The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast
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S6E22: Barbarian at the Gate with J.D. Lifshitz
🕑 Added 2022-10-24 20:36:47 +0000 UTCProducer J.D. Lifshitz and Bret Easton Ellis discuss eschewing college to chase Hollywood glory, unleashing a big screen Barbarian to widespread acclaim and the key ingredients of a bad movie.
Comments
paul dakota
Wish the guest spoke slower. Good conversation.
Andrew McGovern
Very good conversation
Thomas Edwards
I don't usually listen to podcasts at x2 but still found it interesting! Is it QT who created the pressured speech template for success in Hollywood? I guess the money men only have a few seconds for your elevator pitch!
Jonathan Davis
Didn’t like the movie, but most horror is pretty bad.
Thumperdinck
You make some good points. I think the best “reactionary” films are unintentional. If you can abandon liberalism while making art, you are able to stare reality in the face. While not reactionary, films like Blonde, Tár, Funny Pages, Vortex, The Northman, Crimes of the Future all have something interesting and true to say because they are not totally bound by subservience to a delusional decaying ideology.
BrienPiechos
Not the worst take. I just found it refreshing that a Jew went out and focused on making entertainment rather than yet another sanctimonious message movie. Personally I can't visualize what a reactionary movie might look like that wouldn't feel just as ham fisted as the liberal crap they've been pushing for the last decade. The few that have been "based" didn't really deliver (Dragged Across Concrete comes to mind). The early 00's stuff like Fight Club was great as it addressed systemic problems and and the death of the human spirit, without Talmudically framing the very existence of White people to blame for it. American History X, though ultimately having a cucked ending, at least portrayed the situation on the ground accurately. That was a good era.
Mai Tai
Love it. The behind-the-scenes people in the film biz who are passionate about movies always make great guests.
Thumperdinck
@Adam Skorupskass No you are
Thumperdinck
@Adam Skorupskass No you are
Thumperdinck
Fuck all this guy’s boring opinions on diversity and progressive films. We need a reactionary art film resurgence. That’s what we need. Liberal art is boring as fuck. What’s the deal with an Orthodox Jew being progressive anyway? That’s an oxymoron.
E
Another great guest. Thoroughly enjoyed this!
Abbie Barnes
This guy REAAAALLY towed the party line in a lot of his “hot takes”
Daniel Freedman
Great listen 👍
Oleg
really don’t get the hate in the comments.
Thumperdinck
Disneyland and Frozen 2 screeners within the first 10 minutes. 🤮Who is this looser? Barbarian was over rated imho. Hope to hear Bret discuss Blonde and Tár soon!
FlyingWaffle
The business cards from the American Psycho movie are up for auction! https://propstoreauction.com/lot-details/index/catalog/318/lot/94887?url=%2Fauctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F318%3Fpage%3D2
David Willis
The highest level of film critique right there.
Adam Skorupskas
You are a philistine.
Adam Skorupskas
You are an idiot.
Max Armstrong
Why did he keep calling it A two four LOL
Collin Myers
yes i thought the movie was fun and the build up in the first act certainly pulls you into the story, but the rest of the movie was rife with goofy cliches: the incredulous police officers; justin long dropping the gun; no other hotels in the entire detroit metro area that night??? um, okay. and also why would bill skarsgard ever under any circumstance venture down into that basement after the main girl tells him there's a dungeon with a video camera down there?? i could not buy it. i would have been in my goddamn 2003 toyota camry so fast pealing out down the streets of detroit as fast as i could and never looking back.
Collin Myers
scream/scream 5 was not a good movie. sorry. it was so bad and pointless.
Matthew Wade
I dug this one. Film talk with those who still genuinely love watching & making movies!
bpvalentine
That's true. Some of my favorite directors gave some of the sh/ttiest, most boring commentaries on DVD. Verhoeven commentaries tend to be he filling time by describing what's happening on screen at the moment, as if assisting the blind. I still feel the need to ride those to the bitter end in case one interesting nugget of information made it through. Lifshitz sounds like the perfect kind of name for a Larry David situation, haha. Interviews are such a mindfield, especially for up and comers. Or so I imagine. Hollywood is a small town full of people with big feelings. Maybe you could say that for the industry in general.
