The Notebook

Speaker 1 This is Free With Ads, the podcast that asked the question, why pay Netflix nine bucks a month to watch sappy romances when you can go online for free and watch a sappy romance with an ending so depressing you want to cheer yourself up by watching the ending of The Mist?

Speaker 1 I'm Jordan Morris.

Speaker 2 And I'm Emily Fleming. Today's movie is The Notebook.
The classic love story based on the book You've Bought Your Mom for Three Different Birthdays.

Speaker 2 She doesn't bring up the fact that she already has it. She just says thanks and drops the extra copies off at a little free library when she goes on her walks with Martha down the block.

Speaker 1 With us, as always, is the super producer, the he freak, Matt Lieb, hitting us with those timeless drops that echo through the ages.

Speaker 1 Lee!

Speaker 1 Go!

Speaker 1 No, no, just wait a minute.

Speaker 2 We're not really breaking up, Bob. We come on.

Speaker 1 Oh, Jesus Christ. I love that scene.
That poor jalopy.

Speaker 1 She's so constant. It sounds like gunshots.
It does sound like, yeah,

Speaker 1 definitely. It sounds like she killed him.
Yes. No, she's just banging on his old jalopi, and it's like, to take care of that thing, they have to return it to Jay Leno.
Exactly.

Speaker 1 So you can drive it to Bob's big boy. Yeah.
Local jokes get your local wife.

Speaker 1 I just see bed of kids.

Speaker 1 We're going to talk about the notebook, which is, as of this recording, streaming free with ads. But first, we're going to dive into our mailbag with a segment called You Got Mail.
You got mail.

Speaker 1 This question is from Pete. They write: Do you prefer watching bad movies for the podcast or good movies? I'm sure the two hours spent watching the good movie itself may be more enjoyable.

Speaker 1 However, it seems like the conversations about bad movies are more enjoyable to you all.

Speaker 1 Anyone have any thoughts on this? It's a question I think we ask a lot.

Speaker 2 What I would like to start.

Speaker 1 Yes, please, Emily.

Speaker 2 I guess I do not believe in a difference between the two. I think that

Speaker 2 we enjoy the bad movies as well as the good.

Speaker 2 I enjoy because we enjoy talking to each other. That's right.

Speaker 1 We're just hanging out. That's really.

Speaker 1 These are just a catalyst for chatting. That's true.

Speaker 2 That's the whole point of the talk.

Speaker 1 It's a catalyst, if you will. A chattelist.
Oh, Jesus.

Speaker 2 Did you get a haircut, Matt?

Speaker 1 I did get a haircut.

Speaker 2 It's too much.

Speaker 1 But it's hucked your punning, apparently. That's right.
I cut off all the bad puns. Right.
Only left. Only left the good stuff.
Like, shadow.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think about this a lot. So, yeah, like, as far as, you know,

Speaker 1 we record this podcast on Tuesdays. I usually watch the movie on Monday night.
And sometimes, like, sitting down to watch Shark Nado by myself, right? Like,

Speaker 1 Sharknado, great for a party. Great.
You're having people over. You're getting stoned.
Just like watching by myself in the dark and taking notes on the plot is a bummer.

Speaker 1 So hopefully, fun to listen to us talk about it. And yeah, sometimes with you know, your, your more kind of classic good movies like your godfathers, etc.

Speaker 1 I do feel a little bit like I'm just saying, this is good and then this is good. And it's what am I adding to this? I'm just saying this movie that everyone agrees with.

Speaker 2 Well, also, the movies that, by the way, Matt, I feel really guilty about giving you shit for the fact that they cut too much off of your hair.

Speaker 1 No, it's fine.

Speaker 1 I really like immediately.

Speaker 2 I just want you to know that you're handsome no matter what someone does to your hair. Some people are ugly and they get a bad haircut.
Can you imagine?

Speaker 1 I can't even imagine because I've never been ugly.

Speaker 2 No, you haven't.

Speaker 2 Okay, moving on. I think the movies that we do are iconic regardless of good or bad.

Speaker 2 So these are things that people,

Speaker 2 this is memorable regardless. So it's going to be enjoyable to watch.
And so I enjoy every single thing we watch. I mean, Godfather 2 is, you know, a sad bullshit of a watch.

Speaker 1 As is Moonstruck.

Speaker 1 Shitty movie.

Speaker 2 It's like a movie that represents Matt's haircut.

Speaker 1 It's what.

Speaker 1 How dare you. You're back to insulting my hair.

Speaker 1 Looks fine. He looks good.
I'll tell you right now.

Speaker 2 Imagine having an amazing full head of hair.

Speaker 1 And I can, I do.

Speaker 2 Buzzes it down like you're going to World War II and you didn't even want to be there. Like, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 I like it. Everyone will like it too.

Speaker 2 It's too short. It's too short.

Speaker 1 You already apologized for it. I'm sorry.
I do it again.

Speaker 1 I'm going to steer back to the question here, real quick.

Speaker 1 And away from Matt's perfectly fine haircut.

Speaker 1 I think the sweet spot for me, and I think it's good that we watch all kinds of movies from across the spectrum. I I think variety is great.
It's a good selling point of this show.

Speaker 1 To me, the sweet spot is over the top, the Sylvester's Tallone, arm wrestling, long-haul trucker family drama action movie. Because like...

Speaker 1 It's crazy. It's a bad movie in many ways, but it's also pretty competently made.
It's fun to watch, and it's fun to talk about because it is so insane.

Speaker 1 So I felt like I was, you know, adding something and adding comedy without just like, you know, recycling the plot points of, you know, a movie people have already seen.

Speaker 1 And I think it's a fun public service to kind of describe a really crazy movie that maybe people aren't going to sit down and watch, but want to hear people talk about. So for me,

Speaker 1 I'm happy to watch all kinds of movies for this, but like you're over the tops, you're teen witches. This, this to me, this to me is when the show sings.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I will say that if you're going to ask me this question,

Speaker 1 the answer is: my favorite type of movie to watch and talk about is one that I've already seen

Speaker 1 so that I can just skim through it and

Speaker 1 dedicate the time. Because that's time away from my beautiful child who love and how's her hair cut? Oh, her hair is.

Speaker 2 Yeah, how does your child feel about your haircut?

Speaker 1 She said she liked it. She said she liked it.
And then she pointed to the kids' barber shop and said, did you get it there? And I was like, you bitch.

Speaker 1 How dare you

Speaker 1 you want her she to hang out

Speaker 1 by the way i'm really looking forward to your next hollow holiday card i have both of your holiday cards on my fridge still to this day we we gotta we gotta take pictures um oh we actually have one more mail segment oh wow a second emily yes a second mail segment yes oh is this what i sent you yes emily alerted uh me to this uh and i said i would address it um it is from our Free With Ads subreddit,

Speaker 2 which we really love that that exists, and we appreciate all of you.

Speaker 1 Yes, we love that people talk about this show

Speaker 1 and keep posting. And if you haven't, go to reddit.com and find Free With Ads.
Our

Speaker 1 Free With Ads.

Speaker 2 Yeah, also go on Max Funds.

Speaker 1 Yes, check that one out, too. Do some feel for it.

Speaker 1 Do some cross-posting, people.

Speaker 2 Let's not cloister ourselves in a in a little uh representative fun bubble that's right let's get out there share yeah i mean we are so lucky to be a part of this network that represents a bunch of other shows that are so fabulous and if you go to you know when you go to the maxfun.org slash join you get access to all these shows so you might as well tell all of those shows that you love us as well r slash free with ads r slash maximum fun please okay matt

Speaker 1 There's a post. Yeah, one.
So the headline is kind of disappointed with Matt. Oh, boy.
And I was like, oh, no.

