"Dr. I need your help!" Sure, what I can do is hire a man to take your seat on an airplane, have you sit next to me where I behave like a crazy person, and then when you speak to the flight attendant, she will accuse you of harassment. After that, I can hire a judge in her courtroom, she will pretend to be sensing you to my anger management class. By the way, you'll have to hire a real lawyer and take time off from work to attend this fake trial. And, more than once, the anger management session won't be fake though. I'm going to spend all my time helping you and have my other patients operate as props. It won't be entirely clear why they would agree to this, but never mind that. I will then move into your apartment, go to your workplace, embarrass you in front of your boss, and on top of that, I will cause a series of traffic accidents. Somewhere in there, you'll be forced to fight a Buddhist priest and be involved in a brawl at a bar that the patrons may or may not have been aware was part of my plan. But anyway, the point to all of this psychological manipulation and torture is that you're going to learn to stick up for yourself. Doctor, what are you talking about? I just need your help recommending a dentist. Oh, sorry. I did know a dentist, but he was eaten by a big green plant from outer space. Are you making a reference? No, but I do want to say that if you ever find yourself locked up in an insane asylum for raping a 15-year-old girl, remember, you, and not the overworked nurse who has to deal with your bullshit, are the hero. Are you sure you aren't referencing movies Jack Douglas had started? Who's Jack Nicholson? But before you answer that, can you tell me what kind of world we live in where a man dressed up as a bat gets all my press? This town needs an enema. Okay, that was definitely from Batman. Tell me the truth. You can't handle the truth. Okay, I really should have seen that coming. [Music] Welcome to Does This Still Work? The podcast is going to lose an ass. Does this still work? I'm Joe Dixon. And I'm George Romaka, and today we're discussing Anger Management from 2003 and some historical context. First, podcast-y stuff. You can reach us at dtswpod@gmail.com on Facebook, Letterboxed, and on our YouTube channel. Joe is on Blue Sky at Joe Dixon dot bsky dot social. Please tell your friends about us. Even the ones who feel pretty, oh so pretty, and leave five-star ratings everywhere. You can pick what we watch and get extra per episode content by funding us on Patreon for as little as a dollar a month at patreon dot com slash dtswpod. Just like our newest patrons, Nanya Biddness, and Athena Atrotone. Thank you so much for supporting the podcast. Yes, thank you very much. Now Joe, take us back to 2003. [Music] And that's the way it was. Even though Anger Management does have some scenes of Boston, I'm going to stick to New York. Not that region really matters since the little in this film relates to real life in 2003, whether in Boston or New York or anywhere else. But anyway, if you recall the top events from 2003, you'll remember that they involved the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, the invasion of Iraq, and SARS was a thing. Does anybody remember SARS? SARS, also known as severe respiratory syndrome. It mainly affected people in Asia. Only 27 people in America got it, and nobody died from it here. 30 thing people died in Singapore, however, which I believe had the highest cases of fatalities. But here's the thing. You know what SARS was? Why? It was a coronavirus. [Gasp] That's right. Coronavirus didn't start in 2019 with COVID. It's been around for a long time. Well, I mean, it is a family of viruses. Yes, it is. Now none of this has anything to do with this movie, though. And so much as this movie looks at medicine, it's strictly of the psychological version. Did anything happen with head trickers in '03? As a matter of fact, yes. Beginning in 2002, according to the American Psychological Association, psychologists started getting the right to begin prescribing cyclotropic medication to their patients. It started in New Mexico, and of course, that made its way to New York. George, read this headline from this 2003 article in New York Magazine, "Pill Culture Pops." I will quote, "We've entered the golden age of self-medication. Drugs have become like hair products or cosmetics. This is brain styling, not mind-altering. The early buzz was that Prozac makes you a different person, changes you fundamentally, if subtly. But habitual drug users that we are, we know that's not true. You, on your meds, only less freaky and more well-rested." Hey, I'm going to interrupt there to say that is absent fucking lutely the case. Okay. I have ADHD. I have a prescription. I have a diagnosis of ADHD. I got that when I was 29. I have heard adults with ADHD get put on meds, and then they complain that it has sapped them of their creativity, or that it numbed them out. That's not what happened. What happened was you didn't have any drive to do any of the shit you were doing. You were acting randomly, and now that you have control over it, you don't know what the fuck to do, and you don't feel like sitting down and actually learning a skill set. I came back to the article. "We have been listening to Prozac now for over 10 years, and at time, SSRI's selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in case you're not on one, has become an socially acceptable acidified." Not that long ago, the only people who used prescription drugs for their mental health were the deeply and obviously messy. That's what I'm directly quoting that people. It says, "Yep, deeply and obviously messy." That's what the article said. Yes. "At that time, the crack epidemic still rage parenthetically." For some fucking reason, they put that parenthetically in the middle of that sentence. "At that time, the crack epidemic is always rage." You wouldn't have talked to your colleagues about what you took for insomnia. You bum cigarettes off your friends instead of ativan, and it might not even have occurred to you to take a pill for your garden variety, depression, or