Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Film Finder brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: All right, welcome to another episode of five Minute Film Finder. This week's episode is going to be a deep focus.
We're going to talk about one of my favorite films of all time, Gross Point Blank.
My name's Darren, joined today by Ben. Thanks, Ben, for coming with me on this journey today. I'm so excited to talk about Grosse Pointe Blank.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I am too. And this is actually my first time seeing it. I had thought I had seen it, but it turns out I hadn't because like I kept watching, I was just like, nope, I definitely haven't. And this is.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: You were just thinking of some other John Cusack movie.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. And I was like. And this is a delight.
So thank you for pulling me into this because I had so much fun watching it.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: So let's start off with the IMDb description.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Great.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: We have professional assassin Martin Blank is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, where By coincidence, his 10 year high school reunion party is about to take place.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Yeah, so that's, that's like the place setting. Yeah, that covers it decently.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: It's, it's doesn't say in there about how messed up he is from the very beginning. Like he's. He's a assassin with psychological problems to the point where he's holding a psychiatrist hostage. Ish.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Ish. Yeah. Basically just like intimidating him into continued psychotherapy.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Yes.
Throughout the movie he calls him on the phone a few times and they're great scenes. Alan Arkin just does a great job.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: What a delight. Like barely in the movie, but like every time he's on, it's 3 minutes total screen time. It's like he's got lines at the beginning of the movie, but everything else is just reaction shots to him listening to the voicemails. Yeah.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Because he doesn't want to talk to you. He talks to him once after he goes. But yeah, he does. Because he does not want to be treating Martin Blank.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: He's disturbed by the fact that Martin is an assassin and, you know, a relatively friendly assassin. Yeah. As it goes.
Very charming. John Cusack, as usual.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Before we get deep into like the movie of it all, are you a big John Cusack guy?
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Yes. I have been a longtime fan.
Better off dead.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: High fidelity.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: High fidelity.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: You know, those are probably my 2 favorite other than this one.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: But you know, a 80s 90s John Cusack movie.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
Hard to turn it down.
Same for me.
Also found out this was a big year for John Cusack. Con Air also came out this year and I was like, what? What a two hander for John Cusack.
And yeah, I just think he's, he's great in this. Doing what he does best in this. In that he's playing kind of neurotic quip talking funny. Yeah. Quippy.
But also like kind of down on himself at the same time. Not, not too like self important or when he is. It's also like. But also. I know. Yeah.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: But also. I get it. Yeah.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
He's. He's aware of his, his, his certain traits that people find offensive. Yeah.
You know, he knowingly talks about how the dumb stuff that he did and stuff with these characters.
I really like the way that they put all the characters in this movie together.
Great cast.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah. And like the other assassins were really great. Like Dan Aykroyd's so good in this.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I love the diner scene. So good. Yeah. He barks at him when he's leaving.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And I love. So it seems like an over the top bit that they're doing, but it's also like played serious of like every time that they come up to each other. They're very cautious with like where's the hands, where's the angles? They're like holding their body.
Yeah. Dan Aykroyd is giving a great, fun, serious ish performance in this as adversarial assassin who's also like competing. Wants to create a like union. A guild or a union.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah, he wants to unionize. He wants to get everybody together so they can stop competing for jobs and things of that nature. And Martin doesn't want to join because he, he likes the lone assassin. Like, why do you think I dress like this kind of thing?
[00:04:59] Speaker B: And so like a lot of the conflict of our film is because after Ackroyd approaches him about this guild, he then finds out that he. He has snaked him on a job.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Yep. He stole a job.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: And he didn't even mean to like. Yeah, he messed up. He messed up a job. He gets forced into this other job and Dan Aykroyd gets mad.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And so Dan Aykroyd then like send some folks after him is trying to get him.
