It’s time yet again to Social Distance the heck out of this epidemic and watch a movie together while still staying in three different states: North Carolina, Florida, and California. Next up for the Tri-State Watch Party, we’re going with the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Netflix Watch Party app ended up being a little complicated, so we just set a time to hit “play” and then chatted through instant messenger. Click the jump to read some highlights from the conversation.
The Players: Elizabeth, Hannah, Kathryn, Nathan, and the parents (Parents represented here by Marian, because Dad would chisel a message in a stone tablet before typing anything on a phone.)
Elizabeth
Two minute warning!
Hannah
Places, this is your places call
Sigh, mom’s in the bathroom…
Elizabeth
Hee
Kathryn
The back-up DVD player has been deployed.
Elizabeth
We all own this one right?
Hannah
Elizabeth do you have this on DVD, too?
Elizabeth
Yup
Hannah
Sweet
Kathryn
Damnit, back-up DVD player is a no-go.
Elizabeth
Which means I have no excuse for not watching it in at least four years
Uh oh!
I checked, it’s a Prime rental, they’re doing a discount for 2.49 on standard rez
Kathryn
Tech support!
And now it’s working!
Elizabeth
hahah
Hannah
Okay! We’re ready!
Elizabeth
Ready!
Kathryn
About to hit play.
Almost…
Elizabeth
Wait for iiiiiit
Kathryn
Hitting play now
Elizabeth
Hitting play!
Kathryn
This movie has one of my all time favorite soundtracks.
Hannah
Do you know the story about the three American snipers who got the Somali pirates who kidnapped an American captain? Cause that was a lot like that
Elizabeth
Not at all!
Hannah
(Basically sitting on the ship looking at the boat, each trained on a particular pirate, just announcing whether or not they had a shot until they were all green, “Red” “Green” “red”…”green” “green” “red”)
Elizabeth
Hannah
Apparently all the color was removed from the landscape digitally
Elizabeth
Nice
Nathan
I guess the question now is, which one of these songs am I gonna have stuck my head for the rest of the night?
Hannah
God the comedy rhythms
Elizabeth
Heh, if the ever remake Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (which they MUST NOT DO) they should cast George Clooney as Hunter S
Hannah
Hah
Who is the seer in the Odyssey?
Elizabeth
Can’t remember?
Nathan
If you were in their position, wouldn’t you be helping that old man made the rail car go faster?
Elizabeth
Not those three
Kathryn
Didn’t Odysseus have a seer tell him that he wouldn’t get home from Troy for ten years?
Hannah
Heh
Stephen Root recreates this accent perfectly
Nathan
I’ve had The Odyssey on my list of books to read for years, but haven’t gotten around to it.
Elizabeth
Kathryn and I (and Hannah too right?) read the young adult’s retelling, it’s pretty excellent
Hannah
No, I know it from that awesome reading that went through London
Nathan
Men of few words.
Hannah
RUNNOFT
Nathan
Elizabeth
Such great phrasing
Hannah
As with all Coen brothers stuff, you mostly just quote bits and giggle
M’HAIR
Elizabeth
Damn, we’re in a tight spot!
Nathan
Damn! We’re in a tight spot!
Elizabeth
hahah
Kathryn
What did they do to George Clooney’s face for this? His upper lip looks different.
Hannah
I think it’s just the mustache?
Kathryn
“Never trust a Hogwallop.”
Elizabeth
Strategic mustache shaving?
Hannah
I HATE FIRE
Kathryn
I swear, I think Clooney’s holding his upper lip over his teeth.
Elizabeth
I don’t want FOP goddamnit!
Hannah
I don’t want FOP, goddammit
Nathan
I don’t want Fop, goddamnit, I’m a Dapper Dan man!
Hannah
Hahaha
Gopher, Everett?
Elizabeth
hee
Sirens
Kathryn
“Care fer some gopher?”
I think it’s the Lotus Eaters.
lizabeth
YOU’RE RIGHT
Sirens are later
Kathryn
(Favorite song, by the way.)
Hannah
Same
Nathan
The Sirens are the women at the River later on.
Elizabeth
Beautiful old lake
Kathryn
Love the harmony here.
Elizabeth
And how it changes depending on who’s in the frame
C’mon in boys, the water is fine
Hannah
The pleasing odor’s half the point
Kathryn
Nathan who is this based on?
Nathan
Robert Johnson.
Kathryn
Who also sold his soul for music? (Allegedly)
Nathan
Yep!
Exactly the way Tommy sold his here.
Hannah
“Delmer’s got a good mouthpiece,” says Dad (though I’m pretty sure that’s just his mouth)
Elizabeth
Agreed
I know this is dubbed, but is it really Clooney’s voice?
Kathryn
Nah
Elizabeth
Nathan
No, it’s not.
Hannah
No, but something he did with how he talks throughout the movie makes it believable
Nathan
I think there’s three versions of Man of Constant Sorrow on the soundtrack.
Kathryn
The shit-eating grin when he says “only four of us can write.”
Elizabeth
Thank god your mammy died in childbirth if she’d seen ya she woulda died of shame
Nathan
Pappy has some impressive ass-kissing toadies.
Kathryn
Now this guy’s a musician through and through.
Elizabeth
Yep
Hannah
This movie is to the South what Big Lebowski is to bowling… is such a great assessment
Elizabeth
Agreed!
