WEBVTT
00:00:00.750 --> 00:00:03.930
Hey everyone, it's Lori Twitchell and we've got
00:00:03.930 --> 00:00:06.849
another episode of the Nothing Trivial podcast.
00:00:07.309 --> 00:00:09.509
Today we're going to do something just a little
00:00:09.509 --> 00:00:11.630
bit different. We're going to do what I call
00:00:11.630 --> 00:00:14.710
a deep dive discussion into a movie that came
00:00:14.710 --> 00:00:16.969
out earlier this summer. We're going to take
00:00:16.969 --> 00:00:20.210
a look at the marketing, the audience expectations,
00:00:20.210 --> 00:00:22.789
and we're going to talk a little bit about the
00:00:22.789 --> 00:00:27.030
writing and the release. So stick around. Nothing
00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:36.539
Trivial materialists happens now. If you have
00:00:36.539 --> 00:00:40.240
followed my career at any point when I owned
00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:44.159
Fiction Addict and Radiant Lit, my policy was
00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:49.259
if you didn't like something in general and you
00:00:49.259 --> 00:00:52.159
felt that you couldn't give it a positive review,
00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:56.939
rather you didn't review it at all. And I believe
00:00:56.939 --> 00:01:00.579
that very firmly because the reality is that
00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:04.810
my opinions and my views Aren't the same as yours
00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:09.290
and I never want to dissuade someone from checking
00:01:09.290 --> 00:01:13.650
out Something on their own now if there is something
00:01:13.650 --> 00:01:17.689
blatant that I feel this doesn't come across
00:01:17.689 --> 00:01:19.430
that way in the marketing and I watch it and
00:01:19.430 --> 00:01:21.590
I feel like there needs to be kind of a warning
00:01:21.590 --> 00:01:24.370
I will put that out there or if it's something
00:01:24.370 --> 00:01:28.150
that's being marketed towards kids and I feel
00:01:28.150 --> 00:01:31.189
like it's maybe not the best thing I will put
00:01:31.189 --> 00:01:33.870
that out there and then parents can make their
00:01:33.870 --> 00:01:37.730
own decisions but with regard to art in general
00:01:37.730 --> 00:01:42.670
books or writing or films or anything along those
00:01:42.670 --> 00:01:46.909
lines is a miracle when it gets into your hands.
00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:50.609
Anything, any book, any film, any television
00:01:50.609 --> 00:01:53.489
show that you have at your disposal to watch
00:01:53.489 --> 00:01:57.689
is a mini miracle and I think that a lot of people
00:01:57.689 --> 00:02:01.870
take that for granted. The number of people who
00:02:01.870 --> 00:02:06.170
had to be involved in getting that particular
00:02:06.170 --> 00:02:12.000
piece of art or creativity into your hands is
00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.159
astronomically misunderstood by the general audience.
00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:17.979
People walk into a bookstore and they grab a
00:02:17.979 --> 00:02:20.599
book off the shelf without ever thinking of all
00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:23.919
the hands and the minds that touched that piece
00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:27.500
before it got to them. And the same goes even
00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:30.639
more so for film, the number of people who've
00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.360
worked on that. And it's one of the reasons that
00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:36.340
my family and I always stay through the end of
00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:38.860
the credits, even if it's not a Marvel movie.
00:02:39.469 --> 00:02:42.909
believe that because I feel like it's important
00:02:42.909 --> 00:02:46.509
to respect everybody who had a piece of that
00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:50.909
vision and so with the utmost deepest respect
00:02:50.909 --> 00:02:54.770
for the process and the artists and the fact
00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:58.030
that everything that we consume in that manner
00:02:58.030 --> 00:03:03.830
is almost like a mini miracle I don't do negative
00:03:03.830 --> 00:03:07.789
reviews. That said, I want to do a little bit
00:03:07.789 --> 00:03:13.030
deeper dive into materialists. It created a lot
00:03:13.030 --> 00:03:18.580
of... discussions in my life and personally in
00:03:18.580 --> 00:03:22.599
my family because I took both of my older daughters.
00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:27.659
We wanted to go out for a girls afternoon and
00:03:27.659 --> 00:03:30.560
the three of us have not gotten together in forever.
00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:34.719
So I got the tickets for all of us and we worked
00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.599
weeks ahead of time to arrange schedules and
00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:41.250
make sure that we were good. And all of us are
00:03:41.250 --> 00:03:45.150
fans of the actors who are in the film. In case
00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:49.370
you weren't aware, it's Chris Evans, who's Captain
00:03:49.370 --> 00:03:53.729
America, Pedro Pascal, who is Mr. Fantastic coming
00:03:53.729 --> 00:03:57.530
up in The Mandalorian, and Dakota Johnson, which,
00:03:57.669 --> 00:04:01.590
to be honest, I haven't seen her in a lot of
00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:05.490
projects, so I'm still getting used to Dakota
00:04:05.490 --> 00:04:08.430
Johnson, but I don't have anything against her.
00:04:08.770 --> 00:04:12.349
I know some people do. I don't. But I thought
00:04:12.349 --> 00:04:15.729
with that cast of characters and Billed as what
00:04:15.729 --> 00:04:20.269
I felt was a romance, we were ready for all three
00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:23.430
of us to go. Our cardinal role in the house,
00:04:23.769 --> 00:04:28.129
in our family, you stay for the credits. We also
00:04:28.129 --> 00:04:30.250
have a cardinal rule that you don't discuss the
00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:34.529
movie in the parking lot or in the lobby or outside
00:04:34.529 --> 00:04:38.430
the theater because we are used to being in the
00:04:38.430 --> 00:04:41.230
very first screening of like a Marvel film or
00:04:41.230 --> 00:04:43.730
Star Wars or whatever. If you're walking out
00:04:43.730 --> 00:04:46.910
and going, wow, I never saw Bubba but you spoiled
00:04:46.910 --> 00:04:50.029
somebody. So we're very careful about that. But
00:04:50.029 --> 00:04:54.449
we always use the time in the car on the way
00:04:54.449 --> 00:04:59.800
home to discuss. In this one, it was a little
00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:05.839
bit different for my family. We were all walking
00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:09.519
and you could feel the crackle of energy between
00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:13.480
all of us as we were walking towards the car.
00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:16.279
We all knew we had things that we wanted to say,
00:05:16.420 --> 00:05:20.079
but we were faithfully holding on to those. And
00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:25.540
we got in. It was an explosion of all of us saying,
00:05:25.579 --> 00:05:28.779
wow, I really didn't like that movie or I'm not
00:05:28.779 --> 00:05:31.879
sure if I kind of liked those characters. But
00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:36.040
it wasn't an angry discussion and it wasn't an
00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:40.980
unproductive discussion. I have friends who have
00:05:40.980 --> 00:05:44.379
mentioned in their posts on Facebook that they
00:05:44.379 --> 00:05:47.259
were bitterly disappointed in the movie and they
00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:50.139
were mad that they had spent money on it. I am
00:05:50.139 --> 00:05:54.600
not in that realm. I actually, you would think
00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:56.720
that making all the big plans for a girl's day
00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:59.180
and none of us were really big huge fans of the
00:05:59.180 --> 00:06:01.660
movie, you would think that that would be disappointment,
00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:04.720
but it really wasn't because we had some really
00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:09.199
fantastic conversations about... the movie. That's
00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:13.660
where I want to come from as we go into more
00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:16.540
depth and detail and there will be spoilers here.
00:06:17.259 --> 00:06:20.000
is that I don't want to sit here and shred the
00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:22.899
movie, but I do want to talk about some of the
00:06:22.899 --> 00:06:26.540
weaknesses that I saw. There are a lot of folks
00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:29.339
that listen to the podcast or that reach out
00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:33.420
to me who haven't had a produced film or they
00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:36.660
really want to write movies, then they have said,
00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:39.480
this is what I needed to hear. I've never heard
00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:41.540
some of these things. So I want to come at it
00:06:41.540 --> 00:06:45.079
from more of that, more of a constructive point
00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:48.660
of view. Now I'm going to start by saying that
00:06:48.660 --> 00:06:51.399
I felt that some of the scenes and some of the
00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:55.920
shots were really beautiful. There were striking
00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:58.019
moments when I was sitting there watching on
00:06:58.019 --> 00:07:02.079
the big screen and I thought, wow, it's really,
00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:04.560
really cool that they coordinated her clothing
00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:07.279
with these things in the background and you can
00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:11.300
see and feel that some of those choices were
00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:15.300
very much intentional. And as someone who spent
00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:18.420
a lot of time in New York City, I felt that they
00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:21.579
did a really good job with portraying that whole
00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:27.480
vibe and some of that. I loved a lot of the little
00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:31.680
things. Chris Evans' character, John, still had
00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.319
the same car that he did from years earlier,
00:07:35.899 --> 00:07:40.360
and I loved that. I just loved the small little
00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:46.250
pieces of it. However, in a story... You don't
00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:48.649
want someone necessarily sitting there thinking,
00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:51.529
wow, I love the vases that are on the bookcase
00:07:51.529 --> 00:07:54.709
sitting behind her right now. Or, that's a really
00:07:54.709 --> 00:07:58.810
cool coffee shop. You want people focused on
00:07:58.810 --> 00:08:02.850
the story and the dialogue, and so... If you
00:08:02.850 --> 00:08:05.569
love Pedro Pascal, you're gonna love seeing him
00:08:05.569 --> 00:08:10.089
in designer clothing. He plays Harry, who is
00:08:10.089 --> 00:08:13.329
someone super wealthy. Lots of money and numbers
00:08:13.329 --> 00:08:15.550
get thrown around, and I will discuss that in
00:08:15.550 --> 00:08:18.529
a little bit. He has well -tailored clothing.
