Ep. #355 - Breaking News in Yuba County

Dan McCoy

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss breaking news from Yuba County.

[0:05] In Yuba County?

[0:07] What is it?

[0:08] Breaking news in Yuba County?

[0:09] Breaking news in Yuba County.

Stuart Wellington

[0:11] I'm glad that we nailed it in the first try, by the way.

[0:14] That's perfect.

[0:15] What a perfect future.

[0:16] 100% flawless victory.

[0:30] Hey, and welcome to the Flophouse.

Dan McCoy

[0:43] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:44] Oh, hey there.

[0:45] It's me, Stuart Wellington.

Elliott Kalan

[0:46] And I'm Elliot Kalin.

[0:48] That's my name.

[0:49] Sorry.

[0:50] That's just it.

[0:51] I'm not going to change it.

[0:53] You don't need to apologize for that, Elliot.

Stuart Wellington

[0:55] Your mouth says sorry.

[0:56] Your face says you don't actually care.

Elliott Kalan

[0:58] Yeah, well, it was a sorry, not sorry.

[1:00] An SNS.

[1:01] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[1:02] Now, what do you think we would have been mad at about your name?

Elliott Kalan

[1:06] I mean, at this point, I'm just ready for pushback no matter what happens.

[1:12] First, there were all the Elliot Kalin name boosters.

[1:14] Then there was the backlash.

[1:15] Then there was the backlash to the backlash.

[1:17] The people were like, actually, it's a really good name.

[1:19] And the people were like, despite this revisionist history, it's still a bad name.

[1:23] All the think pieces, all the tweets, I'm just over it.

[1:26] You know, it's my name's Elliot Kalin.

[1:28] Here to say, my name's Elliot Kalin and I made your way.

[1:30] That's all I've got about it.

[1:33] Okay.

[1:34] Seems like kind of a lazy lyric.

[1:36] Sounds like an epitaph to me.

[1:38] So, what do we do on this podcast here, Dan?

[1:40] On my tombstone, it says, my name's Elliot Kalin.

[1:42] I'm here to say, my name's Elliot Kalin and I made your way.

[1:44] 1981 to question mark, because they don't know when I died.

Dan McCoy

[1:48] Oh, you pre-bought it, like Nicolas Cage and his pyramid tomb.

Elliott Kalan

[1:52] Yeah, it's just cheaper that way.

[1:53] And then, you know, eventually you hope to raise the money to carve the other year on there.

Stuart Wellington

[1:57] I mean, aren't most like pyramid tombs pre-bought though?

[2:01] Like, weren't the pharaohs like, yeah, start building that shit.

[2:04] I know I'm not dead yet, but I'm going to die at some point.

[2:06] They didn't wait around.

Dan McCoy

[2:07] They weren't like, yeah.

[2:08] Fair point.

[2:09] By the time the pyramid was done, it was like, ugh, bury this rotting pile.

[2:14] No, it was like, Hatshepsut just died.

Elliott Kalan

[2:16] We got to get this pyramid done yesterday.

[2:18] Like, chop, chop.

[2:19] Let's do it.

Dan McCoy

[2:21] This is a movie podcast, by the way.

Elliott Kalan

[2:23] This is a podcast where we talk about the scheduling and construction of pyramids.

[2:30] So here's a flop house tip number one.

[2:33] You're going to want to pre-buy.

[2:35] You don't just want to wait until the last minute, your deathbed, to start shopping for those pyramids.

[2:40] Because you're talking about design, structural architecture, price.

[2:44] Don't try to do it yourself at home.

[2:46] People have tried so many times.

[2:48] You've seen on that whole Reddit that's about pyramid fails.

[2:51] People tried to build their own Egyptian tomb, and it just doesn't work.

[2:55] Don't need to spring for the undercoding on that.

[2:57] Well, unfortunately, Dan, they put that in the factory.

Stuart Wellington

[3:00] And when you're lying on your deathbed, do you want to spend your time focusing on stuff like

[3:03] what cool last words you're going to have, who you're going to snub in your last words, all that stuff?

Dan McCoy

[3:10] No, this is a podcast about bad movies where we watch a bad movie, and then we talk about it.

[3:17] And in this case, we watched a movie called, let's see if I can remember again, Breaking News in Yuba County.

[3:25] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[3:25] Here's a peek behind the curtain.

[3:27] Dan got the title wrong when we first started recording the episode.

[3:31] So that's why Dan's a little trepidatious about it now, but I think he's going to do just fine.

[3:35] Dan?

Dan McCoy

[3:35] How could I mess up a catchy title like Breaking News in Yuba County?

[3:42] How would I ever get any element of that?

[3:43] Well, what I love about it is it tells you everything you need to know about the movie.

Stuart Wellington

[3:46] Yeah.

[3:46] Now, this is –

[3:47] Elliot, you're our geography nut on the podcast.

[3:51] Is Yuba County a real place or is it a made-up place?

Elliott Kalan

[3:55] It is a real place in California.

[3:57] Now, the movie seems to take place in Kentucky possibly.

[4:02] So I'm not sure – so I don't know if the Yuba County of the film is a real place, but there is a real place called Yuba County.

[4:08] Okay.

[4:08] Or at least Wikipedia says it's taking place in Kentucky.

[4:10] I don't actually remember anything in the movie that made that clear at all.

[4:15] Yeah.

[4:15] But there is a real Yuba County.

[4:17] Now, people may recognize this type of title as kind of a things to do in Denver when you're dead type of thing where it's kind of like a deliberately kind of longish, puckish title that kind of winks at the audience like, uh-oh, what kind of news is breaking in Yuba County?

[4:31] And the movie is in a lot of ways kind of a throwback to that era of 90s violent comedies that had overlong titles.

[4:40] Like eight heads in a – this is your eight heads in a duffel bag for 21st century.

[4:43] Finally, my kids have their eight heads in a duffel bag.

Dan McCoy

[4:45] Yep.

[4:46] It's that – it's also kind of like an attempt, a bad attempt at like a Coen Brothers movie like Fargo or Burn After Reading.

[4:56] It also, you know, it evokes like Elmore Leonard or Carl Hyson novels to some degree.

[5:02] Literally.

[5:02] But better – but worse.

[5:05] You said better.

Elliott Kalan

[5:06] Put it on the vavos.

[5:07] Better than Elmore Leonard and Carl Hyson rapes Dan McCoy.

Stuart Wellington

[5:10] A little bit of Jackie Brown in there.

[5:12] Yeah, that sort of thing.

[5:14] It feels a little bit like a filmed version of a celebrity Twitch stream of the game Fiasco, which I don't know if you – yeah.

[5:23] Rave Stuart Wellington.

[5:24] Put it on the poster.

[5:24] Yeah, yeah.

[5:25] Uh-huh.

[5:26] Yeah.

[5:26] Slap it on there.

[5:27] Make sure to put my picture on there too though if you're going to use my words.

[5:30] That's how they usually do it.

[5:32] Yeah, yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[5:32] And your signature.

[5:33] Yeah.

[5:33] And then you're going to want to slap it, bonk it, twist it, bomp it, and throw it.

[5:37] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[5:38] Yeah, you got to do all that.

[5:39] If you don't do all that, then you won't get my quote.

[5:42] So, yeah.

[5:44] That's the rule.

[5:45] That's the rule.

[5:45] It's all in your quote contract.

[5:46] Dude.

[5:48] Okay.

[5:48] So, let's just jump into this thing.

[5:51] Okay.

[5:52] Of course, like a lot of movies here at the Flophouse, it opens with what seems to be never-ending production logos.

[5:58] As soon as one ends, another begins.

[6:01] To the point where at some point you're like, is the movie started?

[6:05] Did I miss something?

[6:06] I don't know what's going on.

Elliott Kalan

[6:07] And now there's one particularly interesting production logo on here though.

[6:11] Among the other ones, like nine stories is on there, which is Jake Gyllenhaal's company.

[6:15] But one of the production logos is The Blacklist.

[6:18] And that's right.

[6:18] This movie was produced in part by The Blacklist, the organization that collects the best unmade scripts in Hollywood and makes a list of them.

[6:27] And makes the worst movies.

[6:28] And makes the worst movies.

[6:29] Because here's how many – here's some other Blacklist movies we've done in this podcast.

[6:32] Red Riding Hood, Seven Pounds, ATM, Abduction, All About Steve, That Awkward Moment, Gangster Squad, a.k.a. that hat-headed hand-herders.

[6:43] Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, I believe.

[6:45] Number 23, possibly.

[6:46] There's a lot of – some good movies are made off of Blacklist scripts, but a lot are not.

[6:51] And this one was actually produced by that organization, which is surprising.

[6:55] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[6:56] What, surprising that they decide to start getting in on the content creation game themselves?

Elliott Kalan

[7:00] I think surprisingly they started to get in and that this was the script they decided to go with.

[7:05] And, you know, movies change as they're made, but –

Stuart Wellington

[7:07] Maybe the folks behind The Blacklist are like, you know what?

[7:10] This script is written so well.

[7:12] You know, it'd be impossible to mess up.

Dan McCoy

[7:13] I do think that there's something about Blacklist movies where it's like – the reason they got put on this list is they're flashy scripts.

[7:21] Oh.

[7:21] Which does not necessarily translate to, like, a good script.

[7:25] Like, I feel like maybe the reason they are often unproduced is the people in charge of making movies look at them and be like, oh, well, this reads well on the page, but it wouldn't work as a movie.

[7:35] And then, like, it gets attention, you know, once it gets – this is my theory.

Stuart Wellington

[7:39] What makes a good script, Dan?

[7:41] Is it font?

Dan McCoy

[7:43] Well, it should probably be a Courier New.

[7:47] I think that's the standard font.

[7:48] Ooh, not the old Courier.

Elliott Kalan

[7:50] Get some new Courier in there.

[7:51] I will say also it is a –

[7:52] Yeah, it changed the game.

[7:53] It is such a ballsy slap in the face to screenwriters to name the list you want your script on, to name it after the screenwriters who were thrown in jail or had their careers taken from them because they would not call out communists in front of Congress.

[8:07] So it's a real – or we're accused of communism.

Stuart Wellington

[8:09] Is that what that fucking James Spader show is all about?

[8:12] That's exactly what it's about.

Elliott Kalan

[8:13] James Spader – it's weird to make a show where James Spader is the hero and he's locking screenwriters in jail for being communists.

[8:19] And at the end of everybody – at the end of every episode, he throws them in jail and he goes, take that, commie.

[8:24] You're on the blacklist.

[8:25] And then the title comes up, blacklist.

[8:27] So it's just ballsy to be like –

Stuart Wellington

[8:28] I guess that must be why it's so popular.

Elliott Kalan

[8:30] Unless the people at the American Blacklist Council were like, people – look, the HUAC hearings and everything, it gave blacklists a bad name, a black mark, if you will.

[8:40] Let's change the way people think about blacklists by making it something that you want to be on.

[8:45] So we'll make it a screenwriting thing.

[8:46] We'll make it a James Spader show.

[8:48] There's no telling.

[8:49] James Spader in a hat.

[8:51] Look, you've seen James Spader, but have you seen him in a hat?

Stuart Wellington

[8:55] Yeah, I mean he was known for having that beautiful haircut and now they're like, let's change it up.

[9:00] Let's give him a hat.

[9:01] It's like when –

[9:02] Does it work?

[9:02] And it's like, hell yeah, it works.

Elliott Kalan

[9:04] Yeah, yeah.

[9:04] You can still get it.

[9:05] Okay.

[9:05] When Quigley down under shaved his mustache and everyone was like, what are you doing?

[9:10] But they learned to love him.

[9:11] Exactly.

[9:11] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[9:12] Finally, some justice for Quigley down under.

[9:14] Okay.

[9:14] So we're introduced to the hero of this movie, Sue, played by Allison Janney.

[9:19] She's at a grocery store and she's listening to affirmation tapes and buying herself a birthday cake,

[9:25] which of course the cake makers get her name wrong.

[9:29] Instead of Sue, they write suck.

[9:32] And seem very unwilling to change it, which is like, that's crazy.

[9:37] That's super easy.

[9:38] Which of course she shows us later.

[9:39] It's very easy.

Elliott Kalan

[9:40] Yeah, it would take so little effort on their part to get it right, you know.

Stuart Wellington

[9:43] Yeah, she's just like, you know, she's like a buttoned up like suburban housewife type.

[9:49] In fact, her name is Sue Buttons.

[9:51] Yeah, Sue Buttons.

[9:52] Thank you.

[9:52] And we're introduced to her husband, played by Matthew Modine, her husband, Carl, who is having some phone sex with his mistress,

[10:00] which you all know the first rules on your wife's birthday.

[10:03] You don't spend time with the mistress, right, Dan?

Elliott Kalan

[10:07] I mean, I guess technically that's correct.

[10:09] Dan is trepidatious.

[10:10] Technically that's correct.

[10:11] He may spend time with his mistress on his wife's birthday.

[10:14] No, that's not what I meant.

[10:15] Yeah, you don't want to foreclose all your options, I guess, Dan.

[10:18] Be flexible.

[10:19] Everyone knows birthday is for the wife, Saturday is for the gumar.

[10:22] That's how it works.

[10:22] Come on, guys.

