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No Country For Old Men Is The Greatest Film of All Time

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Val Kilmer – https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000174 

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Deep Dive: No Country For Old Men

IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477348

Summary

In this conversation, Vince Marotte and The J-Man delve into the NCAA basketball tournament, discussing the appeal of women’s basketball compared to men’s, the impact of NIL on team dynamics, and predictions for the upcoming games. They also pay tribute to Val Kilmer, reflecting on his career and memorable roles, before transitioning to a discussion about spring movie releases and the mixed reception of Disney’s live-action adaptations. In this conversation, Vince Marotte and The J-Man delve into the current state of Hollywood, discussing the industry’s risk aversion and financial strategies, particularly in relation to streaming services. They explore the impact of new releases, including the anticipated ‘No Country for Old Men’ and the unique storytelling style of the Coen Brothers. The discussion highlights the challenges of engaging audiences with complex narratives and the evolving landscape of film production and distribution. In this conversation, the speakers delve into the intricate storytelling and character dynamics of the film ‘No Country for Old Men.’ They explore the subtleties of character actions, the moral ambiguity of protagonists and antagonists, and the significance of minor characters. The discussion highlights the film’s unique approach to violence and ethics, ultimately leading to a deeper understanding of its themes and the Coen Brothers’ filmmaking style.

Takeaways

  • Women’s basketball is gaining popularity and interest.
  • The stories behind players enhance the excitement of tournaments.
  • NIL is changing the landscape of college basketball.
  • Analytics are improving predictions in sports.
  • Val Kilmer’s contributions to film are significant and memorable.
  • Top Secret is a nostalgic favorite for many.
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang showcases Kilmer’s versatility.
  • Disney’s live-action adaptations are facing criticism.
  • The political discourse surrounding films can overshadow storytelling.
  • The casting of Snow White has sparked debate about representation. Hollywood is currently risk-averse, focusing on financial success.
  • Streaming services are changing the landscape of film releases.
  • Comedies are declining in theaters, shifting to streaming.
  • Franchises guarantee audience attendance and revenue.
  • Re-releases are often financially motivated rather than creative.
  • Indie films face challenges in distribution and marketing.
  • ‘No Country for Old Men’ is considered a perfect film by many.
  • The Coen Brothers’ films often defy traditional storytelling structures.
  • Sound design plays a crucial role in film immersion.
  • Movies that require audience engagement lead to deeper discussions. The subtleties in storytelling reveal character motivations.
  • Character dynamics challenge audience expectations.
  • Protagonists and main characters can differ significantly.
  • Moral ambiguity complicates the viewer’s perception of good and evil.
  • Minor characters can hold significant thematic weight.
  • Violence in film can be implied rather than shown.
  • A character’s code can define their actions and morality.
  • The film’s ending leaves viewers questioning justice.
  • Understanding the film requires multiple viewings to uncover layers.
  • Artistic expression often invites both admiration and criticism.

Transcript

Vince Marotte (00:00.75)
Suburban Kings, season two, episode six. Should be like eight, but we had a couple bricks there and we messed up, but we’re doing it, we’re doing it. How’s your bracket?

The J-Man (00:05.462)
Yes, sir.

Yeah. Dude, it’s, it’s wild. Okay. Okay. Well, I didn’t fill out, I didn’t fill out a women’s bracket. should have. I know. I know. Yeah. I received that. I deserve that. I hear you. Next year, it’s on. I should have done it this year.

Vince Marotte (00:14.5)
Let’s talk women’s bracket first. Let’s go there. I got, cause I have mine open.

Your daughter’s a certified Hooper. not, you’re not, you got to invest in a women’s game, John. I’m disappointed.

Vince Marotte (00:35.672)
Women’s game is, I’ve said this before, women’s basketball, college basketball specifically, is more interesting. again, I’m biased because my daughter played at a high level, played in the last two NCAA tournaments. It is, I think for even people who aren’t invested in it like I am, and like you may end up being with your daughter Hoopin, is the players, stay for four, the best players stay for four years.

Pagebeckers has been at UConn for four years. know, Juju is going to stay at USC for three years now because she’s going have the medical redshirt next year. But they play for four years. So you get to know them. Cooper Flag is not going to be at Duke next year. You know, they have this amazing roster and they got, you know, Kniepel who’s incredible. have, they’re big who just, Cooper Flag just throws lobs to all game. But we’re not going to see, we’re not going to get to know them. We’re not going to, we’re not going to, you know,

The J-Man (01:05.314)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (01:16.696)
Yeah. No. Nope.

The J-Man (01:24.194)
He’s awesome. Mm-hmm. That’s crazy.

Vince Marotte (01:33.338)
for lack of better term, kind of fall in love with their story and their journey because they’re in and out. And, you know, I’m not saying that’s good or bad, but the stories, you know, what makes the tournament especially exciting is just kind of the stories, the human side of it.

The J-Man (01:35.756)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (01:41.902)
Yeah.

The J-Man (01:46.772)
Mm hmm. You know, I think that might be a little bit why we’re hearing these questions of men’s college basketball. Like, it what, you know, is it losing its appeal? You know, are less people engaged? I think it’s because women’s basketball’s on the up and those stories shine through where with the guys, they’re not quite there. They’re struggling with stuff to talk about. They talk more about the men’s coaches than they do the men’s players.

Vince Marotte (02:15.172)
Yeah. No, Paige Becker’s is absolutely hooping in the tournament for their first three games or four games. I think she’s averaging 34 points. Absolutely balling out. And, you know, she was the number one prospect out of high school, all the hype, you know, she was, you were hearing more about her than Caitlin Clark at the same time. I think they’re in the same class, but Paige Becker had some medical red shirts. had some injuries and stuff and just a bumpy ride in college. And so, you know,

The J-Man (02:35.126)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (02:44.44)
My daughter and I were talking and watching that game. We’re happy for that kid, for Becker’s, because we’ve been following her for five, six years. We follow high school and everything, so we love basketball. But to see it kind of come together in her half this moment, even though every time she’s played into the tournament, they’ve made the final four. UConn’s just that good all the time. Pretty dang exciting. And just watching her, her hope has been rad.

The J-Man (03:08.014)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (03:12.534)
We, Yeah. Three years ago, we started following, Haley van Lyth just because, you know, my daughter, for better, for worse, she is an Angel Reese fan. And, and so she followed LSU, you know, and, know, Haley van Lyth, what she played at Louisville, right. Before, LSU, and then she came over to TCU and now, mean, UT, the Ladyhorns is our second team. I mean, we’re Beaver fans in our house, you know, rightfully so.

Vince Marotte (03:27.15)
Yeah.

Vince Marotte (03:42.385)
No, Haley Van Lyft is I remember being at a tournament in Dallas her freshman year of high school. My daughter was still in eighth grade and she was playing in those those kind of, you know, tournaments where everybody comes from all over the country. And one of the one of my good friends and one of the kind of scouting service guys like, hey, you got to go over to this court and watch this Haley Van Lyft kid. Just hooping, cooking kids as a freshman, cooking juniors. She just always had just that

The J-Man (03:42.433)
But

Vince Marotte (04:10.202)
crazy handle, just, you she’s like a, she’s like a jam or rant, you know, type of player. She’s fun to watch.

The J-Man (04:15.348)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Well, how come horns at this point we got it. pulling for homers. We love cheering for the home team. So

Vince Marotte (04:21.114)
Yeah. No, we love Rory Harmon, their point guard. AJ played with Rory USA three on three. They were teammates. And so they ran through that tournament back when they were just had finished their sophomore year. They were late. It was a U-19s. So they were invited to play with all the kids who were like seniors and freshmen in college to play against all those older kids. And they did great. They played, they played good. And they actually beat the champions in pool play.

The J-Man (04:30.382)
tool.

Vince Marotte (04:50.916)
Didn’t convert on that. But yeah my bracket on the women’s side. I had Notre Dame in Final Four missed on that And I had North Carolina State in the Final Four But almost straight chalk here where it’s number one UCLA number one, South Carolina number one, Texas And number two Yukon the only number two in the Final Four Having taken down USC missing juju which

The J-Man (05:14.498)
That was tough, man, seeing her go down on the knee injury.

Vince Marotte (05:18.098)
Always sucks just sucks. especially when it’s you know, personally when it’s kids, know You’ve been watching them grow up and your kids been playing against them and you see them go down like that. Just sucks but honestly, I think the way you con I was worried I didn’t have you con in the final four because they weren’t It’s hard to know sometimes with ucon because they play in the big east and it’s not a deep conference, you know And so you don’t know how good they are until unless they

The J-Man (05:25.334)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (05:42.916)
Cause you only get to see him a couple of times during conference play when they’ll schedule a non-con game like against the South Carolina or something like that. So was hard to know and I didn’t have them, but so I missed that one. So my women’s bracket is not, not solid. only got two. I only had a two of the four final four. So, and you don’t have one because obviously you don’t like women’s basketball, but let me go over the men’s sides and see how we’re doing here. My bracket, if you’re looking for my bracket on ESPN, everybody it’s the Bonnie situation.

The J-Man (06:01.974)
Yeah.

The J-Man (06:12.077)
you

Vince Marotte (06:13.54)
did straight chalk on the men’s side, all number ones in the final four. Which, what’s that say? What does that mean? What do you think?

The J-Man (06:17.72)
Yeah. Yeah.

The J-Man (06:22.338)
I think that the NIL is having, it’s leveling out the playing field. think that teams are good across the board, but the best teams are the best teams.

Vince Marotte (06:35.482)
Well, all four teams are from the Mega Four conferences. So you got two SEC teams, ACC, Big 12. Houston’s the Big 12 now, right? Yeah. And so, yeah, it’s, in Houston kind of, you know, they’ve been a mid-major up until this is their first year, right? The Big 12. And so, and they’re always in there, you know, they five slam a jamma back in the day, Hakeem, Clyde, like that was awesome run. But…

The J-Man (06:39.03)
Yep. Yep.

The J-Man (06:44.492)
Yeah. Yeah.

The J-Man (06:52.244)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Vince Marotte (07:00.824)
Yeah, I think it’s two things. A lot of people are like, there’s no more upsets. Like very few upsets this year, especially as you get deeper in here. That’s why it’s all number ones. But the other side of that, it’s not the whole answer is as someone who works in sports analytics, the models and the analytics and the prediction predictions are just much better. The machines that are putting these seedings together are are much better than they used to be. Like I think of one of the ones here was was Louisville.