Speaker 1 That could be a lot of things. Oh, it's a good thing.
It's his wife.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that could be a lot of things.

Speaker 1 Matt never takes out the trash. And he puts his dishes in the sink and doesn't rinse them.
Ever notice that about Matt?

Speaker 2 The username is Not Francesca.

Speaker 1 Not Francesca, Fiorentini.

Speaker 1 You're covering her tracks.

Speaker 1 Is Xena underscore Bro.

Speaker 1 And Xena Bro writes, in the first two seasons of his Sopranos Rewatch podcast, Pod Yourself a Gun, Matt created a sting for his segment called It's the 90s, with a clip of Meadows saying that line,

Speaker 1 It's the 90s.

Speaker 1 After hearing that same line, not once, but twice in First Wives Club, I was fully expecting a callback to that very well-known sting in his world-famous podcast, featured in the New York Times.

Speaker 1 Thank you for that. Matt,

Speaker 1 in parentheses, and I know you're reading this.

Speaker 1 What happened, man?

Speaker 1 To which I just want to answer for the dozens of you who have upvoted this and are equally mad, I searched frantically. Okay, okay, hold on.
I need a little context here. Yes, please.

Speaker 1 Many do, I think. So

Speaker 1 you're a sting master. You don't just sting for us.

Speaker 1 You sting for a variety of fine podcasts. Absolutely.
And you, and

Speaker 1 there was a sting that you played on your Soprano show that the listener thought should be brought over.

Speaker 2 Pod Yourself a Gun, which

Speaker 1 a gun.

Speaker 2 I appeared on

Speaker 2 only once, which

Speaker 1 is

Speaker 1 the most that you can appear on it for the most part.

Speaker 1 Fine. Very, very few repeat guests.
But

Speaker 1 in the show, there is a moment in which

Speaker 1 the Sopranos, we describe, especially the early seasons, as surprisingly 90s because it did come out in 1999.

Speaker 1 It has a lot of 90s stuff,

Speaker 1 early aught stuff. So we had a segment called It's the 90s, and it starts with a quote of Meadow saying, It's the 90s, Dad.

Speaker 1 People are supposed to, parents are supposed to talk about sex with their kids. And then it cuts to Butterfly by Crazy Town, where I've remixed it, where it says, It's the 90s.
It's the 90s.

Speaker 1 You're my butterfly. Sugar, 90s.

Speaker 1 That was the sting. And listen, I looked fucking everywhere for this thing.
I even went to an old episode and scrubbed through it, listening like now.

Speaker 1 Is this because there are characters in the First Wives Club that say it's the 90s?

Speaker 2 They say it constantly.

Speaker 1 I think they say it more than twice. I think they say it like

Speaker 1 the third time I heard it. I was like, well, I have to use that sting and it'll be fun.
I could not find it. I'm sorry, everybody.

Speaker 2 I still use it at random times in my life.

Speaker 1 It's fun to just say, guys, it's the 90s about literally anything. I know.
You guys use another thing in,

Speaker 1 oh, gosh, Bridesmaids. Isn't when Christian Wigg gets drunk.
She's like, it's the 90s. Yes.
It was our favorite thing to say in the 90s. It was.
In the 90s. We really said that a lot.

Speaker 2 It was supposed to be the most empowering, like, I think, feminist, like,

Speaker 2 you know, time period. And so, and also we thought the decade would never end.

Speaker 1 It sure did.

Speaker 1 Clearly. And then fucking 9-11 had to happen and ruined the

Speaker 2 and it's not the 90s.

Speaker 1 It's not the 90s anymore. It ain't the 90s.
So that's the answer to that question. I searched for it desperately.

Speaker 2 Where's the staying match?

Speaker 1 I can't find it.

Speaker 1 I think my professional opinion is I think this show has a lot of running jokes and is borderline impenetrable to new listeners.

Speaker 1 We don't need to be bringing in the running jokes from other podcasts. We're not going to start saying hot salad.
We're not going to start saying David's from England. Hot salad.

Speaker 1 That's a Doughboys thing. We're not going to start talking about

Speaker 1 our show.

Speaker 2 Why would we bring in a Doughboys?

Speaker 1 We're not going to be talking. I'm saying

Speaker 1 we don't need more inside jokes. I think we have a good pile of running jokes that people like, and we don't need to bring in.
I can't believe you couldn't find the sting. I know.
But you know what?

Speaker 1 That was a good sting. I will look for it a little, and I will insert it randomly somewhere in the episode.
No, I'll find it. But

Speaker 1 it'll be cut from an old episode.

Speaker 1 Okay, that's it. Okay.
Let's move on.

Speaker 2 It's the 90s. Parents are supposed to discuss sex with their children.
It's the 90s. It's the 90s.

Speaker 2 It's the 90s.

Speaker 1 As we mentioned, we're going to talk about the notebook, but before we do, we should let you know that this movie contains partner violence and mentions suicide.

Speaker 1 So if that's not something you want to hear us talk about, we're going to play some music and give you a chance to find another episode.

Speaker 1 Hey, we're back. It's free with ads.
We're talking about the notebook.

Speaker 1 Found out something very interesting during our pre-record chat. Of the three of us, Matt is the only one who's seen this classic film.
That's right.

Speaker 1 Matt, do you remember your first viewing of the notebook? Oh, boy, do I ever, because it was with

Speaker 1 my college girlfriend,

Speaker 1 and it was required viewing because it was a story about love. And I got to tell you, this movie,

Speaker 1 a lot of pressure. on

Speaker 1 any relationship is to watch this movie, which is like billed as, oh, hey, honey, this is the movie I want to model our relationship after. And I was like, I am not prepared to

Speaker 1 give you the level of love. And perhaps you're not understanding the elements of this movie, which are fantastical and not realistic.
Exactly. The Nicholas sparks of it all.
Sure, yes.

Speaker 1 The Christian-y parts.

Speaker 2 There is some context of time period stuff of what marriage meant and the pressures of

Speaker 2 marriage and money and whiteness, which I do want to address at some point. Sure.

Speaker 1 But we can always talk about the whiteness.

Speaker 2 Yeah, none of the problems in this movie are problems.

Speaker 1 Yes, it's a fantasy. And I could see, Matt, how someone, and you know, it is a very enjoyable fantasy in many ways.

Speaker 2 Oh, yes.

Speaker 1 And I could see how if someone is like, this movie should be life, maybe that's an issue. Yeah, yeah.
So it was, it was, I enjoyed it, and I also wanted to temper expectations.

Speaker 1 But I'm surprised that neither of you had seen this movie. So I want to hear what you think about it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And Emily, you had, you had never, had you, had you read the book? Did you know anything about this? Because you didn't.

Speaker 2 You know, I don't read.

Speaker 2 Which I'm going to change. My dad just gave me a copy of Bury My Heart at.
Wounded Knee.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's a very dad gift. That is a daddy gift.

Speaker 2 Well, if you listen to Steel Driver's music, there's a lot of historical,

Speaker 2 you know, music and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 Dad gifts can be wonderful, by the way. Yes.
Not a dream gift.

Speaker 2 By the way,

Speaker 2 there will be Sam Shepard is in this movie, and there's some nice little southern isms that he brings forth. And so I have a little list of Mike Fleming isms

Speaker 2 because of Sam Shepard. Oh, yes.
Anyway,

Speaker 2 yeah, I hadn't seen this movie. It was like a huge deal at the time.
It came out in 2004, which is when I graduated from high school. I remember it was this huge deal, MTV movie awards.

Speaker 2 It was like best kiss. It was like.
all this stuff. I don't know.