[10:23] We all know that.

Stuart Wellington

[10:25] Now, a TV in the background informs us that there is a missing girl, Emma Rose,

[10:30] and she seems to be the focus of all of the entertainment news, specifically one entertainment talk show host,

[10:39] Gloria Michaels, played by Juliette Lewis, who is interviewing the parents of this missing girl.

[10:45] And you're like, how is this going to tie in?

[10:46] Don't worry, it will.

[10:48] Sue works at a call center, a call center where they are mean to her and forget her birthday.

[10:56] And then, guess what?

[10:57] We got even more characters here because this movie is filled with actors.

[11:01] I know every movie is filled with actors, but these are ones whose names you recognize.

[11:04] Well, not Secret Honor.

[11:05] That's just got one actor in it.

[11:08] Oh, okay.

Elliott Kalan

[11:08] Thank you, Elliot.

[11:09] Yeah, so not all movies are filled with honors.

[11:11] Some are just Philip Baker Hall.

[11:13] So, you know.

Stuart Wellington

[11:14] Yeah, no, that was great.

[11:15] Actually, that's a really good point.

[11:16] Yeah.

[11:17] So, we go to a store where we meet Pete, played by Jimmy Simpson, who is the brother of Carl,

[11:26] which is strange because they look almost nothing alike.

[11:30] Yeah.

[11:30] But they're probably very similar in age, right, Elliot?

[11:32] There's a roughly 15-year difference between the two of them, between Jimmy Simpson and Matt O'Dayne.

Dan McCoy

[11:37] He's like the primary McPoyle on Alley Sennig, right?

Stuart Wellington

[11:42] Yeah, and he was on the first season of Westworld.

[11:47] Yeah.

[11:47] I'm wrong.

[11:48] There's a 16-year difference.

[11:48] That was his star turn, yeah.

[11:50] Yeah, that was his breakout.

[11:51] Jimmy Simpson.

Elliott Kalan

[11:51] He was, now he's a leading man, Jimmy Simpson.

[11:54] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[11:54] Yeah.

[11:54] Jimmy Simpson plays Pete, and he works for Rita, who is played by Wanda Sykes, who I got to tell you,

[12:00] made me laugh a bunch of times in this movie.

[12:02] She is the funniest person in the movie.

[12:03] Not just because she was wearing these awesome, she's wearing this very funny wig and jorts the whole time, and it's great.

[12:09] And she's always pulling out a pistol, and she seems very up for, she like, yes, her character, yes, ands everything in the movie.

[12:15] It's great.

[12:16] Okay, so we find out that Pete is a ex-con who's trying to reform, but it becomes kind of hard because some of his former criminal contacts,

[12:25] played by Awkwafina and Clifton Collins Jr., show up and try and hustle him down, shake him down for some money, or get him to,

[12:34] we find out that he's mixed up in a money laundering scheme with his brother, Carl, once again, Matthew Modine, who works at a bank.

[12:42] Okay?

[12:43] I think this is all making sense.

Dan McCoy

[12:44] Yeah, this is, you know, Cracker Jack, clockwork plotting.

[12:47] Oh, yeah, clockwork orange plotting.

Elliott Kalan

[12:48] Now, I wanted to mention, this is how stuffed with movie stars is in, is that it's, that's Ellen Barkin, right?

[12:55] As Wanda Sykes' wife.

[12:56] Oh, yeah, yeah, Ellen Barkin's in it, too.

[12:58] This very small part that does not need an Ellen Barkin to pull it off, but Ellen Barkin is doing it.

[13:02] Like, there's just, there's, this thing has, when you think about how hard it is to get certain movies attached to celebrities,

[13:08] this one, it's almost like they just walked by a celebrity and the celebrity was pulled towards it like a metal filing towards a magnet.

[13:14] Couldn't resist the gravitational pull of breaking news in Yuba County.

Dan McCoy

[13:19] With a title like that, I gotta know what it's about.

[13:22] What's the breaking news?

Elliott Kalan

[13:23] Look, I'm only halfway through the title.

[13:24] I saw breaking news in and I'm telling you I'm in.

[13:27] I'll finish the title later and I'll finish the script.

[13:29] Maybe never.

[13:30] I'm in the movie.

[13:31] Take it.

[13:31] Okay, Ms. Barkin, that sounds wonderful.

[13:33] Yeah, great.

Stuart Wellington

[13:35] So, Awkwafina and Clifton Collins Jr. are like shaking down Jimmy Simpson at his place of work and we're introduced to the first of many very lazy stunts.

[13:45] Feels like they did not hire any kind of stunt coordinator or choreographer because, like, they're just like, yeah, just fucking do whatever you, like, do what you think's right.

[13:54] Because it always feels, it feels very strange.

[13:58] Wanda Sykes has some funny bits with her gun.

[14:01] Wanda Sykes really wants to be a criminal, right?

[14:03] She really wants to live a criminal life.

[14:04] Yeah, that's her deal.

[14:05] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[14:06] And it's pretty funny.

[14:07] And it's pretty funny.

Dan McCoy

[14:07] She's the one who has the strongest, clearest game.

[14:09] She's great.

[14:10] Yeah.

[14:10] Yeah, it seems like that is why she has hired Jimmy Simpson almost.

[14:14] Like, she knows he's an ex-con.

[14:15] She's like, if I got this guy around sooner or later, he's going to involve me.

Stuart Wellington

[14:19] Yeah, that's pretty great.

[14:20] Yeah, that's a good read.

[14:22] So we then go to the bank where Awkwafina and Clifton Collins Jr. are trying to meet up with Carl.

[14:31] Sorry, I'm going to keep accidentally calling them by their names or their actor names the whole time.

[14:35] I'm sorry if you're trying to follow this.

[14:37] They bump into another guy who works at the bank who is played by the guy who played Piz from Veronica Mars.

[14:42] And played Bash on Glow.

[14:45] On Glow, yeah.

[14:45] I feel like I like him more on Glow than – I mean, obviously, everyone hates him on Veronica Mars, but whatever.

[14:54] So Carl is reluctant.

[14:56] He is reluctant, but he is still washing the criminal's money, which is what, $3 million?

Elliott Kalan

[15:01] It's literally a bag with $3 million in cash that's very neatly stacked, and they're like, launder this by tomorrow.

[15:07] And I don't know how money laundering works, but it feels like it takes – it's not like you put it in a machine and it comes out as different money.

[15:13] Like you got to do – it has to go through different things to be laundered, right?

[15:16] Yeah.

[15:17] Like reusing an IP.

[15:19] Yeah, you just got to – just watch Ozark, dude.

Stuart Wellington

[15:21] It tells you how to do it.

[15:22] You throw some golf balls in a dryer and throw the – it's easy.

[15:27] Wait, I'm intrigued about it.

[15:28] Wait, how do the golf balls in the dryer help?

[15:30] Well, because it like fucks up the bills a little bit.

[15:33] Oh, makes them all crumbly?

[15:34] Okay.

Elliott Kalan

[15:35] Yeah.

[15:35] And then you get to pretend you can crawl into the dryer and be like, I'm on the money tunnel on a game show.

[15:39] And you're just grabbing at all the bills.

[15:41] Ow, golf ball.

[15:42] Ow, ow.

Stuart Wellington

[15:43] It's kind of like how to live and die in L.A. to make the counterfeit bills look real.

[15:48] They throw a bunch of poker chips in the dryer.

[15:50] Right.

[15:51] Okay, don't worry about it.

[15:52] So meanwhile, Sue, very dejected because everyone forgot her birthday, decides, I'm going to make a reservation at the fanciest restaurant in town.

[16:00] And I'm going to tell my husband he has to take me out because it's my fucking birthday.

[16:03] So she goes to his work only to see him leave with some flowers.

[16:06] And she's like, ooh, who are these flowers for?

[16:08] I'm going to follow him.

[16:09] So she follows him to a local motel.

[16:11] And she interrupts him, of course, with she is hoping to be surprised by the flowers that he's planning some surprise for.

[16:19] But instead catches him with his mistress.

[16:21] And he immediately has a heart attack and dies.

[16:25] His mistress is played by Bridget Everett, who is very game.

[16:28] And she kicks the mistress out and then spends the day sitting in a hotel room watching TV with a rotting corpse.

Dan McCoy

[16:37] Yeah, I mean, like, this is an unpleasant comedic scene because it does appear to, like, the movie wants to make a joke of the fact that his mistress, like, is a larger woman and has her, like, giant boob out in, like, half of it out of her bra.

[16:58] Or one of her breasts out of her bra.

[16:59] Like, half of her set of breasts is bare.

[17:03] Yeah, they didn't, yeah, exactly.

[17:05] The pair, one of them.

[17:07] And I just, it's an unpleasant scene on behalf of the movie because, like, it really does, I feel like, I don't know, it just wants to make a joke of this woman in this scene.

Elliott Kalan

[17:17] Oh, no, and later when that character shows up again, another character goes, like, she is fine.

[17:24] And the movie seems to want you to think it's hilarious.

[17:28] Yeah, that a large woman would be sexually desirable to somebody.

[17:32] It's a gross, yeah, it's gross.

Stuart Wellington

[17:34] I mean, I think she's pretty great.

[17:36] Okay.

[17:36] She does fine with the role.

[17:38] It's not a problem.

[17:39] The problem's not with her.

[17:39] I know, she's great.

[17:40] Yeah.

[17:41] So, the weirdest thing for me in this scene is that while she, while we see Alice and Janie, like, sneaking around the outside of the hotel,

[17:50] we see a bunch of people, like, grilling out in the little park next to the motel, and it's, they expressly say it's like a Tuesday afternoon.

[17:58] Like, who's grilling out on a Tuesday next to a parking lot?

Elliott Kalan

[18:03] That, like, this parking lot, it's this field next to, not even the field, the, like, grass next to this hotel.

[18:09] It's like nobody seems to notice her burying a body there, and it seems like it is a very heavily populated area, and she doesn't even go to, it's, it's, the whole, later on in the movie, there's another scene at this motel that we'll get to, and I was like, how is nobody seeing this, intervening, like, calling the police?

[18:27] I don't understand.

[18:28] It's well lit, like, very visible.

[18:30] Yep.

Dan McCoy

[18:31] A lot of sight lines.

[18:32] I would like to take this moment to talk a little bit about Alice and Janie's character.

[18:36] Yeah, please.

[18:36] Sue Buttons.

[18:37] The titular breaking news.

[18:39] Sue Buttons is our lead, and Alice and Janie, you know, wonderful actor, Academy Award winner, I think does, you know, what she can with this part.

[18:49] Like, she is actually, in a movie that I think is not very good, largely, is pitched pretty well,

[18:56] but the script doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[18:59] I don't know.

[19:01] Her whole deal is like, look, I understand that her birthday being missed is meant to be a, like, shorthand, movie shorthand, representative of, you know, the life of quiet desperation that she's leading.

[19:20] Well said.

[19:20] Dan, is that your phrase?

[19:23] Did you just come up with that?

[19:24] That's very well said.

[19:24] Original to me.

[19:25] Very well said.

[19:26] TM.

[19:27] But in the context of a movie, like, and I do think that you're supposed to have some sort of sympathy for her at the beginning of the movie, and then watch as she sort of grows into a fame-hungry monster, even though you were supposed to scoff a little bit about her affirmations, like this, like the fact that she's, like, walking through life, like, trying to, like, you know, pump herself up.

[19:49] And, like, this idea of, like, we are all special.

[19:52] We all deserve, like, like, I think the movie is, like, trying to pitch it down the middle where, like, there's sympathy for her, but also, like, you know, satirizing this mindset of personal, like, growth and how it can lead to selfishness if misapplied.

[20:08] But, uh, but I don't know.

[20:12] Like, I don't start the movie with any sort of sympathy.

[20:15] Well, a little bit.

[20:16] A little bit.

[20:16] I don't want to, that's too much to say.

Elliott Kalan

[20:18] No, but I think you're right that the tone is off because when the movie starts, you are meant to think she's pathetic.

[20:24] And it's supposed to be funny that she's pathetic.

[20:27] Like, if she's stepped on by life, no one pays attention to her.

[20:31] She does these affirmations, but clearly she is not in control of her life, and everyone just shits all over.

[20:35] And it's supposed to be, like, funny, but you're also supposed to feel bad.

[20:40] But then you're supposed, and you're supposed to want her to get what she thinks she deserves.

[20:43] But then you're supposed to lose sympathy with her at a certain point.

[20:46] And it's, it's, it's a very difficult tonal thing.

[20:49] It doesn't pull off, you know?

Stuart Wellington

[20:50] Well, like, the moment her husband dies, she immediately has that, like, click.

[20:54] Where she's like, okay, I don't feel bad about this dead guy.

[20:58] I'm going to take what's mine.

[20:59] It's Sue's time to shine.

[21:00] Yeah, exactly.

[21:01] And I feel like they, like, speed up to that point a little too fast for me.

[21:06] Like, again, there's a scene where she's sitting watching TV with a dead body next to her.

[21:12] It's a little bit weird.

[21:14] And it's, yeah, as she's sitting there, she is watching TV and she watches Juliette Lewis.

[21:19] And she gets the idea that if she buries her husband and pretends that he's missing, she might get all the attention that she hasn't been getting.

