Blank Check with Griffin & David - Honey Don't with Mattie Lubchansky

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Honey Don’t? Honey probably shouldn’t have. But that’s okay, because Honey, we’re gonna talk about it anyway! Writer and illustrator Mattie Lubchansky joins us to close out our Coens series with Ethan and Tricia’s latest offering from earlier this year. How do we feel about Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza as performers? How do we feel about Chris Evans’ “year of trying stuff”? How do we feel about the threatened third film in this Lesbian B-Movie trilogy, “Go Beavers!”? Well, honey, you’ll just have to listen to find out. Plus - stay tuned after this episode to hear our introduction to The Hudsucker Proxy from our screening at Friend of the Fest at the American Cinematheque! ⁠Read Mattie's books⁠ ⁠Check out Mattie's Wife Jaya's writing⁠ ⁠Check out Slow Xmas 5 Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blank Jack with Griffin and David Blank Jack with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or two expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Jack She only has two desires And one of them is podcast And what's the actual answer? Justice

And so the idea is that the other desire is sex with women? I would say the human vagina. Episodes over. That's what this movie is about. Great to be on, guys. Thanks so much. About. I'll see you next time.

I guess so. Your letterbox log. You know what? I'm already pumping the brakes at any statement that's like that's what this movie is about. Your letter box log for this movie was just the word boobies. And I would push back on that and say this movie is more about vaginas than it is about boobies. I think it has some naked breasts, right? You know, there's a few of those in there.

That's a very surface reading. Including Chris Evans. That's a surface reading. I'm not denying it has naked breasts, but I think it's about vaginas. Wow. This is a, the most our listenership will, like, crash in the first five minutes. I'm pointing at the stands. I'm hitting a home run.

This is our best episode ever. It's like pointing at the stands that you don't even hit a foul ball. You, like, hit the bat into your face somehow. Honey don't, but blank check do. That's what I'm saying. This is our best. episode ever this is our last episode ever episode ever it is our last episode ever it's our last episode in the coens series it's sort of like an epilogue we're basically treating the solo films as

bonus episodes on main right because they they're sort of a half step in half step out situation we felt like we had to cover them we felt like covering them on patreon it kind of wasn't quite it was gonna be weird because we would have to like space them out like in a way that was going to be odd or back end. I don't know. When they win March Madness and we commit to covering them Honey Don't has not come out. You have not even seen it yet. No, but we

it was one of those things where like if we had thought about it for five seconds we'd be like, oh right, it is coming out. It was just, no one was like yelling it from the rooftops like, by the way, honey don't. But we were like there's a new release movie that will come out between when we start doing these episodes and when the series ends. Do you know this is a midnight movie at

I can? I do and it got a standing ovation they claim. Look, everything gets a standing ovation And, you know Do they count people standing up To meet the theater? Do they have seats in the theater? They

Standing ovation Everyone's standing and holding a bar or whatever Like, no, I mean, it's like When someone says in these ridiculous Like, trust ever can't General audience screening Can just standing room only screening Like when they're like, oh, I got a five minutes

You know, variety tweets at one in the morning morning like oh honey don't go five i'm like well it takes five minutes for everyone to stand up and walk out of the are we counting this as standing ovation that people must must stand to exit also the standing ovation bullshit used to mean something when it would happen rarely and now basically if a movie gets a three minute standing ovation you're like oh shit it's like a d cinema score right exactly uh episode already out of juice listen this is blank check with griffin and david i'm david it's a podcast about filmographies directors who have massive early on in their careers,

such as a run of movies from Blood Simple to the Ballad of Buster Scruggs and are given a series of blank checks separately and with their wives to make whatever crazy passion projects they want, sometimes those check clear

and sometimes they bounce. Baby, this has been a mini series on the films of Joel and Ethan Cohen together and separately with the aforementioned wives. Today we were talking, Honey Don't, which yes, is the last in this larger six.

month discussion. I guess we'll be discussing what's it called Jack, Jack of Hearts or whatever, the next Joel. Jack of Spades, I believe. Yeah, I mean, next year. In theory, Jack of Speeds. But also, Joel takes his time with post-production. That might not.