00:08:18.649 --> 00:08:22.889
It is beautiful to see him in some of those clothes
00:08:22.889 --> 00:08:25.889
and in some of those settings, as opposed to,
00:08:25.889 --> 00:08:29.589
you know, him fighting for his life in, you know,
00:08:29.769 --> 00:08:33.340
dirty old abandoned places. it's just a new way
00:08:33.340 --> 00:08:37.360
to see him and you know those were some really
00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:39.840
positive upbeat things that I found about the
00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:44.200
film there were some moments where I did laugh
00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:46.840
definitely still not a rom -com if you if you
00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:49.320
only laugh like two or three times through the
00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:53.100
whole 90 minutes it's not a calm at all story
00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:57.730
-wise this is a story about Lucy played by Dakota
00:08:57.730 --> 00:09:02.610
Johnson who is a professional matchmaker and
00:09:02.610 --> 00:09:06.850
so her entire job all day long is listening to
00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:10.409
people who are lonely and want to be with someone
00:09:10.409 --> 00:09:13.330
they want to find a companion in their life and
00:09:13.330 --> 00:09:17.049
they are willing to pay for that and they have
00:09:17.049 --> 00:09:21.299
a list In this film, each of them has a list
00:09:21.299 --> 00:09:24.399
of things that they require. I'm not talking
00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:27.059
about wants, I'm talking about requirements.
00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:32.389
That is made very plain. Every relationship or
00:09:32.389 --> 00:09:36.210
potential relationship in Lucy's life gets boiled
00:09:36.210 --> 00:09:40.190
down to a math problem, or as I continue to refer
00:09:40.190 --> 00:09:44.649
to it mentally, an algorithm. Do the backgrounds
00:09:44.649 --> 00:09:48.990
line up? Do the jobs line up? Do the parental
00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:53.299
familial situations line up? those sorts of things,
00:09:53.379 --> 00:09:58.000
you know, are they even -ish with regards to
00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.480
looks and fitness and the way that they approach
00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:04.100
hobbies and things like that. In the beginning,
00:10:04.100 --> 00:10:07.440
it is made very plain that every single person
00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:10.919
is seen as a walking equation and you're trying
00:10:10.919 --> 00:10:14.809
to look for their puzzle piece that is gonna
00:10:14.809 --> 00:10:17.929
fit with them. What was a little bit off -putting
00:10:17.929 --> 00:10:23.669
to me was in a private moment, she's really putting
00:10:23.669 --> 00:10:27.769
down some of those clients. Hearing that someone
00:10:27.769 --> 00:10:31.870
isn't bad, there's nothing wrong with them, they
00:10:31.870 --> 00:10:34.070
are good at this, they are good at this, they
00:10:34.070 --> 00:10:36.049
are good at this, but there's nothing special
00:10:36.049 --> 00:10:41.159
in them. That prickled my nerves. because I believe
00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:43.379
there's something special in everyone. Everyone
00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:45.360
has something that they can give. But again,
00:10:45.659 --> 00:10:49.600
that's me and I was aware. that I personally
00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:52.879
don't like that, so I was able to put that aside.
00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:56.379
But it also let us know that the face that Lucy
00:10:56.379 --> 00:10:59.299
puts on when she's meeting her clients is not
00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:03.200
what she actually truly believes. And so she's
00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:07.059
building a false facade for people in some of
00:11:07.059 --> 00:11:10.379
that. That is, I believe, an intentional choice.
00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:14.600
and when you start a movie from that place, your
00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:17.840
hope is that that main character will move on
00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:22.519
and grow. And that was ultimately one of the
00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:26.580
problems that I felt. Between beginning and end
00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:29.620
of the movie, from the moment you meet each of
00:11:29.620 --> 00:11:35.080
these characters, I didn't see significant improvement,
00:11:35.179 --> 00:11:39.669
growth, or change in them. the only one that
00:11:39.669 --> 00:11:43.830
I could say that I saw some of that was John
00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:47.750
played by Chris Evans and The the problem is
00:11:47.750 --> 00:11:50.269
that when he starts and when we learn about his
00:11:50.269 --> 00:11:54.549
backstory He hasn't made any growth from the
00:11:54.549 --> 00:11:57.970
years upon years earlier when he dated and lost
00:11:57.970 --> 00:12:02.549
Lucy He's actually not doing any better and he's
00:12:02.549 --> 00:12:07.169
kind of done a little bit worse So in my perspective
00:12:07.169 --> 00:12:10.529
it makes it a lot harder to root for some of
00:12:10.529 --> 00:12:13.769
these characters and you know that might be a
00:12:13.769 --> 00:12:17.570
choice because I feel like dating these days
00:12:17.570 --> 00:12:22.309
has all become an algorithm and in the movie
00:12:22.309 --> 00:12:25.110
they kept referring to it as a mathematics equation
00:12:25.690 --> 00:12:29.450
and that becomes tick the box, check the box,
00:12:29.529 --> 00:12:32.110
put the right things here, put the right pictures
00:12:32.110 --> 00:12:35.710
here. It isn't about learning who a person is.
00:12:36.309 --> 00:12:40.809
And so I believe that Celine's song accomplished
00:12:40.809 --> 00:12:45.570
a beautiful thing in that by showing us how dating
00:12:45.570 --> 00:12:51.830
has become so sanitized and numbers oriented.
00:12:52.590 --> 00:12:55.509
And so she accomplished that really beautifully.
00:12:56.730 --> 00:13:00.789
But again, it makes it hard to root for people
00:13:00.789 --> 00:13:06.090
to be happy. When you get to the end of a romance,
00:13:06.850 --> 00:13:09.929
you want to think that there's at least a semblance
00:13:09.929 --> 00:13:12.950
of a happily ever after. Like, it might last
00:13:12.950 --> 00:13:15.740
for at least six months. There are movies that
00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:19.779
I have watched where there's sequels and the
00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:21.639
people who got together in the first movie are
00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:24.580
not in the second movie or she's moved on to
00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:27.639
someone else, but I can still enjoy the first
00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:30.879
movie because they were good together and they
00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:35.460
fit. I didn't quite feel that at the end of this
00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:39.580
film. When we got to the end of this movie...
00:13:40.009 --> 00:13:43.889
It was interesting to me that all three of us
00:13:43.889 --> 00:13:47.149
in the car felt like this movie must have been
00:13:47.149 --> 00:13:52.210
made from a book. It felt very literary. And
00:13:52.210 --> 00:13:55.470
all of us felt like we were missing pieces of
00:13:55.470 --> 00:13:58.590
the story somehow. Like there were things that
00:13:58.590 --> 00:14:02.370
I would understand deeper if I read the book.
00:14:02.870 --> 00:14:07.210
And as much as we weren't fans of the movie when
00:14:07.210 --> 00:14:11.559
we left, all three of us were eager to go home,
00:14:11.820 --> 00:14:14.080
do the research, and see if we can find the book.
00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:17.000
It's taken me a lot of processing and trying
00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:19.200
to figure out why would I think that it was literary?
00:14:19.340 --> 00:14:22.480
Well, there was a feel to the key art and to
00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:24.419
some of the posters and things that felt like
00:14:24.419 --> 00:14:27.980
it would be a book cover. Some of the story felt
00:14:27.980 --> 00:14:30.600
like it would have been a great book turn to
00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:36.529
film, but I think There were artifacts and artifact
00:14:36.529 --> 00:14:40.610
that could be anything from a line a camera shot
00:14:40.610 --> 00:14:44.529
a mention, you know someone specifically talks
00:14:44.529 --> 00:14:49.029
about the Coffee that they order every day and
00:14:49.029 --> 00:14:52.570
they are very specific about that It is the assumption
00:14:52.570 --> 00:14:54.750
that that's gonna come back around later that
00:14:54.750 --> 00:14:57.490
they've planted a seed and we'll get a payback
00:14:57.490 --> 00:15:01.919
on that later but the payback might have been
00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:05.299
in a scene that slowed down the pacing, but it
00:15:05.299 --> 00:15:09.799
feels weird sometimes to pick up on those cues
00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.379
that feel like they've been planted for you specifically.
00:15:13.789 --> 00:15:16.750
and then not have a payoff. And it felt like
00:15:16.750 --> 00:15:20.570
when I got to the end of this film, there were
00:15:20.570 --> 00:15:23.950
more of those than I was comfortable with, which
00:15:23.950 --> 00:15:27.710
made me feel like the movie was not completely
00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:30.610
finished or there was far more to the vision.
00:15:31.269 --> 00:15:35.269
Now when you translate from page to screen, you
00:15:35.269 --> 00:15:37.769
can lose a lot of things. Books have the ability
00:15:37.769 --> 00:15:41.149
to go further into detail. You can be inside
00:15:41.149 --> 00:15:44.679
a character's head and that isn't as easy to
00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:47.860
convey on the screen without a voiceover or narration
00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:52.340
and so I felt like there were pieces and parts
00:15:52.340 --> 00:15:54.440
of that that I would have liked to know more.
00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:58.059
I would have liked to understand when Harry is
00:15:58.059 --> 00:16:00.620
looking at Lucy, what he's actually thinking
00:16:00.620 --> 00:16:02.960
is he calculating this like a business deal.
