Movie Talk!!!!!!
with Matt Silcock and Jay Bayles . (And Caryn)

(conversation in progress)
MATT: Played by a woman actress?
JAY: Yeah, played by Tilda Swanton...and so..she's...she's kinda...I mean he...Orlando, he...the whole beginning of the movie...is not really feminine but...it's a woman! So...and he's courting other women and everything...and...uh, I don't know, you never see him do anything -- well I don't think he ever really gets to that point with any of these...dates or whatever. It's olden time, it's like renaissance...or french...they got all the powdered wigs and all the..you know...the lacey shit and stuff, and the high...
CARYN: Elizabethan?
JAY: Yeah!
MATT: So..but...it's not like a twist at the end? Where she's revealed to be a woman?
JAY: Well yeah, it is...at one certain point she looks in the mirror and there she is naked, she goes..'I'm a woman' so everybody around her starts goin'...'uh...'
CARYN: What? Is this Shakespeare?
MATT: It's Virginia Woolf, isn't it?
JAY: Yeah, Virginia Woolf...Virginia Woolf...uh, like there's this...everybodys' goin' like...all the guys of course are goin' [acting voice] 'Well it doesn't matter to me that you're a woman now!' [laughter]
MATT: His friends?
JAY: Basically--well...
MATT: Her--Orlando's friends...
JAY: This older guy that was kind of a....kind of a mentor, not a mentor...but it was funny because he's goin'...uh...uh...'marry me' and she goes 'but i don't..i don't love you'...he goes 'that doesn't matter'...she goes 'well why should I marry you'..he goes ''cause I adore you!' and it was like...she just walks away! She just goes 'so what!' [laughter] Walked away...
MATT: Hmm. So is she a woman who doesn't know she's a woman?
CARYN: At first?
JAY: At first?
MATT: At first? Or is it a fantasy or--
JAY: It's some kinda weird like--
MATT: Allegory?
JAY: It...yeah. It makes sense...it make--it works!
MATT: Is it a fable? Like...
JAY: Well yeah, because she's, she, and then, she's goin' through, uh, time periods too, I mean at the end of the movie she's like in modern times, it's still the same character living out the same existence.
CARYN: Sounds like a weird movie. Crazy!
MATT: I think I heard that it was a strange movie.
JAY: It's strange. Sally Potter did it, and she did the music too.
MATT: Has she done anything else 'of note'?
JAY: Oh god...yeah...uh, she's got a new one that...the tango thing, where she's learnin' tango lessons from this young buck...
CARYN: Oh, it's 'whats-her-name can dance'...
JAY: Or somethin', I'm not sure...
MATT: Yeah...
CARYN: Or 'swing'?
MATT: That sounds familiar...
CARYN: The 'what's-her-name gets her groove back'?
JAY and MATT: No, no...
CARYN: No? Sorry. Stella! Gets her groove back...
MATT: Yeah.
CARYN: Is that her? Hey, it is about learnin' to dance from a young buck!
JAY: She's from Australia or somethin'...England? Australia? One or the other...
MATT: Have you seen American Psycho?
J: No, I'm afraid to...
M: It's fantastic.
J: Do they do the uh...does he...I read it in the library, right?
M: Did you read the whole book?
J: No, it passed the flip test, believe me.
M: Yeah, I read some of those parts too.
J: Oh god...with the battery terminals on her nipples and stuff...
M: No. It's..it's...
J: They don't do that in the movie?
M: It's much toned down
J: Oh God, that was scary in the book.
M: Yeah!
C: I still don't wanna hear it.
J: It was disgusting.
M: I read some extremely disgusting things too.
J: Oh God.
M: You've gotta see the movie, it's a great movie...it really is, it's very funny, it's a total comedy...
J: Really? Oh god...
M: Some of it's creepy...
C: Black comedy.
M: It's very funny black comedy. And it's played as...total comedy. Like, some of it is just plain...it's almost like Kids in the Hall or something. And it's not very gory.
J: You're kiddin'...
M: Yeah, the gore happens offscreen, er, you know, like it shows a head in his fridge, like a woman's head in his fridge or something, while he opens it up and grabs a Coke, and then closes it again, but that's it, you know. That's as gory as it gets, really.
