Episode #388 - Don't Worry Darling

[0:00] On this episode we discuss don't worry darling

[0:05] I don't even need to do a joke dan's already cracking up, baby

[0:30] Hey

[0:32] Everyone and welcome to the flop house. I'm Dan McCoy. Oh, hey Dan McCoy

[0:36] It's me Stuart Wellington, and it's a me Elliot Kalin pretending to be the hit Nintendo character Mario for the Super Mario games

[0:44] That's good. That's thematically appropriate for this episode, right? Yeah

[0:48] Yeah, yeah, we watched a don't worry darling the Nintendo

[0:53] Don't worry darling

[1:00] They're shy they won't do anything

[1:02] They're very shy. They're very don't worry darling. You're actually Samus Aran a girl fighting a Metroid aliens. Don't worry, darling

[1:09] This guy's just gonna take you over to that castle for a while

[1:14] Hey, this is a podcast where we watch bad movie and we talk about it or you know

[1:18] Look, we don't know whether it's bad ahead of time. But the the society the culture has told us certain things

[1:24] We don't know before we watch it, but we have a good sense before we start recording the episode

[1:30] You're right there. There is a sort of a liminal space where we have formed our opinions, but not broadcast them

[1:37] But um, yeah, I just want to make it clear. We don't you know, I feel bad

[1:41] I feel yeah, and there's a moment when we have our opinions and we're like could we just keep these to ourselves?

[1:46] Can we just say fuck?

[1:49] Are there already enough opinions on the internet? Probably I mean definitely but you know, what was

[1:56] Yeah, very much like we got certainly from people who are demographic number one we got

[2:01] Number one, I feel like we got grandfathered in and number two

[2:06] We've we've built too much of our lives around the livelihood that this provides. So we just keep doing it, you know

[2:11] And I love how I love Dan's constant provisos against a complaint. No one has made a criticism

[2:18] No one has ever made I have made it in my brain to myself

[2:21] Dan's like Dan imagines these hordes of people who are like, you know, the movies aren't always bad that you talk about

[2:27] I like that movie and now I hate you and that I don't know that we've had people who say like oh

[2:32] I like that movie they go. Oh, I disagreed with you. It's fine. Yeah, but Dan, it's okay. Yeah, I know you're projecting your

[2:38] Your dislike of the constant internet hate machine. Yes

[2:44] Back to us no matter how pretty that hate machine is

[2:47] Which itself is made of rage, yeah, okay, so we watched it but despite all your rage you're still just a podcaster in a cage

[2:52] So what we do on this podcast again, we watch a bad movie. We talked about it

[2:56] This one has a lot of baggage around it that has very little to do with the movie itself

[3:02] very true

[3:07] I think I'd to be honest

[3:09] I think if anyone is came to this looking for the ins and outs of the soap opera backstory

[3:13] I think we should show them the door. Yeah, and that door is marked come back in

[3:17] Please and listen to us talk about the movie. It's a movie itself. I don't think we need to get into the like the shenanigans

[3:22] No, I don't think so either except for Audrey originally Audrey originally wanted to be on this episode

[3:28] because she has

[3:30] Big feelings about it and then she mysteriously changed her mind. Oh, yeah

[3:35] You're saying Olivia Wilde got to her

[3:38] Olivia Wilde she she appeared in the movie

[3:41] Olivia Wilde she she appeared Stan you were drugged so you weren't awake for this

[3:45] But Olivia Wells was standing over her bed

[3:47] Just punching her fist into an open palm saying you want to get book smart about you want to be book dumb about this

[3:53] Well, I mean she just she did want me to address her feelings which are also my feelings, which is that

[4:00] Yeah, perhaps perhaps it's not the most ideal thing to get involved with a

[4:07] Infidelity on sets a workplace into fidelity plus like, you know, your marriage, etc, etc, etc

[4:14] but the heat that got generated by this is so far outside of like this is

[4:21] the degree to which this is

[4:23] Unusual is is not

[4:26] not unusual and Olivia Wilde took like a lot of heat that

[4:30] Audrey believes and I agree with is probably because she is a lady 100 rather than I'm I think that's I have two

[4:38] Explanations for this one is as you're saying the institutional misogyny of it because you look at a movie

[4:42] I mean, this is a long time ago, but the exact same thing happened in reverse with the last picture show

[4:47] Yeah

[4:47] where Peter Bogdanovich left his wife who also is collaborative partner in production for

[4:52] one of the actresses in the movie and he got to hang out in an ascot and talk about movies for

[4:58] Decades after

[5:00] And sure. Yes, his career also collapsed because people found it

[5:04] Incredibly, uh, incredibly smarmy. Yeah, and his relationship was probably

[5:10] an integral part of the process

[5:13] Of the Bogdanovich machine. Yeah, but I also here's my this but I also have a sinister conspiratorial way of thinking and you know

[5:19] What since this is a movie about a kind of sinister conspiracy spoiler alert

[5:22] Even though it's the most obvious thing in the world from the moment the title you hear it

[5:26] Uh

[5:27] Is that I think this is a movie that does not have a lot of obvious selling points for today's

[5:33] theater going audience and I wouldn't be surprised if the pr people for the film had a hand in

[5:40] Getting a lot of that going to create scandal that would then promote the movie, you know, it's because something

[5:45] Yes, it's such because otherwise it is such a relatively small scale

[5:49] not

[5:50] Not big release movie and the people involved in it aside from harry styles

[5:55] There are their stars, but they're not the biggest stars in the world. Suddenly. This was the biggest story

[5:59] Well, that is that's what I would say if I was going to go to a conspiracy, uh, it's not really much of a conspiracy

[6:04] it's just pointing to harry styles fans and

[6:08] I think that that was a huge driver of the controversy and I think you're right

[6:12] I mean, I mean I should probably get this out of the way up front is that I am a known harry styles disliker

[6:19] I don't really need to go into it

[6:20] I also don't need to convince other people why I don't like somebody. Yeah, I just don't care for him

[6:26] It's like if they had cast now i'm hoping it didn't bias me against the movie

[6:30] It's you know, it'd be like if they cast drake in a movie and I don't like that guy either

[6:35] um, but well, you know

[6:44] I guess what's what steward is saying is he wishes that mr

[6:46] Henderson had never taken harry from the forest shaved him and taught him how to sing

[6:51] Just leave him in the forest as a little big foot and don't this harry

[6:55] He would be better off that way. Is that what you're saying or put a mask on him and let him run wild in new york city

[7:00] No, that is a different harry a maniac harry that we'll hear about perhaps later in the episode during the promos

[7:06] Maniac new york don't call him to come back number one in the comic stores now

[7:09] I will say when it comes to the promotion of this film though you

[7:11] it's possible that you're right because although this is appearing on the flop house and there was a lot of

[7:17] Negative talk about it. This movie was not a flop this movie made

[7:20] Like 80 some million dollars on like a 30 million dollar budget, so would you call that bafo bo or

[7:28] Bafo bo but it's like one step below bafo. Whatever that is

[7:32] I would call that depending on depending on the marketing costs. I would call that depending on the marketing costs comfortable bo

[7:39] It's not gonna it's not gonna push you out of the room

[7:43] That kind of bo will make you leave the room but when it's bafo, this is just like I can handle it

[7:48] Yeah, you know, maybe i'll add if this happens a few more days in a row

[7:51] I'll ask my co-worker to start putting on deodorant. That's the level. Yeah

[7:54] Okay. Well, we've talked a lot stewart. Uh, why don't you get into the movie?

[7:57] Let's just get into this piece. You're like you're like, well, we've talked a lot. Let's talk something about something else the movie

[8:03] Okay, the movie opens with an old timey song

[8:07] Uh, so it opens with the right time

[8:10] Now stewart, should we should we get used to that? How old are we talking? Because this is not like

[8:15] You know, you should imagine people like writing jimmy farthings around or it's not daisy daisy. Yeah, it's not green sleeves

[8:21] Yeah, no, but this I at one point I was like i'm glad i'm not doing the summary today because then I would feel the

[8:26] need to count how many

[8:28] 50s and 60s needle drops are happening in the first four minutes of this movie

[8:32] Because it's like every shot has a new has a new old song

[8:35] What's the name of the song that they keep playing? It's sleepwalkers. It's in this walker by santos and john. Yeah, no shit

[8:41] That shows up in this movie. Yeah, no shit as soon as it shows up i'm like

[8:48] And and it's also that

[8:49] And the music they play it's not always but it's sometimes a little on the nose like it's like oh the men are coming

[8:54] Home from work. I guess we'll play coming home baby with mel torme singing. That's the thing

[8:58] I you know people I think there's a lot of anger sort of general analyzed anger on the internet towards uh

[9:03] Quote needle drops and I don't have a problem with it

[9:06] Like one of the best things movies can do is put music and images together

[9:10] But yeah without without it like jukebox musicals couldn't exist

[9:13] often

[9:15] The problem is that they are uncreative needle drops here

[9:18] There's a mixture of some good ones some ones that's like. Oh, yeah, you could have thought a little more about that

[9:22] Well at a certain point when it when it's in like suicide squad

[9:24] It just becomes audio wallpaper at a certain point like but I will say this movie

[9:29] I really like the score like I really liked the original score for it

[9:33] And so there were times when a needle drop would happen i'd be like i'm enjoying the music that was created

[9:38] Explicitly for this movie like I want to hear more of that

[9:40] I don't necessarily want to hear

[9:41] Just the mood that the movie that the songs that were on the spotify playlist that olivia wilde sent to the actors to get them

[9:47] Into the mood for the although, you know, uh earlier the same day i'd watch the movie pearl that came out this year

[9:53] And that score is incredible

[9:56] Uh, so I was the recommendation is the the movie score

[10:00] or just for the music is for the original motion picture soundtrack.

[10:03] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[10:04] OK, so Arista Records.

[10:07] So this is going to

[10:09] this is going to kind of get into some set up.

[10:11] But so we open in like a fun couple's dinner party

[10:15] where everybody's drinking Gibson martinis.

[10:17] I clock those onions.

[10:19] And it's in like a 50s mid-century modern style house

[10:24] in what is very clearly Palm Springs.

[10:27] All the men are employees of a thing called the Victory Project,

[10:31] which is this like mysterious maybe defense contractor.

[10:36] And all the wives are homemakers.

[10:38] They all live in this like 50s suburban fantasy

[10:41] where all the men go to work every day.

[10:43] It's it's like it's like Mad Men fantasy.

[10:46] Yeah. Yeah.

[10:47] And when these Gibsons, there's like a there's like a row of like 12 of them.

[10:52] I mean, oh, my God.

[10:53] This is when I turned to Audrey and I said,

[10:55] you know, I've never had a Gibson.

[10:56] And she gave me a, huh?

[10:58] In a way that said, either I'm not interested in that or yes,

[11:02] I don't know what a Gibson is, but I don't want you to tell me what it is.

[11:06] Or I mean, I'm going to say, huh?

[11:08] Because that totally seems like something you would do.

[11:10] I don't think I mean, do you have a bunch of cocktail onions

[11:14] and hinterlands?

[11:14] I can have it at some point, or I don't think that's common.

[11:17] No, I mean, we don't have them at any of my bars, because as you said,

[11:20] it's not common. Yeah.

[11:22] Although it is a cute little onion.

[11:25] Yeah, it's just too bad.

[11:26] I mean, it could have been it could have been common.

[11:29] But as we know, Commons Cocktail Onions, the only cocktail onion company

[11:32] started by common, the rapper was a huge failure.

[11:34] I don't know why.

[11:35] The business plan was was really strong.

[11:37] That's why I invested in it.

[11:38] And I'm still digging myself out.

[11:40] So common or common.

[11:43] But if you want cocktail onions, then I've now got crates of them

[11:45] in my garage, just moldering away.

[11:47] So I mean, you probably should refrigerate them.

[11:49] But you you're in you're in some place cold, right?

[11:53] Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[11:54] I mean, I'm in Los Angeles, California, right now.

[11:57] Yeah. OK.

[11:58] And like every day, the men get in their cars.

[12:02] They don't carpool, which is insane.

[12:05] They should carpool.

[12:05] They're all going to the same place

[12:07] because they're all leaving the house at the exact same time.

[12:10] Exactly. Fucking wrinkle in timeline.

[12:13] No, no, no.

[12:14] These are all these are all alpha males.

[12:16] They got to drive.

[12:17] They cannot. The passenger seat is the seat for ladies.

[12:20] And I only know that because the listeners can't see my backdrop.

[12:23] But I'm at the victory project right now, as Dan and Stuart can see

[12:27] by the beautiful mid-century modern pool.

[12:29] Yeah, I can see.

[12:30] Yeah, I can see those California hills in the distance.

[12:33] OK. Yeah.

[12:34] And they they all get in their cars and drive to a giant dome base

[12:38] in the desert, not even on a road.

[12:40] It's pretty crazy.

[12:42] And I mean, well, that's the other thing is they're driving those cars.

[12:44] There's no way those cars are doing a good job driving in the desert.

[12:47] They're old, big gas guzzling, kind of like hard to steer cars.

[12:51] But it looks but it looks pretty cool.

[12:53] And there's a lot of look.

[12:54] There's a lot of cool looking shots in this because when you combine

[12:57] like we combine magic hour lighting with mid-century modern design

[13:01] and a neat kind of symmetrical compositions, it's going to look beautiful.

[13:06] There's a lot of good looking stuff.

[13:06] I'm coupled with attractive people in like, you know, beautiful costume.

[13:11] Before this movie came out, I was very excited for it

[13:14] because as you say, it looks beautiful.

[13:16] And the trailer reflected that it has a lot of like striking imagery.

[13:19] And Olivia Wilde, part of the reason why I like was rooting for her

[13:23] and kind of annoyed it like I love Booksmart so much, I'm like,

[13:26] yeah, it's really good.

[13:27] This is going to be fun.

[13:28] And I mean, you know, as we'll talk about the cast,

[13:31] it's got Florence Pugh, who can do basically anything.

