Movie Mindset 33 - Casino feat. Felix

On January 6th I didn’t find out what had happened in D.C. until that evening bc I spent most of the day setting up the new place I had just moved into a few days before. And by setting up my place I mean sitting in my living room rewatching Casino.

he’s sitting by the phone… like a dumbbell!

The Ziti-Cowboy War: Class Politics & Weaponized Whiteness as Seen Through Martin Scorsese’s Casino

I love everything about this movie except it being 3 hours long. I just don’t think I’m cut out for a movie over 2.5 hours. Man does this episode remind of so many gags in this movie, will is right when he says not a second is wasted

I had a hankering for this for a while and it was great! The girlfriend hated it though lol

“Honestly I need to talk about this movie with somebody” in my family that film was Apocalypse now, I was probably 12 or 13

So glad you guys finally did this episode!!

S4E1 better be Inland Empire

Are we just going to brush over the fact that Sam Rothstein’s character is entirely explained by his ♊️☀️♊️🌙 ♊️⬆️

I always thought the desert scene was a great parallel for the U.S.-Israel relationship.

I haven't seen or really heard of this movie at all outside of little bits from the show, I was sole at the description of that assassination scene though so I'll come back to this episode after I see it

When are y’all gonna do Atom Egoyan’s “The Sweet Hereafter”?

Good stuff, I've seen Casino more times than I can count and it never gets old. This old doc is a great companion piece for it. I grew up in Vegas and remember when this originally aired. It has some great footage of when Lefty (Ace) went off on Harry Reid at the licensing hearing. Spilatro's (Nicky's) lawyer went on to become the Mayor and also played himself in the movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWtgb3lsYiw

Perfect episode

I had never seen this before and it ruined my life thank you

The Middle class: this is all the explanation you need to understand why the "culture war" got exported to South America.

I wish movie mindset was all year round but I understand that makes it sweeter when it happens

I was relistening to this and I realized you guys forgot to mention the incredible joke early on in the movie, wherein Pesci, while narrating says "Even back home years ago" and the words "back home years ago" flash on the screen. My favorite joke in the movie, and maybe in ANY movie.

Has anyone seen American Hustle? It’s David O. Russel doing a baggy & shapeless tribute to Casino.

The Apprentice was good.

speaking of podcast canon movies--will you have the radio war nerds on to talk the evil dead for ghoulvie mindset?

Great episode to the point I had to watch it again and just a testament to how amazing Scorsese is with little details, after Ace’s hyper OCD scene with the blueberry muffins, in the last wide shot you see a tray of the muffins and they are in fact wildly inconsistent. Half of them have way too much blueberries and some barely have any. Brilliant stuff. It’s Ace being super neurotic AND valid.

Recently watched the act of killing, horrific movie which follows a gang of Indonesian guys who were part of the front lines of genocide. They absolutely love gangster flicks like this, made it part of the official state rhetoric how gangster is not a dirty word

been waiting on this one for so long 🙏now I can listen to this every time I watch Casino :)

Calling Hesse “Hessy” is one of the all-time Felix malapropisms

Felix 100% spot on with your dad showing you a fucked up movie at 12. He made me watch menace II society and pulp fiction lmaooooo

This was such a delight to listen to! I could have easily listened to another hour or two. A few little things I caught on my Movie Mindset viewing of Casino that I never noticed/thought about before: 1) I've always loved the use of panning in the "Catching the Cheaters" scene to communicate how Ace uses lines of sight to figure out what's going on; however, I never noticed before how when they cut to a super wide shot where the guy with the telegraph strapped to his leg is surrounded by security personnel in anticipation of the cattle prod, they highlight him in golden light to distract you from how completely fucked he is. It's like they at once put you in the "eye in the sky" position but then also deprive you of it by also effectively giving you the cheater's blind spot. Just genius work from Scorsese 2) When Remo croaks at Andy Stone that whatever position Ace gets put in next *has* to be *quiet*, the soundtrack then immediately introduces us to "Aces High" with strains of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" 3) After Nicky terrorizes the banker Charlie Clark, Ace tells him he's lost control and Nicky retorts "I lost control? Look at you! You're fuckin walkin around like John Barrymore! A fuckin pink robe and a fuckin cigarette holder? *I* lost control?!" lol

