The Flop House - Ep. #412 - Leave the World Behind

Episode Date: December 30, 2023

Apologies for the slightly slow appearance of this episode. Holidays, travels, and sickness all played a part, but it's here now! We discuss the latest Netflix hit(?) and one of Obama's favorite movies of the year (?!?) Leave the World Behind!Want to see our faces? Check out our season of streaming shows, FLOP TV, or get tickets for a stop on our January 2024 West Coast Tour.Wikipedia page for Leave the World BehindRecommended in this episode:May DecemberYou Hurt My FeelingsBorn to Dance

Hi, floppers. Before we start our regular nonsense, we wanted to make sure you knew the flop house is going on a four-city west coast tour this January. It's the flop house Errors tour, the biggest event in pop culture entertainment this year, probably. You can see us in Vancouver on Wednesday, January 24th at the Rio Theatre. In Portland, on Thursday, January 25th at the Aladdin Theatre in San Francisco on Friday, January 26th at Cobb's Comedy Club as part of San Francisco Sketchfest, and in Los Angeles on Sunday, January 28th at the Regent Theatre. For tickets, go to flopphousepodcast.com slash events. Again, that's flopphousepodcast.com slash events.

The flopphouse live is like the podcast, but you can smell us. And now, without further further do a regular nonsense. On this episode we discussed, leave the world behind. More like leave this movie behind. Wow! Guys I started buying jokes from Gene Shallot. Hey everyone and welcome to the flop house I'm Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliott Kaelin. Dan, do you want to explain to everybody who's listening while your voice sounds a little sexier today? Sexier. I had a cold. All right. I started out

with cold. Then I had a day that there was a, I had a violent allergy attack and before I get, before I get tweeted at saying like, did you check for COVID? I'm aware that COVID exists. I have taken, you know, five COVID tests. Take that, come in. Yeah, the strong man, take that. Well, there's a lot of well-being. The Batman villain is strong man.

It's knocked down really easy because he doesn't exist. There's, look, I appreciate the concern, but I'm taking care of myself. I checked out if it was COVID. Sensitive straw man. Keras, the Dan has COVID. Yeah, that's why what Batman's like, yeah, I know that my money would be better spent helping people as opposed to battling dudes. I get it. And then I was getting better. No, it's not his partner, slippery slope. I'm sliding down his ice wall. I was getting better and then I went to Audrey's extended, you know, large Filipino hard

partying family had a celebration for it's like the first birthday of one of her nephews and it all went back downhill after that. That was, I shouldn't have, I should have continued the recovery period. Is it possible that that was a super spreader event? You got COVID? Hi, my name is strong man. Oh, it could be look guys.

I'm no saint. I can't control everything that happens. And I'm sorry if I have infected anyone I did my best I took five negative COVID tests but if it turns out... hmm... so we're all lying. Dan, here's my new character, Scramman, short gay. He brings up arguments no one else is talking about and also delivers face reads. No, that's cool. Dan, I do want to, I'm going to confirm for you. I have, I've been to at least the start

of one of Audrey's family's parties. And they go super fucking hard. And I was like, oh man, I gotta leave. And they're like, what, we're just warming up. Yeah. Was there a part where I curled up in a corner of the downstairs on the carpeted floor in fell asleep. Yes.

Oh wow. Because they kept going past where I was able to. Anyway, yeah, they went where you can't follow. So the shorter version of that is, I've been sick. So my voice sucks like this. And Stuart is in a different room, not recording with me in part because I've been sick. So apologize if there's any extra lag

because we're all in three different places. Yeah, we don't have our like normal like electric chemistry that we usually have. I used to watch the electric chemistry. Yeah. That was Spider-Man, right? Yeah. Yeah, I tell you how to read.

Anyway, so Dan, what do we do on this podcast other than talk about your illnesses and your white family's parties? They're excited. They version. They thought they called into the Filipino house where Dan talks about his in-laws parties. You know, I have to be reviews. It's still very good chicken. I'm not necessarily fan of the sweet spaghetti, but I get really it's more of a trad chicken guy. It doesn't like it to be all weird like a jelly. Well, the thing is the jelly be chicken is pretty is pretty trad. It's not that.

It's very true. It's not that. There's not that much. It's interesting about it, which surprised me when I first went to Jolly B in the mall near my house. But I'll go there again. You know what, and maybe I'll be trying to get it. It was kind of it. It's spaghetti. And explicit attempt to sort of challenge, you know, like worldwide fast food chain. So, you know, I'm not surprised that they went with like something with broad appeal, like the greatest food world fried chicken. The thing is, the thing is, if it's called jolly bee and there's a bee, you expect to have

a taste of honey. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I think it just means first. The thing is though, if it's called jolly bee and there's a bee, you expect to have a taste of honey. Oh, yeah, I think it just means the happiness of the bee. That is their mask. The lady. Because they watch wild mountain and they're like, yeah, of course. Guys, what do we do on this podcast? Right, this is the second time we try to get back on track. Let's make it three.

This is the advantage of me being sick as you get one of these freewheeling episodes. Advantage. We watch a bad movie that we talk about. In this case, actually, we watched a movie that wasn't even a critical flop. Like, it got overall pretty good reviews. Like mixed, mixed positive. But it is a movie that a lot of people had negative reactions to vocally on the internet. And also our friend, Elliot's in mind, Lauren, who we used to write with at the Daily Show. Lauren, sorry, incredibly talented comedy writer. Yeah, she took Audrey and me out for a, she and her husband took Audrey and me out for a little, she and her husband took Audrey and me. Sam, he's also a very talented comedy writer. A late wedding dinner.

The show Mulligan also on Netflix, like leave the world behind. And they were really selling us on this movie as something that we should cover for the show. And it was just like number one on Netflix, I think, for like a week or whatever. According to Netflix. Netflix, wow. Yeah. Also, here's the thing, whenever Netflix puts something on the homepage and it starts playing if you don't press any buttons,

and then they say that's the number one most watched movie on Netflix, it does not impress me. They don't impress the people. It's a cool man. To quote the Italian guy on the pizza box, that don't impress a meme. Yeah. Well, anyway, I trust her when it comes to this kind of thing.

I asked her whether she wanted to say anything for the shows and she had been so instrumental in pushing it. And she texted Karen Brockovich. And then she texted Karen Brockovich. And then she texted. Oh, yeah, that's a great, no, frankly, that is the most trenchant description I've heard of it so far. Yeah, yeah.

Julia Roberts, the star of the film, is playing such a caricature of a Karen East Coast semi-liberal, but educated complacent wants everything for own way white woman who gets angry at people instantly, does not trust black people instantly. We'll get to that. But that's Karen Brockovich is a great way to describe it. Lauren actually. That's what she said.

You can use that and then she texted, haha, I still got it. So, I mean, she is an Emmy winning comedy writer. She's still got it, you know? Yeah. But that's like a perfect over the shoulder gag. Yes, yes, perfect. Well, we would call no T.S. Yeah, yeah.

We would have asked her to be on the show, but she is a hermit of comedy. She prefers to be in the shadows. So she doesn't like public approval. Doesn't seem like to's seen by the public. Anywho, so let's talk about this movie, shall we? Called Leave the World Behind. Now we told the origin story of why we're doing it. And my voice.

And my voice. Do we have any other origins we need to talk about? Let's go on. I'll explain more to the movie. So Batman's parents walked him through crime alley for some reason and some crime happened and now he's Batman. That's the origin of that. That's why his parents are killed by the strong man.

Yeah, but the strong man. Yeah. Batman was like, what in primal fear more than anything? Bats. Because they're superstitious and cowardly. So yeah, I must become a bat That's you know that's actually the summary You know what happened, you know like you crash those window. I just think it's funny that Exactly join the police he joined the FBI like

Big criminals. I must become a larger criminal and he builds kind of like a big puppet suit that looks like a bank robber, but it's like 10 feet tall Yeah, yeah guys. I've been watching I've been watching Reacher and I'm obsessed with big characters Every show needs one big guy There's a there's a sexing them like be careful You can't you can't love like a normal man. I like that show, but I also like feel like it has like because he is so big and blonde. It has like this

uncomfortable like undertone of like, yes, here's the Superman who is both hugely strong and knows what is correct in every circumstance. It's a step away from being called raker. Yeah. Yeah. So because of the town and Ripskriminals apart with his bare hands.

Mm-hmm. Like so much full chicken. Anyway, talking about ripping apart with their bare hands, there's nothing like that and leave the world behind. But then shall I begin the summer rank? Please do. Get us on the tracks. Exactly.

Actually, there is a part where somebody ripped something apart with their bare hands. It's near the end though. It's a kid's teeth. We're getting so in fuckers out of his teeth. Easy I can teeth out of somebody. He's not ripping the teeth apart. He's not like my teeth are made out of cotton candy. That was sudden.

So leave it all behind. So we begin. We introduced to Brooklyn based Amanda Julia Roberts and her husband Clay Ethan Hawke. She wakes him up. The your basic East Coast elite educated. I mean Karen Rock. That says it all. Ethan Hawke, she wakes him up, the your basic East Coast elite educated, I mean Karen, I'm gonna make sure that says it all. Ethan Hawke is America's hot daddy. I love him, he's great.

Ethan Hawke, I love him and everything I see him in, I feel like he only gets better as he gets older as both an American and a charismatic performer. That's what I think is probably because he has made this niche for himself, which this character Clay fits into exactly of, the guy who maybe once was cool and thinks he might still be cool, but is not cool. Like, did you guys see the episode of Reservation Dogs that he's in? Where?

No! He is not really right for the casting of this character. Alora, one of the main characters, she finds out who her dad is. She goes to see him. And he's a little too old to be that character, but he so perfectly captures this guy who like, used to be kind of cool, is no longer cool, but still thinks himself is cool. And there's a battle within himself or the man he used to be and the man he is now.

And that's Clay in this one. He is a total beta cook who thinks he is a cool guy. He walks around wearing a bikini kill shirt, but he cannot do anything with his hands. He can't fix the TV. Later on, he uses this beta- cuckness as a secret weapon. We'll see, but we have Karen Brockovich and beta cuck. They're fighting crime, I guess.

And one morning Amanda wakes up, Clay, and says, hey, I booked a spur the moment vacation on Long Island for us. I just rented a house. Let's just do it. Let's just go to it. By the way, I hate people. That's how she ends the scene.

And then we get animated opening titles where it's like weapons and American flags and deer and clocks. And I'm like, oh, it's one of these movies. Okay. Is this civil war directed by Alex Garland? That doesn't come out till next year. But it has that feeling. And then it says, it makes executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama. And I'm like, oh, well, this is gonna be a middle of the road movie. These are two people I'm known for. I think of a radical artistic experiments.

But Dan, what we gonna say? No, I just wanna say, as beta as he may be, as like, yes, he is a trenchant in some ways, like portraits of a certain type of guy that I fear that I might be in fact. Yeah, and he teaches like media as a college course or something like that. Yeah, as as as much as like he is. Yeah, we laugh at him. I also have to admire. I have to give it to him for the chill way he responds to his wife having sprung a trip on him the morning as he woke up.

