It's our 50th episode! It's a special one where we get to chat about SHORTBUS with two of our favorite pals: Josh and Kat.
We made it to episode 50! And for episode 50, we've decided to do something special: we've brought back Josh and Kat, who screened this film at Uncomfortable Brunch many moons ago, to come in and to talk to us about John Cameron Mitchell's seminal piece about sex positivity, inclusivity and finding that elusive orgasm.
I mean, we don't have any time stamps for this film, what you see is literally peppered throughout. Laura's face lit up like a Christmas Tree. There's some bad jokes, some obvious corse language given the subject matter and plenty of stories about people doing the exact same thing. Sit back, enjoy and thank you for following and supporting us this long!
Laura: You.
Kat: Like an insane person. As ah, always.
Ryan: Wow.
Josh: I definitely all of it. Everybody. That's that's the same photo. Everything about this is just a different low. Every face is crazier than the last.
Laura: Oh, God.
Kat: It looked really bad.
Laura: We could do that again if you want.
Kat: Let's do that.
Josh: Absolutely not. That is getting posted on the Uncomfortable Brunch account.
Kat: God damn it.
Josh: Too late.
Ryan: Burn that phone.
Laura: Guys, get the phone.
Ryan: Get the phone. Burn the phone.
Kat: Burn it. Burn everything except for the stuff that's needed for the podcast.
Laura: We can burn that too. We're all going down. The only one that's coming out of this alive is Bruce.
Ryan: We get so dark back on Good Friday.
Laura: Oh, that was you, motherfucker.
Ryan: Who's messaging me?
Josh: Me. I just fuck.
Kat: Oh, God damn it. Josh tagged us in this stupid oh, my God. And you use, like, a filter that makes me look even crazier. You're a monster.
Josh: I mean, now you have to figure out what the Uncomfortable Brunch login is so that you can delete it.
Laura: He's got a freaking squeaky.
Kat: No, I'm just yeah.
Ryan: Bruce, stop it.
Josh: Hey.
Ryan: Always listens to me.
Laura: Well, hello there. Welcome to On the BiTTE the podcast that uncovers full frontal male nudity in cinema. Uh, my name is Laura, and I am joined by some of our favorite people for a momentous occasion. This is our 50th episode, so yay.
Josh: Yeah.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: We're here with my co host, Ryan. Yes, we have Josh.
Josh: Hey there.
Laura: And Katie.
Kat: Hi.
Laura: My gosh.
Ryan: Wow. What a lukewarm intro. That.
Laura: I'm struggling because every time we start to try to record this, the dog freaks out.
Josh: I'm going to blame that it's like that. We just finished watching today's movie, and you are just like dick exhaustion.
Kat: There is a lot of penis.
Laura: Yeah, there really is. Not enough. Really.
Josh: Wow. You've ever had a movie that you've done an episode on?
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: It's definitely the most amount of penis we've had in one showing.
Laura: Yeah. Ah, absolutely. And the film we're talking about today is the 2006 it's categorized as an erotic comedy drama short bus.
Josh: I'd argue that John Cameron Mitchell does not refer to it as erotic.
Kat: I wouldn't either. No, I think it's pretty wholesome.
Josh: I don't mean we'll get into the whole thing about it. I think that erotic, uh, insinuates that it's maybe classy pornography in the sense that it's meant to arouse.
Laura: Correct.
Josh: And I don't think this movie is meant to arouse.
Laura: I don't think any part of this movie is meant to be arousing. No, but it's not that it's tell.
Josh: That to my erection.
Ryan: I mean, we were masturbating for the whole hour and 40 minutes.
Laura: Yeah, we all held hands and touched ourselves.
Ryan: Just made sure that we had a free hand each.
Laura: You, um, came in late, but how.
Josh: Would you hold sake? I'm surprised you didn't notice when he sat down, though.
Kat: Yeah.
Josh: Damp squish don't like that. It came out of me. You think I like that shit? Absolutely not.
Kat: Not a fan.
Josh: Me neither.
Laura: This film has such a cast. Everybody um, no one that I think this is kind of a classic independent cinema type of cast. I think that John Cameron Mitchell's complains these days that in order to have a successful independent film, you have to have a star in it. And he's like, I don't know if I could have made this film now. I mean, it was hard enough probably to make it and market it then. So there aren't big stars in this movie. It's like a collection of audition, uh, tapes that he put out there and I don't know, like a theater troupe of cool kids hanging out and seeing what would work.
Josh: Yeah.
Laura: So it's really interesting how he put that together. But yin Lee Paul Dawson Lindsay Beamish and PJ. D. Boy are some of the stars of this film. Uh, from Letterbox, the synopsis, which is a little bit long. A group of New Yorkers caught up in their romantic sexual milieu converge at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality, and loosely inspired by various underground NYC gatherings that took place in the early 2000s. Here, gay couple Jamie and James meet Seth, a ah, young ex model and aspiring singer that the synopsis doesn't even mention. Like, uh, sophia. Sophia, like the kind of the focus of the film, right? Well, yeah, there's a synopsis for you. Sophia, who is a couple's counselor and also kind of a sex therapist, has never had an orgasm, and she goes on a journey to find her orgasm. That's a synopsis.
Kat: There you go.
Laura: And she meets a lot of I.
Josh: Mean, it's an ensemble piece, so I don't know. Yeah, there's a lot going on.
Kat: Kind of like Love Actually, in the sense that you have these vignettes of people, but they're all connected in some way.
Laura: Yeah.
Josh: It's basically a Robert Altman film, is.
Ryan: What we're trying to yeah, yeah. It's shortcuts, except it's the short bus.
Josh: It's shortcuts with dicks. Yes.
Ryan: Pretty much. Yeah.
Kat: That's it.
Laura: Well, we're not talking about Robert Altman. We're talking about John Cameron Mitchell. Take it away, Ryan.
Ryan: We are. Right. Here we go. So, um, john Cameron Mitchell. He's a two time Tony Award winner.
Laura: Oh.
Ryan: And he's like a modern day Renaissance man. Or at least that's what I would think he is. He's kind of like Russell Brand because he's a Renaissance man as well. Same with really? Same with James Franco.
Josh: I would agree with that. James Franco has done fucking everything.
Kat: Yeah, but I don't think we should talk about James Franco. I don't want him to be and.
Josh: He does a lot of shit.
Kat: Yeah, but he's a creep, so I.
Josh: Don'T really want to talk about yeah, because we've never discussed creeps on this podcast.
Kat: Mean, he's not even in this movie. So we don't have to talk about him.
Ryan: Well, that's okay. I just I was talking about Renaissance men.
Laura: But what does a Renaissance man does it mean?
Ryan: Renaissance man is someone who, uh, is like, a specialist in a whole lot of different areas. And you'll get this idea when I list off all of the things that this man, John does, and he's, uh, an actor, playwright, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, producer, director. That's a lot.
Laura: He's an artiste.
Ryan: He is an artiste, yes.
Josh: And he's damn good at all of it, is the thing.
Ryan: Yeah, it's very annoying.
Josh: I mean, even just his filmography, being relatively small, could not be more diverse. The four films that he's directed could not be more different than one another. Well, hedwig and Shortbus at least, are similar in tone, maybe.
Ryan: Well, his filmography, in terms of his acting and things, uh, I mean, he's been in a lot of TV, and there's, like, maybe too much TV to kind of mention. Um, but he started on the stage also TV into the into the 90s. Um, I mean, I'll list off a few things that kind of took my eye MacGyver, Freddie's New Nightmares, and, uh, the new Twilight Zone. Um, but also, he was a regular cast member of Party Girl, which I've never seen. And, uh, he was the long running voice of Sydney, the animated kangaroo mascot of Duncaroo's Snack Cookies.
Josh: I didn't know that.
Laura: Whoa. No joke, Ryan. I almost bought you Duncaroos the other day.
Kat: Wait, where did you find Duncaroos?
Laura: Dollar Tree. They have them at the Dollar Tree.
Josh: That has a little container of frosting on the side that you dip.
Laura: You dip like little kangaroo shapes.
Kat: Which dollar tree.
Laura: The one on Colonial.
Kat: Uh, okay, I'm going to go there tomorrow.
Ryan: All right, everyone, if you need to.
Laura: Know where to get Dunkaroos and you live in Orlando, that's where you go.
Ryan: Yeah. You go to the last vestige of, uh, where you would buy anything. Is the dollar tree.
Laura: Yeah. All of your nice, almost expired items.
Ryan: Exactly. Yes. It's like, where do you get your food from? The dollar tree, I think. Well, if you need to survive and you want a 50 cent DVD, you go to the Dollar Tree if you want to survive. Exactly.
Laura: You can get weird.
Ryan: It's not only that. You could get some near spoiled food. You can get the tupperware to seal that food into there so it lasts a little longer, but then also get something to entertain yourself. I've also got a chocolate cross sitting in the fridge. Nice as well.
Josh: Saving it for Sunday.
Ryan: Well, I was going to. Yeah. I mean, I was at least tomorrow.
Josh: When it's not being used anymore.
Kat: Yeah. You got to wait till they take him off the cross to eat the cross.
Ryan: Oh, uh, do I?
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: I don't celebrate those things. That doesn't interest me.
Laura: This might not make any sense to anyone who's listening to this in the middle of May. But we are recording this a little bit earlier.
Josh: Today is Good Friday.
Ryan: Today is Good Friday. And it is a good Friday.
Laura: It is indeed.
Ryan: It is. We're all hailing our Lord and Savior.
Laura: Uh, our Lord and savior, John Cameron Mitchell.
Ryan: But no, to be fair, I was going to put the cross out into the Florida heat and just watch it melt and just see what happened.
Josh: I know what happens when chocolate melts. It just gets messy.
Kat: She needs to do it in the.
Josh: Grass or on the concrete. Chocolate on the concrete.
Ryan: We could do the rain in the.
Kat: Next few days so it won't be there for too long.
Ryan: Yeah, I don't know. Well, I'm hoping it's not some sort of like sacrilegious thing that I'm kind of doing there.
Laura: Tell me about his movies, for crying out loud.
Josh: Melted chocolate.
Ryan: So other than he was acting and he was voice acting, he also acted in a bunch of films. Some that I've kind of noted here. Not all of them. Um, banned in the Hand from 1986, misplaced from 1990. Book of Shitsy. This is what happens when I write things down too quickly and I can't even read the year here. Is it the Book of Laid anyway? It might be the book of Laid from 19. Whatever. And then, uh, yeah, he also was in a movie, spike Lee movie called Girl Six in 96. Yeah.