It might be a 27 release. I got no fuck. Who knows? We will have a new release of a solo Cohen's movie next year. And of course, Ethan and Trisha continue to threaten to make go beavers. I, okay. Their riff on a college slasher film. So when I saw this movie...

You'll never get what the title is implied. I don't understand. It is alluding to you. You'll never guess it. When I saw Honeydounch, the film, it was at the Museum of the Moving Image and Beautiful Story, Queens, New York. And the images do move. The images do move.

The film's got that cool for. A lot of people don't know this, but actually movies, it's not actually moving. It's a series of images very close together. Moving images. And your brain interpolates the motion. Right. Persistence of vision. Right.

And then if people are talking, you call that a talking. That's right. But I saw it there with a talk back with Joel, or sorry, Ethan and Trisha. And in it, they had said they had not even started writing it yet. And I feel like I almost stood up and started clapping. Like, never do that. And he mentioned like a little bit like, oh, me and me and Joel have been talking a little more. And we're like, everyone in the theater was like, all right.

Please keep talking. We definitely have a title, though. And the title is subtle. I'm asking Joel for notes on Beaver Squad or whatever. What's it called? Go beavers, exclamation point. Joel's weirdly not returning my emails? I don't know what's going on.

Joel's on stage. Joel replied, I'm going through a tunnel, but like in an email? Fran keeps picking up the phone and I call. I was on the phone with my brother, Jamesie, and he was asking me if I had seen this. And I said, yeah, and I was, like, telling him my problems with it and my frustrations with it. And he was just like, it's just like so crazy. and these like don't make money right like this and the last one and I was like the last one did poorly and this one did significantly worse and he just went how funny would it be if they made a third one

and he thought he was suggesting the most ludic comedic premise imaginable right right right right and get this here's my crazy idea yeah they they keep going and I was like James they are actively threatening and I believe he laughed for 45 seconds straight like an out of breath like no a belly laugher he was like That's the funniest thing I've ever heard. They're actually going to keep doing this. That's like a 10-minute standing ovation in Cam to get him a lot that long. Now, but is it going to end up like, fuck, what was the final Divergent movie supposed to be called?

Oh, Divergent, Allegiant Part 2 or Divergent? Like where it's kind of like, we're going to make it. And then they're like, it might be straight to TV. And then they're like, yeah, it's not happening. You can read the script if you want. Here it is. Like, you know, have fun. Especially not having a script yet.

And we should say. I mean, these scripts don't take long to write. I was going to actually ask you guys before. It's a weekend. Because I was going to say, I am a writer of fiction, but I don't write screenplays. This is the transition. What I was going to ask both of you is, should it take longer than the runtime of a movie to write it? Because actually not in the industry.

Maybe that's the two of you are. The challenge. This is like a sort of a whatever, like a, you know, make a movie in a day challenge. It's a 24-a-film festival. Yeah. Would it take chat GPT longer to come up with a go-beaver script? Would it be like, I actually need a week to really kind of work out some of the... I've actually got to act one problems.

I got to start over. Just to give you, it was going to be called Divergent Ascendant. Okay. Based on the latter half, of course, the book, Allegiant. Okay, so they were making up a new subtitle, not doing a part two. Yeah, and then it just didn't happen. It was going to be from the director of the age of Adeline. Yeah, Tolan Crager, who is basically...

spent 10 years stuck, I say stuck, in a gilded cage of Berlante and Netflix TV show pilots. I have a very, very quick Age of Adeline anecdote. Please give us that anecdote, and then we're going to introduce. We have so much to say. I got to do 10 minutes on Lee Tol and Tiger. It's very quickly, 10 years ago, me and my beautiful wife, Jaya, were in Italy. Humble, yeah, that's right. And we were getting dinner at this beautiful place, and we started getting chatty with this couple that was next to us. was this older Dutch couple

and the husband and wife because that's how a couple can work sometimes sometimes not if honey has her way but Honey O'Donohue

Honey O'Donohue Honey O'Donohue That was a good Charlie day I don't know if that was intentional It was so good there But the husband was a KLM pilot And he was like I just like to stop at this restaurant

Whatever we start talking to him And they go Oh our son is an actor He lives in New York too And we're like Uh huh sure Like, where does he live in the city? They're like, in Union Square.

