I don't think that it's this big self-sacrificing move on his part.
I think that Rick has a kickass life where he lives with his best friend at a bar
that he owns, where he gets to gamble and smoke all night,
inside. I think Rick has the best life that he could possibly have and that he cons this woman.
Hello. And today we are ... Hey. Hi there. Hello.
Hey man.
Today we're going to be talking about the most misunderstood movie moments in
history. It's based on an article we have up on looper.com. And this is a tough one
because you always want to pick something that is in fact misunderstood by people,
and that you actually know something about. It's tough because for something to be misunderstood,
you have to say, "This is misunderstood. And I, a very smart person understood it."
I understand.
And as I looked at this list and thought about it, I was like, "Man, I must not know very much,"
but I did my best. But before we get to the thing that I wanted to talk about, I wanted to ask Nina,
what was one of the most misunderstood movie moments that you were going to pick?
Well, Brian, as far as the list here on looper.com, there's one I wanted to give a
quick mention to, which is 500 Days of Summer, which is a movie that I quite like.
And I feel like a lot of people came away from that movie being like, "Summer sucks. She
is mean to Tom." And I'm like, "He doesn't listen to her at all
ever." And the director and everybody involved with the movie have all been like, "Yeah, we meant
him to be a jerk who doesn't listen to her. She is very clear with him out what she wants and doesn't
want. And she's fine, Tom is the problem." And I mean that of all Toms, just to be clear. Yeah.
Understood.
So we're all on the same page. No, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character is -
I wasn't listening.
... the problem. Perfect. Yeah, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character,
and I think the actor's even admitted it was the issue, not her. So,
that's a series of misunderstood moments, as is my actual pick.
Brian, you told me before this chat that you thought you knew what I picked and I'm going
to tell you now, and I'm so excited to see if you're right. My pick is Josie and the Pussycats.
I knew it was going to be Josie and the Pussycats.
Okay. So, when that movie came out, it flopped, critics didn't like it,
they were all wrong. Everybody was wrong. That movie is great. And I didn't want to spoil my
surprise by wearing my Super Yaki shirt, but you've all seen me in that many times.
And basically when it came out, everybody was like, "Oh, it's all product placement."
It's still a product placement.
Right? Why are they advertising this stuff? They didn't get paid for any of that stuff. They just
did it to prove the point. And so everyone seeing that movie missed the whole point,
which is the movie is about how capitalism is bad and industries exist to exploit teenagers.
By the way, please hit like, and subscribe.
So, that we can keep our jobs. But, no, what?
It would be so clutch if you did.
It would be so jerkin' if you clicked like and subscribe.
That's a new one.
That's one of the ones they make up in Josie and the Pussycats.
So yeah, I think that movie is really smart and really funny, has a great comedic cast. If you
put Alan Cumming and Parker Posey in the same movie, I'm going to watch it a hundred times.
I think anyone with any sense would do the same. Missy Pyle's also there crushing it.
She's amazing.
Rosario Dawson, Tara Reid, Rachel Leigh Cook, all perfect. So yeah, I don't think I need to explain
to you guys why this movie's misunderstood, but yet people completely missed that
the product placement was super on purpose and very pointed. And instead they criticized it
for specifically that, and thankfully, years later, it's become a cult classic and it's
gotten it's due and people have finally out like, "Oh, that's why. That's the point."
It's wild to me that anyone might have misunderstood.
A lot of people did.
It's very blatant, what they're doing.
Yeah. It's pretty obvious.
I thought.
Yeah. I love that movie. I will champion it forever. And I'm glad that it has
gained new life, thanks to the internet and people like me and us who are like,
"Yeah, this movie's good, actually. Just watch it again. Give it a shot."
Internet's always doing good stuff.
Yeah.
So yeah, good. So, I thought of that one and, and as I was thinking about it, I was like, "Oh,
that's the one Nina probably picked. So let me come up with a back up.
Yeah. That was smart.
Thank you. Thank you. The only other one I had was the movie ... now again, is this
misunderstood? This is a tough one. It's not on our list and we'll get to the list before the end
of the video. But this is a movie that I know I've talked to at least a couple people who were like,
"I saw it. I thought it was kind of dumb at the end. It was so cliche." And my response was always like,
"That's the point." And this movie is called Adaptation. Have you guys seen Adaptation?
Yeah. I love that movie.
So, the first half of the movie is Charlie Kaufman struggling,
played amazingly by Nicolas Cage. Nicolas Cage-
Twice. Well, Charlie Kaufman and his twin. Yeah.