Good on you, Ethan. I think it's true. I think it's, if this was a, I'm going to lay some of my cards on the table. I think this movie is not really completely thinking through the things that it is doing. I think if it was, if I felt like it was thinking itself through more, I would say that he is showing that he is a character who is so used to getting whatever he needs that it doesn't even occur to him to be upset that his wife has suddenly thrown their life slightly into chaos with the vacation. He's just like, he's the kind of guy where vacation

sometimes fallen his lap. He worked hard. I'm sure it is job, but it's not his job as a media professor. It's not a life threatening job. He's someone who is who is used to relying on privilege, but he doesn't think he is. Like that, if I thought the movie was, maybe I'll say. Timothy Ollifont. I get that vibe from Timothy Ollifont. Like he's a great actor,

but I get this feeling of like a dude, he's never had to worry where he's sleeping at night, you know what I mean? I mean, I've never had to worry where I'm sleeping at night. You know what I mean? Oh, cool. That's what's dreamy about him. I'm like, yes, Timothy Alaphon, you have so much charisma that you overwhelm.

Yes, I feel like there's a certain, I feel like Timothy Alaphon or like Chris Pine, our guys who are very handsome and very charming, who understand that life comes a little easier to them because they're very handsome and very charming. And they're like owning it a little bit. I appreciate more than if they were like fighting it. You know, they're like- That's what I like about that most recent Fletch movie with John Hampton's performances

Fletch. I feel like he has like this certain era of like undertone of like apology that he's like this guy. He's like, look, I understand why this guy, a.k.a. me, would be irritating, but I kind of have to be this way right now for what I'm doing. So, I'm sorry. But I mean, I like the original Fletcher, Jessica Fletcher in Murger's shoe road. She didn't have it so easy. He didn't have it so easy. No, she didn't.

Well, crime followed her. Yeah, that's cool because, I mean, she was killing people. It's not a dark passenger, yeah. The less to episode should have revealed that she was the murderer all along. But anyway. So, I will have to that she was the murderer all along, but anyway. So, so I will have to say a couple of other sidenotes. I like the design of their Brooklyn apartment. I think it's very cute.

It does. And also I feel like right away, Ethan Hawke also seems, I don't know if it's just the way it's written, but he seems to be more comfortable with the dialogue and the, like the pitch and pace of this dialogue, then Julia Roberts does. Immediately, I'm like, has she lost the juice? Does she not have it anymore? Because she's, she seems, comes off very stilted in a way that seems that like in a way it reminded me of another apocalypse movie, the Knock at the Cabin, which is also filled with nothing but stilt to dialogue.

But for some reason, it worked more in that moving this one. But I'll get on that. I'm going to sit here. I think I'm going to say two things to that before we get in further, because I think that's an interesting point. I think she's playing a character who's very brittle and very uncomfortable, which I think is part of that. But also Julie Roberts is not used to playing this kind of character, and I admire that

lately she's been stretching a little more to play more unlikeable characters. But I feel like this is no no no shade on Julia Roberts. She is not the performer that Ethan Hawke is. And I think that's because Ethan Hawke at Heart is a theater performer. And so he kind of like inhabits his characters and kind of wears their skin a little bit more. She's a movie star more than she is a an actor. And he's an actor more than he is a movie star. That's a unfair, unfair classification in some ways, but that's how I'm going to say it.

I don't care. Hey, come at me, Jew Rob's. I've got a lot of movie stars. Is Jew Rob's not a good nickname for Julia Rob? Is that not a good one? Is there any problem at it if I'm calling her Jew Rob's? I will pause it a third option too, which is that I think that. Third lame a Kole. Well, this movie in, in a lot of ways is kind of like a manored movie, like in the way it's written and shot. Yes, that's right.

And I would postulate that like you could go one way or the other, you could like cut against that manoriness and madness and ground it more with like Ethan Hawks for very naturalistic performance, or you could do it the way that Julio Roberts is doing it, which I think kind of suits the writing, but to have both of them in the same movie might feel weird. Yes, I think that's a great point. That's a great point, Dan, that there's not a consistency between the performances. And because we are trained to like realistic natural performances more.

And so I think you're right that maybe the material would have been better served if they were. I don't know. You should look at some of the acting awards that have been given out over the years. Well, I'm not, I mean, I'm not, yeah, that's nice. I mean, the acting awards are off and giving for showy performances. And like, there's a speech Julia Roberts gives later in the movie where I'm like, okay, this is like, if this was released in theaters, I don't remember if it was, then that would be

her Oscar. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, the family drives to Long Island. They have two kids, Teenage Archie and Adolescent Rose, and everyone in the car has their own screens or music or phone call they're on. They're not talking to each other in the car. And Rose, we learn here and it'll become more and more of a theme, is obsessed with

watching friends on her iPad. She is one of those adolescents that loves to watch 90s sitcoms on her iPad. And she's, they don't, they don't, they don't say it, but she's like coded as being on the spectrum or something, right? Maybe it's so hard for me to tell in movies these days. I feel like so many characters are coded that way that I don't know if it's accurate or not. And to be honest, when you're around little kids, it seems like every little kid is somewhere on the spectrum. Like that's why it's called spectrum.

So like the, it's hard to know, it's hard to know. Adolescence is normally checked out from life in certain ways that. Yeah, that's what you struck me as. Just like a very like, not even very, but like heightened enough that there's a point of it. Like sort of check out Adolescent who just likes watching her tablet. I'm not sure if she's supposed to be on the spectrum or if she's a caricature of, yeah, these young people today who live through screens, you know, and obsessed with this fake

past title. Unlike me, who was obsessed with screens as well. Yes, true. So title. There's a lot of, there's chapter titles in this movie, which always means that it's high art. First title, part one, the house. They get to the house. It's a very nice house. The kids immediately jump in the pool. Amanda goes out to get some groceries and she is weirded out by a bearded Kevin Bacon who is stocking up this pickup truck with bottled water and canned food Nothing he is doing is Weird at all

I guess that she's a Karen. She's weirded out and it was one of those things from like is she Surprised to be seeing Kevin Bacon in Long Island Yeah, what it is like he's playing himself and she doesn't expect to see him all grizzled because and the music I'm heavy lifting I haven't seen you since Let's talk about the music She what sorry heavy lifting too, right? I haven't seen you since it's a live stream. Well, let's talk about the music. She what?

Sorry. Yeah, we used to work together. Remember, let's talk about the music. The music is so forced eerie creepy throughout. It's almost blanketing the movie when there's not a needle drop song with a, with a, with a very on the nose title. Like there was one where it's called like misled. We've been misled or something like that. And it's incredibly eerie over the top. And it reminded me of something that

they do in the movie, Queen of the, Queen of Earth, where, or Princess of Earth, let's go Queen of Earth with Elizabeth Moss, where not, where the music is super creepy and operatic, even over the things that are not on the surface creepy. And it works really well. And here I feel like they don't achieve that balance, but the movie is trying so hard. When the family goes to the beach and nothing creepy has happened yet,

the music is like, e know something creepy is gonna happen. Okay, you don't need to, like, it's a little bit like, if you have like a truffle oil and you go to a fancy restaurant and they're like, don't worry, everything is drowning in truffle oil and you're like, this is too rich, it's too much. I don't, I don't want it. Anyway, having established myself as, as that kind of, of liberal complacent, coastal leaders

since I go to restaurants where they put truffle oil on things. Let's continue. She's weirded out seeing this guy stock up his truck. They go to the beach, the eerie music plays. My notes literally say the soundtrack in this movie is working hard. Rose at the beach notices a big oil tanker off the coast and it's getting closer and closer until Dan, what does that oil tanker do? It crashes in like speed two. That's what I was saying to, we did our speed two show in LA recently. And that, that think that tanker crashes for so long. And Audrey was like, if I was on the beach,

I would run away much earlier than they run away. I'm like, yeah, I've seen speed two. I know how long it's going to take that tanker to stop before it, when it like goes aground. And the, it like goes a ground. And it takes them a while to run away, but they all escape. We never see anyone on this ship. It's like the Demeter has just, has this crash landed.

It's full of tracks. There's tracks all over it. It's full of tracks. So we don't mean tracks the destroyer, the lovable, the lovable idiot. Yeah, we mean tracks, the Dracula's, which are not, which are also kind of lovable, but in a sexy way that's scary Yeah, dangerous, you know, especially when they have hair that looks like a giant butt Does that add to the sexiness Dan you like butts? Is it sexier to you if someone has a regular butt and hair butt on their

Top of their heads or it's like they have two butts or is that less sexy to you? It doesn't have to be Gary Oldman to it. Could be on somebody who you're more naturally attracted. Well, that's the thing. What if it is, does it look like an actual, but on the head, or does it look like Gary Oldman's Dracula hair? Because I mean, it's made out of a hair. You're not to confuse it for a but unless they have hair that is pink and flesh textured. In general, that's an automatic less sexy. Okay. Now, what if it was, what if they were cone heads? It's not hair, but it's like a, that's an automatic less sexy. Okay. What if they were cone heads?

It's not hair, but it's like a, it's like a phallic cone that their head is made out of. Could they wear like one of those sort of like, dunce caps or like a, you know, like a gesture, like something that would cover it up? Like a wizard's hat. Yeah, like a wizard's hat. Yeah. You want to see like a top secret type movie, but it's a fantasy movie, and a wizard takes off his wizard hat and he just has a cone shaped head.

That would be a great guy actually. That would be yeah, movie called what like like a, um, um, um, spell in, I don't know. spell in, spell in with a, with an apostrophe. Yeah, or like, yeah, or like dork of the ring or something like that. I mean, I know there's already bored of the rings, the best selling national anthem parody, it's still. Okay. So as they're leaving the beach, a park officer tells them that ships seem to be having trouble

with their navigation systems, which is a big issue if they're crashing into the beach. That would be close the beach's scenario, I think. I will say, I will say, I think this sequence is interesting. Like it feels exciting and also it feels like something is happening. It's definitely something is happening, which is not a feeling you're going to get for a lot of the movie deliberately, deliberately from the film in a way that I think doesn't work, but it's right. So they go to the house, the Wi-Fi is out, the TV signals are out.

Can I also point out? Let me just mention, see some deer in the backyard. Uh-oh, Stuart, what were you going to point out, let me just mention, see some deer in the backyard. Uh oh, Stuart, what were you going to point out? I was just going to say, so this is one of many like disasters or tragedies that occur throughout this movie. And for the most part, they aren't given a human face. Like it's given a very, and there's something that makes it, I find distancing about it for something that should be very emotional. It's like later on, there's a sequence with cars crashing, but they're all not being driven by anyone. It feels very, it feels both bloodless and distancing for what to me is, I don't quite know what the perspective of this movie is. I think I kind of know what they're trying to say,

but I feel like it does the message of the movie at the service. I feel the opposite because I think that it's thematic. I think that it's about people who are feeling distanced. And that's why all of the tragedies also feel like almost like happening, like in a dream beyond a scrim. Like there's not, we don't see the...

I think I'm gonna be in the middle. I'm gonna be the third way this time. I think the movie is going for what Dennis talking about. These characters are supposed to feel isolated and cut off. And so there's a lack of humans around them. They're supposed to feel trapped. But I feel like the movie doesn't, it's trying for like an apocalyptic, the discrete

charm of the bourgeoisie, where like the characters are stuck, they cannot get out. There are things keep happening that get in their way and they feel isolated and cut off from humanity around them. But I feel like the movie is not, to me, I mean, my main problem, the movie is I've seen all this before. It's nothing going to go in it to me. And I think it overplays its hand in the amount of time it would take human civilization to, or America to collapse.

