Never Seen It Podcast

Never Seen it Podcast — Episode 93 Taxi Driver (1976)

Episode Summary

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), one of the most influential films ever made. We discuss Robert De Niro's unforgettable performance as Travis Bickle, the movie's themes of loneliness and alienation, Jodie Foster's breakout role, and whether this New Hollywood classic still connects with audiences today. Plus, we share first-time viewing reactions, favorite scenes, behind-the-scenes trivia, and our final ratings.

Episode Notes

This week on the Never Seen It Podcast, we take a deep dive into Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) as the legendary film celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, and Albert Brooks, Taxi Driver remains one of the defining films of the New Hollywood era. We explore how Travis Bickle's isolation, insomnia, and growing detachment from society transformed the character into one of cinema's most unforgettable antiheroes.

We discuss:

Why Arnold selected Taxi Driver for the show
First-time viewing impressions and reactions
Robert De Niro's iconic performance as Travis Bickle
Martin Scorsese's direction and visual style
Jodie Foster's breakthrough role as Iris
The film's portrayal of loneliness, alienation, and urban decay
How Taxi Driver influenced movies like Drive and countless psychological thrillers
The famous "You talkin' to me?" scene and other memorable moments
Screenwriter Paul Schrader's real-life experiences that inspired the story
Whether Taxi Driver still resonates with audiences 50 years later
Our final ratings and where the film ranks among Scorsese's greatest works

Join us as we revisit one of the most acclaimed films ever made and debate why Taxi Driver continues to be studied, discussed, and celebrated decades after its release.

If you enjoy movie reviews, film analysis, classic cinema discussions, Martin Scorsese retrospectives, and conversations about film history, be sure to subscribe and follow the Never Seen It Podcast for new episodes every week.

Episode Transcription

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Welcome to the Never Seen It Podcast, The only podcast called Never Seen

It that's worth listening to with us tonight.

Mr. Arnie, The One Man Party is here.

Arnold Caliggo.

Mr. Daily Dares, a.ka.

Filipino Grigio, aka.

Alex Calo the Brothers.

Calo,

Mr. Ghostnerd 88, aka.

Justin Holden, Mr. Milkman America, aka.

Chris is here.

Of course, return special guest host.

Toner, the Italian stallion himself, Mr. Anthony Gardi is back.

Ladies and gentlemen, the prodigal son returns once again.

And then, of course, once's and never seen a podcast without that Denver girl, aka.

Amber White, is here, and then there's me, Boots,

too big, aka.

Adrian Delicious.

Tonight we have a special guest.

Lisa is an actress and model who we discovered her passion for performance

after raising her three children and returning to musical theater in Footloose.

The musical.

Since then, she has appeared in several independent films

across Colorado, participated in commercial print campaigns,

and is preparing for her first lead role in a fashion world romance

while completing work on the feature film, Felina.

On the runway, she will model for local and international

designers at events, including Aurora Fashion Week, Coloradoado Fashion

Week, the Shroomsky magazine Fashion Show, and the faces

of Indie Fashion show in Detroit, continuing to build the

dynamic presence across film, print, and fashion, welcome Lisa to the show

And tonight's film that we are discussing is

the 1976 50-year anniversary Taxi Driver

This city here is like an open sewer, you know?

It's full of filth and scum.

I think I know what you mean, Travis.

But it's not gonna be easy.

directed by Mr. Martin Scorsese himself,

starring Robert De Niro, Jody Foster, Sybil

Shepard, Harvey Keitel, and Elis goes on.

Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner

Travis Bickle takes a job in New York as a New York City cabby,

haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality

as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city.

And this was Arnold's movie.

Arnold, why did you choose Taxi Driver?

Well, I thought I would connect with it being

a former Uber driver, and I thought it would be really fun.

I thought after watching the movie, I'd be like, oh, I connect with that.

Oh, that that reminds me of that time that I picked up this

person and then they did this to me and they reached over and they showed me their dick pic

or like they flash those girls flash me in.

you know, I thought would be These are two.

These are true stories.

Yeah.

Okay.

Go on.

It happened.

Because I live in Palm Springs and you know, it's a tourist

town and a lot of the people that I would pick up,

they were here on vacation or here to party and just have fun.

Yeah, they were from CCBC.

That's how I discovered that place.

I mean, from dropping people off.

Right, right, right, right.

Sidhat is.

So you.

Travis Bicle.

Yeah, did you see yourself in him after watching the movie, Arnold?

You're going to need a mohawk.

You need to like shakeave off.

Did you buy a bunch of guns, Arnold?

When you're an Uber driver?

Is that what it is?

No, I just started pumping iron and try to build up these guns.

But

No, but no, it didn't move me that way,

in that I wanted to like clean up the city.

If anything, I learned a lot of what was happening

in town because like the desert, it was it changed a lot over the years.

It used to be a ghost town during the summers

But it was like steadily busy.

And people would come to the desert even

though it's 115 degrees for vacation,

but like, and restaurants being open,

it was at that time

you could make pretty good money on the side.

But then over the years, you know, with some

of the rules that they change or just, you end up getting paid less.

Did you ever feel lonely, Arnold?

Did you ever feel that?

The way Travis Bickel felt lonely?

No, no, not really.

Oh, that's good.

Because there was a lot of times I would get invited to like...

They're like, dude, just clock

out and then just just come on in, man.

Did you ever take anybody up on that?

No.

No.

That's okay.

On the real side.

You're looking vicariously through.

I say about that?

Yeah, what does the private chat say about?

They're like, You're going to find some wild..

They're saying some wild stuff.

Yeah.

And in order to see it, you got to subscribe.

Oh, that's right, yeah.

Paid subscription.

Yeah, it's hTMl.d. windows.c

drive Arnold.TMl.

That's you.

Close.

Join them.

So, wait a minute.

So did you choose, did you watch this for the show or had you already seen this movie, Arnold?

I had not seen it.

I think, I think I've rewatched The Godfather, which we have done

as one of our earlier episodes.

Yeah.

And I just grew to love that movie.

And after probably because, you know, it's a De Niro movie,

afterwards it would, Is he your favorite actor?

Who's your favorite actor?

don't say Glenn.

Don't say Glenn Powell.

Careful. very upset.

Olay C.

Michaelalay Coke is your favorite actor?

Wow..

What What's up there?

It's kind of tough.

Yeah.

Did you remember?

JCVD, and JCD?

Oh, JJ.VD.

JCVD.

Megan Fox.

Illi, the science guy..

Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill.

That's kind of tough.

Yeah, that's good.

Well, and we'll come back to that.

You can think about that for now.

Lisa, had you seen this movie prior to doing it for the show or

where were you on?

No, I hadn't.

When I looked it up, I'll beyond,, I was like, 1976.

I mean, I know that I was unfortunately alive

at that time, but it was not a movie that

I looked at and would have been like, yes, I'm more of a action adventure, superhero movie.

And I was like, oh, it follows the exploits of a taxi driver.

And I was like, yeah, okay, let me see what I can

how many monsters I can get to keep myself awake.

I wasn't immediately drawn to it.

So, but I'm kind of glad that that

I watched it because now doing

things in film and the cinematography part was

pretty cool to watch some of the angles.

It's something I hadn't thought about on the other side of the camera acting.

You don't think about how much you have to put into

those camera angles.

And I know it won all kinds of like nominations,

Academy Award nominations for it.

And so, but it wasn't one that I was immediately drawn to.

So I was like, oh, okay, we'll see what we think of it.

Nice, nice.

Thank you for that.

Justin?

Yeah, the funny thing about this movie is that I

haven't seen this in a long time. and I forget about like the soundtrack.

It almost sounds like, you know, jazzy,

you know, adult film-esque, you know, which is, I guess,

fitting because, you know, he goes into an adult movie theater most of the movie

But, it's interesting to see,

how different it is compared to other movies from the 70s.

Because if you ever watch like just a

straight up, like early 70s movie, it's that really

washed out, like very hippie vibe going on with it.

This movie, like, it had the soundtrack to

that, but the way that it was shot was so beautifully done

For as old as this movie is, it looked really good.

I don't know if it it's because I'm watching like a remastered version of it.

But even then, like, it looks really good just through and through.

You can really feel the dirt and the grime on

the screen from 1970s New York City, which

I guess at that time it was a very grimy city.

Chris?

Yeah, on that note, bring it to the cinematography of it.

It really goes to show you how much cinematography is

an art because the technology that we have

today, there's a bunch of movies that are that don't even sniff at

as good of a movie as this was,

just purely from a cinematography aspect.

Everything from as silly as like some of the

transitions made seem basic, they're so well done that it blends in.

It's not a pain point

At any point in the movie, I really found nothing like

that was jarring, especially from a movie that's 50

years old, you know, and it holds up really strong.

It's just a testament to how much like

effort and thought went into this movie.

This was not just like a thrown together.

Oh, yeah, we're just going to get some cityscape shots and just shoot

Deiro for 95% of the movie.

There was a through line

through every single shot, everything from when De Nero

looks into the rearview

mirror is beautifully shot at the end and getting like just little snippets

And then even parts where there's really not for

a slow of a-paced movie as this is, again, between

each scene is just beautiful.

I felt transported back

throughout the whole movie.

It was really beautiful.

I agree with that.

The cinematography was like really beautiful.

There was like this one scene that stood out to me in particular where

they were in the political office and I

Travis walks in to talk to Betsy

and he's talking and then he does this one thing.

There's a one really quick shot where he waves his hand kind of

like you see a shot of that a two shot two framing of them,

but then it and it cuts to like a shot where

you see De Niro's hand

like wave over the desk.

Is it a very simple shot, but it was just like beautifully shot.

It was like framed the way it was framed.

And it went back to the two frame.

And I was like, wow, that was.

But he put a lot of detail into that.

And I think I completely agree with this a cinematography on this. critique this point.

Anthony?

Yeah, there are some good shots.

There's some that are definitely like

fresh out of film school, right?

I think like the end shot is it's craning over everybody and going upside down.

You're like, okay, like that's, thanks for lingering on that one.