Josh: Call girl, right?
Ryan: Uh, yes. He plays, um, he's played prostitute in that movie maybe if I remember rightly. Either a prostitute or something else. Either way it was something sexy. Um, but yes, uh, he has directed some films and that's obviously what we're kind of pertaining to here.
Ryan: Um, so first up we have, uh, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which is 2001. Uh, obviously the movie we're covering today, which is Short Bus in 2006. That's followed up by Rabbit Hole in 2010. And uh, lastly, it's how to Talk to Girls at Parties from 2017. But there's also some TV pilots, there's some short films and stuff that I've not mentioned here. And there's also something that isn't his filmography, but it's definitely on the Letterboxd is that he's part of a Sigur Ross compilation, uh, visual DVD or whatever that makes sense. Him with like 20 or 30 other visionary, uh, directors or whatever you would want to say.
Laura: Um, hedwig was his debut feature debut.
Ryan: Yes. It would have been his first movie.
Laura: Cool.
Josh: Mhm.
Laura: That's a good one.
Ryan: Yeah. He also stars in that movie as well.
Josh: Yes.
Ryan: Mhm.
Laura: I didn't know that.
Ryan: Well, there you go.
Laura: I liked that film.
Josh: Yeah, it's really wild to think about that. He made like this rock opera and then followed up with this ensemble comedic drama that has unsimulated sex acts in it. And then rabbit Hole, uh, is a PG 13 movie starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. And they are a couple who their marriage is slowly or not even slowly. It's just imploding because their young son died. It is so bleak. But there's nothing offensive in it. It's PG 13. Uh, it's wild that this is the arc of his career when it comes to film or directing. Rather.
Laura: Very different.
Josh: Very different.
Kat: Yeah. Because how to Talk to Girls at Parties is like this quirky more of a comedy.
Josh: Like a sci-fi comedy?
Kat: Almost.
Laura: Sci-fi comedy. Romance.
Josh: Sort of.
Kat: Sort of romance.
Laura: I really like that movie as well.
Josh: Yeah, it's cute.
Laura: I thought it was very fun. Huh. Look at that. Uh, we're an all star.
Kat: Wonder what he'll do next.
Josh: Yeah, I don't know.
Kat: Uh, it's hard to say.
Josh: He doesn't make movies that frequently either. I mean, four movies in 22 years.
Ryan: From what I saw, he has nothing coming up that he would be making. Yeah, he's got nothing kind of going I mean yeah. How to Talk to Girls at Parties is also relatively quite recent in comparison to some I know he's been working.
Josh: In television a lot. He's been directing, um, a lot for streaming services. I think he had something for Paramount. Plus, if I recall, there's not a showrunner on it. He just did a few episodes.
Ryan: Yeah, there's a shit ton of stuff that he's like there's a lot of things that just haven't aired yet. That was a lot of the things in the filmography. That's why I didn't really bother writing them down. Um, but yes, I think he's either on Paramount or it's on Showtime. I think that one that you're talking about. But, uh, yes, that is him. Um, yeah.
Ryan: Let's just get into short. Huh? Huh?
Laura: I thought I'd seen this movie and it was up for debate up until we watched it today. And no, I had not seen this movie before.
Ryan: It's not something you easily forget, is like not seeing Short bus.
Laura: I forget a lot of things. You would find you forget ah, seeing.
Josh: A guy come in his own face and start crying.
Ryan: Oh, I've got such a good story.
Laura: About that scene as well.
Josh: I like that you qualify. You made sure to say scene.
Laura: But I saw that in real life and it was just as traumatizing.
Kat: Wait, you watched a guy try to give himself a blow job?
Laura: I saw a guy give himself a blow job.
Ryan: Cool.
Kat: Oh, because this guy didn't really succeed.
Josh: No, he got his lips on there.
Laura: He did. It was just a tip. Kiss was just a little tip.
Kat: And then he masturbated into his own mouth.
Josh: That's all you need. Yeah. I mean, obviously you're putting too much work, I'm thinking.
Laura: Yeah, the guy I saw in real life, he did it a lot. And it was not cool to watch. I thought it was going to be cool, and it wasn't.
Kat: Was this a friend of yours?
Laura: It was, uh, uh, someone a friend of mine. Was dating at the time, and he thought it'd be a cool trick to show us all at a gathering.
Josh: That's cool.
Laura: There was a few of us there. Yeah.
Josh: Man, my life is so boring anymore. I used to have stories like that. Now I only have memories of them.
Kat: I don't have memories of them because I was usually blackout drunk when that stuff was happening.
Laura: Yeah. Uh, it's quite a thing. That was weird. But yeah, that's kind of how this movie starts. I love the beginning of this film. It's this nice introduction to all your characters, but in these really intense sexual.
Kat: Uh, act situations situation, uh, I like the fact that we have what would be drone footage going through the city. It's just, like, really poorly done. Like CGI.
Josh: I like it kind of like an oil painting.
Laura: I do like it.
Kat: Yeah. But it's just like all right, this looks like 90s, um, video game.
Laura: That's what it looked like to me.
Ryan: It looked like a papper mashe model of New York City with, like, little Led lights in the houses. And they're also photo accurate to their positioning of where they would actually be in New York City. As do I. I don't know. I like it. I don't know. Other than the obvious purpose that it serves. Because at least my first remembering of seeing this movie was that it's incredibly low budget, and it's quirky, and it has a very kind of low budget, kind of indie feel about it. But then we watched it today, and I'm like, well, hold on. There's actually a lot more sophistication involved in Short Bus than I remember.
Laura: It's not as low budget as I thought, because you think about a film like this.
Ryan: It is shot on film. Yeah, it was shot on film.
Laura: It's $2 million budget.
Ryan: It does look nice.
Josh: We'll get into it. But also, you have to think there was a two and a half year pre production, essentially.
Laura: Yeah.
Josh: But from inception, through casting, through rehearsals, all of it, it was two and a half years before they even started filming. So there had to be a certain amount of money there. Uh, I doubt that all of these actors were rehearsing for two years for free.
Laura: No, that's true, because I know you have probably a better understanding of how it started. But from what I understand, during the auditioning and casting any interested actors, they were basically asked to submit, like, a ten minute video of, uh, them describing, uh, the most important sexual experience they ever had. And then he got, like, 500 tapes back and had to go through all those tapes.
Josh: Yeah, they put up a website that, um, I think it got upwards of, like, half a million views, of which 500 people submitted, uh, audition tapes. I think it was around 30 people were what they accepted. And from there, it was a dozen actors that they ended up hiring and going from there, which they, um, started out with a questionnaire, um, that they all filled out. And it was, uh, basically a sexual compatibility survey.
Laura: Right.
Josh: And then in the rehearsal process, uh, all the actors had some sort of background in improv. So they had these improv workshops and rehearsals. That that's what shaped the script. There wasn't even a script yet at its inception. So the actors actually, they kind of connected with other actors so that they would be able to have sex with them. And it seemed not forced or gross or frankly, like porn actors. Um, so that was how that worked. And like I said, it was two and a half year process for him to work with all the actors. They created their characters. He had a rough idea of what he wanted the scenarios to be. Um, I don't believe, though, that the movie movie itself, once they started shooting, not much of it was, um, improvised. They had already worked all of it out. And he formed the script based on their improvising at the front end before filming.
Kat: Yeah, because it seems like, pretty polished in the way that the story progresses and all of the interlocking stories throughout.
Laura: Uh, I was reading that they only did one sex rehearsal.
Laura: And, um, I guess he asked them how they wanted to go about it because he wanted to make it as comfortable as possible. And they just wanted to wait until they actually shot it. And, um, Suki and said, maybe we should do a rehearsal where the people behind the camera are nude as well. And, uh, the director and the DP and the sound person were like, all right, that's fine. And when they went to actually shoot the movie, it's like, do you want us to get naked again? They're like, no, no, we're good.
Josh: Yeah, we're good. Thank you.
Josh: But that is funny, though, is that, uh uh, Mitchell he is one of the sextras is how it's listed in the credits. There's all the extras for the orgy scene. Um, he's in it, um, and kind of in solidarity, he threw himself into it. Mitchell's, um, a very, very gay man. Very, uh, openly homosexual. And, um, he said that was the first sexual encounter he had ever had with a woman.
Ryan: Ah.
Josh: While shooting that, he went down on this girl, uh, on camera. And that was the first and I think only time he's ever had a sexual experience with a person. The opposite sex. It's cute.
Laura: Yeah. He has another moment in that room, right. The sex not Bombs room mhm. Where he's like, kissing a guy.
Josh: Yeah.
Ryan: And then later so we're not talking about the crying wank anymore, though.
Laura: Oh, happy to.
Kat: Yeah. So the first shot is, uh, we learn his name is Jamie for later, but he's in the bathtub and he's filming himself peeing in the water. That's like the first time that we see him.
Laura: I didn't even realize he was yeah.
Kat: He'S peeing in the tub. You can see filming it.
Ryan: Yeah. The water goes a little bit yellow. There's a little dribble that comes out of.
Kat: Focusing on yeah. And then we get introduced to, um, Sophia and, uh, Severin. And then when we go back to Jamie, he is trying to suck his own dick.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Like trying to get his thighs on top of his forehead. Yeah.
Josh: Just like doubled over.
Laura: Yeah, I love that. I love when he's kind of doubled over and he's using the bookshelf, uh, as leverage for his legs to kind of push his legs over his head. And you can see his feet kind of like kicking little toys that are on the bookshelf, like little toy cars and stuff. And he's just really trying to get the legs over. And then they have that neighbor from across the way yeah.
Josh: Keep spying.
Laura: Spying on him and watching him on a camera.
Josh: Uh, Jimmy Stewart over there.
Ryan: Well, the whole intro, I mean, it's obviously full of dicks, and it's full of sex and all sorts. It's got these circular interactions that all kind of come into play as the story goes on. Um, everything that starts to kind of come together.
Laura: Um yeah. If you want to extrapolate that scene a little bit more, uh, when he finally gets to kiss the tip james he does?
Ryan: Yeah. And then he eventually just kind of comes into his own mouth. Uh, yeah.
Laura: All face.
Ryan: Yeah. And then he just has a wee cry about it.
Josh: I get it.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: You think you'd be happy finally.
Ryan: Here's the thing.
