Transcript of 70mm’s The Notebook (2004) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday, I sit down to talk about recently watched movies with my dear friend and artist Danny Haas.
DANNY His board shorts underwear — excuse me.
SLIM And our spiritual advisor, Protolexus.
PROTO Don’t you think it look like Benedict had a turd in his pants the whole time though?
SLIM Later in this episode, we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with The Notebook from 2004. Is old love the best love? And should you fornicator in an old haunted house? Let’s find out… now.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM What should we start off with? Do we want to start off with the Oscars?
DANNY Big time.
SLIM Oscar nominash — the buzz this week. Everyone’s excited in our Discord about this. The excitement levels are palpable. I think there’s whispers that former producer of this show Ian, now disgraced, he might do a special episode in the TAPEDECK Network covering the Oscar buzz.
PROTO Live from the red carpet. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Where’s Proto’s buzz level about this year’s Oscars? You know the last time we talked about the Oscars on this podcast was our second episode ever. And that was the last time we ever mentioned the word Oscars. [Danny laughs]
PROTO I don’t know. I don’t know. Um, I don’t think I’ve watched it recently. My antenna is not set up. So I don’t know if I can, unfortunately. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Your leaf antennae is not like attached to a wall near a window to get the access to the Oscars?
PROTO I’m just assuming like why connect it if Alvin’s just going to break the TV then I’ll have to unscrew it again. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Your son would just see red in his eyes if he saw a cord hanging from a TV near a window. That’s child’s play. He’d be tearing that thing down.
PROTO Yeah, the TV’s getting pulled off the shelf or that window’s coming down. One of the two.
SLIM So alright, so Proto has no clue what’s happening with the Oscars. Let’s just get to the nitty gritty. The best picture noms. Okay?
DANNY Best. Picture.
SLIM Best Picture noms. Is it on this one?
PROTO I’m look at the list right now.
SLIM Rattle them off, Proto. Let the audience know what you’re thinking about.
PROTO Belfast. CODA. Don’t Look Up. Drive My Car. Dune. King Richard. Licorice Pizza. Nightmare Alley. The Power of the Dog. And West Side Story. There’s some solid three star movies in there. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Two of the worst movies ever on that list too. My god.
SLIM Did both of you or just one of you watch Nightmare Alley? I know Danny, you just posted a review of it.
DANNY I just watched it, yeah.
PROTO I plan to, this week.
DANNY It’s good. It’s long… and good. But my problem with it — and this is something that I didn’t really ever want to talk about is —
SLIM Oh!
DANNY In the beginning of this movie — I’m not spoiling anything — there’s a couple of shots with Bradley Cooper. And he’s wearing a fedora.
SLIM Local boy.
DANNY And, in my mind, I don’t want Harrison Ford ever recast as Indiana Jones. But a couple of shots of Bradley in a fedora in the beginning of this film had… my… I was…
PROTO Really?
SLIM Your face started like, you did it where your head moves forward and your eyes look above your glasses at the TV.
DANNY I took a few screenshots of this. I was baffled.
PROTO Wow.
SLIM You heard it here first.
DANNY Yeah… it was interesting. So that’s what I was thinking about most of the time watching this movie.
SLIM But you gave it three stars. Right?
DANNY I think three, three and a half. It’s good. I enjoyed it.
SLIM My God. Some of the screenshots are legit.
PROTO Wow!
SLIM That looks like Bradley trying to be like an older — oh, that’s you, Danny posted that. The middle one is insane!
DANNY Right? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. I saw these shots of Bradley wearing a fedora and I’m like, this is Indiana Jones. Can we get some —
SLIM We’ll get someone on it.
PROTO Is he an archaeologist in this? What is he? [Slim laughs]
DANNY Might as well be.
SLIM One of the other movies that jumps out at me, I’m not going to talk about episode 91 right now, in particular, but The Power of the Dog is nominated.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
SLIM And Danny finally checked that off his list.
DANNY I did.
SLIM And it sounded like you had a really good experience.
DANNY I did. You two had both watched it and raved about it. Matt more than Proto, but that’s typical.
PROTO Thank you.
DANNY And so I was ready to watch it finally. I love Benedict. I love Kirsten. I love Jesse. So I think them in this film is some of the best performances I’ve seen out of the three of them. Benedict alone. But this movie is also beautiful. The scenery of New Zealand that we’re supposed to believe is Montana is gorgeous. And it’s a really good story. I really enjoyed a lot of Jane Campion giving the middle finger to toxic masculinity. It was impressive. I really liked it.
SLIM I think I said it in the last time episode we talked about it. But that one scene with the hand. Jane Campion always does these hand shots.
DANNY Yeah. A lot of great shots in this film. Insanely beautiful film.
PROTO Don’t you think it look like Benedict had a turd in his pants the whole time though? [Danny laughs]
DANNY That’s how chaps work.
PROTO When he was walking around.
SLIM That’s why they wear chaps.
PROTO Is that how chaps work?
SLIM Do we have any cowboys in chat tonight?
DANNY I don’t think so.
SLIM Don’t Look Up.
DANNY Oh god.
SLIM Also nominated Best Picture of the Year. I made an observation in chat this week, in our Discord that you can join us on our Patreon, that all the people I would consider casual movie watchers love Don’t Look Up.
DANNY Right?!
PROTO The normies.
DANNY That’s such a great observation.
SLIM Normies you would call them. And we scored pretty low for that film.
PROTO I’m personally predicting a Don’t Look Up win for Best Picture.
SLIM Whoaaa.
PROTO That’s my dark horse.
SLIM Take that to the bank.
DANNY That’s scary.
PROTO Because…
DANNY Tell us.
PROTO If I’m wrong, no one will remember. But if I’m right, I’ll never let anyone forget it. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Drive My Car also has some buzz in our community this week. People are starting to see that in theaters. There were whispers that Danny might try to go see this after Ian’s, former producer of the show, five star rating of this movie. West Side Story only Danny has seen but I heard tell that that was coming to Disney+ very soon.
DANNY Interesting.
SLIM Proto, are you going to watch West Side Story on Disney+?
PROTO I would like to. You know, I never get around to watching all the best picture noms. But you know, I want to make a shot a go for it this time, especially with how things are coming to streaming. I need some kind of list. A way to keep track of these movies that are coming to streaming. There’s a lot. I feel like every other day, they’re like, oh, this movie is coming to streaming, duh-duh-duh, two weeks or whatever. And I can’t keep track of all of them. If only there was a way that, you know, be aware.
SLIM You have 99% of our Discord channels muted. That’s how you’re not aware of anything that’s going on. [Danny laughs] You see one random mention on Twitter, you’re like what the hell? When did this happen?
PROTO It’s my own fault. [Slim and Danny laugh]
SLIM The other ones I have not seen. King Richard, I don’t really have a huge desire to see. Belfast. CODA.
DANNY I think Belfast is the next one I’m gonna watch with Casey. Yeah.
SLIM Licorice Pizza, which I loved.
DANNY You loved it.
SLIM PTA.
PROTO I’m looking forward to seeing that
DANNY On Disney+? [Slim & Proto laugh]
PROTO You know, once it comes to Disney+. I don’t know. Whenever it goes to VOD I guess.
SLIM Any other nominations you wanted to point out that jumped out, Danny?