Speaker 2 It just looks so sad to me because when I graduated from high school in 2004, I had a high school sweetheart who was one year younger than me. And it was, it felt like that kind of love story.
And

Speaker 2 I couldn't watch it, it just would have bummed me out too much. So I avoided it.
And now I know why, because I have not been able to stop crying

Speaker 2 for like two hours. Like, I am heartbroken because of this movie.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it, it does. It does, it does the thing it sets out to do.
It sure does. Yeah, let's let's talk about it.
Um,

Speaker 1 the notebook, it starts with a scene of someone rowing a boat against a sunset while an old woman watches some real fake-ass CGI geese.

Speaker 1 Do they look so fake because they're perhaps in her head? Maybe, maybe that's the explanation.

Speaker 2 Or it's because John Cassavettes is dead and his son, Nick Casavetes, is who's directing this play.

Speaker 1 Oh, is this a Nick Cassavetes movie?

Speaker 1 It sure is.

Speaker 2 And Gina Rowlands,

Speaker 2 who is one of the best actresses of all time,

Speaker 2 that's her son.

Speaker 1 Oh, I love that.

Speaker 2 Which I do kind of love that, too.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 she is, as we mentioned, she plays an old woman yet to be named

Speaker 1 who has dementia, looking great, dressed amazing,

Speaker 1 jewels, the whole thing.

Speaker 1 She is in a nursing home and an old man, also unnamed,

Speaker 1 played by James Garner, comes to read to her every day.

Speaker 1 And he's reading her a story about young love. This, and then, so that's the kind of the framing device.
So periodically, we'll return to them in the nursing home.

Speaker 1 But then the main story of the movie is about this young couple played by.

Speaker 2 Well, wait, we need to establish that she is either, you know, memory impaired, dementia, Alzheimer's, like

Speaker 2 something's going on, but they have the privilege of living in the same assisted living home, which, oh,

Speaker 2 that's the fantasy.

Speaker 2 Well, the fantasy is having someone who loves you.

Speaker 1 And just to let you know, if this were my Sopranos podcast, I would play my sting of Tony saying, it's a retirement community.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 only my fans would understand. And by fans, I mean 12 people who remember this podcast.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 It seems like a lot. But yeah, I think that

Speaker 2 she is

Speaker 2 able, she's in and out of memory. Like sometimes she can remember things, other times she can't.
But the most important thing I think about when seeing this movie is I don't know which lover it is.

Speaker 1 Right. This is the mystery of the movie, I think, is you're wondering, is this Gosland?

Speaker 1 Or is this...

Speaker 1 Yeah, I kind of wonder. I wondered that a little too, how much of a twist that was supposed to be.

Speaker 1 I think I just kind of assumed, like, oh, this is them when they're old, but it kind of throws you a couple of curveballs.

Speaker 2 Well, he's got brown hair.

Speaker 1 He's got brown hair.

Speaker 2 So you're like,

Speaker 1 spoiler alert for the notebook. This is them.
That is the thing you think it is immediately. So

Speaker 1 it's a real nine. It's a nine.

Speaker 1 No, James Marsden. James Marsden.

Speaker 1 Marsden. I always like watching pop-ups.
I love Marsden. What a treat.
Marsden, what a fun, what a fun presence.

Speaker 1 You know what would have been really funny is if it had been Kevin Connolly, E from Entourage.

Speaker 1 Yes, so he's so the two guys we meet, the two 1940s rap scallions with their suspenders lowered to their bottoms.

Speaker 1 It's Ryan Gosling and one of the guys from Entourage.

Speaker 1 Not Turtle. Vinny or Turtle.
What do we got? Who do we got left?

Speaker 1 There's

Speaker 1 Vinny, Turtle,

Speaker 1 E, and Cooter and

Speaker 1 Matt Dylan's brother.

Speaker 2 Well, wait, who's the. I call the main guy eyebrows.

Speaker 1 Hoogans.

Speaker 2 Adrian. Is that his name? Adrian Brody.

Speaker 1 No, it can't be Adrian Brody. Coming up with a fake entourage guy named Adrian.

Speaker 2 Whoever the main entourage guy is, I just call him Eyebrow.

Speaker 1 Drive me crazy. Yeah.
No, this is E-brows. E-brows.

Speaker 1 So they're two guys. They're out on the town.
They're at a carnival. It's what you did in the 40s.

Speaker 1 And they see the most beautiful gal. It's Rachel McAdams, and she is on a bumper car.

Speaker 1 They try and get her attention. She's kind of not having it.
She's there with another guy.

Speaker 1 And then her and that other guy get on a Ferris wheel together and Ryan Gosling, impulsive, love-struck Ryan Gosling, like jumps onto the car with them. And I am like, no.

Speaker 1 I think I'm such a rule follower. I'm just like, it's two people.

Speaker 1 You can't have three people on that. Maybe it's watching too many Final Destination movies I'm like, that's going to fuck up everything.

Speaker 1 Jordan, I think you are 100% correct in feeling this way.

Speaker 1 I also was worried for

Speaker 1 just the entire Ferris wheel. I was like, the weight.
It can't take the weight. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I would love it if this movie was a little final destination and maybe like it gets them at the end at the nursing home. Maybe that's what did it.
They were supposed to die on the Ferris wheel.

Speaker 1 This movie is a final destination. Holy shit.
Anyway.

Speaker 2 Or he like,

Speaker 2 somehow him going up there made the whole seat flip and they're both like stuck in the same hospital for the rest of their life.

Speaker 1 It's terrifying and it gets more terrifying because he, after the Ferris Wolf goes up, he like jumps onto the railing and hangs on and says he's going to let go if she doesn't agree to go on a date with him.

Speaker 1 And this is one of those things.

Speaker 1 Funny scene in a rom-com, cute. In real life, this is the behavior of a psychopath.

Speaker 2 Psychopath.

Speaker 1 True psychotic behavior. And, like, it is cute.
Because Ryan Gosling is the cutest, most charming guy ever to appear in film.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 2 also, because everybody talks about their grandma talking

Speaker 2 their husband going, I told him no, and then he showed up at my window every night until I said yes. And that's.

Speaker 1 How did I meet your mother? Well, I serial stalked her from

Speaker 1 her. No matter how loud she screamed I kept pursuing

Speaker 1 7 to 39 I wrote her letters threatening her life until she

Speaker 1 until she said okay let's go on a date

Speaker 2 can I tell you the flip side please the flip side is and I am not saying that any of that is okay or conducive or whatever I can't get a motherfucker to text me back like I can't like it's it's so crazy to me that there are people who would climb a goddamn carousel, like something,

Speaker 2 and I can't get somebody to pay for my beer at a Dave and Buster's.

Speaker 1 This is why there's a lot of pressure to see this movie with a girlfriend. If you see this movie with a girlfriend,

Speaker 1 the fantasy fun part of it is being chased and stuff. So, yes.

Speaker 1 And then, so she, and, and I, I'll admit, I think they, they do give her a lot of agency in this movie, and she is a pretty good character.

Speaker 2 She is an excellent character. I really like her.

Speaker 1 She can paint.

Speaker 1 She can paint. They give her a thing.

Speaker 2 She does have a thing. She has a thing.

Speaker 1 She has a thing.

Speaker 1 So she says yes to him so he doesn't let go and kill himself in front of the carnival.

Speaker 1 And she pulls down his pants. And

Speaker 2 we don't see how he survives that.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. So she pulls down his pants.
And I'm just going to say, regular boxers with no hearts on them. Guys, put hearts on these boxers.
Miss Awkward.

Speaker 1 It's a hundred times funnier when the boxers have hearts on them.

Speaker 1 When the little guy in ghosts and goblins loses his armor, he's not wearing regular boxers. He's wearing heart boxers because those are the funniest boxers.
Oh my God.