Josh: When I was happy, when comes on.
Kat: Their face, he came directly into his mouth.
Josh: Definitely. Nobody's happy mouth.
Kat: And then he kisses his partner when he gets home. And I'm like, he probably still has did he brush his teeth?
Josh: I doubt that.
Ryan: But no.
Kat: His partner kind of paused all of.
Laura: His clothes off and was all sweaty.
Kat: He was like, oh, I just did yoga.
Josh: But then he admits almost immediately, actually.
Laura: Well, no, he assumed. He's like, oh, you're doing yoga? He's like, oh, yeah. He's like, oh, you're still filming? Oh, God.
Josh: Yeah.
Laura: Well, I don't know that one. The dominatrix boy, mhm M. What is he? Is he a John, the client of.
Josh: Yeah, because she keeps making fun of him for being a trust fund hipster. It's like, did your dad pay for this session?
Laura: Yeah. And he comes in his own face as yeah.
Josh: Yeah.
Laura: He was happy.
Kat: Uh, he comes on the painting.
Laura: I mean, it was kind of a little bit over here.
Kat: Yeah, it shot a little bit, but it also shot onto the painting that already had splatters on it because she stares at it for a second.
Josh: Way to improve a Jackson Pollock print.
Ryan: The Jackson Pollock. Yeah.
Kat: Uh, there was a lot of talk in this movie about 911, which I thought was interesting.
Josh: I mean, it makes sense. It was probably being developed while that was still very much the public consciousness, and in 2006 or 2005, when it was shooting in New York City.
Kat: Yeah. It's part of the public sphere that.
Josh: They all are thinking on that, too, where it says that that's the only thing that's ever happened to anybody in this age bracket, or something like that.
Kat: Oh, yeah, 911. It's the only thing real that's ever happened to them.
Ryan: They show you Ground Zero in the movie as well, mhm, because that's the hotel room that's overlooking it. It's also animated as well.
Kat: Yeah. So, uh, whenever Severance with the trust fund kid in that first scene, he asks her the question, you're taking a picture of yourself at Ground Zero. Do you smile?
Laura: I really like that because I've been there two times, and every time I've gone, I find it so weird. Like, I went with my mother and my older brother, and my older brother was really into going I'm m like, Why are you he's so anti establishment, like anti government. And I know that has no connection whatsoever. I'm like, why do you care?
Josh: Because I think a lot of people associate a certain feeling of patriotism.
Laura: Yeah. Why do you care to see this? Like, when you and I went, Ryan, I was a little bit more like.
Josh: Okay, so you're like an annual pass holder.
Laura: Yeah, I do have an annual pass to a national park, one World Trade Center.
Josh: I want to go on the one ride they have. I like that, uh, the Gen Z kids that weren't alive for it, or whatever the generation after that is now that's very prevalent on, uh, social media.
Kat: Alpha?
Josh: Is that what they're called?
Kat: They're called Alpha Generation Alpha.
Josh: Gross.
Laura: I don't like that.
Kat: They didn't make it. They didn't make the name.
Josh: But, uh, I still think it's kind of funny that they're so disconnected from it that I do see 911 jokes on social media now. I kind of get a kick out of that.
Laura: Oh, wow.
Josh: Yeah.
Kat: Because they're just so detached.
Josh: Yeah. Frankly, think about when you were 17. Would you have hesitated to make a joke about Pearl Harbor?
Laura: Uh, I guess I wouldn't really have thought about it.
Josh: Right. But I mean, you wouldn't have a moral opposition to it. You wouldn't be shocked if you heard a Pearl Harbor joke.
Laura: I probably made more jokes about, like, JFK or yeah.
Kat: Yeah, totally. That's definitely what I would have joked about.
Ryan: I mean, to be fair, that is Laura's Go to humor the JFK assassination. I really like making good old conspiracy theory humor.
Laura: Yeah, I'm a big fan. Mhm, back into the left.
Ryan: Yeah.
Kat: God, like birds aren't real.
Josh: Um, I had a friend who had a business, uh, um, trip to Dallas once, and, um, he was so excited that he realized that back in 63.
Ryan: Or whenever it was it was 63.
Josh: And this was in 2013 that he had this trip, the 50th anniversary of JFK getting shot. He was flying out of Dallas Fort Worth, and he was so excited. He's like, I changed my flight when I realized so I could make the joke that I did something that JFK was never able to do. Leave Dallas Fort Worth on that date. I can't remember the exact date. November or November?
Kat: November 23, I think.
Josh: November 23. I mean, that took some commitment. I'm really proud of him for that one. That was a joke pretty much for me, I think. I don't know. I don't know. This guy didn't really wasn't a comedian. He called me super excited.
Kat: It was just for you, Josh.
Ryan: Uh, there's a lot of things that we'll say in front of Josh that really we know we couldn't say in front of anybody.
Josh: Uh.
Ryan: We say them on the podcast, and then we broadcast that podcast to millions.
Josh: I did recently just apply for a job, and I had a friend, uh, call me. He's like, your social media is private, right? Yeah, but my businesses aren't, and I've kind of made a career out of being offensive.
Laura: Yeah, I've had that problem as well. Yeah.
Kat: My parents probably listen to this podcast. I don't know. They listen to everything that I do well.
Ryan: I also edited, so it's okay. We'll see how far this goes. Um ah, I love the opening to this movie.
Laura: Well, you also get so I want to talk about Sophia and her husband and that whole cartoonist.
Josh: They're cartoonist.
Laura: I loved it. I was laughing so much. And there's only a few of those that I'm familiar with.
Josh: There's no way that that felt good. Some of those positions seem like they actually hurt. Like, penises don't go that way. I mean, they kind of do, but.
Ryan: It'S, uh, not like I don't know.
Josh: I don't think that it's fun. Well, the thing is I don't think.
Ryan: Any sex the thing is, if you bend here we are. If you bend the dick too far in a certain direction because this happened to a friend of mine. He snapped his banjo string.
Josh: Oh, no.
Ryan: So he was having sex with someone. They were on top, and the person came down hard, and it missed her, obviously, her vagina. And it came down on it. And it basically snapped his hard dick in half. And it snapped the banjo string. And he had to go to the doctor. Doctor was just like, okay, well, you can't have sex, obviously, but you now can't get aroused because if it goes like, it's gone forever, and it'll just be this kind of floppy thing.
Laura: I thought that he could still get an erection, but it won't be hard.
Ryan: But it won't stand up.
Kat: Wait, so was he able to get his penis fixed, or he did.
Ryan: He just couldn't get it roused. But anyone who knew this. Guy. Certainly I did. No, he did.
Josh: How would you prevent it? I had to heal during the healing process. How do you gel on it or something? Like some kind of numbing agent.
Laura: Do the Austin Powers.
Ryan: I wasn't 100% sure what had happened. Cocaine, I think. Either way, I think he wasn't going to be having sex with it anyway because it had swelled up to such a degree and it had changed into these different colors that I don't think he was going to do anything with it anyway.
Laura: Did you see it?
Ryan: Did I see it? No. But he's also people all the time, this guy. There was nothing to stop him from fucking.
Kat: Well, that would be the one time that I would want a guy to send me a dick pic and be like, oh, you broke your dick. I really want to see that. I am so curious.
Ryan: Yeah, look at it's all bruised and swollen and seeping?
Kat: Yeah, show me that fucked up dick, huh? Put a hat on it. Draw a face.
Ryan: He just starts crying.
Josh: Oh, no.
Ryan: You know what wouldn't go a mess though, in that situation. I think that always goes well. And I think everything everywhere ruined. It was just a couple of googly eyes. Remember that once, uh, we were out and we were out drinking and this guy was just going around, this random guy. He had a bag of googly eyes. And he was sticking googly eyes on posters, on mirrors, on cups and things. So people would find these googly eyes everywhere. I've got a good photo of, uh, I think it's like the Thriller poster for Michael Jackson. And it's just got a couple of googly eyes on it. Yeah. Just looks like those eyes are constantly looking at you like it would be in real life if it was Michael.
Josh: I m used to work for the, uh, Orlando Shakespeare Theater Company. And throughout the lobby there are murals, um, that have, um, Shakespearean actors illustrations of them. And they're about their life size. And um, I was walking around there one day. You stop noticing things if you work.
Laura: At a place, right.
Josh: Uh, somebody definitely went through there and put googly eyes on all of them. And it could have been up there for a month. Nobody knew. None of us could remember looking. And it was yeah, there you go. I don't know.
Laura: Googly eyed crim out there.
Ryan: There is. They need to arrest him. Yeah. Bring him the justice.
Laura: Uh, yeah. I don't know if I have anything more to say about that initial sex scene.
Ryan: Well, I do. Oh, go, I do.
Ryan: Well, that whole intro was my introduction to the movie as a whole because I didn't see the Move movie in its completion until two or three years after, uh, it was released.
Laura: What does that mean?
Ryan: So basically, uh, when I was at university, there was a rep from the BBFC who came in to let us about ratings and censorship and stuff. And one of the scenes that she showed us was the introduction to Short Bus. And I don't know, the film was definitely finished because when was this? This 2006 came out in 2006?
Kat: Yeah.
Ryan: Okay. So this was 2007 when I had this lecture, right? And she comes in and she's like, we see this scene and obviously it's like, oh, look, it's a guy like sucking his own dick. He's like doubled over on himself. And then he comes into his own mouth and then he starts crying. I remember looking at my mate.
Josh: We're like, what's?
Laura: Fuck.
Ryan: And then, uh, basically she was like, well, we go through this process. So we have to describe exactly what is we're seeing, but in this kind of watered down way. As if you're trying to describe this thing to like a child.
Josh: A lot of children. And it's tough.
Laura: They don't get it.
Ryan: Thing is, I'd never seen someone skirt around these descriptions as well as this woman was able to do it. Like how watered down the whole thing ended up becoming. And it was like a skill. It's like an art. Um, but yeah, no, that was my introduction to the movie.
Laura: And then you found it eventually to watch?
Ryan: I did, yeah. I, ah, watched it with an ex girlfriend of mine. And it was ah yeah. That was a weird night.
Laura: Um um I read that John Cameron Mitchell, uh, he said that for a long time the only place you could watch Shortbus was on pornhub. And it was the Spanish dub.
Josh: That's funny.
Laura: Good film.
Josh: I found it here back when, um, Stardust Coffee was still Stardust Video and Coffee and had a proper video store.
Kat: Yeah.
