Under The Cherry Moon (HDTGM Matinee)
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Hey, audiophiles, just a quick note that when taking out her card that she recorded the episode on June misplaced it. She lost the card that recorded her audio from her great microphone and we are abusing her Zoom audio only. So if you hear any imperfections, it is not for any other reason than the

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Money, power, sex, sequins, large jackets, flowery blouses, taco meat, and prints. We saw Under the Cherry Moon, so you know what that means. Now it's time for...

Hello, people of Earth, and welcome to How Did This Get Made? I am Tall John Shearer.

And boy, oh boy, we have been on a run of movies that I have been absolutely loving. This is the follow-up to Purple Rain, and it is the most Prince film you could possibly ever imagine. I can't wait to talk about it. Did not know until this movie started that the female lead was Kristen Scott Thomas, which is great.

and the bad guy from Beverly Hills Cop. All I can say about this plot is Prince is a gigolo, and he falls in love, and as the beginning of the movie states, that leads to his death. But we'll talk about all this and more, but first, let me introduce my co-host. Please welcome Mr. Jason Manzoukas. How are you, Jason? Paul, I mean, I'm thrilled to be here. This is...

I almost said this before the podcast started, but I'm going to say it now. This is, without a doubt, the most notes I've ever taken on a How Did This Get Made movie. Like, it's...

Every single, every single scene, every single outfit, every single line of dialogue, every single music cue, every single camera move. I had notes on. I was consumed. I'm obsessed with this movie. I am too. I felt like I was transcribing the film. That's how much I was writing. I felt like I had taken drugs. I,

I was like, the movie was making me feel like I was in a fever dream. It was, I'm so excited. We got to talk about it. And I don't even want to delay at all our conversation. So that's why I'll bring in our next co-host. Please welcome June Diane Rayfield. How are you, June?

Hi, Paul. I'm okay. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm so glad to speak to you. June, thoughts about Under the Cherry Moon? You know, it's funny, Jason, because I actually didn't write down...

much because I loved this movie. Yes! I loved it so much and I just enjoyed the hell out of it. I can't agree with you more with the slight caveat that it's terrible.

Yes. I mean, I'm holding both of these things in my hands as both true. I loved it. This is a both end situation. Yes. And it's not an either or. Exactly. It is a movie made by a genius. Yes. And it is...

so uniquely bizarre but so heartfelt I said to June at one point and holy Prince it's so it's like the movie in microcosm is like Prince's music career it's

It's pure genius, but there's too much of it. I mean, to me, I wrote down, this is the prince-iest of Prince movies ever. I mean, you couldn't... This is him. I also just want to start off with a couple of broad stroke questions just to put us in a conversation about Prince, right? First of all, this...

Prince is not the prince that I'm used to, right? Like he has something very different. I think I've gotten so locked into the Fred Armisen version of the very whispery, coquettish... Or the Chappelle, Charlie Murphy stories. Yeah. And this prince is...

I mean, he's not that. I mean, he has got so many things. Here's what's interesting. This is, I feel like, the version of Prince that is in some of those stories, which is... And also, if you want great Prince stories, Mike Judge does a great show on Showtime called Tales from the Tour Bus. And it's people talk... It's a documentary series where people tell stories about the first season about country music and the second season is all about funk.

And almost everybody tells Prince stories. Bootsy Collins, James Brown, all these people. Everybody tells Prince stories. Anyway, the thing about Prince that seems to be united throughout all of these things is that he's a fucking rascal.

And in this movie, Prince is a little rascal. He's like starting trouble. He's winding people up. He's like half of the movie is a noir in which Prince is the femme fatale, weirdly. And half of the movie...

Half of the movie is a screwball comedy. It's like an homage to Preston Sturgis or the His Girl Friday type of screwball, you know, or, you know, like bringing up Baby, basically. Oh, and by the way, so Prince directed this. Oh, yeah. So this is, it really, no one is filtering him. But June, I mean, what did you think about Prince? Like, what was your...

Coming into this. Yeah. I also... Well, so the only... I haven't heard all these Prince stories. I love Prince. Love. And I think about... As the election approaches, I've been thinking about him a lot. And the time when Prince died, David Bowie died. And I remember someone tweeting...

it's a bad sign when all of the aliens start leaving the planet. And me, I really do think about it as like, that's kind of when everything started to fall apart. Yeah. And I connect it like very deeply to losing Prince, losing Bowie, like losing the men who were able to contain multitudes of aliens.

and gender and, and just performance and brilliance. And thank God we got Dennis Rodman still here. Thank God. But it felt like protect Rodman. It felt like all of these special men were leaving us and leaving us to Donald Trump. And so that's sort of like my overall, I was really excited to sit down with Prince and be with him, but it was, I,

I have known the only story, the personal story I've known about Prince has been from when he guest starred on New Girl. Yes. Yeah. I think we all know this. Yes. Wait, I don't know this. I don't know this.

I just know him as having been a rascal on that set. Having been like the prince that we saw in this film, that behavior was, I think, displayed on the set of New Girl. So I was very aware of that. But it's certainly, I've never seen Purple Rain. So I'm also behind.

By the way, I have to admit, I haven't seen it either. I've seen bits of it and I was blown away just like this. I feel like I've seen it, but I actually haven't. It's a better movie, obviously. It's a better movie. Because this, to me, this is like, because Prince is in control of Under the Cherry Moon, this is like really a tone poem. It's perfectly Prince-like.

You know, it is not a movie. It's it is a it is a rambling series of lightly connected scenes that have a slightly if you took out. Here's what I'll say. If you took out the legitimately incredible music from.

that runs throughout this movie, the movie would suddenly seem to be, that is what's, that is what's, that is the thread that ties this, that keeps this movie held together. If you took it out, the movie would seem startlingly bizarre. I think it's kind of crazy.

Well, yeah. Prince was anything. If we were watching this without knowing Prince was Prince, if we were just watching this, like, Oh, this is an actor playing this part, not watching it, knowing who this man is and what, you know, all of his albums, whatever, what he's produced, what he produced in his lifetime.

it would be the strangest experience. Can I make an insane claim? Yeah. And I want to be very clear right now. Prince, for me, is one of my top 10 music icons. Like, he's in the pantheon. He is an icon. Like, I think Prince is a once-in-a-generation genius. It is unparalleled what he's done in music. If Prince only made this movie...

And we had only that to go on. We would consider it in the same category as the room. Like, yes, instead of saying things like, hi, you know, hi, Mark. Hi, we would be going, Garcon, Garcon. We would be doing that impression. Like it's, it is a, it's careening. The fact that it is a movie that takes place in France and,

Half of the people are speaking English. Half of the people who speak in English write in French. Half of the people are speaking in French and don't understand English. I don't understand. And then there are a lot of English British accents as well. Well, I mean, there's so much going on here. I want to just I want to go back to one thing that you said, Jason, about it being like Tommy Wiseau.