The J-Man (07:06.316)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (07:27.862)
Yeah

Vince Marotte (07:30.65)
So Louisville on the men’s side, you know, they were ranked, think 13th was the last ranking, but they were an eight seed in the tournament. And everybody was like, what eight seed? You know, they, you know, they should be at no 13 or whatever was ever ranked higher than a five. but the model got it right. They got clapped by nine seed Creighton in the first round. So it wasn’t that far off. was an

The J-Man (07:40.814)
Yeah, yeah, right. Right.

The J-Man (07:53.774)
Yep. I would have loved to have just been a fly on a wall. In one of those selection committees in the 80s, there’s a bunch of guys sitting around smoking cigarettes, drinking whiskey. You know, we put them in there. You know, then looking at the machines now, like the difference. I bet it was a wild selection committee.

Vince Marotte (07:59.129)
Yeah.

Vince Marotte (08:08.355)
Yup.

Vince Marotte (08:14.874)
Well, the big, the big drama was North Carolina getting in like, yeah, they shouldn’t have been in. put them in a play in and their athletic directors on that committee. And he gets like a 150 K bonus whenever his, whenever the men’s team makes the tournament. So they put them into play in and you know, they, they make it and then they, I can’t remember. I

The J-Man (08:19.362)
Right, yeah.

The J-Man (08:25.483)
Hmm.

The J-Man (08:31.886)
Nah, they didn’t get far. don’t even know if they got past that.

Vince Marotte (08:42.202)
Yeah, they call it the, you know, the round of, you know, 68, the first four or whatever. don’t, it’s not even the bracket. Can you pick it? So I don’t know why they do it. It’s like, trying to make it look, you know, I have, obviously it’s a money grab. They’re trying to get more TV time. Yeah, they did make it. So they won their playing game and then they got beat by Ole Miss. So it was like, you know, that’s, that was probably the only, the real suspect one in there. But yeah, straight chalk on the men’s side. All ones. I have Florida winning it all. Where are you at?

The J-Man (08:46.05)
Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah.

The J-Man (09:11.374)
I’m pulling for Duke. you know, Auburn, the center hurt in his arm. I didn’t get an update on his arm in his last game, but he got hurt and I don’t know. He’s their dog. like if they have him, they looking good, but man, Houston’s so fast and so good on defense and they can handle the ball. They can move the ball. They can shoot the ball. And, man, it’s just, I just feel like it’s just, and at this point,

Vince Marotte (09:22.638)
Yeah. Yeah.

He’s everything.

Vince Marotte (09:35.386)
Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (09:40.32)
anybody can win, it’s going to be really good. But I’m pulling for Duke. I’m a huge Knipple fan. And then also it’s hard not to love Cooper Flag. And I think the thing we don’t, I don’t like about him is how much attention he gets. It makes me not kind of, it makes me not want to like him, but I love him. Then I watch him hoop. He’s awesome. He is all, he’s so fun to watch. I love his demeanor. He’s got a good balance between just a monster, but also, you know, he’ll,

Vince Marotte (09:44.111)
Yeah.

Vince Marotte (09:57.806)
And then you watch him hoop and he’s the truth. And he’s the truth. He’s the truth.

The J-Man (10:10.42)
smile, know, and he’s got a great, on the court he’s just got a great personality.

Vince Marotte (10:16.46)
And the lineup they put on the floor is huge. Caniple looks like an undersized guard. looks like when he first, you never, if you, do, when you watch Duke play and you watch him get down the floor and you, and you watch him run their, run their actions, you look at Caniple and you’re like, that guy’s six, two, six, three. Homie is six, seven. He’s, he’s Luka Doncic. Like that’s what he is. That’s how, and he looks, he moves like a six, two dude. So very underrated.

The J-Man (10:19.534)
Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (10:23.267)
He does.

The J-Man (10:36.097)
Wow.

Wow.

The J-Man (10:44.258)
Yeah. Yep.

Vince Marotte (10:45.466)
You know, he’s a lottery pick. He’s going to, he’s going to do well. I, you know, I wasn’t really watching them the whole bunch this year. Cause I, I watched the women’s game most of the year. And then once the conference tournament start up, I start to watch both. Um, but yeah, can nipple is he, yeah, he’s going to be lottery pick this year. You know, first watch him like, Oh yeah, that guy’s good. Then you look how big he is. He’s, know, he’s six, seven, because my luwak is seven too.

The J-Man (10:53.132)
Yeah. Yeah, Yep.

The J-Man (11:02.027)
you

The J-Man (11:13.422)
man, he’s so tough. Yeah, right.

Vince Marotte (11:14.746)
And we look at him like that guy’s 6’10”. You know, they’re they are massive. So they are going to be a problem for Houston, who’s undersized. I didn’t have Houston go into the Final Four. I had Tennessee beating them in that last game because of the size issue. But Houston, they are feisty. They play hard.

The J-Man (11:29.42)
Man, yeah. Yeah, and the Gators seem like their stock has dropped. The past two games they sneaked by. They have barely gotten in these past two games. yeah, they’re not looking as good, not as sharp as they were going into the tournament.

Vince Marotte (11:35.674)
I’m worried. I’m worried.

Vince Marotte (11:45.45)
Watching Duke play and it’s hard yet. I You know if they can stay healthy. I don’t see how any these other three teams can beat Duke right now, so

The J-Man (11:55.5)
Yeah. Proctor, man, he’s an awesome guard. He’s fun to watch for Duke. You know, he could shoot the ball and he just, I mean, he looks like an NBA player just the way he moves and yeah, they’re stacked.

Vince Marotte (11:59.96)
Yeah. Yup.

Vince Marotte (12:08.183)
Yeah, he’s not a little dude. He’s, he’s six. also looks like a small guard or two guards out there. Look small, but they’re six, six and six, seven in the back court. Freaking, put a jumbo package on the floor when they, when they roll out there. It’s terrifying. And, even their coach like looks small and he’s not a small dude. think he’s six, six John Shire who’s got, got a cool story. And I’ll touch on this one last thing because you know, he, he was, he didn’t get drafted, but he got a summer league contract. And then in, in a game or workouts, he got poked in the eye.

The J-Man (12:11.566)
Yeah, that’s so crazy.

The J-Man (12:24.918)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (12:37.946)
Almost lost his eye ended his NBA career. Kind of tinkered a little bit overseas and just wasn’t going to work out. Cause I don’t think he has one of his eyes is not right. Like there’s something wrong with it. So he did, I think he went to Spain and played a little bit, but he immediately came back and he’s been, Duke did it right in terms of succession from coach K. Cause you’re talking this legendary coach. They put, you know, put Shire under and he’s been in the program being ready to take over for years. And even when he’s first couple of years, I think this is his third year.

The J-Man (12:46.826)
Okay.

Vince Marotte (13:07.684)
First couple of years, know, coach K’s riding along, helping with recruiting, to games. They did a good job. Then I look at like Stanford women who have up until recently the most winningest coach in all college. And when they moved over to the ACC, she’s like, fuck that. I’m not flying to New Jersey, just retired. They didn’t even make the tournament this year because they had no succession plan. So anyway, I love basketball. I love basketball.

The J-Man (13:32.502)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they handled it. These are the times.

Vince Marotte (13:37.402)
Well, let’s let’s jump into it first off sad news and I say that with an excited voice I guess Val Kilmer we’ve lost Val Kilmer who Not a surprise if you’ve been following we’ve been expecting that You know, I love Val Kilmer he’s just He’s he’s a true artist in the acting space if you ever saw Val that documentary You’ve got to see it. You’ve got to see it

The J-Man (13:44.034)
Yeah.

The J-Man (14:03.705)
I didn’t, but I know of it.

Vince Marotte (14:07.674)
So if you’re listening, I believe it’s on prime. It’s only on prime. think they produced it or funded it or whatever. It’s on prime and it’s I think it’s entirely archival footage. So it’s and it’s almost all Val Kilmer’s footage. Like he just had this thing where he’s been carrying around first like a like an actual film, you know, eight millimeter film camera all the way up through VHS and hi eight all that stuff through his whole life. And he’s just kind of filmed everything. Always wanted to be an actor.

made little goofy films with his friends in his basement as a kid. And so the documentary is built on this and he has a abrupt tragic part of his story where his dad, I can’t remember how intentional it was, but screwed him over financially and just wiped him out. Right about the time he got throat cancer in 2014. So he went through it. So if you’ve seen that,

The J-Man (14:55.214)
The J-Man (15:00.34)
Aw man.

Vince Marotte (15:05.016)
And then you go see that the, the Top Gun Maverick and you, you, you see his role in there. Like it was hard for me not cry when he was in Top Gun Maverick. Cause I knew what Val had gone through and how much Tom Cruise did for him to help him to, you know, have him include and, you know, rework the movie so we can include Val who couldn’t speak, you know? So just a

The J-Man (15:08.086)
Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (15:13.794)
Yeah, yeah.

The J-Man (15:27.872)
Nice. Right.

Vince Marotte (15:31.47)
Brilliant actor. Every one of his roles he totally immersed in. What’s your favorite Val Kilmer joint?

The J-Man (15:35.19)
Yeah, 80s slapstick comedy, top secret. It’s deep in the archives. It didn’t get a whole lot of attention, but for some reason we had it on VHS when I was a kid. And I watched that movie more times than I should have. It’s not that good of a movie. It just holds a lot of nostalgia for me. It’s super entertaining. It’s a true slapstick, almost in the way of like a naked gun.

Vince Marotte (15:40.999)
Vince Marotte (16:04.212)
Kind of a dying genre.

The J-Man (16:05.974)
Yeah, yeah, it’s so corny, so cheesy, but it’s hilarious at the same time because of that. it actually shows his entertainment side, his ability to really entertain. He sings in it, he like dances in it. He puts on a show in that movie and he’s hilarious. And then it’s like this undercover, he plays an undercover, top secret, he plays an undercover dude. And so,

Vince Marotte (16:22.52)
Yeah, triple threat.

The J-Man (16:33.73)
That really set it for me. And then of course you can’t have Top Gun without the Iceman. And you’re just such a cool dude, man. What about you?

Vince Marotte (16:43.894)
It’s it’s there’s a couple things one I I have to make nod to his Jim Morrison in the doors Like he It’s gotta be the one of the best You know impersonations if you will of a real-life person figure in a movie

You know, done as a dramatic reenactment. His Jim Morrison is so bang on, like it is bang on. and so that that’s, I think that’s just impressive. His ability to do that. Obviously, you know, his doc holiday is, is just, it carries that movie from scene to scene. A great movie carries that. But late, I want to kind of introduce people to one that maybe they haven’t, haven’t seen.

