The Flop House - Episode #385 - Amsterdam

Episode Date: December 17, 2022

Stick an Academy Award-nominated director with three of the most acclaimed actors currently working and an absolutely berzerk cavalcade of supporting stars and the resulting movie's gotta be fantastic, right? Right? We test that theory with a viewing of the wildly critically-mixed (at best) Amsterdam. One of us kinda liked it. The others ridicule it extensively. It's all good fun.Wikipedia page for AmsterdamMovies recommended in this episode:Rolling ThunderDouble LoverFruit of ParadiseEver tried Microdosing? Visit Microdose.com and use FLOP for 30% off + Free Shipping. For those wishing to enter the SEXY XENOMORPH VIDEO CONTEST, here is a direct link to the isolated song file for the song of the winter, Sexy Xenomorph.Sexy Xenomorph Contest: Full Rules —To enter the contest, make a music video for the song Sexy Xenomorph (link to song in show notes) in a style of your choosing.Once you’ve completed your masterpiece, upload it as a public video on YouTube with the words “Sexy Xenomorph” somewhere in the title, and be sure to credit the music to Howell Dawdy’s Fast Track and The Flop House podcast somewhere in the video or video description.Once the video is uploaded, email a link to us at [e-mail] with the subject line “Sexy Xenomorph Contest.”We’ll be accepting entries up to midnight on New Year’s Eve, 2022.Once we have all the entries, the Flop House gang will pick our favorite ones – somewhere between 5 and 10 depending on how many entries we get – and we’ll set up a page on our website where people can vote on who wins.The winner will get a Flop House prize pack and will get to pick a movie for us to cover.

On this episode we discuss Amsterdam. It's an epic multiverse crossover, the movie that finally brings together Batman, Harley Quinn, Gamora, Ilyana Resfuton, General Zod, Black Clansman, Austin Powers, Marty the Zebra, Rayland Givens, Freddie Mercury, Dr. Victor Erlich, Travis Bickle, and Bomba Lorena. Though none of them are playing those characters. Man, what a movie that would have been.

Not this one. Hey everyone and welcome to the Flat Pass I'm Dan McCoy. Oh boy, it's me, Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliot Kaelin and I have a little bit of a cold, so Stuart may need to take over the summary of the movie from me some way through. That's Elliot, because I was like, who's that sexy boy? Yeah, crackly. When I have a cold, I do sound like a sexy boy. That's a lot of trouble.

Why is the crackly boy sexy steward? Yeah, it's because it sounds like you're not long for this world, so it's like any, you know, everyone will come to you faster. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah, and all beauty comes from that's fleeting impression on the mind in this temporal space. You know, every handed will come to you. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And all beauty comes from that's fleeting impression on the mind in this, in this temporal

space. Wait. Let me find out. I'll text my friend and in a cold Smith real quick. That gives me more of a Kathleen Turner feel. I feel like. Yes. That's what I was thinking when you said that.

I'm like, if I close my eyes, is he Jessica rabbit? Yeah. It's like there's a crackling fire inside your mouth. Mm-hmm. Just like in those, was it, what gum commercial was it where they would say the inside of your mouth is a blistering 98.6 degrees, as if that was not the normal human. Exactly. Yeah.

And it's like footage of people like sweating their asses off. It's like, get out of that dude's mouth. Idiot. Like as if people walk around going like, my own tongue, it's suffering. Yeah. Well, as you've surely guessed by now, this is a podcast where we watch a movie that was a critical or commercial or both flop. And then we talk about it.

We discuss what we thought of it, usually making some jokes and japes along the way. It's called the flop has been going on for 15 years, put in your ears, you're doing it right now. You're soaking in the flop. Wow. It feels like you're stalling. It feels like you're stalling until a sniper can take one of us out. I mean, if you line up perfectly, the hitman, I'll get that, uh, that achievement or whatever the fuck. And this is our second, uh, David O'Russell picture, although the first one he took his name off of, uh, male slash accidental love. Hmm.

Cool, cool, cool. Cool. I have the screenwriter with us because the screener of this time was David O'Russell. Uh-hmm. Interesting. Who by all accounts is a genuinely unpleasant person to be around. So he asked to be on the show and we said,

Yes, I've only heard negative things except from a mutual friend of ours, Elliott, who I will not name for their own safety, who was like, no, he's a nice guy, but he seems unreliable. I imagine he is one of those people who is a nice guy to some people and a real nightmare to other people. Exactly.

Yeah. Maybe he just doesn't handle stress when we are bad. Yeah. I just know that anyone who shouts that Lily Tomlin is instantly on my shit list. No, that is true. You know, the reason to do that ever. Yeah, indeed. Although that video, if you've ever seen it, there is the funny moment where he leaves

the room and then walks back in again. Yeah. Anyway, he's it is much like a scene from the film that he is directing. Actually, it feels like it. Yeah. He's so this was David Russell's first film as a director since joy, a movie that I genuinely did not understand the purpose of and found baffling. That's it. That's another David Russell movie. Spo spoiler alert that I liked a little bit better than the the the populace seem to like it is absolutely a mess. And before that was term by some of it was what do you do before that American hustle. Oh, what a stinger. I do not care fair that one. I don't like. Yeah, it's a stinger. But before that was overlining's playbook and the fighter, both of which I really like. I think those are both

really good movies. Yeah, I think the fighter. it loses a lot of steam when he decides to shoot the climactic fight as if you are watching it on HBO, which is an interesting creative choice to reputue it. It's almost Brechtian, the distance that he is putting between you and the characters at that point. But he's a hit and miss director by which I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he hit a miss at some point. Yeah. He seems like a difficult man. No, he is definitely from all reports, not a nice man who may have also done some weird stuff. We won't get into that. And he came to blow.

He came to blows with George Clooney. Yeah. Instead of three Kings, the client my favorite David O'Rossel movie. Yeah, that's, hey, that's fine. That's a totally, that's a totally good choice right there. Yeah. Yeah. So we won't spend a lot of this episode on the merits or, or, or,

dim merits of David O'Rossal just because we're here just talking about the movie. And I think we're going to have an interesting debate and discussion about this film possibly because, uh, we'll see, this was a very divisive movie in the critical community. Uh, I know, I knew the New Yorker put it as one of its 10 best movies of the year. And I would not do that. I mean, let's, let's not, let's, let's do it. Spoiler alert. Nine movies.

I think it's going to be clear pretty early on that I will be the defender of the movie more than the others. Like I basically enjoyed it, even though I think there's a lot of, that's a mess, but I would not have put it on a 10 best list for sure. It was, I was amazed. I had to look up Richard Brody's review and Richard Brody, much like the other New Yorker film reviewer, Anthony Lane, is a very idiosyncratic individual reading his review. Everything in this movie that didn't work for me worked for him like gangbusters.

He just could not get enough of it. So let's talk about this movie, shall we? This kind of screwball mad cap, relatively jokeless, relatively thrillless spy comedy thriller. Yeah. About American fascism. But American fascism and a made that amazingly keeps hinting at the subject of race and then running away from it as quickly as possible. So let's, it starts with a text on screen. It says a lot of this really happened. That is fucking, utterable, and piece of shit thing to do.

Like every fucking movie these days, these days, but it's such a fucking common thing trend is to be like parts of this happen, but parts didn't happen. It's like, fuck, okay, dog, just leave this part out there. Yeah, I would say that in a movie that is more based on reality than this film, I actually appreciate that it's gone that direction because it's like, look, it's admitting up

and up, look, this is a movie. Some of this is bullshit. But as much as I don't love, as much as I don't love the big short, that they do keep towing that line where they're going, some of this is true, some of this is not, but this like, this movie is 95% just totally made. Is it just so loosely inspired by something? Is it just to protect themselves from like those people who like went to see tar and were mad that that person doesn't actually exist. I think it is to make it sound more important than it is because this movie is kind of

like reaching for important, but it's, it's, it's, it's reach exceeds its grasp, you know, as all-man kind should, I guess. So we found out it's New York. It's New York in 1933 and we're introduced to our most of the time narrator, but not all the time. This is Bert Baronson, played by Christian Bale, and he is a World War I veteran who focuses on making facial prosthetics for disfigured, World War I veterans like himself. He has a missing eye with a glass eye and he wears a back brace, and he's always getting

in trouble for making experimental drugs and testing them on himself. A character quirk, which never quite becomes a plot point or a real character trait. Like, it just kind of pops up every now and then. I mean, it does justify how long the monologue at the end of the movie is because it is the ratings of a stone man, but that's true. And I feel like you see a movie like Fear and Loading in Las Vegas.

We are like, this movie feels like it is about characters or high all the time. And the movie is making me feel like that. Where is this kind of doesn't get across, but the main my main problem with Bert Bernson. I don't know if you guys had this issue. His voice and his mannerisms are like they are so stiffly attempting to be Jewish. That it Jewish, that it edges into anti-Semitism. And I was like, is this what Christian bail thinks Jewish people look and sound like? Like it's ridiculous. And he keeps them at how he's half Catholic, half Jewish. And I'm like, well, maybe that's why he's such an unconvincing Jewish person.

I don't know your thoughts as Gentiles. As a Gentile, I mean, I guess I wasn't attuned to that. This was the first thing I was going to ask you about. I mean, Audrey said, oh, he's like, it's like Christian bail creamer. And that's kind of what it is. He's doing his own like midge maizeal thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I, I start written somewhere as described as a Colombo by way of Puccino. No. Okay. Which, which, which feel, which is like, yeah, I could see that, that makes sense. It's, but it does feel like he is, he's going for New York, Jewish and he's not quite

hitting it, but he is, it does feel like he's trying for it. Yeah. So he's best friends with a lawyer named Harold Woodman played by John David Washington. This is his war buddy. They met, they were fought together in World War One. And Harold comes to him and says, Hey, I need you to perform an autopsy on a man who means a lot to us. General Bill Meekens, the man who is our commanding officer in World War One, who will go on to be played by Ed Begley, Jr. Now, because John David Washington

very handsome, very charismatic and talented, seems to have drawn the short straw for quirky characters in this movie. Yeah. Yes. He is, he is a date where everyone else is, is frantic. Well, most other people are frantic. There are a couple, Zoe Saldana is pretty sedate. Margot, Robi is a Robbie rather is, is kind of just left to drift by her character. We'll talk about that when she comes up. Yeah, I think, well, I think it's this movie and I don't want to keep accusing this movie of things that are unfair, but this movie at times feels like an episode of Seinfeld where all the white people get to be wacky doodle, you know, wacky doodle crazies. And all the black people their job is to like roll their eyes at these wacky doodle crazy

white people and the black people don't get to have fun. It's a little bit like that. So, uh, so, uh, he Liz Meakens, the general's daughter played by Taylor Swift in, I have to say probably my favorite performance in the film to be honest. I felt the most like a real person. I was like, I like, you know, shortly before she left the film under. She certainly gets run over by a truck like a real person. Like a real person.

But I, yes, right before that happened, I turned to Audrey and like, really good in this. And I was just thinking that and the thing is like, I mean, you know, I we're both fans of her music, particularly the last few albums for me. Audrey like you're not you and me. I don't I don't like or dislike. I think she's very good and I, you know, Bumble Arena was no chance to judge her acting ability. So I was glad to see that I thought she put in a good good good job here. She comes out the best of it. So Liz Meakens, she suspects her father's death of being foul play. She wants them to perform a secret autopsy. They have two hours to do it. So they got to rush that corpse out of that funeral home real fast. And then the Chris Rock shows up

as Milton. And he's like a friend of theirs who I guess works for Harold and was also World War One. And there's never a real reason why Chris Rock is particularly in this movie, except to like show up and tell a joke every now and then. And then to get and to help and then to help say the moral at the end. And so they rush it out. Bert is like, I don't want to do this. I hate doing hot tops. It's fine because mostly hot tops, the work is done by Irma St. Clair, played by Zoe Seldonia. And if it's always,

already, it's usually it's Zoe Seldonia, but she started being credited with a till day over. Okay. So I think that's her family name is her father's name was Seldonia, I think.

So I think she's trying to reclaim her actual. Thank you very much. Because I just thought you put some English on. Yeah. Yeah. actually some Spanish But I don't know how she pronounces it but for a long time she's been so I sell down

But she's credited here very as always sell down you but so uh the She does most of work. She's a nurse. They kind of just need Burt's signature on it because he's a doctor, but it's implied that his medical license is either on probation or has been suspended. Yeah. So I don't know why his signature would be so good on an autopsy. Anyway, he's mostly at this point, a legal drug dealer for veterans in pain. Yeah. Yes.

And they've both been unlucky and love. Harold is clearly trying to set. Which is like, kind of like to a drug dealer like the way that like a serial killer who only kills other serial killers is right where it's like, it's okay that he does this because he's doing it for good, you know. I, I, I, I, I guess we have for good. It would be okay even if he wasn't a veteran who needed medication. Oh, that part.