The one that I really love the most was when he's on the call

with Betsy and like after they, you know, took her to the porno

house and like the date went terrible and it's slowly panning away from him

where it's like, even the camera's like, yeah, this is, I'm done with this.

He's awkward, you know?

Yeah.

And I think it shows like going down an empty hall, too, which just shows kind

of his mental state there, too, his isolation, his loneliness.

So there are elements.

I'm glad you bring that up because because when I first watched this movie, I don't know how many years

ago now, I rewatched it again recently and then that shot came up and

I read about it, and Scorsese won, like you said, he's like, this

is such a pathetic conversation that even the camera's like, let me get out of here a little bit.

So yeah, great, great that you bring that up.

Well, I was going to say, I think it shows too, that, you know, like the development of Scorsese's craft.

And so he definitely masters that throughout his career.

And like, so these are the buds of it.

Definitely.

Definitely.

Amber.

I really, um liked, like those out the window kind of shots.

They're kind of like, they're almost used as like transitions, like in between like scenes.

It's like somebody's riding in the back of the cab and like seeing the city outside the window.

It's almost like a wipe transition.

That was kind of cool.

Yeah.

And as we always talk about on this show, how much the location plays a character

and New York City really, like, it feels

like a character, like, like a very sketchy

character that is just throughout the whole story.

And I don't know what happened between 1970s and

now, but they definitely cleaned up the city, Alex?

I remember Anthony Bourdain.

He had referenced this era of

New York in a lot of his writing and

how he misses actually that era of

New York, where it's like, it was like this honest sort of like

violence in a way where it was like, like

everything was just like what it is it was what it was.

Nothing that nobody was trying to bullshit you.

This is like, but then you look at how he's

like, he would made some commentary about how New York is now and how it's Disneyified

And like everything's just corporate and just like

Mickey Mouse and like every corner is like a

a Chili's or a cane's orbee's

Applebee's, you know, like got a Bububba Gump shrimp in New

York, like New York Square or whatever.

Square.

Is that, New York or everywhere.

Yeah, everywhere, yeah, app.

Well, yeah, it started in New York, now it's just spreading.

Like, even like in LA where they're by the Staples Center, which is now the Crypto Arena

they like were almost modeling that area

to be somewhat like Times Square.

Capitalism seems to put a damper on the

characterization of so many cities that don't like corporate gray. squares under everybody.

What's that?

I don't know, Anthony.

You don't like corporate gray?

No, actually.

I like a little bit of color.

Hey, you know what?

It keeps the resale value.

It keeps.

Did you have something to add to that, Anthony?

I was going to say, you were commenting on New York feeling sketchy and

kind of like this own character.

to create that, Scorsese actually decided

to film it during a garbage strike.

So all the trash you see around New York was actually

there because the, yeah, the garbage companies were on strike, not picking up the trash.

Wow.

And, you know, they do that in New York in general.

They don't have back alleys with dumpsters.

Everybody just puts their trash out from the

Yeah, that's crazy to me.

Like How does that rats?

There's.

I was just going to say what are the rats, Lisa?

I was going to say something, you know, we were talking about New

York City and it's kind of its own character.

There was something about the coloring of it.

And I know, you know, looking at a 1976

film versus now, our ability in film is better with color, but

I feel like it was the, the dark colors,

the kind of, I don't know, the hues of it, added to it.

It helped me remember like, oh, this is grimy.

This is, you know, the back alleys.

And it wasn't, it wasn't staged.

It felt very much really.

Like this is like if I were to have gone to the city to New York City

in 1976, like it literally would have looked that color

But I liked some of the dark colors and the shading in it,

which also, I think, helped the vibe of the movie.

And, I mean, New York City, there's

no better character to play in in your movie

as New York City itself, because there's built-in characters there on the street..

Absolutely

Absolutely.

Alex?

Yeah, just the add-on to Lisa's point.

We, as we know, now, a

lot of cities have switched over their like street lights into like LEDs.

And they say that like once that happened, it kind of changed film

The very last film to actually, very

last major film to have done that was the movie Drive with Ryan Reynolds.

They shot.

They shot that film.

It was so beautifully, and they still had the incandescent street lights

the oil-based lights before they, right before they

switched over to the LEDs and so you can tell tell that.

Yeah, and not only that, but like nobody shoots

on the film anymore, except, I think, Scorsese, Nolan, Spielberg,

Tarantino, and maybe a couple of others, but everything is shot digitally now.

I don't think you can recreate that digitally, no matter how many filters you use

I don't, I don't know that you, I'm not a technician, but I don't know that you could really do that.

Chris.

I mean, be careful.

Ask AI to do it.

I might do it.

But to bring it back to

the colors of the movie, I really enjoyed

how dark the movie was able to get without losing itself.

That's a really tough thing to do is to

light something black and have it

not just completely drown itself.

And on that same note, the

amount of red light you and red colors

in this movie was really powerful.

Everything from as simple as Deiro's red coat whenever

I saw him walking with that, it was like, okay, he's got a little swagger right now.

But even like those nighttime seems

like, obviously you get a lot of that from like the stoplights as a taxi driver.

But I think to a degree, it signifies a little bit more

more than just, this just happens to be the ambience of the movie.

And it really kind of gives you that undertone of like, you know,

this is not all like fun and daisies and we're not just talking about loneliness here.

We're talking about something a little bit grittier

that is strung through again.

And I thought, like, again, with how's lit

and the color used toage, it was, again, really well done.

HLP said Joker did a good job at the coloring.

Oh, that's right.

If you think about it, that was post

drive, you know, like when everything got changed over to LEDs.

But if you think about it as well, I

heard that Scorsese had some influence in the Joker film.

Didn't he?

Did he not?

Well, I know that like it's funny that De Niro

was also in Joker as the late night talk shows

because he did a movie called The Comedian, which if you guys have never seen, you should watch it.

It's great.

And he, I feel like they've just borrowed a lot from comedian and this movie, Taxi Driver.

I don't know if Scorsese was directly involved in a creative level.

Is that what you read or?

No, no, I just heard that he had some sort

of like influencer guidance in the film with the director.

I don't know the name of the director, but I've heard something about that.

I don't know.

I could be wrong.

I could see that.

I feel like this was like when Scorsese was really like coming up, right?

Like this was like one of his

first big movies.

I know that I was reading about this earlier, that somebody on

Reddit was complaining, people on Reddit complaining, who's ever heard of that, right?

But somebody on Reddit was complaining about how this movie is like too slow in

the beginning, but somebody said, like, no, well, it's kind of inspired

by French New Wave, which was kind of like the

kind of in vogue It's the time, which is why it is it is kind of a slow burn movie.

Like, you know, you can't have a fast-faced movie like this, really.

I mean, you know, I know in this modern day, you want

to have like the movie up here and then Subway surfers down here.

But like back then, it was just like, let's do a slow burn

character study on this lonely, lonely guy, you know?

So, but yeah, Chris, you had something?

Yeah, just to, I,

while watching this film, I immediately was thinking about the

Joker with Joaquin Phoenix

uh, just because I, I like watching this now, I'm

like, this, the Joker was just almost a complete ripoff of

Taxi Joker, where we're following this very

lonely guy who had the tough life before we meet him, the audience

and then we're sort of like duped into thinking he's

this nice guy that we're like on his side or we could see ourselves in him.

And then he has the switch and we're like, oh yeah, no, no, no, this guy's not good.

in both movies.

Almost, you just have like a quote unquote superhero

version that's updated, but I just thought that was interesting..

Interesting, yeah.

Anthony, how early in the movie

did everybody's hairs go up and like you started seeing the red flags?

I think for me, it was was when he started buying those guns that late.

Really?

That, yeah.

That was in the cab.

The cab.

What he was watching. was the first Betsy to a porno theater.

I think it was just the way he approached Betsy in general.

Yeah, before.

Yeah.

The way he just kind of like..

The Watching is weird.

The.

Yeah, exactly.

When he was sitting outside in the office, there's like

oh, just, and she even noticed it's like, that guy's just watching me.

Also, that was the funniest scene to me in the whole movie was

her Betsy going, um, that taxi driver.

And like, it's like the full taxi cab is like in the like complete view of

that front entrance.

Well, and they tried to play it off like when he came in to approach her too, is like this, oh no, it's romantic.

Like, he's been watching.

He's lonely.

But I think that's when my hair started to stand up because the

way he was talking to her about like, you're lonely, like he was telling

her this, you know, and he's like, I'm here to save you.

Like that guy's dangerous.

And I was like, ew, dude.

Like, no

I was like, yeah, whoa.

It is very presumptuous to say that to somebody, especially somebody you don't know.

And then it's like, he's a taxi driver.

She's a political operative.

Like, what do you know?

Like, you know, about this person?

She could be the daughter of a billionaire for all you know.

But that's a good point, you.

Yeah, I don't know.

For me, it was it was it was more along the lines of the guns where I was like, okay,

this is like a big, big turning point, like a hard turning point, not so much a soft turning point.

Amber.

I was going to try to like hold back and not like immediately get too deep,

but like, um Milkman keeps touching on it.

So I'm just going to go ahead

But like it's, I feel that like the like

entire like, like overarching theme is like,

good, like duality, basically, like how there's good and bad in all of these people.

So like, it's not necessarily, like,

it's not necessarily that we see him as a good guy

and then are dup, like kind of duped and then like see that like that's not who he is at all.

And he's kind of, I feel like we see him evolve into that.

And he initially wasn't.

Like, you know, he's getting crazier and crazier with

the things that he sees at night, I feel.

And it's like not being exposed to like the everyday, like

2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, like going into the grocery store, like, I don't know.

Like he's always awake, but it's like, it seems like he's really on

at night and like he keeps those memories like, and they start to

form like who he becomes.

So it's like he's good.

And then I feel like they go back to that at the the end, they like revisit that and like reinforce that when you see like

Iris's parents sent him a letter in prison and they're like, you're a hero to us.

And it's like, that's crazy that he's the hero to you guys because he killed

like multiple people, but it's like, it makes sense.

Like he kind of is a hero to.