[21:28] So she does just that.

[21:29] She buries them in the field immediately next to the, uh, next to the hotel or motel.

[21:34] It's like feet.

[21:35] She also.

[21:36] Feet from the entrance of the motel.

[21:37] Like, it's crazy.

[21:38] Yes.

[21:39] Uh, with, with the flowers that he bought his mistress and the bag of dirty money that she has not opened.

[21:45] She does not know it's filled with $3 million.

[21:47] Yeah.

[21:48] She goes to report that her husband is missing to detective Regina Hall, which is always great to see.

[21:53] She's awesome.

[21:54] Uh, who does, I guess the best she can with this role.

[21:58] Um, who, uh, is, who doesn't really pay, uh, Sue much mind.

[22:03] And then she tases a excitable frat boy type character who climbs onto the desk in the police station.

Elliott Kalan

[22:09] Uh, very funny stuff.

[22:10] Really.

[22:11] I was so confused by, cause they're like, we got some drunk college students come in and here they go.

[22:17] And they just were like regular white college bros.

[22:21] Like there was nothing character like exaggerated about them, but they're like, whoa.

[22:24] It was, I couldn't understand.

[22:25] I was like, I don't, I don't really think I get the joke here.

[22:29] Like I don't understand why this was the thing that also needed them to distract, be distracted from Sue Buttons.

[22:34] It seems so, it seems so half-assed the whole, the whole thing.

Dan McCoy

[22:37] Well, in general, this movie appears to feel it is at least 25% more outrageous than it is.

[22:44] Except for the moments that are actually outrageous, which are like strong violence to come that break the tone of the movie.

[22:52] But we'll get there.

Elliott Kalan

[22:52] And I think we should mention, cause it's, it's something I don't want to forget is that the music in this movie is working over time.

[22:59] Like it's like, they, they, some, some, this is what a clown hears in hell.

[23:04] Like being piped into the, into the movie.

[23:07] Just, this is the most, the most extreme intense, like boop, boop, boop, boing, boing.

[23:14] And it's, the movies is trying, the music is trying very hard to, to, to make you think it's funny.

[23:18] You know, it's just, uh, it's, it's a lot.

[23:22] There was a point where I was like.

Stuart Wellington

[23:23] Doesn't miss an opportunity for a slide whistle.

Elliott Kalan

[23:24] There was a point where I was like, am I going to have to mute this and watch it with just the captions?

[23:27] Cause I can't take any more in this music.

[23:29] You know.

Dan McCoy

[23:30] I mean, that's like, I mean, as you think of Coen brothers movies that are like trying to like, like pitched at a similar level, but better.

[23:37] Like, you know, they've got like these great dramatic Carter Burwell scores, even as funny things are happening.

[23:43] Whereas this one is just like, let's get the person who does the Tom and Jerry cartoons music.

[23:50] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[23:50] Well, and it's, it's the, it's the thing of like, if you want something to be funny, then you kind of have to do it as, as real as you can in certain things.

[23:59] Like you want, you want the audience to believe this funny situation is happening.

[24:02] So when the music is like, boom, boom, boom, boing, you're like, okay, well, I know this is, this is not, this is not, not even trying to convince me that I'm watching a thing.

[24:10] That we're watching real people later on.

Stuart Wellington

[24:13] Sue has a breakdown while eating her birthday cake and she breaks all of her tchotchkes and caused a real big mess and breaks her TV and all that shit.

[24:21] But unfortunately in the midst of all this wreckage, her sister Mila Kunis shows up, Nancy, who's a local newscaster.

[24:29] And, uh, Sue lies about Carl being abducted and they decide to break some fucking news.

Elliott Kalan

[24:37] Now this is, now we mentioned, it's almost like the casting directors were like, Jimmy Simpson is 16 years younger than Matthew Modine and they're brothers.

[24:44] Why don't we try to break that record?

[24:46] And Allison Janney is 23 years older than Mila Kunis and they, they're supposed to be half sisters.

[24:52] And it is, I feel like it is, it is hard for the movie to, uh, it never comments on that age difference other than saying they're half sisters.

[25:01] But, uh, it made me want to know more about the backstory of these, of these people.

[25:04] There's such a huge age gap.

[25:05] I mean, are they Anthony Quinn's kids?

[25:07] I know that he had a son who was two and a son who was like 52.

[25:10] Thank you.

[25:11] They're probably Anthony Quinn's kids.

[25:13] It adds a lot to the movie.

Stuart Wellington

[25:14] And it took me out of the movie a little bit cause she, Mila Kunis seemed very upset that the, the, the home was so messy.

[25:20] But I know that Mila Kunis doesn't wash her children.

[25:23] So I don't know what the big deal is.

[25:24] I'm not, I don't understand.

[25:25] I don't get that reference.

[25:26] I'll just take it for granted.

[25:27] There is a, there is a news story where, uh, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher were like, we don't bathe our kids that often.

[25:33] Yeah.

[25:33] Like it's a, it's a waste.

Dan McCoy

[25:35] Also, there were two documentaries about how she's a bad mom.

[25:38] So really, that's true.

Stuart Wellington

[25:39] Yeah.

[25:39] Two documentaries.

[25:40] Yeah.

[25:40] Bad mom and a bad mom's two Christmas adventure.

[25:43] Oh, I see.

[25:44] Yeah.

[25:44] So it wasn't like fire fest where there were two competing documentaries.

Elliott Kalan

[25:47] These were two fictional films in which she was labeled a bad mom.

[25:51] What fictional?

[25:55] I think it's right.

[25:55] Like those two documentaries about how Billy Bob Thornton is a bad Santa.

[25:58] Sure.

[25:59] There's a real industry in, in slandering big Hollywood stars.

[26:03] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[26:04] Uh, okay.

[26:05] So Sue has fabricated this story, but detective Regina Hall, she's not buying it.

[26:09] Okay.

[26:09] She doesn't like the idea that, uh, that instead of, you know, really going to the police, even

[26:14] though she did, uh, that, uh, you know, she's going straight to the press.

[26:19] Um, one of the weird thing is there's a, when the detectives come to her home, they pull

[26:24] out a photo of Sue and Carl, like one of their like, you know, marriage photos.

[26:29] And Matthew Modine is giving a thumbs up and I found it very funny.

[26:33] Like, why would you frame that photo?

[26:35] It's really silly.

[26:37] Uh, okay.

[26:38] So the crooks, uh, that's shorthand for Aquafina and Clifton Collins Jr.

[26:43] Uh, they go to the bank.

[26:43] It's funny.

[26:43] My notes, I also kept calling them the crooks.

[26:46] Yeah.

[26:47] Like we're, like we're writing for like an old timey newspaper.

[26:50] Uh, so the crooks go looking for the money at the bank.

[26:52] Obviously Carl is not there.

[26:54] So they, uh, kill Piz instead.

[26:57] Um, and, uh, then just leave.

[27:00] No reason.

Elliott Kalan

[27:00] It's, I mean, Aquafina, I guess, is supposed to be like your loose cannon criminal type.

[27:05] She, like, she's, she's uncontrollable.

[27:07] And like, Aquafina's voice is, I think, the funniest voice.

[27:10] Her voice, just saying just by anything, makes me laugh.

[27:13] But I was like, I don't get why.

[27:15] That was a moment that took me out of it even more.

[27:17] I was like, I don't know why you just did that.

[27:18] I don't know why you just shot that man in the head.

Dan McCoy

[27:20] You know?

[27:21] Yeah.

[27:22] I, I mean, like, I think Aquafina, like, I love Aquafina.

[27:26] I think she's extremely, like, charismatic as a performer.

[27:30] But I think this is, I think this is miscasting to have her play this, I guess, you know, yeah.

[27:36] It's supposed to be like dangerously loose cannon criminal because she doesn't give, like, she gives off, you know, like goofy Aquafina vibes.

[27:45] But she doesn't give off, like, also possibly, like, threatening going to kill you vibes.

[27:49] I think the story needs.

Elliott Kalan

[27:51] I think she seems so, the thing about Aquafina is her, her effect is like, I'm over everything.

[27:56] Like, I'm over this.

[27:57] Like, so it's hard to imagine her as someone, as a Joe Pesci type who is just, like, a hair trigger away from, from her.

[28:04] A live wire.

[28:05] Yeah, exactly.

[28:06] She's, she's pretty much, she's too cool for that.

[28:08] Aquafina, you're too cool for this.

[28:09] Stay cool.

Stuart Wellington

[28:10] It's kind of funny to pair her because her, like, yeah, she's got this kind of, like, kind of, like, goofy stonery vibe almost.

[28:17] Yeah.

[28:17] And to pair her with Clifton Collins Jr. who is, who's like, okay, I'm going to play it even less effective.

[28:23] Yeah.

[28:23] Like, I am even, I even give less of a shit than this.

[28:26] I'm barely in this movie.

[28:27] I mean, I have to say, I kind of liked his.

Elliott Kalan

[28:29] His haircut is great, though.

[28:30] His look, I thought was perfect for it.

[28:32] And I kind of liked his performance because it was like, he was like, I'm like if Anton Chigur had a younger brother who had just come out of a coma.

[28:39] Like, I'm so, like, I'm Javier Bardem from No Country for Old Men, but I'm like even more of a blank.

[28:44] And there's, and you get a, I was waiting for like some, at first I thought they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

[28:50] And then I thought, oh, she was just, he was just hired by her dad to watch her, but he's doing a really bad job.

[28:56] And he was providing so little that I found myself projecting so much onto his character.

[29:00] And I'm like, that's film acting.

[29:02] Like, that's, that's, that's Robert Mitchum right there, you know, so.

Stuart Wellington

[29:06] Okay.

[29:07] So, uh, let's see.

[29:09] Uh, Sue speaks with Gloria.

[29:11] She goes to the studio to speak with Gloria Michaels.

[29:14] Uh, she tries to sell her story, but ends up having to double down on her lie and manages to tie Carl's disappearance to the disappearance of Emma Rose.

[29:23] Uh-oh, what a web we weave.

[29:26] Um, Jimmy Simpson, uh, he goes to the crooks and he, cause he assumes they have kidnapped his brother and they convince him that he needs to give them $20,000 to pay, uh, to pay them off.

[29:39] And they'll give him back his brother, which we obviously know will not happen.

[29:42] So Wanda Sykes is like, we got to rob a mall jewelry store, which they do.

[29:46] And she seems very into it.

[29:48] And I appreciate her enthusiasm.

Elliott Kalan

[29:50] And the way they do it, they back a truck through a, through the, through the, the entrance of the mall and then run in.

[29:56] And he, and she's like, aha, I love this.

[29:59] I love this.

[30:00] And he's like, be quiet.

[30:00] We're going to get caught.

[30:01] And I'm like, I'm sorry.

[30:02] Her voice is not making any more of a sensation than the fact that you rammed a truck through the entrance of the mall.

[30:09] Like, come on.

[30:10] And there's alarms going off and he's like, be quiet, be quiet.

[30:12] Like, I don't know what he thought he was robbing.

[30:14] I don't understand.

[30:15] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[30:15] Maybe, was he yelling at her or was he yelling at the alarm?

[30:18] Sometimes I yell at the alarm.

[30:19] He might have been telling the alarm.

Elliott Kalan

[30:20] Hey, quiet.

[30:20] And he was, yeah, then he started, that's right.

[30:22] Cause then he took a towel and was waving it at the burglar alarm to try to, to try to turn it off.

[30:26] And I'm like, that works for smoke alarms.

[30:27] That doesn't work for burglar alarms.

Stuart Wellington

[30:31] Uh, so, uh, Mila Kunis convinces her sister to do a joint interview with the parents of the missing girl, Emma Rose.

[30:39] Uh, somewhere in there, uh, Mina shows up and try, that's Awkwafina shows up and tries to shake down Sue for the money.

[30:46] But Sue's like, uh, I think she calls her or something.

[30:49] I don't remember, but she doesn't have the money.

[30:51] Uh, Carl's mistress shows up in the, right before the interview taping is supposed to happen.

[30:56] Uh, and they get in an argument on the front lawn.

[30:59] And then Sue's like, okay, I know how to deal with this one.

[31:02] So she tells the crooks that the mistress knows, uh, where the money is, which as we will find out leads to her death, which is pretty fucked up.

[31:11] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[31:11] Yeah.

[31:11] The crooks have left their business card with, with Allison Janney in case she gets a tip or something like that.

[31:16] And it's just a very, it was very funny to me.

[31:18] That was like, oh, so it's like, like the cops on the wire.

[31:20] They're always leaving their business cards around.

[31:22] Like the crooks are like, does it say like Mina criminal?

[31:26] And then her number, like, call me.

[31:28] It's confusing.

Dan McCoy

[31:29] Also, this like, you know, I, it might be getting a little ahead of ourselves, but this seems like a weird play to me on behalf of Allison Janney.

[31:39] Because like the mistress is, you know, showing up.

[31:41] It's not a play, Dan.

[31:41] It's a movie.

[31:43] I know.

[31:43] Thank you.

Stuart Wellington

[31:44] Dan's been watching a lot of Succession.

[31:45] He knows that's what they say.

[31:47] Oh, I see.

Dan McCoy

[31:47] But the mistress shows up being like, I know what really happened.