Speaker 1 There's no one who punch up on this movie.

Speaker 1 I would love it if one of the people who did punch up who didn't make it was just like, yeah, that's what I said. I was saying heart boxers.

Speaker 1 I told Cassavetes that's the funniest boxer. I said Cassavetes, and then he's going to look at the camera and say, oh, so that happened.

Speaker 1 That would be so sick. Really?

Speaker 2 By the way, briefs were invented in 1935.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 he should have been wearing briefs.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 2 There's a few things in the future of this episode that leads us to believe he is a big old dong.

Speaker 2 So maybe briefs

Speaker 2 were not plausible for him. Perhaps, yeah.

Speaker 1 Gosling can't wear briefs. It'll just pop out and the movie will be rated R.

Speaker 2 That's right. Or he just can't hold them.

Speaker 1 He can't hold it in. He can't hold it in to breach.

Speaker 1 Heartboxers solves everything. Anyway,

Speaker 1 nobody's dick has ever popped out of Heartboxers. That's right.

Speaker 1 I doubt it.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 she says no to him, but then they get like set up by his friend. So E sets them up.

Speaker 1 And would you believe it? He's a blue-collar guy from one side of the tracks. And from the other side, she's a rich kid.
Her parents are just there kind of like on vacation for the summertime.

Speaker 1 And as Emily mentioned, she has a thing she loves to paint. And so they go on this very strange little date where they walk around

Speaker 1 and they like lay down in the street and watch street lights.

Speaker 2 Well, they see a movie for him.

Speaker 1 They go see a Buster Keaton movie,

Speaker 1 which looked pretty funny. And then they lie down in the street and then they dance in the street.

Speaker 1 And like a car comes and almost hits them. And she loves it.
She's laughing. She's yucking it up.
She's having a great time

Speaker 1 dancing around in the street.

Speaker 2 Well, he makes her do multiple dangerous things. Sure.
So he threatens to kill himself on a Ferris wheel.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 And then he takes her on a date and immediately tells her to lay in the middle of the road.

Speaker 1 Yes. And I think what, you know, what this is doing, it's oh, he's shaking her out of her safe life.
Right.

Speaker 1 They didn't have drugs back then.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so he couldn't be like, smoke some weed.

Speaker 1 He's a manic pixie dream boy. He is, yes, exactly.
That's, and it's like, you know,

Speaker 1 we've seen the manic pixie dream girl so much that we forgot that occasionally it's a boy who can be a boy. Get out of your shell.
Stand on a chair. Dance with me.
Stand on a new shape.

Speaker 1 playing.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you know what? This does it. They're in love and we get a love montage, which is very cute.
They're eating ice cream. They're trying to get an old jalapi to work.
And then

Speaker 1 it

Speaker 1 a whole new song starts playing and they just do another one. There are back-to-back love montages in this.

Speaker 2 And they were great.

Speaker 1 They were great. They're a lot of fun.
Yes. So as we mentioned, his dad played by Sam Shepard.

Speaker 1 he's a nice dad they read poetry together but boy her dad another another story entirely okay this is maybe the hardest i've laughed watching a movie for this podcast so we know we know that her family is going to be rich snobs right we have not met them but we just know they're going to be rich snobs just because of how they talked about her and because we've seen this type of movie a lot so We goes up to her big house that they're renting, and we hear her dad

Speaker 1 say Welcome home, Darlin. And they pan to this guy who

Speaker 1 he looks like a cartoon of a rich person from an 1800s newspaper. He might as well have a sword that says manifest destiny on it.

Speaker 1 He has a handlebar mustache. He is smoking a pipe.
He's wearing a

Speaker 1 smoking jacket. He really needs it.
All this guy is missing to be a cartoon of a rich person. It's so funny when they cut this.

Speaker 2 But I didn't hate him as a character.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 they didn't make him

Speaker 1 as as unlikable as they made her mother.

Speaker 1 Yes. Who does have

Speaker 1 a redemption arc eventually, but at first you're like, wow, this mother's terrible.

Speaker 2 Well, the woman who plays her mother, you may recognize from Pleasantville.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Joan Allen Allen. The great Joan Allen,

Speaker 1 who I think we know, and again, one of those actors you just fucking love to show up in something. She's great in this.
She can do anything except a southern accent. Yeah, not great.

Speaker 1 You know what I love about that? Is that they didn't even, they like they were like E from Monterey. Nobody in this movie can do it.
Yeah, they don't know. They don't even make E try.

Speaker 1 They're like, no, no, no, you're just being, people will just watch you and go, oh, I guess they got a Boston guy in South Carolina.

Speaker 2 Can I tell you, if you talk to someone from South Carolina, the craziest accent you will ever hear in your fucking life.

Speaker 1 It's a little bit more like this.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 You ain't even doing it justice. I did it perfectly.

Speaker 1 It is.

Speaker 1 Are you Will Farrell's impression?

Speaker 1 I don't know how that happened. It just turned into that.
I didn't mean for you.

Speaker 1 Why do you have allergies? Because you're from South Carolina. It's because of all the pollen.
Right. It's a famously, famously perfect.
But no, it is.

Speaker 2 It's a bunch of people just kind of, you know, half-assing it.

Speaker 2 But I do. Well, I guess that there is some justification

Speaker 2 because maybe they're half and half New York, half and half, like, you know, South Carolina, because she's going to school in New York

Speaker 2 or whatever. But I think the only person that kind of sells the accent is Rachel McAdams.
Like, that's the only.

Speaker 1 She's the only one who's trying.

Speaker 2 Well, also, the performance of the movie is Rachel McAdams.

Speaker 1 She's terrific in that. She's so good.

Speaker 2 And the crazy thing is, she did this movie the same year she did Mean Girls. So it's like,

Speaker 1 she and

Speaker 2 she's unrecognizable is the crazy thing. Like that wig and Mean Girls versus this.
Like, I remember seeing this.

Speaker 2 I think it was a 17 magazine or was it Cosmo at this time? And she was wearing a black wig in the photo shoot. And it was like, you can't tell.
This is Rachel McAdams.

Speaker 2 And it was trying to show you how she can be anyone. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then she got stuck playing some girl from something

Speaker 2 after that. And it makes me so fucking angry to this day.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 She's a chameleon, people.

Speaker 1 Anyway, she's still a big star.

Speaker 2 Yeah, she is, but she should be a bigger star.

Speaker 1 That's how that's how I feel.

Speaker 1 Yeah, she is fantastic in this. I've seen a couple other of this style of movie that she's in, and she like always elevates it.
And she's always.

Speaker 2 Family Stone.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 and she is uh almost naked a few times in this, but not, which is total bullshit.

Speaker 2 Also, the sex scenes and the almost sex scenes in this movie.

Speaker 2 Boy, did I almost make noises in the back of an Uber

Speaker 1 on the way home? Uh, so yeah, well, we're kind of almost there. Uh, so the you know, her parents, Joan Allen, and

Speaker 1 I don't know,

Speaker 1 Mordecai, Mordecai, the Johnny, Johnny Depp character. Mordecai.

Speaker 1 They don't like him. He's a poor guy.

Speaker 1 And so he, but they're still running around together, and he's like, Do you want to go somewhere? And they go to the most haunted-looking house I have ever seen.

Speaker 1 I half expected him to say, like, we're going to go look for my little brother Georgie, who went down a sewer grate looking for a balloon. It's so fun.

Speaker 1 Okay, I had the weirdest deja vu. Have we done another movie where people go to make out in a haunted house in a non-horror movie? It's so scary.
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 I'm not,

Speaker 1 it sort of rings a bell, but in general, I had the same feeling about this movie, which was it was very Stephen King-pilled, but without being a horror. It's just a little bit.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because, I mean, like, from the beginning where you start off in the, like, you know, this.

