Goodfellas

As far back as we can remember, we always wanted to podcast about GOODFELLAS. No guest this week, folks - just the two friends, Producer Ben, and a Griffin Shinemaster Shinebox. From the iconic needledrops to the thinly sliced garlic (actually a bad way of incorporating garlic into a sauce!), from the famous Copacabana oner to the two dogs looking in opposite directions - we have a LOT to discuss this episode. And, we would like to formally apologize to Lorraine Bracco for not covering a good performance of hers until right now. Karen Hill forever. Listen to Griffin on Podcast: The Ride discuss the new Fast & Furious Coaster https://open.spotify.com/episode/77SikXacwHnLVrHE0AFOu4 Watch James Grey discuss his bachelor party https://www.instagram.com/reels/Ddyf-6nJbdl/ Listen to David discuss Resident Evil (2026) on Critical Darlings https://open.spotify.com/episode/3CRCrbYjJhwhMiRtApjzeR?si=X4bBYD9zRnmY8wm4z063kQ Get Tickets to Blank Check Presents: The Garbage Pail Kids Movie on Sun, Oct 25, 7:30pm at the Refocus Film Festival in Iowa City https://tickets.icfilmscene.org/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=1026937~73f00f5b-a703-472f-975d-5ae901133780&epguid=8214219d-d011-48e5-9822-7cbf57941a30&mdy=10/25/2026& Sign up for Check Book https://blankcheckpod.substack.com/welcome, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. VOTE for Check Book https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/shows/craft/best-podcast-newsletter as Best Podcast Newsletter in the Signal Awards! Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. http://www.patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter https://x.com/blankcheckpod?lang=en, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/blankcheckpod/?hl=en, Threads https://www.threads.net/@blankcheckpod?xmt=AQGzctAh4mbWTwYzCV1pzNT6AMV9o99EOfymi8TLR5mTde0 and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/blankcheckpodcast/! Buy some real nerdy merch https://kinshipgoods.com/blankcheck Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/blankies/s/gpcOkQr8Sv or Discord https://discord.gg/Q6YGSR3JrA For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com https://www.blankcheckpod.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:21Griffin Newman?

  No more podcasts, Billy.

• 0:23David Sims?

  What?

• 0:24Griffin Newman?

  I said, no more podcasts. Maybe you didn't hear about it. You've been away a long time. They don't go up there and tell you, I don't podcast anymore.

• 0:30David Sims?

  Relax, will you? Flip right out. What's got into you? I'm breaking your balls a little bit, that's all. I'm only kidding with you.

• 0:35Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, sometimes you don't sound like you're kidding. You know, there's a lot of people.

• 0:37David Sims?

  I'm only kidding with you. Were you having a party? I just came home and I haven't seen you a long time and I'm breaking your balls and you're getting fucking fresh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you.

• 0:46Griffin Newman?

  I'm sorry too. It's okay. It's no problem.

• 0:48David Sims?

  Okay, salute. Now go home and do your fucking podcast.

• 0:56Griffin Newman?

  I said to you, we have to do it. It's my, it's one of my favorite dialogue exchanges in the history of movies.

• 1:03David Sims?

  The only objection I would have, of course, is I can imagine there's a million other things we could do because it's the most quotable screenplay, but.

• 1:11Griffin Newman?

  As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a podcaster.

• 1:14David Sims?

  Certainly that. And then, and then Ben could just put in the, you know, the, the.

• 1:21David Sims?

  You're a funny guy. I'm sure we could, we could do something about.

• 1:23Griffin Newman?

  I looked at that, but you know how much I love Shinebox.

• 1:26David Sims?

  Well, the thing about Shinebox is, the thing about funny guy especially, is that it's all in the back and forth. And it's also like, you know, trying to do an imitation of one of the most famous like dialogue exchanges. Very tough.

• 1:42Griffin Newman?

  It is.

• 1:42David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:44Griffin Newman?

  Shinebox is, is a little bit the path we've traveled.

• 1:47David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:47Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:48David Sims?

  Well, you know what I love in the Shinebox scene though, is, is, you know, is De Niro, who we didn't do.

• 1:52Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, a little bit.

• 1:53David Sims?

  A little bit?

• 1:54Griffin Newman?

  A little bit. That's later though. That's part two.

• 1:57David Sims?

  I know, but it's so good.

• 1:58Griffin Newman?

  A little bit. That's when, uh, when, uh, fucking, uh, Jim Brewer would do the Joe Pesci show on SNL.

• 2:05David Sims?

  You motherfucking mutt. He says mutt a lot. It's one of his favorite, uh, uh, sort of slurs is mutt.

• 2:14Griffin Newman?

  But Alec Baldwin would play De Niro and his De Niro was all based around a little bit.

• 2:18David Sims?

  Yeah. Well, that mean Baldwin's De Niro is, is top shelf.

• 2:22Griffin Newman?

  A little bit.

• 2:22David Sims?

  I mean, he did it on a podcast recently. See it going around. It's top shelf.

• 2:26Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:27David Sims?

  It's a top shelf De Niro and obviously a lot of people have a De Niro, you know, but.

• 2:30Griffin Newman?

  Should Alec Baldwin do a one man show of Trump versus De Niro?

• 2:34David Sims?

  Sure. Fine. Should do it in his bathroom.

• 2:40Griffin Newman?

  You're corrupt.

• 2:40David Sims?

  A little bit.

• 2:41Griffin Newman?

  A little bit.

• 2:41David Sims?

  A little bit.

• 2:44David Sims?

  Oh, man. I'm now, I'm now I'm just trying to find what else.

• 2:48Griffin Newman?

  What other lines?

• 2:49David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. I just.

• 2:51David Sims?

  I'll dig the fucking hole. I don't give a fuck. What is it? The first hole I dug? Not the first time I dug a hole. I'll dig the fucking hole. Where are the shovels? Look at these.

• 3:00Griffin Newman?

  It's a long quotes page for the movie Goodfellas.

• 3:02David Sims?

  It's a long quotes page for the movie Goodfellas. Jimmy Conway, after kicking bats to a bloody pulp, look what this fucking mutt did to my shoes.

• 3:16David Sims?

  Oh my goodness.

• 3:18Griffin Newman?

  And then there was Jimmy two times who got that nickname because he said everything twice. Like.

• 3:22David Sims?

  I'm gonna go get the papers.

• 3:23Griffin Newman?

  I'm gonna go do the podcast, do the podcast.

• 3:25David Sims?

  That would be good. That would be good.

• 3:27Speaker 02

  It's the, like grabbing the tie though, the physicality that makes it.

• 3:31Griffin Newman?

  I rewatched, uh, Palsies, which is the, uh, Mr. Show sketch, uh, where the bit is, it's a Goodfellas ripoff, but it's been, it's the censored for TV version.

• 3:42David Sims?

  Uh, okay. Right, right, right.

• 3:43Griffin Newman?

  But they have Jimmy one times who only says things one time.

• 3:46David Sims?

  That's funny.

• 3:48Griffin Newman?

  And David Cross, and someone goes, what do you say? And he just gives them a look. But the best part of Palsies is that it's all about like how bad the TV dubbing is for the cursing.

• 3:56David Sims?

  I vaguely remember.

• 3:57Griffin Newman?

  And it escalates to you mother, father, Chinese dentist.

• 4:02David Sims?

  You know, one thing I like, uh, is, um, with, with the mafia in, in media.

• 4:09Griffin Newman?

  You like, oh, okay. You like everything about the mafia in real life.

• 4:13David Sims?

  They're doing great.

• 4:14Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 4:14David Sims?

  Better than ever, as far as I know.

• 4:15Griffin Newman?

  Ran Vegas better. Yeah, they're still around.

• 4:19Speaker 02

  They are still around.

• 4:20Griffin Newman?

  They are still around.

• 4:22David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 4:23Griffin Newman?

  What you like about the mafia in media?

• 4:25David Sims?

  Is how they, uh, describe a terrible thing in the vaguest way possible. I'm going to quote here them, them telling Jimmy on the phone that they killed Tommy. Uh, we had a problem and, uh, we tried to do everything we could. I mean, you know, uh, he's gone and we couldn't do nothing about it. That's it. Like, that's how they're telling Jimmy, like, your friend of many years, your criminal in arms, who we told you was getting made. We just shot him in the head and buried him somewhere and you'll never see him again.

• 4:51Griffin Newman?

  Except they basically repeat that exchange five times. This is a great repetition movie.

• 4:55David Sims?

  He's gone and, uh, we, uh, never, you know, all I'm saying is we had a problem and there was nothing we could do.

• 5:00Griffin Newman?

  But then it goes into like, what are you telling me? I'm telling you this. There was a problem in this.

• 5:04David Sims?

  There was nothing we could do. It's like, no, you did do so. You, you killed him, in fact. There was something you could do and you, you sure did it.

• 5:13Griffin Newman?

  I mean, obviously this whole mini series is building up to, it is what it is. They wouldn't dare.

• 5:18David Sims?

  They wouldn't dare.

• 5:19Griffin Newman?

  They wouldn't dare.

• 5:21David Sims?

  God, it is what it is, is.

• 5:23Griffin Newman?

  It is what it is.

• 5:24David Sims?

  We're getting there.

• 5:24Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, we're getting there. We'll get there. But today, we're on Goodfellas.

• 5:28David Sims?

  Wow.

• 5:28Griffin Newman?

  Martin Scorsese's best loved movie?

• 5:32David Sims?

  I think so.

• 5:33Griffin Newman?

  Is this his definitive film?

• 5:34David Sims?

  Dispute. I don't think that's even really in the remote dispute at this point.

• 5:38Speaker 02

  It's, it's his most well-known.

• 5:40Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  Certainly.

• 5:41Griffin Newman?

  And we are podcast fellas.

• 5:42David Sims?

  We sure are. Ayyyy.

• 5:46Griffin Newman?

  And now no one's going to complain about it anymore because we've gotten to the Goodfellas episode. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin.

• 5:52David Sims?

  I'm David.

• 5:54Griffin Newman?

  It's a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce, baby. And sometimes they do pretty well in theaters, get a ton of nominations, are snubbed for best picture and then go on to become one of the most canonical American films in history.

• 6:16David Sims?

  Uh, yeah. Was there ever a chance of this winning best picture? I wonder.

• 6:22Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 6:23David Sims?

  I don't think so.

• 6:24Griffin Newman?

  You think in retrospect, there was no chance it actually could have won?

• 6:27David Sims?

  At the time, to be clear. Like now I'm sure if we did a re-best picture. You know, I kind of sometimes like Bill Simmons's argument of like, they should do the Oscars five years later. Like this year's Oscar should be for the movie five years ago.

• 6:40Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 6:40David Sims?

  And you continue with that window because by five years, everyone's kind of settled on like what they think the best movie was. And you can't be tricked by like, Coda, you know, hey, we all like, you know what? We all like Coda or whatever.

• 6:52Griffin Newman?

  Also, what if AI did the Oscars?

• 6:54David Sims?

  Uh, what was that? Oh, cause Bill Simmons, right, was doing Chad, right? Yeah. Cause like Goodfellas made decent money, but it wasn't a big hit. Whereas Dances with Wolves was this surprise hit.

• 7:04Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 7:04David Sims?

  And also it's, I know this sounds ridiculous, but there were two mob movies. Cause it's the year of Godfather three. Now, obviously Godfather three was not winning best picture.

• 7:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 7:14David Sims?

  But it's in there kind of like sapping attention and votes a little bit, maybe.

• 7:18Griffin Newman?

  It is an interesting question.

• 7:19David Sims?

  Although Goodfellas stands in such great parallel to it of like, that is starting to feel like a tale, you know, being woven in a fantasy world, whereas Goodfellas is about the reality of the mob much more. But yeah.

• 7:33Griffin Newman?

  Could Goodfellas not have afforded to lose any votes to Godfather three?

• 7:38David Sims?

  Yeah. And then also Ghost is that year.

• 7:41Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 7:41David Sims?

  And one assumes Ghost had some juice just as the like, this movie came out of nowhere and everyone's talking about it.

• 7:46Griffin Newman?

  You're wondering, was Ghost maybe number two for best picture?

• 7:49David Sims?

  That's a good question.

• 7:52Griffin Newman?

  Cause there's a chance there. And then what's the fifth nominee?

• 7:55David Sims?

  Uh, Awakenings, uh, you know, and get ready for our Penny Marshall series one day, but, uh.

• 8:00Griffin Newman?

  Let's actually promise that we will cover Awakenings someday.

• 8:03David Sims?

  Yes, we're gonna, yes, exactly. Jesus. Um, but Awakenings didn't even get a directing nomination because of sexism.

• 8:09Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 8:09David Sims?

  Or whatever, because they really needed to get Barbe Schroder in there. He's all right.

• 8:13Griffin Newman?

  For reversal fortune, which I've never seen.

• 8:16David Sims?

  Good movie.

• 8:16Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 8:17David Sims?

  Very fun.

• 8:17Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 8:17David Sims?

  Um, you know, I don't think, I'm not sure that Goodfellas is probably ever, too nasty and shocking for the time, probably blah, blah, blah. But obviously the best film in my opinion of 1990.

• 8:28Griffin Newman?

  It was the critics pick of 1990.

• 8:29David Sims?

  Opinion.

• 8:30Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 8:31David Sims?

  And, uh, one of the great movies and maybe Marty's best movie. It's a boring opinion, but it's hard to argue with.

• 8:40Griffin Newman?

  But it's treated as one of the great, the Oscars got it wrong.

• 8:43David Sims?

  I think so. Sure. Yeah. I mean, Dances with Wolves just hasn't kept, yeah, no, yeah. No question.

• 8:49Griffin Newman?

  I've been thinking about watching Dance again.

• 8:51David Sims?

  Again.

• 8:51Griffin Newman?

  I've been thinking about doing another Dance.

• 8:53David Sims?

  Not that long ago.

• 8:54Griffin Newman?

  I know, but it really bounced off me and I'm like, do I need to watch a different cut? Do I need to watch it in a different mood?

• 9:00David Sims?

  Yeah, maybe.

• 9:00Griffin Newman?

  I, I found myself so perplexed by it that I wonder if I gave it an unfair shake. But maybe in the lead up to Horizon, part two, coming to theaters.

• 9:07David Sims?

  Right.

• 9:07Griffin Newman?

  Definitely.

• 9:08David Sims?

  Lead up.

• 9:09Griffin Newman?

  Definitely coming to theaters.

• 9:11David Sims?

  I mean, I think it will come to theaters at some point in human history, barring the apocalypse. Could it be five years from now? Could it be 50? I don't know. They'll probably happen someday.

• 9:22Griffin Newman?

  I think it's unwise to bet on it coming to theaters. It might get out there in some way.

• 9:27David Sims?

  It's out there.

• 9:28Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Two of the best movies I saw last year might never be released.

• 9:33David Sims?

  The other ones, the Michael Bay parkour documentary?

• 9:35Griffin Newman?

  Which is excellent. And then one of the members of the parkour team was busted for inappropriate sexual conduct with underage children. It's really bad and that movie is never coming out. It was called, We Are Stor, it will never be seen. It also has a very rural drawr title, unfortunately.

• 9:52David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 9:53Griffin Newman?

  Many unfortunate things going on with that movie, but this is a mini series on the films of Martin Scorsese. It is called Podcast Fellas. That is who we are. We're talking about Goodfellas.

• 10:04David Sims?

  Who's with us?

• 10:05Griffin Newman?

  Ben Hossley.

• 10:06David Sims?

  Nobody else.

• 10:06Griffin Newman?

  Uh, no guests.

• 10:07Speaker 02

  Now, wait, didn't we have like a mafia-esque nicknames that we had established? I feel like yours was like David the Bag Sims.

• 10:16Griffin Newman?

  David the Bag Sims.

• 10:17David Sims?

  It's not that exciting. What, I have a bag?

• 10:19Griffin Newman?

  This.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  Early on into this series.

• 10:22Griffin Newman?

  Really?

• 10:22Speaker 02

  Yes. And I can't remember what mine is or what yours is. I think it's maybe.

• 10:27David Sims?

  I got a mob, I got a random, uh.

• 10:29Griffin Newman?

  Pasta dinners.

• 10:29David Sims?

  That's pretty good.

• 10:30Griffin Newman?

  Griffin pasta dinner.

• 10:32David Sims?

  David Bean Sims. So I just got, I got, I got a random mafia name generator up here. You want another one?

• 10:39Griffin Newman?

  Uh, I'm of course, wearing a hat themed to today's episode.

• 10:42David Sims?

  Oh, I don't see what it says. Sorry. Uh, is it say?

• 10:46Griffin Newman?

  Says witness protection program.

• 10:47Speaker 02

  Relocation.

• 10:48David Sims?

  Oh, relocate.

• 10:49Griffin Newman?

  Excuse me, what are you talking about? That's not what my hat says. I'm a normal civilian.

• 10:53David Sims?

  What was I gonna say? Uh, bandana, the horse, the grocer.

• 10:59Griffin Newman?

  David the Grosser Sims.

• 11:01Speaker 02

  So what, can you give me one?

• 11:02David Sims?

  Yeah, sure.

• 11:04Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, whatever the first one spits out is.

• 11:06David Sims?

  All right. The Beast. Wow.

• 11:10David Sims?

  I prefer the ones, though, that are kind of like affectionately mean, like Jimmy the Nose, or whatever. It's just like, oh, this guy's got a big fucking nose. And that's so now we call him that. But, you know, or like, he's called like, I don't know, like, Two Kicks, because he like, kicked a guy once, or, you know, like, some weird shit that happened.

• 11:30Griffin Newman?

  David the Fucking Idiot Sims? Is that what you want? You said you liked affectionately insulting.

• 11:35David Sims?

  Wow, that's pretty mean.

• 11:37Griffin Newman?

  Hey, that's, that's what it's like.

• 11:38David Sims?

  Then there's the really insane ones, like, you know, like Anthony Casa, who, you know what they called him? Gas pipe, because he would fucking hit you with a pipe.

• 11:47Griffin Newman?

  Oh, I thought because he farted a lot.

• 11:49David Sims?

  No, that would be fun, though.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  Okay, wait, I pulled up the scene where they go through the nicknames.

• 11:53Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 11:53Speaker 02

  There's Anthony Stable.

• 11:55Griffin Newman?

  Okay, not, not a great nickname, yeah.

• 11:58Speaker 02

  Frankie Carbone.

• 11:59David Sims?

  Right. Carbone is the guy who ends up in the meat locker. Great, the gray head of hair on him.

• 12:04Griffin Newman?

  Do you know about his lawsuit? We'll get to his lawsuit.

• 12:08Speaker 02

  Frankie the Wop.

• 12:09David Sims?

  Right. That's a slur to be, to be.

• 12:11Speaker 02

  Freddy No Nose.

• 12:12Griffin Newman?

  A little less excitement.

• 12:13Speaker 02

  And yet, he has a nose.

• 12:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 12:15Speaker 02

  Then there was Pete the Killer. I wonder why he got that nickname.

• 12:19Griffin Newman?

  He's Killer at Chess.

• 12:20David Sims?

  Exactly.

• 12:21Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 12:21David Sims?

  He was a killer in the boardroom. He was actually, actually, didn't even belong to the mafia.

• 12:26Speaker 02

  Nicky Eyes.

• 12:27David Sims?

  He had him.

• 12:28Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 12:28David Sims?

  We thought, we assume.

• 12:30Griffin Newman?

  Two of them.

• 12:31Speaker 02

  And then Jimmy Two Times.

• 12:32Griffin Newman?

  Jimmy Two Times.

• 12:34David Sims?

  He went to get the papers.

• 12:35Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 12:36David Sims?

  When I covered labor unions, when I was a union reporter for the chief, Matty the Horse, Yenello, who was very involved with the ATU Local 1181, allegedly. I don't want anyone coming after me, but you can read some stories about it. The Bus Drivers Union. I always thought, I thought I was pretty good. The Horse, why is he called The Horse? Let's see. Oh, and this is, this is what I love. A youth baseball game, the opposing pitcher threw a hard pitch into the face of some batter, and Yenello knocks down the pitcher. I don't even know if he got the ball thrown at him. He just, there was just a fight. He knocks

• 13:17David Sims?

  down the pitcher, and someone said, that boy's as strong as a horse. That's it? Then he's Matty the Horse forever? He got in one fight at a baseball game?

• 13:27Griffin Newman?

  This is like how Mitch's Quincy friends get their nicknames. Like, one thing they did in fifth grade.

• 13:35David Sims?

  You know, Vin the Chin Gigante, who is the head of the Genovese family, he's the one who, they called him the Chin, I think, because he was a boxer. So he had like, a tough chin. And then he did the thing that Robert De Niro doesn't analyze that when he was under trial, where he pretended to be insane and started walking around in a bathrobe. And they started calling him the Oddfather, which I thought was funny.

• 13:58Griffin Newman?

  The Oddfather's good. Yeah.

• 14:00David Sims?

  You know, he pretended he was crazy. Probably was not crazy.

• 14:03Griffin Newman?

  Is this your favorite Scorsese movie?

• 14:06David Sims?

  It is. It's so boring of me. But, you know, what am I, I'm not gonna fuck around.

• 14:10Griffin Newman?

  I do prefer Taxi Driver. That's just my own taste. The Lonely Man.

• 14:15Speaker 02

  I gotta admit, it's also mine.

• 14:17Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, no, no. I mean, this is one of the most watchable movies in history.

• 14:20Speaker 02

  I've watched this movie so many times.

• 14:22David Sims?

  Me too. I've seen this movie one billion times.

• 14:24Griffin Newman?

  It's one of those movies where every single scene is compelling to watch.

• 14:28Speaker 02

  And you can kind of watch it at any moment? Because I feel like I would come over to like, a friend's house, and they would just have it on. And then you just get locked in, even if it's like, the last 20 minutes.

• 14:39David Sims?

  Yes, but I, you know, I watched it in two parts, as I often do, because of the vagaries of my life. And I watched the first 70 minutes for the, my first chunk, which I am now calling like, Goodfellas, you know, Everything's Going Great Edition, or whatever. Like, it's basically like, if you, 70 minutes is where they kill Billy Bats, at the end, around there. Everything up until then is Easy Street. Things are going good.

• 15:07Griffin Newman?

  Nothing bad happened to this guy.

• 15:08David Sims?

  I was talking to my friend about, like, what if, like, that just, because she was like, I love Goodfellas. It's always too bad when, you know, it has to descend into mania, and, you know, degradation, and then all. And I'm like, imagine if the movie was just him being, I always wanted to be a gangster, and then I was. It rocked. I was so rich. I got away with everything.

• 15:26Griffin Newman?

  I went through cool entrances.

• 15:27David Sims?

  It was so cool. Right. I got to do whatever I wanted all the time. I walk into a restaurant, they bring a table out from nowhere, and put it down so I can sit there. Anyway, my life continues like that to this day. I'll see you guys later.

• 15:39Speaker 02

  Regrets. I'm out of you.

• 15:43David Sims?

  The cops tried to get me. They failed.

• 15:46Griffin Newman?

  Marriage healthy, intact.

• 15:48David Sims?

  She loves me.

• 15:50Speaker 02

  I'm a great father.

• 15:51David Sims?

  Yeah. And, but I think it's so vital, when you think about Goodfellas, that it's like, what's the most fuck, like, where does it start to go wrong with them? They kill another mobster. It's not like they commit some cardinal mortal kind of ethical thing, you know? Of course, they start dealing drugs. That's always gonna fuck you, blah, blah. But like, they just, they kill Billy Bats.

• 16:10Griffin Newman?

  And why?

• 16:10Speaker 02

  Made guy.

• 16:11Griffin Newman?

  Why did they do it?

• 16:11David Sims?

  Well, he said to go get his fucking Shinebox.

• 16:13Griffin Newman?

  He dared suggest to go get a Shinebox.

• 16:16Speaker 02

  I'd like to say this to you.

• 16:17Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 16:18Speaker 02

  Go get your fucking Shinebox.

• 16:19Griffin Newman?

  What the fuck you say to me? Oh, my God. Wait a second. Ben is bringing you over a cardboard box. Did you know, you knew I was gonna fucking, because I talk about Shinebox so much.

• 16:29Speaker 02

  Yes, I know. So I got you a little something.

• 16:32Griffin Newman?

  This is literally a Shinebox.

• 16:34Speaker 02

  Whoa, look at that.

• 16:37Speaker 02

  Look at the brand.

• 16:38Griffin Newman?

  Oh, my God. The Griffin Shine Master.

• 16:42David Sims?

  Oh, my, is that?

• 16:43Griffin Newman?

  It has a little Griffin logo.

• 16:45David Sims?

  Is that inscribed? Like, how did you?

• 16:48Griffin Newman?

  No.

• 16:48David Sims?

  How did you find this?

• 16:49Speaker 02

  I went onto eBay, and I typed in Shinebox, and somehow, one of the top results was the Griffin Shine Master.

• 16:58Griffin Newman?

  There's a full kit inside. I got two brushes. I got shining wax. What if I start shining shoes?

• 17:04David Sims?

  I would love to see it.

• 17:05Griffin Newman?

  What if this becomes my new thing?

• 17:07David Sims?

  You should do it.

• 17:08Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. This is incredible. Shoe polish. I got shoe polish.

• 17:12David Sims?

  This is unbelievable. You're gonna need to start wearing more loafers, though, unless, Toy Story branded sneakers.

• 17:18Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, I am wearing Toy Story branded sneakers today. They're under the table.

• 17:22Speaker 02

  I clearly signed that, man.

• 17:23Griffin Newman?

  I was just guessing. Fucking Kenny Rogers Roasters.

• 17:26David Sims?

  I say that to you, you get mad, and then Ben's like, hey, you insulted him a little bit?

• 17:30Speaker 02

  You insulted him a little bit.

• 17:32David Sims?

  It is funny that Billy Bats is like, I didn't insult him. It's like, Billy, you definitely insulted. Go get your fucking Shinebox is definitely insulting.

• 17:42Speaker 02

  I also love how, they have this exchange, there's like, this beat of silence, and then he's like, staring straight at the bar, he goes, go get your fucking Shinebox.

• 17:51Griffin Newman?

  That's my favorite.

• 17:52Speaker 02

  It's so good.

• 17:53Griffin Newman?

  You know what my favorite moment is? My favorite moment is Tommy just saying, maybe you didn't hear about it. You've been away a long time. Just that little barb in there. And he no sells it so hard, because he might not have heard about you. I'm gonna remind you, you were in prison a long time.

• 18:08David Sims?

  Just to get this out of the way.

• 18:09Griffin Newman?

  I can't believe I have a Shinebox. I'm like, glowing. I'm so excited.

• 18:13David Sims?

  Because it's, Pesci is, it's one of the great screen performance. It's, right, it's the most unbelievable thing. The riskiest and craziest thing the movie does, in a way, is kill him off. Obviously, it has to. It's part of the story. It's part of the reality. It makes sense in the story. But when they just kill him off like that, you're like, I thought this was, no shit, he's just dead, huh? Pesci's, I think, around 45, 46, when he makes this movie. Tommy De Simone, the guy who's playing, died at the age of 32, right? Billy Bats, played by Frank Vincent, who looks, God bless him, in this, looks 50. I mean, I know, he's had a long career since. He died at the age of 37. They were also much younger than like, they are in the movie.

• 18:53Griffin Newman?

  Also, unlike.

• 18:54David Sims?

  I mean, Leota is, is age appropriate, I think, but everyone else.

