Transcript: You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Transcript of 70mm’s You’ve Got Mail (1998) Episode.

SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday I’m joined by dear friend in artist, Danny Haas.

DANNY You have that stupid scenario, like what would you do with a billion dollars? Number one on my list is I am remaking that shop in New York inch by inch. Like this is my dream. This is number one — I don’t care if we’re in debt for the rest of our lives.

SLIM And our spiritual advisor, Protolexus.

PROTO My thoughts exactly. Move on with their lives! It’s a puppets voice!

SLIM And together as friends forever, we discuss recently watched movies. We’re also joined by the better half of the Haas family, Casey Haas.

CASEY Christopher Plummer in Sound of Music is just an all time snack too — just wow. Captain von Trapp. Oh my.

SLIM In the second half of this episode, we’re focusing on healing after our Dune episode with You’ve Got Mail. Do Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks play bad people? Or is this the cozy blanket we need right now? Enjoy!

[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]

SLIM This is an episode, it’s been called been called The Great Healing from last week. You know, we put out an episode, we tried to ride the wave. Trending movies on Twitter. And it worked, but at what cost? You know? [Casey laughs] At what cost? So Danny went into the lab and thought, you know, we need to heal. And he chose You’ve Got Mail with special guest that’s with us right now — Danny, your lovely wife, Casey, welcome to the show.

CASEY Thank you. I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to just help everyone come back together. And I just hope that, you know, I hope the lingering discourse lasts as long about this as it did for Dune. [Casey & Slim & Proto laugh] Just days and days of talking about this episode.

SLIM It might. You’ve Got Mail, I mean, if no one has seen that recently, the hairline of Tom Hanks. [Casey laughs] The discourse could last for a decade when you look back.

CASEY It is something.

SLIM So as with any guest, you know, we tried to give a little bit of backstory to welcome them to the community. But I think to be frank, you’re very well known in the community as the better half. But I perused your top four on Letterboxd.

CASEY Okay.

SLIM Before this episode.

CASEY Okay.

SLIM It looks like she’s getting her notes ready right now. Your top four is pretty huge. The first one on your top four on Letterboxd – we’ll have a link to your Letterboxd profile in the notes. The Sound of Music.

CASEY Yes. That’s my warm blanket movie that I will put on at any time. I’ve seen it, I don’t know, 100 times at least.

DANNY This year. [Casey laughs]

CASEY It’s just like a warm blankie and I have memories watching it when I was like, three and we watched it recorded on a VHS so all the commercials were there. And I remember the commercials that were in it. There was a McDonald’s commercial with Fur Elise, the song, and I still can’t hear that song without hearing this little song that the girl was playing and she played her piano recital dreaming about McDonald’s. Anyways, yeah, Sound of Music. It’s just, wow.

DANNY Amazing.

SLIM Danny, where goes the Sound of Music rate for you?

DANNY As far down as it gets. [Slim laughs] I had a traumatic experience with the Sound of Music, being forced into a stage play of it in my elementary school after school program and I hated the teacher that ran it. I hated that I had so many singing parts.

CASEY What’d you sing? I don’t even know if I know this.

DANNY Everything. I know everything. Edelweiss. You name it.

CASEY We can sing it together sometime?

DANNY We could sing it together. We’ll do it later.

CASEY Okay, I do have to say. So Danny does not like Sound of Music but he came home from New York Comic Con one year with an absolutely gorgeous screenprint of like a Sound of Music movie poster variation. And it hangs framed in our house so he loves me more than he hates Sound of Music. [Danny & Proto laugh]

SLIM Proto, what about Sound of Music for you? I remember we almost chose that for our musicals month or something, right?

PROTO Yeah, I want to say that was like that was in our spreadsheet before We were picking movies for some reason. We were thinking about doing Sound of Music.

CASEY Because It’s amazing. That’s why. That was the reason.

PROTO Isn’t it nearly three hours long though?

CASEY Oh, it’s so long.

DANNY It has intermission.

CASEY I don’t really ever make it to the end anymore. [Danny & Casey laugh] I get like, I get like halfway through.

PROTO We need a supercut.

SLIM Once I get done My Last Action Hero cut where I remove the child for Proto, I’ll get cracking on the Sound of Music. [Danny laughs]

CASEY Christopher Plummer in Sound of Music is just an all time snack too. Just, wow.

SLIM The Plummer snack.

CASEY Captain von Trapp? Oh my.

SLIM Speaking of snacks. Anthony Perkins in your next top four. [Casey & Danny laugh] Psycho.

CASEY Psycho.

SLIM Didn’t you just watch this for the first time? Did it catapult into your —

CASEY Okay, I watched this for the first time last year. And somehow I made it to 37 years old without ever knowing the end of Psycho, the twist.

PROTO Wow.

CASEY And so it was a completely magical experience. And I mean, it’s an amazing movie anyway, but just the fact that I was able to get through that much of life and not know about the psychotic movie, how it — of course I knew like the shower scene and all that but it’s just — and Anthony Perkins, his acting in that movie like, the way that he plays like a creepy guy. Just every woman knows a creepy guy that just — wow, he did. It’s so good. That scene where they eat dinner towards the beginning of the movie, it’s incredible.

SLIM How about that 4K too? You guys watched it in 4K.

CASEY Yes, we did. It was something. I think 90% of the Discord watched it in 4K this week after Danny talked about it.

SLIM Proto, when was the last time you watched Psycho?

PROTO Well, I watched it this week! I watched the 4K and I said in my review, I envy not being able to see this with fresh eyes. And you know, not knowing the story. Because I it’s I saw it as a teen one of my my best friends growing up his dad was really into Hitchcock and he would like you know, he’s like all you got to watch this movie. So we watched, you know, the, you know, Birds and Rope and a ton of them. And we watched Psycho at some point. And yeah, so I was familiar with it. But so I knew the ending, but I didn’t — it had been so long since I’ve seen it. And I watched the 4K and I couldn’t believe this movie. How good it looked. I didn’t even consider like black and white 4Ks to be worthwhile. This movie looks on believable. It’s looks like it was it was like it was shot yesterday.

DANNY Yeah. Insane.

PROTO And I could not get over the shot. The opening shot going into the window —

DANNY Those blinds.

