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Let’s hear it, my man!

I've got about 45 mins left on The Last Five Years, but I'm predicting an extremely happy ending. I'm not wrong, right?

Calebug

ok, I'm watching the movie this very moment and planning to listen to the show on my way to work but I hope to GOD someone mentions Emma Roberts dipping her finger in the sauce, LICKING that finger and then doing it again. I screamed at the tv "DONT DO THAT!" She's a trained chef and has no problem with CONTAMINATION?!?!!?! That is the only thing to wake me up from this bland ass movie.

Depends on whether you're pulling for Jamie or Cathy. Also, 45 minutes left is halfway through. It's a short movie.

After last week's emotion-fest I bet he'll pick something upbeat like Sweeney Todd to lighten the mood.

Thanks so much to the hosts for emphasizing that McMurphy is his own villain. I got through an AP English course in which we also watched Cool Hand Luke and I don’t recall anyone noticing that these anti-heroes are just jerks. As a female (specifically in education) who is responsible for normal people, including young and male people, I can no longer enjoy the many, many works of art centered on demonizing women in authority without recognizing that I’m about to spend another work shift caring for people who think I’m EXACTLY that evil woman every time I tell them not to talk while I’m talking, draw on their desks or pull their dicks out. There was something in the discussion about the movie being much more sympathetic to the Nurse’s POV than the book. Now I when I see any antihero taking down a mean lady baddy, I can’t help imagining this director/writer/producer getting caught doodling or something he felt was a sign of unrecognised genius and then vowing revenge. I also can’t help thinking about (mostly) males in film abusing others, but neither can anyone else. Still love movies and some men, in spite of the poisoning of the memories. ***Glass.(using the mean lady abusing sick antiheroes connection) If you watch Glass as a nod to OFOtCN or an adaptation of “The Three Christs of Ypsilanti,” does that make it more fun? *can you gauge misogyny by opinions on the woman being killed in Jurassic World? It ranges from “B had it coming for not doing her job” to “That wasn’t her job, she didn’t deserve to die and we definitely didn’t need to see down her shirt as she was slowly tortured on two levels of the almost-dinosaur food-chain."

Huh. Little Italy. Momma Mia! You know you're in trouble when the Christmas Prince is a better movie. Yes, there are SOME shots in this movie of the actual Little Italy here in Toronto like when Hayden and Emma are biking around Clinton street. And the Monarch Tavern is prominently featured, which is weird because that's not Italian, yet they didn't use Bitondos or The Diplimatico which are the most well known Italian restaurants in the area. Cakebud Tranch got it right... Some of the establishing shots at the beginning, again, where Leo is riding his bike around, and where the BEST PIZZA CONTEST is held, are from the Distillery District here in Toronto, which is literally on the other side of city. Like SO FAR from Little Italy itself. Toronto's Little Italy is frankly unremarkable -- and I can say that because I lived in that neighbourhood for 6 years. I WISH the Little Italy here was as good as in the movie. It's like shooting a scene in the Upper East Side of New York and calling it Little Italy. For people that live here that's annoying. And the whole airport security line stopped and watched the entire proclamation of love scene. Annoying. Side story: my sister-in-law and 3 year old niece were wandering around Little Italy (where they now live in my old apartment) and came across the set for Vince's pizza shop. They got super excited about there being a new pizza shop in the area. They even sat down at one of the outdoor tables waiting to get served, until they realized after a few minutes that the "staff" was just hanging out looking a little despondent and bored. That's when it dawned on her that it was a movie set. And no one told them to move! She happened to be at my house when I was watching the movie for this podcast and she lost her mind when she saw the external shot of the restaurant. She made me pause the movie to tell me the story! Also that pizza they eat straight out of the pizza oven on their date would be too hot to casually hold and eat right away. But they just manga right into it! Thanks for a fun listen P,J and J!