[13:34] She is all charisma.

[13:36] And Chris Pine, who is I'm going to go on record.

[13:39] My favorite, Chris.

[13:40] Yeah, a great Chris.

[13:42] I have some Chris's in my personal life that I like a little bit more.

[13:45] But that's OK.

[13:47] And look, any movie that's going to take Kate Berlant

[13:50] and stick her in a supporting role and not have her play and not in any way

[13:54] address that she has got a very strange effect

[13:57] that comes out whenever she talks like, I'm OK with that.

[13:59] That's that sounds good.

[14:00] So Kate Berlant, you're in your supporting cast. Why not?

[14:03] And like Nick Kroll's in it.

[14:04] Olivia Wilde plays one of the characters, one of the other housewives.

[14:08] OK, good. I think I think with one

[14:12] large exception, a cast of

[14:15] of solid actors.

[14:17] OK, there's and I think we'll be getting to, I guess, the flaws in this movie,

[14:21] the major ones, which are one of those casting exceptions.

[14:24] And also the fact that all of this has been assembled

[14:27] for perhaps the least original story in the in the history of modern.

[14:31] Certainly one of them. Sure.

[14:32] OK. And so the women stay home and they do housework and they all go shopping

[14:38] and then they also take dance class.

[14:40] But the the first night Alice and Jack

[14:43] drunk as shit on Gibson martinis go doing they go and drive

[14:47] and do doughnuts in the desert. It's great.

[14:49] They're so in love.

[14:51] That's what people do when they're in love.

[14:53] They do doughnuts and they ruin dinners by by having sex on the table

[14:57] and pushing all the food off the table.

[14:59] You know, and I was and maybe this is a sign of where my mind is,

[15:03] that instead of being caught up in the passion of the moment,

[15:05] I was like, you're wasting food.

[15:07] There are people who would love that.

[15:10] Yeah. And I'd like, what are you going to eat when you're done?

[15:13] You still have to have dinner.

[15:14] Yeah, I understand.

[15:16] Having the sex first, because after you eat, of course,

[15:18] there's going to be stuff in your stomach.

[15:20] You're like, I don't feel like it.

[15:21] But but that's definitely like the food.

[15:24] That was like definitely a rookie move in my 20s when I'm like, no, no, no.

[15:30] On a date, we'll go out to dinner first and then we'll have sex.

[15:33] And you're like, you're all fucking full.

[15:34] What are you doing, idiot?

[15:35] Nowadays, why did I have all that soup?

[15:40] Why do we why do we go to Borscht?

[15:41] Well, the only the only restaurant that serves so much Borscht,

[15:46] you have to get a new bell.

[15:50] And here's the thing.

[15:51] They don't have to have sex on the table.

[15:52] It's mid-century modern furniture.

[15:54] It's all flat.

[15:55] The couches are flat.

[15:56] The coffee table's flat.

[15:57] The floor is flat.

[15:58] Like just have sex on that stuff.

[16:00] Flat floor.

[16:02] Flat floor.

[16:03] I've seen everything.

[16:04] 30s and 40s floor pre-war, they were all bumpy.

[16:07] They were into bumpy floors back then.

[16:09] Yeah. So in the morning, they're prepping to go to an important dinner

[16:14] at dinner party at Frank's house.

[16:16] Frank seems to be the boss, the leader.

[16:19] Everyone speaks about him in reverence.

[16:21] The only thing that plays on the radio other than old time hits

[16:24] is Frank giving essentially speeches and sermon.

[16:27] Yeah. Right.

[16:28] Motivational speeches.

[16:29] And they're like their conversations interrupted by an earthquake.

[16:32] These happen multiple times in the movie.

[16:36] And the belief is that they're caused by the the victory project,

[16:39] that they're something they're doing.

[16:41] Yeah, they at later that afternoon at dance class,

[16:46] because all the wives also not all the wives, because there's a bunch of them.

[16:52] They go to a dance class that is run by

[16:56] Gemma Chan playing the wife's wife who's playing Frank's wife.

[17:00] And it's like a ballet class.

[17:02] And they're introduced to a new wife.

[17:06] A new couple has moved into the area, gotten hired.

[17:09] And she shows up.

[17:10] Everybody else is dressed in black.

[17:11] She shows up wearing pink.

[17:12] So that kind of shows that she's not kind of into it yet.

[17:15] It's going to take a little while for her to become acclimatized.

[17:20] You like pink too much.

[17:22] Yep. Now it feels like this.

[17:24] I mean, pink is pink is incredible.

[17:26] Have you ever seen her do aerial work while singing, Dan?

[17:30] I do like pink.

[17:31] Look, I'll say I'll tell you this.

[17:33] This argument longevity pink when she first appeared

[17:36] seemed like a flash in the pan, yet still going strong.

[17:39] She's had what, a 20, 25 year, 45 year career, 75 year career.

[17:43] She's been around since. Yes.

[17:44] Since when? 1933.

[17:46] If you if you were a man, discovered fire and then fire baguette pink.

[17:50] If you are going to Thelma and Louise, your life number one in that song

[17:54] mix is going to be a bunch of pink songs.

[17:56] I got to guarantee that it's going to it's you're going to hear it.

[17:59] And and you know what?

[18:01] You're going to not have that feeling you had when the songs first arrived.

[18:03] When you're like, oh, I'm tired of the song.

[18:05] You're going to have that warm feeling of nostalgia

[18:07] that comes with hearing an old song you used to hate,

[18:09] which you remember from when you're young, where you're like, oh, yeah, this song.

[18:12] I guess I will dance to this at my child's wedding and they'll roll

[18:16] their eyes at me when when my when my grandson gets married

[18:21] and they play uptown funk, I won't be like, oh, oh,

[18:25] then I'll be like, yeah, I will dance to this.

[18:28] This makes me feel less like I'm a decrepit old mummy.

[18:31] Yeah, of course.

[18:32] So Alice, Alice is Florence Pugh's character.

[18:35] She starts to notice things being a little bit off.

[18:38] Alice, I don't know if you know this.

[18:40] There is this famous Alice that went to Wonderland.

[18:43] Huh? Weird. I'm just figuring this out.

[18:45] It's kind of strange.

[18:47] Maybe if someone went to were to go ask, oh, we'll figure this out.

[18:50] Also, later on.

[18:53] And a character named Bunny.

[18:55] Hold on a second.

[18:56] It's too big a coincidence.

[18:57] It's too big a coincidence.

[18:59] And Johnny Depp does do a breakdance at the end as the Mad Hatter.

[19:03] Oh, weird.

[19:05] I actually didn't realize the bunny connection.

[19:06] That is a little more overt than I. Mm hmm.

[19:10] Yeah, that's a reference to the hit movie, The Brown Bunny.

[19:12] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[19:15] OK, so Alice starts to notice things are a little bit off their neighbor.

[19:19] Now, Alice, Alice is not the new wife.

[19:21] No, Alice is Florence Pugh's character.

[19:23] She's yes. It's one of those.

[19:24] It makes me wonder why the new wife is included in the story,

[19:28] because usually when a movie, a story like this in which there have been many

[19:31] like a Stepford Wives or something, it's the new person comes into this town

[19:35] and recognizes that it's weird.

[19:37] And instead, they have a person who already lives there

[19:39] and a new person comes in and the new person doesn't really have anything

[19:42] to do with much of it.

[19:43] And they have a person who's already sort of gone through the the, you know,

[19:47] like the the realization realization that, yeah, we'll come up later,

[19:51] which I think I mean, that's makes a little more sense.

[19:54] But as we were watching it, I think Audrey made a good point

[19:57] that we don't see like their friendship.

[20:00] in any meaningful way beforehand like it would it would maybe make a little more impact if the

[20:05] person who's like cracking up who we're going to get to like we see her like Florence trying to

[20:11] help her early in the movie and then being like pressured to conform rather than yeah or she's

[20:17] already been shunned at this point we see the difference we see a moment where and then the

[20:21] character we're talking about is named Margaret um she has uh she was once part of the group but

[20:27] has since been kind of pushed to the outskirts uh she at one point we we will learn later she

[20:33] claimed she saw something out in the desert where they're not supposed to go and she took her young

[20:38] son out there and when she came back her son was missing and she claimed that the men of the victory

[20:43] project took the son um okay uh alice also starts to notice some other weird things like the eggs in

[20:50] the carton of eggs are all shells there's nothing inside them and doing that makes her burn the

[20:55] dinner uh she and now that was a moment that i really like that moment because it's so weird

[21:00] and it is so and i was hoping for more moments like that and there is neither an explanation for

[21:05] it which is fine nor is there another moment that i felt like god i guess there's such a

[21:11] there's like two more that i really liked later on yeah okay look at it but it's such an on the

[21:16] nose metaphor for like it's on the outside it looks perfect but on the inside it's hollow and

[21:21] i kind of wanted more weirdness yeah from the movie and you sometimes get weirdness but in the

[21:26] moment it was it was a really fun weird thing and also the way they cut it because it just looks like

[21:29] she's cracking open a thousand days yeah over a period of hours it's like is that she's just like

[21:34] me for real i do i eat so many eggs i eat so many eggs and right and right before sex that's the

[21:40] mistake do it afterwards i should right hand luke had to have sex after he ate all those eggs yeah

[21:46] it was so he's like they're all looking at that girl washing her car he's like oh

[21:52] uh i i agree though they should call me bloated hand luke yeah oh the eggs all went to his hand

[21:58] yeah um yeah i yeah like in that foo fighters video his hand gets huge or everything everywhere

[22:04] all at once um yeah no fair fair i just want to say i agree that i think that it would have

[22:09] been helpful to have almost a little more weirdness because i do think that part of the

[22:15] problem that people had with this movie which is not a problem that i had i had other problems but

[22:18] part of the problem people had with this movie was trying to square the logic of everything

[22:23] and i didn't really care because i was like this movie is is so based on its themes and like the

[22:30] metaphor it's doing that i don't need it all to make logical sense and if the film maybe pointed

[22:36] tips the you know the point of the the boat close like the steer to steer that direction

[22:42] it would be clearer to the audience like we don't need to take all of this so goddamn seriously

[22:46] because like a lot of people i think who had problems with it are like well logically what

[22:50] is this what is this what is this well i think the problem is that they do explain what it is

[22:55] later on and it would be a stronger movie without that explanation it would be it's

[22:59] the difference between something being like franz kafka style where you don't reveal that

[23:04] gregor samso was part of a biological experiment to create you know the next evolution step in

[23:09] evolution and like the difference between something that really works on an allegorical

[23:13] level and something that just feels kind of like the same kind of science fiction story we've seen

[23:18] they reveal the twist they don't explain like specifically why there's no egg in that egg you

[23:23] can extrapolate why but you can extrapolate but i mean i i would rather they didn't i'd rather

[23:28] rather there was no twist i'd rather it was just the same way that like i'm glad that the lighthouse

[23:32] doesn't turn out to be like these two men were floating in space the whole time and they

[23:37] for a second i thought you were talking about to the lighthouse and i'm like

[23:41] wait a minute there was a twist in that yeah so when it turns out in the twist into the lighthouse

[23:47] that when it turns out that humans are just a speck of time in the in a vast universe that

[23:52] isn't necessarily paying attention man there's nothing like the virginia wolf like cinematic

[23:56] universe i love the way it all ties together when mrs dalloway shows up surfing on the waves yeah

[24:01] she's like on your left cap well yeah when when when she shows up at the end he goes have you

[24:07] heard of the hours initiative okay so uh distracted by these eggs of course this whole egg situation

[24:15] she burns the dinner and when jack comes home uh he doesn't give a wait hold on wait i hate to go

[24:22] back but orlando also would totally work in a superhero type setting as he as as as the character

[24:28] did in as they did in league of extraordinary gentlemen only in league of extraordinary

[24:32] gentlemen's the character stopped being about hello in that one in league of extraordinary

[24:38] gentlemen the story just eventually became about how they all have sex with each other

[24:41] which was i do love the idea of like the movie version would probably go some some kids moms

[24:45] like you just love those extraordinary sounds like sounds like elliot's part of that like

[24:50] key and peel liam neeson yeah i guess that's true it is um okay so uh come on i've been

[24:57] working toward this the whole time guys so jack comes home uh but he doesn't care about that

[25:02] dinner he only has one meal on his mind and it's between his wife's legs okay so you wrote that

[25:08] ahead of time no no i'm so good at improv guys i want to say like one of the things that olivia

[25:16] wilde got sort of like dinged for in the in the press was like she talked about like oh i wanted

[25:21] to really like center female pleasure in this movie like which is why like you know he's uh

[25:26] going down on her in this scene which is wild no pun intended considering what we later find out

[25:33] that this is like you know essentially like rape under you know like because he's imprisoned her

[25:39] spoiler alert let's well we'll get to it yeah when he's signing up for the project he's like

[25:45] i want to be british and i want to be super good at eating pussy so to so to say that that's

[25:50] centering female well he's rolling he's rolling he's rolling his stats it is modifiers and he's

[25:57] like uh specialty uh cuddling yeah plus two to that dancing not time period appropriately

[26:05] to say that that's centering female pleasure is is an odd thing to say i understand from

[26:10] a standpoint of like maybe she didn't want to like reveal the the twist but i do think that

[26:16] you can make an argument that there's kind of an insidiousness to the fact that this is part of

[26:22] like this world that has been created where all of these women you know like want for nothing and the

[26:27] fact that this is the sex scene that we see like it's a it's a it's a more insidious form of control

[26:33] that like it's just like oh we're gonna make you happy in every way but except for giving you your

[26:38] freedom but it's just oh yeah i just want to say that was that was an odd controversy that was in

[26:44] uh floating around yeah i mean i wasn't even aware of that controversy to be honest although

[26:49] i did shut myself off from don't worry darling sure update discourse i delayed and i canceled

[26:55] the google that i had set up for don't worry darling i imagine you on twitter being like which

[26:58] one of these i can't censor don't that would eliminate too many and i can't worry i probably