I have a big belief that Tommy Wiseau is like a Spielberg or Prince without the talent. So all the same things are there. This doesn't coalesce the same way. Like, right. It's like, oh, yeah, but they both under the cherry moon and the room are both without a doubt the.

the true vision of the creator on film. Like nobody interceded. And as a result, we get this. And I mean, and, and just to talk a little bit about the French and the, the mixing of accents. One of my favorite moments. Oh my God. Was when you see him walk through the courtyard with these kids, he takes their soccer ball, bounces it like a basketball. I'm fine with that. But when he goes to the flower stand and he goes up to the woman and he's like, what do you want? And the,

The woman says, oh, I don't know. It's so hard for me to decide. By the way, it's a French market. She's speaking English. Fine. But then you think he's going to interpret for her. Like, oh, you can't describe what you want. I'll do it for you. And then she says, I don't know which one I want. And then he just turns to the French salesperson and goes, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. And walks away. Doesn't say, walks away, but doesn't even attempt French. He just goes, uh, uh, uh.

I was like, this is beyond like he's. He's one of the most he's one of the most charismatic screen presences in any way, shape and form. He is electric to watch. Right. But over and over and over again, I was shocked when I was looking at it and being like, I'm not sure he knows how to kiss.

Well, the kissing was weird. It was very weird. I think all of the sort of passion was weird. Oh, yeah. All of the performance of passion was so odd. And that was, for me, that was the only disappointment of seeing Prince in these passionate scenes and it feeling so very wrong.

Yeah, it feeling like really because that's the I'll be honest, that is the thing that's that shocked me about this, because I I think of Prince as such a Prince is, you know, curated persona was raw sexuality. You know, the the the the the ass cheeks of his pants cut out.

on the whatever it was, the MTV Awards or whatever that was, or just the overt sexuality. Like one of the first people who is making overtly sexual music that is for a mainstream audience. Like truly, like Darling Nikki, like songs that are about sex that are played on the radio. Wasn't he, isn't that why like parental guidelines were put on records? I think that's one of the reasons, yes. Yeah.

Specifically because of his records. So for the fact that like the sex scene between he and Christian Scott Thomas, their sex scene in the grotto or whatever it's called. Oh my God. It just cuts between them awkwardly kissing, candles, fingers entwined,

candles, fingers entwined, awkwardly kissing. That's the sex scene. But when the best shot of that, and again, the prince-iest of prince shots, is the camera lingers on Kristen Scott Thomas' hand, and then superimposed in her hand is the two of them having sex. The hand, I mean, it's beautiful. It's an insane shot. I love it. But I do feel...

while he doesn't know how to kiss, he's got sex appeal. And I would argue that the relationship or the sexual relationship between, uh, between, uh, tricky and Christopher Tracy, that's their chemistry. I can,

I could talk about this relationship for hours. I was, I was, here's the thing. And that's why I don't think Jason, that this is, this could be the room if we didn't know who Prince was, because there's something about this movie and the relationships and what they're going for. Like this movie is realized and fully itself and living out loud. And it's,

It is millennial in its sense of taking space and feeling entitled to itself. And I appreciate that about it. And I do think that they are creating these relationships on screen that are...

confusing that I've never seen before that are fascinating to watch. What was very interesting to me was, and I think, again, I do, Prince is a genius. And there is a lot of attempts at genius within this because Prince inside of this movie is using a lot of the tropes and archetypal relationships that exist in film noir and that exist in screwball comedy. He's kind of

you know, ping-ponging between those two things over and over and over again. And as a result, a lot of the fluidity and a lot of the relationships are upending versions of those relationships. Like Prince treats himself like the femme fatale in a film noir. Yes. The shots linger on Prince.

They don't linger on the women in the movie. They linger on Prince. Like the first shot is a, like the first shot is of Prince lying down. It like the camera, like slowly pans up, focusing on his ass, moving up his body. Like the camera drinks in Prince and,

in this fascinating way. Oh, yeah. And the refusal to define he and Tricky's relationship in a way that is they are these male gigolos who are hustling women. They are American... I'm correct, right? They are American gigolos. They're American gigolos. Hustling women in...

in France, right? Yes. I thought this movie was going to be more of a Casablanca in the beginning. Like, it felt like he was going to be our Rick. But he doesn't own a club. He kind of just jumps around from club to club playing piano. Because I don't even think that club in the daytime where they're dancing is the same club that he was at at night in the beginning of the film where he's getting too many notes. I mean, how many notes are being written in that first scene? Oh my God.

The notes was making me laugh so hard. Because I also was like, before the notes start arriving before we understand the story. So I'm like, why is he getting all these romance notes from this guy back here? Yeah. It's like they are trying to set up so much and it's like, do it. The eyes, the rent is due.

Here's my other point. The beginning of the movie looks like it's going to be in the past. I believe, again, I'm putting this Casablanca element to it. Old school Hollywood. This movie takes place in present day. It is not. And it has no reason to be black and white. And I would argue that.

it should never have been black and white because I want to see these fucking outfits. I want to see what people look like. They keep referring to colors. Yeah. They keep, they keep, should I wear the blue or the gold? You know, like there's a lot of stuff in the movie that is color specific. And there is something also, there's something about, cause you know, Prince is such a, you know, Prince is synonymous with the color purple, you know, you know, the, the color purple, not the color purple. You know, so color is such a specific thing.

thing that he has chosen to kind of live inside of and choose to represent himself with this, you know, this single color for so many years. So it was so odd that he chose black and white, but I was like, this is an homage. This is his attempt to live inside of those movies. Right. But I think what he made the mistake of is like,

He didn't play into the noir. Like he, he basically Prince is Prince should be seen in color. Like absolutely. That, like that, if anything I know about Prince, it's like you need to see him. And I wanted to see more of him. And I actually think it dulls the movie in a way because it is kind of beautifully shot. Uh,

Well, and the camera is insane. It is not beautifully shot. It's not beautifully shot. The camera movement was making me nauseous at times. The camera movement is like... The scene where the camera is just revolving 360 around the restaurant, I legitimately had to pause it because I got nauseous. I was like, the camera movement is too fast. It's too fast and at points, it feels like...

I don't know how to describe it more than if I was in a control room and I had five cameras in front of me and I'm taping a live event and I go and I'm saying camera three, run and get me a close up. And you wouldn't hit that close up button until camera three got into position. But this movie hits the button as it gets into position. Like you're watching the camera. Also, there's moves that make no sense. Like that big when they do that big like circling around the restaurant over and over again.

And I guess to show like all these relationships that aren't working and it's right before they reveal when Kristen Scott Thomas comes into the restaurant and it just doesn't pay off. And we're swinging around and around that restaurant a number of times for something that she just walks in at the end. Oh, yeah. No, there's there's tons of wasted time. I felt like that scene they wanted to have the effect of like one of those rotating bars.

