Cold Open And Welcome

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Drink, you don't go to clubs. No, I don't. I I don't know if I've ever been to a club, so you have not missed out.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

You could watch it in the movie, and it probably looks better and more spacious.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

And they are they're able to have conversation in the movies, they're able to have conversations. No one goes, huh? What? Yeah.

unknown 0:15

What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

I just watched The Dark Knight at El Grove yesterday. And there's that scene where Batman tracks down Eric Roberts at the club, right? And he and Batman with even with his voice, they're able to have a perfectly good conversation. No, it's the most unrealistic part of that entire movie.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Greetings andor salutations and welcome to Imbibe Cinema. The Imbibe Cinema Podcast is brought to you by the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival, otherwise known as Bwiff. I'm Jonathan C. Leggett, along with my co-host, Trisha Leggett, as well as our producer, Michael Noens. And we are also pleased to have a special guest, uh, a first-time attendee here. We have Eric Childress of uh Movie Madness Podcast, as well as a podcast with one of our mutual friends, Morgana Geyer, uh, which is known as The Friendship Dilemma. So please uh check out those podcasts uh and and hear Eric's uh dulcet tones uh there as well as uh you will hear them here tonight. Um in this episode, we are going to be discussing the 2024 drama Life of Chuck. Uh the cocktail we are imbibing is called The Life of Chuck, and it consists of a rye whiskey, honey, lemon, and hot water. It's like a hot toddy. If if you you had a neoblastoma, it would feel real nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Oh too soon? Oh too soon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Yikes! We had to wait till the last bit 20 seconds of the podcast to break that up.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

To throw those kinds of things in there, you raise a valid point, a very valid point. Uh uh look for this episode's recap uh link in our show notes, uh, where you'll also find a written summary of our discussion, along with a picture of the hot toddy, uh, and the ingredients needed to make your own.

Starting With Act Three

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Um all right, so uh I know Eric, you know, one of the one of the big things uh that uh I think you you had posited for us to discuss was act what is act three, which is really the first act of uh the movie, and I I think it is probably the best place to start, mainly because they used it to start the movie, but also um just because it is easily the most Stephen King-esque portion of of uh the film, I would say, uh unless you you feel otherwise. But uh, what exactly were your thoughts um on what is Act Three?

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Well, it's interesting that uh when I first saw I first saw the movie was like one of the opening eye movies at the Toronto Film Festival in 2024. And uh and I knew nothing of really nothing about it. I knew that it was a Stephen King story, uh, I knew who was in it, but I didn't really even know what the story was about. I was as clueless as the people seeing the billboards at the beginning of the film, right? I had no idea what what the story was about. I had read the story, I don't remember if I even heard of the story, frankly. I kind of my Stephen King days are a little bit behind me as far as the reading is concerned, uh, but that's all uh that's on me, that's not on Stephen King.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Um he doesn't write very much, so it's harder to get used to it.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, you can't lock him down. But uh but when I watched the when I watched the movie the first time, I was just so kind of entranced by it that I wasn't there trying to sort of like figure it out, you know. Uh you know, I sort of let you know, let the little I because clearly there are clues and stuff thrown out in the movie. If there's even supposed to be clues, I look at that a little bit differently too. Um but I remember, I don't know, months, probably months later, maybe almost a full year like after it came out, uh I was talking to someone who had just seen it, and they liked it, weren't as crazy about it as I was, but like blurt out like what they believe the third act to be. And uh and I'm just like, yeah. Um, and that totally makes sense, and I'm sure that is what 99% of the people watching the movie believe it to be. Oh yeah. Uh but I have a completely other variation on it. Okay. Uh and I'm not saying I'm right. This is not me trying to upend anyone's, you know, belief in what that what that is. I because it was just the way that I viewed the movie the first time I saw it. And if it's this is just a stubborn way of me holding on to that, uh, so be it. But

