#8. High Flying Bird, Alex Trebek, and Your Choice of Pasta
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The movie is Steven Soderbergh's Netflix pickup High Flying Bird, shot entirely on an iPhone 8, and Sonny loves it while cheerfully admitting it's "a 90-minute piece of left-wing agitprop" — a film of ideas about a sports agent trying to break an NBA lockout that is really a warning shot at the studios, so committed to its argument that it hands you a homework assignment at the end in the form of The Revolt of the Black Athlete, a book Sonny actually read and which he notes closes with a literal terroristic threat. JVL finds it Mamet-like (he kept thinking of Redbelt), respects Soderbergh's refusal to just cash $15 million checks directing Clooney and Pitt, and calls it an exercise rather than a movie, though he's disappointed it never grapples with the real Piketty critique that capital, not the owners' personalities, is the problem. Vic despises it: "I didn't even think it was a movie," no music, no drama, you never see the game, an F against the A-plus-plus he gives Green Book, and a warning to listeners not to bother. The opening half is some of the best material: Sonny defending his Twitter-infuriating position that spaghetti, linguine, and fettuccine are all the same thing and being branded the Bernie Sanders of pasta, JVL swearing off Twitter forever after a two-minutes-hate over his prediction that Bryce Harper's 13-year, $330 million Phillies deal is the worst athlete-city match ever (a WIP host read it on air), a genuinely affectionate segment on Alex Trebek's stage four pancreatic cancer diagnosis and whether Ken Jennings could succeed him, and Vic's doctor telling him she's less worried about a heart attack than pancreatitis, ordering a two-drink maximum that he immediately tries to convert into 60 rollover drinks a month.
From the show notes
#cdata-section -------------- In this latest episode, sponsored by Quip and Robinhood, the Sub-Beacon discusses Steven Soderbergh's High Flyin...
Full transcript
Guest00:00:01You want to get back on the court? And as your agent, I want to get you there. But we are in a lockout.
JVL00:00:13There are no actual games to watch.
Guest00:00:18You think these fools, these rich white dudes gonna let these sexiest sport fall by the wayside? This team's my family. I need us to be one big family again. Football is fun, but it don't sell sneakers. To move merch and inspire rap lyrics, they need your services.
Vic00:00:49Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sub-Beacon, sponsored by Quip Electric Toothbrush and Robin Hood. I'm Victor Matus along with Sonny Bunch and Jonathan V. Last. I'd like to remind you, Sub-Beacon is available on iTunes and Google Play. Just look at our podcast and search for Sub-Beacon, you'll easily find us. Please subscribe, tell your friends, and leave a review. Gentlemen, how are we? Sonny, what's going on? I had a question for you. Have you been eating any interesting pastas lately?
Sonny00:01:21Have I been eating any interesting pastas lately? Oh God, this is a throwback. This is like five Twitter controversies. No, I... About a thousand tweets ago. I assume you're asking this because I got in a little bit of trouble. Because I said that spaghetti and linguine and fettuccine are all the same. They're just slight variations on the same exact thing. And I don't understand why everybody got so mad about that because what I said is indisputably true. No, you're nuts. You only need one of those. You need like one out of the like... Rigatoni, shells, whatever family. And then like ravioli, which is good because it's the stuffing.
JVL00:02:09What are you talking about?
Sonny00:02:11And then like lasagna. But this is what I heard from literally every Italian person. And they were like, no, they're all different.
Vic00:02:18They're all different. I'm going to represent here. I'm just going to say if the communists had taken over Italy, they would have had your limited system of noodles and pasta.
Sonny00:02:27This is what people said that I was sounding like the Bernie Sanders of pasta. You remember when Bernie Sanders was like, you only need one deodorant. Yeah, no, that's like one shampoo. See, there we go. You're heading it.
Vic00:02:37It's a slippery slope heading in that direction.
Sonny00:02:39I'm not saying that he was he was right, but he's not wrong.
Vic00:02:43Exactly. You know, people always wondered why sometimes they would say the food in Eastern Europe is really bad. And I went to the Czech Republic back in 2008 and talked to people about this place, the food so bad. And they said for like during the time of the Iron Curtain, if you had a restaurant, you had to submit your menu to a government oversight board. What the chef could do and not do. So the chef can't just say, oh, I want to try this or try that. And then that's everything was so limited. And after a while, it was just a beat down. They said, fine, today's special is the same as yesterday's special, which was goulash.
Sonny00:03:14You got goulash and fried cheese.
Vic00:03:16OK, I agree to a to a certain extent that I personally find certain pastas to be unnecessary. OK, when I was in Rome, they seem to be popular was a form of bucatini called perky Italian. It's like a spaghetti with a hole in the spaghetti. Do you know how narrow that hole is in the spaghetti? So I just don't see the point of having the hole. So the spaghetti has a urethra? Yes. Yes, it does, Sonny. And I'm just not sure what's going on there. I understand with certain pasta shapes, it's great that meats and other things can cling on to it. That's the whole point of that. They can cling on to anything. I don't know, but even better if you've got...
Sonny00:03:56You know what's great? You know the amount of surface area, surface tension, what types of sauce you put it in. It's spaghetti with white sauce. White sauce? Explain what the white sauce is. White sauce with the Fredo, you know, it's all the same. Do you buy... Shells and Fredo, love it.
Vic00:04:12Have you ever, do you buy in the jar, have you ever bought the Fredo, or you make the Fredo sauce? No, I don't make Fredo sauce.
Sonny00:04:17What am I a chef?
Vic00:04:19Because it only involves three things, I hate to tell you what they are.
Sonny00:04:23Heavy whipping cream, butter.
Vic00:04:25It's not good.
Sonny00:04:27Am I going to the farmer's market in the morning and figuring out what to buy? What the fresh, fresh ingredients are for the chef's table?
JVL00:04:34I used to make the best fettuccine Alfredo I've ever had in my entire life. JVL. Yes. Was at the Italian restaurant in Epcot Center. That sounds, I mean, that doesn't surprise me. They had to be authentic as you know. I was actually in Little Italy.
Vic00:04:47You are technically in Little Italy.
JVL00:04:49I believe under international law, that portion of Epcot Center actually belongs to the country of Italy.
Vic00:04:56No, it's the same rules as embassies. Yes. Don't commit a crime. That's why no crimes are committed in Epcot. Everyone's too scared. You got to commit a crime in Morocco.
Sonny00:05:06But wait, if you commit a crime in one section. Yeah, no, really. If you commit a crime in one section though and flee to another section, what if they don't have an extradition treaty?
Vic00:05:16Well, that's the trick of it. It depends where you are in that magical place.
JVL00:05:20So Sonny, you would, I assume, limit everybody to the most popular pastas in the class.
Sonny00:05:25Oh boy.
JVL00:05:27Because the most popular pasta is the best pasta according to the bunch theorem. Sure, I guess.
Sonny00:05:32Sure. You know what I love? Look, it's not like I'm proposing a law that says we need to ban all of these extra types of pasta. So you figure out what the hell is going on. It's just your awful opinion. I just want people to recognize and admit the fact that they're all the same. They're all the same. They're all identical.
