Ace in the Hole

I also had just a mess of references.

You know, like, when I first read the script, I just was thinking, this is the closest thing I'll ever come to making, hopefully, that could feel like Ace in the Hole, the Billy Wilder movie, which is my all-time favorite movie outside of Vanilla Sky by Cameron Crowe.

And I also love Demon Lover by Olivia Isaias, and I like that I could put little pieces of that in this movie, and...

That felt like also kind of cut from that cloth of just having many different camera formats and expressing a sort of, I don't know, almost an atmosphere or subjectivity that you wouldn't access otherwise.

But I found the movie to be... very mean, like a very mean movie.

And not mean in the way that, for example, Ace in the Hole, you could say, was a mean movie.

Because here's the key difference, and I'm curious your thoughts about this.

Ace in the Hole had a really salient point about sensationalism about capitalism greed you know it was it was it just eviscerated you know the american landscape in a way that's that was remarkably power then and and is arguably even more powerful now i don't know what the point of kiss me stupid is You know, I mean, I know it's just a sex comedy.

I know it doesn't need to have a, you know, something that that deeper and salient going on beneath the hood.

But I also feel like there has to be something that justifies the meanness, because I think I'm talking about this, this idea of it being a fantasy as a way to maybe justify.

But I think...

I think asking if it's a 50s one is essentially asking, is this Ace in the Hole? So I'm not going to ask that question because I think I've seen every 50s Billy Wilder film except for Ace in the Hole.

So my actual question is going to be, my actual question is actually going to be, is this a Jack Lemmon film?

Yes.

okay I'm so glad I didn't ask that ace in the hole question okay so as far as I'm aware that leaves Irma LaDouche hope I'm saying that right and the fortune cookie oh is he in no god so it kind of is a 50-50 here I think can I have my clue please whilst I try and decipher what your logic would be for picking either of these films

You can have a clue.

And if anyone wants to know what's in my mind right now, it is Octopus's Garden by the Beatles.

I know we're big Brian De Palma fans.

Um, we were watching, uh, Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole.

These are the kinds of things that I think were really inspiring to us for this film specifically.

But my taste is also all over the map, you know? I love, I love screwball comedies too.

Yeah.

It's, you know, and it took, you know, people forever, and they still kinda talk about Ace in the Hole.

They talk about Ace in the Hole like it's underrated.

I'm like, "Not anymore, man.

Like, that film"-

I don't know that one

...

Ace in the Hole is Kirk Douglas.

Well, uh, what do you got next?

Ooh, Ace in the Hole

HoleI don't know this one

Uh, from '51.

So I might actually go more with Scarface just to kinda keep it a bit more current, a bit more relevant to it.

Mm-hmm.

To that, uh, you know, Ace in the Hole honestly is a good, uh, uh, is a good comparison, but I would say Scarface is probably, like, especially in the character of Tony Montana and how that kind of bleeds into Chris Hansen, I feel, a little bit.

Again, he's very animated.

Some of it is interesting.

An American in Paris winning out against Ace in the Hole for Best Writing.

I know you love that movie, Ace in the Hole, but I've always heard that it's just an incredible screenplay.

And it's Billy Wilder, so that's...

You know,

that's one that I'm a little I'm questioning on.

But

have you seen Ace in the Hole? I