The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
5/7/20261 hr 18 min
Paul and Amy take the leap with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the globe-trotting ode to daydreamers caught between routine and risk. They trace the film’s long journey from James Thurber’s short story through decades of stalled adaptations, unpack its blend of fantasy and reality, and explore how its work-versus-life themes resonate in a world shifting from analog to digital. You can join the Unspooled conversation on Paul’s Discord at https://discord.gg/ZwtygZGTa6 Follow Paul and Amy on Letterboxd for more of their movie hot takes! https://letterboxd.com/paulscheer/ https://letterboxd.com/theamynicholson/ Paul’s book Joyful Recollections of Trauma is out now! Find it at https://www.harpercollins.com/products/joyful-recollections-of-trauma-paul-scheer Check out more of Paul's writing on his Substack https://substack.com/@paulscheer Episodic Art by Kim Troxall: https://www.unspooledart.com/ Learn more about the show at Unspooledpod.com, follow us on Twitter @unspooled and on Instagram @unspooledpod, and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Clips
Showing 10 of 12Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAmy Nicholson· Host0:01
The year is 2013 Okay.
Paul Scheer· Host0:04
Well, I haven't really been anywhere noteworthy or mentionable.
Speaker 20:09
Have you, have you done anything noteworthy, mentionable?
Amy Nicholson· Host0:13
The movie? The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. [upbeat music] Hello, everyone, and welcome to Unspooled.
Paul Scheer· Host0:27
Unspooled. Yes, welcome to Unspooled. This is a podcast about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites, must-sees, and in case you missed 'ems.
Amy Nicholson· Host0:37
We have covered the AFI Top one hundred, and now we are checking off movies from three major lists: the Letterboxd top two hundred and fifty with the most fans, the IMDb top two hundred and fifty, and the New York Times one thousand essential films.
Paul Scheer· Host0:50
And we will also be chasing our very own curiosity. We've been on a, a trip, Amy, a trip about work/life balance, and this movie is a film that we have talked about for a very long time and felt maybe this was the perfect way to kinda pull together all these episodes.
Amy Nicholson· Host1:09
[laughs] Yeah, I think I've been talking about work/life imbalance because if any of our movies- Right. [laughs] ... have solved it... Well, they haven't. They've-- We've done Devil Wears Prada, which took us to the Jerry Maguire, which took us here, and they're all like, "Oh, man, good luck."
Paul Scheer· Host1:20
[laughs] The good news is it was never easy. I am Paul Scheer. I am an actor, a writer, a director, um, and I have such