Vic00:05:54Do you remember going to Vapiano? Oh, Vapiano was the best. And it's still there, by the way. And you could still—you have to choose your pasta shape. That place isn't the best. That place is miserable. No, I love that place.
JVL00:06:07An Italian fast—an Italian chipotle concept pioneered by Germans. Yes, that sounds like my fantasy.
Sonny00:06:15I mean, they might as well just call that Vapiaxis.
Vic00:06:18We're talking about—I'm sorry, are you telling me it's Italian food served with German efficiency? Yes. Sounds amazing.
Sonny00:06:26Yeah, and they've got like one beer on tap there. And it's great. Peroni.
Vic00:06:31It was interesting. People would hang out there after work. Not me, but people would do that. And there was—I think you could choose from nine different pasta shapes. Mine was—favorite was the Campanella. My complaint, however, was it's never enough. It's never enough.
JVL00:06:43Vapiano would—they would—all of their portions were essentially like 70% of what they should be.
Vic00:06:50Yes, I wanted Vapiano, but—
Sonny00:06:52The personal pizza was about right. Was about right.
Vic00:06:54Oh, yes. For a lunch? Totally. I agree with the pizza, but if you got a bowl of pasta there, no. What I want is like the Carmine.
Sonny00:07:00Well, you want—you want a trough. You just want several troughs of pasta that you can like just put your fork in and twirl your— That's right. Or a feedback.
JVL00:07:11I want it like Ristorante AV was.
Sonny00:07:13Oh, that's great. I do remember that place. A great—a great hangout. Oh, is that the place on New Jersey Avenue?
JVL00:07:19New York Avenue. The Old Scalia hangout.
Sonny00:07:23Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like—it was like something— It was knocked down for the convention center.
JVL00:07:27It was like something out of The Godfather. It was like a cigarette machine. They had a cigarette vending machine in it.
Vic00:07:31They first arrived in Washington. And the red and white checkered tablecloths. And then the— Glass tumblers for your wine. Yes. And then the—they would serve—they had red wine cold, which is extremely old school. And they also served like Chianti's in the weave basket thing, you know.
Sonny00:07:46I went in there once and I told the guy, I was like, "Look, all of these pastas are the same. This is all—what are we doing? Why are you wasting my time with all these different pastas?" And then I woke up in a ditch three hours later. I had no memory. In the Pine Barrens. Wow, I got there. Bump on my head. Must have fallen.
Vic00:08:03Okay, so. Fine. JVL, talk to us.
JVL00:08:07Terrible. What's going on? What's happening? Terrible. Anything going on? I had a—so I'm done with Twitter.
Vic00:08:13Now you're done— I'm done with Twitter. You're done with Twitter for today. For forever. I'm never going back there. Are you looking at Twitter but not commenting?
JVL00:08:23Nope. Because that would be worse. Nope. You're not even looking at Twitter. I've been looking at Twitter for months over the course of the last week. The first one was because I am insufficiently pro-life and not—don't give pro-lifers their proper respect. Because you know me as a rabid baby killer and anti-choice per—
Sonny00:08:45Yes. Right. This is what I think of when I think of the guy who wrote What's to Expect When No One's Expecting. Because we're all killing the babies for fun. It was a fun—it was a good subtitle.
JVL00:08:55Anyway, so that was the first two minutes that ate up last week. It was the best weekend of my life. And then I was subjected to another two minutes hate that, if you can imagine it, is even stupider than the first one. Because the other one was I, when Bryce Harper signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, I wrote a little bit about how this was the worst match possibly ever of a professional athlete with a city. This is destined to end very, very badly. Bryce Harper himself is clearly not worth the money. But even that is not the problem. The problem is his personality is a bad fit. He is a preening, pretty boy who doesn't always hustle, who's always touching his hair. Like every time you see a shot of him in the dugout, he's always stroking his own hair. Stroking, stroking, stroking his own hair. And who is incredibly thin-skinned and used to having a worshipful fan base that never questions anything.
Vic00:09:44Well, that's like Philly, right?
JVL00:09:46He's hitting 249. Oh, yeah, but look at his OPS. He'll pull out of it. Don't worry. Next year we'll get him. Next year. And in Philadelphia, I said, they'll be very excited to have him for the first, you know, year. And then when they finish third in the division next year, which they'll finish third in the division, like out will come the batteries. And some idiot up in the Philadelphia sports talk station, which is like the station of my youth, WIP, read this aloud on the air. And I started getting on Twitter another two minutes hate from, hold on, Philadelphia fans taunting me for being a Sour Grapes Washington Nationals fan who is just jelly. I had lost Bryce Harper, my boyfriend, who I love so much. I'm done with this, Sonny, what time is it? I'm done with this f***ing platform for forever. I'm never going, I'm serious about this. I am never going back. It is the stupidest place in the universe.
Vic00:10:42I look at you and I was like, I don't even know who you are anymore. Question. I had no idea that you loved him so much in the net.
Sonny00:10:46Question. When did you swear your blood allegiance to the learners?
JVL00:10:53It was hard to say. Probably after. After Nick Foles won the Super Bowl MVP. That's probably when I swore my allegiance.
Sonny00:11:01How many body parts have you buried of your own at Nats Park? Just as a tribute. They do that.
Vic00:11:12They do that. Just the foreskin. Lovely. Great answer, by the way. Okay. Question. How much? Is it three years for how much? Or five years?
JVL00:11:22No, 13. 13 years. 13 years for $330 million. At the end of which, you'll be 39 years old. A lot of great high-paid baseball players are awesome at the age of 39.
Sonny00:11:33Here's my, you know, it strikes me as a bad deal for Harper. It strikes me as a bad deal for Harper. He could have gotten 10 years, 300 million and signed another contract at the end of that. There's no way he would have been paid less than 10 million a year, I don't think. At age, what, 35, 36? We'll see. But, like, the whole thing. The whole thing was silly.
JVL00:11:58I believe that the super serial answer on this is that what makes the contract attractive to Harper, what makes this contract attractive to Harper is that so much of the money is front-loaded. So, a lot of times, these contracts are structured in ways that are incredibly exotic. And so, you know, like, Max Scherzer, I think, is still going to be getting money when he's 70 years old because so much of the money is delayed. Or Bobby Bonilla. The famous Bobby Bonilla contract. So, this is literally, it is the time value of money where it is, worth more money to get the money sooner so that you can get it invested in, say, a car wash or a celebrity player restaurant or someplace that is really going to provide value over the course of decades. Come on, this is really funny. You're not, because this is what athletes do. I can't tell if that's a joke or not. It's a joke. This is what athletes do because they're so stupid with their money.
Sonny00:12:44What about Joe Theismann's restaurants? They're so good.
Vic00:12:48I believe the one in Old Town is, I think, the one in Old Town.
Sonny00:12:51I went to the one in Old Town with John McCormick, our friend John McCormick. Once when my wife was having a baby shower, I believe, and I was just like, let's go to a restaurant in Old Town. The first place we saw was Joe Theismann's. It was one of the saddest establishments I've ever been in as a metro station.