And we're like, what's your son? Yeah, wait a second. And they're like, oh, his name is Michael Huisman. Oh, Michael Huism. And we're like, who's that? And he was on Game of Thrones. I was like, oh, right. He's the hot Dario in a heart.

He's the second Dario. That's right. After Ed's screen got kicked off. And he's in age of Adeline. And then the wife looks at us because it just come out of thing. And she goes, and he's in Age of Adeline, like, expecting us to be like, wow. Holy shit. And we're just like, oh, yeah.

And she's like, but Blake lively? And we're like, uh-huh. David is miming someone freaking out. I've never seen the age of that, a film that our friend Richard Lawson has always mildly defended. I've always heard it's pretty good. Right, like Harrison Ford actually giving like a committed emotional performance is like probably Michael Huisman grown up or something. Have you burst in?

No, it's Harrison, I think. I will not accept any kind of no, David. I think Michael Houston is maybe Harrison Ford's son. And the whole bit is that she falls in love with him. and she previously had fallen in love with Harrison Ford, and he brings her home, and Harrison Ford's like, you're the same woman. What's going on here?

Why didn't you age? I haven't been this freaked out since David Blaine was in my kitchen. Get off, my son. For those at home, I'm pointing. Those were both good jokes. I think we both just, it's like we hit opposite field doubles in either direction. We're in sync today. This is what I'm saying, best episode ever.

Like, David and I are just fucking like. We're in the flow. Well, it's been a minute. It's been a minute. Although we recorded without you, Ben. Ah, yes. We went to the zoo. But speaking of going to Italy with your lovely wife, our producer, Ben Hosley, just got back from a honeymoon with his beautiful wife in Italy.

Yep. And he was telling us how surprised he was by how much he enjoyed the experience of driving down the roads in Italy. Broom, boom. Oh, yeah. I really had fun with it. I was taking those curves. taking it fast and I said You were saying Chaubella

and putting your hand at the window doing the little fisting motion. And then I said it shouldn't have come as such a surprise to him with all the hours he's logged playing Mario Kart. He knew what a great experience it was going to be to be a real Italian

driving down roads. And of course I had a shell with me. I will say when we had the same trip that we were in Milan we got off the plane we went to where we were staying and it was above the mechanics garage and the literal first thing I saw

was an Italian guy in red overall with a mustache. Wow. And me and Giants looked at each other like, we're really in Italy, baby. And he was like loading banana peels into the front of his car. Yeah.

Now, I don't want to spend too much time, but I will share that I did plan on bearing jeans. It didn't work out. Oh, you did text about this. Yeah. There was a delivery issue with the ceramic vessel. Like an urn? Yes.

Like you're doing grave goods in ancient sumer? Well, what I use is I use Korean fermenting, like vessels. Best episode ever. And so it didn't end up arriving at my hotel. It wasn't able to do it. I also, though, had separately delivered a collapsible shovel. I didn't take it out of the packaging. I brought it to the airport.

Apparently, you're not supposed to travel with it a collapsible shovel. That doesn't shock me. So how are you supposed to bury jeans in other countries? That's why the shoveler has to stay within the lower 48. Well, also, I mean, he respects the rules. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So I tried to explain at the Rome airport why I had the shovel. They didn't really get it.

Ben's lovely wife, Nelly, sends us a text at 406 a.m. And it is a video taken from quite far away. You can't hear anything of Ben gesticulating with whatever the equivalent of a TSA agent is, right, at the airport. Carbonieri. And the text is POV. My husband's call. collapsible travel gets flagged

going through at the airport in Rome. That's beautiful. And Ben's response was they threw it out said I shouldn't have it. I guess this was sent to Marie and I.

