EPISODE 7: This Is Why We’re Like This - The Origin Stories Nobody Asked For

In this episode of Cross-Eyed Bear, Tristan and Chris dive into the movies and music that quietly (and sometimes violently) shaped who they are. What starts as a simple top-five list quickly spirals into a nostalgia-heavy ride through Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, horror movie trauma, and the soundtracks that rewired their brains.

Along the way, they connect oddly specific dots—Zemeckis and Silvestri collaborations, childhood movie moments that hit way too hard, and the albums that opened doors (or kicked them down entirely). It’s part pop culture breakdown, part origin story, and part realization that your personality might just be a collection of whatever stuck with you at age 12.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

A couple of times, I had a lot of food in my throat and stuff. And I definitely have been accused by a few people of like having a nose problem in the way that's not just like built in by sinuses, but I actually do have sinus problems, and I've been hearing it because I've had a cold the past couple of times, which does contribute to, as many have now pointed out to me, an undeniably sexy and sultry voice, but it also contributes to excessive nasal drainage. And for that, Kathleen Turner, I bet you've been dealing with just chronic sinus infections for years. You've probably added smoking and excessive whiskey just to lean into it harder. And doing that for your craft, I applaud you.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

I feel like with the smoking and excessive whiskey, you're transitioning more into Natasha Leon category right there.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

She heard Kathleen Turner and said hold my beer when she was like six and and leaned in harder, but she went too far, as we know.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I disagree completely. I love those weird voices, and I literally I love all those people that are perfect like voiceover actors because it's just like, oh, that's that's Natasha Leone, and she is the perfect person to play this possum in this Pixar movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

I mean, yeah, but that's such that's so niche, right? And and that's what she's good for. Like her voice, no offense, she's quirky, and that works well also in certain moments, but her voice is is what she's known for. Kathleen Turner had other aspects of her and was a great comedian, pretty darn good dramatic actress. Like you watch, you know what? A banger that no one talks about enough is romancing the stone. Am I wrong?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

I'll just say maybe.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Okay, well, I'm not, but that's fine. It's fine. Romancing the stone. Okay, no, carry on. You know who I'm pretty sure did the score to romancing the stone, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Oh my god. Okay, hold on. Was it it wasn't Sylvestri, was it?

SPEAKER_01 2:19

I'm pretty sure. Considering I'm pretty sure we're here. Alan Silvestri. The great Alan Sylvestri.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

It all connects. I won't I won't jump fully into our topic yet. We'll introduce it and everything. But one of the movies I picked was not only directed by Zemeckis, Sylvestri did the score. And I did not know this until I did the research just last week.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Dude, if we have the same, because we didn't talk about our movies, right? We did not. If we have one of the same movies, because one of my films also directed by Zemeckis, score by Alan Sylvestri, if we have one of the same movies, I'm gonna love it.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

I I will as well. Alright, so what you've all kind of stumbled into, this is episode seven, confirmed. Tristan and Chris, cross-eyed bear. And what we were gonna talk about was hitting a top five list of art that changed our life.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yeah, changed our life.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Or is I'll say, or was really just instrumental, like those like core memories that really just define you as a person. Because there's things I look back on that it didn't change my life, but I can attribute like who I am as a person a little bit to just its omnipresence, I guess, at a certain time in my life. Sorry, Steph, saying it right now. We're bouncing around between mediums. She said, You gotta do either music or do movies. Don't do both. And I said, That means I have to think of ten things.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Steph, I feel like I've been contrarian a couple of times to opinions you've had. I'm sorry I'm gonna continue that theme here. This is just our style, and this is how we talk, and you know this, and here we are.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yeah. So so that I didn't have to, you know, rack my brain and come up with ten things. We're going to do top five life-changing art whatever's. And yeah, that's where we were jumping off. So I'm gonna jump right into this actually. And I'm gonna start off with a little bit of a softball. This is a music one, but growing up, I just remember did you ever listen to Crowded House? Or are you familiar with Crowded House? That is like foundational to me musically. And I mean my music is like uh every single one of these things I put on here, I feel like isn't necessarily it's not necessarily like life-changing or things like that, but it kicked the wall down to open me up to so many other different like genres and bands and just everything that's out there. But foundationally, I'd wake up, it felt like every weekend, and my mom, who mentioned her a lot here, she's awesome, would have crowded house like blasting in the house every weekend. Like that meant the weird cleaning, like that was it. Like it was, I know it sounds silly, but it's like that was like a thing that like through my entire life. Now, if I don't have music blasting in the house and Steph kills me for this, she comes home, she's like, I know you're cleaning, because I come home and you have fucking punk rock just blaring on every speaker in the house. I was like, yo, that means I'm cleaning, like it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

I appreciate that. I don't have it blaring though. I specifically, whenever I'm doing something like around the house, which if Angela is listening right now, she would say, which means nothing, and then there'd be a dun ching afterwards. But if I if and when I am, I like to have it solitary and have earbuds in. And I don't know why you're gonna think this is weird, but almost every time when I am, it's early Kanye that I'm listening to. I don't know why it works out that way. I get in a I think I get in a repetitive mindset. So for me, that, and every year when I do my taxes, it's always Daft Punk.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Oh, I thought you were gonna go with Kanye.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

No, it's always Daft Punk, and it's frequently the Tron Legacy soundtrack specifically. I've done that like five of the last whatever years. I've done my taxes to the Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