Vic00:13:09Yes, it's right next to the metro station.
Sonny00:13:11It looked like a place habituated by people who are fans of Joe Heisman. Joe Theismann.
JVL00:13:17Heisman. But here's the thing. So if Bryce Harper is worth $330 million over the course of 13 years, when he is probably, I would say, arguably a top five player in the league, Sonny, would you say?
Sonny00:13:33I would say he is, yeah, sure. I mean, certainly a top five offensive player.
JVL00:13:40When Mike Trout comes up in two years, he's got to be, I mean, no kidding, $500 million.
Sonny00:13:46I mean, I would say that if you consider a baseline, what's the annual average? It's like $24 million. $24 million or $25 million or something like that for the Harper deal. I see no reason why Trout couldn't get the same exact deal at $400 million. 13 years, $400 million. Easy. And probably much more. And it would probably be worth it.
JVL00:14:11You probably have a bunch of people bidding against you. I mean, part of the interesting thing about the Harper deal is that the Phillies seem to have been negotiating against themselves. Nobody else actually wanted him.
Sonny00:14:21Well, nobody else wanted him. Nobody else wanted him at $330 million. $330 million over 13 years. I mean, this is what I'm saying. This is a deal negotiated against themselves. I think the Giants were looking at like 10 years, $310 million or something like that, which, again, strikes me as a better deal. I mean, I don't think taxes are that. I mean, I guess taxes are higher in California than they are in Philly.
Vic00:14:42But he'd be better in California than he would be in Philly.
JVL00:14:45Five years from now, he'll be with the Yankees and the Phillies will be paying half his salary. It is interesting. Yes, that's exactly right.
Vic00:14:53I can't imagine him still playing. But I mean, that's true.
JVL00:14:55That's just more sour grapes for me. The big Nats fan, the guy who loves Harper and wishes that we still had him here. Go Nats.
Vic00:15:03So, JVL, you're telling me that the Philly fans are not cynical about this. They're actually very excited about Bryce Harper's.
JVL00:15:09Yeah, of course, as they would be for the first five minutes until they, you know, get the batteries. Right.
Vic00:15:14And, you know, what is this? You know, anyway. OK, thank you, JVL. I was about to do a new true. I was going to say a news for your health. You like that? That's the new segment. We're going to talk. They always do an NBC, the news for your health, followed by a great ad for lubricated catheters. Are we going to talk? Well, no. First, I thought you wanted to talk related to health is other people's health. You wanted to talk about Alex Trebek for a little bit.
JVL00:15:39So you guys saw the news last night. Yeah. Wednesday night. Very Alex Trebek has stage four pancreatic cancer. He has the worst. He has the worst. The worst stage. Yes. Do you guys have thoughts about this? Because I find Alex Trebek to be. A person who occupies an almost unique position in American culture where he is universally known. Even if you don't watch Jeopardy, you know him and universally respected and admired. And he does not because he does anything pretentious or. I mean, there is no Alex Trebek line of colognes. He is not. He did not do 15 years of this and then decide I want to host Good Morning America and be a real newsman. He's just a guy who has a simple job and he does it very well. And has done it very well for like 35 years. That's right. Literally, like he started in what, 84? 84. Yeah. 84. And because of this, people, I think, kind of revere him. He is an institution in a way which we don't have. You know, this is everything we've had over the last, you know, 10 to 20 years of American life has been about the decline and fall of our institutions everywhere, you know, across the board. And he is still an institution. And the idea of him no longer hosting Jeopardy feels to me like a more significant. Thing than it actually is. It feels like an end of an era. And I am deeply saddened by this. Are you guys? No? Yeah. Well, I mean. I mean, sad for him.
Sonny00:17:05Anybody who spent a significant portion of their childhood slash early adult years watching Jeopardy, which I did. I mean, I guess I'm a dork. I loved it. It will obviously be sad by this. You know, I think part of part of the reason why he remains this this beloved is because he. He has always remained kind of above whatever fray is going on in any. I mean, I, I assume Alex Trebek is kind of a standard issue liberal. I don't know. But who knows? But I don't. I don't know. I don't have any idea.
JVL00:17:39He kept his opinions, I think. He kept his opinions. And this is the funny thing. He managed to be private without being secretive. Yeah. Like there have been a couple profiles of him here and there. But in general, they're smart. I mean, he's not a recluse or a weirdo. He's just kind of private. We don't know anything about him.
Sonny00:17:53I mean, he's not a publicity. Four times. You know, yeah, the one thing. So I read your I read your piece in the newsletter this morning, the Bulwark newsletter about suggesting the replacement of succession, not replacement. Nobody could ever replace him. The succession of Alex Trebek with Ken Jennings. Yes. And the problem with this is that Ken Jennings has very much not remained above the fray. He is he is a object of dislike amongst, I think, a broad section of the. The right, because he is he's kind of, again, a standard issue liberal, but he's not quiet about it. He has opinions. He says them. And I think that people would be a little bit. I think he starts off. He starts off having to prove something that Alex Trebek never did. I believe he's also hated by the left.
JVL00:18:41Is it?
Sonny00:18:42For having had had wrong thoughts and bad jokes. But so this is the problem, though, is that he is a known quantity with a personal public profile.
JVL00:18:52On the other hand, you cannot succeed Alex Trebek by being. Being Alex Trebek, you have to be your own thing. And Jennings could be his own thing. Drew Carey has done a remarkably good job of replacing Bob Barker.
Vic00:19:03There was a huge profile of him in the Washington Post. It's very interesting. And he's very also staying focused on, you know, doing this job and doing it well. I was going to suggest a British game show host who looks like Mike Myers. You know that one? You don't talk. You don't have no idea what I'm talking about. The lady from The Weakest Link.
JVL00:19:20OK, fine. That joke didn't go anywhere.
Sonny00:19:23I don't know. I don't understand your joke.
Vic00:19:24There's a game show. There's a game show out there that nobody, none of us is watching, hosted by a British guy who is, in fact, played by Mike Myers, pretending to be somebody else.
JVL00:19:33Look it up. It's a real game show. It's Mike.
Vic00:19:36It's like a talent show. It's a talent show or something. And he is he is, again, because he can't just be Mike Myers anymore. So he is this pretending to be this English fellow. And he appears on talk shows as in persona.
JVL00:19:48That's weird. So like an Ali G. Look it up. A Mike Myers Ali G. Yes. Yes.
Vic00:19:52And he has a very fake British name and he does. He does the whole thing. And I wonder if half the audience that watches that show actually knows it's Mike Myers. And I thought, oh, hey, you know, it's this guy's really interesting. Well, he is Canadian. Yes. But I would take Ken Jennings.
JVL00:20:08Ken Jennings is awfully funny and charming and he's his own thing. And I don't know that he would want to do it, but I think America needs him to do it. How about Steve Harvey? He doesn't host enough game shows. The Family Feud is so great. I do not think Steve Harvey is inappropriate. For that. For that. Is there anybody else?
Vic00:20:27Who else could you? If Gene Rayburn were alive, I don't think he is. Gene Shallott.