Rude. Who is only disaparal de jeans? Apparently, that's I need to bury some jeans. Our guest today is a writer who doesn't just have titles. She finishes books.

She doesn't just say we have an idea. I'm holding a finish. You hear this? That's a hard come. That ain't her first book. In the land of simplicity a novel. No, it's called simplicity, right? It is a land of right. That is a dumb affectation of mine that I insisted doing to make it look more like a book for the 19th century. I like insane. We love that. If you look, the subtitle is like a paragraph long. So I should have listened to the meaning of the title and given into the simplicity of just the one word title.

It is a gift to be simple. From the author of Boys Week, and another book that you finished. Great book. Maddie Luchanski. The books are also good. Friend of the podcast, first-time guests, but friend of the podcast,

someone we've both known separately for a very long time. Yeah, I suppose that's true. I'm so glad to finally be here on Talk Tua, I believe, is the joke? Hell yeah. Is she back?

I saw she was like screaming Fortnite. She should be back. I saw she was back the other day. And I was like, bring her back. Did she endorse Saurin? Is she going to have Zohen? Let's get Sally Hawkins in to bring her back.

Okay. So I see the joke there. So I'm told, I remember, I know that she was in the, um, the Hulu show Chad Powers starring Glenn Powell. Yes. She's in the, an episode of that. Right. Where they're comparing notes on being washed up celebrities or something to like a meta casting gag. So maybe she had to, uh, you know, to come back after her mean coin scandal. There was a thing where she appeared at VidCon. And like 60% of the audience walked out in protest and complained to the organizers because they were offended by. how lewd her material was. Oh, damn. And I was like...

She was going blue. Not the part where she scanned everybody. You were not led into this fucking like convention hall. Yeah. At gunpoint. You said, I'm going to sit down and listen to the talk to a girl in conversation. It's a fair point. It's kind of a dead dove do not eat.

I don't know what you were expecting. Right. She is famous for an extremely illustrative and colorful, humorous explanation of blowjob giving. I want to ask each of those people, what is she famous for? It's true. Why are you upset right now? She's famous for being America's sweetheart. I forgot about.

Why isn't she in Honey Don't? Why isn't she in Honey Don't? Five minutes a pep from Hawk Tua. If she's in Go Beavers, are we excited? Sure. If they announce... I'm there. Yeah.

I'll buy a Beaver coin. You'll buy a Beaver coin. I'm seated day one for Go Beaver's if it's got Hawk Tua. I'm simply so seated. Couldn't be more seated. It is nothing like Can. I'm in a chair. Exactly.

I won't be giving an ovation because I'm Seated! This movie comes out first week of September. This film came out in the very hot late August corridor. Last weekend of August? Yeah, August 22nd. It screens at Cannes... It was at the CUN film

festival. You see it around then? I was shown it right then by the Good People of Focus features who were like, are you going to do like a simultaneous review? Are you going to and I was like, oh, maybe I guess we'll see what I think of it. and then I saw it

and I gave a polite boobs review on Letterbox We'll talk about it on my podcast in six months glowingly I mean it was very much a sort of like

hey I kind of like driveaway dolls so fuck yeah I'll give it a sure give it a whirl I like driveway dolls that episode was recorded before I'd seen Honey Don't

I feel like I had a very genuine defense of that movie on that episode sure after now seeing Honey Don't twice I would even defend driveway dolls more

Yeah, sure. I wouldn't agree. I didn't like driveway dolls at all when I saw it. But I was like, I'll keep, I think Mr. Cohen has, had enough. He deserves a second chance from old Maddie. Like, where do I know better than him? Right, sure, right, sure. So I'll go see the new one. Yeah.

