, your less concerned neighbor (Ajay Naidu) as a mailman, the retired math professor (Mark Margolis) as the pawn shop owner, your conspiratorial Hasid (Ben Shenkman) now as an admitting psychiatric doctor, the weird singing man on the train (Stanley Herman) your “ass-to-ass” man at a disturbing orgy scene, and the star of your first film (Sean Gullette) as a sleazeball psychologist paying his patient to sleep with him.#3 The third thing? Well, that’s a Tappy Tibbons secret. Be excited, be-be excited!Hear returning guest Shannon’s take on the first 2/3rds of the novel. Hear the ache in Thomas’s voice for the lapsed runner’s high after ankle injury. Hear Ken howl in desperation and grind his teeth for his 49’ers come Super Bowl Sunday. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

SCARF SEASON CONTINUES WITH THE WHALE!Thar she blows, Part II of our initial Darren Aronofsky pairing for Season 11 of TGTPTU: THE WHALE (2023). Special guest Ryan returns to continue cohosts Ken and Thomas’ temporal pincer movement of working our way from first and last films sequentially inward and he provides a dissident and dissonant voice to the cohosts’ The Whale love song. Aronofsky’s showy editing techniques and techno score of his first film PI take a backburner in his latest film, a bottle story adapted by and from Idahoan Samuel D. Hunter’s play of the same title. Central to the story and the subject of heated discussion is the extreme obesity of its gay protagonist played by a straight man in a fat suit, the marketing of which could be problematic. The film would gain Hong Chau an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Liz, a nurse/bff/sister-not-quite-in-law to Charlie, played by Brendan Fraser, his first time nominated for and his first Academy Award win (Best Actor), kicking off talk of a Brenaissance. And for the makeup transforming Fraser into the shut-in, online college literature professor Charlie estranged from his daughter played by Sadie Sink of Stranger Things fame, the film would receive a second Oscar for Makeup and Hairstyling.Additional Note: The Oregon coast is cold.Final Note: This episode stinks. This parody is so dumb. You’ll love/hate our takes.(Hey, that’s a haiku!)THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

SEASON FINALE! SIDE HUSTLE 15: WARREN BEATTY! SHAMPOO and DICK TRACY!Our epic tenth season comes to a close in a flurry of bug hair, blow dryers, primary colors and the horror of Madonna acting with Hollywood legend Warren Beatty. Most legendary actor/directors we might talk about from his era (Beatty was born in 1937) need a separate Wikipedia page for their filmography and biography but not Beatty! He has one of the most carefully selected filmographies of any star of his era. Why is that?First up, as actor (and co-writer and producer and probably somewhat directing), the classic SHAMPOO (1975). Directed by Hal Ashby and curiously taking place on election day 1968 (which has an interesting, less thematic reason than we thought going in), about a philandering haridresser played by Beatty, who beds more than a few ladies (including previous Side Hustle director Lee Grant, who won an Oscar for her role here) while running around LA trying to get the money together for his own place. It's kind of like one of those gambling movies where the dude is running around making bets to cover losses and trying to avoid the guys he owes money to while maintaining some kind of stable relationship. Surprise! It's 1975 and, as funny as some of the material is, it ends very 1975 (and not the band. Sorry). This is one of the definitive Beatty films and performances and we go deep on the behind the scenes and what it all may be about. As director we could have gone Reds, but we really wanted to watch and talk DICK TRACY (1990), which is bananas. What's the deal with this movie? It's the one where all the adult male actors have hideous prosthetic makeup except Beatty and features Madonna - we love Madonna but whew, her acting! Yikes. One of the most interesting comic strip films of the era. Does it hold up? Was it good to begin with? Take a listen. BONUS: Season 10 quiz; we talk the Beatty-starring disaster Ishtar (which both hosts like) and other Beatty tidbits.  Ken and Thomas come to some controversial opinions about the Beatty mystique. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken Koral