JVL00:20:32If he gets out of prison. He'll never get out of prison. Do you think the fans would accept having somebody who has done time for questionable? He hasn't done time. The trial hasn't. He's been convicted of nothing yet. No, he's been. He's just in county lockup awaiting bail.
Vic00:20:45No, he's preparing for his arraignment. He's at this. People have totally overblown this thing. Speaking of overblown. Anyway, JVL. How was the doctor? Okay. Yes. Speaking of overblown, my track. That's the right numbers.
JVL00:20:57It was. Stop. Question. Currently, right now, as of today, how many pills do you take daily?
Vic00:21:03I'm still on one at the moment, but I'm going to be taking two soon.
JVL00:21:07It's only a 100% increase in prescription medications.
Vic00:21:11150. I'll probably get back on the fish oil. Oh, okay. Like 1200 milligrams. Yeah. And maybe some niacin. Sure. Okay. Yeah. That's it.
JVL00:21:20So now, when you went to see your doctor on that Tuesday. No, I saw her on. Did she?
Vic00:21:28I saw her on Fat Tuesday.
JVL00:21:29Did she scream? No. When you walked into the office? Amazingly, no. Was she shocked that you were still ambulatory? Well, she looked at me and she goes, first of all, don't talk.
Vic00:21:42That's always a good sign. And she's like, secondly, I only have like 10 minutes because I got to book my son to bar mitzvah venue for 2022. So then she went off to the races and then she was like, look, I'm not worried that you're going to get a heart attack. She said, that's not my concern. No. She says, those other numbers are fine. I'm worried you'll get pancreatitis. And I said, oh, is that it? I don't know what that is. Wah-ha-ha-p-son. Yeah, Sonny, that's how I like to live. I don't know what that is. I'm sure it can't be as bad as anything else. It's just, you know, inflammation of the pancreas and stuff like that. It's not a big deal. I said, what's the worst that can happen? Dialysis? I could bring the machine in here. I could bring the machine into the studio. We have a lot of space. To plug it in. We have a lot of outlets.
Sonny00:22:19I don't know that we'd be able to filter that noise out. It would be.
Vic00:22:23So, anyway, she said, lose five pounds, which I'm already on the process. That's nothing. You'll be done by next Monday. I'm done already. I was at 181. I'm at 176 at the moment. But my goal is to go down. I used to weigh between 168 and 172. Now I'm 178 to 182. So, if I can drop 10. She said, those numbers will go down when you lose weight. That's just how it works. The other thing is, she goes, do you drink a lot? That's what she said. I see. You said, what is a lot? Right. I said, so, you know, because pancreatitis, heavy drinking is a thing. I said, well, it's not like when I'm home, I don't drink. It's not like, oh, I've got to get myself a beer at home. I love the idea, by the way, of coming home Mad Men style, fixing myself a martini or something. Having your wife fix it for you. Oh, I love that. And it's actually, I don't actually have a desire for it. Sometimes she drinks and I don't drink. She needs to. She needs to, for obvious reasons. To cope with you. To deal with things. But when I go out, obviously, Sonny, you know. I love to tie one on. And that's the problem. And she said, the problem is people like me who are genetically predisposed. Because Filipino men, they have very high blood sugar. Filipino? I thought you were Italian. Shockingly. I thought you were Italian. If I did, I'd have much. The Mediterranean diet would have done wonders. So, it lingers longer, you know. So, I mean, you can have larger, unhealthier people drink a lot more than me and be fine. It's just the way, like, life is unfair, but I'm not going to say anything is unfair. Because, obviously, we just talked about. Alex Trebek, this is the way it is. We all have to deal with something. But she said, two drink maximum. I said, okay, every day then, right? Just two drink maximum. Like, two drink, like, two martinis most per day.
Sonny00:24:06Now, the good thing is, if you go to the Palm and you get two martinis. Oh, there are actually four. That's like, it's like two fish bowls full of vodka. Yes. Yeah, that's the good news.
JVL00:24:15Now, do these carry over? So, for instance, if you don't have two drinks today, tomorrow, can you have four?
Vic00:24:21Roll over. Roll over. Let's roll over. Do you remember roll over minutes with your mobile phone? With my singular. I had singular roll over minutes.
JVL00:24:27Hey, don't worry. I mean, what that really means is 60 drinks a month. Right. So, as long as you don't do more than 60 a month, you're okay.
Vic00:24:34I'm just going to, I'm going to go dry for two weeks and then just completely get blotto. So, but I can, I will contest those numbers from the, because I took the blood test on Friday morning. On Monday and Tuesday, I had gone out both nights, ate and drank a couple martinis the first night, and then I ate a lot. And then I went out to Olivia. Which is a great restaurant, Ashok Bajaj's new Mediterranean restaurant near the Spy Museum. And they just wanted to give me everything. You got to try everything. How can I say no? I mean, you, that's what I do. I got to try everything. So that, and I believe that lingered into the Friday results. That's my theory. It's an anomaly. Sure. If only you'd had kombucha. The kombucha would have taken care of it. Kombucha, I believe now is the answer to everything. I'm just surprised nobody's come up with a kombucha vodka drink, because that would be it, you know? Okay.
Sonny00:25:23That's my, that's, what are you doing, Sonny?
Vic00:25:26Like one of those sprinklers, you know, it's like, out of every orifice, coming out of
Sonny00:25:31every orifice.
Vic00:25:32What's happening? Too much vodka, too much kombucha. It's just like an explosion. Okay. So anyway, that's, but I thought to myself, maybe that is my Lenten sacrifices, being
JVL00:25:46able to just, you know, two drinks a day, your Lenten sacrifices, two drinks a day, like
Sonny00:25:53I don't think following doctor's orders counts as a Lent thing.
Vic00:26:01You can't comment on this. I'll toss to JVL. They offered Jesus wine.
JVL00:26:05Yeah.
Vic00:26:05Right? That's right. No. And he made amazing wine, too, by the way. It must have been amazing. JVL, what are you doing for Lent? Are you doing anything? Can we talk about that for a little bit?
JVL00:26:15I've given up a lot of things. Oh, okay. Yeah, Twitter. Twitter, you gave up Twitter for Lent? No. The one that hurts most is I have given up my powdered gourmet cheddar cheese.
Vic00:26:25Okay. Eating, like, using it in your mac and cheese? Period. Or just direct? Period.
JVL00:26:29I've just given it up. How often were you indulging yourself? There was a lot in New York Asian of Sin.
Vic00:26:36Oh, my gosh.
JVL00:26:38Okay. So you could put it on anything, and it tasted amazing. Oh, my gosh. Okay.
Sonny00:26:43So I have, and, like, a good cat life. You could put it on any pasta. You could put it on your, for instance, one spaghetti or, you know, your...
JVL00:26:52And, you know, like, a good cat. Like, I did not get it out of the house. I'm keeping it in the house so that I can be tempted constantly.
Vic00:27:00Wow. Yeah, that's right. No, that's right, because I want to look at it and know that I can't have it. Well, that's part of the thing, right? It's self-denial. Like, you've done...