DANNY Actor in a Leading Role. I am pulling very hard for Andrew Garfield to win for tick, tick… Boom!
SLIM Ya boi.
DANNY My love for him in that film. And I feel a little bit torn after watching The Power of the Dog today because Benedict is really good in that. So if either of them win, I’d be very happy. But yes, I would love for Andrew to win.
SLIM Okay. Olivia Colman. I had watched The Lost Daughter, thought she was tremendous in that.
DANNY Oh yeah! I keep forgetting about that movie. I love Olivia.
SLIM I’m trying to get my hands on this Parallel Mothers picture, that’s also pretty spicy in our Discord. So I want to see if I get my hands on that.
PROTO How ‘bout Penelope Cruz nominated? Okay!
DANNY Wait, Nicole Kidman was nominated for Being the Ricardos?
SLIM Yeah.
DANNY Interesting. Who’s running the show over there?
SLIM I don’t know, these biopics. I don’t really get it.
PROTO They love the biopics.
SLIM Doesn’t make sense to me. Worst Person in the World was nominated for Best International Feature Film and I think screenplay.
DANNY Wow.
SLIM Loved that. Jane Campion. I think the first woman ever to be nominated twice.
DANNY Hopefully not the first woman beaten twice by Spielberg.
SLIM Spielberg! Retire, please. [Slim laughs] Don’t retire, I’m just kidding!
PROTO What’s interesting is that I feel like there’s no stone cold locks in here. You know in years past there’s been things that, like I remember Joaquin, it was like, he’s gonna win for Joker no matter — like he was just like a strong front runner and usually I feel like there’s at least one in either like actor or actress where it’s like really, really strong. But this year, or maybe I’m just I don’t know enough about these performances, but I haven’t heard anyone saying like, oh, yeah, this one’s you know, certified.
SLIM Jess calls out there’s some buzz that Will Smith will finally win the big one for King Richard.
DANNY Maybe.
SLIM His time, quote.
DANNY I mean, I’m pulling hard for Encanto so our boy Lin can get his EGOT. You know?
PROTO EGOT? What’s an EGOT?
SLIM No idea.
DANNY Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. And with a P, Pulitzer.
SLIM When will Lin finally get the recognition he deserves?
DANNY It’s time. It really is time. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Proto, any nominations that jumped out to you before we proceed with a big episode this week?
PROTO I was just looking around. Oh, the only thing I wanted to — you know, I don’t really care much about this. But the only thing that did make me a little sad is that The French Dispatch did not get a single nomination.
DANNY Oh, wow. Not one?
PROTO And I watched that this week, finally, Wes Anderson’s newest flick. And I gave it four stars. I had a really great time. I think it’s a beautiful movie. I know some people were lukewarm on this, but I like this more than his last one — what was it? The Grand Budapest Hotel. And even like the Isle of Dogs. I was like lukewarm on those. But this one, I feel like he’s back to form. I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it was the costumes and the sets and just, you know, the whole aesthetic. He’s so precise. Just every shot was gorgeous. I really liked it. Did you see it Danny?
DANNY No, I keep forgetting it came out. So I need to watch it. Because I think my last favorite of his was Moonrise Kingdom, I liked more than Grand Budapest. But yeah, I’m looking forward to French Dispatch.
SLIM For folks in our VHS Village community, we do have something happening, maybe you don’t agree with French Dispatch not being nominated. But we have the Golden VHS Awards that are being put on by some friends of ours in the Discord, rwt_chats. So let me just quote: Are you feeling upset about who’s nominated? Feel like you could do a better job? Well, now’s your chance. The Golden VHS Awards in the VHS Villages own better awards ceremony. So we’ll have a link for patrons that want to contribute. Maybe it’s time to right some wrongs. Maybe this is French Dispatch’s time, Proto, to get it’s due. Maybe Denis will finally get his due, after that gigantic snub, that I was hearing about in the Dune Pod Discord. No nomination for Best Director.
PROTO I heard someone call it ‘Horse S’ [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM So by all means, take part in, you know, our own awards happening in the Discord. We’ll have some fun together. Proto, you watched a different movie this week that got a really low rating. And this is a jury that we thought was finished last week. We thought we were over this, but you’re continuing your Marvel Cinematic journey. You watched Ant-Man and gave it one star.
PROTO Yeah. Yeah, me and my son. You know, he was asking. He said, hey, hey, Dad. What about those Marvel movies? Huh? You forgot about those? What about our thing where we watch these? So I said okay, so we’re looking. We want we watched the first Avengers. So now we’re suddenly, we’re in the phase two. And I’m flipping through the phase two movies. And I’m looking at what’s available. And there’s Guardians of the Galaxy in there. And I said, you know, we can’t watch those. I think there’s like Thor Dark World. Sounds like trash. Then there’s the Cap movies that are trash. So I said, well, I haven’t seen Ant-Man, so let’s put that on.
SLIM Paul Rudd, Sexiest Man Alive himself.
PROTO Yeah, it’s, you know, it’s a good thing that Paul Rudd is one of the most charming men in Hollywood, because that’s about all this movie had going for it. Man, it was bad. Yeah, I gave it a one star. This is my first garbanzo of the year. Yay!
SLIM I was about to ask. [Slim & Danny laugh] I was just about to ask, the last Proto garbanzo, we used to have a list on Spotify of like all the episodes that Proto has given a garbanzo rating and that sort of fell off but these are some of my favorite moments were part of despises the movie so much to give it a one star rating.
PROTO Yeah, I mean, I was looking left I was looking right. I was like, did Jon Favreau write this movie? [Danny & Slim laugh] But no, it’s just — yeah. I mean, what are you gonna do? It’s just Ant-Man.
SLIM Not good, not good. If you were to give a star rating on the season finale of The Book of Boba Fett, what would you give it?
DANNY Stop! I haven’t seen it yet.
SLIM Just a star rating, it’s not a spoiler.
PROTO Uh… one star. [Slim laughs]
DANNY On the finale?!
PROTO Yeah.
DANNY Now I gotta watch it. Crap.
SLIM I have a lot of questions about people in charge of Star Wars after the finale of The Book of Boba Fett. I have a lot of questions.
PROTO There’s something wrong. There’s something wrong in the Disney Studio.
SLIM Something is moldy in the offices of Star Wars at Disney+. Proto, any of the movies you want to talk about this week?
PROTO Oh, so I watched, I finally watched The Shape of Water. So I want to watch Nightmare Alley, but for our VHS Village Secret Santa, I was given The Shape of Water. And I thought well, before I watch Guillermo’s newest movie, let me let me watch this one first. So kartooner in the Village, he gave it to me. And I got to put it on. And it’s a gorgeous movie. It really is. I mean, remember when we did Pan’s Labyrinth?
SLIM Oh, yeah.
DANNY Scotty.
SLIM Scotty Young, artist extraordinaire.
PROTO You know, I feel like I just You got to watch all of Guillermo’s movies just for how beautiful they are. I gave it three stars. I thought it was really good. It just didn’t really. I guess the story didn’t hit me as hard as I guess I would want it to. Michael Shannon is incredible in this movie. He’s, he’s really compelling. Like anything he’s doing on the screen, you know, my eyes are glued to what he’s doing. So I enjoyed it. Yeah. Now I’m going to now on to nightmare alley and we’ll see what happens.
