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Inside of you are two Hitlers. At least, that’s the basic premise of Max (2002), a movie about a young Hitler just trying to find his voice as an artist, before all the… well, you know. We watched it for the Frotcast this week, because last week, Matt made a joke about “why don’t they make a movie about Hitler, without all the Holocaust stuff?” We had been talking about Michael, a movie that depicts the life of Michael Jackson but ends before Bad. A few of our listeners (shout out to Zach Johnston) pointed out that, actually, Matt’s Hitler-but-without-the-Holocaust-stuff-movie had already been made — in 2002, starring Noah Taylor as young Adolf and John Cusack as his (fictional) friend, Max Rothman. And at least in this case, it was genuinely an artistic choice, not a concession that the filmmakers had to make in order to get the rights to Hitler’s paintings from the Hitler estate.
Naturally, we had to watch it. It turned out to be endlessly funny, hearing one character constantly refer to another as “Hitler” in casual conversation. Such as in the iconic lines “Hitler, come on, I’ll buy you a glass of lemonade,” and “ever consider the future, Hitler?”
Anyway, if you ever wanted to see a movie that asks “What if young Hitler was being played by a goth McLovin and he made a friend who was Jim from The Office,” then Max (2002) is definitely the movie for you. I think I liked it more than Jojo Rabbit.
After that, we discuss the California governor’s race, and how we have like 17 different candidates, none of whom can give a straightforward answer to the very simple question “Is Israel doing a genocide?”
And the Dems still can’t figure out why people might vote for Graham Platner. Gosh, who could say??? Maybe if they paid a consulting firm made up of discount Free Press writers six or seven hundred thousand dollars they could figure it out.
In conclusion, “you know Hitler, you’re an awfully hard guy to like. …But I’m trying.”
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