Yeah, they were like, we can't do that. So instead, why don't we just move the camera, you know, and and we'll have all of these. We'll have insights into, you know, there's a couple kissing. And then the next time they come around, she's slapping him in the face. And the next time they come around, they're kissing again. You know, like all of this human drama is going on, but it's not significant to the movie or the plot or anything like that. It's just a matter of their placeholders for then actors to walk in and do the scene.

It's a very bizarre when the opening scene, when, when Christopher Prince is playing piano in the piano bar and the lady in white walks in,

And he does like a Lenny and Squiggy, like vert level biting of his palm or, you know, like, like, she's so beautiful. And then he has to like, she catches him looking. And his look is like, he's also doing like Buster Keaton level comedy. He's also doing physical comedy that is silent movie era, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin style comedy. By the way, you're being very kind to say that. I mean, how would you describe the moment where they see bats?

It's unbelievable. Why were there bats in there? Why? Why were there bats in there? And it's like, to me, is not even a moment that you need a joke. It's like a serious conversation. Like, oh, bats. And they go, ah! That's what I mean. Like, there are jokes in here that like when, okay, so like right afterwards when like when the lady in white wakes up and Christopher has been in her bed and he leaves her a note.

And the note has like a big smiley face on it. I was like, this is because it's not it's like a it's a bit of like romantic script. But then a big, giant smiley face, weird childlike smiley face. I thought that whole thing felt like a first grader wrote it. I was like, you would never want to call this man for another sex night after this. But I felt like that's these are Prince jokes.

These are jokes that Prince thinks are funny. There's no way he thinks this is what a real, the real, a real, this is a real sexy note to leave behind. I think he's like, hey, wouldn't it be funny if we did this? You know, you see, I think Prince gets away with weird shit because even in the beginning of the movie, when he's at the piano, he's getting upset and

He goes to slug back a drink, but the drink that he slugs back has like sugar on the rim and an umbrella in it. Like he is like it is like to me, it's like Prince is like, oh, yeah, I want to have that moment where I slam back a martini, but I don't drink martinis. I drink like this, like Long Island iced tea. Yeah.

Yeah, or the scene when Tricky and Prince are in their apartment building and Tricky and the, is it Katie? Who's the woman who's the landlord have just had sex. And they're arguing about the fact that Tricky and Prince owe her rent. And Tricky goes, uh-oh, he's going to give you the Bela Lugosi look. And then it just comes deep, like wrecked.

Full focus, hard closeup on Prince with like creepy theremin music playing in the background while he does big broad faces at her and she appears to be scared.

I didn't like that. By the way, it's like, what is this movie's tone? Well, and then I couldn't quite understand what was happening there. Were they threatening to rape her? Well, she already just had sex with Tricky. Just had sex with Tricky. Well, that doesn't mean she still can't be raped. Of course. No, no, no. I'm more mean. Like, I don't think it was like, I think sex is possible. Yes. Yeah.

You know, they are. But you're right. They are kind of like they are approaching her in a way. But it's like but here again, as I go and this is I have a bigger thought that I want to share with you. But this is what to Jason's point, like this is Princess having fun. Like I'm the Bela Lugosi. So I'm going to go suck your blood. Like I feel like that's what he was going for. Like.

I'm a vampire. Or I couldn't tell if it was like, this is how they kind of like play around. If this is like, like, cause there's so they are tricky and Christopher are have like the most,

intimate relationship in a way that I was like, I feel like the movie is telling us, you know, in, you know, not so coded language that they are a gay couple, but then at times they appear to be. Bisexual, definitely. Yeah, or have had a relationship with each other, I guess is what I mean. But that it also, both of them, like they're falling out is because they have both fallen in love with Mary? I couldn't.

I couldn't quite understand. I couldn't either. I really didn't know if Tricky did genuinely have feelings for Mary. It seemed like he did. I don't know.

I think he only had feelings because when Prince said, you take care of the money, I take care of the panties or whatever that line is. Drawers. Oh yeah, drawers. Please don't say panties, Paul. Sorry. By the way, I don't say it, but I thought that maybe that's what Christopher Tracy said. That I thought that it was like a challenge because he did wait outside for him while they were going to have sex in the room. He did protect him multiple times. Tricky situations.

It felt like it was a competition between them, but also she was their toy. What I couldn't figure out was, to me, and I think now I might be wrong, what the movie seemed to be setting up was that Tricky was Prince's kind of, not quite pimp,

but like the guy that handled the money, the guy, like when Tricky was sending him the notes about the lady in white, I was like, oh, he's the guy who sets, who's the go-between. Who sends the ladies over. Who's the go-between between the women and the, the, the, the gigolo, you know? And that was their relationship. So then later to find out that Tricky himself is also a gigolo, I was like, oh, I'm confused a little bit. No, I mean, I'm confused a lot, but,

In this regard, I was like, why does he have feelings for Mary? Isn't it his goal to just facilitate Christopher and Mary getting together? Well, I know he will. I know he financially stands to make some money if...

Christopher and Mary get together. I think ultimately we were telling the story of him just being scared of losing his friend. Yes. You know, a friend who he sits in the bath with. Yeah, exactly.

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Tighten up the defense against those odor zones this season. Find Dove Man Whole Body Dio at Walmart today. Did anyone else struggle with telling the difference between Mary's mom and Mrs. Wellington? Yes, I had a hard time. You made fun of me, June, when I said that because I was confused. I don't remember making fun of you, Paul. Wow. Oh, boy. No, I was like, wait, is that the mom? Because they are twins.

They almost dress alike. They look alike. Exactly. Oh, yes. Well, and I think that is kind of not necessarily intentional, but like they're basically saying like they're I feel like they're doing like his. Traditionally, what he does is he sleeps with older women. Right. You know, like he's the young guy who sleeps with older women like money. Right. American like American gigolo. But it's very much like.

They know what they're in for, right? Like, it's not like, cause he comes back with the rent money and he has it. Like he didn't steal it from her. She knows like she's going to like, this is a, okay. No, no, no. It's like, it's like American gigolo or it's like any, any of those. I didn't know if it was more of like a sugar daddy kind of relationship. And what's not cool is the scene where Prince goes into the mother's room in the dark and starts, uh,

starting to have sex with her thinking it's the daughter. Like that is a hundred percent not cool and not above board.

Because people do not know what's going on in that regard. So but I think Mrs. Wellington is a stand in for the the the older generation that is that is, you know, that Kristen Scott Thomas sees as like the the parental figures or in the case of Mrs. Wellington, the woman who's sleeping with her father, you know.

But that's where I got confused. So Mrs. Wellington, Mrs. Wellington is both paying, paying to have sex with Prince. And then also sleeping with Isaac, Mary's dad, just for like, just for fun. Or does she? I think so. I think that I think she is his mistress.

