'80s Movie Montage
Breaking down our favorite decade of flicks. Hosted by Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke.
'80s Movie Montage
Baby Boom
In this episode, Anna and Derek debate just how unhappy J.C. actually was before Elizabeth came along, how is it that Elizabeth never ages a day, and much more during their discussion of the Diane Keaton starrer Baby Boom (1987).
Connect with '80s Movie Montage on Facebook, Bluesky or Instagram! It's the same handle for all three... @80smontagepod.
Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke are the co-hosts of ‘80s Movie Montage. The idea for the podcast came when they realized just how much they talk – a lot – when watching films from their favorite cinematic era. Their wedding theme was “a light nod to the ‘80s,” so there’s that, too. Both hail from the Midwest but have called Los Angeles home for several years now. Anna is a writer who received her B.A. in Film/Video from Columbia College Chicago and M.A. in Film Studies from Chapman University. Her dark comedy short She Had It Coming was an Official Selection of 25 film festivals with several awards won for it among them. Derek is an attorney who also likes movies. It is a point of pride that most of their podcast episodes are longer than the movies they cover.
I uh are you telling me that I inherited a baby from a cousin I haven't seen since 1954? No, I know, no way. Uh-uh. This is impossible. I'm sorry, I assumed you understood the nature of the movie. Well, you see, that's the funny thing. I can't have a baby because I have a 1230 lunch meeting.
SPEAKER_03:Hello, and welcome to 80s movie montage. This is Derek.
SPEAKER_02:And this is Anna.
SPEAKER_03:And that was Diane Keaton getting a baby in spite of her 1230 lunch meeting in 1987's Baby Boom.
SPEAKER_02:Baby Boom.
SPEAKER_03:Baby Boom.
SPEAKER_02:This was an interesting film to watch. I had not seen it in a while. Uh, but like I said at the tail end of the last episode, I love loved and love Diane Keaton and really wanted to cover her because I don't actually think we have.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think we have.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So there are a couple films from the 80s that we could cover, but I, you know, I don't know. This one held a nostalgia for me that I I'm not sure where I fall on the side of it after having watched it again.
SPEAKER_03:I had never seen it. I think like sometimes we talk about movies from this era, and um it's like, well, these jokes would probably have hit differently in the 80s, but a lot of times we're saying that because like this just wouldn't fly now nowadays. And I don't think that was the case here. It's just that the situations that were being like created, I don't know if they exist in the same way now. Right. But I think they did then.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think you're right. And this is um, you know, when I was like doing notes for this episode, and actually we've covered uh a couple of these films. This was like part of a group of films from the 80s about kind of like changing work dynamics.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:We was it just earlier this year that we did Working Girl? It feels like this year started a million years ago.
SPEAKER_03:It might, it might be.
SPEAKER_02:When do we do these movies? When did we do these movies? Um, and then a couple seasons ago, or was it last season? Mr. Mom. So these are all part of these films from this decade, which I was trying to think, because you brought it up when we were watching it, and I was trying to think of current films that cover these types of workplace scenarios, but I don't know if there are any.
SPEAKER_03:No, I mean, there's still there, of course, there are still movies that are kind of like highlighting different social dynamics.
SPEAKER_02:Sure.
SPEAKER_03:And this was this was like a common theme for like a set of movies back then.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, that movie real honestly, the last movie I can remember that covers like workplace dynamics is office space, and that's like what fucking 99? Like, I don't remember anything from the last 25 years that has stuck in the same way that these films have stuck around.
SPEAKER_03:What about disclosure?
SPEAKER_02:That was even earlier.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That was like early 90s. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do they do workplace movies anymore? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. Do they? And we just don't watch them. That could very well be it. That could very well be it. Because we watch 80s movies instead.
SPEAKER_03:Is there is there like a Marvel movie about honestly kind of low key?
SPEAKER_02:Okay, sure. You watch, yeah, you watch that. Okay, well, let's dive in. So you mentioned 1987, and as far as writers go, so this is interesting. I think we've gotten this a couple of times, but we have a wife and husband writing team at the time.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Oh, well that's that makes me happy and sad.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um, so one name, well, I I think both names are very familiar. One name, I'm gonna start with Nancy Myers. So she also has gone on to be a director, and she collaborated quite a bit with Diane Keaton over the course of her career. They reteamed a couple times, and yeah, they had just a really interesting dynamic. I mean, look, I think what I say this is the first. I would say in like the second half of her career, Diane Keaton did a really good job of playing kind of these like yuppie upper middle class type characters. And a lot of those films were made with Myers, so that was like kind of their niche, I guess you would say. But let's uh for the purposes of today's podcast, like I said, Myers, she has a directing career as well, but we're gonna cover strictly speaking her writing credits. Okay, so as far as like early career goes, out the gate, she got a best original screenplay Oscar nomination with her writing partner for Private Benjamin. And a lot of these movies will be repeated because she had a writing partnership for a while, but she also worked on a reconcil I can never say this word right.
SPEAKER_03:Irreconcilable differences. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Uh so she did that.
SPEAKER_03:These differences will not be reconciled.
SPEAKER_02:Protocol, which I believe was also with uh Goldie Hahn, jump in jackflash. So off this film came the TV series Baby Boom. So she has a writing credit for that. And then here's probably the first time since Baby Boom that she teams up again with Diane Keaton is for Father of the Bride, the remake, the 1991.
SPEAKER_03:The Steve Martin one, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Correct. Yeah. So she has a writing credit for that as well as part two. And I guess over the pandemic, I think there was like some kind of short that they're calling part three-ish. Father of the Bride part three-ish. Okay. So she did that. I Love Trouble, another remake, the 1998 Parent Trap with uh what's her name?
SPEAKER_04:Lindsay Loving. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Something's gotta give. The holiday, it's complicated. So a couple more Diane Keaton films, and The Intern, which are some of and and there's there's very much like a, if you look at all those credits, kind of a light comedy genre thing we got going on with Myers. Yeah. Now her writing partner, who also directed this film, Charles Shire, so he passed away fairly recently. We're coming upon the one-year anniversary of his passing, passed last December. And again, some commonalities between their credits because they work together. So as far as his writing credits go, this is strictly writing. He worked on the TV series Getting Together. He did Smokey and the Bandit. He shares in that best original screenplay Oscar nomination for Private Benjamin again.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, a lot of these are the same.
SPEAKER_02:Can you say it again?
SPEAKER_03:Irreconcilable differences.
SPEAKER_02:What's wrong with me?
SPEAKER_03:I wasn't laughing at that. I was just laughing at all of them basically being the same. Yeah. Except for one of the most wildly inappropriate movies to ever watch now. Elf. Let's talk about that. No, Smokey and the Bandit.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. Um, but yeah, so Protocol, Jump and Jack Flash, the TV series, Baby Boom. Uh Father of the Bride 91 and part two, but he was not part of, I guess, the whole part three-ish short.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I Love Trouble, The Parent Trap, uh, the 2004, a lot of remakes here. Because we have Father of the Bride as a remake, The Parent Trap is a remake, Alfie is a remake, the 2004 Alfie. Okay. And then his final credit was a film called Best Christmas Ever.
SPEAKER_03:With punctuation that supports that. Thank you. That reading. That reading of the title. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:So as far as directing credits go, it seems like pretty much he directed the films he wrote on. So Shire did direct, I'm gonna say it.
SPEAKER_03:Do it.
SPEAKER_02:Irreconcilable differences. Well done. I did okay. That was great. It wasn't perfect.
SPEAKER_03:No, it was.
SPEAKER_02:That was a hard, hard thing.
SPEAKER_03:It was a very measured delivery. Thank you. But yeah. No notes.
SPEAKER_02:He did direct the 91 Father of the Bride as well as part two. He did direct I Love Trouble and Elfie. And then his final directing credit was a film, another Christmas movie, it sounds like the Noelle diary. Alright. So, okay. Cinematography. Uh this is a person that we have brought up. Why are you saying that?
SPEAKER_03:This is a person.
SPEAKER_02:This is a person. Uh actually not too long ago, because didn't we do work? I I everything's beginning to mesh together. Maybe it's just the holidays. War games we did earlier just this year, right?