SLIM Remember Michael Shannon in the Man of Steel? Zod. I’d love to do a Man of Steel episode.
DANNY Excuse me.
SLIM My rating continues to go higher each viewing of Man of Steel.
DANNY I know! I know!
SLIM How high can it go? You know? Is this our year for Man of Steel?
PROTO Wow.
DANNY I think so. Is there a special anniversary coming up?
SLIM That could be. Let’s just make up an anniversary.
DANNY I like that.
PROTO I mean, it has an anniversary this year, so let’s just do it.
SLIM Is it 10 years Kev? 10th anniversary Man of Steel. Stay tuned. We should call out, you know, last week we talked about it in discussion we had with our friends at Movies Anywhere for the comment of the night in chat. Whoever had the best comment of the night got a free bundle from our friends at movies anywhere for some Valentine’s Day themed movies. PS I love you, which we called out, Danny’s favorite, Love Actually, Brokeback Mountain, which was last week’s episode. And finally this week’s episode, The Notebook. So it could be you who win all those romantic loving movies. And let me get through the legalese. You can redeem these movies, the digital code can be redeemed at Movies Anywhere only. Registration with Movies Anywhere required. Open to US residents 13 and up. So apologies to our international friends. Download the free Movies Anywhere app or visit moviesanywhere.com to redeem your code. Who’s it going to be? Kurtz won last week.
PROTO Is Casey here? Is she gonna pick again?
SLIM Casey, can you choose a winner tonight? Are you taking notes? Casey, please? Um, is it my turn to talk about a movie? Do we want to talk about the big one that I watched this week?
DANNY Ohhhh, yes.
SLIM Celine Sciamma. Last — was it two years ago now? We talked about Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Proto and I had that date at the Ritz Theatre in Philadelphia.
DANNY Unreal.
SLIM Probably the last time Proto has been in a theater for all I know. [Slim laughs] So she has another movie out Petite Maman. And it’s it’s kind of like, I’m like annoyed because there’s no like mainstream buzz about it. Like Portrait of a Lady on Fire kind of like broke through the barriers of like, what could be a mainstream international film, at least for me anyway. We did a great episode on it. And so I was like, oh my god, I cannot wait to see what else she does. And this one came out and I was like, oh my gosh, she’s doing a new movie and it’s like 70 minutes long.
DANNY It was 70 minutes?!
SLIM Yeah, it’s short!
DANNY Holy cow.
SLIM And I think it’s going to be streaming on Mubi M U B I, in late February and hopefully wider this year. All that to say is I don’t know if it’s going to get like a big Hulu deal or whatever like Portrait does. So I’ll read the description this movie. Eight year old Nelly has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home. She explores the house and the surrounding woods where her mother used to play. And where she built the treehouse Nellie has heard so much about one day her mother suddenly leaves. That is when Nelly meets a girl of her own age in the woods building a treehouse. So it’s this really calm, quiet story about the mother and the little girl and this friend that she make. She meets in the woods, and they form a friendship there and then the storyline develops but it’s very quiet, very thoughtful. And I gave it five stars, five frickin stars.
DANNY My gosh!
SLIM Celine, I wrote my Letterboxd review, Celine Sciamma is a God after that movie. So I gave five stars. Nelly, the little girl is incredible young actress, the mother is also very good. And Nelly experiences something in this movie that is like I was at like a loss for words in the movie to be honest.
DANNY Oh my. Okay.
SLIM So I hope people can track this down. I don’t know if it’s getting like a theater release. Catching up in chat, Kev says they announced Petite Maman for MUBI US today after months of confirmation that will be available on MUBI overseas. So check out MUBI, I think MUBI you can probably get a free trial to watch it at the end of February. Otherwise hopefully it gets maybe like a Blu-ray release and you can grab that, but, oh boy, what a movie. Loved it.
PROTO Put it on the list. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Remind me about it sometime.
SLIM Imagine Proto and I seeing this movie in the Ritz Philadelphia, you know? That’s what should have happened.
PROTO When’s our next movie date? Huh? Huh?
SLIM That’s a real good question. That is a real good question. Real quick. Let’s say just say hello to some new patrons, new friends that joined us this week at 70mmpod.com. Alan, Richard, Michael, Aaron and Victor all joined this week. Get access to uncut episodes. Last week’s episode had like an extra 30 minutes.
DANNY Excuse me? That long?
SLIM Yeah, yeah. Bonus 30 minutes for our Brokeback episode if you’re into that kinda thing. You get discounts on Danny’s beautiful prints from our store. And maybe by the time this episode posts, there might be The Color of Money episode in the 70mm vault. [Danny & Proto laugh]
DANNY Stay tuned.
SLIM Juuuust maybe.
DANNY Just around the corner.
SLIM It could be available, we have like 25 episodes in there. Before we get into Brokeback, or not Brokeback, before we get into The Notebook, I put a poll up on Instagram.
DANNY Did you?
SLIM Do you love The Notebook movie?
DANNY Oh no.
SLIM I’m really fascinated to see the results. 57% said they do not love The Notebook.
DANNY Oooh, wow.
SLIM Yeah, Proto, your thoughts?
PROTO Is this is the most hated movie? [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM In the history of this podcast? [Slim laughs] But also before we get into that, I did want to mention that we give away free year of Letterboxd Pro to someone who shares the show on social media. Disclaimer, I’m a Letterboxd employee now. And this week’s winner, I think they might even be in chat. It’s Radley Relicks. Radley joined our Discord recently, they create these beautiful miniature dioramas. Orlando boy, as we call it in the pre-show, the LA of the East Coast. And I had this listed in my notes for last week, but I forgot to get to it. But we were talking about the Harry Potter episode. And they said couldn’t get enough. Couldn’t get enough, except for one maybe Proto’s unfounded, unhinged opinion on grown men wielding wands, hard disagree. [Danny laughs] Proto went off on that episode. Proto, your thoughts on that comment?
PROTO Yeah, well, a lot of — I’ve changed a lot of people’s mind over the years on the show. Okay? The whole Keaton, you know, which began as a controversy is almost you know what most people is like the majority opinion.
SLIM What is your opinion on Keaton?
PROTO That Michael Keaton is the worst — one of the worst Batmans. [Danny laughs]
DANNY The course correction.
PROTO You guys couldn’t believe that I said that. But now people are coming out, coming out of the woodwork, they’re seeing the light. So this is very common. So I’m sure, you know, the twig wielding, people will see that as well.
SLIM I can’t remember if this is in our Discord or if this is a tweet or Google News or something but there was like Pattinson is everywhere in all my apps now, like there’s a retweet of a Pattinson story for Batman. And it was like a Buzzfeed, like Pattison reveals why he held his won like a gun in Goblet of Fire or something like that. [Slim laughs] I didn’t even realize that, but I guess he held his won like a gun in the movie. Didn’t bother clicking on that. Something to think about, you know, as we as we proceed on our Harry Potter journey just for our supporters. Alright, enough of this. Let’s get into The Notebook.
DANNY Enough.
SLIM We thought this would be an ideal movie for Valentine’s Day. Actually, as I say that right now, I forgot that Valentine’s Day is coming up already. And I now have to figure something out.
DANNY You need to make plans.