[27:05] darling i guess i feel like darling and i i could be wrong but i feel like if you're gonna if you're

[27:10] gonna do this scene i feel like and you want to i don't know center it on any kind of female

[27:15] on like pleasure you might want to include a scene of the like a little bit of after care of them

[27:19] like cuddling and maybe like eating the food off of broken plates or something and laughing i don't

[27:24] know how gross that is for you but she does clean it all the time um okay i mean they probably have

[27:30] other plates they don't have to eat them off the plates yeah but that's like it's it's tying in

[27:34] with you know actually well the problem is they have a second set of plates but everyone in victory

[27:38] keeps kosher so they actually they can't use the other place that's their those their dairy plates

[27:42] not their meat place okay so so they go to a dinner party at uh frank's home uh it looks kind

[27:48] of like a beach club uh the party is briefly disrupted by margaret the neighbor who makes

[27:53] some accusations against the victory project and specifically frank frank is played by chris pine

[27:59] who is serving up some serious like scenery chewing cult leader energy right yeah uh i mean he like

[28:06] he's a skillful cult leader because um you know when margaret you know makes a scene there and she

[28:12] says like this isn't right he doesn't sort of just try and paper over and he's like oh you know like

[28:18] it's it's it's sad they've been having troubles but but you know she's right it is it isn't right

[28:23] to be here in the desert where like we're carving a new path forward and like he uses it as an

[28:28] opportunity to i'd say he's a pretty good manipulator he's not that great a cult leader

[28:33] though because and this is again this is not his chris pine's fault this is the fault of the writing

[28:39] that everything he says is so incredibly vague and so without meaning it's just a lot of stuff about

[28:44] this is our world and there's a right order and we're gonna create control and it it never quite

[28:50] gets to the level of actually being a comment on anything other than the most vaguest idea of uh

[28:57] of like unequal power you know and i was waiting for him to and it's one of those things where i

[29:02] guess after you learn the twist you're like oh that's why these guys are buying into this because

[29:06] they're monsters yeah but the but you're kind of are you kind of waiting the whole time for why

[29:10] everyone thinks this is a important thing or a good thing or what they're doing or you know

[29:16] other than the fact that they all live in beautiful houses in the desert and their wives take care of

[29:20] them all the time and the wives get to go to a pool club where one woman is topless but everyone

[29:25] else wears antique bathing suits that's that wasn't the pool club right that was frank's house

[29:29] was that i thought that when when when it was when it frank's house when it's just

[29:33] a when it's what is all women oh no i mean i thought like well because the wives are talking

[29:38] on one side of the mayor talking on another side because it's like a word thing i thought that was

[29:41] the case maybe it was frank's house it just i was i just found it very strange that uh the that

[29:46] the the movie kind of deploys the back of a topless woman and one of the women is like there's

[29:51] just so much skin around here and it's like well but there isn't everyone else is wearing like 50s

[29:55] and 60s bathing suits which are enormous which are huge they're they're ones

[30:00] Step away from astronaut costumes, come on.

[30:02] Yeah, diving bells.

[30:03] So, uh, so-

[30:05] They're all wearing pantomime horse uniform costumes.

[30:08] It takes two and their bodies are completely covered.

[30:11] After this very vague motivational speech from Frank,

[30:16] Jack and Alice go into his home and they start to have sex,

[30:20] which at this point I'm like, oh wow, two sex scenes.

[30:22] Is this gonna be an erotic thriller?

[30:23] And then Frank shows up and like watches for a while

[30:26] and Alice sees him watching them and I'm like,

[30:28] oh, this is gonna be a Zalman King style movie.

[30:30] It is not.

[30:31] And then he wanders off, not really mentioned.

[30:34] It's mentioned later, but it's not a big deal.

[30:36] There's also, there's a lot of people wandering into spaces

[30:40] or having to travel distances

[30:41] or sharing the same local space.

[30:43] And then when the twist comes, you're like,

[30:45] oh, well this, there's no physical reality.

[30:48] So they could be anywhere.

[30:49] It doesn't, there's no, the idea that like,

[30:51] they're kind of, we have to go into this room

[30:53] where they can't see us.

[30:54] And then Frank shows up.

[30:54] It's like, well, maybe Frank just blipped in.

[30:56] Like, maybe he could be in five different places at once.

[31:00] It's anyway.

[31:01] It's also a little weird knowing what the whole thing

[31:04] is about, about like controlling and yada yada.

[31:07] You would think that like,

[31:08] Frank wouldn't be fucking with them.

[31:11] Yeah, it's that he, you would think he would,

[31:14] I guess, unless it's just the scorpion's

[31:16] gotta sting the frog.

[31:17] That's true.

[31:18] Manipulator's gotta manipulate.

[31:19] But there's a part later on where Frank is like,

[31:22] that wasn't what you said when you were in my,

[31:24] remember when you were in my bedroom

[31:25] and everyone is like,

[31:27] and the implication is that I guess she slept with Frank

[31:29] and she never says,

[31:30] you mean when I was having sex with my husband

[31:31] in your bedroom and you walked in like a creep?

[31:33] Like, which would be the best rejoinder to that comment.

[31:36] Cause then the husband could be like,

[31:37] oh yeah, I remember that.

[31:38] I have a human memory.

[31:40] I remember that when things that happened.

[31:41] But anyway.

[31:42] So with all the strangeness piling up,

[31:45] Alice decides to go on a trolley or a tram ride

[31:49] that goes around the Victory Project.

[31:52] And while she's riding the tram,

[31:53] she noticed a small crashing plane.

[31:57] The driver doesn't want to help or get involved.

[32:00] So she decides to hop off the tram

[32:02] and wander off into the desert alone,

[32:04] which is just not done.

[32:05] Now.

[32:06] It's such as well,

[32:07] but also it's not the right way to solve that problem.

[32:08] Like you go to the phone

[32:10] and you call the police or the fire department

[32:12] and you say,

[32:13] how is she gonna,

[32:14] she gonna triangulate the position of the plane

[32:16] over the mountains

[32:18] and then pull the guy from the wreck

[32:19] and then give him first aid with no,

[32:21] with just her bare hands.

[32:23] And here's my other thing.

[32:24] When we learn the twist and this is,

[32:26] this will get on your nerves.

[32:28] We're spending a lot of time talking about things

[32:30] that don't make sense because of the twist.

[32:31] Should we just talk about the twist?

[32:34] We can,

[32:34] but I want to agree with you.

[32:36] Ali, I was about to say the same thing.

[32:37] Like for the most part,

[32:39] I'm fine just accepting everything as like

[32:42] a combination of like,

[32:44] yeah, it's not meant,

[32:45] like this is like so clearly a metaphorical film

[32:48] and I'm gonna suspend my disbelief

[32:50] because I'm watching a movie

[32:51] and like I want to enjoy myself

[32:53] rather than like actively pick it apart.

[32:56] But this plane,

[32:58] the context of the twist,

[32:59] which this is a serenity situation.

[33:02] They're all in a simulation.

[33:05] I don't-

[33:06] It's a serenity,

[33:07] Dan, that was such a perfect wrap.

[33:08] Yeah.

[33:09] And I loved it.

[33:10] This is a serenity situation.

[33:11] They're all in a simulation.

[33:12] Yeah.

[33:13] The most popular form of

[33:16] everybody's trapped in a simulation.

[33:17] Okay.

[33:18] It's a matrix.

[33:19] It's fine.

[33:19] But it's one that we did for the show.

[33:21] It's a Truman show.

[33:23] Yeah, it's all sorts of stuff.

[33:24] But I'm not sure what this plane represents

[33:27] that crashes that sets her off.

[33:29] Yes, what's the plane?

[33:31] Is a plane flying over her house?

[33:33] Is her husband at home

[33:36] running out like playing with his toy plane.

[33:39] He's going,

[33:41] over her comatose,

[33:42] semi-comatose body.

[33:43] Later on,

[33:44] Chris Pine,

[33:45] there's a scene where he

[33:47] just straight up basically admits everything,

[33:50] not the specifics,

[33:51] but it's like,

[33:52] I've been waiting for someone who to challenge me.

[33:54] Like, I don't know,

[33:55] maybe he's deliberately trying to like provoke questions

[33:59] in her mind,

[34:00] so he can troubleshoot problems.

[34:03] That's interesting.

[34:04] That's like the theory about Trump

[34:05] that he was deliberately screwing himself up

[34:08] because he knew deep down he didn't deserve these things.

[34:13] It's another one of those things

[34:14] where like if you don't have the twist

[34:16] that this is all a simulation,

[34:17] then I'm willing to buy it

[34:19] because then it becomes,

[34:20] you know what?

[34:21] Outside of victory,

[34:22] it is a chaotic world

[34:24] and there are planes that crash behind the mountains

[34:26] and it becomes about the trade-off

[34:29] between freedom and safety,

[34:31] which is a real choice that societies have to make.

[34:34] But instead,

[34:35] because of the twist,

[34:36] you're left afterwards being like,

[34:37] wait, so was that the guy who tries to tell Truman

[34:41] that he's on a show and kind of parachutes in?

[34:43] Like is that someone deliberately trying to screw things up

[34:46] or is that a glitch?

[34:48] As soon as you explain the whole thing,

[34:51] I feel like everything else gets taken

[34:52] out of the world of metaphor

[34:53] and into the world of what does that represent,

[34:55] which hurts it ultimately.

[34:58] Okay, so she wanders through the desert alone.

[35:01] She makes her way up.

[35:02] Not even on a horse with no name.

[35:03] Nope.

[35:04] No horse.

[35:05] The horse doesn't have a name

[35:06] because there's no horse there.

[35:07] Yeah.

[35:07] I mean, if it had a name,

[35:08] it would be wild.

[35:09] Foolish to name a horse that didn't exist.

[35:11] Unless you were writing a novel about a horse.

[35:14] Yeah, what are you, a big bird?

[35:15] Or a movie or?

[35:18] Okay, so she climbs up a mountain road

[35:20] and finds this like weird domed observatory.

[35:23] She walks up and touches the glass windows

[35:26] and experiences this vision featuring like muffled narration

[35:30] and dancing showgirls and flashing lights and stuff.

[35:33] And then she wakes up back at home in her bed.

[35:36] Jack is there seemingly unconcerned.

[35:38] He's making dinner poorly, might I add.

[35:42] And he-

[35:43] Just like a man.

[35:44] And he does a very, she's confused,

[35:45] but he does a pretty good job of gaslighting her, right?

[35:48] Yeah.

[35:49] He's at least a B plus in gaslighting.

[35:51] I mean, you know, I gotta admit, you know,

[35:53] if I was, if I saw a plane crash,

[35:57] walked out into the desert,

[35:58] found a buzzing weird station,

[36:01] and then woke up in my own bed

[36:02] and my spouse told me, oh, it was just a dream,

[36:05] I'd be like, yeah, that makes sense.

[36:07] That's more likely than I actually found

[36:09] a weird buzzing station out in the desert, so.

[36:12] That was beaming Busby Berkeley

[36:14] dance numbers into my brain, yeah.

[36:16] So she keeps having issues.

[36:18] She has a vision of being like trapped in her house

[36:20] where she's sandwiched between a wall and the window,

[36:22] which is kind of cool.

[36:23] It's kind of a neat effect.

[36:24] That was great.

[36:25] That was a great movie.

[36:26] And that's such a, that's one of those things

[36:26] where it's like, that's not that we need

[36:29] necessarily more media about the crushing life

[36:32] of housewives in the 1950s and 60s,

[36:34] just because there's a lot of that.

[36:35] But that is such a great visual metaphor

[36:37] for that feeling of oppression and suffocation

[36:39] that it kind of takes the place of the whole movie.

[36:42] In a way that the movie is adding nothing more

[36:45] than that moment, than what that moment says.

[36:48] And she's at like dance class

[36:50] and instead of her own reflection,

[36:52] she sees her neighbor Margaret reflected in the glass,

[36:55] but wait, nobody else is seeing this

[36:57] or these all hallucinations.

[36:58] She runs home just in time to see Margaret

[37:01] standing on the roof of her house.

[37:03] And Margaret sees her, then slits her own throat

[37:05] and falls off the roof.

[37:06] But before Alice can go to help her,

[37:09] men in red jumpsuits jump in from the sides of the frame

[37:12] and drag her away.

[37:13] And these men in red jumpsuits are also,

[37:15] are a pretty ridiculous element.

[37:18] I understand.

[37:19] Once you know what's going on in it.

[37:20] I understand that maybe after everything

[37:22] Margaret's gone through,

[37:23] she feels like she needs the redundancy,

[37:25] but at the time you're like, why,

[37:27] if you're up on the roof, why are you slitting your throat?

[37:30] It's not that high.

[37:31] Like you're doing, you're doing double.

[37:34] To make sure.

[37:34] Well then cut your throat on the ground.

[37:37] You gotta get up to the roof.

[37:38] But no one would see her.

[37:39] You need redundancies in the system, Dan.

[37:41] That's how success is built on redundancies.

[37:43] And I just want to mention also, Stuart,

[37:44] thank you for adding to Dan's rap.

[37:46] This is a serenity simulation.

[37:48] They're all the simulation.

[37:49] Is it a hallucination?

[37:53] Yeah.

[37:54] There's a problem in our nation.

[37:56] We are writing in credits music right now.

[37:59] Yeah.

[38:00] That's when LL Cool J does his rap

[38:01] about the plot of the movie.

[38:04] What is his hat like in this scenario?

[38:06] Well, that's the thing.

[38:07] Is it a mid-century modern hat?

[38:09] I can only assume, yeah.

[38:11] And he's, and Dita Von Teese is in the video.

[38:13] It's, it's incredible.

[38:15] Of course.

[38:16] Yeah.

[38:17] It's like he's walking, he's in the scenes from the movie.

[38:18] So he's dancing with Dita Von Teese

[38:20] and he's, he's with them at the dinner parties.

[38:22] Yeah, yeah, sure.

[38:23] And this.