Nathan
Elizabeth
Heh, big white man with empty eyes and an evil hound, of course Tommy run off
Hannah
Consider the lilies of the goddamn field
Elizabeth
Consider the lilies of the goddamn field
Hannah
Hahaha
Elizabeth
Great line delivered great
Capone? Dillinger?
Nathan
Babyface Nelson.
Elizabeth
Hannah
Oh George not the livestock
Elizabeth
hahah
Kathryn
Like zero reaction from the folks in the bank.
Hannah
He’s sitting on a column!
His own damn humors are swinging him by the tail
Elizabeth
They’s playing it as far away as Mobile!
Aw, I forgot he left money for the pie
Nathan
Mmm… pie.
Hannah
Pie too soon after Titus…
Elizabeth
hahahaha
Nathan
That’s Gillian Welch.
She sang a few songs on the soundtrack.
Kathryn
I’m pretty sure the passage of time in this story is completely borked.
Elizabeth
Don’t logic the plot Kathryn!
Nathan
Now, we have Sirens.
Elizabeth
Yep!
Kathryn
Elizabeth
Ha, I totally forgot this part!
Hannah
PETE
Kathryn
They left his heart!
Hannah
(PETE I LOVE YOU PETE I WANT TO BE YOUR GIRLFRIEND)
Elizabeth
hahaha
Wrangling the frog for the shoot must’ve been fun
Kathryn
I’m 100 percent sure that frog flailing was improv.
Elizabeth
Cyclops!
Hannah
Cyclops came up on a podcast this past week (after the pub quiz) but I can’t remember what
Kathryn
The pub quiz. Old shepherd
Elizabeth
Yep, James hates the story because they blinded him after stealing from him. It was pointed out that he ate a lot of Odysseus’s sailors but that didn’t sway him
Hannah
Hah, yes
They made John Goodman look that much bigger than Tim Blake Nelson
Elizabeth
The flames reflected in his glasses is such a great touch.
Hannah
Yes!
Nathan
Can you believe this movie is 20 years old?
Elizabeth
Holds up!
Hannah
If Buster Scruggs is any evidence, Zoe Kazan is a great one to take up the Holly Hunter torch
Elizabeth
Hannah
He’s bonafide
Nathan
He’s a suitor!
Kathryn
He’s bonafide!
Elizabeth
I am the damn paterfamilias!
Kathryn
So that was three girls…
Elizabeth
Those little girls are great
Kathryn
And three more plus a baby
Hannah
How is that baby straight out of Cohen casting?
Elizabeth
Right?
Penny, Penelope
Kathryn
Love that dazed headshake
Hannah
Old-timey boxing
Elizabeth
And stay outta the Woolsworth!
Kathryn
And now we have the trip to the Underworld to speak with the departed.
Hannah
WE
THAWT
Elizabeth
HA, I hadn’t made that connection
Hannah
YOU
WAS A TOAD
Kathryn
Ahahaha!
DO NOT SEEK THE TREASURE.
Hannah
I never knew this was the underworld. That’s cool
Kathryn
That’s…all I got…
Elizabeth
And we was beat up by a bible salesman and banished from the Woolworth
Hannah
Was it the one branch or all of them?
Kathryn
Friend of ours said when they saw this guard bit in the theater her husband almost hit the floor laughing.
Hannah
How much of the KKK ceremony stuff is historical vs just being to ridicule them?
Nathan
No idea.
Kathryn
It’s definitely a pastiche of the Owee Oh bit from Wozard of Oz.
Nathan
Most definitely.
Marian
Don’t think their meetings were ever that choreographed.
Elizabeth
No indeed.
Nathan
Yeah, that would require some degree of intelligence.
Kathryn
Most probably can’t think that many steps ahead.
Hannah
mumbles in racist
Kathryn
Killed by a burning stake
Elizabeth
Nice
Hannah
Now he’s actually singing that, I bet
Elizabeth
I was just thinking that
Nathan
Yep!
And will later be Buster Scruggs.
Kathryn
Pretty sure that’s not Turturro yodeling tho’
Hannah
Oh for sure
Elizabeth
I always get goosebumps when they start singing here
Hannah
Can’t stunt the dancing
Elizabeth
hee
Hannah
I don’t think I ever tracked before the idea of the KKK candidate being “the reformer”
On the larger historical scale, I guess
Kathryn
Make The South Great Again
Nathan
Rode out on a rail!
Elizabeth
Or was he hiding that part? Or did everybody already know that and now they’re just mad because he shut down the Soggy Bottom Boys?
Kathryn
I kinda think every part of that made the crowd mad. But the Soggy Bottom Boys were a good catalyst
Hannah
I think just story-wise, the reform candidate being a rank racist says something I’m missing a little
Probably not blatantly forgiving of early 20th Century Southern traditions, more nuanced than that
Also this song is so depressing
Elizabeth
Hahah
Hannah
It’s the water water everywhere of songs
Nathan
Oh God, is it ever!
Hannah
COW KILLER
Elizabeth
Just the way he builds the songs into the story man
Kathryn
Man that baritone gives me chills.
Hannah
Yuuup
Kathryn
Didn’t Odysseus get washed ashore as one of the last parts of his journey?
Elizabeth
Both on Circe’s island and when he first got home?
Kathryn
Yep
Cow on a cotton barn.
Elizabeth
The roll top desk was the icing on the cake there
Kathryn
Another favorite song
Hannah
Lovely
Elizabeth
So neat.
Kathryn
Perfect ending shot.
Marian
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