• 18:57Griffin Newman?

  Unlike Pesci's character in Casino, the guy he's playing was built in real life.

• 19:01David Sims?

  Was he, Tommy De Simone? Yeah, he was bigger, right?

• 19:04Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, he was a bigger guy. Yeah. So everything about his casting doesn't make sense on paper.

• 19:10David Sims?

  And yet, like, I mean, the most, like, it's right, like, I mean, it's so fast with him, how quickly we get to Funny.

• 19:20Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 19:20David Sims?

  How?

• 19:21Griffin Newman?

  It's so early in the movie.

• 19:22David Sims?

  It's so early in the movie. Imagine just seeing this for the first time. Because I already knew about it when I watched this movie. I already knew about that. Like, my dad told me about that scene. And then remember him telling me about it, and me being like, I don't really get it. You know, him being like, you don't get it, he's so scary. And I was sort of like, okay. You know, like, it was hard to communicate how the scene works.

• 19:42Griffin Newman?

  That scene is always over so much faster than I think. And then I remember, no, the juice of this scene is the stuff he does after Funny.

• 19:49David Sims?

  Right.

• 19:50Griffin Newman?

  It's the follow up.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  No, no. Now, I watched some special features last night.

• 19:54David Sims?

  Okay.

• 19:55Griffin Newman?

  Congratulations. Welcome to the club.

• 19:57Speaker 02

  And apparently, that was a conversation that Pesci really had had in his life.

• 20:04David Sims?

  Right, with, with a guy, with a connected guy, let's say.

• 20:08Speaker 02

  Right. And they improvised it at some point, and then Scorsese wrote it into the screenplay.

• 20:13Griffin Newman?

  This is a common misconception about this movie, that like, cameras rolling, Pesci comes up with that scene out of nowhere. What Scorsese did, and a lot of this is like, what he does in his career post-American boy, where he talks about how he got so into the rhythms of that, and Italian-American, and those two docs, the real rhythms of how people talk, where it's like, hone a script, then do extensive rehearsals with the cast, then let them riff.

• 20:39David Sims?

  Yeah, and then transcribe it.

• 20:40Griffin Newman?

  Transcribe the riffs, revise the script, and then you have dialogue that has a rhythm that you maybe wouldn't be able to write as a solitary person alone in a room.

• 20:49Speaker 02

  Wait a second. Griff the Riff?

• 20:51Griffin Newman?

  Griff the Riff Newman.

• 20:52David Sims?

  Well, there you go.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  Or David the Twin Sims?

• 20:55David Sims?

  There you go. That's not nothing.

• 20:57Griffin Newman?

  Rude to David's daughter.

• 21:01David Sims?

  Uh, but like for me, it's like David wrap it up sims. You know what I mean?

• 21:04Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 21:05David Sims?

  Something like that, you know?

• 21:06Speaker 02

  But that also sounds like you just wear condoms a lot.

• 21:08David Sims?

  Well, that's interesting that you say that because.

• 21:13Griffin Newman?

  Snip, snip.

• 21:14David Sims?

  That's, that is for one, I've had work done.

• 21:17Griffin Newman?

  For one.

• 21:17David Sims?

  For two, I'm not sure. That's what I think of when I hear wrap it up. I'm like, wrap it up like condoms. Like, it's not right where I go.

• 21:24Speaker 02

  Sorry. That's just, I guess my twist in mind.

• 21:27David Sims?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 21:28Griffin Newman?

  Uh, first of all, Benny the twister, costly. Uh, first of all.

• 21:31David Sims?

  David timepiece. I'm just trying to think of like me as like the clock watcher, you know, like what the mafia version of that? He's always looking at the fucking clock.

• 21:38Griffin Newman?

  You should keep telling people that you've had work done, but never clarify what you mean by that. I've had work done and then wiggle your eyebrows. Uh, secondly, I was on podcast, the ride recently to review.

• 21:49David Sims?

  Oh, what?

• 21:50Griffin Newman?

  Hold on.

• 21:51David Sims?

  Podcast the ride?

• 21:51Griffin Newman?

  Stay seated to review the new Fast and Furious roller coaster.

• 21:55David Sims?

  You're kidding me. What expertise do you have in that sort of thing?

• 21:58Griffin Newman?

  The episode came in at two hours and 10 minutes. And one of the top comments was two hours and 10 minutes only. I assume David must've had a hard out, which I like.

• 22:07David Sims?

  He's like, I somehow intervene in a podcast. I'm not even in. I'm like, I gotta wrap this up.

• 22:13Griffin Newman?

  Or to wrap it up.

• 22:14David Sims?

  You know what? We're going to go as long as we want on this episode. It will not be the longest episode in blank check history. Because it doesn't need to be. All the length stuff drives me completely crazy, but we are here. This is an episode with no guests.

• 22:24Griffin Newman?

  David's not a size queen. Let's make it clear. David is not a size queen.

• 22:27David Sims?

  I truly am not. Fuck that.

• 22:28Griffin Newman?

  Truly not.

• 22:29David Sims?

  Uh, I love all shapes and sizes. I love Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese's 1990 biographical gangster film, based on a novel called Wise Guy by Nicholas Pileggi, which I did read in anticipation of this episode. Good job, me. Uh, really fun to read, very interesting how certain things are ported right over and other things are omitted. Uh, it's a beautifully written screenplay. It's a, it's a very impressive work of like, kind of making sense out of this one guy's life.

• 23:00Griffin Newman?

  And my favorite just weird factoid is that the same year this comes out, Mitch Pileggi's, is it Pileggi or Pileggi?

• 23:09David Sims?

  I don't know.

• 23:10Griffin Newman?

  Okay. His wife, Nora Ephron writes My Blue Heaven.

• 23:15David Sims?

  You're talking about Nicholas Pileggi, not Mitch Pileggi, of course, is from the X file.

• 23:19Griffin Newman?

  Right. I'm sorry. Nicholas.

• 23:20David Sims?

  Nicholas Pileggi, yep.

• 23:22Griffin Newman?

  His wife Nora Ephron writes My Blue Heaven, which is the sequel to this movie, basically.

• 23:26David Sims?

  Essentially what, what, what's life like for the mobster who's now in witness protection?

• 23:31Griffin Newman?

  Right. Yeah. But based on the same accounts of Henry Hill, just picking up from basically where this movie ends. The fact that both of these films come out in 1990, written by husband and wife is fascinating to me.

• 23:41David Sims?

  Yeah. It's also just interesting that in My Blue, that, that in Goodfellas, you know, they go for these actors who feel quite authentic.

• 23:48Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 23:49David Sims?

  And in My Blue Heaven, it's Steve Martin.

• 23:50Griffin Newman?

  Right. And he's like, what if I try something with my hair for the one and only time?

• 23:54David Sims?

  Right.

• 23:55Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 23:55David Sims?

  Uh, well, now Steve Martin's done hair stuff other times, hasn't he? Like, I'm trying to think.

• 24:00Griffin Newman?

  Well, mixed nuts.

• 24:01David Sims?

  I was gonna say, like, I feel like it's, obviously Steve Martin has iconic gray hair. He wore it. He's worn it well for much of his career.

• 24:08Griffin Newman?

  White, you could even say.

• 24:09David Sims?

  One could even call it white.

• 24:10Griffin Newman?

  One could even call it white. One could even call it white. Sure.

• 24:13David Sims?

  Uh, but like later in his career, he started wearing wacky wigs and stuff once in a while, right? Like when he did the sort of funny supporting, like in Looney Tunes, isn't he?

• 24:20Griffin Newman?

  Looney Tunes, you're right. Looney Tunes is back in action. He's got a funny wig. Baby mama, he's got a funny wig.

• 24:25David Sims?

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:26Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. I think he's very good in Baby Mama.

• 24:28Speaker 02

  He kills down my smile.

• 24:30Griffin Newman?

  He's very good in Baby Mama.

• 24:32David Sims?

  Um, Goodfellas. I first saw this film, like anyone I think my age who was too young to be seeing in theaters, just like in a basement.

• 24:40Griffin Newman?

  On cable.

• 24:40David Sims?

  Some friend's house or something like that. You know what I mean?

• 24:43Griffin Newman?

  Yep.

• 24:44Speaker 02

  Why did I, I think I saw it in a basement too. What the fuck?

• 24:47David Sims?

  VHS.

• 24:48Griffin Newman?

  You can't watch this on a porch. This needs to be watched in shadow.

• 24:51David Sims?

  Yes.

• 24:52Griffin Newman?

  Yes. Yes.

• 24:53Speaker 02

  No, you really need to take it in.

• 24:54David Sims?

  Like, I mean, I probably saw it before I saw The Godfather.

• 25:00Griffin Newman?

  Interesting.

• 25:01David Sims?

  I would assume, uh, it's a good question. You know, these are movies I saw as a teenager and I can't remember the order of it. I remember my dad stressing to me whenever I was old enough, just sort of like, you gotta understand Goodfellas is the reality and Godfather is the fantasy. And that was why Goodfellas was so important. Like, it was like, these are thugs and psychopaths. And all they like is being rich and, you know, beating each other up and being the big, you know, the Godfather, it's this like beautiful, romantic epic tale of immigration and America, you know? Goodfellas is just like this poke in the eye. Like, these are what these fucking people are like.

• 25:36Griffin Newman?

  I feel like this is a thing you brought up a lot on the podcast.

• 25:38David Sims?

  I bring it up a lot. It really, it, it, it made sense to me. And I mean, and that's true of all, you know, starting with Mean Streets, right? Marty's like, this is the reality. These are just fucking guys hanging out most of the time. When you read the book, his life, especially early on, was fucking hanging out. They hung out all day and night.

• 25:55Griffin Newman?

  That's why he wanted to be a gangster.

• 25:56David Sims?

  Yes. Truly, that is why he wanted to be a gangster. It is so funny, Ben, if you read it, Ben Griffin. It's East New York, you know, like, which now is like a, you know, a, at best up and coming neighborhood, obviously a very sort of like, you know, at, in the nineties, like scary kind of crime-ridden neighborhood. It's changing a little bit, blah, blah. But back in, you know, the 60s, 70s is still kind of run by the mob and all that. And they're just like, we just fucking hung out on Pickin' Avenue, sitting outside of a barber shop or a restaurant, just being mean to each other, you know, parking up.

• 26:30Speaker 02

  Nicknames.

• 26:30David Sims?

  Yeah, exactly. Then once in a while you had to go beat someone up and get some money from them, basically.

• 26:36Griffin Newman?

  The tax on that lifestyle is every once in a while you gotta kick a guy to death.

• 26:38David Sims?

  Yeah, like, you know, go like rob a truck or, you know, just like sort of get some illegal shit and bring it to someone else, pay off somebody.

• 26:46Griffin Newman?

  Hey, do me a favor. Go get some illegal shit.

• 26:49David Sims?

  Do me a favor, you know? Uh, I think about all the time Goodfellas, like, I would love to be Paul Vario. I mean, to be clear, I don't want to live a life of organized crime.

• 26:59Griffin Newman?

  You never wanted to be a gangster.

• 27:01David Sims?

  I never did. But like, that, like, just where it's like, I'm the big guy. I don't say much. And it's like, hey, this guy's disrespecting me. He owes me seven grand and blah, blah, blah. And the other guy's like, oh, here's what's going on with me. And I go like, okay, here is what I decide. You give him four grand. I get to eat at your restaurant free for a year. That's it. I made my decision. And then everyone just has to leave.

• 27:21Griffin Newman?

  This is the way.

• 27:21David Sims?

  And you can't fuck with me.

• 27:22Griffin Newman?

  You often describe wanting to be a film festival consultant, not a consultant for a film festival, a consultant to the studios on which film festival they should go to.

• 27:30David Sims?

  Here's our movie. It's about a movie star and he's having a bad day or whatever. I'm like, don't do Venice. They're not gonna like that in Venice. You're gonna wanna go to Telluride. You're gonna call, gonna call Jimmy at Telluride. He'll set you right up.

• 27:42Griffin Newman?

  I'll set you up with Jimmy.

• 27:42David Sims?

  You do one of those screenings. It's on, you go up the ski lift. It'll be great. This sounds like a ski lift movie to me.

• 27:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, right. They'll take care of you.

• 27:50David Sims?

  You're gonna want Tuesday. You'll call Cameron. He's gonna set you up Sunday night premiere. Okay? It's a very nice premiere. You're not gonna wanna do Roy Thompson Hall. Okay? The acoustics are terrible in there. See, I'd be great at this.

• 28:01Griffin Newman?

  You gotta be great at this. I feel like the two things I always talk about with Goodfellas are the shine box scene being the funniest scene.

• 28:06David Sims?

  You enjoy the shine box scene.

• 28:09Griffin Newman?

  And, and I, I, I mean no hyperbole when I say this. I mean this from the bottom of my heart. The slicing of the garlic with the razor blade being the sexiest shot in the history of cinema.

• 28:19David Sims?

  Okay. I, thank you for bringing this up. I'm gonna bring this up right away. This shot is incredibly controversial in cooking Reddit.

• 28:26Griffin Newman?

  Really?

• 28:27David Sims?

  Cooking in general.

• 28:28Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 28:28David Sims?

  Now, I, I read the book. It's in the book. Like, the book has like them describing like, oh yeah, he would slice the garlic to liquefy in the pan.

• 28:36Griffin Newman?

  Just a little bit.

• 28:37David Sims?

  Garlic doesn't liquefy. Like, it's just, and so I want people to weigh in.

• 28:41Griffin Newman?

  Wish it did.

• 28:42David Sims?

  We all wish it did. Because like, you know, because this is a big thing. People are like, if you slice your garlic into thin little discs, you are gonna get a bunch of burnt garlic on your hands. Garlic burns really fast.

• 28:52Speaker 02

  Cause it's got the sugar content.

• 28:54David Sims?

  Yeah, exactly. So like, it's not like garlic isn't like anchovies where it truly will kind of just like dissolve into your sauce or whatever.

• 29:01Speaker 02

  Evaporate through the walls.

• 29:04David Sims?

  Shutter Island, call for it.

• 29:06Speaker 02

  Shutter Island.

• 29:07David Sims?

  Shutter Island. Do they move Shutter Island?

• 29:11Speaker 02

  Federal marshals.

• 29:13David Sims?

  Shutter Island. Um, and so maybe I'll try to like, when I do, uh, my next, when I make my next sauce, so like slice some garlic with razor blades.

• 29:22Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, try it.

• 29:23David Sims?

  Way to do it, but like, you know, cause it's like, it's a great notion. And when you see it in the movie, you're like, ah.

• 29:30Griffin Newman?

  But you're like, maybe it's smart that the movie doesn't show you the little slices going into the pan, that it leaves it up to your imagination.

• 29:36David Sims?

  Maybe if you drown him in oil, like.

• 29:39Griffin Newman?

  Maybe that's, maybe you're not using enough oil.

• 29:41David Sims?

  But the thing with olive oil too.

• 29:43Speaker 02

  So fast.

• 29:44David Sims?

  Is you can't get it too hot. No, because it doesn't, yeah. Anyway, look, it's a fast, but I have seen on Reddit all the time, people who are like food nerds get mad. They're like, that's not gonna work. Garlic doesn't, you know, what? Um, it's a great shot.

• 29:57Griffin Newman?

  I was looking for gifs of the sliced garlic and I noticed it was popping up a lot on r slash recipes and r slash cooking.

• 30:04David Sims?

  Right.

• 30:04Griffin Newman?

  With a lot of anger.

• 30:05David Sims?

  A lot of anger.

• 30:06Griffin Newman?

  Lot of anger.

• 30:07David Sims?

  It's a little disrespectful. That's a, that's some garlic's friend.

• 30:12Speaker 02

  Shallot?

• 30:13Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, shallot.

• 30:14David Sims?

  Oh, I love a shallot. That's better than a shallot.

• 30:17Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 30:17Speaker 02

  I, I can't answer that question.

• 30:19David Sims?

  Can't answer.

• 30:20Speaker 02

  Vidalia onion, pretty good?

• 30:23David Sims?

  Uh, sure. I would say it plays a different role, but yeah, no, I mean, yeah, yeah. Love.

• 30:27Speaker 02

  Oh, uh, fuck, what's the, um?

• 30:31David Sims?

  He's so funny if he said like blowjobs. He just like goes to completely.

• 30:35Griffin Newman?

  Garlic and blowjobs.

• 30:36Speaker 02

  What's the annoying, um, thing that comes around seasonally that everyone goes crazy for that's really expensive? That's in the garlic onion family. Starts with an R. Ramp.

• 30:47David Sims?

  Ramps.

• 30:47Griffin Newman?

  Ramps.

• 30:48Speaker 02

  That's a fancy.

• 30:49David Sims?

  I know.

• 30:50Speaker 02

  Fancy boy.

• 30:50David Sims?

  I don't mess around with ramps too often. I try, I like a rant restaurant ramp because I'm like, you guys know what you're doing. I'll just mess up the ramp.

• 30:56Speaker 02

  Same. Yeah.

• 31:06Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 31:06David Sims?

  Yes.

• 31:07Griffin Newman?

  Mmm.

• 31:10David Sims?

  Is that the Cine's cow?

• 31:12Griffin Newman?

  The Cine's cow is back.

• 31:13David Sims?

  Haven't heard from her in a while.

• 31:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, she's reactivated because she's horny for chicken fingers.

• 31:19David Sims?

  Okay.

• 31:20Griffin Newman?

  And she's excited for the streaming debut of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

• 31:24David Sims?

  Wow.

• 31:25Griffin Newman?

  The cow likes chicken.

• 31:27David Sims?

  Remember cow and chicken? Let's look it up. While you tell the great listeners about the great stuff on MUBI.

• 31:33Griffin Newman?

  Well, MUBI is a global film company, bringing great cinema to the world and to you. Curating and elevating visionary filmmaking, all handpicked, always. That's what MUBI does. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

• 31:45David Sims?

  Yes.

• 31:46Griffin Newman?

  One of my favorite movies of the year.

• 31:47David Sims?

  Absolutely.

• 31:48Griffin Newman?

  You can feel the rush now at home. There's a hole at the bottom of the lake where the movies come from.

• 31:54David Sims?

  That is a line in the movie.

• 31:55Griffin Newman?

  In the new movie from Jane Schombroer, Past and Future Guest.

• 31:57David Sims?

  Past and Future Guest, a great filmmaker, a great podcast guest.

• 32:01Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 32:01David Sims?

  Great friend.

• 32:02Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 32:04David Sims?

  This movie rocks. It's got, of course, it stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.

• 32:08Griffin Newman?

  Uh huh.

• 32:09David Sims?

  Legends, and I tip my cap, but Zach Cherry.

• 32:11Griffin Newman?

  Performances, friend of the show.

• 32:12David Sims?

  Friend of the show Zach Cherry.

• 32:14Griffin Newman?

  Zach Cherry.

• 32:15David Sims?

  Also in it.

• 32:16Griffin Newman?

  This is true.

• 32:17David Sims?

  Such a cool movie. Won the Queer Palmitan. If you haven't heard about this movie, I don't know what's going on with you, but like, it obviously has, it was out in theaters this summer and now it's on MUBI.

• 32:27Griffin Newman?

  Hannah Einbinder plays the filmmaker attempting to reboot the Camp Miasma franchise, trying to track down the original final girl from the first movie to make some sort of legacy sequel, who's played by Gillian Anderson, who lives at the summer camp.

• 32:41David Sims?

  At Camp Miasma, yes. And you know, and then they hang out and it's regular.

• 32:46Griffin Newman?

  What happened? It's, it's one of those Hollywood's out of ideas. No, it's very much a movie about Hollywood being out of ideas while being an example of there still being new stories to tell.

• 32:58David Sims?

  It's now streaming exclusively on MUBI and you can try MUBI free for 30 days at MUBI.com/blankcheck. That's M U B I dot com slash blank check for a whole month of great cinema for free.

• 33:10Griffin Newman?

  They got so many great movies on there to watch, but worth it for 30 days for Miasma.

• 33:15David Sims?

  Damn right.

• 33:20Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 33:20David Sims?

  Yes?

• 33:21Griffin Newman?

  He lurks in shadow. He slips into dreams. He casts no reflection. Audible presents Bram Stoker's Dracula, a new full cast audio thriller starring Ella Purnell as Mina Harker, Jonathan Bailey as Dracula, and an A-list cast, including Maggie Gyllenhaal as Van Helsing, Amy Lou Wood as Lucy, David Johnson as Dr. Seward, and many more. That is an all-star cast.

• 33:42David Sims?

  Yeah, this new full cast thriller locks Mina Harker in a battle of minds with the Count. When Mina's fiance, Jonathan Harker, Louis Partridge, vanishes in Transylvania, Mina pieces together letters, diary entries, and chilling testimony to hunt the predator stalking those she loves, only to discover Dracula's already hunting her.

• 34:02Griffin Newman?

  Joined by the enigmatic Van Helsing, Mina and a small fearless band race against time to stop this ancient terror. Using her intellect, her resolve, and a gift for drawing the unseen lines between clues, Mina may just hold the key to bring down the Count if he hasn't already found his way inside her mind.

• 34:18David Sims?

  Featuring a haunting original score by Elon Eschery and a spatial dolby Atmos sound design, Audible's Dracula invites you to welcome literature's most shadowy figure into your home. Feel the terror of being hunted and the thrill of the hunt. Don't miss this year's best new audio thriller, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Audible's new full cast original adaptation, written by Robin Ahern, now on Audible. Listen to the darkness. Go to audible.com/ListenToDracula.

• 34:54David Sims?

  Goodfellas. Griffin, when did you first see Goodfellas?

• 34:56Griffin Newman?

  I definitely saw Godfather first. That was a movie that was shown to me, I think, on a sick day from school as, I don't know if I ever talked about this.

• 35:04David Sims?

  You're feeling sick? It's time for the Godfather.

• 35:06Griffin Newman?

  When I was homesick, which would happen a lot because I have a bad body, my mom would insist that I could only watch classics.

• 35:14David Sims?

  Oh, interesting.

• 35:15Griffin Newman?

  I don't think I've ever brought this up.

• 35:16David Sims?

  You don't get to watch like a trashy cartoon today. You're gonna have to watch a canonical film.

• 35:20Griffin Newman?

  I'd be like, I wanna watch the Rosie O'Donnell show. And she's like, you can watch Rosie, but then I'm gonna go across the street to Couch Potato Video and I'm gonna rent you a classic that you've never seen before. So there was one point where it was like, you might be old enough to watch The Godfather. Probably when I was like 11 or 12, homesick from school. So I saw that first. Then I definitely saw scenes from Goodfellas on TV, but I think I didn't actually see Goodfellas in full. I felt I had kinda seen a Cloverfield style. I didn't watch it properly until it was screening at MoMA when I wanna say I was in my early twenties? Yeah, that's when I really contended with it. And I saw it at MoMA where it's been presented in a historical artistic context.

• 36:05David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 36:06Griffin Newman?

  Right?

• 36:06David Sims?

  Right.

• 36:06Griffin Newman?

  A 35 millimeter print of a movie that at that point is already like.

• 36:10David Sims?

  15?

• 36:11Griffin Newman?

  Yes, close to 20 years old. Yes. And I just remember I was sitting next to an old couple who just kept going, oh my God, the language. The langu- oh my God.

• 36:23David Sims?

  These young men are saying fuck.

• 36:25Griffin Newman?

  But as if like it was a new release film, they couldn't believe what they were hearing. They're sitting there watching Goodfellas in like 2008. Oh my God, the mouths on these guys. They wouldn't, like, like vocally disgust, oh.

• 36:40David Sims?

  I will say, they do use profane language quite a lot in this movie. I think they do.

• 36:45Griffin Newman?

  But beautifully.

• 36:47David Sims?

  They really do. It is really beautiful. It's, for a while, it was always the one that like was up there for the most fucks. Which I feel like Casino kicked its ass.

• 36:57Griffin Newman?

  Nill by Mouth has a lot of fucks.

• 36:59David Sims?

  Nill by Mouth has an insane amount of fucks.

• 37:01Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 37:01David Sims?

  Anora, Anora is like a very recent, like, Anora, like every other word is fucking Anora.

• 37:06Griffin Newman?

  Paw Patrol, the dino movie.

• 37:08David Sims?

  Oh God, they, those dinos, the mouths on them.

• 37:11Griffin Newman?

  Zero fucks given, many fucks said.

• 37:14David Sims?

  I'm gonna open the dossier, Griffin.

• 37:15Griffin Newman?

  Please do.

• 37:16David Sims?

  Cause we might as well. Very soon, following the production of The Last Temptation of Christ, which is, um, the last movie that Marty makes before Goodfellas.

• 37:26Griffin Newman?

  That's wild. And that movie kinda kicked his ass.

• 37:28David Sims?

  Yeah, a little bit.

• 37:29Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, a little bit.

• 37:30David Sims?

  A little bit. Kick your ass a little bit.

• 37:32Griffin Newman?

  A little bit.

• 37:33David Sims?

  You're being a little disrespectful to the Lord.

• 37:35Griffin Newman?

  Christ might have kicked your ass a little bit.

• 37:36David Sims?

  Putting him up there, it's a little disrespectful.

• 37:39Griffin Newman?

  Giving him the hi hat.

• 37:41David Sims?

  No, that's, that's.

• 37:42Griffin Newman?

  That's a different movie. That's a Miller's Crossing.

• 37:46David Sims?

  Martin Scorsese has directed a music video for his friend Robbie Robertson, solo single Somewhere Down the Crazy River in January 1988. It was only a second music video after Bad.

• 37:56Griffin Newman?

  Which was quite good, has a music video.

• 37:59David Sims?

  Totally.

• 38:01Griffin Newman?

  JJ included a lot of Life Lessons, New York Story stuff in this dossier, which we're not gonna read at all because that will be its own episode on Patreon.

• 38:07David Sims?

  Oh, sure. Okay. Well, I'll make sure to skip Life Lessons then. Uh, you also, Robertson asked Scorsese to direct a concert film titled Robbie Robertson and Friends, which would feature other performers like U2 and Peter Gabriel.

• 38:21Griffin Newman?

  Never happened.

• 38:22David Sims?

  No, that stalls out. So then they start dreaming up a fictional feature that was gonna be like a combination of the red shoes and all that jazz, dealing with music instead of dance. It never came to pass. Interesting. Uh, yeah, so I'll skip all this Life Lessons stuff. Okay. 1985, Nicholas Pileggi, a veteran crime reporter, publishes a book called Wise Guy, Life in a Mafia Family. It's his second book, two years on after he marries Nora Ephron. Nick Pileggi on the origins of the book. It was initially a piece for New York Magazine. He chooses Henry Hill, not because he's maybe the most interesting mafia, mafioso he's ever met, but he's willing to talk.

• 39:00Griffin Newman?

  That is also arguably what makes him kind of interesting.

• 39:02David Sims?

  Of course. I mean, like, I think in the world of the mob, like, some mobsters are like, fucking Henry Hill wasn't even a made man. He's just this like schnook who hung out with guys. He, you know, was a rat, blah, blah, blah. But it's like, yeah, but Henry Hill fucking talked to you. He's, he's, he paints beautiful pictures with his words in a way.

• 39:21Griffin Newman?

  You didn't hear that he paints houses, but he does paint beautiful pictures with his words.

• 39:25David Sims?