00:16:03.700 --> 00:16:07.299
To her credit, Lucy's character, and when I say
00:16:07.299 --> 00:16:10.600
to her credit I mean Celine Song's credit, Lucy's
00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:12.960
character is all about the mathematics and the
00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:17.820
algorithm, and Harry ultimately treated their
00:16:17.820 --> 00:16:21.289
relationship as such. and she wasn't happy or
00:16:21.289 --> 00:16:24.110
satisfied in that. That was something that was
00:16:24.110 --> 00:16:27.649
profound. It was very well crafted. It bothered
00:16:27.649 --> 00:16:30.950
me a little bit because there is a scene later
00:16:30.950 --> 00:16:33.490
where Harry is exceptionally vulnerable with
00:16:33.490 --> 00:16:36.909
Lucy and he shares some very deeply hurtful and
00:16:36.909 --> 00:16:39.909
personal things and he even shares the point
00:16:39.909 --> 00:16:43.009
of what if I can't love someone? What if I'm
00:16:43.009 --> 00:16:46.389
broken? What if this isn't possible for me? And
00:16:46.389 --> 00:16:49.610
I don't feel like Lucy treats that well. and
00:16:49.610 --> 00:16:52.690
with respect. Really bothered me and it took
00:16:52.690 --> 00:16:56.929
points away from following Lucy and wanting the
00:16:56.929 --> 00:16:59.669
best for her because I thought, wow, why would
00:16:59.669 --> 00:17:02.350
you do that to another person? And so that was
00:17:02.350 --> 00:17:06.609
very difficult for me. But it also shows she
00:17:06.609 --> 00:17:10.430
was treating things like a math problem and that's
00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:14.740
where that went. So back to the artifact and
00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:16.940
the pieces of the story that we kind of felt
00:17:16.940 --> 00:17:19.700
were missing. Again, when you do that page -to
00:17:19.700 --> 00:17:22.660
-screen translation, sometimes some of those
00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:26.220
important things that create a bridge emotionally
00:17:26.220 --> 00:17:28.700
for you to follow a character can get missed.
00:17:29.380 --> 00:17:32.880
And then once the movie's been filmed, When they
00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:35.640
sit down in editing and they're looking at pacing
00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:39.039
and the best shots, sometimes pieces of the story
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:41.900
can get moved and leave different artifacts.
00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:45.039
I have a lot of grace for that process. I have
00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:48.220
that now, after years of experience in the industry.
00:17:48.819 --> 00:17:53.000
So, I have a deep appreciation for the fact that
00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.200
artifacts can happen in the writing process,
00:17:55.420 --> 00:17:58.559
artifacts can happen later in the editing process.
00:17:59.049 --> 00:18:01.289
but I just ultimately felt like there were a
00:18:01.289 --> 00:18:03.630
lot of those different points that I should have
00:18:03.630 --> 00:18:06.710
understood better and I wanted a deeper understanding.
00:18:07.490 --> 00:18:10.329
I find it fascinating that all three of us in
00:18:10.329 --> 00:18:13.269
the car were not fans of the movie but we were
00:18:13.269 --> 00:18:16.210
ready to go find the book at the library so that
00:18:16.210 --> 00:18:19.829
we could do a deeper dive because we were invested
00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:22.190
in what might have been and what could have been.
00:18:22.589 --> 00:18:25.710
So when we found out that there wasn't a book
00:18:25.710 --> 00:18:29.799
and there wasn't more to the story, That was
00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:34.720
like, wow. That made us rethink certain things.
00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:38.640
And I am positive that some things ended up on
00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:40.900
the editing room floor that would have helped
00:18:40.900 --> 00:18:44.880
make certain things make more sense. It's a very
00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:48.619
difficult process to make a movie. It's not easy.
00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:54.019
But I was hopeful. that there might be more,
00:18:54.019 --> 00:18:57.519
even if I wasn't hopeful from the movie itself,
00:18:57.579 --> 00:19:00.299
from the framework that we were given about these
00:19:00.299 --> 00:19:02.859
characters, I was hopeful that there might be
00:19:02.859 --> 00:19:06.319
more to the story that would make me love them
00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:09.819
more or feel more for them. Now, two more things
00:19:09.819 --> 00:19:13.259
that I want to address. One of the issues is
00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:17.359
money. That is mentioned very specifically in
00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:21.890
this film and Celine's song brought it up. intentionally
00:19:21.890 --> 00:19:26.549
and she's done interviews where she said I wanted
00:19:26.549 --> 00:19:30.809
to open this discussion. People don't talk about
00:19:30.809 --> 00:19:34.829
money. So there's a moment where Lucy says to
00:19:34.829 --> 00:19:37.630
Harry, Pedro Pascal's character, exactly how
00:19:37.630 --> 00:19:41.230
much money she makes during the year. It's $80
00:19:41.230 --> 00:19:45.450
,000 a year. There are a few reasons you don't
00:19:45.450 --> 00:19:49.049
put something like that in a film because you
00:19:49.049 --> 00:19:52.069
start calculating and Celine Song said she wanted
00:19:52.069 --> 00:19:56.049
to discuss this and the characters in the movie
00:19:56.539 --> 00:19:59.440
are doing all the calculating all the time. It's
00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:01.880
always a math problem. It is always an equation
00:20:01.880 --> 00:20:04.759
for them. So to have the audience sitting there
00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:09.039
going, she makes $80 ,000 a year, it makes you
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:11.660
look at her apartment and the clothing that she
00:20:11.660 --> 00:20:17.039
wears. For me, it actually took me so far out
00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:20.359
of the narrative. It made everything else suspect
00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:24.160
because I don't know how she could live in that
00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:27.380
apartment that she does. in the manner that she
00:20:27.380 --> 00:20:32.579
does for $80 ,000 a year, and her agency is working
00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:36.059
with people who are multi -millionaires many
00:20:36.059 --> 00:20:40.440
times over. If Lucy is your best person at the
00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:43.460
agency, wouldn't she be getting more for that?
00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:47.559
She is being celebrated at the agency, and if
00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:49.859
she gets a promotion at the agency and they want
00:20:49.859 --> 00:20:53.549
her to take that over... It was a problem for
00:20:53.549 --> 00:20:55.990
me that later they told her, you can name your
00:20:55.990 --> 00:20:59.029
salary. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What kind of
00:20:59.029 --> 00:21:01.369
working environment is that where your people
00:21:01.369 --> 00:21:03.650
are being paid this much, even though they are
00:21:03.650 --> 00:21:06.390
expected to be at events where they're multimillionaires
00:21:06.390 --> 00:21:10.309
and they have to be at that level in order to
00:21:10.309 --> 00:21:16.130
be taken with any kind of respect. I am someone
00:21:16.130 --> 00:21:19.069
who has millions of dollars and I live a very
00:21:19.069 --> 00:21:22.950
specific kind of lifestyle. I'm not gonna hire
00:21:22.950 --> 00:21:26.549
a matchmaker and trust that person with vulnerable
00:21:26.549 --> 00:21:29.869
details of my personal life. If they are wearing
00:21:29.869 --> 00:21:34.049
$5 sneakers, you know, if they are so far below,
00:21:34.089 --> 00:21:36.809
you're gonna think they don't understand you.
00:21:37.130 --> 00:21:40.619
So I felt like that was a misstep. Did it get
00:21:40.619 --> 00:21:42.779
people talking? Yeah, there are New York Times
00:21:42.779 --> 00:21:45.799
articles on the fact that money was dropped in
00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:52.539
this movie, but it is a movie about money. All
00:21:52.539 --> 00:21:54.740
right, so I mentioned that there were two more
00:21:54.740 --> 00:21:56.380
things that I wanted to address. I addressed
00:21:56.380 --> 00:22:00.359
the money. This last topic, it's a tough one,
00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:06.069
and I did save it for last, but it is... Let
00:22:06.069 --> 00:22:09.329
me put a trigger warning here. I'm gonna be respectful.
00:22:10.269 --> 00:22:13.569
Not gonna go too far into certain things, but
00:22:13.569 --> 00:22:18.049
it is a heavy topic and it might trigger some
00:22:18.049 --> 00:22:23.150
things if you are a survivor of assault or violence.
00:22:23.410 --> 00:22:26.049
Might be something that bothers you, so be aware.
00:22:27.049 --> 00:22:30.250
Now you know what one of the storylines in the
00:22:30.250 --> 00:22:36.200
movie was. Lucy sets someone up. with not what
00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:38.779
she believes is her perfect match, but a good
00:22:38.779 --> 00:22:44.059
match. And it is someone, it is the woman that
00:22:44.059 --> 00:22:48.619
we discussed earlier that Lucy says isn't, doesn't
00:22:48.619 --> 00:22:50.819
stand out, but there's nothing wrong with her.
00:22:51.099 --> 00:22:53.359
And she sets this woman up with someone that
00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:55.720
she has pitched a couple of different times to
00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:58.140
a couple of different people. So it seems like
00:22:58.140 --> 00:23:00.680
there's been some difficulty finding him a match
00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:05.859
too. It is said, before the date, he matches
00:23:05.859 --> 00:23:08.539
you here, he matches you here, it gives his career,
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:10.859
it gives the amount of money that he makes in
00:23:10.859 --> 00:23:13.440
a year, it gives his interests, his likes, and
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.579
his height. That is an important storyline in
00:23:16.579 --> 00:23:21.200
the movie. And the woman expresses some hesitancy
00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:24.039
because the past couple of guys, they've said
00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:26.700
that they were this tall, but they really weren't.