And now I'm like, this driveway doll is good. I like driveway dolls. Driveway dolls is, is a movie. It functions as a film. Exactly. It's a film where, like, I really, like, the beats basically make sense to me. I'm basically with it the whole time. I think there's,

you know, there's something to the main couple, like, you know, where there's like a connection there that's interesting. And I find affecting. Honeydonn is basically a movie that I was kind of out on from the start and then the ending was so bad like that it really

sort of hurt the rest. I'm like I'm kind of with it until the last 20 minutes. I think that's, yeah, that's a fair story. And it's such a disastrous ending that it basically undoes everything I liked about the movie up until that point. We'll get into all of this. Here's the time. Sure. Here's the timeline I want to spell out. You see it, right?

Yeah. When I saw the trailer, I was kind of encouraged because I was like, okay, it looks a little formally tighter. There's kind of a genre riff happening here. There's seemingly a central plot thread of a mystery. This maybe looks like slightly more of a movie than driveway dolls, a fun lark that I enjoy. Then David sees it. And he's like, it is less of a movie than driveway dolls. I did. I did warn you. Okay. So we now have this on the schedule coming up six months from now. and he's like kind of a not an exciting way to end a six-month series of perhaps the greatest living filmmakers and this is a great app but we've had some we've discussed some masterpieces we've had we've had good times digging through big movies so i'm just glad after a run of giving a lot of smaller artists and people a chance getting someone really big on like me to talk about this well here's mattie mattie this is the road i'm paving okay mattie david's like who should we have on as a guest and i'm like here's what i think we should

do. Let's wait until the movie comes out and see if anyone defends it. Or even just has a reaction, honestly, because it kind of felt like a movie that was going to go nowhere, and it kind of was. Like, it just came out to shrugs and negativity and was mostly ignored. And we don't need to like this movie. No. Despite what some people accuse us up, we never pretend to like movies for the narrative of a miniseries. I only do that for money. When the money clears. That's what the money's for. That's a briefcase, dollar bills. That's what I'm looking for.

Right. We don't do it to make the episodes better. Right. But the movie comes out. There are not really vocal defenders that rise. But I see you posting takes that are at least like considerate of like, I struggled with this. Yeah. I tried to like it.

And right before we started recording, you were like, we all dislike this, right? I'm not going to be the one who like yucks everyone's yump. We're like, no, I just think you seemed very very. quickly, like someone who would at least be interesting to have a conversation about this movie with, rather than just three people being like, whatever, you know? Because I do think there is stuff to wrestle with in this. I found this movie so deeply frustrating. Immensely.

And I find it frustrating in a way that is very different from driveway dolls, which I accept being its own thing, even if it is kind of a silly trifle of a thing. I think that is what is intending to do and I find that movie charming and entertained to watch and funny. It does not like go off the charts in any of those areas but I think it succeeds at its very

modest intent. This is a movie that feels like a bad Cohen Brothers movie. It is so much closer to what they do together in a way that is just lacking juice and for the first like 75% of it I'm watching it and going like

okay this is like this is like this is an all right approximation of a Cohen Brothers movie. It's frustrating because I know they can do this better together but whatever. And then the last 20 minutes are just like they feel like a

shrug and a panic and it kind of reveals that the movie had no idea what it was actually doing up until that point. Yeah. And for me I think it's so illuminating that like they really just think they're making the long goodbye a lot to the point where there's like lots and lots and

lots of things pointing directly to it. There's a cat on an orange counter, and there's like a lady playing a piano on a bar, whatever, to the point where I went and watched Long Goodbye again, because I'm like, I have to I mean, that sounds like a good time. Now I feel even worse about the movie because I watched a long goodbye recently. But like, that movie also similarly has a kind of ending that's like

the first time you watch it, you're like, oh, it's a little bit out of nowhere and then you think about it. You're like, no, it's actually really That was layered in. It was layered in and interesting and like, and it means something for this character that this happened this way, like he's sick of getting dumped on or whatever. Whereas, like, this movie, is just sort of like, and now it's over. Here is what is most frustrating about it to me

is that I think Joel and Ethan together are the kings of an ending that should be unsatisfying. Yes. Right? Of like constructing a story that feels like it's leading into one direction and then ending on a very messy, ambiguous note,

letting plot threads completely dissolve, you know, or just like wander off screen, taking these hard left turn, these things that could be seen as frustrating and sort of flippant towards the audience, but I think are actually kind of like, that feel almost intellectually profound to me. Yeah.