  That's right. Uh, so Scorsese's reading the New York Review of Books. In 1985, he reads a review of this book while he's shooting Color of Money. Uh, he gets the book in galley. He really enjoys it because the free flowing, uh, easy style, the arrogance of it, something he knew from his own experience. Speaks to Marty. He's like, this is what it's really like, these fucking guys.

• 39:44Griffin Newman?

  These are the guys I know that I witnessed.

• 39:46David Sims?

  Yes. Um, he likes that Henry is an outsider, sort of had different access to the different levels of organized crime. As an outsider, you'd be sort of like, you know, sometimes talking to the big guys, but he likes the sort of cross section that he's portraying. Very interesting. Likes to sort of documentary approach, gives you a sense of the day to day life, the tedium, how they like end up taking over a business and then kind of ruin it, you know, how like the sort of day to day work of the mob is done.

• 40:13Griffin Newman?

  What's the name of the tropical bar, the tiki bar?

• 40:16David Sims?

  I forget.

• 40:16Griffin Newman?

  It looks so good.

• 40:17David Sims?

  It's now, it's now like a Guyanese restaurant. I have one, I have long thought about, you can do like a little tour at East New York, like of all like the locations, because they're all gone.

• 40:26Griffin Newman?

  The diner's gone.

• 40:27David Sims?

  The diner's gone. You can go to this neighborhood, neighborhood, this area that's called The Hole, which is still, it's like this weird kind of like New York, it's like in Brooklyn, like it's like a ditch basically where they used to bury bodies all the time.

• 40:40Griffin Newman?

  Bamboo Lounge.

• 40:41David Sims?

  Yeah. I wish I could go to the Bamboo Lounge.

• 40:43Griffin Newman?

  I wish I could. I'm sorry, continue.

• 40:45David Sims?

  Scorsese's like, Nick's, Nick Pileggi is taking us through the different levels of purgatory and hell, he feels like, right? You sort of start out, you know, things are going good and you just get deeper and deeper into nastiness. And yeah, he's like, look, people think gangsters kill people. Of course they do, but the main purpose is to make money. After a while, Tommy's making more noise than money. That's why he gets killed. He starts killing people for no reason. They have to get rid of him. Like fundamentally, you just sit there and make money. You're in much better shape. So, okay. Pellegrini, one day he answers the phone. Guy says, my name's Martin Scorsese and I'm a movie director. I know who you are, I said. He said, I read your book Wise Guy. I've been looking for it for years. I'd love to do it. And Nick says, I've been waiting

• 41:29David Sims?

  for this phone call all my life. I'd love you to do it.

• 41:32Griffin Newman?

  As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be adapted by Martin Scorsese.

• 41:36David Sims?

  He says, look, finish the movie you're working on, which at the time was Color of Money. But if you want to do it, it's yours. He calls his agents and he's like, Marty's gonna do it. His agents are getting mad because they're like, we're trying to get like a fucking deal for you. But, you know, Irvin Winkler, Irvin Winkler, who has already worked with Marty already, he's in Paris, he calls up and he's like, Marty wants to direct, Marty wants to write it with you. Great. It's all happening.

• 41:59Griffin Newman?

  Produces Martin Scorsese's least successful, most out of control movie, and then gets in exchange for Raging Bull and Goodfellas.

• 42:06David Sims?

  This is true. Wise Guys love The Godfather because, according to Pellegrini, because it sort of ennobles them. But their favorite is Mean Streets because they're like, that's what it's really like. Henry Hill and others loved that movie so much, they basically kidnapped Paul Verrio, who is, you know, Paul Servino in the film, Paul Sisler, made him go see it. Verrio didn't have a TV set or go to the movies. Like, I think Verrio truly is like, you know, like what he's portrayed like in this. He hates phones, hates devices. He just sits, sits all the fucking time. People just come to him.

• 42:39Speaker 02

  I was so shocked in whatever behind the scenes thing I watched, hearing him talk, because he's such a like-

• 42:46Griffin Newman?

  Paul Servino?

• 42:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:47Griffin Newman?

  An opera singer.

• 42:49Speaker 02

  Really?

• 42:49David Sims?

  Yeah. He's got a beautiful voice.

• 42:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, he just seemed like completely the opposite of that character.

• 42:55David Sims?

  Yeah. It's an incredible performance.

• 42:58Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 42:58David Sims?

  Every performance in this movie is good.

• 43:00Griffin Newman?

  He should be the fourth guy in the poster. He gets a little forgotten in the lineup.

• 43:04David Sims?

  There's some posters I've seen that put him on there. It's interesting. Obviously, he's, his screen time in the movie is pretty brief, because like, that's the point of him. Anyway, they, but yeah, they, they dragged Paul Verrio to go see it because they were like, someone made a home movie, essentially. You know what I mean? Like, and Marty was like, it's a high compliment about this sort of just, you know.

• 43:25Speaker 02

  Oh, fuck, I got Verrio and Servino mixed up.

• 43:29David Sims?

  That's fine. Yeah, I get it.

• 43:30Griffin Newman?

  That comes to the territory. Servino had a quote where he said, the thing he found challenging was finding that kernel of coldness and absolute hardness that is antithetical to my nature, except when my family is threatened.

• 43:44David Sims?

  Oh, so he's got it there.

• 43:46Griffin Newman?

  Right. But it speaks to what you're saying, Ben, of he's just like, I can't relate to this guy at all unless you threaten my fucking family. And then he's like, oh, that's what I should play.

• 43:53David Sims?

  Servino is in season two only of Law and Order. It's unbelievable. I recommend it to people all the time. Season two of Law and Order, where it's Servino and Noff, the two cops, Chris Noff, is so good. Noff, I don't even know. No. Servino famously does one season and is like, the cold air in New York is hurting my vocal cords. I won't do any more seasons. And they replace him with Jerry Orbach, who's obviously a G and the king. We love him so much. And I love the Law and Order's with Orbach. That one season with Servino is so fucking good. Anyway. So they start writing the script together. They kind of each take sections, Nick and Marty, and sort of just like, Marty's like, we don't

• 44:36David Sims?

  need a traditional narrative. Like, we don't need to worry about like, sort of three act structure or whatever. We're just going to go episodic. And then they just kind of like tackle all the blocks and they just sort of start putting them together. And I realized if the scenes were kept short, the impact would be like terrific as it like builds up, which is so clever.

• 44:56Griffin Newman?

  There's the quote he has that like, he wanted the entire movie to feel like a trailer for itself.

• 45:00David Sims?

  Yes. One long trailer for a lifestyle, basically. I mean, especially the first hour this week. It's so seductive. It's the best. You just want these guys to like you.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  It's a big deal too, because like, as far as Scorsese writing it, because he, this is the first time since Mean Streets that he's written-

• 45:18Griffin Newman?

  That he gets a credit.

• 45:19David Sims?

  I believe so, because he doesn't have a credit on Last Temptation. I'm trying to think. Yeah.

• 45:23Griffin Newman?

  I think it's-

• 45:23David Sims?

  It's just, yeah, yeah. Other big element of the screenplay, along with the sort of, you know, what we're talking about, the voiceover. Previous films had had it, but this is where the Scorsese voiceover becomes, I feel like, a crucial part of the Scorsese movie.

• 45:38Griffin Newman?

  God, fucking Ray Liotta's voiceover performance in this film.

• 45:42David Sims?

  It's so good.

• 45:43Griffin Newman?

  It's so-

• 45:44David Sims?

  And it's really vital. Like, because he's really explaining things to you in this like, kind of clipped way that feels real, yeah, he's really really good.

• 45:52Griffin Newman?

  It really is a performance and he somehow sells feeling like he's just talking to you. Like, he's letting you in on a secret.

• 45:58David Sims?

  And he's being like, you understand?

• 46:01Griffin Newman?

  Let me just tell you how this fucking works.

• 46:04David Sims?

  But, but he, but he, he's just like, you get it. Why would, you would, you would do this too? I, I, how could I not do that?

• 46:10Griffin Newman?

  He gets excitable sometimes.

• 46:12David Sims?

  You know, it's the best thing in the world. I've always wanted to do this. And you're like, yeah, yeah, no, of course, of course. Yeah. Because like, this is a movie about pieces of shit. They're, they're irredeemable little fuckers.

• 46:22Griffin Newman?

  Bad fellas.

• 46:23David Sims?

  If you encountered any of these people, it would be the worst day of your life. Right?

• 46:27Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 46:27David Sims?

  Any single person in this movie.

• 46:29Griffin Newman?

  Yes, yes.

• 46:30David Sims?

  Even like a fucking Lorraine Bracco, like, bought a cup of coffee from you. She'd probably be awful to you.

• 46:36Griffin Newman?

  I would melt.

• 46:38David Sims?

  Like, who is the most sympathetic character in Goodfellas? That is not a child or animal?

• 46:43Griffin Newman?

  Kevin Corrigan.

• 46:45David Sims?

  Kevin Corrigan, or like, Samuel Jackson, or like, someone like that.

• 46:48Griffin Newman?

  All he wanted to do was get stoned, listen to records, hang out with his girlfriend. Yeah.

• 46:56David Sims?

  Yeah. So, Scorsese watches the opening of Jules Jim, when he's thinking about, you know, voiceover and all that. He also feels like that early French New Wave narrative's not very important.

• 47:09Griffin Newman?

  And he says that to Pellegrini, like, let's start in the middle and then go backwards, then catch up and then go forward. Yeah.

• 47:15Speaker 02

  It also feels very French New Wave that the characters are talking to the camera.

• 47:20David Sims?

  Yeah. Pellegrini had some contact with Hill throughout production, but Scorsese didn't talk to him. He said, at the end of the phone, at the end of the film, I talked to him on the phone for like 30 seconds. He thanked me about something. But Scorsese kind of keeps away from that. He's like, I'm not gonna, you know, get involved with whatever the reality. Yeah. These 11 or 12 drafts, they said every draft was good, basically. Brag. It is indeed Scorsese's first credit since Mean Streets. And Scorsese said he was a little concerned about making another gangster movie. Brando apparently had told him, don't do another gangster picture. I don't know when he was talking to Brando. I guess he went to the island that one time, right?

• 48:05Speaker 02

  Of Dr. Monroe?

• 48:07David Sims?

  Monroe, yeah, basically. It was, the movie was going to be called Wise Guys, of course, because that's what the book is called. Do we think the movie's better suited with the name Goodfellas or Wise Guys?

• 48:18Griffin Newman?

  I think Goodfellas is a-

• 48:19David Sims?

  It's a pretty great title.

• 48:20Griffin Newman?

  Yes, yes.

• 48:21David Sims?

  It's not called Wise Guys because there's that TV show in the 80s called Wise Guy.

• 48:25Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 48:25David Sims?

  That was like, kind of like an early, like, way before the golden age of TV, but like, oh, it's-

• 48:30Griffin Newman?

  It's a little sophisticated.

• 48:31David Sims?

  It's sophisticated. It's like, got a longer narrative to it. It's like darker.

• 48:37David Sims?

  Michael Powell, he says, I don't know if I want to do Wise Guys. Michael goes back home. He's basically blind at this point. And so Thelma Schoonmaker reads the script to him. And he says, you have to do this. Like, it's so funny. No one's ever seen this way of life before. You've got to do it.

• 48:53Griffin Newman?

  I pulled up, there's the infamous letter that Michael Powell sends him in response. And the opening is, Dear Marty, read the script of Wise Guys. It is one of the best constructed scripts I have ever read. At the same time, it is not academic. It is not a script just on paper. It is very much alive. And then he gets into some questions and suggestions. And at the end, he says, Dear Marty, it is a stunning script and will make a wonderful film and a priceless social document.

• 49:21David Sims?

  Hey, it kind of is.

• 49:22Griffin Newman?

  It's what we do once a week here on Blank Check. Make priceless social documents.

• 49:27David Sims?

  Priceless.

• 49:28Griffin Newman?

  Priceless.

• 49:29David Sims?

  All right. Ray Liotta is Scorsese's number one choice. They had run into each other at Venice in 1988. I guess Marty had seen Something Wild.

• 49:39Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 49:40David Sims?

  Like, Demi shows it to him when, before it even comes out. And he loved it. You know, they run into each other, you know, and chat about Last Temptation, how that's crazy, you know, and Marty says, like, you know, I love Something Wild. That sounds great. But he has, Marty then has to convince the producers that this is his guy. Apparently someone suggested Tom Cruise.

• 50:05Griffin Newman?

  I mean, I'm sure everyone was suggesting Tom Cruise for everything those days.

• 50:09David Sims?

  Marty, Liotta says they suggested Eddie Murphy. I think Liotta might be kidding. I assume he is.

• 50:16Griffin Newman?

  He, his joke was, they-

• 50:17David Sims?

  They're naming everyone, right?

• 50:19Griffin Newman?

  They didn't want me so badly, they would have been happier getting Eddie Murphy in the picture.

• 50:23David Sims?

  Right. Yeah. Obviously, Liotta probably considers this one of the best films ever made, behind his favorite film of all time, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Isn't that Liotta? No, that's Tony Curtis.

• 50:32Griffin Newman?

  It's Tony Curtis.

• 50:33David Sims?

  Who is sort of the Ray Liotta of the 50s and 60s. Would you agree with me?

• 50:37Griffin Newman?

  Yes, although Ray Liotta is a much better actor.

• 50:40David Sims?

  Yes, yes. I would agree with that. But just the prettiness.

• 50:44Griffin Newman?

  The stunning eyes.

• 50:45David Sims?

  Ray Liotta is so pretty, like-

• 50:47Griffin Newman?

  But it's, the fascinating thing with Ray Liotta is that he's also scary.

• 50:51David Sims?

  He's scary. I mean, Tony Curtis could be scary too, but like, he's scary and he gets scarier. I feel like his face kind of gets a little bigger and he gets like, you know. But that early Liotta liked Something Wild and Goodfellas, like where he's just got the angles, the cute little chin. He's very pretty.

• 51:05Griffin Newman?

  His eyes are so blue that they're almost frightening. And then he's got the sort of acting scars on his cheeks.

• 51:10David Sims?

  So, Liotta, you know, Marty wants him very badly. Winkler feels like they could do better. And is like, let's keep looking. And then he goes to dinner in Venice, California, not Venice, Italy. And lo and behold, like, Ray Liotta just comes up to him. And he sort of like, you know, talks to him and says like, look, I really want the role and sells him there. And Winkler calls up Marty and says, I see what you mean. Pellegrini gives him like, hours of cassettes of Henry Hill talking. And Liotta says, like, the whole time he's eating potato chips, talking with his food in his mouth. And he's like, yeah, I know he killed that guy. But yeah, like, Liotta, I mean, think for Liotta, it's like,

• 51:52David Sims?

  everyone else knows each other and I don't know anyone. Like, I wasn't like, in the group in the same way, but that's probably good.

• 51:57Griffin Newman?

  It's absolutely good.

• 51:58David Sims?

  Keeps him on edge, right?

• 52:00Griffin Newman?

  I mean, the other, the obvious piece of this puzzle is, they get- De Niro to play Jimmy Conway and then the studio's happy. If De Niro's in a mafia movie, they're like, fine, you can cast whoever you want in the other roles.

• 52:14David Sims?

  So Leota's there, Robert De Niro. Now, this is interesting. I feel like Marty's worked for him before.

• 52:21Griffin Newman?

  There are a couple of other films.

• 52:22David Sims?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. One, Madonna apparently was in the mix for Karen.

• 52:26Griffin Newman?

  It makes sense.

• 52:27David Sims?

  It does. She might have been good.

• 52:29Griffin Newman?

  She might have been good.

• 52:30David Sims?

  I don't think she would have been as good.

• 52:32Griffin Newman?

  No, and we should mention that, of course, this episode is making good on a promise.

• 52:36David Sims?

  Oh, what's that?

• 52:37Griffin Newman?

  That we had to cover Goodfellas because of how poorly we've treated Lorraine Bracco on the past.

• 52:42David Sims?

  We came after her for Medicine Man. What's the other one?

• 52:45Griffin Newman?

  Uh, Robert Zemeckis' Pinocchio, where she plays a screeching seagull. Pinocchio, where the fuck you going? Don't touch that fucking turret, Pinocchio.

• 52:55David Sims?

  That was an active performance. That's what I'll say about the, at least she was making choices. Exactly.

• 53:00Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 53:01David Sims?

  She didn't phone that one in.

• 53:02Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 53:02David Sims?

  Uh, Medicine Man, similar.

• 53:03Griffin Newman?

  Ah, what are you doing in the jungle? But during our Mass Man episode, we said like, I guess we need to do Scorsese now because it's, it's, we've done such a disservice to Lorraine Bracco by only discussing her worst performances. Um, no one was going to top her in this. She's just fucking phenomenal.

• 53:20David Sims?

  She's unbelievable. Uh, she was a model in France. She started making movies just a couple of years earlier. She's in The Pickup Artist, uh, you know.

• 53:28Griffin Newman?

  A pretty tobakian film.

• 53:30David Sims?

  Oh, yeah, one of the greats. Um, uh, she was brought up in a Jewish neighborhood in New York, so she kind of related to Karen Hill enough. Uh, Marty gets, you know, her and Ray together. He likes with their, you know, their chemistry. Joe Pesci.

• 53:43Griffin Newman?

  Now, they'd worked here before.

• 53:44David Sims?

  They had, but he's interesting to consider.

• 53:47Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 53:48David Sims?

  As I feel like we already talked about, obviously, he's in Raging Bull. He gets nominated for the Academy Award. He makes movies in the eighties.

• 53:54Griffin Newman?

  He makes.

• 53:55David Sims?

  Uh, go ahead.

• 53:58Griffin Newman?

  Two Lethal Weapons in the eighties or has only Lethal Weapon Two come out by this?

• 54:01David Sims?

  No, there's only been Lethal Weapon Two, which is eighty-nine.

• 54:03Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 54:04David Sims?

  And obviously, he's in like, Once Upon a Time in America in kind of a small role, smallish.

• 54:11Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 54:11David Sims?

  No, I mean, like, you know, small role in like Eureka.

• 54:15Griffin Newman?

  The Original Man on Fire.

• 54:17David Sims?

  He's in the Dangerfield movie, Easy Money, but like, it's still like, he, you know, he's not really on fire.

• 54:23Griffin Newman?

  The Raging Bull Oscar nomination made him a working actor.

• 54:27David Sims?

  Yeah, totally.

• 54:27Griffin Newman?

  Which he didn't have before, but he's not doing huge stuff. Uh, Lethal Weapon Two feels like the first moment where the studios figure out like, this is how Hollywood uses Ray, uh, uses Joe Pesci.

• 54:40David Sims?

  Right. And so nineteen ninety, he has Goodfellas and Home Alone.

• 54:43Griffin Newman?

  Which is just insane.

• 54:44David Sims?

  It's a pretty good year.

• 54:45Griffin Newman?

  It's, it's almost like a Schindler's List Jurassic Park year of like.

• 54:48David Sims?

  Kinda is.

• 54:49Griffin Newman?

  You win Best Supporting Actor and you're in the highest grossing film of the year, the third highest grossing film of all time at that point.

• 54:55David Sims?

  Uh, like, Goodfellas comes out September and Home Alone comes out Christmas time or is it like a little before it's, uh? Yeah, November, like Thanksgiving time, like, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a good one.

• 55:06Griffin Newman?

  The fall. Yeah, yeah.

• 55:08David Sims?

  Uh, Joe, as it feels like it's true for every movie, he's like, I don't want to do that. And Marty's like, well, let's, let's have a conversation.

• 55:14Griffin Newman?

  Let me just stay at home.

• 55:15David Sims?

  Uh, then Joe's like, let me tell you a couple of stories, I guess, from those days. Tell, you know, like the, the funny story that, that comes up and, you know, that's, uh, that's, that's where it all gets started. They changed the name because he's, Pesci's like, look, I'm not tall like Tommy, uh, De Simone, so we gotta change the name. I'll be Tommy DeVito. Um.

• 55:36Griffin Newman?

  Is that meant to be a Danny DeVito slight?

• 55:38David Sims?

  That's a fair point. I don't know.

• 55:41Griffin Newman?

  What's a real fucking short guy name?

• 55:44David Sims?

  He's saying like, I, you know, I knew people like Tommy Simone. I read about him, you know, I don't take that stuff into the film with me. Bob and I will figure out everything about his character, take those traits, little things with him, let it start to feel like that. This is not an easy quote to read, Joe. Jesus. What I do is I think of somebody that I knew very well, who's the same type and I play him. I do my Tommy Simone. I do Joe Pesci as if I was this killer. Okay.

• 56:09Speaker 02

  Looking up Tommy, uh, De Simone, born nineteen forty-six, says here disappeared.

• 56:16David Sims?

  Oh.

• 56:16Speaker 02

  January fourteen nineteen seventy-nine.

• 56:19David Sims?

  Tommy, where'd you go?

• 56:20Griffin Newman?

  Secreted.

• 56:22David Sims?

  He was secreted, yeah.

• 56:23Griffin Newman?

  He was secreted.

• 56:25David Sims?

  Uh, um, you know, Pesci, which is interesting, where he's like, I think the wise guys justify what they do like they're soldiers. Um, which is something that, um, uh, Tony Soprano says in the, in, in The Sopranos. I feel like I just, at a certain point where he's like, it's my job and I'm a soldier. Like, that's how I think about it. Um, obviously Tommy's a psychopath, like, and kills people for no good reason. For example, he kills Spider because, uh, um, I don't know, he tells him to go fuck himself. Actually, it's a really good reason. Good job, Tommy.

• 56:56Griffin Newman?

  The best reason.

• 56:58David Sims?

  Uh, De Niro, not the first guy, uh, considered. Many listicles mention that Al Pacino turned down the role, but JJ couldn't find good sourcing on it, but that doesn't mean it's not true. Ellen Lewis, who's the casting director, does say Marty had offered it to someone who turned it down. Definitely John Malkovich, who was discussed at some point. Malkovich says it came up at a bad time in my life when I wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to think about working. It's hard to explain why you end up in Aragon and not Goodfellas.

• 57:28Speaker 02

  Damn.

• 57:28Griffin Newman?

  That's incredible quote.

• 57:29David Sims?

  That's a good quote.

• 57:30Griffin Newman?

  I can see why they thought it might be overpowering to put De Niro in this role.

• 57:35David Sims?

  For sure, especially because he's not the main character.

• 57:38Griffin Newman?

  He's not the main character.

• 57:39David Sims?

  And you kind of can't help but think that he is because he's Robert De Niro.

• 57:42Griffin Newman?

  He's also gonna run throughout the whole movie. It's not like.

• 57:44David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 57:45Griffin Newman?

  Capone in Untouchables where you're isolating him to a few scenes.

• 57:48David Sims?

  Like, where, he's a lead actor.

• 57:50Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 57:50David Sims?

  Right? Like, if you're submitting him for the Oscars, it's in lead, right? He's all over them. No.

• 57:55Griffin Newman?

  Supporting. I think it's supporting.

• 57:57David Sims?

  Cause obviously Leota is the lead of the film.

• 57:59Griffin Newman?

  Yes, yes.

• 58:00David Sims?

  And obviously Joe Pesci is the supporting actor. De Niro, it's one of these weird things where it's like, the movie's not really about him, but it's not not about him. He's in a ton of it, but he's not the main character.

• 58:12Griffin Newman?

  And he'll disappear for stretches.

• 58:13David Sims?

  He will.

• 58:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 58:14David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 58:15Griffin Newman?

  The end is when he comes on really strong, the last hour.

• 58:17David Sims?

  I don't know what you're talking about. He's just trying to get her some coats. What do you mean he's coming on strong?

• 58:21Griffin Newman?

  Right, just go right around the corner.

• 58:23David Sims?

  Let me tell you who's great in this movie. Christopher Serrano.

• 58:26Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 58:27David Sims?

  Who plays young Leota. Please.

• 58:29Griffin Newman?

  I remember.

• 58:30David Sims?

  Where do they fucking find this kid?

• 58:31Griffin Newman?

  When Irishman came out and you rewatch this movie and you're like, right, they used to just do this. Like, even a guy like Ray Liotta, who is so visually distinctive, you just find a kid who looks kind of like him and we all just accept it. Like, no one complains that like, this doesn't look like a de-aged Ray Liotta.

• 58:48David Sims?

  Uh, yes, he's beautiful. Uh, he's had a couple of minor credits since, but really, this is it, you know?

• 58:57Griffin Newman?

  Um, just to circle back to the De Niro thing, though.

• 59:00David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 59:01Griffin Newman?

  It's like, I'm sure they were hesitant to offer him because they thought it might destabilize the movie, but the second you cast De Niro, the studio's gonna let you cast Ray Liotta. It's, it's the tit for tat.

• 59:11David Sims?

  Exactly.

• 59:12Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 59:12David Sims?

  And, you know, it all worked out. This is not one of the five best De Niro performances in his career, but it's also unbelievable and like iconic and you think about it every single day of your life.

• 59:24Griffin Newman?

  But this is almost the, yeah, it's the start of De Niro Elder Statesman. It's the start of a type of De Niro that you can sprinkle into a movie with some instant gravitas or weight or menace or whatever it is, but him not needing to be the guy.

• 59:39Speaker 02

  Is this when he's starting to kind of read more like an older man?

• 59:42Griffin Newman?

  Well, they age him up in this. I mean.

• 59:44David Sims?

  They do.

• 59:45Griffin Newman?

  Uh, the gray hair kind of gives you a preview of what late nineties, early two thousands De Niro is gonna be. Um, I also, here's the thing I love about this movie. It's a poster that is so satisfying and that it does the triangular, De Niro's name is highest, but Leo's name is first.

• 1:00:05David Sims?

  Yes, everyone's happy.

• 1:00:06Griffin Newman?

  And everyone's name is properly aligned with where they are on the poster. You know, this is like a big pet peeve, right?

• 1:00:12David Sims?

  It is always so annoying, right? When like Kate Winslet's name is over Leo's face at Titanic or whatever, you're like, come on.

• 1:00:18Griffin Newman?

  Right. It's just so thoughtfully designed where you're just like, it makes sense that De Niro's the most famous, but Ray Liotta is first and De Niro is up highest. But Ray Liotta is to the left.

• 1:00:29David Sims?

  I would say it's a good poster.

• 1:00:30Griffin Newman?

  It's a great poster.

• 1:00:31David Sims?

  I would say it's pretty iconic when you think about it, actually.

• 1:00:33Griffin Newman?

  It could, it could use one thing.

• 1:00:35Speaker 02

  Wait, I need to look it up. What does it look like? I've never seen it.

• 1:00:37David Sims?

  You've never seen it before, huh? You've never been in a college dorm room?

• 1:00:42David Sims?

  What, what were you gonna, what, what's it lacking?

• 1:00:43Griffin Newman?

  It could use Joe Pesci holding some dice very tightly.

• 1:00:47David Sims?

  So true.

• 1:00:47Griffin Newman?

  We'll get there.

• 1:00:47David Sims?

  Griffin, I have to say this.

• 1:00:49Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:49David Sims?

  My Halloween project this year.

• 1:00:51Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:00:52David Sims?

  Uh, you know, I always pick a horror franchise.

• 1:00:55Griffin Newman?

  Oh, I thought you meant your, well, your costume you were building. Yeah.

• 1:00:57David Sims?

  No, I'm not building a costume, although I did, my daughter's Princess Peach costume arrived.

• 1:01:01Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 1:01:02David Sims?