[31:53] Like, and I don't care anymore at this point.

[31:56] You know, like if you expose that I had this affair, like I don't even like my husband, whatever, whatever, whatever.

Elliott Kalan

[32:02] You'll find out later she's very sex positive based on the contents of her, of her dresser.

Dan McCoy

[32:07] Yeah.

[32:07] But, but she's, you know, she's a loose end that needs to get tied off.

[32:11] But like sending them to, like, she knows that Sue knows where the husband is.

[32:20] So sending her to the bad guys, like, I don't understand why when she gets kidnapped by the bad guys later, she doesn't immediately just send her back to them back to Sue.

[32:31] I mean, eventually that is what happens, but it seems like the first thing is like, oh, you're looking for this guy who's missing?

[32:38] You know who last saw him?

[32:42] His husband, her wife, his wife.

[32:45] Why can't I talk?

[32:46] I don't know, man.

Elliott Kalan

[32:46] Even why she doesn't say, I was his mistress and he died having sex with me.

[32:50] And now, and Sue has tried, and I tried to blackmail Sue and that's why she called you.

[32:54] Like, instead she's just like, I don't know what to, what I'll do.

[32:56] I'll tell you whatever you want to tell me.

[32:57] I don't, I just, but also, but the more important thing is that Sue,

[33:01] who has now crossed the line from, let's call it victimless criminality,

[33:07] where all she's doing is playing a hilarious prank on America that her husband got kidnapped,

[33:11] into active victim full criminality in that she has delivered this living woman into the hands of criminals

[33:17] that she hopes will kill this living woman and turn her into what's known as a dead woman.

Stuart Wellington

[33:22] Yeah, who, again, you blame Matthew Modine.

[33:26] You blame your husband.

[33:27] You don't blame his mistress.

[33:28] Come on.

[33:29] So, uh, meanwhile, the cops are closing in.

Dan McCoy

[33:31] I mean, to be fair, she is very, she is very abrasive as a mistress.

Stuart Wellington

[33:34] I guess.

[33:34] Yeah.

[33:35] Uh, so the cops are closing in.

[33:38] Uh, Regina, Regina Hall tries like a, a fucking gotcha with Sue where she's like, what about,

[33:45] when did you have time to eat the birthday cake?

[33:47] And it's like a fucking person who's super stressed out because their husband's missing

[33:50] would eat a fucking birthday cake in front of them.

[33:53] Like, you don't have to justify that shit.

Dan McCoy

[33:55] Like no fucking jury would convict her.

Elliott Kalan

[33:58] It's crazy.

[33:58] It's pretty weak evidence.

[33:59] She's like, she has to be involved.

[34:01] She ate a birthday cake and she canceled her dinner reservations.

[34:04] Why would she do these things?

Dan McCoy

[34:05] Well, her training officer was Encyclopedia Brown, who made cases on very flimsy evidence.

[34:11] Listen, Sue Buttons.

Elliott Kalan

[34:12] A mule is sterile and cannot have children.

[34:15] Take her away, boys.

Stuart Wellington

[34:18] So Sue blow, of course, blows the interview.

[34:21] Uh, so she has to take it one step further.

[34:23] So she makes a ransom note.

[34:25] Um, and you know, by cutting out little things and sends it, uh,

[34:29] Letters from a magazine, not just all little things.

Elliott Kalan

[34:32] It's just not, not like bugs.

Dan McCoy

[34:35] Uh, she cut out a poster of the little things, the HBO, uh, thriller.

[34:41] Uh huh.

Stuart Wellington

[34:42] Yep.

[34:42] That's, that's true.

[34:43] Uh, let's see.

[34:45] Uh, okay.

[34:46] Uh, so Pete gives the jewelry to the crooks, uh, who have, who have at this point already abducted the mistress.

[34:55] Um, and then Pete and Rita, uh, abduct, uh, Awkwafina and try to ransom her.

[35:05] Um, man, there's so much, so many twists and turns.

Elliott Kalan

[35:07] At this point also, the, uh, Detective Hall, Detective Harris, Regina Hall, they think this is around when she arrests Sue, right?

[35:15] Yeah, you're right, yeah.

[35:16] And Mila Kinnis records it on her phone.

[35:18] And, uh, and suddenly there's, there's like all the news cameras show up at the police station.

[35:23] It turns into even more of a kerfuffle.

Dan McCoy

[35:25] Yeah.

[35:26] Publicity circus.

[35:27] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[35:27] Uh, meanwhile, Pete's wife finds one of the rings that he had, uh, that he had stolen.

[35:35] She calls him and lies about going into labor with twins, uh, so that he rushes home and she confronts him about the crime, uh, about him going back to a life of crime of stealing shit.

[35:47] He's like, I had to do it.

Dan McCoy

[35:48] They got my, my brother, but they have it out.

[35:51] Oh, and she says, are you about your brother or about me?

Elliott Kalan

[35:54] Which is kind of a strange response when you find out someone's brother has been kidnapped.

[35:58] They can love you.

[35:59] Yes.

[35:59] And be devoted to their family and also not want their brother to be held by hostage takers.

Stuart Wellington

[36:03] You would have been, you would make a really great, uh, like marriage counselor.

[36:07] Let me, let me, let me judge John Hodgman this for a moment.

Elliott Kalan

[36:10] Uh-huh.

[36:10] Wow.

[36:10] Okay, uh, Janelle, I know that you're worried that Petey is falling into his old habits, and that's fair.

[36:18] That's a very fair way to think.

[36:20] You care about-

[36:20] But he said he wasn't going to commit any more crimes.

[36:22] He said he wasn't going to commit any more crimes.

[36:24] He broke that promise, and you know what?

[36:27] I understand why you're feeling betrayed by that.

[36:29] But on the other hand, let's look at it from Petey's point of view.

[36:32] This is an out-of-the-ordinary situation.

[36:34] It's not every day that his brother is a older brother, his much older brother, kind of more of a father figure to him because he could have been a teen dad and had him.

[36:43] That it's, it's out-of-the-ordinary that that's going to happen every day.

[36:47] So I think, uh, what we have to do is, I'll go to my chambers, and we'll take a quick break, and then we'll be right back.

[36:52] You know, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that allows you to make websites.

[36:57] No, don't give it away for free.

[36:58] Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, yeah, yeah.

[36:58] Sorry, I was just, I was channeling John Hodgman too much.

Stuart Wellington

[37:01] Uh, so.

[37:02] Uh, oh man, I lost all my notes here.

Elliott Kalan

[37:04] Did you talk about, already, about how they, um, they, some of the, let's talk about some of the violence that's happened up to this point.

[37:09] Because they kidnapped Awkwafina, and they managed to shoot off part of her ear by accident.

[37:13] And.

Stuart Wellington

[37:13] They do shoot off part of her ear.

Elliott Kalan

[37:15] And as revenge.

Stuart Wellington

[37:16] Meanwhile, they're, they're threatening to, to cut off the mistress's fingers.

[37:20] Yes.

[37:21] Um, which they don't do, but instead.

[37:23] Oh, thank goodness.

[37:24] Uh, they, they, instead, the crime boss, uh, puts her head on the bowling ball drill and then drills a hole in her head.

[37:33] Yeah.

[37:33] And this.

[37:34] To kill her forever.

Elliott Kalan

[37:35] This, this boss, this is Kong Sim, who, this is his second Flophouse appearance.

[37:38] He was also in Hillbilly Elegy.

[37:40] So, uh, congratulations.

[37:42] You're back.

[37:43] Yeah.

[37:43] Appreciate it.

Stuart Wellington

[37:44] Yeah, he played.

[37:44] Welcome back.

[37:45] Uh, how, are you liking it?

[37:47] Is it comfortable?

[37:47] Is it, is it great?

[37:48] He's giving us a big thumbs up.

[37:49] Was it good for the first time?

[37:50] Well, he's sitting in, he's sitting in a beanbag.

Elliott Kalan

[37:51] So, he's, so it's obviously comfortable.

[37:53] Yeah.

[37:54] Not a lot of lower back support.

[37:55] Obviously comfortable, yeah.

[37:55] But it's just kind of like, you know, it's like being back in the womb if your mom's womb was on, was behind you.

Dan McCoy

[38:00] It does conform to you, though.

[38:01] So, that's kind of nice.

[38:02] Oh, yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[38:03] Yeah.

[38:03] I mean, it's, if, if you're going to be sitting all day, uh, clutching a N64 controller that is going to get increasingly sweaty as you play through bond levels, you got to be sitting in a beanbag chair.

Elliott Kalan

[38:14] Did you guys see the recent expose about how Timothy Chalamont, he used to have a, uh, he used to have a YouTube channel where it showed hand-painted custom controllers.

Stuart Wellington

[38:22] That's my fucking quiz out's How to Rock right there.

Elliott Kalan

[38:25] I saw, I had never seen an interview with him and I saw a video of the interview where he was like, yeah, they found my old YouTube channel.

[38:29] And I was like, the mystique around this guy has disappeared from me instantly.

[38:33] Like, he's like, I'd only seen his performances and I was like, this is a man of rare, this is a boy of rare delicacy and refinement.

[38:38] And then he's like, yeah, dude, I used to paint these controllers.

[38:41] And I'm like, oh, oh, forget it.

[38:43] Never mind.

Dan McCoy

[38:45] Where?

[38:47] It made me like him a lot more.

Elliott Kalan

[38:49] Oh, I wanted to, I wanted to believe him as kind of like a, um, kind of an almost like Oscar Wilde-ian, like too, too, uh, too delicate for this world type of elf man or kind of not like Danny Elfman who is too delicate for this world.

[39:01] That's why he lives inside of a, a dimensional, uh, plane that vibrates constantly so that he isn't part of this dimension or part of any other dimension.

[39:09] And he just every now and then sends out songs.

[39:11] But I'm more of like a, um, more of like a, uh, like a pixie type creature.

[39:15] You know, that's what I wanted him to be.

Stuart Wellington

[39:16] But it turns out he's just a regular young person.

[39:18] Timothee Chalamet?

[39:18] Yeah.

[39:18] He's just a regular young guy.

[39:20] Yeah.

[39:20] I saw somebody describe him as being just like a really wealthy mouse.

[39:23] And I think that's pretty accurate.

[39:25] That's what I wanted.

[39:26] See ya.

[39:26] Yeah.

[39:27] So, uh, on the subject of violence, uh, yep.

[39:31] Clifton Collins Jr. shows up to rescue his partner in crime, uh, Awkwafina.

[39:36] And he blasts Rita with a shotgun and then he shoots Ellen Barkin.

[39:41] But in the process, Awkwafina gets a hatchet to the chest.

[39:45] R.I.P.

[39:47] Uh, okay.

[39:48] Then Clifton Collins Jr. burns down the store.

[39:51] With their corpses inside.

[39:53] Uh-huh.

Dan McCoy

[39:54] A level of violence that I don't think this movie can support.

Elliott Kalan

[39:57] And it's-

[39:58] Not with his tone.

[39:59] It's like the movie is, the movie is like silly, silly, silly, violence, violence, violence,

[40:05] violence.

[40:06] Like there's, it's suddenly like the movie was like, wow, it's later than I realized.

[40:10] I better start killing off characters one by one.

[40:12] Yeah.

[40:13] And I have to say, there's a, there's a moment where, so Rita has been shot and killed.

[40:17] And Ellen Barkin is like, no, you killed Rita.

[40:19] And gets killed.

[40:21] And, or gets shot.

[40:23] And she, she falls next to Rita and dying.

[40:25] She's like gripping Wanda Sykes' dead hand and going, Rita, Rita, no, Rita.

[40:29] And it was like, I do not like this.

[40:32] This is not funny.

[40:32] This is far too real.

[40:33] And in that moment, it was like, I feel so bad for these characters.

[40:37] They did not deserve this.

[40:38] Like it was so, it was just too, it was too much.

[40:41] That was one of many times where, but maybe that was the most of them moments in the movie

[40:44] where I was like, no movie.

[40:45] I can't go back to laughing after I've seen the genuine like pain that this woman is experiencing.

[40:50] Like, oh, horrible.

[40:52] As my son would say, whenever I do any of my voices, he doesn't like horrible, horrible.

Stuart Wellington

[41:00] Pete rushes back to the store to try and warn Rita only to find that the store has been

[41:08] arsoned.

[41:09] So he tries to rush home.

[41:11] But meanwhile, Clifton Collins Jr.

[41:13] is in his home, uh, stalking his pregnant wife with a, uh, pistol.

[41:18] And, uh, but she gets the drop on him and stabs him a whole bunch and gets blood all over her face.

[41:24] Uh, so another character is dead.

Elliott Kalan

[41:26] Uh, but not the, not the pregnant lady.

[41:30] That was, that was my worry was, was that they were going to go.

[41:33] It was that the movie is going to be like, you don't think we're going to go this far,

[41:35] but we are.

[41:36] And I'm glad they did not go that far.

Dan McCoy

[41:37] Well, especially cause I, I, I think she's the only fully sympathetic character in the film.

Stuart Wellington

[41:44] So even though she puts, she drops down like, uh, you know, like, uh, uh, what do you call them?

[41:51] Like, uh, a thing where she says, you got to pick me or your brother.