And this movie, my first time watching it, I'm like, why is this doing the same moves except it's just making me mad? And I cannot find any rhyme or reimb. reason or meaning in what they're subverting. Yeah, like you, I've been listening to the series as you guys have been doing it, and you kept talking about earlier in their career the way critics, some critics

would talk about their work where it's like just cruel or whatever. This movie feels like that the movie those people think they're watching. Yeah. Where it's just kind of like tonally mean in a way that I don't quite understand. That's kind of a bad taste in my mouth. It is a surprisingly mean-spirited movie

given that it is initially kind of not. like initially you're like yeah this is a romp I get it it's like a very broad satire and then at the end you're like huh there's like two pieces in it weird edge to it yeah like there's a scene where uh was it Chris Evans like he's there he finds out that one guy died and they go out and the guy's like dead on the ground and like and they do again like a horrible mutated version of my favorite Cohen's thing which is two people having a regular conversation while something insane is happening behind them or near them yes and they're doing that but it's not funny it is like legitimately sad watching this guy weep over his dead son yeah and then there's the bit

where the guy's like oh like let me suck your dick and he gets run over by the car and i'm just like okay so you're just like showing a gig i can murdered by a car like i don't you're you're right that there's it's totally strange they when they work together that in many cohen movies that sort of these horrifying or shocking things happen and you're like very in it it's very in the flow of the story they manage the tone right and that stuff does kind of feel like, you know, some guy who's not a Cohen brother being like, I know what Cohen brother movies are like. And yet he is a Cohen brother. That's, he's one of the two. His whole time, he's been one of the two Coen's. I said to you recently, David, that this movie

kind of broke me. Yeah, you said that now. It was like this one. Right. And you were like, it can just be bad. You don't need to be fighting over this. And I was like, you don't need to be like in turmoil. I'm not at war with whether or not I like this movie. Right. I'm at war with like, why doesn't this work? And it's easy to just say it doesn't, but it is bizarre because it's doing things that are so similar

to the things I value in Cohen's films with, as we said, someone who is a Cohen brother. Yes, one of the two. On second viewing, I have some thoughts. Facts checked true. It's hard to make the two.

But I think Cohen runners. I think Cohen movies are filled with these kinds of moments where you're just like, that's a story decision no other filmmaker would make, right? Or that's, and on top of that, tonally, that scene is played in the opposite way of how I would imagine anyone else would

approach it. In a comedy, this scene is suddenly very violent and dark. In a drama, this scene is suddenly very funny and over the top, right? These things that feel like they should bump on you. And with the Coens, I don't know what degree of it is just the trust they have like earned from us at this point. When a moment like that happens in one of their movies, I lean in and I go, huh, why are they doing this? I like give them the benefit of the doubt. And I feel like every other time it has paid off for me, whether at the conclusion of the movie where I suddenly go, I get it. This is what it was all about. And this was the larger point they were making. This is why they were playing with narrative expectations and uncomfortable feelings. Or if it doesn't

work for me the first time, I go back and watching a second time and I go, now I get it. And like, this is one of the only ones, if not the only one where I'm like, I truly kind of don't get what's going on here. I think this movie has ideas in it. There are things. things it is contending with that I find kind of interesting and sticky and certainly on the first viewing, and even giving it a second watch this morning and being like, I'm really trying to meet it on its terms. I was getting re-engaged in some of the things in the first half and then just like completely pushed off the bike again the second half. Maddie, what is your history with the comments? That's a good question. I think in college in the early

2000s, the movie theater near my college was playing the big Labaski on a big screen. Another film. Another film of this film is maybe trying to be a little bit. They're very indebted to the long goodbye as well. Yeah. I mean, this is like, that movie is like, what if Philip Marlowe is like a even stupider? And this movie

is like, what if, I mean, this one, it was just like, what if Philip Marlowe was like a young lesbian? And then they kind of stopped. And they kind of walked away and hoped that they came back in the room later in the script we'd done. And then I just fell in love with it. And I had that stupid DVD that's like the bowling ball that untwists. Big time.