THE COLOR OF MONEY and SEA OF LOVEDirectors with a day job for season 10? What about the most important person behind the scenes NOT the director? The writer.RICHARD PRICE was a renowned author before trying his hand at screenwriting, which resulted in a "calling card" script that everyone loved but no one wanted to make into a movie. Classic Hollywood. As we discuss going over Price's career, he eventually ended up adapting the novel The Color of Money (1986), the sequel to The Hustler. Director Martin Scorsese (what ever happened to that guy?) and Price ended up chucking Walter Tevis' source novel and what we see onscreen is mostly Price, a pool hall road trip with Tom Cruise, Paul Newman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (no joke, what happened to her?). How the writing of this film informed Price as an author is almost as fascinating as the movie itself. We get into it. In 1989 Price's script for Sea of Love was an immensely important film for star Al Pacino, who'd been in actor jail since the disastrous Revolution (1985), which was preceded by a number of financial disappointments . Pacino has since cemented himself as one of the all time greats but in 1989 a lot of people thought he was washed - going through the motions and box office poison. Sea of Love reestablished Pacino for the big screen and still stands as one of his best roles and maybe sexiest? Has Pacino ever been sexy?  Price's script is so good it almost seems embarrassed to have a serial killer plot and we get into that dynamic.Screenwriter and frequent guest Erik and Ken geek out over both films and Price in general. We talk a lot about directors on this show (many would say too much) so it is fitting we give a little love to the lonely art of writing and the weird art of writing for film. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

CHRISTMAS ADJACENT 4: QUADRUPLING DOWN ON OUR LEAST POPULAR SPECIALS!Happy Holidays from all of us at The Good, The Pod, and The Ugly! We bring you three films that reference Christmas a few times but are in no way "Christmas Movies" filled with the spirit of the season and all that shot. Nope. It's "Christmas Adjacent" and, given our downloads for these, no one likes them but us! #1 (LUMP OF COAL): INVASION USA. Conceived by, and starring, Chuck Norris as the only man who can fight off a US invasion completely centered in Florida (take it, please!). This is a nasty, sadistic film that, in 1985, broke with Norris' normally whitebread heroism and suffered a bit initially because of it. It didn't do too much in theaters but, we Americans and our love of being scared by any sort of Other about to take away our liberty knows no bounds and it became one of the best-selling VHS tapes ever as a result. It has a guy who kills dudes by jamming his gun down the front of their pants. A highwater mark for cinema! Ken brought this to the office Christmas party because he is a sadist. #2 (YOU WERE GOOD THIS YEAR!): SNEAKERS (1992). A smart, purely entertaining ensemble techno-heist classic that holds up! Redford, Straitharn, Poitier, Phoenix, Akroyd, Kingsley, McDonnell are all part of one of the best-oiled team movies ever made. It is ridiculous how fun this is. When films like this go off like clockwork it makes you wish all films would spend as much time as this one did in development cracking the plot. Thomas brought this one to the Christmas potluck and is a champ for it. #3 (A FEW LOSING SCRATCH-OFF LOTTERY TICKETS FROM UNCLE PHIL): LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996), which breaks our "no Shane Black" rule but that is ok. We did Dial Code Santa last year which pretty much broke our other rules. As the song in I Think You Should Leave says, There's No Rules. Made from a script that someone paid FOUR MILLION DOLLARS for. If you thought a female-centered action movie starring the beautiful Geena Davis (who hadn't and still hasn't ever opened a movie) and Samuel L Jackson directed by a Finnish man who, yeah, directed Cliffhanger, but also Die Hard 2 and The Adventures of Ford Fairlaine, curiously cribbed from Robert Ludlum and cheap paperbacks by a depressed Shane Black, would be a resounding success off a 90 million dollar budget, pack your bags and move to Hollywood! A studio somewhere needs you to fail big with the crap you greenlight and receive a golden parachute when it is sold to Pepsi. Erik brought this one to the community caroling event and makes a few arguments in its favor. Happy Holidays in whichever way you celebrate. And if you don't, they are Christmas adjacent so these are right up your alley because they don't have much to do with Christmas other than what time of year they take place (spoiler: December). THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SIDE HUSTLE 13. Norman Mailer: TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE and CREMASTER 2Every ranking must have its worst, and this week’s episode aims to shoot to the bottom of the Season X bucket