SLIM Thankfully my wife hates that sort of thing. So it will be relatively easy. But, Proto, what is The Notebook?
[music from The Notebook plays]
PROTO Allie suffers from dementia and is unable to recognize her family or remember her own life. Each day her husband Noah faithfully introduces himself and seeks to stir the memories of Ali’s past by reading to her from his notebook. He tells the story of their love, from meeting in South Carolina in the summer of 1940. Through their breakup and eventual meeting again, Noah as a war vet, and Allie as soon to be bride. Through the retelling of their love story, Allie’s memories are rekindled even if we’re a few precious moments, their love unbroken. The Notebook.
SLIM Proto, did you see this in theaters? With Jenna? Was this a date night movie?
PROTO I don’t think so. No, no. I mean, this is 2004. I was just a wee lad. This is before I even met Jenna, this movie came out.
SLIM Danny and Casey will have dated for 15 years when this movie came out. [Danny laughs]
DANNY Listen, you are not wrong. But I think we were married for a year. [Slim & Proto laugh]
SLIM Cripes!
DANNY I believe we probably rented it. I don’t think we would, I don’t know if we saw theaters but I don’t think, I think this viewing was probably my second viewing of this ever. It’s definitely a rewatcher for me.
SLIM Proto, did you have this as watched? I forgot to look. Did you have anything?
PROTO Yeah, I’ve seen this at least twice.
SLIM Whoa!
DANNY Oh my.
PROTO I don’t remember the first time I saw it. Um, yeah, this movie is familiar to me. For sure.
SLIM A lot of buzz when this movie came out. We saw that MTV, you know, Movie Awards kiss between the two of them.
DANNY My gosh.
SLIM Very sexual guests on stage in front of many people. During the segment, you know, we watched the movie, each host jots down three things we want to talk about, top three moments, notes. Danny, what’s number one on your list? We’ll start with you.
DANNY Number one, I love the depiction of old love in this film. I love old Allie and Noah. I think they’re my favorite part of this movie, when they cut back to them. And Noah reading to Allie. I think Genna Rowland, I love her so much. When we did her movie, Woman Under the Influence with her husband, John, this is directed by her son Nick Cassavetes. And so there’s just something really precious about the two of them. I love old Noah reading to her, fighting for her. Even if it’s just for five minutes of remembering the life they had together. It really is something we don’t normally see in cinema. So yeah, that’s one of my favorite takeaways from this.
SLIM Garner, James Garner. Proto, your thoughts?
PROTO I felt a little overwhelmed by the depiction. At the end of this. I watched this with with Jenna, which was great. She was I said, we’re watching The Notebook this week. She was like, Okay, I’ll watch that with you. So we watched the whole thing. She stayed awake, it was great. But you know, at the end of this, I was laying in bed and I just, I don’t know, I don’t know if it was like anxiety, but I was just thinking like, at some point, we’re going to be like at the end of our relationship and like just thinking back to this time, where we are now and kind of like missing it. And just kind of like that existential like thought. I don’t know, it kind of like was —
SLIM Messing with your mind?
PROTO Like messing with my head a little bit this movie. Because it’s yeah, it’s hard when you think of yourself like in that position at like the last stage of life, especially if like your spouse is sick or if you’re alone, like I have a grandfather right now, my grandfather, he’s his wife is has been as passed away for like over 10 years now and it’s just him and like, every time I see him, that’s all he talks about. And just like that thought of being in that stage of life, it’s really, it’s heavy stuff.
DANNY Yeah, it’s a lot.
SLIM No young kids to break your flat screen TVs. [Danny & Slim laugh] Something to look forward to.
DANNY While we’re on it, let me read this quote that I love from Noah. It’s towards the end, I believe. And he says ‘I’m nothing special. Just a common man with common thoughts, and I’ve lead a common life.’
[clip of The Notebook plays]
NOAH There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect, I’ve succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived. I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and for me, this has always been enough.
DANNY Are you kidding me? [Slim laughs] I love it. I love love.
SLIM When I sat down to watch this, I actually couldn’t remember what the hell the plot of this movie was. I forgot that there was the older couple played by these two and then I was like, oh my god, Genna Rowlands. I know you. Like oh my god, your son direct this. So that was pretty cool. And I forgot that like, you know, she had like dementia doesn’t remember anything, doesn’t know her own family. So I was pretty surprised about that plot. I stayed away from this movie to the point where I went in pretty blind.
PROTO I actually said to Jenna a couple times, like are we watching a director’s cut? What is going on? Because there was like three or four scenes where I had no recollection of, almost to the point where, yeah, I was like, shocked to the point that I had no idea this was happening that I thought I was watching a different version of the movie, because I just couldn’t recall it.
SLIM Funny you said that, because I looked at Andy’s review from our Discord on Letterboxd and he calls out that the ending changed. So after the movie, I did some reading and the streaming version of the movie is different than the original ending.
PROTO What!
SLIM [Slim laughs] Proto’s face right now just went white. So the version we watched that he they climb into bed he’s like, do you think how powerful our love is, do you think we could just like die together here and you know in this moment?
DANNY I’ll be seeing you.
SLIM They talked about how you know our love can do anything and he says I’ll be seeing you, gets fade to black, the birds, they showed the birds, the ducks whatever, flying the background. The original ending, they do that, they hold hands, fade to black. But then the next day the nurse comes in and finds them dead to get them.
PROTO Oh my god you’re right! See, another scene I totally forgot about!
DANNY It’s such a better ending.
SLIM I don’t know — why change that?!
DANNY I don’t know!
SLIM The ending that we got stinks!
DANNY It’s funny cuz I didn’t remember it. And Casey while we were watching it, she was like they changed the ending! And I’m like, what are you talking about? And when she said what they had originally done with the death of the two of them and that slow pan, I had to watch it on YouTube. The slow pan out of them in the bed. Excuse me. It’s beautiful. Why would you change this?
SLIM Yeah, Jess says the Netflix Canada has the original one. But Netflix US originally changed it a couple of years ago. So something silly happening. I don’t know.
DANNY Yeah, I watched on HBO Max as well. And I was thrown.
PROTO Something I remember from the first time I saw this because then this the book was huge. At least that’s what I remember. Like, at least in my circle of friends. Like everybody had like a lot of people who read this book and it was like big. And what someone told me is that in the book, the last line of the book, is that like Allie, as like the, you know, in their older versions, they start unbuttoning their shirt. And that’s how the book ends. I thought like, what?! That’s like a crazy ending compared to what you get in the movie!
SLIM Really?
DANNY Saucy.
SLIM One last ride. [Danny laughs] Old people need love too, okay?
DANNY Yeah. 100%.
SLIM My first note was, I was so annoyed at one scene.
DANNY Let’s hear it.
SLIM Part of the story, I wrote in my review. So, Noah, you know, and Allie are reading the notebook outside? And then you know, this young family arrives and no is like, no these are my kids, obviously that’s, you know, their kids, like, oh, nice to meet you. I’m not your son, you know, nice to meet you. These aren’t your grandkids and they, you know, because she doesn’t remember they’re not going to bother dealing with, you know, that kind of discussion. And during that conversation, their kids know, as kids are like, Dad, you got to come home. This is too much. Who do you think you are to ask your dad to come home and leave your wife who’s going through this? I would slap that child! [Danny laughs] Eff you, dude! I couldn’t believe the gal of that family to say that to the dad. Oh my god, I was so angry at that scene. I couldn’t believe it.