The J-Man (17:27.049)
yeah, Tombstone, come on.

The J-Man (17:41.198)
Batman 3? No.

Vince Marotte (17:42.746)
No In 2005 uh, shane black has done some movies that I really like and he always funny enough They always seem to be around christmas Um, let see which one he’s i’m gonna make sure I get this right So that’s yeah. So shane black. He’s the director Who’s the writer on this? The movie’s called kiss kiss bang bang He’s not the lead robert downey jr is the lead

Val Kilmer plays a supporting role. And it’s the first time we saw him when he kind of put on a little bit of weight. And he’s a private detective. His name is Perry. We don’t know his last name, but he goes by Gay Perry because he’s gay. So he’s this gay private detective. it’s just it was just a surprisingly it’s a good movie. I love Shane Black stuff. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of my favorite Val Kilmer joints. And of course, I like him in heat.

The J-Man (18:16.462)
Mm-hmm.

Vince Marotte (18:37.21)
Which is one of the best, you know, top 10 all time for me Mad mart again in in Willow his role there was fantastic Kind of going through his IMDB page and just kind of reminiscing on some stuff Real genius right after he did top secret was great Let’s see here

The J-Man (18:40.45)
Mad Martigan? Come on.

The J-Man (18:54.377)
yeah. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (19:02.906)
Yeah, no, he’s just I mean just killed it. But yeah, yeah kiss kiss bang bang as well as movies I like to recommend because it’s really good and I think a lot of people missed out on that one but the saint The saint so I think that was an old old books or whatever but like this is one of those movies that my kids grew up on because It’s a movie that you can enjoy as parents, but it’s also

The J-Man (19:16.387)
yeah. Yep.

Vince Marotte (19:31.034)
fairly kid friendly, know, it’s an action spy heist, you know, kind of thing with, yeah, with a little bit of humor in there, but there’s really no cussing, there’s no boobies. But it’s, it’s one of those like, this is the whole family kind of movie, The Saint. So that was 1997. That’s one that was always on rotation growing up where it’s like, I don’t want to watch a cartoon, but I want to watch a movie with my kids.

The J-Man (19:34.574)
Elizabeth Shu.

The J-Man (19:46.953)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (19:55.394)
Didn’t that song have a pretty good soundtrack too? I want to say that that actually had a good soundtrack.

Vince Marotte (20:01.77)
It did it was kind of i’m trying to think here Yeah, there was a couple songs there. I don’t know how much of them were written for like it wasn’t a score as it were but but a soundtrack but yeah, no it had it had a couple in there, you know kind of kind techno Synth pop kind of kind of joints in there That stick out but yeah val kilmer great Actor put a lot of beautiful things in the world Gonna miss that guy, you know, so i’m glad he i’m glad they

The J-Man (20:11.564)
Right. Right.

The J-Man (20:15.98)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

The J-Man (20:27.588)
thanks Val.

Vince Marotte (20:30.362)
put him into Maverick because I think that really kind of put a nice bow on the end of his career. But here we go, springtime, movies. Are there any movies on your list this spring?

The J-Man (20:34.06)
Yeah, yeah, I agree.

The J-Man (20:40.238)
No, no, I’m yeah it is

Vince Marotte (20:43.29)
Spring’s tough. Once the awards season is over, kind of January, February, it’s the doldrums of film releases because I think everybody’s waiting for the summer blockbuster. So there’s usually not a lot of great stuff, but it’s a good time to sneak in some kind of under the radar, almost art house type films. So I kind of was scrolling through the lists of things and added stuff to my list. There’s a couple that I do not want to miss.

The J-Man (20:51.864)
Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (21:04.334)
Cool.

Vince Marotte (21:12.244)
One we talked about a few weeks ago, which is the the IMAX 4k re-release of Pink Floyd’s live at Pompeii. That comes out April 24th. I have found an IMAX here in Portland that I can go see it at. Looks, I mean, I love it. You know, I love music and you like you like watching the basement tapes and those types of things. You like watching music being performed as an old guy. Sometimes it’s almost better than going to a show.

The J-Man (21:27.256)
Sweet.

The J-Man (21:35.594)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yes, really get into the technicalities of all the things.

Vince Marotte (21:41.86)
Because I could sit down I can eat Eat, yeah eat and drink, you know, and it’s it’s i’m excited i’m excited about that But yeah live at pompe April 24th, I bet it’s very limited So you’re gonna have to go look for a place to go see that But that’s definitely on my list Another one I want to throw out there because you still have kids remind everyone your kid’s age

The J-Man (22:09.166)
10, 13, almost 15, almost 17.

Vince Marotte (22:14.33)
So you’re pretty much out of, you know, cartoon-focused, Disney-focused movies when a movie comes out, right? Like, you know, unless it’s one you’ve been following. So you’re not, looking for that. But Disney’s done this. They’re redoing a lot of their classics in live action. Have you seen any of them? Have you wanted to? Have the kids wanted to see them? Your kids are just kind of aging out of that. I’ve not seen any of them. I really…

The J-Man (22:31.178)
Yeah. no.

The J-Man (22:37.61)
Now, yeah.

Vince Marotte (22:44.142)
You I mean, eh, you know, don’t, I’m not sure what, my.

The J-Man (22:47.466)
Yeah, they just haven’t landed. I think the old school Disney was like the beginnings of cartoons and you know, like the old cartoons is what the animation and That’s what we fell or I fell in love with with Disney as a kid. And so these live actions they just feel so Just fake, you know plastic to me

Vince Marotte (23:09.897)
It’s We’ve talked before about movies and suspension of disbelief when it’s cartoon you just that’s off the table So I haven’t seen I haven’t I don’t have a desire to see any of these For me, i’m just kind of curious. They seem to be kind of flopping. Nobody they’re just going straight to the you know, disney plus um, you know, I don’t think people are really going to the theater for these and my Wife had asked yesterday like what’s what’s the deal? Why why are they even making these?

The J-Man (23:14.688)
Yeah. Right.

Vince Marotte (23:37.986)
You know, ever think about that? are your thoughts? Why do you think they’re making them? I have my hypothesis.

The J-Man (23:42.966)
Well, the thing that’s weird about it is it just feels like there’s a political argument happening around every single one of these. And that’s weird to me. that’s, however it’s reaching me through my, you know, through my feed, it’s like, there’s this woke, you know, Disney’s gone woke. And it’s like, why are we, why are we making it about politics when this is about

Vince Marotte (23:58.414)
Yeah!

The J-Man (24:10.806)
you know, cartoon storytelling.

Vince Marotte (24:12.538)
It’s yeah, I think the latest one. the current one that’s coming out this spring why I bring it up is Snow White. Snow White is played by Rachel Ziegler, who is the child of Polish-American father and Colombian-American mother. people, it sounds like again, people are in a stink because she’s not a straight up white person and Snow White in the cartoon was white. Like honestly, it’s one of the things like I don’t care. Like who cares? Like who cares? Like who cares?

The J-Man (24:15.404)
Yes, no white. no, yeah.

The J-Man (24:36.706)
goofy.

I don’t either. Nah. Could she act? Yeah.

Vince Marotte (24:41.998)
Like what’s, yeah, is it whatever? You know who can act is Gal Gadot.

The J-Man (24:50.75)
OK. yeah.

Vince Marotte (24:52.09)
So she’s the evil queen. She’s one of those where like, I just don’t get it. Like I get it because she’s like incredibly beautiful. She is maybe somewhat racially androgynous. So she kind of can appeal to anyone. So I don’t, I get it why she’s in movies. She’s just terrible actress. So sorry, sorry, Gal Gadot. I’m just not, I don’t, I’m not seeing it.

The J-Man (25:20.718)
I mean, it seems like she fits, she could fit that bill. Like, you know, she looks the part. I can see her playing that, but then yeah, she’s not.

Vince Marotte (25:29.242)
And it’s a it’s it’s it falls off there. She’s pretty she’s been unconvincing. So I think, you know, you know, but yeah, the live action, I think that’s part, you who cares about I think people are getting a stink about the political thing. But for me, obviously, it’s just what’s what’s the money situation? What’s that look like? You know, and it’s Hollywood in general is fairly risk averse right now, because as we’ve talked about,

The J-Man (25:34.669)
Yeah.

The J-Man (25:42.05)
goofy.

The J-Man (25:48.397)
Yeah.

Vince Marotte (25:57.434)
And as we’re seeing, as I look through the spring slate, really there’s no comedies of note as we predicted going into 2025. But the comedies are going to start falling away. You’re just going to be straight to streaming. They’re not going to get big budgets because, and this may be a reason why Disney’s doing these re-releases is it has to be a global success to get big money.

You know, if you’re going to put three figures, 100 million, 300 million into a movie, it can’t just be an American movie. The whole world needs to watch it. Comedy doesn’t translate. The other thing is franchises. You know, you can guarantee almost a bottom line of people going to the theater or watching it. If it’s an Avengers, it’s a Marvel. know, Marvel, just putting Marvel on there, having a familiar character is

That’s free marketing basically. And so the re-release is similar. So how do we change it enough to make people interested? So it’s really, think it’s just a money grab to do this. You know, the marketing’s already baked in. I don’t have to make a new part of the theme park because Snow White’s already represented at Disney World, you know? So that’s gotta be the core here. It’s just a money thing.

The J-Man (27:13.422)
Yeah.

Vince Marotte (27:21.314)
And so they’re just risk averse. so a re-release, you know, we can’t make a Snow White sequel, but we could remake it in live action, which is probably cheaper than probably even trying to do some kind of origin story.

The J-Man (27:31.49)
Yeah.

The J-Man (27:35.722)
Yeah, I saw that the Snow White is like certified rotten on Rotten Tomatoes. Like it’s got a terrible score.

Vince Marotte (27:43.726)
Yeah, it’s a 1.5 on IMDB. yeah, big, you know, film turd. The other one I started watching last night. go ahead. I don’t want to cut you off on doing.

The J-Man (27:53.388)
Yeah, I was just going to say my kids are going to the movie theater this weekend, or my daughter is with her friends, and she sat there on the couch. Well, that’s the thing. She sat there like, Snow White. Y’all should just go hang out by the lake. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (28:00.76)
Have they picked a movie yet? No.

Vince Marotte (28:08.622)
Yeah, spring. Yeah, spring is.