I was like, I thought you were arguing in favor of the moral appropriateness of setting him up with Zoe, Zoe, and I'm like, no, that seems fine. I don't understand why we have to justify that with veterans. No, that's totally fine. They clearly have some chemistry, but they, he can't act on it because he's married and still hung up on his wife, right? Yes. And, and a phrase that comes up a lot in the movie is the idea that Christian Bale followed

the wrong god home. And there's a lot of very pretentious language like that in the movie is the idea that Christian Baal followed the wrong god home. And there's a lot of very pretentious language like that in the movie. It's a movie that I'm just gonna say right now early on. Watching this movie I was like, is this what it feels like when people who don't like Wes Anderson watch a Wes Anderson movie?

Or people talk in like an artificial tone of voice and it's very kind of either wacky or manored and there's a separation between reality and this and there's a lot of like pretty costumes from the past and stuff like that, except David O'Russell's movies are by choice, chaotic messes. That's what he prefers to me. Yes.

Whereas Wes Anderson's a very controlled, so I feel like Wes Anderson for me really works because I'm like, I'm never supposed to be in reality. I mean, his reality, and he gets to an emotional truth through it. Whereas with this movie, it feels like David O'Russell is trying to get to an emotional truth without making a choice of being real or unreal, if that makes any sense.

You know? I see why you feel that way. I thought about this too. I can also, you know, it's also kind of reminiscent of a lot of people invoked the Cohen brothers, like this sort of sprawling, like capery thing with a bunch of wacky characters. And they also, you know, have their characters speak and height and dialects all the time to sort

of clue you into the fact that perhaps you don't need to take this as existing in our reality. As little reality, yeah. Yeah, and I didn't, I think that I imagined that a lot of the people who watched this who liked it less than I did, IEU Elliot. In me, maybe, yeah, I know, but we're talking to Elliot right now. We'll get you used to it. Oh, shit.

You're gonna take your licks. No, no, no. I mean, a lot of people who didn't like it, whether it be the two of you or others, I think had this problem where it's like, it didn't clue enough into maybe that this reality is not a thing that you need to be taken seriously. So the things that are said just seem unreal, you know, enough into maybe that this reality is not a thing that you need to be taken seriously.

So the things that are said just seem unreal, you know, like they seem like, well, no one would be like this, but I don't know. I don't know. It's just personally. And I think, I mean, it's one of those things also where I think you're right. I think there is part of that that it if the movie had chosen to be more artificial or less artificial, it might have worked more for me, but that, but it doesn't. The sensibility is not clear. But also, if it was funny, I wouldn't care as much. If it was exciting, I wouldn't have cared as much. The difference between West

Anderson movies and this is Westerners movies are really funny. Coen Brothers movies are really funny and they're exciting because the Coen Brothers are maybe the greatest living filmmakers, I would say, at least in America. West Anderson, his movies can be hit and missed, but I love him overall. And I feel so that you super talented. Whereas, which we for David O'Russell is that like for someone who's made so many movies, I feel like every time he kind of forgets how a movie works and how to show things visual. It likes to slop it up. He does.

He does. He does slop it up. He does feel like a lot of scenes feel like acting exercises that they're just like, yeah, let's run with it. We'll fix it in post. And I think it totally has to do with whether or not you like find the characters like fun to hang out. Like that was like, what I was like, this is. I think that's true. Sloppy and that's part of what I enjoy about it. Like I just don't mind hanging out with the characters, even though some of them are more boring than others.

But I can also totally get why it doesn't work for people. Like I did. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I mean, my issue with American Hustle was partly that like the movie just kind of would forget it was a story for a long time. And you just watch the characters yelling at each other. And it was like, I feel like I'm watching a bad improv show right now where everyone's just yelling at each other with accents on.

And in this one, I think it makes sense to end that it's sloppy, but you enjoyed spending time with these characters. I felt it was sloppy and I did not like these characters and didn't want to spend time with them. And also, and the worst thing as we'll get to it, when you're watching characters having a beautiful, great time and you're not keyed into it, it becomes offensive to you. It's like, and there are scenes in this. We're getting up to see. Well, it feels like when you watch the end of SNL and everyone's hugging as if they had a transcendent experience and you're like, that was a fucking shitty show. Like what?

This makes me matter that you guys are acting like you just pulled off a Tom stopper and play. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, anyway, so like a three pointer at the buzzer and the whole team won. Yeah, exactly. So, so, so Liz, so they find evidence of foul play that he may have been poisoned. It's hard. Liz Meakens, he, she doesn't show up, but they're supposed to meet up, but she kind of, they find her. She's scared of being caught. She says her dad saw and knew something that got him in trouble. But before she can say what it is, a guy just

runs up and pushes her in front of a truck. And she gets hit by a trucking kill. And then the guy pretty funny. It's genuinely shocking to say. Yeah. Taylor Swift just pushed into the street and truck ran over. And that was a moment that worked for me because I genuinely was not expecting it to happen so fast. And this is Timothy Olafant, right? And the very heavy makeup.

Yeah, he did not know until the end credits because he's gross. They grossed the gross, they grossed the grossed. The man and he looks. They really buried those diamonds cutting cheekbones under heavy putty and he pushes him from a truck and then just points that the dam and goes, hey, they did it and everyone immediately believes there is a lot later on when they're being questioned by the police, but where they're like, yeah, he's, he was able to do it because he's good at being a criminal. And I'm like, yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah. He convinced, he convinced a crowd. He's controlled the narrative.

He was the first one to say anything. He's point, he's point, he's pointing at, you know, in the past, I mean, well, I mean, we don't even have to qualify it, unfortunately. He's pointing at a black man and a crazy looking drug addict. I mean, Christian bail throughout does look like a maniac, you know, but yeah. So it's an easy crime to pull off. Perhaps giving the lie that he's good at crime. Who's eyeballing his own? How much how much money you think is put into those eyeball effects? I think a lot.

A lot. I think so. And within moments, they are, they are defending themselves to the crowd and then suddenly running as a police officer shoots at them. And then this is when, oh, they're on the run. They're on the, they might get caught for a murder. They didn't, they didn't commit. Hey, guys, weren't you wondering how they became friends? Let's jump back to 1918 because you know what? I wasn't wondering. I could just take it for granted that they were old war buddies. But we have to introduce to the third member of their triumvirate that we don't know about. So, Bert's in-laws convinced him to enlist in the war and suddenly were in France. General Meekens puts Bert and charge of a group of black soldiers

who are being, because the white, the white soldiers being racist to them, this is also loosely based on truth that there was a unit of American black soldiers who are treated as part of the French army because the white soldiers in America would not work with them. And so the idea, and they keep saying, it's a dishonor, you have to wear the French uniform. In real life, they wore an American uniform with a French helmet and some other French stuff. But anyway, it doesn't matter. But the point, this is more true than some of the other stuff in it.

So you only give it one Pinocchio. Yeah. Half of it. Half of it. I just give it up, half Pinocchio's nose. Yeah, it just looks like it's a slightly longer than normal nose. Yeah. A serenose.

Yes. The kind of nose that you probably shouldn't be contouring because it's already noticeable. Yeah. But embrace it. Yeah, embrace it. Let's call it ultra aqua line. Now, and not ultra aqua long, which would be a combination of the movie ultraviolet and the Jethro tola album aqua long.

I think we're going to go to the sun. I think they sink up. Let's blow the line. Get up. Try to sink it up and see if is that Shirley Shirley is there in in ultraviolet or am I I don't think they sink up. Let's blow. I guess. I tried to sink it up and see if, is that Shirley, Shirley's there in ultraviolet? Or am I think, or is it a, is it, or is it a, is that Christian bail as well ultraviolet? No, that's equal library.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. See if it, see if it, see if it, I think it might be me a jove of it. It might, but that, because me a jove is, is she resonant evil or is she ultraviolet? I can't remember. Oh no, at least they're on is a on flux. That's right. So, so who's an ultraviolet?

It's me. It's me. It's me. Whoops. We got. We just earned us a Pinocchio. Yeah. So see if you send us a YouTube link to your mix matchup.

Send us a YouTube link of me a Joe Vich shooting people to locomotive breath. And we'll see. We'll see how it sinks up. So the, he puts a Burton charge of these soldiers and Harold is one of them. He makes and so is Chris Rock, his character Milton. And Harold makes a deal. We'll keep you safe if you keep us safe, which is kind of, it feels like that should be the deal between the man and officer and the soldiers. Anyway, they do, they must do a bad job because they all get shot up and sent to a hospital where a Margot Robbie is a nurse working or a medic. She's patching them up. She gets in trouble because she's taking the metal. She removes from their body so that she for reasons she hasn't explained yet. She's collecting it.

And Harold defends her and French and turns into a mini uprising in the room of all the American soldiers defending her. And she reveals she's not actually French. She's Valerie Bandonberg, an American socialite working in France. And suddenly she's veowing about the instant connection she felt with Harold and with Bert. And it gets very, it's like two people in love is a beautiful thing. But when you are standing outside of that love, it is sickening.

Well, also I will say, yeah, that's why you're always complaining about polycules. is a beautiful thing. But when you are standing outside of that love, it is sickening. Well, also, I will say, that's why you're always complaining about polycules. Unless it, I know, because I mean, if this, if this had become a polycule, I would have found it more interesting than it just being herald and Val and their friend Bert who hangs around and shares a room with us, like, it's just closing his ears while they have sex. Like, I don't, like, if they, there's no, anyway, it's not interesting. It never goes full. Yeah.

Love trying. Inferno is full. It wasn't jammed. Yeah. Yeah. Happy threesome. Um, but I, Margot Robbie here, you know, well, first let's talk about the, the being in love because I'm, I'm, unless two actors have like, they're both very attractive.

They're both very attractive, but unless two actors have like, really strong chemistry together, I tend not to think about it that much. I just accept in most movies, like, they'll tell you, like, oh, they're in love. And I'm like, sure, fine, because like, I don't know, in life, when I see my friends who are in love, they're not like, I'm not like, it's electric at every moment between them. I'm just like, yeah, they love each other.

But this movie, maybe I'm wrong, I felt like had not that much chemistry between these two very tragic people. I agree, and the movie is trying very hard to present this as a love for the ages, a transcendental love, and I felt like they did not have much chemistry, so the movie is trying very hard to convince you

of something that it's not showing. And I feel like one of the great things about movies, one of the most powerful things about movies is when they take an emotion, a character you're watching who's not real is feeling and or real if it's documentary and they make you feel it. And the best movies about love, they do make you feel not just that these characters in love, but you become affected by the penumbra of that love to use Supreme Court talk that has been overruled in the Dobs decision, I guess. But they make you feel the glow of that love. And the movie is trying so hard and Burke keeps trying that out. He feels it,

but as a viewer, I know I did not feel it. And so it just felt cloying and kind of like. Yeah. Not it not, you know, it's like that scene in a garden state where she puts that headphones on. He listens to that song. And it's like, if you're not keyed into that feeling of that song, then that moment is is. Wait a minute. Are you telling me that there's a flaw in the movie garden?

Garden. Dan's favorite movie. Just the one flaw. I do think also one of the problems with their romance is that of the three leads, like a lot of energy gets put into characterizing Christian Bill and not so much into these other characters. Like John David Washington doesn't get a lot. I think Margot Robbie gets the worst of it.

I think that she is a tremendous performer. Like obviously like movie star, like beautiful and charismatic, but also like gained for like very talented and like, yeah, she's amazing for fucking gods. Yeah, but it's amazing how much like this movie does. Even though I liked it, it does like really like dampen her spark in particular. I feel like, yeah. Well, she's not playing a character. She's playing like, I mean, to use an overused phrase, credit to Nathan Nathan Raypin, a friend of the show,

she's playing a manic pixie dream girl. Like she is the manic pixie dream girl who is also the, at later on, as we'll see the girl with a medical problem, which makes her fragile and therefore more beautiful and more gives her more zest for life or whatever. And so when you meet her, so. Her one characteristic is she is taking

these shrapnel pieces for her bizarre artworks that is the only thing she's given. Let me go take you through this whole scene because this is the scene, I feel like if this scene didn't exist in the movie, I might have liked the whole movie better. Is she goes, okay, I'll tell you to what I use the metaphor in exchange for something beautiful.

So Bert leaves them through making up a nonsense song in French made out of nonsense phrases which they all sing together. And it's so beautiful to her that she shows she's making kind of art pieces and toys with the shrapnel. And as I wrote my notes, who boys it, Tweet? And we get a, you know, just a montage of her showing off different things where she's like, it's just very cutesy and precious. And it's like the scene that like culminates in like, like head on character shots of them and they just say Amsterdam over and over.

That's the end of the sequence. Well, that happens at the, yeah, that's kind of the end of the answer. But yeah, it's very, it's very precious and not based on the novel push by Sapphire. Yeah. It's, it's, it's precious in a, in a, in a clawing way, in a humble figure. Yeah. This is, you know, this is my least favorite part of the movie, just slightly below the long explanatory ending, which will, when they, when they go overward explaining the most obvious twist in the history of like not since death on the Nile has there been a more obvious villain reveal. Like, wait a minute.

All the characters we don't like are bad guys and in on the conspiracy. Okay. Cool. And all the ones you've seen pretty nice are good. Oh, nice and good. Yeah. Yeah. So they sneak off to Amsterdam together.