BrienPiechos
Weird everyone hated this guy. I thought he was interesting. Sure he's a hyper talker but at least he wanted to focus on what he does. He's about his craft, not himself. The opposite of that pompous goy hating crybaby Jerry Stahl. Lifshitz is the kind of Hollywood Jew that, if his type were still the norm, would have kept Hollywood producing entertainment products instead of beating us over the head with sanctimonious sermons on race and gender. Guy just wants to make enjoyable movies. What's to hate? Doesn't make anything Kanye said factually incorrect, but it would be nice if the Lifshitz types could wrest control of the industry away from the Bob Chapeks and Netflix HR departments of the world. He's wrong about Get Out and Peele though. Peele is a hack and his movies are derivative bordering on plagiarism. And they suck. Bigly. Barbarian wasn't shy about casting blacks in organic roles, or preachy, or philosophically ambitious. It was just entertaining. That's all anyone wants. So why does it have to be so rare?
Kristeen
No
Christopher Ward
Forget the Eagles, the final question should have been: “Do facts care about your feelings?”
E
Clearly those commenting on the rapidity of Mr Lifshitz's speech have never worked on Wall Street
R. M.
Wasn’t there a Lifshitz on Curb? He seems nice enough and enthusiastic, but not very interesting and seems to give overly positive safe industry answers that make the conversations boring. I definitely plan on checking out Barbarian either way. Have him back on when he’s forty, lived life a bit more and has something interesting to say. Unfortunately in the world we live in today the fact that someone has directed-produced a film doesn’t necessarily mean they are interesting.
slimshadyfan666
damage control! what are you man, a plant?
bpvalentine
First, Lifshitz seems full of potential for droll critics who embrace the kind of bad puns that follow creatives through their careers. Tough one there. But I shouldn't talk! (I'm most kidding here.) Surprised at the consensus against the guy. It seems like we're damning him for talking fast like Ben Shapiro? Huh? From my perspective, if I didn't already say it, I can't dislike a guy who loves movies. Like really loves them. Plus, Lifshitz is a Platnum member. Platnum members have to have each other's back. Or whatever the correct grammar of that is.
slimshadyfan666
Yeah I don't think that's the "point" of the movie.
R. M.
Don’t listen to him Bret, SMILE is not scary and is a direct rip off of IT FOLLOWS. I also didn’t see any reason why one would need to see it in theaters. Sosie Bacon’s performance carries the film and makes it worth the watch. We will be seeing her in better films in the near future. You need to check out Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix, it’s excellent!!!
David Willis
I honestly hated Barbarian. Unscary and seemed quite cliche. White people are terrible and the police are terrible. What originality…
TL
This was painful. I kept thinking back to the line from Annie Hall, “What I wouldn’t give for a large sock filled with manure.” What an annoying little shit.
Matt
Re the title, saw a comment on Letterboxd: ‘you can’t spell Barbarian without airbnb.’
Eric Macom
I had to look at my phone to see if I had the pod on 1.5 speed. That guy was unlistenable and way too name-droppy
Chad Daniel Russell
Gee whiz this fella talks fast.
FlyingWaffle
Well, it's nice to see that young people can still be very passionate and motivated to work in movies.
J.