But I think it would help to see some of those people. And I haven't read the book it's based on, but I was reading a review that mentioned the book. And I was saying how in the book, you do get glimpses of other people in other places becoming victims of this thing. Someone getting trapped in an elevator and starving to death. Somebody dying in a refugee camp. And you don't get answers, you get glimpses of other people.

And I think this movie, I think it would have helped it to give it a greater sense of scale that way. It's supposed, it wants to create the feeling of you're trapped and you don't know what the hell is going on outside. But what's going on outside is not mysterious enough, I think, for the audience to wonder about it, it gives you too much information

and non-information. Too much information at the outside world, not enough human information, in my opinion. Huh, interesting. I just agree, I think that one of the strengths of the movie is that all of the stuff that happens, and I've seen people complain about this online, but all the stuff that happens is so seemingly un of seemingly unconnected you can draw the lines about like the things that are probably causing all the stuff

they see, but they are like these weird incidences of something distressing Maybe I think this is more a sign of where my head is that I think they're not weird and disconnected enough Yeah, it gives you explanations for each of these things. And I don't want those explanations. I mean, I kind of agree with you, but I think that the degree to which, you know, I do see people on the internet saying like, oh, none of this makes any sense.

I'm like, I don't think I think you can patch together. That's wild. That feels like, that feels like people who are looking at their phones while they watch the movie, to be honest, because every now and then, the television will turn on and explain or the radio and explain what's going on basically. So I feel like that's, you're not paying close enough attention to movie. I can't believe we're learning. I can't believe we're arguing with strawman again.

Oh, that's a strawman. He's stuck again. Oh, that's a strawman strike. Detective comics number 433. That's a strawman and like a made up avatar of like things I've actually seen people say online. You know, I guess the straw man, do you know the avatar? Yeah.

The straw avatar. True. Anyway, so we went to straw vatars, the Turkish restaurant, maybe. The Turkish restaurant. It's Mediterranean kind of. Oh, you know, it's a kind of Mediterranean. Oh, man, the fucking tips they're going to have. They have a lot of tips. You know they'll have hummus for free

They'll just put that out on the table. Yeah, and just the thing of all of it But a little bit of hummus you got to buy more you don't refill it There's gonna be pita on the table in a basket you one of the chickpeas everywhere one of those All you're doing is describing a type of restaurant. I want to try Your gonna get a plan that has not that much meat Joe type of restaurant. I want to clarify your restaurant. Yeah, you're going to get a fighter that has not that much meat. Joe, try chicken on a skewer and then like rice and the rice is

going to be fairly dry to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A certain type of sour cream or something to see. Yeah. So Elliot's not a fan of straw the doors. You don't like.

I'm not a huge. I'm not every time I go to a Mediterranean restaurant, I go, well, this is the driest chicken I've had. Thanks for giving me. Yeah, you should get to a Mediterranean restaurant, I go, well, this is the driest chicken I've had. Thanks for giving me some rule of it too. Yeah, you should get the chicken there. Which I get, Dan. You get the lamb, the beef and lamb stuff.

The beef is pretty dry too. Anyway, what I'm saying is throw it in a pot of water, boil it up first. Then you're doing it. I love match-raining food, but I agree that the chicken is pretty dry. Okay, so I'll try something else next time I go to Stravitar's. So at the go there, the TV and the wife are out, they see some deer in the backyard. That night, the kids are sleeping. Amanda and Claire playing Jenga, very symbolic, very thematic.

The house is about to tumble. When someone knocks at the door and they spend a lot of time arguing about whether they're going to answer the door or not, they are already in creepout zone. Well, they saw a knock in the cabin and They're like, this doesn't, it doesn't go well. If it showed them watching that or they're playing Jenga, they're like, boy, that knock at the cabin movie was going to creepy, huh? And there's a knock in the door. It turns out, it's Mahershala Ali, two-time Academy Award winner, right? Mahershali. And he's with a young woman. He says, I'm GH Smith.

You can call me George. This is our house. You've been talking to me over email. This is my daughter Ruth. We were and we there was a blackout in the city. So we decided to come here. Everyone acts instantly weird and awkward. And guys, I've stayed in Airbnb where the owners have showed up just to check on something. It's never been weird. It's never been awkward. Well, it's weird, but not like this. Not like this. This is like, you expect at any moment, this is like the moment in the happening

where the old woman goes, you're here to kill me, aren't you? And Mark Walbrook goes, no, no, never. Like, they're both, both sides are acting as if they're criminals who are hiding a body that they use to throw stuff. Well, let's be like Clay is like, oh yeah, sure, whatever. I mean, he plays super laid back. He's, yeah, Julia Roberts.

He can get hurt. Yeah. Yeah, he's like, is that blade? Like the blade? Did he show up? Marshall is like, it's been delayed yet again or deployed as we've been saying around that. Oh, the, the happy implication is that Julia Roberts specifically does not trust this black man

and black hair woman. A black man in a tuxedo with his daughter who is in a fancy dress. I mean, it's something they take a long time to get to, which is that to just come out and say like, she's probably, it's probably because they're black. But it is so awkward and she's so, I mean, it's probably because they're black, but it is so, it's so awkward and she's so ins, I mean, it's their character characters. Again, like if it was not, if this was not a movie that was trying at times for a certain level of realism, it wouldn't bother me as much. If this was a Samuel Beckett play, I'd be like, yeah, of course, these are

flat ideas. These aren't characters. I don't know. I, I 100% believe that there's a woman who would act like this. Yeah, that's true. Right. I guess that's right. And I like the actors who places daughter. I don't, I don't remember her name, but she's what? From like industry, I think. And she's the audience body.

I mean, all in the entertainment industry. Just grist for the mill. I'm gonna look up her name because I also like her in this. Let's see, she is. And I like her character in it the way that like, she sort of like pokes at Julia Roberts and like wants to sort of like point out that she sees the type of woman that Julia Roberts is and Julia Roberts like has kind of like this like anti, I mean, antagonistic, but also like this weird grudging respect for her too. Like, yeah, it feels like she's like, okay,

well, this girl has my number. Eventually, this actress named Mialla, I don't know exactly how it's pronounced, but that's what it seems like. Yeah. And she's really goodness. So, they are everyone's, everyone's, it seems like it is two suspicious women and two men who are just trying to like smooth things over. That's the situation. Yeah.

She says there's a blackout, our phone's not working, so we went to the beach house. A man is instantly suspicious, does not want them to stay at the house. And he's out working, so we went to the beach house. Amanda's instantly suspicious. Does not want them to stay at the house. And he goes, look, let us stay in the basement. I'll refund your fee 50%. And he goes to a locked cabinet. He unlocks it. He has the key for it.

He takes out an envelope with $1,000 cash. There's other envelopes we see. And we also see a gun in the drawer. But Clay and Amanda do not see that. And he goes, here, take this $1,000. And Amanda's like, Clay, they could be con artists. And Clay is like, eh, it'll be fine come on and Amanda as he is in a tuxedo. He's in a tuxedo.

Maybe he's James Bond you know Idris Elba should have been James Bond but the racist wouldn't let him. She's like you're still going to argue Idris Elba should be James Bond. I know his stock has gone down quite a bit but it would have been interesting and she's like that it's a it's a it's a misogynistic more abund franchise. They've got to give it time to regenerate and find a new way to do things. And he's like, here we go again. Anyway, they've had this conversation a lot about James Bond. I mean, if this would be, like, if they were pulling a con, this would be a big grift.

This would be like a distinct level grift where they're like, okay, we're going to figure out that we've got to go to this house and pretend that we're the owners. And what's the end? I'm going to go. We really hope to get whatever cash they have on top. We'll get whatever cash they have on top. Canada will wear a thousand dollars to win their trust. Well, that's a constant thing.

That's a constant thing. That's a constant thing. I know. People will be to get a lot. Yeah, but I'm saying that I don't know outside of the movies where we're living, I don't think that this is like, I don't know. I would not be so suspicious of someone returning to the place that I rented. And saying, you rented it for me, I know your names.

Yeah. This is my name. I have a key to my keys to the liquor cabinet. He doesn't have a key to the house, but I guess he knocked just out of, as just out of a politeness, you know. Yeah, I was sure he has a key to the house, but I guess he knocked just out of, just out of politeness, you know. Yeah, I was sure he was a key to the house. Yeah. But and and let's talk, we haven't talked about the house at all.

It's like super modern. It's very fancy. Yes. It is the camera movements are way on the house. It causes the camera to spin. The camera does a lot of spinning. Yeah. The house has a strange gravity that causes the camera to spin. The camera does a lot of spinning. Yeah, and the house has a strange gravity

that causes the camera to spin a lot. Yeah. Well, I think it's like float through floors and sh- Yeah, I think it's the camera. Later, the camera is just floating through their car as they're driving away from all those driverless testless. But I think there's a, the camera like the music is working really hard to make us feel

this is a creepy situation. Yeah. When, for the most part, it hasn't been. And I've even been on vacation when the Wi-Fi and the power have gone out. And I have not jumped to the conclusion that humanity is dying or that we're under attack. Which is what all the humanity is dying, LA. I mean, humanity is dying. And we're under attack from ourselves. Pogo is right.

We saw, we've seen the enemy and it's us, you know, but still Dan. I like some of these camera moves like in a vacuum, but the problem with them is like in a vacuum, you're not going to be able to see anything. I mean, I'll hit the bag so some like it. That's true. But the problem is like the whole movie is shot like that. Like something like Brian De Palme, I usually, you know, with like very showy distancing camera moves, at least

saves those for like big moments rather than like just making the whole movie that thing. Like there's more choices of sequences. Isn't there a part in panic room where David Fincher has the camera go through the whole through the other mugs? Yeah, that would just just be like, yeah, fuck it, we're going to do it when it's not important. And I feel it's like that, it's like that in this where they're like, you know what, we can do with the camera. Let me show you. And I'm like, tell me the story.

Tell me the story. I don't care about the tricks. I mean, Sam Asmel has a lot of tricks. The right thing. And he's using them all. But I don't think, again, like, I said this before, but I don't really think there's much point of view to it. Like, other than just like trying to make you feel like either to be cool or to make you a little

unsettled, there's not really a lot of point to many of the wacky shots. Whether or not there's a point. I like style for style sake, that's fine. But it just feels. If it's style for style, say I want more style or consistent style, is this a movie that has a lot of loopy camera moves or is it an austere kind of like isolated creepiness?

Cause it can't really have it both ways. It doesn't necessarily work both ways unless like in repulsion, where like there, you have like almost fantasy madness sequences that are like that, you know, among more naturalistic things, but I don't know. It's hard to have it be both austere and baroque. Yeah.

I mean, maybe it's just because we, you know, lived through, you know, of confusing worldwide crisis and it's, you know, easy to dance on those feelings, but I did think, why to me, yeah, yeah., but I did think why to me. Yeah, yeah. I did.

I did. When, that's the Marks Brothers movie that they did at the turn of the 21st century. He goes, now of course we got to watch out for why to okay. A why a to K. Don't know, I'm telling you, you got to watch out for why a to K. But why a to K? Why not a to L or to M? No, I'm telling you, why to K?