00:23:27.500 --> 00:23:32.579
And after the date happens, Lucy makes a phone
00:23:32.579 --> 00:23:34.640
call she makes several phone calls and the woman
00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:37.119
doesn't answer the phone but she calls the man
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:40.000
and he says it went alright I don't know if we
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.859
could be a relationship or if it's gonna go long
00:23:42.859 --> 00:23:45.039
term but I wouldn't mind seeing her again so
00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:48.680
Lucy is excited because that's a positive she
00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:51.500
goes into the office and she finds out that the
00:23:51.500 --> 00:23:54.680
woman had been assaulted by the man on the date
00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:58.799
they don't go into heavy detail that I remember
00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:02.430
there is some discussion of what happens later,
00:24:02.869 --> 00:24:06.390
but as as Lucy is finding this out, you see how
00:24:06.390 --> 00:24:09.990
shocked and stunned that she is, and her boss
00:24:09.990 --> 00:24:14.890
treats it like the math algorithm. She basically
00:24:14.890 --> 00:24:16.809
says the longer you do this, you're gonna have
00:24:16.809 --> 00:24:19.250
this happen. We've all had this happen in the
00:24:19.250 --> 00:24:21.730
office, which is interesting because if Lucy
00:24:21.730 --> 00:24:24.710
is the best at what she does, you'd think she
00:24:24.710 --> 00:24:26.450
would have heard of this somewhere before, but
00:24:26.450 --> 00:24:30.559
this is all brand new for Lucy. and she's told
00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:32.880
to stay away from the woman and to stay out of
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:36.539
it and legally I absolutely the company is covering
00:24:36.539 --> 00:24:39.299
themselves her boss tells her you know don't
00:24:39.299 --> 00:24:43.839
worry about it like like it was no big deal Lucy
00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:46.799
can't do this so she ends up talking to this
00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:48.839
woman she follows her and she talks to her and
00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:53.319
when she is talking to this woman this is one
00:24:53.319 --> 00:24:56.500
of those things that I feel should have been
00:24:56.500 --> 00:25:00.759
picked back up and could have changed a lot of
00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:05.319
things in the movie and I don't know why it wasn't
00:25:05.319 --> 00:25:09.460
and it bothers me this one does bother me and
00:25:09.460 --> 00:25:14.059
I will say this the woman explains to Lucy that
00:25:14.059 --> 00:25:18.039
it wasn't only that he wasn't as tall as he said
00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:21.519
he didn't make the amount of money he didn't
00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:25.059
have the right the same kind of career absolutely
00:25:25.059 --> 00:25:30.670
nothing that Lucy had on that list for him was
00:25:30.670 --> 00:25:34.849
true. And my daughter leaned over to me and said,
00:25:35.109 --> 00:25:38.670
they didn't vet him? There wasn't a process to
00:25:38.670 --> 00:25:43.170
make sure that this was real? That was a moment
00:25:43.170 --> 00:25:48.490
where I was appalled. And I thought, wow, I hope
00:25:48.490 --> 00:25:52.569
that they addressed that. That this is a dangerous
00:25:52.569 --> 00:25:57.029
time for women in dating. Men say, I saw a meme
00:25:57.029 --> 00:25:59.309
where a woman was like, hey, I'm meeting this
00:25:59.309 --> 00:26:03.049
guy from this dating app and we're meeting here
00:26:03.049 --> 00:26:06.190
and if you don't hear from me, this is who it
00:26:06.190 --> 00:26:08.150
was and she sends his profile and his picture
00:26:08.150 --> 00:26:10.069
to her friend and her friend says, alright, cool,
00:26:10.529 --> 00:26:14.150
go have fun and call me. That is commonplace
00:26:14.150 --> 00:26:18.589
in dating. It's real enough that if you are a
00:26:18.589 --> 00:26:20.990
woman and you are looking at going someplace
00:26:20.990 --> 00:26:25.049
with a man that you don't know, we all have those
00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:28.640
thoughts. And I felt like it didn't get given
00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:32.720
enough weight in this film. It ended up feeling
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:37.079
more like a plot device. This is a reason to
00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:40.299
have Lucy step away from some things. This is
00:26:40.299 --> 00:26:43.400
a reason to have her rethinking a few things.
00:26:43.779 --> 00:26:48.500
But again, Lucy did not ultimately change anything
00:26:48.500 --> 00:26:54.789
or grow from that. and that bothered me. Now
00:26:54.789 --> 00:26:57.930
there is a moment where the woman, the guy shows
00:26:57.930 --> 00:27:01.069
up at her apartment because he took her home
00:27:01.069 --> 00:27:03.069
from the date, so now he knows where she lives.
00:27:03.750 --> 00:27:07.349
Because the woman trusted this agency and trusted
00:27:07.349 --> 00:27:12.349
Lucy. She was paying well for that service. There
00:27:12.349 --> 00:27:16.130
should be something in place to ensure that someone
00:27:16.130 --> 00:27:20.130
is not a catfish. There should be a much stricter
00:27:20.130 --> 00:27:22.710
vetting process and there are ways to double
00:27:22.710 --> 00:27:25.670
check on that and to make sure that you're putting
00:27:25.670 --> 00:27:30.470
women's safety and men's safety first. But this
00:27:30.470 --> 00:27:32.490
woman doesn't have anybody that she can call
00:27:32.490 --> 00:27:34.410
and she calls Lucy and says he's trying to get
00:27:34.410 --> 00:27:37.609
into this apartment. What do I do? And Lucy is
00:27:37.609 --> 00:27:41.230
out of town and she and John, played by Chris
00:27:41.230 --> 00:27:43.950
Evans, immediately jump into the car. They end
00:27:43.950 --> 00:27:46.430
up spending the night at this woman's place and
00:27:46.430 --> 00:27:51.299
I loved That John was so respectful, he never
00:27:51.299 --> 00:27:55.519
entered her apartment. He stayed outside and
00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:59.920
that was a beautiful moment for me. I appreciated
00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:03.099
the vulnerability between Lucy and this woman
00:28:03.099 --> 00:28:06.059
in the apartment when they were having conversations
00:28:06.059 --> 00:28:09.480
and it felt like things were better. All of that
00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:14.579
was fantastic. That situation, I don't believe
00:28:14.579 --> 00:28:17.990
gets brought up again. If it does... later in
00:28:17.990 --> 00:28:21.369
the movie, it's just a one -line she's fine or
00:28:21.369 --> 00:28:25.210
whatever. She was suing the company, which is
00:28:25.210 --> 00:28:29.049
not inappropriate, but it doesn't get brought
00:28:29.049 --> 00:28:32.369
up again. And that is where ultimately it feels
00:28:32.369 --> 00:28:35.869
like it was only a plot device. You could have
00:28:35.869 --> 00:28:39.069
had a kid fall off a bike and have an accident
00:28:39.069 --> 00:28:44.029
in front of Lucy that would have had the same
00:28:44.029 --> 00:28:47.609
ripples through the rest of the story that assault
00:28:47.609 --> 00:28:53.930
of a woman did and later when Lucy is being offered
00:28:53.930 --> 00:28:56.049
this position and she's going back and forth
00:28:56.049 --> 00:28:58.130
do I want to go back to work and she's talking
00:28:58.130 --> 00:29:01.670
about I hate these clients your entire job is
00:29:01.670 --> 00:29:05.309
caring about people in their futures and yes
00:29:05.309 --> 00:29:08.210
you're being paid to care about them but you
00:29:08.210 --> 00:29:11.029
should have some feeling towards them beyond
00:29:11.029 --> 00:29:14.869
hatred and maybe that was an emotional whatever
00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:20.940
But she never ever goes to work and says, how
00:29:20.940 --> 00:29:24.099
can we make sure this doesn't happen again? She
00:29:24.099 --> 00:29:26.839
never does a deep dive into how often has this
00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:30.140
happened at my agency? Is this a common thing
00:29:30.140 --> 00:29:33.140
with the agency? And the agency has kept it quiet.
00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:36.460
Now, it would have made it a different movie
00:29:36.460 --> 00:29:39.869
if all of those things would have happened and
00:29:39.869 --> 00:29:42.930
it would have shifted the focus dramatically.
00:29:43.470 --> 00:29:47.890
When it comes to advocacy for victims and for
00:29:47.890 --> 00:29:51.190
women's safety, just those one or two things,
00:29:51.470 --> 00:29:55.569
one or two lines, could have changed the depth
00:29:55.569 --> 00:29:58.569
to that aspect of the film in such a manner that
00:29:58.569 --> 00:30:04.529
I think would have leveled it up. So that is
00:30:04.529 --> 00:30:08.170
my discourse and discussion on materialists.
00:30:08.750 --> 00:30:12.250
I would love to hear from you lori at it's nothing
00:30:12.250 --> 00:30:16.069
trivial comm if you have other movies that you
00:30:16.069 --> 00:30:18.549
feel like you went into and you thought you were
00:30:18.549 --> 00:30:21.710
getting something and you didn't or Maybe even
00:30:21.710 --> 00:30:23.769
there's a movie that you watched and you felt
00:30:23.769 --> 00:30:26.960
it had tremendous potential that was missed.
00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:30.940
Let's talk about it because my hope is that the
00:30:30.940 --> 00:30:33.319
next generation of storytellers or the folks
00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:34.920
who are out there trying to hone their craft
00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:37.200
and make it better, we should all be striving
00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:42.019
to make the better movie next time around. And
00:30:42.019 --> 00:30:46.579
now we have reached that inevitable yet sad part
00:30:46.579 --> 00:30:50.259
of the podcast. the conclusion. I want to thank
00:30:50.259 --> 00:30:53.180
you for giving me a little bit of your time today.
00:30:53.579 --> 00:30:55.420
I hope that somewhere along the way as you were
00:30:55.420 --> 00:30:59.200
listening you maybe laughed, smiled, maybe you
00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:02.119
learned something, or you were inspired. That's
00:31:02.119 --> 00:31:05.059
why I'm here and that's why I do this. The Nothing
00:31:05.059 --> 00:31:08.160
Trivial podcast is a production of Lori Twitchell.
00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:11.220
All the sound editing, the design, the content,
00:31:11.380 --> 00:31:14.460
everything comes from Lori Twitchell. We're a
00:31:14.460 --> 00:31:16.380
little bumpy. We're learning how to do this,
00:31:16.380 --> 00:31:19.519
but we're getting there. The music is from Kevin
00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:23.140
MacLeod. It's called Loopster and you can find
00:31:23.140 --> 00:31:27.200
more fabulous tracks from Kevin at incompetech
00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:30.920
.com. Any sound effects that you heard are credited
00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:34.900
in the notes for the podcast. And again, I appreciate
00:31:34.900 --> 00:31:38.160
you. Thanks for sticking around until the next
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:40.680
time when we get together to talk about nothing
00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:41.140
trivial.