with Norman Mailer as our chosen actor-director. TGTPTU welcomes back its junior cohost Jack after a long hiatus to join us on this atrocity to good sense as we cover two unwatchable films: the first, TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE (1987), nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards and seven Golden Raspberries and unwatchable for its wildly shifting tones throughout melodramatic flashbacks within flashbacks, and the second, CREMASTER 2 (1999), the gorgeously shot fourth entry in artist Matthew Barney’s five-part Cremaster Cycle unwatchable as its viewing restricted to art museums and its limited series DVDs selling for $100k. Shot on location in Provincetown, the occasionally great Ryan O'Neal (Barry Lyndon, Paper Moon) plays Tim Madden in the Mailer written and directed, Golan-Globus production of Tough Guys Don’t Dance. The 80’s fever dream makes both St. Elmo's Fire and The Bonfire of the Vanities feel rewatchable as protagonist Tim Madden parades through amnesia, flashbacks, adultery, and homophobic reactions in a convoluted plot involving alcohol, triple-crosses, swingers, murder, cocaine, psychics, swingers, alcohol, cocaine, tattoos, cocaine, and swingers with a little sex and booze and Columbian marching powder sprinkled in. While Mailer had directed three improvisational movies in the 1960s (including that one where Mailer bit off a piece of Rip Torn’s ear), Tough Guys Don’t Dance demonstrates why it was Mailer’s first and only narrative film to direct. Also bypassing narrative conventions, Björk’s ex- (their breakup the subject of her 2015 album Vulnicura) a.k.a. artist/director Matthey Barney’s filmic work traverses worlds alchemic and ordinary and was well worth the plane ticket to bring TGTPTU’s three hosts back together for a screening of the film at the museum where it was showing that one time around when the recording happened and definitely not a pirated copy of this impossible to rent or purchase film. Follow our hosts’ dulcet voices as we recount the film’s nearly wordless journey from séance to bees covering in a woman in a plexiglass corset penetrated by a large phallus to a death metal drummer covered in bees on the phone with a gas station attendant the latter of whom will be killed by Gary Gilmore (played by Barney, subject of Mailer’s Executioner Song) before the camera heads to a chanting city and a rodeo before heading into a warehouse for a magic show. Norman Mailer plays Harry Houdini and his performance, well, we’d normally ask you to judge for yourself but there’s no way in hell you’re ever seeing this film, so your loss.  So listen along as we describe one film you don’t want to—and another you can’t—watch. This week’s show will leave you yelling heavenwards alongside Tim Madden in Tough Guys Don’t Dance after he discovers his wife is having an affair: “Oh Man! Oh God! Oh Man! Oh God! Oh Man! Oh God! Oh Man! Oh God! Oh Man! Oh God!”THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SIDE HUSTLE 12: RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH AIN'T NO DUMMYOnly four episodes left in our epic season ten, talking side hustles. While we mostly have discussed directors better known as actors, this week we talk Richard Attenborough, who, if not for Jurassic Park, would probably be better known as a director today. But he was a great actor! And not just when playing billionaire softy grandpas that accidentally upturn the biological order of an entire planet because he wanted his grandkids to have cuddly raptors. He was legitimately a great actor. BRIGHTON ROCK (1948) is the first of two movies based on books with scripts credited to the author of the books themselves, and not some schmuck (this one is by Graham Greene. Directed by John Boulting, Rock has Attenborough in one of his greatest roles as Pinkie Brown, a nasty hood on the rise in the titular town of Brighton between world wars. It's a fairly grim film with Attenborough seething malice at nearly every turn. He's so good! MAGIC (1978) was a bit of a breather for Attenborough, the director, as he worked to get his passion project, a tiny indie film no one ever saw called GANDHI, made and re-teamed with producer Joseph E. Levine and author/screenwriter William Goldman, both of whom worked with Attenborough on 1977's epic A BRIDGE TOO FAR, for something quite small by comparison, a thriller about a magician who mysteriously rises to fame once he brings a dummy, named Fats, into his act and then decamps to his old hometown right before his big breakthrough to stalk a high school crush. The magician, Corky, is played by Anthony Hopkins and the crush by a dressed down Ann-Margret. Fats generally steals the show as things go from creepy to violent. It's great! Co-host Ken read the book and spills on all the changes made from page to screen (spoiler: not much).  