Okay. Wasn't that the phone call? You know what scene I loved? The scene I loved was the duet between Prince and the answering machine. When Prince sits at the piano. Oh my God. This is an incredible scene. It's like a literal, it's a duet that Prince is doing between himself playing the piano live and the voice of Isaac,

Yes. Leading a message. The bad guy from Beverly Hills Cop. Yes. If you literally, I wish someone out there, if you have any time in this quarantine, you could take scenes from Beverly Hills Cop with this man and this movie because they're the same thing. Like this, this man is irritated by Prince and Axel Foley. Like they are, they are the same level. He's like, who is this man? And get him out of here. Mr. Foley. Like,

I literally just, you could have the same scenes. Like, I really do believe that this, that Prince saw Beverly Hills Cop and was like, oh, that should be our bad guy. It's the same relationship. Yeah. But that duet, so that guy is leaving a message for Mrs. Wellington and Prince is playing along to it and using his...

side of the duet to make fun of Isaac. It's this, and we haven't met Isaac yet. So it's such a great scene. I love, that was where I was like, this is genius. This is Prince's, this is what is wonderful about Prince. - You know who you've dialed? - She's not home. - Do you want to leave a message?

Yes, yes.

Because if you are, I'll kill him. You know I love you, darling. See you. Bye. Bye.

Well, by the way, they reprise that at the end where I laughed the hardest in the entire film was when Tricky is reading the letter from Chris and Scott Thomas and he just responds to the letter out loud. Like he's speaking to the letter. And also Katie says, well, aren't you going to give me a hug? Katie didn't read the letter. He wasn't reading it aloud to her. That was in voiceover. Katie, are you telling me Katie can hear the voiceover?

of the movie? Oh, wait. Can I just... Can I posit the one thing that I... I had this thought and we've talked around it a few times, but...

Prince is Pee Wee Herman, right? And I say this in the way where he's created a world in which he lives and all these things are normal in the Prince world. And I was like, there is something very similar about these two men that are... I see what you mean. You know what I'm saying? Well, except that Pee Wee Herman is...

sexless. Sure. And Prince is sex defined. You know what I mean? But like the, I know what you mean. Like the, the way that they are, neither a boy, like, I mean, Prince at points is like a boy. Sometimes he's like a real, like he's like a man. Sometimes he's like a woman. Do we know how old Prince is when this, in the movie? This is a big question because I can find that out. But here's my issue. Cause at one point,

Chris and Scott Thomas says to him, I only date people my own age. Right. And then I'm like, well, if she's 32, she's not 21 yet. Oh, I thought she was 32. I thought so too. We misheard that. She is not yet 21.

I was bummed because the entire time I was actually thinking, oh, wow, she's 32. For whatever reason, Paul and I heard 32. And I was like, this is... I was watching the movie thinking, wow, this is an interesting story of a woman who...

I think according to her family, she should probably have been married earlier. She says at one point, you've been telling me how to live my life for 21 years. So I assumed that's how old she was. So Prince is 28 years.

when this movie comes out. So, you know, give or take, like that's the age group that he's playing, which was interesting because it is hard to tell because I do believe that even when Prince died, he looked this way. Like he had a youthful look. I did see him one time when the league went to go to a Vikings game and he was in the box next to us and we all left the box because he went to every like home game for the Vikings and he's a huge football fan. And, and,

And to see him, first of all, not be surrounded by much security at all and be dressed to the nines and walk out of the box in the middle, like where everyone is going to their cars. So is Prince. I mean, his car is waiting for him, but he's

Like, it was easy breezy. Prince just walking out. And I also have a friend whose parents live next door to Prince. And Prince would, like, bring them soup. Like, hey, I made some soup for you. And crashed their 50th birthday one time. He's like, oh, sorry, there's a party. I want to come over. One of the things that comes...

through both in those Charlie Murphy stories and in a lot of the stories that are inside, again, that Tales from the Tour Bus show is Prince doing incredibly generous things for people, you know, where Prince will... That's what we found out in his death, that he had been...

An anonymous donor for so many different. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, whether it was younger artists or whether it was just all these people, he just he went the distance for them in ways that that they themselves felt blown away by and surprised by. And again, like him walking out of that booth that way, like we all we all should have done a better job protecting him. Yeah. Yeah.

By the way, I will say one thing about Prince that I think is so unique in this day and time is he is a...

I mean, he's an icon, right? We can just say icon. And the fact that he lived a life that was very much like, I am a Minnesota guy. Like, I love Minnesota. That's where I'm living. And like, he seemed to have like an air about him that was unfazed by his celebrity or anything about him. Like the fact that he just went over to somebody's 50th birthday party and just hung out and had a drink. Like, I love that about him. It's very Bill Murray in a way.

He is a true...

like a singular once in a generation unique individual. He is, he is true. He is apart from everything else. He is some, he's an, he's like a, he really is like a once in a generation talent. You don't like Prince is something else. And that comes through even in his, I will say this, I will say this movie is unsuccessful. And, but it's unsuccessful because he's trying to do so much.

He's pouring so much creative energy into it that it becomes confusing and kind of a victim of... You can't keep piling stuff on. Like, you can't have some... Like, the scene that I think is incredible...

is the scene in the when they go to is it la papillon like uh the the restaurant where kirsten scott thomas says meet me at la papillon tomorrow at seven oh yeah the garçon garçon song right oh yes right but what that turns into is she goes oh look and suddenly people whisk away the tables and and and like very kind of traditional music dance like a waltz starts playing right

And then Prince and Tricky are like, let's bring some of us to this. And they take out a boombox, they put it on top of the piano, and they start playing a Prince song. Immediately, everybody starts going bananas. But Prince jumps up on the piano and...

sometimes sings lyrics into a microphone, sometimes does not and just dances, sometimes seems to be singing lyrics, but without the microphone. Like, I was like, why isn't there any consistency with what this scene is telling? It was almost like a scene out of Top Secret when, like, Val Kilmer just turns it, like, into Elvis. Like, the movie has this magical realism, but then at other points, incredibly...

then it seems almost too grounded. It really fluctuates. It's true, because there are some scenes... Like, I...

There are some moments, and yes, the movie is insane, and it's too many ideas all over the place. It's a mess. But there are some moments that really land. Oh, yeah. Like, you know, in such a strange way. The scene between Mary and her mother toward the end of the movie when Mary says, and I'm going to paraphrase, but something along the lines of, I...

I've been hurting for so long. And her mother says, we've all been hurting for so long. And it's this crazy moment of you realize like, oh, this mother has also been in the same trap that Mary's been in and can't get out. Or the one that was, that landed for me was when Prince, and again, I don't know why he does this, but Prince and Kristen Scott Thomas have been out all night and he calls her

Her mother, her father on the phone wakes him up and starts yelling at him and is like, I kissed your daughter. She liked it. Blah, blah, blah. And if you try and keep us apart, I'm going to tell your wife everything you're up to. And he says his wife is right next to me. He says, you think she doesn't know what I do? And I was like, oh, yeah.