J: Is that like the hooker or somethin', that he killed?
M: Yeah. But it's not...it doesn't...there's no sadism in it. Like, any time anything sadistic happens, it's...you know...
J: Offscreen?
M: Well, it's offscreen and also you are...you don't...you know, it doesn't like uh...implicate you in the sadism. You're removed from it, you know that he's the one doing it, like the book, it's too easy to identify with, you know...
J: Oh god...it's like you're right there...
M: Well that's 'cause the writer seems to enjoy creating those sadistic scenes...
J: Jeez...
M: Just 'cause...to see what he can write about...you know, what he can create.
J: They're vile...it's like reading Marquis de Sade. It's as disturbing as that.
M: Yeah. But like did you read the stuff in the book where he's listing off his...each of his... like he'll describe what he's wearing.. like he'll say "today I went and had lunch with so and so. I was wearing a..." and he'll spend the next page-and-a-half listing what he's wearing! Like suddenly, it's not about going to eat lunch anymore, he's just listing every brand name that he's wearing. That's more what the movie's like. He narrates it....[laughing] There's at least three different scenes where he gives little speeches to people who he's invited over, like before he kills them? He gives little speeches about music, like he's talkin' about Genesis, and he's like 'Their early stuff was too arty...too intellectual. However, with the album Duke, Phil Collins started to take a more central role in the songwriting of the band..." and then he pulls out No Jacket Required, and he shows...there's like a closeup on him holding the CD of No Jacket Required. And he's like "This...is 'Sussudio'." He talks about how great Huey Lewis and the News is for a good long three or four minute speech. It's hilarious! I highly--I think you would like it a lot.
J: Who directed it?
M: Mary Harron. She directed I Shot Andy Warhol.
J: Oh, that was a good movie.
M: See that's another thing, it's directed by a woman, and a smart woman, you know...there's no identification with the killer at all. Y'know, like if Quentin Tarantino directed it, he'd be totally identifying with the killer and having fun...
J: I know, somethin' like that.
M: Y'know, like 'how sadistic can I make it?' You know.
J: I Shot Andy Warhol was good. I like that...Lili Taylor a lot.
M: It is a good movie. The guy who played Andy Warhol was fantastic too. I thought.
J: He was.
M: Not that I know, but it struck me as what Andy Warhol might've actually been like.
J: And it's funny, Basquiat was at that same time...
M: Yeah, see like David Bowie as Andy Warhol was just a joke...at best. I mean, the only good thing about was just seein' that it was David Bowie! You didn't for a minute think that it was supposed to be Andy Warhol.
J: Bowie was kind of a waste in that Busted movie too...but it was okay...
M: I don't know what that is.
J: That's that movie I was tellin' ya from England with the, the rap feel to it...a lot like Ghost Dog...had the same feel as Ghost Dog...well, not the same feel, but just...you know. Leonardo DiCaprio was supposed to do American Psycho but they thought it would wreck his image. Tom [Jay's son] told me to go see The Beach.
M: Oh really? I'm kinda curious to see it. It looks interesting, it's just that the reviews made it...kept me away from it I guess.
J: Bad reviews?
M: Yeah, they were all...I didn't read a single good review for it.
J: Is that bad though? I mean, 'cause Beloved didn't get any good reviews either...
M: Yeah, I don't remember. The Chicago Reader gave Beloved a rave review, and that's why I decided to see it. I'll admit, I tend to use reviews to pick what movies I see.
J: Well, same here.
M: The Chicago Reader's my bible for film criticism. I read it on the internet. They called Beloved a 'terrifyingly beautiful' movie, and I was like 'okay, I'll go see it,' and it was. I think that's pretty accurate.
C: Didn't you go see that alone?
M: No, you rented it. When I said 'go see it' that was kind of erroneous. You rented it and I was like 'hey, I'm glad you rented that.' We watched it separately. Yeah, DiCaprio's kind of wrecked his image anyway, he probably should've done...
J: American Psycho.
C: What did he wreck his image on?
M: Well, he just...The Beach didn't do well.
J: Yeah, but he's still the golden boy. He hasn't played a malicious person.
M: Yeah. Well the guy -- I'm glad he didn't do it 'cause the guy in American Psycho is fantastic.