But really the main story of this is him going back to his hometown.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Yeah. He even says it in the movie like, you can't go home again. This experience of him going back 10 years later and a pretty traumatic experience for coming back to your hometown 10 years later. As far as that goes Your house is gone.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Your house is now a corner store.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: A corner store.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: His mom is in at home. She has some issues that somehow the. They lost the family home or whatever.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Their father has now passed away. And. Yeah, it's.
It's fascinating. Like, it's a very fun, like, framing of like a. Like. Oh, yeah. This is like re approaching your childhood.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: I've seen this movie a hundred times where like, somebody goes home.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: For whatever reason, they're going home. And.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: And like, usually it's not, you know, also while they're an assassin.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: I would. It's. I have to talk about Joan Cusack. I promise. I promised I would.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Oh. I mean. Yeah, we got a few more people we need to talk about.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Trace Tracy, sometimes host podcast, is very jealous. She. She made me promise that I would talk about how awesome Joan Cusack is in this movie and that she's. She's very sad she can't be here to talk about Joan Cusack. So Joan Cusack isn't obviously in a lot of John's movies, they do that quite a bit. But she isn't like lost in this movie at all. She's amazing in those scenes that she has basically by herself.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: And she doesn't have a huge role, so she plays his assistant or secretary. Just basically does all the arrangements for her.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: The other person that is running this assassin business, basically. Yes.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: I love her in this because this is my favorite type of Joan Cusack because she gets to be wild and crazy, but she's also not a nag or annoying because I always. I'm always.
She's great at those. But, like, she's so effective at those roles that I'm always like, oh, I hate her in this because she's doing her job so well. I love her to, like, have fun and be crazy in a fun way. And it's like, at nobody's expense.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: She's just screaming into the phone at nobody. Like in this scene, she's just screaming into the phone and then she turns it off and it's so good. She's trashing the office, about to burn.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: She is a cartoon character in the most fun and best way. She has such control over what she's doing and knows exactly how her performance is playing.
It's just a delight.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah. A few of those things, like Alan Arkin, Joan Cusack in this movie where they use those actors very effectively with their screen time.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: And I think we looked into the director a little bit. This is the only big movie he's ever Done. He has done other movies, but it seemed like a lot of them were exploitation movies from the 70s and 80s.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: He was a frequent collaborator with Roger Corman, which says a lot.
That's a thing.
And, yeah, this was kind of a departure and something that wasn't, you know, he didn't do anything else like this after this.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: It's kind of an interesting way it came together, but, yeah. Grosse Pointe Blank.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: Who else is in this movie?
[00:09:02] Speaker B: My belt ring is Minnie Driver.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: Yes, of course.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Minnie Driver is his high school sweetheart who he just disappeared on, left waiting
[00:09:11] Speaker A: for him to pick her up for prom. For prom.
She was in the dress and everything.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Um, I love mini Driver. Like, as a kid in the 90s, I was just like, well, that's. That's everything you could be like, that's. Why. Why wouldn't that be the person you
[00:09:28] Speaker A: fall in love with?
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Because. Also, a great year for Minnie Driver. This is also the year that Good Will Hunting comes out.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: What an incredible year.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Huge year.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Like, she just exploded after this, big time.
But, yeah. So she plays a radio disc jockey.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: She's a DJ for the local station back at their hometown.
And you wanted to talk about the music because she's dropping great songs across
[00:09:58] Speaker A: the whole movie from the start. The whole movie. You have song after song after song soundtrack by Joe Strummer.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Great.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Of the Clash. Right.
So you have a musician that created the soundtrack, and it was a soundtrack that is so big that the songs that weren't included on the soundtrack could be their own movie soundtrack.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Easily.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Like, the number of awesome songs that she plays, as far as I'm concerned, my favorite movie soundtrack of all time,
[00:10:31] Speaker B: the first one that kicks it off, I think is a great. And they also bookend the movie with it as he gets into town. Blister in the sun, the violent fans, which is just like. Yes, thank you. Like, this. This feels like the time and is so fun. And then it goes into, like, some reggae and some ska, and it's very, like, 90s.