  And we, you know, she, we're like, let's try it on to make sure it fits you. I. She was drunk with power. It was crazy. She started saying things like, you know, like, let me find some of the quotes she was throwing at me. But, you know, uh, you have to call me your majesty.

• 1:01:21David Sims?

  I will boss you around. She started using like at once at the end of phrases, like no one told her, you know, like you have to get me this at once.

• 1:01:29Griffin Newman?

  Wow.

• 1:01:29David Sims?

  She took a bath and was like, it's the royal bath. These are the royal toys. I'm like, you're not even in the costume anymore.

• 1:01:37David Sims?

  No, my Halloween project this year, Griffin, is the Ring movies.

• 1:01:40Griffin Newman?

  Oh, sure.

• 1:01:40David Sims?

  And I don't mean the Hollywood Ring.

• 1:01:41Griffin Newman?

  You mean everything.

• 1:01:42David Sims?

  I mean, everything.

• 1:01:43Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:01:43David Sims?

  There's so many.

• 1:01:44Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:01:45David Sims?

  It's just like Halloween. There are four Ring twos.

• 1:01:47Griffin Newman?

  Alternate.

• 1:01:48David Sims?

  In Japan alone.

• 1:01:49Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:01:49David Sims?

  Before you even get to America.

• 1:01:51Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:01:52David Sims?

  But beyond that, there is also a 1995 TV movie of Ring. Ringu, you know, the, the original Japanese novel that came out before the iconic first film was TV only.

• 1:02:03Griffin Newman?

  It's like Heat.

• 1:02:04David Sims?

  It's like Heat. It is loaded with, to my total shock, tits. It's basically like a dumb, softcore horror movie.

• 1:02:12Griffin Newman?

  TV tits.

• 1:02:12David Sims?

  TV tits. I don't know the rules in Japan of boobs, but it's got them. You know, it's like, you know how like in the Ring movies, the little girl in the well is kind of like a scary ghost who kills you and is scary? Well, in the Japanese TV movie Ring, she's a sexy ghost who fucks you. I don't know why. But the other thing about it, and it really is like Heat where you watch LA take down the, you know, and you're like, huh? This is like the dialogue and plot of Heat, but it's not very good. That's weird. Ring, it's the same plot, basically, but then you watch the movie that kills you. You watch the tape. It's so unscary. It's hysterical. And at one point there is a shot of rolling dice, which to me is like the least scary thing you can imagine.

• 1:02:53Griffin Newman?

  It's exciting. And let's get Snake Eyes, ooh. I'm sending you guys.

• 1:02:59David Sims?

  Rolling dice.

• 1:03:00Griffin Newman?

  A particularly bad Blu-ray cover for Goodfellas.

• 1:03:02David Sims?

  Please.

• 1:03:03Griffin Newman?

  In a, why mess with perfection, right?

• 1:03:05David Sims?

  I feel like there's been.

• 1:03:06Griffin Newman?

  The poster is perfect.

• 1:03:07David Sims?

  I'm sorry. What's Bobby Canavale doing here? Leota looks insane on this.

• 1:03:12Griffin Newman?

  Leota looks insane. They decide that.

• 1:03:14David Sims?

  It doesn't even look like it.

• 1:03:15Griffin Newman?

  The color is yellow.

• 1:03:16David Sims?

  It is piss yellow.

• 1:03:18Griffin Newman?

  Poster is pissy yellow, like a piss Jesus. And then it's, they cut out Joe Pesci, the guy who won the Oscar for the movie.

• 1:03:25David Sims?

  Well, well known.

• 1:03:26Griffin Newman?

  His name is still above the title, but it's only De Niro and Leota. De Niro's huge.

• 1:03:31David Sims?

  Leota's behind him, you know, off to the side. There's a gun.

• 1:03:34Griffin Newman?

  A gun.

• 1:03:34David Sims?

  A gun.

• 1:03:35Griffin Newman?

  A gun.

• 1:03:36David Sims?

  Also, it, look, it has the Manhattan Bridge, which kind of just makes me think of Once Upon a Time in America. Not Goodfellas.

• 1:03:42Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:03:42David Sims?

  Although I will say the Goodfellas poster, you know, has like, you know, the three guys and then the sort of elevated train line, you know, in the body. And I'm like, that doesn't actually really happen in Goodfellas so much, but I guess there's enough of it.

• 1:03:53Griffin Newman?

  It's just Manhattan Bridge and random Chinese food restaurant.

• 1:03:57David Sims?

  I mean, hey.

• 1:03:57Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:58David Sims?

  These guys did love Chinese food, we assume.

• 1:03:59Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. I just find the gun so funny because the Goodfellas poster.

• 1:04:03David Sims?

  What do they have?

• 1:04:03Griffin Newman?

  The beautiful, the body lying in the middle of the street.

• 1:04:05David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:06Griffin Newman?

  And they're like, that's lame. What do people want? Just a gun.

• 1:04:21David Sims?

  Goodfellas. Frank DeLeo plays Cicero. I'm trying to, trying to remember which guy he is in Goodfellas. Cause he was a music industry executive. I guess he's just, he's one of the big guys who shoots Tommy at the end, you know, from Bah.

• 1:04:36Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 1:04:38David Sims?

  Yeah, he's Michael Jackson's manager.

• 1:04:40Griffin Newman?

  Ooh. Okay. Interesting. Must have met him on Bad.

• 1:04:44David Sims?

  Right. They're shooting Bad. And Marty, one day they're in like the subway station, Hoyt Skirmerhorn, where they're shooting it. And Marty is like, just looking at him with Mike Chapman, who's a cinematographer. And he's like, what? My zipper down? What's going on? Marty's like, eh, nothing. I might do this movie and I might have a part for you. You look like this guy I know. You know, like you look like this character. And three years later he calls him up and he's in Goodfellas. He's never acted before. Michael Imperioli plays Spider, says, I would not have the career I had if I hadn't done Goodfellas, even though he's in the movie for two minutes.

• 1:05:15Griffin Newman?

  I mean, same with Kevin Corrigan. Like this is a movie where, and even Samuel Jackson, like just every single part in this is kind of iconic and everyone pops.

• 1:05:24David Sims?

  Michael Ballhaus, the great cinematographer, says, Marty cast a lot of non-actors. Cause these people, strange people knew about the sense of the movie. Debbie Mazur, to make it more clean, says, a lot of the extras were gangsters?

• 1:05:37Griffin Newman?

  Uh huh.

• 1:05:39Griffin Newman?

  My favorite is Chuck Low, who plays Morris Kessler.

• 1:05:43David Sims?

  Uh huh.

• 1:05:43Griffin Newman?

  And was.

• 1:05:44David Sims?

  Incredible.

• 1:05:45Griffin Newman?

  De Niro's real estate guy. Originally, De Niro lived in an apartment in a building that he owned. And then when De Niro starts taking over Tribeca, this is the guy who like does all of that for him. And he's just perfectly like, he's in a couple of movies, a couple of De Niro movies. He's in King of Comedy very briefly, but he's really fucking good in this.

• 1:06:04David Sims?

  He's so good.

• 1:06:05Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:06David Sims?

  The scenes where he's like exploding with anger and then Leo, like there's that scene where Leo is like, fine, you want to go talk to him? And he like, kind of goes right back down to neutral. In the book, it's really clear. Like they really say like Jimmy, the gent, Jimmy fucking hated that guy so much.

• 1:06:22Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:06:22David Sims?

  Just sort of like personally, it was like, I fucking hate that guy. I hate his stupid commercials. I hate his stupid wigs. Like just hated like, really just like, could not wait to kill that guy. One of my favorite, this is Pellegrini. Warner Brothers had to put a lot of these guys, these extras on the payroll. So they'd be like, what's your security number? And the wise guys would be like, uh, uh, one, two, uh, six, uh, seven, uh, four, three, two, one. Oh, I said too many numbers. Nobody really knew where the money was.

• 1:06:48Griffin Newman?

  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, one, two.

• 1:06:52David Sims?

  Yeah, I got your social security number right here.

• 1:06:57David Sims?

  All right. Marty had gotten better on budgets since the last time he'd worked with Winkler. I don't know if you know this, but his old movies kind of went over budgets a little bit.

• 1:07:04Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 1:07:05David Sims?

  A little bit.

• 1:07:06Griffin Newman?

  Little bit.

• 1:07:07David Sims?

  Went over budget a little bit.

• 1:07:08Griffin Newman?

  Little bit.

• 1:07:09David Sims?

  Marty, you know, was very detail oriented. Yeah. Who cares?

• 1:07:15Griffin Newman?

  Who cares about the way he makes his movies?

• 1:07:16David Sims?

  It's, it's, it's all storyboarded, but Marty wants a very fluid style, which he achieves, I would say.

• 1:07:21Griffin Newman?

  Did you see that on the special features, Ben?

• 1:07:23David Sims?

  Yep.

• 1:07:23Griffin Newman?

  Very good.

• 1:07:25Speaker 02

  Also, he was very specific about all of the needle drops, the music, as always.

• 1:07:30David Sims?

  The costumes, everyone's ties have to be tied perfectly that.

• 1:07:34Speaker 02

  My wife, who works in the watch industry, she just kept pointing out all of the watches. They have incredible watches in this film.

• 1:07:40David Sims?

  Do you think they paid for those watches? The, the characters, the mobsters?

• 1:07:43Speaker 02

  Maybe a full of the truck, who knows?

• 1:07:45David Sims?

  No, I think, you don't think they went to say like the diamond district and paid full price, full ride for those items?

• 1:07:50Griffin Newman?

  They were happy to be waitlisted. They waited patiently.

• 1:07:54Speaker 02

  They did not haggle.

• 1:07:56David Sims?

  No, they didn't haggle at all. There was no favor trading that we know, right? No one owed each other favors.

• 1:08:02Griffin Newman?

  And zero intimidation.

• 1:08:06David Sims?

  Michael Ballhaus says, very tough movie. Marty knows so much about the subject. He wants everything to be absolutely correct. The results are great. It all looks real. It's very different from anything I've ever done. A lot of wide angles, extreme high angles, long lenses. Light is not soft, not bounced, very harsh and direct. A lot of darkness in it, very rich colors, rich reds, rich blacks. They've got a couple of freeze frames. Marty kind of the master of the freeze frame, would you say?

• 1:08:33Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:33David Sims?

  Which is very French New Wave inspired.

• 1:08:37David Sims?

  Score says, he says, it's basically all true faux. You know, all those like techniques from the early sixties are really like in my mind. The, uh, the long shot at the Copa, where they go through the back entrance. Part of it is practical, like they can't get permission to go the short way. So they have to go around the back. But then Marty's like, this'll be fun. Like this is great. We'll do one shot, right? Like there's a reason to do it in one shot. Henry's whole life is ahead of him. He's taking over the world. Like this is his reward. He doesn't have to wait in line. Like, so it's seduction, right? Like the big sweeping shot.

• 1:09:12Griffin Newman?

  It's also a perfect magic trick because if you watch this shot and study it closely, they go in a complete circle. There's a hallway.

• 1:09:19David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:09:20Griffin Newman?

  Then they enter into the kitchen.

• 1:09:21David Sims?

  Go all the way through the kitchen.

• 1:09:22Griffin Newman?

  One loop of the kitchen. They go back to the hallway that they were in and then go through a different door.

• 1:09:27Speaker 02

  I've never noticed that.

• 1:09:28Griffin Newman?

  The entire kitchen is irrelevant, but it's, it's so well blocked that it feels like.

• 1:09:33David Sims?

  It feels fluid.

• 1:09:34Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:09:34David Sims?

  Right. Marty, Ilana Douglas also says, Brian De Palma had just done a really long study camp shop in The Untouchables and Marty's is one minute longer. And she thinks it was, there was some dick measuring going on. Yes. They only did seven takes, which is pretty impressive for that.

• 1:09:51David Sims?

  Delma Schoolmaker's husband, Michael Powell, Marty's mentor, uh, dies of cancer at the age of 84 during the editing of Goodfellas. So this is kind of like, whatever, you know? A big moment for the two of them. She was flying back to England with him. Marty arranges for all of that, like private planes, private cars and all that to make that all happen. When he dies, Marty shuts down editing for two months. Like when he died, when he's near, you know, near the end of his life. She says, the work saved me like after he was gone and all that. So very pivotal to their relationship, I feel.

• 1:10:30David Sims?

  First, of course, as he filmed, have studio mandated preview screenings? That's crazy. It led them to tighten the last two reels a little bit. A lot of the preview audiences were agitated by the last day sequence. Why? It's so relaxing.

• 1:10:44Griffin Newman?

  Good day.

• 1:10:44David Sims?

  Tranquil.

• 1:10:45Griffin Newman?

  This is, this is what Ice Cube was rapping about, right? Good day.

• 1:10:50David Sims?

  Yeah, that's what he's talking about. He had a really nice day when he watched a test screening of Goodfellas in California. The previews were scary, according to Dafina. Who's Dafina? I don't know.

• 1:11:01Griffin Newman?

  Dafina, Barbara Dafina?

• 1:11:02David Sims?

  Yeah, that's right. Yeah, there you go. Cause people would get mad when Spider got killed. That's where like they're, you're starting to lose the audience where it's like, why am I with these people? They're awful, right? We wound up hiding in a bowling alley because one audience was angry. One guy wrote, fuck you on the comment.

• 1:11:21David Sims?

  So let's discuss Goodfellas. Five stars.

• 1:11:27Griffin Newman?

  Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.

• 1:11:29David Sims?

  An hour nine minutes. Pretty long app.

• 1:11:31Griffin Newman?

  Pretty long app.

• 1:11:32Speaker 02

  How do we feel about the decision to the start kind of in the middle?

• 1:11:39David Sims?

  I think it is.

• 1:11:41Speaker 02

  Is it like that in the book?

• 1:11:42David Sims?

  A good choice. I don't think so. Fuck. Well, let me call up the book. Let me see if I remember.

• 1:11:48Griffin Newman?

  Barbara DeFina, we should call up, was a producer on this movie, produces Scorsese's movies for decades, was married to him. Is another example. I feel like we've covered a few of these.

• 1:11:57David Sims?

  Fucking married to everybody.

• 1:11:58Griffin Newman?

  He's been married to everybody.

• 1:11:59Speaker 02

  The thing I just discovered, he was married to Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist's Way.

• 1:12:05Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:12:06Speaker 02

  And they have a daughter together.

• 1:12:07Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 1:12:08Speaker 02

  Wild.

• 1:12:09Griffin Newman?

  Barbara DeFina, it's like a Deborah Hill situation. We love the examples of divorced couples still making movies together.

• 1:12:18David Sims?

  They actually get along better.

• 1:12:19Griffin Newman?

  Gail Anne Hurd and James Cameron.

• 1:12:21David Sims?

  I mean, that's, James Cameron, you basically can't be friends with him until you've divorced him, right?

• 1:12:27Griffin Newman?

  That's when things get good.

• 1:12:28David Sims?

  That's when you're like, you know what? You're not so bad. Here, I'm calling out the books. I'm actually trying to remember if it has that. I think it's vital that you sort of know, if for one, it would be a little boring if it was just like, here I am, a young man, and what I want to be is a gangster. The, no, the book start, the prologue, right? Actually of the book is like, he's going into witness protection. You need to, you know, like, which makes sense to, like, you know, so Henry Hill has decided to not exist anymore. This makes more sense just in terms of like, the casualness of it. But I think it's all, it's just the crux point in his life. This is when things started to go bad, right?

• 1:13:07David Sims?

  Is the Billy Batts thing. And as he, they've just done, they have to re stab someone who's already in their trunk, already they think dead.

• 1:13:16Speaker 02

  It's, it's, especially as a slight guy. So there's maybe a proportion thing going on, but the knife just looks so huge.

• 1:13:24Griffin Newman?

  It looks like a cartoon knife. It's an interesting, scratchy knife.

• 1:13:26Speaker 02

  It's truly, yes.

• 1:13:28Griffin Newman?

  Yes. That's, that's what it looks like. It looks like Scratchy holding up a human sized weapon, just a little mouse.

• 1:13:34David Sims?

  And so you've got Henry Hill, obviously, like all of those scenes litter lit by the car lights where it's all red and it's like, we're in hell. Like, you know, just slamming the car shop. He's like, well, but I've always wanted to do this, right? Like I've, this is what I've dreamed of my whole life to be a gangster. He's a gangster.

• 1:13:49Griffin Newman?

  When I did a animation program at NYU, a summer program, when I was considering becoming an animator, the teacher showed us the opening scene from Goodfellas to try to teach us about blocking and composition. And this was a period of time in my life where I was really resistant to, I felt like over analyzing movies. Versus now.

• 1:14:12David Sims?

  I like it or I don't like it.

• 1:14:13Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:14:15Griffin Newman?

  But I remember him just saying like, look at how much information you're already getting from the positioning of the three of them in the car and their body languages.

• 1:14:24David Sims?

  So you've got like, De Niro's asleep.

• 1:14:26Griffin Newman?

  De Niro's asleep, yes.

• 1:14:28David Sims?

  You know, Leota's driving, Pesci's in the back.

• 1:14:31Griffin Newman?

  But looking antsy.

• 1:14:32David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:32Griffin Newman?

  Yes. And you're hearing the sound in the back. And like, as I've gotten older and rewatched this movie over and over again, I do just look at this and, and think back to that class. And as the reminder of just like, what he was actually trying to convey to us is, everything is an opportunity to convey information. If you're making a movie properly, every single choice doesn't need to be loaded with like metaphor, but it is an opportunity to say something. And right off the bat, you're introducing these three guys, a banality of a drive, then you're hearing the sound in the trunk. Then you're realizing there's a guy they need to bury, right?

• 1:15:10David Sims?

  And that he's still alive.

• 1:15:11Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:15:11David Sims?

  And he's going to require re-murdering.

• 1:15:12Griffin Newman?

  But it's also because then when we jump back ahead or jump back to the beginning of Henry Hill's childhood, we know we're hitting this inevitable point of when things get bad. As you said, it casts a shadow over the everything's good, good times, first hour and change of the movie.

• 1:15:31David Sims?

  Obviously, the movie is so seductive successfully, despite you knowing, you, you know, things are going to get sort of unbearable. But yeah, right. You need a little, little salty with the, with the sweet.

• 1:15:45Griffin Newman?

  If you didn't have the ominous opening, 40 minutes into the movie, everyone would be leaving the theater to go sign up to become a gangster.

• 1:15:54David Sims?

  Where's the nearest cab stand?

• 1:15:57Griffin Newman?

  Where's the recruitment station?

• 1:16:00David Sims?

  Like my friend just created, like the first hour of this movie is you're just eating cake and then like tummy ache. It's just in the last hour plus, you're just like, oh.

• 1:16:08Griffin Newman?

  He gets himself into a real wicked for good situation.

• 1:16:10David Sims?

  Too much steak cake.

• 1:16:12Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:13David Sims?

  He's always wanted to be a gangster. He's a little boy and it's just the thing Marty said of just like, one minute long scenes, just like little scene after little, little memory after little memory. It's great.

• 1:16:23Speaker 02

  He always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster is better than being the president of the United States. Being the president of the United States sucks. Seems like a tough job.

• 1:16:32Griffin Newman?

  Then you could argue there's a gangster in the White House right now.

• 1:16:35David Sims?

  Oh.

• 1:16:36Griffin Newman?

  You could argue that one man has found a way to combine the two positions.

• 1:16:40David Sims?

  President, remind me, I don't know.

• 1:16:41Griffin Newman?

  Unfortunately, unfortunately, it is not Red Hulk. It is a certain man.

• 1:16:46David Sims?

  Yet.

• 1:16:46Griffin Newman?

  We wish.

• 1:16:48David Sims?

  We wish it was Red Hulk.

• 1:16:49Griffin Newman?

  We'll get there someday. Unfortunately, is a certain man named Donald J. Trump, who has made himself enemies with Robert De Niro, star of Goodfellas.

• 1:16:59David Sims?

  Henry Hill, my favorite thing, and this is right out of the book, is, is when the, the, the truant officer, you know, they start getting the truancy letters in the mail. So their solution is, great, we threaten the mailman.

• 1:17:10Griffin Newman?

  The mailman.

• 1:17:11Speaker 02

  That's problem solving, baby.

• 1:17:13Griffin Newman?

  And the new problem created, no mail.

• 1:17:16David Sims?

  Mailman's like, oh, fine. They don't want truancy letters. They don't get any fucking letters.

• 1:17:20Griffin Newman?

  You're not getting your fucking CS catalog.

• 1:17:24David Sims?

  Not only will they threaten him, they'll be like, here's what we're going to do. See this pizza oven? You will be a pizza. If you send the most Italian threat.

• 1:17:32Griffin Newman?

  They try to pizza face this guy for real.

• 1:17:35Speaker 02

  Tony Sirico, Paulie Walnuts.

• 1:17:37David Sims?

  Yeah. You see him briefly.

• 1:17:38Speaker 02

  He grabs the postman, throws him in the car.

• 1:17:41David Sims?

  Yep.

• 1:17:42Speaker 02

  Love that guy.

• 1:17:43David Sims?

  Yeah. I mean, the thing about him that's so interesting is, you know, he, well, he had no connection to the mob at all.

• 1:17:48Griffin Newman?

  No, he's just acting.

• 1:17:50Griffin Newman?

  He's a classically trained.

• 1:17:52Speaker 02

  He's such a natural.

• 1:17:53David Sims?

  They talk about it all the time with like those Sopranos pods where they're just like, you know, Tony and Paulie, like the line between them vanishingly thin.

• 1:18:02Griffin Newman?

  Someone, someone shared, I can't remember which of our group texts it was, but that clip of James Gray talking about his bachelor party.

• 1:18:10David Sims?

  Yes. Where, um, uh, who was it?

• 1:18:12Griffin Newman?

  It was James Khan and.

• 1:18:13David Sims?

  A bunch of scary guys.

• 1:18:14Griffin Newman?

  It was both of them.

• 1:18:15David Sims?

  Right. And he does a very good duv.

• 1:18:17Griffin Newman?

  And he was like, yeah.

• 1:18:20Griffin Newman?

  But he said.

• 1:18:21David Sims?

  That guy's going to kill you.

• 1:18:23Griffin Newman?

  When they were making The Godfather, that Coppola was like, you should spend some time with some real mobsters. And Pacino like dipped his toe in and was like, I'm good. I can try acting. And the other two guys got way too close. And, uh, James Gray had worked with both Duvall and Khan at that point. And he invites them to their bachelor party and they each show up with like three real life mobster assassins, who brought up like a $70,000 bill. And they kept being like, isn't this funny? He killed people.

• 1:18:51David Sims?

  It's great. You should watch the clip.

• 1:18:53Griffin Newman?

  It's, the voices are incredible. Yeah.

• 1:18:55David Sims?

  Do you think Paul Vario, he sits there, right? He won't answer the phone. And I feel like every conversation he has about business is like this. Griffin, say like, how you doing? Yeah. You know that guy we were talking about who lives in Brooklyn? No, the other guy, you know, the guy who lives.

• 1:19:12Speaker 02

  The thing.

• 1:19:12David Sims?

  The guy who lives up, uh, you know, uptown, you know, the guy, you know what I'm talking about?

• 1:19:16Griffin Newman?

  Oh, sure. The uptown guy.

• 1:19:16David Sims?

  Can you take care of that for me? It's like, how often did something wrong happen? Like his instructions are so meaningless. You know that guy who likes sandwiches? You know, can you go talk to him? And you know what I mean, right?

• 1:19:29Griffin Newman?

  You know what I'm talking about? The guy, uh, the fakasha.

• 1:19:33David Sims?

  All he does is sit there with like his napkin tucked into his collar, like having lunch all day, I feel like. And guys just sort of come up to him and they're like, hey, I need your help with that thing. And he's like, yeah, that's sure. Jimmy will take care of it. Go talk to him.

• 1:19:46David Sims?

  The violence feels kind of cute and cartoony in a way, right? Like the, like the threatening the mailman when he blows up the car. And it's so like cinematic and you have the freeze frame of the explosion. It's so like cool, right? Like there's nothing nasty. Like, I mean, obviously it's very, you know what I mean? Like.

• 1:20:05Griffin Newman?

  But versus like Casino, which people critique for being too similar to this movie is so much more operatic.

• 1:20:11David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:12Griffin Newman?

  And this is just like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, flash.

• 1:20:16David Sims?

  Yes. Then there's like little stuff coming in, like the guy who shot, who comes up on the, the pizza restaurant stoop. And the guy won't let him in. Who's the guy? Who's the pizza guy? That guy's the rock.

• 1:20:26Griffin Newman?

  Pizza guy?

• 1:20:27David Sims?

  You know, the guy who's sort of like his first boss, kind of that actor.

• 1:20:32Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:20:33David Sims?

  I forget who it is.

• 1:20:33Speaker 02

  It's, it's Paulie's brother, right?

• 1:20:37David Sims?

  Yeah. I guess that makes sense that it's like another, another Cicero. I don't know. Um, but he's great. But where he's like, this kid wasted seven aprons on this guy. You know?

• 1:20:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, I like aprons as a, a unit of measurement.

• 1:20:53David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:20:53Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:54David Sims?

  Um, but, uh, you know, uh, yeah, first sign of like a little bit of nastiness, right? You know, obviously Hank's, Henry's parents, his dad does not approve. Uh, and then De Niro comes in, orders a seven and seven, very cool kind of mobster order. Uh, I know that's your favorite drink.

• 1:21:14Griffin Newman?

  Uh, is that someone?

• 1:21:15David Sims?

  You love ginger ale.

• 1:21:16Griffin Newman?

  I love ginger ale. Someone who was, someone was, oh, oh.

• 1:21:19David Sims?

  Just talking about this with fantasy.

• 1:21:21Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:21:21Speaker 02

  Uh, the brother's name, Vito Tuddy Cicero.

• 1:21:25David Sims?

  Oh, yeah. He just slips the, uh, you know, the, the 20 into his top pocket and you're just like, this is the coolest guy in the world.

• 1:21:33Griffin Newman?

  Uh, but what's appealing is you said, you know, how much of it is hanging out, but also how casual it is. That's just, let me, let me just give you a little.

• 1:21:42David Sims?

  You know, the Will Senate tweet about, um, Mad Men?

• 1:21:45Griffin Newman?

  No, I don't think so. Okay.

• 1:21:47David Sims?

  Just gonna read it verbatim.

• 1:21:48Griffin Newman?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:21:49David Sims?

  Recently we watched Mad Men and this time around, it struck me that Don is not the hero. Brackets girlfriend leaves room. If Don Draper was a fire truck, he would be the biggest one in the world. Like, that's how I feel about pretty all the characters. I'm like, no, no, he's a very flawed character. He's the coolest guy.

• 1:22:02Griffin Newman?

  He's the coolest guy.

• 1:22:03David Sims?

  Oh, my God. Do you see how he puts the money in that guy's pocket?

• 1:22:05Griffin Newman?

  Yes. This is the thing though. I mean, you, you going back to your dad's point of like, mob movies had been romantic up until this point.

• 1:22:13David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:22:13Griffin Newman?

  And Goodfellas was the one that was trying to show like how nasty shit is.

• 1:22:16David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:22:16Griffin Newman?

  And you watch this movie and you're like, these are the classiest guys I've ever seen in my life.

• 1:22:21David Sims?

  This face, you know, you might know who you we are. We know who you are. When De Niro is holding up like the little ticket from his wallet. Um, yeah, I mean, obviously, again, the last half of this movie is there for you to, to convince you that in fact, a life of crime is not all.