I’m no immigration lawyer, but after visiting https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk I am shockingly finding some problems with the setup to this movie. Jane Seymour tells Emma Roberts that she has to go back to Canada to get her visa changed from a student visa to a work visa. From what I could tell, it seems like this is a process that can actually be done online. But even if she did need to go back to get some personal documents, the one thing that I did see as a requirement to get a work visa is that you have to have a clear job offer. But Emma doesn’t have that yet. All she’s been told is that is in the running with the other guy and Jane Seymour will decide based on the menus they create. And given the WordPerfect menu that we see Emma creating, I’m guessing she wouldn’t have been chosen, which means this whole effort would be for nothing.

So, I tried to count and there’s conservatively 20 lamps on the rooftop. There’s a Walmart near there, so I’m assuming that’s his lamp dealer. They have a bunch of bundled lamp sets (3 lamps in a set) for $50. That would put his lamp budget at around $350. I’m going to assume it’s a monthly cost as rain exists and it’s a safe bet that he doesn’t move them inside (they would be tripping over lamps all the time). That doesn’t include his extension cord, light bulb, or decorative ladder budget or any fees for filling the dumpster with lamps.

So not being Italian, nor Indian, I didn't have a great barometer for what was really just beyond the line of stereotype (obviously I can still see the stink of problematic characterizations from a mile away lol), but as a queer girl I was heavily bothered by the fact that once Luigi meets the one other gay man in this whole movie, who's also just flamboyant af, they immediately fall in love. Because apparently no other gay, bi, or pan men exist in this entire area so Luigi just hears his voice and is like OMG A GAY DUDE and that's it they're both kissing at that wedding in the final scene. Cool cool cool cool cool cool cool no doubt no doubt.

I have to give the movie credit. It is basically the stage play with storyline changes but the lyrics and music are pretty much spot on. The stage show is around 90 minutes as well.

Yes! I was all for the dads pranking each other, but the timing of the release of this movie seems particularly unfortunate. This movie was released on August 24, 2018, but marijuana was legalized in Canada on October 17, 2018, which means that there's a seven week window after this film's release where the presence of marijuana would have required a police presence. This movie immediately dates itself by making marijuana illegal in this world, where it's now legal in Toronto. Granted, distributing that amount in public would likely draw some attention, but the use of a substance that would NOT cause the desired effect and would NOT be illegal not long after the film was released seems short-sighted. At least the prank gave us a glimpse at Geri Hall, the handsy cop, who is a well known member of the Canadian comedy scene, including things like The Royal Canadian Air Farce and other such comedy troupes.

On the "sexism" tip, I will also point out that the plot of this movie basically posits that if you are a woman who spent years in a prestigious, competitive culinary school in London, you can manage to be almost exactly as good at cooking pizza as a dude who fucked around his Little Italy neighborhood for his whole life.

Okay, so I have a lot to say about this movie, much of which comes down to the bizarro geography all over Toronto. To answer June and Paul's incredulity: yes, Little Italy is a real place in Toronto, and while it's not as famous as the New York version, arguably the wide streets and family neighbourhoods you can get here in Toronto would potentially make for a charming local story. Potentially, I said, since this movie is a hot mess. Toronto is a city made up of little cultural neighbourhoods, and along with our three separate Chinatowns, we have a Polish district on Roncesvalles, a thriving Greektown on the Danforth, a wonderful Indian Bazaar on Gerrard (which features in the movie, briefly), amongst many others. There is even a one-block long Maltese District: Toronto has been called for good reason the most multicultural city in the world. The problem is, NONE of this movie was actually shot in Little Italy. The feuding pizza shops are actually east of Little Italy, nearer to Kensington Market (at College and Robert), in a couple of abandoned storefronts. The 'Taste of Little Italy' festival (which is a real festival on College Street each year) is actually shot in the Distillery District in the east side of the city, which is distinctive for its cobblestoned streets. The banner that reads 'Welcome to Little Italy': Yeah, that doesn't exist. In fact, that's not Toronto at all. That's the Little Italy street sign FROM Mulberry Street, NEW YORK CITY. No wonder June was confused! WHY would you show the New York sign while setting up Toronto? WHY? This, however, IS our Little Italy. Enjoy!