DANNY I like it, though. Like I like it because it shows Noah’s intentions on fighting for her. For her memory, for the two of them. I like that part of the movie, even though I feel the same way you do.
SLIM You did a poor job raising these kids.
PROTO Um, I actually disagree. Because I think I think as a kid, I think if you saw what, what it could be like to have someone like that, like, just like the person you knew. And like, in your relationship shattered, you might feel differently. Of course, it’s like yeah, this is your this is your, your partner for your life. But from a kid’s perspective, I think I could understand that. Like, there’s so there’s this other movie called Still Alice and stars Julianne Moore, and it’s about early Alzheimer’s that she has. And it’s like a really powerful movie and just about this happening, of someone kind of like losing their memory, and what it does to your memory of a person. So I feel like I could, yeah, of course, it’s like, how could you tell a guy to like give up on the love of his life. But at the same time, if you saw, I think if you saw someone struggling the way they are day to day like fighting this impossible battle, I don’t know. I see where they’re coming from.
SLIM Mmm. Proto, what’s number one on your list for The Notebook?
PROTO Number one on my list is, Rachel McAdams is electric in this movie. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Yes!
PROTO I just love her performance. She is a firecracker. She has so much energy. And the way she just relates to Noah, the relationship. I just love it. And I just like smile, just like those scenes. I love the beach scene. I forgot about that scene. As soon as she’s like, do you believe in reincarnation? I started tearing up, I was like, oh my god! The whole bird thing. You know if you’re a bird, I’m a bird. God. I love. But like yeah, I just love her in this.
SLIM She had a stretch during this era. She had Mean Girls. She had this and then she was in Wedding Crashers. Remember that? She had quite a little mini run. I mean, she has a great career. But this is a big era for Rachel McAdams.
DANNY I read she had one night to prepare for this. She was already at a movie premiere when she was handed the script later on. She had one night to prepare her audition the next day. Beat out people for this. Yeah. Also, get this. When this first was picked up to be a movie, the first director attached was Steven Spielberg. Do you know who he wanted to play Noah, Slim?
SLIM Tom Cruise?
DANNY Yes!
SLIM Shot in the dark. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Can you imagine?! Can you imagine?
SLIM Mmm. I don’t know if I would like a Steven Spielberg version of this. I feel like Cameron Crowe of the era, like I can’t remember if Cameron — like when did Elizabethtown come out? That’s like when his career kind of just hit the dome.
DANNY So you like Elizabethtown?
SLIM I’ve never seen Elizabethtown. The buzz was so negative that I didn’t bother with it.
DANNY I think I saw it once. I feel like people hated that movie.
SLIM Orlando Bloom. Talk about a dud. Well, yeah, let’s talk about Ryan Gosling. I mean, this is before, this was like six or seven years before Drive and his career really, like took off in a big mainstream way. He looks young as hell in this movie! I’m so used to kind of like the grizzled more meatier Ryan Reynolds, he’s pretty thin. Like he’s string bean, but he’s pretty ripped.
PROTO He was 24.
SLIM Oh my god! Skinny sad boy Ryan Gosling, he looks young in this. That was my main note. Oh yeah post Remembers the Titans.
DANNY He’s in that?
PROTO Yeah, he’s the wide receiver.
SLIM Remember when we talked to like early on and doing Remember The Titans in the show and Proto almost like almost threw up?
DANNY Oh god, please don’t.
PROTO What?!
DANNY Thank you, Proto, 2 v 1.
SLIM The Denzel talk, early on.
PROTO No, I did not say that.
DANNY It was probably me almost throwing up.
SLIM Really? I thought it was simultaneous throw up for both of you. [Danny laughs]
PROTO I know I throw up a lot but I don’t always throw up, so.
SLIM Danny, number two on your list?
DANNY Number two, the chemistry between Ryan and Rachel and this film. From the get go. I am like grinning ear to ear watching these two together. I can’t help it. I can’t help every scene they’re in, just smiling. I think Proto even said that. Like it’s just hard because they’re both so lovable in this film. Ryan, I really love him in this. I read that he moved to Charleston for two months. And he rode that river daily and did woodworking to prepare for this role on the dinner table that we see the two of them after he makes the mansion as he built it. But anyway, I can’t get over them in this movie! [Slim & Proto laugh]
SLIM Oh, yeah. So the scenes early on, where they’re flirting with each other. And there’s a couple scenes where it looks like he laughs for real, like almost like improving and stuff. And those are some of my favorite scenes.
DANNY Right? It’s genuine!
SLIM Where they’re like making each other laugh and that’s still in the movie, that was really well done.
PROTO Yeah, when he stops her on the street after the whole ferris wheel ordeal. And she’s like saying what he can be or like he’s gonna be whatever you want. And she says, you’re dumb. And he says, I can be that.
[clip of The Notebook plays]
NOAH I can be fun, if you want. Pensive, smart, superstitious, brave. I can be light on my feet. I can be whatever you want. You just tell me what you want and I’ll be that for you.
ALLIE You’re dumb.
NOAH I could be that.
PROTO Yeah, that grin. He’s such a charmer. My God!
DANNY That grin! Ah! He won me, yeah.
SLIM Daniel in chat, Ryan Gosling went on vacation to prepare for this role. [Slim & Danny laugh] I mean, how about him building that house? What was his job when he was building that house up? He looked like he was unemployed and he just took his damn time building that thing.
PROTO He’s got the GI bill,
SLIM Oh that’s right, he just came back from the war.
PROTO Yeah, he’s riding that.
SLIM That’s a million dollar home now. Multimillion dollar.
PROTO Oh, yeah.
DANNY Easily.
PROTO But that house and that lake. That lake!
SLIM That lake is insane.
PROTO It’s sick.
DANNY It’s stupid.
SLIM If we can get that for an Airbnb for our group of friends.
DANNY Stop!
SLIM Do you believe?
DANNY Are we? [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM Do we need to go to Charleston right now? But one other note, I think, what was it? So yeah, I think in Danny’s review you made a crack about how horny she was to make woopi in that house.
DANNY The look she gives that haunted house when she pulls up. Excuse me, Rachel! She knew what was going down.
SLIM Jess says ‘70mm meetup in the house in Charleston.’ And then we just go for a swim in the lake. It’s like a novel! It sounds like we’re writing our own novel right now! [Slim laughs]
DANNY Oh baby, I just can’t get over when he pulls up to that dilapidated house and the look she — like she’s not like, scared to walk into this place. She knows.
SLIM The amount of mold in that house! You're gonna make love on that moldy ass floor? You might die! Is it worth it?
DANNY I don't know.
PROTO That's why they're so sick at the end of this movie. It was them trying to make love in that mansion. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM The black mold from the mansion! There's a deleted scene when a doctor asks have you been near any black mold?
PROTO You know, there was one time we were rolling around in it for a half hour.
SLIM You weren't naked, were you, around the mold?! Uhhh...
PROTO Iconic sex scene though.
DANNY Oh my.
SLIM Have mercy. When they see each other again.
DANNY His board shorts underwear. Excuse me.