Springs week for movies. That’s that’s that’s I get it. Everybody’s waiting for summer So, you know, like I think we get another we get that last mission impossible this summer That’s exciting The big one straight to streaming Netflix. I expect to be let down again, but I started watching it last night I kind of watched the first act of electric state. Have you heard of it? So it is I see it making lots of noise in the socials because of

The J-Man (28:20.716)
Yeah, that should be cool.

The J-Man (28:32.972)
Mm-mm. No.

Vince Marotte (28:41.688)
The price tag on it. It’s gonna be if not the most expensive movie made this year straight to netflix, you know, they’re Chris pratt Millie bobby brown star and woody harrelson, does a voice key key key He whoy kwan, know data from goonies. He’s in there. and so and a bunch of other other people there think I recall stanley tootie is in there and so it’s got you know

The J-Man (28:48.494)
okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The J-Man (29:01.283)
huh, okay, yeah. wow.

Vince Marotte (29:10.586)
They paid some money for actors, a lot of CG, because it’s a robot thing. So the premise is it’s some kind of post robot war apocalypse and robots are like banned. And so they live in exile, the robots, you know, and they’re sentient and they want to have freedom and that sort of stuff. I think Woody Harrelson leads the robot people. And Millie Bobby Brown is, you know, on a quest of sorts to find.

The J-Man (29:21.375)
Okay.

Hmm.

The J-Man (29:30.062)
Boom.

Vince Marotte (29:40.556)
somebody and so When I first started watching I totally tuned out after a while and my wife came by talking I’m like I gotta rewind it and she’s in and I remember telling her Yeah, I’m trying to watch this movie, but it’s very robots robot centric and it’s very difficult to get people to care about robots It’s a tricky move. You know when you think how when you go back and look at Wally How amazing that was make you care about a couple robots and but how much but it’s one robot and I’ve already met

The J-Man (29:57.39)
Yeah.

Yep. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (30:09.134)
Dozens of robots and I’m like I can’t keep up with the robots. How do I care about the robots? It’s kind of why that that one Star Wars the Clone Wars we’re like Who cares a bunch of robots in a war who cares? So electric state. I’m curious. I’m watching it. I’ll finish it probably tonight or I’m prepared to get let down because Netflix is always really safe with their movies But yeah, you know I have it and T-bobble pays for my Netflix. It’s free doesn’t cost me anything. So I’m gonna watch it

The J-Man (30:10.764)
Yep. Yeah.

The J-Man (30:17.312)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, nah, yeah. Right, yeah.

The J-Man (30:33.048)
the end.

Yeah, well good job watching something,

Vince Marotte (30:38.746)
Freaky tales.

The J-Man (30:43.456)
Yeah, no, freaky tale.

Vince Marotte (30:45.131)
The hot actor right now is Pedro Pascal. Yeah. Did you watch Last of Us?

The J-Man (30:49.804)
Yeah, yeah, he’s, I’m, I’m a fan. I like him. I got through quite a few episodes. I didn’t watch it. It’s, it is.

Vince Marotte (30:57.764)
So good. So good. Yeah, we’re excited about the next season. But this one’s interesting because my nephew’s in it. My nephew plays a pretty good sized role. He plays a Nazi. His name’s Troy in the movie. My nephew, Dan. Yeah, he’s been working on his acting career, been in a few things. He was in 13 Reasons Why, and he’s in this. It’s one of those ones where it’s an indie kind of film, you know, made by some…

The J-Man (31:07.027)
cool.

The J-Man (31:11.112)
dang. Sweet.

it.

Vince Marotte (31:25.412)
couple of directors, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck that a lot of people don’t know, but it’s based in NorCal. So it’s where I grew up. So it has NorCal stuff in it. Too short is the narrator. And so I’m loving that, too shorts in it. And so it’s kind of a, I’m trying to understand kind of what it is, but it’s an interconnection of stories that take place over maybe a few days in Oakland, California.

The J-Man (31:36.706)
Cool. Nice.

The J-Man (31:54.444)
Okay.

Vince Marotte (31:54.602)
And Pedro Pascal plays the lead and there’s some things going on in terms of getting to snafus. It seems to have done well at the award shows, but not a big blockbuster. You’re not going to see a lot about this. It will be at, I can’t imagine it’s not at the at draft house. It’s playing at the Cinemark over here this weekend. Opens on Friday. I’ll be there to see my nephew. Go and maybe see if I can get Dan on the pod. of get you know, Hollywood Hollywood guy.

The J-Man (32:13.57)
Okay, cool. Nice, man. That’s awesome. You should.

Vince Marotte (32:22.362)
So it’s been cool kind of watching his journey and, you know, waiting for this to come out, because it’s been done for a lot of times. People don’t realize movies are often completely done for more than a year before they get released, especially the indie stuff, because they’ll make the movie. They get the money to make it. And then the people who invested in it, you know, they want good distribution. They want it to get good marketing and all these things. So that sometimes isn’t isn’t figured out until later. So the movie’s done. Then they show it.

and they try to get someone to distribute it and do the marketing. So this movie has been done for a while. In fact, it calls it a 2024 movie here on IMDB. I’m sure they may change that to 2025. Because unless you’ve been at one of, like a Sundance or one of the, Cannes Film Fest, you have not had an opportunity to see it. Freaky Tales, this Friday. I’m gonna go see that.

more rommie mallick you like you watch mr robot show or anything like that he was he you saw bohemian rhapsody he did he did he did a great job here this is a spy i love a spy movie you like a spy movie obviously you know you know top secret was in there but what you know what are your what are your jams on the spy movies

The J-Man (33:21.166)
I didn’t see Mr. Robot, but I did see that. was on a flight. I watched it on a flight. He did.

The J-Man (33:34.39)
Yes, yeah, heck yeah, spy movies are awesome.

man, you put me on the spot. I mean, it’s easy to grab towards like the comedy spy movies, but I like a really good spy movie. Start rattling a couple off.

Vince Marotte (33:49.138)
You’re like a Tom Clancy, a clear and present danger, Red October, that kind of stuff. I love a Tom Clancy. Bridge of Spies, I really liked. There was one I never really understood. That’s a heist movie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

The J-Man (33:52.406)
Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I wonder some other good ones.

Ocean’s Eleven, that’s heist, that’s heist, that’s heist, heist, heist, yeah, similar. 007 movies were cool, they’re always pretty cool, pretty entertaining. They fit in like the Mission Impossible kind of genre.

Vince Marotte (34:15.642)
The Mission Impossible movies are packaged as a spy movie, but in reality, they’re basically heist movies because they’re always built around some kind of heist. you know, Tom Cruise trying to break into something to get it. it’s a spy movie, but it’s really it’s a heist movie. So I like that one with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The name escapes me. That one is awesome where he’s one of the guys he trained and his that whole journey. Really cool. So it’s called The Amateur.

The J-Man (34:25.038)
True,

The J-Man (34:31.042)
Yeah.

Vince Marotte (34:45.21)
Rami Malek plays, he’s kind of like Jack Ryan where he’s just, he’s an office guy at the CIA. He’s not a field guy. He doesn’t shoot guns or fight anybody. He’s just, know, head down at a computer doing stuff. He’s a cryptographer and somebody, terrorists kill his wife and he wants to go fix it himself. So he makes himself into a field guy and is in over his head and is probably trying to figure things out and do…

Do field spy shit and so that looks interesting to me. That’s probably I Gotta say it’s probably one of the most interesting movies in terms of scale That that’s gonna do well that I would expect you Argos gray. Yeah, I Like that one. That one’s good. So that one’s cool. And then one from my titled after my hometown Sacramento You know the forgot the forgotten fourth city

The J-Man (35:24.898)
Yeah, Argo. Argo, I just brought up spy movies. Argo was done well. I liked that movie.

The J-Man (35:36.878)
Okay, I haven’t heard of this.

Vince Marotte (35:41.438)
In california, everyone knows san francisco los angeles san diego, but there’s also sacramento the capital. It’s kind of the the austin of of California if you will so smaller city, and it looks kind of like did you ever see sideways? Where they go, you know, they go to the it looks like that. It’s like two buddies trying to get connected again And they end up on a road trip

The J-Man (35:50.113)
Okay, okay.

The J-Man (35:57.652)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, the wine movie. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (36:05.772)
And so they go from where they are in Southern California up to Sacramento and kind of get it. It looks like it’s kind of a buddy thing. I expect it to kind of be, you know, slow pace, but it’s Michael Cera. Yeah, I like him. And then Michael and Gerrano, they’re the two leads. And so they are going to go and, you know, maybe reconnect over on a road trip to Sacramento and get into some stuff. So.

The J-Man (36:16.366)
I’m a Michael Cera fan.

The J-Man (36:23.246)
Mm-hmm.

Vince Marotte (36:32.654)
I’m interested in that one mainly because of the title, but I like that looks like a fun indie movie That that’s out this spring. So I’m excited there. So But Friday Gonna go see Freaky Tales then live at Pompeii. Those those are definite definitely a go. All right now I want to talk about what? At least right now, I don’t know if I will always think this right now. I still think this is the best movie ever made

The J-Man (36:33.966)
Cool. Yeah. Sweet.

The J-Man (36:41.571)
awesome.

The J-Man (36:45.208)
I’m excited to hear about that.

tweet.

Vince Marotte (37:02.114)
And that is no country for old men.

I was, I probably watched this movie four or five times a year since it came out in 2007. And it’s always downloaded on my iPad. So when I’m on an airplane and I don’t know what to watch or if I connect to the airplanes movie list, you know, can open your browser and you can watch movies on the flight that they have.

And if nothing there interests me, it’s always it’s always there. It’s one of four or five movies that’s always on my iPad, including Point Break, which is always on the iPad. Ready to watch. But No Country for Old Men, is. Movie perfection in so at least for me, you know, I want to be on, you know, being biased here for me and for what I like in a movie. No Country for Old Men does it for me. It is so good. It has so many layers.

The J-Man (37:40.597)
Yes, sir.

Vince Marotte (38:02.284)
And it’s very rewatchable, obviously, for me. I love rewatching it. It’s that kind of a movie. But my first question kind of for you, John, can you remember kind of how it felt, your take on it the first time you saw it? Like your initial reaction the first time you saw No Country for Old Men?