PROTO The blinds and then like the shift from like the, I guess like the how much light the lens — I don’t know cameras, you know, just like it you know, it’s bright outside. It goes in the room. It’s completely black and then it lights up again. Like what? It was amazing. Yeah, I watched that this week five. It’s a five star movie.

DANNY Oh, gosh.

CASEY It is. Definitely.

SLIM Tangled is your next film in your faves. I’ve heard Danny talk about Tangled. He raises the Tangled flag as high as anyone could possibly raise it. But what is Tangled to you?

CASEY Tangled is my favorite Disney movie. You know, we’re Disney loving family in Orlando our whole lives and it’s just I feel like I have to have a Disney movie in my top four. I can’t not have a Disney movie in my top four, just as much as we have them on. And it’s just the best like it’s just, I like it better than Frozen, Frozen 2, and Moana, even though I love all those movies. It’s just — wow. I love it. I love the voice acting of Mandy Moore and what’s his name?

DANNY Zachary Levi.

CASEY Zachary Levi. Almost said Zach Braff. That would’ve been awful. [Danny & Casey laugh] Is there any Disney movie scene that tops that lantern scene? I just —

DANNY Oh gosh.

CASEY No, there’s not. It’s just the best.

SLIM I feel like I’ve heard Danny say Tangled makes Frozen look like crap. [Danny laughs]

DANNY Check the tapes. I don’t think I’ve ever said that.

SLIM Maybe it was Moana or something.

CASEY It’s also one of the more recent Disney movies that I mean — I have like a distinct distinct memory of Danny and I going to see it together. So it’s special to me for that. Even though we had kids at the time. We we still went together and saw it just the two of us.

SLIM Well you guys got married in eighth grade, so, I mean the amount of movies you guys have seen together.

CASEY It feels like we’re really getting on up there. [Casey laughs]

PROTO I think Tangled is also one of the funniest Disney movies. The humor is just spot on.

CASEY Yes. Yes.

SLIM Do I need to watch Tangled? What is going on here?

DANNY Have you not seen it?

SLIM I don’t know. I need to check my lists here.

CASEY Oh, you have to watch that.

DANNY Mother Gothel is an all time villain.

CASEY Oh, just wow.

SLIM Tangled, Letterboxd? I have it watched but no rating.

PROTO I feel sick.

DANNY Yeah I feel sick right now.

SLIM Final movie on your list is one that we’ve covered extensively in an episode — Pride and Prejudice. Tell us about it.

CASEY Well, I feel like it’s just one of those movies that I don’t get tired of it. So our oldest has been putting it on, like once a week. And you think, okay, I’m sick of hearing this movie and seeing this movie. It just really hasn’t gotten old for me yet. It’s so beautiful. It’s just — oh man, the soundtrack is incredible. Oh, yeah that scene. Paul in the live chat. That quote in the final scene and walking in the dawn with that coat? Wow. It’s great.

SLIM That episode we recorded I feel like a year ago. Can you imagine the response to the ratings? I think I gave it the lowest rating when we did it.

CASEY I think you gave it three stars.

PROTO It was almost a 20 star movie with a guest. [Slim laughs]

SLIM Did I ruin the 20 star potential?

CASEY Yeah. And I think one of your biggest criticism was like Matthew McFadden’s acting as Mr. Darcy. And I see that a lot. But I felt like he played it perfectly because that he like, that’s what Mr. Darcy was supposed to be like. Just very, you know, cold and reserved.

PROTO You just got to throw the book at someone’s face when they say that. [Danny laughs]

SLIM I’ve never read the book! Obviously, this is, you know, I don’t have that backstory. You know? I just had the memes. That’s all I know.

DANNY Some would say You’ve Got Mail is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. [Casey laughs]

SLIM Ohhhh. How often have you talked about Pride and Prejudice on your podcast on Fun Sexy Bible Time? Is that a weekly occurrence as a pop up?

CASEY Oh, gosh, no, we don’t talk about many movies.

SLIM No movies on your podcast?

CASEY Like we watched —

DANNY Left Behind.

CASEY No, geeze. [Danny laughs]

SLIM You did a watch along for Left Behind with Kirk Cameron?

CASEY No!

PROTO God is not dead?

CASEY We did It’s A Wonderful Life, we did a watch along because I had never seen it. This was before 70mm even existed. So yeah, we didn’t watch a lot but we don’t talk too many movies. We did talk about that one. Um, the newer faith based movie on Netflix, A Week Away, like the youth camp movie.

DANNY Oh, god.

CASEY That was kind of fun. You guys will never cover it. So don’t worry.

SLIM I mean, there’s a suggestion in chat from Beks: faith based movies.

PROTO Faith based movie month.

CASEY Oh, she’s saying what we do — so what Matthew will do like, he’ll like make up a faith based movie plot and like walk through the whole thing. And it’s just ridiculous. And they all have like ridiculous names and —

SLIM Well have a link to the podcast in the show notes, but I have to say, it would be amazingly fun to do Left Behind, maybe for a vault episode.

PROTO Wait, there was a recent Nick Cage one?

CASEY I want to watch it.

SLIM Yeah he’s the star of the new one.

CASEY Hashtag triggered. No. [Casey & Slim laugh]

PROTO Bonus ep.

DANNY Saved it such a good movie too. People brought up Saved in the chat.

SLIM Is that Mandy Moore?

DANNY Yeah, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin.

CASEY That was definitely a movie we felt guilty for loving at some point. Whenever it came out. We shouldn’t like this movie so much.

DANNY We weren’t far enough removed from the church.

CASEY They’re making fun of us.

DANNY Our church, yeah. [Danny & Casey laugh] They’re making fun of us. This is too real.

SLIM If they only knew that you’re watching Psycho in 4K in that house.

CASEY Oh gosh. My poor mom. I told her last week I was like yeah, we watched Psycho last night. On Saturday we watched — what other movie did we watch?

DANNY The Shining.

CASEY The Shining. She’s like ‘’oh my gosh!’’ [Casey laughs]

DANNY Throwing holy water on you.