PROTO Yes! Yes! The underwear.
DANNY He has like four pairs of pants on.
SLIM Yeah, they went down to like his ankles, the underwear that he was wearing.
DANNY My word! I surf in those!
SLIM They both looked tremendous though. My second note. Marsden. Cyclops.
DANNY Oh, James.
SLIM What a hunk in this movie! Gosh! He's like the perfect man in here. Can't remember if X-men was three years before this, couple years before this.
DANNY He's the perfect good guy that always gets dumped in every movie.
SLIM I felt bad for him. He seemed like really nice. He didn't seem like her parents at all. He seemed like a rich nice guy. Which is the antithesis of everyone else.
DANNY And when she barges and she's like, I don't paint anymore. He's like, so paint. Like, just do it.
SLIM Nude painting on that deck.
DANNY Stop!
SLIM Proto, can you replicate that when we do the 70mm Charleston meetup? [Danny & Proto laugh]
PROTO Yes, I can wrap myself in a towel on the front porch.
DANNY That red blanket.
SLIM I mean, I don't know if we've shared the Proto meditation photos from our most recent vacation trip.
DANNY No, we can't.
SLIM No, we can't share that. But maybe the painting could be a new version of that. [Proto laughs] Yeah, I liked his character. I felt bad for him.
PROTO Yeah, I thought he took it really well, too at the end, almost too well. I don't know, what did you guys think of that scene of like her going back to him and like telling him and him just kind of being like, well...
SLIM Hannah says Sarah wants everyone to know that Allie should have ended up with Lon. Danny, what do you think?
DANNY I mean, that's the question, right? I mean, should she have gone back with him or his went back to Noah, but for me, I wanted her with Noah. Yes, James is the good guy. He did nothing wrong. He didn't deserve this. But my heart was with Noah, can't take it away.
PROTO I guess I the only thing I don't like about all this is that ultimately, I feel like Allie, Rachel McAdams character, never actually makes the decision of like, what she's gonna do, like it gets made for her. Is that how you guys read it? Because it does, it seems like, you know, no, is saying, you know, stay with me. And then when she goes back to James Marsden's character, he's like, well, you love him. And you should go back to him where she's just crying on the bed saying I don't know what to do. And he kind of gives her the out. Like, she never really has to make the choice. It just seemed kind of like she kind of just fell into it in a way.
DANNY Right. Yeah, James didn't really fight for her either. Like he didn't really put up that much of a fight.
SLIM I mean, he could get any woman he wants. Let's be real.
DANNY He didn't deserve her. That's the thing.
SLIM He can get any woman he desires. Hannah in chat, Noah and Allie in reality would have been very explosive. Think of Jo and Laurie from Little Women. Hard pill to swallow that they don't get together. But you eventually come around to it.
DANNY I mean, yeah, they were, we see them explode —
SLIM Multiple times. They were slapping each other.
DANNY They hate each other, and they end up kissing. They kissed like a million times at this movie.
SLIM They probably had sex in those streets after those fights.
DANNY Excuse me.
SLIM Right in front of everybody. How about the scene where they want to get a ice cream. And she pushes it in his mouth, or in his face, but she just drops the whole cone, on the ground!
DANNY She drops the cone.
SLIM What is she thinking?!
DANNY Dropped it.
PROTO I just paid five cents for that, Allie!
SLIM That's a waste of ice cream!
DANNY That's a quarter of my paycheck!
SLIM Couldn't believe it. Proto, number two on your list?
PROTO Number two on my list is the incredible weight of thinking of how your life could have been different depending on the choices that you've made. Just especially that scene with her mom, where they go to the quarry or whatever. And she's looking at her old flame her love her summer love that she had and she's like, there he is. I was I was the same as you this was the guy that I was in love with. But, you know, I gave him up. Because I didn't want to lose the life that I could have had. You know, sometimes you think about it, again, like the whole thing like that the thought that I had about you know, being old and looking back on your life, I kind of had like the same thought of like, you know, when you think about the choices that you've made, and how different your life can play out, depending on um, you have very big decisions you make, right? Like you might choose what city you live in, where you go to school, you know, but then there's like, seemingly odd things where it's, you know, the way my parents met is my dad was like making the delivery to an office and my mom was the secretary there. And my dad asked her out, and she showed him her engagement ring.
DANNY You're kidding me!
PROTO And he said I don't care. I still want to I still want to go out with you.
DANNY What!
PROTO Like the fact that like I'm here Because of this chance encounter that that ended up with them together and having a family and being here now, like, in some ways it feels like it, you know, it's again I get like anxious thinking about that if like just the different ways your life can play I ash you know, with some of the smallest things that can happen. I was just thinking about that while watching this.
SLIM That's pretty nutty. So how long — so what happened with your mom's engagement?
DANNY I wanna know more about your parents.
SLIM How long until she cancelled it? Did she cancel it?
PROTO Well, no, they didn't at first, but um, I can't remember. I have to ask them. I can't remember. I don't think, I think he might have just bugged her —
DANNY Is Mr. Lexus awake right now?
PROTO Yeah, he’s probably awake. Yeah, I’ll have to get the whole story. But I know that’s yeah, that’s how they met. Yeah.
DANNY What a story!
SLIM Let’s see, that was your number two. So I think we’re up to Danny’s number three.
*DANNY The boat rain scene. The kiss. First of all, leading up to that the two of them rowing on that boat together, to the birds. Those birds, what were they doing there?
PROTO Unreal dove community.
DANNY What a community! My gosh. Anyway, to get caught in the rain to get back to the kiss. That is incredible. The passion, her finding out about the letters, him revealing that he wrote her every day for 365 days. I don’t know if I have that kind of commitment.
SLIM That’s a lot of writing. We tried to get Proto to write like 30 letters once a year.
DANNY I do my best to text Casey once a week about how much I love her. I can barely do that. I try. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Yeah, a lot of a lot of emotion in those scenes. To circle back to the mother, I didn’t really buy her backstory at all, as a reason why she threw the letter like, kept the letters from her. If she had like an alternate life where maybe she had some regret, for living or to following up and being with her mustachioed husband. I feel like she may be like, oh, yeah, get these letters. You make the decision. You know? I didn’t quite buy her reasoning.
DANNY I didn’t like how dimensional the parents were in this film, both her parents and his dad. I really liked them in this film. I liked his dad a lot. I liked his relationship with his father. I did. I mean, the his quick death kind of bugged me. But I really liked the guy. Good dad, dad jokes.
SLIM We covered most of my or all of my top three already. We can just go to my honorable mentions. The ice cream scene we talked about. Oh how about, he’s dating slash with this widow from the war, and they kind of both know that this isn’t like a permanent thing. But she visits the house when Allie is there after they are knocking boots. And she’s like, oh, you know, can I meet her? And no Noah’s like, I don’t know if that’s a really good idea. But then she comes out, you know, glowing. Oh, is this so and so? I’m sorry. I can’t remember her name. The character’s name. Is this so and so, why don’t you come in? I mean, this is an impossible situation to happen. [Danny laughs] No man has ever been in this position where both of these suitors are together having a great night. You know, and if you say it happened to you, you’re lying. I just, I couldn’t believe what that Ryan Gosling was able to pull that off. I guess the only person that could pull it off is Ryan Gosling.