• 1:22:37Griffin Newman?

  Might not pay.

• 1:22:38David Sims?

  Sunshine and rainbows. Right. Uh, but you need the seduction. You have to get why people would do this.

• 1:22:43Speaker 02

  If I was 13 and I could explode cars and make bad money, I would be enticed a little bit.

• 1:22:50David Sims?

  Do you think Ben, it would work out for you? This is my question.

• 1:22:54Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:22:55Griffin Newman?

  I want the listener to know that Ben was reading that off of the smallest notebook I've ever seen. Ben has taken out the tiniest like college rule journal.

• 1:23:05David Sims?

  It is, uh, in your tiny little notebook. It's very, very, I agree with you. I, I think it would be really great.

• 1:23:11Griffin Newman?

  Ben, I, I hope I'm not blowing up someone's spot here. I'll keep this as vague as possible. I was talking to a professional screenwriter who listens to the podcast and he was telling me about his new project he's working on. And he was like, it's basically inspired by Ben's, if I did this, everything would work out for me.

• 1:23:28Speaker 02

  Oh, my God, that's, I'm hugely honored.

• 1:23:30Griffin Newman?

  Where he was like, I tried that as a writing exercise.

• 1:23:33David Sims?

  Right. Is that actually dramatically interesting?

• 1:23:35Griffin Newman?

  What if the starting point of this is a bad thing, you shouldn't do it, actually turned out to work out great for everybody? And what does that do to their psyches?

• 1:23:44Speaker 02

  Well, I fully cosigned.

• 1:23:45Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:46David Sims?

  Um,

• 1:23:48David Sims?

  what I love about Jimmy, when he sets him up, he's like, look, yeah, look, sure. Jimmy would kill someone if needed. What he loves to do is steal shit. But this, stealing shit is just, that's, that's, that's his joie de vivre. That's the spice of life.

• 1:24:00Griffin Newman?

  That's what he's in it for.

• 1:24:01David Sims?

  He loves to steal anything that's not bolted down.

• 1:24:05Griffin Newman?

  Do you know what I love about Jimmy?

• 1:24:06David Sims?

  What?

• 1:24:06Griffin Newman?

  His slutty little glasses.

• 1:24:08David Sims?

  Well, he only gets them later.

• 1:24:10Griffin Newman?

  I know, but that's my favorite. When he goes gray, he wears those slutty little glasses.

• 1:24:13David Sims?

  But they're not that little. They like really make his eyes look so large, right?

• 1:24:17Griffin Newman?

  Like, that's the thing about slutty little glasses is they have to be kind of big.

• 1:24:21David Sims?

  But like him putting on those glasses late, it is one of those things where you're like, Jimmy's not the same anymore.

• 1:24:27Griffin Newman?

  No, no, no.

• 1:24:28David Sims?

  Trust him anymore.

• 1:24:29Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Just go around the corner.

• 1:24:32David Sims?

  You just, you just. I'm doing him.

• 1:24:36Griffin Newman?

  It's, it's the Scorsese magic of like, not just repetition, but something going on longer than it should.

• 1:24:42David Sims?

  On Good One, Puller asks him like, is, is he gonna kill her? And he's like, you know, I think it's supposed to be ambiguous, but I think I played it like, yes.

• 1:24:53Griffin Newman?

  And he really wants her to go in there.

• 1:24:54David Sims?

  He don't, well, he wants her to get a free jacket and I have no idea what you're talking about.

• 1:24:58Griffin Newman?

  She's a brush. She's just in a rush.

• 1:25:00David Sims?

  What's the emotional peak of baby? I think it's when he gets pinched and then everyone's like, hey, you popped your cherry. And they all give him the hugs, right?

• 1:25:08Griffin Newman?

  Yes. I was just gonna say, uh, it's your, to your dad's point, it's wild that, and obviously this movie is set earlier, but Sopranos is only nine years after this comes out.

• 1:25:19David Sims?

  And shares cast members in a general kind of vibe, I would say.

• 1:25:22Griffin Newman?

  And Sopranos is like, the thesis is, don't you feel like the best things, best times happened before we got in? That this is now like so lame and sleazy and gauche.

• 1:25:34David Sims?

  Right. Because in this movie at least still like everyone's dressed to the nines and has the kind of like classic look to them. It's not late. I mean, later things start to get tacky. Again, very vital to the vibe shift of this movie. The suits start to go away. The polyester starts to come in and all that.

• 1:25:49Griffin Newman?

  When you get to Sopranos, it's either like an 11 on the tackiness scale or everyone's a thug.

• 1:25:54David Sims?

  Right, right, right, right, right. Um, and like, you know, this is about a guy, these are, this is a movie about guys who live in Brooklyn. By Sopranos, it's like they've all relocated to the suburbs, like their involvement is not as, you know, sort of street level anymore.

• 1:26:08Griffin Newman?

  It's a movie about us.

• 1:26:10David Sims?

  Well, cause we live in the suburbs. Oh, cause we live in Brooklyn.

• 1:26:12Griffin Newman?

  Three boys who live in Brooklyn. Yeah.

• 1:26:14David Sims?

  So true.

• 1:26:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:15David Sims?

  Um,

• 1:26:16Speaker 02

  Okay, the two rules that are stated.

• 1:26:17David Sims?

  Then we have Bamboo Lounge.

• 1:26:19Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, Bamboo Lounge.

• 1:26:20Speaker 02

  Never rat on your friends, number two, and always keep your mouth shut. And he breaks these rules.

• 1:26:25David Sims?

  I would say there's some overlap to those rules. Would you agree?

• 1:26:29Griffin Newman?

  It's kind of, don't, don't talk.

• 1:26:32David Sims?

  Um, no, but I mean, like, that's the thing. We're, we're talking to someone who basically, I guess we don't know in the movie right away in the same way. In the book you do, it's like, right. So by the way, this guy is gonna give everyone, he's gonna turn on everyone.

• 1:26:44Griffin Newman?

  But there's a, there's a hint of that in the fact that he's telling this story to us. You're like, this guy's fucking blabbing and he's too excited to share these stories.

• 1:26:52Speaker 02

  Oh, sure.

• 1:26:53Griffin Newman?

  You know?

• 1:26:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:26:54Griffin Newman?

  And are we implicit?

• 1:26:56David Sims?

  Frankie the WAP, I believe.

• 1:26:59Griffin Newman?

  Watch your mouth.

• 1:26:59David Sims?

  Sorry. Uh, is played, yeah, is played by Tony Lipp, AKA Frank Vallalonga Senior, who is of course the father of Nick Vallalonga.

• 1:27:09Griffin Newman?

  Academy Award winner. Yes.

• 1:27:11David Sims?

  Uh, but who also plays, um, Carmine Lupatazzi in The Sopranos.

• 1:27:15Griffin Newman?

  Director of That's Amore, coming to theaters right after Horizon Part Two.

• 1:27:21David Sims?

  Now, what was the movie that Kevin James was in?

• 1:27:23Griffin Newman?

  Solo mio.

• 1:27:23David Sims?

  And how was that one?

• 1:27:24Griffin Newman?

  I haven't seen it yet.

• 1:27:25David Sims?

  Yet.

• 1:27:26Griffin Newman?

  Yet. That's coming for me on a plane, right?

• 1:27:29David Sims?

  Uh, Freddie Nono's indeed, doesn't feel like he actually has a bit of a schnoz. Pete the Killer, who is Sally Balls' brother. And then he just goes, I took care of that thing for you.

• 1:27:42David Sims?

  When you call Pete the Killer, do you think it's like to pick up your dry cleaning? Like, you know, hey, Pete the Killer, can you do me a favor?

• 1:27:50David Sims?

  Uh, guy, anything else you guys want to say about, uh, the Bamboo Lounge?

• 1:27:54Speaker 02

  I had to look up Idlewild. Did not realize that it was, that was the original name for it.

• 1:28:00David Sims?

  Yeah. Uh, we need renamed it JFK when he, uh, was assassinated. Yeah. Isn't that interesting? I think it should go back to Idlewild just because it's a cool name.

• 1:28:09Griffin Newman?

  Wait, how did they know he was gonna be assassinated?

• 1:28:11David Sims?

  Wait a second.

• 1:28:12Griffin Newman?

  Wait a second.

• 1:28:12David Sims?

  At the top.

• 1:28:13Griffin Newman?

  No, that, let's, I mean, let's talk about the funny how scene for a second.

• 1:28:17David Sims?

  Yeah. Cause right. Cause like, right. We have the bamboo lounge. We have, uh, the fur coats being brought back. Like, what the fuck? It's this summer. What are we gonna do with the fur coats? So fine, I'll take them. No, no, no. Let's put them in the freezer with the meat.

• 1:28:29David Sims?

  And then it's right to funny how I think, cause it's, yeah, it's right to, no, for, yeah, it's him. He talks just like, you know, you see Leota talking to someone at the bar or whatever, but then it's right to funny how.

• 1:28:41Speaker 02

  Oh, he talks to, uh, the airport guy. Cause they're setting up that.

• 1:28:44David Sims?

  The air friend heist tip.

• 1:28:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:28:46David Sims?

  But, and I think funny how starts with Tommy telling the story of, uh, him telling the cops, like, go fuck your mother. Right. When he was being a, bing, pow, right. Like first he does tell a funny story. Isn't that funny?

• 1:28:59Speaker 02

  He's also saying that he's like laying in like a swamp area.

• 1:29:04David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:04Speaker 02

  And the cop comes up and he's like, I'm resting.

• 1:29:07David Sims?

  That's pretty funny.

• 1:29:08Speaker 02

  It's so funny.

• 1:29:09Griffin Newman?

  This guy likes entertaining.

• 1:29:10David Sims?

  This big prick again.

• 1:29:11Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:12David Sims?

  He says, what do you want to tell me now, tough guy? I said, what are you doing here? You go fuck your mother? It's pretty good.

• 1:29:18Griffin Newman?

  Because I feel like the trademark of this type of Scorsese movie, and this movie in particular, is the conversation, the circular dialogue going on longer than you think possible, just like stretching the rubber band. You remember the funny how being much more drawn out than it is.

• 1:29:36David Sims?

  Yes. And being like unbearably tense.

• 1:29:38Griffin Newman?

  Right. But it's pretty quick.

• 1:29:40David Sims?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:29:41Griffin Newman?

  And then it's more that he doesn't let go of the tension afterwards.

• 1:29:44Speaker 02

  They shout this out in the behind the scenes, the framing to not do a close up, like this medium shot with like the guys kind of cropped out. You feel like you're in the group watching along.

• 1:29:56David Sims?

  It's very intimate. Like you're at the table.

• 1:29:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:29:59David Sims?

  Yeah, that makes sense.

• 1:29:59Griffin Newman?

  There's another thing which I think they're cross shooting it, which is when you have two cameras going at the same time.

• 1:30:06David Sims?

  Right. Yeah.

• 1:30:06Griffin Newman?

  Which DPs hate because it fucks with lighting.

• 1:30:09David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:30:09Griffin Newman?

  It's hard to light two shots well at the same time, but it feels like it's such overlapping dialogue. And it's so much about the tension between the two of them. And this is another thing that makes people erroneously report the whole scene was improvised. Is just that like, you need the take where the two of them, you need to be editing from the same take.

• 1:30:28David Sims?

  Um, I agree. Do you think their collars are a bit much?

• 1:30:32Griffin Newman?

  Uh, were they the arrow collars?

• 1:30:34David Sims?

  A little skinny.

• 1:30:35Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:30:35David Sims?

  Like this thing.

• 1:30:36Griffin Newman?

  They look like vampire things.

• 1:30:38Speaker 02

  It's so weird. It really is.

• 1:30:40Griffin Newman?

  It's a weird ass look.

• 1:30:42Speaker 02

  I, I feel like I've only ever seen it in this movie.

• 1:30:45Griffin Newman?

  It's weird that it, it like.

• 1:30:46David Sims?

  Seen some of the other mob movies, the no neck thing. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

• 1:30:50Griffin Newman?

  It's so stiff. It's also weird that it basically hides the knot of the tie.

• 1:30:54David Sims?

  It completely hides it. Yeah. You don't really see it.

• 1:30:57Griffin Newman?

  It's just like a thin line.

• 1:30:58Speaker 02

  You're totally right though. It looked, it's very Count Dracula.

• 1:31:01Griffin Newman?

  Yes. Um, which we'll be talking about over on Patreon.

• 1:31:05David Sims?

  Ray Liotta, a good actor in general, quite good in the film Goodfellas. Uh, rudely summed it up an Oscar, by the way, or a nomination at the very least.

• 1:31:15David Sims?

  The best on screen fake laugher. It like his fake laugh in this movie. And like everyone's laughs in this movie are fake, which I love. Like that they clearly have those practiced laughs that you, they know, you, you know, you have to do. Where you're just like, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. Like you just kind of like open your mouth and make noise.

• 1:31:32Speaker 02

  But he feels like he has such deep affection for Pesci's.

• 1:31:36David Sims?

  Yeah, a pisser.

• 1:31:37Speaker 02

  You can really like see it in this scene especially.

• 1:31:41Griffin Newman?

  It's also that thing where you're like a little starstruck. So you're laughing too hard. Like he still kind of can't believe he's at the table with this guy.

• 1:31:48David Sims?

  It's a good story. You're a funny guy.

• 1:31:50Griffin Newman?

  He's a funny guy. Well, funny how.

• 1:31:52David Sims?

  It's just, you know, you're just funny. It's funny. The way you tell the story. By the way, Henry doing an admirable job trying to explain what being funny is.

• 1:32:01Griffin Newman?

  He nailed.

• 1:32:02David Sims?

  He really does. Like it's no, it's in the way that you tell the story. Like he really.

• 1:32:07Griffin Newman?

  It's in the way that you use it.

• 1:32:09David Sims?

  Yeah, maybe he should have been like, didn't you see color money?

• 1:32:11Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:11David Sims?

  It's in the way that you use it.

• 1:32:13Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:32:14Speaker 02

  Funny like a clown.

• 1:32:15Griffin Newman?

  Funny like a clown.

• 1:32:16David Sims?

  Maybe it's me, I'm all fucked up, you know, God, I could, I'm funny like a clown, I amuse you.

• 1:32:20Griffin Newman?

  He picks the perfect moment to puncture, right?

• 1:32:24David Sims?

  It, but it's like.

• 1:32:25Griffin Newman?

  He judges it so accurately. It's a big risk.

• 1:32:28David Sims?

  It's a huge risk to do it.

• 1:32:30Griffin Newman?

  But he nails it.

• 1:32:31Speaker 02

  Is Joe Pesci one of the scariest guys with a slight stature of all time?

• 1:32:36Griffin Newman?

  Well, yeah, him, me.

• 1:32:40Griffin Newman?

  If we're talking.

• 1:32:41David Sims?

  Wallace Shawn.

• 1:32:41Griffin Newman?

  Scary short kings. Yeah. Joey, Griffin and Wally.

• 1:32:46David Sims?

  Pesci is terrifying.

• 1:32:47Griffin Newman?

  No, Pesci, Pesci's the.

• 1:32:49David Sims?

  Is DeVito ever scary? Like, did Danny DeVito ever play like a kind of a threatening guy?

• 1:32:54Griffin Newman?

  The Penguin.

• 1:32:55David Sims?

  That's true.

• 1:32:56Griffin Newman?

  He's terrifying in that movie.

• 1:32:58David Sims?

  He's terrifying in a different way.

• 1:33:00Griffin Newman?

  He's monstrous.

• 1:33:01David Sims?

  I'm not really afraid of him in this way where I'm like personally afraid of him. I'm afraid of him because he's scary looking and he's scary behaving.

• 1:33:08Griffin Newman?

  He's also the mayor. He's cloaked in immense power.

• 1:33:11David Sims?

  That is so true. Mayor of Gotham, of course, a really well, well-run city. You know, in heist.

• 1:33:15Griffin Newman?

  I guess he doesn't get elected. He gets close.

• 1:33:17David Sims?

  He runs.

• 1:33:17Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, he runs.

• 1:33:18David Sims?

  He's in the mix.

• 1:33:20Griffin Newman?

  Heist.

• 1:33:21David Sims?

  In heist, he's the mob boss and he's great, but he's not really scary. Like he's more doing like funny motor mouth kinda.

• 1:33:30Griffin Newman?

  No, DeVito can't be scary the way that Pesci can.

• 1:33:33David Sims?

  You motherfucker, I almost had him. I almost, it's just the, the way he's like, ah.

• 1:33:37Griffin Newman?

  There's something about Pesci that's just really hard to like.

• 1:33:40David Sims?

  You stuttering prick, you. Like, do it all day.

• 1:33:44Griffin Newman?

  To pin down.

• 1:33:45Speaker 02

  It's like, not only will he beat you up, but he will mercilessly make fun of you.

• 1:33:49Griffin Newman?

  Yes, and he seems to be getting enjoyment from it. Yes.

• 1:33:52David Sims?

  And right after that is when the guy, another actor who's in The Sopranos, whose name I forget, comes over being like, hey, you have a seven grand bill. Which I gotta say, that guy is fucking up.

• 1:34:04Griffin Newman?

  It's like, that's where the scene really starts exploding is in like, he takes out the residual energy from the funny how on everyone else around him. And then he yells at the random waiter.

• 1:34:14David Sims?

  Well, he's, it's like, he's already told the waiter, put it on, it said, this is the owner coming, or whatever, the manager's, you know, coming over being like, I don't mean to be out of order, but it's seven grand, you know, it's a lot of money. And like, yeah, you're right. Like now the tension's off Leota, but he's watching in horror. Cause he's like, this guy almost attacked me. And now he's like, right. And then he hits him with the glass and.

• 1:34:38Griffin Newman?

  Leota nailed the dismount, but the, the energy still has to go somewhere.

• 1:34:42David Sims?

  And obviously Leota's reaction to Pesci brutally assaulting him is.

• 1:34:48Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. It's a funny bit.

• 1:34:51David Sims?

  And yet you're watching this and you're like, you know what I should be? A mobster.

• 1:34:57David Sims?

  And then this guy goes right to Palvario and Palvario's like, I've got a, he's Paul Sisera in the movie. I've got a great idea. I guess I'll run your business. And then like next scene is like, and then he was out of money. It's just great. Don't you think?

• 1:35:11Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, yeah. Uh, which they knew would happen.

• 1:35:15David Sims?

  Yeah, they bust you out. They just, they're like, oh, your restaurant has like credit? Great. We'll order one billion bottles of liquor.

• 1:35:21Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:21David Sims?

  And then it'll be for us, not for the restaurant.

• 1:35:23Griffin Newman?

  And then we'll burn it down for insurance.

• 1:35:24David Sims?

  Yeah. And then we'll, the last thing we do is we burn it down for the fucking insurance money. And that's that.

• 1:35:28Speaker 02

  He at one point, when he's having that meeting with Paul, he's like, maybe you should kill Tommy. And there's just like this beat and he's like, I'm sorry I said that.

• 1:35:36David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:36Speaker 02

  That was, that was out of line.

• 1:35:40David Sims?

  Uh, and then we move on to the girls, right? Like how he meets Karen. I love that Karen wins him over by yelling at him. I mean, it feels like in this world, this was a very, very important thing. Like they end up marrying these, these, these ladies who've got a lot of tude.

• 1:35:56Speaker 02

  In front of everyone.

• 1:35:57David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:35:58Speaker 02

  Like they're all like, I think.

• 1:35:59David Sims?

  They love it.

• 1:36:00Speaker 02

  Delighted.

• 1:36:01David Sims?

  When she's chewing him out in front of the cab stand, you know, and he, and he's like, I forgot. And she's like, you don't do that to me. And she's right. She's too hot. She, you can't disrespect her.

• 1:36:10Griffin Newman?

  The angrier she gets, the more he laughs.

• 1:36:12David Sims?

  Nobody, right. She's a, she's the somebody.

• 1:36:14Griffin Newman?

  He's trained by it. But Tommy, right. Tommy needs a wingman.

• 1:36:18David Sims?

  Uh, yeah, Tommy needs a wing. What do you think going on a date with Tommy's like?

• 1:36:21Griffin Newman?

  Horrendous.

• 1:36:23David Sims?

  Now the lovemaking I'm sure is exceptional.

• 1:36:25Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:36:26David Sims?

  Right. Yeah.

• 1:36:26Griffin Newman?

  I think that's the bigger opposition is just like.

• 1:36:31Griffin Newman?

  Henry doesn't want to be tied to anything going on in Tommy's romantic life.

• 1:36:34David Sims?

  Probably, but they were friends. I mean, I have no idea what this friendship is like.

• 1:36:38Griffin Newman?

  But he bristles the second Tommy starts soft pedaling it when he's complaining about, I'm going with this girl, but she won't sleep with me. I've been putting in months on her and Tommy, uh, Henry is just clearly like, don't ask me, don't ask me, don't ask me.

• 1:36:53David Sims?

  I just like, I guess if you go on a date with Tommy, he will talk the whole time. Like I don't see Tommy being like quiet and awkward on a date.

• 1:37:02Griffin Newman?

  He will pick up the bill in a sense.

• 1:37:04David Sims?

  Sure. He'll pick it up, look at it and throw it in the garbage.

• 1:37:07Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:37:07Speaker 02

  I also just think we, it's an important detail to shout out that when he's asking him to go on this double date, they have just rigged a restaurant to be burnt down.

• 1:37:16Griffin Newman?

  They're waiting for it to catch on fire.

• 1:37:19Speaker 02

  And just killing time to wait to make sure that it's.

• 1:37:22Griffin Newman?

  In a parked car.

• 1:37:23Speaker 02

  Yes, yes.

• 1:37:24David Sims?

  But then to make it up to her, he does the Copa thing. And like, I'm just watching it right now. I'm just watching the Copa, like what you described Griff, where they do, it's so good. You ever been to the Copa? Still there. You wanna go?

• 1:37:36Speaker 02

  Should we go?

• 1:37:36Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:37David Sims?

  I wonder if it's any good.

• 1:37:40David Sims?

  Let's see what's at the Copa.

• 1:37:40Griffin Newman?

  Is Henny Youngman still playing?

• 1:37:42David Sims?

  Dude, and that's the real Henry. That's him, right?

• 1:37:44Griffin Newman?

  That's him.

• 1:37:45David Sims?

  I looked it up. That's him. Do you think Henny Youngman was good? He is, he is the epitome of a certain type of comedy, right?

• 1:37:53Griffin Newman?

  Please.

• 1:37:53David Sims?

  Take my wife, please. But do you think as the epitome, if you were at the Copa and you saw Henny, you'd be laughing?

• 1:37:59Speaker 02

  I, I laughed at his, his jokes.

• 1:38:02Griffin Newman?

  It's, I mean, it's another.

• 1:38:02David Sims?

  Cause he, he's building, you know, starts to take my wife, please. You're like, I'm laughing. He's like, I got more, I got more.

• 1:38:07Griffin Newman?

  It's another famous thing about this movie, you saying they only had to do seven takes of the Copa thing. Most of those takes, takes were blown by Henny Youngman, where the final moment is him needing to nail his joke.

• 1:38:18David Sims?

  Oh, interesting.

• 1:38:19Griffin Newman?

  And infamously he blew a couple takes and Scorsese's like, you've been telling the same fucking jokes for 50 years.

• 1:38:25David Sims?

  How do you fucking blow this shit?

• 1:38:26Griffin Newman?

  You're the one person who should be relied upon to nail this.

• 1:38:32David Sims?

  God, he's so good though.

• 1:38:33Speaker 02

  He says, my wife asks to take me, uh, somewhere I've never been before. He said, how about the kitchen?

• 1:38:38Griffin Newman?

  Oh, wait a second. Wait a second.

• 1:38:41David Sims?

  He's holding a violin, cause I guess he would be part of the band and then he would sort of come out and do the one-liners. God.

• 1:38:47Griffin Newman?

  Do I personally find him funny? No.

• 1:38:50David Sims?

  Oh, I take my wife everywhere, but she finds her way home. I'm, might be like, this guy's wife sounds like a bit of a piece of work.

• 1:38:56Griffin Newman?

  A battle axe?

• 1:38:59David Sims?

  God, I, I hate to break this to you guys, but I feel like the Copa these days might be using AI in some of its.

• 1:39:05Griffin Newman?

  Oh boy. Okay.

• 1:39:05David Sims?

  Some of its newsletter generation.

• 1:39:10Griffin Newman?

  Here's, here's a real problem I have.

• 1:39:12David Sims?

  Sending the link to the Copa.

• 1:39:13Griffin Newman?

  I know we all love policing bad AI.

• 1:39:15David Sims?

  Sure, of course. You know, it's, maybe everyone's getting a little too, you know, kinda like on everything, a little too worked up, whatever.

• 1:39:22Griffin Newman?

  Sometimes I will, well, I think AI is really bad.

• 1:39:24David Sims?

  We don't like AI, to be clear.

• 1:39:25Griffin Newman?

  And what you're sending me is.

• 1:39:27Speaker 02

  We don't like it. We love it.

• 1:39:28David Sims?

  When like, when my local taqueria did an AI poster, I'm not about to run in there and yell at them. I'm like, I don't, whatever. I understand like that this thing is becoming pushed on everyone.

• 1:39:38Griffin Newman?

  Also, when I see stuff like that, sometimes I'm like, graphic design has been so bad for so long.

• 1:39:43David Sims?

  I know. Yeah.

• 1:39:44Griffin Newman?

  That the line is thin occasionally between, there's stuff that is like self-evidently, like this is shitty AI art. And then there's stuff where I'm just like, this could just be the work of someone who really doesn't care about their job.

• 1:39:54David Sims?

  This is possible. Eric, but what's your point? What were you gonna say?

• 1:39:58Griffin Newman?

  That was my point. That was what I was gonna say. The Copa art is unforgivable, I would say.

• 1:40:02David Sims?

  I think, I think they might've consulted with a Mr. GPT on a few of these.

• 1:40:07Griffin Newman?

  Also, I'm surprised at how expensive, uh, these ticket prices are.

• 1:40:11David Sims?

  They're a little pricey.

• 1:40:12Griffin Newman?

  Yes. I guess, or I guess that's the high end.

• 1:40:14David Sims?

  Yeah. For the sort of VIP table.

• 1:40:16Griffin Newman?

  If we wanted to go to the six, six, six annual after parade Halloween immersive party.

• 1:40:22David Sims?

  Hmm. And I do.

• 1:40:24Griffin Newman?

  The price is, it's, it's, it's a range. It's a sliding scale.

• 1:40:28David Sims?

  But there is one that is an intriguing number.

• 1:40:31Griffin Newman?

  It starts out at $6 entry level.

• 1:40:33David Sims?

  Oh, early bird advance tickets.

• 1:40:34Griffin Newman?

  Yes. It goes all the way up to six, six, six.

• 1:40:38David Sims?

  Oh no. What a waste of money.

• 1:40:45David Sims?

  That's why it's scary.

• 1:40:46Speaker 02

  And everyone was so thrilled when we tried to waste their money on the Big Bambino.

• 1:40:49Griffin Newman?

  And we didn't do it.

• 1:40:50David Sims?

  We didn't do it.

• 1:40:52Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:40:53David Sims?

  No, no, I should take that back. We'll never do it.

• 1:40:56Griffin Newman?

  This is funny that the, it, the three tiers are $6.66 and $666.

• 1:41:02David Sims?

  It's a good bit.