The end of The Irishman is by far the most bleak because it will be the real end for many of us, shitting ourselves when all of our friends are dead and telling our life stories to a nurse who isn't listening and doesn't care because we're just a nuisance from a dead era that shits himself and makes her clean it up for $17 an hour.

Banger of a episode. I've been to 2 movies with my father ever in my life in the theater and it was this one as a teenager and home alone. This will always be my Marty masterpiece. I recommend the Pileggi book highly also

Gangs of New York is the paradise to Casino's inferno

I’ve been watching this movie since 1997 when I bought it in VHS. It came on two tapes. I’ve seen this movie like 50 times. I think it’s possibly better than Goodfellas. I wish Scorsese had won his Best Director Oscar for this movie. This is only the 3rd time I’ve seen it in HD and it’s crazy the details I’ve never noticed before. The jewelry and costumes especially. On that note, how the fuck was this movie NOT nominated for a Costume Design Oscar??

This was the first R rated movie I ever saw in the theater. There was a period of time where I watched it every day when I got home from school and I could recite the entire script from memory. A true masterpiece.

This pilgrim needs Mann(hunter)

I tried to watch this movie so I could relate to this episode but it's so fucking boring. I just don't get it.

The point about fathers fighting the urge to watch fucked up action/crime movies with their kids is hilarious and way too real, the entire scene of Emil melting and then exploding against a van windshield in Robocop has been burned into my mind's eye since the age of 7.

Best friend in high school got me to watch Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, & Casino all in a row and Casino was maybe the most rotten and disgusting I've ever felt after watching a movie. My parents like later Scorcese but hate all these movies lol bc (in addition to being really nasty) in their critique there's not any character development; but to me that was clearly the point, and what makes all his movies so interesting is they're I think more interested in people as they actually are & their impediments, rather than necessitating development for sake of a cleaner narrative

It is such an incredible movie - loved the point made that while the Tangiers was keeping that businessman there long enough to lose his money back, at the same time capitalism doing the same thing to these mobbed backed casinos.

"Lester Diamond" probably the most perfect naming of a character ever.

godsend. movie mindset is more needed than news watching to me right now

We never got to hear Pesci’s EP!

Wait, Felix who?

“Theme de Camille” is from Godard’s CONTEMPT, another great movie about fucked-up relationships hitting a wall at full speed.

Ace Rothstien is currently doing a podcast defending the state of Israel.

It’s interesting to hear yall talk about a movie I’ve watched so many times and love. This was excellent.

My brother and I rented Natural Born Killers when he was like 10, we just had to call home to ask my dad on the video store's telephone.

Re: the modern mob, in Kansas City specifically – they hang out at The Cigar Box next to this strip club they also own ($50 lunch buffet + lapdance special), and when girls age out of Temptations, they get jobs at The Cigar Box https://shorturl.at/h8n40

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted a Scorsese Movie Mindset episode. (Well I guess we already got After Hours)

My favorite thing about Casino is it gives you the thesis in the first thirty minutes. When Nicky is describing the Teamster mook, he says “He thought they gave him all this fucking money ‘cuz he was so smart.” That describes every character in the movie, they think they’re where they are because they’re special, not just blind luck determining their fate.

A double vhs tape rental - a beautiful episode

i just watched fredrick wiseman's the store last night. casino and this share a specific insight into the temple of the devil as hesse says

Joe Pesci for President, so he can give his “you only exist out here because of me” speech to Netanyahu.