DANNY This is how Proto’s parents met. [Slim laughs]
PROTO True. Yeah, I think her name was Martha.
SLIM But I like her character.
PROTO Yeah, I liked it too. That was one of my favorite lines, is when they were in bed and talking. And and Noah says, you know I want to give you all the things you want but I can’t, they’re broken. And just the way he like portrayed both a man broken from the war that he’s been through but then also still just heartbroken over Allie and even like that dynamic of when he walks her out after they had spent the day together the three of them. Yeah, because at that point, it’s like nighttime. So they spent the whole day together. And she, I think she said something along the lines that you know seeing you together is a remembrance that gave me hope like of the love that I had and then I could have it again. So yeah, I thought that kind of like made it all work, just like the the crazy awkwardness that that might have been but also just her seeing like, oh these two really are in love, and there could be somebody out there who would feel that way about me.
SLIM Proto, your final point? Number three.
PROTO Number three, you know, I thought that the ending of this is like a really heavy downer, just the way it transitions to being focused on them at the end of their lives. Because the story is really focused on this portion when they’re young, and this seeing them deciding to come together, you know, an alley choosing Noah, it kind of ends with, he wakes up in the bed, he goes out to the balcony, he sees her pull up in the car, and she shrugged her shoulders and walks in. And that’s like the end of it. And then we go to them. And then you have like this 15 minutes of pretty depressing stuff. It just seemed like the focus was so much on the earlier time of their life, and now it ends with such a large portion at the end of their life. And it’s all mostly just, like I said, just depressing. So I felt like it was like a really big, like tonal shift that kind of like threw me for a loop. I was like, well, this isn’t really how I wanted this all to go and how to end. Som I don’t know, how did you guys think of that?
SLIM I think also when he, I struggled with him, you know he has the dinner? Or you know, he finally gets that five minutes of her remembering, like, oh my god, it’s me. You know, how long do we have? And he’s like, hoping for longer, the one hang up I have is like where she reverts back and she forgets she’s like, Oh my God, what are you doing? He pushes so hard to get her back. Like, it’s me. It’s me. And he’s like, getting closer. He’s like, being all freaked freaked out. Like dude, slow down, how many times you’re going through this? You don’t think he’s gonna cause her problems? She has no idea who you are in this moment. Let’s slow down and then the camera focuses on his reaction. He’s like, horrified. It’s like, Oh my God, my wife. Like I didn’t buy any of that, unfortunately.
DANNY Wow.
SLIM Sorry. What do you think about the tonal shift, Danny?
DANNY You know, I feel the same way I because of how much closure we get with the older Allie and Noah. I don’t feel the same kind of passion when we end the story with Rachel and whatever his name is. So I do feel that it is weird because I want the running on the dark jumping in his arms kiss again. That kind of passion in the ending and it’s really it’s just the shrug, him wrapped in the red blanket with disheveled hair, and they walk back into the house, but I can understand it. I get it. That’s fine.
SLIM Alright. Final honorable mentions Danny and rating for The Notebook.
DANNY You know, I don’t really have too many honorable mentions. I still hate carnivals. Him trying to prove his love by killing himself is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. But I’m glad she pantsed him, making it harder for me to get down. Other than that, before I give my stars, I just have to say, I am a sucker for these movies. So when I say that I’m giving this five stars, it’s because I’m such a sucker for these romantic Nicholas Sparks movies. So that’s where I’m at. I’m sorry, it’s five stars. But that’s where I am. I love the love in this movie. I just love it.
SLIM Wowwww.
DANNY I’m sorry.
SLIM Everything that worked for Danny in this movie did not work for me in this movie. I got hardcore Lifetime movie vibes right off the bat. You know, him like getting like, let’s lay down on the street. Let’s get crazy. All that stuff was like kind of eye roll-y to me. Him revealing that he can read Walt Whitman like oh my god, this guy’s deep. All that stuff just like kind of backfired to me, like didn’t really work at all. So I’m at three stars for the Notebook. I have not seen A Walk to Remember, Jess.
PROTO Oh god.
DANNY You don’t love Switchfoot. [Danny laughs]
SLIM Proto, honorable mentions and rating for The Notebook?
PROTO Honorable Mentions. So there’s a scene where she’s in the bathtub. And she’s playing with the the nozzle with her feet. Those feet, there was something off about those feet. The toes were too long, or I haven’t seen Rachel McAdams feet, but I just wasn’t buying it. [Slim laughs]
DANNY We need to do a deep dive.
SLIM Cut the stream. [Danny laughs]
DANNY That’s what we need to do.
PROTO But, you know, I really thought that the beginning of this is like is this is not the most romantic guy. I was like blushing, like what have I been doing? In my romantic at all? So I like I like that stuff with him. I thought it was really charming. The one thing I’ll say though, is I do feel like this. The whole like, class aspect of this movie is kind of outdated. Of course, it’s like, I think it was like, outdated 20 years ago, but there was some, like relevance that it was maybe like our parents had lived through this. You know, but now this idea of, oh, this girl, she comes from a rich family, so she can’t marry this kid in 2021 or 2022. That just feels like so outdated at this point. That it’s just like not even relevant anymore. At least in my mind. It’s just like a thing of it’s a thing of the past.
SLIM Proto making sweeping judgments on working class people.
PROTO That’s what I’m here for! [Slim laughs] So I’m going to three stars as well.
SLIM Ohhh!
PROTO I like this movie. I think it’s good. I had a fun time. And that’s all I’m gonna say about it.
SLIM The Notebook. I wasn’t expecting that 57% on IG that said they didn’t love it. But I’m glad we went on this journey together. Glad we were able to experience this. I can check this off my list. A Walk to Remember is a VHS box that I have burned into my brain. Big time.
DANNY Oh yeah.
SLIM Like I could draw A Walk to Remember box right now with my eyes closed. [Proto & Danny laugh] Hannah in chat, ‘so Aladdin is irrelevant?’ [Slim laughs] Your words, not mine.
PROTO Her words.
SLIM So we are nearing the end of this episode. Casey, you might have to start brainstorming, if Casey is still with us, who won the Best Chat of the night. But we do have a VM and a letter to get to. So why don’t we get to our first letter? You can hit us up at 70mmpod@gmail.com or use the links at 70mmpod.com. This comes from Brian, subject line: Question for the podcast. Hey guys, first time, longtime, I’m big fan and can’t thank you enough for the entertainment. My question for the pod is what director would you love to see do a superhero movie? Example: imagine a Martin Scorsese Batman gangster movie. I’ll let the ideas roll. Thanks always for your — thanks always, your friend, Brian. Proto, what director would you want to see tackle a superhero movie? You’re going through a superhero journey right now, so this is primetime.
PROTO This is primetime. You know what I’m gonna do? I’m just gonna look at the best director. Those are nominated for Best Director right now for the Oscars. Like who’s the best director we got right now? We got Paul Thomas Anderson. Kenneth Branagh. Jean — Jane Campion. [Danny laughs] Steven Spielsberg, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. [Danny laughs]
SLIM You’re Tim Heidecker right now.
PROTO I don’t want any of the other directors. [Danny laughs]
SLIM That was the other Slim, by the way.
DANNY Who are you gonna pick?
PROTO I don’t know, that’s a hard question.