SPEAKER_03:We definitely did that movie.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But was it earlier this year? Yes. Anyway, William Fraker. William A. Fraker. So he shot this film. What a what a list of credits he had. He passed in 2010, so he's been passed for 15 years at this point. But man, he had he had quite the filmography. Starting with, even this is one of my favorite films. Rosemary's Baby. Oh, okay. Yeah. I will say though, beautifully shot.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you straight up do not like that movie, though.
SPEAKER_02:No, I'm sorry. Like, I love her, but what's her face? She's just so annoying in that film, with like how Oh no, my baby's Satan.
SPEAKER_03:Oh no. Is that the movie I've been seen?
SPEAKER_02:Exactly how Oh, you've never seen Rose Works.
SPEAKER_03:I've seen parts of it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:She's just like, look, I get it. It is part of the character. That's why they prey on her. Yeah. But she's just so submissive to fucking everybody around her. Like, grow a fucking spine. That's how you end up having the uh spawn of Satan. Exactly. He shot Bullet, which probably was a hard movie to shoot. Exorcist 2, the heretic.
SPEAKER_03:What a piece of trash that movie is.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you're gonna do that. That's okay. That's alright. He got his first. Did he ever win? I think he only got nominations. He got his first cinematography nomination for Looking for Mr. Good Bar, which starred Diane Keaton.
SPEAKER_03:Not 1941?
SPEAKER_02:No, that does come later, though. So he gets another cinematography nom for Having Can Wait. Then comes 1941. Also, this is kind of wild for this film. Not only did he get a best cinematography Oscar nomination for 1941, he also got a best effects visual effects Oscar nom for that film. Wow. Yeah. Okay. He shot the best little whorehouse in Texas. When we brought him up for War Games, I have no doubt that we brought up that he did get a cinematography Oscar nomination for that film. So he is also part of the crew that did Irreconcilable Differences.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Better. Better. Even better in the last one, already really good.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. He get got his last Oscar nomination, again, Best Cinematography for Murphy's Romance. I mean, in some of these films, we can we can do. He also shot Space Camp, The Freshman. Now we're moving into the 90s. Honeymoon in Vegas, Tombstone. Nice. Yeah. The Island of Dr. Moreau.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, which one? Oh, yeah, that one. The one with Val Kilmer. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Brando.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Vegas Vacation, Town and Country. And then his final credit was a film called Walking Up. And is it Waking Up or Walking Up? Did I write that wrong?
SPEAKER_03:It is Waking Up.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I wrote it wrong.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm because I was like, that's a weird title. Waking Up in Reno. Thank you for the correction.
SPEAKER_03:Vegas Vacation is like strangely one of my favorites in the series. There's just something about um what's the kid's fake ID, Papadopoulos or something? Like it's you know the film better than yeah. Papa Giorgio is his like fake name. And he just keeps on winning every it was yeah. The whole like romance with Wayne Newton, whatever. But yeah, it was fun.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, moving on to Bill Conti. So he has come up, although it's I mean, it's been a minute since we've talked about him. He has had an amazing career. Um yeah, he's had a great career. So starting with all right. Yeah, yeah. Uh earlier in his career, he scored the film Harry and Tonto. So probably I think there's like two franchises that people mostly know him from. I'm gonna say the more well-known one is the Rocky franchise.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I don't I don't even have to know what the other one is to believe that. Oh, well, sure. Because Rocky's pretty well known.
SPEAKER_02:And actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if he got brought on by the same director. So, um, so as far as Rocky goes, he got best original song Oscar nomination for the original film, and then he scored for the first film, two, three, not four, which is the one Rocky film we've covered.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But he comes back for five, and he also did Rocky Balboa. He scored a film, it is an acronym, Fist.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Mm-hmm. So he did that. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Gloria. So he also is part of this uh Myers and Shire team because he scored Private Benjamin. He got another Oscar nomination, best original song, for your eye. Wait, for your eyes only.
SPEAKER_03:For for your eyes only.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:Um yeah, that's that's a really good one. Like the That's Shina Easton, right?
SPEAKER_02:It's that one.
SPEAKER_03:It is like that that one, it's 81, the release date for that movie, but that movie feels very 70s. Yeah, like the music is like it's like disco bond. Yeah. Like the opening scene where he's like, I think that might be the one where he parachutes, then skis down a mountain through like a little mountain village, all to like the heavy disco beat.
SPEAKER_02:Is that the Roger Moore, James Bond? Oh, yeah. Okay, got it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but that one, that song was like a great Ohio.
SPEAKER_02:I can't sing it.
SPEAKER_03:No, you you were there. You were doing it.
SPEAKER_02:So he did that. He got a best original score Oscar win for the film The Right Stuff. Now here is the other franchise.
SPEAKER_03:Which we will do at some point.
SPEAKER_02:The Right Stuff. Oh yeah, I think so. The Karate Kid.
SPEAKER_03:So he's just really good with like fighting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think so. Uh I mean, my goodness, the Karate Kid is what, the third film we covered, maybe? Third, fourth, fifth, somewhere there.
SPEAKER_03:Very early. Aside from like, you know, you're the best around, it does have like a really iconic score.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So he was the composer for the first film, part two, part three, as well as the next Karate Kid. He also was the composer on that very celebrated and popular TV miniseries North and South.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god. I until you said TV miniseries, I thought you were gonna say Masters of the Universe, but no.
SPEAKER_02:Uh Book one and book two. I think the la you know what? I think the last time we brought him up, I might have forgotten to bring up Masters of the Universe.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it it certainly was a movie with a soundtrack.
SPEAKER_02:And we did that movie with our buddy Paul.
SPEAKER_03:And the soundtrack was not even close to being a problem in that movie.
SPEAKER_02:No, it was just most everything else. Go check out that. Look, there is nothing more fun than when we've done films with people who just love the movies that we're covering.
SPEAKER_03:You know what that movie lacked that I think the remake might might fix was now it's gonna have uh is it Jared Leto? Oh god. Are you serious? I am serious. I think he's gonna be. Skeletor? I don't know, maybe he's gonna be someone. Why do they keep putting him in stuff? What's happening?
SPEAKER_02:Anyway, so he did that. Uh, we also brought him up because he scored broadcast news. Oh, yeah. So we did that one a couple seasons ago with Jennifer. Please check that one out. He did Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, Lean on Me. He scored the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair, the 1999 version.
SPEAKER_03:Pierce Brosen and uh Rene Russo.
SPEAKER_02:That's it, yeah. Which is actually very good. Yeah. They had incredible chemistry on screen. Yeah. They did great. I don't know what this possibly could be, but he scored a film called Two Birds with One Stallone. Did that. And then uh more recently, I just like this title. It's called Now or Never a Jane Bond Mission. Interesting. Yeah. Okay, so film editing. Lindsay Klingman, and I reason why I said that is her name is spelled L-Y-N-Z-E-E. Lindsey. Lindsay Klingman. Yeah. So what an editing career she has had. Uh, I think she's probably retired at this point because her last credit was from 2011. So it's been a minute. But out the gate, she got a best film editing Oscar nomination for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Yeah, that'll do it. Yeah. I would like to, I don't know if we'll cover it, but I would like to watch this movie at some point. It's called Maxi. It stars Glenn Close and it's like a ghost. A 1920s flapper ghost is in another person's body.
SPEAKER_03:Hmm. I recently flapper who haunts her old house possesses a reserved housewife who has just moved in. However, she cannot leave before she receives her massive audition for a Hollywood studio. Sure, I'm in.
SPEAKER_02:It's kind of interesting, right? Yeah. So she also cut The War of the Roses, Little Man Tate. This is a gorgeous film, but it's like so sad. A River Runs Through It.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, I get that confused with like through their movies that feel very similar.
SPEAKER_02:What other movies? I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:Far and Away.
SPEAKER_02:Far and Away!
SPEAKER_03:Uh wait, is a river runs through it the one with uh Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins?
SPEAKER_02:Yes. And it's like what is that? You're thinking of um Ah Lord. Um Oh my god, it's with the three brothers. Why am I totally blanking at the moment?