JVL00:27:07There's Ben Stiller in Dodgeball, as he's, like, you know, he attaches the electrodes to his nipples and looks at the piece of pizza. He's like, yeah, fat boy, go ahead, have it. And he can't.
Vic00:27:15Where do you stand on the whole sort of, for Lent, giving something up or doing something good? Except for Sundays. You would have the Sunday exemption.
JVL00:27:24Yeah, I know, Sunday's going to be a mess. Sunday's going to be a mess. I don't... I mean, I'm always trying to do something good for myself, Victorino. Yes, you are.
Vic00:27:31Yes, you are.
JVL00:27:31That's what I heard. I think Lent is much more about sacrifice and hurting yourself. I agree. Self-abnegation and denial.
Vic00:27:36Self-denial. For example, I'm denying myself the pleasure of seeing Alita Battle Angel twice. Speaking of which... Whoa! Over the weekend, Alita Battle Angel fell to third place with $7 million. How to Train Your Dragon, The Hidden World, stayed in first place with $30 million. $30 million, followed by Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral, which took second at $27 million.
JVL00:28:02Sonny, how much money is How to Train Your Dragon, The Hidden World going to make total? I don't know. This is another one of those movies that everyone in America is going to see except for us.
Sonny00:28:13Except for us. I don't... I mean, it's at $100 million already. I can't see it getting much past, like... I would be shocked if it made $200 million.
Vic00:28:20Is this DreamWorks? Who is this?
Sonny00:28:22Yes, this is DreamWorks Animation. Amazing.
Vic00:28:24Yeah, I know. I mean, it's a sequel.
Sonny00:28:26People seem to like it. It's universal. Well, maybe it's... I don't know. No, I mean... Is DreamWorks still a thing? I can't remember. Like, DreamWorks... Oh, that might have ended. I don't know. I think they were sold off. Something, yeah. So, it's still a production house, I believe, but not a studio. Okay.
Vic00:28:38Yes. So, but we're not talking about any of those movies in the box office. Instead, we're talking about a movie on Netflix called High Flying Bird. Box.
JVL00:28:50Oh, you see what I did there? Wow. High Flying Bird box. Yeah.
Vic00:28:54Yeah, that's right. Very nice. Boom. There it is. Excellent. Very good synergy. Sonny, tell us, what is this? What's happening here?
Sonny00:29:02High Flying Bird is the latest film from Steven Soderbergh. It's kind of a small indie production. He shot it on his iPhone camera.
JVL00:29:11iPhone 8.
Sonny00:29:11His iPhone 8. It's... I believe he had some filters and, you know, a little stabilizing... One lens. ...stabilizing device. But it's... It looked good. It is kind of a... Like the film Unsane, which he released last year, maybe the year before that, I can't remember, shot on the iPhone. And it is about a sports agent who is trying to end a lockout between the NBA players and the NBA owners. But it is only really kind of about that. It is about much more than that. It is a film of ideas, as I like to say. Idea of which is, could be summarized as something like, with the advent of new technologies and the decrease of production and distribution costs, things like owners or, say, studios are no longer necessary. Here's what I... The film is essentially a 90-minute piece of left-wing agitprop. And I kind of loved it anyway, because it is very much this... It takes a... It takes a stand, all right? It takes a stand about the absurdity of the kind of system where you have owners and players fighting over a giant pot of revenue and acting as if this is the proletariat struggle of our times. But also, it has... I don't know how to put it exactly, it has a real kind of sense of itself and a real sense of self-assuredness that I like and that you don't really see a lot of. This is a movie for adults that does not feature a lot of big flashy action sequences. It doesn't even really have the centerpiece of the film. So the movie, again, is about an agent who is trying to break the system and to do this, he has one of his players play a one-on-one basketball game with another player and that game goes viral and people get... Get real excited about it. Netflix is like, I want to... We want to build a streaming platform for you. Facebook is like, we want to buy the live streaming rights. And they use this as a way to break the owners, as a way to kind of get them to agree to give the players more money. Again, this is very much a metaphor for, I think, what Netflix is trying to do to the studios and there's something kind of ballsy about giving Steven Soderbergh a couple million bucks and saying, Go make this movie that is essentially a warning shot at the studios that the artists don't need them anymore. That you can instantly get your film distributed to 100 million households and the studios don't matter. Thank you, Sonny.
Vic00:32:09I did not like this movie at all. I didn't even think it was a movie. I'm like, where's the action? Where's the drama? Where's the basketball game? So as far as that went, I thought this movie totally lacked teeth. But speaking of teeth, one of the most important things we do for our health every day is brushing our teeth. Yet most of us don't do it properly. Quip is a better electric toothbrush created by dentists and designers. Quip was designed to make brushing your teeth more simple, affordable, and even enjoyable. Here's why I love Quip and you will too. Sensitive sonic vibrations gentle enough on your sensitive gums. Most people brush too hard and some electric toothbrushes are too abrasive. A built-in two-minute timer pulses every 30 seconds to remind you when to switch sides, helping guide a full and even clean. Why? Because up to 90% of us don't brush for a full two minutes or don't clean evenly. I could tell you that with my kids, for example. Multi-use cover mounts to your mirror and unmounts to slide over your bristles for on-the-go brushing. It declutters your sink or cabinet and makes traveling with an electric toothbrush easier. Quip doesn't require a clunky charger and runs for three months on one charge. Brush heads are automatically delivered on a dentist-recommended schedule every three months for just $5. Did you know that three out of four of us use bristles that are old, worn out, and ineffective? Quip is one of the first electric toothbrushes accepted by the American Dental Association and has thousands of verified five-star reviews. I love it. It's great for travel because usually I used to bring a toothbrush, throw it in a bag, wrap a napkin or a paper towel around it. By the time you get it out of the bag, your toothbrush is just in the middle of all your clothes. Anyway, that's why we love Quip. And they are backed by over 20,000 dental professionals. Quip starts at just $25. And if you go to getquip.com. Sub-Beacon right now. You get your first refill pack for free with a Quip electric toothbrush. That's your first refill pack free at getquip.com. Sub-Beacon. JVL, what did you think about this movie?
JVL00:34:08So I watched the movie on my iPhone 8. Look at that. Wow. Actually, I watched the movie on the iPhone 8 this morning in the parking lot of your garage downstairs. That's what I had to fit time in to watch this movie. That is how dedicated I am to this show. It's a good thing it was a short movie. You know, it reminded me. For some reason, I kept thinking about Red Belt. Do you remember Red Belt, Sonny? Yeah, sure. Love that movie.
Sonny00:34:36The David Mamet. Chiwetel Ejiofor starring David Mamet movie about Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
JVL00:34:44Some Brazilian jiu-jitsu and there's always an escape. This whole movie felt. Very Mamet like you have a bunch of characters who are all bleakly and meshed together, but they all have their own agendas and what those are are actually being hidden from you. And yet the thing is, is about another thing as you said, like a game on top of a game on top of a game. And I found it interesting in its own way. I mean, this is so Soderbergh. I find Soderbergh's career. Fascinating because this is a guy who has done just about everything. He has done big popcorny candy colored high grossing spectacle type movies like the Ocean's Eleven. He's done like incredibly successful indie cinema like out of sight. And he has done insane gonzo like masturbatory or tour type private filmmaking. Like. Schizopolis, you know, and it's unclear like what he wants to do. I just find it. I'm not part of me is like maddened by Soderbergh's career because I just you've got all this talent. He's so good at everything. Just go and go and make really good movies. But he can't just like make himself make good like he wants to experiment and try different things. And I don't know how to do anything but really respect the heck out of this. I mean, in a way, this is like the girlfriend experience where it's like, you know, he's found a little subculture that he just wants to take. Out and hold and examine for 90 minutes. Right. I mean, do you see that? Yeah, yeah, totally.
