(upbeat music) - It's the other side of midnight with Frank Marano. - I know, I know, I know. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me ♪ ♪ I think they're okay ♪ ♪ If they don't give me proper credit ♪ ♪ I just walk away ♪ ♪ We can take and take and breathe ♪ ♪ But they can't see the light ♪ ♪ That's right ♪ ♪ Because the boy with the cold heart catches ♪ ♪ Always mister I am ♪ ♪ 'Cause we are living in a material ♪ ♪ And I am a material ♪ - Adana singing Material Girl. She performed the first of three shows in Madison Square Garden during her. Who's that girl tour on this day in 1987? Someone who, I don't know if she'd be classified as a material girl, but she certainly is well dressed and quite a fashion plate. Certainly wears that clothing very well. Is Debbie Schlossel. She's also an attorney, an author, a political commentator, and a film critic. Debbie, it is great to talk with you again. Thanks for joining us at this early hour on the radio. - Thank you, great to be back. - Are you a Madonna fan? - I have mixed feelings about her. I saw her actually when I was in high school and college and concert. I think she is a great showman, showperson, whatever you would say it. She's definitely a performer. I think she has been very smart to remark it herself. Repack it yourself. Each generation, she's one of the few people that's been able to do that successfully in the music industry. I don't like a lot of the stuff that she has done over the years, a lot of the sexualization that is unnecessary and so on. And the famous kiss with the Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and so on. It's the MTV Music Awards, all that stuff. I do like that she has been very courageous on Israel, things like that. I don't like her multiple families that she's had. So I have mixed feelings about her. - You know, it's such a good point that you make about her being able to successfully reinvent herself for two generations, or three generations of fans, which is, you're right, something that most people don't. I remember when she was doing her thing where she spoke with an English accent for a while. I think she's abandoned that, but I tried that. I tried to do an English accent for a few months and it didn't get me any new listeners, but go figure. All right. - But he's from where I live. So I received from the Detroit area. So I didn't really say accent, not from here. - And you never experimented with an English accent from memory, right, if my memory served, no. Okay. Debbie, first, we're gonna talk movies and more in a second. I have to ask your opinion of the debate last night. Were you one of the 90 million plus Americans tuned in to this debacle? - Yes, and, you know, I watch, or I should say, I listened to the beginning of it because I went to see a couple of movies earlier in the day on the radio and the audio from the beginning part that I listened instead of watching was so striking. Joe Biden's voice was weaker than I've ever heard it. He sounded very raspy and like so old. And Donald Trump sounded to me his usual energetic self that had very strong, it was very stark. And then the TV part, I don't think it helped him much more either. He just looked to me like if I would blow in the wrong direction just a small breath or throw a feather at him that he would fall over. He just looked very weak, very old. A lot of times like he didn't know where he was, his answers trailed off, he wasn't. It was like he was half asleep, I, you know, it was very surprised because, you know, all the predictions were that, you know, with all these new rules, without an audience, with the timing on the microphones and all of that, that this would be a negative for Trump. And I really think, even though both of them did not look great, I think overall, Biden lost this by far because of those things. And all these predictions that he was gonna, that he's not, are all these claims that he was on drugs or he's going to be and so on with the energy levels of the state of the union and so on. Well, it just wasn't there. Maybe they thought he was gonna be tested for drugs or something because he just seemed to not be there and his energy level was totally zilch. - Yeah, I mean, I kind of wished after about 20 minutes that they would put him on some kind of drug, you know. But, and I'm not, I'm only saying that half-jokingly because he really, he looked sick, honestly, he looked ill. Debbie, there's now the scenario and look, people on cable news and talk radio are gonna be talking about this for, you know, days on end every hour, every day for the next, you know, however many weeks necessary. There's now people talking openly, not just on the right, but on the left as well, about President Biden potentially being replaced on the ticket. Either he'll make the decision to step aside or the DNC will make the decision to go in another direction. What's your view? Do you think that President Biden is gonna stick with this campaign or do you see him stepping aside and being replaced? If he is replaced, who do you see replacing him? - So until tonight, I really thought they're never gonna replace him, that's it. But I think now, you know, as you mentioned, a