SPEAKER_03:There's like three brothers and one woman in the entire state. Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02:And so they all like No, A River Runs Through It is it's him and his brother, who is I believe played by Craig Schiffer.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And sounds pretty similar. It was directed by Robert Redford.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And um, no, you need I'm trying to buy you time so you can actually look up the other movie. And uh basically it it's a gorgeous film. A River Runs Through It is like the one thing that was shared by the family was fly fishing. They all loved fly fishing.
SPEAKER_03:I do remember that part. But oh, I'm thinking of Legends of the Fall.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Um very similar look. I would I would say that you're correct on that point.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But and it's kind of a little bit of a similar character for Brad Pitt, where he's just this like cannot be tamed type character. Although he's just a little bit more of a fuck up and a river runs through it. So, but it's a gorgeous, gorgeous film.
SPEAKER_05:All right.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So uh Clayman, she also cut Hoffa, Outbreak, Home for the Holidays. Is Matilda, City of Angels, Living Out Loud, which I think Home for the Holidays and Living Out Loud both were um what's it, Holly Hunter.
SPEAKER_03:I just need to back up real quick and say that I will never forgive City of Angels for that one goo-goo doll song.
SPEAKER_02:Um Man on the Moon, Ali, The Lake House, The Beaver. And then, like I mentioned, her last credit, as of yet, um, 2011's it's a TV movie called Five. Okay. We are at the stars of this film. Of course, starting with Diane Keaton. Yeah. At the time of this recording, she has passed about a month and a half ago. She passed away on October 11th, 2025. And I brought it up a little bit at the tail end of the last episode. She was in her late 70s, but I think it just was like really surprising to everybody. Like again, she was just such a vibrant woman. Yeah. And it just, yeah, was just kind of a sad, surprising passing of um somebody who I think was much beloved by a lot of people. And she just you know, that saying, walking to the beat of a different drummer. That was kind of her. She kind of just did life on her own terms.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And and just was unapologetically herself. Um so she was she was pretty awesome. She in this film plays JC Wyatt. You asked this question, I don't think. I don't think we ever know what JC stands for.
SPEAKER_03:Doesn't, yeah. So it doesn't ever get uh answered. We never find out is just her name.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, just her name. And I mean, I maybe okay, so maybe I'll go through her filmography first and you know we can talk a little bit about this character. She had an amazing career. Um she was a multi-nominated and Oscar-winning actress. So very early in her career, and I think she oh, she almost exclusively did film, she was in the movie Lovers and Other Strangers. She first probably comes to fame as Kay in the Godfather trilogy. Yep. So she, even though The Godfather is not an 80s film, I feel like we bring it up a fair amount of time. And I think I've maybe at some point, somewhere, for some reason, said on the podcast, it is bizarre to me that she agrees to marry Michael.
SPEAKER_03:Like it is, it is straight.
SPEAKER_02:Totally bizarre.
SPEAKER_03:It doesn't make any sense for either of them.
SPEAKER_02:No, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:No, like Michael knew that like she wasn't gonna be that kind of wife.
SPEAKER_02:Like she was always gonna want to know what the fuck was going on. She wasn't gonna be submissive. Yeah. And as far as she was concerned, why the fuck would you go back to this guy that completely ghosted you? And even if you didn't know he already got married and his first wife blew up.
SPEAKER_03:He didn't just ghost you, he ghosted you because he very publicly killed that like for for all that she would have seen is like that. This uh police, this I don't know if he was officer or detective, whatever, was killed, and then he's like gone, like fleeing the law in Sicily. Right. And like, come on, come on, make it make sense for me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, same. It didn't it made no sense to me at all. I don't really like I never read the book.
SPEAKER_03:I was I was just gonna say, like, do I have to read the book?
SPEAKER_02:To understand why it happened. Because I like look, obviously it's an amazing film, but that one part of it always just bumped me. I just never could get over the fact that like it didn't like you said, it didn't make sense for either one of them to get married.
SPEAKER_03:By the time Michael came back, he I am assuming even then would have had the power to basically just like kind of do whatever he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_02:Go find yourself a submissive Sicilian wife who just happens to live in the US.
SPEAKER_03:Well, he almost got there, but then he found most of that, but then they were blown up.
SPEAKER_02:Correct.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Shame.
SPEAKER_02:So anyway, she is really good in that, although it's just like it's so annoying to me that she went back to him.
SPEAKER_03:She is really good in it, because you you like you're like, why are you doing like you're believing her anyway?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, no, no, she's a good actress. Um, and that closing door shuts. The closing scene where literally the door is shut on her. She is shut out. That is, it is like Chef's kiss, best last shot of any film, even if there was never a part two. So, uh, and man, that that argument between them in part two where he finds out that she's had an abortion.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And she's just like, I'm not gonna have your abomination. I'm not gonna bring another child of yours into this world.
SPEAKER_03:Whew. She's not like she that character passes away in between two and three, right?
SPEAKER_02:No, I thought she was she is she in three?
SPEAKER_03:I haven't seen it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, she's in three.
unknown:Really?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, she is? Yeah, she is. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Isn't it Michael who passes away? Because I refuse to watch that movie.
SPEAKER_03:No.
SPEAKER_02:Michael doesn't pass away. Yes, he does.
SPEAKER_03:Michael passes away at the end, maybe.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. That's why there's no four.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Okay. Moving on. She also, so over the course of her career, uh we we are just like not gonna go down this rabbit hole today, but she had a frequent collaborative relationship with Woody Allen.
SPEAKER_03:No, yeah. So I don't know what and I mean look, I'm they are beloved movies, and I can't it's hard to think of someone where you have to like really separate the individual from what they made. Yeah. Cause we all would have a lot to say about about that guy.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, in part that's why we have yet to do a Woody Allen film.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I don't I don't have any interest in in doing so.
SPEAKER_02:No, maybe at some point, but she was in Sleeper.
SPEAKER_03:Take that Woody Allen.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm sure he's heartbroken. Uh she got her best actress Oscar win for Annie Hall, 1977. She, like I mentioned, was in Looking for Mr. Good Bar, Interiors, Manhattan, some more Woody Allen films. She gets her next best actress, Oscar Nom for the film Reds, which uh let's see here, starred Warren Beatty. I think it was directed by Warren Beatty. Uh, also has I think Jack Nicholson is stacked cast. So she was in that crimes of the heart, radio days. As mentioned, she is I hate saying this way, but I don't know the character's name. She's Steve Martin's wife in the Father of the Bride movies.
SPEAKER_03:Nina.
SPEAKER_02:Nina Banks. Oh, thank you. Uh so she was in Manhattan Murder Mystery. That's another Woody Allen, The First Wives Club. She gets her next Oscar nomination for Marvin's Room with uh Leonardo DiCaprio, Gratch.
SPEAKER_03:I think so, yes.
SPEAKER_02:So not everything's a banger. She was in this movie called The Other Sister, which have you seen this has come up before on this podcast. Have you seen this movie?
SPEAKER_03:The other sister, no.
SPEAKER_02:Um with uh Juliet Lewis.
SPEAKER_03:How many sisters? There's just two sisters, so there's one sister and then the other sister.
SPEAKER_02:All I remember is that so Juliet Lewis plays someone with cognitive challenges.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, and I'm looking at the uh synopsis now. Okay, I think I remember she is the mother.
SPEAKER_02:And um is this a Tropic Thunder kind of situation? Yeah, I mean, for the time that it came out, I think it was probably still very normal to have someone who who isn't challenging. I mean, like along that same timeline was uh What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Yeah. With Anna Caprio doing a very similar kind of role. And also in the other sister, Giovanni Ribisi is also in that film, also plays as someone with cognitive challenges.
SPEAKER_03:So very convincingly.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. So she's in the film Hanging Up, Town and Country. She gets her next and final best actress Oscar Nom for something's gotta give. I was surprised by that one, but man, the most uncomfortable movie ever, The Family Stone.
SPEAKER_03:I love that movie. I think it's I think it's uh like I love the um the dynamic between Craig D Craig T. Nelson and and Diane Keith. Like I really like a lot about that movie, and I probably am not gonna like run to go watch it again because there are so many uncomfortable. It is so uncomfortable most of the film. The dinner scene.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm. When I know exactly what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_03:When they're talking about adopting a child, yeah. Um holy shit. Um but yeah, I just I thought it was a really good but uncomfortable movie to watch. Yeah, I think they were all really horrible to um Sarah Jessica Parker. Yeah, they were all pretty terrible to her.