Sonny00:36:25I mean, I what's what's interesting again to me about the film is that it is not really about the NBA, but it is but it is very much about the ideas that go into professional sports and and and the relationship between owners and players. Bill Duke, the great Bill Duke. I love Bill Duke. Most people will remember for Predator, but he's fantastic.
JVL00:36:48I think raw. Yeah.
Sonny00:36:50And he he plays a he plays kind of a wise old black basketball coach who remembers the long ago, the you know, the before time before the NBA, when there were when there was a barnstorming. Right. When they when you had kind of competing and not really a Negro league, but you know, but and he's like he he regrets that that world doesn't exist anymore. He's like, we gave it up for more money. And, you know, the trying to reconcile the the the problem. The problem of freedom and money, which, again, as you mentioned, is kind of the this is the Soderbergh career in a nutshell. I mean, Steven Soderbergh could be getting 15 million dollars a picture directing, you know, George Clooney and Brad Pitt once every two years in some sort of heist action film if he wanted. And I think it's pretty clear he doesn't want that. He wants to he wants to make movies with his iPhone and he wants to he wants to do things that are interesting to him. You know. I called this a movie of ideas and it's like such a movie of ideas that it literally comes with a homework assignment at the end of the film.
JVL00:37:58Yeah. Like we tell you the book to read. Right. Right.
Sonny00:38:00So through the whole movie, the basketball player has been carrying this closed package with him that the agent has given to him and he opens it up at the end and it's the revolt of the black athlete, which is kind of a seminal work of of of I don't know how to describe it history, but also. A protest literature. I actually read it because I wanted to to to do a piece for the for the Washington Post on this.
JVL00:38:26And it's did you read the book at the end of the movie?
Sonny00:38:32Pass. Pass. And it in the book itself is is also fascinating. Again, it's like super left wing agitprop. It's like, you know, the black athletes need to stop playing sports until people give, you know, give everybody equality and and it literally ends with a warning that if things do not improve, we will murder white people as they come to the games in the inner cities. And if, you know, I can't imagine people are going to keep coming to sports games when we're blowing up stadiums. It's like it's literally there's like literally a terroristic threat at the end of the book, which is interesting and kind of absent from this movie. It's a reminder that the 60s, the late 60s and early 70s were a weird and bad time. Angry. An angry time. Um, so this movie, this movie, uh, is not, is not angry in the same way. It's more clever, I think. Uh, but it is, it is.
JVL00:39:28Well, not everybody is interested in doing what the protagonist, the sports agent who is the one who is thinking about all of this and who wants to blow up the system. Not, not everybody is interested in doing this. And so like his client, the, the young number one overall lottery pick, uh, just wants to play in the NBA. He is not interested in taking apart the system. Uh, his assistant. Sam played by Zazie, Zazie Beetz, who is German American, even though she is, is, is black, not African American, but German American who you will, other people will know as Domino from the Deadpool. Oh, right. Uh, and she's great. She's just a movie star in training, obviously. Uh, but what she wants to do is she wants to run the NBA players association. Like that's what she wants to do. She has no interest in blowing. She's like happy to do all the machinations. Because that's what she's interested in. Um, but she just wants power. Uh, and so it's not even clear to me that Soderbergh himself is in fully endorsing Ray's view of trying to blow up the system. He's just sort of interested in it.
Sonny00:40:31Well, I think it's so, uh, I think what he is doing here in, again, the game on top of the game is that this is, this is a warning. This film is a warning to the studios, which is he is saying, if you do not change your distribution methods. If you do not invest in things that, uh, that don't necessarily, if you do not invest in movies that need, uh, uh, you know, $50 million advertising budgets, uh, and if you do not, you know, try and expand the scope of the stories that you're telling, we're going to go somewhere else. We're going to take, we're going to take our talents to Netflix and, and we're going to hasten the destruction of your industry. Now, look, I, I have a lot of sympathy for the Steven Spielbergs of this world who want to, uh, who... Who, who are trying to kind of kneecap Netflix's ability to win Oscars by, you know, this was a big controversy earlier in the week that Spielberg said, you know, uh, the, there, there needs to be a four-week exclusive window of theatrical presentation for these films. And if you don't do that, if you don't have the exclusive four-week window, then you shouldn't be eligible for Oscars. He's right. He's right. I, I, look, I am, I, I actually agree with this. I mostly agree with this because destroying the theatrical model, which is what Netflix wants to do, would be bad for the industry. I think. I think. At least it would be bad for the, like, sort of movies that people want to watch. There, it's, it would be terrible for the Vic Mattises of the world who are not interested in the high-flying birds of the world. Cinema score zero. Cinema score D minus. Sorry, D minus. Sorry. Uh, but, but it is, but again, it's, this is, you know, it is, it's, it's all very interesting to me, even if the, the story itself that it is telling is not that super compelling.
JVL00:42:17Victorino. Yes. How would you compare high-flying bird with Green Book? Which is better? Oh my gosh. Which of those is the better movie?
Vic00:42:24Green Book is A plus plus. You remember if you were really good as a kid, you would just get the, you could go beyond a hundred and she'd go A plus plus. And that's, and, and this is like an F. This is like a waste of time. I don't know. For me, I, I love how they, I love how they tout this as from the director of Magic Mike and Ocean's Eleven. Oh my gosh, this is going to be something. And all of a sudden it's just people talking and that's it. I don't know. At least we're going to get to the part. There's no music. There's almost no music. There's music sort of in the beginning. There's no background track. In the end, there's nothing. It's like, but I mean, but this is, this is him doing his thing, as you say. And, and, and you want to get, you know, you want to get to the point of, okay, wait, when is this thing going to pick up? I appreciate a slow pace because sometimes it'll result in a good payoff in the end, you know? And instead you're like, okay, here comes the game. Oh, we don't actually see the game. Okay. We saw clips, maybe a little, a few scenes of it on the phone. So again, but what is he trying? What is he trying to do here? And as you mentioned, JVL, Soderbergh's been all over the map. And this reminded me more of Full Frontal than it did, obviously, of Ocean's Eleven.
JVL00:43:26Full Frontal, the most disappointed Victorino Matus has ever been leaving a movie theater.
Sonny00:43:31Except, except for Naked Bunch.
Vic00:43:33That's another one. No, you know why Full Frontal was disappointing? Because who is Full Frontal? Do you remember this? It was David Duchovny.
JVL00:43:39No, he doesn't actually do.
Vic00:43:41That's just the way he rolls over the sheet. Yeah, with Maria Bello, maybe?