And this is when it's start, this sequence starts off with them meeting up with two of her friends who are clearly spies, Mike Myers and Michael Shannon in the role of Paul Cantorberry in English style and Henry Norcoz in America. Hold on, Stuart. Yeah, yeah. My, my neighbor, Michael Shannon. Yeah. Surely you found something to enjoy in the double act of Mike Myers and Michael Shannon bird

watching spice. I mean, I can give me more of that, please. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the two of them, it gets annoying by the end of it, but I like when they first show up, I was like, the same way that when Michael Myers shows up in Ingolary's bastards, I was like, yeah, Michael Myers shows up. And Mike Myers shows up.

Sorry. But that that what Michael Myers? That wouldn't actually be really, really wild, if you think about it. When, if Brad pits like, I want 50 German scouts from me to you and Mike, Michael Myers is just like, and not a problem. Like, I feel like he'll be awesome. I just really, one of the things I enjoyed about this

character is like, I felt like there was a certain bizarre realism in the way that like, they're portrayed as company men where it's like, they're clearly spies, but they're like, no, no, no, no, no, we're not spies. You know, we run, we, uh, we make glass eyes and we're bird watchers. And everyone in the room knows that they actually are spies. And luckily, the movie, the movie, the movie, the movie sky. And luckily the movie, but luckily the movie are as soon as we're fucking babies because it actually puts their actual titles in like a little title card underneath them. And I'm like, I fucking knew that shit, dude, you didn't have to show it to me.

It's amazing how much this movie, and I have to assume these are things that were put in afterwards because maybe test audiences were confused because the movie was moving to best. It's amazing how often the movie underlines incredibly obvious information. Or just doesn't trust the audience. So they go on about birds, they have a bunch of taxidermied birds,

they're bird watchers, and they're like, hey, we're gonna give Christian bail. We're gonna give you a lifetime supply of glass eyes. And in return, you're gonna owe us a spy favor at some point, at some point, because we'll have to go to Oregon because, as Margot Robbie says, the dream repeats itself because it forgets itself. Yeah. And because we assume automatically that you will be involved in some sort of thing that

will mean your help. That's the funny part to me. Like they can't know that later on, it's going to be embroiled in this experience. Hey, you're a one-eyed doctor and you're a lawyer. I'm going to need your help at some point in the future to keep America safe for the monster. I'm right. I'm back. You walking into a bar. Can I mind your life rights for that?

The, so now there's a long sequence of them just dancing and partying in Amsterdam. This joyous time and answer, Dame is basically just them in one, in a one room apartment dancing all the time. Like, my eyes are standing. I've seen the dreamers before. I know what it's like, right? It's, I mean, said it a different time, but yeah, pretty much the same thing, except the dreamers had the guts to have them all have sex with each other.

So, you know, I want to make it clear that in case listeners heard it too fast, Mike Myers did a sand dance and not a fan dance like Uhoara and Star Trek 5. He just dances around on some sand. Yeah. He dances around some sand while dressed as the guy and you can't take it with you who is posing for a pick for a drawing where he's like, where he's like wearing kind of Roman clothes, but also right, like the modern shoes. Anyway, um, uh, Valerie joins Harold and Bert's friend packed, Harold and Valerie on love, bodily blood. This goes on for a while. It's very repetitive.

Bert says, I have to go back to New York to be with my wife. Uh, and they're like, don't go. Don't go. It's life is perfect here. And he has to go. But when he gets back, his father-in-law blacklist blacklist from the hospital, he works that immediately for working with veterans, which is weird, which is, it's like, I could see that maybe happening after like Vietnam. I don't know. But after World War One, I mean, maybe that happened.

I don't know. But veterans were so hated after World War One, you know, we missed, or we, I don't remember what's talking about it. Like a scene, a very quick scene in the flashback earlier where, um, bird is being set off to war by, you know, his end laws. And it seems sort of clear that maybe they'd be happy if you didn't come back like, yeah, they're portraying it as like this will make your name. You'll get respect on, yeah, arc Avenue or whatever, but they kind of don't want them to come back. That's true. So Harold, he has to practice medicine in an alleyway. He gets a more feeing addiction. He goes to jail. Harold wants Valerie because they know she's rich to use her connections to help Bert. She doesn't want her family to know where she is. And she agrees

to help. But then she disappears. And they don't and they never see her again or will they move me now back to 1933. They're on the run. They go to Bert's wife's department and agrees to help, but then she disappears. And they don't, and they never see her again. Or will they? It's a movie. Now back to 1933, they're on the run. They go to Birch's wife's department. And at first she's very cold to them, but then she checks his back, which is all scarred. She talks about how ugly and grotesque it is, but it's implied that she's turned on by his wounds and that he's not comfortable with that.

This is never touched on again. They have a very strange relationship, which kind of makes it feel weird, like real to me, but also I'm not quite sure what it is where she seems to be sort of turned on by the fact that he's so broken and injured, seeming and he doesn't want to be that, but also like she sort of hates him, but also seems to have like genuine love for him,

just not in a way that allows her to behave in a way that he would be happy with, I don't know. I feel like she is not given a, so this is, this is, this is, this is be just played by Adrian Ries, Andrea, Riesborough. Maybe she's bringing some of the feel of possessor with her to this character, because right. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. She's succeeding the way a lot of the other actors are not in giving depth to an underwritten character, but it doesn't really fit what the move is doing. Yeah, because we're introduced to this character by other people talking about her. And so the impression we have is that she is maybe a shrew or a shrill and she is not going to let him be himself and that she wants nothing to do with him. But then when we're introduced to her, we're like, who is this weirdo? Yeah. And plus ultimately, she is very helpful to him, even if she's wrong for him.

Yes. Look, so. You know, I forgot that was her and Mandy too, as Mandy. She's really good. Yeah, she's good. Yeah, she's really good. Anyway, so the quality of talent is not the problem of this movie. Yeah, that's true. It's an amazing cast. It's an amazing cast. That's true. So that's a good point. So she's like, they wanted it to help.

It's weird. They kind of assume in this movie that every person who's connected to rich people just has what they like strings to pull, which I guess is probably true. But she tells, she helps them identify that, that before Taylor Swift got killed, they thought she said, she said, Mr. Rose. And she goes, you mean Mr. Vose? Mr. Vose, Tim Vose, he's a, he's a rich person. I know him. And that's when the cops barge in, but it's cops. One of them, Bert knows and is a regular patient of Bert's because he's also world-renowned veteran. Yeah, played by Matthias Schurner, arts from a bigger splash and the old guard.

Yeah. And the other is what, Tiki Malta-Santi from many saints in Newark. Yeah, Alessandra Navolla, he's really good too, as like the doofusikap. I mean, they're both good, but they're both good. Yeah, they're both good. Very defensive also, because he didn't serve and he's very defensive about it. Yeah, they're both good, but it also feels like, do we need this much? Do we need this guy to like pick up random shit and break it on accident?

I love that. And I love that. I love her reaction when he broke the fence. I love it. I love it. I'm like, well, come on, movie. Well, I did movie. I did like that that character, the way he's portrayed, you don't know if he's being threatening or clumsy. It's a little bit of both, but also that these characters, I found them genuinely more

funny than some of the others, but I think you're right Stewart. Does the movie need these characters to have as much going on with them when they just need to be two threatening cops that keep coming up and bothering our main characters, especially because you're saying they steal focus. They never really do much. They steal focus while never really doing much of anything because they're never a genuine threat. They always let the heroes go away. If this was a role playing game, I would be like the Dungeon Master is putting away too

much fucking time in these empty seats. That like that. It's a dungeon and and the Dungeon Master has put all of his prep into the two guards at the entrance gates Yes, well a hilarious routine but two of them and then you walk into the dungeon and the monsters are like It then there's I guess like a dragon. I don't know blah blah dragon And you're like shouldn't you focus more on this? I mean, I will say apropos of that like we'll get to the ending But I know that I movies are not trying to sequence at all But this movie has this uncanny feeling.

Exactly. This movie has the candy feeling of a film that they put a lot of energy into it at the beginning and then just ran out of energy as it went along. And then, you know, like the John Mulaney joke about righty happy birthday. Like they're like cramming as much as they can in the last 20 minutes. So I got really distracted. Dan's showing a video that's a Christmas special where the guys in Ninja Turtles costumes just showed up with Alan Thick and he's like performing a song

and they're dancing around him. It's wild. I was just showing a video. I had a stream on that a friend was doing an old Disney holiday. It is unprofessional for you to be running a video art gallery while you're supposed to be podcasting. I don't know why I'm distracted by it once. I think that's being extra professional. I know, I know that it's part of part of the Namjoon Pike exhibit that you're putting up is he requested that it only be up while you're podcasting, but still. I, I, no one would have known if Stuart hadn't spilled the beans, but clearly he was distracted

by it. So no, I should have known that he's like the dog enough. And would not have been able to avoid the size of the ninja turrets dancing. And Dalin thick. Yeah, sorry. Just like a dog. What I do if I caught him, you know? So anyway, the cops are like you killed Liz and they're like, give us some more time to

clear our name and the cops say, okay. And this and the next is a moment that I feel talks about the lack of threat and lack of stakes in the movie is they go outside and Timothy Hall of Fame just drives by and yells, hey, don't tell anybody anything. Committee of five and then drives off and and bird is like Bert's like, why didn't they just kill us? And it's like, yeah, movie wide didn't he just kill you? And why did he yell the name of the bad guys who are secret? The movie does never adequately answer those questions. No. Hey, he might as well say, I'm doing this for a secret committee that's trying to

pull off a coup. Don't tell nobody scouts on or now. I mean, I think that the idea, I guess, is that killing the wood. He pushed Taylor Swift in front of a truck. I know. Why not kill the morphine addict and the black guy? No one's going to care. It's the 30s. I guess.

I know. I'm saying that if there's any rationale, I can think of it is that killing them draws more attention to the conspiracy. But if that's so, just let them go. Let them go and like rave around and take their luck with the police, you know. So anyway, they go to see Mr. Vose. They go to his estate. They pretend to be charity collectors for an Episcopalian charity.

Mr. Vose apparently isn't in, but his wife played by Libby, played by Anya Taylor Joy is there. And I liked Anya Taylor Joy in this movie too, to be honest. I feel like I haven't seen too many movies where she gets to not have a mystical side or a strange side, but just gets to be kind of like a jerk, you know. Um, we don't get, I feel like I don't get to see too many performances by her where she gets to just be a flat out jerk person, you know. Yeah. Now, I think that this movie uses her kind of alien quality well where it's like,

what is this person's deal? Like they've seen. And I mean, and by the very end, we'll get there. There's one moment where she's talking about real energy and talking of beings from another. Yeah. Yeah. That only comes up for a second. That's when, uh-oh, Valerie walks in and they all recognize each other because of course they, why wouldn't they recognize each other? It was the most important moment of their lives. And Valerie

tells them she told Liz to hire them to investigate her father's murder. And she's actually not Valerie Bannonberg. She's Valerie Vose of New Jersey. And Harold is offended that she's been in America for years and never got in touch with them. And she tells them that she, they learn from Anya Taylor-Joyfer that she has a nerve disorder now. She's been in America for years and never got in touch with them. And she tells them that she they learn from Anya Taylor, Joy for her that she has a nerve disorder now. She's some. She's behaving. She's behaving strangely at this point. Yes. She's not behaving like she was back in Amsterdam. She's lost her Jouah de Vive and she's got nausea and vertigo and weakness. And so they say she has a nerve disorder and Libby, Anya Taylor, Joy is her sister-in-lawlaw and she sends a big thug to beat them up and

he punches bird out, but then Harold punches the thug out. Bert wakes up to meet the guy they came to see Tom Vose, played by Ramy Malik. So you know instantly he's the villain. Yes, yes, yes. He's the bad guy. If Ramy Malik doesn't have big Freddie Mercury horse teeth in his mouth, you know he's the bad guy. You don't, you don't cast him in a supporting role to not be the bad guy. If he's the lead, maybe he's a

lovable weirdo of some kind, but as a side character, he is the villain. Yeah, he's much like Max von Sydow, Tyne. Yeah. Exactly. Much like Latter-day Max von Sydow or Latter-day Ed Harris, he radiates, I'm the villain in this movie, you know, and I'm sure he's a very nice man in real life. We're, we're friendly with people who are friends with him. I never read him and he apparently he's a very nice person. But anyway, so Valerie argues with her sister-in-law. Everyone's arguing. And this is when Christian Bale is at his most fake Jewishness with the way he's gesturing. So stiffly.

But anyway, right on your starts blaming Valerie for Liz's death for getting these guys involved. Anyway, Tom says, I'd love to help you. I can't get personally involved. I am just a bird watcher. That's what I specialize in. I don't like to get involved in this stuff. But you know who you can talk to, the most decorated marine of World War I general Gil Dylan Beck. I don't know. It's one of World War One, general gill Dylan Beck.