SPEAKER_02:I guess I remember sitting in the theater actually watching them one and be like, oh my god, this movie's making me feel so uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_03:You saw it in the theater.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't sit in the theater, that's in the theater.
SPEAKER_03:I'd break out in a sweat if I was watching the theater.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I was just like very tense sitting in my seat.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, but it did, I think, what it was supposed to do.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:I think it was every much every in every regard that the intention of the filmmaker. But yeah, they're all just like kind of awful people to each other, but they all do it under the guise of like, we're just so we this family just so fiercely, we all fiercely love each other.
SPEAKER_03:And like it's just I think it's so funny that like like Sarah Jessica Parker's character ends up hooking up with a different brother of the family, they kind of like do a swap. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And everyone's super like, oh, America Christmas.
SPEAKER_02:And then they also do a swap with her sister.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly. So it all worked out.
SPEAKER_02:It's really anyway.
SPEAKER_03:No one was left uh.
SPEAKER_02:And it's like a holiday movie?
SPEAKER_03:It is very much a holiday, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So she also, so I said almost entirely film. I have a TV mini-series for her, The Young Pope. She also was in Book Club, uh, and then it had a sequel in the next chapter. Her final credit. So, okay, so here's the thing is that um with her passing, I believe there's a couple like upcoming films listed in IMDB. I don't know. I think I want to say they both were in pre-production at the time of her passing. So I don't know what the status is of those projects, but possibly her final credit is a film called Summer Camp. Okay. So but as far as this character goes, I mean, I think maybe this is as good a place as any to talk about it because we're about to talk about Sam Shepherd. Um arguably her love interest. I know we have Harold Ramis to cover as well. It's is it arguably? What do you mean? Like I mean, I mean, there's like it's there's no love triangle. No. But she had her first relationship with Harold Ramis, and then you know They just seemed like good roommates. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I They did have sex for four minutes.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that actually was very funny. And the fact that you knew what that joke was before the joke showed itself.
SPEAKER_03:It it was telegraphed. I mean, they you as they yeah, they they start zooming in on the clock, and I'm like, okay.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, man, that was like brutal when he's like, Do you the first time he asked and he's like, Do you want to make love? And she's like, uh, really?
SPEAKER_03:Like Yeah, the whole like uh facial mask thing on.
SPEAKER_02:But in any case, I mean, you you said something off mic earlier today where you you know the whole gist of the film is the whole like idea of like can you have it all? And you said, I don't want to speak on your behalf, so do you want to say what you told me?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, like it because there are moments where I think her boss said, like, you can't you can't have it all. And the moral of the story is that you can't have it all as long as you change what what that is, like what you want.
SPEAKER_02:And I think was in part the reason why I brought that up right now is because it's interesting to make that point. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think when she was with Harold Ramis, here's the here's the whole thing that I get from the film is like I don't I don't think she was like unhappy in the first part of her life.
SPEAKER_04:No.
SPEAKER_02:Um I you know, I and I don't I don't know how to like judge the film based on that, because it's like obviously there's a massive shift of what happens to this character, but I don't think she was like this miserable person in the first half of the film.
SPEAKER_03:I she she did not seem that way at all.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so as far as like you saying that her and Harold Ramis were more like roommates, I think for that part of her life, it worked for her.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, their relationship totally worked for both of them. They were happy together. They were happy because they both had like these similar like motivation, like they both loved doing their work, their job. Yeah, and and that worked. And you know, when she inherited a baby, which I'm I'm sure happens all the time, he there's like a point where he comes back from like a conference and he's like, Yeah, I can't, I can't, I can't.
SPEAKER_02:It was probably one of the more mature ways of handling. I I mean, I see it on Reddit all the time.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. Um and she was like, Okay. And he's like, All right, good luck.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I actually appreciated that there wasn't like they I mean, look, they make him look a certain kind of way.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:He's not a villain at all, but they do make him look a certain kind of way, where he doesn't have any patience with the baby really. Um, you know, it's I get it, it's a film, it's heightened reality, but they are so comically inept. Like the whole scene where she's like just trying to get a diaper on her, I was like, come on.
SPEAKER_03:She ripped up like 20 diapers.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like give me a break. And also diapers are not that sticky. Like, it's not fucking gorilla glu glue that's like on a diaper. So it's um, you know, whatever. It's it's fine. I think more than anything, what I was frustrated by in the first half of the film was just the I don't know if I could say manufactured because like I don't know what the like temperature was in workplaces like that in the 80s for women.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:In terms of her boss saying, like, I know you already work 70 to 80 hours a week. It's we're gonna double that. Yeah. You know, like you're you literally, he's saying there's going to be nothing else in your life except for work.
SPEAKER_03:You're gonna work seven days a week, you're gonna love it, and this is like I mean her boss said, like, I don't even know how many grandkids I have. Yeah, and I just am like that is a weird flex, man.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like I I don't know. I guess that does bother me because it's like to even with heightened reality and this being a movie and there has to be stakes manufactured. It it just felt like really like is that really being said to people? Like, is that really the way that it has to be? I understand there there are some professions, like for instance, when um, you know, somebody who is on their way to becoming a doctor is in residency. That's an incredibly stressful, high intense time in their life where yes, everything about their life is that job, but that's also like a a temporary situation. I'm not saying that like doctors have it easy after that, but like it is it is a very intense part of their life. But actually, even that profession, you know, the whole like being awake for like fucking 36, 48 hours, it's like why? Why are we doing this to these people? Like they're supposed to be like doing surgeries and taking care of people, and you're making them do this on like no sleep for multiple days at a time. It's just like a weird flex, like you said.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you talking about this makes me kind of think, well, like uh JC was okay with it. Yeah. She was she was talking about how much he loved work and how how she really like loved her life at that point. But maybe they had him say something like that to her, like, that's gonna be done because we're all supposed to think, like, no, you're making the wrong you might like it, but we're yeah, we're here to tell you that this is wrong and you shouldn't like it. So thank goodness you inherited this baby so you could find out what living life is really about.
SPEAKER_02:Nope, and that's actually a really good point. I was listening to this podcast where um What? I know I listen to podcasts all the time, in addition to recording them. And it was a podcast that was talking about like uh life value systems, and there's no judgment, there's no good or bad about a value system, according to this person, it's just that there's certain set life values.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And she made a point of saying that some people refer to a certain like I don't remember the specific like phrase she used for this life value, but a lot of people will in a derogatory way say, like, oh, you're a workaholic.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And she was like, I hate that term because if I love what I do for a living, that shouldn't be judged. And and like, look, I guess if like you you're not married and you don't have children, if like other people are not are not suffering at the expense of like your your work, then you're free to work all the time, I guess, if you want.
SPEAKER_03:As is often the case with a lot of these things, it's fine if that's what you want. Yeah. When you impose it on other people, then you better find someone that also wants that same thing, or like, you know, now you have a bit of conflict, perhaps.
SPEAKER_02:And I guess a little bit that's what her boss was saying, is that like he does what he does, and then his wife literally does everything else.
SPEAKER_03:He doesn't even know what she does, he just knows that it's everything. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So I guess in a weird way, he acknowledges that, like, if I'm presenting to you what your life is going to be if I give you this partnership, I'm just preparing you for what it is so that you can arrange the rest of the dynamic of your life to accommodate it.
SPEAKER_03:That's not even really what happened with her. She inherited this kid and like, oh, fuck me, I guess, because I don't want to like adopt this kid out to these horrible people. Okay, so now, yeah, so let's get to the So like what they were concerned about isn't really what happened. Over a very like relatively short period of time, they were just really unreasonable with her having to go through this significant life change.
SPEAKER_02:And that and that's something that we also brought up as far as like like it did sound because I think we maybe spoke too soon about some things where we're like, why doesn't she just tell them that she just like Yeah, and then we we it was clear that she did. Yeah, she did, and they had no patience whatsoever. That was also something that kind of bumped me because I was like, okay, come on, can we just be a little human about this? Like, with them not understanding that for a few. I mean, granted, when she makes the decision that she's gonna keep Elizabeth, yeah, that does change things. Yeah. Uh, because she because her boss is like, how much longer are you gonna have this kid? And she's like, forever. And but then everything goes very quickly goes south.