Speaker 2 Why am I the last person that finds this scary?

Speaker 1 Nothing about this. It's not that I found it scary, but I did feel like the ending of this movie was going to be Ryan Gosling as an old person showing Rachel McAdams

Speaker 1 a mouse that lived forever. Like, it was very the green light.

Speaker 1 It's like, I mean, there is a

Speaker 1 end is a little supernatural. You know, like, it does have that little bit of, you know, magic to it.
Anyway,

Speaker 1 I think Nicholas Sparks would argue that's the magic of the Lord Christ.

Speaker 1 Well, I don't know.

Speaker 2 I think that the abandoned house, like making out in, I guess I've done those things.

Speaker 1 Oh, so you've made out in a haunted house.

Speaker 2 Well, here's something that I thought about while watching this.

Speaker 1 Wait, Emily, that guy you made out with, he died 10 years ago tonight.

Speaker 1 Bitch, I wish.

Speaker 1 Anyway,

Speaker 2 no, I mean, I,

Speaker 2 what I was thinking of while I was watching this, I was like, this is the 40s. They're getting in cars, making out, going, like, and she's supposed to be 17.
I had like curfews

Speaker 2 like set at 10 o'clock, and then eventually at 11 o'clock. Like, I got in trouble, like, crazy for things.

Speaker 1 Because it was before the time where everyone had a TV that had commercials that said, do you know where your kids are? Well, no, I don't know what time it was. Only the richest 1% had clocks.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but I kind of looked at the beginning of this going, why is it this girl have a curfew? Why aren't her parents more worried about her? And then eventually it caught up to it.

Speaker 2 But the whole going into abandoned houses or like creepy situations, like I totally did that because you couldn't, you couldn't go home. You couldn't like, nobody's.

Speaker 1 Right. Where are you going to make out? You have to find an abandoned house.

Speaker 2 All my friends had. you know, quote, nice parents who wouldn't let us go make out.

Speaker 2 I wasn't friends with anyone who had party houses we didn't have that so it was like every once in a while somebody was dog sitting or cat sitting in an old house or we'd find an abandoned house like that was kind of the jam because you couldn't just i feel like boys could go and

Speaker 2 do stuff

Speaker 2 wherever and your parents wouldn't worry about you. Would you, was that y'all's case?

Speaker 1 That's not my experience, but I also had no one to do stuff with.

Speaker 2 But I mean, if you went out, like, did you guys have curfews?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think I did. Yeah, yeah.
But I think your theory tracks.

Speaker 1 I was, I mean, and I think I was also a real goodie two-shoes who never did anything, but I did have, I, you know, I could, you know, I was just hanging around.

Speaker 2 What was your curfew? Did you go to parties, Jordan?

Speaker 1 Not really. I would go to like cast parties for the school plays.
Yeah, pretty much. And like

Speaker 1 one or two of those, maybe there was drinking, but I was, you know, my like friend group was like youth group kids who were all like, and you know, I know obviously youth group kids can be very bad.

Speaker 1 No. But mine weren't, mine were not.
Yeah. So I think I, I think if I was, if I did get into trouble, I probably would have had a curfew.

Speaker 1 But I was such a goody two-shoes that I think my parents are like, eh, he's just like doing little skits.

Speaker 2 That was exactly. I didn't go to any parties.
And if I did go to a party where people were drinking, I would call my parents and be like, people are drinking.

Speaker 1 Like, how do you feel? I smell a beer.

Speaker 2 But I was like, but I got fingered on the way out.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. No, we are not the same.
Don't try and relate to me.

Speaker 1 We are not the same.

Speaker 1 Should double back and mention, yes, it is wild when you learn that these two are supposed to be in high school. They are absolutely the oldest teens.

Speaker 1 Oldest teen.

Speaker 1 Anyway, so the sex scene. Yes, I think we're meant to believe that neither of them has ever done anything like this.
Well, it's the first possible sex scene. Yes.
And then

Speaker 1 so he lays down a blanket,

Speaker 1 and then they just kind of like

Speaker 1 the floor, covered in covered in blood and chalk outlines.

Speaker 1 And and they just kind of stare at each other nervously and then like gradually take off their clothes.

Speaker 1 And then they like lay down and kind of kiss and then she's always asking him like oh what are you thinking what are you thinking and then you know it kind of you know ruins the mood and then entourage guy bursts in and says and that'll ruin the mood when an entourage cast member walks in

Speaker 1 jeremy piven walked in on me once oh boy yeah

Speaker 1 i blasted harder than i've ever blasted before oh yeah

Speaker 1 You know, a less observant movie would just have them have this like amazing sex immediately, but there is this, like, oh, you know, sometimes like, you know, first time's weird and they've never done it before and they're from another time.

Speaker 1 And didn't, so, you know, I think the like awkwardness of this is like, you know, fun.

Speaker 1 And there's a kind of a fun fantasy later on when they do actually get together and like it blows their, you know, they blow each other's minds. And there's a fun little fantasy to that.

Speaker 2 In the same room.

Speaker 1 Oh, I wish I could like get back with the person I was awkward with in high school and show them like, I know what I'm doing now. I read a book.

Speaker 2 But the other thing is the realistic

Speaker 2 tension

Speaker 2 of your first time, which I really liked.

Speaker 2 It's clear that he has

Speaker 2 done it before.

Speaker 1 Okay, interesting. I didn't pick up on that.
Oh, for sure.

Speaker 2 Like, he knew what he was doing or whatever. And

Speaker 2 I do think that there is stuff about any romance thing where it's like the man has done it before.

Speaker 2 And the girl is always a virgin, right like i mean

Speaker 2 look at titanic or like look at anything and it's always this girl who's like oh could you do it to me like could you show me could you show it's like that is the fantasy but instead she's like what's your deal

Speaker 2 Have you thought about this before? What is it that's going through your head? Did you think this was already going to happen? Am I special?

Speaker 2 Is like what was going through her head, in my opinion, where it's like, am I just another fucking person that you're doing this to?

Speaker 1 Some chicken meeting a bumper car. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Or do I mean something? Do you love me? What does it matter? Like, you've already told me, like, I love you, blah, blah, blah. You want to marry me? That doesn't mean shit.

Speaker 2 Like, honestly, words don't mean anything. There is something about

Speaker 2 in the moment where you're losing, like, for a woman, especially with the pressure about virginity, which

Speaker 2 virginity is not real. It's bullshit, but in the 1940s, it's hella real.

Speaker 1 Yeah, sure.

Speaker 2 Like, so he wasn't able to answer the questions. And I honestly was like, listen, dumbass.

Speaker 1 You weren't able to like fucking go,

Speaker 2 I'm so excited to do this. I've been fantasizing about it.
Ever since I met you. I love you.
I want to be one with you. Like, Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 Like, fucking. Yeah,

Speaker 1 pick your cliche, gosling. Yeah, he's got a paris sex.
You were able to hang from a Ferris wheel. Right, exactly.

Speaker 2 You can't come up with something to say about why sex is important between the two of you. Right.

Speaker 2 Anyway, I think the tension, though, for a romance,

Speaker 2 I liked it. I liked that they got us real wet and then they were like, but no, no, no.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so they have to wait many years and

Speaker 1 endure many wars.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, so E from Entourage, he busts in, he ruins everything.

Speaker 1 They have called the cops.

Speaker 1 They're looking for her. She's been out past 2 a.m.

Speaker 1 So they take her away. And

Speaker 1 she never,

Speaker 1 they take her away. She's going to college in New York, too.
She's going to Sarah Lawrence. And he writes her every day.