Yeah, he even says like he he, because he,

I guess reached out to his boss and was like, hey, I need more hours.

So they just worked them from six to six.

And that's a lot of hours to work

And then, and then like waking up the next day

or maybe even staying awake and going

about his whatever he's doing throughout the day.

You can tell that he's like extremely tired, sleep depraved.

Yeah, it's kind of insane.

I feel like that schedule breaks him up.

I was going to say the hairs on the back of my neck went up.

Also, I think, when he went in and you could tell that

flip of that tiny switch when he starts to almost feel like he has the control over her

Like he's known her from a distance for, you

know, a day, maybe, and he comes in and he just starts assuming

and telling her what she feels and what she needs.

And I think that we see that switch over.

I almost think kind of like Joker.

It's interesting when you brought that up because I was like, gosh, I wouldn't have thought about that

But you see Joker trying to get control of his life.

And this guy is lonely and he's trying to have control of his life.

He can't control his sleep, even the most basic bodily function.

And I think it's almost like a loss of control and how people

lose it when they realize they have no control over anything in their life.

And he's trying to control her

He's trying to control his sleep.

Nothing is within his control.

And he even, I think it was interesting when you said about he's on the phone and it pans away from him.

Even the camera doesn't care about him.

So he's lost all control of his life.

And I think there was a slow,

almost like that movie.

If anybody saw Falling down.

Oh, with Michael Douglas?

Oh, I love that one.

It reminded me a lot of that because of this like typical

guy that you don't realize has this underlying, you know, struggle

with even being seen or being visible to anybody.

And then all of a sudden he snaps.

I hadn't even thought about the parallels with Falling down.

I love that movie.

Arnoldnold, you had something.

Oh, where the hairs stood up on,

well, I don't really have hairs.

The hair that stood up.

The metaphorical hairs.

Yeah.

It was, I mean mean, I think Anthony you mentioned it, like how they

kind of made it more like, okay, is he like how he would stare at her?

It's It was almost like, you know, like creepy, but

then is it almost like someone who's like struck with love

and then and then how he walks in there with some romantic confidence.

And then, but then it kind of gets a little bit like,

you know, he has like has like this

uh, like super strong, like, like, like

confidence where he just goes in and decides to holla at her.

And then, um, and then, uh, but then the second time when he comes back

and then and then where the guy, he like pushes him out,

that's where I was like, okay, oh, he's got this side of him.

And then it's really interesting how they start to build that up like even more and more.

And then then all of a sudden he buys the guns.

And then and then here he is.

He's like

equipping himself and like, what the heck is he building?

And he's building that thing to make the gun come

out of the sleeve, like Assassin's Creed blazer thrower.

Yeah.

Chris.

Well, actually, I have a question

for Lisa and Amber because this movie has a

lot of interesting themes to it, whether it be like

the control, the good and evil dality, identity with all that sort of stuff.

But this movie is from the point of view of De Niro's character

And so much of this movie is such a.

um observation of like the masculinity that

um, his identity as a, as a man is

we get to see that on display as almost like, as like a character

sort of development type of thing.

I'm interested to see what you guys think about

this movie as women watching this

man from his perspective throughout

this whole movie and like what your thoughts on

whether him, the

love interest, or even towards the end of

him, quote unquote, being the hero for the 12-year-old

sex worker.

Lisa, you want to answer that first?

Yeah, I thought it was interesting.

I guess I had a hard time not focusing

on the whole control thing.

And I don't know, I don't know if that was the point

of it showing that, um, he

he couldn't control his own life.

And so he thought he would control, um, Civil Shepherd's character.

And then when she rejected him, um, it

was interesting because it made me think about

how often is it from the male perspective that,

that, that getting shut down or getting shot down?

Um, kind of jabs at like

a self-esteem to the point where, you know, do we know

how many people, men or women that when they have that

are kind of right on the verge of like, you know, not

necessarily that they're going to buy, you know, a bucket full of weapons and do this.

But, and from the,

you know, being the hero perspective, I thought it was interesting because of the fact that that was, that was great.

I missed, I was focusing on something else.

I missed whatever that was.

Shoot.

We have to go back to doing that.

It' happens a dance break.

You'll get your.

I told you I would join you on the dance break.

That's great.

That's amazing.

That's amazing.

Round of applause for that.

But I

think the, it was interesting to me that

as a parent,

that they put in there the, the weird illusion

from Iris's parents of like, thank you, you were a hero.

Because I also had to think, like, was there nobody around that saw him just

walk, like, first of all, attempt on the, at the political rally.

And by the way, that was a terrible Secret

Service agent, because he could like not walk over his own feet.

He just like did this tumble.

I was like, wow, they should fire him.

But the going in and labeling

him as a hero kind of also my

cynical side said, I wonder how often that actually does happen.

We have somebody that has these ill intentions and they're just

kind of in the right place at the right time and now they're viewed as a hero, but that wasn't their intention to begin with.

So I don't know.

It kind of took me down a very contemplative

path, maybe not the best, healthiest path, but,

but it really made me wonder and think about

how often, you know, male or female when they're shot down

by somebody, it takes such a jab at self-esteem that might be really fragile anyway.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Amber, did you want to add to that?

I felt like I actually understood like

De Nero's character in a way.

Like, did you guys notice, like, did anybody ever see him eat?

I feel like he had like some

serious, like issue about meeting his own needs.

Like, he was unable to meet his own needs, which like, in the evolution

that we witnessed is like one of the key reasons why like he spirals so hard.

But like, he I think he had good intentions the entire

time, like because he's like trying, he think

it's not real.

I think it's a delusion that the city is this nasty and disgusting, but it's like he truly believes that.

So like from his perspective, he wants to clean that up.

That's why he wants to kill the mayor or the governor, whoever that guy is.

He thinks it's his fault.

You know, he's like looking for somebody to blame.

And I feel like he's obsessively trying to meet the needs of someone else because he is so

like incapable of meeting his own.

And it's like almost like,

That's like some kind of anxious attachment theory kind of thing.

Like that's like, it's he had some kind of like psychological disorder that,

like, of course, like, with all, like all mental illness,

without food and rest and proper, like nourishment,

like just got out of control completely.

Like it was almost this, this delusion just became more

and more like his actual reality.

So

I felt like I, I thought that about

him and I felt like I I've had, I don't think it's just a male thing.

Like, in my opinion, like, I've had that, um,

I haven't, like, had trouble meeting my own needs, but

of course I've had that desire to like want to provide for someone else.

And it's like, it's not the same thing, but I kind of think that's like where it starts with him.

And then it's like, without even knowing if people's needs are not met.

He's like, I can meet your needs.

And it's like, but wait a minute, you're not even

helping yourself.

Like, I don't know.

It's, it's an interesting dichotomy with that.

So yeah, no, thank you.

That's I never, I never thought about it that way.

Arnold?

You were talking about him, how he ate.

Do you guys notice that part where he was

he had like white bread and I don't know if he put butter, but then he started like pouring sugar over it.

Yeah.

I was like, what is he?

Filipino?

That I was going to say it almost looked like he was dumping, was it whiskey?

It was schnapps and then sugar?

Oh, ugh.

Oh, schnapps.

Okay, yeah.

There's a weird obsession of like pouring sugar on toast because Iris does the same thing.

She

like puts jelly on her toast.

And then she puts more sugar and it makes her sandwich out of it.

So she does. representative of poverty, though.

Like, I think they're just trying to get, you know what I mean?

A little bit.

That's all they got or something.

No, so Jody Foster did that.

Oh, was J.

Foster?

That was a Jodie Foster thing that she brought to the role.

So she followed around a prostitute

as her research for the role.

And that's something that the prostitute did because she was addicted to either heroin or meth.

Wow.

And the extra sugar and sweetness would combat her cravings.

And so Jody Foster was very observant, picked it up, and was like, I'm going to add that to my character.

Arnold, you

know that?

Don't you know, you know what?

I remember, okay, so many lives ago

in high school, I got I got caught with weed at school and I got a resident.

I was suspended from school and then and then I remember while I

had to stay home from school, my grandma

was very disappointed in me, but they were like, you're on drugs.

And I guess she also knew that like,

in order for like, that like people who were on drugs needed sugar.

So they were like, here, eat as much ice cream as you want.

I was like, what?

For real?

And so I ate like, I don't know, how many pints of ice cream that whole week

while I was suspended from school.

Yeah.

You just had the perpetual munchies, it sounds like, Arnold.

Yeah.

I kept thinking What's your excuse now these days when you're eating ice cream?

He's still in treatment, okay?

Give it.

Take it easy.

We'sing sugar takes a long time.

Yeah, it does.

Arnold's actually a private chef, believer in.

So.

Think of the food asour.

Yeah, all that sugar in their toast.

Think of that asoss.

Arno?

Yeah.

I don't know.

I don't dess Can you make me a cannoli sometime?

Yeah.

You know what?

I got the shells.

All I got to do is the filling.

I'm glad I'm glad you're bring a cannoli, Justin,

and I'm glad you bring your research, Anthony, because De Niro did

his own research by being a cab driver for, I don't know how many weeks

And this was after he got nominated for Godfather 2.

So he picked up a random actor one time as one of his fairs and he's like, what?

You got nominated for an Oscar and you're still driving a cab?

Is that how fucked we are?

I think that's an interesting little tidbit that he did that for a while.

Yeah, I think it was like 10 weeks or something.

He dropped cab in New York.

Can you imagine in the 1970s in New York?

Wow.

That's That's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool.

I a question for you guys.

Do you think that it would have been the same movie in a different city?

I mean, Detroit, it could have been

I mean, what do you think?

Do you think it would have been, because there's other cities that are considered rough.

Detroit and places like that.

But what do you think about that?

I think it would be completely different.

I think New York is is such its own character that that it doesn't compare it to LA, Chicago

Detroit.

Also I do think it would be way better.

Didn't Detroit kind of like not really hit that kind of

crazy crime routeridden kind of spectacle until like the 80s.

Yeah, that came later, that came later when like a lot of jobs were outsourced, right?

A lot of manufacturing

counterps.

I disagree because they did make it in a fictional universe in the Joker.

