 Hello, and welcome to Release Date Rewind. My name is Marc J. Parker, and I am a film lover, filmmaker, film celebrator. And normally this is an audio podcast, wherever you get your podcasts on your favorite apps. But thanks to Portland Media Center, you are about to watch the video component of this show where I celebrate movie anniversaries with my friends. Each month I usually talk about two different movies that I love with different friends, and we talk about the making of the movies, trivia, any fun memories associated with them. So I hope you enjoy, because now it's time to rewind. Okay, everybody, I am super excited to have a friend and a fellow filmmaker on this show. I haven't talked to this guy in a while. We've seen each other on Instagram and Facebook, always liking and keeping tabs that way, but we haven't actually caught up in a long time, pre-COVID, pre-lots of stuff. So everybody, please welcome Amos Posner. Hello, my friend Amos. How's it going? It's going great. Hey, Marc. I forget. How, Amos, let's do a quick trip down memory lane. We know each other. I know we've known each other for a long time. We met through, was it through CC Webster and like Aaron Moore, Dan Lane, like that whole group, I think? Is that how we met? That's right. And I was just listening to you talk to CC about Tootsie, which was of course wonderful. Yep. Isn't she great? I don't know how to not be a little intimidated by how wise CC is, but it was so great to hear you two talk about Tootsie. It's so funny. A lot of people say that, whether they know CC or not from listening to this show and just knowing her, you know, any other friends and they're like, wow, she's really smart. I'm like, yeah, she is like, she needs to do her own podcast. I know very little compared to her. So I'm so glad you checked that out. She is a whiz, a movie whiz, screenwriting whiz. So yeah, because I think I saw your film B-Side. I want to say it was with CC. Maybe it was part of the drive-in film festival that she was doing, or am I totally wrong? It was. Okay. Yes. Okay. Luckily, I feel like I'm forgetting things as I get older and trying to piece things together. I'm like, was it? Okay. So I'm right. I'm right on that aspect. And that was already what, like, maybe 10 years ago-ish. What do you think? They're about. Wow. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your films. I've seen B-Side. I know you have made some others. What kind of films do you make? Are these great indie features? Some rom-com elements, right? Definitely some romance in there, which we'll talk more about soon. But tell me about your films. So my first feature was B-Side starring Ryan Eggold, who you might know from New Amsterdam or many other things. And I later directed a small indie feature called After Party that was written and produced by Jesse Knight. So I didn't write that one in my heart. I love rom-coms. I love coming of age movies. I love it. Yeah. And that's part of where my love of the wedding singer comes in. And yeah, my next work in progress is a New York-based rom-com of sorts. Nice. Yeah. Oh, I like that. Do we have a title yet? Can you tell us? Or is it all like super confidential top secret? Well, I can tell you about it. We'll make sense out of context. But the title right now is The Back, B-A-C, which relates to a bar that features prominently in the script, which has a malfunctioning sign. So it's supposed to be called The Back Allureate, but only the first three letters light up. Love it. Oh, that's so fun. And is this one you wrote as well? Wrote this one solo, which is a departure for me and an exciting one. Yeah. Because now with B-Side, you wrote and directed that, but you co-wrote that one? I co-wrote that one with my dear friend, Joe Euchel. Okay, cool. So what was it like? I mean, I've written a good amount of shorts. It's funny we're talking about features and writing a feature and writing it solo because I'm starting to try to write a feature solo, which I haven't done in over 10 years. And oh my God, it's tough, Amos. How do you do it? How do you write by yourself a whole feature film? With great difficulty is the answer. And a lot of neurosis, I feel like you have to be more neurotic to write alone. All the back and forth, all the disagreements, they're all between you and you. I will say it does help that I'm engaged to a writer and editor and living with someone who can be a sounding board and has insights into writing and also who knows my writing really well is very helpful check and balance when it comes to the fight between me and me. I love that. Yeah. Wow. I love that. The fight between me and me. That's another title. Keep that in mind for something in the future. No, that's great. That is so amazing that your fiance can also, yeah, be that extra set of eyes. She knows like you were telling me offline that the book world and all that. So wow. Now how did you two meet and tell us you just told me some very exciting, perfect romcom news. What's happening in four weeks in your life? Four weeks from today we're getting married. I love it. I love it so much. I love weddings. In a past life, while I was working in film and TV a lot, I was still being a cater waiter. So that's also why I kind of love the wedding singer and I would love, I hated being a cater waiter. I mean, it's better than a regular waiter because you don't really have to take orders. It's just like, is it the chicken or the beef kind of thing? But I loved working weddings. So where is your wedding happening? How is planning been? I love all those details. How's it been going? It's mostly been