Josh: Um, I was so excited because I moved here in 2005. Movie came out in 2006, but it did not play here.
Laura: Yeah.
Josh: Um, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I don't know why I didn't just buy it. I'm sure Amazon had it. I mean ThinkFilms put it out. But any case, I came across it there and I was very excited that I was finally able to rent it.
Kat: Well, Amazon was still more of like a bookstore.
Laura: I don't know. It's obviously not as insane of a.
Kat: I think it started hitting its peak around like 2011.
Ryan: I would agree with Katie in that at least back in the UK, amazon was not the place you went to.
Laura: Go buy your DVDs in 2006. Right. You're probably still going to like Circuit City and Best Buy. Sure.
Josh: That was the thing is that definitely I feel like that was the only outlet that would sell Unrated or NC 17 films.
Ryan: I'd have to go to Folk or I'd go to HMV or I would buy things. I would buy things full fucking price from a place called Play. And they had literally everything. Even like region two stuff that was again, like double the price. Sure. That region one, um, that I would have to buy from overseas. But, uh, yes.
Ryan: As audacious openings go for this movie, though, this is rather daring.
Josh: I think that it does a really good job at setting you up for what kind of movie you're about to watch.
Ryan: Yeah. It does not fuck around.
Josh: It's weirdly sweet for how incredibly graphic it is. And it manages to touch on all that in the opening five minutes with these three different stories for four different stories. And um, I don't know, it really kind of touches on like, oh, you're about to watch it and it's actually not going to be upsetting. Um, I don't think so.
Laura: Yeah. Because you have like james is obviously having a hard time. You can tell he is a sad man. And then, you know, Severin, who's also conflicted and having an I think everybody.
Josh: In this movie is pretty melancholy. At least, I m mean, they're sad. Ah people. Not tragic, but I mean, everybody in their early 20s is fucking sad.
Ryan: A lot of these characters are coming from having relatively quite troubled pasts where they're kind of either dealing with I was a prostitute or I think I was abused when I was younger. They're kind of dealing with these quite deep seated issues. But I guess where you guys say, oh, it's quite melancholic, it's quite nice, is like the community that they're a uh, part of the whole short bus community seems incredibly inviting. It's not derogatory. It's where anything goes. Which means that everyone is welcome.
Josh: Right. I don't know how true this is for rural areas, but I feel like that's something that a lot of people, certainly in our age group, can relate to as far as living in a suburban area that you find your people at that age.
Laura: Yeah.
Josh: And it doesn't necessarily have to be a sex party. You start to uh, break away from what you were and establishing that what you want to be is okay.
Laura: Right. Uh, I lost my train of thought. But I think it's like a nice group of people. And at first, because you kind of follow Sophia in there and you're looking at it through her perspective in a way. And it's a lot like there's a lot happening. It's super intense. But then when she gets more comfortable and she goes there more often and makes it her also, like, I don't know for me, I also saw places in there like, oh, I would probably hang out in that room, or I'd go hang out with these people. And everyone kind of has their own little groups, but they're all together, super supportive, nice, lovely group of people in this movie. Club art, uh, house who has live music and also little sex party as well. Never ending.
Josh: I don't want to speak for everybody that's had for what their youth was like, um, but I can say for myself that even though I've become more mature and I certainly don't drink like I used to and things like that, I don't regret that period in my life where I did have a bit of adventure. Kind of felt a little more adventurous with the people that I spent time with.
Laura: Right.
Josh: Um uh, I think about getting integrated with the Will's Pub crowd and how that just became what I actually used to describe it as is that as a recovering Christian, which I hate that term, but I think I do think it's kind of funny. But as someone who is an atheist who used to be a Christian mhm, and had always kind of felt like there was a bit of a void from losing that sense of community. Because, frankly, I think it's sort of bullshit what we're creating it for. I always felt like that was that replacement. There's a sense of calling it church, almost. It's sure we're sitting outside drinking too much, smoking too many cigarettes, not talking about anything of consequence, but also some of the deepest conversations I ever had were at one a, um m in that bar culture. It's wild. Um, so I think that that's something that I just think that a lot of people of that age could probably you could relate to that.
Ryan: Oh, um yeah, I guess that's the thing about the movie is that it's very much a kind of exploration and it's very much this kind of, uh the insight is that it's this inclusionary environment. Because there's another way for this film to have gone that feels very kind of quintessentially New Yorker, where it does get a little bit darker and it's a little bit kind of crueler. But at least in the respect of this, it never goes that way.
Josh: It's actually pretty remarkable that there's no subplot, no tangent anywhere that, uh, addresses rape or anything like that. I mean, they kind of allude to characters maybe having experienced that in their past, but there's nothing about that in the community.
Ryan: No.
Josh: Um because it may be one of the most sex, positive films I've ever seen.
Kat: Yeah, definitely. I do like that they have the tagline that they introduce you to whenever she enters the club. Because she's like, oh, I can't orgasm. And he's like, well, this is a salon for the gifted and challenged, so all are welcome here. And, uh I don't know, it was like a great introduction to this quirky group of people that we were about to get to know.
Ryan: Yeah, because I will say, for us, it puts a smile on our face. We're not easily fazed by what we're seeing in the movie. I mean, it's definitely shocking. First time I saw it, I was like, Whoa, this is a lot. But the tone of it never kind of veers into anything kind of nefarious. So you always kind of feel like you're kind of being taken on the ride and you're smiling the entire time. You're laughing, you're enjoying their company. But you can obviously understand why certain people might be offended by that, purely looking at it from a face value basis.
Laura: Um um, so frustrating.
Josh: Frankly, I think that something like The Hangover is significantly more offensive. Oh, it's a fucking that kind of comedy. I'm trying to think of another sex comedy. Uh, even a good one, let's say like There's Something About Mary is a significantly more offensive movie than Short Bus.
Ryan: Oh, yeah. Big.
Laura: Mean.
Josh: They're two very different kind of movies. I know that it's not fair to equate the two, but it could have gone that route. If it would have been more slapstick and stopped being realistic, it would not have been nearly as pleasant, I don't think, or gotten as much of an emotional rise out of me.
Ryan: It just kind of feels as if it comes from the stories, the characters, the way that it develops. It comes from a place of feeling quite real. Like these people are real people dealing with real things, doing real things, which I think is what kind of lends itself to it. Because it's not really a film that's about sex in particular. It's about people who are having sex. Mhm. I mean, that's effectively what it is and that's the kind of the difference. Yeah. We'll bring up lust caution, just as a kind of side note here where the sex isn't necessarily helping to drive the story, whereas I feel like in Short Bus, it's integral to the telling of this story. And it's where I feel like a lot of the charm comes in for me personally.
Josh: Um, um, there's an interesting quote here that I pulled, um, that Mitchell had to say. I mean, I have a few here that I jotted down because, um, clearly his critics had addressed the, uh, unsimulated sex acts and was that necessary, right? Which I think are valid questions. Actually, I really do. Um, I'm not super satisfied with all of his answers, um, but this is something I found interesting. Someone, um, accused him of making pornography and he says, um, I define, and most people do too, uh, pornography as devoid of artistic intent. The, um, purpose of pornography is to arouse. I don't think anyone got sexually aroused watching this film. Um, then he says that we kept reminding people that it's not pornographic, it's not a film meant to arouse. We try to deeroticize the sex to see what kind of emotions and ideas are left over when the haze of eroticism is waved away. Um, there's a certain provocation we had in mind with this film, but more important than that, we wanted to use sex as a metaphor for things that were perhaps universal themes like connection and love and fear. We just thought the language of sex could be used, uh, the way the language of music could be used in a musical. And that seems like a pretty valid.
Laura: Answer, uh, to have like along the same line. Someone asked him, uh, couldn't you have told the same story without the explicitness? And he's like, they don't ask me whether I could have done Hedwig without the songs. Why not be allowed to use every paint in the paint box?
Josh: Yeah, that's where I start to be, uh.
Laura: To you don't have to put the p in the vaji. You don't have to do know I.
Josh: Know that you're going to eye roll here, because I know your feelings on the man, but I think it's a reasonable comparison. I sometimes wonder, ah, but apparently no, apparently Von Thornton was, in fact, drunk in a lot of those scenes. And I've always wondered that seems like what's, uh, the point. I agree. What is the ah mean? He equated it to, um, if an actor cries, why don't we just use menthol drops instead of having the actor cry for real? I don't think it's the same thing.
Kat: No, it's not.
Laura: But if you're setting up a film such as this, he's doing something here, so he's doing something. And from the beginning, you have everyone involved in this particular type of, uh, I don't know, experiment, like this film experiment like, what can we do? It's different from any way I've ever seen or heard of someone making a film, like, super collaboratively and kind of getting everyone together and everyone kind of made the story, and he wrote the script. So I don't know. It's interesting. Um, I also wrote this thing. I don't know if you read that as well, Josh, about, um, kind of talking about how you had a lot of sex in films kind of from the late 80s into the early 2000s. It was maybe more sex prevalent in our films. Right. And then he likened it to 911. Kind of after 911, everything started to drop off in a way. And he was saying that he feels like porn kind of owns sex now. Um, and let me just say what he said. He goes, yes. I'm not saying that they should in reality do, but in terms of sex being presented on film, mainstream or even independent film has foresworn it. There's too many people saying someone's being exploited and consent based issues in intimacy. Imagine an, uh, intimacy counselor on the short bus set. Imagine a short bus intimacy counselor would be like, may he put his arm inside you now. Is that okay?
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: It is getting more difficult to do.
Josh: Something like think maybe in America.
Laura: In America specifically pertaining to America. Because this and we've talked about this before on this podcast.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: This type of film. And a lot of the films we talk about, no one would bat an eyelid anywhere else.
Josh: Like in Europe, right.
Laura: It's not a thing. It's just a film. Ah, same with this film.
Ryan: We're not just singling out the US. Either. I'd say the UK is definitely guilty of this as well.
Laura: Shows on at night where they show dicks and stuff on TV, like on regular television.
Kat: And, uh, like in the 70s in their newspapers, they used to have just titties everywhere.
Ryan: Well, page three stopped by the early 2000s as well.
Kat: Um, that's what it was.
Laura: 911.
Ryan: That was our 911. Page three came over. I think in terms of just Western cinema in general, other than, say, like, European cinema, which I feel like is kind of separate from Western cinema just in general, is a prevalence of conservatism that has really kind of taken over the cinema landscape in general. I feel like we are very much focused and concentrated on how little we offend people with the content that we put out there and the way that we are creating things now, really anything that is. And to say that porn has taken sex and they now own that sex, even porn itself, has completely evolved over the decades to become something that's completely different from what it was in the 70s.