SPEAKER_03:Like they start Fucking James Spader, that fucking snake.
SPEAKER_02:That little snake, that little, what does she call him? Um
SPEAKER_03:She does have a specific term for a game.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But uh they very quickly pivot to him because of, oh, well, now she has a kid, she's not gonna be able to like be the be the job.
SPEAKER_03:She won't be there. Yeah. She was getting calls in the middle of meetings, which I think is like, that's come on, that's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And the whole the whole Victoria Jackson thing was such a bizarre. Like, look, again, for the purposes of it being a movie, I guess you gotta do these things. But like where she can't find one fucking competent nanny in all of New York City.
SPEAKER_03:And then uh because there are no other no other uh parents, families, anyone in New York City would need for anything like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so like that was kind of bizarre. Um, but whatever. It's it's all fine. So okay, let's move on to Sam Shepherd. I'm sure all other other parts of uh this character will come up.
SPEAKER_03:Who was in the right stuff but was not Shepard. He was uh Chuck Yeager.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but he did get um best supporting thank you for bringing that up, he got a best supporting actor, yeah, Oscar Knob for that role. Um he has passed too. He's he passed uh about eight years ago, 2017, and he plays Dr. Jeff Cooper, not a human doctor.
SPEAKER_03:No, he's he is a human.
SPEAKER_02:He's a human, yeah, but he is a doctor of animals. Technically, humans are animals, but doctor of veterinary medicine. Thank you. Um I don't get to see him in a lot.
SPEAKER_05:Hmm.
SPEAKER_02:So I feel like the right stuff might be the next thing that I would see him in. Or or maybe steal like we haven't done Steel Magnolias. I know we've talked about doing that one, but he he had a really interesting career. He did do some acting, but more so he was a writer. He was like behind the scenes a lot more.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So I I always got the sense from him that like he might have enjoyed acting, but like I think maybe it was like a little bit pay the bills type thing. He'd rather be behind the camera or out of out of the camera.
SPEAKER_03:Which are good options if you have them.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, he was an amazing writer, and yeah, he just again was a very I think what's interesting about this film for me, even though there's certain facets of both characters that I don't know, I would have liked to maybe seen a little bit more nuanced. Like, look, JC, she's like super neurotic, she's super like high strung. I don't think the character had to be that way. Um, they make her, and again, it's kind of for comic effect.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Especially with him. Like when they pair her up with him, she is so like out of sorts around him.
SPEAKER_03:Their first interaction was uh out there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So I don't know if they needed to play that up as much as they did. Um, but in real life, both, you know, again, like I said, Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard, they kind of like just live life on their own terms, at least the sense that I got. But as far as his acting credits go, uh, we have Days of Heaven, Francis, as mentioned, he got a best supporting actor, Oscar Nom for the right stuff. He was in Crimes of the Heart, Steel Magnolias, The Pelican Brief, Snow Falling on Cedars. He was in the 2000 Hamlet, which not that was what, Ethan Hawk? So many Hamlets. And then now Ham. What is what's coming out?
SPEAKER_03:Hamnet, which is a story about uh Shakespeare's son who passed away as a as a kid.
SPEAKER_02:It's getting good reviews.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. He was also in Thunderheart, which is kind of an under appreci I don't know if it's underappreciated, but it's Kilmer, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry I didn't mention that.
SPEAKER_03:Great movie.
SPEAKER_02:Uh second half of his career, he was in All the Pretty Horses, Swordfish, Black Hawk Down, The Notebook, The Assassin Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
SPEAKER_03:It's a long title.
SPEAKER_02:Sure is. Mud, August, is it Osage County? Sure.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And then his final credit was a film called Rolling Thunder Review. But I do like him in this film a lot. Like he is a much needed kind of like quiet, grounding figure. Yeah. In the film. I don't know if I quite get the sense that he'd be into her because she's so fucking neurotic.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know, they're the only two under 60 in the town. Lie.
SPEAKER_02:We see we see a lot of people who are under 60.
SPEAKER_03:Are they all just visiting? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But he's like, um, you know, you got the the plumber who is like a great musician. Not I'm gonna say mid. Uh but he's he's very talented and I'm assuming a competent plumber, but kind of out there. So then you have Shepard as like the vet, and he's just kind of like normal. But yeah, but you know, he's smart because he's a vet.
SPEAKER_02:He's smart, he's very just quiet and kind of like calm and again, kind of a character that I think we kind of need to have in the film.
SPEAKER_03:Knows how to fix a flat tire, but and and was also you know savvy enough to not tell her you don't need to jack the car up five feet. He could have told her that. I thought that made it more dangerous, but whatever. Yeah. He got the tire fixed.
SPEAKER_02:Um yeah. I do like I do like him in this role though. Um, I was gonna say something else about her, but I lost my train of thought. But the other gentleman that we briefly brought up earlier, so the other love interest, Harold Ramis. So he plays her boyfriend. Um, I don't think they were even engaged.
SPEAKER_03:They were just kind of they were yeah, no, they were just boyfriend, girlfriend living together because when they were talking about like getting, she's like, I'm not marrying him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's right. That's true. Um, character name is Steven Butchner. So unfortunately, this is one of those episodes where a lot of people have passed away. Um, Ramus, he's already been passed for over 10 years. He passed away in 2014. And yeah, he's not in this a ton. Um, but actually, in a very similar regard to Sam Shepard, while he certainly has had and some iconic acting roles, he was more so behind the camera, both as a writer and director. So, but and he has he's come up on this podcast now a number of times. Uh, just earlier this year. Earlier this year, right? We did stripes.
SPEAKER_03:What is happening?
SPEAKER_02:So he's in that. Um, of course. I was saying to you, maybe this isn't totally spot on, but I feel like the character he plays in this film is is Egon, if Egon became an investment banker instead of a scientist.
SPEAKER_03:I could see that.
SPEAKER_02:He has kind of the same, same demeanor, especially like the way Egon would be with a baby, I feel.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he was very like, I'm gonna pick up and pin this baby down and talk to it like it's a full-grown adult.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so he's in Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, Stealing Home, Groundhog Day. He has just a little, because he directed that film, so just a tiny little cameo. Airheads, love affair. Uh, I do really like, and I think I say this every time, I really do like the little turn he has in As Good as It Gets. Oh, yeah. He's the doctor who he kind of almost plays the Sam Shepherd role where he's just this very calm, grounded character because it's Helen Hunt who's kind of the neurotic role over the top energy type character. Yes. The way that they play off each other. Yeah. Uh he was in Orange County, knocked up, and then his final credit was the film year one. Okay. Okay, um, we don't honestly have how many people we don't have that many people left, but next we have Sam Wanamaker. Love that name. So he plays Fritz Curtis. So that is JC's like boss at this now. I know you asked, what exactly does she do? She's like, I think she's kind of like a marketing executive.
SPEAKER_03:She did she graduate from Yale in the loss for law and then Harvard, she had her MBA. I can't remember. I thought so.
SPEAKER_02:I think the way they phrased it, she was top of her class at Yale.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And then went on to Harvard for MBA.
SPEAKER_03:So I thought she, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think she She wasn't an attorney in the first.
SPEAKER_03:She was business, businesswoman.
SPEAKER_02:I I think so. Okay, big time businesswoman. Um, so he too has passed. He passed much earlier than in uh any of these other individuals we've brought up so far. He passed away in 1993, so really not that long after this film came out, about five, six years later. So he had a fantastic career as well. Um a lot of it well before this film. So I have all movies. No, no, no, no, that's not true. Almost all movies for him, with like a notable exception. So earlier in his career, he was in the film The Conc Concrete Jungle. I put this one in just because of the little baby that's napping next to us right now. He's in a movie called The Winston Affair. Our dog's name is Winston.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:He was this title, which I think I have actually brought up before. He was in a film called Let me take a breath. Those magnificent men in their flying machines or how I flew from London to Paris in 25 hours, 11 minutes.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. That is a big title.