And then, the other half of the movie is written by Donald Kaufman, his alter ego, his twin. The
dumb screen writer who does all the things that in the beginning, Charlie says he doesn't want
to do. Literally, it's like boxes getting checked. And that's the point of the movie. That's the joke
of the movie. That is the idea to here that, yes, it's hitting all these cliches. Yes, the drugs,
the drugs subplot, the marital infidelity subplot, the people learning life lessons
as they die subplot, great plot point, or I don't know. It's just one of those movies that when I've
talked to a few people who have tried it, they've been like, "Yeah, I don't know. It didn't work for
me." It's like, well, the reason it didn't work is because you're not smart. That's why. No.
Yeah. But that was one of the ones that struck me as, this is one that might
actually be misunderstood, where basically, none of the stuff in the movie, is actually ... It's
real. In the world of the story, yes, all these things did happen. In the world of the story,
yes, Charlie Kaufman has a twin brother named Donald who's really dumb, but the whole movie
it itself, it's a very meta movie. You're watching the screenplay get written and
you're watching it turn from arthouse movie about nothing. Screwing around,
failed adaptation, to a different kind of failed adaptation, which is taking everything,
amping it up to 11, making it as Hollywood as possible, doing all the things that you didn't
want to do in the first place and still making it work somehow all by the end.
Well, and I feel like a movie that came out recently, just to piggyback off of
that really quickly, that I felt like a lot of people really fundamentally misunderstood,
that I love, is Promising Young Woman, which came out in 2020.
I haven't seen that.
Okay, then I'm not going to spoil that movie in its entirety. But basically a lot of people were
like ... No, I'm not going to spoil it, because you guys haven't seen it. That would be mean.
Well then no spoilers. Go ahead.
No, basically there was a lot of chatter about, "is the ending satisfying?" And it's a movie about
men taking advantage of women. And my argument is, I don't think it's supposed
to be. I think you're wildly missing by the point by asking, "Is this a satisfying ending?" Because
I think that what the writer, director, Emerald Fennell was trying to do was be like,
"There are no satisfying outcomes in situations like these," or there rarely are. I think
similar to adaptation, it knows what it's doing. And people are like, "I didn't like the ending,
because it's a cliche, or it's not satisfying.: And it's like, well then you're missing the point
if that's what you're mad about. You're missing the point of what came before.
I got to check that movie out.
Out. It's really hard to talk about this movie without spoiling it. So, this is not helpful.
It's like almost impossible. So, let's move along.
Sorry, Tom, what about you?
It's okay.
What is a misunderstood movie moment that you wanted to talk about?
This one might just come down to my personal opinion, but Casablanca,
you ever hear of a movie called Casablanca?
Once or twice. Yeah.
A few times.
It came out like around the time you were graduating high school, Brian.
Yeah, that's right. Back in my day, they didn't like titles that weren't in English,
so they just called it White House.
Oh, Brian.
Moving on. We'll probably cut that. Don't worry. Go on.
No, no, no. I think we should frame that. That's
going on the fridge. The end of Casablanca. I have been under the impression for years that
nobody understands it except me. And I'm going to make my case right now. At the very end ...
This is one of my favorite movies, so I am really excited to see where you go with this.
One of my favorite movies too, at a bunch of levels. But at the very end, when Rick sends
the love of his life away on a airplane that he could have got onto, but he's like, "No, go with
your husband, get out of here." I don't think that it's this big self-sacrificing move on his part.
I think that Rick has a kickass life where he lives with his best friend at a bar
that he owns, where he gets to gamble and smoke all night, inside. I think Rick has the best
life that he could possibly have. And that he cons this woman into a very dangerous trip,
trying to get back to America. That's where they're trying to fly off to.
This is the darkest version of Casablanca I've ever heard, and I love it.
That's a matter of opinion, my friend. But I think that Rick, I think he has his life figured out,
and that nobody gives him credit for that. The other interpretation of Casa Blanca,
if you've never watched it this way, it's remarkable. My dad clued me in on it a few
years ago and it makes it impossible to watch it any other way. If you just assume that every
other male character in the movie is in love with Rick, totally different movie. It holds up. It's
a remarkable story still. But like Peter Laurie doing the whole, "Oh, you despise me, don't you."
You going to cut that tension between those two with a knife.
Seriously, like those big wet frog eyes that that guy had, just remarkable.
Great. That's my pick.
Well, there are a few items here on this list on looper.com that I
wanted to discuss as well. One is the ending of Total Recall.
Oh yeah, definitely a dream.
You guys know about Total Recall? You say it's definitely a dream?
Absolutely a dream.
