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The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast
The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast

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The B.E.E. Podcast - 3/22/22 - Matthew David Wilder - SILVER

Bret lauds Sam Levinson's second season of Euphoria as a thrilling leap forward after a promising but inconsistent season one. Screenwriter Matthew David Wilder and Bret discuss the fast approaching Academy Awards and size up this year's field of contenders chasing Hollywood's most coveted honor.

The B.E.E. Podcast - 3/22/22 - Matthew David Wilder - SILVER

Comments

Euphoria is theatre kid garbage.

mortal trash

Bret you and Matthew make a great team together. Thoroughly enjoyed your conversation!

aaron weisblatt

M

Thomas Raworth

Right? How could Richard keep us hanging like this?

BrienPiechos

She utterly sucked all of the air out of season 2. Every other plotline had more tension, excitement, and promise. Watching her flail around like an idiot for the entirety of S02E05 was monotonous and grating despite it being designed as a high stakes chase scene. The show would not merely survive her exit, it would improve it.

BrienPiechos

Bret, note that there are dicks everywhere in Winning Time and Minx too. Finally! I'm enjoying those two shows as well. They both have their flaws but being set in 1970s LA makes up for it. It is just fun to watch. Winning Time, about the Lakers, has a lot of familiar actors. I think it is pretty hilarious.

BUtterfield8

I agree. They should continue without Zendaya. There are so many interesting storylines, and there is so much talent in that cast. Two years seems like too long.

BUtterfield8

You thought he was a cuck? He SOUNDED like a cuck but his opinions were reasonable I thought.

BrienPiechos

Pretty good guest. You guys convinced me to finally watch Euphoria, which I had written off as a propaganda piece (which season 1 absolutely is) without investigation fueled by deep feelings of utter disinterest for Zendaya, doubled by the media's insistence that she's many things she is not (sexy, interesting, etc.). While my bias against her as a media-driven sex symbol unworthy of the mantle was confirmed, the show is addictive. S02E01 was pure Scorsese. Matthew's best moment was railing against woke culture that has ruined western art, which I found surprising. From his voice I assumed he was a young, gay, hyper-shitlib but was pleasantly surprised. Bret's proposition that Zendaya is written out of the show so it can continue is probably the most sensible advice HBO could be given, but won't listen to. She's a drag on the show at this point.

BrienPiechos

I loved that Bret ugly cried over CODA.

Peter Walker

I loved that it happened a week after BEE declared toxic masculinity “over”. Err… seems not.

Peter Walker

Does anyone have a list of the film critics Bret and Matthew discussed?

Daniel

Lost Boys is a f***ing great movie.

grainpulp

Looking forward to the episode about Will Smith’s histrionics.

LM

dude please say something after your run

Collin Myers

Oh not another master cuck guest

Billy Vega

Guy Lodge

WH

I do think Yellowjackets did a pretty good job with their 90s soundtrack, def nostalgic.

Phoenix

New wave and synth pop are some of my favorite music genres, and I did listen to a lot of Depeche Mode in the 90s. But the point I was making is that hot, popular teenage guys as portrayed on the show in that moment in time would not be listening to 80s Erasure, INXS, etc, it wasn’t popular at the time with our age group. They would have been listening to grunge, or alt rock or gangster rap because that’s what was on MTV and that’s what all of us teens were listening to. Maybe it annoyed me more because I’m about the same age as that character and it just didn’t make any sense when there was such a music movement at that time.

Phoenix

So do I and I'm far from typical.

Dirk

I was watching Euphoria season last night - episode 2 or 3 - the kids are all drugged out, jumping into the pool naked. In my mind, I was like this is so BEE - it reminded me of a scene from the Shards reading - the pool party at Susan Reynolds’s house. I can see why this season resonated. Like last season, it takes me a few episodes to really get into Euphoria, but once I’m there, I’m there.

AshSebash

What do you think of The Eagles?

Matt Markwalder

I listened to Erasure AND Pet Shop Boys. (Still do as a matter of fact.)

Matt Markwalder

You can watch Dr. Broadway (Anthony Mann, 1944) online -- https://derechonoir.wordpress.com/2020/05/18/dr-broadway-1942-anthony-mann/

DS

Did BEE enjoy the Euro Flick “the worst person in the world” ?

Knokkel knokkel

I agree that comment irked me too. I've seen The Goonies and The Lost Boys on 35mm at the Alamo Yonkers, NY, near where I live. But I've also gone to see To Live and Die in L.A., His Girl Friday, The Last Picture Show, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter, all on 35mm there too. Most in the audience were Millennials, by the way. And, yeah, what the hell's wrong with Lost Boys and Goonies? They're both "empire" era films. We're nostalgic for them because we first saw them on VHS and missed their theatrical runs. Isn't that the whole point of reparatory screenings? Bret's appreciation for Alligator (another VHS favorite from my childhood) shows that he gets this type of nostalgia. Sure, it's not Jaws, but it's still a fun creature feature to watch on a rainy afternoon.