Sonny00:43:45Sorry. Why do I even know that? It's funny, Vic says it's just people sitting around talking. And that's true, to a certain extent. But I do, just as a piece of filmmaking, I kind of love the fact that, again, this was shot on an iPhone. And it's really proof that the thing that matters most in filmmaking is not necessarily movement, though there are some great, there's this great scene where Ray, the agent, is shooting hoops and the camera's kind of going around in a circle around them and it's all in one take. And it's very well in the world. It's very well done. It's very well done. And it's like, I'm watching this, I'm like, wow, how did they do that with an iPhone camera? It's a simple shot, but it's still like more complicated than you would think. But like all of the talking is actually very interesting because it's shot from these kind of weird angles, from below, from above. This is classic Soderbergh. Whoa! Things are falling apart over there.
JVL00:44:41Put that pop filter back on. We can't have you without that.
Sonny00:44:47What was I saying? I don't even remember.
Vic00:44:52I was going to say something about that scene. The camera moving around. Yeah.
JVL00:44:54You can shoot dialogue in interesting ways.
Sonny00:44:56You can shoot dialogue in interesting ways. The thing that matters most in cinema is the angles. This is the lesson that Greg Tolan and Citizen Kane taught us, which is that if you shoot things from interesting angles, you can make anything look kind of epic in scope. And that is what is done throughout this movie. I mean, every time I see two people in this movie. I'm talking. I'm trying to figure out where exactly the camera is. And it's usually below somebody's knees or above them from the sky or right in front of their face. I was trying to think of how they're doing these close-ups. And I'm guessing that a lot of the times the camera is about six inches from somebody's face while they're shooting. You can't rank zoom on an iPhone. Right. Right. So anyway, as a piece of filmmaking, it is, I thought, a pretty interesting little experiment.
JVL00:45:45It's an exercise. Right. I mean, this movie is an exercise. It is not for a mass audience. It is for people who are.
Sonny00:45:57Yes, this is going to be one of our lowest downloaded episodes, I know, because people are going to be like, high-flying bird. Let me tell you this.
Vic00:46:02When I went to look for it on Netflix, it was not under popular titles on Netflix. I went all the way across. It was not. I'm like, wait a minute.
JVL00:46:09But this is a Netflix movie. So I would say qua ideas, though, they're the one thing that I was slightly disappointed with, is that the movie does not grapple with the real left-wing critique, which is the power of capital, right? I mean, the Thomas Piketty version of this argument is not a starry-eyed, oh, the athletes can, they can take control of the game if only they would have the smarts or the da-da-da. The Thomas Piketty complaint here is that they can't take control of it because capital is so overvalued that the work. Workers themselves are actually kind of incidental.
Sonny00:46:50Well, this is, so this is a real problem with the kind of idea of the film, as you say, is that changing your overlords from, you know, 30 guys in suits who own the stadiums and all that, and instead making it a corporation in San Jose somewhere. Right. Still an overlord. Working the streaming rights. And there's another moment where in the film they compare it to boxing. They say, you know, we can have these one-on-one things. And we'll, we'll pay, we'll sell pay-per-views and it'll be like boxing. And that would be really great for like LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. They could do like one-on-one matches and people would throw down 20 or 30 bucks on pay-per-view and they, you, you could watch that. But like you're radically shrinking the size of the number of people who could actually make a living doing it. There would be superstars and then there would be, it would be very much like boxing. Boxing. Could you imagine trying to make a living as an undercard fighter?
JVL00:47:44There is no boxing union that is guaranteed. You healthcare for the rest of your life after you've left professional boxing.
Sonny00:47:51Yeah. Right. I mean, this is, I mean, boxing is, is the worst thing. Yes. That, that you could hope for as a professional athlete.
JVL00:47:57Yes. And anyway, and the, that this didn't, I wouldn't say that the Soderbergh needed to grapple with it, but the, the fact that there was not even a nod in the direction of how, and this is, again, it's my, my commie viewpoint, which is very sympathetic, is that the root problem of this is capital and the, the, the power of the people who own it. Own the mediums. Right. I mean, it isn't even the NBA that's all that important. It's like the TV rights. Right. So you are, the NBA is only important. So, and so how it negotiates the contracts with the TV partners, et cetera.
Vic00:48:29I wondered if Netflix, if Soderbergh was required to mention Netflix in the movie.
JVL00:48:33So he, so he.
Vic00:48:35Because they mentioned Hulu in a very disparaging way.
JVL00:48:37So this, so the movie was done independently of Netflix. So Soderbergh shot the movie and made it and then took it around the festival circuit and Netflix bought it. So this was not a net. It wasn't like the Scorsese Irish mailman thing where they, you know, gave him a budget. And this was, this is Terrell Alvin McCraney, who is the Moonlight guy. This is his.
Sonny00:48:57He wrote the play that Moonlight is based on, right? Did he actually write Moonlight as well?
JVL00:49:01He, he is a story credit for Moonlight and, and he wrote this. And I would say as a piece of, right, it feels like a theater. Again, it just feels like Mammoth, right? All the dialogue is so stripped down except for when it's purposely flowery and, and it's nothing ever fully. It totally pays off, but it doesn't pay off in interesting ways. You know, like, like when Ray sort of is preaching to, there's a scene at the basketball camp where Ray is called upon to vamp while he's waiting for his, his player to show up and be the star. And he begins a sermon that sort of promises that he's going to say something really interesting to the kids. And he gets all the way up to the edge of it and he backs off. Yeah. But I didn't feel like it was a backing off in a disappointing way. So, you know what I'm saying? Like, I would say it's, it's a burlesque almost in a way.
Vic00:49:44When you talk about Mammoth, and I don't mind, I don't mind movies. Where it's a lot of dialogue. I love Glen Gary, Glen Ross. I mean, that's up there for me, but this, I just did not find this compelling. There was a lot of, there's just, I felt like a lot of dead time and maybe it's because there's no music either, but I mean, it's just like, anyway, it's not my expectation of what, you know, a movie, you know, what this, I mean, it was obviously a little bit more action, a little bit more, I don't know, Jerry Maguire. I watched the trailer.
JVL00:50:10I said, oh, he's a sports agent.
Vic00:50:11Maybe this is like Jerry Maguire, but it was not like Jerry Maguire. For our listeners out there, it was not like Jerry Maguire.
JVL00:50:17My favorite Steven Soderbergh movie, Sonny Bunch. Didn't we do this? Didn't we do a Soderbergh? We did do it. We did do it. We did do it.
Vic00:50:23We did do it.
Sonny00:50:24I can't remember what I said that time. I'll go with Ocean's Eleven.
Vic00:50:27I still have a special place in my heart for Out of Sight. I really think that, I love Steve Zahn. However, let me say this. Out of Sight is? What?
JVL00:50:36Out of Sight.
Vic00:50:37Come on. He would have said that. Now he's preparing for his arraignment.
Sonny00:50:41He's got things to do.