anxiety. Now the question is not, should I take something? It, am I taking it enough, or am I taking the right ones? And any lingering doubts we had about drugging our way to better mental health seems to have been washed away in the past two dark years. End quote. That's a fucking weird sentence right there. Like, it's dark that we, that our doubts that we could actually medicate ourselves into better mental health are gone. That like, we proved we can do that. That's dark. I guess the implication is it's bad that we're taking pills, I'm supposed to, I don't know, doing something else suffering through it. I don't know. To be honest, I didn't read the whole article. So I don't know what this was. Shame on you, Joe. Shame. Well, it's linked in the, in our notes, if anybody wants to read the whole goddamn thing. Anyway, so if rather than doing whatever the fuck Jack Nicholson is doing to Adam Sandler, he had simply prescribed him some meds, we would have a much different movie. George, can you think of any drugs Adam Sandler, or any of the characters that's better, could have used that may have worked better than the therapy presented in this movie? I'm not sure that his problem would be solved by medication. His problem was trauma. Like if you strip away the bullshit comedy in this movie, his problem was trauma inflicted during childhood. What he needs is therapy. He needs proper therapy. He needs like cognitive behavioral therapy to address his lack of ability to stand up for himself. But he also needs trauma based therapies to take that moment in childhood that we will get to and turn it into a memory instead of something he re-experiences every time he goes to kiss his girlfriend in public. Right. Which is a weird thing to be what it is. We'll get into it when we talk about that whole scene. But here's the thing. Isn't Jack Nicholson just giving him more trauma rather than helping him deal with trauma? Yes, Joe. That's absolutely happening in this movie. This movie is full of shit. We'll get there. Also, big human science news from that year was the Human Genome. Wahoo, read this headline from the Daily News George, "Human genetic map nearly complete." We had like 22 out of the 23 chromosomes. I guess. Now here are a few things. Human beings have gotten out of having our genes mapped. It helps doctors prescribe personalized treatments. It is helps scientists to understand how one's genes can contribute to diseases. The mapping of the Y chromosome can assist in learning what fertility treatments will work. This is all a very big deal. Now, before we get to the film, as you would imagine, many psychologists have to take this movie over the years. It turns out, some of the things in the film are real techniques at controlling one's anger. The "I feel pretty" exercise is stupid, but doctors do have methods, not unlike that for people to employ to help distract them from their rage. Obviously, where they all sit around and talk is straight out of talking cures. The film also demonstrates that anger exists in a person even when they seem calm. Passive aggressive people supposedly struggle the most with their anger. These people tend to keep their tempers tightly held with no healthy outlet. Which is something we all need, a place we can let out our fury that doesn't result in jail time or destruction of our relationships. Yup. And I really wish this film had done a better job at showing that as opposed to the absolute insane stuff check mix of those to this more man in this movie. Yup. Anyway, George tells about anger management. Alright, this was directed by Peter Segal. Who's worked both George and I have seen in Mega Gun 33 and the 3rd. And I've seen him Nutty Professor 2. And this was written by David Dorfman. Wonder if he named the main character after himself. Blurbs. IMDB says, "Dave Buzznick is a businessman who is wrongly sentenced to an anger management program where he meets an aggressive instructor." It's gonna be a real twist there actually because it turns out sentenced may not be the proper word to use there. And on Tubi, because I felt cheap. "When a mild-mannered guy gets into a brawl, the court remains him to an anger management class where the aggressive therapist could drive anyone mad." And again, mmm, the court remains not exactly. Yeah. So the film opens in 1978 Brooklyn, backed by Blondie's absolute earworm heart of glass. Young David Buzznick is eyeing his crush, Sarah. They compliment each other's T-shirts. We learn that to school bully Arnie Shankman, who is giving a wedgie to some kid, has a sister who went insane. Sarah dares David to kiss her in front of everyone. Before that can happen, Arnie pantses him, eliciting laughs and jeers from literally everybody as if nobody has a shred of common decency. [Laughter] Even old ladies are mocking this 8-year-old's penis size. I mean, that is so clearly ludicrous. What would have happened in any place but the word of this dumb movie is that kid, the people would have ran over that kid and go like, "What are you doing? Probably smack them because it's 1978." And the boy would have just pulled up his pants. And that really would have been the end of it. And some adults would have been over, "Hey, are you okay?" Yeah. The adults would not be sitting there making fun of the size of an 8-year-old's penis. [Laughter] And what would they all be at? I mean, at best, the kid would go like, "Ah, I don't know if the kids would even be laughing. Why would they be laughing? What would be funny to them?" The boys will have the same size he does. Yeah, but why is his dick not bigger? [Laughter] And the girls aren't going to care. I mean, no thing makes no sense. It sets up the premise of this film ridiculously. Now, it's 25 years later. Dave Buzznick, now working as a designer for a Husky Cat clothing line, is embarking on a business trip. And his girlfriend, Linda, is accompanying him to the security check. Linda encourages David to stand up for himself when his boss hangs up on him. She asks for a kiss, but there's a man who looks suspiciously like the Joker sitting in the shadows, watching them. "That