[38:24] She looks, she looks at the mirror

[38:25] and instead of seeing Margaret,

[38:26] she sees LL Cool J rapping at her.

[38:28] And she's like, what, what is this?

[38:30] What is this?

[38:31] These videos are great, right?

[38:34] So like, Jack continues to.

[38:37] And then at the end,

[38:38] and then Freddie wakes up and goes,

[38:39] who were those guys?

[38:40] Who was that guy?

[38:43] So she continues to have visions.

[38:46] Jack continues to gaslight her

[38:48] and like brush her fears away.

[38:50] And she just, you know, she continues to not fit in.

[38:54] She, one morning she's Saran wrapping her leftovers.

[38:58] Then she Saran wraps her own face.

[39:00] And I thought this was kind of a cool thing as well.

[39:02] Cause it's like, it comes out of nowhere.

[39:06] This leads her to getting a visit from the company doctor.

[39:09] Played by Jonah from Veep, Jonah?

[39:12] Yeah.

[39:13] Tim Simons, also the raccoon from Housebroken.

[39:16] On Hulu right now, coming back to Fox later this year.

[39:20] Love to see him in things.

[39:22] Again, a lot of great actors in the movie

[39:24] that maybe needed a better script, but.

[39:28] This is a doctor who,

[39:29] who carries around a briefcase

[39:31] filled with classified documents.

[39:34] That was, again, that was also ridiculous.

[39:36] If this is a simulation, why is he carrying this,

[39:40] this document that basically says like,

[39:42] like the Margaret problem or whatever it was.

[39:44] Well, that's what it says.

[39:45] Well, especially cause when she opens it up,

[39:47] it's all redacted anyway.

[39:49] So it's like, so it's doubly stupid

[39:51] for him to carry this around.

[39:52] No, yeah.

[39:53] I mean, he, and, and this interaction is just like

[39:56] classic fifties doctor bullshit where it's like,

[39:59] you know.

[40:00] You're probably hysterical.

[40:02] Your husband should give you these pills, et cetera, et cetera.

[40:04] Yeah. Smoke two cigarettes. Call me. Yeah.

[40:06] But then when he leaves, he forgets his briefcase with the classified documents,

[40:10] which is, again, hilarious.

[40:12] I mean, again, maybe it's Chris Pine testing.

[40:14] But at this point, like, why is he like have to test this hard?

[40:19] Well, if he's testing this much, why why do it in the first place?

[40:22] Like things are things are going great.

[40:25] But what I really want is is an arch foe.

[40:27] I mean, I guess it's like the theories that Sherlock Holmes created Moriarty,

[40:30] you know, because he needed somebody to match wits with or whatever.

[40:34] And in the process, the doctor also makes them like vague threats

[40:37] about what will happen if she continues believing in her visions,

[40:41] that it could lead to Jack losing his job and they'll get kicked off the project,

[40:45] which Cate Berlant Berlant's character earlier was like,

[40:49] if my husband loses his job, I'd kill myself.

[40:51] And I'm like, whoa, this is this is too much, guys.

[40:54] But coming out of Cape Verlaine, I'm like, do you really mean it?

[40:57] Or is that a joke? Hold on a second.

[40:59] It's so hard to tell with her.

[41:00] That's her whole her whole stick.

[41:01] So she Alice has stolen Margaret's file out of the briefcase.

[41:06] She reads it. It's all redacted.

[41:07] So she just burns it.

[41:09] She takes a bath.

[41:10] And then I think this might be the bath where she's like

[41:14] looking at herself in the mirror and then she slips into the water.

[41:17] But her reflection does not.

[41:18] And I'm like, ah, this is not a bad bit.

[41:21] But I feel like what's the last night in Soho did something like this better?

[41:27] Well, I think there's there's a there's a lot of bits in this movie

[41:30] that are not done badly, but have been done better in other places.

[41:34] It's a movie that feels cobbled together from bits and bobs from other similar

[41:39] like her going into the water also felt very get out when he when he's

[41:44] so yeah, into the sunken place.

[41:46] And it's like there's a lot of the movie wears its influences

[41:49] so incredibly heavily on itself without really adding to it.

[41:54] I mean, this this movie wants to be.

[41:59] Feminists get out, which is a fine

[42:03] and don't take that to context.

[42:04] Dan is not saying feminists get out.

[42:06] Yeah. Get in, get in, get in.

[42:10] We're going to see Megan Gurley's now.

[42:14] But but as you say, the problem is more that like it is a thing

[42:19] that has been done.

[42:19] I mean, like Stepford Wives, like there's there's been similar things.

[42:24] Even the fact this does not add a lot to is the major.

[42:27] Yes. Even the fact that it's in that it's in that kind of mid century

[42:31] modern setting.

[42:32] And it's like the movie, I think, thinks it is fooling us

[42:35] into believing it's taking place during that time or at least confusing us.

[42:39] Yeah. And I'm like, well, it's

[42:41] but from moment one, you kind of know it's not really taking place

[42:44] in the 50s or 60s.

[42:44] And I almost wish that everyone was dressed up in like Elizabethan costume

[42:48] or something like that or Victorian, like something a little out of the way.

[42:51] I actually wanted to address this because like.

[42:54] It's not like a major problem I have with the movie by any means,

[42:57] but I do feel like the fact that it is set in this time period is

[43:03] like basically only thematic, like the only reason for it is thematic,

[43:08] like like like these men want to go back to this time,

[43:13] like so we are going to literally set in this time, which is fine.

[43:17] But then once you realize it and you start thinking about it,

[43:19] you're like, I mean, at least I was like this could be at any time.

[43:22] It could be a mix up of times.

[43:24] Like you're telling me that not one of these guys

[43:26] wants to have a big flat screen TV inside his like mid century

[43:29] modern simulation like that, these wait, that these young men

[43:33] who want to escape the world don't like video games.

[43:36] Yeah. That they don't want to play video games like. Right.

[43:39] Yeah. They don't they don't want to like Westworld the fuck up

[43:42] and have like a cowboy dude.

[43:44] Or there's one dude who's like a really sick samurai.

[43:47] And also, I mean, and also it introduces like this.

[43:50] Someone's like a ninja detective.

[43:52] Yeah, sure. Oh, man.

[43:54] That sounds like gambits are Jeremy.

[43:56] And and because all of the women in this world have been,

[44:00] you know, hypnotized, brainwashed, et cetera.

[44:03] Like, again, not a big problem I have because I can take it metaphorically,

[44:07] but my brain does start working on the problem.

[44:10] And I'm like, well, why would you do something that's so far

[44:12] from their existing circumstances?

[44:15] Well, that seems like a harder brain rusting job than just being like,

[44:18] oh, maybe these this girl didn't dump you and you still live in the same world.

[44:23] You know?

[44:23] Well, yeah. Or I'm married to the same person.

[44:26] But now there's nothing she wants more than to hear me teach her about Steely Dan.

[44:30] Exactly. Like that.

[44:31] Like if you like, that would be the thing they were looking for.

[44:34] Oh, man.

[44:37] Oh, I put on my turntable the other day

[44:42] and Audrey came out like, what is this?

[44:45] And not not what is this in the way you want or you get to teach her about it?

[44:49] What is this in the way?

[44:49] Like, why would anyone ever?

[44:53] I'm like, I understand.

[44:54] I don't I don't quite understand.

[44:55] It's just a thing that happened to me when I turned 40.

[45:00] Suddenly, I get it.

[45:01] Suddenly, I understand.

[45:03] They are they really what these guys want is the it's this.

[45:06] And I guess it's taking that place a little bit

[45:08] because the women cook for them and clean for them and have sex with them.

[45:10] But it's like that.

[45:11] If if if the analysis of Pornhub search engines have taught us anything,

[45:16] it's that most men seem to desire a woman figure who cooks and takes care of them,

[45:20] who is also a daughter they can have sex with and teach.

[45:22] And it's not I feel like that is the fantasy.

[45:25] Not that I want to see necessarily,

[45:26] but that would be kind of digging a little harder, a little deeper

[45:29] and saying a little bit more than just kind of throwing up

[45:32] this admittedly beautiful 50s, 60s design.

[45:35] And just kind of using that to set up a more cliched idea of like,

[45:40] well, this is when men were in charge and blah, blah, blah.

[45:42] You know, like if they could get a little bit more for a movie

[45:45] that is trying to be intensely kind of psychological,

[45:47] if they could get a little bit deeper and kind of harsher with it.

[45:50] Oh, yeah.

[45:51] If if the cracks in the in the simulation started to appear

[45:56] because it was trying to satisfy that like complicated

[46:01] desire that these men have that is not super linear and easily translate.

[46:06] But it is like a mishmash of things.

[46:08] And for the woman, it might not make sense.

[46:10] Yeah. Yes.

[46:11] And so that that the really the only desire that the desire these guys have is

[46:15] entirely built around selfishness and about having all of their needs met

[46:19] all the time in a way that is both denigrates and also

[46:24] oppresses and exploits the women in their lives.

[46:26] And the movie just doesn't quite get there.

[46:28] I guess what I'm saying is I is that I the other night

[46:31] I started watching Crimes of the Future,

[46:33] and I want a little bit more Cronenberg in this movie because

[46:36] because I feel like he gets things in a way that I want this movie to get.

[46:40] It's also funny.

[46:43] Yes, that's true.

[46:43] It's a movie that has multiple very funny comedians.

[46:46] And this is Cate Verlaine and Nick Kroll and Tim Simons.

[46:49] These are all really funny performers.

[46:51] Yeah. OK.

[46:51] Olivia Wilde can be a really funny performer.

[46:53] Like, you know, she she made a lot of comedy.

[46:56] She's not known as a comedy person, but is hilarious whenever she plays

[47:00] Black Widow and Hawkeye.

[47:02] Yeah. Yeah.

[47:03] Anyway, she could she could be a Black Widow or a Hawkeye,

[47:07] but she's kind of a mix between the two.

[47:09] Yeah. OK. Kind of a black hawk.

[47:11] But that's a DC character.

[47:12] Yeah, you can't do that.

[47:13] Now, for some reason, DC is protective of their IP,

[47:17] as we'll get into later in this episode.

[47:20] So they go to a dance party and like a big dance club.

[47:25] This is a great big set piece.

[47:27] Everybody's in suits, in tuxedos.

[47:29] Everybody's dancing to sing, sing, sing with a swing

[47:31] because it's like, yeah, throw some 40s swing music in here.

[47:34] Why not? OK. Yep.

[47:35] And it's all moldly for them.

[47:36] And as a little I mean, that's like even for the characters,

[47:39] supposedly in the movie, this is an oldie.

[47:41] But I guess, again, it's like them dancing to, you know, what was the hit

[47:44] when we were kids?

[47:45] They're dancing to like everyone's dancing like like in cocktail.

[47:48] They're all dancing like Louie Louie.

[47:49] And I mean, people at weddings, you know, are still dancing to Jackson Five tunes.

[47:54] It's not like that's true.

[47:56] Like the electric or something as a little treat for Frank.

[47:59] They bring out burlesque performer Dita Von Teese,

[48:03] whose character is also Dita Von Teese, mentioned her earlier,

[48:07] not just because she's constantly on his mind.

[48:09] Uh-huh. Yeah, she's not.

[48:10] And and the conversation we're having before the episode was,

[48:13] should I feel ashamed that I immediately recognized Dita Von Teese?

[48:16] And I said, no, she's super famous.

[48:17] By name, she's not even on screen that long.

[48:20] But I guess she's super famous.

[48:21] She's the only famous 50s style burlesque dancer who does

[48:24] who does a strip routine involving a giant champagne glass that I know.

[48:29] Yeah. So or is it a martini glass?

[48:31] What kind of glass is that?

[48:32] Stuart, you're a bartender.

[48:32] It's like a coupe. Yeah, it's like a coupe.

[48:34] That makes a what? A coupe.

[48:36] Yeah. I don't even know what that is.

[48:38] Like a chicken coop?

[48:39] It's more like a like a little parabola rather than the.

[48:43] Dan, Dan, whose boob is that supposed to be in the shape of?

[48:47] Oh, I don't know.

[48:47] I feel like it was supposed to be in like the shape of like Marie Antoinette's

[48:51] boob or something.

[48:52] Urban legend that I've heard, but I don't remember what the.

[48:55] Yeah, yeah.

[48:56] On the streets, Dan heard this legend.

[48:58] Now, Ellie, you should know this.

[49:00] Do you know a Nick and Nora glass?

[49:01] That seems like something you should know because of your love of the thin man.

[49:05] It is. But I don't know glass.

[49:07] Now, a Nick and Nora glass is like is kind of like it has a dog in it.

[49:10] It's like even more sort of like it's not doesn't go as wide.

[49:15] It's also it's also large enough to for you to have enough drink

[49:19] to last for the entire infinite playlist.

[49:22] Yeah. So.

[49:25] Wow. Yeah.

[49:28] So I want to see I want to see Nick and Nora's infinite playlist.

[49:31] Yeah, sure. Yeah.

[49:32] So Alice is not enjoying this party.

[49:34] She she's trying to get out of there in the bathroom.

[49:38] She confesses to Bunny, the Olivia Wilde's character, who doesn't believe her.

[49:43] She's like, I don't believe you.

[49:45] You can't yada yada.

[49:45] Don't follow this yada yada.

[49:47] And Frank also during this time, not going to make me make me a believer.

[49:50] It's not going to happen.

[49:51] And Alice, if I saw her face, I will not be a believer.

[49:54] Alice is trying to pull away.

[49:56] Alice is trying to get out of this.

[49:57] But then as she's doing that, Frank.

[50:00] offers, in front of everyone, offers Jack a promotion,

[50:04] which involves giving him a ring,

[50:05] and Harry Styles is like, fuck, I missed all my rings.

[50:09] So he puts the ring on, and that gives him

[50:10] the magic powers of doing a dumb fucking dance.

[50:14] I'll be in your movie, Olivia.

[50:15] I've gotta have a ring on my finger in one of the scenes.