SLIM We talked about Ant Man. What about Edgar Wright actually making it Ant-Man like he was supposed to instead of bowing out of the Ant-Man film. Ant-Man by Edgar Wright would have been good.
DANNY Edgar Wright’s never missed.
SLIM That was Danny that said that. [Danny laughs] For everyone that was fired up, that was Danny. Okay? Who would you choose, Danny? Director to do a superhero movie?
DANNY It’s funny when someone says, anytime says what director would you pick for the X? I always go Greta Gerwig. [Danny laughs] So I would probably want a Greta Gerwig X-Men story.
SLIM Excuse me, maybe one that follows Kitty Pryde.
DANNY Stop. Yes. There you go.
SLIM Maybe the night that she’s alone in the mansion.
DANNY Ohhhh! You did it.
SLIM The Christmas comic book?
DANNY Greta, call us.
SLIM Omar in chat, ‘I’m chilled up right now.’
DANNY We just lost Proto.
SLIM Timothee Chalamet as Nightcrawler. [Danny laughs] Can we get a photoshop of a blue-skinned Timothee Chalamet? Greta, please. Please, Greta! We have a VM to get to. Thank you for the email, Brian. Let’s see what we got here for The Notebook. Think this might be from Soph.
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL Hello 70mm, It’s Sophie, um, haven’t left voicemail in a while. But honestly, I felt compelled to after rewatching The Notebook for the first time in a few years. Thank you, first of all for giving me an excuse to, you know, go down memory lane. Because if anyone asked me what my favorite movie was from ages, like 10 to 16 I definitely would have said The Notebook. And I’m pretty ashamed to say that this recent rewatch I still love it. I don’t care. I can’t, I honestly can’t help it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I gave it a five star. That’s just being true to my heart. Like, for whatever reason, I can just look past Noah being extremely high key toxic, and there being way too many scenes set on plantations, that it’s just so uncomfortable in that sense. But there’s just something about the way that Ryan Gosling says, ‘Get in the water! Get in the water!’ Imagine Ryan Gosling saying that to you and you don’t immediately jump in. No hesitation. Whatever conditions the water is I’m jumping in immediately if Ryan Gosling is telling me to get in the water. Anyways, just to get that off my chest. I’m excited to see what you all think about it. I don’t think this is probably more than a three star from any of you and I get it. It’s cool. It’s fine. And I’m ashamed. Okay, goodbye.
SLIM What if — thank you, Soph. The Film Hags podcast is on extended hiatus, but I just Googled Nicholas Sparks movies and can you imagine Nicholas Sparks season of Film Hags and Danny appears on one of those episodes? Look at all those movie posters.
DANNY Because I love them?
SLIM Yeah. They all look identical. It’s like machine learning.
DANNY I don’t know any of those films. Where is A Walk to Remember? Isn’t that Sparks?
PROTO I’ve seen Dear John.
SLIM I mean, those could all not be related to Nicholas Sparks, maybe people just put up those posters because they all look alike. The Longest Ride. What is that? Thank you, Soph.
DANNY Yes, thank you for the voicemail, Sophs.
SLIM Soph and Danny, aligned.
PROTO Once again. Never doubt the Danny five star. There’s always a shot. [Danny laughs]
[Batman Begins music fades in]
SLIM So next week, I am so excited.
DANNY Can you hear the music right now?
SLIM Next week, we officially kick off the Road to the Batman, with Batman Begins. We’re going on the Nolan trilogy and then we will do the Batman after those episodes.
PROTO Master Wayne!
SLIM I cannot wait to watch this.
DANNY I can’t wait/
SLIM In 4K. Batman Begins.
PROTO Michael Caine with a hoggie in his mouth. [Slim & Danny laugh]
DANNY We all got our Batman tickets, we’re ready.
SLIM Yeah. Proto, when are you going to see The Batman?
DANNY Saturday.
PROTO I got my tickets, yeah, Saturday. Saturday afternoon, I’ll be in the theater. Dolby.
SLIM Are you going to get any snackies or would you use sneak some in like a coat pocket? What’s your vibe there?
PROTO You know what, last time Jenna was pissed that I didn’t get any popcorn or anything so probably this time I’ll have to redeem myself.
SLIM I usually try to smuggle in, lately I’ve been bringing some Goldfish, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish in a little snack bag in my pocket.
PROTO Okay.
SLIM Yeah, bring that in.
DANNY Too crunchy.
PROTO Oh, I forgot, I did want to give Jenna’s rating.
SLIM Please, your lovely wife.
PROTO Fascinating rating system from Jenna. So I said how many stars would you give this? She said, minus one star for sadness and minus one star for physical abuse. [Danny laughs] So all her movies, they start at five stars. So this is the rare three star movie from Jenna as well.
DANNY She deducts.
SLIM Yeah, we didn’t talk about how they slap each other.
DANNY Sadness is negative? Interesting.
PROTO Yeah, yeah, we were both put off by the ending.
DANNY The not dead ending.
PROTO Yeah. And she did not like the abuse that Rachel McAdams was giving to Noah. no, she was very she thought there was yes. A lot. She was seeing things in it, she was like this.
SLIM If a video of that dropped on Twitter, she would be finished. Finished. Worldstar.
PROTO I think Jenna, like I think every teenage boy, all you’re hoping for is for girls to hit you, to have some kind of physical contact.
DANNY Are you saying she was asking for it?
SLIM Don’t answer that question. I don’t want any recording of that answer located anywhere on our servers. Is Casey still around to reveal the winner for the Movies Anywhere bundle for Valentine’s Day? Casey, we’re ready for the reveal. Please. Who gets the prize pool these movies? Daniel Cuera wins! ‘Healthcare and now this?’ I’m tired of Canada at this point. Daniel, you just won the Movies Anywhere prize pack. Congratulations. You can now rewatch these movies at your leisure on Movies Anywhere. And thanks for our friends at Movies Anywhere this week.
PROTO Thank you.
SLIM Oh boy. Proto, Any closing thoughts as we start The Road to Batman Begins next week — on HBO and Netflix by the way right now.
PROTO Um, no, I don’t really have anything. I’m I’m excited though. Four weeks of Batman. What else do people want? And we’re doing everything we can over here. Okay? Buckle up. 4K.
SLIM Will Proto survive four Batman movies in a row for this podcast? That’s the main question. What’s your psyche going to be at four weeks from now?
PROTO You know, people might be excited right now for this to happen not knowing what may come. [Danny & Slim laugh] So you know, that’s happened before, don’t think it can’t happen now.
SLIM We’ll see you next week.
[70mm theme songs ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM 70mm is a TAPEDECK production with original artwork provided by Danny Haas. Spiritual guidance and VGER, the robot who loves movies created by Protolexus. Producer emeritus Dale_a. Transcript provided by Sophie Shin. Prints and other merch are available on 70mmpod.com. This episode was mixed, edited and produced by me, Slim. Support our Patreon for access to the VHS Village Discord to talk movies with new friends, access to exclusive episodes, discounts on merch, and a physical membership card mailed to you. To check out other TAPEDECK podcasts, find the link in the episode notes. And if you’d like to support our friends at Letterboxd and upgrade to Pro or Patron status, you can do so with a 20% off discount using the links at 70mmpod.com. Goodbye!