00:00:00.750 --> 00:00:03.930
Hey everyone, it's Lori Twitchell and we've got
00:00:03.930 --> 00:00:06.849
another episode of the Nothing Trivial podcast.
00:00:07.309 --> 00:00:09.509
Today we're going to do something just a little
00:00:09.509 --> 00:00:11.630
bit different. We're going to do what I call
00:00:11.630 --> 00:00:14.710
a deep dive discussion into a movie that came
00:00:14.710 --> 00:00:16.969
out earlier this summer. We're going to take
00:00:16.969 --> 00:00:20.210
a look at the marketing, the audience expectations,
00:00:20.210 --> 00:00:22.789
and we're going to talk a little bit about the
00:00:22.789 --> 00:00:27.030
writing and the release. So stick around. Nothing
00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:36.539
Trivial materialists happens now. If you have
00:00:36.539 --> 00:00:40.240
followed my career at any point when I owned
00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:44.159
Fiction Addict and Radiant Lit, my policy was
00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:49.259
if you didn't like something in general and you
00:00:49.259 --> 00:00:52.159
felt that you couldn't give it a positive review,
00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:56.939
rather you didn't review it at all. And I believe
00:00:56.939 --> 00:01:00.579
that very firmly because the reality is that
00:01:00.579 --> 00:01:04.810
my opinions and my views Aren't the same as yours
00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:09.290
and I never want to dissuade someone from checking
00:01:09.290 --> 00:01:13.650
out Something on their own now if there is something
00:01:13.650 --> 00:01:17.689
blatant that I feel this doesn't come across
00:01:17.689 --> 00:01:19.430
that way in the marketing and I watch it and
00:01:19.430 --> 00:01:21.590
I feel like there needs to be kind of a warning
00:01:21.590 --> 00:01:24.370
I will put that out there or if it's something
00:01:24.370 --> 00:01:28.150
that's being marketed towards kids and I feel
00:01:28.150 --> 00:01:31.189
like it's maybe not the best thing I will put
00:01:31.189 --> 00:01:33.870
that out there and then parents can make their
00:01:33.870 --> 00:01:37.730
own decisions but with regard to art in general
00:01:37.730 --> 00:01:42.670
books or writing or films or anything along those
00:01:42.670 --> 00:01:46.909
lines is a miracle when it gets into your hands.
00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:50.609
Anything, any book, any film, any television
00:01:50.609 --> 00:01:53.489
show that you have at your disposal to watch
00:01:53.489 --> 00:01:57.689
is a mini miracle and I think that a lot of people
00:01:57.689 --> 00:02:01.870
take that for granted. The number of people who
00:02:01.870 --> 00:02:06.170
had to be involved in getting that particular
00:02:06.170 --> 00:02:12.000
piece of art or creativity into your hands is
00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.159
astronomically misunderstood by the general audience.
00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:17.979
People walk into a bookstore and they grab a
00:02:17.979 --> 00:02:20.599
book off the shelf without ever thinking of all
00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:23.919
the hands and the minds that touched that piece
00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:27.500
before it got to them. And the same goes even
00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:30.639
more so for film, the number of people who've
00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.360
worked on that. And it's one of the reasons that
00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:36.340
my family and I always stay through the end of
00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:38.860
the credits, even if it's not a Marvel movie.
00:02:39.469 --> 00:02:42.909
believe that because I feel like it's important
00:02:42.909 --> 00:02:46.509
to respect everybody who had a piece of that
00:02:46.509 --> 00:02:50.909
vision and so with the utmost deepest respect
00:02:50.909 --> 00:02:54.770
for the process and the artists and the fact
00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:58.030
that everything that we consume in that manner
00:02:58.030 --> 00:03:03.830
is almost like a mini miracle I don't do negative
00:03:03.830 --> 00:03:07.789
reviews. That said, I want to do a little bit
00:03:07.789 --> 00:03:13.030
deeper dive into materialists. It created a lot
00:03:13.030 --> 00:03:18.580
of... discussions in my life and personally in
00:03:18.580 --> 00:03:22.599
my family because I took both of my older daughters.
00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:27.659
We wanted to go out for a girls afternoon and
00:03:27.659 --> 00:03:30.560
the three of us have not gotten together in forever.
00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:34.719
So I got the tickets for all of us and we worked
00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.599
weeks ahead of time to arrange schedules and
00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:41.250
make sure that we were good. And all of us are
00:03:41.250 --> 00:03:45.150
fans of the actors who are in the film. In case
00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:49.370
you weren't aware, it's Chris Evans, who's Captain
00:03:49.370 --> 00:03:53.729
America, Pedro Pascal, who is Mr. Fantastic coming
00:03:53.729 --> 00:03:57.530
up in The Mandalorian, and Dakota Johnson, which,
00:03:57.669 --> 00:04:01.590
to be honest, I haven't seen her in a lot of
00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:05.490
projects, so I'm still getting used to Dakota
00:04:05.490 --> 00:04:08.430
Johnson, but I don't have anything against her.
00:04:08.770 --> 00:04:12.349
I know some people do. I don't. But I thought
00:04:12.349 --> 00:04:15.729
with that cast of characters and Billed as what
00:04:15.729 --> 00:04:20.269
I felt was a romance, we were ready for all three
00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:23.430
of us to go. Our cardinal role in the house,
00:04:23.769 --> 00:04:28.129
in our family, you stay for the credits. We also
00:04:28.129 --> 00:04:30.250
have a cardinal rule that you don't discuss the
00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:34.529
movie in the parking lot or in the lobby or outside
00:04:34.529 --> 00:04:38.430
the theater because we are used to being in the
00:04:38.430 --> 00:04:41.230
very first screening of like a Marvel film or
00:04:41.230 --> 00:04:43.730
Star Wars or whatever. If you're walking out
00:04:43.730 --> 00:04:46.910
and going, wow, I never saw Bubba but you spoiled
00:04:46.910 --> 00:04:50.029
somebody. So we're very careful about that. But
00:04:50.029 --> 00:04:54.449
we always use the time in the car on the way
00:04:54.449 --> 00:04:59.800
home to discuss. In this one, it was a little
00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:05.839
bit different for my family. We were all walking
00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:09.519
and you could feel the crackle of energy between
00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:13.480
all of us as we were walking towards the car.
00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:16.279
We all knew we had things that we wanted to say,
00:05:16.420 --> 00:05:20.079
but we were faithfully holding on to those. And
00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:25.540
we got in. It was an explosion of all of us saying,
00:05:25.579 --> 00:05:28.779
wow, I really didn't like that movie or I'm not
00:05:28.779 --> 00:05:31.879
sure if I kind of liked those characters. But
00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:36.040
it wasn't an angry discussion and it wasn't an
00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:40.980
unproductive discussion. I have friends who have
00:05:40.980 --> 00:05:44.379
mentioned in their posts on Facebook that they
00:05:44.379 --> 00:05:47.259
were bitterly disappointed in the movie and they
00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:50.139
were mad that they had spent money on it. I am
00:05:50.139 --> 00:05:54.600
not in that realm. I actually, you would think
00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:56.720
that making all the big plans for a girl's day
00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:59.180
and none of us were really big huge fans of the
00:05:59.180 --> 00:06:01.660
movie, you would think that that would be disappointment,
00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:04.720
but it really wasn't because we had some really
00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:09.199
fantastic conversations about... the movie. That's
00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:13.660
where I want to come from as we go into more
00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:16.540
depth and detail and there will be spoilers here.
00:06:17.259 --> 00:06:20.000
is that I don't want to sit here and shred the
00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:22.899
movie, but I do want to talk about some of the
00:06:22.899 --> 00:06:26.540
weaknesses that I saw. There are a lot of folks
00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:29.339
that listen to the podcast or that reach out
00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:33.420
to me who haven't had a produced film or they
00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:36.660
really want to write movies, then they have said,
00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:39.480
this is what I needed to hear. I've never heard
00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:41.540
some of these things. So I want to come at it
00:06:41.540 --> 00:06:45.079
from more of that, more of a constructive point
00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:48.660
of view. Now I'm going to start by saying that
00:06:48.660 --> 00:06:51.399
I felt that some of the scenes and some of the
00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:55.920
shots were really beautiful. There were striking
00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:58.019
moments when I was sitting there watching on
00:06:58.019 --> 00:07:02.079
the big screen and I thought, wow, it's really,
00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:04.560
really cool that they coordinated her clothing
00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:07.279
with these things in the background and you can
00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:11.300
see and feel that some of those choices were
00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:15.300
very much intentional. And as someone who spent
00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:18.420
a lot of time in New York City, I felt that they
00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:21.579
did a really good job with portraying that whole
00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:27.480
vibe and some of that. I loved a lot of the little
00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:31.680
things. Chris Evans' character, John, still had
00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.319
the same car that he did from years earlier,
00:07:35.899 --> 00:07:40.360
and I loved that. I just loved the small little
00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:46.250
pieces of it. However, in a story... You don't
00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:48.649
want someone necessarily sitting there thinking,
00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:51.529
wow, I love the vases that are on the bookcase
00:07:51.529 --> 00:07:54.709
sitting behind her right now. Or, that's a really
00:07:54.709 --> 00:07:58.810
cool coffee shop. You want people focused on
00:07:58.810 --> 00:08:02.850
the story and the dialogue, and so... If you
00:08:02.850 --> 00:08:05.569
love Pedro Pascal, you're gonna love seeing him
00:08:05.569 --> 00:08:10.089
in designer clothing. He plays Harry, who is
00:08:10.089 --> 00:08:13.329
someone super wealthy. Lots of money and numbers
00:08:13.329 --> 00:08:15.550
get thrown around, and I will discuss that in
00:08:15.550 --> 00:08:18.529
a little bit. He has well -tailored clothing.