CASEY No, stop! [Danny & Casey laugh]

SLIM We should say hello to some patrons this week before we get into the main show. You’ve Got Mail is our featured prezo. Elizabeth, internet Brian and Brandy all joined this week at 70mmpod.com. Four bucks a month, get access to the VHS Village Discord. Exclusive episodes like The Animatrix, which will have been out by now. The Matrix movies we’re all doing in there except for four. It’s going to be on the main feed. And four bucks a month, get uncut episodes too. I don’t remember if I ever plugged that too much. But if you’re into that jam, uncut eps. Proto, you want to talk about any movies you watch this week?

PROTO Um, let’s see. Well, I talked about Psycho that was really the big one. Um, oh, you know, I think each week I say I’ve watched all the Universal monster movies. But I think this time I actually did it because I watched The Mummy.

DANNY Oh, nice.

PROTO Yeah, I think that was the one that I was actually missing. So I gave that three stars. I was really surprised by the story. I was actually surprised at how similar or how there were similarities between that and the Brendan Fraser version. I just was expecting something completely different. My only knowledge of The Mummy from this time period was the Abbott and Costello skit that they do with all the monsters so I thought it was going to be something like that. Like you know in an Egyptian pyramid this mummy just like killing people, but it’s way different. It has Boris Karloff, the king. It’s fun. It’s a fun movie. I gave it three stars.

SLIM Didn’t Art say that he like changed his clothes 10 minutes into it or something?

PROTO Yeah, he basically you see him wake up and he just runs off screen and then like the next scene, he’s dressed like a normal person speaking perfect English. [Danny & Slim laugh] It’s crazy.

SLIM Classic Mummy. Danny, what about you? Did you watch anything this week?

DANNY I got one I can speak about because for our fellow Cinenauts, I watched Dazed and Confused for the first time.

SLIM Wow.

DANNY Last night actually, I messaged Ian about it, former producer of this show, and I had a good time watching it. It’s a perfect three star movie. I feel like Dazed and Confused is probably one of those movies, where if you haven’t grown up on it, or have nostalgia for it, i’s just not going to hit for you. And I don’t think it hit for me like it does for everybody else. But I had a good time watching it. It was funny. Watching everyone in it young like Ben Affleck and McConaughey and Parker Posey. And it was just — it was cool. It was fun to watch. So I had a good time. Great soundtrack to

PROTO That’s basically Ian’s MO, is that he loves three star movies, right? Like all of his favorite movies are three star movies. It’s just his thing.

DANNY That’s true. You’re right. It’s a good connection.

SLIM Stay tuned for that episode of the Cinenauts. Let’s see, before we get into You’ve Got Mail. One movie we watched at the house, Muppets Haunted Mansion finally.

DANNY I’m sorry.

SLIM Finally fired that up Halloween night. You know, let’s get amped for Halloween. And we put this on. Not good. IMO. [Danny & Casey laugh] I called it Muppets Haunted Green Screen. It looked like they filmed it — it’s the most pandemic looking thing I’ve ever seen.

CASEY Is it new?

SLIM It is new. Yeah it came out last month or so. Yeah, Marcie says ‘It was cute. It was fine.’ Yeah, if you’re like a hardcore Muppets fan, maybe it kind of is the formula, you know, they have like a actor in a set piece with a muppet and they do bits, which is like the Muppets MO. But I don’t know. None the jokes really worked for me. People complain about Kermit’s new voice. I actually like it. The guy that does the voice now.

CASEY He has a new voice?

SLIM Yeah, it’s not some guy doing the Henson voice or his son or whoever used to do it.

DANNY Interesting.

PROTO My thoughts exactly.

CASEY That’s weird.

PROTO Grow up! Move on with your lives! It’s a puppets voice. People like dying on this hill. Raising the cross.

DANNY I will say before we move on from it one of our new villagers in the Discord, his name’s Brandon Kenny. If you look up his art he did the portraits on the wall in this movie.

SLIM Excuse me?

DANNY He did all the art for those portraits. He’s an amazing artist and a good friend of mine. So if you see this movie, any of the portraits on the wall, he did. He’s in our village.

SLIM Cripes, what a gig.

CASEY That’s awesome. Yeah, I’ve seen that.

SLIM Once you see that, then shut it off. [Casey laughs]

DANNY Just review it, you love the art.

SLIM Let’s see. We should give away a free year of Letterboxf Pro,, if you share the show on social media, get entered to win a free year of Letterboxd Pro.

CASEY Did anybody share the Dune show? [Slim & Danny laugh]

SLIM Casey’s griefing this week on Dune. This week’s winner is Stefan Tong on Twitter. Congratulations.

PROTO Congrats!

SLIM No ads, excessive stats. So if you didn’t win this week’s year of Letterboxd Pro, you can upgrade yourself at a discount using the link on 70mmpod.com. Get 20% off Letterboxd Pro or Patron status. You know, support Letterboxd. Support the things we love. Is it time?

DANNY It’s time.

SLIM You’ve Got Mail. 1998. Danny threw the gauntlet down last week for this moment. Proto, what is this movie?

PROTO Kathleen runs a little bookshop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and is in a loving, healthy relationship with Greg Kinnear. Kinnear writes for The New York Observer, and is always looking for an opportunity to help the little guy. All of life is perfectly well until Kathleen begins to lie to Greg and start a double life on the AOL internet, where she engages in lewd behavior, such as private conversations through text chatting, and email letters. Anyway, she ends up finding her own little buddy, who just so happens to be a corporate pariah, played by Tom Hanks. Over six months, Kathleen will lose her partner, her business, her identity and her charming manner. She will lose everything in her life because of this miscreant Joe Fox and she will ultimately become trapped in a romantic relationship with him that she has no hope of escaping. [Slim & Danny laugh] You’ve Got Mail.

DANNY Did you watch it with Jenna, Proto?

PROTO I tried twice but my dear wife. She couldn’t stay awake.

SLIM What’s your backstory, Casey, with You’ve Got Mail? Do you remember the first time you saw it?

CASEY No, I don’t. I don’t remember the first time I saw it. I just know that Danny and I started watching it every fall. I don’t know how many years ago. But I don’t remember seeing it in 1998 when I was in ninth grade.

DANNY Yeah. No, I don’t remember the first time we watched it together. I mean, it’s been forever. This is always our November fall movie that we watch every year.

SLIM More so than When Harry Met Sally? Do you guys like that one?

DANNY I’ve only seen When Harry Met Sally once.

