Still Alice (2014)

Jordan: Hey everybody, welcome to Out the Trunk with Jordan and Darius. This is our movie review segment. My name is Jordan. You can find me on all socials at Jordy B Writing.

Darius: And I'm Darius. That's Steve's I love you area on all socials.

Jordan: And today we're going to be reviewing Still Alice. The movie came out in 2014 starring Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Yes from Twilight, Alec Baldwin from Everything, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish. This movie is about a lady named Alice Howland, who is a renowned linguistics professor at Columbia University, who seems to have it all. However, her life takes a devastating turn when she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease as a Brazilian, Brazilian, wow. As the brilliant academic begins to lose her grip on her memories and her language, she and her family face an agonizing test of love, identity, and resilience. So it's also to you for Act 1.

Darius: Act 1, the slipping words. Alice is at the top of her professional game. when she begins to uncharacteristically forget words during a lecture and gets disoriented while out for a routine jog on her own campus. A subsequent trip to a neurologist delivers a shocking diagnosis, early onset Alzheimer's. And let me just say, I didn't want to interrupt you at the beginning, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more perfectly casted movie.

Jordan: No, yeah, really.

Darius: And everyone fit into their roles perfectly. And I just, I felt like I was a fly on the wall for some family drama. And yeah, it's just like I everyone was like perfect for their role and it was perfectly casted. And I did. Well, I'll just go for you for your first one because mine is a little later in the act. So what you got for your first observation?

Jordan: First observation, man, Julianne Moore, like literally like the performance of a lifetime and a career in this movie, like she was so brilliant. The way you can not only just like the character you see the deterioration of her, state of being, but it's almost like her face looks different throughout the course of the movie. Like she looks like she like aged throughout the course of, the whole ordeal. she was mindful while also being absent-minded at the same time because of the, condition she's portraying, it wasn't like she was, playing some drunk who blacked out, you know what I mean? It could have been very camp or very tasteful if done improperly. And she did the complete opposite. Like her performance was incredible in this movie.

Darius: Yeah, she performed it in a way that made you feel like you were watching

Jordan: your mom or something.

Darius: Not even like your mom, just like you were watching some like lifetime show about times in an old people home, you know, and it was Um, you know, there's just little things where and like the way the family, that's why I said the family casting was so perfect because in the beginning they just caught it, but didn't like, you know, your parents get a little older or whatever. And like, right, he, you know, she, she's setting out a charcuterie board in the beginning and like, uh, I think her son's girlfriend or whatever says, hi, and then when she comes out and hands it to the table, She like repeats a question that she had already asked her. And even the girlfriend just kind of did what anyone would do. They go, yeah, it just answered it again. And it's just there are so many moments where this movie could have become cartoonish and they just never gave it to that. Yeah, that desire. What I liked about it When she visits UCLA for her lecture, she's talking to her youngest daughter who, you get three kids, there's always one like wayward one. And she's got one kid who's in law school, one kid who's in med school, and one like basically a struggling actor. And she does what any linguist married to, you know, a Harvard researcher would do. She wants her child to go to college. And her child is just like, stop trying to make me Me, you. or just like everyone else in the family. Right. The movie does a good job because that character, Kirsten Stewart's character, is the one who ended up accepting their mom for where she was. She was the only one who was trying to fix her mom. And she could have been petty about it, you know? Yeah. It's just, you know, revealing my true feelings about the movie, but it's just a really, really great way to It's just a smart movie, for lack of a better word. It's just a really, really smart movie. And so I just thought that was really good. What else you got for act one?

Jordan: That's funny, I put the same thing. I had that for act 3, but I thought it was interesting that the quote unquote most disappointing child was the one who saw her, who had the most clear vision of her. She's the one that saw her the best, you know. Like you kind of brought it up earlier, the way they show the slow decline in her, you know, cognitive abilities was incredible, like just the, you didn't tell me that we had dinner plans tonight or, even the bit with the girlfriend. Like I watched the movie twice and I missed that. Like it was so subtle. I missed it, and it just kind of shows like we all forget things. So it's easy to pass it off as, oh, she's just forgetful or, oh, she probably has a lot going on. You know, she's a busy professor. She's got, you know, students and office hours and all this stuff to keep track of. She's writing books. She's giving speeches. Who could juggle it all, who could possibly, you know, remember everything.

Darius: Of course, she forgot my name. She's, you know, she's. Right.

Jordan: She's an important lady. She meets a lot of people every day. You know, she sees, teaches 100 kids.

Darius: But it just becomes like a lot of coincidences. You know, like she gets the review at work and she's like, students are noticing like you're trailing off in class. And yeah, it is just. Yeah, just every. the big moment that hit her is when she went jogging and got lost. And I've read that's how it is, like the little slip ups you could excuse, but then something happens that just makes you go, whoa. And then you'll see, you know, whatever happened. I love the note of the urologist where she's just like, he's like, because you're so smart, you've probably worked around it way longer than you believe. and you're probably more advanced. Like her deterioration felt rapid, probably because she was so smart, she had learned to manage it without knowing she was managing it. And she was actually further along in her disease than anyone knew.

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: So how long was she probably meticulously taking notes because She was forgetting. Yeah. And so I just thought that was a nice little touch on how the movie explains away the obvious trope of the genius person being mentally ill. It's like, no, she's probably a lot sicker than we know because she's worked around it for so long. Correct.

Jordan: And the drop off would be, would not be precipitous. So if it was not a precipitous drop off, no one would notice because she was already so much smarter than probably most people she was around anyway.

Darius: Correct. And everyone just probably feels like, man, she's feeling normal.

Jordan: Right. Yeah. They're probably like, oh, she's having a rough day or, you know what I mean?

Darius: She used to knock out that crossword puzzle in an hour and now she's doing it and she's not finishing them, you know? And so.

Jordan: Right. Yeah. And even like, I think that's her intelligence and her, you know, self-sufficiency was part of a big part of why she felt the need to keep it a secret. I don't think it was just so to protect her family or to ego protection or anything like that. I think it was more so just like, I don't want to accept that I'm quote unquote less than I used to be or I'm not as sharp as I once was.

Darius: Agents wild though, man, because like, it's hard to, you know, yeah, it's like, there are little tests I do to keep myself sharp. That's a question I have in act two. And it's like, it's hard to discern what's like, you know, why do I work out? And it's hard to discern what's something I should, go to a doctor to see what injury and what's gonna recover. And that line changes as, you know, I'm approaching 40. You know, there are things now where it's like, I'm working through this bicep strain and it's, I'm on week five or six now. And this, it's, I'm still not carrying like heavy loads. And I know 10 years ago, this would have been out of three days. Like I wouldn't even have taken time off, you know? And now it's just like, your body just stops responding like it used to and it's hard. it's a mind because you you still remember the resiliency of youth and you just she's a little older she's I think she was 52 in the movie or something like that and um I mean her poor husband it's just it's hard I understand why how it could happen and you just not even know it's happening because like the doctor said you just learn to work around it you're smart enough to almost trick yourself

Jordan: correct and even especially with technology now that you can just make I I I'm can be forgetful from time to time. And I just put a lot of **** in my notes. Like if I, let's say I had it, I wouldn't know because I'd be using my notes anyway. So there's all these failsets we have, which makes it harder to keep track of our decline or, you know, we're also so reliant on technology. Our mind is doing less work.

Darius: Yeah, like I said, I won't step on my question later, but like there are things I do in analog that, you know, I just, If you don't use it, you'll lose it. And I just remember one, like, I don't like, how many numbers do you have memorized, do you think?

Jordan: Oh, ****.

Darius: I just, I thought about that the other day and I was like, I have my sister's number memorized and ex-girlfriend's numbers memorized just because it's just, I knew her from when we didn't, you know, have self before that. So it's just like, yeah. And my parents' house phone, because it's been the same my whole life. But any number that I've gotten in the past 15 years, it's just a name in my phone. It's not a number. Right.

Jordan: Yeah. That's funny, actually. Yeah, same. The numbers I memorized, my house phone, we didn't even use a house phone anymore. So what do I need that number for in my head? My mom's phone number, she's had the same number for forever. My dad's phone number changed a lot, so I don't have his number memorized anymore. It's funny, actually, I remember having this conversation with an ex-girlfriend and I was talking about that and I was like, I only phone number I know is 911 of my mom's. And she like was mad that I didn't have a phone to memorize to the point where she's like, I memorize numbers that important to me. And it's like, okay, I'll memorize number like chill out. But like, yeah.

Darius: But like, it's like, there is something to you automate that. and move that out of that cognitive load and make room for other things too. I can't start a fire from scratch with sticks and leaves anymore, but that cognitive burden is onto more complex tasks. Like I'm not, I can just turn on my stove and now I can cook things that a caveman never would have figured out because he was too busy starting fires with sticks and letters. So there is something to, have we moved memorization of phone numbers out and move something else in? It's like, I don't

Jordan: need to know how to start a fire, but I do need to know how to change a tire.

Darius: Correct. So let me ask you this. Set it up for the audience. The Alzheimer's she had was genetic. Well, all Alzheimer's is genetic, but this was like her early onset was very clearly pass down to her children and as like a 100%, you will get it if you have the gene thing. And there's a science behind it. I'm too dumb to know. Would you take the genetic test to learn if you had it? Like two of her kids did it and one didn't.

Jordan: That's funny. I was going to ask you that. For something like that, yeah, I would want to know so I can kind of start building the safeguards or, you know, figure out how to plan my life out or, you know, like Yeah, I want to know. If I, like we said, if I wasn't married, I'd think to myself, would I want to get married? Would I want to have kids? If I'm going to have this decline, I don't know that I would necessarily want to do that. Or if I did, I'd be like, let me get a head start now. You know what I mean? **** like that. So yeah, I definitely want to know so I can kind of just make sure that I'm in the best place possible when it does hit.

Darius: Yeah, 100% want to know more information is better. Well, in this case, I think more information is better. But there is something to the reason why a lot of doctors, especially like diagnostic, hate full body scans is because everybody has like a piece of cancer somewhere. And like most of it will never progress to like a level where it's actually. But if you if you scan a whole body, every scar, every this, and now you're just wearing these people to death for a lot of times in elderly men, they'll be, they'll get prostate cancer, but they're so old that they'll die of something else before the prostate cancer ever presents as an illness. And so it's like, you weigh the cost of treating them. And, you know, it's like, you can, like knowing you're sick before you have any symptoms, That does lower your quality of life even before it's time to lower your quality of life. You're, like there is something to that, but I would want to know something this serious, especially when it comes to like this is something that we know genetically is passed on. My kids are coin flipped to get it. Yeah, 100% would want to know this one.

Jordan: Yeah, I agree. Actually, so I was going to ask you, her two of her kids took the test, one didn't. The one kid that had the results or one of her It was turned out to have it or was going to have it basically. Would you have told your mom when you got those results?

Darius: The morbid thing is she wouldn't remember anyway. But I would want giving that she was going to deteriorate in a way that like What does she have a good year left of memories? I would want her to just have those good that I wouldn't even tell her I took the test. I would just take it. Yeah, I wouldn't tell her. I would just tell her I didn't take the test. And then after she, you know, lost it or whatever, maybe I let my dad know. Yeah, okay. In this in this case, but like, no, she's got a year left of not a year left of life, but a year left of the mom that you know. And like, you know, I'll take the time. I'll just tell her, no, I'm not taking the test and just Right, and I wouldn't want

Jordan: to put that guilt or blame on her anyway. Yeah, that's probably my biggest reason behind not telling her. And also, I love my mom, but she does, she's not great with bad news. So I definitely wouldn't. Nah, I'm going to save you some anxiety and I'll just keep that to myself.

Darius: Yeah, you just. I would want to know, but I would want to be the only person. I've said before, even if I knew I was like sick, I wouldn't tell anybody. I just wouldn't, because once you tell people you're sick, you become your illness. You're not even their person anymore.

Jordan: And that's a big point of the movie, you know?

Darius: so like if I, was diagnosed with some cancer or something, nobody would know beyond like, if I had a wife or something, but.

Jordan: Yeah. And honestly, keep it a buck, depending on how long I had left to live, I might just take care of myself. I'm just going to be honest with you, know what I mean? If it was like some long-term **** all right, I'll just live it out, whatever. If it's some short-term **** I'd be like, **** it, I'll just, you know, I'll just clock out.