Josh: Sure. Just simply access the fact that any kid with a cell phone has access to literally any sex act instantly. Um, and I'm so far from prudish. I do wonder if there is going to be some sort of backlash on that psychologically. Um, I'm not opposed to the idea of pornography, but I'm not quite sure how great it is for sexual development, even for an adult, to have just unlimited access to literally anything whenever they want.
Laura: Yeah.
Josh: Uh, that's not owning a magazine or even going to a theater, owning a VHS tape or whatever.
Ryan: Well, there's proven studies, uh, out there that if you watch porn two or three times a week, they class that as being a problem.
Kat: That makes me think of, uh, that Joseph Gordon Levitt movie. Don John.
Ryan: Yeah.
Kat: Yeah. Constantly watching pornography.
Ryan: Yeah. Well, Laura, there is only so many videos of girls getting stuck in things and being found by salacious men who.
Laura: Take advantage of window.
Ryan: Oh, no. I'm stuck this double bed bunk ladder for some reason.
Laura: Don't Kink shame me.
Ryan: It's the 50th episode. We have to push the boat out here. We have to start revealing our deepest selves. Yeah.
Kat: So I did have a question. So when they're in couples therapy, the Jamies and they meet Sophia for the first time, and then, um, is it James who's the one that's suicidal?
Josh: Yes.
Kat: So James is talking about being a lifeguard, a Jacuzzi lifeguard.
Ryan: Yes.
Kat: And I was thinking to myself, like, why is this necessary? And then a man is just, like, floating dead underneath the water.
Laura: I had so many questions about that man that was dead in the Jacuzzi water. Because how often do they shift change the lifeguards? Like, whose fault was it? When was that guy in there?
Josh: How cloudy was that water that he didn't see it.
Kat: It was just filled. Filled with bubbles and semen.
Josh: That's, like, the why those men were definitely coming.
Ryan: Definitely full of semen. It was at the Y.
Josh: Or old.
Ryan: Man'S skin, because it seemed like he.
Kat: Had just sat down for his shift when that happened. And so that man had probably been under there for a bit, and he.
Laura: Pulls him out of the water, and he's, like, trying to give him mouth to mouth. Uh, and I'm like, no, friend, there's no way that that guy that guy.
Ryan: Would have been super was yeah, he was probably super pruny. It's like yeah, it sunk. It's like when Jack Nicholson pulls that woman out of the bath in The Shining. That's what I would have expected it to look. Yes. Uh, he wasn't a very good lifeguard. Although, like, the bottom of the bottom.
Laura: Of death of that man, because you don't know, again, when changed if you.
Josh: Didn'T see it when you sat up there, semen or not in that pool, if you can't see a dead body floating at the bottom. Jacuzzi not like an yeah, no, they're insane, too.
Laura: Didn't see it.
Kat: Yeah, they didn't see it until his hand touched them. And at first, I was like, was there a guy that's just, like, underneath the water trying to feel people up?
Laura: Yes, that's what I thought. I thought the other guy was getting, like, a secret blowy, but then he m maybe really had really good lung capacity. He was under there for a while.
Josh: Sure.
Kat: Yeah, that's what I thought at first, and I was like, oh, wait, no, that's a dead guy.
Laura: Not expecting a dead guy, for sure.
Laura: Lifeguard is really hard, you guys.
Kat: I was just curious about the need for a jacuzzi lifeguard.
Josh: Were you able to see through the water at a jacuzzi?
Laura: I never did a jacuzzi. I don't really think there's well, obviously there is a need for it. Or maybe just a jacuzzi guard. Just someone kind of keeping an eye on it. You don't need a lifeguard.
Ryan: Well, you just need, like, a big stirring stick or something.
Kat: Just so, like, he could just man.
Laura: Just like a poking stick.
Ryan: Just a poking stick? Yeah, poke a stick. Just, like just to let them just to let them know just to see it's. Like, ah, all right. Okay. There's nothing there.
Kat: Got to make sure that your carrots are stirred into the soup.
Ryan: Yeah, exactly. The old man well, there's more soup later because they go into that deprivation tank as well. Later.
Kat: Yeah, there's a lot of people soup in this movie.
Josh: Um, uh, we discussed this while the movie was playing. Are you able to go into a sensory deprivation tank with another person? Like, if you're renting the space, do they have, like, doubles?
Kat: I don't know.
Josh: I've never been in one. It seems like it would be insane to do it.
Ryan: Defeated the purpose of going in there.
Laura: I loved it. I want to go in there with friends and hold hands and just have a nice float in a chat in a dark tub.
Josh: I feel like it would echo.
Ryan: I think it would echo. I think you're just supposed to stay there in silence in the dark with all of your senses turned off. Yeah.
Laura: You are supposed to censor deprive yourself.
Ryan: Well, exactly. You start talking.
Josh: Maybe not masturbate.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Try and not masturbate. Yeah. Try your best.
Josh: Especially the way she masturbates.
Kat: Yeah. What she does, uh, was like, really? It hurt to watch her try to do that. I don't know what she was doing with her hand.
Laura: Yeah. I don't know either. It was going to be really red raw down there all the time because she's always trying to get off and she's doing it wrong.
Kat: Yeah.
Laura: She has all those tools as well. She has dildos, she has vibrators. She's got little eggs with a remote control.
Kat: All, uh, she needs is like a little bit of lube and just work in there.
Laura: Yeah. You don't need to rub that hard like you're a, uh, DJ. Yeah.
Kat: Maybe work up too.
Josh: I don't think DJs push real hard. I think that they would damage their record.
Laura: I would do it like a DJ. Ah, yeah.
Kat: I've heard people call it the dirty DJ.
Ryan: Fucking wreck that clit. Like your Grandmaster Flash. Yeah. Here's the message.
Laura: I don't know who taught her that.
Josh: But I don't think I think that's the whole idea is that nobody taught her anything.
Kat: And she's not but how is she a sex therapist if she doesn't she's a couple's therapist. A couple's counselor.
Josh: Think about every one of your coworkers that you've ever had and how inept a lot of them are people fail upwards.
Ryan: Oh, boy. I don't want to do that. Don't want to think about any of them. Um, yeah. No, that is true. Well, hold on. We're now slowly starting to unravel certain things about this movie that maybe we didn't realize at first.
Laura: No, it's fine.
Ryan: You sure? We're okay. We can just bypass this moment.
Kat: Let's talk about Jennifer Aniston.
Ryan: Yeah. See, I did like yeah, yeah.
Laura: She's really good.
Kat: Severin's real name is Jennifer Aniston.
Josh: I like Sophia's response. Well, there's enough room in the world for two of you. I think that's very funny.
Kat: That's a lovely name.
Laura: Uh, I thought they had a nice time until it got really weird between the two of them.
Kat: The egg incident.
Laura: Yeah.
Josh: I like that we keep mentioning the egg because I think we do address, uh, I think one of the most clever references in the entire film.
Laura: Please.
Kat: Yeah. And ah, it's a callback to another uncomfortable brunch film.
Josh: It is.
Laura: Um.
Josh: There'S print on this. She has this vibrating egg. It's remote controlled. She inserts it in herself, gives the remote to her husband for, uh, him to be able to control. And it has written on it, um, in the realm of the Senses, which is, um, Oshima's film.
Ryan: Ah.
Josh: In the Realm of the Senses was, uh, 1976. Um, Japanese.
Ryan: I know. Karida nagisa oshima. I think it's 76.
Josh: Yeah. Um, unsimulated sex acts in it. Um, and there is a scene in it where the woman takes a raw egg uncracked.
Kat: He sticks it in there because she starts freaking out. And she's like, oh my god, it's going to crack inside of me. He's like, just relax your muscles and it'll pop out. My dad watched that. My dad watched that movie with us. He, uh, was there for that.
Laura: Oh, wonderful.
Kat: It was great.
Ryan: That movie is real good. I think that movie you have that pretty great. I don't know.
Kat: There's definitely peen in that.
Ryan: It's not the only movie out there that has a vibrating egg in it, though.
Kat: No, it's not a vibrating egg in the Realm of the Senses.
Ryan: No, it's not.
Kat: It's just a regular egg.
Josh: It's a real egg.
Ryan: But there's also shinya. Sukamoto did a movie called Snake of June from 2002. But the tone of that film is far different from what goes on in.
Josh: Uh, Short Bus with the tone of in the Realm of the Senses is pretty dark. It ends in a very violent way. It's not a pleasant no.
Ryan: Oshima wasn't known for making, uh, friendly, lovely.
Kat: A you don't feel good.
Josh: Clearly you've never seen Merry Christmas, Sister Lawrence with the laugh track on.
Ryan: I mean, David Boy is hilarious in that movie. Certainly when he dies.
Laura: Um, what spoilers from that film from however many years ago?
Ryan: Yeah. It's been forever.
Laura: How dare you?
Ryan: Because I mean, even Ryuchi Sakamoto passed away this week. He died at 71. A cancer.
Josh: Yeah.
Ryan: He was the star of that movie. And he also did the score to that movie. Rest in peace, sir. Um, can't hear you. No badge. Poop.
Kat: Pooping out. Eggs.
Ryan: Pooping out.
Kat: Anything else you want to say about the egg?
Ryan: No. You know what I've got something to say about is that this is fucking 2005. And that guy has a DV Cam mini DV deck that he's fucking using and editing his fucking movie with. This James fella.
Josh: Yeah. He must be independently wealthy or something.
Ryan: He must have a fucking shit ton of money.
Josh: Or maybe he has, like rich parents or something. Because that's not a no.
Kat: He was he was an escort.
Laura: What was the most amount of money he ever made on a job?
Josh: $389. Maybe he just had like he was just independently wealthy. He was able to buy a deck with it. It's weird.
Ryan: Yeah. I mean, that's disposable income. Like even I wouldn't even fucking buy. I would just use the camera and just connect the camera to the computer and then do it. That way you wouldn't just buy an individual deck. They're like fucking 800 something bucks, those fucking things. They're still expensive now because they're so rare.
Josh: Yeah.
Ryan: Good for him. But yeah. I don't know what pulled me out of the movie a little bit. That's the only thing.
Laura: They had a nice flat, so maybe the jelly bean boyfriend had a, uh.