CASEY Danny watched that for the first time last year.

SLIM Wow.

DANNY It’s good. I love it.I mean, Meg in that is — woof.

SLIM Her hair in that movie. Are you kidding me?

DANNY Kidding me right now? Those outfits?

SLIM Man alive. [Slim laughs] Proto, what about you?

PROTO Yeah, I’ve seen this many times. My mom would watch this. This is like Sleepless in Seattle territory. You know? We’re throwing this bad boy on. You got nothing to do. It’s raining outside. You’ve Got Mail. We wore this DVD out.

SLIM Let’s see. My first note, kick things off.

DANNY Kick it.

SLIM I don’t remember like anything at this movie. I don’t remember the first time I saw this movie, but I just remember bits and pieces of it. But man, Tom Hanks character in this movie is a big old jerk. Right? It reminded me like, this is a dumb comparison. But the only time I remember like a popular stud actor being a jerk was that Tom Cruise movie, Live, Die, Repeat or Live, Die, Tomorrow, whatever the hell that movie is called. Where he plays like that naval officer. He plays that the officer who gets —

PROTO Tomorrow Never Dies. [Slim laughs]

SLIM Edge of Tomorrow. But Tom in this movie, I turned to — Amanda and I watched this together. And we like both said at one point during the movie like man, Tom’s real jerk in this huh? But it was just interesting to see Tom Hanks play that kind of character in this viewing. Casey, what do you think of Tom in this?

CASEY Oh, I think he is complicated. I don’t think he’s a total jerk. I think your first clue that he’s not a total jerk is in the scene with the kids. When his — who his wife, his aunt and his brother who are children, he spends the day with them. And I think that’s like your first insight into the fact that he’s not just this, you know, corporate businessman trying to take over the world. So yeah, I don’t necessarily agree that he’s a jerk — totally. I think he definitely has some horrible moments. That he also like, kind of lives up — he doesn’t live up, he fesses up to in the movie. Like in his emails, he acknowledges those moments.

PROTO Yeah, I think the the thing is like when he is in business mode, which is normally 90% of his life, he’s you know, he’s like a shark in the water. You know, he’s just like total cold blooded, going for the kill, gonna expand his business. And he can’t normally escape that because he has no reason to be outside of that. But yeah, like that scene with the kids. I mean, that is one of the most endearing scenes, like the way that is written. And and Tom just like kills it. The way he picks up his nephew and like talks to him face to — I would believe these are his actual — not his nephew, like this is he’s whatever the relationship like those kids, the way he talks to them you would think those are he’s really related to these kids. Like he does that so well. And then even the way he relates to his step mom, or soon to be step mom who never really gets there. It’s so believable. And the way — when that scene came on, I was like, oh my gosh, I totally forgot about this him taking them shopping. And he does like the little stuff with the, you know, the little games out on the on the sidewalk. It’s it’s just so brilliantly written.

SLIM Danny, what’s on your list for You’ve got mail.

DANNY So when Proto initiallly — don’t know if we’re gonna continue with fall vibes for the month of November, but when he initially brought that up as a theme, obviously I’m thinking You’ve Got Mail but the beginning of this movie, when The Cranberries Dreams kicks in, and they’re walking through New York like this is a vibe that I want. Just injected into my veins, like I need to walk through fall in New York with The Cranberries singing in my ears as I’m carrying a pumpkin, getting a pumpkin spiced latte. I mean, this is everything I want the beginning of this film just sends me like I just can’t get enough of it. So that is like my dream. [Dreams by The Cranberries plays]

PROTO Well, since we’re talking about Tom, I just need to know what is the consensus on the looks of Tom Hanks?

CASEY He is not attractive. I’m a female here. I don’t think Tom thinks is an attractive person, even in his youth.

PROTO That’s kind of how I always — there’s something not right. You know, that’s going on. [Danny & Slim laugh]

SLIM Proto is circling his hands next to his face in a strange motion.

PROTO. I don’t I mean, he’s very like when he talks and the way he can relate to people you’re like, oh, Tom, but then when he’s not talking you’re like, I don’t know about this. I’m glad we got confirmed on from Casey. I mean, that’s all I need.

CASEY Yeah Sophs says he’s like hot dad, but no, I don’t know.

SLIM When I started watching this, the most recent Tom Hanks movie I saw was The Burbs where he was younger. And this is you know, I was gonna say older Tom Hanks, but this was 30 years ago. So not really older Tom. This is like a different phase of Tom.

CASEY Yeah he had to be like 40 something in this right?

SLIM Absolutely had to be, but he has that hairline, which we joked about in Discord. I mean, the hairline, puts Michael Keaton’s to shame. [Danny laughs] That Proto had issues with in the first Batman movie. I was like, man, is this what my hair is gonna look like? I’m not gonna be like Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail? But he’s also like, he looks like an like in every man in this movie. I feel like you know, he’s non like in Greg Kinnear physique. Greg Kinnear is a bit thinner. Greg near looks like he runs a bit. Tom Hanks, you know, he plays Apex at night with his friends. [Danny laughs]

CASEY He was on the treadmill!

SLIM That’s what he reminded me of. I thought that that was kind of like a funny, not funny, but like, you don’t really see that anymore. In movie and again he’s Tom Hanks he’s like, quote Tom Hanks, but it’s a different kind of role and look for him I think.

DANNY Okay to pivot real quick. Greg Kinnear looks amazing in this film.

SLIM Oh!

PROTO I love Greg Kinnear in this.

SLIM He’s my favorite part in this movie.

DANNY I know! He’s so good in this film. He’s such a goober. It’s funny because I feel like he could also played Joe Fox really well too, like if they flip the roles. I feel like he would have been a great Joe Fox too. I don’t know, but I just I love him in this every scene he’s in. He’s just — he’s so charismatic in the way he like when when Birdie is reading back his review to him in the shop. And he’s just like, listening to her say his words, I just love him. Like he’s so good. And that and the breakup scene when they’re both saying they don’t love each other.

CASEY It’s so good

DANNY That breakup scene is — it’s just so good. I mean, Greg Kinnear almost steals every scene he’s in in this movie.

[clip of You’ve Got Mail plays]

KATHLEEN You don’t love me? Me either.

FRANK You don’t love me?