[50:17] A dumb dance.

[50:18] He dances forever.

[50:20] This is the, to me, this is the best part

[50:23] of Harry Styles being in this movie,

[50:25] is seeing him do this weird-ass dance

[50:27] where it's clear that he knows

[50:29] how to dance, he is doing, like, you know, tap moves.

[50:33] Is it?

[50:34] But, yeah, if you look at his feet,

[50:35] you can, like, but he has been directed

[50:37] to dance around like a herky-jerky marionette man

[50:40] because he is literally being,

[50:42] the strings are being pulled by Jack, which is-

[50:44] And it's one of those things where Chris Pine

[50:46] keeps going, watch him dance, watch him dance,

[50:48] keep dancing, watch, and I wanted to see shots

[50:50] of the people in the audience getting increasingly, like-

[50:52] Uncomfortable.

[50:53] Weirded out and uncomfortable,

[50:54] but everyone just seems to love it.

[50:56] They just love Chris Pine shouting,

[50:58] look at him dance, look at him spin,

[51:00] and the dance never builds, it never changes,

[51:02] it's just the same moves over and over again.

[51:04] But anyway, but it is meant to be unnerving, I assume.

[51:06] Okay, so shortly after, you know, a day or so later,

[51:10] Jack and Alice are hosting a dinner party at their home,

[51:15] and Frank is going to attend,

[51:16] and all the other guys who work there are super jealous.

[51:20] Frank shows up, there's, like, a good bit where-

[51:22] Even though there's, like, aside from when

[51:24] there are crowd scenes, there seems to be, like,

[51:25] seven guys in all of Victory, but they're all like,

[51:28] I hope Frank notices me, and it's like,

[51:29] well, you're already here, you've been at his house.

[51:32] There's a good bit where Frank shows up not wearing a tie,

[51:35] and one of the other guys who's wearing a tie is like,

[51:36] oh, fuck, and he takes his tie off

[51:38] so he can look just like Frank.

[51:40] And Frank, during the dinner party, corners Alice,

[51:45] and he reveals that he knows about her concerns,

[51:49] and he kind of flexes on, like,

[51:51] how he's in control, yada yada,

[51:53] and then he ends it by calling her good girl,

[51:57] which I'm like, calm down, buddy.

[51:59] I don't think your relationship's there yet.

[52:02] And then, Alex starts to, Alice.

[52:05] Alice, at the dinner party,

[52:07] she sits at the head of the table.

[52:09] She starts to push everyone to reveal their backstories,

[52:12] which are all eerily similar,

[52:16] like it's written by a very lazy writer, and-

[52:20] And also unnecessary, since, as we learn,

[52:23] these are all actual real people,

[52:25] and so they probably had real stories

[52:27] that could have just used, I guess, but-

[52:29] And she tries to stand up to Frank,

[52:31] but everybody opposes her,

[52:33] and Frank manages to get everybody to his side.

[52:37] Yeah.

[52:38] Jack is upset.

[52:40] Alice is pleading with Jack to support her,

[52:42] and he's like, he finally caves.

[52:44] He seems to agree.

[52:45] They're gonna run away together.

[52:47] They get in the car, but as soon as they get in the car,

[52:50] guys in red jumpsuits grab her, and she pleads,

[52:52] and he's like, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[52:55] I do like the image of these men in red jumpsuits

[52:59] just showing, it's simultaneously sort of frightening

[53:03] and funny to just have these red jumpsuit guys

[53:06] run out of nowhere.

[53:06] Yeah, that they just pop out

[53:08] from the sides of the frame, basically.

[53:10] Yeah, and that they all just kind of look like lugs.

[53:13] Like, they all just kind of look like big guys.

[53:15] They don't look like-

[53:16] You don't even see their faces for a while.

[53:18] Yeah, but there's nothing, I mean, they're not,

[53:20] they didn't cast like huge, massively muscular people

[53:24] or like sinister looking people.

[53:26] They just, they look like, they do look like the kind,

[53:28] like, these are the guys, these are the-

[53:30] It's like the super-deer building or whatever, yeah.

[53:33] It's the adjustment bureau.

[53:35] Yeah.

[53:37] No, then they'd be wearing hats, Stuart.

[53:38] I know, I'm just fucking, I was trying to get you.

[53:41] Okay, so they drag her off

[53:43] and they give her a shock treatment,

[53:46] and this gives her a vision of a different life.

[53:51] That's right, in this other life,

[53:52] it's set in modern times, our times.

[53:55] Which, by the way-

[53:56] With modern problems.

[53:57] Here's another thing that I want to say about this is like-

[53:59] And product.

[54:02] Again, I don't need to take this literally,

[54:04] but part of my issue is like, well, at this point,

[54:08] if this is all in a simulation,

[54:11] we know that in our current world that we live in,

[54:14] we don't have this technology,

[54:16] and to kidnap women and put them inside the simulation

[54:22] would be-

[54:22] It's bad, the flop has not-

[54:24] We're not cool with that.

[54:25] We're not for it.

[54:26] We do not, we are strongly against kidnapping women

[54:28] and forcing them into simulations or anything.

[54:30] What I'm gonna say is-

[54:31] Even just the kidnapping,

[54:32] even just the kidnapping is bad.

[54:34] We're against that.

[54:34] It doesn't matter what you do afterwards.

[54:36] It's all gonna be bad.

[54:37] This would be a criminal conspiracy,

[54:39] a monstrous criminal conspiracy.

[54:41] So if we're living in a world where there's a simulation,

[54:43] these men could just have simulated girlfriends legally.

[54:50] And I understand that the whole point of this

[54:52] is that it's about control.

[54:53] It's about like sadism.

[54:55] It's about that these men are like,

[54:58] they don't just want a fake girlfriend.

[54:59] They want to-

[55:00] They don't just want some kind of waifu.

[55:02] Real women.

[55:03] So thematically, I get that.

[55:06] But knowing that we exist in the world that we existed in,

[55:10] that these scenes are taking place now,

[55:13] why not put them in like some sort of dystopian future?

[55:18] Part of me wonders,

[55:19] because it's like, I'm gonna get the theme either way.

[55:22] I guess the idea is like, we want to talk about now.

[55:26] But-

[55:27] I think that's the thing.

[55:28] I'm gonna push back on you a little bit, Daniel,

[55:29] because I think if you put it in a dystopian future,

[55:31] it does allow the male viewer and out to be like,

[55:35] well, I'm glad I don't live in that world.

[55:36] I would never do that.

[55:37] I'm glad we don't have the island in my world.

[55:40] Exactly.

[55:41] And the same way that if it was set in the 50s and 60s,

[55:44] it would give an out to modern viewers too.

[55:46] Because they'd be like, well, I'm glad we don't live then.

[55:48] I wouldn't have done that.

[55:48] No, that's true.

[55:49] So I get why they're doing that.

[55:51] But at the same time, the whole thing,

[55:54] if it was, let's say, it's hard for me to get past

[55:57] just the kind of, we've seen this stuff before.

[55:59] And I think that's at the root of so much.

[56:01] I will say-

[56:02] It's like, it's not shocking what we're seeing

[56:04] because it's like, yeah, I thought it was something

[56:05] like this.

[56:06] I've seen movies.

[56:07] I will say that once we do see the details

[56:09] of the criminal conspiracy, I like how shabby it all is.

[56:14] Like that is the part that feels real to me.

[56:16] There's like this underground thing of people

[56:19] on message boards online.

[56:22] And they have this tech that is basically just like,

[56:25] you stick some shit in your eye.

[56:27] I honestly would have liked to have seen more.

[56:29] And Harry Styles is made up to be particularly

[56:32] kind of like ratty on a piece.

[56:34] Let's get into this.

[56:35] So this is the twist.

[56:37] We see what is, turns out to be the real world

[56:40] where Alice is-

[56:42] Where people are not polite.

[56:43] No.

[56:44] They are real.

[56:45] Thank you.

[56:45] Well, they're starting to get real.

[56:48] But they stopped being polite, right?

[56:49] So Alice is an overworked doctor in what,

[56:53] like an emergency room.

[56:56] And she comes home to her apartment

[56:59] where Harry Styles is her husband.

[57:02] And he is like bearded and looks like shit

[57:04] staring at a computer all day.

[57:05] A lot like our producer, Alex Smith, by the way.

[57:08] Whoa, whoa.

[57:10] That's not a whoa that I was hoping to make.

[57:13] It's just a point of wish.

[57:14] She does-

[57:15] Suddenly the episode starts sounding really bad.

[57:20] Particularly when Stuart talks.

[57:22] Every time he talks, just fart noises come out.

[57:26] I will say that it is,

[57:28] it's one of those things where you're like,

[57:30] girl, why are you with this man?

[57:31] Because she is a doctor.

[57:33] She can do much better than living

[57:36] in kind of a dank, Gilliam-esque hole with this weird-

[57:39] I do like that there's a certain amount-

[57:39] Honestly, it's not even that bad of an,

[57:41] like, it's a New York apartment.

[57:43] Like-

[57:44] No, but it's just, but it's also like,

[57:45] they seem to have no lights.

[57:46] Like the place is just, it's just an,

[57:48] they've done nothing to make it more livable.

[57:50] So now I'm criticizing their interior design.

[57:52] I do like that there's a certain realism

[57:55] to the idea that like,

[57:56] it seems like this was a good relationship,

[57:59] maybe, or at least surface level good,

[58:01] back when he had a job.

[58:05] And was feeling better about himself.

[58:07] And like, the loss of control of that

[58:11] has led him to be a monster in his personal,

[58:13] like, trying to exert control over that.

[58:15] Like, I like that, honestly,

[58:18] I had learned what the twist was

[58:20] to this movie before I saw it.

[58:22] Like, I had not, I had not resisted-

[58:25] I'm shaking my head in disappointment.

[58:27] Thanks for sharing that.

[58:28] But, I guess we can't do a reaction video.

[58:31] I'm being honest with you.

[58:32] Thanks for being vulnerable, Dan.

[58:34] Thanks for allowing yourself to be vulnerable.

[58:36] Being honest, I just want to say,

[58:37] I mean, like, perhaps it's not an amazing thing to say

[58:42] that reading the twist made it sound dumber

[58:46] than seeing the twist.

[58:49] Perhaps that's not an astounding reaction.

[58:51] Like, obviously, if you see a movie

[58:54] that has music and style and whatever,

[58:58] it's going to come off better.

[58:59] Harry Styles.

[59:01] And like, a narrative and a story

[59:04] that leads you-

[59:05] As I've said before on the podcast,

[59:07] ultimately, Star Wars is about a boy from a farm

[59:09] who an old man takes into a bar

[59:11] and they meet a bear man and a space pirate

[59:13] and they blow up a space moon.

[59:15] Like, you can, anything sounds dumb when you describe it.

[59:17] I do think that it's possible that, you know,

[59:19] some people have learned about the twist,

[59:20] you know, like, oh, that sounds stupid.

[59:22] And like, yeah, on a certain level,

[59:23] I'm not saying it's not stupid

[59:25] in the sense that we've seen it before,

[59:27] but I will give the movie credit

[59:29] for executing most of this stuff a lot better

[59:32] than I imagined in my brain.

[59:35] And there are a couple of details that are like,

[59:37] the fact that it was like, that they're like,

[59:39] you know, that they're saying to Jack, like,

[59:42] you know you're responsible for the upkeep of your machine

[59:45] and the upkeep of your chosen wife.

[59:47] Like, that it is a real ramshackle,

[59:49] like, it's like a kit that you can apply for and get.

[59:52] And that Frank, who is presented in that world

[59:56] as like, you know, this golden god type in real life

[59:59] is kind of like,

[1:00:00] Yeah, like one of those, like one of those, uh, Andrew Tate's that you like so much, right, Dan?

[1:00:06] One of those, uh, masculinity gurus that you like so much, right, Dan?

[1:00:09] Yeah, that Dan listens to so much.

[1:00:10] If there's one thing that should be obvious about me is how obsessed with masculinity I am.

[1:00:18] Well, you listen to it a lot so you know what to run away from and go in the opposite direction.

[1:00:21] You're like, yeah, I'm just gonna eat liver all day.

[1:00:26] All that iron.

[1:00:27] Yeah, uh, okay, so yeah, in this case, uh, Jack in this future looks like shit.

[1:00:32] He's an asshole.

[1:00:33] He, like, doesn't do anything around the house.

[1:00:35] He looks, he watches the computer all day.

[1:00:37] He's like, he, and he blames her for the fact that he didn't do these things,

[1:00:43] which is, again, this whole, like, control issue.

[1:00:46] Um, he's, and he's, like, refusing to take control of his life.

[1:00:49] And he's, like, radicalized.

[1:00:50] He's, as we said, he's been, like, radicalized by this Frank character on the internet.

[1:00:54] Um, uh, but then after we, uh, after this realization, we're, we're back in the, uh,

[1:01:02] we're back in the real, we're back in the simulation.

[1:01:05] She's been, uh, she's come home from treatment.

[1:01:08] She seems to be all better.

[1:01:10] She reunites with all her friends.

[1:01:12] Everything seems like it's going smoothly.

[1:01:15] Um, if this was a 1970s version of this movie, this is where it would end.

[1:01:19] Yeah, it would end with her back brainwashed in the simulation.

[1:01:23] And the credits would roll and the audience would be supposed to stagger out devastated

[1:01:27] that, that evil one in this, in this case.

[1:01:30] Yeah.

[1:01:30] He comes from home from work and she's making dinner and everything's going really smoothly

[1:01:35] until he starts singing a song and it seems to break the spell.

[1:01:38] I guess it's a song that he.

[1:01:40] This is a tune that she also has been trying to remember throughout the entire movie.

[1:01:43] Okay.

[1:01:44] Where have I heard this?

[1:01:45] Yeah.

[1:01:45] And it's the song that he sings at home in the real world, uh, where people have stopped

[1:01:50] being polite, started to her, which means singing this living corpse simulation body.