going pretty well. The funny thing for me is that I feel like traditionally I'm supposed to have cold feet and I don't have cold feet about getting married or the person I'm marrying, even a little bit. On the other hand, I have absolutely freezing feet when it comes to having an event. Oh, that's it. Yep. I know. All the little details and the spotlights on you and yeah, I love that freezing feet. Where is it going to be in the city? Yes. I'm actually getting married in a movie theater. Oh, Amos. Oh my God. That is so perfect. Perfect for you. Perfect for life. What? No, which theater? We won't. This isn't a very popular podcast. Don't worry. No one's going to stalk you. But which theater are you going to do it in? So we're actually married at the Museum of the Moving Image. Oh, I love that place. What a great idea. And so will you be able to have kind of like your whole reception there as well or you'll do that elsewhere? No, the reception will be at the museum. So the ceremony will be in the theater, but then people will be able to walk around to the exhibits. Oh my God. Amos, a filmmaker's wedding. I love it so much. I'm so happy for you. Now, how long have you guys been together? We've been together a long time at this point. We've been together over seven years. Wow. Congratulations. Four weeks. So that's like a nice mid-March-ish, no, late-March kind of springtime wedding. Late-March. Yeah. Love it. Oh, I'm so excited for you. Two picks. Museum of the Moving Image. If anyone out there listening hasn't been there, it's in Queens, a beautiful, really cool museum with amazing exhibits, right? I mean, I haven't been there in a long time, but I've been a few times and it's really cool stuff for sure. Wow. Well, what a perfect segue into our discussion on rom-coms. Now, Amos, I love, if anyone follows me on Facebook and stuff, I had posted my kind of idea list for some upcoming episodes. And I was excited to see Amos comment and say, hey, I love the wedding singer. I was like, ooh, that could be interesting because I know you've done some rom-com stuff in the past. Tell me just before we get into the details of the wedding singer, tell me why do you love rom-coms? What are some of your other favorite rom-coms? Because I love hearing, especially from a straight man, a man at all, it's nice to hear that you love this genre. So tell me why. Well, I think part of it is that I'm an old millennial. And so when I was a kid, when I was a teenager, you throw on, and this is, you know, before streaming, I lived in a very basic cable world. And so you turn on TBS on the weekend and there would be when Harry met Sally, there would be sleepless in Seattle, there would be. And so I kind of grew up in this time when there was Nora Efron, there was Nancy Meyers. And even beyond that, you know, I think my favorite movie is L.A. Story with Steve Martin. And my mom was into a lot of these movies. And so they would kind of ambiently beyond. Yeah. But they were also really good, you know. And I've always gravitated toward movies that are just about people and that are funny and I'm a sentimental guy. And I don't know what's better than Moonstruck, do you? Oh gosh, that's a good question, right? Oh my God, that's a pretty iconic one. But I never get tired of that. I never get tired of when Harry met Sally. And then as, you know, I went off to college and I found myself studying film. And as I got into old movies, I found even more that I loved romcoms and I love Lubich. I love Billy Wilder. Just the other night I was watching Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. Oh, I haven't seen that one. Oh, it's a hilarious Lubich romcom with Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert. Oh, nice. OK, classic. What year was that? Do you remember? I do not off the top of my head. I want to say 38, but I might be totally wrong. Yeah, back in the day. Wow. OK, good. And that one is a little more acidic than something like it happened one night. I like the word acidic with a certain kind of romcom because you're so right. It's a word that could describe some some romcoms with a little bit of like an edge, a bite, right? I like that. And I totally agree with you. I love I'm a basic cable guy as well. When it's when something is on that's classic, whether you've seen it or not, it's just so nice to have that on. And I love that your mom also was kind of watching this stuff with you. So kind of via her, you you started to kind of fell fall in love with this stuff. So that is so nice. I love it. Cool. Well, let's talk about the wedding singer. Let's rewind, Amos. Let's go back 25 years. Crazy, because I saw this movie in the theater. Did you see it in the theater? Do you remember? I most certainly did. Right. Wow. It's crazy to think because, I mean, it's also just really interesting. And maybe you agree. And I've talked about this before on the show that like the mid to late 90s. It's crazy because, like, I guess there was just like a boom in film technology because these movies still, in my opinion, look good. Whereas some early 90s and, of course, 80s movies, it's it's grainy. It's not so crisp and clear, you know. So it's crazy when I rewatch it that I'm like, wow, I was 10 when I saw this in the theater. Holy cow, you know, because it doesn't feel that old to me. Yeah. And I feel like especially with we were kind of in the wilderness with digital video for a while. And and then now so often if you see a rom-com in particular, it'll be something where, you know, they didn't put much money into it because it's just going to go into the all you can eat buffet of