• 1:41:03Griffin Newman?

  But the 666 includes an appetizer platter.

• 1:41:07David Sims?

  Uh, oh, I bet it's good, too.

• 1:41:08Griffin Newman?

  I bet it tastes delicious.

• 1:41:09David Sims?

  Real good.

• 1:41:10Griffin Newman?

  Can we go to the Copa for lunch?

• 1:41:12David Sims?

  I don't think so. Like, I'm not sure the Copa's open all the, maybe it is.

• 1:41:16Griffin Newman?

  Can we do a live show at the Copa?

• 1:41:18David Sims?

  That, I think, might, uh, we might end up losing money on that. That would be my fear there. Let's see, what is Yelp? The Copa Cabana is on Yelp.

• 1:41:26Griffin Newman?

  Okay, what kind of star rating does it have?

• 1:41:28David Sims?

  Uh, I'm seeing a three and a half here. It's hours are, it's open from 8:00 PM to 4:00 AM Friday and Saturday.

• 1:41:36Griffin Newman?

  It's only two nights a week, okay.

• 1:41:37David Sims?

  Sunday, it's 10:00 PM. It opens at 10:00 PM on Sunday. What the fuck are you doing on a Sunday? That you go to the Copa at 10:00 PM?

• 1:41:46Griffin Newman?

  The 10:00 PM Sunday crowd.

• 1:41:48David Sims?

  It's, you know, it's on, it's on 51st and The Water. You know, it's like all the way over by 12th Avenue. Uh, yeah, I mean, it, I think it's seen better days. I'm looking at some of these pictures. The food's not looking so great.

• 1:42:04Griffin Newman?

  It'd be fun to do the walk, though.

• 1:42:05David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:06Griffin Newman?

  If you go through the side entrance.

• 1:42:08David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:08Speaker 02

  I also am getting the sense that they probably don't even have live performers and maybe just DJs.

• 1:42:16David Sims?

  I think it's probably mostly DJs. There might be some bands once in a while. Uh, yeah, I don't want to go. Sorry.

• 1:42:24Griffin Newman?

  You're actually, you're gonna weigh in and say you don't want to go.

• 1:42:27David Sims?

  I'm out. I'm out on the Copa. It won't, it won't live up to it. The most seductive moment, I think, when, cause like, what's interesting, after the first chunk where it's Henry, Henry Hill, you know, is we switch to her narration, right? We switch to Lorraine Bracco, uh, doing some voiceover, right?

• 1:42:43Griffin Newman?

  I'm sorry, I'm gonna send you this. It's making music, but it's important that you see this before we move off of the Copa Cabana. Something very important is happening on Halloween that adds to the 666. It's called Glizzy Mania.

• 1:42:57David Sims?

  Okay.

• 1:42:57Griffin Newman?

  And it's a hot dog festival and it has AI art of Freddie and Jason.

• 1:43:01David Sims?

  They're fighting over hot, well, fighting over and with hot dogs.

• 1:43:05Griffin Newman?

  They're fighting over hot dogs, but also Freddie's famous glove has been replaced with hot dog fingers that also have knives on them.

• 1:43:11David Sims?

  Free hot dogs for the whole event.

• 1:43:13Griffin Newman?

  The whole event has free glizzies.

• 1:43:15David Sims?

  I bet you those glizzies are real good. Uh, yeah, we're diving into the Copa.

• 1:43:23Griffin Newman?

  We're diving into the Copa. That's the end of the Copa section. I just needed Glizzy Mania to be acknowledged.

• 1:43:28David Sims?

  Uh, someone way, uh, weighing in here on the, in the Instagram comments, uh, you're complaining about the time. It's a day party. You want to gobble glizzies after hours? Good point. I stand corrected.

• 1:43:42Griffin Newman?

  So, points were made.

• 1:43:55David Sims?

  So, uh, we switch to Karen's voiceover perspective as he's starting to seduce her. Cause initially she's mad and then she tells him that this guy who lives across the street from her got fresh with her and grabbed her, right? It was like, you know, clearly trying to assault her.

• 1:44:11Speaker 02

  Such a piece of shit.

• 1:44:12David Sims?

  When she rejects him, closes her in a car and he goes and beats the shit out of him with a gun, like, you know, pistol whips him. It is so sexy. You cannot, like, it is like, you, you totally get it. He's incredibly, and it's just like, as she keeps saying throughout the movie, like, we were attracted to each other. Like, we could, I cannot deny that I found it sexy. You know, it's not just that he's being a man, he's being tough and he's beating the shit out of this asshole, like, but it's, it's like, it's sexual. He's hot.

• 1:44:38Griffin Newman?

  So shifting to her perspective is what makes this movie a masterpiece.

• 1:44:41David Sims?

  Of course. And like.

• 1:44:43Griffin Newman?

  The first time they do it, you're like, I didn't know that was allowed.

• 1:44:46David Sims?

  In screenwriting school, exactly. Like, wait, you're gonna have two narrators all of a sudden? What the fuck you talking? And obviously Casino's like, two?

• 1:44:52Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:44:53David Sims?

  Hold my dice. I have a narrator every five minutes in this one.

• 1:44:58Griffin Newman?

  But, but this, it, it feels like you need her interior monologue to basically explain to you, I hate that I like this. Right? Like, in that scene, she's basically admitting, it sucks that I find this attractive.

• 1:45:12David Sims?

  And then he's like, hide this gun. What's the next shot? They're getting married. And guess what happens when you get married? Big guys in suits come over and give you envelopes with money in them.

• 1:45:21Speaker 02

  I love the whole, everyone's named either what? Tommy?

• 1:45:25David Sims?

  Tommy, Joey, Jimmy, you know, and Serpita's like, even I get confused.

• 1:45:29Speaker 02

  Marie.

• 1:45:30Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:45:31David Sims?

  Hey.

• 1:45:32Griffin Newman?

  Everyone's woman.

• 1:45:33David Sims?

  Still, I wouldn't marry him personally.

• 1:45:35Griffin Newman?

  Me? No. No. I have actually gone my whole life without marrying Henry Hill and I intend to maintain that.

• 1:45:41Speaker 02

  I could fix him.

• 1:45:45David Sims?

  The book makes it clear, you know, if the movie doesn't abundantly, you know, like, they were kind of obsessed with each other. Obviously, he went out and fucked like one billion women a day or whatever, you know, like, that is the mob lifestyle. Like, there's that moment later on when, like, um, Paul and Jimmy are like, you gotta get back with her. Where they're like, obviously you can do what you gotta do, you know, we understand. Like, you know, and everyone's like, oh, no, no, we understand, we understand. Like, no one is disputing that, but, you know, we're not gonna get divorced here. Like, come on, we're not any molly. Um, but, uh, yeah, like, they were connected. They, there is some powerful crazy thing with them, right?

• 1:46:18Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:46:19David Sims?

  Um, but yeah, if, if he, it's so crazy that they don't have a house for a while and that he just lives with them. And then he's coming home at like 3:00 AM every night and they're yelling at him.

• 1:46:29Griffin Newman?

  But her mom loves him. He's half Jewish, only the good half.

• 1:46:32David Sims?

  Only the good half.

• 1:46:33Griffin Newman?

  Only the good half.

• 1:46:34Speaker 02

  He wears a cross and a star on his neck.

• 1:46:38Griffin Newman?

  Classy. Yeah.

• 1:46:38David Sims?

  Kind of covering your bases. What are you fucking talking about? Just in case.

• 1:46:41Griffin Newman?

  What are you fucking talking about?

• 1:46:42David Sims?

  We don't know who's up there. Uh, and then all the stuff with the wives, you know, when she's like hanging out with the ladies.

• 1:46:50Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:46:50David Sims?

  Uh, yeah, God, this shit's, it's sexy.

• 1:46:53Griffin Newman?

  It's, it's a little bit sexy.

• 1:46:57David Sims?

  Um, okay, what happens next? Right, the, the feds coming to their house. Uh, just like the, you know, like the little, the cute pictures of them all, like, you know, like, hanging out together. The way she's like, we were all a family, we only saw each other.

• 1:47:13Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:13David Sims?

  You know, these like wacky pictures of De Niro, like mugging for the camera. Come on, guys, what else? What else? All his suits.

• 1:47:21Speaker 02

  Oh, my God, the suits.

• 1:47:22David Sims?

  Yeah. And then.

• 1:47:24Speaker 02

  And she's got a, like, they have both huge wardrobes.

• 1:47:28David Sims?

  It's a big, you know, they need some big closets. Um, and then, and then it's.

• 1:47:34Griffin Newman?

  We catch up with Shinebox?

• 1:47:35David Sims?

  Yeah, it's Billy Bats.

• 1:47:36Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:36David Sims?

  Then we're, you know.

• 1:47:37Griffin Newman?

  There we go.

• 1:47:38David Sims?

  We're at the bar. And by the way, he's kicking off, Ben, and you can weigh in with, with some anti-Irish behavior.

• 1:47:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:47:44David Sims?

  Get some of those Irish hoodlums over there, top of the morning to you.

• 1:47:48Speaker 02

  But they kind of, they know the deal.

• 1:47:50David Sims?

  They're busting balls.

• 1:47:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:47:52Griffin Newman?

  It's one of the best needle drop moments in history. I mean, obviously this movie might have the best soundtrack ever.

• 1:47:57David Sims?

  It's a good one.

• 1:47:57Griffin Newman?

  Yes. And it's just like wall to wall, like perfect music cues. But the opening strains of, uh, it's, he's sure of the boy I love, right? They're like, dun, yeah. Uh, onto the establishing shot of the bar where you just know something dramatic is gonna happen. I just remembered that you gave me a Shinebox. I'm so happy.

• 1:48:19Speaker 02

  And we, of course, will post pictures of Griffin with his Griffin Shine Master.

• 1:48:24Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. I'm just holding on to it now. Yeah.

• 1:48:28David Sims?

  You know, if I was busting balls, I would tell you to go get your Shinebox.

• 1:48:32Griffin Newman?

  That's if, if hypothetically.

• 1:48:34David Sims?

  Which I am not.

• 1:48:36Griffin Newman?

  Nope.

• 1:48:36David Sims?

  I were to bust.

• 1:48:38Griffin Newman?

  What I would do.

• 1:48:39Speaker 02

  And David, I, I have a feeling you and I are never gonna tell Griffin, moving forward, to go get his Shinebox.

• 1:48:45Griffin Newman?

  Oh, this is why you fucking give to me a Shinebox? So you can tell me to go get my fucking Shinebox?

• 1:48:49David Sims?

  Relax, will you? Relax, will you? Relax.

• 1:48:52Griffin Newman?

  Okay, relax, relax.

• 1:48:53David Sims?

  Sometimes this doesn't sound like you can. There's a lot of people around.

• 1:48:56Griffin Newman?

  You were in, uh, Spain for six weeks shooting Murder Bot. I don't know if you know, some things changed.

• 1:49:02David Sims?

  You've been gone for a while. I'm sorry, you know, I didn't mean to offend you, but, you know, hmm, one thought I'm having as I say this is maybe you should go and get the fucking Shinebox, though.

• 1:49:13Griffin Newman?

  Okay, here's another thing I love about Go Get Your Shinebox. That he's, he's marrying it to real compliments. This guy was so good at shining shoes, they looked like fucking mirrors.

• 1:49:24David Sims?

  He is saying, but it's, it's like saying, it's so demeaning.

• 1:49:28Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:49:29David Sims?

  Like, I totally get it.

• 1:49:30Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:49:31David Sims?

  Cause he's one, he's basically like being like, this is a child to me. Like, I remember when he was just a child who wanted to impress all of us.

• 1:49:36Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, he's a shoe shine boy.

• 1:49:37David Sims?

  But he is saying it in that way, like, what are you, you were great at it.

• 1:49:40Griffin Newman?

  What are you talking about? Fucking mirrors. Fucking mirrors.

• 1:49:41David Sims?

  You should go get it. If you think about it, go get it.

• 1:49:45Griffin Newman?

  I got a great idea for you. What if you left here, went home and go got your fucking Shinebox and you brought it back here and you shined my fucking shoes?

• 1:49:55David Sims?

  Just the layering of it. And it's why, like, I mean, like, why I will go to YouTube and, and like load up like Sopranos, like, cut scenes where it's just arguments or like sit downs. The most fun thing is just the rhythms of like, you know, the insult and then they're like, I, you know, and I'm sorry and we're all having fun here and I am just breaking balls, but then like, so now I'll go back to the insults now that we've layered that in and then the insults build and the way like it sort of cools off and goes up again and the positive, the gladiatorial kind of style of it.

• 1:50:25Griffin Newman?

  We will get to it, but I've been rewatching the Kyle Chandler boat scene from Wolf of Wall Street a lot, which gives me a similar rush. Yes.

• 1:50:33David Sims?

  I mean, that's a great.

• 1:50:35Griffin Newman?

  Can you say that one more time?

• 1:50:38David Sims?

  And, I mean, the Kyle Chandler scene in the first episode of Lanterns, where he spent the whole episode kind of being like, eh, eh, eh, you know, like where you're like, oh, hey, I get it. He's sort of like over it. And then he like crushes that interrogation scene with the guy.

• 1:50:51Griffin Newman?

  That seems incredible. I, I don't know if I liked the finale of Lanterns.

• 1:50:55David Sims?

  I was fine with it mildly underwhelmed.

• 1:50:59Griffin Newman?

  It was a little underwhelmed.

• 1:51:00David Sims?

  It was a little Surf Dracula at the end of the day.

• 1:51:02Griffin Newman?

  It was.

• 1:51:02David Sims?

  And I read an interview with Lynda Lofer, he was like, well, we had to do this. And I'm like, hmm, I think you could have done more. You know, anyway, but, you know, generally.

• 1:51:10Griffin Newman?

  It was, I had an enjoyable time watching that show. It did not live up to its early promise.

• 1:51:14David Sims?

  Not entirely, but hopefully they can run with the right things.

• 1:51:18Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:51:19David Sims?

  If that makes sense.

• 1:51:19Griffin Newman?

  If they do more of it.

• 1:51:20David Sims?

  Well, they're definitely, it's the most popular show in like the history of HBO Max.

• 1:51:24Griffin Newman?

  Really?

• 1:51:24David Sims?

  It's getting insane ratings. It's crazy.

• 1:51:26Griffin Newman?

  Then do more of it.

• 1:51:27David Sims?

  It's a huge hit.

• 1:51:27Griffin Newman?

  I know everyone's coming back for Man of Tomorrow.

• 1:51:30David Sims?

  Yeah, right. And that's fun.

• 1:51:31Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Did you see that like Frank Grillo was sharing fan art with like characters that aren't in the movie and James Gunn was like, Frank Grillo, what the fuck are you doing?

• 1:51:38David Sims?

  You know what, James?

• 1:51:39Griffin Newman?

  Posted their text exchange.

• 1:51:40David Sims?

  Maybe don't cast Frank Grillo in things if you don't want him to be posting random fan art.

• 1:51:44Griffin Newman?

  I think James Gunn literally said, Frank Grillo just reposted this Photoshop because his face was in it and he likes attention.

• 1:51:52David Sims?

  Again, have you seen Frank Grillo's IMDb?

• 1:51:55Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:51:56David Sims?

  The man does everything you want.

• 1:51:58Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:51:59David Sims?

  But maybe just go get your fucking shine box.

• 1:52:01Griffin Newman?

  Maybe just go get your fucking shine box. Another scene where you're like, oh, the tension diffuses. They fight, they're broken apart. They stay drinking there for hours.

• 1:52:10David Sims?

  There's, it's, you know, you can't touch him. Like Tommy says, like that guy bought his button. You know, he's an old fucking tough guy. He's sort of accusing him of like, he's a fake made man. Like which, you know, who knows what he's even talking about? But he's sort of trying to argue like, no, I can fuck with him. And Jimmy's like, no, you know.

• 1:52:29Griffin Newman?

  But it's all right. The way he makes Atlantis sound so ominous.

• 1:52:33David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:34Griffin Newman?

  What is ostensibly kind of a relaxing hippie-ish song?

• 1:52:36David Sims?

  You insulted him a little bit.

• 1:52:38Griffin Newman?

  A little bit.

• 1:52:39David Sims?

  You got a little out of order yourself. You insulted him a little bit.

• 1:52:42Griffin Newman?

  A little bit.

• 1:52:42David Sims?

  I didn't insult nobody. Everyone have a drink. Let's have some drinks on the house. I think, I think we should let this lie and, you know, drinks are on the house. Okay. I'll fuck him in the ass. I'm just like.

• 1:52:58Griffin Newman?

  It's incredible.

• 1:52:59David Sims?

  He says to his friends, like,

• 1:53:01Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:53:01David Sims?

  PS, I will fuck him in the ass.

• 1:53:02Griffin Newman?

  I'm gonna fuck him in the ass.

• 1:53:05Griffin Newman?

  The, uh, A, De Niro's kicking acting in this movie is unilaterally so good, which we must acknowledge because in The Irishman, it's gonna hit an all time low.

• 1:53:15David Sims?

  We are gonna, um, disrespect them a little bit in The Irishman, his kicking.

• 1:53:19Griffin Newman?

  Let's put it this way.

• 1:53:19David Sims?

  We're gonna disrespect, we're gonna break some balls.

• 1:53:21Griffin Newman?

  When we, when we,

• 1:53:23Griffin Newman?

  when we get to The Irishman, we are going to kick him while he's down.

• 1:53:26David Sims?

  The phrase breaking balls.

• 1:53:28Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:53:28David Sims?

  What are we doing there? What is, where does that come from?

• 1:53:31Griffin Newman?

  If you actually try to visualize it, imagine them shattering like glass.

• 1:53:37David Sims?

  Like, where does this come from?

• 1:53:38Griffin Newman?

  Cause bust balls make sense to me. I'm like, that's what it feels like.

• 1:53:41David Sims?

  Ball breaking, ball busting.

• 1:53:43Speaker 02

  But you have to think that when you get hit in the balls, it's kind of always funny.

• 1:53:48Griffin Newman?

  Kind of, not to you.

• 1:53:50David Sims?

  No.

• 1:53:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's other people.

• 1:53:52David Sims?

  I'm not shot as classic.

• 1:53:53Speaker 02

  And here's the thing, balls have been around for a long time.

• 1:53:56Griffin Newman?

  Balls have been around for a very long time.

• 1:53:57Speaker 02

  So I have a feeling that that goes way back.

• 1:54:01David Sims?

  I'm, I'm, I'm looking it up a little bit. There is the Italian idiom, non rompere caloni, like do not break my balls. So it is sort of, uh, you know, it's coming from there.

• 1:54:15David Sims?

  Apparently, yeah, ball busting, ball breaking, those things existed already. But it seems like the early 50s is where it became common. Uh, a painful yet common practice among beef cattle operators where they bust the bulls balls? I don't think that's where it comes from. That doesn't sound real, right? No one's out here saying that because cows get castrated a certain way. Have you ever said, I'm breaking your balls sincerely, Griffin?

• 1:54:42Griffin Newman?

  Have I? No, I've never.

• 1:54:43David Sims?

  Have you ever been making fun of someone? And when they get mad at you, you've been like, I'm breaking balls.

• 1:54:47Griffin Newman?

  I've never said it and meant it, if that's what you're asking.

• 1:54:49David Sims?

  Right, exactly. You only said it in an ironic kind of like, I'm breaking your balls.

• 1:54:54Speaker 02

  As, uh, someone who grew up in New Jersey, I can confirm, I haven't said it, but I have witnessed it be said many a time.

• 1:55:02Griffin Newman?

  I'm realizing, cause there's a similar kind of timestamp title card before the Billy Bats sequence, which is October 11th, 1970? No, it's June.

• 1:55:13David Sims?

  Okay.

• 1:55:13Griffin Newman?

  But it's both, both are the 11.

• 1:55:15David Sims?

  1970 though. And like, it's all, the, the, the party's over by the end of the 70s.

• 1:55:19Griffin Newman?

  Which is 1980.

• 1:55:20David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:55:21Griffin Newman?

  It's, it's June 11th, 1970 to Saturday, May 11th.

• 1:55:26David Sims?

  1980.

• 1:55:26Griffin Newman?

  1980. So it's, it's just under 10 years to the day.

• 1:55:31David Sims?

  Right. And this is like, we're cresting here.

• 1:55:33Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:55:34David Sims?

  Billy Bats is where we're just starting to slowly, obviously like the La Panza High School happened.

• 1:55:38Griffin Newman?

  Things to actually crash.

• 1:55:39David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:55:40Griffin Newman?

  But, but like, once they kill Billy Bats, it's over.

• 1:55:42Speaker 02

  And we should shout out Marty's mother.

• 1:55:45David Sims?

  Oh.

• 1:55:45Speaker 02

  She's great in it.

• 1:55:46David Sims?

  I mean, because this is the thing, they beat the shit out of him and then they go to her house. This is.

• 1:55:50Speaker 02

  To get a shovel.

• 1:55:51David Sims?

  Obviously, and a knife.

• 1:55:52Speaker 02

  Right. And, and what, what do I say about night shoveling?

• 1:55:56Griffin Newman?

  Cause they hit a deer.

• 1:55:57Speaker 02

  Well, of course.

• 1:55:58David Sims?

  It's a, what do you call paw? It's a hoof.

• 1:56:01Griffin Newman?

  It's a sin, it's a sin.

• 1:56:02David Sims?

  She's in, obviously many a Marty movie. This is her crowning performance, right?

• 1:56:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, she's excellent.

• 1:56:09David Sims?

  The painting. I mean, I just think about it all the time. I want to get the exact framing of it, of what she says. God. Like, I do love that, like Jimmy is so, he's just tucking in. He's eating her food. I mean, what do you think? It's like 10 o'clock at night later? Like, have they woken her up at like one in the morning? They were already carousing at a bar.

• 1:56:30Griffin Newman?

  Some night pasta.

• 1:56:31David Sims?

  It truly is some night pasta. And she just clearly was like, oh, I'll warm. Henry's the only, she's like, you're not eating. Like, he's the only one who's clearly like kind of rattled.

• 1:56:40Griffin Newman?

  A little freaked out by this. Yeah.

• 1:56:41David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:56:42Griffin Newman?

  And you see it in that opening shot I was talking about of Henry driving.

• 1:56:45David Sims?

  One dog goes one way, one goes the other way. One going east, one going west. So what? And this guy's saying, what do you want from me? He's got a nice set of white hair.

• 1:56:53Griffin Newman?

  Do you know, one of the most astonishing discoveries of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which I recently visited in Los Angeles?

• 1:56:59David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:56:59Griffin Newman?

  That George Lucas owns the original dogs playing poker painting?

• 1:57:04David Sims?

  Uh, that is crazy.

• 1:57:05Griffin Newman?

  And do you know when that painting is from?

• 1:57:07David Sims?

  No.

• 1:57:08Griffin Newman?

  The 1890s.

• 1:57:10David Sims?

  Hell, yeah. They were, they were, that guy was funny. That guy nailed it.

• 1:57:13Griffin Newman?

  But you think of that as like, oh, this is like Americana kitsch from like the 40s or 50s.

• 1:57:17David Sims?

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 1:57:18Griffin Newman?

  At the earliest.

• 1:57:19David Sims?

  That's some Gilded Age humor.

• 1:57:20Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:57:21David Sims?

  We all know dogs.

• 1:57:22Griffin Newman?

  The next season of Gilded Age is gonna be about that painting.

• 1:57:25David Sims?

  Yeah. About that guy. And then Carrie Coon gets in a war with like, you know, Miss Bleaker or whatever over like, who gets to own the painting? You know, they have a big fight.

• 1:57:32Griffin Newman?

  Wait, sir, I want you to do your act out of the painting. We all know dogs.

• 1:57:36David Sims?

  Oh, we all know dogs. Yeah, yeah. They walk around outside, they pee, they poop. No, no, no, no, no. This dog's inside. Yeah, sure. My dog comes inside.

• 1:57:42Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, every once in a while.

• 1:57:45Griffin Newman?

  If it's feeding time.

• 1:57:46David Sims?

  Now, the game of poker, who plays that?

• 1:57:49Speaker 02

  Humans.

• 1:57:50Griffin Newman?

  Obviously.

• 1:57:51David Sims?

  Not in this painting.

• 1:57:54David Sims?

  Uh, I want to tell you that that painting was painted by Susan Pellegrini, the mother of Nicholas Pellegrini.

• 1:57:59Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:58:00David Sims?

  Yes. It was based on the artwork of a 1978 National Geographic photograph of a retired English banker and river nomad who lived on a houseboat in the River Shannon in Ireland with his two Staffordshire bull terriers, Brockie and Twiggy.

• 1:58:18David Sims?

  It is so funny that he had this clearly in his possession and was like, let's throw this one in the movie.

• 1:58:22Griffin Newman?

  It's gotta be part of the movie.

• 1:58:23Speaker 02

  And it is so funny too, that then they're like, that looks like a certain guy.

• 1:58:27David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:58:27Speaker 02

  That they've just murdered.

• 1:58:29David Sims?

  And yet, we're all laughing. Not murdered, he's still alive.

• 1:58:32Speaker 02

  Right, right.

• 1:58:33David Sims?

  But like, and it's like, then, you know, they're burying him.

• 1:58:35Speaker 02

  Well, wait, I wanted to point out a subtle thing, cause I wondered, David, if you noticed it.

• 1:58:41Speaker 02

  De Niro, they're sitting at the table, they're eating. He picks up a bottle of ketchup and puts it on his spaghetti. That is so disgusting, but that is a thing that, uh, my mom, uh, Irish Catholic family, my grandfather, he would eat his pasta with ketchup.

• 1:59:02David Sims?

  Yeah, I mean, you know, it's in this episode of this, the episode of The Sopranos where they go to, um, Italy. And it's kind of about how like they're, they, the Italian food baffles them cause it's not like the food they grew up eating and like, and like, at one point, like, Polly wants, like wants some ketchup or whatever. And it's so beyond me, like the idea that you'd want to add ketchup to be, yeah.

• 1:59:25Griffin Newman?

  Well, also the ultimate like insult to injury at the end of this movie is that he's gotta eat ketchup with buttered noodles.

• 1:59:31David Sims?

  Egg noodles with ketchup.

• 1:59:32Griffin Newman?

  Egg noodles with ketchup. There we go, sorry. Yeah.

• 1:59:36David Sims?

  Yeah. Disgusting. I don't really like ketchup that much though. I know some people like.

• 1:59:42Griffin Newman?

  I used to love it so much and I, I rarely use it anymore. And it is, uh, interesting as, uh, friends of mine have children such as yourself, David, to be reminded that kids love ketchup so fucking much. It's like their favorite food, period.

• 1:59:56David Sims?

  Some kids, like the fries are just an excuse to eat the ketchup.

• 2:00:01Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 2:00:01David Sims?

  Like, they want the ketchup first.

• 2:00:02Griffin Newman?

  That's my, Sophie and Hawk and my best friends, their kid. Ketchup is his number one favorite food.

• 2:00:08David Sims?

  Ketchup.

• 2:00:08Griffin Newman?

  They use ketchup to convince him to eat chicken nuggets.

• 2:00:11David Sims?

  For me, it was rice, I remember.

• 2:00:13Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:00:13David Sims?

  They would put it in rice for me.

• 2:00:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:15David Sims?

  So I'd eat the rice.

• 2:00:16Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:16David Sims?

  Disgusting.

• 2:00:17Griffin Newman?