[1:01:57] And this is the real, the real world body that it just has those weird eye things on.

[1:02:01] Yeah.

[1:02:01] So that's the whole machine.

[1:02:02] And this, and this song breaks the spell for both her and us.

[1:02:06] Wait a second.

[1:02:07] I just realized the title of this movie should be the title.

[1:02:09] This movie should be Florence and the machine.

[1:02:12] Oh, shit.

[1:02:16] You got to go back.

[1:02:17] Uh, so, uh, in addition to breaking the spell for Alice, it breaks a spell for the viewer

[1:02:27] and we get the whole kind of conspiracy laid out in this case.

[1:02:30] Yeah.

[1:02:31] Jack has gotten involved, uh, with this, uh, online cult.

[1:02:34] He's required to keep Alice stuck in the simulation, which involves her being strapped to a bed

[1:02:39] with these, uh, these like things, keeping her eyes pried open Ludovico treatment style

[1:02:44] and shooting lasers into her eyes.

[1:02:46] Um, and, uh, he is allowed a certain amount of time every day to also be in the simulation,

[1:02:53] but the rest of the time he has to focus on like dripping water and I'm guessing broth

[1:02:57] into her mouth and, uh, and cleaning up the, cleaning up the poops.

[1:03:02] Like he's working to pay Jack or like he's maybe, he might even be working for Jack in

[1:03:06] some capacity.

[1:03:07] That's not even really.

[1:03:08] Jack, you're talking about Frank.

[1:03:10] Jack has to work.

[1:03:11] Yeah, sorry.

[1:03:12] Yeah.

[1:03:12] Jack has, he has to work to support their lifestyle.

[1:03:14] It's, it's, it's like the, the, the capitalist, uh, compromise that we all make has been laid

[1:03:20] bare in the most, uh, drastic and dramatic fashion and Jack admits to all this in the

[1:03:25] simulation.

[1:03:26] He's like wrestling with her down on the ground.

[1:03:29] She picks up a old fashioned glass and cracks him in the dome with it.

[1:03:32] Yeah.

[1:03:33] Well, I just, I do want to say like, this is the, like what we're talking about, the

[1:03:37] idealized simulation versus the shabby real life is the argument that Jack makes to her

[1:03:44] or Jack, he's like, yeah, he's like, Hey, look, you know, you hate that life.

[1:03:49] I'm out in that life.

[1:03:50] That life sucks.

[1:03:51] It's great in here.

[1:03:51] I did this for you.

[1:03:52] Like, you know, not admitting sure, but you have eliminated her choice in any, yes, of

[1:03:59] course.

[1:04:00] Which is like, again, the movie is very specifically a control metaphor.

[1:04:04] Um, but that's, that's, that's, that's also part of why I think the outside world looks

[1:04:09] so awful is that that's like his twisted argument.

[1:04:13] Yeah.

[1:04:14] Um, and so she cracks him in the dome with that glass, which actually kills him.

[1:04:19] And immediately, uh, bunny shows up and is like, yo, if you kill this dude in here, he's

[1:04:24] dead in the real world.

[1:04:26] Uh, which is always one of my, that happens so often in, in movies.

[1:04:30] And it's always like, I know why you're doing that for the stakes, but it's hard for me

[1:04:33] to imagine like when they're like, if you die in a dream, you die in a real life.

[1:04:37] And it's like, no, you don't like that.

[1:04:39] Like video games don't work like that.

[1:04:41] Like if it, if that, do you think that would be the first bug that they would work out

[1:04:44] of the simulation?

[1:04:45] Because with all the drinking and driving they're doing, you can't believe there's

[1:04:48] hella casualties in this world.

[1:04:50] I like, again, having like had it spoiled for me, I assumed at the beginning, like,

[1:04:54] oh, you know, they're doing these donuts.

[1:04:56] Cause he knows they can't die.

[1:04:58] Yeah.

[1:04:59] Yeah.

[1:04:59] And also, yeah, it's, it, that's such a, it's a very strange bug to not fix that of

[1:05:05] fixing it because it causes a lot of problems later.

[1:05:07] And it also, you would think that they would be like, like, oh yeah, we don't, we don't

[1:05:12] want to die.

[1:05:15] Uh, and, and, but do you think, I mean, do you think that was put into the script so

[1:05:19] that the audience is like, yeah, some of these jerks die.

[1:05:24] Yeah.

[1:05:24] I mean, I, I don't think to make it real danger for her, like if the danger, if there's no

[1:05:29] danger, then that, but also I'm sure they're, they've primed the audience to want to see

[1:05:34] these guys get killed.

[1:05:35] As you know, it's at, at, at bottom, that mechanic of it is no, is no more noble than

[1:05:40] like I spit on your grave, you know, in a certain sense.

[1:05:43] So I think if anything, it's deflating to the stakes because like, I think it would

[1:05:49] be better if it, oh, I remember when I invested in commons, deflated steaks, you're supposed

[1:05:53] to be able to stack more of them because they took the air out of the state.

[1:05:57] Sometimes I feel like dry aged steaks are a little deflated cause they don't have as

[1:06:01] much juice.

[1:06:02] Anything you're saying deflated stakes, because I think it would make sense.

[1:06:09] It would be more tense.

[1:06:11] If what happened is it would be, make sense.

[1:06:13] It'd be more tense.

[1:06:14] Dan keeps getting those rhymes.

[1:06:15] I love it.

[1:06:16] You die, you're spitting fire.

[1:06:19] You're kicked out of the system.

[1:06:21] Like there has to be like a reboot or whatever, but like the idea that he is out there still

[1:06:27] and she has to deal with him.

[1:06:28] He might come back into the simulation or that he can, or that he could kill her body

[1:06:32] while she's stuck in the same way.

[1:06:34] That's a scary idea.

[1:06:35] Yeah.

[1:06:35] The movie is also heading towards the climate.

[1:06:38] That's not the story of this movie.

[1:06:39] Yes.

[1:06:39] So a bunny is urging Alice to escape.

[1:06:42] She's like, actually, I volunteered for this.

[1:06:44] And you realize it's because that in the real world, her children died.

[1:06:49] And this is the only way she can kind of relive her time with her kids, which is very sad.

[1:06:55] Um, Alice runs away, jumps in a car, runs over Nick Kroll.

[1:07:00] There's a big, uh, chase across the desert.

[1:07:03] Um, this is again, uh, like, yeah, I mean, I feel like the highway chase and matrix

[1:07:09] reloaded was kind of an inspiration here.

[1:07:12] I feel like there should have been a point where Alice jumped on top of the car with

[1:07:15] a katana.

[1:07:16] She does not.

[1:07:17] No, she doesn't.

[1:07:19] Well, it's also one of those things where if this is a simulation, if it's not real,

[1:07:23] why do they have to like catch up to her in a car to catch her?

[1:07:27] And, but at this other time, there's a part, you know, she, she does some, some smooth

[1:07:30] driving and it means that two cars slam into each other and Tim Simons car flips over and

[1:07:35] explodes.

[1:07:35] And I was like, you know what?

[1:07:36] If I was a director and I got to do that in a movie.

[1:07:39] Yeah.

[1:07:39] I don't care if it makes sense for the mechanics of this virtual reality twist.

[1:07:43] Like I want to, I want to shoot something where cars are smashing into each other and

[1:07:46] flipping over and exploding.

[1:07:48] So Olivia Wilde, you do you I I'm, I'm totally okay with that.

[1:07:50] Frank, you want a little bit of fury road in your movie?

[1:07:53] Go for it.

[1:07:53] Yeah.

[1:07:54] Fury road junior.

[1:07:55] Uh, so Frank gets a phone call explaining the situation.

[1:07:58] He's very angry.

[1:08:00] Uh, and as he turns around to explain it to his wife, he walks right into the kitchen

[1:08:04] knife.

[1:08:04] She's holding, she kills him, stabs him in the chest.

[1:08:08] Um, and I, I didn't quite understand.

[1:08:10] She says something to him.

[1:08:11] Like now it's my time to run things like something like that.

[1:08:15] Yeah.

[1:08:15] So like, was she aware?

[1:08:17] Like, I don't, I don't quite, quite.

[1:08:19] I guess she's aware, but I don't know why she waited till this moment to do that.

[1:08:25] It's a, it feels like a twist for the sake of twists and a, and a death for Frank for

[1:08:29] the sake of it.

[1:08:29] Also, and the kind of thing where if this was a TV show, this is the end of like the

[1:08:33] first season.

[1:08:34] And then the second season would be dealing with the new status quo, but it's not a TV

[1:08:37] show.

[1:08:38] It's a movie.

[1:08:38] And what does she mean by it's not a TV show?

[1:08:42] I mean, you watched it on a TV and it was on HBO max, which I guess isn't TV,

[1:08:49] that's HBO max.

[1:08:50] Although it's getting more and more TV and less and less HBO as time goes on and discover

[1:08:54] takes over.

[1:08:58] It's the H I didn't realize the H and HBO stood for HGTV.

[1:09:02] Yeah.

[1:09:04] But Dan, so you had a question about taking control.

[1:09:06] Cause I mean, you thought it was time for the ghostbusters to take control.

[1:09:11] If it's up to us.

[1:09:13] Uh, anyway, um, no, I just wonder like, she's just going to be like, and now.

[1:09:18] A utopia for the wives in this simulation.

[1:09:21] Of course, no one's outside feeding broth to us, but I mean like, what does that mean?

[1:09:26] I don't know.

[1:09:27] That's all I'm saying.

[1:09:27] I don't, I'm not, I'm not sure.

[1:09:28] Yeah.

[1:09:29] It's not clear.

[1:09:30] Maybe she's, maybe she's just power mad.

[1:09:32] Cause she liked running that ballet class, you know, with.

[1:09:34] Okay.

[1:09:35] So we're, we're right at the end.

[1:09:37] Uh, Alice manages to get her car stuck while driving up a Hill.

[1:09:41] She jumps out, she runs up there.

[1:09:43] She's got dudes chasing her.

[1:09:45] She has a moment where Jack is there and he's like, Hey, stay with me.

[1:09:48] Just a vision, not actually there.

[1:09:51] Uh, and then she touches the window and escapes and we get what, like a, like a black screen

[1:09:56] and we hear the sound of her waking up.

[1:10:00] it. Don't worry, darling. We did it. Yay. That is the movie. It's one of the few times

[1:10:07] where I kind of wished the title was said in the movie because otherwise it feels relatively

[1:10:11] generic compared to, you know, for this. There's there's a lot of and that image of all those

[1:10:16] guys chasing her up the hill like that's a great image. It's it's a great looking movie.

[1:10:21] There's a lot of really good images in it. There's a lot of talented people working on

[1:10:23] this movie. How do we feel about it, though? It's time for final final judgment. Good.

[1:10:29] A bad movie, a bad, bad movie, a movie we kind of like. I'm going to jump right in and

[1:10:34] I'm going to say honestly. Out of these categories, I kind of liked it. I don't think it's anywhere

[1:10:42] near like the disaster it was sort of made out to be. And I am certainly looking forward

[1:10:48] to seeing Olivia Wilde's next movie. I hope that this doesn't, you know, tar her with

[1:10:54] a bad brush because I do think she's a talented director and actor. This movie, the biggest

[1:11:01] problem, as we've said before, seen it before. Like it wasn't a big shocker what was happening,

[1:11:07] but it looks pretty. And Florence Pugh is in it, which is always a plus. So I give it

[1:11:13] a kind of like with an emphasis on the on the kind of I do think I want to say just

[1:11:19] because there's no other place. The movie that I imagined when I saw the trailer was

[1:11:23] more interesting to me because I was like, OK, there's going to be a twist. What is it?

[1:11:26] I came up with this idea of like they're out there in the desert. They're working on this

[1:11:30] project. It's some sort of like time alteration project. And the idea would be that whenever

[1:11:35] something went wrong in their relationship, he would just like shift the time back to

[1:11:41] before he did whatever it was that fucked it up, which then over time, you know, created

[1:11:47] like sort of rifts in her mind, rifts in the world. I thought that kind of would have been

[1:11:51] interesting, more interesting, at least something different. Like, Dan, write that movie. That's

[1:11:55] a good idea. Why aren't you writing that? I don't know. I gave it away for free on a

[1:11:58] dumb podcast. Maybe I can write it. I'm like, have I heard that before in like a Black Mirror

[1:12:05] episode or something? There's something similar. Yeah. Well, anyway, this does feel like a

[1:12:09] black like the ideal length for this is like 40 minutes is the main. Yeah, yeah. It's like

[1:12:15] a Twilight Zone episode. Yeah. But anyway, that's that's that's a I think you're right

[1:12:19] that that's one of the big issues is that like I mean, the big issue for me in the movie

[1:12:22] is that it's just you've seen it before. Yeah. Like this movie, it's it's just not an original

[1:12:27] movie. And there's a lot of neat there's a bunch of neat moments in it. There's some

[1:12:30] neat visuals in it. But like a lot of the movie is trying to fool an audience that from

[1:12:36] the moment one knows that something is up, but not like something's up.

[1:12:41] I got to find out what it is like. Oh, something's up. This is going to be a simulation or they're

[1:12:45] brainwashed or they're robots or they're clones or whatever. And the the details kind of don't

[1:12:52] hold together to the point where I do wish like I was saying that it was more of a allegorical,

[1:12:57] no explanations, just kind of movie. Just it was the kind of movie that I feel like if it was made

[1:13:03] in another country, there may be less explanation, you know, because foreign movies can get away with

[1:13:07] that a little bit more sometimes. But ultimately, it was like it's not like it's just kind of like

[1:13:14] a boring movie. You know, it's just kind of a movie that doesn't that for every now and then

[1:13:18] there's an image that's really neat or a moment that is neat. But you're kind of waiting for them

[1:13:23] to get up, get on with the business, you know, and the world that they're presenting is not so

[1:13:28] incredibly exciting and intriguing. I got to I don't want to bring up Babylon because, Dan,

[1:13:33] I don't want to I don't want to open this this wound between us. But part of the opening of

[1:13:38] Babylon is that you're supposed to be like, look at this amazing wild time. Like, can you believe

[1:13:42] it? Like this is this is both appealing and upsetting at the same time. Whereas when I watch

[1:13:46] it, I was like, I can think of nothing worse than to be in that room with those people.