streaming. So totally. It's not something that's meant to have like a theatrical quality to it. And so we've entered this funny time when you watch something that in the 90s would have been a throwaway. But now it feels like, oh, this is this is production values. This is beautiful. This is like a prestige piece. You're so right. Isn't that funny? What used to be bad is now we look back and we're actually very fond of it and it looks better or it looks more real, right? That's so interesting. Yeah, screw the reviews, screw the haters, right? Before the Internet, before cell phones, before rollerblades, there was a time everybody on a dance floor, very nice grandma Molly. When Robbie Hart was the most popular wedding singer around. You should get some pants on that kid. We're going back to February 13th, 1998, Valentine's Day weekend. I saw that this was also an Olympics. Winter Olympics was going on at this time as well this weekend. So on the TV side, another romance kind of adjacent thing. And I want to ask if you saw it. Dawson's Creek had just started a couple of weeks prior about a little less than a month earlier, which I just talked about on the show. Did you watch that show, Amos, or were you too cool for Dawson? Well, I don't think anyone who knew me in the nineties would accuse me of being too cool for anything, but. But for other reasons, I never really watched Dawson's Creek. OK, cool. You know, if you ever have time, check it out. At least season one, it's a it's a great rewatch or first time watch. There's some really good stuff in there. It's a little sappy, but that's part of the fun. Popular movies besides the wedding singer at this time, Titanic, of course, was still number one and would continue being number one for a while. That had opened in December. This film came out the same day as Sphere. Do you remember Sphere with Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, sci-fi thriller? I saw that one theaters, too. So I don't think I've ever actually seen the movie of that because I loved the book before before I actualized into a rom-com person. I had a I had my 20 years as a sci-fi kid. Oh, love it. Michael Crichton. Yeah, yeah, I was going to say, was that a Michael Crichton book? I'm pretty. Yeah, I figured it was. Yeah, I didn't read the book, but the movie isn't good. But I had a fun time with it. I remember being a little freaked out. I think Queen Latifah and Leah Schreiber were in it. I love that. Oh, well, maybe one day you'll merge worlds. You'll you'll make a film that is a sci-fi rom-com. We haven't really gotten much of that. So think about that, Amos, you can take that idea. So besides Sphere, a few other popular movies that had come out around this time, Great Expectations, the version with Gwyneth and Ethan Hawke, I believe that was popular, as was the Blues Brothers 2000. That film kind of made a quick splash around the same time. So we had a mix of, you know, the holdovers from the from December, Goodwill Hunting, as good as it gets. Those awards films were still super popular. But then these more fun, simpler, less awards fair were we're doing some good things as well. So before I break down who's who in the in the creatives in the cast and talk about where they were in their careers, Amos, I'm going to throw it over to you in your own words. What is the wedding singer about? So the wedding singer, I would describe it two different ways. On a plot level, it's a great high concept rom-com. It's about a wedding singer who gets left at the altar and then in his recovery from that broken heart falls in love with an engaged woman. Nice. But it's also Adam Sandler making fun of the eighties. Totally. You are so right. Yeah, it really is both if there's an actual story there. And then there's so much commentary on the eighties, whether it's visual, there's dialogue about it. Yes, you're right. In some ways, this movie Trojan Horst, a lot of people like me into a rom-com because I was a teenage Jewish boy from New York. So it's impossible to overstate what Adam Sandler meant to people like me. Yeah, at the time, he was he was our comic, you know, I believe it. Yeah. And we had had Addison and when we were in middle school and happy Gilmore and the Hanukkah song had come out two years earlier. I mean, two years to the day before the wedding singer came about was Adam Sandler's comedy album. What the hell happened to me? And that was the one that had the goat on it. It had the Hanukkah song on it. And so then two years later, we see all the commercials. And the whole stick of this is it's an Adam Sandler movie about making fun of the eighties. Yeah. Sign me up. Sounds great. It just happened to also be a really good rom-com. Totally. You are so right. That's a really great way to put it. This Trojan Horst you into rom-coms. And I feel like a Trojan Horst me into loving because I can't remember. I knew growing growing up, you know, my family loved like disco. So like on the way to the Jersey Shore, we would listen to Abba and maybe some eighties. But I honestly feel like like rewatching this film. I think I fell in love with eighties music, maybe because of this film. Like, I mean, it opens with you spin me right round and like, I know it's cheesy, but I do love that song. And as a kid, I was obsessed with that song. And I think it's because of this movie. So, yes, I love that this was a vehicle that opened that maybe we went to it for a certain reason. But then you got more out of it and embraced another thing that she didn't really think too much about previously. I love that. Yeah, I didn't know that his comedy album was