Cameron H.

Have you guys listened to the new Bob Dylan album yet? I’m really liking it so far.

I guess I never got the impression Gertz was judging him by his looks, but rather his lack of confidence and the overall awkwardness of the evening. That’s why I’m okay (within the fiction of the movie, of course) with the charade. Shelly Long knows that Gertz will never be able to disassociate the Gus(#1) she met that night with the Gus(#2) she knows him to truly be, which is why she has to invent “Lobo.” It’s like if you’ve ever thrown up a favorite food and from that point forward you can’t even think about it without feeling sick. Gertz doesn’t turn him down because he’s ugly, she turns him down because he was kind of a sad sack, and she doesn’t want to have another shitty night. Which, by the way, I think is a totally valid reason to turn someone down and is a situation with which most people can relate. That’s why, even if he loses the weight and grows hair and all that, it still won’t work. He’s still Gus(#1). To elaborate on my earlier analogy, if you puke up a hamburger with ketchup and mustard, throwing some cheese and pickles on another one isn’t exactly going to make it appetizing. He needs to be a whole new dish altogether. It’s also important that this comes from within him too. He needs to gain or regain his confidence. It’s a classic “fake it til you make it” scenario. No, the idea isn’t for him to be “Lobo” forever, but to use the “Lobo” persona as a crutch until he reaches a point where a fully actualized Gus can emerge. So, no, I don’t see Shelly Long as a villain. At the end of the movie, when Gertz accuses Long of doing what she did to “prove a point,” Long says: “Now, look, I’ll admit you waved a red flag in my face, but I wouldn’t have done anything about it, if Gus hadn’t truly, totally fallen in love with you.” (1:28:08) At worst, she’s a well-meaning meddler. In the end, she helps her brother fight off his depression, helps Gertz find a good man (despite the initial deception), and brings two lonely people together. I’d call that win despite the methods employed.

They touched on it in the episode, but one of the moments I really enjoyed was when Shelly Kong’s husband says he recognized that “Lobo” was foreign because of his BO. What I particularly loved was the thought that a badass, illegal immigrant biker would be just cruising around town in a tourist t-shirt from his home country.

Hi Pete But Gertz isn’t as assertive as that. She’s always like, “I’m kinda seeing someone. It’s complicated.” We are also meant to believe that Shelly Long is preternaturally attuned to people’s emotions and desires. From the moment they meet, she is able to intuit Gertz isn’t happy in her present relationship, and I believe this is also confirmed later when Gertz explicitly tells her so—although, I could be wrong about that. Regardless, we, the audience, know her boyfriend is a scum bag, so while it isn’t something I’d recommend in real life, in the movie, Shelley Long’s instincts prove correct. Shelly Long also fixates on Gertz is because she truly believes Gus in love with her, and to her there’s nothing greater in the world. Yeah, there are other fish in the sea, but he’s *in love.* Compared to Gertz they’re all a bunch of sad, lumpy blob fish.

As a point of disambiguation, there are many different sub-genres of romance, and what Paul described reading in the podcast, and what June described as essentially “porn for women,” sounds more like erotica rather than straight romance. It’s the idea that all romance novels are just “dirty books for woman” which has allowed people to perpetuate the idea that romance isn’t a valid literary genre and has been repeatedly used as a means to censor female voices. Erotica is absolutely a popular sub-genre, but people too often conflate it with the entire genre. Many romance novels don’t even involve sex at all. In fact, Long’s character specifically mentions in the movie that her characters cannot be together until the very last page. If I were to classify this movie, I would say it was a BCD (“behind closed doors”) or “sweet” Romance. Which is to say, there is sex, but it is literally off the screen/page.

While I get a lot of the cynicism leveled at this movie and the character motivations within, it’s pretty faithful to romance novel literary conventions, which I feel is kind of the point. In romance novels, people fall in literal true love at first sight. Most characters in romance novels end with the characters getting married after knowing each other for a week or two. Romance readers don’t wants “realism” in romance. Nobody wants to read a book about a relationship that slowly deepens and develops over a series of dinner dates over the course of a couple of months. Everything needs to be heightened. Everything has to feel urgent. What’s important is that the reader/audience believes that the protagonist’s intentions are pure. In this case, Gus is constantly reaffirming that he is “in love.” In fact, I think the movie almost does this too much as I believe Gute’s acting conveys that pretty well on its own. The thing is, if you don’t believe he is acting in good faith, then the whole thing doesn’t work. And in all honest, I don’t believe the movie ever gives the viewer a reason to not believe that Gus is on the up and up. While far from perfect, you have to look at the entire movie as an adapted romance novel. It hits all the beats. It’s got a star-crossed couple, duoche-y ex, wacky side characters, and a series of escalating misunderstandings all set against a romantic back drop. That’s pretty much the formula across the board, and for the most part, I think the movie nails it.

Yes, but since Gus and Gertz end up happily together in the end, she is proven right. Based on your analogy, that would be like the last X-Men comic ending with the human race enslaved, and everyone agreeing that was for the best. I would say a better literary analog for Long would be a trickster like Loki, Puck, or Coyote. Mischievous but not necessarily malicious.