[41:54] An ultimatum.

[41:55] Yeah.

[41:56] Thank you.

[41:56] One of those things.

[41:58] Uh, okay, cool.

[41:59] I think it was, I think it was the word drop that threw me off at first.

[42:03] Okay.

[42:03] So, uh, the crime boss, uh, he's losing his, he's losing his people.

[42:08] He shows up and holds, uh, Sue and Nancy at gunpoint.

[42:12] Uh, Nancy is revealed that she knows.

Elliott Kalan

[42:14] What if Sid and Nancy was called Sue and Nancy and instead of Sid Vicious, it was this character,

[42:17] Sue Buttons, but she was still in a relationship with Nancy.

Stuart Wellington

[42:20] The Nancy Spongen.

[42:22] Hmm.

[42:23] I think it would be good still, right?

Elliott Kalan

[42:26] I mean, I kind of feel, but also I should mention it's Gary Oldman playing Sue Buttons.

Dan McCoy

[42:30] Sue would get the drama that she really craves out of life.

[42:34] Sort of the attention, the tabloid attention.

[42:38] Um, yeah.

[42:39] I mean.

[42:40] All right.

[42:40] I'll fund it.

Stuart Wellington

[42:41] I mean, despite the fact that, again, as we've addressed, Gary Oldman is an old man.

[42:46] Yeah.

Elliott Kalan

[42:47] I think he could do it.

[42:48] He wasn't at the time though.

[42:49] Okay.

[42:49] Now forget about it.

[42:50] It's.

[42:50] I think he's always been an old man, Elliot.

Stuart Wellington

[42:52] At the time?

[42:53] That's his name.

[42:53] What time?

Elliott Kalan

[42:53] At the time he made Sid and Nancy.

[42:55] He was, he was, I mean, he was, he was a young man.

[42:57] Okay.

[42:57] I'm like, this is a new movie, Elliot.

[42:59] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[42:59] If you check the credits, it says Sid played by Gary Youngman.

Elliott Kalan

[43:03] Gary, currently a young man.

[43:05] Okay.

[43:05] Now, now it's Sid and Nancy, but it's called Sue and Nancy.

[43:08] But instead the Sue is Sue Grafton, the author of the like B is for burglar and M is for

[43:12] murder.

[43:12] Like those, those mystery novels.

[43:14] Uh, how did the story be different?

Stuart Wellington

[43:16] I think you're doing it.

[43:16] Yeah.

[43:17] I think you're doing it.

Dan McCoy

[43:18] It passed away right before she made it to Z.

[43:21] Yeah.

[43:21] Very sad.

Stuart Wellington

[43:22] Well, the Z was going to be.

Elliott Kalan

[43:23] And then Nancy is the Nancy from the comic strips, right?

[43:26] Exactly.

[43:27] It's Sue Grafton, the mystery writer and Nancy.

[43:30] And so instead of it being about like heroin or punk music, it's about like, uh, it is,

[43:35] she writes a book called B.

[43:35] Chocolate.

[43:36] C is for changing room.

[43:37] B is for bathing suit.

[43:38] Yeah.

[43:38] It's just, uh, A is for act.

[43:40] She's just writing.

[43:41] She's writing.

[43:41] Wait, wait, wait.

Dan McCoy

[43:42] No, no, no, no, no, no.

[43:43] You're thinking of Kathy.

[43:45] Now, Nancy, of course.

[43:45] Which one is?

[43:46] Oh, Nancy.

[43:46] Oh, that's right.

Elliott Kalan

[43:48] That's like a Kathy and Nancy mixed up.

[43:50] So what if it was called.

[43:51] And there's a lot of beatniks involved.

[43:52] So what if it was called Sue and Kathy?

[43:53] And okay, it's about Sue Grafton and her friend Kathy and she's writing these novels and eventually

[43:58] Kathy is like, wait, B is for bathing suit.

[44:01] C is for chocolate.

[44:02] A is for act.

[44:02] You've been writing about me.

[44:04] And Sue Grafton is like, I'm not the bad art friend.

[44:06] Are you the, you're the bad art friend, Kathy.

[44:08] Oh, wow.

[44:09] Topical.

[44:10] And then Nancy and Sluggo come in and they, I guess, murder everybody because it's one

[44:13] of those movies that's kind of not that funny, but it's trying to be kind of funny

[44:16] and there's murders in it.

[44:17] Yeah, I get it.

[44:17] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[44:18] Yeah, I get what it's doing.

[44:19] Okay, so.

[44:20] Wait a minute.

Elliott Kalan

[44:21] I'm looking up the Sue Grafton books now.

[44:22] Her X book was just called X.

[44:24] That's not okay.

[44:25] You can't do that.

Stuart Wellington

[44:27] Yeah, it's not fair.

Elliott Kalan

[44:27] V is for vengeance.

[44:28] Not even like X marks the spot or something.

[44:30] Not X marks the spot and X is for xylophone and it's some kind of xylophone murder.

[44:34] Thank you.

Stuart Wellington

[44:35] Thank you.

[44:36] So the crime boss shows up.

[44:39] He holds Sue and Nancy at gunpoint.

[44:42] And then he forces them to take him to the money after he shoots Nancy in the knee.

[44:50] Yeah.

[44:51] Which I feel like Mila Kunis really plays this well.

[44:54] Like she is suitably freaked out for having gotten her kneecap.

Elliott Kalan

[44:57] That's a painful injury to be fair.

[45:00] Yeah.

[45:00] To be shot in the knee.

Stuart Wellington

[45:00] Yeah, you were in one of those gunfights and they blasted your knee off.

[45:04] With the Terminator.

[45:04] Yeah.

[45:05] It was the Terminator.

Elliott Kalan

[45:05] It turns out it was all a mistake.

[45:07] The Terminator was there, but he wasn't really involved.

[45:10] So the rumors were – he was at the same Carl's Jr. that I was at and he just happened to be online when the gunfight broke out.

[45:17] And the gunfight was between me and – well, it's – we don't need to get into it.

[45:21] Anyway, it was Robocop.

[45:22] Yeah, you don't want to –

[45:22] I'm not allowed to talk about it until the civil suit is finished.

Stuart Wellington

[45:27] Yeah.

[45:28] Yeah.

[45:29] Robocop in a rare moment of not shooting someone in the dick shot you in the knee instead.

[45:33] So Sue and the crime boss go to the motel to dig up the money.

[45:38] Meanwhile, the detectives are also going there to like poke around and ask questions.

[45:43] Let's see.

[45:44] The cops interrupt the crime boss who's going to kill Nancy once he's gotten the money.

[45:49] So they –

[45:50] He's made Nancy –

[45:50] Bullets start flying.

Elliott Kalan

[45:51] He's made Nancy dig up the money and then it's going to become her grave as far as they know.

Stuart Wellington

[45:57] So they – there's a brief gunfight.

[46:01] Both detectives are shot and killed.

[46:03] The crime boss is shot and killed.

[46:04] Sue is the only one left standing and she vows that she will turn the detectives into heroes as they are dying.

[46:11] And now she is famous.

[46:12] The end of the movie.

[46:13] Hooray.

[46:14] Yeah, she's written up.

[46:15] Breaking news.

Dan McCoy

[46:15] The movie's over.

[46:16] Self-help book.

[46:19] She's on Juliette Lewis' program again.

Elliott Kalan

[46:22] Gloria Michaels.

[46:23] Oh, and we learned that Emma Rose was found alive totally fine.

Dan McCoy

[46:28] The little girl.

[46:29] Great.

[46:29] That's over in voiceover.

[46:30] We're told that.

[46:31] Yeah.

[46:32] I would have appreciated – not to say I would appreciate a longer runtime, but this tie-up seems pretty rushed, hurried to this sort of hand wave.

[46:43] I have no idea at the end of the movie.

[46:47] I'm like, what story she told to cover everything.

[46:54] Like I kind of – a more skillful version of this movie.

[46:57] You got to read her book, Dan.

[46:58] You got to read her book.

[47:00] Save some for the sequel.

[47:01] You see a movie like this and the loose ends are –

[47:04] Breaking twos.

[47:05] Breaking news in Tuba County.

Elliott Kalan

[47:07] It's actually – it is a place called Tuba County where everyone plays the tuba.

[47:11] But, Dan, you're saying –

Dan McCoy

[47:12] No, a movie like this typically, when well made, the loose ends are either tied off or it's very clear that like the ones that aren't tied off are not tied off for a reason.

[47:24] Whereas this just sort of hand waves away whatever happens in between her sitting next to two dead police officers and a crime boss and her appearing on Juliette Lewis' program.

[47:35] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[47:35] Hey, Dan, do you think if this movie had been a big hit that there would be like Facebook targeted ads for combo T-shirts where it's like –

[47:43] It'll say like breaking news –

[47:44] Combos?

[47:45] Well, it'll say breaking news in Bloom County and it would be the Bloom County characters dressed up like they're the Yuba County characters.

[47:51] What do you think, Dan?

[47:51] Do you think that would have been a big – if it had been a big hit, they would have done that?

[47:53] It'd be like breaking news –

Elliott Kalan

[47:54] It's the two-thang shirt you've been looking for.

[47:56] Yeah.

[47:56] Breaking news in Yawk Potofa County and it's all the Faulkner heroes from the WFCU, the William Faulkner cinematic universe.

[48:05] They would have done that, right?

[48:06] Yeah.

[48:06] Probably.

[48:08] That's cool.

[48:08] They would have been cool.

[48:09] Yeah.

[48:09] I think they probably would have done that.

[48:10] This is a weird movie also because they wrap it up and then the credits start and then there's a mid-credit scene as if they're teasing another movie.

[48:17] Now, Stuart, did you see this mid-credit scene?

[48:19] I didn't see this shit.

[48:20] You've got to stop turning off the movie immediately.

[48:22] You've got to watch – at least fast forward through the credits.

[48:25] Just scan through.

[48:26] Yeah.

[48:26] So Allison Janney is on the – where she's talking to Juliette Lewis and it's a year later and she's like, oh, my book is such a big hit.

[48:34] And Juliette Lewis is like, you've inspired me to write a book.

[48:37] I'm going to write a book.

[48:38] And she's like, oh, well, then I'm going to write another book and we're going to go on a book tour together.

[48:42] And it's this weird scene where clearly they are both trying to exploit each other to make money and they do not want to be friends.

[48:47] But Allison Janney keeps roping Juliette Lewis in and it's clear Juliette Lewis does not want to do – glory Michaels does not want to be connected to this person anymore.

[48:56] And it's just this weird little sketch that I wasn't – to be honest, it might have been my favorite non-Wanda Sykes scene in the movie.

[49:03] But I couldn't understand why it was there necessarily.

[49:05] Yeah.

[49:06] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[49:06] No, I agree, Elliot.

[49:07] I can't believe I missed it.

[49:09] In terms of actual like comic juice, like that scene felt a little like sharper than the rest of the film.

Elliott Kalan

[49:18] Well, it had – it felt like a sketch that had a premise where someone – where these two characters are both trying to be the one exploiting the other for gain.

[49:26] And they won't let up.

[49:28] But it's – and it hints – it hints at a sharper film perhaps or even a sharper image if you were watching the TV like I was with –

[49:39] Oh, like a 4K.

[49:40] Yeah, if we're watching in 4 – this was available in 4K.

[49:42] I did not spring for the extra to see it in 4K but, you know.

Stuart Wellington

[49:47] Is that where they like spray water in your face and shit?

Dan McCoy

[49:49] I saw it in 4K where they have the character 4K from Toy Story 4 just, you know, edited in.

[49:55] He's just like, ah, this is uncomfortable.

Elliott Kalan

[49:58] Yeah.

[49:58] When the violence happens, he's like, I don't know how to handle this.

[50:02] I'm 4K.

[50:04] Yeah.

[50:04] Someone told me that they went to see Dune in 4D and they're like, yeah, and the seat like shakes and stuff.

[50:09] And I was like, what?

[50:11] Like this is not a movie?

[50:12] Like I don't – the same way that like – the same way that there was part of me that always felt a little bit like I was cheapening my –

Stuart Wellington

[50:18] Wait, what do you think would happen in 4D at Dune?

[50:22] Like if the seat isn't shaking, what should be happening?

[50:25] No, nothing.

Elliott Kalan

[50:25] You just sit and watch a movie and it's made of sound and image and you don't –

[50:28] But now it's not in 4D, Elliot.

[50:30] That's okay with me.

[50:31] But the same way –

[50:32] You need that extra D.

[50:33] You don't need – well, as I've said before, all movies are already in 3D because it's depth.

[50:37] No, it's not depth.

[50:38] It's height, width, and time.

[50:39] The extra 4D – the extra D, you don't need it.

[50:42] I don't need that extra D.

[50:43] What's the extra D then?

[50:43] I saw that shirt that said she needs the D and I'm like, not that fourth D, sir.

[50:47] 3D is fine.

[50:48] But the –

[50:49] How did the guy react when you told him that?

[50:51] He said, really?

[50:53] Oh, I've got to rethink this shirt.

[50:55] And he went on a voyage of self-discovery and now he's doing a lot better.

[51:00] And now his shirt –

[51:00] Oh, cool.

[51:00] Like North?