I don't understand. Why not a why to Jai? Oh, those guys they get me every time. Yeah, they're the best. Yeah, that's in the coconut 2.0. Take about. Back on stage and no, uh, fuck what was I saying? You can't tell for style or we've all been through it. We went through a big thing. No, I mean, maybe it's just because of that. But I thought that the thing that I did like about this movie,

just hit my hand, was I feel like it kept through the isolation through sort of a bunch of disconnected events happening rather than like an omniscient sort of a bunch of disconnected events happening rather than like an omniscient sort of like viewpoint of like what this is, you know, just like sticking with these characters, seeing these weird things, not knowing what information is true, what information is false, not being given that. Like I found it an effective evocation of like, the kind of just quiet, the kind of paranoia that I feel like I would feel in the situation, the fear is that a pleasant thing to relive?

I don't know, but I worked for me on that level actually. I wish it had worked for me more on that level, to be honest. I feel what I kept thinking was, I mean, in spoiler as we, well, we won't take forever to go through this movie. I promise, where we will probably, but it's the flop house. Come on, but civil society collapses almost instantly. It seems like within a day or two. Yeah.

And while watching it, I was like, I lived through the last big blackout in New York City. And what happens during that blackout? People had parties. They took care of each other. Like I know the blackout in the 70s was bad, but the blackout 20 years ago, a little bit less than 20 years ago, was in many ways a very beautiful experience. Like I remember a lot of it being, you know, inconvenient, but I just walk, you know, 100 blocks to get home. But what I saw along the way was really lovely. And the next day it felt like everyone was just like, all right, this is still going on.

Let's make the most of it. Let's like take some time. And even with COVID, when I'm for a long time and it was bad in our other things that did for our society, but you didn't see gun battles in the streets, you didn't see, you know, carpet bombing in New York and this thing. So I felt like,

I felt like the movie is, the movie is creating a scenario that I just can't quite buy into. And it doesn't, what you're talking about is the way that I felt reading. I think it's the second issue of the second series of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which for me captured the feeling

the night of September 11th, the best of anything I've ever read, where the league has gone and Martians have attacked. They burned people alive right in front of them, and they go back to the house they're staying in, and they're just kind of like trying to kill time to get through the night, like they don't really know what to do with themselves. And I feel like that's the, if there was a little bit more of that of characters unsure of how to pass the time, because it's like at the night of September 11th, what did I do? I was, me and my college roommates, who, you know, living in Manhattan, it was like,

ugh, I don't know. And we just watched Mr. Bean tapes for like hours because we just didn't know what to do with ourselves. And we had spent a day of this, and we didn't know what was going to happen next. So I feel like this movie where everyone instantly jumps to, uh, what are we, are we, we're fighting each other, fight each other. We got to get out of here. This is crazy. Ah, the world's ending. It felt unrealistic. But I think that, I think that you're forgetting that it is not just a blackout. It's a total communications disruption of any sort of communication. There's a blackout. There's like radioactive

noises being shut at them. Well, that happens later. I'm talking about before that. Before that happens. But that's true too. Okay, so you're right. There are radioactive noises that are attacking people. So anyway, Amanda has to see George's ID.

He left behind a hurry. His story seems to have some holes in it. But the TV interrupts them with a national emergency warning that has no details, just as national emergency warning. This is the funniest I'd kind of warning you again, because all it says is there's a national emergency and nothing else. Doesn't even tell them what to do.

Doesn't tell, doesn't, so that night, George and Ruth are talking, he seems to have gotten some kind of a tip off from one of his clients. He's in the financial industry that something bad was going to happen, and Ruth does not trust this white family and wants them out of the house.

And when nobody's in the living room, the TV blips back on with a CNN report about a terrorist cyber attack that is across the country and that goes, turns to static. Uh-oh, we're ready for part two, the curve. And I guess we've got to move quicker because there's five parts to this movie. Part two. What?

Okay, Rose really wants to watch the friends finale, but all the signals are out. Amanda sees these news alerts about cyber attacks on her phone and blackouts and Clay is like, I'll drive into town, I'll get some more information for somebody and Rose sees a shitload of deer in the backyard. That backyard is full of deer. What's this all about? Ruth and Amanda,

they're prickly with each other, they just do not get long, they speculate about what's happening, and Ruth was worried we find out because her mom was supposed to be on an airplane that night when the problem started. She's worried that her plane might have crashed. They can't get in touch with her. Now, we have the first of what I'll call our intercutting fuchs where we are cut between

different storylines. I'm just going to, rather than going back and forth between them, I'm just going to tell you what happens with each of them. There's two things. There's two things. Clay is driving around. His GPS and his radio don't work, so he gets lost. He steps out of the car and the radio, when he's not in the car, briefly says that the

cyber attack has caused environmental damage, which is affecting animal migration patterns. This is within 12 hours of the cyber attacks that the animals were already having trouble migrating. I mean, they didn't say what the environmental thing was. I presume that this meant, spoiler alert, based on what happens later, I presume that this meant spoiler alert, based on what happens later, I presume that there was some sort of like chemical or nuclear issue that happened because of this, that was sending the animals up,

these deer's probably carry the tooth destroying tick that comes into the story later, perhaps the blood is infected with. The TDT, tooth destroying infected with some sort of, and that tick, what a baddie. This is not the fun tick that our friend Griffin spent time with on television. This is a bad two. Yeah.

So he finds a woman on the road who's yelling for help in Spanish and he is so stressed out by the situation that he just drives off without helping her. And then a biplane starts dropping red paper leaflets all over his car and then also stresses him out to no end and he's going to be upset. Yeah. Because no one wants leaflets. He's like, do I have to throw all these away now? Yeah.

It was like, no, no, no, I don't like comedy. Yeah. And it is going to harm him that he left this one behind. That's specific. Sorry, I got to say you like comedy. That's specific like tactic on the street. Yeah, I know I was me to know and specifically, you know, like I'm sure you felt the same way, Elliot is someone who you know has worked in comedy in some form, you know,

to be like to have this thrust at you and some of them ask, you know, do you like comedy and having the twin impulses of like, I do like comedy, but you're helping to make me hate it by like making me feel like I must reject you. And also like, do you want an honest reaction? Like my honest reaction is like, yes, at one time I did like comedy, but working

in the industry has sourd me a bunch of it. I guarantee you that's not the reaction they're looking at. What? Here's why it doesn't bother me as much. One, I know those people are just trying to get stage time. I know. But I like that the thing. You just lied to them, you just say no, and you keep walking.

They don't care. It doesn't matter. I know. I know. Maybe it's just because I've had practice because in New York, if you're Jewish, you get the orthodox standing on street corners going, excuse me, are you Jewish? Are you Jewish? Wow. You know, that happens to everyone. Everyone else get nuts. Okay. Even to use to it because you look pretty. I know, but here's my therapist is right by a grand army plaza. So right around the holidays. I get I am attacked. And they're right there. I am wearing a Yomaka. Yeah, you are wearing a Yomaka and payas. Yeah.

But here's the thing that, because you're going to a holiday, you're going to a Hanukah dress up party. But the, so here's, because I have a similar thing, but it strikes me more to the soul Dan, because this is about my heritage and my religious beliefs, that if I say yes, I've got to join them in some kind of BS prayer that I don't like and I don't want their vision of the earth to come about. I don't want their Messiah showing up because their Messiah is like, yeah, well, of course women don't get jobs and things like that. But also if I say no, I'm denying my faith, Dan.

And so many of my ancestors had to make that same choice in much more dire situations. So I guess what I'm saying is comedy is your Judaism. Anyway, moving along. Well, wait, hold on. There's so much talk about this more. No, I just wanted to say about the tip for people with the flyers. I take it and then throw it away and I used to feel bad out throwing it away, but you know what?

They got to stay out there until they get rid of all those flyers. Don't feel bad about throwing away. Recycle them, don't feel bad about it. Yeah. Don't worry about the time when a couple of guys knocked on my door and asked if I was Jewish, I'm like, no. And but my wife is and they're like, would you like us to come in and blow the show farm?

Like, please. I'm so mad at me. If it was a show farm blowing, I would love that. Come on in and blow the show farm. That's fine. But don't hand me an Etraug in a Lou love. No thank you. I want no part of that.

Okay. It's a code. I don't want no part of that. Okay, it's a coat. I don't want to touch fruit, forget about it. So anyway, that's Clay's story. Meanwhile, George, he's worried his wife is not responding to any of his texts. They haven't even gone through. He's getting increasingly worried. He goes to check on his neighbors, the Huxleys,

which I thought was a hilarious name for characters in this movie called The Huxleys. It's an on-the-nose reference. Their house is in shambles. He finds a satellite phone, but it won't work. He walks down to the beach, and this is one of these movies where the, one of these moments where the movie puts style over substance in a way that bothered me. He sees a watch on the sand, and he goes to pick it up, and he finds it's still attached

to a severed arm, only then does he look up and see a huge trail of dead bodies into a crashed airplane. Like, come on, how did you not notice that? That first part was pretty good. Yes. The second part could just be like, I mean, I've been on beaches. Just, you know, if you're around the wrong turn, there's like whole shit you can't see. Just like having like walk around some fucking dunes or whatever. But it just lifts it up right there's a plane crash. There's some some rich guys get fucking watch blindness too.

And all they see is these fancy watches. And they can be watchers this. Yeah, they never wear them. It's a good thing he noticed that airplane can be anywhere. They're just collecting them. Yeah, yeah, it's sad. Really give those watched watches what to the needy who need time pieces. That's right.

The needy always need to be places on time. So George is a good thing he noticed that plane crash because he narrowly escapes a second plane crashing into the beach. They should call this movie vehicles crashing into beaches, the movie. Yeah, it feels like he's being the target of an enemy stand in JoJo's bizarre adventure that throws planes at you. Yeah, and he runs away. So meanwhile, back at the house, this is story. See, everyone's at the pool.

Ruth has put on a bikini and Archie is just purving all over her taking pictures. He thinks he's he's slightly taking pictures of her, but she knows he's doing it. Rose is obsessed with where she saw the deer. She and Archie eventually they walk into the woods. They find a little shed and Archie scares her by making up a story that there's a creep who lives in the shed who has been watching Rose sleep and then they wander around the woods seeing more. And his defense does look creepy. It does look, it is very creepy. Yeah. George gets back

to the house. He will not tell Ruth about the plane crash. When she leaves, he tells Amanda that this long speech about how his job is to look at the curve of the financial markets and judge the future from it. And the way the curve was turning led him to believe something really bad was going to happen. And if that satellite phone wasn't working, it means that America's satellites are not working. Suddenly they hear explosions in the distance and a painful, ear splitting, a high-pitched noise that they, it really hurts the ears. Amanda runs into the woods to find her kids, but the noise overwhelms her.

She falls to her knees and the screen goes red. And we can tell you part three, the noise. Not the noise. You want to avoid the noise still. You want to avoid both the noise and the noise. Yeah, avoid. Ruins pizza, the noise ruins your brain. Oh, I know what.

What if the noise and the noise are working together? The noise is like I'll ruin the pizza and noise you ruin Archie's teeth so that he can't fight the pizza even if you wanted to. And the noise by William Fockner. Did you guys have the same reaction that I did to Julia Roberts running into the woods to look for her kids, which is she's in fucking barefoot running through the woods. Come on, man, like that, you're going to hurt yourself that way. Yeah. She's too worried about her children. Right. And the only reason that it bothers me because I know looking at her, she wears slip-on

shoes. She's not tying shoes. She's not wearing boots with a zip. She wears comfortable slip-on shoes. She could easily slip them on and run. So yes, but she's so worried about her children. She doesn't care about her feet at that moment. I understand emotionally. I just wanted, like, it struck me as, like, weirdly in this movie with a lot more, like, unrealistic things that I'm willing to, like, accept because they mean this or that on a metaphorical level or, like, there's just a strategy. Like, the thing that hangs me up is, like, she would be going, ow, ow, ow, I stepped on a stick.