I, and I don't know, it's one of those things where it's like, I know plot wise, why Tom is sending them to go talk to gill Dylan Beck. It's part of the evil plan. But movie logic wise, I don't know why in that moment, that character, why, I don't know why Harold and Burke are like, yeah, that makes sense. We'll talk to this other general. No, the conspiracy doesn't make any sense, no matter how much time they try at the end to put into explaining it, because we'll talk about when we get there, but there's a point

in which the movie switches over from like, okay, our heroes are in danger from the bad guys to, for some reason, the heroes and the, like, the bad guys want the heroes to be at the place where they're doing their evil scheme. And it never quite makes any sense to me. It turns, it turns into a trap, the bad guy. It's, I mean, everyone in this movie, much like the real life conspiracy that it's based on. Everybody is kind of flat footedly running around stumbling over their own feet. And I feel like even though it's not based on this story, I feel like burn after reading gives such a better sense of like people who are think that they are spies or think that they're in a conspiracy and are just bumbling into each other because they don't know what

they're doing, which is how much of actual history works. Anyway, they go general deal and back. He was, oh, this is why he was, he was with me, he ends at one point, he's travels. Maybe he can tell you why he's poisoned. And they watch a news reel. That is just to show us who Dylan back is privately owned news reel. That's right. He knows who he is.

Because the idea that that maybe has, that Libby has such a crush on general Dylan back that they watched his news. And Dylan back his play by present day. Rob DeNiro present day Rob Deiro, who's an old man. Who is it? And it's similar to the Irishman where it was like, here's him in World War II. We de-aged him so it only looks like he's in his 50s

when he was fighting in World War II. Like, General, we're supposed to believe that he was fighting in World War I 15 years ago. I guess it's a general, so maybe, but he was already an old man. So anyway, the whole point of the newsreels to show is to introduce the audience, kind of poorly, if you're not familiar with it, to the bonus army march of the 1920s when the, or I guess

was the late, there's the early 30s. Maybe I can't remember exactly who it was, but there was a period where World War One veterans, they were owed a bonus by the government, or at least they wanted a bonus by the government, because so many of them were living in poverty and they marched on Washington and encamped in Washington. And eventually the US Army led by Douglas MacArthur and I think Pat and was involved too, just came out and forced them out and attacked them. And so the idea is that Dylan Beck was the leader of the bonus army march, a real thing that actually happened. And the newsreel melts partway through and they talk about how they have to get another one. And how would we? Because of, because of, because of Gremlins, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And melting because we got all the information we needed. Yeah, basically, move it along, will we? I mean, that is a good way to, to do, oh, so this was in, sorry, it was in 1932. So it was the 30, it was right after, it was during the Depression, right after that. Anyway, they were, they were marchers who were demanding more money for their service and did not get it.

So they herald and Valerie, they have a moment together, but they're like, oh, our love is impossible here. Da, da, da, da. And Tom talks to Bert. And at this point, I was kind of wondering, like, why is this scene still going on? Why aren't they, why haven't they left? Tom tells Bert, though, there's, there's this unscrupulous British bird watcher who steals eggs and that's the kind of person who probably killed Meekin. Meekin. And it's like, we know he's talking about Mike Myers character

but he doesn't come out and say it and it never really builds into anything. If he's trying to create suspicion in their minds of his enemies, the other spies, it never really leads to much. Anyway, Valerie is like, take me with you on your detective mission, but they leave the house without her and it seems pretty clear and as the doctor shows up and it seems very obvious already that the medical treatments she's getting for her disorder are what's actually causing her symptoms.

This is incredibly obvious, was it obvious to you guys as it was to me? Oh, sure. When a sinister doctor comes in and goes, oh yeah, yeah, she has this disorder and they're like, she never used to have it. And he's like, well, she has it now. Anyway, I got an injector with some stuff that makes her feel bad. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the lead like, yeah, I mean, it does make you respect the characters

all a lot less that none of them seem to realize this until the end. Yeah. Because it's not even like the movie is giving you red herrings. It's just hand you herrings and saying, this isn't a fish. And you're like, I can tell it's a fish. It's a herring. It's a regular herring. So anyway, they get try to get in touch with Dylan back over, I guess, the phone or the mail. But he turns down Birch request. Harold goes back to see Valerie and they could work. They're like a little date. Yeah. And this is when they say Amsterdam at the camera a bunch of times again, the police show up to birds office and Bert gives the one that gets medicine medicine.

The cops threatening with closing his office, but this doesn't lead to much. Then he walks himself in his office to meet with Irma. Yes. And he'll hide outside and like listen in. That's all very, I mean, like I enjoy, I enjoy their double act again, where they're like, what's he doing? He's listening to music. He likes music.

Yeah. Like they're talking back and forth about the music. And it's kind of amusing how deadpan it is. But I'm, you know, as much as, you know, whatever, find happiness with Sotheonia. But like, why aren't you immediately dealing with the fact? Like you have not the proof, but she says like, Oh, I was, I was attacked by someone they took the, the solar tops, you know,

it's, which they are broken. It's obvious that I have been in a fight. Like, why not just tell the police that immediately? It makes me nervous. Like, I know that they would have a romantic moment. And it's a, it's a movie where the characters seem to feel no, uh, the seem to feel no stakes or urgency. Thank you, urgency. And there are movies where there's an urgent problem. Like the big Lebowski is a movie where the joke of the character is how little urgency he feels at times that he has a mystery on his hand.

As we go home and takes a bath and lights a bunch of candles or like in a hurricane or a commie novels, someone will be searching for a missing person and will go home and make pasta for dinner and fold their laundry. And it's like, That's true. And always drink a beer. That's true.

That is the quirky thing about it. But here it's like, Christian Bale's like, we gotta meet this doctor. He can clear our name. But first, I'm gonna go to work. I'm gonna have a regular day at work. And when Irma shows up and it's like, they broke my wrist and they stole my papers. He's going to turn on the radio so they can kiss

for a moment. And it's like, it's a weird thing then is that his wife shows up all of a sudden just to interrupt the scene. And then she leaves again. Like he doesn't make any sense to me. Just to like remind him that he, he should be. Yes. Perhaps him. As if she knew that, so that, that Irma was there. Well, she does. She did. The, the, the, the, the secretary called because I forgot about that. Yeah, but it is weird that she's then like, she's just there to like, dangle the possibility

of change in front of this face. And then we, it's so funny because it's like the police show up. And then he leaves them so that Irma can show up. And then he leaves that conversation because Beatrice shows up. And now Irma is waiting for Beatrice to finish. And the police are waiting for both of them to finish. And this could be a really funny moment if there was any sense of like, farcical, you know, urgency. Yeah. And you're talking about urgency and stakes. And early on the movie, it comes up with like an immediate problem with her. Like we need to have this autopsy done in two hours.

That didn't matter at all at that point. And for me, that should have been a clue that the rest of the movie is not going to matter. Yeah. Because if you introduce a timeline that you multiple times mentioned, this has to be done quickly. There's no effort to make it seem like they're moving quickly or that it even matters at all. Yeah. I agree. And so the veteran he says, I'll do you. Okay, I'll, I'll, I'll let you keep going, but you got to get me the contract that Harold signed with Liz Meakin. Since we wanted the autopsy

results and those are missing. And then Bert falls down, I guess, because he takes one of his experimental drugs for a moment, uh, Irma and Bert leave the office. They're briefly stopped by two old men who sing a song to them because they're rehearsing for this big veterans reunion gala that that Bert is organizing with Harold. Uh, Bert goes to Harold's office and Val is there. And apparently they had some misadventure that had violence in it, but we don't get to hear about it for a little bit. Again, there's no urgency because there, uh, Bert's like, we got to go see Meekens and they shoot, they're like, we're on it and they drive to the Waldorf Astoria to see Paul Cantibary, Mike Myers, and

and birds like we got to go see meekens and I'm like, movie, just fucking figure out what you're doing. Like, and Paul gives Bert a new box of glass eyes and a man throws a drink at Bert because he's he's such because his his status in the birding community. So he's the name because his status in the birding community is so, is so. He has been smart. The name of what was the bird. And there was a bird that like, they're mad at it, that he has been spurred to the name of it because he's proved that it's a, it's a parasitical bird that will steal other

birds' nests. Yeah, right. Yeah, and it like, and this scene, I don't know about you guys, was so fucking funny. I just lost my shit. I had to pause the movie. I started slapping just lost my shit. I had to pause the movie. I started slapping my knees so hard. I had to call the dog. Why enjoy my other movies only growing?

But how much is angry? Yeah. So anyway, Paul takes them to an office where Michael Shannon is. They both talk cryptically about threats in the world and England or whatever. And Bert doesn't trust them because Tom Vose told them this story about this evil British bird watcher, but that dissipates pretty quickly. And that's when they give their speech about how the Kuku is a destructive parasitic bird. It steals other birds' nests and then destroys the nest. And this is supposed to be a metaphor for fascism, basically. And Val says she and Harold, now they finally

tell their story that they were at her house. And they saw that Timothy Olafant, the man who pushed Liz Meekens and her car was outside their house, then left. And they decided to follow him. And it's such a ridiculous, it's like, so I guess he was there watching them, right? So why did he leave? What they left and they followed him to a, to an anonymous building that had a medical clinic in it where they are forced, where they are doing forced sterilizations on black people. This barely ever comes up again.

And the medicine all has this vaguely swastika-ish symbol on the bottles. And there are signs that say like the Great Nation Society and stuff like that. They have a brief fist fight. There's a brief gun fight. They run away. And Harold is like, I saw a clinic like that in Texas too. And it's like, oh, and you never brought it up. But there's two things that I find galling about this.

One is that the forced sterilization of black people is by far the worst thing that is happening in this movie. And it barely gets mentioned again, too. This is a thing that states were doing at this time. So the idea that a secret committee is doing this terrible thing. When this is a thing that was happening officially, it's like the movie is both trying to, it's like the movie doesn't, it's so, just that the movie is so muddled headed in the way it's presenting these things, you know, which only continues. But anyway, and I just want to

say that forced sterilization of anybody is bad. It's bad. Yeah, I think we can, let's just go out. Yeah. In case we need to do, let's go on the record that that's bad. It was bad. It was bad. It was bad. Mm hmm. It's bad. Yeah, I think we can, let's just go out. Yeah. In case we need to do, let's go on the record that that's bad. Flop, that's against it. It was bad. It's happening to all people. Oh, right. Well, I, I, I, I, I hate to tell you it's too late.

He's already got, there's already a lot of little must. I know. But the, but it's also that this, that we had, we got to see so much goofy stuff happening in real time. But this moment happened in a flashback is a strange thing. And I wonder, it's just a very weird way to structure your movie. Yeah. Paul and Henry explained, there's a cabal in America that's in league

with a German cabal. Now, this is 1933. It should just be able to say Nazis, especially because Nazis show up later, but they say it's a committee called Dürr Fumpf. And our heroes go committee of the five committee of the five. They repeat the words committee of the five as if it's got a secret meaning so many times in this movie each time it's just like committee of the five committee of the five. And it's like, I yeah, man, we got it.

Anyway, it just this makes me so mad. But anyway, Dylan back apparently say has also been investigating his committee of the five. He they keep trying to get him to join them and he keeps leading them on trying to figure out who they are. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've been having these dizzy spells. I've diagnosed with epilepsy, despite not having seizures before they started giving the medicine.

And the medicine makes me worse. And they go to Dillonbex. Valerie is feeling very weak. Dillonbex wife played by Beth Grant in a very short scene. I wish she had more time. She won't let them in. They kind of barely try to convince her. And then our three heroes argue and then this is Dillonbeck is like, oh, the general says

you can meet him. And it's like, well, then what was the point of all that charade, you know, if they were barely going to have to try, but anyway, they go in and there's a guy named Maguire who has a bag of money, who shows up once a month to offer Dylan back the money to help his committee, which is called the committee on the sound dollar, but he flubs and says committee of the five. He just, they don't even have to search for clues. He just says, yeah, my group, the committee of the five, I mean, committee on the sound dollar, but he flubs and says committee of the five. He just, they don't even have to search for clues. He just says, yeah, my group, the committee of the five, I mean, committee of the sound dollar. Yeah, he can really show us up while they're,

you know, stacked on the staircase. Listen. Yeah. Yeah. And so Dylan Beck, Robert and her, he says, prove, prove your identity. I met you once and you sang a song for me. Can you sing it again? And they sing it. It turns out to be their French nonsense song. And he tells them that their friend, Bill Meekens, was killed because he saw something monstrous. And he says that the man downstairs is offering him money to make a speech for these secret conspiracy masters. And Bert says, you come to our gala and will lure up the bad guys. And the general is so instantly on their side and says to Maguire, do you want me to be your dictator? Is that it? And it's one of those things where it's like it's a secret plot that he already seems to have figured out exactly what it is

And he just goes and says it and it's a movie. Everyone's always like we got to be careful what we say the committee of five is everywhere And it seems to know the committee of five is almost not existed and they can they just spout about what they're doing all the time Like it's as if in three days the condor rubber record kept going up to people and being like, Hey, I worked for the CIA. Someone tried to kill me. Can you help me? Thank you. Appreciate it.