lot of Democrats are openly, lovely discussing this. I think it's gonna be very hard to find somebody who can win because I think most other people, they haven't been not vetted in terms of, you know, do they have this in their background or then in their background? But I mean, vetted in terms of what does the public think of them, the public doesn't really know who they are and so on. I really think the only person they could pick that everybody already knows that could win is who everybody has talked about before and that's Michelle Obama. I think she's very popular and I think that if she were nominated, she would beat Donald Trump. I think it would be very easy for her. I think anybody else, it's going to be very, very difficult because like for example, if you picked, if they take somebody like my, and I put my quotation, - Right, you're esteemed governor, yes, governor Whitmer. - Gretchen Whitmer, yeah, she's terrible. I would never vote for her. But she's a very high energy person. She is somebody that in certain circles is very popular. Most people around the country never heard of her, don't know who she is. I don't know that she could beat Donald Trump. It would take, I think Donald Trump would beat her hands down. I just don't know who else is known enough and could beat Trump. I just really don't. It's really only Michelle Obama and I don't think she wants, you know, a lot of these people say, oh, a lot of the conventional opinion leaders and influencers say that she would be president. It would be so easy. But the part is, the hard part is, I don't think she really wants to be president. I mean, she is enjoying the riches of being a former First Lady and doesn't want this headache. - Yeah, no, I completely agree with you on that front. So it sounds like you think the Democrats for lack of better options are gonna stick with Biden. - I think so. I mean, what else can they do? - Right, right, and now that's a good question. All right, before we talk movies, you're an attorney. People don't know, we're talking with Debbie Schlossl. You can check out her blog. You'd find her on Twitter. She's ubiquitous. You can go to her website, Debbieschlossl.com. It's Debbieschlossl.com. But the Supreme Court is nearing the end of its term. It's issued a flurry of interesting rulings. This week, probably gonna have a few more interesting rulings today. There's talk that they may even issue a couple on Monday. What are the rulings that they've issued that you're really fired up about from either a positive or a negative perspective? - You know, I really can't think of anything that blew me away either way. I think they've actually acted in very predictable ways to me. For example, they're called the conservative court and so on. Yes, they're conservative, but I think in many ways, they're a lot more moderate than people thought with the abortion ruling with regards to Idaho and so on. There are the reliable, very conservative three who I like, especially Justice Alito and Clarence Thomas and so on. But in general, I think they're more moderate than people who are all saying Amy Coney Barrett would be so conservative. She's not been that conservative. I'm really waiting to see, to me, the most important or the biggest decision is the one we're all still waiting for and that is the Trump immunity decision. So it hasn't been really anything that's blown me away either way. And so I'm still waiting to see what they do next. - Yeah, it's certainly gonna be interesting. All right, let's talk movies. There's a movie out called A Quiet Place Day One. Now I saw a few years ago, a film called A Quiet Place, which was with John Krasinski, a sort of a post-apocalyptic thriller. Is this part of that series? - Yes, so this is the prequel. This is the beginning of how everything happens and it takes place in Manhattan and it is before all of that. So John Krasinski and his wife, Emily Blunt, are not in this, although he is a producer and he co-wrote this and he's very involved in it. I love this movie. I thought it was very charming, very well done. It showed a really good side of humanity. It was that boring for a second, even though there's a lot of it where there's no dialogue because for anybody that hasn't seen a quiet place, it's a post-apocalyptic story where these monsters or aliens that fall down to earth from space, they're blind, but they can hear noises and they can sense movements. And so if a person is loud, they're going to be killed. And so everybody has to whisper and be very careful where they walk, they can't make noises. So a good part of the movie is quiet, it's violent. That said, it's not boring at all. Like I said, I really appreciated and enjoyed it. I thought the main two actors, one of whom is Lupita and Nyong'o, were just so good and it just was so well done. I very much enjoyed it. And for those of you in New York City, you will love it especially. - Well, I really enjoyed the first film. I think there was also a sequel which I haven't seen, but were you a fan of the first film? - I was, I liked the first one, I liked the sequel, but I liked actually this one the best. - Really? - I didn't expect to, but it was really good. - Because