Ow. That's true. Well, it's interesting the things that we poke holes in. I don't believe society would collapse that quickly and Dan is like, what about your feet? They're gonna hurt. Well, because again, I don't take it specifically that literally.

I feel like a lot of the way this movie is made, you know, like I'm willing to go with a lot of shit in some of these movies if they signal to me like, hey, don't take it like seriously, like you're going to fucking send him a sentence like poke holes and like the plot of it because it's not really going to make sense. Well, but I don't think the word we're saying other things. I don't think this movie has signaled that necessarily is the thing. Yeah, I think that the one of the problems is he doesn't signal it hard, but anyway. Okay.

You'll give it that slack. Part three, the noise is a shorter part. Amanda finds the kids, they go back home, she's arguing with everybody. She hits on the idea that the guy at the grocery was stocking up on food. Maybe he knows something. And George is like, oh, God, the beard, that's Danny. He's a local contractor. He's a survivalist.

And Clay comes home shaken and shows them one of the leaflets. And it's got a picture of a snake, a rattlesnake. And it's got Arabic writing. And Archie recognizes the writing from a video game, I guess, which translates to those, death to America, bump, bump, bump. The white family, you're like, That's a thing, you learn a ton of cool shit

from video games guys. I guess that's what the media won't tell you. Yeah. Which media? You know, you know the ones. Yep. Game pro. I.

Yeah. Yeah. Paul. Yeah. Paul. Nintendo power. Nintendo power is deep in the tank for the establishment. Yeah.

So the white family, they decide they got to get back to the city. But the road is choked with a jam of crashed driverless new Tesla's on autopilot. And then suddenly, you might have been drooling, Elliot, because you're one of those Tesla Tesla boys, right? I do own one to my eternal dismay every time Elon Musk does anything. But it's a car that drives very well. I really like it. But the more driverless Tesla starts zooming towards them and they have to steer through a gauntlet of driverless Tesla to get out. That hasn't happened to you, right? It has not happened to you.

You haven't had to frog her around Tesla, right? Here's the thing. I don't know that when there's a communications cut out that there's some kind of program in the Tesla that tells it to automatically drive to New York City. I don't think that's that. I think that's it. That was a deliberate saying. They're like small tax grants.

I took the implication to be like whoever's doing these attacks, like one of the things he's doing is they're just like sending a bunch of fucking cars there to like clog up the right. I mean, to isolate New York, that makes sense. To be honest, when they first started having to drive through these driverless Teslas and they were like, ah, watch out. I thought it was going to be dumb, but it's over so fast that I realized suddenly I want

more of this. It was just like, that was the right kind of dumb where I was like, all right, I want to see them having to dodge all these driverless cars. But it's like in the tag of the clones where they go to the robot factory and have to dodge a bunch of shit, like more of that place. I mean, it's dumb if there's only a little bit of it, but there's a lot of it you might be able to win me over. Part four, the flood. Now, it's part four. Everyone's back at the house. Nobody knows what to do. Ruth, it rose. It's so mad she can't watch friends. Archie is just masturbating to the pictures he took

of Ruth, Clay and Ruth are vaping together. But he's able to like finish off, right? He's like, I didn't take good enough pictures. I thought he was too stressed out, but you think it's because he's disappointed the pictures are not. Yeah, he's like, oh, I should have changed the exposure on this one. He's like, why can't I just use AI to remove her clothes? Why is the Silicon Valley trying to solve the real problems of life? Yeah, let me know. It's a real issue. We don't need to get into. It's horrible. So anyway, Clien with the raping together, Amanda and George, they're drinking together, and they're drinking together, and they're starting to become friendly.

And George tells a long story about a powerful client of his who he can't name him. He goes, you'd recognize the name. Anyway, he's involved in a lot of covert military stuff and defense contracts. And I'm like, are there a lot of famous covert military contractors? Okay. Maybe. I just assumed that because they produced it, he was friends with Obama. And that's the way you would see the Obama thing.

And that this powerful client who called him at this infinity and said, Hey, can you move a lot of money around? And I have to go somewhere and that George tells a joke. And the guy just says, take care of yourself and doesn't laugh. And this frightened George so much that he assumed some, that the world is about to end. And he had to go back to Long Island. And meanwhile Clay tells Ruth about his drive and it starts raining and a flock of flamingos shows up in their pool.

This is one of those weird animal things. Amanda and George, they dance together. It's very weird. Don't act like you're too good for weird animal things, Alia. I love it. Look, if you, this thing, I want this movie to be weirder. I want it to be stalker. I want it to be black moon. I want it, I want this movie to be weirder. I want it to be stalker. I want it to be black moon. I want it to be a weird movie. I like weird movies. I don't

like these movies that are kind of half-assed, weird, you know. I do like that. LA just said they danced together instead of Julia Roberts picks out a record and plays a baby when we're grind in there. Yeah. That's true. It's called, what's the name of that song? I wrote it in my notes. Hold on. And does a dance that, you know, is pointedly bad, like, you know, clearly she's meant to be like bad. It's not Julia Roberts dancing. It's like this character, how she would dance. Yes. It's too close by next. That's the song. It's all about grinding and being hard. And Julia Roberts is I mean, it reminds me of. It reminds me of Julia Roberts and George Clooney's dance in vacation wedding. What was that

called? Welcome to Honolulu. How do you? What was it? I take it to paradise. That's it. It's deliberately dancing bad. And I'm like, these are the characters dancing. I like that. But it's this weird. There's this weird moment where they start dancing together. And it's like the movie wants us to think that they are about to make out, which makes no sense. It's not how humans interact. But also, maybe it's that Julia Roberts thinks that, but Mahershali does not think that. Maybe it's an intercharacter miscommunication.

I don't know. But anyway, it doesn't happen because George is scared. I think they're just scared and they're there and they're both hot people. So, I guess, like, for a moment, it seems like maybe it would happen, you know, I don't know. But George is, George is sad. He's like, I'm worried about my wife. And that's when the high pitch noise comes back and the power goes out. Uh-oh. That night Rose cannot sleep. She is too obsessed with thinking about a joke about a flood that she heard on an episode of West Wing. And she says, it's more of a parable. It's not really a joke about a flood that she heard on an episode of West Wing. And she says.

It's more of a parable. It's not really a joke. It's not really a joke. It's never been told to me. It's never been told to me. It's a parable. Maybe, but the... I got that story several times

in my church growing up that would come up in sermons. This is the one where the guy is told to be a flood. It was in the joke section of the sermon, right? It was the fun part. Jokes and James, the James Accorsor, you know, the minister using private information that it knows about the parishioners. He's done really cool stuff. He's talking proud work, huh? You know what I'm talking about? You're cheating on your

wife. You don't let me? Anyway, that kind of thing. This guy. So it's the old story about the guy here's there's a flood and he decides to pray for God's assistance and then a boat comes by and he goes, no, no, God will help me and then a helicopter comes by and he goes, no, no, God will help me and he dies. And God said, and he goes, why don't you help me? And God says, I sent you a boat, I sent you a helicopter. It's only ever been called to me as a joke. But maybe that's the, that's maybe because that's the Jewish way of telling it is, I sent you a boat, I sent you a helicopter.

You know what? New, I sent you a boat. It was missing the delivery. Okay, but this is all, there was, that's the news I sent you a boat. But this is also, I could be misinterpreting it the same way. I think I've talked about how,

when I was a kid, I was at a friend's house and there was a needed sampler or embroidered sampler in their bathroom with the serenity prayer, which I misread as a joke. Where it was, let me have the strength to change what I can and the understanding to patients get to can. To accept the things that cannot change and the wisdom just tell the difference.

And the wisdom to tell the difference. That's how I read it with that kind of delivery. So it's like, oh, this is a joke. Anyway, so maybe I'm getting wrong. Anyway, the point is she says she's done with waiting. The next morning, she is missing, but they can't worry about that. Archie is spitting blood and he can't stop pulling his own teeth out of his mouth. He's not stopping.

It's a new fad that's sweeping the nation. I'm going to say guys, if young people out what there's screens and their removable teeth, what is this? What is this existence? They're going to throw all the people tied pods and they pull their teeth out. Maybe, maybe I'm a wimp guys. It's a two pull challenge. Maybe your whims do, yes.

After I yank out the first two, I'd be like, fuck this. I'm going to leave the rest in. Yes, very much so. And they're yelling at him. Stop. He's like what you pop against. He's pulling them out. Yeah.

Once you pop a tooth, you can't stop popping teeth. Yeah. It is very funny that he just does not stop pulling his teeth out. And then almost like he's in a day or a trance. And then after he goes, my teeth, and it's like, yeah, no shit, dude, you're the one who pulled them out of your mouth. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, we're at part five, the last one, they've run out of names for the parts that are referring to things. Just the last part. I got to say, no, it's a last person. They mean the last person. No, it's a reference to the fun. The fucking series finale of the title that I forgot the title of the friends episodes. The last one that'll make sense at the end, but also as a viewer, it's comfort. I mean, like, you know that it's a step-meaning, so you're like, okay, cool. Like the movie's almost so.

What if it was called part five of the last one and then something happened that said, part six, more to come. And the one that's more layered. Yeah, it's a sweater on it. Part six, right? That's how it comes in. As a spy.

And you're like, no, I'm not. You're not. No. If I had known, I wouldn't have watched the movie. So, uh, George and Clay, they're going to take Archie to Danny's house, the survivalist, Kevin Bacon to see if he's stockpiled any medicine. It's as good a plan as any. And, uh, George promises Ruth, we'll be back in one hour, set a timer, we'll be back in

one hour. A man and Ruth go to look for Rose, they go to the shed, but she's not there. They have an argument which turns into a heart to heart. Julie Roberts gives her Oscar bait speech about how modern life is all. For everyone's pretending things are okay when they're not okay and I do need people and et cetera. Now we're back to intercutting between the storylines. This is what happens.

Storyline A. Georgian Clay go to Danny's store. He meets some of the shotgun and he says, oh, Archie's probably sick because of that microwave beam weapon. It's like the one they used in Cuba a few years back. I remember that story. I was like, okay, I remember that.

Danny thinks there's been a war. He refuses to help them. It's time for everyone to look out for their own. He tells them, go to the Thorns house because they have a bunker basement. And I was like, Jesse Thorn. A power maximum fun. He has a bunker.

He didn't tell me. He's a bunker baby. He's a billion a bunker baby. He's a He's a billion dollar bunker baby Eventually Georgian Danny they get so mad they pull guns on each other and Clay gets between them in a masterful stroke of of verbal masculine politics jujitsu leverages his beta cuckness Into begging Danny for help and saying look, I don't know anything. I don't know how to do anything.

You do. I'm just, and you say you got to do what you need to do for your family. That's what I'm doing. Save my son. I can't do it. And he also offers him $1,000 in cash. And Archie gives, they give Archie some pills. And Clay shows Danny the leaflet.