Vic00:50:42He's got things to do. Over the weekend, I saw with my wife. My wife and son, again, Logan Lucky. And you know what? I liked it even more the second time than the first. It's a really good movie. And I just really thought it was great. There's a movie for you. That's a, there's a heist flick. Okay, so JVLU, you have Soderbergh thoughts.
JVL00:51:06Oh, I don't know. Hilarious. I would say of his small movies, I'm really very fond of Haywire.
Sonny00:51:15Yeah. I am too, except my issue with that is that, so that's with Gina Carano, right? Yes. Did they, they dubbed her? Did they not? I don't believe so. Did you, is that what, there was something weird going on with her, her voice work. I couldn't remember. But, but no, I like it a lot. I like it a lot. And Gina Carano is great in it. She has like an actual physicality that, that like is lacking in a lot of, say, I don't know, big budget movies about. About aliens. Make her Elektra and sell all the movie tickets. But Jennifer Garner is so good as Elektra.
Vic00:51:54Okay. Okay. Do we have any more High Flying Bird thoughts before we move on? Nah. Okay, good. Good. Good. We're done with this. You're better off, listeners, don't watch High Flying Bird. Next week we'll be talking about Captain Marvel. Yes. It's going to be, yes. That'll be a much better. Three dudes talking about Captain Marvel.
Sonny00:52:11Are we allowed to talk about Captain Marvel? I don't know. We got to, we got to get our permits.
Vic00:52:15We'll get, we'll get to that. It's going to be a much better investment of your listening time. But speaking of investments, Robinhood is an investing app that lets you buy and sell stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptos all commission free. While other brokerages charge up to $10 for every trade, Robinhood doesn't charge any commission fees. So you can trade stocks and keep all of your profits. Plus, there is no account minimum deposit needed to get started so you could start investing at any level. The simple, intuitive design of Robinhood makes investing easy for newcomers and experts alike. View easily. Easy to understand charts and market data and place a trade in just four taps on your smartphone. You can also view stock collections such as 100 Most Popular. With Robinhood, you can learn how to invest in the market as you build your portfolio. Discover new stocks, track your favorite companies, and get custom notifications for price movements so you never miss the right moment to invest. Robinhood is giving listeners of the Sub-Beacon a free stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint to help you build your portfolio. Sign up at Sub-Beacon. Sub-Beacon.Robinhood.com. Corrections, additions. I do have a clarification. People were asking about this on Twitter before you left Twitter, JVL. There was some discussion about Girl Next Door and, oh, what a terrible movie, what a dark movie it is. I thought it was a great movie. Mike Goldfarb's favorite movie ever. It is perhaps the best review we've, the best review the standard ever, the daily standard ever produced. Do you remember? I believe Goldfarb reviewed it. Goldfarb published, Goldfarb reviewed it. You published it then, I think. There must have been, I don't know if you can ever find that review anywhere, but it is, it had me in stitches because it was echt Goldfarb, as they say. Another thing was somebody asking about Wild Things versus Cruel Intentions. And what did I, yes.
Sonny00:54:04Wild Things is a million times better than Cruel Intentions.
Vic00:54:06I like Cruel Intentions. I think JVL, JVL and I were in a different place at that time.
JVL00:54:11It was the 90s. Cruel Intentions is such a tease. First of all, it's not a tease. First of all, it has Sarah Michelle Gellar, who at that point was the, the true good girl of like teen TV, have that moment where she is walking her fingers down her decolletage and saying to Ryan, Ryan Phillippe, he says, if you do, I'll let you put it anywhere. It's just this moment of like, oh my God, Sarah Michelle Gellar just offered to scream. Okay. Can we even?
Vic00:54:46Does that, do you have to bleep that?
JVL00:54:48No, you don't have to bleep that.
Vic00:54:50You don't have to bleep that. I, that was, I know, I know. And, and I like that. I love that. Also, it's a great movie.
JVL00:54:57They're both great movies. Was this a question of like greater sign, lesser sign?
Vic00:55:00Yeah. On Twitter, people were, I said, no, I totally like Cruel Intentions. And you know, what's even better than that is Cruel Intentions 2. But moving on. I didn't see that. There was a sequel. Not with any of those stars. Weren't there some twins? Yes. In Cruel Intentions 2? Yes. As you know, with these sequels that try to, and like the main stars are the first one. And Amy Adams is in that, isn't she?
Sonny00:55:19Doesn't Amy Adams take the Sarah Michelle Gellar role?
Vic00:55:22Sonny, you know so much about Cruel Intentions 2.
Sonny00:55:24Have a review. I mean, I've seen, I've seen all of these movies, obviously, but like. I've never seen Cruel Intentions 2.
JVL00:55:29Should I see it on Dailymotion? Yes.
Vic00:55:36I was going to say Vimeo. Vimeo or Dailymotion. Either one. Cruel Intentions 2. Just type it in. Okay. Just type it in.
JVL00:55:43It's there. I have a question. A serious question before we close this out. Does your situation, Victorino, mean that Spirit of the Week is dead?
Vic00:55:55Well, we haven't had a Spirit of the Week in a while. But I know, but that's all just been because of circumstance. No, no, no. Don't stop. Listeners, please don't stop sending us your liquor. Does this mean that we have to kill Spirit of the Week, kill it dead to save you? No, no, no. Because I just have to have a sip. I'd rather Vic died. Yeah, or that. I was going to say a sip or die. Either one. Yeah, yeah. We'll be fine without that. Okay. That's all the time that we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, complaints, compliments, tweet us at Victorino Matus, at Sonny Bunch. Don't tweet at me. I'm not there anymore.
Sonny00:56:28JVL has burned Twitter to the ground.
Vic00:56:30Again, be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes or Google Play. Just type in Sub-Beacon under Podcasts. We're there. Leave a review. Tell your friends. Until next time. So are you getting – did you get your tickets yet for Captain Marvel? Because I probably won't be able to now. It's already sold out, I'm assuming, in the local northern Virginia area.
JVL00:56:56So I texted – did I text just Sonny or did I text both of you guys this? I was in the grocery store the other day. You texted both of them. And I overheard just like, you know, the 22-year-old stock boys all standing around talking about how they had already bought their tickets. And they were so excited for this movie.
Sonny00:57:12I think this – This is going to open larger than it's tracking. They're tracking it between 100 and 120 basically. I would be surprised if it is not in the 125 to 150 range. I'll take the over. You'll take the over 150? Yes. I could see it. I could see it. I think it's going to be – I think people are very hype on it.
JVL00:57:33Do you know why? Because we don't have any strong female leads in movies anymore.
Sonny00:57:39There's never been an action movie or comic book movie that has – There's never been a single standalone female lead. Never. Never.
JVL00:57:45And so the appetite is there for people to have it in the person of a wooden actress with no screen charisma.
Vic00:57:54Oh, come on. Save it for next week's show.
JVL00:57:57Save it for next week's show. Like Gal Gadot who is in fact wildly charismatic. Very charming. But I think does not have the correct political opinions. So therefore, what's her face? Greater sign Gal Gadot, right? Is this where we're all headed to? Brie Larson. Brie Larson.
Vic00:58:13I was going to say Alison Brie Larson.
JVL00:58:16I'm sure that's fine.
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