Ryan: He had a head like a jelly bean. Uh, yeah.
Laura: Oh.
Kat: Because he was a child star, his boyfriend.
Josh: Oh, that makes sense.
Laura: Yeah.
Josh: He was looking off.
Laura: Oh. Uh, that's, uh it because there were.
Kat: People that came up to him and quoted his show back at him. I'm an Albino, something like that.
Ryan: Yeah. He was the star of the reverse. Different strokes. Yeah, that's what it was. I can't remember what the show was called, but it reminded me of Reverse Different Strokes.
Laura: I don't remember the name, but the name of the show sounded real. It was a good name.
Ryan: Yeah. Well, I think that was the point of the writing. It was that it was m um they did a good job of writing that shit down, but yeah.
Laura: I like when the guy who was actually he was the Gary Cole was very pale, and he came up to him and said, I'm Albino, he's like, yeah. He's like, no, I really am.
Josh: Um I do think it's kind of I did read that, um, Suki and Lee, um, the actress, prior to doing these sex scenes in this movie, um, she actually didn't know that, uh, female condoms existed. She was, like, unaware of their existence. Not like never used one. But, um, in the opening, she's having sex with her husband, and they wanted, obviously, on set to be safe, but they thought that it would seem very strange if the married couple he's wearing a condom and it's clearly visible. So they used that, and she said it was just absolutely surreal for her. Everything about it was very strange. I didn't know it was so big. She referred to it as a circus tent inside of herself.
Kat: Yeah. It's kind of like a balloon, isn't it?
Laura: I've only seen them, like I've seen them in real life in one of those sex ed classes, like, oh, here's your options of how to be safe. And I didn't quite understand it. And I've never used one.
Ryan: I've never seen one. I have no idea what they look like. Yeah.
Kat: I've only seen them on, like, in the sex ed books and stuff.
Josh: I've only seen them in the porn I watch how oh, no. The part of it is them being put on.
Laura: Oh, lovely.
Josh: No, that's not they would have to.
Kat: Play it, um I was like they would have to put it in.
Ryan: Yeah. I'm not a weirdo. That's not true.
Josh: It's fine.
Kat: I had a friend your commitment to this bit, you just abandoned abandoned it.
Josh: That's the line for me right there. People thinking I'm a weirdo because I.
Ryan: Took the story too far.
Laura: But it's fine.
Ryan: This is funny, right? Yes. Okay, that's good.
Josh: I also do like that, uh, her husband in real life is a cinematographer. Not on this. Uh, and she said that she felt weird that he knew it. He was really supportive. Apparently. That's a good, strong marriage.
Kat: Are they still together?
Laura: That is the question.
Josh: I have no idea. But I would assume if they broke up, it probably wasn't because of this, potentially.
Kat: I don't know.
Josh: Um, she almost got fired from her job. She worked for Canadian Broadcasting. Um, she was, um, the host of a show on the radio called Definitely Not the Opera. Prior to that, she worked as a VJ for Canadian MTV called More Music. Um, but they found out she was making this movie, and they were prepared to fire her, and a billion people came out in her defense. It was crazy. Uh, Gus Van Sant. Julianne Moore. David Cronenberg. Um, Francis Fort coppola. Um wow. Yeah. There's a lot of people that apparently petitioned for her to keep her job, and she did.
Ryan: Wow.
Kat: That's awesome.
Josh: Yeah.
Kat: I wanted to talk about yenta.
Laura: It's weird that he has a device.
Kat: Yeah. It's like a device that's specifically for this, uh, what essentially is Grinder. Yeah, it is before grinder.
Laura: But he invented grindr.
Josh: This is before smartphones. Well, not before smartphones. Before iPhones blackberries and some yeah.
Kat: But it was like you specifically had to buy the yenta device to be able to find men in your area who wanted to have sex with you.
Josh: And it apparently sets off old men's pacemakers.
Laura: Yeah.
Kat: The old man who used to be the mayor of New York.
Josh: Yeah. Who I looked up and realized that he was, uh, the super comically old rabbi and a serious man. Why do I recognize him? And those are the only two movies I know him from.
Laura: All right.
Kat: Yeah.
Laura: I liked that little device. Thought it was funny because I thought it was his phone. I'm like, oh, wow, that's an interesting phone to have back then. But then he takes a selfie with his flip phone.
Josh: Right?
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: I'm like, okay, well, he had one.
Ryan: That was a device. Yeah, well, he had one that was his personal phone. And he had a yenta device for his hookups. Yeah. His DTF phone.
Laura: I love that he's got the yenta. And he matches with a gentleman who's literally standing next to him, and he's trying to figure out how tall he is, because he has it in meters on his yenta. And he goes, well, how tall is that? In feet and inches. And they're trying to calculate. I'm like, he's standing right there, like, right next to you. You can see how tall he is. So strange. Maybe it's a, uh, comment on our digital.
Kat: Yeah. Beforehand. Uh, yeah. I like that. His name is Seth, but it's with a yeah.
Josh: Yeah. That's funny.
Ryan: Yeah. Keth.
Kat: Are you Keth? It's pronounced Seth.
Ryan: It's like if Mike M. Tyson was saying, yeah, uh uh, he's fine. He's not going to come in here.
Kat: He's a rapist. It's okay.
Laura: Mike Tyson.
Ryan: Yeah, he is. Of course he is.
Laura: Yeah.
Kat: He went to jail for rapist.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: He really don't pay.
Josh: It is interesting, though, that he has maintained that he never did that he admits a billion other fucked up, really fucked up things that he did in his life. I'm not one to not believe, but it's just interesting that he's fine admitting all of these crazy things he did in his life, but maintains that he did not assault, uh, that woman.
Kat: I mean, it might be like a cognitive dissonance thing because Bill Cosby was like, oh, yeah, I put drugs in their drinks. And, um, didn't realize that that wasn't.
Josh: Yeah, that's not what he's doing. I don't mean that he said that it was a consensual. It, uh, wasn't even a Kobe Bryant sort of thing where he's like, okay, maybe there was a misunderstanding and I didn't know. He said, no, this is not what happened. She is trying to ruin me to get money. He's, uh, very open. I don't know. It's just kind of strange.
Kat: But he did get convicted.
Ryan: Yeah, he did get convicted. I don't know.
Ryan: My next line here is talking about anal sex.
Kat: Are ah, you going to talk about the three songs?
Laura: Are you going to talk about the Star Spangled Banner?
Ryan: Potentially.
Josh: There's not any real anal sex in there. There's some anal ingus.
Ryan: There's anal sex later.
Laura: Like an anal chorus?
Ryan: Yeah. Where he breaks his anal virginity later on. Uh, well, no, there's the triple man sandwich. That's why I called it.
Kat: Uh, I think of it as just like a triangle.
Laura: Yeah. Not like an Eiffel Tower.
Josh: No, they're lying.
Kat: They're lying in a triangle.
Ryan: It's like a club sandwich, a man club sandwich.
Josh: I like before they get into that position, though, when it's kind of like a weird 69 sort of thing. But one of them is standing and singing into one of their assholes while the other guy is singing into the dude's hard dick. Star spangled banner at that. It's wonderful. Uh, wonderful.
Laura: And one of them, I think, Seth, is singing like really beautifully as well. Oh, the aspiring singer.
Josh: Right.
Laura: Indeed. Beautiful voice. Singing right into that dick.
Josh: Yeah.
Laura: Oh, that was so funny.
Josh: I think that scene very specifically, uh, shows how sex can be comfortable and funny. That it's not just passion or dirty or it doesn't have to be those things. It can just be silly because it is a very silly act because they're.
Kat: Like playing around and yeah, that probably does feel good for someone to sing into your butthole because of the vibrations. Um, but it's also just like, ah, interesting foreplay. And then it's just like being playful in that sort of way is, um, wholesome in a weird way. I don't know.
Laura: Liked their thruffle that they made together. I thought they were a nice group of young men. And I thought they really liked each other and had a nice time.
Kat: And then we've got the weirdo. The weirdo across the way just watching them do through the window at all. No.
Josh: Sorry. If there were a bunch of dudes fucking right across the way from me and I could see it, I am 100% watching that shit. Lower your curtain.
Kat: But this guy felt involved in their relationship.
Josh: Yeah, how could you not?
Laura: I mean, I had friends when I was working in Miami, and I wasn't there anymore, but obviously there was a lot of high rise hotels and apartment buildings, and I had friends that would go, you're missing it. You would have loved it. There's a guy outside naked on his know, and I'm like, you're right. I would have loved that.
Josh: I mean, I've only come across public nudity a couple times, and it's always been a highlight. I love.
Ryan: Yeah.
Josh: There was one time I was driving back, um, from volunteering at Planned Parenthood. Um, which is the point of that, is that it's not necessarily in the nicest part of town. Uh, I was getting out of the 408, and while I was sitting at a light, uh, to go on, I look over and there is a homeless man in a wheelchair that I saw in my peripheral vision and didn't really give much notice to until I realized that he didn't have pants on and he was definitely jerking off. Uh, but he wasn't erect either. It was fucking weird. And, uh, it was the best moment of my day. I had been having hate speech yelled at me all day by protesters. And I saw that guy doing that. I was like, you know what? The world's okay.
Laura: Did you see his flaccid penis and make a wish?
Josh: Oh, yeah. I didn't need to because my wish had already been Grant.
Kat: Oh, that poor man trying to get an erection.
Josh: It was like, seriously, it was like 11:00 a.m. On a Saturday.
Kat: There's no, uh, timing, huh?
Josh: Maybe. Yeah. You don't schedule it. At least I hope not. That's weird.
Kat: I guess now's the time.
Ryan: My, uh, neighbor from across the way, when I used to live in a place in Glasgow, he had a schedule. He would do it. He would do it at the same time every day in his bedroom.
Kat: How do you know? Did he tell you?
Ryan: I could see it. Like, I'd be at my computer. I was kind of here, and the window was over here. And it was a big window.
Josh: You know what I feel like at that point, it's on you to set your own alarm to not be at your computer anymore, unless you want to be.
Ryan: I mean, to be fair, I was there. And I just turned around and I was like, oh, there he goes again.
Laura: I would be the weirdo.
Ryan: He was naked, and he would put something on his TV, and he would get over to the bed and he would just lie down. He'd be watching the TV and he'd.
Josh: Just be going for was it something pornographic? Because I hope it's something like Murphy Brown.
Ryan: No idea.