And Danny goes, oh yeah, I had a friend in San Diego. Before the radios went out, he told me they saw similar leaflets there, but in an Asian language, maybe our enemies have teamed up against us. Bum bum bum. Story B. Amanda and Ruth encounter a big herd of deer. It's a stare down, the deer staring at Ruth, Ruth staring at the deer. This goes on for a long time.

It's a regular rain too. These CGI deer are just staring at Ruth. Finally Amanda runs over yelling to get them to go away and Ruth yells and the deer go away and Ruth goes, hi, I think the animals are trying to warn us about something. It's like, what would give you that impression? I don't understand. And they see roses by tracks. You know how they say the animals just as scared of you as you are of that?

It will also, the animal is just as scared of the end of the world. Well, the exact opposite. The animal is not scared of the end of the world as well. Well, the exact opposite. The animal is not scared of the end of the world because it doesn't care about human civilization. It's better for the animals if human civilization falls. True, but apparently some of them have got a nook to stand down south or something. Yeah, they don't know about that.

It's not in the deer. They get to live in the deer like the text messages aren't going through. What happened to my dear friends in the south? If human civilization falls, they're not going to be able to live in all the cool zoos anymore. They won't get hunted. The animals pathetically. The animals that are screwed, a few of the civilization falls are the collaborators, chicken, cows, goats, sheep, the animals that end dogs. I don't know if they're collaborators. I mean, they get eaten basically. Dogs and dogs do not have it good.

No, they made a deal with humans. They said, this is the way we survive large species. There's so many more of us than there would be in the wild. But some of us have to get eaten every now and then. Dogs are the ones who are like, I'm selling out animals. I work with humans now. I'm an official member of the family. Like, I'm a sympath animals. I work with humans now. I'm an official member of the family. Like, I'm a sympathizer.

Yeah, dogs are collaborators. Okay, anyway. I don't know, the number of wild dogs around. I think they'll do fine too once we're gone. I mean, they'll revert back. Well, I mean, the dogs will go back to the other animals and be like, I was always working to sabotage the humans. I was always against them.

I'm down from inside. I was trying to be a nice. I was encouraging them to have children. always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them.

I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them.

I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was always against them. I was against them.

I was always against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was always against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against them. I was against cheapest way to topple government. Number one, isolation. Step one, isolate them. Step two, synchronized chaos, which is a funny phrase. Microwave them. Microwave them, drop leaflets, confuse them. Step three, coup d'état and civil war. That way the target, which is already so divided, does most of the work for you.

And that's when in the woods, Ruth's one hour alarm goes off, George Stillson back, Amanda and Ruth look over to the New York City skyline and see explosion clouds, possibly a mushroom cloud. I don't think it is because the buildings are not vaporized. And they hear, and they hear gunfire. This is two days, I think, if I'm understanding the timeline after the Wi-Fi and the power went out within two days, New York has fallen into civil war, anarchy, sporadic gunfire, that I don't believe. I think what had happened was a disgrace government official,

Nizu accidentally shot to Kashy while trying to shoot Akira and said Akira just made an excuse explosion. Yes, New Tokyo Empire, etc., etc. I know. If that was what happened, if we saw a big Akira power bubble in Gulf of the city, I would say I understand what's happening. Yes, that could very well happen. This rule. And what an amazing moment in that story. What an amazing moment. That's

that story. It's such a hinge point from volume three to volume four, like at the way it split up in the dark horse volumes, like it's that's what it would a beautiful thing. Like and the just page after page of buildings falling over. Oh, beautifully done. Catcher here's a little note and whatever assistance he uses if he has any. I assume he has some, but we have a legion of them, I'm sure. Oh, it leads like angels that are really easy to kill. Legion. Yeah, yeah.

Legion of the episode. It's a professor who Xavier Sonny's got a bunch of dudes living his head. I think he's got some personalities. We got, we're going to talk about Akira and Dan got Dan's, and looking it up on his phone. I'm disappointed. Literally. I'm just, I'm just, pointedly not paying attention anymore.

No, I, like, Ali, I don't think you can blame New York getting bombed on the breakdown of New York society. I don't think you can be like, oh, it wouldn't fall into this. So quickly, like, it's getting, like that bomb is clearly a bomb, not like because of the breakdown of society. But who's bombing New York? If you're trying to take over the government, New York is not the place to attack.

DC is the place to attack. New York, why would you go there? Why would you bother? Uh, I mean, we don't know. We don't know. I mean, it's possible that it's possible to reach. It's possible, Georgia's possible that it's possible to agree. It's possible Georgia's explanation is just a made up explanation. It's just that work.

Yes, that's what that work. You would not be New York because you want that financial infrastructure. You want to take control of it. You don't want to destroy it. I don't think anyone who is, you know, on the non-New York side of the Civil War cares so much about what happens to New York. Well, it's the difference between a Civil War and a coup d'etat is the thing. And the movie treats them as if they are the same thing.

I know, but I think that we're not to take any of the explanations for what's happening as the final explanation. I don't think. I think that there's one that fits things to a degree, but we also don't know whether that bomb is coming from inside the house or outside the house. Like we don't know whether it really is like one foreign power working and like putting out pamphlets that implicate other foreign power

to continue to confuse people or it really is those people working together. I think that that's all deliberately left vague and it's all about like seeding, you know, fear. Then I feel like the movie is doing itself a disservice by providing an explanation that does fit all the clues pretty much. Yeah, but even if it fits the clues,

we don't know how it's being implemented, you know. No, but it can be part of the confusion. From watching our movies, maybe it's being implemented. You know, this could be part of the confusion. From watching movies, maybe I become trained to, if I see clues and somebody gives an explanation that fits the clues, then I go, oh, that's probably the explanation. But this is how I'm saying. I'm saying that, like, even if that's the explanation for what's behind it, we don't know precisely how this fits into that necessarily. Like, I think that.

I guess so. It does not matter. It does not, it doesn't like make literal sense, but it fits the thematic rule of they are trying to use the metaphor of civilization crumbling. Well, I think it feels like if the metaphor seems to me to be saying, we are so, this is how fragile the world we live in is, which I don't think it's doing a great job of selling that point, but it doesn't matter. The movie's almost over. Let's just get there. Rooza, she's broken into the thorns house. She has eaten all of their junk food in a hilarious moment where she's just sitting at the table eating junk food. She goes down into their bunker, a computer alert system says that the White House is under attack and high radiation

levels have been detected. She does notice that all she sees is there's a huge TV, a huge DVD collection. Guess what they have? The entire run of friends. She pops in the friends finale and we cut to credits as the friends theme song plays because you know what? They won't be there for you as this is the song, so it's very ironic. It's incredibly ironic. Well, what's true also is no, but what is actually true is no one told you life is going to be this way. That's true. That's true. A job that their jobs are jokes and now they're broke and their love life is a cent as D away as everything else in the world. Yeah. I mean, George's love life is very D away because he thinks his wife has died in a plane

crash. And it's all these things where Ruth Rose is supposed to, no, Rose, not Ruth. Rose is supposed to be, I think early on she's coded as this kid, all she cares about is TV. She's never going to survive. You know, she's, she's, she's done for. But now she's the only one who's gonna survive, potentially. Her lust for television has brought her hunger for television, has brought her to the

one safe place. Maybe that's the future. And what I would like is, you know what? Maybe this is what I, what's wrong? Maybe it's a, that maybe this is in my mind, it's in the shadow of the play Mr. Burns, this really amazing play where there's been some kind of ambiguous catastrophe. And society recreates itself around half remembered episodes of The Simpsons. And it feels like this movie is kind of fainting towards that kind of thing, but not, it's not as good as that one, you know. I mean, there's, I think it's doing a very, I mean, like it's, it's ending on that note, maybe if like, you know. I mean, there's, I think it's doing a very, I mean, like, it's, it's ending on that note, maybe if like, you know, I think, I mean, I just took it kind of as like a black joke at

the end of the shaggy dog story of like, that's possible. You know, this is it. But if that's, I mean, it's sort of this is like her ultimate shutting out of the world. If it's a joke at the end of a shaggy dog dog story, the shaggy dog, the story was not for me, was not gripping enough and the joke was not funny enough to just find it in over two hour movie. My life is a shaggy dog. Now the shaggy dog, DA, now that's a shaggy dog story.

That's a shaggy dog story. It doesn't get shaggy or that. When he's the, when he's the dog, when he's the DA, it does it, it's not so shaggy, yeah. Yeah. We're going to love a leash. Legal on a leash, law on a leash, yeah, shaggy. Yeah. We're going to love a leash. Legal on a leash, law on a leash. Yeah, shaggy too.

Yeah. So let's go to final judgments. Did it do, did it do, did it do. Got it. Just real quick, there was any bloops or anything in the post credits because I didn't know. I turn it off immediately. No, I didn't see any bloops or Sam L. Jackson didn't show up until Rose to join the friends initiative.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, is this a good bad movie, a bad bad movie or a movie you kind of liked? I think I've tipped my hand a little bit already. I basically, I give this a mixed positive, you know, like I give it, like on a letterbox, I gave this three stars, which is the, we all have different ways we interpret the stars. That seems fair. That seems fair, yeah.

A three star to me is the lowest something is that I might say to someone, yeah, why do you watch it? If you're interested, check it out. It's a mild positive for me where I'm not everything works, but... I mean, the power is out and the Wi-Fi and the cable. I did take it, like I said, when I take something not 100 as like realism on a story level because it's so clearly trying to just more evoke feelings and like also say something even though I agree like what it's saying is kind of muddled. I'm more forgiving about all that stuff like I wasn't like hung

up on a lot of details. I liked the performances. I think it has some like genuinely like interesting images in it. And unfortunately it gets like lost and kind of a wash up like we said, it's all crescendos where like there should be a couple of like key images that really pop out. That's a very good way to put it.

But I also kind of like that it ends on this note of, That's a very good way to put it. But I also kind of like that it ends on this note of, like, nothing is resolved at the end. Like, our characters are all scattered. They're all sort of at this suspension point in the story. And you don't know where things could go. And if you're a cynic, like, this is, like, truly the end, if you want to look for a science of hope, like, I think that the movie shows, like truly the end. If you want to look for a science of hope, like I think that the movie shows like the

characters growing closer over time as society falls apart and like there is like clay is able to appeal to this man's better nature. We're gonna plus some money, but like he is able to- Like the Manta and Ruth find common ground when they've been in the movies. Yeah, I think that yeah, I think it's constructed so that you can find hope if you're looking for it. And I sort of enjoyed that. I don't think I agree that like in some ways I've seen it before, but you know, mild kind of liked. I think I'm going to go I think this movie I it's hard for me to be fair with it because I've seen this story so many times.