[51:01] Now his shirt says she can choose to implement the D rather than that she needs the D.

[51:06] Oh, okay.

[51:07] But it's like –

Stuart Wellington

[51:07] I still don't think – well, you should just buy a different shirt.

Elliott Kalan

[51:09] Yeah, I think you should – well, he just wrote over it with Mark or it didn't work.

[51:12] He's committed to the mess.

[51:13] When I was a kid and I'd plug in my rumble pack into my N64 controller and play Star Fox, it felt like I was cheapening the experience a little bit.

[51:21] So I feel like the 4D chair would do that too.

[51:23] Yeah.

[51:24] It also made it harder to play because you're trying to use a controller and it's shaking in your hands.

[51:28] I mean that's part of the challenge, bro.

[51:30] So is it supposed to be challenging to watch a movie like the chair is shaking to make it harder to see the film clearly?

[51:35] Sometimes that challenges us, dude.

Dan McCoy

[51:37] I have never gone to a 4D movie.

[51:40] I've heard tell of them.

[51:42] Audrey's been to a couple.

[51:43] I hear that it's like you get – it's almost like you get punched in the back at different points.

[51:48] Sounds like Audrey's the fun one.

[51:50] That makes sense then because it's like –

[51:51] We all knew that.

Elliott Kalan

[51:52] If you go to see Dune, all the times that Duncan Idaho like slaps Paul Atreides on the back, the back of your chair hits you too and it's like, oh, now I know what it's like when Jason Momoa hits me on the back affectionately.

Stuart Wellington

[52:05] Yeah.

[52:05] Now I'm regretting not going to see Teton in 4D.

[52:09] Okay.

[52:10] Put a chair in your mouth.

Elliott Kalan

[52:11] What about the person who's super excited about seeing Teton and they're like, I've heard this is really going to push my boundaries.

[52:16] This is going to be something I've never seen before but he actually got tickets to Titan AE and he's like, what is this?

[52:20] This is not the movie I was promised.

Stuart Wellington

[52:23] I don't know, man.

[52:23] It's pretty cool too.

[52:25] What were we talking about?

[52:26] Final judgments.

Dan McCoy

[52:28] If this is a good bad movie, a bad bad movie or a movie we kind of like.

[52:32] I will admit something shameful which is like I didn't hate this.

[52:37] Like there are movies we watch that are really sort of boring and are trying to do nothing.

[52:42] And this movie I don't think is very successful mostly because I think it has this just sort of sitcom level direction of everything.

[52:51] But I do have a soft spot for like movies where like a bunch of dumb criminals make things worse for one another.

[53:01] Yeah.

[53:01] And I also like the cast of this quite a bit.

[53:04] So this is one of these ones that for me falls outside our regular categories.

[53:09] But in another category we often invoke which is like I don't know if I was falling asleep to this on a Sunday.

[53:15] It'd be okay.

[53:17] But what do you guys think?

Elliott Kalan

[53:18] I had a much stronger response to it.

[53:21] I thought this was a bad bad movie.

[53:24] I – in theory I always – in theory I like Coen Brothers-esque movies where a bunch of dumb criminals run around and get into trouble and get killed.

[53:33] But for it to work for me, it's either got to be really funny or it's got to be so stylized that I don't feel bad for the characters.

[53:42] Or if I do feel bad for the characters, that's what the movie wants me to do.

[53:45] And here I felt like it was not funny enough or unreal enough for me to get over the fact that like I'm seeing a woman getting a drill put through her head or seeing part of another –

[53:56] I mean you don't actually see the drill go to her head.

[53:58] You don't actually see it.

Elliott Kalan

[53:58] But I know it's happening.

[53:58] But it is – but in the moment –

[54:00] It would have been wild.

[54:01] It would have been very wild.

[54:02] I feel like –

[54:02] Yeah.

[54:02] You know what?

[54:03] I was – that's a good point.

[54:04] It would have been much more extreme then.

[54:06] But the – or seeing like Ellen Barkin genuinely like distraught that her wife has just been killed and she's died.

[54:14] Like it did not – it couldn't stick that landing and I just ended up being – it was just one of those movies where I was like why are all these people in this movie?

[54:20] Like why are these – why is this – there's this level of talent in this movie and it just couldn't – it couldn't pull off what is admittedly a very hard task which is to do a like a funny dark comedy where you're not put off by people getting killed left and right.

[54:36] But for me it went into the distasteful territory.

[54:41] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[54:42] Yeah.

[54:42] I mean I think I'll say I'm kind of in between you guys but I think it will still be a bad bad for me.

[54:48] Obviously the cast is great.

[54:50] All the performers have proven themselves in other things a hundred times over.

[54:56] But I feel like with this type of movie, I think it – it felt like – yeah, it felt like kind of like a sitcom level direction as opposed to like a slightly more patient, more character-driven, like a little – like it could have been a little quirkier I guess.

[55:11] Like, you know, to give these characters a little more time to define themselves so that when terrible things happen it actually has some emotional weight other than, oh, this is bad.

[55:23] So yeah, it's – yeah, it didn't really work for me.

[55:26] Breaking news, I didn't care for it.

[55:29] Hold for applause.

[55:31] Just making a quirky little smile.

[55:34] You can't see at home but Stu's doing a real take to the camera.

[55:38] Showing off my dimples.

[55:40] Okay.

[55:41] Hey, kid.

Dan McCoy

[55:47] Your dad tell you about the time he broke Stephen Dorff's nose at the Kid's Choice Awards?

S4

[55:52] In Dead Pilots Society, scripts that were developed by studios and networks but were never produced are given the table reads they deserve.

S6

[56:00] When I was a kid, I had to spend my Christmas break filming a PSA about angel dust.

[56:05] So yeah, being a kid sucks sometimes.

S4

[56:08] Presented by Andrew Reich and Ben Blacker.

[56:10] Dead Pilots Society twice a month on MaximumFun.org.

Elliott Kalan

[56:15] You know, the show you like, that hobo with the scarf who lives in a magic dumpster.

[56:22] Doctor Who?

[56:23] Yeah.

S6

[56:28] Video games.

S5

[56:31] You like them?

S6

[56:32] Maybe you wish you had more time for them?

[56:33] Maybe you want to know the best ones to play?

[56:35] Maybe you want to know what happens to Mario when he dies?

S5

[56:37] In that case, you should check out Triple Click.

[56:40] It's a podcast about video games.

S6

[56:42] A podcast about video games.

[56:44] But I don't have time for that.

[56:46] Sure you do.

[56:47] Once a week, kick back as three video game experts give you everything from critical takes on the hottest new releases.

[56:52] To scoops, interviews, and explanations about how video games work.

S5

[56:55] To fascinating and sometimes weird stories about the games we love.

S6

[56:59] Triple Click is hosted by me, Kirk Hamilton.

[57:01] Me, Jason Shire.

S5

[57:03] And me, Maddie Myers.

S6

[57:04] You can find Triple Click wherever you get your podcasts and listen at MaximumFun.org.

[57:09] Bye.

Dan McCoy

[57:15] Hey, normally I would start off some ads right now, but there's only a couple and I gave them both to you guys.

[57:22] So why don't you read them?

[57:24] Thanks.

[57:24] Thanks for the charity, mister.

[57:26] I guess I owe you one.

Elliott Kalan

[57:30] That's right.

[57:30] The Flophouse is brought to you in part by Storyblocks.

[57:33] Let's say you're like me.

[57:34] You got a story you want to tell through the medium of video, but you're a person with a day job.

[57:39] You don't have time to run around shooting tons of video like you're John Wilson or something.

[57:42] In the old days, you'd have to go around to stock footage houses and look at all their stuff and pay for individual clips.

[57:47] That's what we used to have to do all the time at The Daily Show.

[57:49] As a producer there, you'd have to look at all the stock footage.

[57:52] You'd have to pay for each clip on its own.

[57:54] But you don't have to do that.

[57:55] You don't have to waste all that time thanks to Storyblocks.

[57:58] It's this enormous library of over a million video assets you can use to bring your projects to life.

[58:03] Storyblocks' unlimited all-access plan gives you unlimited downloads of the over one million-plus video assets in their library.

[58:12] That's footage.

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[58:13] When you have the unlimited all-access plan, you can download all million-plus assets.

[58:17] If you can store it, go ahead.

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[58:21] Find the perfect video fit so you can create more and spend less.

[58:23] There's also their restock program.

[58:25] It's their commitment to increase representation in stock media by hiring creators from marginalized communities to create content that's more reflective of the diverse world we live in.

[58:33] That's right.

[58:33] Not just that same old, old-fashioned, you know, stuck-in-one type of footage footage.

[58:37] You can find what you need, certainly.

[58:39] You can stay on budget while telling the best version of your story with the most affordable subscription plans and tools on the market that scale to meet your needs.

[58:47] With Storyblocks, you can make professional-looking video projects at home.

[58:51] You don't even have to put your socks on.

[58:53] That's why I'm suggesting they use the slogan, Storyblocks don't need socks.

[58:56] Now, those who watch our live online shows, you know that Dan has made a couple of really great song videos with Storyblocks.

[59:05] They've both been about having to use the bathroom during the show.

Dan McCoy

[59:09] I'll try and class it up next time.

Elliott Kalan

[59:11] No, no, don't.

[59:12] Dan, we love you the way you are.

[59:13] Making jokes about urine.

[59:15] Storyblocks had such amazing footage for him to use.

[59:17] Oh, you're in luck.

[59:18] Oh, boy.

[59:19] There's one shot in particular of slices of ham that I thought was so funny that I got on Storyblocks.

[59:24] And, Dan, just tell me real quick, how easy was it to use Storyblocks on a scale from 1 to 10?

[59:28] 1 meaning not easy at all, and 10 meaning it's so easy I think I'm doing it right now still.

Dan McCoy

[59:36] I'll just give it a 9 just because I don't think I'm still doing it.

Elliott Kalan

[59:39] Okay, that's fair.

[59:40] You know, to be fair, I should have made it a better scale.

[59:42] It's super easy to use.

[59:44] They've got such great stuff.

[59:45] And when you download it, you have it.

[59:47] You can just use it forever.

[59:48] Download as much as you want.

[59:49] Go and explore their library and subscribe today at storyblocks.com slash flop.

[59:54] That's storyblocks.com slash flop.

Stuart Wellington

[59:58] And this episode is supported by Green Chef, America's number one meal kit for eating well.

[1:00:05] Green Chef's expert chefs curate every recipe with over 30 meal choices every week and the flexibility to switch plans so you'll never have to sacrifice taste or nutrition.

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[1:00:40] And I've had a great experience with Green Chef.

[1:00:45] I love the – not only do I like having fresh ingredients that I don't have to pick out at the store, it also is a great way to add a few new cooking-like tricks and elements to my repertoire as a, I guess, a fledgling cook, unlike Dan, who was a master chef.

[1:01:06] So go to greenchef.com slash flophouse125.

[1:01:12] That's flophouse125 and use code flophouse125 to get $125 off, including free shipping.

[1:01:23] What?

[1:01:23] Wow.

[1:01:24] That's great.

[1:01:25] That's greenchef.com slash flophouse125 and the code, once again, flophouse125 for $125 off.

Dan McCoy

[1:01:34] Before we move on, you got any plugs, anyone?

[1:01:36] Plugs?

[1:01:37] Plugs?

[1:01:37] Call for plugs.

Elliott Kalan

[1:01:38] I'd like to remind – Stu, you go first.

[1:01:41] It's okay.

[1:01:42] Oh, no, no, no.

[1:01:44] You go first, Elliot.

[1:01:45] No, no, Stu.

[1:01:45] I was going to tell everybody about how the Maniac of New York Volume 1 trade paperback collection is out now in stores.

[1:01:51] But you go first because they don't need to find out until later that they can also pre-order issues of Maniac of New York, The Bronx Is Burning, the new series that's going to be out next year.

[1:01:59] Again, that's my slasher comic book that asks the question,

[1:02:02] what if The Wire, instead of being in Baltimore and being about drugs, was in New York and was about a Jason-type killer that was loose in the city?

[1:02:09] But again, they can find out about the Maniac of New York trade paperback that's in stores now later.

[1:02:13] Stu, you go first.

[1:02:14] Uh-huh.

Stuart Wellington

[1:02:15] So, Elliot, are you sure you don't want to go first?

Elliott Kalan

[1:02:18] No, I feel like I shouldn't go first.

[1:02:20] Again, I could tell them that, again, they can pre-order the second series, Maniac of New York, The Bronx Is Burning, through their comic book stores now.

[1:02:25] But instead, I think you should go first.

[1:02:27] Do you think I'm going to look like an asshole if I go first?

[1:02:30] I don't think so.

[1:02:31] I think, you know what?

[1:02:32] As much as people want to hear about Maniac of New York, the trade paperback collection of which is on stores right now, that's written by me and aren't by Andrew Moody.

[1:02:38] That's from Aftershocks Comics.

[1:02:40] On stores?

[1:02:41] I think that they can hear about that after you talk.

[1:02:43] So you go first.

Stuart Wellington

[1:02:45] Okay, so, hey, listeners.

[1:02:48] My name is Stuart Wellington.

[1:02:49] In addition to being a hit hot podcaster, I am also the owner of two—

[1:02:55] Wait, a hip-hop podcaster?

