Matchstick Men

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• small-time
• con men
• cheap
• eventually

• mentally ill
• psychoanalyst
• therapy
• trailer

• portray
• thriller
• deep
• comedy

• drama
• hilarious
• gonna
• check it out

• guy movie
• skip

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

In the new movie Matchstick Men Roy (Nicholas Cage) and Frank (Sam Rockwell) are a couple of small-time con men. They trick people into buying cheap water filters for a lot of money. The scams net the con men a few hundred dollars here, another thousand there, which eventually adds up to a lot of money. Roy’s private life, however, is not so successful. He’s having serious mental problems, and he’s forced to seek the help of a psychoanalyst just to keep him in working order.
While in therapy, Roy realizes he has a teenage daughter that he’s been too scared to talk to. What’s more troubling, 14-year-old Angela (Alison Lohman) wants to meet the father she never knew. At first, Angela’s appearance disrupts Roy’s life, but soon the two begin to enjoy a wonderful relationship.
Zach recently saw Matchstick Men. Listen in to his conversation with Miguel to hear what he thinks about it.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Miguel

Zach

Miguel:  Hey Zach, did you see that movie Matchstick Men?

Zach:  Yeah. I saw it a couple weekends ago.

Miguel:  Oh good, because I’m trying to convince my girlfriend to see it, but she’s like, “That movie looks so stupid!” And so, I’m hoping someone can tell me otherwise. What did you think?

Zach:  Oh, I thought it was great. I mean, I can imagine how the trailer might have portrayed it as kind of a action thriller movie, but it was a lot deeper than that actually.

Miguel:  So, what’s the story? It’s something about con men, right?

Zach:  Yeah. It’s a guy – he’s got some, some personal problems, and he’s also a con man. And it’s just about, uh, his personal life, and he, he finds his, uh, his daughter that he hadn’t seen in, you know, since she was a baby. And, they go on a big con.

Miguel:  So, is it like a comedy, or it’s a drama, or is it just a mix of everything, or what?

Zach:  Yeah, it’s a little bit of everything. I mean, there’s, some of the scenes are hilarious, then some of them are just really sad, um, it goes everywhere. There’s action sequences. Uh, it’s really good.

Miguel:  Wow. That does sound cool. I’m definitely gonna check it out.

 

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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