Darius: Yeah, I mean, cancer treatment's gone pretty far. It just all depends. But yeah, I don't think I would chat with Boz with it, man. Y'all would find out with the IG post hit. I wouldn't want it. I wouldn't want it. So you got anything else for that one?

Jordan: Yeah, actually, yeah. I forgot we talked about New York, the city of New York earlier. We were talking about the Knicks and the Spurs. New York has to be the worst possible place on earth to be when you have some sort of cognitive decline, like early onset Alzheimer's. Like imagine she was like on the subway and got lost or had an episode. I remember she went running without her phone. She had the habit of running without her phone. Like, She could have it anywhere, in a city like that. And people in that city are mean as **** too. You know, they're not going to help you out.

Darius: So she did wear the bracelet. Yeah, the memory impaired bracelet, I think. What is it? New Yorkers are. What is it? Nice and.

Jordan: Was it nice to each other? Mean to everybody else?

Darius: No, it's something like. I forget the same, but like, I think New Yorkers are certainly rude, but that's the culture of everyone being on the way. But I think if some old lady was having a memory loss episode that she'd be all right. But no, I mean,

Jordan: she's not old, so they would just think she was maybe insane early onset.

Darius: Yeah, that's true. And she's in Columbia, so that's right in the heart of New York City. So yeah, that's true. That is true. And there's no cars. I mean, these people were right, so they could afford cars, but you get what I mean. So.

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: Anything else, Rag1?

Jordan: There is a couple of like dark, funny moments in this movie where she was arguing with her husband and she's like, I'm sorry, I have Alzheimer's. When she just didn't want to go to the dinner.

Darius: Yeah. Well, I think. Well, that was funny because it's like. I thought that she did forget, but it almost becomes like, like she forgot, but she was still cognitive, you know, aware enough to know to pretend she didn't, you know, and so because she didn't want to worry him. And because it clearly was out of character for her when she come home talking, he had, you know, completely missed it and the meeting was important to him. I think she honestly forgot because of the illness, but she was she was smart enough to play it off like she just covered up like the lesser of two evils you know and so right

Jordan: it's like either I forget now or I forget that when we're there something when we're there so

Darius: they did a good job of illustrating how hard it is on the husband to like kind of you know he still has to live it's like you know his life didn't just stop right and it's like your wife isn't dying she's just losing her mind and so that is there's no there's an end to your wife inside, but that is not an end to like this ordeal, Right.

Jordan: So that sucks, And they didn't make a good job of showing that because you do feel like she's dying. Like, I, that's the experience I had like watching the movie. It felt like, when she was like, whenever she was preparing food, I was like, oh, she's going to have an accident and cut herself and, you know what I mean? And **** like that. So I think they did a great job of showing like, again, it's not a death, but you are losing the person that you once knew, you know? And

Darius: Alice died, but the body is still there. And it's just like, that's almost worse because it's like, you never get to move on.

Jordan: I'm sure it's almost like every day is a funeral.

Darius: Yeah, I'm sure. Well, the daughter probably just gave up the acting thing to be our full-time caregiver and they could afford home aids and things like that. But It's going to be hard. He said he moved to, well, spoiler alert, he moved to Harvard or Minnesota Mayo Clinic.

Jordan: Minnesota. Yeah. And even like, I think this story obviously is devastating and sad, but this is the happy end of the spectrum because they were so well off. They could get her the care she needs. And, you know, a lot of people, if you're, you know, not in that position financially, what do you do?

Darius: You let them die, basically. On that morbid note, act 2, fighting for footing. As the disease progresses, Alice fights to maintain her autonomy and connection to her career and family. She creates a folder on her computer with a series of basic questions to test herself daily alongside the hidden devastating video instruction manual for her future self, trigger warning, suicide, all the above. You know, I said earlier, I love that they didn't do dramatic **** like make her yell an ex's name or insult someone inappropriately. But like there was a tension in waiting on those, like they were making out at the beach house. And I just was like, she's gonna call him an ex or something. And it just never happened. And I just thought that it was nice that they didn't take that cheap trope out, but the tension from waiting on it was good. It's a really well-made movie, man. The way they worked the cameras to show how disoriented she was. And, you know, it just, the movie.

Jordan: Was in the background sometimes.

Darius: Yeah, it was good. It was really, really well-made.

Jordan: Yeah, I agree. A little bit off topic, but it is slowly related to, loosely related to this movie. Have you seen, there's a real viral the other day or TikTok or something? And it's about how like, working in an old people's home, they like lose their memory and stuff. And the joke was basically like, they lose their memory, but they can still remember to be racist.

Darius: Oh, yeah. I think people, I think I would love to see some actual percentages on that, but I mean, it happens, I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, it's like the Tourette's thing. We, Right, I don't know what to do with that, but I would love to see some actual data on that. Cause I think it's, I think people are gassing it a little bit. But yeah, I have seen those jokes before for sure. Which is why I'm glad it's just like the movie didn't take those cheap, dramatic shots. Like, oh, she's, she's gonna call his girlfriend a *****. And it's like, you know, like this is just, that's just cheap, you know, so I agree.

Jordan: Yeah. So even speaking of, the deterioration, when they showed her finally having an accident because she couldn't find the bathroom, that was very tastefully done. It wasn't some, camp. She slipped in her own **** and in a public space, some **** like that. It was very tactfully done. And you just felt this like you almost knew it was going to happen during the scene. You're like, oh no, this is where it really gets worse for her. And kind of see the level of the loss of memory.

Darius: That's when it fell off a cliff. Because she comes outside and she's like, when are we going to dinner? He's like, Monday, when it's on Sunday. And she goes inside, comes out and asks the same question. And then she's walking around the house and you kind of knew she was looking for the bathroom. And then cognitive decline is terrifying. Like, I don't know. Like, I just, I'll take anything over that. Like losing your mind like that. And that feeling of like you're in your home and you don't know where anything is and you just can't. It's like remembering a movie title, but it's where your bathroom is.

Jordan: Yeah, that's crazy, man. I didn't even think about it like that. **** that's crazy.

Darius: That's insane, man. And you're not elderly. You're a relative young woman.

Jordan: It's even like, remember she was in the refrigerator and she pulled out a bottle of shampoo, you know, like subtle **** like that. Yeah, man, that's tough, man. I don't I wouldn't have said on anybody. I mean, I'll just say, but like, that's just, man.

Darius: The pre-suicide note. And it's like, she wasn't aware because like, you're not, if you're reaching the point where you're not remembering the logic games, you're not going to be able to, and obviously they showed the scene, like she's not going to be able to follow those simple instructions.

Jordan: Yeah. And even that was really well done because honestly, when she The first act she recorded in the first act, I thought she was saying, take these pills every day. I didn't think she meant take them all at once. I didn't realize that was, I didn't realize that what she was saying until the second time that clip came around.

Darius: And then she like walks up and then she can't and then she walks down. Well, that's another pills. Yeah, it's just they did a really good job with it. But speaking of the logic games that she had, man, do you have any logic games that you played to stay sharp?

Jordan: I do crossword puzzles every now and then, not super often, but I do do those from time to time. I mean, I mostly just like ask myself questions, kind of keep myself abreast of what I'm remembering, things of that nature. Like if I'm reading a book, I'll ask myself questions about why would the character do this, why would the character do that? I'm almost in conversation with the book to try to make sure I'm sharp and, you know, things like that. Or I'll just like look up a random topic and just read things about that. You know, I just try to keep my mind as fresh and engaged as possible when I have the mind space to do that. I think that's probably the thing that the things I do most. I mean, like I write a lot, but I you can't read a lot. You can't write well if you don't read. So like I'll read, you know, a lot of poetry and stuff to kind of sharpen my, literary devices, metaphors, any more references, things of that nature. Those are probably the... biggest things that I do to kind of keep my keep my mind sharp.

Darius: Um you know speaking of poetry one of the things I do is uh reciting rap lyrics but like I'll just kind of track off and see how far I can get before I stumble and obviously you can't look them up um you'd be surprised because remember when you were a kid you just knew every song yeah new songs are harder and it's like it's you know If you don't use it, you'll lose it. And it's just, it's harder to remember songs than it used to be. Just like, I think it's like the same way it's like easier to learn a language when you're young. And so I love to just cut the track off, recite the verse as long as I can. And when I stumble, go like, let's do it again and redo that.

Jordan: Interesting.

Darius: Okay. Lately, what I can, there's verses I can like just no music, no nothing, just recite them. just add new ones to the queue and different things like that and just try to learn verses. It's harder than it sounds, people. Try it. One thing I'm doing lately, so a new tech forward way, using AI for good is I have an AI chat in Gemini that's just like re-teaching me algebra. And so I'm just like, You know, we're, we're using, we're basically, it's just like freshman algebra all over again. It's like re teaching me things. And a lot of it comes back quick, because it uses real world examples, but I'm like, give me this example, no hints. And then I'll work through it on a piece of paper. And, you know, it's just kind of, it's like more or less hiring a tutor. Yeah. And so like relearning algebra concepts as an adult is, You good, useful. It's a dooku. I have a Sudoku puzzle book that I bring in my office backpack. Get slow at work. **** with that. And the New York Times crossword puzzle are my. Yeah, those are the things I do to interest. Just make sure it's like a you know, there's a if you ever watch the West Wing, the the president in the West Wing does balance multiple sclerosis, I think. And one of the ways, because he's president, you have to keep sharp cognitively. Believe it, believe it or not, this used to be a matter of national concern. The president was like, not too old for the job and old and firm. But he would play chess with his chief of staff every day to make sure he's still sharp. And so like, it was just like little things like that to make sure I'm staying on top because, You can get dumb if you don't use it. So you got to keep.

Jordan: I think about that a lot. It's like when you have kids, you got to remember everything that they need to learn in school so you can actually help them with the homework.

Darius: And it ain't, you know, I don't think the general public schools are rigorous enough in math, but like it's still, it's harder than you think. And so there's no reason why. middle school students can't start on algebra. Why are we waiting until high school for this? And so like, we just, there's nothing like we, anyways, long stories, we're too much, be your whole self and not enough math and reading. We don't, schools need to be teaching kids how to read and do math. And once we get that back to up to regular, then we can do the extracurriculars.

Jordan: And I think as adults, it's really important to remember to keep learning too. in school, you learned literally like 50 things a day, and as an adult, not so much, because you're just doing whatever your job is, you're doing that same thing over and over again, unless you get promoted. So it's like, you got to really work hard to make sure like, damn, did I learn something today? Did I learn something this week? You know, did I read something? Did I use any sort of skill set other than what my job requires? You know, did I do any math today? Things like that. So I think that stuff is really important to to kind of keep yourself sharp if you're nothing else so that you age well and also just so that you're not just a zombie out here.

Darius: Not a zombie, you know, not just like doom scrolling on your phone. That's just brain rot. And so yeah, even when I just like watch a movie for the pod and my phone's away, I got to feel my attention span return. I've said this on the pod before, but like, you know, just get out the phones and do something that, you know, keeps you sharp because if you don't use it, you lose it. So anything else for actors?

Jordan: Something really cool, interesting I saw somebody say is if you're going to doom stroll, doom scroll, at least do it while you're on the treadmill or like while you're taking.

Darius: That's true. You know, do it while you're taking a walk, you know, don't get me wrong, you can have some fun podcasts, but have some smart ones too, like ours.

Jordan: Yeah.

Darius: And you know, just like mix it in a little bit. Like we, you know, said earlier, like I could couch rock with the best of them, but maybe 10 hours of video games, you know, weekend or in a day. It's a lot, you know, get up, get some air. meet, hang out with some friends like that. Your social muscles matter too. and I'm not the best at it, but you have to use it. that people say they have social anxiety and when they're in crowds, it's like, well, it's a muscle. You haven't used it in a while. That's that tension. And when you go to the gym and that weight is harder than it, and you remember, that's the same feeling when you're out. You haven't been out in a while and you don't know what to say or like that. That's that muscle tension. That's important. Yeah. Like you can't. Part of life is saying saying a joke that doesn't land and navigating, like it's not the end of the world.

Jordan: You need to talk to people that are not going to connect with you so you know what works.

Darius: Correct.

Jordan: **** I lost my train of thought. And also, if you're going to play video games, find some games that make you think, you know.

Darius: I mean, just mix it in, you know. A couple of strategy games won't hurt. Little Civ, little SimCity. Mix it in there with your call of duty.

Jordan: So I think sports games are good for that too, because it's all strategy at the end of the day.

Darius: That is true. That is true.

Jordan: That's all for ac