00:08:18.649 --> 00:08:22.889
It is beautiful to see him in some of those clothes
00:08:22.889 --> 00:08:25.889
and in some of those settings, as opposed to,
00:08:25.889 --> 00:08:29.589
you know, him fighting for his life in, you know,
00:08:29.769 --> 00:08:33.340
dirty old abandoned places. it's just a new way
00:08:33.340 --> 00:08:37.360
to see him and you know those were some really
00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:39.840
positive upbeat things that I found about the
00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:44.200
film there were some moments where I did laugh
00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:46.840
definitely still not a rom -com if you if you
00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:49.320
only laugh like two or three times through the
00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:53.100
whole 90 minutes it's not a calm at all story
00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:57.730
-wise this is a story about Lucy played by Dakota
00:08:57.730 --> 00:09:02.610
Johnson who is a professional matchmaker and
00:09:02.610 --> 00:09:06.850
so her entire job all day long is listening to
00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:10.409
people who are lonely and want to be with someone
00:09:10.409 --> 00:09:13.330
they want to find a companion in their life and
00:09:13.330 --> 00:09:17.049
they are willing to pay for that and they have
00:09:17.049 --> 00:09:21.299
a list In this film, each of them has a list
00:09:21.299 --> 00:09:24.399
of things that they require. I'm not talking
00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:27.059
about wants, I'm talking about requirements.
00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:32.389
That is made very plain. Every relationship or
00:09:32.389 --> 00:09:36.210
potential relationship in Lucy's life gets boiled
00:09:36.210 --> 00:09:40.190
down to a math problem, or as I continue to refer
00:09:40.190 --> 00:09:44.649
to it mentally, an algorithm. Do the backgrounds
00:09:44.649 --> 00:09:48.990
line up? Do the jobs line up? Do the parental
00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:53.299
familial situations line up? those sorts of things,
00:09:53.379 --> 00:09:58.000
you know, are they even -ish with regards to
00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.480
looks and fitness and the way that they approach
00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:04.100
hobbies and things like that. In the beginning,
00:10:04.100 --> 00:10:07.440
it is made very plain that every single person
00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:10.919
is seen as a walking equation and you're trying
00:10:10.919 --> 00:10:14.809
to look for their puzzle piece that is gonna
00:10:14.809 --> 00:10:17.929
fit with them. What was a little bit off -putting
00:10:17.929 --> 00:10:23.669
to me was in a private moment, she's really putting
00:10:23.669 --> 00:10:27.769
down some of those clients. Hearing that someone
00:10:27.769 --> 00:10:31.870
isn't bad, there's nothing wrong with them, they
00:10:31.870 --> 00:10:34.070
are good at this, they are good at this, they
00:10:34.070 --> 00:10:36.049
are good at this, but there's nothing special
00:10:36.049 --> 00:10:41.159
in them. That prickled my nerves. because I believe
00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:43.379
there's something special in everyone. Everyone
00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:45.360
has something that they can give. But again,
00:10:45.659 --> 00:10:49.600
that's me and I was aware. that I personally
00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:52.879
don't like that, so I was able to put that aside.
00:10:53.340 --> 00:10:56.379
But it also let us know that the face that Lucy
00:10:56.379 --> 00:10:59.299
puts on when she's meeting her clients is not
00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:03.200
what she actually truly believes. And so she's
00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:07.059
building a false facade for people in some of
00:11:07.059 --> 00:11:10.379
that. That is, I believe, an intentional choice.
00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:14.600
and when you start a movie from that place, your
00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:17.840
hope is that that main character will move on
00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:22.519
and grow. And that was ultimately one of the
00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:26.580
problems that I felt. Between beginning and end
00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:29.620
of the movie, from the moment you meet each of
00:11:29.620 --> 00:11:35.080
these characters, I didn't see significant improvement,
00:11:35.179 --> 00:11:39.669
growth, or change in them. the only one that
00:11:39.669 --> 00:11:43.830
I could say that I saw some of that was John
00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:47.750
played by Chris Evans and The the problem is
00:11:47.750 --> 00:11:50.269
that when he starts and when we learn about his
00:11:50.269 --> 00:11:54.549
backstory He hasn't made any growth from the
00:11:54.549 --> 00:11:57.970
years upon years earlier when he dated and lost
00:11:57.970 --> 00:12:02.549
Lucy He's actually not doing any better and he's
00:12:02.549 --> 00:12:07.169
kind of done a little bit worse So in my perspective
00:12:07.169 --> 00:12:10.529
it makes it a lot harder to root for some of
00:12:10.529 --> 00:12:13.769
these characters and you know that might be a
00:12:13.769 --> 00:12:17.570
choice because I feel like dating these days
00:12:17.570 --> 00:12:22.309
has all become an algorithm and in the movie
00:12:22.309 --> 00:12:25.110
they kept referring to it as a mathematics equation
00:12:25.690 --> 00:12:29.450
and that becomes tick the box, check the box,
00:12:29.529 --> 00:12:32.110
put the right things here, put the right pictures
00:12:32.110 --> 00:12:35.710
here. It isn't about learning who a person is.
00:12:36.309 --> 00:12:40.809
And so I believe that Celine's song accomplished
00:12:40.809 --> 00:12:45.570
a beautiful thing in that by showing us how dating
00:12:45.570 --> 00:12:51.830
has become so sanitized and numbers oriented.
00:12:52.590 --> 00:12:55.509
And so she accomplished that really beautifully.
00:12:56.730 --> 00:13:00.789
But again, it makes it hard to root for people
00:13:00.789 --> 00:13:06.090
to be happy. When you get to the end of a romance,
00:13:06.850 --> 00:13:09.929
you want to think that there's at least a semblance
00:13:09.929 --> 00:13:12.950
of a happily ever after. Like, it might last
00:13:12.950 --> 00:13:15.740
for at least six months. There are movies that
00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:19.779
I have watched where there's sequels and the
00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:21.639
people who got together in the first movie are
00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:24.580
not in the second movie or she's moved on to
00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:27.639
someone else, but I can still enjoy the first
00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:30.879
movie because they were good together and they
00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:35.460
fit. I didn't quite feel that at the end of this
00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:39.580
film. When we got to the end of this movie...
00:13:40.009 --> 00:13:43.889
It was interesting to me that all three of us
00:13:43.889 --> 00:13:47.149
in the car felt like this movie must have been
00:13:47.149 --> 00:13:52.210
made from a book. It felt very literary. And
00:13:52.210 --> 00:13:55.470
all of us felt like we were missing pieces of
00:13:55.470 --> 00:13:58.590
the story somehow. Like there were things that
00:13:58.590 --> 00:14:02.370
I would understand deeper if I read the book.
00:14:02.870 --> 00:14:07.210
And as much as we weren't fans of the movie when
00:14:07.210 --> 00:14:11.559
we left, all three of us were eager to go home,
00:14:11.820 --> 00:14:14.080
do the research, and see if we can find the book.
00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:17.000
It's taken me a lot of processing and trying
00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:19.200
to figure out why would I think that it was literary?
00:14:19.340 --> 00:14:22.480
Well, there was a feel to the key art and to
00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:24.419
some of the posters and things that felt like
00:14:24.419 --> 00:14:27.980
it would be a book cover. Some of the story felt
00:14:27.980 --> 00:14:30.600
like it would have been a great book turn to
00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:36.529
film, but I think There were artifacts and artifact
00:14:36.529 --> 00:14:40.610
that could be anything from a line a camera shot
00:14:40.610 --> 00:14:44.529
a mention, you know someone specifically talks
00:14:44.529 --> 00:14:49.029
about the Coffee that they order every day and
00:14:49.029 --> 00:14:52.570
they are very specific about that It is the assumption
00:14:52.570 --> 00:14:54.750
that that's gonna come back around later that
00:14:54.750 --> 00:14:57.490
they've planted a seed and we'll get a payback
00:14:57.490 --> 00:15:01.919
on that later but the payback might have been
00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:05.299
in a scene that slowed down the pacing, but it
00:15:05.299 --> 00:15:09.799
feels weird sometimes to pick up on those cues
00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.379
that feel like they've been planted for you specifically.
00:15:13.789 --> 00:15:16.750
and then not have a payoff. And it felt like
00:15:16.750 --> 00:15:20.570
when I got to the end of this film, there were
00:15:20.570 --> 00:15:23.950
more of those than I was comfortable with, which
00:15:23.950 --> 00:15:27.710
made me feel like the movie was not completely
00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:30.610
finished or there was far more to the vision.
00:15:31.269 --> 00:15:35.269
Now when you translate from page to screen, you
00:15:35.269 --> 00:15:37.769
can lose a lot of things. Books have the ability
00:15:37.769 --> 00:15:41.149
to go further into detail. You can be inside
00:15:41.149 --> 00:15:44.679
a character's head and that isn't as easy to
00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:47.860
convey on the screen without a voiceover or narration
00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:52.340
and so I felt like there were pieces and parts
00:15:52.340 --> 00:15:54.440
of that that I would have liked to know more.
00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:58.059
I would have liked to understand when Harry is
00:15:58.059 --> 00:16:00.620
looking at Lucy, what he's actually thinking
00:16:00.620 --> 00:16:02.960
is he calculating this like a business deal.