Hearkening back to the 80s playlist of songs.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: The. The. The Little Bits, Pixies. The Echo Echo and the Bunnyman.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: The. Even the. The Guns N Roses and the Faith. No more Bits. Like the. When the.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: We Care A Lot. Yeah.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: Like, some of those. Like, even though they're only playing a small portion of these songs in these scenes that she's playing on the radio in this town, it's. It's such a good playlist.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And I wonder how much?
So I bet Joe Strummer had something to do with that. I bet John Cusack also had something to do with that. Because.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Likes music.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: He seems to, like, really want to push, like, those. Those types of things in the movies that he's in.
But I just. Yeah, it set the tone for the movie and, like, elevates it to, I think, what could have been otherwise, like a less fun movie without those needle drops. Because, like, imagine just like a standard score in this movie, even if it was like action Y or more like romance Y or rom com Y, like, this is way more like iconic in the way that it's presented. I think, like you said, the.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: That opening scene where he's rolling into town for the first time. Yeah. And that. That song, this. The Violent Femmes plays where she's. You. The introduction to her character, the radio dj.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: So good.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: And I like. I said I could. I don't think I could pick a better song. Like.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: So good for that scene. And such a great movie throughout with the. The soundtrack.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Absolutely. So this movie also was written by three different people.
Tom Jankowicz, DB DeVincentis, cannot pronounce names.
And who's the third person? Steve Pink.
So DV DeVincentis, man, you're just gonna laugh at me. Struggle on that one.
Was, I think, the more notable writer there because he also went on to write High Fidelity and Crime Story and. Or American Crime Story, rather.
But, like, what a crazy run.
Steve Pink also worked with John Cusack again in Hot tub time machine 2, as well as High Fidelity.
But Tom Jankowicz, I think, was a friend of the director, maybe because his only other major film was Powder Puff, which I'm not familiar with.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: No, no, I don't know that one.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Yeah. What else is there to say about this movie?
[00:13:48] Speaker A: The Hank Azaria.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Hank Azaria as CIA, FBI?
[00:13:54] Speaker A: I don't remember.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: Now, they're government.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: They're government agents that have to wait for. For Martin to do something bad so they can then kill him.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: Is the idea. Dan Aykroyd's character brings them along too.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: You're.
I'll lock it real fast. We're almost done anyway.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: This is what was happening that made me and Tracy die laughing for like, five minutes because it happened like, three times in a row, but it spaced out perfectly to where we're like. We're good.
Okay.
All right, we're back.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: We were talking about Dan Aykroyd sending the two government agents to kill Martin Blank.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Basically because he's Mad at him. Yeah. So you have these scenes where an Gazaria and the other guy, played by K. Todd Freeman, are in the car and basically they're just following Martin around. And it's kind of like, I really kind of liked this part because you get a different viewpoint. Even though they're. You're still following Martin. Yeah, you get a different viewpoint. You get them making fun of him. And. And Hank's great in these scenes where, like, he does the. He calls the radio station and. And is just ripping on Martin. Like, it's pretty good.
I really, like. I said, I think it's a great cast.
I really like everybody's performances throughout.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Jeremy Piven as the local friend who's, like, wants to get in on. On that.
How do you get in on that? Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: He's a real estate guy, so, you know, do you get a 401k, like, that kind of vibe?
[00:15:56] Speaker B: I get into that thing. Do you think I could get in on that?
[00:15:59] Speaker A: And is, like, perfectly willing to help his buddy.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: When there's a dead. Did. Did this. Yeah. Yeah. Did you kill this guy?
Yeah. It's interesting.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: And then. Yeah. Then the, you know, the plot brings him back to Debbie.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: The dj.
It all wraps up at the end of the movie. And you.
Martin tries to figure himself out. And, yeah, you go along.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: It is interesting. Like, you see him unravel the, like, neuroses that he had. He. He reveals, like, I felt myself wanting to kill people, and I loved you so much that I thought I shouldn't be around you ever again.