guy's looking at us. You know, I don't like it when people watch me kiss. I'm sorry." He offers her a handshake instead and heads through the gate. Dave Buzznick is played by Adam Sandler, "Who we seeing for the show and the Happy Gilmore? And we've both seen in Big Daddy, I've seen in Hustle, Uncut Gems, Top Five, That's My Boy, Funny People, and Punch Truck Love." And I've seen him in Coneheads, Billy Madison, The Wedding Singer, Water Boy, Deuce Bigelomail Jigolo, Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds, 51st Dates, Spanglish, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, and I've heard his voice work in Hotel Transylvania. And Linda is played by Marissa Tomay. And for the show, we've seen her in My Cousin Vinny, In The Bedroom, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, And What Women Want. And for once, I don't think she gave the best performance. Oh, I want to talk about Linda, but let's finish for credits. And we've both seen her in Spider-Man, Far From Home, Spider-Man Homecoming, Captain America Civil War, and Avengers Endgame, where she is the absolute hottest Aunt May. That's Aunt May ever. And I've seen her in The Big Short, Trying Wreck, Amsterdam, and A Different World of the TV Show, which I keep forgetting that that's why I first saw Marissa Tomay. Mm-hmm. Real quick, I don't want to distract, because I know we're going to obviously get the animal to discuss it completely. But this ending makes Linda, Marissa Tomay's character, the most psycho person. I've ever seen it. This is the worst character Marissa Tomay has ever played. Yup. Yup. 100 fucking percent, yes. Oh, he's pretty nice in her. It's nothing she's done. This is evil. She hits it this much. And it's not presented that way. It's not presented like that way at all. And it's not her acting that's the problem. It's her character. It is the in the script. This script is a fucking crime against humanity. Oh my god. I just could not believe that. All right. We got to give it. We'll get Jesus Christ. I didn't be like, wow. I would not marry this woman. She. But no, no, no, no. Don't bust her out yet. We're going to get there. On the plane, David finds some guy in his seat. The guy won't move, but that Joker looking motherfucker from earlier, who we will now know as Dr. Buddy Rydell, waves and cheerfully declares that the seat next to him is available as if he could possibly know that information. Well, in fact, he does know. The thing is, Dave doesn't ask how he could possibly know. Yeah. So David sits next to him. You're on my side of the armrests. We're not going to have problems, are we? Oh. That could have been the Joker saying that. I'm just saying. Yes. Dr. Buddy Rydell is played by Jack Nicholson, who we sing for the show in. Chinatown, one full of the Cuckoo's Nest, Batman and Terms of Endearment. And we both sing in the last detail. And I've seen him in the departed, Mars attacks, wolf, a few good men, broadcast news, the witches of Eastwick, Pritsey's Honor, The Shining, Cardinal Knowledge, Five Easy Pieces, and The Little Shop of Hearts of 1960 version. And I've seen him in as good as it gets. God, we got to do that fucking movie. We should both do it. Not both. Obviously, we're going to both do it. But we should do it with the rest detail as well. Yeah, we should. While airborne, a series of what appeared to be ridiculous misunderstandings result in a flight attendant with a broken arm, and David being tazed by an air marshal and removed from the plane. He misses his connecting flight. And I didn't have to credit her here. That's Nancy, that flight attendant is played by Nancy Carell, Steve Carell's wife. Oh, did not know that. You know, when you first see that, you wonder like, is something psychologically wrong with these people? Because she's being needlessly hostile to him for no reason whatsoever. And then everybody's being really-- Why are they behaving this way? Yeah, we know why by the end of the movie. We'll find out, yeah. In court, his lawyer, Sam, is unjustifiably confident that his case will be dismissed. Judge Brenda Daniels orders David to pay a fine, and to prevent him from being a public menace, sentences him to 20 hours of anger management therapy. Sam is played by Kevin Nealon, and for the show, we've seen him in Jeffrey and Happy Gilmore. We've both seen him in "Saturday Night Live." And I've seen him in "Coneheads," the wedding singer Little Nikki, and you don't mess with the "Zohan." You know, I've noticed as we go through the credits, a lot of the same movies keep coming up. Yeah, because Adam Sandler keeps working with his friends. That's the tie. Judge Brenda Daniels is played by Lynn Thigpen. Well, I've seen in "The Warriors," the "Zingma Rim of That" movie, "Shaft," the 2000 version, and "Tootsie." And I saw as the chief in a bunch of episodes of "Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?" And in "Bicentennial Man." I didn't know Carmen San Diego had a boss. I just thought she'd just travel the world. No, the chief of police. She played the-- Lynn Thigpen played the chief of police. You were trying to track down Carmen San Diego. Oh, she's looking for Carmen San Diego. Yeah, I didn't-- I don't know. I've never actually seen the cartoon. I know I did. Well, it wasn't a cartoon. It was more like a game show. Really? But it was based on a video game. All right. It was like a learning video game, because you had to like look at clues about things around the world and learn about different world cultures in order to track down this mastermind criminal. Carmen San Diego is a criminal? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. I thought-- I thought she'd just someone to travel the world. I had no idea. Why do I have kids? Why would I be watching this? She's like, "Waldo, but evil." Mm. David shows up to the anger management sessions and asks Dr. Redell to just sign his forms off since he so obviously doesn't have an anger problem. Redell suggests that David stay for at least one session. So, you know, that happens. And here's where we meet a bunch of other angry people. Lou, blacked out and beat the shit out of his boss. And he's played by Louis Guzman, who we've seen for the show in "Batteries" I've included who I've seen in "Boggy Nights," "Punched Drug Love," and "Top Five." And I've seen in "The Count of Monte Cristo" and a series of unfortunate events. Every time I see the name, "The Count of Monte Cristo" I'm mixing when I have a Monte Cristo sandwich. Me too! Chuck took a dump on his neighbor's porch. He has a massive inferiority complex and takes an immediate dislike to David. He's played by John Turturo. Who we've seen for the show in "Do the Right Thing," "Rageable" and "The Big Lebowski." And who I've seen in "Fading Jiggalo," "Quiz Show," "The Batman," he got game, "Clockaras," "Jungle Fever," "Mole Better Blues," "The Color of Money," "Hand Owner Sisters." I had no idea he was in that, but the credit setting was... So, I'm saying it. To live in "Dionalei," definitely singing Susan and "The Night of" the TV miniseries on HBO, which was very good. And I've seen them in "Oh Brother Where Are At Thou?" "Mr. Deeds," "You Don't Mess with the Zohan and Transformers." Then we have Nate, who gets big mad about sports, and is played by Jonathan Lauren. Who we both seen in "Big Daddy," "Kill Bill Vol. 1," and "Kill Bill Vol. 2." And I've seen in "Punch Truck Love." And I've seen in "The Water Boy" "Little Nikki and 51st Dates." Then we have "Stacey and Gina." They're adult film performers, with a habit of mutilating people. Stacey is played by Krista Allen, and Gina is played by January Jones. Who I've seen in "X-Men," the first class and love, actually. You know, of all the... I mean, look, none of the characters are great, but they really, really do nothing with these two girls. The whole existence is, "Oh, we're important, so we just can't stop making an adult." Yup, like this isn't their day job, and they wouldn't be actually, like, not doing that. But this is our off time, but now we're gonna keep making it up, 'cause the boys can enjoy it. And I'm like, "Okay." Mm-hmm. So then we are introduced to this movie's "Mimetic Legacy," the chant of goose flaba, as a way of diffusing one's anger. It's the one thing everybody remembers from this fucking movie. "Didn't work on me?" Afterwards, David, again, asks to have his paper signed. Let me explain something, Dave. There are two kinds of angry people, explosive and implosive. Explosive is the kind of individual that you see screaming at the cashier for not taking their coupons. Implosive is the cashier who remains quiet day after day, and finally shoots everyone in the store. You're the cashier. And, Doctor, what do you do to help him with that problem? [laughs] You poke all the buttons. You push it? All the buttons. You dial his rage meter to 90, and then leave it there, is what you do, apparently. Apparently. Doctor Riddell doubles David's required anger management time, and assigns him Chuck as an anger ally. Which, of course, brings up the question, "Why would you do that?" As you just said, George, Chuck makes an immediate dislike to David. Why would you team these two up? What? Well, we know what. Because the script said so. Well, the script says so, and also apparently Doctor Riddell thinks getting this guy anger and anger somehow makes him better. Yep. So you're a bit the guy who's an asshole to him, bet those two together about. By the way, how does that benefit Chuck? Good question, Joe. Later, at a sports bar, Linda is hanging out with her old college friend Andrew. David arrives as they're hugging, and comments on it, just like that they're doing that. Because, you know, women aren't allowed to hug men when they're in a relationship. Nope. Andrew is rich, has an unrequited love of Linda, and is hung like an Arizona can. As David will find out when he sneaks a peek at the urinal, he and Andrew have an antagonistic relationship. Linda leaves with David to go get milkshakes. Andrew is played by Alan Covert for the show. We've seen him in Happy Gilmore, and I've seen him in The Wedding Singer, The Water Boy Deuce Pickle of Male Jiggle, a little Nicky, Mr. D's first dates in Hotel Transylvania. You know, if Linda is upset about anything about her, would be not a possible husband present-day boyfriend, is she should be upset with him like, "You know, if I wanted to fuck this guy, I would have already. So the fact that you're jealous of him, really speaks to a certain amount of immaturity on your part? Because seriously, I know the guy for a long time. If I wanted to have sex with him, we would have already had sex." Not only that, but he doesn't actually express it. Like, he just like, "Ah, it's nice to see you hugging." It's the most passive, aggressive way to like, get that point across. But it doesn't actually succeed in being, "I'm jealous. It's just, I saw a thing." Well, yeah, I mean, it's pretty clear. I mean, she would pick up these clues that he's jealous. 'Cause like, he's asking about his penis? Like, she's like, "I'm not serious." Okay, but I'm like, "What conversation is this?" I mean, we're about to be there, because when they get back to David's place, he comments about Andrew's nuclear dong. Linda had never seen it, but gets that this is causing David some insecurity, so she says nice things about his own pecker. Before this dysfunctional pillow talk can progress to kitchen sex, there is somebody at the door. It's Chuck, who just got fired from his ice cream truck job, and he needs his anger ally. So they go to a pool hall and get to know each other. The waitress is taking her sweet time getting their drinks, which leads to another train of calamity, blamed on David's anger, that breaks the waitress's nose. Which begs the question, and well, again, there's another point at the end of the film we discuss it. Was she in on that? Did she want her nose broke? I mean, you've got to pay me a lot of money if my nose is going to get broken. Back in court, Judge Daniels is less than a hair away from sending David to jail when Dr. Rydell shows up. She agrees to remand David to his care in his 30-day intensive anger management program. That, I mean, I guess the audience should have picked up