Is The Universe Chuck’s Mind

SPEAKER_01 5:02

uh but the way I look at it is uh I like to view it as Chuck and the universe are connected. That it's not something that's happened in Chuck's mind. My view is the universe is ended at the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Ah for me, it's you contain multitudes. The first watch in act two of the movie, you see the little girl uh on the roller skates, and it is almost page for page how she was approaching uh uh, you know, in in in what is act three. Um and to me the universe is the the people, the places, the things, everything that that he contains shutting down. Um and it's it what is interesting to that is is it's almost the Truman show uh-esque element that is do the people around me actually exist? Do they contain their own multitudes? Are they their own individuals or are they just actors in the play that is me? Now, whether that's the entire universe or just the universe that is Chuck.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

And the first time I saw it, that's what I saw too. Okay. The second time I saw it, knowing what was happening, I imagined this was all the mechanics, like his actual brain. All these people are different synapses and they're different parts of his brain. And so California, when it goes, that's something important. That's a function. But when Pornhub goes down, I was like, well, I guess we, you know, that's a part of Chuck that no longer functions. Um, and so like I thought about it, I was like, biologically, you could break down all the the way the internet stops working. Well, it's like, well, a lot of things aren't talking to each other anymore. The brain's not talking to the body anymore. So you could find like a metaphor for all the things that are shutting down and make it be a physical, like this is the cancer, and that's what what it like the sinkholes and everything. That's the that's the disease. Um I went down a really dark place the second time.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Yeah, and that's and you're absolutely right. I mean, there's no I I there's no way I would sit here and dispute that viewpoint of it. Uh, but I also sometimes look at like that as a simplistic way, which is not to say that what you're saying, what you're saying is simplistic, because you probab you've just added elements to it that I'm sure a lot of people who just look at it and go like, oh, that's all Chuck's mind, and they just leave it at that, where you are breaking down Pornhub and the internet and the different functions and whatnot that are the syntax that are are breaking down, uh, that's you you've already thought about it in multitudes of various levels that a lot of people probably don't. Uh, but I also like to think that if any of us were dying, that we wouldn't cast some random person as the lead character of our demise, you know? And Chuitella Legiafor is the lead character for the first half hour of the movie. And we see, you know, it later on that he was a teacher at the school where Chuck went and he just he wasn't in his class. He just teached while he was just he was probably another grade or something like that, and he was a chaperone at the dance, uh, which he also that's where he sees Karen Gillen. Uh and so like the idea that because like we never see Matthew Lillard at any point throughout the movie, do we?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Well, and we don't see his wife and his son in his mind as other people. They never like and if you collect all these faces and none of none of them, like for that to be the main character and not to be somebody that's directly connected in your immediate life, like your parents or any or his grandfather, any of it. It's that was interesting.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Right. What logically makes more sense that uh he would rant like some random person that he saw maybe a couple times in school from 28 years ago, or you know, whatever it is, is like the main character talking about the demise of his his own mind, or the fact that Chuatel Linjafor probably looks the same as he did 28 years ago. You know, and Karen Gill, I think I think it's I think we can make a case that they looked as good at that point in their life as they do today. Uh this movie is all about we can we can talk about how it's about life, but it's certainly about death in so many ways. And I like the idea in a in a weird, more cosmic kind of thing, you know, Carl Sagan is included in the story. Uh the way the way that Legio 4 tells the Carl Sagan calendar story is is rap enraptured. It is just like it sit there, it's he does it better than Sagan does it.

SPEAKER_04 9:59

Yes. I had heard it so many times, and yet I was still completely in you know, completely pulled in just by the way he was doing it.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah, I think I like maybe like a month before I saw the movie, I think I heard like Neil deGrasse Tyson like do that, a variation of that.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

And it's I think part of that is the the delivery of this speech is very personal. It's very uh it's it that relationship between the two of them, it's like it's supposed to be comforting almost in his mind. And she's like, and again, I told I was told there would not be math.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Like, why is there math?

SPEAKER_01 10:33

That line feels like a throwaway comic line, but then when you get to the Mark Habill stuff later in the movie, how math is affected to all of us the way that we uh uh reject might reject math or not be good at it, uh not realize it how important it is to the fundamental building blocks of our universe. Disclosure day right now is it you know talks about that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

It's so much different when you in in the context of that scene to know that like you know, when you really think about the world ending around you and then you hear it told to you like a story. Um, yeah, it's it's very powerful and it's very beautiful. And and again, like I think ever we I heard I'd heard it before, and it just it was a different, it felt different.

SPEAKER_04 11:15

Well, it's different, I think, like just from the the looking at the the cosmic calendar, I guess, as the world is ending is is kind of a different perspective.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah. I like viewing the movie as again, the way that Chuck and the universe are connected, sort of like in the same way that like Ellie and E.T. were psychically connected. So when E.T. got sick, Elliot got sick. The idea that Chuck represents failed potential, failed dreams, and that's a that's a running theme throughout the movie. Carl Lumley, the the uh funeral home director, talks a couple times about wanting to be a weatherman, but realized he didn't have the capacity to do that. So there's this uh there's a whole thing about that running through here, and the idea that if the universe can't embrace and protect someone like Chuck, you know, to realize their full potential in the same way that we probably haven't realized the universe's full potential because of the way that we have beaten it to death. And you know, that when they talk about it, you know, the lovely again has this thing where he says, like, we raped this world, this universe of ours, you know, we paid a little bit more attention to it. Uh, maybe we'd be more deserving of people like Chuck in this world. So like the idea that he's dying, the universe is dying with him, uh, is in some ways it's sad, but maybe it's what we deserve in some respect.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

The way that you describe that, now it's like I gotta watch it again. Again. That mindset, especially like that that Elliot connection. I think that mindset changes changes the perspective entirely. So, yeah, I'm definitely watching the movie again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

And it's not like I will preface it by saying it's not a theory that it is entirely played out, you know, it 100% throughout the movie, because there are moments in the movie that you could twist it and go like, well, clearly Legion 4 isn't living in the same house as Chuck. They make a reference that that house was sold, or I think a mall is put up there or something like that. So though there are moments throughout the movie that suggests that as far as a timeline is concerned, my theory doesn't hold water. Uh and but I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Well, and and then it's just it's it's so well done that you can uh you can have different theories about it. As he's talking about the end of the universe in the beginning, uh he sees the the door, and he's not in that house. It's just a random thing that is like from something else.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

That there's a lot because we see we at least we see the outside of his house at what at least when he's talking to Lillard, so it's not the same house. No, that's the first clue when you watch a second time that this is not real, what's happening here, right?

SPEAKER_04 14:09

Yeah, because I mean I thought nothing of the door until the second viewing where I was like, What?

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Oh, they held on that door for so long, I'm like, this is gonna come back, and lo and behold, when it did, I was already ready for it on the first one.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

I think there's so many parts, so many memories, so many things that we collect throughout our lives that it could all be scrambled eggs up there. It could all be just random pieces of things that uh are just scattered. And if your brain is shutting down, it could be random things that are coming to light. But it is interesting that it's they're not main characters in his life that we're following.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah. Like he wouldn't, like uh I I can't again, I can't imagine if any of us, God forbid, on our in our final moments, uh are are crafting narratives between random people that we know. Like we like who cares if the they're they're an ex-wife and a you know, this they're what their story is, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Fair. I I think but at the same time, I feel like it's it's it's hard for us to say that just because somebody, you know, the object permanence, uh, you know, with with children, uh, to say that as soon as something walks out of uh my line of sight that it ceases to exist, that it has its own narratives that it's yeah, I've got to say that. And so uh uh to me, that's at least where where I foresee this is almost everybody's brain is its own multiverse. Um and as that brain is shutting down, that multiverse is ending.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Right. And then if you want to go back to the source material, it's like what was Stephen King thinking? Was he thinking all the characters I create, they're going on with their lives and they're interacting and they have their own thing going on.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Because I think you can also say uh that, you know, because like I guess we we talk about these clues that are dropped throughout the story, these uh things that keep coming up, like the uh I forgot it was Cover Girl, I think is the the name of the movie that they were uh the the grandmother and Chuck are watching.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Yes, yep, yes, yes, with Rita Hayward.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

So like they're like the little things like that of Give Me Some Love and reappears throughout the thing. Uh that even though we're going like these are things that Chuck remembers, these are all things that we've all experienced as a collective. We've all heard that song. We've many of us have seen that movie. So it's not on untoward to think that two different people could have a shared experience, which is what the universe is. It's a collection of shared experiences, uh, whether we acknowledge them or not. So I I just I what when I watch the movie, I prefer to to look at it through that lens as opposed to just I I'm so I get so tired of people like you watch something, you're like, Oh, that was interesting. Then people go, like, well, he was dead the whole time, or you know, what do you did he have? Like people still debate the end of taxi driver, you know, was it a fantasy? Was that real? Stuff like that. But you see, that happens more and more nowadays, and I'm getting sick of it. Every everyone's got a theory about something. I like I watched something like la something else in Toronto this last year, and it's like, you know, he was like he was in purgatory there. I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? Like, why does he have I so I started doing this thing when I watch movies? I'm just like, I'm taking this movie at face value. Yeah, I'm taking this movie and the narrative it's telling me. I'm not going to sit there and go, like, well, they're trying to clue me in that something alternate reality is happening. Maybe it is, but screw it. I'm not viewing it through that lens. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

It's about to say, did you watch the show Lost? Uh what was your theory on that show?

SPEAKER_01 17:38

I did watch the show lost, and I liked it a lot. Including the finale.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Yeah, okay. Yeah, same. I openly wept. Um, I I 100% agree. It almost seems that like uh production houses and and whatnot are all trying to go in one of two directions. They've uh accepted that that uh as a society we're all you know on our screen at the same time that Netflix is is going, and so they don't uh you know try to get heady or or as visual anymore, and they just try to you know hit a bunch of funny lines and repeating and repeating things so that that way you you're you're uh you don't have to think at the same time, or they're going so heady that they're trying to you know make you overly think and pontificate everything that is going on.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

There's plenty of time for pontification. You could do that, you know, if the movie were if the let the movie work the first time, then go back and pontificate.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Yeah, let it keep you up at night. Let it uh you know be something that uh two weeks later you're like, oh, you know what? I actually have really thought about this one part of that movie. Yeah, those are great.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Well, and it was a very unique structure, and I uh I appreciated that. The the

Narration, Structure, And The Dance

SPEAKER_00 18:48

fact that like it's we have these uh act shifts uh out of order, and then we have the narrator that shows up on occasion, not consistent. Um and it was it was different, it was uh unique uh way of telling the story. And I know that Flanagan really wanted to make sure it was authentic and uh honored the original source material that he didn't want to short story, right? Yes, it was a short story. Uh he said he originally read the short story in 2020 when the world felt like it was ending. Uh and at first he got went to a really dark place in reading it because it, you know, the world was really dark at that time as well. And then he felt like the more he read, the more hopeful he felt and the more uplifted he felt by the story. And then it was like, oh, this needs to be shared. This needs to be on film and it has to be done right.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Yeah. I remember after seeing the movie at the festival that someone I a colleague of mine who had read the book, uh one of his big complaints was was that was that Nick Offerman was like it was literally like listening to an audiobook because those pat those narration passages are like verbatim in the book.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

And that was a complaint he had?

SPEAKER_01 20:03

It was a complaint. It was just like, you know, that's a screenplay. Okay, I'm just you know, cutting and pasting, you know, word for word. He didn't like it as much as we did.

SPEAKER_04 20:14

Interesting. Well, um, segueing, I guess, using that narration, which really comes into play in that second act, especially with that dance sequence. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Um busking.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

Yeah. The improvisational nature of it. Uh everybody that had seen this movie was like, oh my gosh, you know, you gotta see this dance that that Tom Hiddleston does in this movie. What I loved is that it was not something that you could see somebody easily just being like, oh, I'm gonna dance to this. Yeah. And it was just something that called out to him. And um uh that scene did linger with me quite a bit after the viewing of the movie because I was like trying to figure out the scene.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Well, uh, when I saw it, I thought there are these moments that you have in your life where like just who you are as at like the core of your soul or whatever, it just has this moment where it it shines and it or you have this where there's there's something where things align where you connect with other people in a way that you shouldn't connect, and it's just like beautiful, powerful moment that doesn't mean anything, but somehow does mean something, and that's really hard to like describe and show. Yeah, and I think it was such a beautiful way of doing that, to be like, this is life. Life is this, this this craziness, this beautiful thing, this random connection.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Well, I mean, and at least, you know, to to to me it was the sense memory of his grandmother banging in the like you know, they they they do an amazing job of of cutting that together. That you know, the yeah, the the the her hitting the wooden spoon on the side of the pot, the you know, the the the dance move, it it

SPEAKER_01 22:00

it it it it takes him to a childlike you know memory that it you know sense memory can can do an an amazing amount of things sometimes uh to take you back to your childhood and and I think just I mean that's exactly what she was out there trying to do was you know by just letting the earth dictate you know what she's gonna play and she she doesn't expect somebody to dance she expects to you know see somebody do something and that's gonna just change up being inspired to change her tune but the fact that he suddenly starts dancing it's like oh no game is on because somebody's directly interacting feeding off of each other and she's looking for that that improvisation that spark and the fact that he jumps in and starts doing it and then you've got a uh a you know a young lady who's who's just having like the worst day uh and and just wants to dance and it's like the the you know it is kismet that these sparks are happening it's about that human connection that we don't know we necessarily always crave uh you know I could certainly be a loner myself at many times and whatnot but you know like I just watched uh the the TV show Pluribus uh you know there's a whole section of that movie where you know she hates everything that's going on but she gets left alone for a period and when someone comes back she has a moment even though it might not be the person she wants to be having that moment with it's just there and so you have you have the literal metaphor of like you just said someone changing their tune in in in the moment right and he has a sense memory so that's what sparks him to do it uh and then he invites someone else to be a part of it you know and it's just it's it's this beautiful spontaneous moment that you know that everyone in that moment is going to remember you know on their effect probably you know and maybe in their mind it's gonna be them that took that leap and did it or maybe it's going to inspire someone else to take that leap and whatnot the leap that Chuck wasn't able to do because he had all this early tragedy in his life and his grandfather convinced him that there's there's a there's a positivity to to accountancy you know as opposed to being a dancer uh which is something that a lot of parents probably tell their kids who want to go into the arts and the dancing or be a ventriloquist or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

You know that's and and and that's it's sad but there's a truth to it but it's sad at the same time you know yeah well like uh my dad told us he's like uh if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life but love something with health and dental yeah yeah we're gonna uh take a few moments to fill our glasses and get ready to imbibe more after this the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival exhibits short and feature length motion pictures that utilize story elements in a new and exciting way. Our official selections are a carefully assembled blend of imaginative, sophisticated and full-bodied stories. This is what our name represents with audiences expect to experience character-driven independent cinema that is fueled by the filmmakers' passion for the art of visual storytelling filmmakers can expect an intimate festival experience where their personal story is valued as much as the one projected on the big screen I am Jonathan C. Leggett

Rewatching Movies And Layered Favorites

SPEAKER_02 25:46

and I'm here along with Trisha Leggett and Michael Noans and our special guest uh Eric Childress uh we are discussing life of Chuck uh are you enjoying this podcast please subscribe or follow us on all your favorite podcast providers to get the new episodes as soon as we release them uh rate and leave us uh review to help the show reach that larger audience and you can also uh follow imbibe cinema on Facebook Instagram threads and letterboxed uh we want to hear your thoughts on Life of Chuck or just in general uh is there a film that you feel we should be uh uh reviewing uh is there something that uh you feel we missed the mark on when we did review it uh look for the link to our show notes uh and send us a text or leave us a voicemail uh and we'll make sure to find some time uh in our break of our episode to respond. So um we we've kind of already discussed to a degree just the the the uh uh first watch versus the second watch and how important uh that has been uh Eric to you is there a film that you would only ever watch once is there a film that you would watch a second time to you know wrap up some buttons and then what is uh a film that is a guilty pleasure and you will watch as often as is humanly possible oh gosh okay I know really throw it in there yeah a movie that I would that I have only watched once and is probably my go-to answer movie that I just even though I acknowledge it's a very good movie but I would never want to watch it again uh Requiem for a dream oh fascinating I would agree saw it at the press screen in 2000 and I'm I'm good I I I get it uh very well I'm like well done well done and I'm good uh uh a movie that I would what that I would only watch a second time just to give it another like uh to give it a second chance or just to like a life of Chuck like I'd like to write what what I lovingly said I mean you know Life of Chuck we've already kind of discussed I think a couple of us might watch it a third time now but like to me um uh uh if there's like a twist I've seen the sixth sense twice I saw it both times in the theater and the second time I went and I went back just to see how tight the loose ends were how how start to finish whether or not you know whether whether there was anything that was so blatantly obvious that uh that that you would you would know it. And so to me I I've seen it now twice. I don't think I need to see it a third time.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah see I I never went I never went back to watch the success a second time because it sucks.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

If you want to start a whole Cheyenne podcast with me that's a whole other topic opening night friends whole group of friends that I went to see the movie fit what 15 20 minutes in there's that dinner scene that he goes like and I'm like and I just go he's dead oh my god you're like watching a movie with my wife yeah and I probably ruined the movie for everyone in my vicinity it's so obvious there was a Star Wars movie we went to go see in the theaters is back like right after kids so we were like excited to just Force Awakens awakens and so I made the mistake of ruining it because I I turned to John halfway through I'm like they took an old man to the Death Star we know what's gonna happen to him now right and I'm like and he's like what yeah I get that was another movie that I was just so happy to be watching that I wasn't thinking ahead like like this is just a new hope just refitted I didn't care I still don't really care.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Let me think about the second one for a second I'm gonna I'll have to maybe come back to that and the other one was a guilty pleasure I I don't always like to call it a guilty pleasure because if I'm gonna watch it so many times I must love it on some level so I'll I'll just I'll flash Gordon okay okay yeah yeah yeah the Flash Gordon is one of my favorite movies when I was a kid and I know it's goofy I know it's silly and and and everything but you put that thing on I'm at hog heaven.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Okay all right I might take another pass on on Life of Chuck here and and and and watch it a third time because I do think a lot of the discussion that we've been having already today makes me go like all right no let's let's see if there's other things that I can pick up on this um the this film obviously had a lot of layers to it uh and and uh uh a lot of things that that you were able to peel back and uh and and see and again I think there's ones that even more watches will will help uh illuminate more of those layers um is there a film uh that you guys uh can think of that uh has has lots of layers that that you have actively enjoyed uh that you think our listeners m may or may not have seen that they could potentially enjoy and I'm not just talking like Shrek because everybody loves PowerPoint Okay so like my brain doesn't fully function anymore.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

So like random things come to mind instead of like oh yeah it's just like no this is what comes to mind. And uh for better for worse I'm gonna go with kiss kiss bang bang.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Okay. I would potentially go with one that is almost metaphorical and metaphysical which is inception.

SPEAKER_04 31:13

That entered my mind too did I just inception it into your brain? Yeah you probably did there you go because of the layer the layer thing yes quite literally I I don't know here one I guess I would I um this is more of a recent one and I haven't watched it very many times. Okay um but I I've found that I just there's something about it that I just really love um and that's uh the Atom Project oh yeah um I just I I did I went into it not really thinking much of it like oh okay I'll watch this movie and it just connected with me in a very very um fun way I'm sure I will come up with um at two o'clock in the morning or something I will shoot up and be like oh my god uh this is the layer movie I should have said in the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Fair and and by shoot up you mean sit up in bed not actual shoot up yes not actually shoot up yeah that's true thank you for clarifying yeah you don't want to throw your back out in the process that's a whole that's a whole other podcast. Uh speaking of requirement you just bring it all in full circle multitudes. There you go so the first one I thought of just because it's maybe a little bit more obscure and it's a murder mystery uh that is one like even I've seen it multiple times and I still forget sometimes how it concludes uh which is a pretty great thing to say about a murder mystery um it's a movie called the last of Sheila have you ever seen this movie? No it's it's on the the 19 like 1978 maybe maybe maybe a little bit earlier than that maybe even earlier than that uh written by written by Anthony Perkins and Steven Sondhein. Wow that is a weird combo yeah wow just wrote the screenplay uh because they were like big fans of like puzzles and game nights and stuff like that uh and it's really it's the it it's in many ways it's the it's one of the inspirations for uh Glass Onion the second knives out movie yeah it's all about a rich guy that invites a bunch of his friends out to his boat to play these games uh and someone ends up dead and oh James Coburn and it's it's James Coburn Richard Benjamin Diane Cannon uh James Mason Great Cat James Mason uh is in it and I think Rockawelch is in it and it is it's it's like what like the bet one of the best murder mysteries you've never a lot of people have never seen wow okay yeah now it's now we are putting it on a list going it's going on the list so um coming back to um the life of Chuck do we want to talk about um Chuck's youth yes I really uh enjoy the whole seeing the seeing death thing um when you said the first part was like very Stephen King I'm like to me this is very Stephen King the whole like there's a room where you can see the when people die um and but the the the people that die it's a child that gets hit by a car it's a man that hangs himself a man who hangs himself and sees his