I just thought, since you guys, you know, you still own the Hot Girls Hit Curbs mobile. Like, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Did you hear that, Angelo? Now he's coming after you since I've clearly been going after Steph. So now it's clearly war.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

But that whole which gold digger, you know, drove off in a Sunday?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Yeah. So I just I just think it's tier for what it's worth, but thank you. It is, you're right. I'm sorry. I just think it'd be kind of funny though, to just like you know, all of Kanye's early work is just like, I gotta get that paper. When I'm something, I'm gonna be something. You know, it's all just like big, like big money, big rich. But it's clever too. Like, oh, he's a great writer.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

For me, one of the best lines of all time, couldn't afford a car, so she named her daughter Alexis. I mean, that's just brilliant. That's the same song, no? Yeah, yes, yes, I mean it's brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Until he lost his mind, and I'll maintain this. He was one of the greatest. And you listened to old Jay-Z when he was doing the production for Jay-Z, like Heart of the City and all that, like those old songs, like that shit was so good.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Could not agree with you more. Like, still Black Album, excellent. I'm not gonna name it on here because it didn't change my life, but if we get to like a top five albums of all the of all time, black album very well could be on it. And the production that he did on Lucifer, and that's just one of many, many, many examples. But besides being a great rapper, to your point before he went excessively creative.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Is that what we're gonna call it?

SPEAKER_01 8:20

That's what I'll say. Okay. He also was one of the best rappers in that in that time period as well, from 2000 to 2010, 2008, whenever it started to shift.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, it's like that's about the time period. So you gotta wonder, it's like, what did what happened when your mom died, and then what did Kim do to you? Because damn, like that is a 180. That guy just lost his brain.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

I don't think it's a 180, man. I think I think the line went off the graph. Uh it was always there, you could tell. He just had it reined in until he realized that for him there were no longer any rules, and he's like, Oh, I can do whatever I want. I'm just gonna let everything inside of me out.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

For better or for worse.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

But no, I I I love that, and I love the black album, and I love anybody ballsy enough to allow themselves to reintroduce themselves. Might be one of the most iconic. Just that's the opening track, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Forgive me for not having that off the top of my head. It's been a while since I listened to that cover to cover, but so good.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Do it again. Okay, so we've got the top five. And so is is Crowded House one of yours?

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Crowded House is one of mine, and I'm throwing it at like I'm working bottom up or like from a relevance standpoint. I'm not going chronologically necessarily, but from a like, I'm gonna get more important as we get through this, but that is like core memory foundational, and my mom is huge into when we uh the whole music thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

I am gonna go chronologically because I feel like that's the best way to do it for me. So by all means, let's go different order if we want. So Crowded House is for you. I I'm gonna go right into the Zemeckis film. So we're gonna find out pretty quickly if we have the same. For me, a movie that a top five movie that changed my life, which also included a song as well. So I'm getting a two for one, but it's combo day here on Cross Eyed Bear, is Back to the Future.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

It is not that movie. Okay, good. No, carry on. I'll get into mine.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

So I was telling Angela about this the other day, and she's like, How can you still remember this? But you know, whenever something's just like there's a moment in time and it imprints on you, and everything kind of just slows down or even stops, and you see every single detail. So I was five at I was in a Catholic preschool in Mission, Kansas, and we were having movie day, and we sit down, all of us, you know, on the carpet in front of the 19-inch TV that's rolled in on the cart, and they they queue up back to the future. There's freshly baked peanut butter cookies that have the fork indentations in them. I can still smell the peanut butter cookies and see the texture on those suckers.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Is it a peanut butter cookie without the indentations?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

I'd argue no.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

It would I agree completely. I agree completely. And you first I first get into the musical queue where Lorraine writes the note to Marty after kissing him, and then you have the Huey Lewis in the news musical queue of Power of Love, and I'm like, holy shit, did I just find music that will be with me for the rest of my life? And the answer is yes, to the extent that I don't think I told you this. A handful of years ago, before Huey's deafness really started to take hold and he was still out there performing on the reg, Angela got us concert tickets and tried to rent a DeLorean for us to go to the concert in.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Okay. This is a humble brag by association. So Steph, Steph went to an affluent high school and knew, just knows a lot of people that are, how do I put this, a little bit better off than myself. And, you know, no offense to me, but like let me just she went to a fucking, she had a gym class with Emma Stone. Like, get out of here. Anyways, her one of her friends, and this is I I swear they're high school friends, but one of her friends' husbands or partners or something owns that DeLorean.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

And not only does it not only does he own it, owns one of them, because there was multiple ones.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

There were multiple ones. Of course, there's multiple, but he owns the DeLorean from Back to the Future, and it is not even parked in a garage. It is like in, if I'm not mistaken, it's in the entryway of his home.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

As it should be. I don't know how to process what you just said because I'm both disgusted and impressed at the same time and in equal measures.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

I don't I can't even like think in my head, like being rich enough to buy the DeLorean from Back to the Future and park it in my entryway, let alone have an entryway big enough to fit a car.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

I was thinking that Ernest Klein had bought it though, or maybe bought one of them, the uh the author of Ready Player One. For some reason, I thought that he had bought one of the original DeLoreans.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Anyway, this is one of those moments where like nobody fact-checked me because this is my truth.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

You know what? Live it. Enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

I will.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

But on I'm watching this, the movie's amazing. I see the DeLorean, which is gonna become also one of the cars of my life, and still to this day remains my very favorite car of all time.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