this is a prequel, if people haven't seen the other two films, they'll be able to enjoy it just as much. They won't need any catching up. - Absolutely, they won't need anything. They're connected, but they're not really connected. You don't need to know anything to see it. And by the way, it's a very short movie. It's about an hour and a half. - Oh, well, this is, this is sounding better and better. All right, this is a film that I am really curious to hear your take on because I love Westerns and I'm a big fan of Kevin Costner. And I've seen some of the interviews that he's done promoting this picture and I'm really intrigued by it. It's called Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter One. I love a good Western, stars Kevin Costner, would you think? - So I love a good Western too, but I was bored to tears in a way too long. This movie, it's not even just three hours. It's three hours and a minute. It's very long, it's very slow, it's very boring. It's, there's nothing new or exciting about it that I haven't seen done better and done more concisely. And just, there needed to be a lot of editing in this movie. There are so many scenes where there's extensive Native American dialogue with subtitles. It's a three hour movie. You don't really need so much subtitles and it could have been cut a lot of the discussions among the Americans, same thing. I just thought it was too long. And this is only Part One, Chapter One. There's a second part. I don't know if there's more than that. I think there's only two parts that there may be three. It's too long. It just wasn't good for me and I didn't find it intriguing at all. I was intrigued by the idea of seeing it. I was bored to tears. - There's a film out with Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson. I am sure that you're no fan of Sean Penn as a person and as an activist. But you've shown that you've repeatedly been able to differentiate your views about a person versus their work, a film out called Daddy-O. What's Daddy-O about and what'd you think of it? - So you're absolutely right. I don't like his politics, but I think he's a great actor. He's just really good. And he showed yet again in this movie that he is a great actor. You forget that it's him and you really believe the character. So this movie is about a woman who is picked up at the airport in one of the New York area airports and a New York heavy picks her up and is driving her back into the city. And he is talking to her a lot and he gets her to talk very openly about her life and it turns out that she's having an affair with a married man and he's talking about how, oh, I was married and had affairs and he doesn't, this guy doesn't care about you and blah, blah, blah. I didn't think I was gonna like this movie because can I just sit there and watch one conversation between the same two people for an entire movie? And the answer was yes. - Wow. - It was not bad. A lot of it was kind of creepy to me. He does seem at times to be a creepy hip driver, but I thought it was interesting. I thought it was entertaining. Some of the stuff that she also gets texts from this man that she is having an affair with, some of it was gross in my opinion, like could have done without it. But the parts with him, I thought he was very good. As we both know, having taken rides from the airport into the city, it doesn't last nearly two hours. I think this movie was an hour and 41 minutes long. There's part of it where they are stuck because there's a construction site and then there's an accident in front of it. So they're stuck for a little bit. But I thought the movie was a little long for ride from the airport into the city and they could have shortened it up a little. It's a little repetitive. But other than that, I thought it was interesting. Wasn't the greatest, but it was not bad. - Were there any strategies discussed in the film about how to get an English speaking taxi driver? (laughs) It's funny you mention that because I was thinking this is the only white American that speaks with an accent that's not too thick that I've ever seen coming from the airport in New York. That was something I noticed at the beginning. I have had one or two in many, many years. It's very rare. - Well, from what I understand, they actually send all the English speaking taxi drivers over to India and Pakistan and West Africa so that the people in that country can't understand their drivers either. It's a kind of a taxi driver exchange program that serves to confuse passengers on multiple continents. But we'll explore that for another show. By the way, if people are just tuning in, we're talking with the one and only Debbie Schlossl always outspoken whether she's talking politics, you know, Supreme Court or movies. Debbie, there's a film out with Emma Stone that has gotten a lot of buzz at Cannes. It's called kinds of kindness. I don't really don't know much about this picture. I don't know anything about it really. What is this film about kinds of kindness and what did you think of it? - So overall, it wasn't for me. It's got four stories in it with the three or four. I think it's four. Can't remember, but it was two hours and 45 minutes