Ken and Thomas discuss the rest of Attenborough's career as one of the few great actors who moved away successfully from acting to be full time great directors. Bonus: Fats joins us!THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SIDE HUSTLE XI: Tom Savini, Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Night of the Living Dead (1990).Spooky season episode! We are joined once again by screenwriter and horror expert Erik to talk some Tom Savini, an icon to generations of horror fans for his legendary makeup work along with his larger-than-life persona that has made him and his mustache instantly recognizable. We chose two films that both need parentheticals because they were either remade or were remakes themselves. The movie business, amirite?DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) is one of the great horror films. Top ten... probably top five... easily top three all time! Oft imitated, never matched; the Citizen Kane of zombie movies. We talk a lot about that film’s genesis along how it came to  be by its brilliant writer/director, George Romero. We’re fans.Then the remake of Romero’s seminal Night of the Living Dead, Savini’s film directorial debut in 1990. There is a story behind this film. A sad one. Maybe a cautionary tale. Ken and Thomas chew on the bones of this one while our guest Erik slowly shambles away. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SEASON X EPISODE X: SIDE HUSTLE: UNDER THE CHERRY MOON and TRUE STORIES.Kierkegaard said: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Such is the tale of Prince, hot off the heels of starring in Purple Rain (1984), taking directorial duties on UNDER THE CHERRY MOON (1986) a black and white historical musical romance that must be seen to be believed. We are joined by songwriter, podcast theme writer Ryan and Streep season veteran Andi to discuss one of the most deliciously disastrous directorial debuts of all time! Prince is one of the great singer/songwriter/performers of the the last century and he proves conclusively that being a great musician in no way translates to any skill behind a movie camera. Cherry Moon is a buffet for lovers of creative implosions. Prince, as Kierkegaard would have possibly hoped, moved forward as fast as he could from this film and ignored any understanding from its making other than never making another film again.Then Andi taps out for regular co-host Ken for TRUE STORIES (also 1986), Talking Heads lead David Byrne's peculiar musical mosaic about life in a small Texas town. Ken, Ryan and Thomas are all big Talking Heads fans (no surprise) and put this in perspective of his entire career. It's a fun movie. John Goodman lip syncs and dances. Shut up. SPECIAL NOTE: This was recorded the week before the Talking Heads announced they were appearing together in a discussion on stage in Toronto for a remastered showing of their seminal concert film Stop Making Sense (1984). We won't say we had any influence on the band finally agreeing to appear together but the timing lines up. We go deep into the discography of both musicians as well as tear apart and build up their respective films. Big Suit vs Purple Sequins. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SIDE HUSTLE 9: FARMER HOGGETT’S VOYAGE HOME Travel across the cosmos and back in time this week with TGTPTU and the crews of two starships Enterprise. Special guest Martin Harries from the Film vs Film podcast joins Capt. Ken and his number one Thomas this week to boldly go where numerous podcasting Trekkies have gone before as they explore two Academy (Starfleet) Award-winning actor-directors:STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986) starring and directed by Leonard Nimoy in his second directorial contribution to the Star Trek movie franchise. Nimoy would subsequently direct the top-grossing film of the following year, Three Men and Baby, but first he got the opportunity to give his vision to the Trek franchise. The Voyage Home was a hit with the general public, promoting an environmental message of deep concern to Nimoy who didn’t want violence if he was going to direct what most fans consider the end of an internal Trek trilogy that began with Wrath of Khan.STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (1996) starring and directed by Jonathan Frakes in his feature debut as a director in this eighth Star Trek franchise film and the second for The Next Generation crew. Lighter on humor (but surprisingly also featuring a nuclear wessel), portions