Like, this is like brutal. Like, there's just like some real ugliness to the people. Well, I think that must be why in that scene with the mother, if you look over the corner, you'll see the maid is witnessing it all and just wiping away tears. Very smartly, very smartly, Prince places, there's a lot of internal family strife in this family. They are always all yelling at each other. And very smartly, he always places staff inside the room. I love that. Yes.

So they are always acting and behaving like monsters in front of people. Oh, can we just talk about this scene? When the father brushes her hair? Yes. I mean, that scene creeped me out more than any Blumhouse movie I've ever seen. First of all, it looks like he's never done that. And it was...

I mean, June, it got you too, right? I mean, that was not like that one bit. I don't know what you guys are talking about. I can't wait to have a grown daughter so I can comb her hair at night. Oh, it was so like the way he was. I think if he had some authority to doing it, I would have appreciated it. But it was tentative and too gentle for me. It was like, Paul, do you remember when we went to a we went to get that?

pregnancy massage that I had to do. We might want to put this section up. But I had to, Jason, I had to get this special procedure done to try to flip Gus inside my belly because he was breech. Got it. And so we were doing all these crazy massages. And I had Paul in the room with me because I was at a male chiropractor's. And he always had to move my underwear. And I was telling Paul, like, oh...

He's so rough when he does it. And it always surprises me. But then Paul was like, yeah, but do you want him to be gentle? Like there's no, I think that's exactly what I was going to say to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's how I felt about the hair brushing. It's like to be there's no way you can do it. That's ever going to feel. I think I would prefer a rougher, more like I'm just trying to work through a knot type. Yeah. Or or or if she was like, you know, Daddy, you have to brush my hair like you do every night. Are we like like and he was like, I think you're too old now.

You know what I mean? Like, it was just your birthday. We can't keep doing this. Like, you know, like, I don't know. Like, it's got to be. There was something very. Also, I think because he's such a villain and he's so he's such a bad person that you are also ascribing malintent to every action he does. I would put money on it. It was not written that way. And Prince was off camera and said, brush your hair. And he's like, what? Brush your hair. Can we get a hairbrush? Can we fly in a hairbrush? Yeah.

And I feel like that's how that scene was played. And there's so many scenes in this movie that look like first and best take. Like, there's one moment where Prince is, like, trying to buy a car, and money is just falling on the ground. Money is being thrown up. Like, it just seems like, we got it. Let's move on. He throws 700,000 francs at people in a Porsche, and that is just one of many things that are purchased that day. You know what I felt watching this? Like, didn't they find when Prince died, like,

hundreds of albums and music videos. Okay. So to me, this was, this movie was like, it's all a part of, yes, you're right, Jason. He's a genius. And he also made too much. It's just part of the process. It's like, listen, we got his music. And what we're also going to get is this sort of this exercise, you know? Well, one of the things, the reason that Prince, uh,

you know, left, uh, the reason that Prince changed his name to that symbol was because he was trying to get out of his record contract because they would only let him release one record a year. And he wanted to release three records a year because that's how much music or more because that's how much music he was recording.

So he has hundreds of hours of, of songs that are just sitting there. I think it's in that Kevin Smith, like story about him that said that he wired every room in his house to have the ability to start recording songs. So like, so he could basically hit record in any room and just,

get like something down, like bathroom, bedroom, anywhere. So he didn't want to ever be away from not being able to record. And he has always had a guitar on basically, you know, so that if something occurred to him, he could quickly record it. So by the way, what I want to say here is I think we all learned you don't want to take Prince to a buffet because he's going to overdo it.

He's going to fill that plate. He's like, boy, don't put the jello next to the steak. He wants it all. It's too many things. All the things would have been great, but too many. Oh, it really is. It's like it's left unchecked.

It's an overwhelming, it's in terms of genre, in terms of tone, in terms of visuals, in terms of everything. There's no consistency. And the thing that kind of, Paul, you earlier comparing it to Pee Wee, the thing that we've neglected to mention when we started talking about this was that this is a fairy tale because it starts with a narration that says, once upon a time...

Yes, there was a bad boy. You get this intro which tells you this is a fairy tale. This is, you know, a storybook type story. So I think that's the get out of jail free card for why it's allowed to be, why it's allowed to careen between tones

and styles so much. I mean, even, I honestly feel like he was trying to make, you know, like what you said, every movie that he liked that was in black and white. Like, and it's an homage to all of it, but yet, and I think there is a story here. I mean, he, you know, he tells you at the beginning he's going to get killed. He does get killed. But there are these moments that also feel so now, like that moment with the recastow, like the recastow moment, like that to me feels like a bit that happened earlier

And they're like, we're now putting that in the movie because, you know, you have Chris and Scott Thomas, who I think is not necessarily in the same world as Prince and and Benton. And and and they are, you know, and so they do this bit with her. But it's apropos of nothing interesting.

In that moment, like he's writing it down on a piece of paper and you're like, oh, what is this reference to the grander scheme of the plot? Well, they're just fucking with her. Right. They're really, they're just fucking with her. What on earth is that? Some new language. Read it. You know what it is? It's nothing, you Lillian, you know it, but you won't confess it because you're such a coward. It is something, something you don't know and you won't confess that because you're a coward. This is silly and you're a child.

Now read it aloud so we can all hear how knowledgeable you are. Rec-a-stow. You know what it is? You don't, do you? Rec-a-stow? Rec-a-stow, it's nothing. It is something. Come on, read it again. This time, say it louder. Rec-a-stow. Louder. Rec-a-stow! I give up. What is it? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

If you wanted to buy a Sam Cooke, Abby, where would you go? The Ricketts. No, no, no!

That's part of their effort to say, hey, we're going to make high society bend to us, you know, and we're going to tease you. We're going to play our music. We're going to like we're going to fuck with you is I think their whole thing is these rich people. Fuck them. We're going to we're going to take their money, which is their kind of M.O. with all of these rich women is.

Yeah. It's straight out of a Marx Brothers movie. I mean, it really is. Yes.

of England is coming to this hotel at 5 o'clock today. Well, I guess we know where we'll be, you know, and then they're at the party. You know, it's the Kristen Scott Thomas birthday party where she comes out in a sheet, flashes everybody her naked body, then goes and plays drums while everybody chants along. I was like... The song that's terrible. Planet Rock. Planet Rock. That's all it is.

I got to tell you, though, I loved Kristen Scott. Oh, love. Wonderful. Why aren't we asking her questions about this movie every single interview? Every time. Every time she's being every time she's doing press for any single movie, they should be like, great. Now we have 100 questions about Under the Cherry Moon. By the way, I like their I like their chemistry together. I felt like she I mean, she's great. I love her. And I felt like.

In a weird way, she played it... I'm not in a weird way. She played it perfectly. I mean... Oh, yeah. You know, like, she played... I don't think that she played it incredibly, like... I think there's an element of taming the shrew in here, which she's never much of the shrew. No, not at all. Which I think is actually adept in this film. Like, they don't make her just to be like that, but it's like...