long. That's way too long. These movies need some editing, but it's got several stories all with the same actors playing different characters. So it's different stories. They're all weird. They're all not very clear at the beginning what's going on. The movie with all these stories, they're just all way too violent for no reason. Like in one movie, this woman, the husband suspects, she goes by saying when she comes back, he suspects she's not his wife and that it's an imposter. So he tells her to cut certain things off her body and cook them up for him and he does. It's gross. I don't want to see that. And there are things like that that go in in this movie. It's just no point for two to violence and the stories aren't that great. If it was like the Twilight Zone, I'd say cool. This was not cool and it was like the Twilight Zone. It was just stupid in my opinion. - You know, this might be a record in that. I think we've now discussed four films and I haven't heard you mention that any of them were trying to push some sort of a political agenda, which I feel like you tend to point out and you're able to detect a lot of the political subtext of these films even when I have no idea that there's a political subtext that's in the film. Maybe that will change with film. I saw this, some buzz about this film. It looks to me really interesting. It's a comedy that the star is in her 90s. I hope that that it's good. It has a lot of actors that I really like. I think this was the last film from Richard Roundtree who people probably remember from playing Shaft. Thelma, what'd you think? - Yeah, it wasn't bad. It was, I laughed quite a bit through the movie. It was an interesting story about this 93-year-old woman in the real life actor, student script is 93, who lives alone, her husband died a couple years earlier. She gets one of these scam calls that sounds like her grandson saying, "Help, I've been arrested. "I had an accident. "I need you to pay this lawyer to represent me." And then a lawyer, fake lawyer calls her and she ends up mailing $10,000 cash to him. Then the rest of the movie, she goes to a nursing home and is trying to find a way to escape the home. She's not living there, she goes there to visit a friend who is Richard Roundtree and tries to take his scooter to go find these people and get the money back. I laughed, I thought it was interesting, it was different. Richard Roundtree, you forget that he is the actor that played Shaft, he's very good. I thought it was not bad at all. I enjoyed it, it's a short movie, it's also like an hour and 34 minutes and it was good. So, the reason I haven't detected any politics in any of these movies is there was none. Unlike per usual, there were no gratuitously inserted politics and so on. And frankly, I think that makes a better movie. - Oh, so do I. - That makes me cry for crappy movie. - Yeah, so do I. All right, I am very curious about your review for this next film because I know a lot of the people involved with it. I haven't gotten around to seeing it myself yet. It's been on my list because it's a documentary about someone I know very well who's a friend of mine for literally decades and whose mom was my biggest fan and would listen to me every single night and would just send me the most encouraging notes all the time and the film is a documentary about the patriotic artist and conservative activist Scott Labato who's also been a regular guest on this show. The film is called The Relentless Patriot. It's in theaters. I am so curious as to your review on this film, Debbie. - So, I loved this movie. I was not familiar with Scott Labato. - Really? - Now I am. - Wow, when you come to New York, I have to introduce you because he's a fan of yours as well. - Really? That's interesting 'cause I thought this guy was amazing. His art is amazing regardless of politics. And I just loved everything he does. I think that conservatives could take a great lesson from him. I think the things that he does are very smart. It's very different. I think his forms of protest are terrific. I laughed a lot during this movie. I loved his outspokenness. I loved his idea that he did several times where he visited every state of the union and painted these flags and they were all different. They were all very cool. And I can tell this guy is not making a ton of money. He was raising money for these artworks and not only that, but I mean, it looked like he was living nearly homeless when he went to various states. At least at the beginning and maybe throughout, he has been, his art has been really repressed and he's been persecuted by the art community in terms of the galleries refusing many of them to show his work because of his politics which I think is unfortunate and tragic because I love his art and I think it's so interesting and the world should see it. And he's a heck of a lot better than a lot of the mainstream accepted artists who are making a ton of money. I just really love this guy in every way. And I loved his creativity and his forms of protest, whether it was against Facebook or against the New York Public Schools or the French Embassy after 9/11. I just loved what he did. It's very creative. He's got a lot