And this is a kind of story I usually really like. And we have a question coming up that I'm actually going to cannibalize some of my answer for that. I like society falling apart stories. I like people being isolated and not knowing what's going on stories. And I feel like it's unfair to this movie that I've seen it done so much better in other forms and even other movies. And so it's to be honest, this movie, and this is maybe an inflammatory way for me to put

it, this is like the Obama's version of this movie. It reminds me of the presidency of Barack Obama, where it was like, I want to like this a lot on paper. I should like this, but I'm not getting as much as what I want from it. And in the end, it wants to have it. It wants to be both a chilling indictment and a sign of hope in a way. Yeah. You can't. It's in its muddled in the same way that I find a lot of

Obama related stuff muddled, to be honest, where he's like, reach for the stars, but realistically, we've got to compromise everybody. It's like, hold on a minute. Come on. But the, I think the movie suffers from just doing something that I've seen many times before. It's not necessarily a bad movie, but it is, there's, there was nothing in it. There was no, like you're saying, there was no, kind of striking key image. There was no moment of real scaring or tension or chilly or fear. There was no, it wasn't disquieting in the way that I hoped it would be. And that, you know, I've seen movies

that are quietly eerie where you're like, I can't really get my bearings. This is really throwing me off. And this movie is not that. And so I just was, I was just disappointed in it. You know, it's not that I'm mad, but I'm disappointed. If I was rating it, this is like a two and a half star movie for me, which again, it's not the worst it could be. But it's, I'm not going to go out of my way to

recommend it because there's better versions of it, you know. So on our scale, I guess it's bad bad, but it's not as bad as it bad, bad could be, you know, I wasn't like, ugh, ugh, this movie, but I was like, all right, so that's all there is. Okay. I did, I asked my mother, is that all there is? Yeah. I looked at a house on fire and I said is that all there's to a fire? I want to see what I want to see what stewards faces She's making me fucking Christ. No, I'm just LA just want to be put a fucking couple nickels in me won't stop Yeah, I was to at a certain points to it I was literally filibustering to make you have to wait longer

It's in your judgment like I was continuing to glaze over Yeah, I I mean, I think I'm going to, I'm going to air kind of closer to Elliot. I'm going to say it's a bad, bad that I don't think it, I think there's a movie that has plenty of, it has, it has some cool bits and cool moments and things that I liked. But I feel like similar to what I talked about when we were talking about the camera, like the camera movements and camera tricks, is that it feels like it's a collection of ideas that don't necessarily, that don't actually have a clear, like it, it's not tight enough. It doesn't have a clear. And that, that isn't to say that it's like terrible. I just don't think it,

That isn't to say that it's like terrible. I just don't think it, like it, it's not really saying much. It feels, in some ways, it kind of reminds me of, it reminds me a little bit of ex-Makana, the Alex, Alex Garland movie, where I'm like, there's a lot of things that I like in this, but I think as a whole, it's not saying anything particularly new and it doesn't feel like it's like it's somebody like playing it, making a movie. It's a shitty, I love it. I love it. I mean, well, I don't like, does something need to say something new specific?

Like, I think I think I think I kind of has a kind of a clear message in a way that this movie does not. Well, X-Mark, you know, I think, I think for me, the thriller elements didn't work as much because I feel like I didn't like it. I don't know. I don't want to get in the weeds on X-Mackena. It's hard for a movie to have an ambiguous quality to it. But then X-Mackena, I think you as a model, you're supposed to wonder what to wonder, is this robot really into him? Is he reading too much? Is it programmed to do this?

But it never really, I don't think it ever fully achieves that. But like, Alcsarland did an eyelation too, right? Which is great. An eyelation, which is great. I think does such a great job of creating that kind of, the kind of eerie-ness that this movie is looking for. And the kind of thing where every now and then there's something. There's an image or something that is very frightening and surprising like I feel like that's a movie

that it's not the same kind of story exactly, but it accomplishes the tone this one's kind of going for it in a much and then and then and man is the same way men is the same way until it gets becomes the craziest thing you've ever seen. Yeah. I haven't seen I haven't seen yet, because I've been too busy watching the minions movies with my children. I say, you want to watch a man and they go, minions? Yeah, of course, you'll. I feel like, I feel like your kids would at least like the last 10 minutes of. I love the idea of like Elliott presents the DVD of men, but he's just taped like a

little piece of paper that says says Ions at the end. So they think it's misspelled minions and then watches men with the Sammy and Gabriel and they get to the end of that movie, which I will not spoil for Ellie. Yeah, don't spoil that. You'll see. I have to watch it.

So I think when you describe it as cuckoo crazy. Yeah. I mean, I guess they are the same and that at the end, at the end of what happens, it goes, but not now. Yeah. So I should have known when that movie was rated C.C. for Kuku crazy that I should have seen. I think this movie, if I'm going to say one thing about Leedoral behind, it's not so much as it's bad as I think it's unsuccessful at what it's trying to do. For me, at least. Yeah, I think I can even agree with that, even though I basically enjoy the vibes, as they say.

Hey, this is Andrew Reich, the host of Dead Pilots Society. The show that takes comedy pilots that were sold and developed at networks and streamers, but never produced. It gives them the table reads they never got a chance to have. If you've never checked out Dead Pilots Society, this month's episode might be the place to start. The cast is incredible, headlined by the one and only Zoe Deschanel, and also featuring Pajit Brewster, Mikaela Watkins, Hamish Link Ladder, Asif Ali, and Maximum Funds' very

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Let me give it a try. Okay. If you need a laugh and you're on the go call S-E-O-P-P-A-D. I will never fit. No, it will. Let me try. If you need a laugh and you're on the go, try S-E-O-P-P-P-D-C-O-O.

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Yeah. If anyone's still listening, that was a long talk about, leave the world behind. Yeah, I hope you are. Hey, how are you anyway? I By bad wait, I do what wait, I do want to see one last thing which is Wait a little bit from the Sorry, I say the problem that the a lot of people in the internet had with that movie was the ambiguity of the ending, which is not my problem with it. I liked that.

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Yeah, one of that's a lot of sodium. Good nuts. Yeah, it was called sodium slap. And then they changed the name because people weren't buying it. Hey, guys, we have some things to promote too. This episode is not brought to you by these things, but hey, I'll still tell you about them. The last episode of Flop TV is coming up

just about two weeks after this episode, or about three weeks after this episode. That's right, the first Saturday of every month, we've been doing Flop TV, the television show version of the Flop House. It's a compact one hour show, where you get one PowerPoint presentation or presentation of some other

kinds. You get to, we talk about a movie and then we answer questions from the audience this Saturday. It's our season finale, which means we're seeing Nookie. That's right. Nookie. The second worst movie I've ever watched, I don't think Dan Stewart have seen it before and I'm going to make them watch it. So go to theflophouse.simpletix.com

and then you can join us on January 6th, Saturday, January 6th at 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific to watch us talk about having watched Newke. That's our last episode of this season, but we've had such a great response, we've been enjoying it so much. I think we are going to do another season later next year, probably not till the fall, but we hope you've been enjoying it. If you missed the episodes up till now,

get a season pass and you can watch the videos of every episode of the season, that's six episodes. Those will be up online through the end of January, at the end of January. We will take them down and we will start working on another season and our other stuff. What is our other stuff? Good to mention, you may have heard the announcement at the top of this episode. It should have been up there that we are going on tour at the end of January. It's a four stop West Coast four city tour. We're calling it the errors tour. It's essentially the most important thing to happen in 2024.

Go to www.flophousepodcast.com slash events. That's flophousepodcast.com slash events. And's flophousepodcast.com slash events. And you'll see that January 24th we're in Vancouver. We're gonna talk about Cobra. January 25th we're in Portland. We're gonna talk about Kula's Ice. January 26th we're gonna be in San Francisco, as part of San Francisco Sketchfest.

And we're gonna talk about Giley. And January 28th we'll be in Los Angeles talking about Spawn. So that's the Errors Tour, four cities, four dates. Go to flophouse house podcast.com slash events to see us in human person. If you are near Vancouver Portland San Francisco or Los Angeles, to be honest, with modern day plane flights, you're near any of those cities. Just take a plane there. You can do it. Yeah, just take a plane. Just take a plane. I have one last thing I want to mention. The the final issue of my

Comic-Con with me series Disney villains Hades issue number five is coming out right after Christmas That's from Dynamite comics. Please pick it up get the rest of the series if you don't have it It's a five issue mini series that is a mythological funny heist that's exciting and hilarious Hades the villain from the Disney movie Hercules has collected a group of mythological outballs to steal the Golden Fleece. I think you'll enjoy it. And soon I think I'll be able to announce some other comic book stuff that I'm doing.

It'll be fun stuff that I think you'll like. But until then, pick up Disney villains Hades, number five, right after Christmas in comic book stores. Cool. Okay, let's get back into the show. What do we do next, Dan? Next on the show, we do some letters from listeners, listeners like you. This first letter is from Alex, last name withheld. Who writes Alex Garland? Why don't you like X-Mock and a Dan? Thanks for liking it. I love your other movies. Dearest features. I've been looking for a chance to introduce

my wife to the flop house and saw the Battlefield Earth live show as a wonderful opportunity. Previously, the most communication we had regarding the podcast has been me mentioning some obscure fact about a bad movie. We would be watching and her asking, did you learn that from your movie boys? One evening. What a better fucking name than Floppy. Yeah, we should be called movie boys. Oh man. The movie boys would be much better name. Oh boy.

We could have gotten into the ground floor. There was nobody called movie boys. It's equally endearing and belittle, you know, way that is appropriate. One of the good movies sometimes too. One evening she was working on our laptop and I figured the show would be great to put on it in the background. A few minutes into the presentations, she commented without looking up, wow, that one has a nasally voice.

It was not the flapper one would assume. Oh, so. I mean, almost assuming me, so that leaves two lines. I, I, I, I, I, I will find out. Yeah, right, right. Let's do a fucking Twitter poll. Later, I mean, very nasally today. Later during this synopsis, I peeked over her to see how she was enjoying it. And sure enough, she had on a pair of noise canceling headphones. Overall, a great first impression.

Yeah. I'm not sure at what point she decided this wasn't for her, but I have a slight suspicion stew's lord up regarding warhammer. Was a bit too similar to when I annoy her with impromptu D&D lore. Mm, probably not. I was, she probably thought that part was really cool and then when it was over, she's

like ton of it on that phone. She's like, you need the headphones off, like, you ruminate and meditate on what I've just heard. I was thinking, though, how the show could have captured her attention. Maybe if the flop has solely covered J-Horror or switched entirely to a podcast about comfy, core cooking shows, I know that I personally can be psyched into watching any film based on the premise of the 10% of your brain myth, i.e. your liberal,

this is, this is, and the blue seas. Yes, what trope or topic when you see it in a film grabs your attention regardless of how good or bad it may seem otherwise Alex last name with held PS2. What should my next D&D character be? Well, I want to say first, thanks Alex for the criticism and notes, the demographic report on how we're not attracting your wife's interest. I think that I mean, she is every right to cancel our noise. She does not, maybe she does

not. Maybe, you know, don't spring spring the battlefield earth show on air while she's doing something else. But, uh, yeah, maybe I'll be boring. Maybe I'll be boring. My Lord Dump on the primarks of Warhammer 40,000. She put on the noise, canceling headphones, similar to the way that Lord Scroalk of the clan pestilence of the, of the scaven.

Tor out his own eyes upon gazing at Nurglegillage, because he would never see a more defined being sure possible. I don't. That. Yeah. Who should his, who should his, his next answer to me? Uh, I would say I'm a big fan of human paladins that are not the like, wouldsy one, but the most normal like boring paladin.

I think playing a character that has like a rigid moral code and is good is is fun to play like a lawful good guy. That's what you should do. Lawful good paladin, preferably human. As for these like tropes or whatnot that always lures and I'm going to name a couple things that are, I mean, pretty much like sub genres, but also can be elements. I like, I'm always sucked in by a heist, love a heist, and I like a, it all happened in one crazy night movie. I like movies where there's twins, you know, when there's like a twist that are twins.