KATHLEEN No.

FRANK But we’re so right for each other!

KATHLEEN I know! I know! Well, is there someone else? Oh, that woman on television, Sydney Anne.

PROTO The breakup scene is a masterclass in in writing, because normally anybody else would write that like a conflict. Oh, they break up and they have a fight and oh, well, Meg doesn’t have this guy to worry about anymore and he was a problem to begin with. There’s no problem. They’re great together and they just make it into another joke. And it’s brilliant.

DANNY Yeah. So mart.

CASEY Like, it’s so interesting to me because they said, you know, we’re so perfect for each other, but I feel like they had like, yes. Not as a couple though. Right? They had like, there was no chemistry. Yeah, there’s like no sexual chemistry at all. Like, you can’t imagine these two people like being together as a couple. I couldn’t. Maybe it’s because of, you know, how the movie played out. But I felt that way about both couples like Greg Kinnear and Meg Ryan and then Tom Hanks and Parker Posey, you have these couples that are supposedly happy but also they just seem like so not connected at all.

SLIM I think the best thing in the movie for me was when he’s watching the interview that he did with Meg Ryan. Meg Ryan is like beside herself, because the interviewer is like fawning over Greg Kinnear and she asks, is she sweating?

[clip of You’ve Got Mail plays]

KATHLEEN Frank.

FRANK What?

KATHLEEN She’s coming on to you!

FRANK No, no, no, this they do this on television. The shop around the corner. It’s a true New York treasure.

TV ANCHOR As are you. Honestly, I’d love to have you back.

KATHLEEN Is she sweating?

SLIM I was howling. Amanda gave me a look when I was laughing at that scene. Let’s see, Casey, what else you got for You’ve Got Mail?

CASEY Oh, I have a very long list. You already brought The Cranberries. I love the music choices through the whole movie. Like obviously it has like the instrumental like soundtrack type stuff. But yes, yes, the song choices and where they’re placed with the scenes are just — I love it. And then something I love that they do in this movie is the contrast of their lives. Like before they’re brought together and know each other. So like the beginning where they’re in their apartments with their partners, and then they’re in their separate workplaces. And then like their holiday time, like the little girl singing versus the people singing around the piano. I really like how they like contrast their lives. And that you talked about Tom Hanks’ appearance. But like, how beautiful does Meg Ryan look at that party? When he looks across the room and he sees her and she’s like, got like lip a different lipstick color on and she’s smiling and laughing at someone. I’m like, Oh my goodness. She’s just — she’s so beautiful.

PROTO Nora Ephron is just brilliant. This movie is so charming, and so funny. And it’s amazing how she’s able to get laughs or like funny moments out of, you know, all the leads, all these different supporting characters, but then there’s even like these moments where like, almost like an extra will do something in some way. Like that’s just funny. Like they’ll say one thing or like move a certain way. That’s just like so funny. It just feels like in like Nora Ephron. She was just like so brilliant with the way that she understood comedy and timing and how she could get it out of people. And this movie, it has so many like, witty, hilarious lines. Some of my favorites are Birdie, early on where they’re talking about the internet. And she’s she says she tried to have cybersex. But she kept getting a busy signal. [Danny & Casey laugh] My favorite line from her is when it’s near the end, and they’re in her house. And she’s talking about her old love interest. And she’s like, ‘’He ran Spain. He ran it!’’ And Nora Ephron does this amazing thing where she has a scene. And then the very next scene is the person who was in the scene is talking about that scene. So it transitions to Meg and Greg Kinnear talking about that conversation as they go to the movie theater and it makes for such an amazing flow through the whole movie. She does that and Sleepless in Seattle. And she does it so well in this. It’s just like — it’s just perfect in that way.

DANNY There’s an amazing transition she does in this where Birdie and Kathleen are eating in the deli. And Bidie goes to take a bite of her sandwich. And the sound effect of the sandwich transitions to Meg pulling out of a paper bag, the crunch of the sandwich and then goes like, it blows my mind every time I watch it. It’s just it’s so like ridiculous that she does it. But it’s so well done.

SLIM Megan wants to know how they all have such giant apartments in New York City.

DANNY The 90s baby.

CASEY Oh, I love that comment when Christina is like bemoaning that if the shop closes, she has to move. And she says, ‘’To Brooklyn!’’ Where like now Brooklyn is like gentrified and cool. But when this has made it she did not want to move there.

SLIM One of my first thoughts too, when they open up that bookstore, and she like opens she has the, you know, it’s just two people working there. And then a third person comes in and then the fourth person comes in. I was like —

CASEY What do they all do there?

SLIM You have four people working at this bookstore?

DANNY Unreal.

SLIM Nowadays it just be one person run that whole show if that book store even existed.

PROTO Not sure Steve Zahn actually worked there or not.

DANNY I don’t know what George was doing.

CASEY I loved him so much though.

DANNY Yeah, Steve Zahn is a king.

SLIM Remember when we saw his business in that HBO show White Lotus?

DANNY We saw way too much of Steve Zahn in that show. [Danny laughs]

SLIM In HD. My god. Danny, what’s on your list?

DANNY Speaking of Nora, there is a scene that I love the most. Oh, not the most, just a scene. Where she captures where Kathleen is reading to the kids. And she pans the kids like listening to her read. And I honestly I love when kids are captured well in movies, like they’re not like awkward or goofy, but they were like, just into listening to her read. And I could have listened to Meg Ryan read a children’s book to me forever. If that was the scenario. I just love that scene so much. And then you catch Tom just listening to it and just everyone just falling in love and he’s realizing the magic of her and the shop and what service she provides outside of just selling books. And the magic of her as a business owner. I just, I love that scene.

[clip of You’ve Got Mail plays]

KATHLEEN We all have our moments of brilliance and glory. And this was mine. Why don’t we I said slip it into one of Mrs. Pratchett’s jars of sweets. And then when she puts her dirty hand into grab a handful she will grab a stinky dead mouse instead! The other four stared at me and wonder. Then —

DANNY I love that shot. Anytime I think like — anytime you have that stupid scenario, like what would you do with a billion dollars? Number one on my list is I am remaking that shop in New York, like inch by inch. [Casey laughs] This is my dream.

CASEY This is Danny’s number one thing. Then we will send the kids to college.