I need a pair of De Niro’s boomer sunglasses 😎

I love Felix’s laugh. Sounds like Bart Simpson’s. The sound of wholesome mischief

Wonderful episode! Felix seems so pumped for the show.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Felix sound this mirthful, it feels beautiful to hear him laugh this hard and get this excited

I haven’t listened to this all the way through so maybe they mentioned this but I hope people know these characters are based on actual real people and some of the weird shit like counting “blueberries” in muffins are actually what these real people were like.

well done!

Watched it the other day in prep! Stoked!

Just realized a weird connection between Ace's horse statue stuff and Pontius Pilate's horse in "Last Temptation." There's something there, none of my business though

No Country or Fargo please.

I can't believe you didn't mention the legend about the vise scene. One trick they do in Hollywood is sometimes they'll include a "sacrificial scene" in the cut they send to the MPAA. They know the content in this scene is too extreme, and they're confident the MPAA will cut it- they do this so that the board will be less likely to cut other scenes in the movie. Apparently, the vise scene was included for this purpose. For all the sex, drugs, and extreme violence in Casino, you can see why they would do this. However, every once in a while the MPAA will, for whatever reason, leave a "sacrificial scene" in the theatrical cut- and apparently the vise torture scene in Casino is one case of this happening. On another note, I recently saw Showgirls for the first time in the theater. Although Casino is obviously a much better film, it's interesting to compare the two, as they're both 90s Vegas epics from great filmmakers. I know a lot of people love Showgirls, and a lot of people hated it when it came out. I'm sort of in the middle- I thought it was pretty good, a 3 and a half star where Casino is an easy 5 stars. It was entertaining and I liked a lot about it, but it just left me cold in a way Casino never does.

Ever since I saw Casino as a kid, I have wanted Ace Rothstein's suits. It's the greatest movie ever.

The way Will puts it, a portrait of conversations somewhat detached from the story... riding a coke high... Casino is the spiritual grandfather of Baz Luhrmann movies.

I’m guilty of watching T2 with my son last year, when he was 7.. this is just good parenting

The one thing Titanic and Casino have in common is you know once you pop in that second VHS tape, shit is fucked

I won $130 in Vegas on my first 🎰 and I'm positive it was because I watched Casino and listened to the Trueanon Mandalay Bay EP on the plane.

I respect Felix for choosing to watch Casino over possibly having sex. Absolute fucking Autistic Chad move.

One incredible detail that I only noticed when watching the 4K release: in the wide shot that ends the Ace/chef scene, if you look in the background you see a tray of blueberry muffins and sure enough, half of them have all the blueberries and the other half have none. Ace vindicated!

In Sam’s mind if HE had met Ginger when she was 14 he would have groomed her into prostitution in a much classier way.

Gonna have to rewatch casino mainly for the joe bob cameo

You know what film won the Oscars for costumes and production design that year? Restoration. What’s Restoration? No one knows. No one has ever seen it.

Yes!

I wasn't alive or don't remember it when it happened but at some point all the Italians in nevada just magically left, like the Lorax. Leaving all their cars and hotels and restaurants to peel and rust in the desert sun. Also Harry Reid was a genuine piece of desert trash. I always hated him but apparently he could scrap

James Woods' most autobiographical work.

Joe Pesci tuning people up in this movie is so satisfying to watch. Bashing Don Rickles with a phone, slapping the shit out of Sharon Stone, smacking around one of his hick henchman for mouthing off to De Niro’s character, stabbing that guy at the beginning of the film with a pen. I dunno maybe I’m a little too much of a sadist when it comes to this movie.

Will's voice breaking when talking about the only form of love Ginger's ever known... 🥺 This is actually a trigger that makes ME get choked up -moments that encapsulate what art and music can do to effect us, change us, stay with us for years and years and that it's something human beings are even capable of in the first place.

BRAV-FUCKING-O

James Woods as Lester is one of the best scumbag performances of all time.