Childhood, The Death Room, And Dread

SPEAKER_01 34:34

wife and then he sees his own and uh I find that interesting that you see that you get all of that for Mark Hamill's character but then he only sees his own death yeah uh when and um but there's like this epiphany that comes to well I mean it's like in your life everybody has that moment where death gets real where you suddenly realize this is limited time only.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

There is a finite amount of time that I have and you have to live your life while you've got it. And I love that this was the way he made that clear through this uh through seeing all these people dying and and it's it's creepy and it's eerie but it's also this wonderful way of going there's this moment where you realize oh God death is real and it's coming for me.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Yeah I mean it's I mean you you talk about like what is the most Stephen King part of the story. I mean it's this I mean this is a story that kind of fits more in with the you know the things like stand by me and Shawshank redemption and stuff like that. That's our level but there's we have this magical realism going all throughout this story but the entire movie is in many ways it's a horror movie because it is about death you know and that's a horror that we all experience so sometimes we experienced by people that we know that die sometimes suddenly you know and then and then that uh that like you said that sort of that lingering feeling that we know that it's you know death and taxes right uh I mean I like to I like to think that Stephen King was just listening to Tom Petty at one point and just like had the idea from the entire story. You know the grandfather is trying to protect Chuck from this knowledge because what do you do with that knowledge if you knew when I mean like you don't know specifically when you're going to die and like he is the when his drunk in stupor he says like you know like the kid died like soon the other kid was months away and stuff like that. So you don't know specifically even when he he sees himself in bed he can't really tell how old he is how old he is yeah right but he like you said he has that like that epiphany that he's going to whatever time there is between this I'm going to live my life to the fullest but at the same time like if you knew if if someone gave you an envelope and said and you open it and said this is the date you're going to die what do you do with that information? Do you you know it it becomes a Stephen King thing get busy living or get busy dying right you know so are you going to like if you're gonna find out you're gonna die next week you're just gonna go well screw it you know like who cares about anything let's let me just live these last seven days right but if it's three months three years thirty years you know as just like what do you do or what do you do when it gets closer to that time you know and it's sometimes you know I will like would you want to know you know would you want to know?

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Well and I think Mark Hamill's uh line is the waiting is the hardest part. Yep it's the waiting uh that I've heard a ton of times when it comes to cancer it's waiting waiting to know what the test results are going to be waiting to know what the diagnosis waiting to know if there is no more treatment. Next it's the waiting that is the hardest part and uh yeah that gave me the creeps when he said that uh because I I I find that that is so true. What makes life so beautiful is the fact that it is like it means something because it is limited right because it's the shadows and the light situation. You can't have one without the other.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Yep.