If this guy and Tarantino had a conversation, I think I’d have to put the audio on half speed…
Romeo Delta Charlie
It'll be a sprint.
bpvalentine
I love trailers, too, tho maybe not as much as this fella. A video store in the 80s once gave me a promo reel from Paramount. It had these 3 extended and AMAZING trailers from the summer 1987 releases. There was Beverley Hills Cop 2 and The Untouchables (3rd was Mark Harmon's Summer School... I loved Summer School as a 10yr old bc of the Savini like Chainsaw character but... yeah). I've been trying to find the trailers cut on that VHS ever since... Iost mine. These were probably 10min versions of the trailer that essentially became a new version of the story. This means the films even more so coast on style and spectacle. Amazing. Each release of The Untouchables I pray this version ofbthe trailer appears. Never does. If anyone has it on VHS, please upload that treasure to YouTube or wherever you like.
Steven Menelly
Really liked this episode. I enjoy whenever we get a sneak peek on the financing, distribution, and production side of movies. Super interesting and not often discussed. Thought JDs recount of his and Rafa’s come up and various deals was fascinating. Thanks Brett, Adam, and JD for the episode!
Lachlan Reid
Agree with your thoughts on ‘Barbarian’ Bret. I went in not knowing much about the film, but it surprised me. It was tense, engaging, fun and had some great jump scares that made me chuckle at the audience in the cinemas who were shrieking. A simple formula, but it works.
slimshadyfan666
That's cool. I have a weird nervous system so drugs are super powerful for me--a sip of Red Bull is like speeding, a toke off a joint is like 20 hits of acid for a normal person, etc, etc
slimshadyfan666
The podcast was unlistenable as I've come to expect, but Barbarian was great.
Pp358
Interesting reactions! I enjoyed this episode because JD laid his path from A to B. Who knows who’s listening to this that now feels empowered to fuel through the bliss of ignorance and just ask for what the fuck they want from people who are there? And what about the effusive appreciation he has for his position? The OGs have plenty of wisdom to offer, but with time comes new rules and this episode offered some of that perspective. Not only would this be valuable for young artists, but the energy of the conversation was great too. Long live BEE Mondays.
Jorge Espinha
Ben Shapiro's speech disciple
M. Nero Nava
I sort of want to take back what I initially said: yes, he was exhaustive, and talked talked talked. But, he was interesting, knowledgeable, seems to be do good work—he was likely just excited to be on the show. It’s an aesthetics over ideology thing though haha
Mark DeCaro
Soon as the interview started, I became disinterested. Might be skipping this one. Very rare.
Keith campbell
Are Orthodox allowed to drink those ?
richard owain roberts
am going to listen on my run. will say more later, after my run.
Alexander Quattlander
Dude needs to chill with the red bulls.
Keith campbell
The most interesting thing about it was exposure to the hyperactive personality type who succeeds in Hollywood. Otherwise a young guy who hasn’t had time to gather the bitter and outrageous stories that make Bret’s elderly guests so good
Tom
I couldn't listen to it. Seems like a nice guy and nothing personal but that level of intensity/fast talking was too much for me, and I'm literally on uppers right now. But perfume nationalist episode was so good I'll relisten to that 💙
Patrick
Just finished episode. Great all film episode! Loved the impression of QT by JD towards latter third. About to start Barbarian. 👊
M. Nero Nava
This one was rough. Decent guest but just exhausting to listen to. It was almost a conversation
Nick B
BARBARIAN was fantastic. Went opening night at AMC Century City, theater was packed. Agree with your sentiments that it’s so strong because it’s so simple. A great year for horror (minus HALLOWEEN ENDS, unfortunately). Ti West’s X, FRESH, PREY, SCREAM and shockingly the HELLRAISER reboot worked.
Kerry
I’ve never talked to anyone that loves trailers like I do, weirdly validating and cool to hear someone acknowledge the work of art they are. We went to the Beverly Cinema when we visited LA in March, so glad we did, it was awesome to experience and recommend to anyone that is visiting.
bpvalentine
Can't wait! I'm beginning to get that dopamine hit when I realize it's Monday and it's time to look out for the BEE sholder tap.
Normaling
Incredible episode. JD is not only the most knowledgeable under 40 movie guest this year, he also lapped Adam as the fastest talking human in BEE land.
PETER GREER
Wonderful fun episode 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🍻🥂
