The True Story Behind Jerry and Marge Go Large

This week we’re finally recording in the same room! Josh is in town for Jacob’s pumpkin carving weekend, so we sat down to talk about Jerry and Marge Go Large (2022), Josh’s pick, starring Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening. Angela was not thrilled to hear we were watching another Josh recommendation, but ten seconds of the trailer won her over, and she ended up enjoying it. We dig into the true story of Jerry and Marge Selby, the Michigan couple who found a loophole in the WinFall lottery and brought their whole town in on it. We break down how the rolldown actually worked, what the movie changed (Jerry owned a small town party store, and the “Harvard” rivals were really MIT students), and why the lottery didn’t seem to care. From there we get into a bigger conversation about money: is it immoral to have a lot of it, does it corrupt people, and why we both think money is really just a magnifier. Plus, Josh picks Natalie Portman for Credit Check, we rate the movie on a scale from oil field worker to small town gas station owner, and Josh plugs soup. Play along at namethatactor.com. Next week: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Chapters: 00:00 Welcome back (in the same room this time) 01:03 Angela vs. Josh's movie picks 01:35 Why we watch movies we'd never choose 05:03 Why Josh picked this one 05:51 Synopsis 07:26 First thoughts: Rainn Wilson and Larry Wilmore 10:04 The real Jerry and Marge Selby 12:13 The Harvard (actually MIT) villain 15:00 How the Windfall rolldown really worked 16:40 What the movie changed 20:35 Favorite moment: the town comes together 24:53 GS Investment Strategies and why the lottery didn't care 26:37 Is it immoral to have a lot of money? 28:53 John Huntsman Sr. 31:04 Billionaires and 7 orders of magnitude 33:46 Can you get rich without exploiting anyone? 37:50 Money is a magnifier 41:20 Rating the movie 44:38 Credit Check: Natalie Portman 49:45 Mr. Magorium's last pair of shoes 51:20 Plugs: soup 52:55 Next week: Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome