HEAT 2, IDIOTS with Macon Blair

I sit down with the writer-director of I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore and the star of Blue Ruin for a two-hander that starts with IDIOTS, his pitch-black road comedy co-written with Alex Orr, and ends somewhere deep in Michael Mann fan-casting.

On Idiots: Dave Franco as a live wire, O'Shea Jackson Jr. as the raw nerve underneath the joke, and Mason Thames as a rich kid the film pointedly refuses to redeem. Plus Kiernan Shipka, Nick Braun going feral, Peter Dinklage's micro-gestures, and a character named Celeste Waingro — because there has only ever been one Waingro.

Then the fun starts. DiCaprio's Chris Shiherlis. Bale's Vincent Hanna. Odessa Young as Charlene. Who plays Otis Wardell. Whether Bradley Cooper should be Kelso now that we get to see him work. Stephen Graham for Neil on pure physical continuity. Emory Cohen as Cherrito. Benicio Del Toro as Castillo in Miami Vice 1985, because if you're going to flex, flex. Jerry Bruckheimer on the call sheet, and a November start date closing fast.

One request, on the record: somebody gun this podcaster down in a parking lot. One squib. That's all he wants.

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