  It's weird that it's just the most palatable thing to like every child.

• 2:00:21Speaker 02

  Just want to share something about my grandpa. He's a meat inspector for the railroad.

• 2:00:25Griffin Newman?

  He's a meat inspector for the railroad? What's that mean?

• 2:00:28Speaker 02

  So he was, he was inspecting to make sure that the meat was all up to code.

• 2:00:33Griffin Newman?

  That they were serving?

• 2:00:34Speaker 02

  Properly stored for the railroad as in like shipping.

• 2:00:37Griffin Newman?

  Oh, okay.

• 2:00:38Speaker 02

  And my mom said, growing up, they would have roast beef basically every single night.

• 2:00:43Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:43Speaker 02

  And the thing was about the roast beef is that it fell off the train.

• 2:00:47Griffin Newman?

  Well, well, well.

• 2:00:48David Sims?

  Those trains had a lot of integrity. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm sure he paid full freight for that.

• 2:00:54Speaker 02

  You gotta feed five kids.

• 2:00:56David Sims?

  I just want to, like, there's the scene right after that is where the, the girl says, like Sammy Davis Jr. is talented and Tommy has to be like, hey, you know, you don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about what you're talking about. Here, I'm just, this is, this, I want to, I'm just doing, this is Polly talking to Henry. What do you hear about that thing? What thing? That Brooklyn thing? No, no, the guy from downtown. The guy from near where Christie used to live, that thing? No, the guy who disappeared up the block from Christie. The one they made the beef on. Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, the guy I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. That's them talking about Billy Bats. But it's, I love, like, it's the most obscure way to talk about anything.

• 2:01:34Griffin Newman?

  I'm looking for the, the conversation Tommy has with his mom about settling down with a nice girl.

• 2:01:40David Sims?

  I got a nice girl every night.

• 2:01:41Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. He doesn't want to be with anyone, want to be with you, ma. Yeah.

• 2:01:46David Sims?

  Oh, these boys and their mothers. Um, yeah. So, you know, the true putrid beginning of hell. It's 65 minutes into the movie. It's when they have to go dig up Billy Bat's corpse. They're shrouded in red because of the car lights. It's the worst. And it's when Tommy's going like, hey, here's a leg. Here's a wing.

• 2:02:10Griffin Newman?

  What do you want?

• 2:02:12David Sims?

  And like Henry's like barfing or whatever.

• 2:02:14Speaker 02

  And it's like, Henry has to wear a mask. He's so disgusted by this. The other two barely care about it, are unaffected or joking around.

• 2:02:23David Sims?

  Obviously, like Henry's the one telling the story. He's the one telling the real story as well. He's probably trying to make himself look good.

• 2:02:30Griffin Newman?

  I didn't like doing it.

• 2:02:31David Sims?

  I do not think Henry Hill was a noble guy, but I do think it's sort of vital to the movie. Kind of in The Sopranos way of like, you have the guy who stands slightly in comparison to the even more sadistic characters, right? Like Henry likes money. He likes success. He likes people being nice to him. He doesn't seem quite as like interested in violence. Like he's fine. He can be violent, but he's not like, he doesn't like get off on it in the way that Tommy clearly does.

• 2:02:57Speaker 02

  He isn't, he's not like sent to whack people.

• 2:03:00David Sims?

  No, he doesn't. I mean, like, like one of the murders they tried to get Jimmy on was the murder of Spider. Like, you know, so Tommy obviously gets killed. He gets murdered before Henry turns, uh, states witness. But Jimmy's still alive and Henry gets Jimmy in prison. And one of the murders is Spider where he's like, Jimmy was an accomplice to this murder. Tommy shot him, but Jimmy's there, right? And they were like, no, we can't because you're the only witness and you are also an accomplice. And Henry's like, oh, I see. They're like, that doesn't really hold up in court where you're like, no, I saw it happen. I participated in the crime.

• 2:03:37Griffin Newman?

  I found the dialogue I was looking for where it goes, why don't you find yourself a nice girl? And it goes, again, nice girl almost every night. And she goes, I mean, settle down. And he goes, I settle down almost every night, but then in the morning I'm free.

• 2:03:46David Sims?

  Pretty good comedy from him.

• 2:03:48Griffin Newman?

  Pretty good comedy.

• 2:03:49David Sims?

  You know what? Tommy's not so bad.

• 2:03:51Griffin Newman?

  No.

• 2:03:51David Sims?

  Oh, wait, no, here's the scene where he shoots Spider. Cause Spider doesn't get him a fucking drink. I thought you said you're all right. I'm just, I'm just, you guys, I'm just watching.

• 2:04:02Griffin Newman?

  You're enjoying, oh, you're watching the movie.

• 2:04:03David Sims?

  I'm scrolling through it.

• 2:04:05Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 2:04:05David Sims?

  I'm just making sure we cover everything important in Goodfellas. Right after he shoots Spider is when Karen wakes Henry up with a gun to his face. You remember that?

• 2:04:15Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it's not my favorite way to wake up.

• 2:04:18Speaker 02

  Okay. And you should, we should say the first time he shoots Spider.

• 2:04:21David Sims?

  Yeah, shoots him in the foot.

• 2:04:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:04:23David Sims?

  Uh, cause he's the Tennessee kid.

• 2:04:25Speaker 02

  Here's the thing that I think sucks about Pesci.

• 2:04:29David Sims?

  Uh huh.

• 2:04:29Speaker 02

  He was picked on.

• 2:04:31David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:31Speaker 02

  In a very similar way.

• 2:04:33David Sims?

  It's why the shine box gets him.

• 2:04:34Speaker 02

  Right.

• 2:04:35David Sims?

  Yes.

• 2:04:35Speaker 02

  And then he's carrying on the tradition. And this is the thing about bullying.

• 2:04:39Griffin Newman?

  It's the cycle.

• 2:04:40David Sims?

  He's unbelievably insecure. Obviously I am not, I am not interesting for making this observation or whatever, but like you couldn't make fun of Jimmy. There's no way you can get under that guy's skin.

• 2:04:51Griffin Newman?

  Can't touch him.

• 2:04:51David Sims?

  You know what I mean?

• 2:04:52Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:52David Sims?

  Whereas Tommy, you can get under his skin immediately, clearly by just like his stature, saying he's funny. Like, that's why him being like funny, you know, clearly does piss him off. Cause he's like, I'm not here to be funny, you know, like I'm scary.

• 2:05:06Griffin Newman?

  Scary and tough.

• 2:05:07Speaker 02

  Paulie later says about Tommy, he's crazy. He's a cowboy with too much to prove. It's like such an accurate.

• 2:05:13Griffin Newman?

  Cowboy is good.

• 2:05:14Speaker 02

  Nail it exactly. That's what's going on with that guy.

• 2:05:17David Sims?

  Like there's that scene where he's like, uh, they, they robbed the truck and he's like shooting the gun, uh, like, like a cowboy, you know, out the window. Um, Henry then gets pinched, goes to prison. As we have the prison scene, I want to point out in the book, there is a sequence that they do not cut on that put in this movie, which makes sense, which is the other time Henry was removed from mob life, which was when he was in the army. And it is similarly fascinating in both times in the book. It's clear he loves it. He loves being in the army and he loves being in prison. He loves systems, like he loves being plugged into a system and with a hierarchy, which is just what the mob is to him. Like he crushes army. It's like, you know, when Buster is in the army and he's like, I do a great job. But Henry's so good at being in the army.

• 2:06:00David Sims?

  I mean, he's kind of a piece of shit, like, or whatever. And he's, you know, doing criminal shit, like running smuggling stuff or whatever. But like, he generally is into it and he likes being in prison because it's like cool prison where they're, you know, you know, in charge of the prison and they smuggle shit and they have all their, you know.

• 2:06:17Griffin Newman?

  There's probably some part of him to jump ahead that like, not, not to jump ahead for the conversation.

• 2:06:22David Sims?

  No, no.

• 2:06:23Griffin Newman?

  But like, there's some part of him that probably enjoys being in witness protection.

• 2:06:27David Sims?

  Yeah, I wonder.

• 2:06:29Griffin Newman?

  In, in a weird sort of controlled version of domestic life and also having that amount of attention on him.

• 2:06:35David Sims?

  One of my favorite jokes in the prison. How do you want your steak? Medium rare, huh? An aristocrat. The guy just says that.

• 2:06:41Griffin Newman?

  This is also Papa Scorsese's best performance. Says the three types of meat and the meatball guy.

• 2:06:47Speaker 02

  They always put too much onions in the sauce.

• 2:06:49Griffin Newman?

  Making the sauce, the sauce looks so good.

• 2:06:50Speaker 02

  It does.

• 2:06:51David Sims?

  Can you put too many onions? I guess you could.

• 2:06:53Speaker 02

  Yeah. As someone also who gets agita from too much onion.

• 2:06:57David Sims?

  Yeah, it'll make you real gas.

• 2:06:58Griffin Newman?

  Okay, but that's thinking long-term, thinking short-term, just to taste.

• 2:07:02David Sims?

  I love an onion.

• 2:07:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:07:03David Sims?

  I guess it could make it too sweet if you're really like overwhelmed. Yeah. I don't know. I'll have an onion. Um, and like they do it a little bit in this, like her having the big jacket and smuggling the shit out. But like, there was a lot of that, like she's walking out of prison. It's like Marge in the, in the episode where they're smuggling the candy, like prison with just like cigarette cartons and drugs, like sewn into her jackets.

• 2:07:25Griffin Newman?

  The bit with the babysitter where he gets everyone working for him.

• 2:07:28David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:07:28Griffin Newman?

  And the babysitter has to use the baby to smuggle drugs back and forth.

• 2:07:31David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:07:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. So, I mean, this is when he gets into drugs.

• 2:07:35David Sims?

  Yes. So after he's in prison, the problem is he makes money in prison through his Pittsburgh connection, which is drugs. And that is how he makes money after prison, even though Paul is like, don't you do that because like you'll get in trouble. You've got a prison for life. They can get you, you know, way worse for drug smuggling and all that. But also it is kind of what saves him after the Lufthansa heist. Because what happens after the Lufthansa heist, which is what, you know, is the sort of second half of the movie is Jimmy starts killing everyone involved with it. Cause he just doesn't want to give them the money. It's not because he's scared. It's like a little bit he's scared though, but he's mostly just doesn't want to give people their cut. He just kills them. He doesn't kill Henry because Henry gets him drugs, like, you know, gets him drug money.

• 2:08:18David Sims?

  The Pittsburgh connection is kind of what protects Henry in that point of the movie.

• 2:08:22Griffin Newman?

  Now there's a problem on the other side of this, which is he gets addicted to drugs.

• 2:08:25Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 2:08:26Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:08:27Speaker 02

  I gotta say Ray Liotta looks pretty bad.

• 2:08:31Griffin Newman?

  You, you put some blood spot in those eyes.

• 2:08:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think the cocaine use is sort of catching up with him a little bit.

• 2:08:37Griffin Newman?

  Yes, yes.

• 2:08:39Speaker 02

  As well as his new girlfriend.

• 2:08:41David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:08:41Speaker 02

  He, he, he agrees to get rid of the old girlfriend.

• 2:08:44David Sims?

  Right. Then he's got Debbie Mazur.

• 2:08:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:08:46David Sims?

  She's a babe.

• 2:08:47Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 2:08:48David Sims?

  I, I would get in trouble for Debbie Mazur. I bet you, I, I, oh God, I would be in so much trouble.

• 2:08:54Griffin Newman?

  Have you ever seen Space Truckers?

• 2:08:55David Sims?

  No.

• 2:08:56Griffin Newman?

  She's the female lead.

• 2:08:57David Sims?

  And how does she do?

• 2:08:59Griffin Newman?

  She does well. She quits herself quite well.

• 2:09:02David Sims?

  The Lufthansa heist is so funny to me because it's basically just like, we realized there'd be a lot of money there. Someone told us.

• 2:09:10Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 2:09:10David Sims?

  So we went, we got it. Lots of money for us, but then we left. Like that's the, it's not like fucking tenant over here, you know?

• 2:09:19Griffin Newman?

  Money here. Go get it.

• 2:09:22Speaker 02

  Now, I know you're shouting out Samuel.

• 2:09:24Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:09:25Speaker 02

  He kind of fucked up. Maybe one of the easiest jobs was just to just drive it to New Jersey to get it like crushed.

• 2:09:33Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, but I relate to him more than any other character in this movie where it's like, this guy just kind of can't be bothered. He procrastinates.

• 2:09:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:09:40Griffin Newman?

  And it fucking gets him.

• 2:09:42David Sims?

  And then, yeah, like we don't even really see the heist. Which is kind of an interesting decision. And I think it's cause like Henry's not really involved in it, like the actual doing of the heist. Like he finds out about it on the radio and he's in the shower, you know, and like that's, and basically it's just like, the vibes are ruined. Basically Jimmy's just like a paranoid psychopath at this point, just starts killing everybody. They kill Samuel L. Jackson, um, you know, in his bedroom. Uh, yeah, it's just bad. And then obviously you have Maury.

• 2:10:15Griffin Newman?

  It's so much blood.

• 2:10:17Speaker 02

  Something I noticed about.

• 2:10:18Griffin Newman?

  The squib rigging in this movie is insane.

• 2:10:20Speaker 02

  Yeah. Is that they do another angle of Pesci.

• 2:10:24David Sims?

  Yeah, then just with the slow motion, him shooting the gun.

• 2:10:27Speaker 02

  But there's, there's blood already on the wall. Yeah. And it's like the kind of thing where is it a mistake or?

• 2:10:35Griffin Newman?

  No, I think it's that he keeps shooting him. He keeps shooting the dead body.

• 2:10:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:10:40David Sims?

  Uh, they kill Maury, uh, with the sort of ice pick through the neck.

• 2:10:45Speaker 02

  Maury's a pain in the ass.

• 2:10:46Griffin Newman?

  He has this great performance. Uh, that's, that's the worst death to me.

• 2:10:50David Sims?

  It's really nasty.

• 2:10:51Griffin Newman?

  It's really nasty.

• 2:10:53David Sims?

  And then we have one of the great needle drop choices of all time. We all know Layla. What do we know about Layla? No, we're doing the second half of Layla. That people sometimes kind of turn off because they're like, all right, with the piano, like six minutes of this. And he's like, yeah, that's the, like, the vibes are, you know, are leaving us part of the song. Like it's just the, the bodies, you know, the, the kid seeing the, the pink, the pink car and then the, uh, the garbage truck with the bodies in it. And then what's his pants with the meat? What's, what's his lawsuit?

• 2:11:27Griffin Newman?

  Oh, okay.

• 2:11:28David Sims?

  In the, uh, the meat freezer.

• 2:11:29Griffin Newman?

  So the character Louis on The Simpsons, there's Louis and Legs who are fat Tony's two side.

• 2:11:34David Sims?

  He does really look like.

• 2:11:35Griffin Newman?

  He really looks like him.

• 2:11:36David Sims?

  You know, the guy with the kind of crazy hair. It's, is it a piece or is it just like a perm? What is it? What is the hair?

• 2:11:43Griffin Newman?

  It looks like it is made out of rocks. And it's the darkest black you've ever seen, the deepest black.

• 2:11:52Griffin Newman?

  Frank Severo.

• 2:11:54David Sims?

  Uh huh.

• 2:11:54Griffin Newman?

  He in 2014 sued The Simpsons for $250 million.

• 2:12:00David Sims?

  I would say that's a little high.

• 2:12:01Griffin Newman?

  It's a little high. Saying that they built one of their most popular characters off of his reputation. Not just his look, but everything that he had developed in his style and his sensibility, in his attitude. Most people couldn't name Louis from The Simpsons.

• 2:12:18David Sims?

  No, maybe not.

• 2:12:20Griffin Newman?

  But there was a line of Simpsons action figures that was very successful and ran very deep into character selection.

• 2:12:27David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:12:27Griffin Newman?

  And that is apparently the thing that kind of broke him is he saw that there was an action figure of a Simpsons character that looked like him and was like, they're making money off of me.

• 2:12:37David Sims?

  Grab this tie.

• 2:12:37Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:12:39David Sims?

  Adjusted it a little bit.

• 2:12:40Griffin Newman?

  I bet they sold $250 million worth.

• 2:12:42David Sims?

  I was about to say, how much money are they making off the Louis action?

• 2:12:46Griffin Newman?

  At that point, the series was like, you know, we're, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel.

• 2:12:50David Sims?

  Right. We've done 18 runs of.

• 2:12:52Griffin Newman?

  It's Louis and Princess Cashmere and the Penny Marshall babysitter.

• 2:12:55David Sims?

  How many Simpsons action figures do you have, Griffin?

• 2:12:59Griffin Newman?

  I, I used to have an almost complete collection of that line. And then I gave most of them away and then I've been rebuilding it a little bit and there's a newer line.

• 2:13:09David Sims?

  Damn, you gave them away?

• 2:13:10Griffin Newman?

  I know.

• 2:13:11David Sims?

  How do you, yeah. You feeling good about that?

• 2:13:13Griffin Newman?

  Uh, no, I'm not. Um, but I'd say, I'd say, hmm, 20?

• 2:13:20David Sims?

  That's pretty good.

• 2:13:21Griffin Newman?

  I mean, this is a, this is a big town in Springfield.

• 2:13:23David Sims?

  What's your favorite?

• 2:13:25Griffin Newman?

  Uh, what's my favorite is a really good question.

• 2:13:28David Sims?

  I know. I ask the best question. I really do.

• 2:13:32Griffin Newman?

  Um, there's, uh, well, you know, relevant to coming up, the vampire Mr. Burns from Treehouse of Horror is very good.

• 2:13:41David Sims?

  Uh, that is, that rocks.

• 2:13:43Griffin Newman?

  Yes. With his coffin. Yeah.

• 2:13:44David Sims?

  Um.

• 2:13:45Griffin Newman?

  I don't own the Louis.

• 2:13:46David Sims?

  Love that episode.

• 2:13:47Griffin Newman?

  So he.

• 2:13:47David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:13:48Griffin Newman?

  Frank Servio couldn't murder me. Yeah.

• 2:13:50David Sims?

  Um, yeah. Uh, and then, uh, it's Tommy's gonna get made. It is right near the end, I guess. There's still half an hour to go.

• 2:13:57Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:13:58David Sims?

  Um, but.

• 2:13:59Griffin Newman?

  The last half an hour is just the spiral.

• 2:14:00David Sims?

  It's so shocking.

• 2:14:01Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:14:02David Sims?

  Don't you think?

• 2:14:03Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:14:03David Sims?

  Like the movie is setting it up as like, this was it though. It was gonna be okay cause he was gonna get made. And then he just knows he's in this shitty, you know?

• 2:14:12Griffin Newman?

  It's a bad room.

• 2:14:13David Sims?

  There you've got the like, the, the marlin, like the plastic fish hanging on the wall.

• 2:14:17Griffin Newman?

  Nothing good's gonna happen in this room. No.

• 2:14:19David Sims?

  Oh no. Yeah. He doesn't make it.

• 2:14:22Griffin Newman?

  He doesn't make it.

• 2:14:23David Sims?

  I, in my opinion, he kinda did, kinda, maybe had it coming a little bit.

• 2:14:28Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it's, I, there are obvious exceptions to this rule, but I do feel like best supporting actor winners usually either run the length of the movie, even if it's a small part, have one contained scene.

• 2:14:43David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:44Griffin Newman?

  Or just come in at the end.

• 2:14:45David Sims?

  But he's undeniably a supporting actor, obviously.

• 2:14:49Griffin Newman?

  No question. No, no, no. My, my bigger point is I feel like for the winners, you often want the best supporting actor candidate to deliver some closure on the movie.

• 2:14:59David Sims?

  Sure.

• 2:15:00Griffin Newman?

  And he sort of unceremoniously dies with 30 or 40 minutes left.

• 2:15:04David Sims?

  Right. It's important, it is closure in a way of like, right, that's their last kind of link to the mob in a way is getting cut off. Like that was their guy and now he's not even alive.

• 2:15:14Griffin Newman?

  The Mahershala Moonlight win is similar, as is the Alan Ark and Little Miss Sunshine win, where the absence of the guy in the final act, yes, is very powerful.

• 2:15:22David Sims?

  So vital to the Mahershala win, I feel like. I mean, with Pesci, it's also like, he basically wins the Oscar with scene one.

• 2:15:28Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 2:15:28David Sims?

  And then every scene he does after that is also good.

• 2:15:31Griffin Newman?

  But I also think genuinely, I think it helps his win that he puts in Scorsese, the later Great Train robbery, Tommy shooting straight at you at the camera, just to remind you at the end of the movie, remember this guy?

• 2:15:45David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:15:45Griffin Newman?

  Remember how great this guy was to watch?

• 2:15:47David Sims?

  I wonder if people thought about that acting, like, what was that about? You know what I mean? Cause like Marty isn't able to like do interviews right away being like, by the way, I'm paying homage to a famous silent movie here.

• 2:15:57Griffin Newman?

  Well, sure. I think it's also just like Scorsese doesn't like to moralize during his movies until the end. He, he delivers the hammer blow thesis like at the end of the movie. And that's part of it of like, the, the you are complicit, you know, it's, I think a similar shot to the end of Wolf of Wall Street of cutting to the audience at the seminar.

• 2:16:17David Sims?

  Yeah. And, um, the departed has ending, we may or may or may not discuss. I don't know. It's got sort of a bit of a button.

• 2:16:23Griffin Newman?

  A little button. Um, but no, but I think that shot is, it's like, this feels different if it's directed at you, doesn't it? You've been able to watch this stuff without any culpability.

• 2:16:33David Sims?

  Imagine looking down the barrel.

• 2:16:34Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:34David Sims?

  Like the other side is Tommy De Simone.

• 2:16:37Griffin Newman?

  Yes. It's pretty scary.

• 2:16:38David Sims?

  Uh, Tommy DeVito. Right after he dies is the helicopter is that sequence. I just want to say something. That is what cooking dinner is like for me.

• 2:16:47Griffin Newman?

  Every night feels like that?

• 2:16:48David Sims?

  It is so funny that like, yes, he has like weapons he has to deal, right? He like tries to sell Jimmy some guns and, or like silencers or something, you know, Jimmy's like, he doesn't, but like.

• 2:16:58Speaker 02

  Jimmy has silencers and he wants guns for them, but they don't.

• 2:17:02Griffin Newman?

  Can't put it together. What is all?

• 2:17:03David Sims?

  Fit or whatever. But like, he has added maybe a little too much to his plate with, I'm making meatballs and chicken cutlets.

• 2:17:10Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:17:10David Sims?

  Like, yes, for an appetizer.

• 2:17:12Griffin Newman?

  Stir the sauce.

• 2:17:13David Sims?

  And you gotta make sure to stir the sauce.

• 2:17:15Griffin Newman?

  This is why Kevin Corrigan's the most sympathetic character.

• 2:17:17David Sims?

  Yeah. It's true.

• 2:17:19Griffin Newman?

  He's innocent. All he was trying to do was stir the sauce.

• 2:17:21David Sims?

  They're just so fucking whacked out.

• 2:17:24Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:17:24David Sims?

  God, he looks so fucked up and good. It's so, it's so, yeah, it's so vital.

• 2:17:30Griffin Newman?

  It's the extremity of Ray Liotta. It's just everything about him physically visually is very extreme. You can crank it up.

• 2:17:36David Sims?

  Somehow managed to go fuck Debbie Mazur in the middle of all this or fuck? I don't know. Like if he gets it up, but like at least make, make out with her and kinda, they rub coke all over each other.

• 2:17:45Speaker 02

  I think he actually pulls him over. He's like, yeah, yeah, I'll do it. And then he runs out and he's like, ha, ha, ha.

• 2:17:52David Sims?

  Um, and it's like, he's right that they're coming after him. Do we know that the helicopter is him? We don't know.

• 2:18:01Griffin Newman?

  We don't know. It, it speaks to his state of mind. Uh, and I guess you never see guys come out of the helicopter.

• 2:18:08David Sims?

  No.

• 2:18:08Griffin Newman?

  Fucking, right.

• 2:18:09David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:18:09Speaker 02

  And I think also before that, we see Jimmy fucking with the FBI agents.

• 2:18:14Griffin Newman?

  Uh huh.

• 2:18:15Speaker 02

  And I feel like it does this thing of establishing that they're used to being tailed.

• 2:18:20David Sims?

  Uh, yes, totally. Um, but you know, the duel, the final fuck up, it's not him getting pinched. It's that she then flushes the drugs, which was their money. And then he goes to Paulie and Paulie's like, you made me look like a jerk. You know, you said you were gonna knock do this and you did it. Now I have to turn my back to him. You don't want to hear that from him. Now I gotta turn my back. And he gives him $3,200? An iconic Henry Hill thing, in my opinion, is that he complains about this. He's like, $3,200, like, what, like I'm an asshole. I'm like, he is not killing you.

• 2:18:52Griffin Newman?

  Henry Hill is an asshole.

• 2:18:54David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:18:54Griffin Newman?

  That's why he's treating you like that.

• 2:18:56David Sims?

  You're being treated like an asshole because of your asshole behavior.

• 2:18:59Griffin Newman?

  On grounds of assholdom.

• 2:19:01David Sims?

  And then like his triumph is that he doesn't get killed. Like clearly he probably would have gotten killed. And that's why he, that's why he turns state's witness. The scene, uh, where De Niro is clearly gonna kill Kathy is Smith ninth, basically. You know, it's, you've been there a million times. It's underneath the F train, right down there in the Culver viaduct, which is like now, you know, you can go get yourself a $60 fucking pancake or whatever. Back then was basically just like warehouses and factories and shit.

• 2:19:28Griffin Newman?

  $60 pancakes. New York's doing great.

• 2:19:30David Sims?

  You know what I mean?

• 2:19:31Griffin Newman?

  It's a five hour line.

• 2:19:32David Sims?

  You know what I mean by $60 pancake?

• 2:19:34Speaker 02

  It's not gonna stack. It's one. Down there.

• 2:19:37David Sims?

  Oh, there's like eight pie shops down there. Are you kidding me?

• 2:19:40Griffin Newman?

  But they only sell crust.

• 2:19:42Speaker 02

  And it's $50.

• 2:19:43Griffin Newman?

  And they sell out at 10 AM every morning.

• 2:19:45Speaker 02

  And people, yeah, line up anyway.

• 2:19:46Griffin Newman?

  For four days.

• 2:19:47David Sims?

  This is when Jimmy puts on his slutty little glasses.

• 2:19:51Griffin Newman?

  Here we go.

• 2:19:52David Sims?

  I love the performance of the guy. I'm not sure who plays the FBI guy.

• 2:19:55Griffin Newman?

  Uh huh.

• 2:19:56David Sims?

  But I love when, when she's like, well, I'd be able to see my family. He's like, no.

• 2:19:59Griffin Newman?

  Am I wrong in thinking it's Bo Dito?

• 2:20:02David Sims?

  No, it's not Bo.

• 2:20:03Griffin Newman?

  It's not Bo Dito. Okay. I thought I saw Bo Dito in here somewhere.

• 2:20:06David Sims?

  He might be in there somewhere.

• 2:20:07Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:20:08David Sims?

  In good fellas. Let's see. Let's see. Edward McDonald. And guess what? He was a real lawyer.

• 2:20:15Griffin Newman?

  Bo Dito is the arresting narc.

• 2:20:17David Sims?

  Oh, that makes sense.

• 2:20:18Griffin Newman?