Which was, like, kind of lovely and sweet. It reminded me a little bit of the recent assassin movie called Assassin, with the new hunky guy who's in everything, Glenn Powell. Glen Powell. What's it called?
[00:16:58] Speaker A: I don't remember now.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Anyway, it reminded me a lot of that movie because, like, it's light, but then it's not afraid to actually engage with the premise in a, like, grounded way, which I thought was interesting because when you get to that point, you're like, oh, okay. Yeah. She is reacting how you should react. Oh, my gosh.
You are a genuine killer for hire. You are a psychopath.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: She runs screaming when she finds out,
[00:17:28] Speaker B: which, like, that's what should happen.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: And it's like. And I feel like a lot of like. Like, more goofy movies would be like. Or like, they're. They'd, like, heighten that in a silly way rather than just like, oh, no. She is genuinely horrified and had to. Had to get out of there.
I enjoyed that whole last sequence of the movie because it then ends up being that the. He hadn't even looked at the brief for. For.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: He went.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: His contract.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: He went to the. To. To his hometown, basically.
Because his assistant forced him to.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: The Glenn Powell movie is called Hitman.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Hitman. Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah, there you go. His assistant basically forced him to go to his hometown because his job was going to be nearby.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: He never even paid attention to the job because he got so wrapped up in going home once he was actually there.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Because he had been struggling. He was. He was not happy in his job. There was something wrong. He wasn't focused. And so hence the. The therapist. So he kind of figures, I'm going to go home, see, figure out what's going on. And he. He kind of does. Yeah. Like.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And like. And the whole reveal there being that the target was his love's father.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Father. Yeah. I love that scene where he's like, what.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: What do you do?
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Or whatever. Like, you know the surprise on that, Martin, that this is going to be the target, because as he says repeatedly throughout the movie, you got to do something pretty bad.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: To end up on my list kind of thing.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: So that's pretty good. And the guy was so calm.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: The father, when Martin tells him, he tells everybody. Yeah.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: It's a growth market.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Like, he tells everybody that he's an assassin. And the only person that's. That is upset is his love interest when she actually finds out he's an assassin.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
I'm a professional killer.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Yeah. He just tells everybody.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah. That is a good bit of, like, nobody believe you.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Who, me? Yeah.
Five stars.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Would absolutely recommend if you.
If you like John cusack in the 90s. This is John Cusack in the 90s,
[00:19:35] Speaker A: you know, top form.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: As far as I'm concerned. Yep.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: If. If you were in love with Minnie driver in the 90s, watch this movie.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: She's lovely.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Very charming.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: So. And I remarked immediately to my wife that I was just like, her American accent is so good. Like, because, like, they. They start by showing, like, they're being sneaky and being like, who is this? Like, they just show her mouth talking on the. On the radio, and then you're like, oh, that's Minnie Driver. Not with an English accent. Okay. And like, she. She, like, nothing about it, like, pulled me out of it.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: So like you said, Good Will Hunting, same year, has the accent.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: So, like, pretty good. Yeah. I think she did a pretty good job here. Yeah.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Any last thoughts on this movie.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Once again, Dan Aykroyd is hilarious.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: If you like. If you like. Funny, like. Come on.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah. This is like one of. One of his best roles, I think.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: I think so. Certainly, like as an older man, like, you know, post Ghostbusters.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Post 80s era.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think so. I think he's delightful.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: Absolutely.
All right, well, I think we're all set.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: Great. This was fun.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Go watch Grosse Pointe Blank and enjoy.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Bye. Bye.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: Five Minute Film Finder is a digital program brought to you by Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma.
All opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and not those of the organization.
Five Minute Film Finder is produced, recorded and mixed by Ben C. Theme music by Ben C.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please email podcast at pioneerlibrariesystem. Org. Remember to, like, review and subscribe.