So it can exist in another city.

That's true.

It exist in a fictional city.

Well, well, as near Seattle, right?

You're near Seattle.

Seattle the going through.

So, I mean, I would say it's kind of going through.

It's similar.

Like it was

punk, you know, grunge and grun cool

and weird. and now it's corporate and Amazon and kind of lame, right?

Starbucks, Isn't the Chinatown in Seattle is really messed up?

So it's got two things, right?

There's like a lot of fun pop-ups and like really cool like Asian night markets and stuff that will happen.

But then there's also an open air drug market right there at the International Station, right?

So it's like, I saw a video on YouTube where they were saying like,

yeah, you might get stabbed when you go down there.

No, it's not.

I mean, I mean, I don't know.

If you go there when they, maybe.

Yeah, you don't go there with just by yourself.

You go with a group..

What kind of rooms they sell there?

Apparently most of its fentanyl because they're all doing the f..

Sugar on toast.

Yeah, little booger sugar.

Justin, you had something.

No, I was going to talk about the prices

of the cab versus the prices of the drink he

buys because the cab, it was like to

go across town, it was like $1.35.

And then his drink was like $1.69 or something like that.

It was great..

I was like, man, that one soft drink is more expensive than a cab across town.

Nowadays, you can't get a cocktail for under $10 bucks.

It's like impossible.

Or an Uber for less than 50.

In this economy?

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Amber, you had something?

I was thinking back on, like one

thing that I, I don't know if it's the one that made like my hair stand up on the back of my neck, but

I noticed like something was like, seriously off with

him whenever, like I guess

I noticed that like he's not that intelligent or

something because like whenever the politician was in the c, and

he was asking like, you know, what do we need to do?

And he kind of just like went on an angry rant, but like, didn't

provide like any actual like feasible solution to it.

Like, y'all need to draft new legislation for, you know,

the, he was just kind of like badmouthing it, you know, it's kind of like just anger, anger, anger.

That's all I was hearing.

And it's like Get your discord mod, right?

It's mentally ill and it's like, this guy doesn't

really have a lot of options either, I guess, because it's like he's just kind of like not, I don't know.

That was weird.

That stuck out to me.

At least the Joker went to therapy and was on medication.

This guy wasn't doing any of that.

I was just going to say, when we're talking about like cab

prices and Uber prices, I remember once, it just made me think of

a story when I was an Uber driver driver and there's there's

a street in downtown Palm Springs called Areas.

And, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of gay bars.

That's where a lot of them would go, but I would kind of camp

out right there because a lot of them would request Ubers.

So there was one at 2 a.m. I picked up somebody

got just a guy by himself, and right away he

starts striking up a conversation and you're like, oh, so you from here?

I'm like, oh, yeah, I' born and raised in Palm Springs.

Oh, you' here from Palm Springs?

Do you are Are you gay?

And I was like, uh, no, actually, I'm

doing this that way I can help save money for our wedding.

We're going to be getting married

and you, want to make some extra money.

And so like, he kept trying to get married to the end of that.

Remember that.

What?

Yeah, you didn't get married.

They do that now.

That's something that happens.

Well, this was when this was, what, 2015?

What year was this?

was probably

like, oh, yeah, like 2015.

What the Okay.

How'd you know?

I used to work in TV.

It was in the back of your cab secretly.

Yeah.

That was me, yeah.

Arld, that was me getting on you the whole time.

That's why we're doing the podcast.

It was like, it was like a 15, 20 minute drive, and then the prices were surging.

And then he didn't he didn'tize I was

When we

get to the destination to his place,

it was like, I don't know, like 50, 60 bucks.

And then I'm like starting to drive away.

And he's like, wait, wait, wait.

It's just right.

He's like showing me the price.

I'm like, yeah, I don't have control over the prices that's what it is right now.

He's like, well, is there anything I can do to make it go down

And then I was like, no, no,

this was after he had recommended that that maybe instead

of, I know that maybe I worked for a man.

I was like, what do you mean by working for a man?

He's like, like sexually.

I was like, no.

No, I I don't think so.

Wow.

Sorry.

The storyt, I't.

You could have had your own taxiab confessions series.

Arnold.

You really missed out there. was one time where

she shed a few tears with a couple of girls.

But was Over what?

You're like, ladies, I'm a married man.

I can't I can't..

You're like show.

Do you want me to tell the story?

right there.

He stood up and he did his dance in

the cab and they were like throwing money at him.

So When I hugged him, I couldn't help,

but like my hips were still like, like, swiveling.

And I'm like, hey, wait, no, I just made that up.

There's three things I want to talk about really quick and I'll I'll go around the room.

The first thing is, I want to talk about Martin's Scorsese's cameo in this movie.

I remember that he had a cameo.

I didn't remember the content of it.

It's very interesting.

Anthony, let's start with you since I saw you here.

I was going to say, he had two cameos, technically.

What was the second one?

He was in a photo that was like very early in the movie.

I think like they're flipping through it.

And like he appears in a corner in a photo.

I remember like I was sitting there and I was like, whoops, whoop.

And then, yeah, then the back of the taxi cab.

And Wow.

I'll say the the thing that I. He's a good actor.

Well, he was very convincing.

Oh, he wasn't acting is what you're saying.

I will say that I discovered a new appreciation.

My dad is from New York.

I discovered a very new appreciation for East Coast slurs.

Uh in this entire movie.

And Scorsese rattled off a few of them.

And apparently there are some lines of dialogue from that scene that were cut

because they were a little too offensive.

And if you know what he said, I think in my notes, I wrote hard

R, like, you know, cringy face emoji.

Right.

There were lines that were cut because they were even more offensive than that.

Right.

Wow.

But it was, yeah, it was it was a long string of

frustration and anger.

Yeah.

Alex, did you want to add to that?

No, I was just saying that like this is this his first acting role?

Because if it was, I just came from seeing his most recent

acting role in Mandalorian Ningorogu.

That's right.

He voices one of the aliens or something.

Don't Sharktail.

Let's not forget Shark Tail.

Yeah, but this was Mandalorian Ningrogu was his most recent one.

And yeah, it was very obviously Martin Scorsese voacing that character.

And I was like, um, how might have fallen.

I think in another lifetime, Scorsese would have been like a great character actor.

He has the voice, he has the mennerisms.

He's Italian.

To be fair.

I know he's not his first acting.

To be fair, though, he, what is that?

You know, he has connections to like Star Wars like

several different ways.

Like this film was edited by

George Lucas's ex-wife.

Rest in peace.

X-wife.

Yeah, we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the passing

of Marcia Lucas, who helped shape the

original Star Wars movies and was the editor on this movie,

which I do want to. came out before Star Wars.

The year before Star Wars.

Yeah.

And because Star Wars, the original Star Wars came out in 77.

This came out in 76.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, Rip, Marshall Lucas, great editor

uh, was married to George Lucas.

She was one of like several people that helped edit the original Star Wars movies.

I think the thing that she contributed to the most was like the trench run.

But yeah, this movie, I love the way this movie was editedited.

I think Chris had mentioned transitions earlier.

Did you notice some of the swipe transitions throughout the movie

And I was like, that must have been big back in that day.

Like, that must have been like a new, they had a day by, right, right?

Yeah, by hand.

They had to do it by real wipe.

Well, Chris, you had your hand up.

Did you want to add to that?

Or are you?

Yeah, really stupid aside.

As far as Scorsese's

cameo, was when I first saw him, it threw me for a loop.

I was like, is that the guy from the elf from the Santa Claus

David Krumholtz.

I was like, there was something so odd about saying

Young Scors S that I was just like, this

is really weird for me right now.

Yeah.

But anyway, yeah, to your point, that was a wild, and I didn't feel like acting

a scene.

I was like, uh, this guy literally just is doing a

video diaryary in the middle of this movie.

And it felt very punchy.

Yeah, so what did you think about that?

Like, in the context of the story, what do you think that whole thing meant?

Because Travis just kind of stares at I'm like, okay, like what did you make of all that, Chris?

Well, and then this is just going to get into like a larger

issue, potentially.

This movie talks about racism.

And I, to

be fair, I think they do a relatively good job

of addressing how real racism

was through the eyes of

these characters in a way that they're not trying to say,

hey, we're going to convince you why.

They're why they believe what they believe.

It's you, you get this weird, like,

just an observer of what racism, like true

real racism looked like.

And they showed the different variations of that.

Like that guy was straight through and through

racist undertones and overtones, right?

But in the bringing it back to

De Niro, it's like what we get these glimpses

of like, is he racist?

Yes, he's racist.

It's just this weird

weird view where I don't think at

any point obvious we're being convinced of the racism

that is going throughout this sort

of like rugged New York City.

It's kind of just like this raw observation of what that really looked like

And to a degree, that, I was like, man, this is icky.

And I did some more research on it.

And I found out that they actually switched the ending of this movie,

uh, because, uh, apparently it was supposed to be, um, uh,

all, uh, black individuals, um,

as far as uh the, uh, what do we call that?

sex house.

So I don't know how PC was supposed to be doing in the whore house.

Yeah, I was trying not to.

But apparently they're also supposed to be black and by someone's

very good point of view view of like, hey, maybe we don't have Deiro's

shoot up just an entire building of black people.

Like that would probably not land well.

Even in the 70s.

So like to pull that punch, I definitely think would necessary because

it already teeters on that line and to like finish the movie I think would kind of be like

way too much.

And it already teeters on that line.

So, um, I forgot what the original question was.

No, that's fine.

This is great.

It gets really messy when addressing a topic like that.

Especially through the lens 50 years later,, right?

Of all the things that we've

sort of come come along.

It's funny how much it's changed and how much has not changed. 15 years.

Anthony, I think you had your hand up?

Oh No, I did.

I was just I was going to mention that it seemed like

probably a counterpart, right?

Because in the original script, it was like,

Travis was a full-blown racist.

He comes back from the war a racist.

That's why the pimps and everybody are all black because

like that's the Kaitel's character is supposed to be black.

Yeah, and so like that's that's what the character was, and Scorsese wanted to change that.

