What’s Aged the Best?
Jude Law; young Blanchett and Paltrow; Italy; production value; Dickie's clothes; Philip Baker Hall's scene; Peter's off-screen killing; scammer-era relevance; wealth-culture theme
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:24Read transcript
- Flagged as material for the aged-best category: the big-picture theme of a super-wealthy culture others aspire to, which Ripley infiltrates through the father's errand and then kills to avoid leaving.
- Jude Law, already covered, opens the category.
- Peak Blanchett and peak Paltrow are offered; one participant refines it to the young versions of them, caught at the perfect time of their careers.
- Italy, with an exclamation point: the production value is sumptuous and makes you want to be part of it, at least for the first two-thirds, and to visit; this is offered as a reason a host's wife likes the film.
- The film's town, transcribed 'Mangabello', does not exist, but Positano does, prompting a joke about a live Rewatchables there.
- Dickie's clothes are listed, and Philip Baker Hall's one scene.
- The 'Tom is talented, Tom is tender' sequence ending with 'Tom, you're crushing me' is praised; the camera cuts to Tom's room while the dialogue continues, and the hosts debate whether he strangles Peter from behind with a belt or a bear hug.
- Scammer season: the film applies to recent events and the obsession with surfaces, from Anna Delvey to Instagram people trying to get closer to wealth they cannot access; a reference to Hathaway being scammed by an Italian comes up in passing.
- Italy is named again as aging well with thousands of years of history; a wish is voiced to have seen Rome in the 1950s before mass tourism, with a joke about the year 1000 versus 1400.
- Rome is praised for history on the street and pasta, though a recent summer trip was crowded, hot and smelly; the Italian Mediterranean coast is called an A plus experience.
- A participant's honeymoon theme was this movie without the murder, joking that the husband threw in one murder that was covered up.