[1:13:50] Specifically you. Yeah, that's that's that's also based on your personal interest.

[1:13:54] I guess so. But the I don't want to be in the room. Don't invite people vomiting on each other.

[1:14:00] Don't invite Elliot to your Bacchanal, guys. I don't. If it's loud and there's a lot of people

[1:14:05] I don't know slipping in their own or fluids, pulls out orgy invitation, rips up.

[1:14:11] You know, we're similar with this. It's like I think it's it's coming from a the idea universally

[1:14:16] that this is an appealing life, but there's something wrong. And I think it didn't it

[1:14:20] didn't it didn't build it to a high enough level of attraction for me to then feel horrified.

[1:14:25] Yeah. You know what was being so you're giving it a didn't actively dislike.

[1:14:30] Well, I'm going to say I'm going to say it's like I'm going to say I'm going to I'm going

[1:14:34] to give it a see me after class. Try harder. You're not working up to your potential.

[1:14:38] Basically. Yeah. I mean, following our categories, I would say this is a little bit closer to a bad,

[1:14:42] bad for me as we've addressed. There's it's I think it's it's made well in a lot of ways.

[1:14:49] I like the performers, yada, yada. But yeah, I just I didn't particularly enjoy the movie.

[1:14:54] And I wish it was a little bit. I wish it was a long episode of television. Yeah.

[1:15:00] It would be if this was a short, it would be much more successful. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

[1:15:06] Well, you know what? You've probably heard about micro dosing.

[1:15:10] Probably on this probably such an abrupt segue. I'm not even sure if we're still talking about

[1:15:15] the movie, but I guess I'm talking about micro dosing now. Well, Elliot, you should know.

[1:15:19] It feels like having having your eyes forced open, laser shot into it feels like a macro.

[1:15:23] That seems unhealthy. Well, I just want I want to. I just want you to know that all

[1:15:27] sorts of people are micro dosing daily to feel healthier and perform better.

[1:15:31] And our show today is sponsored by micro dose gummies. I'm tripping over my words.

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[1:15:54] Let's say you just want to feel a little better, more relaxed.

[1:15:58] Yeah, you don't want to be like zooted out of your mind.

[1:16:01] I want to be zooted, but only because I don't know what that means. It sounds appealing.

[1:16:06] You want to be like, yeah, exactly. Shades and a saxophone. How cool is that guy?

[1:16:12] Anyway, micro dose is available nationwide. To learn more about micro dosing THC,

[1:16:17] go to micro dose dot com and use code flop f l o p to get free shipping and 30 percent

[1:16:24] off your first order. Links can be found in the show description. But again,

[1:16:28] that is micro dose dot com code flop. We're also sponsored by Babbel from new travel

[1:16:36] experiences to new jobs or just picking up new skills. There's no better way to prepare for 2023

[1:16:41] than by learning a new language with Babbel. Thanks to Babbel's fun and easy bite sized

[1:16:46] language lessons, you can feel confident no matter where the new year takes you.

[1:16:50] I don't know about you guys, but over the last year or so, I've gotten much more excited about

[1:16:55] traveling a little and picking up at least some phrases and words is essential whenever

[1:17:04] traveling to another country. And I'm looking forward to expanding my repertoire. It's not

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[1:17:30] technology helps you improve your pronunciation and accent. Accent's important, guys. That's the

[1:17:35] thing. My accent's so good, people assume I'm fluent in languages sometimes. Okay. In languages.

[1:17:43] English primarily. Not English. But German, I have a very good Hochdeutsch accent.

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[1:17:56] slash flop. That's B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash flop for up to 55% off of your subscription. Babbel

[1:18:05] language for life. I have to say, I've been using Babbel since they gave us a code to use it and

[1:18:11] I really enjoy it and I feel like I'm picking up new words and languages all the time. What

[1:18:15] are you learning? What are you learning? Yeah, which one? I decided that I should brush up on

[1:18:20] my Spanish. It would be the most useful for me. I live in Southern California and I want to travel

[1:18:25] in Mexico more widely. And I want to go back to Spain someday. I haven't been there since I was a

[1:18:29] teenager. And I just feel more confident that I'll be able to at least get to the point in the

[1:18:36] conversation where I can politely ask them if they speak English without sounding like I'm just

[1:18:42] butting in like a bull in a china shop. Yeah. Or a toro in a china shop, you might say. Oh,

[1:18:47] I might say that. I should brush up. Audrey's mom took us to dim sum for lunch the other day.

[1:18:51] We were in the car and she had a lot of French songs going and Audrey kept being like,

[1:18:55] what are they saying? And I'm like, you know what? I took five years of French. I'm getting

[1:18:59] every fourth word. If you want to know what every fourth word means, then I'm your man. But

[1:19:03] I don't know if I can help. And if I want to maintain my status as ultimate otaku,

[1:19:08] I should probably learn some more Japanese. You probably should. Well, it's a they've got a good

[1:19:13] selection of languages there and it's very easy to use and very easy to learn on. But hey, we've

[1:19:18] got some other stuff to mention. Hey, did you know that my comic book Maniac of New York? Don't call

[1:19:22] it a comeback. Number one is on comic book store shelves now. I know that already. Did you know

[1:19:27] that? I did know that because I monitor your Twitter, but others probably don't. They maybe

[1:19:31] not. This is the third volume of the Maniac of New York series. I write it. Andrea Mooty does

[1:19:36] the art and it's from Aftershock Comics and the first issue of an arc that I'm really happy with.

[1:19:41] I'm excited to see what Andrea does with all the art. And I think you're going to like it, too. We

[1:19:45] are cranking up the satire and also the blood with this one. So get used to it. Maniac Harry is back.

[1:19:52] Is it? I have to. I was told to. And we'll see. Hopefully the book will be able to.

[1:20:00] hold to a relatively monthly schedule,

[1:20:02] but those issues will come out.

[1:20:03] It's a four-issue series.

[1:20:04] Oh, great.

[1:20:05] But hey, enough of that.

[1:20:06] Let's talk about Flophouse new stuff.

[1:20:08] That's right, the Flophouse is doing a live show

[1:20:11] in person, in your face,

[1:20:12] if you go to Brooklyn to the Bell House.

[1:20:15] Our old stomping grounds, the Bell House in Brooklyn,

[1:20:17] our favorite venue, Sunday, April 2nd, 7.30 p.m.

[1:20:21] It's a Sunday, but it's not too late.

[1:20:22] You can still go to work the next day.

[1:20:23] Still a fun day.

[1:20:25] Yeah, what are you worried you're gonna miss

[1:20:26] the Fox animation lineup?

[1:20:28] DVR it, dudes.

[1:20:30] You can watch it later.

[1:20:31] Last of Us, you can just tape that shit, dude.

[1:20:34] Just play the video game, it's the same.

[1:20:36] It's streaming now, cut the cord, man.

[1:20:38] You watch it when you want to.

[1:20:40] Anyway, we're gonna be doing a live show,

[1:20:42] which means all new material.

[1:20:44] We're talking about Battlefield Earth,

[1:20:46] the classic bad movie,

[1:20:48] the movie that really put a damper on John Travolta's career

[1:20:51] and to a lesser extent, the other stars, which is what?

[1:20:55] What's his face?

[1:20:56] Farsh Whitaker.

[1:20:57] And Faccinelli.

[1:20:58] What?

[1:20:59] The Fetch, is he a Faccinelli?

[1:21:00] I don't know.

[1:21:01] Barry, what's his name, from Saving Private Ryan.

[1:21:05] Whoa.

[1:21:06] Yeah, Barry Pepper.

[1:21:07] Thank you.

[1:21:08] The movie that would have turned Barry Pepper

[1:21:09] into an even bigger star,

[1:21:10] but instead put him back into supporting actor categories.

[1:21:14] Doing ads for Chili's, I'm assuming.

[1:21:16] And so.

[1:21:18] You know what?

[1:21:19] I think I was mistaking Barry Pepper for Faccinelli.

[1:21:23] Oh, okay.

[1:21:25] Well, we'll do our research beforehand,

[1:21:27] but that's Sunday, April 2nd, 7.30 p.m.

[1:21:29] at the Bell House in Brooklyn.

[1:21:31] Battlefield Earth is the movie we're talking about.

[1:21:32] You're also going to get

[1:21:33] original PowerPoint presentations from us.

[1:21:35] We're going to be there in person doing jokes.

[1:21:37] We're going to have an audience Q&A afterwards.

[1:21:38] All the classic stuff you've come to expect

[1:21:40] from a Flophouse live show.

[1:21:41] Come see us.

[1:21:42] We haven't done a live show in a while.

[1:21:43] We're very excited about it.

[1:21:45] Go to www.thebellhouseny.com for tickets,

[1:21:49] which are available now.

[1:21:51] Buy them up.

[1:21:52] These shows sell out, so buy them up.

[1:21:55] I want to say also,

[1:21:57] just because people have been writing or tweeting asking,

[1:22:00] we will be touring more widely

[1:22:05] if you can't make it to Brooklyn,

[1:22:07] but we don't know where yet.

[1:22:08] So if you're nearby, come out and see this show.

[1:22:11] And I think we're intending to do a virtual show shortly.

[1:22:14] We're also going to do more virtual shows.

[1:22:16] That's another question that has been asked.

[1:22:19] But, you know.

[1:22:22] Josh, if you're listening, our booking agent,

[1:22:24] this seems like the perfect medium for this.

[1:22:27] I mean, to be honest, this will sound thirsty,

[1:22:31] but hey, do you have a theater?

[1:22:34] Would you like to book the Flophouse?

[1:22:35] Get in touch with us via Twitter or over email

[1:22:38] and let us know where you are

[1:22:39] and when we might be able to do a show there.

[1:22:41] Let's see, if you're in a city

[1:22:43] where you have enough of an audience for our podcast

[1:22:46] that they'll come buy tickets,

[1:22:47] then we will do that show.

[1:22:49] Get in touch with us.

[1:22:50] Dear Reading Glasses,

[1:22:51] it's been years since I've been able to read.

[1:22:54] I missed it so much, but I had no idea where to start.

[1:22:57] I felt so overwhelmed.

[1:22:59] But thanks to your show,

[1:23:00] now I'm back to enjoying books again

[1:23:02] and feeling like a reader.

[1:23:04] Love, Sarah.

[1:23:05] Yeah, that's an email we actually answered.

[1:23:08] Okay, maybe not that email specifically,

[1:23:10] but one just like it,

[1:23:11] because most of our listeners are named Sarah.

[1:23:13] We're Reading Glasses, and we're here to help you.

[1:23:16] We're Reading Glasses,

[1:23:17] and we're here to solve all your reader problems.

[1:23:20] We give advice, help you find books you love,

[1:23:22] and discuss reading without making you feel pressured.

[1:23:25] No matter what you read or how you read it,

[1:23:27] we'll help you do it better.

[1:23:29] Reading Glasses, every week on Maximum Fun.

[1:23:34] What happens when you give a bug recreational drugs?

[1:23:37] What was the first recorded sound?

[1:23:39] How do we figure out how old the earth is?

[1:23:42] Let's find out together on our show,

[1:23:44] My name's Caroline,

[1:23:45] and I studied Biodiversity and Conservation.

[1:23:48] My name's Tom, and I studied Computer Science

[1:23:50] and Cognitive...

[1:23:52] Did you?

[1:23:54] And my name's Ella,

[1:23:55] and I studied Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine.

[1:23:58] On our show, we do as much research

[1:24:00] as you would for a class,

[1:24:01] but we don't get in trouble for making each other laugh.

[1:24:03] And we get to say,

[1:24:04] fuck.

[1:24:06] Maybe not in the trailer.

[1:24:07] Subscribe to Let's Learn Everything,

[1:24:09] and we'll see you next week.

[1:24:10] Bye.

[1:24:14] Everything every other Thursday on Maximum Fun.

[1:24:17] This is where we do letters.

[1:24:20] Letters from listeners.

[1:24:21] We do them.

[1:24:22] We do them.

[1:24:23] We're gonna do these letters.

[1:24:24] We're gonna fuck them.

[1:24:25] Fuck them.

[1:24:25] That's not what I was saying, Dan.

[1:24:26] Not at all.

[1:24:27] I was trying to say,

[1:24:28] fucking doing these letters, and then...

[1:24:30] That was too aggressive, too hostile.

[1:24:32] Real quick, guys.

[1:24:33] If you had to fuck a letter,

[1:24:34] it's gotta be Q, right?

[1:24:36] Because Q's thick.

[1:24:37] Yeah.

[1:24:38] Yeah.

[1:24:39] Yeah.

[1:24:40] Ain't a lot of mysterious.

[1:24:43] It's very mysterious.

[1:24:45] I just love my red flags.

[1:24:47] Okay.

[1:24:47] Well, anyway, I'm sorry for that.

[1:24:50] Willie writes.

[1:24:51] Willie, last name withheld.

[1:24:53] Nelson?

[1:24:53] Willie Lohman, the titular salesman.

[1:24:56] Sorry to hear about your death.

[1:24:57] I'm writing you today with important information

[1:24:59] regarding your Firestarter episode.

[1:25:01] Firestarter, published in 1980,

[1:25:04] is Stephen King's 36th longest novel

[1:25:07] with 426 pages.

[1:25:10] 36.

[1:25:11] We are now into baseball stat territory.

[1:25:14] This is for your brother, I guess.

[1:25:16] The fact that he has written enough books

[1:25:19] that this is his 36th longest novel at 426 pages.

[1:25:24] This is a mere 86 pages short

[1:25:26] of Stephen King's 26th longest novel,

[1:25:29] The Dark Tower 3, The Wastelands,

[1:25:31] in which the quartet of Roland, Susanna, Jake, and Eddie

[1:25:35] board an insane monorail named Blame the Mono.