J: Christian Bale?
M: Yeah. He's British, but you can't tell at all. He was in Velvet Goldmine, did you see that?
J: Yeah. Oh, he was the young...
M: The reporter.
J: The reporter.
M: Wha'd'ya think of that movie?
J: It was okay.
M: It's just okay though, was kinda my...
J: It was just okay, yeah, beause it was like too romantic or somethin' you know...
M: Well I liked the first hour where...didn't it start with Oscar Wilde as a baby or something? I kinda liked all that!
J: Yeah, and then something in the pendant?
M: Yeah, that this pendant follows...whoever holds the pendant is gonna be a glam superstar. And Oscar Wilde was the first glam superstar. You know, the first campy, gay, witty...
C: Did it ever go to Liberace?
[laughter]
J: He's got the candelabra!
M: Well, it went to Bowie. I liked that movie--the first hour, but it kinda bogged down. I sorta just got lost and bored in the second--it lost a lot of its momentum...
J: Yeah, watching the two lovers quarrel and everything, was like 'okay...'
C: I don't remember that movie at all.
M: I've forgotten most of it.
C: All I can remember is stage scenes, with like the glam.
J: That's kinda what happened to that Grace of My Heart. I mean it was okay until...
M: Is that the one with John Turturro?
J: Yeah, he's her agent. Or he's her songwriting...
M: That looked like a fun moive.
J: It was! It's kind of a biography of Carole King I think. Or something like that. Singer/songwriter. Or songwriter that is a frustrated singer...but she writes all these songs for black girl groups, like "Up On The Roof" I suppose. What was fun about it was realizing that Elvis and Burt Bacharach were writing all these songs together to fit that mood and that time, and these were all new songs, fresh...and not bad songs.
M: Elvis Presley?
J: Elvis Costello. And Burt Bacharach did the soundtrack. They did all the writing.
M: So they wrote songs -- pastiches that seemed like they were Fifties songs? Like genre exercises?
J: Yeah, like "Up On The Roof." She goes to New York in '57 maybe, or I'm not sure. You know, '51? I'm not even sure...
M: '57.
J: Yeah, and she's writing songs for what would be like, you know, Martha and the Vandellas kind of stuff.
M: Or the Ronettes?
J: Not that slick, though. 'Cause isn't that like L.A.? Isn't Phil Spector L.A.?
M: Yeah, but I wouldn't call Phil Spector slick.
J: Oh, you wouldn't?
M: He's almost noisy. You know, 'The Wall of Sound' and everything.
J: But that's a pretty slick production. You don't think the Ronettes are slick?
M: Not really, to me they sound...epic. I don't know, I love Phil Spector. I mean he would overdub like five bass guitar tracks...how could that end up slick? Five bass guitars playin' the same thing...
J: Just to get a big sound.
M: Yeah, that wall of sound.
J: But Grace of my Heart, Illeana Douglas, she goes on...and the beginning is cool, you know, when she's struggling, she's tryin' to be a singer, she's tryin' to get a recording of her own, she's got this one 9-minute song that nobody'll record and everything because it's like too long. 'You can't do that! That's never been done!"
M: It's before the Doors and Led Zeppelin.
J: But all that's pretty cool, and then she gets a chance to record and she meets this guy, Matt...Matt...Matt....Dillon.
M: Matt Dillon's in it?
J: He plays this....kind of in '61 or '62, she meets, or '65 or whatever, she meets Matt Dillon...she gets to record her song, gets a big record, and uh, finally gets her record out, and she meets Matt Dillon and Matt Dillon is like this singer in this Strawberry Alarm Clock kinda band, and he's a hippie, and he's 'experiencing his existence'! And he locks himself in the...I can't remember if it's the attic or the basement. I can't remember. And he ends up, you know, throwin' himself in the ocean or whatever...and all that is kinda like the Velvet Goldmine. What I'm gettin' at with the whole thing is that all that is kinda like watchin' the lovers quarrel in Velvet Goldmine...bogs down somewhat...it was still good though.
M: I think I'm gonna rent it.
J: Grace of my Heart was fun for me 'cause that's like when I was growin' up. It's almost like a behind the scenes look at the shit I listened to. All through the hippie, Beach Boys....