of First Contact are shot like a horror movie as The Borg (The Next Generation’s eternal alien enemy) travel(s) back in time and infect(s) the crew aboard the Enterprise while the away team shakes a tail feather and drinks moonshine with the yet-to-be-legendary Zefram Cochrane portrayed by James Cromwell one year after playing Farmer Hoggett in Babe. “But what of Shatner?” serious nerds of film and fiends of the franchise might ask. Look, nerd/fiend, the ‘final frontier’ might be a destination to boldly go, but it’s a shit flick and gives credence to the cursed “odd number” Trek movies. We’d prefer to listen to 106 minutes of remixed whale song than suffer again through the trauma of Star Trek V: The Favored Nations Clause in Kirk’s Contract (1989). So, in short, double dumbass on you.Now set headphones to stun and ready and prepare yourself for yammering speed and jettisoned opinions. May the force be with you.FILM VS FILM LINKS (it’s so good): https://filmvsfilmpodcast.buzzsprout.com/THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SALMA HAYEK: ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO & THE MALDONADO MIRACLESalma Hayek is a justifiably iconic actress, personality, celebrity and turned it all into getting hitched to a soulless billionaire. Good for her! But there was a time where she was an up and coming hyphenate pursuing passion projects like Frieda and balancing those with commercial films. ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO (2003) is not exactly a passion project nor a commercial film. She is barely in it! This is the nominally third part of Robert Rodriguez' El Mariachi films. If the barely legible plot sounds like something made up as they went along, incorrect! But it sure shambles along like it. Hayek has been loyal to Rodriguez, maybe to a fault, but that is a valued thing to have in modern moviemaking. We think.Around this time Hayek also dabbled in directing, making the Maldonado Miracle (2003). A small fable of a film with a few pleasant performances by Peter Fonda, Mare Winngingham and podcast fave Reubén Blades, it's about an illegal child who hides out in a church and bleeds on a statue of Christ so the small town, the titular Maldonado, goes nuts for the miracle. It has some surprisingly good character bits and gentle satire while providing a slice of down-on-their-luck lifestyles not normally given much screen time in modern movies. Hayek does well with the slight story and actors. Should she have continued as director instead of marrying someone so entrenched in a class that has essentially made towns like Maldonado exist?  Thomas and Ken discuss at length along with the rest of her career. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Our editing issues have been resolved and our bank of multiple episodes we've recorded will commence being released weekly. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SIDE HUSTLE 7: LEE GRANT. FROM INGENUE STAR TO BLACKLISTED RED TO A SECOND LIFE WHERE SHE WON AN ACTING OSCAR AND THEN A THIRD LIFE AS AN OSCAR-WINNING DOCUMENTARIAN. Who is Lee Grant? Read the all-caps above! One of the most remarkable people we've covered this, or any season. We are joined by Charlie to discuss Grant's work as actor and director this week! Born on Halloween in an undetermined year in the mid 1920s (she is still with us!) Grant was raised to be in the arts and was well on her way as a classically trained ballerina and Broadway understudy. She was destined for stardom after nabbing an Oscar nomination for her FIRST film (Detective Story).  Following her name appearing in newsletter called Red Channels she was blacklisted as a communist - yes, it was that capricious back in the early 50s to be on the wrong side of fear mongering. Your name in a  newsletter put out by a few bums and suddenly you are on the outs.  Losing a decade plus in what was, essentially, what she was raised to do, Grant eventually returned in supporting roles and an extended role on Peyton Place. Hey, we know she won an Oscar for Shampoo, the climax of her triumphant return to the town that had so pathetically abandoned her, but we may do a Beatty run some day so we are saving it. We are instead talking the second Columbo ever, RANSOM FOR A DEAD MAN (1971), where Grant friend - and future not-friend - Peter Falk was still figuring out his character in what was a second pilot TV film. Grant and Falk, when they are given classic Columbo scenes together, are positively combustible. The story itself may not be prime Columbo but it is a beautifully shot little oddity that would be followed up by the first aired series episode, directed by Steven Spielberg (which we talked