The J-Man (38:24.834)
Well, man, just the opening with Tommy Lee Jones. You know, I live in Texas and so it captures Texas in a way where when he starts talking, it draws you in. starts telling, it’s like a little story at the beginning. And then the visual side of it, you know, just you feel the, big and how it, particularly when you get south or you get west of Texas, just how flat and how much of a desert.

and how that country vibe and old towns, old small towns. And so the feel along the way is immediately, it gets going quick. get Josh Brolin’s out hunting and he stumbles upon that situation. And then from there as a watcher, I have to be engaged with it. I never caught myself disengaged with that movie.

Vince Marotte (39:21.805)
It’s.

The J-Man (39:24.268)
People who know me know I lose attention. Like I have one friend that says I have an attention span of a mosquito. and I just, I’m always all over the place. That movie had me just, I wouldn’t say edge of my seat, but with my edge of my attention, like just it. So watching it, it caused me to just do a lot of like the, my mind was always trying to work to keep up with what the story was trying to say.

Vince Marotte (39:29.102)
Right.

Vince Marotte (39:53.795)
Right.

The J-Man (39:53.838)
And then just like I couldn’t tell what year it was, but it felt like 80s, 70s, know? Okay, 1980. And I love the wardrobe. I love how they use the vehicles. All the vehicles in that movie were awesome. And then, yeah, it was.

Vince Marotte (40:04.218)
1980.

Vince Marotte (40:17.646)
I would assume almost all of them are period correct based on it, yeah. And that’s part of it, that’s part of it. What the Coen Brothers did with that movie is the dating of it.

The J-Man (40:20.238)
Yeah, the clothing, you know, and the thing, yeah. And they did an amazing job with that because I was totally there in that time. Never did I just say like, oh, you know, Tesla just drove by. And Josh Brolin, man, he’s one of my top three favorite actors. He’s just the coolest dude. Like when I think of dude, dudes, dudes and his

choices of movies or the movies that have found him, he always plays the best roles. And he was awesome in that movie. And so, I mean, he’s just like one of those guys like, man, he is a cool guy. He is the kind of dude, like Texas dude on the run. He’s got the money and he never backs down. You know, he never backs down when it’s like, dude, you need to, you need to get out of this situation. This is not going to end well for you. You are in over your head.

Vince Marotte (41:14.692)
You’re in over your head.

The J-Man (41:17.577)
and

Vince Marotte (41:17.826)
What’s his wife say? He’ll take all covers Ain’t ever gonna quit And so that’s all of that all that

The J-Man (41:20.674)
Yeah. Yep.

The J-Man (41:25.27)
which is like the cowboy way. There’s a hint of a Western feel to this movie too. That’s the other part I was just gonna add is like my grandpa was huge on Westerns. So there’s a part of me in my like just in my lineage where I think my grandpa like I think of a Western and that movie has a Western feel to it, but like a modern Western in a way.

Vince Marotte (41:31.203)
It is.

Vince Marotte (41:48.25)
Yeah, yeah. Similarly is Hell or High Water is a modern Western. You know, where it’s, I’ll have to bring it up sometime. We will talk about that, the Western versus Eastern versus Southern versus Northern concept of a hero in a movie that Malcolm Gladwell talks about. you know, a Western, if I recall the way he says it is,

The J-Man (42:02.926)
Yeah.

Vince Marotte (42:17.818)
the hero comes to a world of outlaws, you know, from the outside to bring justice. And that’s what a Western does, you know, so that’s lawlessness and it’s, you know, an outsider comes to bring justice. And that’s how he defines a Western. So pretty cool. And the Northern is, you know, where is, is a place of law and justice is brought by people within the law kind of thing, you know.

The J-Man (42:31.502)
The J-Man (42:47.074)
Yeah. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (42:47.738)
So interesting take, but all that to say, I think you’re right on, you’re hitting all the things about the movie, how perfectly assembled it seems to be, you know, even to the point of doing some things that are really out of the ordinary. Trivia, there’s no score in terms of, there’s no music in the movie. You don’t even notice it. There’s nothing in the background.

The J-Man (43:17.398)
Dude, yeah, and which the most subtle things have such an impact. Like the wind plays a huge part at the end. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (43:18.135)
at all, the whole film.

Vince Marotte (43:23.802)
And that’s why, yeah, the wind and the wind when he’s at the gas station, talk to that guy. And if you’re watching on a good system, and I often am in an airplane with really good headphones, the buzzing of the refrigerators in the convenience store, it puts you into the scene.

The J-Man (43:39.724)
Yeah, you feel it. And the scene where the tracker starts going off, it got my adrenaline going. And it made me feel like fear, like a horror movie. It made me feel that, like a little tracker going off in the seat. And then the end, when she walks into the bedroom and the windows open, the breeze and the curtains flapping in the breeze.

Vince Marotte (43:50.048)
It’s crazy how…

Vince Marotte (44:05.802)
Yep. Uses all these ambience to, to, kind of put you there. And I was even looking like I wanted to validate, you know, am I crazy or is there no music in this? And I kind of looked around and someone on Reddit had said, well, if you look at minute three 30, there’s, there’s like a, there’s like a noise. And so I went and I watched that again and it’s where he’s, he’s killing that cop with handcuffs in the, in the police station.

The J-Man (44:33.484)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

Vince Marotte (44:35.448)
And it sounds like a train is going by and it’s just kind of makes that eerie, kind of squeaky, you know, wheels, brakes of a train. just kind of, it puts this just subtle, violent, annoying noise in while this calculated murder is happening, just, just cold and emotionless. Just, it’s just incredible. So.

The J-Man (44:40.812)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah, captures it. Yeah. Right.

The J-Man (44:53.45)
Yeah. And the sound of his weapons, like the oxygen tank and the sound when he engages it and how powerful it feels. And then the sound of his silencer on his gun and how lethal and deadly that you hear that little sound and immediately it’s just death. That was a wild, like even the choice of the cattle oxygen, whatever you call that butcher’s tool for taking out a cow.

Vince Marotte (44:58.158)
Yeah. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (45:23.0)
Yeah. So let’s start at the top. So my first watch experience, very similar, like it was, I was entirely immersed and came away with it going, I need to watch that again. And it was one of those movies where I went with the guys and you you’re at the draft house and they have a little bar there. So we went to the bar and we talked about the movie for an hour and half. Like it was just, it was that good. And it’s still, every time I watch it, I notice other things. So.

The J-Man (45:24.63)
Yeah. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (45:51.598)
Let’s start with the Coen brothers. They’re the directors. Most of their bigger movies or their most well-known movies are ones that they’ve directed together, which is, I imagine, challenging. And all over the place, they’re all very similar in that sometimes they do dark comedies like Burn After Reading, Brad Pitt, which was a great one. Obviously, No Country for Old Men.

brother, where art thou? Which is a modern rendition of the Odyssey from Homer, So it’s, which is pretty, which I think is being remade right now.

The J-Man (46:31.619)
Yeah.

Which yeah, Nolan, Christopher Nolan’s doing it right now and that’s gonna have to be awesome. It’s gonna have to be great.

Vince Marotte (46:37.122)
He’s doing an Odyssey right now.

So we’ll have to watch Brother, Where Art Thou again ahead of that. But the bigger ones, the ones he’s really known for, Fargo, which was kind of the one that I think put the Coen brothers on the map for most people. Did you see Fargo?

The J-Man (46:56.526)
I did. I saw Fargo. I saw bits and pieces of it too. I feel like with that movie, I remember parts of that movie more than I do the movie itself. Like the accents, the wood chipper, the guy, you know, I can’t think of his name right now. And then, you know, of course, I can’t, I’m drawing a blank on her name. You know, I just watched your movie.

Vince Marotte (47:16.9)
And that’s a great point. That’s a great point that you don’t remember a lot of plot points and even the premise because their best movies are the premise, the plot, the way they drive and assemble a movie is so different. It takes you out of your head a little bit and it’s hard to really kind of connect it to other movies. They don’t do a simple three act.

Here’s the protagonist. Here’s the antagonist, know, resolution and all that sort of stuff. It’s all over the place. know, the so yeah, and they don’t resolve all the time. One of my favorites from them is a serious man. Which they did in 2009, so it’s a couple of years after this one. Michael Stuhlberg plays the lead character and you’re immersed kind of in a Jewish community, know, modern day Jewish community and

It’s one of those ones that just, it’s not for everyone. It can be hard to watch, but it is such a brilliant film in terms of how it doesn’t resolve. It puts you at the end. has this, for me, it’s a beautiful ending, way they wrap it up, and not to spoil it or whatever, but it ends with just this weird cut, like a hard cut, similar to No Country for Old Men, where that’s it.

I remember when I went to see No Country for Old Men the first time, there was a woman sitting behind me with her friends or friend or whatever. And when it ended and it cut, you could hear her say, that’s it? What? Like, because it ends abruptly and a serious man does that. It causes you to extrapolate your own idea of what the movie was about. And that’s really…

The J-Man (48:57.102)
Yeah. Right.

Vince Marotte (49:10.05)
One of the main reasons I love No Country for Old Men. It’s not just a simple film like a lot of Coen Brothers are. They really take you into a premise and then wrap it in a package that’s completely different. Like The Big Lebowski, right? Great movie. Very rewatchable, incredibly quotable, funny, serious, but it has this underlying theme that I think everyone misses.

The J-Man (49:25.964)
Right. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (49:39.93)
And that’s fine, because it’s still entertaining. if you had to sum up the meaning, like what’s the takeaway from Wiglebowski? What would you say?

The J-Man (49:53.904)
man. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Right. Right.

Vince Marotte (49:56.888)
It’s hard, it’s difficult. Like what was that movie about? What did he want? know, what was he after? What was the driving motivation? All those things. You know what the movie was about? As you know, a middle-aged dude, you can still have really good friends and no matter where you are in life. It was really a movie about just having friends and doing stuff with your friends. Like that’s really what it seemed about for me. Like you just had these guys who

The J-Man (50:23.426)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Vince Marotte (50:26.714)
They throw you off because it’s weird and they’re getting some weird snafus and it’s hilarious and it’s out of pocket. And you might get caught up in trying to figure out, what’s he want? Does he want, does he just want a carpet or what? But it’s really about friends, and it’s such a good movie. So.

The J-Man (50:40.044)
Yeah. Right.

The J-Man (50:45.314)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, the, one of the things that you’re saying is, you know, when you, when you watch a movie with this movie, it, it highlights a separation of, movies in a way where in one type of movie, I would say the majority of tells you the story. It tells you, just takes you through the story. has the typical parts of the story. And then there’s a different type of movie that allows the viewer

Vince Marotte (51:09.634)
Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (51:16.92)
to come up with different conclusions, to come up with different outcomes, or to put the story together in the viewer, each individual viewer’s own way. And I think that that’s one of the things that makes this movie so great is it leads you to do the work of putting it together. And sit down talking about it with your buddies afterwards. That’s so much of what this movie, what makes this movie great is you start talking about those subtleties and what you saw and what it made you think.