So I wonder then, now thinking of it, I wonder if he was there to kind of

pull some of that racist labeling

off of De Niro's character so to show you a stark

contrast of like, no, here's a true blue racist, our Travis

is not a racist, even though the original script was, ours isn't.

But hold on.

That kind of recontextualizes the scene in

the bodega where he shoots the guy that's robbing

the cashier.

True.

I mean, I mean, did he really do that because he was trying to be a vigilante

or did he do that because there was like some vestigial, like racist, you know, undertones?

Which is like this is right place, wrong time type of heroism.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Alex I think you had your hand up?

There is this sort of

changing of the landscape in cinema.

This came in, you know, in 19777,

where, you know, right before that, you saw films like Taxi Driver, like

Chinatown.

This is very dark, dark viewpoints of society.

And then comes 1977 and then Star Wars,

where it was this sort of like kind of ray of hope, but also this sort of like, um

like, uh, kind

of hopeful kind of thing that, you know, in

storytelling where the good guys win and things like that.

And it's kind of an important thing to have in

cinema because like, yeah, you want to

put a spotlight on what's

actually happening in the dark side of what's going on.

But you also still have to give hope in the sense of like storytelling

And like I saw a video recently talking about Lord of the Rings.

You know, fantasy is like, yeah, it's an escape, but

it also within that escape, it gives you examples of how to

have hope to bring hope and

to give, like, still have joy in this world of like

darkness, you know, and so like, and how to fight, how to fight,

you know, the darkness, you know, and I think that's what, what's important about

like, you know, this sort of cinema, but also

you know, what came after, in light of everything,

you see, like all these like, you see, like Indiana Jones, you know, punching in a Nazi.

You know, that's a fancy, like that's like a you

know, careful you don't want to be on the list..

Careful, Alex.

I'm like Gerard

You could be labeled Antifa.

You punch your Nazi.

Careful.

Yeah, Indy did.

Indy did that.

Yeah.

Well, it's interesting you bring that up, Alex, because I feel like we're going

through this new phase now, only now a

Star Wars movie does worse off than two indie made horror movies.

It had a much, much lower budget, right?

And I bet you back then, like this movie probably did better than

some big studio, like drama or whatever at the time.

I'm not exactly sure what was out then.

Yeah, it's kind of going in the opposite direction.

It's going the opposite, exactly.

Like we're going from like these like..

But you know, how long has it been since they've made a movie

that actually had like a ray of Hope?

Maybe, what, Avengers Endgame?

Maybe.

Maybe?

Maybe.

But there are there are, like, I mean, if you're

thinking about big scale films, yes, it's kind of hard to point those out, but there are those like really good

films like, that are just kind of these, like

independent films that like actually have like Alex is the Hope two family on this show.

That was a ray of of hope.

Was that It's the ray of hope at the end of Endgame when Thanos snaps and kills half the universe?

Yeah,

Oh, that's right, yeah.

Hold on.

Endgame was no, Infinity was one came after?

Oh, okay.

That was my ray of hope.

Okay.

That's a good one.

Yeah, that was Infinity.

Amber, you had something?

Back to like the theme of like racism.

I felt like we, as we've talked about, there's

a commitment in this movie to authenticity.

And like, when I was watching it, like, I did feel that.

Scorsese made the conscious choice to, you

know, because it's a movie, like to show that.

But also, like, I was really primarily just thinking,

like, that's how it was because the civil rights movement ended in 68.

This is like eight years later.

Like people were still pissed off about that.

Like the ones that were still pissed off were still pissed off about that

as well as, you know, the

black folks still trying to integrate and just be part of the society.

That was like, we were, that was still fresh.

So I think it would have been,

it was really, there was a lot of places where they

were committed to authenticity and that would have just not been as woven through.

That wouldn't have been done as well, if it wasn't for that.

You know, it doesn't seem like over.

Like it doesn't seem, it doesn't seem like acting.

It seems like it's that's probably how it was back then.

That's kind of how I was feeling about it.

Lisa, did you want to add to that?

I feel like you wanted a season.

Yeah.

I agree with Amber about the authenticity.

I think if it had been more of a script,

and, I'm sure it was scripted, but it because someone said it

seems like it wasn't scripted, it was just like he just ranted.

I almost think also it was put in there like that

because I saw it as a

another turning point for De

Niro's character of like, I felt like he was sort of teetering

on, you know, yes, he, there was probably some racism there,

but the overtness of it, he, it was hidden for him a little bit.

And then he sees just how outward this passenger, Scorsese is in the car.

And it's almost this, you see this contemplation in his eyes like

oh, so, so I can let it out.

He's letting it out.

So I can let it it out.

Why not, you know, be among the grungy in the city?

Because he, it was almost like permission from his passenger.

And I wonder if that was also intentionally put in there

like that as a tipping point, you know, we see, you

know, De Niro kind of like struggling with it in his eyes

And Lisa, let me ask you this as a high school teacher,

I imagine you have your finger on the pole somewhat.

What's the general vibe with this current crop of students?

Like, how are they perceiving the world right now?

Like, can you talk about that a little bit?

I'm just curious I't have to do with a movie.

I'm just curious.

I'm on my personal.

Yeah.

So I work in a school that's a

very large percentage that I identify as part

of the Hispanic, Latina communities.

And we have a lot of students and a lot of families that are scared.

I mean, talk about that, you know, we were talking earlier about not getting our basic needs met.

And I think about

Maslow's hierarchy.

You know, we need food and shelter taken care of before we can learn and do anything else.

And right now, we have a lot of kids and a lot of families that are worried

about, you know, their family stability and food and shelter right now.

And so it's really a hard climate to teach in right now because

you know, it's not something that we can make, go away as teachers.

We can tell them, you know, you're safe while you're here.

And the reality is we can't make guarantees.

I talk to my students all the time about, this is why we don't skip school.

I mean, not to, in some ways, it's sort of a funny thing, but but also

you know, I tell them, when you're here, I know that you're safe.

Um, I can't guarantee what happens out there.

But when you're here and not skipping class, even though you might hate algebra

2, um, I know you're safe.

Even if you're sleeping on the desk, I know you're safe.

So, um, it's it's a strange climate.

And I've been teaching for 30 plus years and I can tell you in the last

maybe seven to eight years, the climate has changed.

And we have really lost with all the electronics.

We've lost the ability to reason.

We've lost the ability to be self-sufficient.

And it's scary to see kind

of the brains being sucked into the electronics.

you I think it has to do a lot with like,

I mean, this movie talks about it, and I think this is a

pretty good thing to talk about, but like student mental health as well.

Like, I mean, I'm sure there are students that, you

know, even even though we live in this big

you know, overstimulating world, I mean, you' still subst

students are still caught in that loneliness as well.

Yeah, very much so.

I think it's actually social media.

I know in some ways connects people.

So there's some good uses to social media, but I think

we've found that there's actually a lot more isolation

because we don't.

You know, when I grew up, I was out riding my bike.

I was forced to interact with real life human beings, whether I liked it or not.

And TV, you know, there was only a certain amount on

TV, so you couldn't just get sucked down the r rabbit hole of just spending day after day watching everything that's streaming

And I think that especially after COVID,

we've really seen the degradation of the ability to

be a a social being and our mental

health in our students has really taken a tumble.

So we're kind of going back to in

some ways, I know years ago, it was like, go back to the core curriculum thing.

I think we're going back to just like, let's meet students' basic needs.

Let's make sure that we' we're letting them know that we're here to support.

Let's make sure that

we can socialize with each other and

just exist in a building, in a classroom, which is a weird thing to

think about that we have to teach kids how to exist in a classroom.

And then also, just like I said, you know, basic safety.

We're going right back to having communities that I feel like

we need to have community meetings.

And not that I would ever say a baby abandoned academics ever.

If students are watching this, I am not saying, don't do your math,

but I feel like it's more important right now to take care of the mental

health side of things and the safety of students.

Thank you for that.

Yeah, that's honestly great to hear.

And I really appreciate the perspective on that.

Amber, you had something?

Yes.

Okay.

So that lack of safety, I was just going to say something interesting about that is

like, I felt like, like,

as like a foster child, like, and as like someone who was living in a

foster home, but then was eventually adopted, I felt like, um

you know, obviously like struggled to like feel safe.

And like that, um, I feel like

it's so like detrimental, like in adulthood,

like for many people like me..

But the thing was that's different from then and

now, which is interesting to me, is that like we didn't

talk, like we didn't talk about that at school.

I would have gotten trouble if I talked about that.

Like,

it's just like we didn't have money.

So it's like, you didn't want to tell anybody that.

So, like, you know, and then, like, you didn't want to tell anybody that you were in a foster system either or anything.

Like, I don't know.

My parents kind of

raised me that way.

I think that none of us back then from like 96

to 02, like were in school thinking about

our mental health, much less talking about it.

So like, that is very interesting.

Like that, that is a focus now.

It's such a young age.

I mean, because I guess it's there, but like

back then, they, I think they kind of just thought like, oh, they're all right.

But then it's like it's still comes up and I'm 34.

Like, it wasn't maybe we should have talked like, you know what I mean?

Like, we didn't have a guidance counselor.

Like, that wasn't a thing.

I mean, we didn't have computers.

Like even the school was four.

So it's just like, it's very interesting, like how this has become

something and it's just like kind of sad actually, because like it always needed to be there.

And I don't know, do we think things are worse now or it's just like more

acceptable to talk about?

And we're more siloed now because of social

media and because of, you know, just being online all the time, you know.

And kids can't even go outside anymore by the.

Like, like Lisa said, when I was a kid, same thing.

I'd be out in the desert throwing rocks at other rocks.

Like that's what you did as a kid when you were just hanging out in the neighborhood, you know, like there was

yeah, TV, sure, but there was no, there was no internet like right away.

So.

I think a lot of the time from my

experience in school was like,

they had the no child left behind thing and and then they still left people behind, which was wild.

I was I was one of them, actually.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly.

And if you had any kind of like, oh, oh, this kid is't

like, they didn't have a diagnosis for like the things that

children had or teen had back in the day, it was more

like, uh, this guy has potentially has down centrome,

so let's go ahead and put him in like the classes that better suit him.