of great friends and supporters. That's one thing that I think a lot of liberal artists don't have that he has been able to cultivate for himself. They took a lot of work and I just love the guy. I just, I could not say enough good things about this movie because it's just so well done and also not a very long movie. It's only an hour and a half. - Well, you know, it's funny. They did a screening at Mar-a-Lago of this film and one of the notes that a friend of mine gave the director after seeing the screening at Mar-a-Lago was that it was a little too long and they actually trimmed it a little bit to its current length now. So I think, you know, there was some work to get it to exactly the right length. Well, that's great. I can't wait to see the film. Scott was kind enough to invite me to the premiere but I had a conflict that night. I don't remember what I had but it was, I'm excited to see it. Maybe if it rains this weekend, I'll try and get to the theater and see it. But Scott is a great guy and, you know, he gets so much attention for his activism now for all the reasons that you just mentioned that I think people sometimes overlook what an incredible, actual artist he is. You can be the most left-wing person in the world and you still have to be in awe of him painting one of these American flag masterpieces in five minutes. You know, he, well, whatever. I won't make this all Scott Labato commercial because he's just a fascinating guy and one of my favorite people as well. All right. - Well, one thing I just want to add that came through the movie. He's a very likable person, very likable. - Well, and one thing I just want to add is that when Scott was in here last, he was kind enough to sign his flag book for me and he signed it to Frank Moreno, the smartest guy I know. So out of all the people that are in that film, I mean, he could have asked me to be the film, but of all the people that are in the film, apparently I'm the smartest out of anybody that he knows. So that's an important, that's on my business card. Now, I do have a two-year-old and there's a children's movie that is getting a lot of attention now inside out too. I haven't taken our son to see it yet because I'm wondering if I should show him the first one first, but maybe I shouldn't even bother doing that if the second one is not worth seeing. Inside out too, what'd you think? - So I have to preface this by saying I wasn't a huge fan of Inside out the first one. It was okay, the whole idea of it, that there's this in the first one, a young girl who has all these different emotions and all the emotions are also characters in the movie and they're all in this control room. It just wasn't for me. - Yeah, it sounds lame. The premise sounds lame, honestly. - Yeah, I thought it was lame. It's kind of contrived. This one to me was even lemur because now she's going through puberty. So there are new emotions. They kick all the old emotions out and the old emotions are trying to come back and get their control over things. The girl has joined this women's hockey team and she's a hockey prodigy. She's trying to impress all of the young high schoolers that are on the team and embarrassing herself and saying stupid things. It just wasn't for me. Also, it was very obvious that they tried so hard to be multicultural, which they, I think they succeeded in doing that. They went way overboard but didn't try that hard in terms of a story, in my opinion. I thought I was boring and repetitive. It wasn't for me. I think kids will like it because there's lots of colors. It's very bright and so on and it's a big hit. It's the hit of the summer and everyone surprised by that. So far, the hit of the summer wasn't my favorite. And by the way, I think Disney Pixar, which this is one of their films, has gone way downhill. The quality, the stories are just falling and there was no short at the beginning, which usually that's the best part of the movie. - All right, well, so maybe we won't make a trip to the theater to see this one. Debbie, if you can, very quickly, bad boys ride or die. This is Will Smith's comeback attempt after Slapgate. What'd you think? - You know, I expected to hate this movie. I wanted to hate the movie, but I have to say, it was very funny and entertaining. It's not a great movie, but in some ways, it was so bad, it was good. I mean, it was very funny. It was entertaining and enjoyable. I wasn't bored for a second. These guys too old to be cops, though. I remember the first bad boys came out 25 years ago. - Yeah, and they make jokes about that. - Oh, they do, okay. All right, so at least they're acknowledging that. All right, so the films to check out this weekend, if folks are stuck indoors or they want to give their air conditioners a break and go to a cooler place, a quiet place, day one. Daddy-O, the Scott Labado film, the Relentless Patriot, and maybe bad boys ride or die and maybe filma, right? - Correct. - All right, Debbie Schlossel, it's always great to talk with you. Have a great weekend. - Great to get you, thank you. - Thank you. If you want to comment on any portion of our discussion, you can give us a call 646-720-0635, 646-720-0635. 672-0063-5 straight ahead.