Vince Marotte (51:26.19)
Yeah, you have to work.

Vince Marotte (51:48.018)
whatever you thought You’re not wrong because that’s how you assembled it in your head. That’s your that’s your version of the story and You the moral themes on all those sorts of things So that really if you don’t like that if you don’t like working for a movie You don’t like kind of constructing and connecting things you’re gonna struggle with this So I’ll link it in the show notes, but there’s a great channel that I’ve been following for years. It’s lessons from the screenplay

The J-Man (51:53.902)
Exactly.

Vince Marotte (52:16.75)
And this guy kind of breaks down very specific plot elements and touches on a lot of the mechanics of screenwriting and character development and all those sorts of stuff. And he has a brilliant piece on this movie, which really highlights why it’s so good. And that’s really this concept of don’t give the audience four, give them two plus two, which is allow them to assemble it. So.

At the beginning, you you asked well when when was this movie set? It never says this was 1980, right? You see the cars Even in the narrative at the at the beginning Ed Tom says well, you know this guy got killed last year over in San Antonio blah blah He described a real thing that happened in 1979. So it’s buried in there You know, you’re not supposed to know that but but they go into that kind of detail. So it tells you it’s 1980

The J-Man (52:48.802)
Right, yeah, right, yeah.

Vince Marotte (53:13.294)
You know, a couple of times you hear about, you know, you see like, you know, when a tag is going to expire on a car, the year of a car and that sort of thing. It tells you what year it is, but he never tells you it’s 1980. But you have to extrapolate that. And then same with the characters. it is very, you know, it starts off with a narration by Ed Tom, who’s the sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones. And while he’s narrating,

You see Anton Chigurh get pulled over by another cop and then arrested and taken in. And then once the narration is over, it kind of kicks over to some dialogue. And then we see Anton Chigurh’s character start to be developed. So while he’s developing Tommy Lee Jones’s character, Ed Tom, because he’s narrating, you’re hearing about his story, you know, and it really kind of talks about his fear and trepidation of where things are going in crime.

It’s getting too violent. It’s getting crazy out there and it really sums it up. Like you said that opening monologue is is Gives me chills sometimes when I’m really locked into it because he kind of closes it just to say You know, got to be you got to be in a different kind of place mentally to do this job and the line he kind of closes it off with as he says You know, you kind of got us you kind of got a he says I you have to put your soul at hazard and you have to say, okay

I’ll be part of this world. And it’s just, then it cuts over and we watch it. So we learn all about him, a lot about him in that dialogue without telling you, we don’t know his age, we don’t know his name, we don’t know what he looks like, but man, we know a lot about him. At the same time, you’re watching Anton Chigurh just be this calculated, quiet. You can learn all these things about him even before he talks. You could tell he is…

very experienced. He’s skilled operator and that’s kind of where the theme that I’m going to touch on. He’s a skilled operator. He’s probably killed a lot of people because it’s just very routine for him. He’s just and he’s focused and he’s mission driven and he just there’s like a motionless to him. You learn all this about him in the first few minutes of it and then once that’s done you cut over to Llewellyn and you said the hunting scene you know.

The J-Man (55:35.288)
Yeah.

Vince Marotte (55:36.248)
You learn a lot about him right there. You learn he’s skilled. He’s out there hunting and he’s successful. He gets a shot, but then he kind of runs into the situation and he starts to calculate things out and he deduces things. Okay, this was a drug deal going bad. The money is somewhere. Whoever the last guy surviving ran off with it. Where is he? Where would he go? And so he starts kind of tracking. So he’s skilled at tracking.

The J-Man (55:48.717)
Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (55:58.584)
Pass the money.

Vince Marotte (56:05.432)
And you, and you kind of have some dialogue, you know, pro, you know, where he says, well, if you, if you’re, it’s hot out, you know, if you need to stop, you’re going to stop in shade. So he looks, looks for a tree and then he sits back and it like, this guy’s leaning against a tree. Is he sleeping? Is he alive? Is he dead? And he sits back and he pulls his watch out. So you get this idea that he’s been, he’s been watching this guy, this tree for a long time without telling you that. And before he approaches it, because so you learn all about that, that he’s a skilled operator. Later, they tell you he’s a veteran.

The J-Man (56:12.574)
In the shade, yeah. A tree, yeah.

The J-Man (56:19.992)
Right.

Vince Marotte (56:34.648)
very briefly. So he’s got combat experience. He said, I got two tours in Vietnam, you know, this and that. So but without telling you, you learn everything. You learn kind of when this is you learn about our three main characters, kind of their personalities. It that’s what they’re good at. And that’s why I love this movie, because it really connects all those things. So just just crazy. So your thoughts on on how they connect things?

The J-Man (56:35.598)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (57:01.356)
Yeah, the subtleties of what you just were describing start coming together. The subtleties tell you the characters, like who they are, you know, and then at the end, something as simple as him standing on the front porch looking at the bottom of his boots tells you that he killed her. But it leaves it a little open to the viewer, like what happened? We didn’t hear gunshot, you know, we didn’t know if he really killed her or not.

Vince Marotte (57:13.742)
Right.

The J-Man (57:29.824)
We didn’t see it happen. So as a viewer that that two plus don’t give him four. We’re having to do the two plus two. But throughout the whole movie we see, know, at some point he has his shoe, his he’s walking in socks. When he when he takes out Woody Harrelson, you know, he moves subtly. It shows him move his feet away from the blood. He’s he’s covered. The guy in the shower, he didn’t have to kill, but then he closes the curtain and shoots him so he doesn’t get blood on him.

Vince Marotte (57:47.812)
Doesn’t want blood on his boots, yeah.

The J-Man (57:55.692)
So that all culminates to that ending scene of him standing on the front porch of like, gosh, like him taking out the, you she’s pleading for her life. Her mom just died. Her husband just died. She doesn’t know that he’s dead yet. I don’t think. Yeah. Yep. And the indecision is the decision of her saying, I’m not choosing, you know, it doesn’t show the conclusion of that. If she says, okay, okay, heads or tails. Like she says, I’m not going to decide. And then the next scene, comes back to him sitting on the front porch, looking at the bottom of his shoes. And that tells you,

Vince Marotte (58:08.162)
And he’s going to flip a coin. We learned about the coin flip earlier in the movie.

The J-Man (58:25.72)
through all those subtleties that he killed her.

Vince Marotte (58:28.43)
Yeah, and that’s the beauty of it. Through the whole thing, you’re connected with all this stuff. And then, so what I like to talk about, because there’s, you know, I talked about the woman who was in the theater who was like, that’s it? Because it didn’t resolve. Like for her, it didn’t resolve. Like, you know, what she probably wanted, see Anton Shiger is this bad guy. And justice would be him going to jail or being killed.

The J-Man (58:56.534)
Right, Moss killing him and then Moss having to go to jail, Tommy Lee Jones, servant justice.

Vince Marotte (58:58.49)
who we thought the protagonist was Llewellyn Moss because that’s who we follow and he’s kind of our, in film writing or screenwriting, we call him the audience surrogate. That’s the person who we’re kind of following along. But at the same time, it’s Ed Thom at the same time. Like he’s, you kind of get into his world, his view of things, but for the most time in terms of screen time and who we connect with as an audience.

It’s Llewellyn Moss because he gets the bunny and he’s on the run. And so we want to grab onto something that makes sense. Okay. He has this money. He wants to keep the bunny. and he needs to make sure he doesn’t get killed. He needs to get his wife out of there. So you kind of get caught up in this, right? And so you’re expecting the climax of this movie is when they meet and you get a sample of that when they have kind of a shootout, you know, and Llewellyn Moss gets away and, and Anton Shkury got, he got a little shot up and they’re both kind of wounded.

and they go their separate ways. But then when it does happen, when Luella and Moss does get killed, one, it’s not by Anton Seger, it’s by the cartel who was also tracking him, who were not really following. And it happens off screen. We just show up in the aftermath when Ed Thom shows up. that’s basically in the middle of the movie or towards the last third. And it’s like, wait.

That should have been the final scene. we should have seen, we’re not even, not only did we get, we didn’t get to see it, but it wasn’t the way we were expecting.

The J-Man (01:00:27.308)
Yeah. Right. If he’s going to die, I want to feel it because I’m invested in him at this point. Like I want to see it slow motion like him like, you know, like falling back and him laying there taking his last gasps. Like, no, come on, But no, it just quick. I almost missed it. Him just laying on the on the floor, just looking back and, OK.

Vince Marotte (01:00:44.868)
They just let you know, yeah, there’s very little violence shown in this movie. It is implied and it makes it worse almost like it’s heavy, right? There’s a story, I don’t know how true it is, but it sounds like, because the Coen Brothers said it is when they cast Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh,

The J-Man (01:00:58.144)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, right. Yeah

Vince Marotte (01:01:15.116)
And he said, well, I don’t like violence. You know, and I don’t like to get blood on me, that kind thing. And they both laughed. And they said, yeah, that’s why we got you. That’s why we want you. Because you don’t really see the violence. You’re in the room, you know, or whatever, when somebody gets shot, but they don’t necessarily, it’s not always shown. There’s, you know, at least the big ones, you know. But just little bits of violence here and there.

The J-Man (01:01:24.889)
Hahaha!

Vince Marotte (01:01:41.824)
are shown, it’s not this big action thing, which maybe that’s why some people didn’t like it. But you back to the character thing, this is one thing I love about the movie as well is most movies you have a protagonist and an antagonist. know, the protagonist is usually like a good guy who wants a thing and the bad guy is trying to stop them or get them or whatever. And then you learn about them.

You learn what the protagonist wants, what their struggle is somewhere in the second act. And then you get into the climax of the movie where the protagonist and antagonist are going to face off or, you know, go to court and have their day in court and you can’t handle the truth. And, you know, that’s one, you know, it’s that’s a normal movie. Sometimes. The protagonist and what.

what some screenwriters call the main character because they are sometimes it is the same person right and that’s a typical movie and in screenwriting that’s they call that the hero if you’re the main character you’re the person for which the audience is experiencing the movie and you’re the protagonist you’re the good guy you’re the thing the audience you’re the person that the audience wants to get the thing that they’re after that’s a hero right in this movie and lots of really good movies it’s a different person

protagonist and the main character. The main character is Llewellyn Moss. He’s the person for which we feel and experience the movie, right? And that’s where the movie kind of breaks and loses people because he gets killed before the movie’s over and it’s off screen. You don’t really see it. It turns out he wasn’t the protagonist. He was just the main character. The protagonist the whole time was Ed Tom. He’s the guy that wants the thing. He wants justice and he wants two things.