[1:25:40] Many things happen during their monorail lives,

[1:25:43] but ultimately they end up in Topeka, Kansas.

[1:25:46] Anyway.

[1:25:47] I feel like, I was gonna say,

[1:25:48] I've never read The Dark Tower books,

[1:25:49] and every now and then I consider doing it,

[1:25:51] but every time I hear a detail of it,

[1:25:52] I'm like, I just want to keep hearing random details

[1:25:54] for the rest of my life and never knowing how they connect.

[1:25:58] That's kind of how it feels for you.

[1:25:59] Yes.

[1:26:01] Anyway, what are your favorite trains and movies?

[1:26:03] Subways don't count because I don't want Elliott

[1:26:05] to recommend the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123,

[1:26:08] which everyone knows is his favorite movie.

[1:26:11] Excuse me, sir.

[1:26:12] Excuse me.

[1:26:13] I'm offended and insulted.

[1:26:14] Keep on squatting in the free world, looking at used to.

[1:26:17] Willie, last name withheld.

[1:26:19] Favorite trains and movies.

[1:26:22] Favorite trains.

[1:26:23] Gotta throw one up there for Snowpiercer

[1:26:25] because it's got my girl Tilda on it.

[1:26:29] You know what?

[1:26:30] I'm gonna say there's been a lot of fights

[1:26:33] on top of trains throughout film history.

[1:26:36] Sure.

[1:26:37] While you're talking about the 7% solution.

[1:26:42] Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna have a fight,

[1:26:44] put it on top of a train, dude,

[1:26:46] or on top of a bridge above a pit

[1:26:49] so you can uppercut a dude off that fucking bridge

[1:26:51] and they fall in the spikes.

[1:26:52] I'm gonna say one of my favorite fights on top of a train

[1:26:57] is in the first Mission Impossible movie.

[1:27:00] They got a lot even better with the wild stunts,

[1:27:04] but that's a pretty great fight

[1:27:07] on top of a very fast train.

[1:27:09] Elliot, what do you got?

[1:27:11] I think let's not turn against fights inside of trains

[1:27:14] because there's the classic train fight scene

[1:27:16] in On Her Majesty's Secret.

[1:27:17] No, it's from Russia With Love, I'm sorry,

[1:27:19] in From Russia With Love.

[1:27:20] But also, I was gonna say Snowpiercer.

[1:27:23] I'm glad Stuart mentioned it.

[1:27:24] But you know what you can also have on trains is romance.

[1:27:27] And so I'm gonna say the train where Janet Leigh

[1:27:28] hits on Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate

[1:27:31] where she just unleashes the string

[1:27:33] of the strangest non sequiturs

[1:27:35] any conversation has ever had.

[1:27:36] And it's such a wonderful scene

[1:27:39] and it can only happen on a train

[1:27:41] because they have to be on a transit system together

[1:27:44] and then be able to go from a public part of it

[1:27:46] to a private part of it.

[1:27:47] You can't do that as easily on a plane.

[1:27:49] Were they gonna be in the bathroom together?

[1:27:50] I don't think so.

[1:27:51] As long as we're talking train romance,

[1:27:52] we gotta talk North by Northwest as well.

[1:27:54] Great stuff.

[1:27:55] Sure.

[1:27:56] And as long as we're talking about cool trains,

[1:27:57] I gotta talk about that train sequence

[1:28:00] in what, season four of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure where-

[1:28:03] Not a movie, but okay.

[1:28:06] It depends if you watch it fast enough.

[1:28:08] If you put on super fast and it ends in an hour and a half,

[1:28:11] that's a movie, right?

[1:28:12] Yeah, I guess so.

[1:28:14] And also, of course, as listeners know,

[1:28:16] my fifth favorite movie,

[1:28:18] I used to have it at number four,

[1:28:19] but I'm downgrading it slightly.

[1:28:21] My fifth favorite movie, closely watched trains,

[1:28:23] has a ton of trains in it.

[1:28:25] There's plenty of trains.

[1:28:26] Yeah.

[1:28:27] The longer I'm staring at the second letter I chose

[1:28:30] for this week,

[1:28:30] the more I can't remember whether we've done it already.

[1:28:32] Guys, I was about to say the train

[1:28:34] and how to train your dragon,

[1:28:35] but I realized that's not about trains.

[1:28:38] No, it's not about turning your dragon into a train.

[1:28:40] Considering that Elliot-

[1:28:43] And I'll tell you what train I don't wanna be on,

[1:28:46] that train to Busan.

[1:28:47] No, thank you, sir.

[1:28:49] Not a train I would like to be on.

[1:28:51] I was gonna say,

[1:28:52] considering that Elliot has a family engagement

[1:28:54] and I cannot confidently say

[1:28:55] we haven't already talked about this,

[1:28:56] I'm just gonna move on to our last segment.

[1:29:00] Okay.

[1:29:00] And I want everyone to,

[1:29:01] don't get too excited.

[1:29:02] It's not that someone in my family got engaged.

[1:29:04] It's that I have to take my son somewhere on a schedule.

[1:29:08] And you're keeping it vague

[1:29:09] in case somebody develops a time machine

[1:29:11] and goes back in time to find you.

[1:29:13] Yeah, exactly.

[1:29:14] I have to keep it vague for that reason.

[1:29:17] I don't want the listeners yet

[1:29:18] to suddenly run to where I am,

[1:29:20] see that I'm not there,

[1:29:21] because we recorded this a week ago.

[1:29:22] Yeah, to source code their way back.

[1:29:24] Yeah.

[1:29:25] On a train.

[1:29:26] On a train.

[1:29:27] On a train.

[1:29:30] We've hit on something,

[1:29:30] which is that trains are the best conveyance

[1:29:33] to put a movie on.

[1:29:34] You're on it for a long time.

[1:29:36] You can move around a lot within there.

[1:29:37] A lot of different people use them.

[1:29:39] Like, there are thrillers on planes.

[1:29:41] There are thrillers, I assume, in cars.

[1:29:43] I guess there's like, you know, a collateral,

[1:29:44] I guess, is in a car.

[1:29:46] It is.

[1:29:47] Right.

[1:29:47] And there's thrillers on boats.

[1:29:49] But I gotta tell you,

[1:29:50] for real thrills, gotta be on a train.

[1:29:53] Make it trains, everybody.

[1:29:54] Make mine trains.

[1:29:55] Yeah, make mine trains, yep.

[1:29:57] I'm a member of the Merry Train Marching Society.

[1:30:00] The last thing we do here is we recommend movies that might be a better use of your time than our usual fare.

[1:30:08] My recommendation is I went to see a matinee of the film Matinee recently.

[1:30:16] The Nighthawk Prospect Park was showing Joe Dante's love letter to the Atomic Panic films of the 50s and 60s.

[1:30:29] It's from 1993.

[1:30:33] The brilliance of the movie is a lot of those old, cheesy science fiction monster films were based on nuclear anxieties.

[1:30:44] Dante was like, what if I construct a film around one of those movies being shown but also around real-world panic around the Cuban Missile Crisis?

[1:30:58] They're in Key West right next to Cuba.

[1:31:03] You can see it from Key West.

[1:31:05] I've done it myself.

[1:31:07] It's just a movie that's steeped in a lot of Joe Dante's signature love of the trash of his youth elevated through his own brilliance.

[1:31:18] It's got a great John Goodman performance that combines a lot of warmth with hucksterism.

[1:31:25] He's playing kind of a William Castle stand-in.

[1:31:29] And it's a movie that sort of takes its time setting up this world.

[1:31:33] And then when it starts paying off in the second half, it really pays off like gangbusters.

[1:31:38] It's very funny and very sweet.

[1:31:40] So I am recommending Matinee if you've never seen it.

[1:31:43] I'm going to recommend a Indian movie from 2019 called Kaithi spelled K-A-I-T-H-I, which in Tamil means prisoner, I believe.

[1:31:55] And this fucking movie, guys, this movie is like –

[1:31:58] This fucking thing.

[1:32:00] It's like –

[1:32:02] This guy.

[1:32:03] This movie is like a cross between Assault on Precinct 13 and Con Air.

[1:32:07] The setup is this elite police squad makes the biggest drug bust in history.

[1:32:12] But in the process, the leader of the police team breaks his arm.

[1:32:15] OK, they go to the head chief inspector's house where they are celebrating this bust after disposing of the drugs into a private secure location.

[1:32:24] Wow, somebody is honking.

[1:32:25] They love this movie.

[1:32:27] Now, the drug dealers find out that their stuff has been busted.

[1:32:31] So they get an inside man to drug all the cops except for the broken-arm guy who can't drink.

[1:32:37] So everybody gets knocked out on Rohypnol.

[1:32:39] Uh-oh, and the drug dealers are coming to kill all the cops.

[1:32:42] So he can't drive.

[1:32:43] He needs to get these guys safe.

[1:32:45] So he has to take a criminal who has been locked up in the back of one of the trucks to help him.

[1:32:48] But it turns out that criminal is an ex-con on his way to see a daughter he's never met before.

[1:32:53] And this guy is a super badass, but he can't do anything wrong because he wants to be able to see his daughter.

[1:32:59] Oh, boy.

[1:33:00] It is a – and this all happens before the credits drop.

[1:33:03] Wow.

[1:33:04] It's amazing.

[1:33:05] It's like –

[1:33:06] I mean that could – that doesn't mean anything.

[1:33:08] RRR, the credits drop 40 minutes.

[1:33:10] Uh-huh, and I'm like –

[1:33:11] The credits could be at the end of it.

[1:33:12] And in RRR, I'm like –

[1:33:13] High-fidelity, the credits don't show up until the very end.

[1:33:15] I'm like RRR, drive my car.

[1:33:17] Dropped them five minutes after you.

[1:33:20] High-octane thrill ride, drive my car.

[1:33:22] But yeah, Kaipi, if you're looking for like a great action movie, I 100% recommend it.

[1:33:28] It's super fun.

[1:33:29] All right.

[1:33:30] The movie I'm going to recommend is not a high-octane action movie.

[1:33:33] Weird.

[1:33:34] What's the octane?

[1:33:35] It is a melodrama.

[1:33:36] How much octane is there?

[1:33:38] Medium octane, I guess, because there's still some kind of thrills in it.

[1:33:41] Okay, I'm going to recommend a movie called The Garden of Women.

[1:33:44] This is a Japanese movie from 1954 directed by Kaisuke Kinoshita.

[1:33:48] The Garden of Women is the story of an all-girls boarding school that is run by extremely strict regulations that lead to emotional turmoil and political uprising among the students.

[1:33:56] Very much an ensemble movie with several different plot threads, all painting a portrait of a post-war Japan in which the young struggle against the bars of a metaphorical prison of social standards built by the old.

[1:34:07] And I kept thinking it – well, I kept thinking it.

[1:34:09] I kept thinking while watching it this would make a great TV show, but it's even better than a TV show because it's only two hours and 20 minutes long.

[1:34:16] So you don't have to sit through like a couple hours of them just setting up the characters.

[1:34:19] Hey, floppers, why not program a little double feature for yourself with this and my previous recommendation, Magic in Uniform.

[1:34:26] That's right, a German movie about an oppressive girls' school and a Japanese movie about an oppressive girls' school.

[1:34:30] I call it the Axis Powers girls' school double feature.

[1:34:33] But if you've already watched Magic in Uniform, which you should have because I recommended it.

[1:34:37] It's really good.

[1:34:38] Then The Garden of Women is great on its own.

[1:34:40] So that's The Garden of Women.

[1:34:42] Wow.

[1:34:43] We did it.

[1:34:44] We did it.

[1:34:45] We're going to get you there.

[1:34:46] We're going to get you out, Elliot.

[1:34:47] Bingo, bingo.

[1:34:48] I really appreciate it.

[1:34:49] Listeners, I appreciate that you don't get our usual two-plus hours of jokes and jakes.

[1:34:54] Apologies to you or maybe you like it better this way.

[1:34:57] Either way.

[1:34:58] I mean from what the listeners have told me, they seem to kind of refer it this way.

[1:35:02] But who knows?

[1:35:03] This has been the Flophouse.

[1:35:05] We are part of the Maximum Fun Network.

[1:35:08] Go over to MaximumFun.org.

[1:35:10] Check out all the other great shows.

[1:35:12] Comedy and Culture.

[1:35:13] That's what they say.

[1:35:14] It's got both.

[1:35:15] I don't know which your taste is.

[1:35:18] Culture.

[1:35:19] We mixed them.

[1:35:20] We mixed them up.

[1:35:21] Yeah.

[1:35:22] We got peanut butter in your chocolate or whatever.

[1:35:24] And also thank you to Alex Smith.

[1:35:27] He goes by the name of HowlDotty on Twitter, other socials.

[1:35:32] Well, he's making music under that name.

[1:35:34] He is our producer.

[1:35:36] He is our editor.

[1:35:38] He does great stuff for us.

[1:35:39] Sorry that Stuart zinged you earlier.

[1:35:42] And that's all I got to say.

[1:35:44] He's got a thick skin.

[1:35:46] Thick skin crusted from sitting in front of a computer screen.

[1:35:50] We love you.

[1:35:53] Thank you to you, the listener, and for the Flophouse.

[1:35:57] I've been Dan McCoy.

[1:35:59] I'm Stuart Wellington.

[1:36:01] And I'm Elliot Kalin reminding you to go to TheBellHouseNY.com to get your tickets to our live show on Sunday, April 2nd.

[1:36:09] Bye.

[1:36:10] Bye.

[1:36:11] On this episode, we discuss Don't Worry Darling.

[1:36:19] But honestly, I don't think the series gets good until Don't Worry Darling reloaded.

[1:36:23] You're right.

[1:36:27] That was a good one.

[1:36:28] That is a good one.

[1:36:29] Okay.

[1:36:30] Thank you.

Episode #388 - Don't Worry Darling

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