something was wrong the moment she's about to do the sentencing, and this way it just waltzes in, and just gets a chat with her, and then just changes everything. Like, this is the court of law, who the hell are you? Even she doesn't know him. You can't just walk in and do that. This program involves Dr. Rydell moving in with David and setting down a list of rules longer than Andrew's mutant member. David only has one bed and no couch, so there's some forced and flatulent intimacy. Because comedy. Dr. Rydell wakes David up at 4 a.m. Three hours earlier than usual, and insists on a very specifically prepared breakfast. When David serves it to him, he throws it at a wall with no explanation. Then he informs David that he'll be tagging along to his job. Now, would it really be an example? I mean, I guess the idea is, again, he's passive-aggressive, David. But honestly, what's, bit this in perspective, would it really have been outrageous for David at that point to go like, get the absolute fuck out of my house? I do not care, go ahead and send me the jail. I'm not putting it up with this bullshit. What I mean is, I guess this is what they want him to do anyway, but I'm like, come on, this is insane. This is the most insane thing I've ever seen in my goddamn life. The only reason it's even mildly believable is because David lacks any ability to actually stand up for himself. But Dr. Rydell was putting himself in real danger, because this shit would make anybody snap. And I went out of time, David, if he took a kitchen knife and shoved it right into Dr. Rydell. Rydell's taking some real risk here. Yep. Rydell takes his sweet time getting dressed, leading to David running late to work. So he runs a red light. On a bridge, Rydell pulls David's parking brake. No, that's not a metaphor for his penis. Bringing the car to a halt and snarling traffic. He refuses to let them move until David is centered. To help this along, he has David sing, "I feel pretty" from West Side Story. It is a miracle the police do not show up. 'Cause he, he causes a traffic accident. I mean, he's crashing into each other back there. I mean, on one hand, yes, but on the other hand, we know it's New York City and like, we saw what happened when you called the cops about that kid laying in the middle of the road for no fucking reason. Fair. David's boss, Frank Head, remarks on David's lateness before Dr. Rydell introduces himself. They more or less rehash the inciting incident on the plane, while Rydell repeatedly misnames Frank until David yells at him about it. Frank Head is played by Kurt Fuller, who I know from Midnight in Paris. And I know from Ghostbusters II, Wayne's World and Scary Movie. Later, as in later enough for golf to have happened, Andrew shows up at David's cubicle. He was just playing golf with Frank and arrives just as David is finishing up explaining his idea for a line of clothing for fat felines. No one says "Catsony clothing" since we... Remember when we were taking improv classes? What Chris told us, right? You're allowed one weird thing. Yes. Nobody told anybody involved in this production. *laughter* Rydell notices Andrew's, well, how his pants fit. And once Andrew leaves, he reinforces that David's girlfriend's best friend is well endowed, and that David should feel some kind of way about that. Then Rydell sees a picture of Linda and gets all hot and bothered about her. I mean, I do that when I see a picture of Merced at me too. Yeah, I mean, you can't blame for that part, but... Whoo! And also I'm like, what a weird obsession of this man's dong. I can see if you guys are gay, but you're not, so why are you still talking about it? Although, Rydell does throw that out there is... Oh, he was workshopping that maybe David was gay because of the cat clothing thing. The cat clothing effect. Why that would make gay, but... Well, apparently the cat clothing and the fact that he lets his girlfriend be friends with the guy who has a huge dick. Did you be obviously homosexuality, right? 'Cause you let your girlfriend have friends. *laughter* So it's like, man, what's a huge penis? I mean, I can't even get on board with that as a joke because the existence of the word girlfriend in that negates the gay. *laughter* David calls Sam, his lawyer, in case we've forgotten, and learns that Rydell has a dozen lawsuits pending for his unorthodox techniques. Nothing ever fucking comes to that. Never comes of it. And really, his lawyer plays very little factor in all this. Mm-hmm. At the end of this movie, I would've been suggesting my lawyer. I've lost it. I'm just suggesting my lawyer. I'd get a good lawyer so I could sue my lawyer. Yeah, yeah. He says that if David can get proof that Rydell is nuts, he can get the order for treatment dropped. Back at David's, Rydell expresses displeasure at how his shirts are being ironed. When David reacts to this, he tells David to take his clothes off for a stress reduction technique. David tries to record this on audio tape to get that proof, but Rydell turns it around and makes David out to be a homophobe. Which is ironic, since what he did earlier was homophobic. Yep, yep. Rydell drives David to the red light district in the middle of the day, apparently, and picks up a prostitute, Galaxia, and tells them to get in the back with David to have a chat. David gets it on tape. It's a disgusting annoying scene to watch and I don't want to talk about it anymore. [laughs] I do want to say, though, this is the only time I actually left, and that's only because I recognize Woody Harrelson. I said, "Oh, wow, that's Woody Harrelson!" And that was it. Because Galaxia is played by Woody Harrelson. Who we know on the show from, and if he's a proposal, and white men can't jump. And we've both seen and also powers that spot who shagged me. Which, by the way, I don't know if you know, do you know how I'm not the virtual that title was? They weren't allowed to have that. Let me talk about it. Yeah, yeah. It's extremely shagged, a bad word for some reason. Anyway, and I've seen him in "Natural Borg Killers." Three billboards outside Ebbie, Missouri. True detective, the