And then they find out later that, oh, okay, maybe he doesn't.

So he's just a regular student.

But that still was never like a diagnosis, only until like

you know, very recently where I'm like finally being able

to like figure out everything that's wrong with me.

You know, I, those were the

things that we didn't have back in the day.

I feel like schools now, they have all these like programs and things in place

It's just, we didn't realize how rapid

of a decline it was.

I think we were, I think like the

millennial generation, maybe even Gen X before me, they

we were kind of like the proving grounds, the testing grounds

for like future things because our parents didn't know what the hell was wrong.

There was like one or two things that could have been wrong with you.

It was only like recently they, um, allowed,

uh, not allowed, but it was only recently.

They were like, okay, you have ADD, ADHD.

Uh, I think autism was starting to like come around and, uh,

act as like a diagnosis for things.

So it was more of like

we see it a lot now because it was rapidly

growing during our time growing up.

Yeah, exactly.

My dad would be like, depression, go rate the yard.

Get out of here.

Anthony, you have something.

I almost did the same thing.

I almost pushed the hand button.

There Yeah, a lot of interesting topics right there.

I'd say a couple of things, right?

Like we talk about, oh, well, a lot of schools have more resources now.

That depends where the school is, right?

Like we still pay for our schools through property taxes, so in poorer

neighborhoods, or less affluent neighborhoods, the education suffers as well.

So we could do a lot to change education.

I will say, though, like, as we were talking about technology and how it

is kind of influencing the current loneliness

epidemic, if that's what we want to call it, you know, it's been called many things.

This movie, I think, kind of touches on that, right?

Because there is an aspect and an elementment of like self-isolation, this spiral that you can fall into

as your mental health starts to decline, where now Travis is

kind of telling lies to his parents and his family, like making

up like these stories, working his long hours, so he doesn't have to be around people.

And he's not doing the things that he could do to help get him out of it, right?

Even the conversations that he has with the fellow cabbies, at the diner, nothing is that deep, right?

He's just kind of doing surface level

conversations.

He's trying to find like an intimate partner, getting rejected,

sending him further down the spiral, I think we

can see that with, with the internet and with social media as well.

It can be a tool for connection, but it can also be

something that you just shut yourself into and isolate with.

And so, yeah,, like, as we're talking about

how taxi Driver fit into the culture of

the 1970s, I mean, I think there is a lot

to say about reflecting on it in today's culture., right?

Like we are facing a lot of these in a new age, you know, we're facing similar problems

lessons that we didn't learn, right?

Like we're doomed to repeat history because we're not paying close enough enough attention to it.

So, yeah, it's, it is an

interesting time to watch this film again.

I agree.

I agree.

Chris Chris.

Yeah, I was just going to beautifully said, by

the way, I just was going to address that exact thing of

yes, we have technology now and they didn't

back then, but really what we're talking about is distractions, right?

Distractions from now it's easier and

more accessible to be distracted because now it's even less of a barrier, right?

It's already in your hand, right?

Um, Whereas like he was like going out for the distractions, right?

He was doing the extra hours.

He was avoiding the conversations, like you said.

He was going to the naughty movies, right?

So like, he was indulging all of these things that weren't

for lack of a better word, like life-giving, right?

Like he wasn't surrounding himself with the right people.

He wasn't doing the right things to take care of himself.

Really, the only time he started taking care of himself was when he started like getting in shape

and like going out doing these things.

He got jacked.

And by that point, we already lost.

Right.

Like the damage.es on his arm?

Yeah.

Was he burning his hand over the st?

Testing his resilience, like the ninja.

He was a man.

I don't know.

I want to go on that De Niro Taxi driver arm workout.

No, like like Alex said, the veins in the arm were insane..

He was building his cheap coll 40 pounds of sugar a week.

Yeah.

Working out in sugar..

Amber, you had something?

Yeah, but that whenever he was getting jacked, it's like still not for him.

I feel like it was to like clean up the city or like to help ours.

Like, again, it's for some, he can only

supply his own needs if it's like somehow in his mind for someone else.

Yeah.

But I don't really remember what else I was going to say.

Well, he Is that like a level of codependency?

Yeah, exactly.

He had to find meaning in something because he had no meaning in his own life.

Like, that's why he became obsessed with Jody Foster's character, who was like an underage

prostitute, basically.

And it was weirdly, how quickly he becomes obsessed with things.

Like, first it was it was Sybil Shepard's

character, and then she rejected him and then it was like on to the next, you know?

And it was just like, I need to do some..

Yeah, what I called this movie Obsession and it would have done great.

Or loneliness.

It's almost too, like he deemed it like the universe was giving him these things, right?

Like Simple Shepherd's character and like, it's, oh, she's on my route.

And then Jody Foster's character trying to get into his cab and like, he's like, oh, like, here's my next mission.

Thank you, Lord.

Like he talks about that early.ribute of a delusion, though.

That's like textbook deliveryusion.

Well, and he talks about that early about like, oh, there's, you know, going to be a rain

that cleans the city or whatever, like in one of his early monologues, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, like what Anthony just mentioned lately, I

can relate to like the codendency side

just because I know that I'm a recovering codependent

And just certain things like, you know, the idea of rescuing,

like not even seeing like a person as a

person, but like this person that could like I could rescue from a certain situation.

There was a person in my life.

I'm not too long ago who, you know, I became

friends with, but then I, you know, I became attracted

to her and, you know, but she was in a marriage that failed.

And you know, they, you know, it

felt like there was something there.

But then they, they got back together

And even though I knew that there, that marriage

was toxic, I still was like, they're in

the wings, like, oh, I'm going to like try to like save her from this.

And like my feelings for her became too strong that

like I, you know, it was a couple of those things where like I, I

I felt like the need to admit to her that I was in love with her

and that of itself turned that

relationship like like had to she had to end that friendship with me.

And in her eyes, she

saw me saw me as like just somebody wanting to sleep with her.

And

in my head, I was like, no, I'm trying to save you from this.

Like, you know what I mean?

And it was this kind ofodency thing that was like, if I

could help her and have her become my partner,

that would be such a great thing for me.

I'm helping her.

But at the same time, I don't, you can't do that for people

That's a great point.

All right, gang.

Well, amazing discussion.

Thank you.

Hold on.

Does the fire department have something?

Oh, no, they're far away..

Wait, no.

The Secret Service is coming to your door.

Yeah, they't remember.

Here comes Kurt Russell.

Yeah.

Your tax dollars at work.

Colorado.

All right, let's go around the room.

I have just one final question wanted to go around the room.

Why would this movie be perceived today given

the current political and cultural climate we're in?

Anthony, I want to start with you.

Oh, man.

Well, where could people find you if we're still allowed?

If we're still allowed, who knows after this conversation?

I'm at Toner at some of the socials.

Who knows anymore?

I try to live my life offline as much as possible.

Stay away from the college campuses.

Yeah, right.

No, the

We didn't even mention the big

world effect that this film had a decade later, right?

With the assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan.

Oh, that's true.

And so I feel like, again..

All to impressed Jody Foster to impress Jodody Foster, who at that point was in college.

It all goes back to Jodody Foster.

Look, everybody should be careful on what Jodody Foster's doing.

But so, you know, in today's current climate, with

ongoing assassination attempts against the sitting president,

you know, it Which I don't understand why, by the way, Leave him alone.

No, I. It's Donnie alone, man.

The guy just wants to sell golden diapers in the White House lawn.

Leave him alone.

I think

this movie could never get made right now, right?

Like the second, the script.

You don't think so.

I think the second a studio tried to push a script like this

they would lose FCC license syncing or

would not be able to buy Paramount or, you know,

we would see the bullshit pressures that we see that

are getting Kimmel in trouble and seeing Colbert off air.

Like we could say it's for ratings, but it's not.

You know, like we know what the writing on the wall is.

And so I don't know.

I don't think you would see a movie like this.

Today, I think anybody that would,

any studio that would be trying to greenlight, thanless it was entirely indie would

be, you know, like Secret Service would be knocking on their door day of like, oh, interesting.

Like, you're making this film.

Do you not know the historical precedent of films like this in climates?

And so

I think it would be very difficult to make today.

That said, I think the topic of mental health is

as ever present as it, you know, of a problem as it is today, as it was then.

So I think it is a film that needs to be made, right?

I mean, it's not same people necessarily that are going and trying to do all these attempts on the sitting president

It's people without access to mental health care, you know?

Some of them may have other motivations as well.

I'm not going to prophes either way, but I

think that's kind of the core message, right?

Is people left to their own devices without the ability to seek community or get help

are going to do crazy fucking things that don't make sense.

You know, killing the presidential candidate that

Sybil Shepherd's character is working the campaign for isn't going to earn

Sybil Shepard's love, right?

There's no way that that's going to happen.

Just like trying to assassin Reagan's not going to earn Jody Foster's love.

And so I think that's a common theme that, you know, imprinted and translated into

real world that was addressed by this movie

despite the fact that I don't think you can make the carbon copy of this

movie, even if you cast a T on Eerton as the Travis character.

Could't do it.

I think that this movie was. great for its time.

And so, like I said, I think it was attempting to address

mental health issues that were plaguing the country

and was also kind of a commentary on people

coming back from the Vietnam War, right?

Like we saw a lot of

mental trauma from that experience,

you know, and having to see all your friends dying in front of you and your country betraying you, right?

So there's a whole bunch of trauma that comes with that and they touch on that a little bit as well.

I give this a four stars.

I think it is poignant and relevant for today as well.

And I think it's watchable.

There are some early cinematography

choices that I think Spursese makes that, you know, he's either limited by the time, right?

Like we talked, I think we had talked a little bit about

dark lighting on the streets and does it get too dark and

some of that is because it's shot on film and they don't have a huge budget to light the entire street.

Right.

So they were limited by their technology as well.

But that all said, I still think it's it's a fantastic film.

And yeah, four stars

Thank you for that.

And did you say where people can find you?

Yeah, please don't.

Oh, that's right.