So I take it she wasn't able to find you one.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

No, this is Kansas City, man. Our options there were more limited than what they've become on the West Coast.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

That's fair.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah. Uh she was not, but the concert was still amazing, of course. It's Huey, after all.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

In instead of a DeLorean, did she get you a rain jacket and an axe? There was nothing else.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

I I see your connection.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

I'm sorry. I'm feeling punchy tonight, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Have you have you seen the funnier die skit with with Huey Lewis? No. So obviously Tristan's referencing American Psycho. Do you like Huey Lewis? And that scene with Jared Leto where he where he hacks him to pieces. Funnier Die did a skit where Huey Lewis is playing the Christian Bale part, and Weird Al Yankovic is playing the Jared Leto part.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

It's it's delightful if you give it a listen.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

I absolutely will. Weird Al Yankovic is actually he's he's not a terrible actor. Like he's not a good actor, but like when you put him in a role that fits him as him, he's actually pretty funny. He's got some chaps.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

He's good. Huey's a good actor. So this is another one. I'm gonna finish it off with Back to the Future here. Great Alan Sylvestry, become a huge fan of Michael J. Fox, become a huge fan of Huey Lewis in the news. It took me until I was well into my early 30s before I realized that one of the dudes judging the band competition at the beginning of the movie, the guy with the glasses, was freaking Huey Lewis.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Those are those things that like those are those Easter eggs that are for the parents. So like no kid would have realized that.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I'm still disappointed in myself.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

You turned into a parent and you realized it. That's that's exactly the the way it was supposed to be done.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

So Back to the Future combo with Huey Lewis in the news, number one for me chronologically.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

I I guess I'm not going chronological, but because of the Zemeckas tie. Another another one formidable. I've watched it all my life and I'm trying to get my kids into it. Which, real quick, has it Maya's a rare breed, but is it hard to get your kids into the shit from the 80s that you loved? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

I can't and Maya's changed. At this point, she has to get into it herself. Like she'll hear me, but like she really needs to find it herself, which is kind of taking after me as well. Unfortunately, she can't be told she has to find. But with her, she can find it, right? Like she's really found, I think I told you this recently, Lauren Hill and the Fujiis.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

And we've talked about it in the past, but I didn't really push. But like now she's really into Lauren Hill. And she got there, she she she really walked down the path herself. So, no, if it's great, no. And like I think like we talked about, I was we were listening to one of her playlists a couple months ago, and she had the Smiths on there.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Oh, damn.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

And so, no, if it's great music, it's great music, and she likes it regardless. Harrison, we're still working on getting out of what's what the what current music is.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

But with her, it's it's all over the board.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah, it's I think especially in movies, it's been really tough. Like I was with I was with a sassy 13-year-old over the weekend, um, our my friend's daughter, and we mentioned Hocus Pocus, which this isn't the movie I'm talking about, but I just gotta tell the story. And her immediate reaction was just like it was a visceral, like you, you face, like vomit look, and we're just like, hold on a sec. Like, what's the rub with Hocus Pocus? We know the movie's not great, but like it's iconic in its own way. It's a good time, it's still a good time. She said, because it's old.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Oh my exactly. And I'm like, you're ridiculous. That sucks.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah, and and then she's like, but you should be proud of me. We're watching, I'm watching the OC. And I'm like, okay. In fairness, I would argue Hocus Pocus is much more realistic than the OC. Some affluent lawyer from Orange County taking in a deadbeat from the inner inner city, like, no, three witches from Boston are much more likely. Salem.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Agree completely.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

And Salem, yeah. But, anyways, okay. So Zemeckis and Alan Sylvestri. Have you ever seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Oh my god, what a great choice.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

It was one of those, like, I think I've been watching it since it came out in '88. I was born sometime before that. 87, but you know, I'm just trying not to age myself. And so I think I've watched it like literally my entire life, and I'm trying to get my kids into it. They love Disneyland, they love the ride, they will not watch the movie. But Bob Hoskins, like, what a GOAT. Like, that guy is one of the greatest, and I don't think he ever really got the shake he deserved.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

He didn't, and he's actually, I mean, obviously, great character actor, has more, I think has more notoriety, whatever, across the pond than here. But great character actor and a lot of good stuff, but that was his that was his still his best performance. And anytime he's on there, he's chewing scenery. And he at a time when I can only imagine having to act towards animation without all the motion capture and etc. It's better than it's better. It was better in that movie than what it is now.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah, because they didn't even get the luxury of a guy on a green screen. No, like it was like literally an empty stool.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yes. And he's he's doing it great while having the performance and time of his life.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Yeah. He and it's it's since it's stuck with me, and I still watch it, and I try to force my kids to watch it. And I always love those movies that you like you watched as a kid, and there's one, there's elements of it you took away as a kid, which is you know, it's like Roger Rabbit, cartoon, super funny. And then you start getting into like you're an adult and you're watching it, and you're just like, Oh, his brother died, he's an alcoholic, like some heavy shit. He's literally like owes everybody money around town, and you're just like, This is a completely different movie.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

And I'm sorry, but this it was horrifying as a child, it's still horrifying now. It maybe is one of the most horrifying scenes in film where the judge is lowering the shoes into the dip.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Oh, that's not the scene I thought you meant, but I there's one in the movie that I like had nightmares about, and it's when he goes to the helium tank and he refills himself after being run down, and it's his eyes are popping out, and it's just like Christopher Lloyd was terrifying in that movie.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