Calls up the CIA. Hey, did you, were you the guys who tried to kill me? Cause here's where I am. Let me give you the address and you can show up and explain it to me. That's a smooth way. Again, it's like a fucking role playing game where an NPC shows up and he's like, Hey, players, I need you to do this. And then the players are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, and talk shit and say something obviously wrong,

like Robert Nero being like, oh, I clearly suspect you guys are bad. And he's like, ha, ha, whatever. That's what it's like. It's like, we got to move this movie along. My character normally would be suspicious of your behavior, but I don't have time for this. We need to, we need the plot to happen. Yeah. This movie's got to fit into it's tight two hour and 14 minute running time. So the, so they

set it up. Dylan Beck's going to give this, he says, I'll give your speech. I'll do it at this veterans reunion. And Dylan McGuire says, yeah, yeah, you can meet the 20 of the five privately there to okay. And they go to Tom Vos's office where he's got some pictures on the wall that are covered with little napkins or drapes or something. They all find that very suspicious. At no point do they get up and go over and lift those curtains to see what the pictures are. Why would they?

Anyway, it's fan art of fucking Shrek and Sonic having a baby. It's, yeah, it's all, it's all pictures of a doctor feel as an M and M Mary and Shrek on the set of supernatural. Yeah. We have to stop this. Yeah. So those shows up with his wife. She is star struck by the general and Tom says, Hey, why don't we have the reunion

be broadcast over the radio so everyone can hear your speech, Mr. General Dylan Beck. Speak from the heart. Speak about Bill Meekens and Bert explains their plan and voice over as if we didn't already know what it was. He's like, so we're going to set it up. So he's going to talk at the reunion. And when the committee of five show up, we're going to reveal who they are. And it's like, no shit, dude, like I've been watching your movie.

Like, and then the police show up and they're like, we're going to help you too. The same two police officers who have been rude to the movie where I like, like, I'll be Frank. I was struggling with like, hey Frank, nice to meet you. I knew you as Dan, but yeah, you know, but your friend now that's a Frank for the purposes of the next few minutes. No, I've been dealing with, oh, that's why you're, that's why you're so loud.

When it's called temporarily Frank, temporarily Frank, I've had a chim wood rings. I think lately, I've had some separate early Frank Woodring. That must be amazing to see the world of his eyes for a couple hours. Wow. Anyway, let me be honest instead and say. Jim Wooddrink, right?

Anyway, sure thing. Yeah. Yeah, I've had some general work recently. I've been having some like lingering pain. This was the point in the movie that I sort of got up to try and deal with that pain issue and was afraid that I'd miss something, but I hadn't really. And the reason I- It's just so bad that you were seeing it in a theater and you couldn't pause it.

Yeah, yeah. I was still in the room. I'm just saying I was paying like a little less attention, but- Oh, okay, I see. Just marginally less, but the thing was also the moral of the story is I hadn't missed anything. The movie just stops making sense for whatever degree it was also the moral of the stories I hadn't missed the thing. The movie just stops making sense for whatever degree it was in the past at this point where it's like.

Yeah, everyone's wearing giant ass suits and wearing giant ass suits. I was going to say from Dan, a movie stopped making sense is the highest compliment. Dancing with one. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, but yeah, this must be the place. If you want to say goodbye and be saying bad bye. But it's suddenly, suddenly the movie's like, okay. Let me get my point out, please, please. Suddenly the movie's like, okay, the bad guys are like, yeah,

let's get the good guys into our room at the same time we're doing our kind of a seat of our pants scheme that may or may not work. Like it's all cool that that's happening now. And the police are immediately back on the side of the good guys and be like, yeah, we're also gonna help in this sting that you're planning.

Like, like, you know, obviously, like I said, I like this movie more than the rest of you. But like this is the part where I'm like, it's just really hand waving so much away for the purposes of getting everyone in place for the climax. And yeah, we're at the gola and everybody shows up, right? Like every character that's ever been alive is there. Yes, everyone is ever existed. There's like, there's like the ghost of Ed Beagle Jr. Taylor Swift. They're all the ghosts are there.

Yeah. I think a better version of this would have been like, okay, we are really, we're on a tightrope right here. Who's using who and who's going to come out from? It is a dangerous situation for both sides. Who's going to, who's risk is going to pay off? But there's no, there's no urgency or stakes. So it doesn't matter. And we spend so much time at the reunion gallery just watching them dance and listening to music. So the spies are just backstage, just hanging around. And at the gallery, Dylan Beck asks, can't I bring North Cross, who side are you on? And they go, well, you're on, we're on your side, which is the most suspicious thing a spy can tell you. Like that there's no, well, of course, I'm on your side. Oh, sure, sure. And the spies are very nervous about everything. There's lots of jazz dancing,

the veterans sing a song about peanuts with Bert. They love this peanut song. We've heard them sing it a few times. I guess that's what they take the we. That's what they take the hallucinogenic eyedrops and Anna Taylor Joy talks about like, no, that's it. That's short from beyond the stars. That's shortly. So a birds in laws show up. They're like, we're proud of you.

We're going to help you get your medical license back. This is so great. Everyone's kind of milling around for a while. Tom's wife doesn't like that. Valerie and Harold are recording things in it with a film camera and Bert is appalled when Beatrice is just like a social climber and and he's like, you know what? I don't want to move back in anymore. He goes, I've waited too long for the wrong thing. And Beatrice goes, I think terrible things might happen to you. And then goes off to help her mom meet rich people.

There's a, a, a, a, a phato singer singing in Portuguese for some reason. I don't know why. And then Tom Vos, he takes Dylan Beck to see the committee. Of course, our heroes are all allowed to go with him because who has this secret conspiracy? Sure, Dylan Beck has a plus three to come meet them in a secret back room. And we see the three evil businessman being like, hello, we're evil business. Well, one is one is played by one is played by great character, Leland Orser. I know that he's played by noted shithead Chris North. Yeah. That's right. I didn't even recognize Chris North. Yeah. Cause you assume that he like his character had an accident on a peloton. Yeah. Yeah. I thought he just vaporized in that moment. Yeah. That when his character died on the show, he disappeared from reality, like a double dragon bad guy that you've just beaten up and he just goes, boop, boop, boop, and blinks

out and becomes food. Anyway, so it's a chemical magnet, a communications magnet and a telecommunications magnet and a newspaper magnet. And they keep calling the general gill, even though he says call me the general and they're like meekens. I don't know what it is. My friend's your guy's only general meekens. Sir, there's only one general that I respect and he hangs, that was Shack a lot.

He sells me mine. He's very short. So, and they talk about how they've had business, good business in Germany under strong leadership in Germany, good business. And it's this weird thing where the movie is kind of operating under the understanding that nobody in America knows who Hitler is, which is bonkers. It's but that he's kind of like a secret guy that is that is operating under even though

at this point, he's already the chancellor of Germany. It's very weird how they're anyway. So they're like Germany, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more. When it's also the fact that like many American businesses, we're still doing business with Germany. At this point, the movie studios were still doing business with Germany. So like the idea that they must be evil, they're doing business with Germany. Like that was generally, it was lots of people to anyway.

And cement are here like our heroes part in this. They are hiding in the back, recording it all on a video camera, which I don't film camera, which I don't. Yeah, they're recording on their iPhone. But Harold is just holding up his phone, but he's holding it sideways. So it's like, don't do that. No. But he's recording it.

But in a way, like, I made the, you know, I spoke wrong, but the way it's being recorded, it's just a, it's just film of these, of these men standing around. They don't get, it's not like they're getting the audio. Like there's no, they're not actually capturing any damning evidence other than people standing in a circle. Well, I guess they can prove that these three guys met with General Dylan Beck, but that's not much. That's pretty weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak, weak. That's pretty weak teeth, weak, weak, weak, strong evidence. Yeah. And as if we, so in case we didn't get it, Harold Mimes, that symbol that we saw on the medicine jars earlier to birth, as if we're moron. And like,

the magnates were like, hey, the general, would you like some expensive real estate? Wouldn't that be nice? And it's, it's so happy. It's like a bunch of children. And his reactions are always negative. He is giving them no ground. He is like, I don't like you. You guys are idiots. And this plan is going off perfect. It's like, and that they're like, they're like, how about this? And he's just like, you're a bunch of evil people. I don't like you. So there's this is going to never question that he is going to like do what they want. Yes. So that's when they take the German eyedrop drugs. And Anja very briefly talks about how they use it at the real society to talk to advanced

alien races. And like that's kind of that's based slightly in historical fact too of people thinking they could do that. But it's just very it's very funny that that just suddenly comes up out of nowhere. And Libby who up to this point has all been, been all about keeping up appearances is now like, oh yeah, by the way, by the way, I'm a, I'm like a Nazi super naturalist, a Nazi occultist. Should I mention that? I use drugs. So, and Tom and Libby, they tell the general, don't go off script. I'm going to give you some more

money and a walrus skin bag. I what a threat to like this weird hidden threat based on it was at a bag or a book. It looked like a folder. It's like an attaché case, you know, and he goes, he goes, listen, if you don't give that speech, your reputation might get destroyed, people might kill you. And as if we're and it's like at this point, I was like, it's been so obvious. Tom was a bad guy. Are we supposed to know it yet or no? Is this, are we as the audience supposed to think this is a sincere warning? Or is this one where supposed to be like, oh, so Tom, the evil guy is also in on the evil plot.

Hmm. Anyway, they say don't make this mistake like Bill Meekens. He goes out, but he makes his speech, as a bird goes out and introduced to the general. And then the deal back comes out and he gives his speech all about how Meekens was great and he was killed because there's a conspiracy and blah, blah, somehow, even though I didn't see this in any previous shots, unless I forgot it, there is a group of members of the German American Bund, which was an American group that sympathized with Germany and dressed like Nazis and held a rally later in history at Masses Square Garden in support of the Nazi government. Like they're there in full uniform, somehow they've been hidden in a corner up to this moment

and they're shouting German at him. And it's like hold on movie. Like the movie has been dancing around this up to this point. It's like the movie just got tired and was like, whatever, Nazis, Germany. Here we go. Okay. But Dan, what were you going to say? Well, I also think it's funny that De Niro's speech at this point is a weird combination of

being like very blunt and being like, Hey, people want to, to bribe me so I can become like this puppet president. But also like talking around everything in a way that like, I don't know that all of the speech would make sense to anyone who hadn't been watching the movie up until that point. Like the people in the hall. Fair. Anyway, it doesn't. The whole thing is that he does.

What he does say. Mekins was killed because he witnessed like Mussolini's car run over a person or something, right? Yeah, which doesn't seem like. I don't know. I don't know. He was, he was in a car with Mussolini and Mussolini's car hit a kid and kept going and that Mussolini didn't feel any guilt about it and that were a morse.

And that was apparently the heart. Like it's not even that it's plain flover in islands where they were making a fake alien that was going to end world's worth three. So of course, Mekens had to be taken out. Like it's, it's, it's pretty weak, again, pretty weak sauce. Again, this is the fascist. By this point, I think they'd already been slaughtering people in Ethiopia, you again, pretty weak sauce. Again, this is the fascists, by this point, I think they'd already been slaughtering people in Ethiopia,

the Italian army. And so it's like, it's one of these things where it's like, this seems like, I thought it was gonna be like, oh, he saw the plans that Hitler was gonna invade Poland or something like that. Or he saw the plans for the Holocaust or a nuclear weapon. But instead, it's just like Mussolini

who that hits someone with his car, which is pretty bad. That's pretty bad to hit a kid. plans for the holocaust or a nuclear weapon. But instead, it's just like Mussolini who that hits someone with his car. Yeah, which is pretty bad. That's pretty bad. Yeah, no, no, it's terrible. It's not the worst thing Mussolini did. But I would be, I would not imagine that an American military man saying, oh, I saw Mussolini, a fascist dictator, hit a child with a car and then just just go on. Like, I don't, this is not the explosive piece of information that's going to, I don't know what it is expected that this will do. No, that there are all these people who are like, you know what, maybe our country does need strong leadership, like Italy and Germany.

Maybe it's time to round up those undesirables and get them out. And me consistently be like, uh, he committed a hit and run that they would be like, well, I am appalled. Forget what I said. Forget my fact leanings. Mm-hmm. Now I realize that the end of freedom of speech and the rounding up of dissidents and minorities to be slaughtered is a bad thing because a man who was involved in a hit and run accident

certainly, certainly I can't trust anything he would do. So anyway, again, this is a country where Ted Kennedy essentially killed a woman with a car and went on to be a senator for like 30 more years. So, and that was later. Anyway, but the general's like the rich are trying to control the country and Tim and the elephant they stopped ever happening. You have to move. He did it. He This movie was the stop cap, the, yeah. And Tim of the Ola font, he's up in the rafters and he tries to shoot Dylan Beck and Dylan Beck very bravely just keeps giving his features bullets are flying around. Yeah, he is, he's

going to shout those. He's got that regular Robert Nero in an interview on a late night show, Energy of Not Be Face. Just like, stop that. Stop it. Yeah. Like he's talking to a dog that is, that is, that is, like, not hasn't started being on the road yet, but it looks like it's about to. And Val and how Harold go up and fight him, Bert accidentally gets shot in the side, I think, over the leg, another side thing. And the thug yells about, the thug is like Tom Vose is a great man. Sixth, tempered to ram is Tom Vose is a great man. It's like, if you're going to hire a conspiratorial sniper, don't have him shout your name in the middle of his attack. Do you kind of like that's just that's just conspiracy one of us guy writing to that was

probably a bad idea. I did kind of like the bit where he was like, he was like up in the rafters and they're like fighting with him and knock the gun loose. And then they toss him off the, like the platform he's on. And he just lands on the ground next to the gun. Yeah. Well, you just threw him to his gun. Yeah. And the the the Bunt members start shouting.

So the veterans start singing my country Tiz of the Atom. Hey, Dan, wasn't it just like the scene in Castle, where the horse wessel song and the Marseille. Yeah. It was like that if it was directed by what's this face from city of lost children and sort of sped up at twice speed. Yeah, it's just, and it's also one of the things where, and this is again, like the German-American Bund members were not saying we should be Germany. They were saying Germany and America should be,

should be in alliance together. Like they consider themselves Americans as much as Germans. So like, there's a, it's letting those be, it's letting America off the hook. I feel like for, for the movie to just be like, they're Germans, they're German spies. Whereas there's a big, there's a big picture of George Washington behind on the stage of the year. And the reason for that is because at the German Bund rally, there's a big picture of George Washington behind on the stage of the scene. And the reason for that is because at the German Bundesliga, there was a huge picture of George Washington on the stage like they, anyway, it's all like, I definitely saw a critique of that when I was reading reviews for the like, there's no need, as long as you're making

up history, there's no need to be like, there were like literal Nazis here. Like, there was a American fascist movement that could have just been what this was about. But well, it's, well, it's because you know, this is a movie that's trying to, I think it's, it has a message in it about freedom and kindness or whatever, but it's a really black and white movie on a not black and white topic that everyone in the movie, like you were saying earlier, everyone who's nice and who we like is a good guy and everyone who's mean is a bad guy. And there's no, there's no getting into the fact that like, there were a lot of American

Americans who felt like patriots who weren't just, I want to take over the country, but we're like, yeah, I want someone like Hitler in charge that, that American history is much messier than that. And I feel like it's the kind of thing you get away with in a movie in the 40s where you're trying to rally people against fascism to be like, hey, hey, if you're an American, you don't like fascism. But it's like, if you're making a movie now about that time, why do it so cut dry, especially if the whole point of your movie is kind of sloppy chaos?

Well, also, especially if the whole point of the movie is affected there is again a rising American fascist movement. Yeah. And so like that's obviously why he felt like you need to make this movie at this time. So why cut the strength of it? Yes, exactly. Why make it less relevant in that way? Anyway, at this point, Bert is tripping pretty hard from those eyedrops.

And Tom is like, yes, I was behind it. And the spies are like, and Tom's been messing with Valerie's medication to control her recklessness and Tom's like, look, I'm a racist. And that's when there's a and that's when a bird is like, and it's like and Burton voiceover is like, you know, who's pictures he had in his office, pictures of eight off Hitler and Gerberals. And he has this line which bugged me so much. It was most people didn't even know who that was yet, which is bonkers.

The idea that like Tom was an early adopter of Hitler in 1933 and that most Americans, Hitler was still like an underground figure that they weren't familiar with. When again, he was the chancellor of Germany. He'd been in the news here at that point, you know. He was off the hook selling book. Yes. At this point in the movie, we are into Christian Bale of course tripping balls off those eyedrops Goes on an extended voiceover explaining

Everything about the movie that we've already seen including like my favorite part and some things that we didn't see my favorite part in it was like you know Honestly because I understand why this was in there because I was like, why are the bad guys wanting these people to come to their rally? Like, that seems weird since they were just framing them moments before. Like, there's a part where like they show, Romney Mallick and be like, and he wanted us, Tom wanted us there because we were his route to Robert De Niro who we wanted. And then like Robert De Niro literally like says the same thing over again. It's like, you wanted me here.

Look at him. Why do you double up on that movie? I didn't understand it, but the, you saying it twice doesn't make it, making any more sense. It still doesn't know. No. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and And then I don't know how Bert knew because Bert's like turns out Tom had been paying people to put positive articles about the Nazis and newspapers and he even cut the shrubs in his garden to look like swastikas. You got to really be crazy to do that. And it's like, when did this happen? Where are you getting this?

I'm assuming after the fact it came out and this is like him talking to the future. Yeah, they were taking a helicopter ride later and saw it. Yeah. I guess so. It's just such a, it's so funny to me for him to be like, and here's some supporting evidence that the movie didn't have time to ensure whether Tom was at not see or not. How about this swastika shrubs? Let me point you to appendix C in which we look at the swastika shrubs. So, and also he goes, you can only see it was a swastika from above, but the shrub we

see is pretty clearly a swastika. Yeah, and you can see it from the upstairs windows. So, they clearly had this footage of the swastika shrub, and I feel like there, that's even a shrub that they walk past earlier in the movie. They made no real effort to hide Tom being a creepo. Why not reveal that when they left the house the first time so that at least you're like, you know that the stakes are high. You know what I mean? Like at least know that like, oh, the bad guys are fucking like clearly Nazis.

Well, especially when you know it's so clear, so early. I mean, I guess that they thought it wasn't going to be clear that early, but it's like one of the things I love in the movie, the 39 steps is when Robert don't know that he goes to the guy who's supposed to be his contact. That's a 39 steps to the dream lands, right? What exactly? But that he goes, he goes, he goes, hey, I need your help. The guy that I'm supposed to look out for, he's evil. He's missing a joint on his little finger and the guy goes, Oh, like this. And he shows his hand. And he's like, yeah, I'm the bad guy.

I love that that movie does not waste any time with you. It doesn't, it doesn't then have you run and run and reveal at the end. Yeah. The movie isn't like, why is this character always wearing gloves? And with gloves is one little flop finger. But, so, but I think it would have, if they had walked by it and you saw there was a swastika shrub, but they missed that somehow. Like, it would seem like like dummies. It was a lot.

Yeah, it would fit their characters and it would make them, it would make the audience be like, fuck, they're actually in super real danger now. Well, and the, yes, and the other thing is that, and this is something again that I think maybe I only picked up as a Jewish person. Christian Bill's character is supposed to be half Jewish. He talks about it a lot. As soon as he finds out Nazis are involved, he doesn't seem to feel any more different than if they had been just rich bad guys. When it's like Christian Bale, these people are a genuine threat to you specifically. And you're a family like, I don't know a Jewish person

in the 1930s who didn't have an opinion on Nazis that was different because they were then regular Gentiles in Britain just because they were a real and a clear and present threat to them. So the idea that he's like, and get this, they was not seeing it. Pretty bad.

It's like, yeah, more than pretty bad, dude. Like anyway, it felt like a modern day, modern day opinion, but it's the 30s. Like this is, at least it's live history for them. So anyway, he doesn't know that World War II is gonna end the right way, you know, pretty, that for all he knows, Hitler's gonna run Germany for a thousand years, like he's been promising

using that real energy that Anya Taylor joy is so helped up about. But anyway, flash forward, it's just a, again, the general lack of the character's giving a shit about what happens in their own movie. But we flash forward briefly to the general testifying before Congress about this. Then we go back to Tom and his wife laughing.

And then this is a moment that I found so baffling as to why it happens now. Valerie shoots them both in the face with one bullet. They're not killed and they go, oh, that really hurt. Why'd you do that? And then an instant later turns out that was a fantasy of she was having. She didn't really do it. And she goes, I was just thinking about shooting you in the face.

And it's like, why now? That could be a funny joke at another point. Why now when the movie has to wrap it, the fuck? I loved that this happened. I loved that this happened because at that point, well, at that point in the movie, look, it was the movie's own fault that had engaged this long model. It could have just fixed having this long model. But I did feel like that was an acknowledgement by the movie that like, look, we realize that Christian Bill has like been explaining the plot of the movie to

you for the past 10 minutes. Here, we're going to have this brief, weird joke where there's a fantasy sequence where where she shoots these two bad guys. Margot Robbie shoots the bad guys and everyone yells at her being like, we had them. Like you ruined it. Yeah, they're like shuffled now and you're, well, it's, and then like it's revealed immediately as a fantasy. And it's, it's such a weird fantasy where she shoots them. It happens so fast that I had to rewind to make sure I had understood what had happened. It's like it's like a Han shooting grito level of like like he comes out of nowhere. And actually, though I guess they set that up.

Han has his gun under the table and everything. But the it's more like grito shooting first where it's like it comes out of nowhere. And you're not quite sure what happened. And the two of them are like, how, why did you do that? And the spies are like, we had all the evidence. Now we have nothing, which doesn't make sense. Someone doesn't stop being a criminal because they got shot in the face. Like they're going to go to the trial and the judges are going to be like, well, you did kill someone and try to over the government. But in, in lieu of the fact, in light of the facts that you got shot in the

face afterwards, you're free to go. You know, that we can't find you guilty. I mean, it just cast a little down on the proceedings, whether it was a, you know, everything was done on the up and I. Okay. So we, let's do a box. We should be shooting a hard while it doesn't change to each other. What? We're going to do a box. Try and is defend. Okay, let's do it. Okay, Daniel defendant on the on the prosecutor's tour. You're the judge. Uh-huh. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Now I have here two people who yes got shot in the face. With one bullet, it's amazing that it happened that way. But still, let us not forget the mountains of evidence that they killed Taylor Swift. I heard so much because I got shot in the face. Ow. Well, I mean, you know, so you're that I thought you were going to be the lawyer for the defense.

Oh, the actual defendant said I was the defendant. I thought you're right. I shouldn't have said defendant. I should say defense. Ow, okay. I'm face. Stuart DeClear and Miss trial. They don't have a defense lawyer.

They have to have they have to have representation. Well, I do declare on Miss trial on the proceeding. We'll say see it. Oh, dang it. Anyway, jury, you're free to go. I want to know. try it on the proceeding. We'll say see it. Dang it. Jury, you're free to go. I want to know as judges that where's a weird wig for some reason. Also, they're being tried in British courts because Paul Canterbury arrested them. Okay. Yes. That's why ladies and gentlemen of the jury. It's so exciting to be here in old Britannia, you're the mother country. I try and this try.

I say by face, it's something terrible. Now, now let me remind the jury that the defendants are not actually British. There seem to be a fencing a British accent to sway the jury. Why? You should find it in their favor. Well, I've never heard such ridiculousness in my life. Now, I'll, okay, I didn't think we'd have to do this, but I'm going to submit to the jury exhibit negative A that the defendants are the vows couple from New Jersey, not

old Jersey, which is perhaps a ham that it was accent. Forget about it. Ah. Okay. Now they're affecting a new Jersey accent. I'm not quite sure why. There are people in New Jersey don't sound quite like that. But yes, it's it's not helping not hindering their cases. It's just a weird thing for them to do in this set of circumstances. The great thing about this trial scene that we're playing out

is that it has the same level of urgency as the movie we're talking about. Yeah. We're showing instead of telling. Okay. Anyway, instead of shooting them, Valerie declares we love a Harold and she kisses him and now Bert launches into another lengthy voiceover about how you need love in your life. And he goes to thinking about all the people he loves and just moralizes at length about being kind and loving people, which

again, is rich coming from David O'Russell, a man who post public accounts is a very mean man and is not kind to people. And we find out that his back brace stopped the bullet. That's why he isn't dead now. And they did succeed. That's what I fucking guess, dude. Like, yeah, nobody goes to jail. The general's reputation does get smeared, but that's just kind of like a hanging loose

thread. And for some reason, he's like, of course, Valerie and Harold had to flee the United States that night. I don't understand why they had to do that. Has it got stopped? Of course. Like, what does it make? It doesn't make any sense.

And they're good. They want to go to, well, they want to go to Amsterdam. And they go, don't go to Amsterdam or the Gestapo will knock down your door and they're like, what's a Gestapo? And he's like, you'll find out again, they would have, this stuff was in the newspapers. Like they would have known about this stuff. Germany was not like a secret, you know, anyway. Yeah. They get sent to an undisclosed location. Yeah. And and Bert decides he's going to stay. He's going to stay here and fight. He kind of doesn't, I mean, the reason he's saying is clearly because he wants to have sex with

Irma, but he doesn't say that. He's just like, I got to stay here and look out for the people I love. Let's be kind to everybody. Kindness, kindness, kindness, that's what I'm talking kindness. Let's just be kind, kindness, and then we've just kind of Peter's out. And then during the credits, we see Robert De Niro giving the same speech that the one real character in this movie made the real general. He's based on gay to Congress to bolster the idea of this actually have hate this shit. And the real story behind it is that this general was like a bunch of rich people came to me and they gave me money. So I'd become a dictator.

And nobody was ever arrested and people to this day debate on how serious that plot was or how how far I guess maybe it was this or how far along it went. So, but this movie is like, I don't know, let's go into final judgments. I guess I guess I've made it pretty clear how I feel about the movie. But Dan, should we do final judgments? Yeah, let's see a final judgments. Uh, real quick, before we do final judgments, a little round of applause from our listeners. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Making it through this fucking thing.