00:16:03.700 --> 00:16:07.299
To her credit, Lucy's character, and when I say
00:16:07.299 --> 00:16:10.600
to her credit I mean Celine Song's credit, Lucy's
00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:12.960
character is all about the mathematics and the
00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:17.820
algorithm, and Harry ultimately treated their
00:16:17.820 --> 00:16:21.289
relationship as such. and she wasn't happy or
00:16:21.289 --> 00:16:24.110
satisfied in that. That was something that was
00:16:24.110 --> 00:16:27.649
profound. It was very well crafted. It bothered
00:16:27.649 --> 00:16:30.950
me a little bit because there is a scene later
00:16:30.950 --> 00:16:33.490
where Harry is exceptionally vulnerable with
00:16:33.490 --> 00:16:36.909
Lucy and he shares some very deeply hurtful and
00:16:36.909 --> 00:16:39.909
personal things and he even shares the point
00:16:39.909 --> 00:16:43.009
of what if I can't love someone? What if I'm
00:16:43.009 --> 00:16:46.389
broken? What if this isn't possible for me? And
00:16:46.389 --> 00:16:49.610
I don't feel like Lucy treats that well. and
00:16:49.610 --> 00:16:52.690
with respect. Really bothered me and it took
00:16:52.690 --> 00:16:56.929
points away from following Lucy and wanting the
00:16:56.929 --> 00:16:59.669
best for her because I thought, wow, why would
00:16:59.669 --> 00:17:02.350
you do that to another person? And so that was
00:17:02.350 --> 00:17:06.609
very difficult for me. But it also shows she
00:17:06.609 --> 00:17:10.430
was treating things like a math problem and that's
00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:14.740
where that went. So back to the artifact and
00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:16.940
the pieces of the story that we kind of felt
00:17:16.940 --> 00:17:19.700
were missing. Again, when you do that page -to
00:17:19.700 --> 00:17:22.660
-screen translation, sometimes some of those
00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:26.220
important things that create a bridge emotionally
00:17:26.220 --> 00:17:28.700
for you to follow a character can get missed.
00:17:29.380 --> 00:17:32.880
And then once the movie's been filmed, When they
00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:35.640
sit down in editing and they're looking at pacing
00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:39.039
and the best shots, sometimes pieces of the story
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:41.900
can get moved and leave different artifacts.
00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:45.039
I have a lot of grace for that process. I have
00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:48.220
that now, after years of experience in the industry.
00:17:48.819 --> 00:17:53.000
So, I have a deep appreciation for the fact that
00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.200
artifacts can happen in the writing process,
00:17:55.420 --> 00:17:58.559
artifacts can happen later in the editing process.
00:17:59.049 --> 00:18:01.289
but I just ultimately felt like there were a
00:18:01.289 --> 00:18:03.630
lot of those different points that I should have
00:18:03.630 --> 00:18:06.710
understood better and I wanted a deeper understanding.
00:18:07.490 --> 00:18:10.329
I find it fascinating that all three of us in
00:18:10.329 --> 00:18:13.269
the car were not fans of the movie but we were
00:18:13.269 --> 00:18:16.210
ready to go find the book at the library so that
00:18:16.210 --> 00:18:19.829
we could do a deeper dive because we were invested
00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:22.190
in what might have been and what could have been.
00:18:22.589 --> 00:18:25.710
So when we found out that there wasn't a book
00:18:25.710 --> 00:18:29.799
and there wasn't more to the story, That was
00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:34.720
like, wow. That made us rethink certain things.
00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:38.640
And I am positive that some things ended up on
00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:40.900
the editing room floor that would have helped
00:18:40.900 --> 00:18:44.880
make certain things make more sense. It's a very
00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:48.619
difficult process to make a movie. It's not easy.
00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:54.019
But I was hopeful. that there might be more,
00:18:54.019 --> 00:18:57.519
even if I wasn't hopeful from the movie itself,
00:18:57.579 --> 00:19:00.299
from the framework that we were given about these
00:19:00.299 --> 00:19:02.859
characters, I was hopeful that there might be
00:19:02.859 --> 00:19:06.319
more to the story that would make me love them
00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:09.819
more or feel more for them. Now, two more things
00:19:09.819 --> 00:19:13.259
that I want to address. One of the issues is
00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:17.359
money. That is mentioned very specifically in
00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:21.890
this film and Celine's song brought it up. intentionally
00:19:21.890 --> 00:19:26.549
and she's done interviews where she said I wanted
00:19:26.549 --> 00:19:30.809
to open this discussion. People don't talk about
00:19:30.809 --> 00:19:34.829
money. So there's a moment where Lucy says to
00:19:34.829 --> 00:19:37.630
Harry, Pedro Pascal's character, exactly how
00:19:37.630 --> 00:19:41.230
much money she makes during the year. It's $80
00:19:41.230 --> 00:19:45.450
,000 a year. There are a few reasons you don't
00:19:45.450 --> 00:19:49.049
put something like that in a film because you
00:19:49.049 --> 00:19:52.069
start calculating and Celine Song said she wanted
00:19:52.069 --> 00:19:56.049
to discuss this and the characters in the movie
00:19:56.539 --> 00:19:59.440
are doing all the calculating all the time. It's
00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:01.880
always a math problem. It is always an equation
00:20:01.880 --> 00:20:04.759
for them. So to have the audience sitting there
00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:09.039
going, she makes $80 ,000 a year, it makes you
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:11.660
look at her apartment and the clothing that she
00:20:11.660 --> 00:20:17.039
wears. For me, it actually took me so far out
00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:20.359
of the narrative. It made everything else suspect
00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:24.160
because I don't know how she could live in that
00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:27.380
apartment that she does. in the manner that she
00:20:27.380 --> 00:20:32.579
does for $80 ,000 a year, and her agency is working
00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:36.059
with people who are multi -millionaires many
00:20:36.059 --> 00:20:40.440
times over. If Lucy is your best person at the
00:20:40.440 --> 00:20:43.460
agency, wouldn't she be getting more for that?
00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:47.559
She is being celebrated at the agency, and if
00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:49.859
she gets a promotion at the agency and they want
00:20:49.859 --> 00:20:53.549
her to take that over... It was a problem for
00:20:53.549 --> 00:20:55.990
me that later they told her, you can name your
00:20:55.990 --> 00:20:59.029
salary. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What kind of
00:20:59.029 --> 00:21:01.369
working environment is that where your people
00:21:01.369 --> 00:21:03.650
are being paid this much, even though they are
00:21:03.650 --> 00:21:06.390
expected to be at events where they're multimillionaires
00:21:06.390 --> 00:21:10.309
and they have to be at that level in order to
00:21:10.309 --> 00:21:16.130
be taken with any kind of respect. I am someone
00:21:16.130 --> 00:21:19.069
who has millions of dollars and I live a very
00:21:19.069 --> 00:21:22.950
specific kind of lifestyle. I'm not gonna hire
00:21:22.950 --> 00:21:26.549
a matchmaker and trust that person with vulnerable
00:21:26.549 --> 00:21:29.869
details of my personal life. If they are wearing
00:21:29.869 --> 00:21:34.049
$5 sneakers, you know, if they are so far below,
00:21:34.089 --> 00:21:36.809
you're gonna think they don't understand you.
00:21:37.130 --> 00:21:40.619
So I felt like that was a misstep. Did it get
00:21:40.619 --> 00:21:42.779
people talking? Yeah, there are New York Times
00:21:42.779 --> 00:21:45.799
articles on the fact that money was dropped in
00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:52.539
this movie, but it is a movie about money. All
00:21:52.539 --> 00:21:54.740
right, so I mentioned that there were two more
00:21:54.740 --> 00:21:56.380
things that I wanted to address. I addressed
00:21:56.380 --> 00:22:00.359
the money. This last topic, it's a tough one,
00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:06.069
and I did save it for last, but it is... Let
00:22:06.069 --> 00:22:09.329
me put a trigger warning here. I'm gonna be respectful.
00:22:10.269 --> 00:22:13.569
Not gonna go too far into certain things, but
00:22:13.569 --> 00:22:18.049
it is a heavy topic and it might trigger some
00:22:18.049 --> 00:22:23.150
things if you are a survivor of assault or violence.
00:22:23.410 --> 00:22:26.049
Might be something that bothers you, so be aware.
00:22:27.049 --> 00:22:30.250
Now you know what one of the storylines in the
00:22:30.250 --> 00:22:36.200
movie was. Lucy sets someone up. with not what
00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:38.779
she believes is her perfect match, but a good
00:22:38.779 --> 00:22:44.059
match. And it is someone, it is the woman that
00:22:44.059 --> 00:22:48.619
we discussed earlier that Lucy says isn't, doesn't
00:22:48.619 --> 00:22:50.819
stand out, but there's nothing wrong with her.
00:22:51.099 --> 00:22:53.359
And she sets this woman up with someone that
00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:55.720
she has pitched a couple of different times to
00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:58.140
a couple of different people. So it seems like
00:22:58.140 --> 00:23:00.680
there's been some difficulty finding him a match
00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:05.859
too. It is said, before the date, he matches
00:23:05.859 --> 00:23:08.539
you here, he matches you here, it gives his career,
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:10.859
it gives the amount of money that he makes in
00:23:10.859 --> 00:23:13.440
a year, it gives his interests, his likes, and
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.579
his height. That is an important storyline in
00:23:16.579 --> 00:23:21.200
the movie. And the woman expresses some hesitancy
00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:24.039
because the past couple of guys, they've said
00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:26.700
that they were this tall, but they really weren't.