only two years prior. That's amazing. I know he left SNL, I think in 95, same year as Billy Madison. So that was really his breakout year in Happy Gilmore. So you it sounds like you were obsessed with Billy and Happy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And also, I went to a Jewish school through eighth grade. OK. And so to have this comedian who, you know, the Hanukkah song, now I hear it and I'm like, so the bid is it's a list of Jewish people. Like, OK, that's but but to, you know, 13 year old me. This was great. And also, you know, people love to talk about people love to talk about how many Jewish people there are in in entertainment. Yeah. But it's not like they've always been able to actually show that they're Jewish in any way or talk about it or even keep their names. And then suddenly we have Adam Sandler and even in the wedding singer, he's he's singing in Hebrew at a at a bar mitzvah. We didn't have that all the time. Your young mind must have been like blown at that moment. Like, whoa, this is like Jewish entertainment on top of Jewish entertainment or something, right? And that bar mitzvah scene, that's funny. And we and I loved Billy Madison and I loved happy Gilmore. I had the sense of humor of a 12 year old when I was 12. And let me tell you, Billy Madison was great for that. Absolutely. Oh, my God, iconic. Like, I think we luckily I'm maybe I'm sure even if we were older, we would get a kick out of it. But at that like middle school age for those big movies to come out, I mean, it was all anyone talked about, right? And then the wedding singer just continued that he had a really solid start to his post SNL film career. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. So that's that's kind of like what was going on at the time to set the scene. Now I'll quickly talk more since we're talking about Adam's career and all that. So and I'm sure and chime in, Amos, I'm sure you probably saw some of this, too, if you were, you know, researching or finding any fun facts. So Adam had this idea for a comedy about a wedding singer who gets left at the altar and he had suggested it to his frequent writing partner, Tim Hurley. I believe is his last name. He had co-written with Adam, of course, Billy and and happy Gilmore. And also, did you see that some ghost writers, some uncredited writers in addition to Adam Sandler on the script were Carrie Fisher and Judd Apatow icons? What do you make of that? I had no idea about Carrie Fisher. And I think that's so great. It's amazing. It also makes so much sense that. Because to me, the biggest difference between the wedding singer and happy Gilmore or Billy Madison because both of those have a love interest, a love storyline. Yep. A blonde woman that can. Kind of define whether he lives happily ever after or not. But with all due respect to Bridget Wilson and Julie Bowen. They're kind of throwaways. Yeah, they're not they're not the point. And in this case, oh, it's so much more about her. And some of that is the gravitational pull of Drew Barrymore. Right. But also just her perspective is given a lot more. And in reading up, apparently that's a lot of work. Who better to. Sympathetically write a role for, you know, the traumatized daughter of Hollywood royalty than Carrie Fisher. You're so right. Wow, I didn't think about that connection. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes, they're they're they can speak on so many levels together. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, you know, Carrie had it's funny. I didn't we didn't know as at the time we were young. But even until recently, I didn't realize that, you know, she, you know, was a script doctor on some iconic stuff. Even last year, I talked about Sister Act. I mean, the list goes on and on. It's really impressive and really a shame that she didn't get any, you know, credit on these films. But as you know, you know, the Writers Guild and all, you know, all very detailed stuff and there are rules and all that. But yeah, Carrie helped enhance the Julia Sullivan character, that female perspective that you're so right was missing from the previous films. So much so, I was trying to remember before you said Julie Bowen's name. I was like, yeah, who was the blonde and happy Gilmore? I barely remember her and you're right. It was Julie Bowen. I remember Bridget Wilson very well, just because, man, what a babe and like, I just remember her. I think I had seen Billy Madison more than than happy Gilmore. So I just knew that. But yeah. So in comes Drew's character. And now we have someone to really co-headline with Sandler, right? Like now we have now he's met his match. It feels like in this third film that he had done post SNL, you know? And I also thought I was interesting. Tim Hurley, he had co-written those previous films with Sandler. But this was his first one writing solo. And for the most part, I think it's an awesome script. And not only is it hilarious, but like there's some great tension. There's some we'll get into it soon. But like, oh, my God, some great heartbreaking rom-com stuff that you're like, you're shouting at the screen. No, you know. So this kind of proved that he could do it. And it's funny, I saw that Sandler, Hurley, he and this same director, Frank Karachi, I believe Karachi, all worked on the water boy Karachi, right? They all worked on the water boy later in 1998. I forgot, 98 was like a two-header for all of them with the water boy. A movie I don't love as much as this, but I totally respect, you know, people enjoying that one. I didn't care so much about that one, right? Until he