[1:02:56] Wait.

[1:02:57] Nope.

[1:02:57] If you listen to my words carefully, I said a hit, comma, hot podcaster.

Dan McCoy

[1:03:03] Now, are you a hit podcaster because you're a hot podcaster?

[1:03:06] Or are they—

[1:03:07] Oh, you're a hot podcaster because you're a hit podcaster.

Stuart Wellington

[1:03:10] Those are questions you're going to have to answer yourself.

[1:03:12] That's the thing.

[1:03:13] I don't feel like I have the information necessary to come to a conclusion on those.

Dan McCoy

[1:03:17] Well, that's an answer, too.

[1:03:18] Mark C on yours.

[1:03:20] Just Mark C.

[1:03:21] All right.

Stuart Wellington

[1:03:21] Filling in the bubble and scanning.

[1:03:23] 100%.

[1:03:24] I got it right.

[1:03:24] I passed the test, and I'm now a lawyer.

[1:03:26] Great.

[1:03:27] Oh, wow.

[1:03:29] Okay, well, I'm in a jam right now, Elliot.

[1:03:31] And that jam is I own a couple of small bars in Brooklyn, New York.

[1:03:36] Fun size bars.

[1:03:37] They're not that small.

[1:03:38] Thank you.

[1:03:39] Thank you.

[1:03:39] They're great bars.

[1:03:40] It's called Minnie's Bar and Hinterland's Bar.

[1:03:43] And if you are in the city of Brooklyn, New York, you should come out and visit sometime because it—I don't know.

[1:03:51] That's my job, and I like it when I get to see people who listen to the Flophouse.

[1:03:55] So come on by sometime.

[1:03:56] Elliot, you had a plug?

[1:03:59] You know what?

[1:03:59] I'll do it next episode.

[1:04:01] Okay.

Dan McCoy

[1:04:03] Let's move on to some letters from listeners.

[1:04:06] Yeah, why not?

[1:04:07] People who listen can also write, and sometimes they write us letters.

[1:04:14] That's the segment.

Stuart Wellington

[1:04:15] I feel like you're fucking teasing Elliot with that shit.

[1:04:17] Yeah, I don't know.

[1:04:18] I don't get it.

Dan McCoy

[1:04:19] I don't know what you're looking for.

Elliott Kalan

[1:04:22] Hey, now, we got some letters coming your way.

[1:04:26] That's right.

[1:04:27] There's letters coming in today.

[1:04:31] There's letters coming through the air.

[1:04:33] They're being thrown by some kind of great mailman picture guy.

[1:04:37] Hey, look.

[1:04:37] It's famous picture Randy Johnson.

[1:04:40] He's a mailman now, and he's throwing those letters right through the air into the mailbox.

[1:04:46] Oh, no.

[1:04:46] A bird was in the way.

[1:04:48] It's dead now.

[1:04:49] Hit by letters.

[1:04:51] What?

Dan McCoy

[1:04:53] I like that one.

[1:04:54] That one had sort of a coming to America vibe.

Elliott Kalan

[1:04:57] They're coming to Flop House now.

[1:04:59] Letters.

Dan McCoy

[1:05:01] Today.

[1:05:03] Okay.

[1:05:03] This first letter is from Juniper.

[1:05:05] Turn on your mailbox.

[1:05:09] Juniper, last name withheld, writes,

[1:05:12] I write to you regarding my recent revisit of Disney's Chicken Little, starring Zach Braff.

[1:05:17] Sure.

Elliott Kalan

[1:05:19] As is often the case.

[1:05:21] Yeah, we get that a lot.

Dan McCoy

[1:05:24] Another surprising sentence.

[1:05:28] As a bare naked.

[1:05:29] Wait, was he live action?

[1:05:30] What's the voice?

[1:05:31] As a bare naked ladies fan, I was surprised and elated to hear them perform as part of the movie.

[1:05:38] One little slip from the Chicken Little soundtrack.

[1:05:41] Oh, wait.

[1:05:41] Sorry.

[1:05:41] No, sorry.

[1:05:42] I read that wrong.

[1:05:43] I was surprised and elated to hear them perform as part of the movie.

[1:05:47] Okay.

[1:05:47] And one little slip.

[1:05:48] One little slip.

[1:05:49] That's the name of the song.

[1:05:50] That's the name of the song.

Dan McCoy

[1:05:50] From the Chicken Little soundtrack has become a permanent installment in my Spotify library.

[1:05:56] Aside from this and Don Knotts being cast as a turkey who was also the mayor, the film was terrible.

[1:06:02] My question to you is this.

[1:06:03] Are there any songs from a movie's soundtrack that stand out in quality such that you'll listen to it outside the context of the movie?

[1:06:10] Extra points if the quality of the movie itself is much lower than that of the song.

[1:06:15] Yours always, a Juniper last name withheld.

[1:06:17] You know, the first one that comes to mind is I'm a big fan of Who's Johnny by Eldabarge.

[1:06:25] Okay.

[1:06:26] From Short Circuit.

[1:06:27] Yeah, sure.

[1:06:28] To the degree that Audrey and I were making out.

[1:06:30] It's your fucking first dance song, right?

[1:06:32] DJ list for the wedding.

[1:06:34] And I'm like, would it be too ridiculous to put Who's Johnny by Eldabarge on the list of songs I want played?

[1:06:41] Would I be the only one dancing to that?

Elliott Kalan

[1:06:44] I think you'd be the only one dancing without a look of confusion on your face.

[1:06:47] But other people would be dancing, yeah.

[1:06:49] Yeah.

[1:06:51] You guys have any?

Stuart Wellington

[1:06:53] I mean, yeah.

[1:06:54] I feel like the 90s was filled with killer soundtracks for like any movie that came out had fucking amazing soundtracks.

[1:07:01] Kiss from a Rose, dude.

[1:07:02] There's nothing in it about Batman.

[1:07:03] Hell yeah, dude.

[1:07:03] Nothing's better than that song.

[1:07:06] Man, yeah.

[1:07:07] I'm trying to think.

[1:07:08] I feel like most of the Crow soundtrack was great.

[1:07:12] The Judgment Night soundtrack was great.

[1:07:14] And Judgment Night's not a good movie, right?

[1:07:16] It's fine.

[1:07:17] Guys?

[1:07:19] What about American Werewolf in Paris?

[1:07:22] There's some bangers on there.

[1:07:24] What the fuck?

[1:07:25] But not MASH because it's not in London.

Dan McCoy

[1:07:27] It's in Paris.

Stuart Wellington

[1:07:27] I mean, recently, I'm skipping ahead to my recommendation this week.

[1:07:31] But after watching Teton, I immediately went out and bought that song, that album by The Kills that has the song from the car show sequence.

[1:07:42] Because it's great.

[1:07:43] And I added it to my workout routine.

Elliott Kalan

[1:07:46] Nice.

[1:07:47] There are a lot of songs that I listen to outside of the context of the movie.

[1:07:51] I don't know if all the movie is bad necessarily.

[1:07:54] But there's a – Metallica fans are well familiar with the song The Ecstasy of Gold by Neo Morcone from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which is an amazing song that I would play all the time.

[1:08:04] There's – I used to have a CD.

[1:08:06] I guess I still have it, but I don't have a CD player.

[1:08:08] It was called The Best of Godzilla, Volume 1, 1954 to 1975.

[1:08:12] And there's a bunch of great songs on there by Ikiro Ifukube.

[1:08:15] There's one called – there's two from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla in particular that I love.

[1:08:19] Godzilla vs. Angiris, which is this kind of like real jazzy kind of like 60s rock song.

[1:08:26] And one called Mia Robbie's Prayer where this character is singing to the giant monster King Caesar to come help stop the bad monsters.

[1:08:35] But the version on that disc is just like – feels like a very jazzy kind of like torch song almost.

[1:08:41] But, you know, 70s kind of torch song.

[1:08:43] There's a song from the movie Zangir called Chakuchurian Tez Karalo, which translates as Get Your Knives Sharpened.

[1:08:50] And that's a song I really like from an Indian movie from the 70s.

[1:08:54] So I'll throw those songs on all the time, but I don't watch those movies particularly regularly.

[1:09:00] But I like to pull those songs from the context of the film.

[1:09:05] Just listen to them.

[1:09:05] There's a lot of songs from foreign movies that I find myself like listening to a lot outside the movie.

[1:09:13] There's a song called Por qué te va, I think, from the movie Cria Cuervos that was like a pop hit at the time.

[1:09:20] It's the Spanish language pop hit, and I'll find myself listening to that one a lot.

[1:09:24] So, yeah, there's tons of songs that you can do outside of the movies.

[1:09:27] Those aren't bad movies necessarily, but, you know, why not?

[1:09:31] Hey, I make the rules.

[1:09:33] This is my life.

[1:09:35] I don't care what you say anymore.

[1:09:37] This is my life.

[1:09:40] Billy Joel sang this song.

[1:09:42] Now I'm taking it from him.

[1:09:44] Now this song is going to be my song.

Dan McCoy

[1:09:49] This next letter is from Sean, last name withheld.

[1:10:00] Hello, floppers.

[1:10:02] I would love some advice.

[1:10:03] I want to watch scary movies, but I'm a gigantic scaredy cat.

[1:10:08] I'm afraid of gore, of jump scares, of being scared.

[1:10:11] I enjoy Alien and Aliens.

[1:10:13] I love Get Out, and I generally like thrillers.

[1:10:16] Mostly, I just want to watch Mother.

[1:10:19] Judging by the fact that I agree with The Flophouse on The Fountain, The Prestige, Annihilation, and The Fall,

[1:10:25] I think I might be in the group of people who would like Mother.

[1:10:29] So how do I do it?

[1:10:30] How can I train myself to like scary movies?

[1:10:34] And also, a series of postscripts.

[1:10:36] Dan, you responded to an email from me when I wrote to thank you all for giving me through the long night after putting my cat down.

[1:10:42] It was really kind of you.

[1:10:43] I still think about it.

[1:10:45] Stu, I worked full and part-time in restaurants for nearly 20 years.

[1:10:49] I feel for you all right now.

[1:10:50] Thank you for your service.

[1:10:50] I hope you're doing okay.

[1:10:52] Also, please keep the Instagram thirst pics and videos coming.

[1:10:55] I can't stop.

[1:10:56] I'm addicted.

[1:10:57] Elliot, when is the next picture book?

[1:10:59] I run the children's slash YA section of a daily newsletter focused on books and indie bookstores,

[1:11:04] but I've been loving keeping up with the kids' book careers of different Max Funsters.

[1:11:09] Oh, that's nice.

Stuart Wellington

[1:11:10] Oh, help getting the scary movies.

[1:11:13] I mean, that's kind of tough.

[1:11:14] Like, wait, did we – they like Mother.

[1:11:18] They haven't watched it yet.

[1:11:19] No, they want to see it.

[1:11:20] Oh, yeah, it's not scary.

[1:11:21] It's just super stressful.

[1:11:23] It's like, as I've said, it is a perfect encapsulation of my bartending stress dreams.

[1:11:28] It's great.

[1:11:30] The feeling that like people keep coming in and I'm like, it's 4 a.m.

[1:11:33] You got to get the fuck out of here.

Elliott Kalan

[1:11:34] Considering the scariest part of it is when those people keep sitting on the sink and she keeps saying, stop sitting on the sink.

[1:11:38] Oh, my God.

[1:11:38] And they will not stop sitting on the sink.

Stuart Wellington

[1:11:41] Like –

[1:11:41] It's like – there's a scene in Call Me By Your Name where I think Timothee Chalamet like doesn't close a refrigerator door and the shot just lingers on it.

[1:11:50] And I'm like, oh, my God, dude.

Elliott Kalan

[1:11:53] Just close it.

[1:11:55] There was a movie recently I was watching with my wife and there was a scene where the character left the house without turning the lights off.

[1:12:01] And I was like, uh, it's not that big an emergency.

[1:12:03] Like, can you please turn those lights off?

[1:12:05] And she started laughing at me.

[1:12:07] But, yeah, Mother is – yeah, it's not scary so much as like appalling in a good way.

[1:12:12] Like I feel like –

[1:12:13] Yeah.

[1:12:13] It's a shock to the system but it's not a like – I guess there's a couple kind of – there's one or two like almost jump scary moments but they're not – it's not like a horror, horror movie.

[1:12:22] It's more of a –

[1:12:22] Yeah.

Dan McCoy

[1:12:23] It's more like a sort of a relentless grinding down.

[1:12:26] Yes.

[1:12:26] I mean I think that was my favorite movie of that year.

Elliott Kalan

[1:12:30] Like I really loved that movie and part of the reason is because the movie starts off in like – where you're like – I get what kind of movie this is.

[1:12:38] It's kind of like a horror movie and it keeps going through stages where you're like, what is this movie?

[1:12:43] And then by the end you're like, oh, I knew what that movie was.

[1:12:46] By the end of it, yikes.

[1:12:47] What an experience.

[1:12:48] Yeah.

[1:12:48] But I did really like it a lot.

Dan McCoy

[1:12:51] I mean when it comes to watching horror movies, I mean the only thing for it is to do it.

[1:12:57] I know that like Audrey did not watch horror movies.