00:23:27.500 --> 00:23:32.579
And after the date happens, Lucy makes a phone
00:23:32.579 --> 00:23:34.640
call she makes several phone calls and the woman
00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:37.119
doesn't answer the phone but she calls the man
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:40.000
and he says it went alright I don't know if we
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.859
could be a relationship or if it's gonna go long
00:23:42.859 --> 00:23:45.039
term but I wouldn't mind seeing her again so
00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:48.680
Lucy is excited because that's a positive she
00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:51.500
goes into the office and she finds out that the
00:23:51.500 --> 00:23:54.680
woman had been assaulted by the man on the date
00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:58.799
they don't go into heavy detail that I remember
00:23:58.799 --> 00:24:02.430
there is some discussion of what happens later,
00:24:02.869 --> 00:24:06.390
but as as Lucy is finding this out, you see how
00:24:06.390 --> 00:24:09.990
shocked and stunned that she is, and her boss
00:24:09.990 --> 00:24:14.890
treats it like the math algorithm. She basically
00:24:14.890 --> 00:24:16.809
says the longer you do this, you're gonna have
00:24:16.809 --> 00:24:19.250
this happen. We've all had this happen in the
00:24:19.250 --> 00:24:21.730
office, which is interesting because if Lucy
00:24:21.730 --> 00:24:24.710
is the best at what she does, you'd think she
00:24:24.710 --> 00:24:26.450
would have heard of this somewhere before, but
00:24:26.450 --> 00:24:30.559
this is all brand new for Lucy. and she's told
00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:32.880
to stay away from the woman and to stay out of
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:36.539
it and legally I absolutely the company is covering
00:24:36.539 --> 00:24:39.299
themselves her boss tells her you know don't
00:24:39.299 --> 00:24:43.839
worry about it like like it was no big deal Lucy
00:24:43.839 --> 00:24:46.799
can't do this so she ends up talking to this
00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:48.839
woman she follows her and she talks to her and
00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:53.319
when she is talking to this woman this is one
00:24:53.319 --> 00:24:56.500
of those things that I feel should have been
00:24:56.500 --> 00:25:00.759
picked back up and could have changed a lot of
00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:05.319
things in the movie and I don't know why it wasn't
00:25:05.319 --> 00:25:09.460
and it bothers me this one does bother me and
00:25:09.460 --> 00:25:14.059
I will say this the woman explains to Lucy that
00:25:14.059 --> 00:25:18.039
it wasn't only that he wasn't as tall as he said
00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:21.519
he didn't make the amount of money he didn't
00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:25.059
have the right the same kind of career absolutely
00:25:25.059 --> 00:25:30.670
nothing that Lucy had on that list for him was
00:25:30.670 --> 00:25:34.849
true. And my daughter leaned over to me and said,
00:25:35.109 --> 00:25:38.670
they didn't vet him? There wasn't a process to
00:25:38.670 --> 00:25:43.170
make sure that this was real? That was a moment
00:25:43.170 --> 00:25:48.490
where I was appalled. And I thought, wow, I hope
00:25:48.490 --> 00:25:52.569
that they addressed that. That this is a dangerous
00:25:52.569 --> 00:25:57.029
time for women in dating. Men say, I saw a meme
00:25:57.029 --> 00:25:59.309
where a woman was like, hey, I'm meeting this
00:25:59.309 --> 00:26:03.049
guy from this dating app and we're meeting here
00:26:03.049 --> 00:26:06.190
and if you don't hear from me, this is who it
00:26:06.190 --> 00:26:08.150
was and she sends his profile and his picture
00:26:08.150 --> 00:26:10.069
to her friend and her friend says, alright, cool,
00:26:10.529 --> 00:26:14.150
go have fun and call me. That is commonplace
00:26:14.150 --> 00:26:18.589
in dating. It's real enough that if you are a
00:26:18.589 --> 00:26:20.990
woman and you are looking at going someplace
00:26:20.990 --> 00:26:25.049
with a man that you don't know, we all have those
00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:28.640
thoughts. And I felt like it didn't get given
00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:32.720
enough weight in this film. It ended up feeling
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:37.079
more like a plot device. This is a reason to
00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:40.299
have Lucy step away from some things. This is
00:26:40.299 --> 00:26:43.400
a reason to have her rethinking a few things.
00:26:43.779 --> 00:26:48.500
But again, Lucy did not ultimately change anything
00:26:48.500 --> 00:26:54.789
or grow from that. and that bothered me. Now
00:26:54.789 --> 00:26:57.930
there is a moment where the woman, the guy shows
00:26:57.930 --> 00:27:01.069
up at her apartment because he took her home
00:27:01.069 --> 00:27:03.069
from the date, so now he knows where she lives.
00:27:03.750 --> 00:27:07.349
Because the woman trusted this agency and trusted
00:27:07.349 --> 00:27:12.349
Lucy. She was paying well for that service. There
00:27:12.349 --> 00:27:16.130
should be something in place to ensure that someone
00:27:16.130 --> 00:27:20.130
is not a catfish. There should be a much stricter
00:27:20.130 --> 00:27:22.710
vetting process and there are ways to double
00:27:22.710 --> 00:27:25.670
check on that and to make sure that you're putting
00:27:25.670 --> 00:27:30.470
women's safety and men's safety first. But this
00:27:30.470 --> 00:27:32.490
woman doesn't have anybody that she can call
00:27:32.490 --> 00:27:34.410
and she calls Lucy and says he's trying to get
00:27:34.410 --> 00:27:37.609
into this apartment. What do I do? And Lucy is
00:27:37.609 --> 00:27:41.230
out of town and she and John, played by Chris
00:27:41.230 --> 00:27:43.950
Evans, immediately jump into the car. They end
00:27:43.950 --> 00:27:46.430
up spending the night at this woman's place and
00:27:46.430 --> 00:27:51.299
I loved That John was so respectful, he never
00:27:51.299 --> 00:27:55.519
entered her apartment. He stayed outside and
00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:59.920
that was a beautiful moment for me. I appreciated
00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:03.099
the vulnerability between Lucy and this woman
00:28:03.099 --> 00:28:06.059
in the apartment when they were having conversations
00:28:06.059 --> 00:28:09.480
and it felt like things were better. All of that
00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:14.579
was fantastic. That situation, I don't believe
00:28:14.579 --> 00:28:17.990
gets brought up again. If it does... later in
00:28:17.990 --> 00:28:21.369
the movie, it's just a one -line she's fine or
00:28:21.369 --> 00:28:25.210
whatever. She was suing the company, which is
00:28:25.210 --> 00:28:29.049
not inappropriate, but it doesn't get brought
00:28:29.049 --> 00:28:32.369
up again. And that is where ultimately it feels
00:28:32.369 --> 00:28:35.869
like it was only a plot device. You could have
00:28:35.869 --> 00:28:39.069
had a kid fall off a bike and have an accident
00:28:39.069 --> 00:28:44.029
in front of Lucy that would have had the same
00:28:44.029 --> 00:28:47.609
ripples through the rest of the story that assault
00:28:47.609 --> 00:28:53.930
of a woman did and later when Lucy is being offered
00:28:53.930 --> 00:28:56.049
this position and she's going back and forth
00:28:56.049 --> 00:28:58.130
do I want to go back to work and she's talking
00:28:58.130 --> 00:29:01.670
about I hate these clients your entire job is
00:29:01.670 --> 00:29:05.309
caring about people in their futures and yes
00:29:05.309 --> 00:29:08.210
you're being paid to care about them but you
00:29:08.210 --> 00:29:11.029
should have some feeling towards them beyond
00:29:11.029 --> 00:29:14.869
hatred and maybe that was an emotional whatever
00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:20.940
But she never ever goes to work and says, how
00:29:20.940 --> 00:29:24.099
can we make sure this doesn't happen again? She
00:29:24.099 --> 00:29:26.839
never does a deep dive into how often has this
00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:30.140
happened at my agency? Is this a common thing
00:29:30.140 --> 00:29:33.140
with the agency? And the agency has kept it quiet.
00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:36.460
Now, it would have made it a different movie
00:29:36.460 --> 00:29:39.869
if all of those things would have happened and
00:29:39.869 --> 00:29:42.930
it would have shifted the focus dramatically.
00:29:43.470 --> 00:29:47.890
When it comes to advocacy for victims and for
00:29:47.890 --> 00:29:51.190
women's safety, just those one or two things,
00:29:51.470 --> 00:29:55.569
one or two lines, could have changed the depth
00:29:55.569 --> 00:29:58.569
to that aspect of the film in such a manner that
00:29:58.569 --> 00:30:04.529
I think would have leveled it up. So that is
00:30:04.529 --> 00:30:08.170
my discourse and discussion on materialists.
00:30:08.750 --> 00:30:12.250
I would love to hear from you lori at it's nothing
00:30:12.250 --> 00:30:16.069
trivial comm if you have other movies that you
00:30:16.069 --> 00:30:18.549
feel like you went into and you thought you were
00:30:18.549 --> 00:30:21.710
getting something and you didn't or Maybe even
00:30:21.710 --> 00:30:23.769
there's a movie that you watched and you felt
00:30:23.769 --> 00:30:26.960
it had tremendous potential that was missed.
00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:30.940
Let's talk about it because my hope is that the
00:30:30.940 --> 00:30:33.319
next generation of storytellers or the folks
00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:34.920
who are out there trying to hone their craft
00:30:34.920 --> 00:30:37.200
and make it better, we should all be striving
00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:42.019
to make the better movie next time around. And
00:30:42.019 --> 00:30:46.579
now we have reached that inevitable yet sad part
00:30:46.579 --> 00:30:50.259
of the podcast. the conclusion. I want to thank
00:30:50.259 --> 00:30:53.180
you for giving me a little bit of your time today.
00:30:53.579 --> 00:30:55.420
I hope that somewhere along the way as you were
00:30:55.420 --> 00:30:59.200
listening you maybe laughed, smiled, maybe you
00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:02.119
learned something, or you were inspired. That's
00:31:02.119 --> 00:31:05.059
why I'm here and that's why I do this. The Nothing
00:31:05.059 --> 00:31:08.160
Trivial podcast is a production of Lori Twitchell.
00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:11.220
All the sound editing, the design, the content,
00:31:11.380 --> 00:31:14.460
everything comes from Lori Twitchell. We're a
00:31:14.460 --> 00:31:16.380
little bumpy. We're learning how to do this,
00:31:16.380 --> 00:31:19.519
but we're getting there. The music is from Kevin
00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:23.140
MacLeod. It's called Loopster and you can find
00:31:23.140 --> 00:31:27.200
more fabulous tracks from Kevin at incompetech
00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:30.920
.com. Any sound effects that you heard are credited
00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:34.900
in the notes for the podcast. And again, I appreciate
00:31:34.900 --> 00:31:38.160
you. Thanks for sticking around until the next
00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:40.680
time when we get together to talk about nothing
00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:41.140
trivial.