That also was one, the one that was nightmare fuel for me when I was a kid, to be fair. Yes. The eyes of his and that nightmare fuel. But remains to this day, like you watch that and the fear that's on the face of the shoes when he's lowering them into the I mean, that's still awful. It's still awful to watch.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

It it is like that wildly ahead of its time. I was actually shocked it was 88. Like, I would have thought it was more recent. Just speak like the actors, obviously, like Bob Hoskins was everything about it screamed 88, except for the fact that like animation at that level with live action, I don't think was happening. I mean, you look at the 80s and you're like, anytime they tried to put animation into it, it just looked campy and stupid.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

That was the benchmark, man. That was when things took a complete turn uh move forward with that. You know, and it's it's an interesting Zemeck is an interesting. Topic. Clearly, I think a lot of the guy.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

And his constant companion, Mr. Silvestri. He's one that you would think and hope with technology it would have gotten better, but it went it got worse. And you look at something like Polar Express and what he did later. Frankly, what he's done in the last, I would argue, 25 years. And it's been, he's one of those guys that you give him too many tools and it goes south. When he has to work with limitations, the things that he did were amazing. Like Castaway, even at that time, still had limitations with what he could do. And still it was still more story, and he there was still a lot of practical stuff. Everything with the plane was practical. You know, the the the scene on the on the water, that was all it was on a set, mind you, but it was on the water. There wasn't a lot of CG used in that. It was great. Where you go to like the Polar Express, and I'm sorry, this may be an unpopular opinion, but I want to hear it. He's clearly trying to push the boundaries of the technology and the filmmaking process as opposed to the filmmaking process being in service to the story, which was what he had always done before, whether it was back to the future, whether it was whatever. And I think that started to change at that point when technology got good.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

I mean, I will just go on record saying that Polar Express, I it's it's unwatchable for me. And it's not because it's a bad story, it's obviously it's a great story, it's just it's so unsettling. Like the computer animation he used. And I know that like this is I'm not alone in this. This is like in Reddit threads. People have an issue with the it's it's not, it's like the hyper-realism that still looks fake.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

And what there's something it's called something, I can't remember what, but it is it just never sat well, and it's always and Tom Hanks in it is just freaking me out the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

It's kind of a bummer because I think that there's actually a great story there. Oh, it's an excellent story, but you're just pulled constantly, you're just pulled constantly out of the movie with the with with with the graphics, with that can with the animation, and you're never allowed, for me at least, you're never allowed to invest all the way in.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

No. And so, yeah, completely, completely agree there. Where the fuck were we? Oh, yeah. Two frames Roger Rabbit by Flick.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Such a great movie.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Throw that as are we good. It's a number two, so five's the highest. Yeah. Number four number five with a bullet. That's high fidelity phrase. There we go.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

I love it. Love it.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

All right, what do you got?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

All right. Keep in mind I'm working chronologically. I'm sure people will also have an issue with us having different approaches to working through our lists, and fuck it, I don't care. So chronologically, my next choice is Nightmare on Elm Street Part Three. Dream Warriors.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

So I was seven years old. I had never seen a horror film. And I go over to my stepmom's parents' house, and the step cousins-in-law, God knows however you work that out hierarchy, were watching Nightmare 3, and I was just left to my own devices and watched the whole film with them. Freaked me the fuck out to the extent that I had nightmares about Freddie Krueger for a couple years after that, but also completely opened my eyes in a way that has changed my has changed changed where I've I've had horror as a favorite genre ever since, or at least since longer. Like the scene with um, and I'm a you know I'm terrible with names, but with the boy in the hospital and the tendrils connected from Freddie in the air to him, you know, the scene also in the hospital with the girl with the TV, welcome to prime time, bitch. And just the mixture of horror, and I didn't realize it because I saw no comedy at the time because it was all just like fright nightmare fuel for me then. And I did not see that there also was comedy expertly blended in. But since then has been such an important part of what I've loved in in the horror genre, because you look at horror and comedy, and it's kind of two sides of the same coin, right? Yeah. And frequently you see comedians who really are have dark and twisted, pretty much all of them have dark and twisted minds. But then you see horror filmmakers who actually some of them are pretty darn funny. Like Wes Craven actually, pretty quirky guy, was rest in peace, of course. And Robert England understood that in his performance. And in Nightmare 3, like Nightmare 1 is still my favorite of the films. Yeah. But even in one, he was blending in those elements, like the tongue on the phone with Nancy, right? I'm your boyfriend now or whatever. Yeah, yeah. Even then it was there. But in three, it was that it's perfect and it didn't go into camp like it started to in later films. So Nightmare Three, directed by the underrated Chuck Russell, and but with the story by Wes Craven, who came back after the uh, you know, the appalling film that was Nightmare 2.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

So speaking on the comedians doing good horror and some horror people doing great comedy, so Danny McBride obviously has done some pretty decent horror, but he weirdly, if I'm not mistaken, doesn't really put any kind of levity or comedy into it. He like just like goes hard into the horror.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

He does, and he's actually let me down. So we're the first Halloween that he did with who's his partner, like Pineapple Express and all that.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

No, no, not Seth Rogan.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

It's the uh No, I know Danny McBride. Yeah, no, you're you're talking about Danny McBride's partner that was also in the that's his writing partner, writing directing partner. I can't think of it off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