Begging for a movie mindset to watch list to prepare for the future eps

🗜️CHARLIE M!!!!🗜️ cream’s “Toad” during that scene is my fav Scorsese-Robbie song drop

A tour de force of an episode

Saw this movie for the first time at the Esquire theater in Denver. RIP ESQUIRE THEATER.

Want to put in a word for the Casino miniseries on the Ghost Stories for the End of the World pod, which really only uses the film as a jumping-off point to illustrate some of the real-life events and principal characters, eventually spreading a wider web of connections that touches the deep state's relationship with organized crime, Poppy Bush, Adnan Khashoggi, the BCCI, etc etc.

“What gun? It’s a fuckin’ gyro sandwich”

"There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone, in fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape, but even after admitting this there is no catharsis, my punishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself; no new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing."

Great movie. Watched it over Easter weekend with my dad, def a movie he had playing on in the background when I was kid, quite a few scenes felt familiar. I owe my movie mindset to my dad, he let me watch Alien, The Thing, Terminator 2, probably way too young, lol. Also I swear DeNiro wears a suit in every color of the rainbow in this movie

Hesse has evolved. Hessie is in control now

Also watched Casino with my dad at way too young an age bc he needed someone to talk about it with

Hesse's Die Hard story is the best dad story I've ever heard

Mindsetting so hard rn

Oh fuck yeah

What happens when the perfect podcast has been achieved? I hope sincerely that this doesn’t mean that Will, Felix and Hesse end up in a shallow grave.

Every time Felix isn't speaking, the other hosts should ask "Where's Felix?"

Swooning and gooning

I do love this movie's depiction of the Kansas City mafia, because it's absolutely still here, but it's mostly 80-year-old men who sit around a table all day at the bar/grill one of them owns, because you're allowed to smoke cigars inside (but not cigarettes)

My favorite show talking about my favorite movie

Lmao my dad did the exact "not till your older" with Deliverance and then I watched it with him when I was like 12 haha

Y’all should do a james woods ep

The interactions of the DeNiro and the Nevada politicians are like Scorsese's answer to Coppola in the beginning of GF 2 where the senator tells Michael that he doesn't like Italians coming out to his 'clean country with their oily hair dressed up in silk suits trying to pass themselves off as decent Americans'

"Where you goin' jagoff" is a phrase that rattles through my head at least once a day

hearing you folks talk about your experiences with your parents and movies.. man we all had the same childhood hahahah..

Wait so should I watch it first or does it not matter? (I haven’t listened to a movie mindset yet)

Fuckin hell yeah

Finally! I'm so excited for this one. Casino > Godfellas

Felix who?

I’m dropping off if Hesse starts summarizing each scene and adds some shit like “yas queen”

To this day I still describe several of my friends as degenerate gamblers who always lose

I remember scanning through mid series episodes of Sopranos trying to find what I remembered as the perfect mob hit ever depicted on screen and not being able to find it. Turns out it was Frank Culotta hitting Andy Stone in the carpark at the beginning of the House of the Rising Sun scene

James woods for better or worse just plays himself, often best villains come from that honest place. .3.

I’m listening to this while making a giant batch of blueberry granola cookies for the bakery I am employed by…I think about the equal amount of blueberries line every time

CASINO is a movie about defective people who live in a fake place, and who torture and kill each other over shit that only matters in that fake place, and as such, it's probably America's Movie™

my favorite host Hessie

Finally

I just realised now. Casino is LONGER than Goodfellas but feels a lot shorter.

The vice grip scene lives in my head forever. So brutal but so good.

The kids question isn’t stupid because the guy has 8 kids. That really is out of the ordinary.

It’s the all new Will Menaker show

It's such a little thing but the way Marty shoots the car driving across the desert reflected in DeNiro's old man sunglasses is incredible

I just punched a hole through a sheet of drywall let’s fucking go

My trough runneth over 🐷

Fuck yeah

Putting my head in a vice to listen to this one (over the head earphones)

Featuring Felix? Who's this young go-getter? I'll have to tune in to find out

Let’s goooooo