M: Did you see the one with Tom Hanks, The Thing You Do, or That Thing...
J: No, I didn't.
M: I saw some of that in Harris Labs and it was kinda fun...
J: I liked Punchline a lot.
M: Never seen that.
J: Rent that one, man. You gotta see it. That's Sally Fields and Tom Hanks...that's good. It thought it was good. She does this funny skit about like Adam & Eve and stuff...I mean, it's a one-liner, but it was really funny like..when they were there, Adam's goin' 'Wo! Back up Eve! I don't know how big this thing's gonna get!'
[laughter] You know and here's Sally Fields...
M: Was that the first time? The first time there was ever an erection?
J: 'Back up! I don't know how big this thing's gonna get!'
C: That's cute.
J: But she's like this little mousy housewife and when she's sayin' it it's a riot. But Tom Hanks is pretty manic in the movie.
M: That used to be his style.
J: He was good in the movie. I mean, he became, like, weird.
M: Like psychotic?
J: Well yeah, but that was...
M: That was the plot.
J: That was his character or whatever, yeah. It all culminated in this like talent show at a comedy club and his -- he was the tenth of ten comedians that were tryin' to win a spot on the Johnny Carson show...and his monologue was like...it was fuckin' manic. It was great. It really was. And he kept on talkin' about like, what people were good at. Or, you know, I can't remember how he put it. Ummm...professional welders, professional this, good this, good that...rantin' and ravin' and rantin' and ravin', and finally at the end of his skit he said 'I'm a professional hater.' Or whatever he was callin' it, he was like...he loved to hate. And it all worked. It was really pretty good, really.
M: Yeah...maybe I will rent that.
J: I don't know why, I'd always wanted to see that, and I finally just rented it.
M: I guess I never have wanted to see it but...
J: It was okay.
M: For a buck or whatever...
J: Right, for a buck, that's what I did.
C: What was it called? That Thing You Do?
J: Punchline.
M: But also That Thing You Do. That's where Tom Hanks...he directed it, and he also plays the manager of a 60s pop group that hits it big. And they're like on the Ed Sullivan show and all that.
C: Weird.
J: What's the movie that has the four different screens?
M: Time Code.
J: Is that Mike Figgis?
M: Yep. I think it's called Time Code 2000.
J: I wanna see that. Time Code.
M: I do too.
C: "Movie Talk, with Matt and Jay."
M: "And Caryn." You seem like you're tired. You've been yawning and stuff.
C: Really?
M: Maybe you'll be able to sleep, unlike you thought.
C: Have you ever noticed the fur on Fozzy's ears?
M: No...
C: Little tips of fur, like a bobcat. Have you noticed it? It's really cute. Look for it.
M: [fake commercial voice] Look for it!
J: Sally Potter did somethin' else too but I can't think what it was.
M: [getting The Film Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition by Ephraim Katz from bookshelf] I'll look it up.
J: Tilda Swinton, the woman who played Orlando, who's fascinating...played in this movie which I taped just because she's in it. And she's like this like exec, a corporate executive, and it's, I mean I think it's an adult movie, but it's like, you know, it's really pretty...for some reason it was like...just kind of about power trips. I can't remember what it was called. It was pretty useless. She was in it, which was pretty easy to watch.
M: Sally Potter's not in here.
J: She's not, as a director? Gosh...and she did the music too, it was kinda like Henry Purcell, you know, the baroque shit? And she did it along with some guy...I wanna say like...some English jazz guy or somethin'. Do you like that Steve Reich stuff at all? City Life...the new one called City Life...
M: I don't know that one, but I just borrowed an album from KZUM called Six Marimbas...I think. And that's awesome. And Chris Moon had a really early one called "Phase Patterns" and "Four Organs." It's awesome!
J: Yeah, it is good stuff. That repetetive shit?
M: Yeah, that stuff's repetetive. And also have you ever heard "A Rain Is Gonna Fall"? It's like these tape pieces he did, where he took a guy, like a preacher, yelling something 'bout "a rain is gonna fall!" and he took that and I think he played it side by side and at different speeds...or through a delay or something. It's a real early tape piece or like an early delay piece and it's really cool. I mean it's not really music...or it is! You know, it's kinda melodic, the phrase starts taking on melodies...you know what I mean.