Speaker 1 Him and E E move to Atlanta. They enlist in World War II.

Speaker 1 And he writes to her every day. And she does not send a response.

Speaker 1 And so, you know, he kind of gives up on her. And kind of meanwhile in her story, she volunteers as a nurse and meets a guy who's been horribly scarred by war.

Speaker 1 But he wasn't scarred. He's just like, oh, that's right.
He was, yeah,

Speaker 1 he healed nicely. She meets him, and he's pretty messed up in the hospital.
He's bandaged up.

Speaker 1 But yes, turns out he heals amazing. It's hunky-ass James Marsden.
And he's the perfect guy. He's the perfect guy on paper.
He's like this rich kind of guy from a nice family.

Speaker 2 Which she's rich too.

Speaker 1 Of course. Yeah.
So yeah, so her. How much rich do we need? Exactly.
Yeah, one person can be poor. That's fine.
Right. As long as the other's rich, I don't get it.

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, if the dude is rich and the woman is poor, that's that's okay, I guess.

Speaker 1 And so, yes, and we so get a whole other followed-in-love montage of them.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Just

Speaker 2 perfect. I love movies like this where they make the guy perfectly nice.
Like, there's nothing wrong with this guy. He's not a bad man.
He just ain't the right man.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and I think this movie is pretty, like, humane towards most of the characters. It is.
Nobody's an outright villain.

Speaker 1 You know, a like, you know, a broader movie. I mean, mean, this movie's pretty broad.
But a broader movie would like have him be like some sort of cheating asshole.

Speaker 1 Be a mad guy so that everyone can feel good about what eventually happens.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and then Gosling is also having his kind of own little kind of, you know,

Speaker 1 get over her relationship with a war widow.

Speaker 1 Martha, I believe. And Martha is also very nice.

Speaker 2 Well, she looks a lot like

Speaker 1 Rachel McAdam. She does look a lot like Rachel McAdams.
So yeah.

Speaker 1 Anyway, so it turns out when Gosling comes back from war, his dad bought him the haunted house and he's fixing it up and he goes to Atlanta to like do or goes to wherever she is.

Speaker 1 I don't know where anyone is at this point. Goes to New York or something.
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 2 This Atlanta to South South Carolina is where it

Speaker 1 takes place.

Speaker 2 It takes place, but I guess Atlanta to, I don't get it anyway.

Speaker 1 He goes somewhere to do something and he sees Rachel McAdams, just coincidentally,

Speaker 1 kissing Marsden. And he's like, well,

Speaker 1 it's over.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 1 a lot of people die just really quick. E dies in war.
His dad randomly dies. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 2 Ryan Gosling's dad is played by Sam Shepard,

Speaker 2 playwright, actor. Goddamn, is he talented? He plays his dad, and I love his.
He's the only one selling selling a southern accent, by the way.

Speaker 2 And he reminds me of my dad a lot. So we know that Ryan Gosling's character, like she meets him and his dad on a front porch in the beginning of their, like, love affair.

Speaker 2 And he's reading his dad poetry. But his dad.

Speaker 2 Says when he meets her, she's an artist, right? Like she, and he goes, wow, that's beautiful. That's a damn picture right there

Speaker 1 about her painting.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, what an insult to your son's girlfriend's painting. Yeah, that's a picture right there.

Speaker 1 Well, that sure looks like some colors on campus. Well, it seems like you painted something.

Speaker 2 So I asked my family about some of my dad's southern things. that he says because it reminded me

Speaker 2 uh my my dad will say, is that the costume for today?

Speaker 1 Cute, cute. About my outfits.

Speaker 2 And when I had curling, like curlers in, he'd go, how many stations get on those things?

Speaker 1 That's cute. Dad.

Speaker 2 And if he saw a red car, he'd go, they'll have to settle for that one until they can get a red car.

Speaker 1 I don't know that I get that. I don't think I understand that.

Speaker 2 If the car is super bright red, he'll go, well, they'll have to settle for that until they can get a wrecked car.

Speaker 1 I get it. I get it.

Speaker 1 I don't get it. It's like saying,

Speaker 1 is it hot enough for you?

Speaker 2 It's well, it's like he's saying, he's like, look at that asshole with a super red car.

Speaker 1 Right. Yeah.
Like, it's too red. It's not red enough.
He goes, well, fuck.

Speaker 2 I guess they'll have to settle for that until they get a wreck car.

Speaker 1 A real legend. Okay, so we are about to get to their long-awaited reunion, and we'll talk about it right after this.

Speaker 3 Hey, I'm Jay Keith Van Stratton from Go Fact Yourself, and I'm here with Max Fun member of the month, Josh Mentor, who has been a Maximum Fun member since 2016. Hello, Josh.

Speaker 4 Hey, Jay Keith, how are you doing today?

Speaker 3 I'm so well, and thank you so much for being a listener and supporter of our show. What made you decide to support Max Fun in general and to support our show, Go Fact Yourself?

Speaker 4 Jordan Morris on Jordan Jesse Go has a thing that he likes to say, which is, you know, you tip your bartender a buck of beer. You tip your podcaster a buck a month.

Speaker 4 You know, I get way more use out of Max Fun podcasts than I do like Disney Plus or Netflix.

Speaker 3 Well, it's something we very much appreciate. And by the way, when was the last time Netflix selected you as a member of the month?

Speaker 4 Exactly.

Speaker 3 Exactly. Josh Mentor, congratulations and thank you again for being the Max Fun member of the month.

Speaker 4 Thanks so much, guys.

Speaker 2 Become a Max Fun member now at maximumfun.org slash join.

Speaker 1 We're back. It's free with ads.
We're talking about the notebook. So Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, they're separated.
He wants nothing to do with her. He thinks she has a new guy.

Speaker 1 And she does. She's getting married, but sees in the newspaper, one, the newspaper has written about her upcoming wedding, and then she sees a story about him having fixed up his house.

Speaker 1 I guess you just put whatever in the newspaper in the 40s. I know.
He's on the front page to man fix his house.

Speaker 1 Anyway, so she knows that he's back at the house. And so she does a Hail Mary.
She doesn't tell James Marston what she's doing. She's just like, I have to go clear my head.

Speaker 1 And he is totally fucking understanding about it.

Speaker 1 I think that's like one of the big fantasies of this movie: that, like, apart from her parents being kind of dicks, everyone's really understanding with each other. Yeah.
Yeah. And it's really sweet.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I really love that. It was, it was, and it also kind of puts you in a position as a viewer when you see them as older people.
That's when I was like, wait, maybe this is James Marsden old.

Speaker 1 Like, I wasn't sure. Yeah, that's what I thought.
He proved himself to me where I was like, wait, no, he is the one then.

Speaker 1 Because he let her go and she returned. Right, and Ryan Gosling would absolutely not accept that shit.
Are you kidding me? He would freak out and they'd have a huge fight.

Speaker 1 In fact, their relationship is far less healthy

Speaker 1 than

Speaker 1 yeah. It's one of those things, like, if you look at this practically, it is a very toxic relationship.
It is toxic where they fight.

Speaker 1 She hits him constantly.

Speaker 1 And then we make up. I'm like, yeah, that is

Speaker 1 not a good relationship.

Speaker 1 Hang on. Yeah, it's okay.
Okay. Arguments can be made.

Speaker 1 You have another point.

Speaker 2 I think there is

Speaker 2 a lot of privilege to this movie of this wealthy white girl having two, like, there are no problems for this girl. She will always be taken care of because she's rich.

Speaker 2 She went to like Marsden and she went, I used to paint. And he's like, okay,

Speaker 2 you could have told me that.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 But I do think with the Ryan Gosling character, he bought her, like, he built her a studio without her ever asking.