Oh, yeah. I did it too. That shit was stuff full of garbage and you said it all. It's a very convoluted movie. Oh, thank you. Appreciate it. A lot of plot, a lot of incident. You got through it with a cold with a cold.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You got through the whole thing with a cold. I had, you know, I was ready to tag in at any point, didn't need to. I'm still hanging out by the ropes. I appreciate that, sir, I appreciate it. And for the listeners who missed some of the details because they were orgasming because of my sexy voice, just listen to it again. It's a podcast. That's fine. If you listen to it a bunch of times, eventually become that sensitive to it. And you'll be able to listen to it without without more without just true. Just true. Yeah, but then the problem is you'll be able to listen to it without without without just true.

Yeah, but then the problem is you'll get to a place where you're like you're so desensitized that you just can't you can't reach climax without it. Yeah, and then you need you need even rougher stuff, which is me being strangled by talking to my voice to be even rougher. For your awkward words. So let's go on to the final changements. Uh, look, I mean, I knew that it was somewhat of a mess. I like talking to you guys has only reinforced

like the silliness of a lot of it. But I think that the, like, this movie has a lot of like what I like in a movie. And so even a bad version of it, I enjoy. Cause I like this kind of sprawling, uh, serial comic kind of like goofy capery, but also not thing. I mean, like this is not the best example of it, obviously, but I like it enough as a thing that I enjoyed it.

And I like all the performers. And also I have a certain fondness for ramshackle broken things. Much as you might think the cutest dog at the pound is the one that's all like, Slavery and Scruffy, you know, I often... Dan goes to the pound and he's like, get show me your fucked up dog. Show me real, give me your dog.

Amstered, damn. Is the fucked up pound dog of movies? Yeah, I enjoy it for that. I also want to ask you a question before, I mean, like, you can give your own assessments obviously. Sure, yeah. But I want to ask you this question, how much more would you have liked this movie

if it did not claim at all to be based on true events if it was just presented as historical fiction? Because I think that that might have helped it. I think, I think, to be honest, I think it would have helped it a little bit, but at the same time, it still takes place in a world that existed. So there's the thing,

I think the bigger problems I had with it were less, the things that it did to change history and more the things that it ignored about the world at that time. Like it's a movie where a white man and a black man are best friends in 1933, and it just kind of keeps hinting at racism without really showing us how overwhelming that racism was in for most people, you know,

not that they all felt it, that everyone's life was affected by it. And it kind of like, it kind of like dances around it, you know, people are kind of, people are more miffed at interracial relationships than they are offended or disgusted by it. At the time, that was a very real, I mean, it was illegal in much of the country for that. So like, it's a movie that feels like it is, I think if it was more, if it was more artificial, I could buy that fake history, that fake past world a little more. The same way that like, the great is a show I enjoy and it has almost no connection with real history, but it exists in a kind of fantasy world of 18th century Russia, you know. So it's not, it's not laying claim to, yeah, it's to

any to any sort of reality. It seems like a lot of movies have, I have two speeds. They can either be like they can treat racism in the like, like black people can only exist through trauma stories or it's like ignored entirely and just imagined it doesn't happen. And I feel like neither one does a good surface. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's something that a lot of movies struggle. I feel like I've seen more movies that have failed with that challenge than have succeeded, but like, but I think you're right Dan, that if it was just, if it didn't pretend to be historical truth at all, then it might have, I think I might have enjoyed it slightly more, but I would still call it a bad, bad movie.

It's just like, it tries to be funny and it's not funny. It tries to be beautiful and it's not beautiful. It tries to be exciting and it's not exciting. And so it's so, it entered that kind of uncanny valley place for me with a movie where it's like this movie is telling me that this is a delightful mad cab romantic romp, but it's not. And it's only highlighting for me how much it's not.

So maybe if the movie was trying to, it feels a little bit like the movie version of you're sitting next to a drunk guy at the bar who told you a joke and you don't think that's funny and he just keeps shoving you and going, how funny, right? Isn't it funny? It's funny, right? And the more he does that, the less funny it gets. So anyway, it just didn't work for me. But Dan, if it worked for you, more power to you, any, any joy you can find in this veil of tears that we live in, go for it. I don't, I'm not judging you. Nor am I judging any fans that like this. I'm judging.

I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this is going to be a bad, bad movie for old stewballs here. It I feel like the most actively frustrated by it. Yeah, I mean, there's there's a movie where it is so overly scripted at times. There's so many voiceovers. There's this like it feels like the movie is treating me like a baby, even to the point that like, it's, it has to force this like love of these characters on me, which is not earned. They don't do anything that would make me endeared to them or them endeared to me. And yeah, and like the movie is constantly telling rather than showing, and then when it's showing, it is doing too much, like it just, it's too much, doesn't know what it's doing,

it's too sappy, doesn't earn anything. And it's not funny or exciting. Yep, that's me, that's a bad, bad, that's a definition of a bad, bad. Ha, bad. Ha ha. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ I'm Jordan Kershiel of the host of Feeling See, where we talk about the movie characters that make us feel see. And I'm the show's producer, Urissa.

Jordan, you've interviewed so many directors, actors, writers, film critics, and I like to play this little game, where I take a sip of coffee. Every time someone says, that's such a great question That's such a fabulous question or they tell you how smart you are I think that you are rather brilliant and of course the big one is when they cry unexpectedly yes Jordan, I don't want to cry in your podcast. I wish it expecting to cry I mean it makes me kind of want to cry Ah

Feeling seen comes out every Thursday on MaximumFun.org. Listen already. What are you waiting for? Jordan, that's such a great question. Yeah. Yeah. How lovely here with breaking news on a revolutionary form of entertainment.

Professional wrestling. From all we go to our correspondent, Danielle Rafford. Professional wrestling is the craze that's sweeping the nation, featuring mysticos and colorful costumes. But who can help us make sense of this world of body slams? Lindsay Kell has the answer. Sources tell us of an amazing podcast called Tides and Fights, filled with discussions of the absurdity of professional wrestling,

plus all the sincerity and hilarity that you could shake a stick at. Listen to the Tides and Fides podcast every week. Find it on maximum fun or wherever you get your podcasts. And your old timing right now. Hey, I want to tell you guys something. The ones listed in the one's list room. And that's in, in Elliot, he's not in this room, but he's in this room in the sense that he's on my side. I am listening. True, true, true.

We have sponsors. For the most part, the flop house is made possible by listeners like you who become members over at maximumplunt.org. But we have a few other brief words from our sponsors. Number one is from Lumilabs. You've probably heard about microdosing. Probably from me, I've been talking about it on this podcast. And you're like, where did I hear about microdosing?

It was from me. It was from me. If not, just know that all sorts of people are microdosing daily to feel healthier and perform better, and are shows you day sponsored by microdose chemis, which deliver perfect entry level doses of THC that help you feel just the right amount of good. If you want to, as Stu uses them to chill out at the end of the day, get a little better sleep. Yep. It'll help you with that. Sometimes it's nice if you just want to sit down with a TV show or I like to draw something. Anyway, I support this product and or service in this case, a product. Microdose is available nationwide to learn more about microdosing THE, go to

microdose.com and use code flop that's F L O P to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. Things can be found in the show description. But again, that's microdose.com code flop. Elliott, I think you have a jumbo tron to read. I do. I have a jumbo tron to read. Dan very cleverly gave it to me when I was losing my voice. But let's see, I can still do it. This is now a sexy jumbo tron as we established.

Okay, this message is four gram and the message is from Tyler, and it says, dear Graham, congratulations on being born. It was so cool to finally get to meet you, even if you were pretty low energy about the whole thing. I can't wait to see what kind of hilarious sarcastic kid you'll grow up to be considering who your mom is. I think it's just a matter of time. Love your uncle Tyler.

What a sweet jumbo tron. I really love that. Some day, Graham will grow. I really love that. Some day, uh, Graham will grow up and listen to that. Hopefully not for a while because this was a pretty, I apologize, a pretty not, not safe for kids podcast with all my swearing and my incredibly sexy voice. But Graham, when you, when you listen to this 18 years from now or so, happy being born day. Happy being born day and tease. Uh, to either of you have any other things to mention before you move on. I'd like to.

I would like to, as always, I'm going to up Alex just delete L.A. It's entire audio file. No audio from L.A. at this whole episode. Great. So I am going to recommend. I am going to recommend going to the bars I own. You have a short episode. I mean, our audio track is going to stay the same. Yeah.

It's fair. Just be long periods of silence. It'll be the jazz of flop house. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a vibe. So yeah, go to my bars, hinterlands bar, minisbar. I might be there. I might not. If I'm not there when you go by, I am sorry. I can't always be there. But yeah, it's always nice to see folks. You got ministers to paint. I got ministers to paint. I got to go out to fancy dinners with Dan like we did this week, where we ate sushi. What? It was so nice. What a date. Just a couple of dudes and some raw fish. What was your, what was your favorite bite, Dan? I like the fishy pieces. Oh, those are good pieces.

Something fishy and oily for me. Thanks. I like that, like that cheek. Give me that, yeah, that the fatty tuna cheek. I like a fatty cheek, because one time with just no, hey, Elliott, what do you want to say? A gram. You'll get that choke when you're older. So this is a, I wanted to say, I've been talking a lot on this podcast about many act of New York. Don't call it comeback. My new series from Aftershock. It was originally scheduled for December 7th. Unfortunately, it has been delayed. I don't know when it's coming out yet, possibly in January, but keep your eyes peeled. I will, of course, announce the release date when I know it, but that book is still going to come out.

And I hope you can enjoy it. I'm very excited about it. So that's many heck of New York. Don't call it a comeback. Just kind of be ready for it. Just kind of be ready at any moment to go run out and get it. Just be ready for it. That's what Elliott recommends in life. Letters from listeners like you, here they come walking down the street, get the funniest letters from letters from all the listeners we meet or don't meet. Hey, hey, it's the flop house. See what a twist.

I sing that one. Okay. I love it. Wait. See what a twist. I sang that one. Okay. I love it. Wait, that was you singing. I thought that was Elliot singing. I know. We've trained you well. This is and I thought it was Mickey Dolan's from Joan Last name with held. Who works? Dan describing moonfall in 4dx got me fondly reminiscing about the time my favorite movie ever, Gremlins, was briefly re-released into four DX cinemas. Joe Dante's Zany creature feature classic turned out to be a perfect fit for the gimmick laden format. I recoiled in solidarity with Gismo as we were both splashed with water we knew we shouldn't be touching. I held on for dear life as I, as I was violently thrust about by my erratic mechanical chair,

just as Mrs. Degle did in her final moments. And now, and I now have firsthand knowledge of what a Grimland attack really feels like, assuming it feels like getting mildly poked in the back. Of course, the highlight of the evening was the snow white scene when my gyrating seat gave me no choice but to bounce up and down and rhythm with the Grimland's Routing Movie Theater Antics. It felt like the perfect 40x moment. One where the action on screen was actually bleeding out into the audience in those few brief minutes. We were all of us, Grimland's. My question for you guys is this, are there any favorite movies of yours that you'd

like to see given the 40x treatment? And if so, how would you want to see those in theater effects applied? Elliott, would you ever want to feel like you're rumbling down the tracks of the hijacked pebble 123? Dan, could the sense of salmon and honey, you're wafting by your nose, make you love the country bears even more. Yeah. Stu, where's this going? I'm not sure you could ever safely replicate the sensation of getting your ding-dong ripped off, but there must be other fun ways to enhance the castle freak experience. Maybe just pull out some pubes that could do it. Yeah, your dream to find a way.

I call them stoves. It's Stu's version of Vore. I can never truly know how what it is to have my ding-dong ripped up. Anyway, excited to hear all the awesome ideas you flocked, flocked Imagineers come up with. See you in the fourth dimension. That's gentleman. So just to pull back the curtain, Dan just sent us the question

rather than the entire letter. You don't have to apologize, but it's funny because the first thing that came to my head was Grimm once too. No question. Grimm once too would be great. But other than that, I don't know, Tango and Cash should be really great. You get water spray in your face, money thrown all over you, cocaine. Yeah. You're getting sprayed out of you. Yeah, sure. Why not? Check balance, et cetera. I mean, I think that that captures the truth about it is that there has to be a certain goofiness like the Jurassic Park would be in the news. I could see Jurassic Park being fun with it. But yeah, you're

not going to want to watch like, you're not going to want to watch like Kramer versus Kramer and Ford DX, you know, I was thinking of something for me, like Terminator 2, a movie that like, you know, a thrill park ride, but one that I have seen so many times that I guess I'm looking at 4DX as a chance for me to feel it anew, you know, in a different way. Yeah, you have some hot water sprayed on me when it sinks into the lava. Like I feel like, like I might pick a movie that's one of my favorites that I've seen so many times like big trouble in the little China. I feel like it's a big goofy fun movie. That'd be great for that. This is going to be an did actually recently watch. I asked his dad was walking around clearly pitching a tent.