J: Sure, sure. The review they did of the City Life one sounded good.
M: That Six Marimbas is lovely. I've just been getting interested in him lately, actually.
J: The comparison with Philip Glass is easy to do but he was always a lot different than Philip Glass, I thought.
M: Well Philip Glass plays on Four Organs. He was one of the four organists.
J: Is that right?
M: But I like Reich better than Philip Glass. I don't know why, for sure. I think he's a little more, uh...he's less baroque or something. I don't know.
J: Smoother somehow....
M: Less showy. I like "Einstein on the Beach"...
J: That's Steve Reich.
M: That's Philip Glass.
J: "Koyaanisqatsi." That was a fun movie.
M: I've seen that three or four times over the years. I've rented it like three or four different times. [sings] "Koy-aan-si-kwat-si..."
J: I had...I don't know if I still have it...the first Philip Glass record.
M: Is that one called Music For Changing Parts?
J: Yeah.
M: This guy Jason Merritt had that and said it was one of his best. He loves Philip Glass. He likes him a little too much for me.
J: I don't think I still have it. I mean, the only thing I saved when I left Boston was the Funkadelics.
M: That was a good choice.
J: Beaver Harris's record.
M: What was that one called?
J: 360° Music Revolution...
M: What's the name of it though?
J: What is the name of that?
M: I used to totally know...I borrowed that for a while...[ed: From Ragtime to No Time]
That's the one with [sings] "can there be love...will there be peace?" That's a good album...
J: [sings] "Dear force above all..."
M: Yeah!
J: That is good. I love how there's like a drum transtion between each song. [makes drum sounds] blook-block-batta-duh-wah! batta-du-datta-do-watta-duh-wah! ching...into the next tune. Out of that drumbeat.
M: I've got an album, The Blue Humans, with Beaver Harris and Rudolph Grey...he's a guitarist from the 80s...New York City...and he got Beaver Harris to be his drummer. It's kinda odd...he convinced him to do it. I think Beaver Harris was like...he'd never played with a noise guitarist, but as soon as he heard it he was like 'yeah, I can do this.'
J: Have you heard Andrew Cyrille play with Bill Laswell at all? No? I'm curious about that...or the Meters drummer?
M: I've heard some of that. I don't like what Laswell does when he has his all-star...
J: Oh, you said that, yeah...
M: When he has his all-star...I mean, most people...
J: Like the Golden Palominos, you don't like?
M: Not really.
J: I didn't really like the Golden Palominos. I mean I like 'em, but...
M: I think he drains the soul out of it. Like, the stuff with Zigaboo to me is just a travesty.
J: That's too bad.
M: It sounds like a drum machine or something.
J: He plays...Modeliste plays at some club down in the Embarcadero at San Francisco like, weekly...he's the house band at the...Ramada! Or something. I'm not even sure.
M: He lives there now?
J: Yeah. Todd Rundgren lives there. I saw him on Conan O'Brien the other night. Three piece, rock song...
M: Todd Rundgren?
J:Yeah, it really wasn't that bad. Just because it was simple and it was...
M: Yeah. Well, I love old Todd Rundgren. Like Something/Anything...
J: Old Todd Rundgren, but this was like...I mean this was like...he was tryin' to rock and roll...and it really wasn't too bad.
M: Was it like Fifties style, kinda?
J: No, no...
M: Was it heavy?
J: Kinda like, the verse was kinda, you know, [sings] duh duh duh-nuh nuh... and then when it came time to do the chorus it was like he had to...stretch...to sing as loud and high as he was tryin' to sing...and it was somethin' about...eh, it was a rock and roll song...but not like the Fifties, more like...
M: Nirvana?
J: Not Nirvana, more like...um....I don't know, just like, just like, uh...Tin Machine song maybe?
M: Oh really?
J: Yeah, more like that. Kinda like....ballsy rock?
M: Mm-hmm. [to Caryn] Goin' to bed? Wanna watch Dead Man?
C: Umm...are you?
M: [to Jay] Wanna watch Dead Man? Let's do. I'll shut this off...