Kat: Look at her.
Josh: Judge Judy would be a good one.
Kat: She's so powerful.
Ryan: Care Bears. I don't know.
Kat: Either way, Gary.
Laura: He'S got a fear.
Kat: Boner for Judge Judy and a fear.
Josh: Boner for Judge Judy is the name of my band.
Kat: Your first album is dumpster diving for plan B.
Laura: It's so metal. I really only wrote down three things. One of them was the Star Spangled Banner The other one is, I'm pre orgasmic.
Kat: Like, you're about to have one.
Josh: Yeah, that's really what when she says, I'm pre orgasmic, he's like, Are you about to have one? Concerned really good.
Kat: It's like premenstrual syndrome. Whenever she says I'm like, that's a weird way to say that, because it does sound like you're about to have one.
Laura: Ah, yeah, to, um, me. I had a conversation, uh, while we were watching the movie because it was confusing to me because there's two different types of orgasms you can have, at least as a woman, right? You can have a vaginal, uh, orgasm, and then you can have a clitoral orgasm, right? And I'm like, how has this woman not had one of these? What is going on? But she is, like, throughout the movie, she's trying either way. Either way, she's trying to go for it.
Kat: And it seems like she just doesn't know how one of them do it. I mean, this was early stages of YouTube, so she wouldn't have the how to videos that we have now.
Josh: I mean, I just looked up this is not vetted. I don't know if these statistics are completely accurate, but, I mean, how could you not listen to a website called Pleasurebetter.com? Um, sounds legit, but it does say that, uh, 10% of women claim to have never orgasmed. Uh, 59% have faked one, and 82% can't reach orgasm by penetration alone. And it seems like that's a lot of what's going on with her husband. She said that that was the first man she'd ever been with. Yeah, I think that actually makes sense.
Kat: She needs to get on that clit. That's what that is. Lube up your fingers.
Laura: Even met him, she would have tried other things, like alone.
Kat: I mean, I didn't orgasm until I was in my mid 20s.
Laura: Uh, yeah, I don't want to talk about it.
Josh: Laura was six.
Laura: I was very, like, sexually repressed.
Josh: The rope climbing scene at the beginning of.
Kat: Uh uh, you're turning red.
Laura: Yeah. Uh, none of my family listens to this.
Josh: Yeah, but her dad's going, too, so.
Laura: That'S.
Josh: And you know what? So is my dad.
Kat: Uh, all the dads.
Laura: I had a very young sex.
Ryan: So is my dad. Oh, wait, hold on.
Laura: Because of silk, uh, stockings. Remember that show?
Josh: I do, yeah. I'm still waiting for mine.
Laura: Put on silk stockings.
Josh: Yeah, I guess I should. Do you think that's on Blu ray? Buy that series.
Laura: I would.
Josh: Man.
Laura: And he's going to come in in the middle of the night. And I'm just sitting there alone in the dark watching.
Josh: I have over the years, purchased whenever they're on sale on like full Moon site or whatever, some of the 90, uh, s softcore, uh, porn. Because I think that's a very funny genre. It's wild. Like, who's it for? It's for 13 year olds.
Laura: Yeah.
Josh: There's nothing penetrative in it. It's all very fake in its simulation. The physics of it doesn't even make sense. But the music is really great and terrible. And cinematography is ridiculous. I love them. I love those movies. I think that I almost fast forward to the sex usually because the dialogue is really what sells.
Laura: It.
Josh: The audacity of having a story in The Erotic Adventures of Jack and Jill is fucking hilarious. I just big fan.
Kat: They have to go up the hill to wait. Aren't they supposed to be like brother and sister?
Ryan: They are.
Josh: There we are.
Kat: Uh, you're watching incest porn.
Josh: I don't think that they're brother and sister in this movie.
Laura: Consensual incest.
Josh: I like to at parties, I used to get drunk and ask people if a brother and sister over the age of 18 or over the age of consent. She's on birth control. He wears a condom. What's actually wrong with them having sexual? And it was always like the thing that I just really loved seeing that face on a bunch of drunk people at one in the morning at somebody's house party.
Josh: And it never went over. And I loved it. I just thought it was so funny.
Kat: I watched, um, a TikTok yesterday. And it was this woman telling a story about how, um, her friend had just like a hookup with a guy and she got pregnant. And at the gender reveal party, her dad showed, uh, up drunk. And then the baby daddy was there. And yeah, it was her half brother.
Josh: Holy shit.
Ryan: I thought that was just going to be a joke. They didn't know. Oh, dear.
Kat: They had never met.
Ryan: Um wow.
Kat: Yeah. He was like, son, what are you doing here? And then the TikTok ended. I was like, oh no.
Josh: And if it's a gender reveal party, she's pretty far along.
Kat: Pretty far along.
Josh: So do you have that like mutant baby or what?
Kat: Yeah, because she was like, my friend said, uh, she doesn't want to keep this baby. And then she was telling me about the gender reveal. And I was like, oh my god. What do you do with that?
Ryan: What would you name that baby?
Josh: Chongo. Oh, that thing's going to have a forehead like a drive in movie theater.
Ryan: Yeah, I was going to call it Tulsi. Yeah.
Kat: Seamus.
Laura: Kind of Seamus. How dare I talk about my son like that?
Kat: My son. M. I have down that he was.
Laura: Sacrificed on, um, uh, some really old stones in the middle of nowhere in Ireland. We did a whole ceremony about it. I have a video.
Josh: I don't know if you're joking.
Laura: No, it was more like a ceremonial sacrifice.
Josh: You have this on video, though?
Laura: Yeah.
Kat: Wow.
Laura: Do you have a TikTok account?
Josh: Because I think you need to it.
Kat: Was like a plan.
Josh: One upload, only one video on your account.
Kat: But it was like plan B, though. So did you just, like, pee on a rock or do anything?
Laura: No, I was just laying on the sacrificial stone and then my friends danced around me. And, uh, we, uh this is after.
Kat: You took a plan B, though? Yeah, because it's not even that's, um, funny.
Laura: Fucking funny.
Ryan: Tourist.
Kat: I've only taken plan B twice in my life. And I did not have any sort of ritual associated.
Laura: It was a time and place. Okay. Uh, I feel like I stock up on that shit.
Josh: You have to be my plan A.
Kat: Well, now that I'm hearing now that I'm hearing about it, I feel like I missed an opportunity for some, uh.
Laura: There'S still time rituals. Just call me next time and we'll do a little ceremony.
Kat: Yeah. I'm not on birth control anymore, so next.
Josh: Yeah, probably next time a load is dumped in you, give her a ring.
Kat: It'll probably be when I'm infertile the rate I'm going.
Laura: Um, I want to toss out the last thing I have written down before we need to wrap this up.
Ryan: Vagp.
Laura: When Sophia walks into Short, uh, best Club for the first time, and she's getting shown around. And I didn't write down exactly what he said, but he goes, these guys come in here eating ass and cock and telling me they're vegan.
Kat: He had so many good quotes. M the matri d guy wonderful. Uh, I also like it's just like the 60s, only with less hope.
Josh: That's pretty true.
Kat: And then, uh, I also wrote Animal, um, Collective playing while she's watching an orgy take place is pretty poetic because I really enjoyed the, um, pairing of Animal Collective with all of these people fucking at the same time.
Laura: So much eye contact as well.
Ryan: Yeah. There is that girl who's staring at.
Kat: Her well, and she helps Sophia at the end. She does reach her goal, her orgasm.
Ryan: That's one of the main leading things that I remember from first seeing it is that girl just like, staring hard into the camera.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: For the most part. Yeah.
Laura: I was like she's like, I'm going to get you.
Ryan: M coming for you. Get me? I'm like, that's fine.
Kat: You're coming for me.
Ryan: Actually, she was coming for yeah, either way.
Laura: Sweet.
Ryan: I don't know. Uh, I just remember that. I don't know. I still have this story about that, uh, because we had that conversation about anal sex, like during the kick because he breaks his anal virginity.
Kat: Oh, yeah. What did y'all think about him letting Caleb who is the voyeur fuck him. Why does he let him do that, do you think?
Ryan: I don't know.
Laura: I don't know either. I didn't like it. It didn't make me happy. He also said no to him 1000 times. Uh, and he's crying. He goes, I don't want to be this person. And then he, uh, opens up.
Kat: He opens up his butthole, literally and.
Ryan: Figuratively lets it go in. I mean, it's a slippery slope. Almost literally and figuratively.
Josh: Yeah, man.
Ryan: But, uh, I had someone that I knew when I was in university who was having far too much anal sex. And the only reason that we knew before the only reason that we knew he was having too much anal sex was that periodically he would just shit himself and his genes would be brown and he would have to leave. Um, that's my story.
Laura: He'd have a brown out.
Ryan: Yeah. He would just periodically leak from time to time.
Kat: Oh, no.
Ryan: Yeah. So there is a danger there is a reality to having danger to being a bottom. Having too much dick in that ass.
Laura: Bottom.
Ryan: Yeah.
Josh: Sex, I think around that time, I don't know if it's still true, because I certainly don't I'm not part of the gay community, unfortunately. They seem like they have much more fun than me. But I did hear, uh, that prolapsing used to be the slang term for prolapse was, um, uh, blossoming.
Kat: Oh, uh, no, I always hear, like, rose bud. But I think that's just, like, actually.
Josh: Referred to it as blossoming. And he was like, I'd never heard of this before. I was like, I think you have. You just hadn't heard that term. But yeah, it looks like a balloon filled with blood.
Ryan: It's maybe one of the saddest things I've ever heard come out of your mouth, Josh.
Josh: It's true.
Laura: Yeah, I agree.
Josh: Years ago.
Kat: But now I did watch and the Band Played on, um, earlier today.
Laura: What?
Josh: All right.
Kat: And it was not fun.
Josh: I mean, I watched Rent a few days ago. They all seem to be having fun.
Kat: No, I don't think so. I don't think so either.
Josh: I mean, they all die of AIDS.
Kat: But before all of them, they had.
Laura: A great time on their way. Just a portion dinner.
Josh: The la vivo hem dinner seemed very fun.
Kat: La vivo hem.
Laura: Right.
Kat: No.
Josh: Yes, that's it.
Laura: So is there anything else on our list that we wanted to bring up before we wrap this bad boy up?