I'll look it up. You keep talking. Danny McBride's writing partner. This is a good thought. Jody Hill.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

That's right. So with the first Halloween movie, I'm like, this is outstanding. This is great. The next two, let down, let down, and then what they did with the Exorcist letdown.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

I mean, it is still Danny McBride.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Like which is why he's he's a great comedian.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

I don't think he's got the horror thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Okay. I think I know where you land on this one as well, but Jordan Peel, also comedian that dipped into horror, and I know you're not a fan, but he's you can't argue that he hasn't been fairly successful.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

I don't equate success with greatness in my head.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Okay. But the populace isn't hating Jordan Peel right now.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

No, you're right. That means nothing to me.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

No, I get it, but and I'd actually argue I think he's I think he's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

I think that Get Out was really good. I think I think it was a little overrated, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Get Out was the body swap one, yeah. Not the the where they were like putting their old spouses into young black men.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And then I did like us. I did like us, but for me the wheel started to come off a little bit with that, and I feel like her performance and the incredible reworking of I've got five on it and the terror and menace that he did with that song like leaned in, like made me love it more. But then Nope is is awful.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

I I have to challenge you on that. I loved Nope. It was just so weird and different, and I I knew that I was alone in that. Well, I won't say alone, but definitely in the minority when it came to Nope. I think Kiki Palmer was so good. I loved that movie. The whole Jupiter thing, the guy with the chimpanzee, that whole situ I fucking love Nope. But I get it. It's not it's definitely not a wildly popular movie. It was it felt like it was heavily advertised, and I actually start to realize like the heavier you're advertising, the usually the worse the movie is. I'm like almost nervous to watch Disclosure Day because of that. Sorry, Steve.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

I'm a little nervous, but I know he's gonna make I know he's gonna deliver it.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

You mentioned that creepy remix on Five Onit. Yes. Okay. We we've talked about this before, but that might go down as one of the best, like, just creepy reworks of a popular song. But I know and I know I just sent you this over last weekend or the weekend before. If I was making a list of creepy reworks, Daisy sung by Hal has to go on it from 2001.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Oh of course, yes. That's right. You did tell me that.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

I I just I had to send it to you because it's like the most like unsettling, it's not even sinister, it's just like it makes you just really it's a tense, tense, weird feeling.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

You know, that actually reminds me Angela talking about things that are creepy and unsettling. Yeah, this is not on my list, but it's an effective use there. And Angela sent me a TikTok last week, which had to do with the fact that husbands are are kind of rascally and that wives are saints for putting up with them, which is not untrue, by the way. But it had that song tiptoeing through the tulips. Oh, okay. On it by Tiny Tim. Yeah, yeah. And like you watch, you know, was that in that wasn't Sinister that that was in, it was it wasn't oh one of those other ones that James Wan did, but you know what I'm talking about, right? Yeah. And the use of that, you put those kind of songs in there, whether it was that one or whether uh the the Q the movie with QSAC and and Samuel L. Jackson Room.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Oh, with the Carpenters.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

It's uh not Room Thir Room 13, what's it called?

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Room something. Yeah, yeah. But we've only just begun on there, and just when you have that effective usage in a horror film, damn it's great.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Anytime you have an upbeat song with a dying radio, it's just it adds this element of like sinister to it that is it's so easy to execute if you do it right. It's just like you just find an upbeat song and kill like slowly melt your radio while it's playing. So hopping over to music for this next one. This is some context is important for this, but like I said at the beginning, some of this stuff was like life-changing in the way that like broke down a wall or opened a door or just made me aware of an entire world of music or music in this instance that I was just unaware of or ignored or was somehow anti, I guess, at the time. And some some context for this. My I grew up in a like a somewhat uber Christian household. Like we went to church every Sunday, and looking back on it, I almost argue it had nothing to do with like religion as much as it had to do with community, and I kind of understand that. But it doesn't mean that you're not indoctrinated, it doesn't mean that you don't sing the hymns and you're in Sunday. God this and god that. And more pointedly, there were a lot of musicians that they spoke very disparagingly of, one of them obviously being Marilyn Manson. So I was so anti-anything that he was associated with. He's you know, he worships the devil, he's part of the Satanist church, he's just evil, and all that shit that they make you think when you're going through this stuff. And then the Matrix comes out, and the Matrix soundtrack comes out in 1999, and Rock is Dead comes on, and that song changed fucking everything. And I'm not even kidding, I'm being a little I'm not I'm being dramatic, but it's like completely warranted because it's seriously, you hear that it's feedback in the beginning, it's just driving hi-hat, it's not even electronic drums, which was surprising for me because everything he's done pretty much before that was all a drum machine. It was a live drummer, it was getting into his glam era, so it was really kind of like flashy and big. And that song literally changed my entire perspective on music to the point where I'm just like, what are they talking about? Like, I've been like rallying against this entire artist's portfolio and the all of his records because like I'm going to a building that tells me to, and this song is fucking amazing. So like it was one of those situations where it completely opened me up to like the amount of contemporaries that are come with that. Like, I wasn't listening to Nine Inch Nails at the time, I wasn't listening to like Orgy to a lesser extent. I know they've kind of gone away, but like like that song changed my entire music landscape moving forward. So I don't know. 1999, what was I 12 years old? So that is that is one for me. And it had some challenging lyrics, and you start getting into his other stuff, like disposable teens and like the fight song that are really like, especially being in a Christian household, really challenging lyrics, you know, gods in the TV, or you know, I'm not a slave to a god that doesn't exist, all that stuff. So it's like I I had some uh it caused some tension with my parents and myself, but like once I realized what I was missing out on by basically shutting myself off from all this stuff, it was it was eye-opening.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