many series. No cutting for old men. Wag the dog. Kingpin and money train. And I've seen him in "Zombieland." "The Hunger Games." "The Hunger Games catching fire." And "The Hunger Games mocking Jay's part one and two." Solo, a Star Wars story, and "Zombieland double tap." Sam hears the tape, but since Riddell didn't order David to perform any sex acts, he can't use it or something. I'm not sure he could. You have a client forced to go to the Rit-like district and chat up someone who's engaged in a legal activity. I think that's enough. Yeah. Then, call waiting so that Buddy's assistant can call to say Buddy's mom is going to the hospital for some minor surgery. David spins that news as being more serious, and Buddy reacts devastated until David admits his lie. Riddell vows revenge, and then decides to go to Boston to see his mom and to take David with him. Why was that there? Because the script said so. I just want to say why are we going to Boston? All this could have been done in New York. Linda walks with David back to his place to collect Riddell for the trip. David is stressing out because he's stuck doing this trip with Riddell while he also needs to finish a catalog at work. Linda is frustrated that he is basically doing his boss's job and has been for years. When Riddell comes out, he recites one of Linda's own poems that he found crumbled on the floor in David's bedroom. See, that is a reason to break up with him. Yeah, that is a big red flag right there. This is your girlfriend. Obviously, poetry results. She teaches it. She actually writes it, and you crumble up the thing she gave you and just toss it away. And he doesn't recognize the poem either. Are you not reading her poetry? What do you two have in common? So David goes for another handshake, but Linda convinces him to at least give her a peck on the cheek. In terms of this movie, that shows progress. To get his car out of the parking area, Riddell demolishes a car that was blocking his, claiming he can't have been acting in anger and had the presence of mine to leave his car on the windshield. On the drive, Riddell questions why David hasn't proposed to Linda yet. He says he's waiting to be something more than a secretary. Riddell correctly guesses David's plan to propose at a Yankees game and makes fun of it. First of all, dude, I'm bad enough I have to write with you to your moms for some goddamn reason. You're supposed to be helping me with my anger management. Why are you interested in my love life? Don't worry about when I propose. Maybe we don't want to get married. How about that? That's a possibility. Why didn't you pop the question? How did you fucking business? Turns out Riddell's mom was having a jelly being removed from her nose. With that settled, they go out to dinner. I wonder was that a bigger scene of they just cut it out? No, it was that stupid from the get-go. An attractive lady walks past their table, and Riddell threatens to fail David out of the program if he doesn't go ask her out despite David insisting that it's effectively cheating on Linda. See if he'd gotten that on tape? That probably would have been enough. So he awkwardly asks her if she'd like another drink and she blows him off. Riddell says if he goes over there with confidence and she rejects him again, he'll release David from his program. He does suggest a specific tactic. "Just go over there and repeat the following verbatim. I'm sorry I was so rude before, but it's difficult for me to express myself when I'm on the verge of exploding in my pants." Can you imagine having a doctor say that to you? No. I've had a number of psychiatrists and therapists over the years. I can't imagine a single one of them saying that. Well, I can, but then they wouldn't have a license the next day. What the fuck? So David says those words without any confidence at all. The lady, Kendra, responds positively and offers to buy David a drink. Before long they're chatting it up and David realizes that Riddell has left the building. Kendra invites him back to her place. Kendra is played by Heather Graham, who we know from the show In The Hangover. And we both see it in Austin Powers' Vowshagme from Hell and Twins. And I've seen it in Boogie Nights, 6 degrees of separation. Even cowgirls get the blues and drugstore cowboy. By the way, before we move on to the rest of Kendra's story here, it was really strange that she's sitting there clearly wanting someone to approach her. I mean, just the way she's seated, clearly she wants someone to come over. And they are too due to a look at Adam Sandler's character, judging him for going over to her. But they never approach her themselves, which they clearly alone, and they're clearly heterosexual. So you have to wonder how come they don't do anything. Good question, Joe. I'm in the camera, specifically shows them. So it's like I'm just picking this up. I'm like, they're right there. Anyway, at Kendra's, David starts combing the phone book for any local Riddell's. And Heather Graham gives the absolute best yet unfortunate performance of this movie. As a beautiful woman with an eating disorder. For yucks. David ends up being chased off when he thinks to mention having a girlfriend already. Which he really should have mentioned while F.D. Bar talking to her. I mean, what were they talking about that whole time? By the way, I'm talking to you because my therapist is making me do it under the threat of me going to prison. And I already have a girlfriend. That is a perfectly valid opening line there. Yeah, 100%. But yeah, I like Heather Graham acted the shit out of that role. But it was such a shit role. David does eventually find Riddell's house. Turns out Kendra is an actress and an old patient of Riddell. The whole thing was revenge for the lie about his mom. And it's all fun and games, except that Riddell talked to Linda and told her that David was out with another woman and left out the part about setting it all up. And that tension lasts all of a minute. As in the morning driving back, Riddell says he called Linda and explained everything and now Linda's mad at the right person or something. When