Speaker 1 Right. There's certain things in this that, like, where

Speaker 1 Noah, Ryan Gosling's character, does prove himself to be a true love who, like, knows her inside and out. Absolutely.
Yes.

Speaker 1 But he still seems volatile, and he would still punch you in that fashion. Right.
And I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 A lot of that is a manipulation tactic. A lot of that is less sign of an unhealthy relationship.

Speaker 1 It's like it is okay to, for the love of your life, to be like, I didn't know you wanted me to build you a studio. You should have asked.
That's okay.

Speaker 1 It's true. She should have been with Marsden.

Speaker 1 If she was with Marsden, she would have never had dementia. Let's keep going.
That's true.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and it does seem like, and you are kind of tricked a little bit because it does seem like James Garner is a totally different character. Yes.

Speaker 1 So, you know, yeah, at no point does these seem like the same people.

Speaker 2 Exactly. I think it all comes down to the fact that Gosling was better at sex.

Speaker 1 Yes. And

Speaker 1 that's, you know, the sex, it solves everything, says the notebook. So, yeah, so we have, so they do, so she goes over and like stays with him.
Her,

Speaker 1 this kind of happens afterwards, but his Martha, the woman he's kind of sleeping with, comes over. And again, very understanding.
They just have, they invite her in, which is maybe a little shitty.

Speaker 1 Maybe Martha wants to go be alone. Anyway, and they like have this.

Speaker 1 Anyway, in a more...

Speaker 1 In a more Riverdale version of this, they all would have become a quad. Marsden, Martha.

Speaker 1 Anyway.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 they do it. After After going on a rowboat ride

Speaker 1 through a big flock of

Speaker 1 middle geese.

Speaker 1 Way too many ducks.

Speaker 1 Geese, I believe. And I think this is the right shit.

Speaker 1 Or whatever. I did see one swan.
I did see one swan. There was a swan.
And I'm like, get out of there. This is the geese pool.
You don't belong to the geese pool.

Speaker 1 Anyway, it was the 40s. They could be racist towards swans.

Speaker 1 The geese would have been more racist if you look at it. They would have hated that swan.
That's great. So, yeah, that's the callback.
That's kind of what she's remembering there in the beginning.

Speaker 1 They have a passionate kiss in the rain, and then they actually have sex. Oh, my God.
You don't see anything, which is total bullshit.

Speaker 1 But they do blow each other's minds, and they do it on the bed and on the floor. And every witch-a-way.
Yeah, all the body trying to kill me, woman. I love that.

Speaker 2 Tape a pencil to it, bitch.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know. Exactly.
What are you doing? Take a pill.

Speaker 1 Well, the first sex scene. Pussy eating would not be invented for 20 years.
I know, unfortunately.

Speaker 1 It was before.

Speaker 1 I know. Any

Speaker 1 conventional pussy eating by, I don't know, JFK.

Speaker 1 Y'all are completely right on this.

Speaker 2 I mean, the first sex scene, like the

Speaker 2 passionate, like, honestly, these are two of the sex scenes in cinema that have, whoo, like, really did it for me. And I didn't see much at all.

Speaker 2 But the first one turned me on more than the second one, I'll be honest, because I thought they were doing it like multiple times, but I'm also.

Speaker 1 Entourage ruins it.

Speaker 2 Oh, well, he had to ruin it because the cops, blah, blah, blah. But I'm like, put a finger in there, motherfucker.
Why does it have to be your dick?

Speaker 1 Thank you. That's right.

Speaker 1 Which 40s.

Speaker 2 I mean, I okay.

Speaker 2 I don't know if you guys knew girls that thought

Speaker 2 they could save their virginity by doing it in the butt.

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 1 again, this is not, I had a very different high school experience.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this did not come up. I'm aware that this is a thing.

Speaker 1 I had heard about that, and I was always just like, I would settle for a handy. Sure.
Okay, so

Speaker 1 I heard about it.

Speaker 1 I heard about it from girls in my church youth group. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 That said, said, if you do it in the butt, it doesn't count. And I'm like, what the fuck is wrong with fingers? I don't understand.

Speaker 1 That's right.

Speaker 2 But, and then, like,

Speaker 1 a couple fingers up the butt. What? No.

Speaker 1 But, yeah, there's, there are. You ever see that like photo of Jesus where he's got the two fingers up like that? Those fingers are for putting in pussy.
Right, yes.

Speaker 1 So what happens in the movie, Jordan?

Speaker 1 Anyway, it's a space shop basically.

Speaker 1 Anyway, so yeah, they have sex and it's great and they're in love now. She breaks up with Marsden.
He's very nice about it.

Speaker 1 We kind of cut back. He's really nice.
He's a great guy.

Speaker 1 I hope he found love. Maybe with Martha.
That would have been fun. Yes.
Oh, shit. We should set them up.
They're

Speaker 1 the characters in the movie.

Speaker 1 They are too careful. She's kind of a bummer, but yeah.

Speaker 1 We periodically kind of cut back to the old people, and they're like, kids come to visit.

Speaker 1 Their kids come to visit, and they kind of try and fake you out and think they're not his kids. Here's something

Speaker 1 that always blew my mind when it happened a couple of times. Periodically, so he's reading her all this out of this notebook.

Speaker 1 And periodically, she will go, This is such a lovely story. I'm like, All right.

Speaker 1 I love this wonderful tale. It surely will go down as a classic.
This wonderful, oh, this prose. I love, yeah.
Oh, this wonderful prose. That's such a wonderful story.

Speaker 1 Nicholas Barks writing his grandma giving him a really good book review. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And Nick Cassavetti's

Speaker 1 doing a movie about his.

Speaker 1 Some are like, all right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, she should have turned to the camera and said it's a great story and also very well directed. Very well directed.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 All right. It ain't the Philadelphia story, people.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Anyway,

Speaker 1 so yeah,

Speaker 1 she breaks up with Marsden.

Speaker 1 She picks Ryan Gosling. She runs back over to the house.

Speaker 1 And we learn that, yes, the thing we kind of suspected in the first scene was actually true. The old couple is them.

Speaker 1 She wrote the notebook when she learned she was getting dementia and had him read it to her every

Speaker 1 day. So she would, so she like, they, God, there's a lot of like

Speaker 1 medical weirdness at the end, so it's like, well, she remembers sometimes and she doesn't others. The end of this movie is fucking devastating.
Oh, it is so. So she

Speaker 1 remembers briefly, they dance, and then she forgets him and yells at him. It's such a like

Speaker 1 dancing to I'll be seeing you. I think it was that a version sung by George Burns, but I'm not really sure.

Speaker 2 His performance in that scene is

Speaker 2 Academy Award worthy. His performance.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I straight up was, I was holding back tears during that.

Speaker 2 I was sobbing.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you came into this pod sobbing.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I was like, oh, shit, she just watched that ending, huh? I did. That ending, though.
And then

Speaker 1 they lay down together and he's like, do you think our love can cause miracles? Can we both go together? And then we both die in the the middle of the night next to each other. And that's the end.

Speaker 1 Oh my God.

Speaker 1 The prestige.

Speaker 1 The prestige. They really hit you with just 10 depressing things at the end of this.
Yeah. And funnily enough, the most depressing thing is that it's a whole movie where you don't see dicks going in.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I just feel like. What?

Speaker 1 Well, wouldn't it have been better if when they had sex, we got to see it? Couldn't agree agree more. I don't know.

Speaker 1 And again, if you're going to pull down someone's pants, I hate to harp on this. Heart boxers are funny.
Yeah, I agree. It would have been fun.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and they definitely. Wait, let's see.