That's right.

That's right.

Sorry.

We're on embargo.

Great points to be made.

Chris, do you think this movie could be made today?

What do you think?

Yeah, I think he definitely could get made by A24 if Jason

Alordy was the

main actor and it was done in Seattle.

Who plays Sybil Shepherd's role?

Sidney Sweeney?

It's got to be Sydney.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It will It will do numbers.

Repeat the formula.

I think it could, it would have to have like, obviously, like no one does.

I mean, our taxis a real thing anymore.

Like who's actually still using them if you're not in Vegas or

some parts of New York, like like doesn't everyone just Uber a lift?

Yeah.

So like, I could see them definitely doing like a unique take

Um, who knows?

Maybe in the superhero realm and they just do it about the Joker.

Wait, they already did that.

Um, So I think if

you were to do a copy paste version of this movie, it would be difficult.

I think it just comes down to

the studio who's hot and if they

hire a hot actor to push the movie because people

will sit through candy and that's how they make the bucks.

So unfortunately, that seems to be the real estistic formula

for these types of things.

You know, it'd be Pedro playing

Travis Ficle, probably.

Pedro Pascal or the Jacob Bellordy.

As the white pimp, the uniforn white pimpp.

That's right.

R people find you, Chris.

You can find me at Milkman America everywhere.

And

Yeah, I really struggled with the rating of this movie because

it is a 50-year-old movie and I'm unfortunately spoiled

with the types of movies that we have available, where

it's just a different time.

If I were to put my cinematographer hat on

I give this a four.

If I'm putting my ADHD to 2026,

give me my eye candy and all the nuance and blah, blah, blah, blah.

I would honestly probably rate it like a three

out of five, unfortunately, because I

had to like almost catch myself being like,

it's okay that it's a slow bird movie.

It's okay that there's not all these bells wh whistles going on.

Like, just sit with the dang movie, dude.

Like sit and watch and appreciate this movie.

Like, and that's so unfortunate because I love movies, but

to watch something, again, it's 50 years old to be like, okay

was it good for what it was doing at the time that it was made?

And does the story hold up?

And all those things are true.

All of those things were great.

So if I would ultimately give it a four, but if

I was splitting the difference, I'd give it a three and a half.

All right.

That's fair, Milman.

That's fair.

Thank you for that.

Amber, you had something.

I just like really wanted to go.

I don't think that this movie could be made today because it

seems to me that the only way we can discuss difficult topics

like this anymore is in a documentary format.

And I think that is one of the driving forces for why

this movie was so committed to authenticity because they weren't doing documentaries like that back then

Now it's like the documentary is out before the trial ends.

Like, it's crazy.

It's like, it's, in my opinion, it's documentary overload.

Like, it's ridiculous.

Like they've taken the art out of, you know, everyday

people's lives and showing stuff like that.

And I'm just like, I don't know, like the kids, like,

I feel like, you know, the kids being sex workers

there's just no way that it could be done.

It's almost like frowned upon to

talk about these things in an entertaining way.

It's almost like you could be shamed for doing that now.

Like if you're not looking at it in a documentary format and discussing it like

in a, in a serious tone or something like that, then like, I don't know.

You might get called something.

It's like, it's like frowned upon or something

I'm going to give this movie a three and

y'all can find me everywhere at that Denver Girl

Justin, what do you think, man?

Do you think this could be made today?

And where could people find you?

Uh, yeah.

I think

it would be a tough one for sure. to.

Honestly, I think to replace Robert De Niro, I'd probably put Chris Pratt.

No, I jok.

I'm just to.

I thought you said Glenn Powell.

Glow Powell.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The boo books.

Anyway.

The Manila envelope of actors.

Go ahead.

Hey, shut the fuck up.

I love Glenn Close, you bastard.

You love Glenn Close, yeah.

Yeah.

Anyway, Glenn Close, we love you.

Anyway.

It's true.

No, this movie could

I don't know.

It would, like you guys were saying earlier, it

probably would be a little bit more difficult for a company to get behind it.

Maybe not so much on the indie side.

And then even like even if it were a documentary,

like it's such an exploitative genre now.

It's not even like good stories anymore.

It's just like, let's let's exploit these

really sad people and have them all revisit this

awful thing that happened to them.

And the thing about documentaries these days, it's like, it's never about anything good anymore.

It's about people getting murdered.

It's about people losing people in their life

and documentaries like, I love documentaries.

Some of them are really good.

I'm quite fond of getting really stoned and watching like

like planet Earth or something like that.

Those are my favorites.

Those are happy.

Those are happy, except for when the animals like die certain ways.

But other than that, see, even then, even even like

the nature documentaries are sad sometimes, but I don't know.

I think under the right circumstances, it could be made

I think I think a lot of the theming would be

cut back significantly because of, you know, triggering people.

And, you know, it has a lot of really real world

things and themaming going on for it.

So it just depends.

And I think it would just have to be the right set

of people, the right director, the right writing.

It would all have to be under certain circumstances for this to be made.

So I'm going to say maybe

but as is, like, like

the script, like one for one, absolutely not.

I don't think so.

It's not going to be done.

And it would be denied at every door possible.

But

other than that, um.

What do you think?

What do you rate it?

Yeah., I think I'm going to rate it at four and a half.

I really like this movie a lot.

The cinematography is great.

Honestly, I kind of disagree with you, Chris,

where it kind of like, uh, I think that was

the, you were the one that said that there were certain areas that it didn't look good.

Or was that

Anthony?

I don't..

Whoever said that some of the scenes don't look too great.

I disagree.

I think the whole movie looked great.

Oh, okay, then fuck me, I guess..

I think it was me.

It was Anthony.

There he is.

Yeah, I'm coming for you, bastard.

Anyway.

No.

Say it's softer.

I'm coming for you, bastard.

Anyway, great.

Oh, man, like, when the movie first

came on and mind you, I've seen this before, but it's been a while.

Whether it was like remastered or not, I thought it looked so beautiful.

I was like, man, the greediness was there.

I don't think there was a scene I really had any issues with.

I think the only thing I had an issue with this movie

was slightly on how it ended.

And also the white guy

with the afro in the political center.

Albert Brooks.

Yeah, that guy.

I fucking hate that guy for some reason.

I don't know.

I don't understand why.

It's No's dad, man.

It's a bunch of white people had afros back in the 70s.

I know it was like the disco age but a man.

He's Jewish.

Yeah.

Oh, look at Larry David.

You know what?

Even then, I don't even give a shit shit.

No, fuck that guy.

You know.

His character pissed me off.

I didn't He had, I don't know.

I don't, to me, I don't think he really had any real

purpose other than to be that like

shoulder guy for Betsy more than anything.

But other than that,

fantastic film, the way it ended sucked to me, I

don't like how they're like, oh, and then he like miraculously recovered and grew his hair back.

Yeah.

I don't know if that was supposed to be like, oh, like, oh..

there was time in between his like recovery.

And then like Betsy being like, oh, you know

um, you know, you kind of like, you are like a hero.

I can't believe he read you in the paper.

I was like, come on.

I was like, God, he was a fucking creepo.

Yeah.

And now you're like changing heart.

And I was like, and there's also no way that she wouldn't have known it was him

at that rally because because

that agent, I'm assuming that agent recognized him or

either that or he just noticed that he was like having his hand in

his jacket pocket and then he ran away.

But with that buzz cut, there's no way that nobody could have recognized him.

I'm like, even with the buzz cut, I'm like,

I don' know, Hey, Harvey's character didn't, right?

Like the next day.

That's true.

So other than that, um, beautiful

movie touches on some really deep themes that I

personally am like super interested

in, um, you know, learning different perspectives from different directors.

But yeah, uh, four and a half out of five, you can follow

me, Ghost 88 on

the socials.

You can follow my personal Shib's the zombie.

Uh, I'm, I'm actually in the process of,

um, reup updating my links

because for some reason they like, uh,

they sunset the app I was using.

So now it's hard to find me on things, but hey, Ghost in Nd 88.

That's me.

Thank you, Justin

Lisa, could this movie be made today?

What do you think?

So I think the themes, yes.

I love the the green screen ruins dance.

Every time.

We like this little invisible circle of you.

But I think the theme themes, yes.

I think the themes absolutely are timeless.

No matter what decade you're in, there's

lots of people that struggle with not being seen or not

feeling like they're being seen, loneliness, isolation

mental health issues.

I think that the racism

aspect certainly still could they

get funding from somewhere for the movie and get it into theaters?

I think they would have a hard time

Because it is so blunt, because we are a society

that needs trigger warnings for everything right now,

which is interesting because like, when,

you know, gremlins came out, there was no trigger warning that you might see these

little little alien, creepy monster things in a blender being

whipped up into a batter.

So I think that there would

be a lot of pushback, as someone else said about getting it actually

funded and into a theater.

But I think if it was remade into using

the same themes with a little bit lighter

on some of the brusqueness of it, I guess.

I think it could be.

And I think someone else said to, it's all about the eye candy.

I do think, unfortunately, sadly, it's like, who do you cast in those roles?

Who's the new, who's the hip?

You know, Ryan Reynolds?

Maybe he could pull it off?

I don't know.

And, you know, who's the latest white guy with an afro that they could put in it?

I don't know who that would be.

But, you know, like, maybe, maybe,

the guy that played Screech on,

you know, They're going to play were still here?

That's Jack Harley's rule.

Yeah, yeah.

So that, that might be a problem.

I don't know.

I'm probably older than a lot of you guys, but if it any of you remember the show, welcome back, Cotter.

I know that show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was a big thing.

Afro white guys with Afras.

C

Up your nose with the rubber homs.

That's right.

That's right.

So, but I do think the themes actually are prevalent in a lot of movies.

I think it's just, you know, recycled in different ways, like the Joker.

As far as a rating,

this one was hard for me because it was such a slow burn and

I think I'm also spoiled because

I watched so many action adventure things that like it

jumps right in in the first 10 or 15 minutes

It's hard to watch this slow burn.

I mean, the first like 35 minutes, I was like, this is the longest 35 minutes of my life.

