96 Greers

In February, we asked a deeply inane question:  What Do Women Want?  In March, we asked an even more inane question:  What Do Children Want?  Two dozen episodes into Judy Greer's filmography, and we have yet to cover a work aimed specifically at children (unless you count Rusty's Learning to Listen: Part 8).  As a pair of childless film snobs who find themselves out to sea, we dip our toes into the family move genre with the latest film from singular Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon (The Secret of Kells, The Breadwinner), delve into diverting interpretations of the story, and go off the deep end with celebrity voice performances.  What you are about to listen to is not a news broadcast.

STOP!  Are you aware that you are currently on the Internet?  When's the last time you even looked up from that screen?  Are you even aware what's happening to The Children?  Or maybe you yourself are so enthralled by this terrible technology that you are already lost in the dark labyrinth of mild BDSM fantasies, horny housewives in baggy sweaters, photos of skinny white girls, photos of skinny white girls in WIGS, and Carl Sagan.  Prepare yourself for 2014 metalinear moral panic drama Men, Women, and Children, which uncovers the horrible things that can happen when Jason Reitman gets behind a camera without Diablo Cody providing  appropriate supervision.
Content notes: suicide/depression, eating disorders, child abuse, addiction

Join Reg and Patrick as they live, laugh, and love through the Nancy Meyers written and directed rom-com What Women Want.  What do women want:  a living wage, professional relationships built on mutual respect, and bodily autonomy?  Maybe, but have you considered: Mel Gibson?  Reg and Patrick have, because he's the protagonist of this movie!  They didn't have a choice.
 
Content note: suicidal ideation

Prepare your earholes, because 96 Greers is coming in hot with a Lemon party.  Reg and Patrick bare it all:  their feelings on 2017 dark comedy Lemon, director Janicza Bravo's other work (including 2020 Twitter-plotted sensation Zola), and the use of unlikable characters and cringey situations to create comedy.  After exploring multiple positions, the Other Segment finds them spitting and swallowing with a lemon-flavored taste test.  Don't miss this episode-- after all, we're not getting any younger! 

Well met, gentle friends, and harken to another discourse with Reg and Patrick, spirited to you through your enchanted box of wonders!  On this fine day, we turn our thoughts to a fanciful tale spun by M. Night Shyamalan, entitled The Village.  If you know not wherefore this missive is written in such a manner, perchance you would benefit greatly from watching The Village first, as this discussion teems with bedeviling spoilers.  Let us sally forth, my fine companions! 

Holy sibling rivalry Batman, it's another mumblecore episode!  Well, it's a Duplass Brothers episode.  Perhaps those two descriptors aren't quite as interchangeable as Patrick and Reg had assumed.  Jeff Who Lives at Home has us pondering the physics of sinking cars, business communication trends of 2010, and what Ed Helms is like when he goes full Hollywood.  Save your ear-fork for the Other Segment, we're serving up a best movies of 2023 recap (kind of)!
 
(Correction:  the talented and hilarious director of The People's Joker is Vera Drew.  The Mike Leigh historical drama about a kindly abortion provider portrayed by Immelda Staunton is Vera Drake.  Both are in the category of "net positive for cinema named Vera D" so that's not a total failure for Reg?  More like a C-.)

This episode is being published a little late, but don't worry, we weren't giving you the Shaft.  More recent roles have seen the ever-Super Fly Judy Greer playing a White Mama, but on this episode we go back to 2003's action comedy The Hebrew Hammer, a blaxploitation homage with a Jewish twist.  Pour yourself a cup of Coffy and listen to Patrick and Reg get a little Uptight as they navigate the punching-down tendencies of oughts comedy in a film regarding two communities that neither of them are part of.
Content warning:  detailed discussion of food and eating noises, heads up given in-episode
Music in this episode:  "D'Bronx Tanz" by Tres Tristes Tangos

Reg and Patrick go on an adventure to the Chicago International Film Festival to see the premiere of Eric LaRue, the directorial debut of Judy Greer's Pottersville co-star Michael Shannon and focuses on the emotional aftermath for parents whose children were involved in a school shooting.  We talk about our expectations going in and then time warp to the day after the screening to see if those expectations were met.  And then we time warp again at the end of the episode for a very special Other Segment! 

It's damn near impossible to be a prolific Hollywood actor in the 21st century without being in a franchise or two.  Judy Greer plays Laurie Strode's daughter Karen in David Gordon Green's Halloween, a sequel to John Carpenter's Halloween.  Reg and Patrick talk about the inevitable teenage drama plot lines in slasher movies, stan Lumpy, and attempt to convince themselves that podcasters make for interesting movie characters.
Content note:  our discussion includes detailed descriptions of fictional murder scenes. 

Get ready for an unhinged episode of 96 Greers that delves into the bewildering world of Elizabethtown, the film that inspired the phrase "manic pixie dream girl."  Reg is hopped up on goofballs! Patrick is calling out other film podcasts by name!  Porn keyword search jokes!  Experiments on children without institutional review board approval!  Rate, review and subscribe-- if you dare....