You know, first of all, I was having a hard time with possibly including the Matrix in here as well for me. I didn't ultimately, and there's a couple songs on there that still resonate to me to this day, especially Wake Up Raging Ex Machine. I actually hadn't heard before. I've heard I'd heard some of their songs, obviously, at that point. Yeah, I'd not heard Wake Up.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

It was the first time I'd heard it too was on that soundtrack. That soundtrack was good.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

The soundtrack was excellent. But it's it's funny you talk about like the the dynamic of the house you grow up in and the music, and if you start to question if the things that you've been seeing and hearing are are how you actually feel and believe. Like, I don't think I've told you this, but I remember when I was like, oh, it was like eight or nine, something like that. And Gangsters Paradise by Coolio came out.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Oh, you have told me this, but it's so good. You got to sell it again.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Okay, I'm in. And I asked for that for Christmas, and my mom said, There is no chance I'm buying you that gangster rap shit. And I literally wrote an essay about because at this point, of course, I've heard I've heard the song. Yeah, of course. And I wrote an essay about how it's actually, you know, like decrying the the the lifestyle, and it's an examination and a criticism of what that lifestyle represents and a cautionary tale against it. And I wrote that, and my mom got like through a couple sentences of what I believe was actually a well-written essay, especially from an eight or nine-year-old. Yeah, crumpled it up, threw it in the trash, and walked away. Jokes on her. I went out and bought it myself anyway after Christmas, and she never knew the wiser. Great album, still to this day, I think you would agree.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

It is an excellent album.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Yes. But you start to realize that, and I it brings up that point with me with Manson, but it also, and we have talked about this. Can you separate the artist and the art? And that's one I struggle with a lot. And Manson for sure falls into that. Oh, yes. Because to this day, like I, you know, whenever I'm in the gym, some of his songs could not be more perfect for lifting. It's great. Yeah, it's great. Beautiful People is, you know, like oral VR, oral PR, oral personal record right there, just waiting to happen. But he's a very big example of can you separate the artist from the art?

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Well, this is where it really lands. Like Marilyn Manson, the musician that writes this genius music that is timeless. Like you listened to the stuff that he was releasing in like 95, 96, or yeah, his first album is 94, and it's it holds up, like it's still good. Brian Warner is an absolute piece of shit. Like, and I know that it's like, you know, who'd really separating that? And I understand like that artist from the art thing, but good music's good music. I mean, everybody that's gonna comment and like hate on that, tell me right now you that you're not listening to uh the remix to ignition. Because you all are, don't lie.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

I actually don't listen to R. Kelly anymore.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

If that song comes on, you're not turning it off.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

I'm not. I I am. I don't listen to R. Kelly anymore. I still do listen to Manson, so I'm clearly not holier than thou. I still do. But R. Kelly, I don't. No, no, no. I actually was never a big R. Kelly fan to begin with.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

Honestly, I like the same. I I don't know if I could come up with another song, but that that song does slap. But yeah, so Marilyn Manson, like this was coming off the heels of when I got back from a church camp and you know, we were like all like high on like we have to cleanse ourselves and shit. And I actually broke a bunch of really good albums in half because that's apparently what you do. Massive regret.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Did you burn some books too?

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Only the bad ones. Good. Yeah, the good book never gets burned.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

I'm not hey, I'm not saying that. No buddy, listen.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

I I was I went to church for a long time. It went from trying to search for something to realizing that there are a lot of cute girls to realizing that this is just not for me. And I think I think there's a mixture of Marilyn Manson, Bad Religion, a few other just really good. Like you're gonna listen to the masses. Like what it's the fight song, right? Death of One is a tragedy, Death of Millions is a s is a statistic. Yeah. And you're just like, hey man, brother, fuck yeah. Like, I hear you, and it sucks, but it's kind of true. You're just like, this is this is American society. But anyways, yeah, that is honestly, could have been higher on my list, because that was a massive turning point in uh just my life.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

No, that's that's a good one. And I still listen to Manson this day, even if I, like I said, it's problematic for me in some ways, or I think about it.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