She does something that I'm as endeared to her as I am into him. Like, you know, and that's great. Yeah, me too. She has an energy, a life force, a she's, she is as watchable and interesting as he is as tricky is there. Again, there are faces and characters in this movie that are endlessly fascinating.

I couldn't, I thought she looked so beautiful. I could not. She's somebody who I think the black and white movie served. I agree that she should have been shown in color, but Kristen Scott, I don't think I've appreciated her features.

I loved that they made her because I think the traditional move would have been to make her an uptight prude that Prince needed to kind of loosen up and be like, you need to live a more carefree life. Let me pull you away from that. And instead, it was so cool that she was already rebelling against Prince.

the prudishness of her upbringing. I loved that, you know? Yeah, me too. So that it made her a worthy adversary for Prince because she could give it as well as she could take it, which I loved. Yeah, I mean, you know, I think there's an idea here that, I don't know, like, she... I mean, she's being forced into this marriage of...

Like to make their family like it's almost like if the if like the Bezos family was marrying like the Gates's family, right? Like that's what they're trying to set up like that. This is a marriage of making so much money fortunes and everything.

And I do feel like we missed out on meeting that guy. We only got a phone call with him. I really wanted to see who that guy would have been. That phone call where she keeps saying things to Prince off screen and he hears everything and keeps thinking she's talking to him. I was like, this is, again, this is Marx Brothers. This is just straight, like, dumb, like, screwball comedy beats. And then the other thing that I loved was...

When you have a scene in Kristen Scott Thomas's bedroom at night and all of her appliances, her radio, her phone are clear plastic appliances that are filled with neon tubes. I was like, it must be impossible to sleep in this room. There's so much air.

active neon yeah it was like when i go to i can't have any lights like we want to go to hotel rooms and there's like little alarm clocks have to cover them i have a really hard but if your bedside table had a neon literally a neon phone a neon phone glowing phone and radio yeah amazing i love some of the props though her father isaac in his home office has a giant headshot of her

Yes. Loved that. Oh, my God. It was a beautiful like it. But it was like a 1940s, like kind of headshot. There's a place out here in Los Angeles called Fred 62, where they have like all these like actor, like old school actor headshots on the wall. And that's what it felt like, that kind of black and white photography.

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It's also, again, Prince is just so mischievous in general, right? Playing with gender roles. In this movie, Prince is dipped twice while dancing. Oh, yeah. He is dipped twice.

Both by Tricky and Kristen Scott Thomas. I was like, I'm obsessed with this. I'm obsessed with like how he can be absolutely the most charismatic sex symbol, but somehow be following in terms of dancing because they also make no effort to hide the fact that Kristen Scott Thomas is easily four inches taller than him.

Well, that's, I mean, that's what's so interesting about Prince. Like he's such a slip of a man. Like he's five. He's like five one. Yes. He's such a tiny, tiny man. And,

And wears it better than any short man I think I've ever seen. Oh, my God. Like, maybe one of the most sexually compelling and sexually charismatic people of the 20th century. You know, of the second half of the 20th century. Like, electrically, like, unequivocally. Like, you just, everybody agrees they want to fuck Prince. You know? And Prince was like, yeah, I know. By the way, when he falls into Tricky's arms in the beginning, that's one of the best moments.

romantic scenes because he's, again, like, Prince is, what Prince does in this movie, I've never seen any other actor do to what you're saying, Jason. He allows himself to be dipped. He allows himself to

Be alpha he allows himself to be the the pursuer and the person being pursued like he's doing so many things I mean I don't know how good that is in the grand scheme of like tracking a character but I did find that he can excel in all of them like I believe that when he when he took control of things I'm like oh yeah.

I think he could fight. The focus is always on Prince, Prince's outfit. Here's the best version of it, right? It's like all the kind of power dynamic stuff that's happening, everything that's going on. When Prince goes and gets Mary, Kristen Scott Thomas's character, from the airport and they run away, right? Yeah. And he's going to tell her he loves her.

Instead of coming clean and telling her he loves her, he gets in the back seat and puts sunglasses on and stops talking to her. Yeah. Yeah. It is insane. It is. And the shot he's using, right? He's using a medium shot that has the car and both of them within it.

She is out of focus and he is crisp focus. She's the one talking out of focus. He is silent and in complete focus. It's incredible. There are moments in here where he is lingering on himself in ways that are like,

so much more sexual between him and the camera, meaning us, the audience, than when he is having actual sex scenes, right? Like the actual sex scenes feel chaste and un-erotic, but the scenes where Prince is moving or dancing or singing are...

so erotic as to be almost to make you blush. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, but, but they are, but they are when it is Prince alone, you know, they are not when they are together, if that makes sense.

Yes, I agree. I think that, you know, well, I think honestly, that's also what Prince always understood about sexuality, that it was far more intriguing, the sort of performance of it and the anticipation and the like mating game of it than the thing itself. He's just, I don't want to actually see those sex scenes ever again. I don't want to see Prince kissing Margot.

females, anyone ever again. I just enjoy him just, you know, being himself in his strange, fluid sexuality. It's really, you're right, Jason, it is something to behold. It's just, you know, I've never quite seen anything like it. I want more movies with Prince. Yeah. You cannot take your eyes off him. That's not going to happen, Paul.

I will. But you know what? He had a long period. He made three films, right? He made graffiti bridge, uh, this and purple rain. I feel like he missed out on making more movies, maybe with a stronger director. Like I would have loved to see PT Anderson, like put him in a movie or something like, like, you know, you have like a big director like that, like crafting an interesting performance, but I have to also imagine. And don't forget the new girl. Oh, a new girl. Yes. Uh, sorry. Uh, but I also feel like,

There is something about, I thought about this watching the movie. So Purple Rain comes out. It's a giant. It's a cultural hit. The music is amazing. He's just a sight to behold. And now you're the studio exec. You've given him all this money. The dailies come in. And you're like, huh.

Oh, what? Okay. Like, how do you process this movie? Like, what is going on in your mind? Because it is watching it segmented must have been even I mean, they must have been freaking the fuck out. Oh, yeah. Because they must some scenes must be coming in like these broad comedy looks and takes.

Like Prince is doing like, like Looney Tunes level mugging at times. And then at times is doing absolutely nothing is absolutely just like stone faced wearing sunglasses. You know, it's like the, it is. And I'm, and I, I know I'm, I'm criticizing the movie a lot. I love,

I loved this movie. Oh, I watched it in a second. I loved... If you said we have to watch it again right now, I'd be like, thank God, because there's more I want to get into. But it's not good. It's crazy. When Drew... I mean, this movie can be summed up in this quote. I feel like this is the level of...

not sense, but this is like the tone of the film. Like at one point when Jerome Benton, who plays Tricky, who was part of Morris Day in the Time and involved in Janet Jackson stuff too, like when he goes, like he says, like there's some, like he's like, I'm going to act like a man, just like Liberace. Like that to me is the movie. Like that, like that, that through the, that lens is to which the movie is shot.