David takes a nap, Riddell drives them to a monastery where he will get to make peace with his old bully. Arnie Shankman is now a Buddhist monk and has eschewed wealth and violence. He is unrepentant, though, about the pain he caused David. Riddell fans the flames until the childhood nemesis are duking it out, with David eventually winning. Riddell produces a water pistol to keep the other monks at bay while they make their escape. Arnie Shankman is played by John C. Riley, who I know from Boogie Nights, Ligwish Pizza, The Lobster, Cedar Rapids, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape. We've both seen George and I in Guardians of the Galaxy, Chicago, and the Lord's Clayborne. And I've seen him in Walk Hard the Dewey Cox Story. This man is very talented and is completely well. To be fair, everyone's wasted in this movie. I'm going to say, he's wasted, but honestly, who isn't wasted in this picture? I'm not the biggest Adam Sandler fan, but he's done much better than this. Can you imagine? I mean, first of all, so these are grown men. They're talking about an incident happening when they were children. Would they really get into a fight and would the guy like, oh, the other one's hilariously pulling that? First of all, Chances are, as a bully, he wouldn't even remember that he did that. Let's be frank, he probably did it to lots of other boys, and so this guy would not stand out to him. Who wouldn't be like, and he's a monk now? Oh, I'm so sorry that happened. I apologize, I should never have done that. But of course, then we, I guess we wouldn't have this wonderful scene where he's fighting a monk. Yep. Back in New York, Lyndon David go for a sunset walk-and-talk. He tries to get over his procrastinating and propose, but he can't actually get himself to do it. Then, Linda reveals that Riddell advised her to try separating from David for a while. He confronts Riddell at the anger management group therapy session. Riddell tells David that Linda's wanted to leave him for a while, and a trial separation is the best thing, and that after she dates a few losers, she'll be begging to come back. Because that's how that works. Yeah, right? So, the next day, David calls Linda and agrees to the separation. He's not okay, and Linda can tell. That's kind of important. It speaks to what a shit human being, Linda is. We'll get there. When he gets home from work, Nate, Lou, and Chuck are waiting for him. Linda came by to drop off her keys, and they overheard her on her cell, making a date with Andrew, and they know exactly when and where it's happening. That's too much temptation for David, so off they go. And by they, I mean David, Gina and Stacy meet him there for his plan to be on a fake date, to make Linda jealous. God, I fucking hate this movie. Can you imagine Nate, which I apparently have no other lives, then Phil, because he shows them all together, so I guess they just make friends at this anger management, and they don't spend any time with other people in their lives. They're like stand-up comics in Manhattan that way. And apparently they're very invested in this man. The doctor's not invested in them, apparently, but they're very vested in David. So Linda isn't on a date with Andrew. She's on a date with Riddell. David pulls him aside, and Riddell pitches this as doing him a favor. Because, of course, wouldn't David rather she be out with him than Andrew? What with that ginormous shlongin' all? David buys this, then tries to wait around for them to leave, but they take too long, so he just heads home. Eventually, Riddell comes stumbling in and tells a tale about how he tried his best to sabotage his own date with Linda, and just slips in that before he left her place they kissed for five seconds, and then for ten seconds. And then he takes a phone call, ostensibly from Linda, promises to sign David's papers, and then says that he and Linda have fallen for each other. And he's not joking. Which, I'm fairly certain today, and so many two thousand and three, that would be unknown. A grant that this isn't his patient, but still, fairly certain that characters cannot date their patients' significant others. Yes! Yeah. Next day, they're in court again, because David predictably lost his shit and attacked Riddell that night. To Joe's point earlier about what danger Riddell was putting himself in. A trial date is set for an attempted murder charge, and a restraining order issued keeping David 500 feet from Riddell or his new girlfriend Linda. But, outside the courthouse, David watches Riddell take his neck brace off before getting into a cab with Linda, and then waving to David. Then he gets a call from his boss about that catalog. So he shows up at work and hands Frank a catalog of Frank badly photo-pasted into it. Before Andrew comes in announcing that he just got the job David was going for. There's so much in the end of this fucking movie, I couldn't wait for this movie to be over and to stop summarizing it. But it just didn't want a fucking end, because it was just another goddamn thing after an anyway. Andrew also lets slip that Riddell is taking Linda to a Yankee game tonight. So David knocks Andrew out, which I thought that was funny. When he just reaches back and punches him in the face, I thought that was great. That's because you wanted to punch somebody and you're happy it happened. And he extracts a promise from Frank to give him that job, you know, when he gets out of prison. You know, here's a curious thing. Early in the film, Dr. Riddell says that David is a potential type of person will come and start shooting up the place. Uh-huh. Yeah, he does all of this. How does he know David isn't going to come shooting? Uh-huh. He's looking David when he attacked him. Guns are available in New York. Yeah. Oh, Jesus. He succinctly says that he has this personality that he would shoot me. He's a mass shooter, basically. And yet this. Aren't you incorrect, by the way? No, it's 100% ridiculous. So David drives like a bat out of hell to Yankee Stadium where everyone knows Riddell. The setup is there for a ball field proposal. David gets onto the