I think I was listening this morning.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Okay. My number three and staying chronological is the film, and I'm realizing on all these films that they all have a music component. So it's it's both movies and music, and you know this about me that they both just intermingle all the time.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Next one for me chronologically 1999 is the film Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson. And I saw that at a very difficult and challenging moment in my life. And you watch, I l I always love and hot take alert. And if Craig's listening, he'll immediately disagree with me. I think that PTA. Handles, even though I know I I know he likes PTA. I think that PTA handles the ensemble film better than even Altman did. And hot take alert, because you know I'm here for him.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Even though Altman clearly was a master at it.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Don't get it twisted. I think PTA does it better. So the way he brings that cast together, all of them great, and weaves all of those stories thematically and narratively, most of them together, is amazing. But like you watch that film and you watch him working through his understanding of identity, his understanding of grief, his understanding of regret, his understanding of pain, like Paul Thomas Anderson and working his way through all of that through that film. And especially like the piece about regret and forgiveness, which is such a really interesting word, right? And something I've thought about a lot over the over my life. And you watched Cruz's performance, which it remains probably the biggest tragedy in the Academy's history of not giving Tom Cruise the best supporting actor for Magnolia. He was amazing in that film. And I'm sorry, I love Michael Cain, but him getting basically an honorary Oscar for the fucking Cider House rules for that over Cruz, that year, give me a break. Anyway, you watch Cruz's performance and the way he breaks himself down and the scene with him with Jason Robards and him working through his emotions over what it was to be that dude's son and Robards as a father and working his way through anger, regret, grief, and ultimately forgiveness. I mean, it's the kind of thing that makes you look at it's the kind of thing that can make you look at yourself a different way. And it did for me. And that film against that soundtrack, where you use, you know, Goodbye Stranger and the the bar scene with William H. Macy in a very creepy voyeuristic way, the way it was used there, but to excellent effect. And then Amy Mann's songs. And whether it's Save Me or One, but especially Save Me, holy shit, when I heard Save Me for the first time in that movie, that unlocked something in me. And so for me, Magnolia remains one of those films that it's always gonna be on my Alztimers. And it made me look, it made me look at the way that I looked at things differently, legit.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Yeah, it's this is why art, music, movies, all this is so amazing. There's really it's one of the only like completely like outside influences where a stranger can make you re-evaluate your entire life in a way that I don't even think someone close to you sometimes can.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

Because they're close to you and there's there's influence. You see something which is an unbiased perspective because it makes you actually it's not someone telling you how you should look at something, it forces you to look at it a different way yourself.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

Yeah. And the second you start start drawing parallels with these characters, and you're just like, I mean, there's instances I gotta change my life. Like, I've if I'm drawing parallels with this character, I gotta change my life.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

Yeah, but anyway, like that film's great, everyone's great in that movie, but Tom Cruise, that there was a before and after for me of seeing the movie Magnolia.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

Anyway, what's your next one?

SPEAKER_00 47:45

I'll be I'll be quick on the number four so we can spend some time on five, because five for me is it's fun. We've talked about it before on here, but I I feel like I'd be remiss if I left it off. Arrival with Amy Adams. I know we've talked about it. This is truly the first movie that's ever made me cry. But like, I mean, I won't dive in because like I said, we've we've already discussed this, but but there's a movie right there, beautifully done, that it made me it it really, I mean, like, like we've said, if you're ever a parent and you see this, it changes everything for you. And that's kind of what I was just saying. Like, this isn't this is a situation where you reevaluate your entire what decision would I make in this moment? Because that's an impossible choice that you're that you're stuck with that, like, damn.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

We've we have talked about this a number of times, and yeah, like I saw it for the first time before I was a parent, and it hit me hard, but then seeing it after being a parent, like, and I knew I was gonna be a parent at that point, I saw it, so it hit me hard, but then after being a parent and understanding that feeling, holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 49:08

Kills you. But we've we've uh we've gone down this this one, so I'll let you jump into your number four.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

It's funny. My number four, also, I'm gonna do the same song. I'm gonna do the same thing as you, and I'm I'm gonna be breeze through it quickly. Because I literally talked about this movie last week. I do have a correction to make though. When I talked about Donnie Darko last week, I mentioned it came out in 1999. Obviously, it came out in 2001 if it came out post-9-11, which it did. So it came out in the fall of 2001. But for that film, it was it was a lot of things like Richard Kelly's filmmaking, which I I'll mention, I'll try and mention Richard Kelly on every podcast now episode if that's okay. Just because I think he needs he needs to make more films.

SPEAKER_00 49:58

He needs some shout out. I think he's literally sitting on the corner with a sign like we'll we'll direct for peanuts.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Well, I've got I've got a bag of planters if that's the case, and we'll make some good shit. But you see that film and what it did, but then for me, that one scene as I mentioned it, the tracking shot in the high school with Head Over Heels, which remains maybe my favorite song of all time. I think it is my favorite song of all time. I love Tears for Fears, but that song, it's a perfect song.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Are you upset that I'm pretty sure they were here yesterday?

SPEAKER_01 50:31

I'm not because I was spending time on Newport Beach with my family yesterday. And I'll take that.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

I tried to get Paul to come with me. I was like, hey, you know, Tears for Fears, and he's like, It's outside your no, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

I would have for sure gone with you, but literally we Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

I know you would have.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:48

But you know, family time, being out of town, that whole thing. It's important. All right, number five with a bullet. This one's I had I couldn't not put it on. It's it's kind of a funny story. Scream. And not for the reason you might think.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

So we both have Craven and and uh Zemecus.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

Yeah, we do. I had to put this one on for Steph because we're pretty sure that Shep was conceived during Scream. Nice. Yeah, you're welcome, everybody, for that one. I'll go into immense detail for everybody that wants to. No, kidding.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

I'm sure Steph really appreciates that detail, especially.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

I mean, that's how we know kind of yeah. I mean, it timing worked out. It was it was Scream. It was so I'll that'll always be, you know what? Love you, Shep. When you listen to this when you're old enough, maybe you'll be a West Craven fan.

SPEAKER_01 51:45

That's horrifying for him, but I'm enjoying hearing it right now.

SPEAKER_00 51:49

Oh my god. And like, how could you leave that off the list? This is when Steph told me, I was like, she was like, it was either that or scary movie. And I was like, well, we watched him in the same night, but I'm just gonna go with Scream because it actually has some cred. It does.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

I'm curious to see the new scary movie on that note. I am actually, because I enjoyed the first one. After that, it clearly went off the rails. The first one was fun though. But Scream, I mean, you talk about a film that continues to inform horror movies 30 years later.