Yeah, well, I do. I think that Prince is like, this is what I mean. Prince is so smart. He's always winking at you. He's always being like, it's always there's always mischief going on. It's all you can't trust any of the images that are happening. You know, there's there's there's subtext to everything that is really it really it keeps you going.

guessing. You really are like... It keeps you guessing on plot points. It keeps you guessing on character... What's going on with characters, character wants and reality. There was so much during this movie where I was like, wait...

Are Prince and Tricky still trying to con Mary out of her money? Or are they now really falling in love? Or is it just working? Is their con working? I wasn't clear. You have enough scenes between the two of them where they don't discuss it in any clear detail, but yet they discuss a lot of things. I'm like, why are we not getting the real info here? Don't we need to hear what you guys are up to? Like, nope. It's like going back to the Ocean's Eleven hideout and they never talk about the heist.

They're just talking about what they had for lunch. It's like, wait, wait, guys, are you going to tell me what's happening here at the end? When he's dancing on that piano, it is so good. It is. During that sequence, he takes off and puts on his jacket four times. It's fucking incredible. I also, did anyone...

The final scene. Well, it's not the final, final scene, but when Mary's at the airport and she's scheduled to take her midnight flight to go see Jonathan and it seems like all is lost and Prince shows up, she's wearing all the clothes that are available. She's wearing all clothing. She has on a giant hat and

a like turtleneck lace dress, gloves, a long lace dress, stockings. I think socks on top of the stockings. She is. Oh, she's definitely wearing hose. She's for sure wearing pantyhose. And they're like white pantyhose. She's wearing them in the grotto later. And I was like, wouldn't she have taken those off to have sex? I don't understand. I know.

But yes, I agree. I thought that was to your point earlier, Paul, that was the Casablanca moment. I feel like everybody, you know, like he drives up as they're going to fly away in the plane. And, and that was like that homage to like that final scene in Casablanca. Yeah. She's wearing all the clothes, everybody. I thought the clothes were kind of amazing across the board because, because they both felt amazing.

Like they would work... What year is this? 1984? They both work contemporaneously. Is that right? And they also work in evoking a sense of period. You know, like it works both ways. They're not like...

straight 80s fashions, but they're also not like 40s fashions. They're somehow able to do both. And they look good. I mean, I loved her dresses regardless of what time period they were. I thought they all looked, I thought she looked beautiful and his clothing was fantastic. And

and even mrs wellington and uh and the mom mary senior yeah everybody looked great yeah i agree and i thought it i thought a lot of the um also the locations were beautiful like they shot they did not do a good job shooting those locations but they got to the locations but they were they set up and and like the camera was oftentimes wobbly uh they were not i don't know if they had

dollies or not? Like I was like, there was stuff that I was confused. Like they forgot to pack the dollies because they had too many outfits. You did all of this setup, but why did you let this, why did you let this camera move? By the way, his co-director was the guy who directed a bunch of Janet Jackson's music videos, like the Rhythm Nation music videos. This is like, so they have a similarity because that was in black and white as well. Obviously we had an opinion about this movie, but there are people out there with a different opinion. It is now time for second opinions. The movie was a piece of shit.

Yet this person recommends it Tell me what is the message? That art is subjective I need a second opinion

All right. So these are five star reviews pulled from Amazon. Thank you, John Lajoie, for that amazing song. As always, the average rating is four point seven out of five stars. So people really, really, really like this movie. As a matter of fact, there isn't much research on this film, but I will say that in 2016, Peter Sabinsky, who wrote for Roger Ebert's website, said,

Cherry Moon is a better film than Purple Rain and has gone on to say, you know, that people wanted it to be like Purple Rain and that's why it didn't do well. So there is a lot of people who love this film and these are people who really love this film. This is Rico Suave, probably not his real name. Most underrated film in the 80s. Let me say this. I don't see why people bashed it when it was in theaters. The only flaw to me is

is that it's in black and white. Other than that, this movie is funny, and we know Prince is no Steven Spielberg or George Lucas. I mean, George Lucas is not who I'd put as my number two director. Of course, he's not. He's Prince, and he did a decent job directing the film, but I do find Jerome Benton to be on the other side of the fence. And it goes on and on about that. But basically, it ends with this.

it's a good movie. Don't believe the haters. If you don't understand Prince music, then you might not like this movie. It's really for the hardcore Prince fans. So enjoy. That's five stars there. Um, KRT writes, I love it since I saw it back in 1988, which is two years after it came out. I bought it on VHS tape for 95 bucks. It was rare. I had to order it from overseas. I was a Prince fan. So anything you give me, I love at the end of the movie, the

home. I had a past boyfriend spray painted on a king-sized bed sheet to win me back, and it worked. As you know, the movie takes place in France. It's in black and white. It's a romance, comedy, and drama. Prince plays a gold-digging piano playing gigolo. Don't take it too seriously. Prince is fun to watch. Despite his size, he was a sexy motherfucker.

And the title also a Prince song. Yeah. But also like despite his size. And then Teresa C says, this is a gift from my sister. So I really can't judge the product by the content. I don't know Prince, but I love Purple Rain. So I'm judging this by the packaging. Five stars. Yeah.

And then, and then this one kind of fell into the five-star category. Don't know why. From Susie Onasanaka, she writes, boring. Put me to sleep. Five stars. So maybe as a sleeping aid, this is a great sleeping aid. I don't know. Um,

Jason, June, we've talked about this movie. I think we all would say we recommend you watching it. I mean, right. I mean, yeah, we're all across the board on this. I certainly believe that. I mean, although I think to June's point when we were watching it, not to call you out, June, you were like, it's gotten too. It's gotten we could end it up now. I think it does get a little bit long in the last like 20 minutes. Trim it up just a little bit, but purely fun to watch.

Yeah, I agree. I thought it, I thought it, I wish it, you know, but again, it's Prince, so it's going to be long and it's going to be, thank God it's not two and a half hours. It's only an hour and 42, which is at least good. Absolutely. But I, I, I really enjoyed this. I really, um, I really just found it to be delightful and strange and interesting and watchable. And, um, it was great to be with Prince in all of his insanity. Yeah.

A couple of things to share with you. The cast was changed. Originally, his love interest was Susanna Melvin, who was a sister of the Revolution member Wendy Melvin. I was Prince's girlfriend at the time. She was playing Mary, but it was clear she couldn't act and she was replaced by Kristen Scott Thomas. That was her feature debut. The movie at the end of its run, its final domestic gross was 10%.