[1:13:01] Like she sounds kind of like you in that she's interested in them.

[1:13:06] So she would like read the synopsis on Wikipedia but she would not watch it.

[1:13:10] And then she fell in with me and all my nerd friends who love horror movies and has been sort of by osmosis exposed to a lot more.

[1:13:18] And I think is a lot less scared because of it.

[1:13:22] But I also would like to say, you know, don't seek to not be scared because like part – what I wouldn't give to still be scared by a horror movie.

[1:13:33] Which is not to say I'm like particularly brave because I am not.

[1:13:37] But I'm so used to watching horror movies now that like if one genuinely scares me –

[1:13:41] It's like a comfort zone for you.

[1:13:42] It's a treat.

[1:13:43] It's a treat if something scares me.

[1:13:44] I'm like, oh, something broke through my hard candy shell.

Elliott Kalan

[1:13:48] You're the decadent Cenobite who is piercing his flesh in the hopes that he will someday feel aroused by something again because you're so over physical pleasure.

Stuart Wellington

[1:13:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:13:58] If Dan was a Cenobite, he would be the CD head but replace the CDs with steel box DVDs or steel book DVDs.

[1:14:07] Yeah, I would say my bit of advice would be pick horror movies that you want to watch that seem like they might be a little bit fun and then watch them with the lights on with a group of people.

Elliott Kalan

[1:14:19] So don't start with martyrs is what you're saying.

Stuart Wellington

[1:14:21] I would not recommend anything from the French crazy horror wave of crazy horror movies.

Elliott Kalan

[1:14:29] I feel like it's okay not to like scary movies and to not like being scared.

[1:14:33] I have two children, one of whom loves scary things.

[1:14:35] The other one does not like scary things at all.

[1:14:37] And I love them both equally.

[1:14:39] So if that means anything, it's okay.

[1:14:42] I would say a way to get into it might be to start with like eerie or creepy movies.

[1:14:47] There's a lot of older what we would call horror movies now like the Universal Monster movies or the Val Luton produced horror movies like Cat People or The Seventh Victim or even some later movies like The Innocents or The Others even which is a – you know, it's 20 years – they're almost 30 years old at this point.

[1:15:03] But like they're movies that are less like scary scary and more just creating an eerie or unsettling atmosphere and that might be a way to get into those kinds of movies where it's not – you're not jumping straight to someone getting like a knife through their face and instead you're starting with like, oh, you just happen to be inhabiting this kind of strange eerie world, you know.

[1:15:25] I don't know.

[1:15:25] Anyway, but that's to say that like you don't need to be into horror movies to watch Mother.

[1:15:30] You just have to be ready for a movie to keep assaulting you with moments of discomfort that you weren't expecting ahead of time.

[1:15:38] Yeah.

[1:15:40] Yeah.

[1:15:40] But like I said, the main horror of the movie is there are people in my house.

[1:15:44] Why won't they get out of my house?

[1:15:45] Which is – but not in a scary way just in a like –

[1:15:47] Very relatable.

[1:15:48] I need these people out of my fucking house.

[1:15:50] Like, yeah.

[1:15:50] Super relatable.

Dan McCoy

[1:15:51] It's great.

[1:15:52] It's great.

[1:15:53] Okay.

[1:15:54] Well, let's close with our traditional final segment which is recommendations.

[1:16:01] Movies.

[1:16:01] Of movies, right?

[1:16:02] Of movies that we've seen and would recommend to others.

[1:16:06] I wanted to recommend a movie that I saw as part of a friend's horror marathon they were doing.

[1:16:13] It's called Primal Rage.

[1:16:15] It's from 1988.

[1:16:17] Is that the video game where the monkey farts on people?

[1:16:19] It is indeed.

[1:16:20] Indeed.

[1:16:22] Well, this does not involve a monkey that farts but it does involve a baboon that gives people a rage virus.

Stuart Wellington

[1:16:31] Is one of the side effects of the virus gas?

Dan McCoy

[1:16:34] It's a good question.

[1:16:35] That's what I was going to ask.

[1:16:36] This movie was made by an Italian creative team but shot in Florida with American actors.

[1:16:46] And it is basically what I'm always hoping for when I'm like, oh, I haven't seen this trashy 80s horror movie.

[1:16:55] Like, it has the zing that I'm looking for.

[1:16:58] It's got a bunch.

[1:16:59] Like, it is dumb in a lot of ways.

[1:17:02] Like, you know, you couldn't sell it to someone as like an unabashed good movie.

[1:17:08] Like, there's a bunch of like dopey stuff in it that's fun to laugh at but it's also done with a certain briskness and like stuff's always happening and a bunch of gross horror effects and just goopy stuff and silly – I don't know.

[1:17:26] It's just fun.

[1:17:27] It's like a fun trash 80s horror movie if that's the kind of thing.

[1:17:31] Dan, that's enough.

[1:17:32] You don't have to feel defensive.

[1:17:33] That's enough.

[1:17:34] Yeah.

[1:17:35] Yeah.

Stuart Wellington

[1:17:36] That's it.

[1:17:37] I'm going to recommend two movies this time.

[1:17:39] The first one I've already mentioned and that is Teton, the Palme d'Or winner from this year.

[1:17:46] It's an intense movie.

[1:17:49] It's gory and gross and weird and has a lot of body horror but it's – I mean it's certainly not like other movies you're going to watch right now.

[1:18:01] It's directed by – written and directed by – I'm going to butcher her name, Julie de Cournot, who made Raw, which is also amazing.

[1:18:11] So Teton is – I don't know if I'm going to go into the plot but I will paraphrase my friend April Wolf when she described it as a movie that tries out being about like three or four different types of movies before settling on the weirdest option.

[1:18:28] I found it both upsetting and also like very heartwarming and touching at times.

[1:18:35] It's great.

[1:18:36] And the second movie I'm going to recommend but also with Teton like if you are squeamish, it's pretty intense.

[1:18:46] The second movie I'm going to recommend is going to be coming out on Blu-ray from our friends at Vinegar Syndrome and it's a movie called New York Ninja.

[1:18:56] It is a movie that was shot in 1984 and the – after it was shot, the project was abandoned.

[1:19:05] And the director and star retired.

[1:19:09] So the – and then the 37 years later, the unedited reels were picked up by Vinegar Syndrome and they decide to edit the whole thing together, re-record audio and music for the whole movie.

[1:19:22] And they release it and it manages to be this kind of like perfect 80s like ninja action movie featuring a New York City that is overrun with what appears to be the same gang of guys garishly dressed in weirdly padded outfits who are stalking around the city and kidnapping women.

[1:19:46] And the only recourse is for one man to become a ninja wearing what appears to be like bedsheets.

[1:19:55] And it's like – it's very silly.

[1:19:57] Every scene – like there's something – I feel like because it's been edited recently, edited together recently, like it flows really well.

[1:20:06] Every scene is like funny and weird.

[1:20:09] It's – yeah, it's really fun.

[1:20:11] New York Ninja.

Elliott Kalan

[1:20:13] In a New York Ninja.

[1:20:14] That's that song that you may have heard before.

[1:20:17] I am going to be recommending a movie that's not from New York.

[1:20:21] It's from Russia.

[1:20:23] But it's a newish movie.

[1:20:24] It's not – this is not a – this is not an old movie from Eastern Europe.

Dan McCoy

[1:20:28] Do we have to guess what it is by what it isn't?

[1:20:32] Okay.

Elliott Kalan

[1:20:32] So it doesn't have – it doesn't have like a cat bus in it like My Neighbor Totoro.

[1:20:36] Okay.

[1:20:37] And they don't go to the moon.

[1:20:40] There's no scenes with James Hong in it.

[1:20:42] Is this helping you figure out what movie it is?

[1:20:45] Is it Stalker?

[1:20:47] No, it's not.

[1:20:47] It's Dear Comrades.

[1:20:48] That's right.

[1:20:49] From 2020.

[1:20:50] Dear Comrades directed by Andrei Konchalovsky who is best known here for Tangling Cash and Runaway Train.

[1:20:57] But who in Russia has made much less Tangling Cash-y movies than the ones that he's made in the United States.

[1:21:05] I'm out.

[1:21:05] Sorry.

[1:21:06] Yeah.

[1:21:06] I was – sorry.

[1:21:07] I shouldn't have said that.

[1:21:08] But it's a movie.

[1:21:10] It stars Julia Vysotskaya and she plays the part of a party bureaucrat in the early 60s who is kind of a real toe-the-line communist.

[1:21:23] And she witnesses a massacre of striking workers that the government then covers up and goes on a hunt to find out whether her daughter was part of that massacre and if she's – her daughter is still alive or not.

[1:21:33] And it looks beautiful.

[1:21:34] It's shot in that crisp black and white that I love for my Eastern European cinema.

[1:21:38] The acting is great.

[1:21:39] The story is really gripping.

[1:21:40] You don't really need to know anything about Russian history to get it.

[1:21:44] It's based on the story of a real-life massacre of striking workers but you don't need to know that.

[1:21:50] And it's just – you're just following this woman on this kind of grueling emotional journey as she has to start doubting all the things that she's kind of taken for granted around her.

[1:22:00] And it was just really good.

[1:22:01] It's called Dear Comrades!

[1:22:03] Just like Mother!

[1:22:05] The title also ends with an exclamation point.

[1:22:07] So that's Dear Comrades!

[1:22:10] And it's available a bunch of places.

[1:22:12] It's on Hulu right now and it's on Canopy right now.

[1:22:15] So, you know.

[1:22:15] Tubi?

[1:22:16] Is it on Tubi?

[1:22:17] Probably.

[1:22:18] I seem to find that everything is on Tubi.

[1:22:20] Tubi is this – it's like discovering that there was like a dumpster behind your house that somehow is full of gold.

[1:22:28] That's what Tubi is to me.

[1:22:29] It's like I walk past it every day and I'm like, there's nothing good in there.

[1:22:33] And I finally look inside and I'm like, everything good is in here.

[1:22:35] This is amazing.

[1:22:36] Yeah, that's amazing.

Dan McCoy

[1:22:38] Come on, Tubi.

[1:22:39] Let's make this happen.

[1:22:41] You're going to become an official sponsor.

[1:22:42] Yeah, yeah.

[1:22:43] Yeah.

[1:22:43] I feel –

Elliott Kalan

[1:22:44] Why don't you produce the Flopass TV show?

[1:22:46] They might not.

[1:22:47] A Tubi original.

[1:22:48] I would totally do it as a Tubi original.

[1:22:50] I feel like I have to stop referring to them as a dumpster full of gold.

[1:22:53] But there's something about a free ad-supported service where I'm like, there's no way there's going to be good stuff on there.

[1:22:59] And there's so many good movies on there and such a huge variety of good movies.

[1:23:03] Like, it's nuts.

[1:23:04] And so many terrible movies.

[1:23:05] And a lot of crap.

[1:23:05] That's great about it.

[1:23:06] And a lot of crap.

[1:23:07] Yeah, but still.

[1:23:08] Yeah.

[1:23:08] Tubi, we're here.

[1:23:09] Sponsor us.

Dan McCoy

[1:23:13] Well, you know, this has been great.

[1:23:15] But all great things have endings.

[1:23:18] Uh-huh.

[1:23:19] Including this episode.

[1:23:20] Even bad things do, too.

[1:23:21] Yeah.

[1:23:21] Uh-huh.

[1:23:22] Yeah.

[1:23:22] But before we go, I would like to thank our producer, Alex Smith, for all the work he does for us on the show, making it sound great.

[1:23:30] I would like to advise you, the listener, to go check out other shows on the MaxFun network over at MaximumFun.org.

[1:23:39] There's a lot of funny shows.

[1:23:41] There's a lot of informative shows.

[1:23:43] There's something to your taste there.

[1:23:45] I guarantee.

[1:23:47] Unless you like garbage.

[1:23:48] Guarantee not legally binding.

[1:23:49] That's true.

Elliott Kalan

[1:23:50] If you like bad things, then steer clear.

[1:23:52] But if you like good things, go for it.

Dan McCoy

[1:23:54] Then stick with us.

[1:23:55] You're going to find something.

[1:23:56] But until next time, for the Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy.

Elliott Kalan

[1:24:00] Hey, it's me, Stuart Wellington.

[1:24:02] And I'm Elliot Kalin, talking like this for some reason.

[1:24:06] Cool.

[1:24:07] Cool.

[1:24:08] Bye.

Dan McCoy

[1:24:11] On this episode, we discuss breaking news in Yuba County.

Elliott Kalan

[1:24:18] The only comedy movie that dares to shoot the moon by having zero laughs in it.

[1:24:22] Thus making it the funniest comedy movie ever made.

[1:24:26] I...

[1:24:27] No, let's do another one.

[1:24:27] Raves Aaron Sorkin.

[1:24:30] Dan's going to be like, I laugh twice.

[1:24:31] We can't say that journalistically.

[1:24:33] So let's do another one.

Dan McCoy

[1:24:34] I chuckle a couple times.

[1:24:36] Okay.

[1:24:38] Maximumfun.org.

S6

[1:24:40] Comedy and culture.

[1:24:41] Artist owned.

[1:24:42] Audience supported.

Ep. #355 - Breaking News in Yuba County

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