And Paul Verhoeven has also come out and said, "Yes, this is definitely a dream,"
which I think is a bummer. I think this is one of those movies that you could ... I think it's
stronger if it's ambiguous, in my opinion, I don't necessarily think it's misunderstanding
it. You say, it's definitely a dream. Why do you say it's definitely a dream, Tom?
Well, we talk about this a lot. The set up and payoff. They set everything up in the beginning
of the story. When they're loading the program in for him to go, they list everything that he's
going to do. They list everything that's going to happen. And they even explain. "and then
there'll be a bright flash when we lobotomize you," or whatever it was. And all of that stuff
happens. And the movie ends with him at the end of the story, watching a bright flash of light.
I love Paul Verhoeven. Man, I don't mind saying it. I think
he's terrific. Actually, if we're talking about misunderstood movies, most of what he's done,
I think probably falls into that category.
RoboCop.
Yeah, and Starship Troopers and all of the movies that people see.
Starship Troopers is on this list. That's the next one on this list. And that's when I fully admit.
I saw Starship Troopers in theaters when that came out, I was in high school.
I was the high school principal, yes, because I'm so old. There's the joke.
I was to let it go, but I'm proud out of you.
But I saw it. And again, that one for me, it was like something about this isn't quite
sitting right. This movie feels weird and I don't understand why it feels so strange
and it's not working. I don't understand. I don't like this movie. It makes me feel bad.
And then years later, you start to realize that, "Oh, this was a satire the whole time."
Everything it's saying to you is a joke. It's trying to show you that
fascism and militarism and violence and all this stuff, this is actually really,
really bad. It dehumanizes people. It turns people into this garbage that just makes the world worse.
And you're participating in it by not thinking critically about anything that's happening.
And again, to a 16 year old, you're either here for it, because there's a lot of violence and
it's fun and exciting, or you're put off by it like so many people were, so this
movie was a flop at the time. Maybe it wasn't a flop, but it was done definitely critically,
not well received. And only years later has that been revised.
And then we were talking a little bit about RoboCop just a second ago. That's one
where I know I saw bits and pieces of it when I was a kid, and then years and
years and years later, I finally watched it like from start to finish. And I was like,
"Oh my God, this movie's incredible. Again, the layers of satire of,
again, it's all about glorifying violence. It's about corporate interest,
dehumanizing people, literally dehumanizing and then the fight to be more human. And it's a movie
called RoboCop and it's got a cyborg police officer shooting a bad guy in the crotch.
Yep.
Amazing. So, it's got everything you could possibly want.
Truly.
Another one on here that's good that I remember was AI. You guys-
Never saw it. Have not seen it.
I've never seen AI.
It's fine. But basically at the very end,
I'll just share this. Do you guys know about the ending of that?
Yeah.
Of that film?
I do now, because I just read about it on looper.com.
Yeah. At the end, everybody at the time was just like, "It's so dumb, the aliens show up at the
end." Everybody was like, "Why does this movie end with aliens? What's the deal with this movie AI?"
And the answer is, they're not aliens. They're robots in the future and
they evolve. Yeah, there's a few on here.
There's a few good ones on here. It's pretty good. It's hard to come up with a good one, though.
The Fight Club one is pretty good.
Yeah.
In that like people were like, "Oh, we should be like that."
And Fincher was like, "Wow, way to miss the point entirely."
Yeah. The whole point was, don't be like that.
I don't know, to be fair to the people who missed the point,
Fincher sure did make that violence look cool.
Yeah he did.
Very true.
Yeah. What man looked at that movie and was like,
"I don't want to be Brad Pitt, that seems terrible."
Right. Exactly.
I probably look like that with my shirt off.
Yeah.
I think it's a really well made movie. I think overall it's a good movie, but I also think that
it's probably not that hard to miss the point, because being a cool, macho guy who looks like Brad
Pitt, who tries to enact a counter revolution against corporations and all these things. It's,
yeah why wouldn't you want to do that? It does glorify violence in a lot of ways. Ultimately,
it is still the bad thing. And you do have to use your brain a bit to get over this the
message that no, actually, the Brad Pitt character is the bad guy. No, actually,
beating people up for no good reason is bad. These are bad things. But yeah, I don't know.
You're right, though. He does make it look extremely cool.
The same thing happened when I watched The Social Network, I went, I started my own social network.
It didn't work out. And then I lost all my friends when I got sued for millions of dollars.
Yeah. When I saw Devil Wears Prada, I left the theater and I was like, "Her friend sucked. That
job was awesome." And my mom was like, "I think you maybe missed the point of that." I was like,
"Why were they so mean to her?" That's not the point of that movie either.
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