  That's, that's.

• 2:20:18David Sims?

  And that's probably how, you know, yeah. But yeah.

• 2:20:21Griffin Newman?

  I love the quick, uh, Isaiah Whitlock Jr. check in as well.

• 2:20:24David Sims?

  Right. I need, I knew, I needed to check on this. This is the real guy who put Henry Hill in witness protection.

• 2:20:29Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:20:29David Sims?

  That's why that guy's so fucking good. There's that moment where he says like, don't give me Babe in the Woods. I listen to the wiretaps. When like, she's like, I didn't do anything wrong. He's like, I said that exact thing to Karen. You know what I mean? Like, and he's just so, where he has no sympathy. He's like, I want you to go into witness protection because it'll make him a better witness. That is the only reason. I have no compassion for you whatsoever. Like this is not, I'm not your friend. Which I love in The Sopranos, how it portrays how those relationships could get muddy. And like, the FBI guys would kinda get into the mob and kinda root for guys, right? You know, like they would kinda have their favorites and all that, but this guy is just like, fuck you. Like, I, you know, I know you're coming to me because you're gonna die otherwise.

• 2:21:10Speaker 02

  It's also a thing too with Debbie's character, how subtly you see now in the eighties, she's gotten into drugs and she's really gotten in, in a way never before.

• 2:21:21Griffin Newman?

  No, and she's.

• 2:21:21Speaker 02

  She's like really deeply involved.

• 2:21:23Griffin Newman?

  She's as stuck as he is.

• 2:21:24David Sims?

  Yeah. She's, she's testing the limits. She's, uh, you know, she's pushing boundaries.

• 2:21:28Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:21:29David Sims?

  I would say. Sometimes you miss.

• 2:21:30Griffin Newman?

  Just the really quick gimme shelter also over the cocaine mirror. I think it's with Debbie Mazur when he's telling her not to, not to use it all at once. But just that like Marty's like, just like, I'm doing fucking gimme shelter again, just as shorthand. I'm like referencing myself to tell you what type of scene this is.

• 2:21:51David Sims?

  Um, and then, yeah, that's it. He's a fucking schnuck.

• 2:21:54Griffin Newman?

  He's a fucking schnuck.

• 2:21:54David Sims?

  In the suburbs. His life sucks.

• 2:21:56Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. He did it his way.

• 2:21:57David Sims?

  You want, yeah, the best ending needle.

• 2:22:00Griffin Newman?

  Incredible.

• 2:22:01Speaker 02

  Who does that cover?

• 2:22:02Griffin Newman?

  It's, it's, uh,

• 2:22:04David Sims?

  Pistols.

• 2:22:04Griffin Newman?

  Yes, it's Sid Vicious, right?

• 2:22:05David Sims?

  Sid Vicious.

• 2:22:06Griffin Newman?

  It's, uh, it's, yes, right?

• 2:22:08David Sims?

  Yeah, it's just Sid Vicious.

• 2:22:10Griffin Newman?

  Yes, yes, it's so low. Yeah.

• 2:22:12David Sims?

  The best.

• 2:22:13Speaker 02

  And everything ended up great for him, too.

• 2:22:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it turned out perfectly.

• 2:22:16David Sims?

  The audaciousness of him being like, and you know who the real victim is here? Me. Like, where I'm like, buddy, you're alive.

• 2:22:25Griffin Newman?

  My life is boring now.

• 2:22:29David Sims?

  And Marty, you know, giving you the after, you know, um, after points of kind of like, he did get busted again. He's kind of on the straight and narrow now. They have gotten divorced. They could not handle the mundanity of life together.

• 2:22:43Griffin Newman?

  Only lasted a quarter century.

• 2:22:47Speaker 02

  Where does he end up in witness protection?

• 2:22:49David Sims?

  We don't know. What do you mean? He's in witness protection. I can look up for you what happened later years.

• 2:22:54Speaker 02

  He's so like publicly out, though. It's, I mean.

• 2:22:57David Sims?

  I know. It is interesting. I think what happened is like eventually guys die and people start carrying less and less.

• 2:23:04Speaker 02

  And the mob loses power, too.

• 2:23:07David Sims?

  Yeah, he lived in Nevada at some point. At some point, he married someone else despite the fact that he was still married. So that was considered bigamy. Uh, so that was an issue. Later on, he was arrested in Nebraska, Illinois in 2009. He was arrested. Eventually he lives in like Topanga Canyon, like near Malibu. But yeah, I mean, like he was on Charlie Rose and shit. Like he would host screenings of the movie, you know? Eventually I feel like he was pretty out and about. He died in 2012 of a heart attack.

• 2:23:44Griffin Newman?

  Wow.

• 2:23:45David Sims?

  He worked it for a time at a, as a chef, where spaghetti sauce, Sunday gravy was marketed over the internet.

• 2:23:52Griffin Newman?

  Wait a second.

• 2:23:53David Sims?

  I'm gonna look this up.

• 2:23:53Griffin Newman?

  Paul Servino has an extensive food line as well. I don't know if that's ended since his death.

• 2:23:58David Sims?

  When did he die?

• 2:24:00Griffin Newman?

  Paul, I feel like Paul was more recently, 2022.

• 2:24:03David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:24:04Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:24:04David Sims?

  What a legend.

• 2:24:05Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:24:06David Sims?

  Henry Hill Sunday's gravy recipe. I'm gonna look this up. One pound pork butt, pound veal shanks, eight cloves of garlic, two cans of tomatoes, 12 basil leaves.

• 2:24:18Speaker 02

  Isn't it funny, Griff, that people use pork butt?

• 2:24:21Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:24:22Speaker 02

  In cooking?

• 2:24:22Griffin Newman?

  And that they call it that?

• 2:24:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:24:24Griffin Newman?

  I'm trying to find a, a picture of the Paul Servino, like I remember like the Paul Servino tomato sauce. All the jars just had his big mug on it.

• 2:24:33David Sims?

  You know what? I found it.

• 2:24:36Griffin Newman?

  You found it. It's a really good picture, right?

• 2:24:38David Sims?

  Why wouldn't you want this on your pasta?

• 2:24:40Griffin Newman?

  Paul Servino Foods, simply the finest.

• 2:24:43David Sims?

  Look at that.

• 2:24:43Speaker 02

  That's classy, though.

• 2:24:44David Sims?

  Very classy.

• 2:24:44Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:24:46David Sims?

  No idea if it was any good. I feel like once you're jarring pasta sauce, you're losing a little bit of authenticity, but.

• 2:24:53Speaker 02

  And we should announce now the Blank Check Pasta Sauce.

• 2:24:56David Sims?

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:24:56Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:24:57David Sims?

  We're doing it.

• 2:24:58Griffin Newman?

  Blank Sauce. Yeah. This movie came out in September.

• 2:25:02David Sims?

  This movie came out September 18th?

• 2:25:06Griffin Newman?

  Never forget.

• 2:25:07David Sims?

  Never forget. 1990. And let me call up the old box office game for Goodfellas. It's opening at number one, $6.3 million. It's gonna gross 46 domestic. It's pretty good.

• 2:25:21Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:25:21David Sims?

  It's about double its budget.

• 2:25:22Griffin Newman?

  Plus 25. How much it make overseas? What was the worldwide total?

• 2:25:25David Sims?

  The number listed here is very small. I, I think it's, you know, they don't have the international numbers.

• 2:25:29Griffin Newman?

  It was a reasonable hit.

• 2:25:31David Sims?

  It was a reasonable hit and it, it had a long life.

• 2:25:33Griffin Newman?

  It has a very long tail on it.

• 2:25:35David Sims?

  It's made some extra money.

• 2:25:37Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:25:37David Sims?

  For the good people.

• 2:25:38Griffin Newman?

  It's like the comic strips, episode of High and Mighty.

• 2:25:40David Sims?

  And they are good people.

• 2:25:42Griffin Newman?

  Oh.

• 2:25:42David Sims?

  Currently.

• 2:25:43Griffin Newman?

  The finest.

• 2:25:45David Sims?

  Number one is Goodfellas. Number two is a comedy drama, um, based on a sort of semi-autobiographical novel.

• 2:25:56Griffin Newman?

  Comedy drama.

• 2:25:57David Sims?

  Very good movie.

• 2:25:58Griffin Newman?

  It's a very good movie.

• 2:25:59David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:26:00Griffin Newman?

  It's like, it's like memoirs?

• 2:26:02David Sims?

  It's a memoir of sorts by a famous person who became a great writer and wrote books and movies.

• 2:26:08Griffin Newman?

  It's not, is, is it Postcards from the Edge?

• 2:26:10David Sims?

  Cards from the Edge.

• 2:26:11Griffin Newman?

  I always think of that as being a little later. Yeah. That's a good movie.

• 2:26:14David Sims?

  Good movie.

• 2:26:14Griffin Newman?

  Good movie.

• 2:26:15David Sims?

  It's not like a masterpiece.

• 2:26:16Griffin Newman?

  No, but it's a solid, well-done movie. Yeah.

• 2:26:19David Sims?

  Of course, based on Carrie Fisher's book. Um, yeah, number two at the box office. Number three is one of the big hits of 1990 and it's going to pip, uh, Lorraine Bracco to Best Supporting Actress at this year's Oscars.

• 2:26:34Griffin Newman?

  It's called Ghost.

• 2:26:35David Sims?

  Ghost. Cause you're always like, damn, how did Bracco not win?

• 2:26:38Griffin Newman?

  I know.

• 2:26:38David Sims?

  Like Whoopi was pretty unbelievable.

• 2:26:40Griffin Newman?

  A major movie star, giant hit.

• 2:26:42David Sims?

  Had already been snubbed, like, you know, like was, yeah. Um, Ghost.

• 2:26:46Griffin Newman?

  Ghost.

• 2:26:47David Sims?

  Do you like Ghost?

• 2:26:49Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:26:49David Sims?

  Great. Ben? Ghost?

• 2:26:52Speaker 02

  It's okay.

• 2:26:53David Sims?

  Pretty cheesy.

• 2:26:54Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. It's good cheese, though. It's like Parmesan or Reggiano.

• 2:26:58David Sims?

  Sure. Number four at the box office is an episode, is a film that I imagine will come up on a new, an upcoming big picture episode that isn't posted yet. Gene Hackman, Hall of Famer. Movie I've never heard of.

• 2:27:10Griffin Newman?

  Is it the one with Mary Elizabeth Master Antonio?

• 2:27:13David Sims?

  It is not.

• 2:27:15Griffin Newman?

  Fuck. That one's called Class Action?

• 2:27:16David Sims?

  Correct. This has a sort of similar kind of like title, like a little two-word phrase.

• 2:27:22Griffin Newman?

  Interesting.

• 2:27:23David Sims?

  Stars Gene Hackman.

• 2:27:24Griffin Newman?

  Gene Hackman's also in Postcards from the Edge.

• 2:27:27David Sims?

  Yes, he is.

• 2:27:28Griffin Newman?

  He plays the director. So this is a big weekend for him.

• 2:27:30David Sims?

  He's doing great.

• 2:27:30Griffin Newman?

  He's doing incredible. Okay. It's got a two-word title.

• 2:27:33David Sims?

  Yeah, it's directed by the great Peter Hyams. I feel like maybe Tarantino covered this one on his episode. I feel like they covered a lot of, uh, Peter Hyams movies on their, uh, on their, um.

• 2:27:43Griffin Newman?

  I can't think what this movie is.

• 2:27:44David Sims?

  The other star is Ann Archer.

• 2:27:47Griffin Newman?

  I, I don't think I got it.

• 2:27:48David Sims?

  You've got, uh, JT Walsh in a supporting role. He never did that.

• 2:27:51Griffin Newman?

  No. I'm sure he was approving.

• 2:27:53David Sims?

  It is a reimagining of a 50s, like kind of noir movie. It's about a DA who's trying to keep a murder witness safe while traveling on a train. It is called Narrow Margin.

• 2:28:03Griffin Newman?

  Oh, sure.

• 2:28:04David Sims?

  I've never seen it.

• 2:28:05Griffin Newman?

  No, me neither.

• 2:28:06David Sims?

  Now, number five at the box office.

• 2:28:08Griffin Newman?

  It's a very red poster.

• 2:28:10David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:10Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:10David Sims?

  There's a train on there, though, so I'm intrigued.

• 2:28:12Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:13David Sims?

  Number nine, five of the box office, a film starring one of your favorite comic actors. I think you've said it's not very good. We've discussed it before, partly because of the actor and partly because of the director, who's a actor turned director who's made some movies we've discussed on this show's Patreon.

• 2:28:29Griffin Newman?

  Interesting. Um, is it in Eddie Murphy?

• 2:28:32David Sims?

  No.

• 2:28:33Griffin Newman?

  It's not a Bill Murray.

• 2:28:34David Sims?

  No.

• 2:28:34Griffin Newman?

  It's not Steve Martin.

• 2:28:35David Sims?

  No.

• 2:28:36Griffin Newman?

  It's not Gene Wilder.

• 2:28:36David Sims?

  It is.

• 2:28:37Griffin Newman?

  And it's one that Gene directed?

• 2:28:39David Sims?

  No. A different actor turned director made this film.

• 2:28:42Griffin Newman?

  Oh, I've never seen this movie if it's the one I'm thinking of. Is it A Lot Like Love?

• 2:28:47David Sims?

  Called Funny About.

• 2:28:48Griffin Newman?

  Funny About Love.

• 2:28:49David Sims?

  A Lot Like Love, of course, had the great Asher Fletcher.

• 2:28:51Griffin Newman?

  There we go.

• 2:28:52David Sims?

  No, Funny About Love, it's the one where he's got a baby on his head, holding a clock.

• 2:28:56Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 2:28:57David Sims?

  And the tagline is tick, tick, tick.

• 2:28:59Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:28:59David Sims?

  Which I don't really.

• 2:29:00Griffin Newman?

  Directed by Leonard Nimoy.

• 2:29:02David Sims?

  Directed by Leonard Nimoy.

• 2:29:04Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:29:06David Sims?

  So you've never seen?

• 2:29:07Griffin Newman?

  I've never seen it.

• 2:29:07David Sims?

  This is pretty late in the Wilder filmography.

• 2:29:10Griffin Newman?

  It always has looked very depressing to me.

• 2:29:12David Sims?

  It does look kind of.

• 2:29:13Griffin Newman?

  Everything about the movie feels like it's got a sad patina, a sad sheen around it.

• 2:29:17David Sims?

  Like, he makes another you the year after and that's it, right? Like then he's done. And then he just.

• 2:29:22Griffin Newman?

  Little appearances. He did that Alice in Wonderland TV movie. Like he would pop up in little things, but he basically is done with movies after that point.

• 2:29:28David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:29:29Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:29:29David Sims?

  Oh, he did have something wilder, though. Never forget.

• 2:29:32Griffin Newman?

  Something wilder?

• 2:29:33David Sims?

  Yeah, his weird sitcom that he did.

• 2:29:35Griffin Newman?

  Oh, right.

• 2:29:35David Sims?

  A year on NBC.

• 2:29:36Griffin Newman?

  And he was on Will and Grace.

• 2:29:38David Sims?

  Yeah, of course.

• 2:29:38Griffin Newman?

  He pop up.

• 2:29:39David Sims?

  Two, two episodes of Will and Grace.

• 2:29:40Griffin Newman?

  But basically he only does TV after another you.

• 2:29:43David Sims?

  Which was why? Because the movie started getting bad? Like, was he just kind of like, eh?

• 2:29:47Griffin Newman?

  I think so. There's always this misconception that like, he was so depressed by Gilda Radner's death that he disappeared. But I.

• 2:29:54David Sims?

  I think that's a slight romantic. I mean, obviously he was depressed about that, but like.

• 2:29:58Griffin Newman?

  He also remarried and was married until his death and had a happy final marriage by all accounts and did work. I think it was just sort of like the industry's changing and he's tired and the work is bad and whatever. Yeah.

• 2:30:10David Sims?

  But he lived, obviously, many more years. He dies in like the 2016 or whatever.

• 2:30:14Griffin Newman?

  He was one of those white whale, can we get him out of retirement guys for so long? That was the whole thing Spielberg wanted him for Ready Player One. Yeah.

• 2:30:22David Sims?

  You know what? He ended up with Mark Ryland.

• 2:30:24Griffin Newman?

  In a coffin.

• 2:30:26David Sims?

  Hello.

• 2:30:28David Sims?

  Funny about love. You've also got a death warrant. Ooh, what's that?

• 2:30:32Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:30:32David Sims?

  Good.

• 2:30:33Griffin Newman?

  That's all you need to hear.

• 2:30:35David Sims?

  Yeah, Jean Claude Van Damme.

• 2:30:36Griffin Newman?

  Perfect.

• 2:30:36David Sims?

  It sounds great. How have I not seen this film?

• 2:30:39Griffin Newman?

  10 out of 10.

• 2:30:40David Sims?

  Oh, a police detective goes to a prison facility as an undercover cop to find out who is behind a series of murders?

• 2:30:45Griffin Newman?

  Things go well.

• 2:30:47David Sims?

  And finds himself locked up with his nemesis, Christian Naylor, a psychotic serial killer who calls himself the Sandman?

• 2:30:52Griffin Newman?

  Well, wait a second.

• 2:30:54David Sims?

  Played by Patrick Kilpatrick, actor so nice, they named him twice.

• 2:30:58Griffin Newman?

  Written by David S. Gueire.

• 2:31:00David Sims?

  Sounds fucking great.

• 2:31:01Griffin Newman?

  Second build, Robert Guillaume.

• 2:31:03David Sims?

  This, I'm queuing it up. I'm adding it to the old watch list as we speak. Oh, I've never seen this. God, where they were just like, Van Damme's in the film. And here's how we're gonna sell the film. The poster will be a picture of Jean Claude Van Damme, and he will be posing in an action pose. The end.

• 2:31:18Griffin Newman?

  This is David Gueire's first produced film.

• 2:31:20David Sims?

  Nice.

• 2:31:21Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, he goes from this to Kickboxer 2.

• 2:31:24David Sims?

  From strength to strength. Number seven is Flatliners, the Joel Schumacher picture. Number eight is the, uh, the very fun programmer presumed innocent, um, which is directed by Alan Pacula. Number nine is, hey, we love it, Darkman.

• 2:31:42Griffin Newman?

  Darkman.

• 2:31:42David Sims?

  Sam Raimi's Darkman.

• 2:31:43Griffin Newman?

  We love him.

• 2:31:43David Sims?

  And number 10 is the film Hardware, uh, the sci-fi horror movie directed by Richard Stanley, uh, sort of a early cyber punky kind of movie.

• 2:31:54Griffin Newman?

  A movie you're a big fan of, right?

• 2:31:55David Sims?

  Yeah, it's kinda cool.

• 2:31:56Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:31:58David Sims?

  Yeah. So Goodfellas does well. Uh, let's see here. Um, the apparently the test screenings crushed. It's a little bit like WB was gonna open it really wide and they reduced it to about a thousand because of the walkouts.

• 2:32:13Griffin Newman?

  Too much for some people.

• 2:32:14David Sims?

  They were a little freaked out, but it does well. The reviews are spectacular.

• 2:32:19Griffin Newman?

  It only wins the one?

• 2:32:21David Sims?

  It only, it wins New York, LA, National, Boston, Chicago film critic, right? Like, it sweeps the critics' awards. Uh, it wins Best Film Picture at the BAFTAs, but at the Globes.

• 2:32:33Griffin Newman?

  And Best Director.

• 2:32:34David Sims?

  Yes, but at the Globes, at the DGA Awards, and at the Oscars, Dances with Wolves. Um, it only wins, uh, Supporting Actor for Joe Pesci. Um, some people thought that Marty might win Director.

• 2:32:47Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:32:47David Sims?

  You know, that there would be a split.

• 2:32:48Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:32:49David Sims?

  And Marty was like really bummed out when he lost. He said, they put me in the front row with my mother and I didn't win, which is according to Ileana Douglas, who's telling this story, which is such an Italian thing to say. He came home, they don't like me. They really don't like me.

• 2:33:03Griffin Newman?

  That's, he always brings this up, that that was the night where he said, like, they just don't.

• 2:33:06David Sims?

  I'm not gonna win.

• 2:33:07Griffin Newman?

  For whatever reason.

• 2:33:08David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:33:09Griffin Newman?

  They're never going for me. To your earlier point, David, at the BAFTAs, they did nominate De Niro for Best Lead Actor.

• 2:33:15David Sims?

  It's, it's, cause he's, he's first billed.

• 2:33:18Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:33:18David Sims?

  Sort of the star. I don't know where I would put him.

• 2:33:21Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:33:22David Sims?

  I don't know.

• 2:33:23Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it's interesting. Um, Dances with Wolves came out late in the year as well, right? So it was sort of like, once it popped, it was unstoppable.

• 2:33:30David Sims?

  Back when the Oscars, you know, are in like late March or whatever. So I think Dances with Wolves is one of those things where it comes out and then it has such crazy legs throughout, like, and like Goodfellas like had done well, but it's the scarier movie. It's more violent.

• 2:33:43Speaker 02

  And so Dances with Wolf ultimately just lays there, takes it.

• 2:33:48Griffin Newman?

  I don't.

• 2:33:49Speaker 02

  Cuss her. He always has sex.

• 2:33:51Griffin Newman?

  Oh, sure. When he's asleep and.

• 2:33:55David Sims?

  Forgot about that.

• 2:33:56Griffin Newman?

  I forgot about that bit.

• 2:33:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, clearly. It went over great. You should keep it in, double it.

• 2:34:01Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Benny two times.

• 2:34:04Speaker 02

  And so Dances with Wolf ultimately just lays there, takes it.

• 2:34:08David Sims?

  And then he makes Cape Fear a year later. So I don't know, like, I assume that must have, we'll talk about it on that episode. That must've just kind of been in the works, right? Like that was already spooling up.

• 2:34:17Griffin Newman?

  Yes. And remember, he owed Universal a movie from Last Temptation.

• 2:34:21David Sims?

  Right. Um, but it's funny, like this is a hit and then Cape Fear, I feel like is an even bigger hit, like.

• 2:34:26Griffin Newman?

  Cape Fear was his biggest movie at that point. Yeah.

• 2:34:29David Sims?

  And, you know, it gives him, those two give him enough juice, I feel like, to do Age of Innocence.

• 2:34:34Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:34:34David Sims?

  And then Casino is a little bit him being like, you know, I'll go back to the well.

• 2:34:38Griffin Newman?

  Casino speaks to how quickly Goodfellas had become canonized, that people were like, can you please do?

• 2:34:43David Sims?

  Do that again, please.

• 2:34:44Griffin Newman?

  Do that.

• 2:34:44David Sims?

  Right. Yes. And guys, mobs, please. And then like, well, talking, you know, post Casino is the little swell, the little like Marty Cooked, like, Casino wasn't as good as Goodfellas, then he does Kandun, Bringing Out the Dead, Gangs of New York.

• 2:34:57Griffin Newman?

  Bringing Out the Dead. Yeah.

• 2:34:58David Sims?

  I know, but I'm saying, right? Like, it's like the narrative kind of becomes like, okay.

• 2:35:02Griffin Newman?

  But also the second you enter the 2000s, it's like, are we ready to finally give this man an Oscar? I mean, Gangs of New York is such a complicated text to dig into.

• 2:35:09David Sims?

  But Gangs of New York and Aviator are these two movies.

• 2:35:12Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:35:12David Sims?

  That are not tailor made, but are made for Oscar attention.

• 2:35:16Griffin Newman?

  A hundred percent.

• 2:35:17David Sims?

  And they don't quite get it.

• 2:35:18Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:35:19David Sims?

  Um, yeah.

• 2:35:21Griffin Newman?

  Anyway, we'll go through all of that here on Blank Check, a podcast hosted by two podcast fellows. My name's Griff the Riff Newman.

• 2:35:30David Sims?

  David Wristwatch Sims.

• 2:35:33Griffin Newman?

  Davy Wristwatch.

• 2:35:35David Sims?

  Yeah, we're gonna go into all of it. And he made so many more good movies. And I think it's probably the most fun we, I'll have is talking about those 2000s movies. But Goodfellas, you know, pretty fucking good.

• 2:35:49Griffin Newman?

  It's pretty fucking good.

• 2:35:50Speaker 02

  So like we said, next week, Cape Fear with guest.

• 2:35:52Griffin Newman?

  Eva Anderson returns to the show from Margot's Got Money Troubles.

• 2:35:56David Sims?

  That's true. You know who else had money trouble?

• 2:35:59Griffin Newman?

  Henry Hill?

• 2:36:00David Sims?

  Henry Hill.

• 2:36:00Griffin Newman?

  Henry Hill. Should she piss? Henry has money trouble?

• 2:36:03David Sims?

  Um, yeah, Henry's got money.

• 2:36:05Griffin Newman?

  I need Goodfellas to be a TV show.

• 2:36:08David Sims?

  The worst nightmare of all. But of course, Cape Fear became the best TV show of all time. So.

• 2:36:12Griffin Newman?

  Oh, we'll talk about that next week.

• 2:36:14Speaker 02

  Okay. Also, over on Patreon, coming up in a few days, we're getting near the end of our Resident Evil commentary series. We have Resident Evil, the final chapter.

• 2:36:24Griffin Newman?

  Ah, except it's not the final chapter of our Patreon series, because we're also gonna welcome you to Raccoon City.

• 2:36:29David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:36:30Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:36:30David Sims?

  Final chapter, not so good.

• 2:36:32Griffin Newman?

  No. It's got a little bit of stuff in it. And our, our Raccoon City episode is a lot of talk about the 2026 Craig or movie, just to give you advance warning. That's a space where we did that. But also David recently did, uh, Critical Darling is a great episode on Resident Evil.

• 2:36:46David Sims?

  If you want more.

• 2:36:47Griffin Newman?

  People want David's resi thoughts.

• 2:36:49David Sims?

  Yeah. And I'm still trying to figure out how to livestream or Twitch stream.

• 2:36:52Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 2:36:53David Sims?

  Uh, my playthrough of Resident Evil 4, not playthrough of the whole game, but like a little, at least some of it.

• 2:36:58Griffin Newman?

  A little bit.

• 2:36:58Speaker 02

  You're down to do?

• 2:36:59David Sims?

  Oh, yeah. We're gonna do it. We're gonna figure it out.

• 2:37:00Griffin Newman?

  Little bit.

• 2:37:01David Sims?

  Little bit.

• 2:37:01Griffin Newman?

  Little bit.

• 2:37:02David Sims?

  It's just a bit of a hectic week or two for us, but we'll find a spot.

• 2:37:04Griffin Newman?

  We'll figure it out.

• 2:37:05David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:05Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:05David Sims?

  We'll figure it out.

• 2:37:06Griffin Newman?

  We'll talk.

• 2:37:06David Sims?

  Or I'll figure it out. I don't know. I'll just. Home one day.

• 2:37:10Griffin Newman?

  Thank you all for listening.

• 2:37:11David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:12Griffin Newman?

  Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. And as always, and got me my fucking shine drop.

• 2:37:19David Sims?

  About that.

• 2:37:24Speaker 02

  Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hostly. Our creative producer is Marie Bardi Salinas, and our associate producer is AJ McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeon and Alan Smithy. Research by JJ Birch. Our theme song is by Lain Montgomery and the Great American Novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minic. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon Blank Check special features for exclusive

• 2:38:06Speaker 02

  franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at Blank Check Pod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook, on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.