got stood up at his own wedding. I woke up this morning and I realized I'm about to marry a wedding singer. Speaking of Frank Karachi, he had previously only directed one feature film. So pretty cool that he was able to then get this massive thing, a smaller thriller he did called Murdered Innocence. And he, I guess, was friends with Sandler from NYU. So that's how they knew each other. And another frequent Adam Sandler collaborator, he had gone on to do Click. And I think he worked with Sandler and Barrymore on Blended, their third film, you know, in their rom-com legacy. So cool how they all kind of like, you know, kept it going. Now, let's talk about Drew Barrymore real quick. She, of course, had just previously done a little over a year before Scream, which we all know was huge, huge for her. Totally like kind of resurrected her kind of odd, interesting career in the early to mid nineties, right? So she did that and she was also doing smaller films, some rom-coms, Best Men and Wishful Thinking. And she had approached Sandler to work together on a film saying they were, and you probably saw this too, cinematic soulmates, she said, even before they really knew each other, really had worked together. And she also had a relationship with the director. So I love, you know, how things are all kind of put into place. It wasn't like there was obviously no need for auditions. It was just sort of mutual friends getting together and, you know, casting these leads and they are, it makes sense that the two of them have made movies that have made so many millions. Between this, Fifty First Dates and Blended. I actually haven't seen Blended. Did you see that one? Like ten or five? Yeah, that one looked, how do I say it nicely? That one just looked a little less than, you know, Fifty First Dates was their biggest hit. That made like two hundred million worldwide. I definitely saw that one in theaters. But by the time Blended came out, it was kind of like, eh, been there done that for me, you know. But it still made a ton of money. It made over a hundred million, much like this film. So I mean, rewatching this, you remember just their chemistry and the fun they have. It is palpable. Like I was smiling, even though I've seen this film a bunch of times, I was smiling as if I saw it for the first time, you know. I mean, it's a delight. It's an absolute delight. And so many of the things that they reigned in as well, because it's funny that The Water Boy was after this and the same director, too, because in rewatching the wedding singer, part of what stands out to me is that Adam Sandler doesn't have that barely under the surface kind of rage. You know, in Billy Madison, he's kind of always ready to go off the handle. And in Happy Gilmore, he's always he punches Bob Barker. Like he's always right. The whole point of that character is that he's a rage monster. Right. And same with The Water Boy. It's all about channeling his rage. But in this movie, they don't do that. In this movie, there's the famous line where he says. Where he says to Linda, the woman who left him at the altar. Oh, God, I'm losing the exact frame is now. But is this the iconic, you know, when he's down in the dumps, of course, he's softer and he says, again, things that could have been brought to my attention yesterday, that line. Thank you, Mark. OK, yes, that is the exact line. I do love that line so much, but you're you are really right. Yeah, he doesn't shout that until the second time. The second time. Yes, you're right. You bring up a good point. A lot of his comedy is funny because he's about to just blow up. In this film, he does blow up like that time a few other times, but only because there's a very clear reason for it. Normally, he's not a guy that just blows up at all. He's very mild and a normal, nice guy. Yeah, that's interesting. Maybe that's also why I like this one so much, because it showed us another side to Sandler that is quite, I don't want to say soft because, you know, that word can sometimes be negative. So I'm not going to say that, but just a more gentle, nice guy who you really, really root for. Yeah, and also that allows you to root for him to be with Drew Barrymore because I have a theory with Drew Barrymore and especially watching this movie. I think that Drew Barrymore's face, in part because it's so round, I think she triggers an evolutionary response in the viewer where I don't know about you, but I see Drew Barrymore and I just want to protect her at all costs. Absolutely. It's the same response you get to like a baby or a puppy. Protect Drew Barrymore. A different Adam Sandler, a ragey Adam Sandler. Keep him away from her. Yeah, you're so right. Absolutely, Amos. Yeah. This Adam Sandler. In any film, you're right. You want to you want to help her even when she's badass in Charlie's Angels or something else or Poison Ivy, early 90s, you know, you still feel for her. You want you want her to do good. You want her to help you get help. You know, that's I think why it was genius casting that she was, you know, in that opening scene and scream. It's like, no, our angel, she can't go, right? Yeah, so maybe having her not only a good character in Julius Sullivan, but having Drew Barrymore now, that's going to not only up Adam Sandler's game, but yeah, tweak that rage. Once again, things that could have been brought to my attention yesterday. New Mind Cinema presents to the year in the middle of a nervous breakdown. What do you do? Thanks so much for watching. Next week will be part two of this discussion. And in the meantime, please follow release date rewind on Instagram.