Yeah. Like deadminkers, I don't know. Sure. Oh, so yeah, you see his eyes light up. Yeah, they're like femme fatale where they're basically twins. Yeah, hell yeah, give me that shit. I was until this episode, I was going to say post-ap stuff, but it realizes, I realized I like it afterwards. I'm a sucker for any movie where someone is walking

through the ruins of a famous building or and they don't know what it is. Like, you know, if you're watching Logan's run, that movie starts really working for me when they get to Congress and they're like, walking through the ruins of Congress and they're like, we don't know what this is, I don't know what this stuff is,

I really like that for some reason. but maybe this needed more of that. Maybe I want to see the sequel to this that takes place like a like 500 years in the future. I'm also a sucker whenever something can like build up a villain or group of villains really well. Like if you can effectively make a villain scary without us actually seeing them, I think that's awesome. Thumbs up to that shit. I specifically like if heist is too broad, I was thinking about like something that within

the heist that's always fun. If they're assembling a team, I'm on board. Yeah, you love that. Yeah. Even if it's not done that well, like there's still a little bit of zazz in it, I think. I like, I like seeing fist fights or physical fights in a narrow space. Yeah. There's don't have a lot of room to move around in. That's something. I'll watch any movie that where they do that, you know, from Russia with love, old boy. Old pressure with love. Say from pressure with love. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, from Russia. It's the now my king of Prussia.

Yeah. This next letter from Jeff Lasting with who writes, Peaches, why do you write like this? Peaches, why do you do? Why do certain films franchise film franchises? Yes. Now why do only certain film franchises get deep dives into the lives of their secondary and minor characters? Why do only some stories get spin-offs and media tie-in novels?

See even the playing field a bit, I've proposed that some industrious person publish a book of short stories titled, You Know Such Lovely People. This will be a tales from the Moss Eisley Cantina-esque book of short stories, publish a book of short stories titled, you know such lovely people. This will be a tales from the Moss Eisley Cantina, ask a book of short stories, though the book will feature the characters seen at Nick and Nora's Christmas Eve party. Chris was turning the thin man. During the thin man. Yes. Think about it. A short story by the guy you call San Francisco to cry to his mom. What's his deal? Did that box ever become a contender? We'll find out. The point is, that's the joke of that boxery. What's his deal? To that boxer ever become a contender? We'll find out.

That's the joke of that box. He gets knocked out instantly. All these questions and more, we fleshed out stories ranging from 30 to 50 pages each. Wow. Let's make it happen. Peaches, who would want to read this theoretical book? I know I sort of would. Jeff, well, I'm glad that our listeners are writing in book ideas for Dan. Well, I'm glad that our listeners are writing in book ideas for Dan for a while. I mean, the, the, the, the straightforward answer is to why some franchises get them and some don't is money, which franchises they think they'll be able to make money off of those. Yeah.

Yeah, that's, I do like the idea of taking that, taking just a party scene from, from any movie that has sequels and doing those characters. I mean, that's the difference for the most Hesley Cantina is partly that the characters in that book are aliens. Yeah. Whereas the characters in the, in the thin manner, just kind of like Damon Runion style, you know, aliens. Aliens.

Aliens. But that's all applied. You have to read between the lines so that there are anything. The guy who keeps the guy, the woman who's trying to stop the guy from popping all the balloons for the cigarette or whatever it is that he has. I love that scene. You know why I love you Nick? Because you know such lovely people. And then the next scene is great too when he's, he's using his Christmas present of the

BB gun and he's been, he shatters the window and he pretends to fall asleep. Good movie. Yeah, I mean, you know, I mainly just read that so we can all reminisce. So let's. Yes, Stuart, what's your favorite moment in the thin man? Yeah. Is that when he, like when he uses those spheres to drill holes in people's heads? Yeah, I believe you're thinking of the tall man.

Oh, yeah, I was. Yeah. Let's move on to recommendations of movies that we like a little bit better than say this one. Hell yeah. I'm I finally speaking of things that are on Netflix, forget, leave the world behind. I finally got around to watching May, December, the new Todd Haynes movie. Hey, you know, you know, it was good at acting that Julian Moore, that, that Natalie Portman, man, and that fucking Charles man dude is so good. Yeah. That fucking dude from Riverdale turned out. He's so good.

The way he like holds his body when he gets upset, he holds his body like he's a little teenage boy. It's crazy. I mean, yeah, it's a movie that I couldn't imagine it not upsetting you if you were to watch it, the theoretical person I'm talking to. It has upsetting elements and it's up to you to decide whether it's worth watching to you. But it's so wonderfully done. The characters are so good. It's a movie that you know, it's about delving into questions and finally only more questions. And it's funny.

And it's, there's some distancing techniques that are used in it only at like certain points that kind of like underline the encroation of this sort of, you know, tabloid movie version of their story into their life. I don't know, I can't. I'm not talking very well because I'm, I'm overwhelmed with thoughts and also Benadrill. So the, I love how this score, like you said, like the score is like a fucking 90s, like movie of the week type movie score. It's so great. Oh man, that's a great movie. I got a, that's, I think that's next on the list after we, after my wife and I finished

watching the holdovers, I think we're going to watch May, December. Yeah. And there's and there's a big ol' probably prosthetic hog in it. So enjoy. Yeah, you mentioned that before. That's up for the ladies and dudes and dudes. Yeah. Yeah, everybody, everybody can enjoy that. Anyone who takes appreciation out of the beauty of the human body. Yeah, the beauty of prosthetic organs. That's something. It's, it's an important art. Where would you be? Now I imagine David Cronenberg, here's you say prosthetic hog and he goes, I can't wait to watch it. And he watches, he goes, hmm, I wish it was goopier. I thought it was a real hog that was so done. Yeah. Yeah.

That turns into a can enter something. I'm going to recommend, I don't think any of us have recommended this one yet. I'm going to recommend Nicole Holliff Center's movie, You Hurt My Feelings starring Julia dryface and Tobias men's Z's. You said it's a job. Tobias, expect that we're gonna. Okay. I mean, everybody loves that, dude. It's, yeah, so it's about Julia Louis Dreyface plays a mom who is a novelist and she overhears her husband talking shit about her most recent work. And it like the relationship follow that follows that. And it's got a ton of small character performances.

It's funny and touching and kind of about how, you know, both like at least for me about like what we the emphasis that we put on our jobs, how it isn't necessarily the most important thing in the world and also how the little lies that we tell each other to kind of get through life. And I thought it was really good. Right. Well, I don't think we've mentioned this movie yet either. I want to recommend Born to Dance from 1936, stars, Elmer Powell and Jimmy Stewart and Buddy Epson is in it.

And this is one of these movies that it is a musical comedy where the plot is almost nonexistent. It's so Gossamorthin and Silly and stupid, but it's very funny where Jimmy Stewart and Buddy Epson and another guy are sailors who are on leave in New York and they get mixed up with dancers and Eleanor Powell has some great dance routines in it. She's a dancer who for some reason I feel like I came too late and her dancing is amazing and Jimmy Stewart is very silly in it and buddy. Oh, I'm really silly at it. Yeah, something like that.

I'm a New York. It's me, Jimmy Stewart. It's, oh, Mr. Stewart, you're here. I love this movie. It was so funny. I bumped into some dancers in New York. And, and buddy Ebsen, who I think, if anyone remembers him now, it's as Jed Klamppett.

But when he was young, he was, he was just an amazingly cool dancer, just an amazing dancer who had this very cool kind of like ease to him. And so born dance, if you want to watch something that's just really silly and really fun, and there is no substance at all to it for the most part, it is just real goofy from one moment to the next. The movie ends and it's like the movie climaxes and it's like, did we tie up all the

plot threads? Who cares? No, we didn't. Let's just get to the big dance number. You don't care. So that's born to dance. I looked up Tobias Minzies and I was like, I've barely seen anything he's been in. So I felt better about not knowing why you're so excited about him.

You should watch things and he's in stuff. Yeah, I should watch some TV. He was in the room. Oh TV, watch things and he's in stuff. Yeah, he's in, you know, he's in some TVs. He was in TV. Yes, you thought, right? You said game. You saw that right? He was in gaming. I said, I watch one season of Game of Thrones and never watched

Rome. He was in that great, in that great show this way up with Sharon Horgan and Oh man. And what Ashling B Man, that's great. Look, check out the filmography. It's fine. I'm just saying. He was in the BBC too, mini series of the shadow line.

I know you saw that, right? Yeah, yeah, bitch. I did see the night manager. He was apparently in that. Yeah, night manager rocks. Yeah. Okay. Well, on that important note about the night manager I know you saw I mean so pure pond the last hangman, which you apparently was in right? I'm just looking up his Wikipedia

Hey If you like us why not go to iTunes leave us a five star review if you don't like us five stars Maybe like wait listen to like a few more episodes until we wear you down and you're like oh, I like them five stars, maybe wait, listen to a few more episodes until we wear you down and you're like, oh, I like them five stars now. And then you can leave that review. It's a pleasure.

I like the interrelationship, Syracuse. If you hate us, I'm not sure why you've gotten to this point in the podcast. It seems like you could have just turned it off at any point. But you know what? It's to leave us a five star. No more, yeah.

Well, I was gonna say say no more action is needed. If you hate us, we've fulfilled the terms of the contract, which was we provided you entertainment for no recompense directly from you. Unless, I guess if you remember who's grown to hate us, I apologize. But please continue on giving us money. I think I've covered all the bases. It's what happens with parasocial relationships, you know? You know? The familiarity can breed contempt. It know? You know, familiarity can breed contempt.

It can, it can, it can, I get it, but just stop listening. That's fine too. But thank you for listening. I feel like he saved it in the end. Yeah, I feel like nothing says Dan McCoy to me in some ways more than him saying, please stop listening, Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support. Look, I can't buy Benadryl without you.

Thank you for being a member. We'll, we'll have a member drive again soon. But also thanks to Alex Smith. He's our producer. He's our editor. He goes by how old D on the internet look him up He's got his own great podcasts and music and all sorts of stuff very talented also

Check out maximum fun.org as we mentioned were part of that network. There's other great shows over there I listen to many of them I'm not gonna name names because I don't want anyone to feel left out but Danny can also they can also go to that website to buy flop house merchandise or by a jumbo tron personal message You know what we haven't added jumbo tron in a little while if you want to get up on the jumbo tron You can go to maximumfun.org slash jumbo tron It's spelled as you might think jumbo like Mrs.. jumbo and Tron, like the movie Tron. Like Mrs. jumbo Tron, but not separate words altogether.

Anyway, because in Tron, he gets shrunk down real small, but in this case, it's real big. It's a big Tron. That's what we're talking about. That's what we're talking about. That's what we're talking about. Yeah, exactly. I think I've said enough for the flop house. I've been Dan McCoy.

Hey, it's me, Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliot Kaylen. Thank you so much for your time. We'll take up more of it next week. Okay, bye. I really feel like I'm going to pass out every time I cough though. That's not great. There's a lot of people saying that if it happened in the episode though, right?

Yeah, so maybe if you see me fall out of frame, one of you should call Audrey. I'll take a minute. I'll assume that you fell out of frame because I made you laugh so hard that you just showed out of that shit. Yeah, if we see Dan's feet flip us, then we know it's because of a hilarious gag. Yeah. Uh.

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