SPEAKER_02:It's a big title, right?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I'm familiar with those magnificent men in their flying machines. Like that title I'm familiar with. I didn't realize that there was so much more to it.
SPEAKER_02:He was in a film called The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. I just think this is an interesting title. He was in a film called The Day the Fish Came Out. Okay. He was in Private Benjamin. He also was in Irreconcilable Differences. See, it's just like now it's like right in a bite. One off a tongue, yeah. Yeah. Uh so I don't know if he just had like a friendship with Myers and Scheyer, not sure. He was in a film, a 1985 film called The Aviator. Oh. And looked it up. So apparently I didn't I didn't get like the full 411 on it. All I remember is that it had Christopher Reeve in it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, interesting. It's not about Howard Hughes. No. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But he was in Superman 4, the quest for peace, also with Christopher Reeve.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that movie, it's a it's a Superman movie for sure.
SPEAKER_02:It is. And I think did Reeve direct that one?
SPEAKER_03:I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I think he had more of a more involved role, I'll say. Okay. If he didn't direct it. Now Curtis or Fritz Curtis, I want to say it backwards, uh, this character comes back, the actor comes back to reply reprise that character role in the TV series Baby Boom.
SPEAKER_03:That's interesting. So he's the same character, say, but I'm assuming not everyone came back.
SPEAKER_02:Like No. Um what was her name? She was in uh Charlie's Angels, I believe. Kate Jackson?
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Kate Jackson, I think, takes over the Diane Keaton role for the TV series. Maybe because who else? I mean, it's a very contained cast, so I'm not sure who else would have and also I'm really curious how they continued that story.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:She pretty definitively at the end of the movie was like, fuck y'all. I'm going back to Vermont.
SPEAKER_03:I'm good. So I'm not good until this uh company that tried to buy me just like completely demolishes me in the market, but whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, she really kind of showed her cards too liberally.
SPEAKER_03:Like a little short-sighted.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, and then for WannaMaker, his final credit was a TV movie called Wild Justice. Okay. We have two people left, one of which is that little snake, James Spader, that plays Ken Ehrenberg is his last name. So he is kind of, I don't know, I guess the junior associate at this firm and starts weasling his way up uh to get JC's. I mean it's not all his fault the way things shook out with JC, but he certainly took advantage of the situation.
SPEAKER_03:I think that's right. Yeah. I don't like I don't know if he was like really uh as much of a snake as much like he's opportunist. Yeah, he probably didn't like he couldn't just like hey, I'm gonna just like text you and like we'll we'll just work. Like that's what I like. I don't think it it all would have played out the same way now. No just compared to it. But he you're right, he certainly like knew what he was doing. Yes. And probably has some like plausible deniability in terms of like, was he doing anything like morally or ethically? Oh, I'm just trying to get the the job done for the client.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I mean, sorry that I'm bringing this up now, but it made me think of like you know, the scene where JC finds out that he gets the food chain account.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:First of all, I think it's interesting that he just like outright gets the account, like the can't campy account that they work on together, and that she, you know, according to the story of the film, gets relegated to some dog food.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god, the dog food account.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, apparently that's like a huge embarrassment to have that account.
SPEAKER_03:You can't walk out there with the dog food account.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I thought that was an interesting choice too, is that like she pretty she you know tells him that like I can't I can't show my face because I now I just have this dog food account. So she makes the choice instead to quit. Um that felt a little like her pride talking. Um you know, her boss is like do what you gotta do.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that was a that was a funny response. Yeah, he was like because I don't think they wanted her to quit.
SPEAKER_02:No, that's why it's an interesting part of the film for everything that we've already said about the way he talks to her when she's on the partner track to this moment.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because he he does say to her, like, hey, it's okay to slow down a little bit. Like you have a kid now. So actually he's in his own way, like trying to make it work.
SPEAKER_03:And she wanted it all.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, like it was an interesting choice she made because she just is pretty much like, fuck you, I'm out. But then now she is out of a job and she is removed from everything that she had loved for for a period of time. Um, which is kind of a funny thing because like we both were joking how Elizabeth's not age at all over the course of this entire movie.
SPEAKER_03:It was the weirdest like uh weirdest thing in the movie. Like, yeah, it's how much time, like maybe two years total.
SPEAKER_02:So I think I read somewhere that all of this trans transpires over like the course of a couple months, which No, I don't think that's it doesn't make sense because there's just no way, but like apparently that's like how much of a genius she was supposed to be when it comes to like marketing and the whole deal. But no way.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because they did have the four-minute sex capade, her and Harold Ramus. Yes, they did, but then she told the vet that she hadn't had sex in over a year. Yes, you're right. So you're right. Let's say a year and some change. It's still gonna look a little different.
SPEAKER_02:So if let's conservatively say that Elizabeth came to her at like 18 months, she looks like she's maybe about 18 months.
SPEAKER_03:Sure. She has some verbal skills, but she's still a fucking three-year-old.
SPEAKER_02:Like she would be so much older, so much different, but I get it for the purposes of the film.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You can't swap out the baby.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, kids grow up quick.
SPEAKER_02:Real fast. Yeah. Yeah, she'd be different looking in even just a couple months.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So that is a little bit of a glaring kind of I don't know what you do. I don't know what you do with that. When a baby is like a pretty central figure in the film, but it's supposed to transpire over the course of probably a couple years. Yeah. So that's a tough, tough thing to navigate.
SPEAKER_03:It was like the baby was a good baby for the film.
SPEAKER_02:Uh twins.
SPEAKER_03:Twins, okay. Yeah. So like, are they gonna find another set of twins that look mostly but just a little bit? I feel like they've done that before. Because they have people that's like what they do.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. So I feel like that has been done before. I can't like come up with any examples right now, but it was getting more and more like glaring as the film went on. Yeah. That Elizabeth just is like in complete stasis.
SPEAKER_03:They showed they showed the baby a lot less as the film went on too.
SPEAKER_02:They did, yeah. I mean, you the number of times you're like, where's the baby? Yeah. Where's the baby? Where'd the baby go?
SPEAKER_03:She's doing a lot. She's doing a lot. She's going out, she's doing all these things.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So um, okay, so James Spader. Yeah. He he is still very much working to this day. He's done a ton. Uh actually, this is the first time that we have brought him up. Is it really? Uh I mean, I think he's like come up in passing, but it's the first time we've covered, I think, one of his films, which we haven't covered the biggie yet. We still have not done Pretty in Pink. Wasn't he in Mannequin? We haven't done Mannequin. Holy shit. But you're right. Yeah, he is a mannequin. He always plays kind of a swarmy kind of, he's really good at those characters. Yeah. Um, he also he's had just some really interesting credits. So I Yes, he does.
SPEAKER_03:They're they're all over the place.
SPEAKER_02:All over the place. Um, yeah. So I think he is known to a lot of people, especially like of our generation, um, as Steph in Pretty in Pink. So he is like super swarmy, super mean to Molly Ringwald, but yet he kind of likes her. Um in that film too. But he, as you said, is in mannequin. Um, I mean, we could do a couple of these films. He's in Less Than Zero. That one probably wouldn't come up too soon, but he uh so it's just that's a that's an incredibly depressing film. He is in Wall Street. So he's had a number of films that actually he he's made, I would say, some very bold role choices over the course of his career. Yeah. The first of which being Sex Lies and Videotape. Yeah. So uh that's Steven Steven Soderberg comes to the scene with this film and huge breakout indie film. Kind of certs the indie film trend in a lot of ways. Oh, really? Yeah, of the 90s.
SPEAKER_04:I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_02:So he's in that White Palace, Bob Roberts.
SPEAKER_03:The the White Palace poster. So that that's him and Susan Sarandan. The poster. Yeah, it just says the story of a younger man in an older. Oh no, it says Boulder Woman.
SPEAKER_02:Boulder Woman. Interesting. I gotcha. Uh he's in Wolf. Probably kind of a character outside of any of his other characters is Stargate, where he's kind of this like innocent, kind of nine, not naive, but like he's just this like very studious, kind of nerdy type.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh not too similar to a lot of his other characters, but. But he's good in it. I like that movie.