SPEAKER_00 52:23

I mean, anytime you're making the seventh iteration of a horror movie.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

But but just in the style and the where, like the self-awareness that it did, yeah, you know, the way that you'd think the way that they're handling that, that it's gonna pull you out of the film, like when when Jamie, Jamie Kennedy is doing the scene, right, in the house, when everyone gathered around the TV and talks about the rules. Yeah, that should completely break pull you out of the room right as it's going in hurtling toward the Denouement. It should just pull you right out. And instead, it just shoves you further into the universe. Like that film changed the way that horror movies were made and still does to this day.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

I completely agree. It I can't think of many movies that before that killed off the one of the movie poster actresses, like in the first 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 53:17

You bring this up. I was gonna mention it also brings back one of the greatest tropes of all time, which was not which has not been used very often, but which was used back in what the 50s or 60s by one of the greatest horror filmmakers of all time, which was Hitchcock, of course, in Psycho. And I don't know, I don't know anyone since him on that level where he kills off Janet Lee in the first 15 minutes of the movie, yep, that had done it since until Craven did it again with Drew Barrymore.

SPEAKER_00 53:48

Has it become a trope since? Because like happening twice isn't doesn't hit trope. It's gotta happen regularly. And I know it just happened with that Charlie's Theron movie that just came out. Oh my god. Eric Banna, he was like he was like a listed uh oh gosh.

SPEAKER_01 54:08

It wasn't Prey, because yeah, why why are we blanking on this?

SPEAKER_00 54:11

This movie is like Apex.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

Apex. Yeah, Eric Banna is like listed as like one of the exactly in the and is I'm sorry, spoiler alert, is gone in the first five, seven minutes.

SPEAKER_00 54:20

Trust me, it doesn't ruin the movie, guys. I promise. But if you're looking for Eric Banna, like you know, I'm gonna disagree with you.

SPEAKER_01 54:26

That movie was good.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

No, no, no, no. What I mean is like Eric, you knowing that Eric Banna dies in the first five will not ruin the movie. Hardly a spoiler alert. Truth, truth.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

It won't. Love Scream. Loved, frankly, I liked Scream 2. I actually really liked Scream 3 and the meta aspect that they dug into even further with it. Yeah. Scream 4, Scream 5, was Scream 5 the one that was in New York, or was it Scream 6?

SPEAKER_00 54:59

I know listen, I'm bad with the sequels.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

The one that was in New York, killer. The one that just came out, which is six or seven, whatever it is. I did not mean to do that on purpose that time. But the one that was most recently released, I'm sorry. Acts one and two were good. Act three, I think I could have written something better in five minutes, or AI could have written something better than that. That was terrible.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

You're not talking about seven that just came out, you're talking about seven.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

I'm talking about the the one that just came out. Atrocious.

SPEAKER_00 55:29

I have not seen it, and I don't have much interest in it.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

Oh, oh gosh. The fact, I mean, the fact that Nev Campbell is in that, like you'd think that her coming back to the franchise would would would would automatically make it great? No, atrocious. Watch Acts one and two and then leave. Don't watch anymore.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

You fucked up the ending.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Number five for me.

SPEAKER_00 55:56

Loves it strong.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

Also, a connection to my wife, though not in the same way. But back in this was also 2001. I'm pretty sure it came out after Darko. I didn't see it until 2002. No, I think it came out 2002. Maybe it's 2002. Mulholland Drive. Oh. So I see this film, and I think, okay, I liked Lynch, but like now this is one of my favorite films of all time immediately. And you have the scene, the silencio scene, where she's singing Yorando there, and that unlocks the rest of the movie, and everything changes, you know. So that song, the cinematography in that is so rich. The entire score of Morricone is fantastic. The nightmare fuel scene behind the diner with the homeless monster. Oh, yeah. Not a human monster. I mean, everything about that film, great. And every time you see it, something changes. And after I saw it one weekend, and I came back to the diner I was working at the next week and couldn't stop talking about it to my colleague who I was a server. And this young girl by the name of Angela Donis worked the fountain. And I was talking to her across the fountain, uh, the the whatever, the service counter. And I'm just talking about it and talking about, you know me whenever I'm excited. She's like, I've got to see this movie. And she went and she saw it. And then the next day she's like, What the fuck are you talking about? She's like, what even happens in this thing? What is this movie about? Like, yeah, but you don't, that's it's all symbolism and imagery. Like, I'll take it for Beal. A week later, she asks me out on a date, and we start out by going to a jazz club, which didn't card. Sorry if my inheritance listening to this, uh, your mom and dad never did anything wrong or or illegal ever in our lives. But that didn't card, and then uh we went to see Mohlen Drive afterwards for our first date. And so I will always remember that movie fondly as both something that you know made me see Lynch differently. The the way that you take a movie and it blended horror and noir and I mean all these kinds, different kinds of elements, outstanding music, and had it's the kind of movie you watch multiple times, and each time you get something different out of it, which is great. But then also, you know, was a foundational piece to the start of my relationship where my wife would understand that A, I'm quirky, B, I have weird, dark, and twisted thoughts and tastes sometimes, but that C, it all comes together at the end with me, you know, it was a beautiful beginning.

SPEAKER_00 59:08

It sounds that way. That all surprises me, except for the fact that Angela Snell asked you out on your first date.