FilmDrunk Frotcast

This week on the Frotcast, LA Matt aka Matt Lieb returns from his ban to join Vince, returning from TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival) to talk Adrien Grenier’s NY Mag profile, Snowden and Oliver Stone, Nate Parker and Birth of a Nation, and of course perform a few segments of the “Royalty Freestyle.”  Brendan joins about 30 minutes in. We’re sorry. 

This week, we discuss Shane Black’s recently-released-on-DVD stooge noir, The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. Is it an action movie? A comedy? Does believability matter? Is Ryan Gosling playing Wile E. Coyote? We ponder all those questions as well as our recent news obsessions, like the cinematic rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, Apple headphones, and The Night Of. Panel includes comedian Joe Sinclitico from Adam Devine’s House Party, and Joey Avery, fresh off his one-episode arc on Fox’s Coupled.  4:45 – Elizabeth Holmes and the incredible story of her $9 billion fake tech company 10:00 – Elizabeth Holmes’ insane voice 18:50 – Joe tries to show Joey his future in comedy 28:47 – In praise of Brooklyn, and arthouse movies that are more than what you’d imagine 36:00 – The Nice Guys 42:41 – A digression into The Night Of 50:30 – Are we bored of “big action sequences” because we’re getting old or because they’re less novel now?  58:30 – News story of the week, the USA Freedom Girls getting stiffed by the Trump campaign 1:10:35 – Abbreviated emails and Crystal Corner, including The Ballad Of Big Dick Pierre 

Is the original Point Break a classic? Is it a good-good movie, a good-bad movie, or a bad-bad movie? And what does that say for the remake? Critics didn’t like the original that much when it came out, but by the time the remake came they were calling it a masterpiece. What does that say for the remake? Will it eventually be respected? We ponder all these questions and more, with the help of guest Francesca Fiorentini from AJ+. Comedian Joey Avery is sitting in for Bret this week, with Brendan and Vince returning. We also talk the hottest Colin Kaepernick takes, Crystal Corner, and your emails. 

With Werner Herzog’s new internet documentary, Lo And Behold: Reveries Of The Connected World expanding this week, the Frotcast is all about the internet. We discuss the actual documentary as well tangents from it. The internet is one the most scalable technologies ever created, but did our humanity scale with it? In Don’t Woke Daddy, we discuss “the satire paradox,” and Malcolm Gladwell’s recent critique of SNL’s Sarah Palin sketches and Steven Colbert. Are we actually trying to change anyone’s mind or just make people laugh? After that, Crystal Corner. Apparently “mysticore” is the new normcore. Hooray for CHAOS MAGICK. Comedian Jane Harrison guests, with Irregular Regular Matt Lieb joining Vince, Bret, and Brendan via Skype. 

This week on the Frotcast, Matt Lieb, Bret, and Brendan are all back in the studio for a discussion of William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971). Are the cops supposed to be heroic? Is this the best car chase in cinema? What is about a hyper-focused narrative that’s so compelling? All that and more, but first, we talk about Ryan Lochte and his Brazilian robbery (“hobbery”) story and Matt’s in-character appearance (as “LA Matt”) on North Carolina local news. We’ve also got Matt Lieb Improvises Lyrics To Royalty-Free Songs (aka “Royalty Freestyle”), Tales From NPR, Crystal Corner, and a second week in a row where I spend five minutes trying to explain to one of my co-hosts who Miles Teller is. Enjoy. 

We all saw David Ayer’s Suicide Squad this week, which wasn’t great, but is strangely fun to dissect. We discuss the strange development of Suicide Squad, then Justin Halpern comes on to tell us his own strange development stories, from Sh-t My Dad Says to present, along with a great story about John Slattery from Mad Men. We finish things off with Crystal Corner, and “Fill My Hole,” in which we name things to watch, read, and listen to, to fill the emptiness inside. Enjoy!  6:15 – My defense of my mild positive Suicide Squad review 15:00 – How Suicide Squad is bad, and yet the typical nerd criticisms of it are all wrong. 19:35 – Talking Jared Leto’s performance, the explanation of the Joker’s dumb grill, and how happy Jared Leto makes us.  22:40 – Movies that are Suicide Squad but better 25:00 – The list of Jared Leto’s favorite books 34:00 – Justin Halpern comes on, interrupting our musical segment 43:00 – Arguing over who has the weirder mouth, Michael Phelps or Andrew Luck 46:30 – The idea of having to sell a creative project after you’ve stopped believing in it. 48:00 – Justin’s wonderful John Slattery story.  52:15 – The insane development story behind Nine Lives 1:18:00 – Crystal Corner

It’s the reboot episode, where The Frotcast becomes simply “Frotcast.” Clean, rad, powerful. Hey, remember your childhood? It’s back! This week on Frotcast, we’re talking all about nostalgia — reboots, prequels, gender swaps, and homages — starting with Stranger Things. Is it even an homage or is it just a fun show? Then, Sympathy For The Drivel, where we name our favorite prequels and try to decide what other thing could use a prequel. Regulars Vince Mancini, Bret, and Brendan are in the Frotquarters this week, with Irregular Regular Matt Lieb joining via phone (LA Matt, #Squib). Old favorite Laremy Legel even drops by with a list, and Millennial Correspondent Joey Avery pops in to explain why Millennials aren’t having the sex anymore.  6:25 – Stranger Things (no spoilers!) 16:44 – Matt Lieb’s tragic story about being left out of the “suck and blow” game in seventh grade 18:30 – Does a bland or simple narrative help world building/execution 21:12 – The Night Of (again, no real spoilers) 30:00 – Sympathy For The Drivel 37:30 – Jared Leto corner 48:00 – “Okay, Shut Up,” with Brendan’s choice, The Naked Gun 54:22 – The new bumper for Matt Lieb Improvises Lyrics To Royalty-Free Songs (followed by him actually doing a song) 1:02:00 – Email question: What music did you listen to as a youth that you still do, and what did you grow to love? 1:13:13 – Laremy Legel joins us with a brand new list

FilmDrunk’s Vince Mancini is joined by comedian Joe Sinclitico (Adam Devine’s House Party), Matt Lieb (Flophouse), and filmmaker Bobby Hacker (Cars 1-3, not the Pixar one) for an LA edition of the Frotcast. The sound of Joe vaping throughout really ties the Frotcast together. We discuss comedy, and We Are Not Your Guru, the Netflix Tony Robbins documentary.  Joe reveals that he used to work at Trump University, and how that relates to the specific brand of dog-eat-dog masculinity that Tony Robbins promotes. Bobby Hacker reveals that he used to work in a Boiler Room situation, and we talk about the rich history of movies like Wall Street, Boiler Room, and Wolf of Wall Street, where people who love wealth porn miss the entire point of the work. Matt and Joe rap battle, we play Matt Lieb improvises lyrics to royalty-free music, and we discuss Revenge of the Nerds and American Pie as evidence of rape culture.  Intro – Matt introduces us to “LA Matt.” #Squib 7:30 – Bobby Hacker explains “digital make-up” in production. 9:19 – Blood Father, with Mel Gibson. 13:20 – Did Louis CK ruin comedy by being too good? 15:30 – Joe’s comedy rap battle. Joe and Matt rap battle for some reason 24:00 – Back to Louis CK without the rap battle distraction 40:00 – Discussion of I Am Not Your Guru, the Netflix Tony Robbins “documentary” (concert video).  38:58 – Joe’s anecdote about working for Trump University. 49:42 – Bobby Hacker worked on a cruise ship 1:02:32 – Matt Lieb improvises lyrics to royalty-free music 1:11:10 – Your emails.

Frotcast 300! I never thought the podcast that Splitsider called “consistently one of the most feminist groups of disgusting dudes on the internet,” and “regularly the grossest, least politically correct bunch of dudes” would make it this far, but here we are. This week, comedian Brandon Wardell (with whom I have a show at the Hollywood Improv Wednesday July 27th, tickets here) joins us to talk about the #DicksOutForHarambe movement (since co-opted by Milo Yiannopoulos) and review a free Smash Mouth concert. Then, Sh*t My Dad Says’ Justin Halpern joins us to review San Andreas and tell a Larry the Cable Guy story. We also have Tales From NPR and Crystal Corner. Vince, Bret, and Joey Avery are in the Frotquarters this week. Enjoy.  3:00 – Stephan Jenkins at the RNC. Is there a way to troll the RNC without sounding super smug? Does it matter? 9:30 – Eric Andre interrupts an Alex Jones rally, wins the Giant Brass Balls Award 17:45 – Brandon Wardell joins. We talk about our comedy show next week and #DicksOutForHarambe and the Smash Mouth concert he just attended. 31:40 – Tales From NPR 37:00 – Trolls, Ghostbusters and Leslie Jones leaving Twitter 42:33 – CRYSTAL CORNER 51:40 – Justin Halpern. Justin reviews San Andreas, tells us a story about Larry the Cable Guy trying to convince someone Obama is a Muslim. 1:32:43 – Your emails and voicemail questions. Including, what movie did you see as a child that you definitely should NOT have been watching? 

You’re either with Paul Feig’s new Ghostbusters or you’re with the misogynists, or so the internet has decreed, which is at least mildly annoying to those of us who don’t really care about a big budget reboot either way. It feels wrong to divert activism energy towards a ghost movie. I mean, where were the people crowing about proving the misogynists wrong during the release of Maggie’s Plan (insert other movie written and directed by a woman here)? But then people share pictures of smiling little girls at the premiere and you have to concede they have a point. I mean, those little girls probably weren’t going to show up to Maggie’s Plan. And Hollywood was going to make dumb reboots anyway, right? Maybe this one will at least be a “net good,” even if you don’t particularly care to argue with some dumb neckbeard? That’s my question to the Frotcrew this week (Me – Vince Mancini, Matt Lieb, Bret, and Brendan), though we also talk the most NPR thing we’ve ever heard (Tales From NPR), a 14-year-old’s woke slam poem, Crystal Corner, and of course, force Matt Lieb to sing fully-improvised royalty free songs. Enjoy and frot on. 00:00 – Ghostbusters (also Preacher, Matt’s tuna sandwich) 15:20 – Lebowski fest, and encounters with the real-life Dude, Jeff Dowd. 24:03 – Tales From NPR.  37:49 – Wokest slam poem 52:20 – Fully improvised royalty-free music jams with Matt. 1:09:31 – Crystal Corner 1:23:00 – Bret introduces us to ASMR, which is Bret’s quicksand porn, basically. 1:30:00 – Your emails.