SPEAKER_03:So not um Then it goes back to being Sinister in Two Days in the Valley.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, even preceding that, he's in Crash. So that is Cronenberg's Crash, which is another very like it's a very sex-forward kind of film. It's people who get off on crashes.
SPEAKER_03:Holy shit.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah. What? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. I didn't know that existed. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:The movie exists. Um I'm sorry, you brought up Two Days in the Valley.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that that movie it was marketed or it felt like it was like, if you liked Pulp Fiction, watch this movie. And it wasn't quite the same.
SPEAKER_02:Then he's in another film that has like a really interesting storyline or a lot of like very strong sexual themed secretary.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:With Maggie Gyllenhall. So yeah. No, but it's a good movie. Like I remember thinking, wow, I've never seen anything like this when I first watched that movie. I've seen it a couple times since. Um, but so yeah, he makes a lot of really bold choices because I think a lot of actors would shy away from those type of roles. But he has not. Um, then he goes on to do a lot of like legal dramas on TV. So he's in the practice, and then I think off so I never watched the practice, but off the practice, he gets his own spin-off, Boston Legal, because he's the same character.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I didn't I had no idea.
SPEAKER_02:So he's in that. Then you really, if I may speak on your behalf, you seem to enjoy the turn he had in the office.
SPEAKER_03:Well, his Robert California character. Like it just the interview. Like if you if you look up the like when he's being interviewed. Yeah, it's it's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's him, and then across the table from him is Jim, Toby, and Andy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But isn't it also that um tall thin guy?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's him.
SPEAKER_03:I think he's in there.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's and they're all fucking enamored with him.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's interviewing them as much as anything.
SPEAKER_02:I would love to know how much of that was just pure improv, just like him riffing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he was that was a great, a great character in the and in the um later seasons, it they desperately needed that. He's really good at comedy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The fact that he hasn't done like, look, I'm I mean, I didn't list off all his credits, but I listed off a lot of the like the heavy hitters, almost entirely dramas. But he's really fucking funny. He was good as the voice of Ultron. And that was my next credit. Oh, sorry. Is no, that's okay. So he is Ultron in Avengers Age of Ultron. And then more recently, more TV work. I think it's off the air at this point, but he was on the blacklist. He was like it was like a two-hander, and he was the main guy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean, that was on for 10 years.
SPEAKER_02:Jesus Christ, was it really?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. I did not realize it had that long of a run.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 218 episodes.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, he's doing okay.
SPEAKER_03:That was a full show.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Wow. Okay. So lastly, we have Pat Hingel. So Hingle plays Hughes Larrabe. These fucking names, man. Fritz Curtis, Hughes Larrabee. Um, he is the head of the food chain. So, kind of a funny way of putting it. Um, so he is initially the client that JC is trying to lure over to her firm, and then that doesn't work out, and then she leaves that firm, but then she becomes the client, and the food chain is trying to buy country baby from her.
SPEAKER_03:Look, we're talking 87, 1987 numbers, right? And their offer was three million and uh the position of uh CFO.
SPEAKER_02:I don't remember what the title was.
SPEAKER_03:Uh yeah, an executive position with a salary of 350,000 a year. I'm probably taking that.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Is that 1987 money? Come on.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, it's like the whole if you look at it too, you never work a day in your life.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and pr they probably didn't have like a remote option.
SPEAKER_02:So And not only was uh apparently gourmet baby food not a thing in the 80s, I don't know if that's true or not. But you know, I'm gonna assume that everything was organic because it came from her own fucking apple orchard that she had.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was it was quite the uh happy coincidence that she happened to buy the 67 acre property with uh the uh apple orchard.
SPEAKER_02:Given how popular it was, I don't know if 62 acres would be enough after a certain period of time.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know the the calculation of uh acreage to apples to I don't know either.
SPEAKER_02:And also she branched out from apples because we saw a segment where she, I think, had like peas and peas and carrots, and like so she was gonna have to buy up a lot more land. And also it's Vermont. I don't know how much of a like harvesting season they have. So maybe a lot of questions. Yeah. Uh, but so Pat Hingle, he also has passed. He passed in 2009, and again, he had an amazing career, and I think there is one very notable franchise that he is probably most well known for by a a certain generation. So his first credit, it was uncredited, but he was in the film on the waterfront with Marlon Brando. And he did just um if you look at his IMDB, I mean, especially in the first half of his career, but like, I mean, he had a very robust filmography and a lot of it's TB work, like a lot of one-offs, two offs, not not a ton of like longer stints, but we have a couple there. He was in the film Splendor in the Grass, The Ugly American.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, you kind of have to narrow it down. Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_02:He was uh for a period of time on the show Gunsmoke, as well as another show. I never heard of this, but it's called Stone. That's all I know.
SPEAKER_03:Don't don't know that one.
SPEAKER_02:He was in the film Norma Ray, The Act, Sudden Impact, The Falcon and the Snowman, Brewster's Millions. Okay. Um, which we could do at some point. Uh Maximum Overdrive.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, we're definitely gonna do that.
SPEAKER_02:That's Stephen King, right?
SPEAKER_03:It is.
SPEAKER_02:The one film he directed, right?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_02:Didn't he? The one film he directed? Maximum Overdrive?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, if if so, like there are certainly worse movies that he did not direct.
SPEAKER_02:I think I don't know. I don't want to speak out of turn. But uh he also did voice work. He was both the narrator and a character router in The Land Before Time. So here's the franchise. So for those first one, two, three, four Batman movies, he was Commissioner Gordon.
SPEAKER_03:That's weird. But yeah, it's true.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. That's how I know him.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman Robin. So he's Commissioner Gordon for all four of them. He was in Muppets from Space.
SPEAKER_03:Nice. I love Muppets from Space.
SPEAKER_02:The 2000 Shaft. He was in Taladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Waltzing Anna. Okay, nice. And then his final credit was a film called Undoing Time. Okay, so just real quick, you brought them up. The twins. The two babies that played uh collectively Elizabeth Wyatt. So and that's the other thing too, is that I don't know if Elizabeth just uh was given JC's last name. So this whole this whole like adoption thing, this whole bequeathing, inheriting a baby thing. Apparently, guys, she said it really quickly at one point while she was on that initial phone call. It was like her aunt's brother's son, I don't know, like not a first cousin. No, definitely a distant cousin, and like it seems relatives in England, because the woman that brought her over in that scene had a very definite English accent, it appeared. Quite, quite so um, yeah, apparently no relatives, although no, I'm thinking in a different movie, but um I was thinking about while you were sleeping. That's another movie where she apparently has no relatives. Um, but she somehow is the only living relative to have this baby.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, the cousin for her seemed to be a male cousin. I'm like, so what? Is there literally nobody on the mother's side of the family? There's not a single soul on the mother side of the family.
SPEAKER_03:They probably could have given an alternate title for this movie, and that title would be Don't Think About It Too Much.
SPEAKER_02:I know, I know. But I mean, I will say that the two twins, Christina and Michelle Kennedy, they did great.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know how much they had a cut around babies being babies, but yeah, do they just like film a bunch of like babies being babies?
SPEAKER_02:For the most part, she's totally placid. She's just like chilling in every scene. So except for where they w want her to cry, which always is a little well, like she cries. They they they make a point of showing her cry every time she's handed off to somebody who's not JC.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So they have that kind of stuff. And then apparently they did reprise the role of Elizabeth for the TV series. Really? Yeah. Okay. So there you go. Okay, film synopsis. The life of super yuppie JC. Super yuppie. Super yupp is thrown into turmoil when she inherits a baby from a distant relative.
SPEAKER_03:There are a lot of like weird uh court orders and inheritances happening in like the 80s and and 90s, like the whole like Mr. not Mr. Belvedere, like court ordered butlers and inheriting babies. Is that what Mr.
SPEAKER_01:Belvedere was?
SPEAKER_03:I don't think it was. But there is there, like I feel like there are maybe I'm thinking of like a possible plot point on Seinfeld when they were trying to come up with shows and they were thinking of Mr. A court-ordered Mr. Belvidere.