DANNY I don’t care if we’re in debt for the rest of our lives. Kids don’t get college until I make the shop around the corner. So I just, I love like Casey and I’ve been to where it’s filmed in New York. And it’s not like it’s a dry cleaner and I’m just like I would show up to her and be like, here’s millions please leave so I can make this the bookstore of my dreams.

CASEY I do love seeing like the book — like in the background of all the scenes the book covers that are so familiar from you know, childhood. That is really magical.

SLIM So it is the shirt design up in the VHS Village storefront?

CASEY Danny made that for himself. I just wanted everyone to know.

DANNY It’s true.

CASEY Danny literally made this so he can order it and be wearing it next week.

SLIM Oh my god. Also the Fox & Sons books one is up there. Casey, what else you got?

CASEY I love the comment., i’s before he finds out it’s Kathleen. Him and Dave Chappelle, I can’t remember his character — Kevin. They’re outside the cafe. And he wants him to go see what she looks like. And he says, this woman is — I wrote it down. This woman is the most adorable creature I’ve ever been in contact with. And I love that you describes her as adorable just based on their, you know, writing interaction. And she turns out to be to even be as good looking as a mailbox. I’d be crazy not to turn my life upside down and marry her. So I just, I really liked that he they show the depth of how he feels about her before it’s revealed who it is. So then it’s like, okay, he feels seriously about this person. And then he’s about to find out is this woman who just, you know, misrepresented him on the news and then he has to you know, grapple with all that. But I like that quote a lot. And then as it moves further through, once they start to become friends, which I feel like we could have had like 10 more minutes of that it just goes so fast at the end. But I just noticed it for the first time in my last couple viewings when he knocks on the window when she’s in Starbucks. She’s reading her book, he knocks on the window, and then comes in and sits down with her. I love her body language in that scene, she’s like, the way she’s sitting, her heads tilted. You can tell something’s changed in how she views him just based on like, how she’s sitting and talking to him. And just comparing that also to the beginning of the movie where, you know, she was avoiding him at Starbucks, and she was avoiding him at the grocery store. And now she’s sitting there talking to him so comfortably.

SLIM I think When Harry Met Sally, they’re like, half the movies, or more than half the movie is that friendship aspect. And like growing into something more. That’s the first thing I thought of when there’s only like, maybe 10 minutes of that in this one where he is aware of who she is. And then she’s the kind of the the other end of the email, but she doesn’t know. That’s the part that Amanda, she said, quote, ‘’this is abuse.’’ She thought she couldn’t believe that he was like keeping it a secret and not telling her.

CASEY I thought he was like playing it smart. If he told her right when he found out they would have just, he was mad at her at that time, like, so he knew that this person on the other end of the email, like he loves, he loves this person. And he finds out it’s hurt. He has to like figure out his feelings about that. And so then he apologizes for how he was in the cafe without telling her that it’s him. And then he has to, like, show Kathleen, who he is like I have to show Kathleen who Joe actually is. So that when she goes to meet this email guy, like she doesn’t want him anymore. She wants Joe. So he’s like, he’s doing it because he wants her. I like I guess it can feel manipulative. But also, I feel like he was just trying to make sure that she could get to know him as him. For real.

SLIM I can see that. Proto, what do you think?

PROTO Yeah, I think I mean — that’s a great take on it. I think it’s but you can also, I think the issue people are going to have with it is that it feels like, oh, well, maybe he’s just changing. Because humans just once the email girl, you know, so and he even says at one point, like, the relationship needs tweaking in the end, just like the idea that he would say that knowing who he is saying, like, I’m going to tweak our relationships so that you feel the way I need you to feel. So this will work. That was like kind of the vibe I was getting from it. But I think if you believe the best about people, it’s much better.

CASEY I also think sometimes, like if people are like, Oh, he he manipulated her like it, it takes away I kind of infantilizes her because at the end, like she says I wanted it to be you. She’s surprised but also she’s so happy that it turned out to be him.

DANNY Gosh, we’ve talked about so much. I was realizing, watching it this time, trying to like see how much, why I connect to this film so much. And I think because Casey and I watch it every fall that it’s just a movie that we just enjoy together. But also, there’s so much about the beginnings of mine and Casey’s friendship was on AOL. Like we we did this. Like we instant messaged each other. Her AOL name was Tatie Bird. Like I remember I remember dialing up to talk to Tatie Bird.

CASEY I don’t remember yours.

DANNY Mine was SupermanDan80. [Slim laughs] Because he was my sports number. Like we were still kids just instant messaging each other on AOL like there’s so much I just connect with this film. Our love for New York, our love for New York in the fall. So it’s just, it’s really wild to me to watch this because I just — there’s just a lot about my relationship that I love to see in this film.

SLIM Remember being able to set your profile and like using HTML? Remember figuring out how to like add colors to make your away messages and stuff.

CASEY Those dial up sounds.

PROTO There was a way you could set your your your profile so that the person who was looking at it, their username would be in it.

SLIM Oh yeah, I remember that.

PROTO Did you guys have that? That like freaked me out. Because the first time I saw it I was like why is my username in your profile?

DANNY That’s amazing.

PROTO One of my notes is just waves of nostalgia seeing that AOL message UI. Oh my god. If my Poetry and Writing AOL board archive is somewhere, I would love to have that because I have probably 100 poems that I posted on that board. [Proto laughs]

CASEY I would definitely pay to see that.

DANNY Hit that Wayback Machine.

CASEY Teenage Proto poetry.

SLIM It’s crazy to me to think to that AIM or, you know, AOL instant messenger did not stick around. Like everyone was using AIM to chat like they couldn’t pivot. To the point where everyone continued to use AIM. Like, there’s no reason to leave it. They couldn’t iterate and stay on. Oh my god, everyone’s dropping their AIM usernames in chat.

DANNY And what’s crazy is up until like, Flash got destroyed by the Internet, Warner Brothers kept the original. You’ve Got Mail website up for to like 2014 And you could go on you could read all of Kathleen and Joe’s emails you could read emails that Parker Posey’s character email to Joe like, there was so much more depth like this was wild, you could go into those you could read their chats and it’s just great. Such a time capsule.