$10 million. I imagine it. I don't see how much it actually cost here. But yeah, it seemed like it was a lot more than that. But yeah, so this movie came and was kind of, I think, a big, a

a big, big flop for him. But, but yet he didn't make another movie until many, many years later. But this movie was, I mean, it's amazing how much control he had, you know, that he was able to,

put out a movie that was so full of so many ideas without anybody interfering to be like, hey, let's make some trims. Let's make this add up a little more. And he was like, no. I think that's what you get when you make...

you know, when you make a sign up to make a Prince movie. Yeah. And when, when you're following a purple rain, cause purple rain, it could not be denied. I mean that like, like I want to just look at purple rains, like a box office gross, because I'm sure that played, you know, so purple rain made $70 million on a budget of 7.2 million. There's no budget I can find for a cherry moon. So, but yeah, so, you know, that's, that's huge. I mean, that movie is all,

all profit at that point. Seven making 70 in 1984, you know, is huge, huge, huge. So, yeah. So I wonder if they just like let him run wild. And I think I appreciate somebody whose second swing is this giant. I really, really love it. Love it. And I loved that. Like, it really is. It appears to me that Prince is having a blast. He's not phoning it in at all.

Oh, the opposite. He is engaged. He loves what he's doing and it shows and it's infectious and it's contagious. So even when they're running away from bats, even when he's doing Bela Lugosi, he doesn't feel embarrassed by it. He lets himself look silly. He lets himself be put into positions that...

so many other actors would never let themselves be portrayed that way. And he doesn't just do it. He does it with mischievous glee and, and is, and is, and that is so compelling to watch. I love watching Prince, uh,

be that rascal. Watching him in the middle of it call her dad in the middle of the night to be like, I'm kissing your daughter. I love when he's just like poking at structures of society, poking at people, poking at all of this stuff. When he gets into the car...

in the middle of the movie when he's going to have sex with that woman again. And he's just like playing around in like a Rolls Royce. Like he just likes the Rolls Royce. It's like there is such... And again, back to my Pee Wee Herman thing, like there's a youthfulness, there's a playfulness, and there's a sexiness. Like I can't... I don't think anyone I've ever seen on screen can hit all the beats that he has hit. I agree. That's so true. I was going to say, to your Pee Wee Herman point, which I like, is that...

Pee Wee Herman has a childlike innocence to him that Prince does not. Prince has a real worldliness to him, but there is something still childlike in his mischievousness. Like if you told me Prince and Kristen Scott Thomas in this movie are supposed to be 19 years old, I would be like,

Oh, okay. They're like rebellious teenagers. This is like a musical version of Rebel Without a Cause or whatever. You know what I mean? Like this is kids fucking around, you know? But it's not. By the way, I'm also just realizing there's no reason why this movie isn't in the United States. Like she's not French. He's not French. That doesn't play any part of anything.

of anything besides just the location. Correct. Just to give you a couple of things that we have going on right now, we're doing our first virtual live show that is happening on October 9th. You can get tickets at hdtgm.com. And also we have this very special charity episode that we recorded. That's a culmination of a very long bit where we were sent Transformers DVDs for a

two years. And we recorded a special episode about Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen. You can only hear it now for $5. And all that money goes to When We All Vote, an amazing charity doing some great work to activate voters and make sure that every vote is counted in this upcoming election. So they're both available on our website at HDTGM. You can get all the information there, along with a very special newly released Michael Bay Says Vote t-shirt. So everything is up

there uh make sure you come and see our first live show we're gonna have a lot of fun doing it uh jason june anything you want to plug or anything like that no i'm excited for the live show and um yeah just a reminder for everyone to check their registration check to make sure that you can vote by mail if you want to um and that you make sure your mail-in ballot is uh

is going to arrive, et cetera, et cetera. And yeah, just remember to vote. And by the way, I just want to tag onto that, June, that especially in Wisconsin, apparently a lot of people have been purged from the voter rolls in Wisconsin. So make sure you check if you are living in Wisconsin listening that you were not purged accidentally. So I've been reading a lot about that. I'm sorry, Paul. I just want to

clarify, are you saying that the purge is happening in Wisconsin? That is exactly what I've heard. Oh my God. Yeah. So you, it's going to be hard for them to vote. That's why we really got to make sure you get registered. Yeah. Holy cow. So we got to be careful. Guys, we got to vote. We cannot have a purge. Well, apparently you can't let this purge. You are safe from the purge. If you register to vote and you actually vote. So that's what I'm saying. So if you don't register to vote, you are opening yourself up to the purge. And that's,

You know, that's on you at this point because you have plenty of time. You have until November 3rd. I know we're joking around, but I feel like we are teetering on the edge of the perch. Oh, don't say it. I don't even want to go too far down the road with this bit. Jason, what about you? Anything you want to promote? I don't have anything to promote, but you know what I will? I will throw a little bit of attention to a friend of ours, Drew Droege, who's so funny and so wonderful. Before all this went down, had a great show off Broadway called Happy Birthday, Doug.

And it is now able to you are able to stream it. Oh, wow. Broadway HD. It went up last week. It's fantastic. So if you are wanting something to watch that is a piece of theater, that's an incredible piece of theater by a very funny friend of ours. Seek it out. It's called Happy Birthday, Doug. I think it's called Broadway HD. And it's Drew Droege's one man show. So that's what I'll plug.

Great. I love it. Well, thank you so much. Thank you to Avril Haley for championing this movie. She's been on this one for a long time, a producer who picks all of our movies. She is fantastic. Thank you to Cody for pulling this thing all together. Thank you to Devin, our engineer. And thank you to Nate Kiley who does all of our research. This week we had a miscommunication, so I don't have all the research, so don't blame him, blame me. Also, Molly Reynolds for digging through, finding all of our great second opinions. And July Diaz, who listens through every one of our episodes and makes sure everything sounds fantastic.

Perfect and great. I want to let you know that we will answer all questions about Under the Cherry Moon next week on our mini episode. But you can give me a call at 619-P-A-U-L-A-S-K, 619-Paul-Ask. You can talk to me about anything you want, your life, your love, your job, anything.

any issue, I will be there to answer it. And stay tuned. We have a lot of good stuff coming up and we appreciate you listening. And oh, this is important. Please remember to rate and review our show. It really helps. Apparently, we don't tell people to do that enough. So if you like the show, just rate and review it. I don't think you've ever mentioned that.

I know. I was just told to do it. And also, I don't even know that this exists. Where does one do that? You could do it on Apple, I believe. That's where on the Apple podcast app. And then also, the other thing I was telling people or supposed to tell people, if you want to sign up for all of our catalog commercial free, you can go to Stitcher Premium, but use our code VINCENZO.

Bonkers. Apparently, a lot of people listen to our show but have never used our code. So I'm asking you, if you want to hear us commercial free, that's new episodes and old episodes, use our code Bonkers at Strip Premium. You can get all cool stuff. So that's all. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening. And we'll see you next week on a mini episode. Thank you, June. Thank you, Jason. Bye for now.

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