Another thing I forgot. The Starbucks. Did we all just accidentally give Howard Schultz money by renting this?

Two points: 1. In reference to the rain scene it seems everyone's concern was for good reason. According to imdb Hayden Christensen badly sprained his ankle during the scene, causing him to miss a week of shooting. 2. The reason for Emma Robertson leaving was speculated. I felt the movie attempted to explain it as her "leaving a place that never changes and seeing the world". This sentiment is fine, except for the fact that she was clearly born in Toronto. As someone living in a city nearby, I assure you it is no small town. Toronto is one of the most diverse and most populated cities in Canada. All she needed to do was move a couple blocks, not go across an ocean.

This is a Paul-level tangent into my history, but I am Italian-American. Except we didn’t know it until I was in high school (my great grandfather came here from Italy in the early 1900s but he died young and we didn’t know about him, it’s a long story). So when we learned we were Italian my dad and his siblings would do a lot of Italian -American voices and jokes—mostly from the Sopranos and mob movies. And that is what the accents in this movie are. People with no actual connection to the culture. Taylor Anne made me feel really angry for Alyssa Milano. She is Italian too! She should’ve been the lead!

Quick question: is Andrea Martin making a joke at the end when she says that she is pregnant? I hope so, because she’s 72 YEARS OLD. I’m not an ob-gyn, but that doesn’t sound biologically possible. And if it is, it seems irresponsible.

Oh we feud VERY well. My grandma used to complain sometimes that she somehow raised 6 only children . To me the most offense part was really ... Just the whole movie? LOL. Mostly the accents and the general we're ITALIAN!!!!! and of COURSE that hair dye. That was just... Unforgivable.The fields of Canada will run red with that hair and make-up teams blood. #stew pee do for life

My cousin got married pretty much right at the place where the pizza competition at the end was filmed! (The brick-lined Distillery District on the above map.) That was the best part of the movie for me - recognizing the Toronto spots I'd been to. Anyway - gotta love yet another "throw your career away, ladies", unromantic, unfunny rom-coms. Thanks to HDTGM, I know this is a whole genre.

Let alone it's a direct rip off of this famous clip of Ramsay!

Shocking turn of events - My Italian friend rated this higher than I did on Letterboxd! Not spoiling anything for the show I don't think but she gave 1 star for Alyssa as I did, 1 star for the Starbucks scenes, and 1 star for hiding wine in planters.

I remember when I first saw the play being really sad that they had resorted to having Jamie cheat on Cathy, which immediately turns the viewer on him even more than they already had. I see the point to the emotional climax in that piece, but there's nothing that says that has to be the reason they split. It just seemed cheap to me.

My personal (second hand) story about the background on this play is this. My wife worked at a theatre in downtown Toronto as an usher, and mentioned to her boss one day that she was going to see 'L5Y'. Her boss laughed and said that a few years prior, when Jason Robert Brown had just hit it big with 'Parade', he was in Toronto with the production and everyone was fawning over him as some kind of genius. As my wife's boss watched the entourage and piles of adoring hangers-on swarm around him at an opening night gala, a woman stood just off to the side, kind of making fun of the to-do. My wife's boss chatted to the woman for a while and has nothing but lovely things to say about her. It wasn't until later that she found out that she was JRB's wife, who was along for the ride after her tortured genius husband had finally struck gold with his first show. They divorced not long later, mostly because JRB apparently 'outgrew' her as a famous composer (or, more likely, he couldn't 'Resist Temptation'...), and then his next show was all about profiting off the death of their relationship. It is very interesting that Jamie is such a heel and Cathy is such a cypher in this piece, you're right - I got no real sense that she wanted him to rescue her, but she also doesn't have much else in her life. Her friend Carol-Ann who got pregnant in high school maybe? I guess she lost touch with her.