SLIM One of my last notes that I have — the idea of using a handkerchief in any capacity is repulsive to me. Why would you ever keep a used tissue? You just reuse it in your pocket? It seems vile.

DANNY I would never.

PROTO Before Kleenex.

CASEY My dad still carries a handkerchief.

SLIM They did have Kleenex in 1998?

DANNY She’s even like says in 98 that kids don’t know what a handkerchief is anymore and this was that long ago.

SLIM It’s gross. The other note real quick to the other note that I had was I wasn’t expecting her shop to close in the movie. You know wasn’t waiting for some kind of like last minute deal or whatever. Everything that she thought bad was gonna happen kind of did happen, you know?

CASEY There’s like kind of hints that she’s wondering about her future and as she’s doing what she’s doing because that’s what she should be doing or just watch it’s the safe choice and then she ends up, she’s going to be writing a children’s book and she’s talks about how she would have never done that if the shop stayed open. And there’s like hints through the movie, you’re not listening for me kind of miss him I think that maybe this is this is the right thing for her to be able to move on to the next thing.

SLIM But her other three employees are probably homeless now in Brooklyn.

DANNY Not George. He’s got rent control.

CASEY He got a job at Fox Books and Birdie bought Intel at six so she’s fine. [Danny & Casey & Proto laugh]

SLIM Proto, anything that we missed for our discussion for You’ve Got Mail and maybe your final thoughts?

PROTO My final note I wanted to just bring up was I really appreciate the scene where Joe gets into bed and he turns off the lights and the room actually gets dark because in all these movies you see people getting a bed and it’s like daytime in this bedroom and they’re like going down to sleep and I’m like who is going to sleep with the with the room is bright? So thank you Nora for some realistic lighting in the bedroom. But I mean, you know, they don’t make them like they used to they don’t make them like Nora made them anymore. So this movie is it’s a gift this the writings incredible, the performances are lovely. Yeah, I’ve seen it many times and sitting down to watch it I should had a great time watching it again, I think for that if if you can watch a movie over and over again and enjoy it to this as much as I did. It’s a great movie. So I give it four stars. [Casey laughs]

CASEY I’m genuinely shocked.

SLIM The Great Healing, trademark symbol.

CASEY Same stars as Dune. [Casey & Slim laugh]

SLIM I also had a great time watching this. And I feel like I’ve seen that review from someone in the Discord. They don’t make them like this anymore. I was just tickled by Greg Kinnear and the writing and I mean, do they even make movies like this anymore? Like with Chris Pratt and someone else as the leads? Casey’s face just made a puke face. I mean, who would who would you cast in like a modern version of You’ve Got Mail as the male lead?

DANNY Keanu.

CASEY What actors right now though do they let be leads that aren’t like Brad Pitt level of attraction? That’s the thing. You’ve gotta like a little bit of a —

SLIM The every man. Chalamet’s out. Oscar’s out. Can’t get these studs in here.

CASEY Andy Samberg would do. Good one.

SLIM Seth Rogen. Forrest, you’re banned.

PROTO Forrest, I will ban you. [Danny laughs]

SLIM I’ve had enough.

CASEY I actually did see Seth Rogen’s most recent romantic comedy. It wasn’t bad.

SLIM So I’m also at four stars for You’ve Got Mail. I had a great time.

DANNY Oh baby!

SLIM Yeah, a lot of fun. I already know your ratings.

DANNY Five stars for me. It’s the best. I love this movie dearly. Tom Hanks doing Godfather quotes. Like, I just love them. I love Tom in this. I love Meg in this. Great cast, five stars all around.

CASEY I always look forward to Danny laughing at the Godfather stuff when we watch it. [Danny laughs]

DANNY Every time.

CASEY Because it’s never not funny to him, literally, every time he’s just laughing so hard. I think there’s just there’s so much whimsy in this movie, like especially at the beginning, Kathleen’s character, and just the way that she moves through the world. She’s so optimistic about you know what’s coming, even though it turns out bad and obviously this is a five star movie for me too. We just — we have so much fun with it every year and it just it gets us ready for fall even though we don’t really feel fall here. We get just less horrible heat. But we still pretend and it’s great.

SLIM Five stars. Gemma just dropped the link in chat, Danny, bookstores in film. Letterboxd list.

CASEY Oh. Danny, save that for me.

DANNY I’m saving it right now. Thank you Gemma.

SLIM What a choice. What a discussion. Glad I watched it. We have a bunch of DMs from us saying we’re doing You’ve Got Mail.

CASEY That’s exciting.

SLIM Bunch of DMS but I’m not gonna read them all go through our emails first. Art says Michael Cera is the modern Tom Hanks. Do you believe? What’s Michael Cera doing right now? He needs to get it out in the open.

CASEY Is Michael Cera doing anything right now?

PROTO Michael Cera is a gift.

SLIM Let’s see. Subject line: Who belongs to the fish? You can write us an email at 70mmpod@gmail.com. Leave us a voicemail. We have links on 70mmpod.com. ‘’New patron here writing in for my all time favorite movie.’’ This comes from Sarah.

DANNY Wow.

SLIM ‘’I was introduced to this movie when I was home sick from school when I was probably 13. I have been a diehard fan ever since. A cup of soup cozy feel good sweater of a movie has brought me so much comfort over the years. This is the movie I turned to and when I need advice much in the way Joe Fox turns to the Godfather. I want to ask about the family dynamics in this movie. For literal years, I thought that Annabelle and Matt were Joe’s kids and he was just shirking responsibility and messing with everyone at the shop around the corner when he first meets Kathleen. Did anyone else think that? I definitely think it could have been more clearly outlined. But that’s the only flaw. Good night and goodbye, dear void.’’

CASEY Well, when you’re if you’re watching this movie at 13, I know if my 13 year old would be watching it like yes, she knows like how children are made. But it wouldn’t she wouldn’t register that like, oh, this girl is that old man’s daughter. That wouldn’t that wouldn’t make any sense to her.

SLIM I did think the family dynamic was a real confusing. I had to like think back to earlier scenes that maybe I wasn’t paying attention. Like who is this child? Or what was the relationship with that woman to him? I was a little bit confused. Am I the only one?

DANNY Yes. Sorry. [Casey laughs]

SLIM Sarah, you and me. Thank you for the email Sarah. Appreciate it.