He wants to protect the well and moss and he’s very clear about that and he wants to find out who this bad guy is who he just can’t imagine right and so that’s that’s what’s different about the antagonist is obviously and there’s also two of those really but there’s one we focus on it by anton shagura but there’s also the cartel which has hired him so he’s kind of a surrogate for the cartel so that makes it interesting because you’re kind of you know what what’s true here you know and they’re all very skilled at what they do

Vince Marotte (01:03:58.011)
head Tom that you learn about him that he’s very experienced. He’s good at what he does. He’s calm. You know, he has a rookie with him or a younger cop with him. Yeah.

The J-Man (01:04:06.036)
Yeah, which was interesting because that was like the one character in the movie that was a little good. Well, there were some goofy characters in the movie, like the lady that was over the trailer park, you know, like these quirky little characters that kind of stick out. He was one of them that carried probably the most in the movie of like, OK, this is almost like comedy.

Vince Marotte (01:04:25.134)
That’s that is pure cohen brothers. So watch You know big Lebowski is probably one where you can picture the most characters, right? You can understand everybody And you think about all the minor characters like the lady, you know work in the desk at the at the trailer park or the guy at the convenience store they are So perfectly cast. They’re not just grabbing anybody. They are really focused on details To make them memorable

The J-Man (01:04:34.508)
Yeah. Yeah.

The J-Man (01:04:43.094)
Right, yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:04:53.42)
and in very limited screen time deliver a ton of impact. Think of Jesus in The Big Lebowski, how much impact that guy has. And he’s really a non-factor in the movie. He’s just used as a mechanism to clue you into how much they love bowling and how important bowling is, but he doesn’t factor in the overall plot. He’s just part of the scenery and everyone, and the nihilists in that movie as well.

The J-Man (01:05:01.518)
Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

The J-Man (01:05:12.938)
Yeah. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:05:21.566)
every little character, whenever you watch a Coen Brothers movie, the detail, you know, the lady in the trailer park, the guy at the convenience store, Llewellyn Moss’s mother-in-law, she is absolutely perfect. She’s perfect. You know, she’s this West Texas old lady. You know, she’s got the accent, you know, I got the cancer. Like, she’s memorable, but not, doesn’t take over. Like, that is, that is a hallmark of a Coen Brothers movie is all their big characters.

The J-Man (01:05:37.528)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:05:50.936)
the lady at the trailer park. What was her significance?

The J-Man (01:05:55.819)
not giving out information about where he was or where he was going. Right?

Vince Marotte (01:06:00.012)
Right, what did it tell us about, did it tell us anything about the characters? What did we learn? The lady working at the trailer park.

The J-Man (01:06:09.742)
Good question. I mean, yeah, I don’t know. I miss that one.

Vince Marotte (01:06:13.636)
She’s such an important character and I want to park that there. Okay, what do we learn about the character from her? So park that there and I want to kind of get into my my my thoughts on my controversial thoughts on what this movie might mean. Okay and the question is Who’s the bad guy?

The J-Man (01:06:28.301)
wow. Okay.

Vince Marotte (01:06:36.95)
Is Anton Chigurh really the bad guy?

The J-Man (01:06:43.362)
Yeah, I mean, I want to say the bad guy’s the cartel because he works for the cartel and all this went down because of the cartel. Now that’s just what like what I end watching in terms of the bad guy being we don’t really see the bad guy, but we think it’s Anton.

Vince Marotte (01:07:00.986)
Yeah. Well, there’s a scene where he’s talking with, well, I want talk about code. I want to talk about how someone operates. So think about Llewellyn Moss. How does he operate? mean, he’s stealing money, isn’t he?

The J-Man (01:07:23.83)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that money wasn’t his. And as soon as he takes it, that’s the beginning of the end for him. And for the whole movie, he’s on the run and he never makes it. But we see subtleties within him about him having some morale, some makes him makes him good. You know, like the pool scene at the end where that girl is inviting him back into her hotel room. And he’s like, I’m married. I know what beer leads to.

Vince Marotte (01:07:49.122)
I know what beer leads to.

So we think he’s righteous. It’s bad guy’s money, so it’s up for grabs. But he stole it, right? And he’s just, here’s the thing, through his journey, he’s just kind of winging it. He’s not sure what’s going on. He doesn’t understand the state of play. Ed Thom is trying to tell him. He tells…

The J-Man (01:07:52.716)
She’s at more beer. Right, yeah.

Yeah, he’s alright. Right. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:08:20.09)
I think he’s telling, I can’t raise, on the phone, I think it’s with his wife and you know, and he says, do you think he knows who he’s up against out here? You know, know, what’s after or when he’s talking, yo, when they go into his trailer and he pours that glass, he pours that glass of milk and, and the younger cop says, do you think he knows who’s chasing him? And, and Ed Tom says, well, he’s seen all the things I’ve seen and it sure made an impression on me.

The J-Man (01:08:33.86)
That glass of milk, yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:08:50.106)
Like so you have luel and moss who stole money Is just winging it making up as he go along in panic Sure, he’s a skilled operator But what’s he value if he’s truly a moral person? You know in the the light of the law as we is he is he doing right, you know

The J-Man (01:09:11.656)
Right now. mean, no, I mean, there’s a lot of within you as a viewer of like, wait a minute, like I’m rooting for this guy, but is he really that good?

Vince Marotte (01:09:21.11)
And then you look at Anton Chigurh, who is

The J-Man (01:09:25.538)
And then you question if he’s really bad. Like there’s parts of him to me. Right. Right.

Vince Marotte (01:09:28.346)
I mean, obviously, obviously bad is killing people, but.

But he stays true to what he is, what he’s about. I am on, I do what I do and this is what I do. And everybody I encounter, I will treat you the same way within my code, right? So you see the coin flip with the guy at the gas station. You I don’t have any particular beef with you, but maybe, you know, maybe I want free gas or whatever and…

Maybe I’m just messing around, but I’m gonna flip a coin and the guy has no idea that, know, potentially, we go back and think about that. was he gonna kill him if he got it wrong? You know?

The J-Man (01:10:07.532)
His life is at stake.

The J-Man (01:10:13.55)
And you get the intent, you get the feeling that yeah, he was going to. I thought I was prepared for him to go. The first time I saw it, was like, oh gosh, this poor old guy and this old gas station, you know, for generations, he’s going.

Vince Marotte (01:10:17.752)
Yeah, and so.

Vince Marotte (01:10:24.11)
Yeah. And then, and then he goes up into the office. So once he discovers that other people are looking for the money too, he goes back to the office of the, you know, the accountant for the cartel and he says, you know, you pick the right tool for the job. I’m doing this. Why you send someone else? And, you know, he said, well, I thought we, you know, cover, blah, blah, blah. And so it seems like it’s over. And then he kills the guy cause he’s mad at him. Right. And another guy is in there.

The J-Man (01:10:32.13)
right.

The J-Man (01:10:35.65)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Vince Marotte (01:10:53.45)
And he goes, are you going to kill me too? And he says, it depends. Do you see me? Right? Because we learned throughout the movie that very few people know what he looks like, except for Woody Harrelson’s character. They’re trying to look for guy nobody knows what he looks like. And they’re implying that for the most part, anybody that he has any slight beef with or is in the way of what he’s trying to do, who’s seen him, he kills him.

The J-Man (01:11:23.436)
Right.

Vince Marotte (01:11:23.542)
except for the lady at the trailer.

Why didn’t he kill her?

The J-Man (01:11:32.834)
I don’t know.

Vince Marotte (01:11:33.742)
That’s the only person who stood in his way in the entire movie that he didn’t kill. She didn’t give him the information he needed. You know, sure, he was able to figure it out, you know, but.

The J-Man (01:11:37.622)
Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, right. Right. Right.

He didn’t flip a coin on her.

Vince Marotte (01:11:50.498)
So what do we learn? What do we learn about everybody right there?

The J-Man (01:11:51.97)
Yeah, I don’t, I’m trying to figure that out. I don’t know.

Vince Marotte (01:11:56.762)
She stood up for her code.

The J-Man (01:12:00.13)
Okay.

Vince Marotte (01:12:01.194)
it is within my code as the manager of this facility to not give out information. And she stood up to him with her code and said, I am not giving that information out. And then gave him that stare and you could see him. she’s serious. Right. So you go back to the guy at the gas station. Why do you think he was willing to kill him? He flipped the coin.

The J-Man (01:12:25.728)
in the… yeah.

The J-Man (01:12:32.266)
man, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m trying to think about that conversation. There’s a lot happening in that conversation.

Vince Marotte (01:12:39.866)
Because he’s a man who doesn’t seem to have a code. He’s just kind of winging it. I inherited this gas station because I’ve, you know, we close now. What time is that? Well, about now, you know, and he’s like, this guy’s full of shit, you know? And so he’s willing to kill this guy because he seems to have no code. He doesn’t stand up for what, you know, what he, what, who he is. He’s not being who he truly is in this universe. And so it all comes down to when he’s in that

The J-Man (01:12:45.868)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, right. Yeah. Right, yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:13:09.498)
Hotel where Carson is and Lou Ellen’s in a Mexican hospital across the across the river and he’s talking to him You don’t got to kill me. You’re crazy. You don’t kill me, you know and He spells it out. This is the most spelled out for what I think the theme of the movie is the whole time where he says to Carson he says if the rule you followed Brought you to this Of what use was the rule?

Vince Marotte (01:13:38.296)
You why have a code? If it’s going to bring you to your death, you know, so that’s you know, I’m by no means saying Anton Chigurh is the good guy, but If you strip away, know what our laws are and the morality of killing people and all those sorts of things the movie is about One being a skilled operator and two having a code and sticking to it

Is how you move forward in this in this universe they’ve created and Anton Chigurh You know seems to get away without the justice we wanted at the end and he stuck to his code the entire time right So and I think that’s why the lady in the trailer park is so important Because she stood up for her code and it’s the only person that stood in his way in the movie that he didn’t kill or try to kill

The J-Man (01:14:14.284)
Right, right.