about during our Spielberg season and is still the best Columbo ever).Grant got into directing  film in the early 80s, moving into documentary soon after. In 1983 she directed the legendary groundbreaking documentary WHAT SEX AM I? (1983) which tracks the stories of a group people that feels years ahead of its time in its empathy and presentation of their struggles. Grant would win an Oscar for her documentary, DOWN AND OUT IN AMERICA (1986), another film about people the camera usually shies away from during the dark economic side of the 1980s. Grant has a laser focus on people in America normally passed by in representation on film and her work should be heralded more, in front of and behind the camera. Grant is a damn unsung hero in film so sit down and we'll tell you about her career and these two projects.  THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SIDE HUSTLE 6: JAMES FRANCO: WE KNOW HE IS CANCELLED, STOP TEXTING US ABOUT IT We live in an era where  men are being held accountable for being awful (not nearly enough of them but it's a start). This is a good thing. Most of these men are older, however, and in the creative sphere most are past their Best By date. So it is unusual to have someone like James Franco, literally at the apex of his skills both as actor and director, undone by his own destructive impulses. It offers a fascinating "what if" to a career that will more than likely never be now. As actor we begin with PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (2008), the first mainstream feature directed by David Gordon Green (we talked about his brilliant "Joe" during our Cage Uncaged season, still worth a watch!) and featuring a near-future murderers row of comedic actors. Like most films written by Seth Rogen and longtime co-writer Evan Goldberg, Express eventually boils down to a story about male friendship. This time between Rogen and Franco's sweet, open-hearted stoner Saul.  It is a classic performance in a classic stoner comedy.Franco has directed a lot in a short time and our "side hustle" film of his is THE DISASTER ARTIST (2017) detailing the, uh, male friendship between real life Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero. No, this was not written by Rogen and Goldberg. Instead we have a true life story about the man behind one of the best worst movies ever made, The Room, who spends a lot of time, money and effort in order to not have to say "I love you" to his best bud (who is played by Franco's own brother, not-cancelled Mr. Allison Brie, Dave). Both a singular performance that strives to go beyond imitation and directing makes this the most Franco of movies. It shouldn't work but does.  An amazing career most likely cut short in mainstream cinema with no one else to blame but himself. Maybe he can play himself in the eventual film version. Ken and Thomas are joined by Leigh to sort it all out. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096

SIDE HUSTLE V: Charlie's Brother,  Martin's Sane Son - REPO MAN and MEN AT WORKNepo-babies are not new! Tell your crazy uncle, who thinks they are ruining Hollywood, that they have been around since he wore crop-tops and had a mullet.And so we put the spotlight on 1980s Short King, Emilio Estevez. First we talk about one of the all time great cult films of the 1980s, 1984's nearly indescribable (but we try) masterpiece, Repo Man. Estevez breaks out big as Otto Maddox in this surreal, anarchic satire that might stand the test of time? Does it hold up? We'll let you know. The behind-the-scenes of this are worthy of the film itself. A year later Estevez would find massive mainstream fame in The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire (directed by podcast favorite Joel Schumacher), furthering his early image as a brooding young loner with the heart of a damaged poet.  His second film as director, Men at Work (1990), was made a scant few years later but it already feels like Estevez has gone through multiple iterations, ups and downs, both professional and personal as actor and star (maybe it was the cocaine). He writes, directs, and acts here alongside his brother (Charlie Sheen, known winner) in a decidedly 80's comedy that maybe came out a few years too late. Garbage men, mistaken identities, toxic waste, farcical nonsense and one shockingly brilliant turn by Keith David. Overall a fascinating mixed bag. Ken and Thomas bitterly failed to secure a guest for this episode and are left to sift through the peculiar career of Estevez on their own.  THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gBuzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/Letterboxd (follow us!):Ken: Ken KoralJack: jackk1096