Personally, I wouldn’t classify Long’s character as a villain as she lacks malicious intent. While she may come off as pushy, she’s genuinely trying to help her brother. And not just to hook up, either. She sees that he is “in love” with Gertz and is doing what’s in her power to make that relationship come about—which she 100% does! Yes, she is trying to prove a point to Gertz as well, but there’s never any antagonism. If she didn’t think they’d be good together, she probably would have let the whole thing slide. I also think Gus’ more radical transformation was more to circumvent Gettz’s preconceived opinions than to set up a long con. Long knows that despite how much he’s changed physically, Gertz will never be able to fully see Gus as anything other than the shy, chubby guy with the terrible toupee. She needs to completely erase that image from Gettz’s mind before they can truly have a second chance.

Paul is correct in that Romance Conventions typically don’t have cosplayers; however, it is relatively common for publishers to hire models as part of their marketing strategy during these events. These people will dress in genre dress for convention goers to take photos with and provide ambiance. So you might have models dressed as Highlanders, Cowboys, Motorcycle Club (of which “Lobo” would have been an example) etc. wondering around throughout the event interacting with attendees. During the scene in question, as the group of “Dolly Partons” pass, you can hear an announcement on the PA for the “Country and Western harlots” to report to the green room, presumably for some kind of exhibition being staged by Loveboree.

This will always be my favorite Ben Vareen performance:

I haven’t watched Endless Summer in forever!

I was thinking Major League! Sandlot’s a really good one too

You know, I’ve never seen Dazed and Confused... Midsommar is a solid pick

2 Appearances: Mädchen Amick - Sleepwalkers, Don't Tell Her It's Me

Without being too negative, does anyone have a Streisand movie that they do like? (looking at you @tomspanks) I know a couple of you watched her version of A Star is Born, but as I said when we covered the original, I just don't think I like that story, so I doubt I would like her version any better.

No, they can be whatever. I just want movies to get me into a summer mood—especially since I’m (mostly) stuck inside for the near future. The Core is the best and the fact HDTGM hasn’t covered it yet is unforgivable!

Great picks! I totally forgot about Weekend at Bernie’s.

I get that complaint, but in that case, it didn’t bother me too much. I think it’s really hard to write a character that’s supposed to be “good at writing” because that means that the actual writer has to be just as good, if not better, than the fictional person they’re creating. It’s the same issue as having a Sherlock Holmes-type character, who is supposed to be hyper intelligent, being written by someone with average intelligence. I’m not saying it can’t or doesn’t happen, but I get using some tricks—especially if they’re done well. I wonder, though, since Blinded was “inspired by a true story,” if the fragments of writing we are privy to are real or made up...

Same. “Don’t Rain on my Parade” made me sit up for a moment.

Yeah, the movie begins with "You'll never make it. You're not pretty enough." And then after one performance at pretty suspect venue, she's suddenly a huge hit. I'm sure this is abbreviated for the movie, but to what end? Why even bother setting it up if you're not going to make it matter? I guess it's to give their love story more room to breathe, but...yawn?

Like, one of her big things was this Baby Snooks character, which she kind of did for the press at the very end of the movie. I agree, I don't know a whole lot about her, but being a movie about a comedienne, I guess I expected it to have a lot more humor and a lot less melodrama. I mean, maybe that's not fair. It's not like the movie Chaplin is a laugh riot, or much better as a biopic, but at least it showed a little more of his craft.

I think that’s a good way articulate my issue with the film. It wasn’t a celebration of her life, it was a tabloid account of her marriage.

As I said on Letterboxd, I kind of struggled with this one. It’s not that I couldn’t recognize it for being good, I get it, but I felt like the angle they chose wasn’t all that compelling. It’s a Musical about the first female comedian, but it gets reduced to a pretty generic love story. I would have much preferred to watch her struggles in the industry. Instead, we get one (admittedly awesome) performance, and then boom, she’s famous. From then on, the focus drifts from her career to her marriage. Hell, if that’s the case, then you might as well include her failed first marriage and made a statement as to why Arnstein was so compelling to her (other than “he’s pretty”) and how Showbiz can be detrimental to personal relationships. I mean, I didn’t hate it. It was well done. But it left me pretty cold.

(Hope I'm not stepping on anybody's toes here, but I figured there should be a thread for this...) Stories from the Fast & Furious set, Cuban bread, and much more is covered on this week’s mini-sode! Paul goes through Corrections and Omissions for The Fate of the Furious, we hear Blake J. Harris interview Andy Gill, Jack Gill, and Spiro Razatos, the stunt coordinators for the Fast & Furious franchise (hear the whole thing in HDTGM: Origin Stories on Stitcher Premium), and Paul goes through the Mail Bag. Plus, you’ll find out which alien film we’ll be covering next week! This episode is brought to you by Maria Bamford: Old Baby on Netflix and Casper Mattresses (www.casper.com/how). Check out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepubli...wdidthisgetmade Where to Find Jason, June & Paul: Paul’s new comedy Drive Share is available on Go90. You can see June and Paul on NTSF:SD:SUV:: on HULU. June stars in Grace and Frankie on Netflix, as well as Lady Dynamite alongside with Jason. Jason can be seen in The Lego Batman Movie, How to Be Single, Sleeping with Other People, and is still indeed in The Dictator.

I put out a message to CakeBug to see if he wanted a pick, but I haven’t heard back. For now, I’m going to swap his and @Cam Bert’s weeks and see how it goes.