The J-Man (01:14:20.098)
Yeah.

The J-Man (01:14:27.042)
good call.

Vince Marotte (01:14:35.224)
You know so How powerful so there’s little nuggets I love the layers of that movie and there’s just little things you see differently every time like until you’ve watched this thing ten times I don’t think you’ve truly uncovered what’s in there

The J-Man (01:14:35.852)
Right, Yeah.

The J-Man (01:14:45.804)
Right. That’s the thing. Yeah. You’ll miss it. One thing that I caught myself thinking back on of what significance was the scene, because it was a memorable scene where he’s driving and he approaches like a dark bridge and he passes the bird. He shoots at the bird.

Vince Marotte (01:14:50.36)
So I.

Vince Marotte (01:15:00.686)
Mm-hmm.

The J-Man (01:15:09.454)
But he misses the bird, but he just keeps on driving? that one scene just kind of sticks out to me. Like, what was the point of that scene? Why did they put that in there? What are they trying to tell me as a viewer?

Vince Marotte (01:15:16.666)
Yeah, I f-

I think the same thing. Are they trying to show me that killing people and things is kind of fun for him?

The J-Man (01:15:31.852)
Right.

Vince Marotte (01:15:33.198)
Or are they just trying to show us that weapon, that gun, because we haven’t seen it before and it’s unique.

The J-Man (01:15:41.142)
Right. But he misses and he’s such a skilled operator.

Vince Marotte (01:15:45.73)
Right, maybe he’s testing that weapon. That is one of the enigmas I think I need to watch it again. But yeah, why does he chewed at that bird? Very much so. It’s very intentional.

The J-Man (01:15:55.64)
Cause it’s a memorable scene. They put effort into it. I mean, the, the lighting, the lights on the bridge, these cruising. Yeah, there’s something there and I missed it. So I don’t know.

Vince Marotte (01:16:05.344)
It’s is it do we just need to have him in a car? you know, i’ve always thought that what what is this and so the thing I currently think it is is they are trying to show us that weapon And we they want us familiar with the weapon before he deploys it on people which is a you know, it’s like a Shotgun looking long gun, but with a big silencer on it. It makes a totally different noise

The J-Man (01:16:27.778)
Right. Silencer’s huge. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:16:31.832)
You know apart from what you know when he’s out where the drug deal went bad and he takes a guy’s gun and kills a couple people I think that’s the first time we see him Use a weapon that that isn’t the cattle killer thing Yeah, is it a test shot, know, I don’t know Did we need to do we need to say see that he’s imperfect did that plant a seed for Llewellyn Moss being able to get away? Because then the the shootout that happens later

The J-Man (01:16:40.302)
Yeah, wield it. Yeah. Yeah, but he misses the bird.

I don’t know. There’s something there.

The J-Man (01:16:54.167)
Right.

The J-Man (01:16:58.39)
Right. Maybe. Maybe.

Vince Marotte (01:17:01.976)
He’s using that same weapon and Luella Moss pretty much gets away with just, you know, some grazes and things like that. And that guy is shooting at that thing. So maybe it’s to show that that weapon isn’t as accurate. He’s he’s yeah, the sacrifice, the sacrifice to make it quieter makes it less precise. Maybe the silencer, I don’t know. So there’s that we need to explore that one. But yeah, brilliant, brilliant movie.

The J-Man (01:17:03.34)
Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

The J-Man (01:17:13.07)
He’s human that he’s human he’s not just evil

The J-Man (01:17:23.2)
I don’t know.

Vince Marotte (01:17:30.866)
And I love that conversation of just the moral dilemma of the ethics of it, you know, we just want to say he’s the bad guy because he kills people and Well, Moss is the good guy because we like him, but he stole money stole two million dollars Right, right But does that make it okay? You know, and so we totally lose sight of well the underlying theme when he brings it home when he talks to Carson is

The J-Man (01:17:44.654)
Yeah, that’s in, right. Yeah, from the cartel, yeah.

No.

Vince Marotte (01:17:59.598)
If the rule you followed brought you to this, what use is that rule? know, and that at the end when he’s with Llewellyn’s wife, when he’s with Carla Jean, I have to. I can’t not do this. That’s what brings it home. I have to do this. I was just to say, this is my code. This is happening. The best I can do is flip a coin. It’s the best I can do.

The J-Man (01:18:02.059)
And what rule is it?

Vince Marotte (01:18:30.212)
Brilliant, brilliant filmmaking. So I love No Country for Old Men. Definitely top 10 all time for me. think it might be one of the best, it might be the best movie ever made for my money. Love it.

The J-Man (01:18:45.345)
Amazing movie.

Vince Marotte (01:18:46.81)
So anyway, so next week this this week on so we have a new pod so for everybody listening we have a new kind of Show I guess on the suburban Kings podcast my daughter AJ and I started this week. We did a pilot episode It’s called X and Z and it is me a Gen X er and her a Gen Z er dipping into cultural things like this with the with the the purpose of hey, you know, you’re you’re younger and more in touch with things

Teach us, teach us. So we’ll kind of incorporate that more into the pod. John will probably bring AJ and then my son, Steel, wants to do the same thing. Partly because I love to make sure my kids are good at telling stories. Yeah, and they both love to talk about, you know, they raised in my house, so we love talking about music and movies. And so, you know, my daughter’s got, she’s got a good handle on the popular stuff, the popular movies, the popular music, all those sorts of things.

The J-Man (01:19:29.23)
doing awesome stuff.

The J-Man (01:19:35.694)
Thank you, Eddie.

Vince Marotte (01:19:45.978)
She’s trying to get me into anime. So I think I’m going to go on that journey that

The J-Man (01:19:48.704)
Okay. Where are you starting? Akira, Fist of the North Star? Are you going with the classics? Robot in the Shell?

Vince Marotte (01:19:56.618)
the No, the the one that i’m supposed The one i’m supposed to watch I started watching demon slayer. but there’s one I forget what it’s Yeah, she’s she’s gonna attack on titan So i’m i’m told this is Not only the best anime series That exists, but it’s one of the best

The J-Man (01:20:00.766)
or ghost in the shell, ghost in the shell.

The J-Man (01:20:09.026)
Gogo 13.

Vince Marotte (01:20:23.098)
TV shows or series things that exist. And I think it rates on IMDB in the top 10. So it’s up there with like a Breaking Bad kind of a thing. So they swear by it. So Attack on Titan, I’m gonna give that a go and kind of do that. So yeah, so my daughter’s good with the popular stuff and my son, when I wanna hear the freshest, newest niche music especially that…

The J-Man (01:20:30.316)
Whoa. Whoa.

Vince Marotte (01:20:51.514)
That’s kind of where I come from, where like the stuff nobody else is listening to at the time, you couldn’t find on the radio, you had to know people and kind of talk to the guy at the record store. That’s my son. Like, you know, we talk about Black MIDI or Panchiko, he introduced me to Panchiko. Like he’s got his finger on the pulse of the really cool stuff. So I’m going to be connected with Steel.

on a weekly basis to get the updates on what’s the cool niche stuff out there. So, yeah. So, you know, we’ll get the newness on the X and Y stuff and then we’re gonna do some Ask Dad stuff, you know, leaning into their networks and I wanna hear from people, you know, that wanna ask dads questions that dads might need to know about anything, you know? Maybe you don’t have a dad, maybe…

The J-Man (01:21:22.644)
Yeah, awesome.

Vince Marotte (01:21:43.922)
you’re too afraid to ask your dad that kind of stuff. So we’re going to throw that in there and just kind of see how it goes but Yeah for everybody else Subscribe, follow, you can follow me on instagram john on instagram. tiktok’s going nuts on one of our videos right now. I can’t keep up with the comments our I I do a quick cut of our draft you saw it on instagram where we just you know our cover songs where we just whip through the 10 songs each that are in our draft and

The J-Man (01:21:50.136)
Sweet.

The J-Man (01:22:01.912)
Really?

The J-Man (01:22:10.465)
huh. Okay. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:22:13.9)
specifically that I did a quick cut of horrible cover songs and that’s going off on TikTok and I can’t keep up with the comments. So I find hot takes do well on TikTok. When you say something sucks, I guess that gets people excited.

The J-Man (01:22:20.199)
cool. Sweet. Nice.

The J-Man (01:22:28.118)
Okay. boy. Yeah, people love talking about what they think sucks the most or calling out the thing that sucks from their perspective.

Vince Marotte (01:22:36.94)
Right. It’s also funny to hear people start are are so Intuit that they actually comment before they’re done listening because several times You know because that clip starts off with me saying I shot the sheriff by by eric clapton is the worst cover of all time And then you talk about the one from aquaman Pitbull doing africa and then the last one we mentioned is stained or whatever that band is doing

The J-Man (01:22:54.07)
Yeah, right, yeah.

Pitbull Africa.

The J-Man (01:23:05.12)
Yeah, sound of silence. Silence, yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:23:06.552)
Sandals silence and people have commented that that’s the worst cover in there before they finished watching it because they don’t even hear us say it and so that’s Although I did someone one person did say that they hate and and this is assuming they hadn’t seen the other video where I say Chris Cornell’s My Billy Jean is my number one draft pick they they say they hate it. I was like

The J-Man (01:23:11.16)
They didn’t get to it.

The J-Man (01:23:24.808)
they said they hated it. But you know what? I think that that only solidifies your choice. Because real good things have two sides to it. Just like the movie we talked about, I guarantee you people hated No Country for Old Men.

Vince Marotte (01:23:37.27)
If there’s, if, yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:23:43.212)
I know. And I always fall into the trap when people say they hate it. I’m like, well, you just didn’t understand it. What? It’s not, I will be honest, it’s not for everybody. You you kind of have to love the kind of movie we talked about that two plus two equals four. If you want it spelled out, you want a nice, neat bow. It’s not your movie, you know? And that’s fine. You know, like there’s always Hunt for Red October for you. You go watch that. Like great movie. I love those movies too. So I will admit.

The J-Man (01:23:47.523)
Right.

The J-Man (01:23:59.512)
then go see a Disney live action. Yeah.

Vince Marotte (01:24:12.076)
It’s not for everybody. That’s why I kind of love kind of playing. But yeah, if you’re people, if you don’t have any haters, you’re not really pushing art. You’re not you’re not pushing it. So someone’s got to hate it or you or you’re so there you go. All right, we’ll see everybody next week.

The J-Man (01:24:21.208)
That’s right, that’s right. Always, man. That’s what makes good art, progress.

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