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This episode reminded me that Hollywood Handbook is my favorite podcast of all time. I hope they don't get cancelled.

I've never seen Breaking Bad. I know Giancarlo Esposito. (And of course I know Don Johnson's "Heartbeat." Come on, son )

it aint their 1st rodeo

But...but you've surely seen the masterpiece that is the music video for Don Johnson's Heartbeat featuring Giancarlo Esposito? And, he's not as recognizable in Do The Right Thing but he's definitely fantastic in it. [

That's the ONLY thing you remember him from?

I always love to see Sam Jackson in early roles. I sometimes forget that even though he didn't really get big until, I want to say, Jurassic Park, he's been around forever. I was also thinking this might be the youngets I've seen Lawrence Fishburne, but then I turned on Apocalypse Now and I was like, "Oh, yeah! I forgot all about Baby-Baby Morpheus..."

Daddy. Come to Brazil.

here’s me listening to the ep: “LOL”

Whaaaaat. Man it's really good so I think you'd like it lol. He's also one of the first killed in Maximum Overdrive lol.

Whoa I just realized Branford Marsalis was Jordan in the movie. That is really cool. I remember liking the tenor sax in the movie score and I wonder if he was one of the actual musicians for the film.

ETA: oops my quote got erased. My favorite early SLJ role

Just want to clear up this point above. I listened to a Spike Lee interview about School Daze and he says that "a" brother died during pledging, not that "his" brother died.

My problem (or saving grace) was that I have been watching this movie in ~20 minute increments for 3 days now. So when the Jets/Sharks dance fight of hair came on, it didn’t feel like I had been waiting for 30 minutes. And yes, it did delight me that this dance fight was between the 2 female groups about hair rather than the fraternity vs Dap groups about their politics, which I was expecting them to do tbh.

Yeah, it seems to be trying to make a point about how horribly this or that group treats women, and I’m just like, “Well, it’s not like our ‘good guys’ are paragons of enlightenment.”

I saw She's Gotta Have It not too long ago and I really liked it. It's progressive, modern, and sexy, a good look at adult relationships.

I think one of the reasons this doesn't work as well as Do The Right Thing is these characters feel le character types. Spike wants this to be representative of a larger conversation and each character has to represent everyone in that mold. Do The Right Thing is more about being able to happen anywhere and it just happens to be these individuals it happens to. It's been a very long time since I saw She's Gotta Have It but I definitely don't remember it as fondly as School Daze. Well, Spike Lee said on the commentary about women refusing to acknowledge some guys until they were part of a fraternity then suddenly being into them. While I know the are women and men who simply want a partner who are particular group or status, this felt really gross for him to talk about. I had thought the movie came across as anti-fraternity but the commentary made me think "No, it's also anti-woman".

I don't think that it's so much that they are "best buds" so much as they have a better understanding of one another. I think that that whole last scene is just meant to be metaphorical. That is, "We need to stop fighting each other and figure this shit out."

Yea, I just found the whole thing clumsy. Which is so weird, because Spike's first movie is great ("She's Gotta Have It") and his third is legendary ("Do The Right Thing"), and "School Daze" was made right between them somehow. I feel like there's gotta be a greater story about how this happened. Anyway if you look closely at the musical productions, they were so lo-fi, the choreography wasn't sharp, it all felt amateur. I did like a couple of the songs though.

I agree. It's kind of like the whole sub-plot regarding fraternities. I can't stand them, I never could. So I am already biased against movies about them. So I really had to look beyond that to understand what School Daze was saying about what fraternities as they might mean to people of color in the mid-Eighties. That, yes, there was the same toxicity about them that has always existed, but they also provided a place where people felt like they could belong. I liked the "Wake up" scene because it was saying all these things just provide a false sense of belonging (i.e. fraternities, sororities, colorism, etc) and they only serve to further weaken and divide.

The weird thing is that I normally really like movies without much story that cover a short time period. And I do actually like this movie but when you break the narrative the have a song about hair, I think it takes away from that even if discussing colorism is vitally important. I guess I'd personally get more out of it as conversation instead of a song/dance even if the sequence is well done. I think the Wake Up scene works but maybe not as much as it could. But I think it's a message not directed at me since i'm not a black college student.

I agree with you, Grud, in that I felt like the Musical numbers were out of place. It kind of took me out of the story rather than enhance it. Not to steal from Ghost’s Letterboxd review, but I felt like the movie had a lot of important stuff to say, but the narrative was kind of a mess. It was trying to do too much at once. I admire the ambition, but the pieces just don’t seem to fit quite right. Like, the “Wake Up” scene would have maybe been more effective in another movie.

There is a specific reason why you can't get to Machu Picchu from New York by bus. It's called the Darien Gap, a dense rainforest / swampland that sits between Panama and Colombia. Fun facts about the Darien Gap: 1. It's home to many endangered species, including the adorable Cotton Tip Tamarind. 2. It's the only reason why you can't drive from Alaska to Patagonia. 3. It's a haven for right wing paramilitaries, who use it as one of the main routes to transport the many tons of cocaine produced in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru into Central America and the US. 4. It's one of the most dangerous segments along the Ecuador-Colombia-Panama-Mexico-USA route that many refugees and immigrants use to get into the US. Obviously, this is where the sequel should take place...

Something I made last weekend - inspired from the show! Didn't get it across in time for a mention on the ET show but thought you'd enjoy all the same!! Let me know if anyone wants to fund a tech based cinematic universe!

Adam is chill.

For a second I thought this was an adaptation of the Capcom survival horror game of the same name, but this looks like utter dogshit. Though the plot seems to be just as insane as the game's.