Speaker 1 When were heart boxers invented? Hey, Grock.

Speaker 1 Don't ask Grock.

Speaker 1 Don't ask Grock. Oh, no, he's doing more racial slurs than me.
No, Grock.

Speaker 1 Just answer something without insulting my answers. Ask Grock about the 40s.
No, don't.

Speaker 1 Anyway, we're going to say what we thought about the 40s. 1925, bitch.

Speaker 1 Okay, so he could have had heart boxers.

Speaker 1 Time period appropriate. It wouldn't have been anachronistic.
Anyway, we got to do the honk watch. Oh, kids, honk watch.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 I think we've probably given it to her before, but I'm going to go ahead and give it to Joan Allen. Good and everything.
You know, southern accent's a little shaky, but oh my god, yeah, just love.

Speaker 1 Oh, maybe I gave it to her in face-off. She's the Cho Travolta's wife in Face Off.

Speaker 2 I forgot that she was in Face Off.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 She's in everything. She's in everything.

Speaker 2 What if Gibbett, like, this man loves women?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
So, what about you, Emily? Who's your hunk?

Speaker 2 Oh, it's Sam Shepard.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Not as problematic as he could be.

Speaker 2 Sam Shepard. Well, he's very problematic.
He is not a faithful.

Speaker 1 He could be more problematic.

Speaker 2 Well, he's dead. Yeah.
But, like,

Speaker 2 not a faithful.

Speaker 1 god canceled him

Speaker 1 he sure did

Speaker 1 not faithful what are we doing here we're canceling people for being cheaters

Speaker 2 once a year that's well here's the thing in a romance movie yeah i think it bears like a mention sure sure sure

Speaker 2 I mean he's incredibly talented I love his performances and he's a great he's a great dad

Speaker 1 yeah

Speaker 2 and the only one who nailed a southern accent.

Speaker 1 Yes, that's true.

Speaker 2 And of course, Ryan Gosling is number two. My God, what a weird jaw.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Like, where does it start? Where does it end? It's like Jay Leno

Speaker 2 decided to go into a wrinkle in time and pull Ryan Gosling out. Like,

Speaker 2 where's the jaw? I don't know. It's forever jaw.

Speaker 1 Matt, thoughts? Ryan Gosling, duh. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's easy.

Speaker 1 You know, I said Joan Allen to mix it up. But yeah, Ryan Gosling got it.
I mean, this made him a star. I mean,

Speaker 1 he was just like a Canadian kids actor. Some weird Mickey Mouse club kid.
Weird, yeah. Oof.

Speaker 1 He's great in this, and yep, like seeing him in movies. Good movie actor.
Okay,

Speaker 1 we're going to say what we thought about the notebook on a scale of one to ten super loud commercials when we come back.

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Speaker 2 I figured something out about this map, like how to read it.

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That's awesome and nuts. John Gabris.
This is like great first date for like broke 20 something, you know. And more.

Speaker 1 Check out Walkin' About with Alan McLeod on Maximum Fun.

Speaker 1 We're back. It's free with ads.
We are going to rank the notebook on a scale of 1 to 10 super loud commercials. But first, we want to remind you to go to maximumfun.org slash join.

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Maybe you got some road trips. Maybe you got some plane trips.
You're going to need podcasts to listen to on those trips.

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Speaker 1 You get all that stuff and you keep the show going. Okay,

Speaker 1 the notebook. 1 to 10 super loud commercials.
Matt, do you want to go first as the notebook expert?

Speaker 1 What do you think of your rewatch? Yes, that's right.

Speaker 1 So this is the second or third time that I've seen this movie, and I haven't seen it since

Speaker 1 probably like 2006.

Speaker 1 Upon rewatch, I

Speaker 1 really liked it. And finally, it was free from the context of being in a relationship that wasn't going to work out.
And so just being able to watch it on its own, I really, I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 I'm going to give it a seven. Solid seven.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I'll go next. We'll Emily bring this home.
I think you will probably have the most to say.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I had not seen this, and I'm right there with you. I had a good time.

Speaker 1 Charming actors.

Speaker 1 Just all your favorite folks

Speaker 1 being great on camera. And, you know, you have some cliches.
You have some rom-com stuff that, you know, it's a little icky if you think too much about it.

Speaker 1 But what are you doing thinking too much about it? That's your fault.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, it's the notebook. I liked kind of seeing where all the memes came from, all the kind of moments that you, you know, see people writing about.

Speaker 1 And it is like a classic movie that I think is like going to stick around forever. I'm going to give it a six.
Uh, Emily? Oof, a six.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 2 cried my eyes out at this movie. I do think it is like romantic, kind of fluffy, like that kind of thing.
But in terms of like

Speaker 2 wistful

Speaker 2 period

Speaker 2 romance,

Speaker 2 especially from modern, like post-2000.

Speaker 2 I'm very impressed with it. Like,

Speaker 2 I thought it was very sensitive to a lot of things, especially with the mother.

Speaker 2 Usually, like, the father is this overbearing character that is, like, not my daughter, like, super angry. And instead, it was this father who's like, oof, I've, I understand, like,

Speaker 2 what I've been there, or whatever. And then the mother being the overbearing one who gets in the way of things.

Speaker 2 And then you have the opportunity to understand things from an older woman's point of view in that time period. Yeah.
I just really love the way they treated

Speaker 2 a woman's point of view in this movie. And I, I don't know, I'm giving it a nine.

Speaker 1 A nine. I loved it.
I really loved this movie.

Speaker 2 I hate that he's a psychopath

Speaker 1 but i love the story from a woman's if you do that to any romance or rom-com yes they fall apart like that

Speaker 2 i will say this this is the best kissing i have seen in any movie we have watched Fucking open your mouth and make it wet.

Speaker 1 Is it so difficult?

Speaker 2 Like this dry ass, lippy bullshit. We've seen in so many, These kisses are like, oh my God.
I, it's, these movie, this movie made me feel a lot of things. I cried very hard.

Speaker 2 It made me think about my grandparents. I, I, and how they fucked.
Sorry. No, that's, I'm kidding.
No, how they loved each other.

Speaker 2 Anyway, nine, nine.

Speaker 1 Uh, all right, that's our review of the notebook. Um, anybody got anything to plug, Emily?

Speaker 2 Um, I'm gonna keep plugging that uh Phlem Gems holiday is coming up. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 I still don't know what colors I'm going to. I'm so excited, but keep an eye out.

Speaker 1 This is your Etsy jewelry shop.

Speaker 2 Yes. Oh, thank you, Jordan.
It's Phlem Gems is my Etsy jewelry shop. Holiday is coming up.

Speaker 2 I don't know what the color scheme is going to be, but keep your eyes out. If you want to look at my Instagram, M-Flemily,

Speaker 2 F L E M I L Y.

Speaker 2 That's where you'll find out what the color scheme is and everything. So keep an eye out.

Speaker 1 All right. I got a couple of book events coming up in December, and they are both at public libraries.

Speaker 1 We're cheapskates on this show. We love a public library.
I am going to be at the Merced Public Library in beautiful Merced, California, on December 3rd, 5 to 7 p.m.,

Speaker 1 doing a little book event with some other authors. And on Saturday, December 6th, I'm going to be at the Thousand Oaks Public Library on 2

Speaker 1 from 2 to 3 talking about how to make comics. So that's the Merced Public Library, December 3rd.
The Thousand Oaks Public Library on December 6th.

Speaker 1 Yeah, come out to those, say what's up, and support your local library. Okay,

Speaker 1 tune in next week when our movie will be the peanut butter solution.

Speaker 1 Maximum Fun, a worker-owned network of artists-owned shows supported directly by you.