SPEAKER_01:Court-ordered Mr. Belvidere. Um, but yeah, I mean there was a lot of like same, like as you said, don't think about it too much. This thing happened, so there's a story. Yeah, inherent.
SPEAKER_02:Or even like um like a movie like Brewster's Millions, right?
SPEAKER_03:Where he's gonna inherit You're gonna inherit like all the money in the world, but only if you spell spend to spend all the money in the world. Yeah. So it's just And they're like all these rules and how we can you can't like You can't give it away.
SPEAKER_02:You can't, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I suspect I'm gonna be really annoyed by that movie when we when we watch it. Maybe when I start thinking about all the details, I'm like, no, come on.
SPEAKER_02:That's not right. But um yeah, I look, I I think I had more nostalgia for the film prior to seeing it again. I think that I I I'm like because I'm thinking a lot about like what the message I think the film is. Like I don't I don't know what the message is that it's sending in terms of what is considered a good life.
SPEAKER_03:I yeah, I mean I feel like the message is having like a simpler, more traditional kind of life is is like the better life, or a life where there's more of a focus on like family. Yeah, not like uh fast and furious kind of family, but you know, more just like baby gourmet baby food kind of family. Exactly. And like I I mean it's interesting because it like it is kind of like you can get everything you want, because she did. Like she she had a successful business and she had like that different pace of life and family and like a more um I don't know, love interests that fit better into like this life that she wanted for. Exactly. Yeah. So I I I don't again, it's not a fair comparison, but the the ones that like we have covered that come to mind are like the baby not baby we're talking about baby boom. Um Mr. Mom and Working Girl. Yeah. And Working Girl and Mr. Mom certainly like they work better for me in terms of like the comedy aspect of it, which like Michael Keaton, like the the casting for for those I mean Mr.
SPEAKER_02:Mom is like uh big time number one for me, and then like this movie and Working Girl fall below.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and they they in terms of comedy, yeah. And Working Girl and this kind of like are probably more complimentary to each other than the other thing. Very much so.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Look, I appreciate that there are films in the 80s, like even the opening, opening the narrator was um, I believe Linda Ellerby, okay, who was like a journalist.
SPEAKER_03:It was super 80s intro.
SPEAKER_02:Very 80s intro.
SPEAKER_03:People walking in the city.
SPEAKER_02:Well, very specifically, they did shots of women, yeah. Like w working women, yeah. Um, a lot of shots of women in sneakers on their way to work. Yeah, change out your shoes. That is a thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, and they did the same thing in Working Girl, like they showed that for her as well. And uh, you know, there's this like narration about how women were once told that they were supposed to marry doctors and lawyers. Now they are doctors and lawyers, and that 53% of the workforce is women. Um so, so it puts forth this idea. And like I think it's interesting that there's no narration at the end.
SPEAKER_03:It's just at the at the beginning of the film about like kind of the state of things right now and how it's just it's just her enjoying a quiet moment with her baby that has not aged a single day.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And I I think that like you know, like I'll I'll I'll stick by what I said earlier. I don't think she was unhappy in the first half of the film. And the first like what the life that she had up to the point that she had Elizabeth, I don't think she was unhappy.
SPEAKER_03:No, I think like where things are now is that for the most part, companies are far more like welcoming to like adapting to different types of life. Like people in executive positions have have families, they have baby, they have maternal, they have Matt Leave, they have Pat leave. So what she had to do, she had to completely like upend her life, and it's great that she like found this new life that worked for her, but it would have been better if she'd been able to like figure it out if if if yeah, if the work had accommodated her having a kid.
SPEAKER_02:That could have been a really interesting film. You know, I and so that's why like I'm a little cloudy on what the message is, because as I said earlier, if man or woman, if your life is all about your job, and that doesn't mean that you're being neglectful towards like the other relationships that you've chosen to have, like if you've chosen to get married or you've chosen to have children, then by all means, go be that person. Yeah. And and that's who she was. And she had a partner that fully was okay with that.
SPEAKER_03:Um not everyone can leave and go have a success successful uh gourmet baby food company.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Some people like to have a family and still keep their like a little corporate job, but so for the time that it was though, like, you know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I guess I can appreciate that like I wouldn't say she went full circle, but she went about 300 degrees. Yeah. Where she I'm like doing that. Where where she is not doing, you know, whatever you want to call it, the the New York City rat race.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But she is still a very successful businesswoman. She's still busy, she's not just like sitting at home. And hey, if you if homemakers, that's your choice and you can do it, great. Go do it if that makes you happy. So no judgment there. But just like she is still incorporating into her life the things that she loved from that prior version of her life.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But now she has Elizabeth as well. Um, and is that actually though was a funny thing. Um, I thought that was almost the most evergreen part of the film where she is at the playground and she's overhearing the other mothers.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And they're all talking about all the things that they have to do to get their kids into the right schools, and that they're starting before they're even born.
SPEAKER_03:It reminded me a little bit of Raising Arizona.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:They're talking about like, you gotta get all this stuff for kid, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And and I was like, wow, that actually, for not being a parent, yeah, I hear that a lot about like just needing to start very early with like, you know, quality of schooling and like, you know, thinking about those things for your children. And that felt very current to me. So that was like an interesting little part of the film.
SPEAKER_03:My parents never even tried to get me into a private school, and I've resented them for it for all of my life. Not really. I'm just kidding. It's fine. Public school is fine.
SPEAKER_02:I did go to a private school for all of my underschool.
SPEAKER_03:That's why you're much, much smarter than me.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I love you, but that's not true. Um, so it's all, it all, it all shakes out at the end. So um, would you watch this film again?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, if it's on, depending on the part, I might watch it, but am I gonna like seek it out? Or if it's starting, I'm like gonna hunker down and watch the whole thing through uh maybe not. I that's okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's all right. Maybe not. I mean, same. I I'm really glad I got to revisit it because it's it's been a very long time since I've watched it, and it was really fun to get to just see Diane Keaton and something.
SPEAKER_03:Um it was a nice light-hearted uh palette cleanser after the color of money.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's true too. That's true too. A little bit more of a holiday fair, if you will. Yeah. Um there's snow. There's snow. So yeah, I don't think I need to watch it again soon, but I love her. Even with like the things that I'm picking apart for the movie, I really enjoy just watching her do her thing. Yeah, she was great. So uh call to action. I mean, of those, I I think mine would be of those films of the 80s where like there seemed to be a lot of like workplace comedies and a lot of kind of like I don't know if I say like role reversal, but just like an up-ending of certain roles as far as like as it concerns being a working man or working woman.
SPEAKER_03:And then there were other ones, like just different like culture, like gung-ho, like different other like cultural society. Something like broadcast news. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Where like so all these kind of very workplace-centric type films. I'm just really curious where this falls for people and how what do they think of the message? What do they think the message is being sent through this film?
SPEAKER_03:It's funny that that's your call to action because that was mine as well. It really was.
SPEAKER_02:Was it really?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, all right, all right. Well, if you want to get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you. You can reach out through Facebook, Instagram, or Blue Sky. It is the same handle at all three. It is at 80smontage pod. And 80s is 80S.
SPEAKER_03:It is.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my gosh, Derek.
SPEAKER_03:What's up?
SPEAKER_02:We're at the season finale.
SPEAKER_03:We are, yeah. How many seasons is this? What season? Six seasons? No wonder we can't remember which season it is.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. This is going to be the last episode of seasons. And it's kind of funny how this all shook out because our midseason episode was from the same franchise. So our midseason episode this year was National Lampoons Vacation. Yep. And of course, for the holidays, we are going to wrap things up for season six with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. So we're kind of bookending this season in a manner of speaking.
SPEAKER_03:What I like about Christmas Vacation is that similar to the first vacation movie, you get to see like just how easily Clark would like cross the line into actual cheating on his Clark Griswold.
SPEAKER_02:He's a complicated figure.
SPEAKER_03:He sure is. Because he does some really like nice things in this movie. Yes, he does.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, he does. What a complicated man. Complicated man. Yes. Many layers to peel. So that is next up on deck. And in the meantime, just thank you to everybody for hanging with us. We really appreciate that of all the choices you have, you are choosing to spend some time with us. So thank you so much, and we will talk to you again in two weeks' time.