Yeah. So, the truth though, there are some uncomfortably sexy like background characters in a goofy movie. Like, it was in that like period where it's just like, okay, every supporting character is gonna have like weird like bouncy cartoon. Yeah. Anyway, it's real. And it's having a good time, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. Sure. This is going to be an unpopular answer to this question. I'm going to say, no, there are no favorite movies of mine that I'd like to see in 4DX. It's what you guys described sounds like it would be super fun. It's like the movie turns into a theme park ride. It's not my preferred way to experience movies. Yeah. So I'm going to say considering the closest I think I've come to it since I've never seen 40 X is going

on the Guardians of the Galaxy breakout ride in a at Disneyland where there is a kind of a guardians the galaxy adventure going on in front of you as you are repeatedly lifted in the air and dropped again because it's just the old tower of terror that they turned Guardians of the Galaxy. And what's happening in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie is almost incomprehensible. Like you really can't pay attention to it. And so that's an extreme example. I know it's minimal content and maximum being thrown around, but I like to just sit back

and get absorbed into a movie. You know, like as much as it would be, I just texted my, my buddy Jim Cameron and told him that you are into movies being turned into theme park rides. And he said he's driving over to your house to beat your ass. Oh no. I was at the Tower of Terror in Disney World in Florida this year. And I, it's still Tower of Terror there. It has not had the, the Guardian's skin put on it. And I, it was when we, but you showed up dressed up as drags, which was kind of awkward. Yeah. I, I was like, oh, I'm too old for the Tower of Terror now because I feel like I'm going to black out when it drops. Oh, that's not good. Yeah, that's not good. I still enjoy the, I enjoy the being dropped part of the ride because it reminds me of an out of baby. I just, I just recently went to Universal Studios with flop house friend

Jordan Morris. What, what? And we went to what we do. Let me give you the full rundown. Jurassic World Dominion ride. That was super fun. Got splashed. Went to the minions ride. That fucking sucked. Not a fan. I went to the water world, uh, water world stunt show. That fucking rocked. Went to the,'ve heard that's a great stunt show went to the mummy. The mummy ride and you know that's the thing with universal. If it's there's no splashing, although I got to say the thing about universal. I know you're saying I know you said the mummy and then we're restarting and say the mummy, but I wish the name of the ride was the mummy colon the mummy.

I think that would be amazing. I went on the mummy the mummy ride. The thing I feel like the rule of thumb there is the older, like least relevant, the, the property, the cooler the ride has got to be like, it's got to fucking be a five this long. Yeah. Like for them to still have a water world stunt show, it must be fantastic. Incredible. And speaking of James Cameron, the avatar ride at Disney, like animal kingdom or whatever

the hell it's called called it was astounding. Like a movie that, you know, I am not going to be one of those people arguing it had no footprint because I think that's absurd. I think it had a different kind of footprint than some movies. Yeah, don't bet against. Retro. Don't bet against Jim Cameron. I don't think you should bet against chip camera, but like the avatar ride is astounding. Anyway, I think I didn't Richard kind of swear by his eyes lit up as soon as the avatar ride was brought up. I'm actually, I'm actually going to Universal Studios soon for my older son's birthday. What was it about the minions ride that was not fun to it?

Since I am almost certainly going to have to go. Well, though, the weight is super long because everybody wants to go on it. And then it is one of those rides where a lot of it was sitting in like a movie theater seat and then you just kind of move up and down and watch a movie, which was, I mean, that's perfect for my kids. I like the story. That's right. I like the story.

I like the story. A hundred percent, if you go definitely go in the studio tour because they have a section of the, the scenery from nope, the like, Jupiter's claim stuff, and it's incredible. It was so great when my kids are going to love that. They love that. They love. They love. I mean, there's a fast and furious thing for them because they love that shit, right? Because they like be. Yeah, because my kids love anything. It's about family. Yeah, they love family. We got one more letter. It's from Kelly. This, this shows you, wait, this shows you have indoctrinated my kids is,

we're going to University, it's my younger son who's four. He's like, are the universal monsters gonna be there? And I'm like, I know they do stuff around Halloween, but I don't know if these, almost a hundred year old properties,

are still like big in the parks, but that's all he wants to see, the minions and the creature from the black legum. Doesn't want to see the psycho house. They don't know what psycho is. Okay. I was talking to the story this morning. They don't know what psycho is. Okay. I was telling the story this morning though, about when I was a kid, we went to the Universal Studios in Florida where they still have a studio tour, but it's obviously fake and

they're like, there's the psycho house and it's like, no, it's not. They didn't shoot psycho in Florida. Like this is the whole point is to see the real house. This is a fake psycho house. Yeah. Kelly last name with held writes, hello, peaches. Kelly cup houseowski fictional character. I wanted to tell you about a real freak. I met years ago in a college cell biology class.

Now one of my best friends, the first day of class. Look, this better be connected to Topeke Kansas. I don't know why it involves our podcast. Well, we'll see. We'll see. Now one of my best friends, the first end class, this guy pulled out a line from his messenger bag, peeled it and started eating it in class. Oh, that's a line. A line. I'm sure I've misheard you.

I thought you said line and I'm like, of Coke right in the class. Now a line, the professor stopped mid-sentence and said, excuse me, is that a line? It was. we all gas. Gate, a whole lime every day. By the end of the year, I think we'd all tried at least a slice of raw, I'm a company lime.

The professor did as well. Those tart little bastards really brought us together in such a beautiful way. Thanks for giving me company during my graduate degree. You three are very cool Kelly name with hell. Okay So the relationship to our podcast is it like a third man Harry lime type thing She thought we all had scurvy. I needed. Oh Is it cuz I did think I had it once but I didn't think that didn't. I think that this probably getting middle in on that one.

I'm guessing this related to the fruit, broot's episode or whatever. Oh, right, right, right. The flop has fruit group. Yeah. Our spin off podcast. And we maybe maybe we talked about whether or not someone had ever eaten the lime, although I kind of enjoyed the letter most.

It's played back. The void of any context. Yep. So that was about this fucking thing. And of course, having talked about lines, we traditionally now go on to the final segment, which is called Dan pulls up letterbox and remembers what he wants. Yeah, what did I see? What can I possibly recommend?

Honestly, I've seen a lot of stuff lately that I was more mixed on. This is recommendations, by the way, but I did watch and enjoy rolling thunder from 1977. We've had never seen before starring William Devane and a very young. You're so divine. Tommy Lee, you probably think you start in rolling thunder. You'reinable. I mean, no, William Devane from what? What are they reverse mortgage commercial? Yeah, commercial. Fox news. And it goes, you were also in fianom fianom the ABC sit com fianom with Judith light. He's still trying. He was a lot of fucked up and he's still trying to dance 24. I think

he was one of the presidents. I'm 20. He's been in tons of stuff. Yeah. Um, well, I'm trying to say where Stewart might think of him. I don't know. I don't know whether Stewart even watched 24. I'm just making guesses. He's making face.

24 hours the show. Yeah. Yeah. The show about a man with a no blatter. It's it's rolling thunder. The thing about rolling thunder is it's a revenge movie where someone's family is killed, but it's not the traditional sort of like we're fridging these characters, killing is a much sadder movie. The script was by Paul Schrader. It takes the time.

A director of Heart Beeps. Yeah, it's a movie that takes me like, the main character is a of heartbeeps. Yeah. Yeah. It's a movie that takes me like, the main character is a, is a prisoner of war who's been returned. His family has moved on without him. So there's like already the sadness and then he loses his family. And it's less of sort of the shallow motivation that a lot of revenge movies have and more that this was the one thread connecting him to sanity that has been severed. And he takes revenge. And it's just interesting to see a 1970s action revenge thriller that is mostly about sadness

and about like the revenge is not a cathartic, you know, like triumph, it is just, you know, him spinning further away from society and warmth. So you know, you know, you know, him spinning further away from society and warmth. So, you know, you know, rolling thunder. Yeah, you know what they say about revenge. First, you got to dig two graves. It makes an ass out of rev, because the first one's probably going to suck. So you got to dig two of them.

So the second one's good. Yeah, because you've never dug a grave before. Yeah, it's like the first practice makes the first pancake. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Do you have something to recommend? Yeah, do. Oh, like the first pancake. Yeah. Yeah. Sure, do you have something to recommend? Yeah, do. Oh, you're keeping in the fame.

I'm going to recommend a French erotic thriller called Double Lover. That's right. Double Lover. Watch it. I'd say movie about a young woman who starts seeing her therapist and then she starts dating her therapist, which I don't think is allowed. And then she realizes that her, her new boyfriend might just have a twin brother. And he's also a therapist, but he's got a very different style of therapy if you know what I mean.

And it gets weird from there, folks. I don't know what you mean. Well, see you will. If you watch, yeah, I'll, as soon you will, if you watch a double lover, I got to find out it's guys. Guys, it's a weird one. Speaking of weird ones, you know what? It's almost the end of the year. That means I got a hurry to get in another check new wave and my recommendations before

we go to 2023. Got a check. I'm off your list. It's Ellie. It's Ellie. It's checklist, right? Ellie's checklist is that's what's called Ellie. It's new wave checklist. Yep. So put this one to checklist. I want to recommend fruit of paradise. This is directed by Vera

Chitolova, who also of course did daisies. Is that fruit a lime? It is not a lime. I hate to tell you otherwise that would have provided some reason for that letter to have existed and then be read on the show. But no, there's still no reason, which is the beauty of the thing. It's a real comic strip Nancy type of surreal non-sequitur. So anyway, Joseph and Eva are a married couple who go on a vacation there and they've kind of lost the spark in their relationship. Eva becomes more and more intrigued by Robert, a man who, as it turns out, is probably a serial murderer and may be intending to murder her as well.

But there's larger implications to that. The whole thing is more than anything else, a kind of retelling of the Adam and Eve story in a very kind of semi abstract way. There's a lot of strange moments in it. There's a lot of weird things. It's a more straightforward plot than Daisies. Gila was, I think, previous movie, but it's still very strange, but I found it very beautiful and very affecting. The, it's worth at the very least just seeing the first seven or eight minutes,

which are a kind of artsy telling of the real Adam and Eve story, the original one, and the imagery of it where they're kind of positing Adam and Eve as being a part of artsy telling of the real Adam and Eve story, the original one, and the imagery of it where they're kind of positing Adam and Eve as being a part of nature by literally flooding their images with psychedelic colors in a way that I had not really seen in a film before. It's very artsy, like I said, it takes a while for the story to kick in, but if you see nothing, it's worth seeing that very opening just for kind of the beauty of it, you know, just the visual spectacle.

Maybe crush like an edible and watch that shit. Yeah, sure. seeing that very opening just for kind of the beauty of it, you know, just the visual spectacle. Maybe crush like an edible and watch that shit. Yeah, sure. And then stick around for the rest of the movie too. I don't know, Ali, I only watch Fartsy things. Oh, actually kind of true. Nothing artsy. Yeah, this is just artsy.

There's nothing farting in it. And I guess how much how much fartiness is that what's the FQ? The fartiness. Yeah, I think. And I'm also I guess I guess show up. He doesn't I guess as my alternate recommendation, it'll guess it'll be Howard Stern's butt bongo pay-per-view schedule. I guess maybe that'll get into the fartsy stuff

you're looking for. Yeah. Well guys, we did it. We did another episode of the flat pass. That's the podcast you just put in your years for a couple hours. You take it out in a couple hours. Can you take it out in a second? Yeah, you take it out in a second. But not before learning that we're part of the Maximum Fun Podcasting Network. Go to MaximumFun.org. If you want to check out the other great shows they have there,

there's a lot that are funny and there's some that actually tell you something unlike usually us. Also, thank you to Alex Smith. He is at Howell Daudy on Twitter. He is our producer. He does magic for us. He also did the sexy Xenomorph song. That contest is still ongoing.

If you poke around on our website, floppaspodcast.com, you can find out all about that or check the show notes for old episodes. And thank you to everybody who tuned in to our live flop house holiday special where Stuart and Dan and others had some fun. It hasn't happened yet.

It hasn't happened yet. Yeah, we're recording it soon. And we're gonna have some fun and dance kitchen. If you missed it and would like to watch it, go over to my Twitch channel. And hopefully it will have been archived. But that's Stewart Wellington. That's my twitch. So thanks for listening. Uh, we'll see you next time for the flop house. I've been Dan McCoy. I'm Stewart Wellington. And I'll probably be Elliott tail in unless I have to fake my own death and change my identity for unnamed trouble reasons.

Stay tuned, let's find out, and if the next episode is being co-hosted by Sergio Abragoso, then you'll know that that's exactly what happens. Hi, bye. On this episode, Riscus, Amsterdam, the true story of the shooting of the movie Doose Bigelow, European Jiglo. That's not going to, that's better than my other one. I want to hear that shit. Okay, here it is.

Let's do it. We have to toss this last two at the end. All right. On this episode we discuss Amsterdam. The movie that begs the question on set. Did Ed Bagley, Jr. keep asking John David Washington? Why his dad, Denzel hasn't called him since he'd elsewhere ended. It's a good one.

I love it. Okay. It's a good. Yeah. Alex, any you don't use throw them at the end? Yeah. Use every part of the buffalo. And now we move along to what we call the taping of the show.

I guess we do call them that. And technically, I mean, yeah. Maximumfun.org. Comedy and culture. Artist-owned audience supported. you