field where Galaxia happens to be a security guard who lets him make a run for the mic. This is David's graduation from anger management. He finally stood up for himself and asked Linda to marry him and kisses her in front of a stadium full of people. Now, what I really felt very curious about this. I mean, look, it's incredibly stupid, regardless how you take it. But this man's running around saying, not Linda's last name, just Linda, Linda, Linda. Like, it's a baseball stadium. What, there's no other lenders? No other woman says, I'm Linda. What do you want? You think Thomas has to be like, Linda, blah, blah, whatever your last name is, Linda. Blabberman or something. Linda Blabberman, where are you? It says like, Linda, Linda, Linda. Just, God, how many lenders would be there? Mm-hmm. Sometime later, at a barbecue, we get the post exposition that with the exception of a few people like Shankman and the Air Marshal, everybody involved in everything was working for or with Riddell to get David to come out of his shell. And whose idea was this? Fucking lenders. Linda, Linda wasn't behind this whole thing. Would you marry a woman who would do something like that to you? No. No. No. No. Fuck no. It did anything like that. That would be a divorce. And yet he's completely cold with it. He's totally fine with what he tells him. Oh, me and Riddell, we're working together to get you to come out of your shell and stand up for yourself. Like, you are a horrible person. First of all, you teach poetry. How do you have the money to do all this? Battle for dollars. You are a horrible person. I don't want to marry you. I never want to see you again. I may end up suing you. Yeah. So the end. The end. Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think we thought of this picture? Can you guess? Did you guess what we thought of this movie? Now, when you first saw this, George, did you like it? Yes. I put up. So this has been a stressful week for me. For reasons I'm not going to go into. But I knew it was going to be a stressful week for me. So I put in a movie that I remembered enjoying, thinking at least it'll be an easy watch. And usually with the easy watches, I have an easier time summarizing them. Boy, have I grown as a human being since whenever I fucking first saw this movie. Because all this movie did was infuriate me. And not because I was already having a rough week. Because everything in this movie, it is a mockery of mental health treatment. Oh my God. Yes. And that's like all I have to say. I fuck all of the relationship dynamics can go fuck themselves. And the representation of mental health treatment in this movie can go fuck itself. This movie can die in a fire. Shockingly awful. The weirdest thing. And we've had this discussion before about psychiatry being shown in movies. Most people in Hollywood and certainly actors and writers have all had some sort of therapy. They know how therapy works. Why do they always present it so wrong? I get it. How you know, like what was the one with Robin Williams as a doctor? And that day means good real hunting. Good real hunting. Thank you. Yes. Good one hunting. One session he cries. Oh, therapy's over. You had a good cry. But that doesn't feel like it works. Because he has to be crying. This thing. His girlfriend goes to a psychiatrist. This guy going to say, sure, I'm going to do this all this manipulative shit because that will help him get better. What the fuck are you talking about? This is not therapy. And they know it's not therapy. There is no way the people put this together from Adam Sandler, to Mr. Tomay, to Jack Anderson, to the director, to the writer. There's no way they didn't say like, okay, this is bullshit. But what the hell? Let's put it out there. This film is medical malpractice. It is horrific. And that twist ending, with Linda being the one behind the whole thing, really shocked, rocked my world. Just absolutely like, what the fuck? And that's a happy ending? That's a happy ending. He's married someone who would do something like that to him. That's supposed to be good. That's terrible. Like, I can't do anything but agree with you on that. That's, yeah. And it's just like glossed over. I'm like, I lost my fucking mind. I lost my goddamn mind. But it's so... Oh, you were behind this all wrong. I mean, oh, yes, I was. Ah-ha-ha-ha. Oh, I love you. I love you. Just... [Mimics "Mimics" sound] What? What? What? What? All right. All right. Yeah. Uh, so no, this fucking movie doesn't work. It does not work. Jesus Christ. For what's I'm gonna agree with George on this, die in a fire movie. George, what's up next? All right. Next week we'll be talking about Win-Win from 2011. Now, this is a film I remember liking. God, I hope it stops. [Laughing] That's the problem with revisiting films. Films you remember liking and you go back and I'm like, what the fuck was I thinking? Yup. [Laughing] Please win-win, do not be that picture. Not for nothing. That's kind of the premise of our podcast. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That is the central conceit of this show. Is that true? But it's sometimes movies aren't good anymore. They don't work anymore. No, it's true, but it's still the pressing. When you love film, you remember liking and then going back to it and I'm like, wow, absolutely, wow, Jesus Christ. Anyway, we got it out of our system. So I guess that's it for this episode. I'm Joe Dickson. Thanks for listening. And I'm George Romaka. Thanks for listening, indeed, because if a podcast drops and there's no one around to hear it, it's just another collection of ones and zeros that doesn't matter. Tempers the one thing you can't get rid of by losing it. Go fuck yourself. [Laughing] You've been listening to Does This Still Work? Produced by Joe Dickson and George Romaka. The hosts can be reached via social media, email, or the contact page at dtswpod.com. Be good to yourself and others, because that still works. [Music] Is that psychologist as opposed to psychiatrist? Yeah. Okay, so psychologist in addition to psychiatrist were okay. Hopefully the listeners will get that faster than I did.