And I think that's how my husband felt watching Lord of the Rings.

He was like, oh my God, I think I'll go get some carry out and I'll be back in four hours.

But I, but I am

glad that I stuck with it because I think the cinematography part I did like.

So I would give the cinematography part a four.

The

I think because of the slowness overall,

I think I would give it a three or three and a half stars just because I

do wish that it had moved just a tiny bit faster.

So I, yeah, I think that's where I,

so I guess I'll also cut the difference and be three and a half.

Where can people find you, Lisa?

Oh,, so my socials are Instagram

at Red Feathergirl 01

and come to Aurora Fashion Week, too.

Nice.

Thank you for that

Alex, what do you think, my friend?

Could this movie be made today?

I think it could, but it would there's

a lot of like retooling that would have to be made.

Script-wise, it would have to go heavier on relationship

sides of things a one battle after another.

I feel that something like if

it had been gone that direction

you could probably say can be made.

And it can't be overtly..

Political.

I feel like, how we've been talking about studios

whatever.

Anthony mentioned that people, us, like corporations

putting the kbosh on putting any heavy

political stance.

So it can't be so overtly reticent of it.

He even saw that with like one battle after another, like after Pete

Paul Thomas Andersonisonison won the award.

A lot of people criticized them for not

talking about the overtly like political stance that

it had during the show when he won the awards

and he kind of like did this whole thing where he was like, well, not here to like

talk politics or something like that.

As far as a movie like Taxi Driver being made

today, again, I said, you could still definitely do

the mental health aspect of it.

Like what we saw with Rosemead.

So it's not a far-fetched to be able to do something

along the lines of Taxi Driver,

but to be like, like to quote, just again,

a one-for one copy, no, no, no that would not happen.

My rating is I gave it a four and a half out of five.

And you can find me at Daily Dears and all of the socials.

Hooray.

Thank you for that.

Arnold.

Onto you, my friend, and then you know what comes after that.

But first, really quick, do you think this movie could be made today, Arnold?

As a former Uber driver

what do we think?

It can be, but it can be called Taxi Driver.

It would have to be called Uber Driver or Lyft Driver.

Agreed.

In that sense, yes.

But with a

lot of like, like, say, for example, trying

to help rescue a 12-year-old

sex worker or a prostitute, that

would be really difficult.

A lot of the, uh, you know, well, we

talked about it, that they changed a lot of the the language that they use a bit.

yeah, they can make a version of it, but then it would have to

fit for this day and age.

As long as they hire you as a consultant, Caramel.

You know what I mean?

The chat is blowing up.

They're saying Oh, The chat's been quiet..

What's the chat saying?

Well, they were saying, if it was in the 80s, it would have to be Cindy Crawford.

If it was in the 90s, Pamela Anderson

If it was in the 2000s, it would be Jessica Alba, Megan

Fox, or Andrew Angelina Jolie. 2010s.

Wow.

Jessica Alba, Megan Fox, or Angelolina Jolie. 2020s.

Jessica Alba or Megan Fox.

Like.

What does Angelina Jolie taper off?

Your Chad is obsessed with Megan Fox, I think.

The scapegoat for Arnold's consciousness is Chad.

No, no, no.

I' subscribers.

No, it's a real chat.

Yeah, right.

They didn't even really touch on who would play the De Niro's part.

But I first said, Jacob Alardi.

I agree with that.

Or are you saying you you could do it, Arnold?

I mean, if I have to be like the one to rescue Megan Fox and maybe.

Yeah, yeah, yeah..

Robert De Niro reprises role.

And then just DH him.

DH him, right?

It worked great for the Irishman.

Yeah.

If it was the 2000s, I'd have to say, Paul Walker.

Yeah.

Because he was gone for his acting ability.

And driving.

Oh, that's true.

That's true.

That's a good point.

You know, like in Fast and Furious, you, yeah.

Too soon, man.

Ryan Reynolds, he drove and dri.

Come on.

That's what I was thinking for the 2010s.

Gossling.

That wasn't Ryan Reynolds.

And Drive?

Oh, I mean..

Sorry, Ryan Gosling.

Ryan Gosling..

I mean, all the actors and actresses from Stranger Things

are now well into their 40s, so they should probably also play this part.

Yeah, Finn Wolfheart, Millie Bobby Brown

Yeah.

Yeah..

Yep.

Everyone else.

Kose names I can't think of.

Millie Bobby should be the driver now.

Yeah, she.

Actually, a female Travis Bickle.'s let's go there.

That would be good.

There you go.

That'd be good.

Go ahead.

Hey Siri, look up Travis Bicle.

Oh, I was on. character in the movie.

It was I was not.

Yeah.

Oh, but, you know, Sybil Shepherd.

Gorgeous.

Just that I'd throw that. out there.

Yeah.

But as per usual,

what usually happens, I went into this with a three

and a half as my score.

But like, as usual, you guys, after discussing this

and it really boosted my score up a little bit

more to a four, almost a 4.20.

Nice.

That's what I would give.

And you can find me everywhere at Arnie Calgo.

They have a math teacher, so put that 4.2 into a mixed number., please.

Oh, yeah.

Give us a long division.

4.2 420 420 somewhere.

Oh, like that?

All right, well,, it's that time of the show, my friend.

It's my favorite part of the show, Arnold.

I think, you know what comes next.

It's time for the Arnold Sn meter.

Oh, right, Arnold.

Well, we've did it, Arnold.

What's your snoozeomemeter score?

So, my snooze ameter score?

AFZ.

F a Z. It

was a little bit of a slow burn.

You know, We kind of talked about about.

And

I did eat half a bag of kettle corn and have some chocolate mal to crunch.

I bet you a bag of meth.

No, you don't eat that.

Jelly and sugar.

Jelly and sugar, yeah.

I don't know.

Those chocolate goobers were looking good, too, that he put on the counter.

Oh, yeah.

That's a good point.

Serious.

But all the adult

movie theaters that I've ever went through, they didn't have Goop.

Wait, what was that?

Theater.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I did I had like a lot of sugar,

so I kind of got a little bit of sugar crash.

I actually never went to an adult theater.

They don't have those over here on Perez Road.

You went to arenas.

Arnold, there's a bunch here in Vegas.

Oh, there you go.

I mean, uh, Don't act so surprised, Arnold Geez.

Yeah.

But they must have legitum on a loop.

So I barely heard about this right now..

But hey, half of Z's not bad.

That means that you barely fell asleep.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Like for how much of a slow burn that it was, I do it

It was just a little, a little bit, but I really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed the mice.

Yeah.

But that's Well, thank you for that, Arnold.

Now, last but not least, I think we

got you, Mr. BWOTZ too big.

Thank you, Arnold.

In lieu of my review, I just want to read a quick fun fact that we have time for it.

The story was partially

autobiographical for writer Paul Schrader, who suffered

a nervous breakdown while living in L.A. He was fired from the AFI,

Justin, basically friendless in the midst of a divorce and was rejected

by a girlfriend, squatting in his ex-girlfriend's apartment while she was away for a couple months.

Schrader literally didn't talk to anyone for many weeks

went to porn theaters and developed an obsession with guns.

Schrader was working at times as a delivery man for a chain of chicken restaurants.

Spending long days alone in his car, he

felt that he might as well be a taxi driver, and he also

shared with Bickel the sense of ice isolation from being a Midwestern

in an urban center.

Schrader decided to switch the action to New York City only

because taxi drivers are far more common there.

Schrader's script clicked with Marz Grac and De Niro when they read it.

And I think Paul Schrader, I think that's the same guy that came out the other day

and said that his AI girlfriend rejected him too.

So

that man can't get any luck, apparently.

What's up with that?

I don't I don't even know.

Sounds like a fun guy.

Yeah, how do you get rejected by an AI

girlfriend?

That doesn't make any sense to me.

Just watch the movie her.

I was going to say, that was my question.

How do you reject if you're AI?

I don't know.

It just says Paull Schader had an AI girlfriend who terminated

our conversation, and he was very disappointed..

I'm sorry, Paul.

I can't do that..

Open what?

No, I'm just kidding.

But yeah, I gave this movie, I mean, I watched this forever ago.

I gave it three and a half stars out of a five on Letterbox.

I'm going to upgrade that to four after having done this rewatch.

And I also want to say I think it's funny that Albert Brooks was in this

movie, and he's also the bad guy in Drive

which this movie kind of borrows from a little bit.

So interesting connection there.

But yeah, one of my top favorite movies, I don't know that's my favorite Scorsese movie, but definitely up there.

But anyways, yeah, that's my review.

You can find me on Letterbox at Boots Too Big.

You can find the show everywhere else.

We're everywhere, guys.

We're on TikTok.

We're on YouTube.

We're on threads.

We're on Instagram

Facebook, never seen a podcast, never seen

a podcast.com as I pull up my script,

which I don't have open right now, but that's okay because, you know, this does happen.

But I also edit the show.

So let me pull it up really quick.

I should know this by now.

You think that I would know this by now.

Did you give out that?

the OnlyFans account too?

Well, that's at the end, Gerard.

That's where our Patreonscribebers only.

We pay for our Patreing that that's Arnold's side chat.

You pay for our Patreons, then you get the link for

our OnlyFans to pay for our OnlyFans that send you to our lime wire.

Exactly.

And it's just.

Don't.

Oh, I'll Tarantino's feet.

Yeah.

Just his feet It's his feet, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's defeat.

D Nero's feet.

It's also Arnold's exclusive standalone podcast

Yeah.

Arnold after D. The handle and then I'll mute.

So I find the OnlyFans.

Okay.

Yeah, visit us, guys.

Our website.

Neversepodcast.com.

E email us at podcasts on our. seen it at gmail.com love to hear from you. subscribe to us on Spotify, Apple

or YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.

If you like the show, share, leave us a review, leave us a com and thanks to your

Maps in a cycle for the intro andro music.

You can find Kyle on Instagram at selfies underscorendersnderscore pets.

Big thanks to Mr. HLP for the Arnold snooze, a meter music

Any final thoughts from the gang?

Are you talking to me or am I talking to you?

Okay.

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