Hello, my name's Justin McLuhan. I'm here today with Will Sloan. And you're listening to

the important cinema club. And today, we're going to get comedic, maybe dryly comedic,

the thinking man's Kevin Smith, if you will. Noah Bombach. I did think about Kevin Smith as I was

watching the first half of kicking and screaming again because I thought I don't know visually this isn't a lot better Do you think that Noah Bomback in his head inspired by clerks Because he came after Wanted to do like a Bombaciverse Where like all the characters Interconnect in some ways I think he probably had Witt Stillman on his mind a little bit more than Kevin Smith. Whit, who? Is he still around? I'm afraid so. So, you know, in the past, Justin, you have told me that the podcast is not very good when me, your co-host, is not all that interested in the subject. And I don't know if you actually believe that or you just said that to rib on me. Probably ribbon on you.

But anyway, this is an example of one of those weeks. But you like Noah Bomback at some point, right? Yeah, and you know what? I even still, the two movies I watched in full this week, I watched the first half of kicking and screaming and was like, ugh, no more. For reasons I can't even fully explain. But yeah, the two movies I watched this week, I actually liked quite a bet.

And ever since then, Noob Bombag has made a steady stream of movies that I have moderately enjoyed. I'm going to say, I very much enjoy Noah Bomback's work. And people may be like, Justin, what are you talking about? You hate rich people. And I would say, yes, I agree. But most of the rich people in Noah

Bomback films are pathetic losers. So this week I watched the two that I like a lot, which are

the squid and the whale and Greenberg, which I didn't used to like a lot, but watching it this week,

I'm a Greenberg convert now, you know? I think he's a great character.

Now, do you remember when you heard about Noah Bombback? Because for me, it was definitely as a

co-writer of the Life Aquatic. Yes, exactly the same. I saw his name and I said, that's not Owen

Wilson. How come Wes Anderson as a new co-writer now? Why is he recording the commentary in a packed restaurant for The Life Aquatic? And then a year later, along came this movie called The Squid and the Whale. And up to that point, I had not heard of, I'm a younger man. I had not heard of those Gen X iconic movies. Were they iconic movies, though? Because, I mean, I know kicking and screaming was released by the

Criterion Collection. Yeah, maybe it only became iconic afterwards. I mean, Mr. Jealousy was kind of,

it was not a chasing Amy level smash, but it had its fans. I mean, I watched Mr. Jealousy

this week, and it's definitely a fascinating, like, sophomore attempt because noa bomback's first film kicking

screaming is about a bunch of losers that graduate college and don't know what to do with

their lives and kind of just kick around incapable of moving forward in any way having

Kevin Smith like dialogue but about more like intellectual things yeah and this is what I hate about it. I don't know. The thing about kicking and screaming is there's just something about it on some chemical level that rubs me the wrong way and always has. This is, I've seen it three times. And every time I start watching it and I think, I want to give this movie a fair shot. There's something about these characters do you look in the mirror you're like no me you know maybe but I don't

know maybe it's all maybe it's the fucking clothes they wear that it doesn't really feel like I

you know the thing is I don't think the movie is that funny I remember watching it for the first time

and being like eh it's okay but rewatching it for this podcast, I was amused by their patheticness and the way

the movie literally moves nowhere.

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