Thank you for coming back, everyone. Last week we talked about movie delays, the future of movie theaters like AMC and some of our favorite actors.
This week, I have a fellow actor and friend of mine, Gary Bowman, joining me. We open up the conversation by discussing “Uncut Gems,” (the Adam Sandler and Safdie Brothers film) and launch into a discussion about the Safdie Brothers and their influence. We talk about the prevalence of hyphenates — actors who also do things like write and direct — chiefly Benny Safdie, who, in addition to writing and co-directing the film “Good Time,” also stars in it.
We talk about the elements of writing, directing and starring in your own work. Our conversation shifts to Shia LaBeouf and his breakout film “Honey Boy,” which he wrote and starred in but chose somebody else to direct. We talked about LaBeouf’s up-and-down trajectory in Hollywood and how he seemingly has steady work again, despite recent allegations surrounding the actor. We talked about the roles Shia Labeouf had upcoming at the time of recording, like “Pieces of a Woman” and “The Tax Collector.”
Eventually, we moved on to Tarantino and his perfectionism as a director — how he doesn’t let actors improvise and how his dialogue is meant to be said exactly as it was written. That led into a conversation about “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” and “The Irishman,” two 2019 films that we were greatly anticipating before they came out. We talked about our reactions to the two films once they were released and how perception of a movie can be altered before watching. From there, we talk about the subversive ending of “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” (spoilers), and Tarantino’s subgenre of “revisionist history” that he demonstrated in other films (like “Django Unchained” and “Inglorious Basterds”).
Gary talked about his anticipation for “The Irishman,” how he read the book beforehand, and how the name Hoffa was known in the Italian-American community. We discussed the complaints and praises for the movie, as well as whether Robert De Niro did the role justice.
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