This week, we make a triumphant return to the mailbag, taking a listener request to discuss Paolo Sorrentino‘s ponderous arthouse quirk-fest This Must Be the Place!
Consequence of Sound film editor Dominick Suzanne-Mayer joins us in this exploration of one of Sean Penn‘s stranger performances as Cheyenne, a washed-up Robert Smith-type rock star who returns to America to hunt the escaped Nazi who tortured his father during the Holocaust. Like a lot of Sorrentino joints (see also: The Great Beauty), This Must Be the Place dabbles in complicated themes of aging, legacy, and the emptiness of excess and fame – unfortunately, it’s saddled in an atonal, sluggish script that doesn’t know when to laugh at itself or take itself seriously.
We throw on our red lipstick and Tim Burton wigs to deep dive into this relic of late-aughts navel-gazing indie cinema, so take a listen and check out our custom cocktail and drinking game!
(Thanks to our sponsor Backblaze as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
THIS EPISODE'S DRINK: LAST PANDA STANDING
Named after a particularly fun phrase Cheyenne’s lecherous friend Desmond says, this drink combines all the booze Chey sees and drinks along his journeys (the whiskey billboard drawbridge, his bottle of Jager, the pistachio statue), with grapefruit and blood orange juice to lighten it up and soda water to give it some fizz.
1 oz Suntory whiskey
1/4 oz Jagermeister
1/2 oz pistachio-lime syrup
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
1/2 oz blood orange juice
1 oz soda water
Combine ingredients in a Collins glass with ice, and stir to combine.
DRINKING RULES FOR THIS MUST BE THE PLACE:
- Any time you see intimate, straight-on close-ups of Cheyenne sporting his sad clown look
- Every time Cheyenne has a Ponderous Sit-Down with a new character in his journeys
- Whenever you hear any version of “This Must Be the Place”, or the song is discussed
FINISH YOUR DRINK WHEN:
Cheyenne says to the white supremacists he splashes mud on with his truck, “I apologize, but it’s only right you know I did it on purpose.”
Join us next time as we test out our Antonio Banderas impressions with the CGI Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots!