DANNY Yeah, thank you.

SLIM Scott emails in next. ‘’Hey 70mm guys, just two months away is the beginning of a whole new year of films to watch and log onto Letterboxd. This will be the first year I start fresh with zero movies on January 1. I keep contemplating what film will start off those fun algorithms with the top 20 actors and directors etc. Do you put that much thought into it or just let the mood strike you? What might be your first movie? Maybe it will be Holy Mountain? Jk.’’ That comes from Scott. Proto, do you put any thought into that? Day one? Fresh year?

PROTO Scott, you joker. Holy Mountain. No, I haven’t thought about that. That’s interesting though. Is there like a New Year’s Day movie that we should be watching though?

DANNY Oh gosh, I don’t know.

SLIM I think there’s a New Year’s movie, like romantic movie that apparently is like one of the worst movies ever made. Danny, what are you going to start the year off with? January 1st?

DANNY January 1st?

CASEY Probably a Disney movie.

PROTO Phantom Menace?

DANNY I don’t know. I don’t know.

SLIM What if?

DANNY Matrix 4.

SLIM I actually had to call out that I forgot, in patented fashion, I forgot to read an email during our Animatrix episode. Which is just for our patrons. I’ll read that now. Comes from ctcher. Animatrix. He’s included some horrifying photos from The Animatrix

DANNY Alright ctcher.

SLIM Let me see if I can drag it into Discord. No it won’t let me. ‘’I remember watching The Animatrix when it came out. I was so impressed by the different ways the same work could be reimagined or approached from different points of view. It felt fresh and exciting and was really inspiring for someone with a less traditional art style to see all these different styles mix and mash and still feel connected. Of all the matrix movies. It’s the one I went back to the most often. But all that joy turned to terror one day when a video by then unknown company called Boston Dynamics appeared on YouTube. They were showing off this self balancing robot named Big Dog and I nearly pooped my pants. In my mind flashback to the scene, a Second Renaissance episode of The Animatrix imaged included included on the drop in the chat right now. When a robot galloped across our broken world atop a horse robot that looked eerily similar to Big Dog, I was dumbfounded that anyone would think making this would not lead to humanity’s doom. I guess time will tell. Thanks for covering this awesome movie and I can’t wait to see you all in The Matrix.’’ Proto, did you think of that when you’re watching The Animatrix?

PROTO That’s a great point by ctcher.

SLIM Co-host of the Cinenauts.

PROTO This is a sign.

SLIM Casey, did you watch The Animatrix with Danny?

CASEY Absolutely not. [Danny laughs] When did Danny even watch this? I don’t even know.

DANNY Exactly.

CASEY Did you watch it at night or during the day?

DANNY I don’t remember. Last night I watched it.

SLIM We have some voicemails get to. Let’s get to Beks.

[voicemail plays]

VOICEMAIL What up 70mm? It’s Beks. I wanted to drop the line and say I’m so excited to hear the You’ve Got Mail episode with special guest Casey Haas. Casey is the best. I actually found 70mm through Casey because I’m a huge fan of her podcast Fun Sexy Bible Time, and found 70mm through following her and following Danny on socials. So I’m just really thankful for her because it would have never been a part of this community if it wasn’t for her. I’m excited for you guys to talk about You’ve Got Mail and everything that comes with that. One of the lines that really stood out to me this go around when I watched it yesterday night was when Frank says ‘’Name one good thing that technology has brought us’’ and I think we can all agree, it’s the 70mm Discord. Okay. Have a lovely time talking. Thanks, love you guys. Bye!

DANNY Love you Beks.

SLIM Beks. Thank you Beks and thank you Casey for bringing Beks into our lives.

CASEY Yeah, I’ve brought you guys a few listeners. I think Will. Will is a Fun Sexy Bible Time transfer. I don’t know any others actually. But two for sure. There is one more that he hasn’t been in the Discord much recently.

SLIM Is that Carp?

CASEY Yes, yes. JCarp.

SLIM MIA. Carp has gone MIA in the Discord. One day he’ll return. Thank you Becks as always. There’s talk of a ghost hunt near Beks in Washington. All the pieces are in play right now. Amanda’s in. Proto’s in. Danny’s in.

DANNY Casey’s in.

SLIM Casey, are you ready to say now that you’re in for the ghost hunt?

CASEY I will fly to the same place that Danny flies and then I will stay back home to wherever we’re staying during the ghost time.

DANNY Perfect.

CASEY I’ll stay at the hotel or somewhere else.

DANNY We just got confirmation.

SLIM You could be our command center.

PROTO You’ll have the soup ready for us.

SLIM What if we do like a command center type sitch, where you stay out in a van and you got like computer screens and walkies?

CASEY By myself? In van? Yeah, that sounds like it’s gonna happen.

SLIM We’re getting closer.

PROTO Slim can bring the dog. [Slim & Danny laugh]

SLIM Nova doesn’t ghost hunt either. She can stay with you. Final VM for this week. I saw this come through in the Google voice VM box and I was stunned. Gobsmacked even.

[voicemail plays]

VOICEMAIL Hi guys, JRScrolling here. Thrilled See you’ve got mail on the roster this week. What can I say? They don’t make them like they did in the 90s. I know Dune was a big hit last week. I’m not complaining about watching Oscar Isaac for two and a half hours. I just thought I’d take this opportunity to mention that what was done in the 90s can never be done again. If you guys have been considering a 90s rom com month, I have a few to throw in the ring. Drew Barrymore’s Never Been Kissed. And French Kiss also featuring this week starlet Meg Ryan. Adorable. And these are only suggestions. Keep up with the great work guys. I love listening and laughing with you. See ya!

SLIM Jenna.

DANNY Jenna.

SLIM Jenna does it again for the first time.

PROTO Nailed it. [Slim & Danny laugh]

SLIM Jenna, don’t be a stranger. We love hearing from you.

DANNY 90’s romcom month.

CASEY That’d be so fun.

SLIM Oh, boy.

DANNY I’m sweating. I’m already sweating. I want it.

PROTO French Kiss. I think that’s Kevin Kline with Meg Ryan.

SLIM Kevin Kline.

DANNY Mamma mia.

SLIM The King.

CASEY Have you seen it Danny?

DANNY No.