Josh: The only thing that I was going to mention is a funny piece of trivia that's just because, uh, Amazon is fucking terrible and this is more proof, is that, uh, they submitted this film for Amazon Prime five times and got rejected five times and not free. Even. You can't even pay to rent it. Um, and sure, some sites can have their own restrictions or whatever at the time Brown Bunny was on there.
Laura: Okay.
Josh: Um, and, uh, then eventually Nymphomaniac. And there's been a lot of films that have unsimulated sex in this bullshit. The first couple of times they rejected is they said that the closed caption was out of sync. And finally they just admitted that it was, um, uh, because of content.
Kat: That is weak.
Laura: It is weak. You're right.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: That's weak as hell for a film.
Ryan: That effectively ends proving that New York is at the center of the universe.
Laura: You know what? And it's just New York people that need to be forgiven.
Ryan: There's a lot of amusing in the movie where I'm like, uh, really such.
Laura: Wanky New York shit. And I like New York.
Ryan: I do like New York.
Kat: I like New York.
Laura: But they need to I said it when we're watching the movie. They need to grow up, get over it. What if I have to leave New York? What do I have to go to? Oh, shit. She says. Somewhere in California.
Kat: Like, uh, modesto or something.
Laura: Where do I go?
Josh: Fresno.
Kat: Fresno. That's what it was.
Laura: Fresno. Calm down.
Ryan: Two words. VAG poop.
Josh: I'm proud of that.
Ryan: I'm glad it, uh, describes it perfectly.
Josh: Yeah, that's how the egg came out.
Laura: I haven't rated this on Letterbacks yet. I've been thinking about it because I really, really like this film. I'm just saying. I'm going first. This is me going first.
Kat: Yeah.
Laura: Okay. And, um, I think I'm going to give it wait, where am I starting? Oh, no. I'm going to start with visibility in context. Five. That's easy. That's an easy one. Because there's penis, there's casual penis. And ah, as we were saying before, it's really kind of sex positive and sensitive in a way, to everyone that's involved. There's all sorts of people involved in this film. There's sex just happening. There's people just like being people as well, which I like. Um, people that are naked in their own houses and people that are having sex naked and not weirdly pulling sheets up over them. Has anyone ever had sex and then pulled the sheet up over you? Really?
Kat: That's weird.
Laura: I do all right. Unless you start out underneath there. That's different. Anyway, um, five. It's wonderful. It's pertinent, uh, to the plot in terms of it being unsimulated. I'll take it for what it is as being like an experiment of a film in a way of trying something different. And everyone's on board and everyone's happy to do it. I don't really have a problem with it. Did it need to be unsimulated? I don't know.
Laura: Do you want me to just tell you what my rating for the film is? And then we'll each do that?
Ryan: I think we'll each do that, yes.
Laura: I think, um, for the film four and a half, I liked it a lot. Um, I'm not giving it five because sometimes I got a little bit bored with, like, old men talking and stuff. Like, I kind of zoned out a little bit. It wasn't as interesting to me. The mayor of New York.
Ryan: The problem with any film that Laura watches sometimes is old people talking too much.
Laura: I don't think they have anything interesting.
Ryan: Oh, god, this is sleepy.
Laura: It was a little sleepy during that little moment of that old man. But, uh, yeah, he was sweet. And then he just kept talking.
Ryan: Yeah. I don't even think there's any issue with that part whatsoever.
Laura: We all started talking. I might have started it, but we.
Ryan: Uh, all got together and we all start talking. What are you talking about?
Laura: So that's it. Four and a half. I liked it. Would recommend fun for everybody.
Ryan: All right, well, I'll go last. So let the guests go.
Kat: Okie doke.
Kat: Uh, here we go. So for visibility and context, obviously it's going to be a, uh, five because I don't even know how many times we saw a penis in this movie. I didn't count. Did you count, Laura?
Laura: No, I couldn't count. And I was stressed out because I couldn't even make timestamps like I normally would because it's always there. It's ever present. We talked about the movie a bit and we talked about some of the sex scenes. But it's there so much it's prevalent throughout.
Ryan: Uh, but I think one of because Katie wasn't there for the beginning of it, like us just watching your face as everything just occurred was far more entertaining.
Laura: It lit up like Christmas.
Ryan: It did light up like Christmas time. It did Christmas decks everywhere.
Kat: Yeah. I think that it would be more so like if you documented the timestamps where there weren't there wasn't penis that would be easier for this film. So yeah, definitely a five for visibility and context. Um, and then I will give it a five as far as just like being a wholesome film with unsimulated sex, which is like, I think this is the only one that I've ever seen that's like this.
Laura: Yeah.
Kat: Um, I don't think that the unsimulated sex is needed, but whatever floats your boat. Uh, I don't mind old men talking.
Laura: Give it half extra.
Kat: Half extra than whatever. And the yenta. I loved the yenta. That was like the highlight for me. Like having this grinder device.
Laura: All right.
Kat: Go ahead, Josh.
Josh: Um, visibility in context, five. I think we've addressed why. Um, I give it four and a half as well. Um, just because I don't give many fives in mean, really? I mean, unless it's Clifford or Reanimator.
Laura: I'm sorry.
Josh: It's just not going to happen. It's not.
Laura: No, Clifford.
Josh: That's goddamn true. I mean, man, if Clifford had unsimulated sex, oh my it'd be my first six star movie. Um, good rodent dick. Good grief, man.
Ryan: Oh, I never thought that would be anything we ever heard.
Kat: Kendrald Martin, you watched something the other day that you gave five stars to and I was.
Josh: Like, oh, that's a oh, it was the skulls. That was a I mean, I love the skulls.
Laura: Whatever.
Josh: Sorry. We're getting sidetracked here. From what really matters, I could talk about the skulls for an entire episode.
Laura: Of a podcast I do love.
Kat: I do love.
Josh: It is Joshua Jackson.
Kat: Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker.
Josh: Rob Cohen directed it.
Laura: Oh, my God.
Josh: Yeah. Any case, um, so four and a half stars. Um, agreed that the sex doesn't necessarily have to be not simulated. But who might say, and I've said this about other movies before, too, that kind of take an interesting or different route than a lot of other films that would have if it were being made by somebody different. Um, I don't want every movie to be like this, but I'm glad this movie is like this. It makes it unique in a way that I just I mean, like you guys have said before, just never really seen it before. And that's a really rare thing, especially in what's essentially a sex comedy. That is a really amazing feat to make that interesting and new and make you feel something and not just bad. I feel bad all the time. I don't need this movie to do that for me. Uh, got plenty of reasons to feel bad about sex. Yeah, that's where I stand.
Laura: All right.
Ryan: Um, well, yeah, visibility, context. I'm going to agree with everybody else there. Give it five stars. As for the rating for the movie, um, it probably deserves more of a four, but I think four and a half just for its originality. Um, as much as I kind of agree with Katie in the sense that does it need to be unsimulated? Um, probably not. Um, but it does kind of lend to the overall film's identity. So that's kind of where I kind of put myself there. But it is a little bit it does get to me like the last part of the movie, um, certainly with the James character ending up at the creeper's house and then effectively being, uh, cajuled into having sex with them. Um, that stuff I just don't tend to think lends too much to the film in general. So that's why it gets a half star off of me. I've got no issue with old men talking about getting crusty boners lame.
Josh: Yeah, I like the old man.
Ryan: I like the old man.
Laura: I really like that part.
Ryan: I was like, uh, every demographic was.
Laura: Covered in this movie.
Kat: It is like listening to elderly folks talk about stuff and reminisce about the good old days or whatever.
Josh: No, Ryan, that's a good point. That was a demographic that had that scene not been there, it would have been very obviously ignored. Yes. People outside of their 20s still fuck.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Cross people in we know that. Uh, considering the prevalence of STDs. But no, I did like that because there are also scenes where there are older folk, including that gentleman in groups and just hanging out and chatting and stuff. So I like that. I like that there's such a wide range and variety of people that are all in this community. Um, he talked for too long. That's it. That's it.
Ryan: Okay. I mean, I think everyone, ah, falls prey to the fact that their musings maybe go on a little bit too long in the movie. But at least what they're saying is relatively quite interesting. It's New York. It's New York. People just kind of muse and talk. Yeah, I'm the mayor of all talk. They all talk. Shy.
Kat: What was your New York accent? That was great.
Ryan: His was mine. Yeah. I'm walking here. Yeah. I don't know. Either way.
Laura: Well, uh, yeah.
Ryan: Here we are. Here we are. We made it. Episode 50.
Kat: Yeah. Go sing into a dick. The Star Spangled banner.
Ryan: Uh, yeah. Once, uh, everybody leaves, I'll find myself on a spot in the floor trying to get my thighs all the way up to my forehead.
Laura: I can give you an assist. I'll be here for you.
Ryan: Perfect. What a fucking sight that would be. Well, you know what?
Kat: We can she's seen it done. Yeah. At a gathering.
Laura: At a gathering.
Ryan: She has. Yes. I don't know if that's ever something I would ever want to recreate.
Laura: No.
Ryan: A real weenie shrinker.
Laura: Well, thank you guys for coming over and doing our, uh, 50th episode with us. I'm so excited. This is such a special film to do, and I'm glad that we got to all share it together. It was really nice.
Josh: It was nice.
Kat: It's cute.
Laura: Friends.
Josh: Yeah. I like, uh, that, uh, the amount of times I've watched this movie are probably five times. Three of those times have been with a group setting. And I really like that.
Kat: Yeah. I watched it by myself, and it was weirder to watch it alone, I think. Yeah, I like watching it, thinking like, oh, my roommates might walk in at any minute.
Laura: It's fine. This is a really fun movie. It's like, really sweet and fun. We've already said it. We're just loving the film.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: So let me see. Coming to you from i, um, didn't write it down. We think coming to you from does anyone have anything good?
Ryan: Like, um, the Tucket Away Storage facility?
Laura: The winner coming to you from the Tucket Away Storage facility. I have been laura, we've got Ryan.
Ryan: Yes, I'm here.
Kat: Katie. That's my name.
Laura: That's your name.
Josh: Josh.
Laura: That's his name.
Josh: That's my name.
Laura: That's my name.
Josh: Thanks for having us.
Laura: Thanks for coming over. And, um, we'll see you sooner than the next 50th, uh, episode, so can't wait.
Josh: Yeah.
Laura: Hooray yay day to us. Whoo.
Ryan: Trust me, that clip's not going anywhere. It's not only just to protect you. Just to protect us.
Laura: I don't even remember how I start this podcast. Hello.
Josh: Yeah.