I love love, I’ll make no excuses for it. I love romantic films. I love seeing two hot people fall in love and be all cool and fun and sexy and then do a kiss. It’s like sports films: the formula is so well worn because it’s fantastic when it all works.
•
One of cinema’s most enduring love stories is that between Jesse and Celine in the Before Trilogy. Told over 3 films and 18 years, the story tells of them meeting, and chatting, and meeting, and chatting, and there’s a boat at one point. Basically they love to talk and they love each other.
•
The trilogy is part of the Criterion Collection, which lets you know how worthy and fancy it is. To quote the CC website: “Attuned to the sweeping grandeur of time’s passage as well as the evanescence of individual moments, the Before films chart the progress of romantic destiny as it navigates the vicissitudes of ordinary life”. Yeah, but are they any good?
•
To help me decide, I enlisted the help of someone just as romantic as I, but sometimes a little more eye-roll-ish at rom coms, Tiffany B. Through our exploration of all 3 films in this one podcast, we chatted about how women and men have biologically-enforced personalities, the wonderful work of Ariane Labed, and a cruel cinematic April Fool’s joke.
•
There's a spoiler-free section, followed by a spoiler-filled, so if you've seen all of the films or none of the films, there's something for you to listen to!
•
Cheers!

We're back with another great reading of Mark's poetry by Jay Larson. This time: what is an object? Is Mark an object?

Stay safe and stay home!

Find Jay everywhere:

Instagram: @jaylarsoncomedy Website: www.jaylarsoncomedy.com Podcast: The Thruline with Jay Larson - airs every Thursday.

Don't be fooled by the title of this episode, we did not have Ethan Hawke on the show this week! But we did talk about a little PBS program he did called Shakespeare Uncovered where he did a deep dive on Macbeth!

Unfortunately our original recording of this episode was lost to the technology gods, so we have this quick solo re-record for you. As always, cacaw!

While other forms of entertainment have ceased production, Below The Belt is here for you our fans as we present another great remote show via Skype!

In association with our friends at Click On This (www.clickonthis.tv) we cover the premiere of Tesla (starring Ethan Hawke) at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival! Co-host Lauren Francesca interviews two of the stars of the film veteran actor Kyle MacLaughlin and the great Ethan Hawke!

Our special Skype call-in guest is actor Jimmy Wong who can be seen in the live action version of Disney's Mulan! Jimmy talks to us about his character of Ling, his thoughts on the delay of Mulan due to the pandemic, working with the cast, and more! In addition Jimmy talks to us about his YouTube pop culture centered cooking show Feast of Fiction! Check it out at youtube.com/feastoffiction as well as the Feast of Fiction book in stores now!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the panel are joining remotely via Skype. BTB’s host with the most Al Sotto brings you another entertaining program! In addition "The King of the 80s" Chachi McFly and "Your Grace" Morgan Fabulous also join in on the fun!

So expect all the late-breaking news on pop culture, entertainment, and more! Listen to our gut busting humor, insightful commentary, and thought provoking opinions on the world of entertainment uncensored only on Below The Belt Show (www.belowthebeltshow.com)!

Song Credits
Classic Cut: Joan Jett "I Love Rock And Roll"

NOTE: Due to copyright, songs are shortened from the podcast show so listen to our show LIVE to hear all the music and commentary uncensored!

Success came to Ethan Hawke when he was young, and across a wide spectrum. He landed a major motion picture, “The Explorers,” at 13, off his first audition. His second film, at 18, under Robin Williams’ tutelage on and off screen, was the now-classic “Dead Poets Society.” He’s been an established star ever since. At age 24, In the midst of his early film successes, he published “The Hottest State.” Hawke admits that adding “novelist” to his resume made him an easy target for ridicule. The word “pretentious” has been thrown at him countless times, often by foes, a few times by friends, even by himself. His response? “It beats not trying.”He did keep trying, and with this true renaissance man’s every career milestone over 20-plus years, the naysaying is drowned out by the praise. His insecure high-schooler Todd in “Dead Poets Society,” ultimate slacker Troy in “Reality Bites,” sincere rookie partner to sleazeball cop Denzel Washington in “Training Day,” his soulful Jesse in the “Before Sunrise” trilogy and most recently his increasingly less immature father Mason Sr. in “Boyhood,” as well as his critically beloved screenplays for the trilogy, which he co-wrote with Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater, have entrenched him in the top tier of the film industry, with four Oscar nominations. He has the faith of stage producers and directors as well: He’s done Shakespeare, Chekhov, and three plays with Tom Stoppard. His second novel, “Ash Wednesday,” was a best seller, and inspired The New York Times to write: “He displays a novelist’s innate gifts. He has a sharp eye, a fluid storytelling voice and the imagination to create complicated individuals.”A funny thing happened as Hawke, and his career, ripened into maturity: He morphed from embodying the essence of perpetually promising youth – ”I’d always been the youngest at everything” -- to a personification of the wisdom that comes with the passage of time. In the Sunrise trilogy, 18 years in the making, and “Boyhood,” 12 years in the making, we watched Hawke get older, less idealistic, more attuned to life’s ups and downs, meeting life’s challenges realistically, if not always admirably. On screen, he’s let himself wise up, screw up and then get up and move on, older and smarter. In his real life, he takes these lessons to heart. Now, in his latest film, he moves behind the camera to show the world someone who’s played the game of life even more skillfully than he, someone who embodies an ethos that Hawke has embraced: In the grand scheme, it’s not about growing up, it’s not about growing old, it’s simply about growing.

"Stockholm" follows Lars Nystrom (Ethan Hawke), who dons a disguise to raid a central Stockholm bank. He then takes hostages in order to spring his pal Gunnar from prison. One of the hostages includes Bianca (Noomi Rapace), a wife and mother of two. As hours turn into days, Lars alternates between threatening the hostages and making them feel comfortable and secure. The film, directed and written by Robert Budreau, is based on the absurd but true 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm that was documented in the New Yorker as the origins of the "Stockholm Syndrome."