Billy Schafer

I thought Bret was going to do a bigger thing on <i>Nightmare Alley.</i> Did he do it and I missed it? For me, that's the best film I've seen in a theatre in the past year. I saw it, then saw that there was a black and white version also screening. Knowing that there is a big difference between making a b/w or color film, I looked it up. Yep. It was made in b/w. I went back and saw the b/w version. SO GOOD! Such a good time!

Antonio Primavera

Americans keep using <i>nonplussed</i> to mean something like <i>underwhelmed.</i> It pretty much means the opposite. It's Latin. OED: <i>so surprised and confused that you do not know what to do or say. Synonym: dumbfounded </i> OK. Moving on...

Antonio Primavera

When Brett trashing every contemporary piece of media he watches it’s always a huge payoff when he actually likes something. What a great testament to the power of Euphoria. I’m sad we have to wait til 2024 for more

Will

Concur, it feels try hardy--but I'm a 30 something millennial. I do hear Zoomers talking about Cobra Kai quite often. I only hear about Euphoria from my cohort, occasionally.

Dirk

No, nobody growing up in the mid 90s listened to Erasure lol. Gay OR straight methinks.

Dirk

+2

Dirk

Idiotic 80s movies are great! Flashdance, The Lost Boys, The Burbs, Big Business, Down and Out in Beverly Hills…so fun. How do you grow up in the 80s and not like those movies? And yes, agree, you can still watch high brow movies as well. Sounds like he has some repressed Breakfast Club trauma lol.

Phoenix

IMO, the pinnacles of teen/high school tv shows were Freaks & Geeks and Skins (UK version). I gave both seasons of euphoria a chance but got so bored after a few episodes. Euphoria doesn’t hold a candle to either of those shows. Teen dramas need an element of honesty/realism to be compelling.

Ryan

Just want to say as someone who goes to New Beverly and watches idiotic 80s movies-- that I also watch foreign films and classic Hollywood movies. We aren't all morons lol! Also the second season of Euphoria was awesome.

William Mendoza

Well, alright then, I guess they do watch. Just my opinion I guess, I personally think the show is so lame

Alex Waller

As a high school teacher, I can attest anecdotally that high school students watch Euphoria and talk about it. Which is rare at my school. I often ask students about recent movies/ shows, HBO or otherwise, and mostly I receive blank stares or grumbles - “Eh, we don’t really watch anything”… But Euphoria, here at least, is popular in a social sense. You actually hear students talk about it in the halls and at lunch. And, it appears to be risqué and dangerous for students to watch.

Brian Rooney

Bret, Elordi does a ‘Hot Ones’ interview. And it’s one of the better ones. On the surface, he appears to be full of himself. And then the interview proceeds and he turns out to be a righteous duude. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BDbBia1GwUM

Brian Rooney

I don't think anyone outside of HBO knows for sure what the viewership demos are. Most of it is conjecture that the audience may skew younger because it is being watched online more so than some of the other HBO series

Alex Waller

The main audience are young millennials and zoomers.

WOLF STAR

am going to listen on my run. will say more later, after my run

richard owain roberts

I'm about a decade out of high school now, so I admit to being out of touch. While I could be very wrong, I have a hard time believing Euphoria is popular amongst teenagers. It just projects a joylessness and a trying too hard quality that I don't think would translate to a mass younger audience. Phoenix saying it's a show about teenagers for adults seems about right. Also, contrary to Bret's complaints about helicopter parenting, at least in my experience in recent memory I don't remember many parents of high schoolers really caring or trying to control what their kids watched. It was a thrill to watch South Park in elementary school and maybe some of middle school, but by eighth grade I just watched because I liked the show, but no one really objected once I was a teenager and I suspect the same for others. My guess is Cobra Kai has way more younger people watching than Euphoria. Enjoyed the episode. Matthew was a good guest.

Alex Waller

I'm 42 and I love Euphoria. I've watched it since the beginning. It is essentially a show about teenagers for adults. I'm glad Bret finally talked about it. There are things about the show that annoy me, it can be overly dramatic. The flashback about Cal was supposed to be in the mid 90s but seemed so overtly 80s which bugged me (teenage boys trying to come off as straight were not listening to Erasure in the mid 90s, come on) and overall the show is so ridiculous on some levels that Bret is right, it's a piece of art. It doesn't make sense at times. It's like a dream. And it's exhilarating to watch. Even when they get it wrong.

Phoenix

Dang. Was wishing for Ti West to be on the pod. I get that the Oscars are next Sunday, but it only seemed fitting to have him on. Also, as much as I understand the hype behind Euphoria, i honestly can’t stand it, so I’m gonna be skipping that portion of the show. Was hoping we’d get some more film reviews. Lots of interesting movies out that Bret hasn’t talked about.

Maxwell Rinehart


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