Performances, Joy, And Final Plugs

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Yeah when we're we're talking about performances uh I I loved seeing Mia Sarah come back.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

I didn't even I'll I'll admit I didn't recognize her the first time I saw the movie. No I don't think I'd seen her since like time comp. Like it was the last time you know she's got a couple really nice scenes uh Benjamin Pajak as wonderful as the young Chuck. Wonderful speaking of climb travel that you mentioned uh earlier and associated with something else how about the fact that uh the one girl's uh boyfriend is basically dressed like Marty McFly at the dam.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Yes yes I love that but if you were if yeah on the time travel thought the mind bending thought okay so when Walt Whitman wrote Song of Myself and he writes uh I contain multitudes then years later another writer uses that on a short story and then it made into a movie and it's like if you go back just one line and look at all the things that came out of that one line in this very long poem which is so funny because when the teacher's reading it I'm like was she reading the whole thing that's like it's a long moment.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

I mean that could be the reason that the class was losing their mind.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Right?

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Yeah you've got to fill an hour I mean so yeah right I brief brief shout out just to go back to that to the opening sequence like uh I I I've watched it again I forgot how great David Dismalchin is and he's the you know that does the porthub oh yeah yeah and I can remember the porthub joke and that's how I always associate he's the porthub guy but like talking about like his wife leaving and everything and it's really he's it's like two and a half minutes or whatever that is if that yeah and it's just beautiful little performance that he's given and uh and and it's yeah I just wonderful I love David Dispel.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

And what an absolute amazing thing about it it it it establishes what's what's what else is going on in the world is his wife his wife didn't just leave him she left him for like a high school sweetheart that they dated for like two weeks or something yeah like a month and or a month and he's like you know you you throw 20 years you know and and a child away to to to go taste that.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

That's a reoccurring thing in that throughout that that sequence is the discussion divorces versus marriages or oh that doctor left because so and so just showed up you know they broke up but like she just showed up and he left with her. And that kind of uh thing that it would say in in these times in the darkest times people are still seeking out love.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Yes. And it just and to reverse it you know when you think about it like we're focused on dismal so we're going oh my god that's terrible but at the same time if the if the story was focused on her it'd be about her seeking out that thing that she thought she lost maybe terrible what she does but that's her journey. Yeah like this is a very sad movie. There's a lot of sadness there's a lot of death there's a lot of thinking about death and there's a lot of that that gets transported on into you that you start thinking about death and life and all these kind of things and whatnot and yet at the end of it I thought but that's not how I remember the movie. I remember the dancing I remember the scene at the school dance where he goes has the courage to go up to her and have that dance and have that and that the joy of that I remember the joy of the movie which is what life is supposed to be that's what I think about when I think about this movie.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

Now that we've referenced Back to the future this movie is heavy it's a lot to digest but it is it is so beautiful and I think that beauty is what you carry on afterwards I agree.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Yeah lovingly so all right so Eric uh tell our our our viewers uh where they can view listeners the people who have uh uh tuned in to hear our dulcet tones uh tell tell them uh where and how they can see you and where they can hear you uh that you got coming up okay uh we'll start with the podcast we mentioned the movie badness podcast a couple times we do that twice a week we do a physical media show on Mondays and then uh with Peter Subzinski and then Steve Prokopi and I review most of the new movies uh every week on Friday uh so that's twice a week the friendship dilemma we mentioned with Morgan Geyer that I co-host with her uh we do that that's a little more sporadically but we got several uh we do focus on one movie per episode so you can go back and listen to those at any given point um I write a box office column for Rotten Tomatoes uh every week uh so you see me doing some math there uh and uh and the the the critics classic series that we do at Oak Rove Cinema we do that uh every other week now uh we got the Christopher Nolan series going through the rest of uh the summer with Insomnia on July 22nd inception August 5th and then uh Interstellar on August 19th and we're gonna announce September and October probably the next couple weeks uh and I and I'm a producer of the Chicago Freaks Film Festival uh at the music box theater every year uh we've just had a meeting about it today and we're gonna be uh setting up next year's uh iteration uh very soon uh but you know it's always like the first week of May uh at the music box and I helped file that event so that's a very special uh place of my heart. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Music box is a fantastic venue great group of people. Yeah it's awesome. Well we uh greatly appreciate all of our listeners for choosing this podcast supporting independent films and the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival I'm Jonathan C. Leggett and thanks for imbibing with us it does sound different with mugs yeah very very different with mugs