And then I just got really into their movies from that point. I went back and I just filled it all my gaps and I tried. I've seen everything I think first run since then. But I will say like especially I want to say inside Lewin Davis and Hail Caesar

and what was the one just before Lovin Davis? True. Oh, not sure. That's true. More than more. Burn after reading. No. Serious man. Serious man.

There we go. Those three. Burned after reading, I was the only person I knew that liked it when I saw in the fears. It was very gratifying to listen to the episode.

A smart lady. Correct. Thank you. Absolutely. But those three in particular, I watched them and I was kind of like, I don't get it.

But like, and then I would just be thinking about them for months and I'm like, I got to watch them again. And now those three are like my favorite three, I think. I mean, this is what I'm saying.

Like, that was my experience with Hale Caesar the first time. I have seen that movie now, I think 10 times. Like, I love it so much. Like, same. And I, I,

completely make sense to me now and it was that was a movie where the first time some of the wrong footing i was like i don't get what they're doing here but when you go back to it it rewards you yeah it starts to make sense when you understand what the movie isn't doing and you stop holding those expectations against it that we're sort of are drilled into us by more conventional movies yeah and you know and like for me it's sort of like they are um you know they're like it's not to sound so fucking basic but like they're like the first like directors that weren't uh timbrey or Stephen Spielberg, that I was like, these are directors that I've heard of when I was younger. Yeah, they're one of the first directors that you have heard of if you're our age.

Yeah, it was like them and like PTA. We're like, okay, here's directors that now when they have new movies, I will go see their movie. I mean, I talk about it a lot. But like, Tim Burton does sort of make sense as the ultimate starter kit, Oter for people of our generation. Yeah. Because it's so easy to understand what his hallmarks are, right? Yeah. And then Spielberg is the guy you hear everyone in culture cite.

shorthand for successful. He's on the animaniacs. Right. And he's the only director on the animaniacs. You know the name, you know, the visual, you know, the hits and whatever. And there's like Spielberg magic, but also as we've grown up, the definition of a Spielberg movie has changed a bunch. Sure.

But the Coens are like those directors that you can sort of feel like you're doing the work yourself to understand what their thing is. Yes. Rather than it being like served up to you completely already by pop culture. Right, and their movies are just so, to me, like, just so magical, the way that they have so many moving parts that are, like, unlike anybody else. Yeah. And I will say the thing about maybe, like, I was trying to get to the bottom of, like, why did this movie leave such a weird taste on my mouth tonally? Mm-hmm.

And I think it's because the other of their movies, it's two things. I think it's the attention to detail is missing. Yeah. And the dialogue isn't there. Whereas, like, other Cohen movies, the dialogue is so special. Mm-hmm. and sticky and compelling. Yes.

That when it's not there, when Chris Evans is saying, best sex ever or whatever, it's like the dialogue was in there, the jokes weren't there. I wrote down one of the jokes, it was like driving me crazy. It's like when,

in that scene where the, the kid dies, the Australian guy says, my body's a temple. You should see it with a shake weight. And I was like, that's a joke in a Cohen Brothers movie? Yeah.

Well, are you, oh, not Cohen. Sorry. A Cohen brother movie. A Cohen Cook movie. But it is... You know what I mean? I know what you mean.

It's somewhat disturbing to consider like them knowing about shake weights. I don't want them to know about that. It just feels like a lazy... It's a lazier joke and it's way out of time. It is. But once again, like, driveway dolls...

Maybe a slinket joke. ...feels like it's playing... Slinket joke. ...is a sillier movie that feels like it's playing an entirely different game and I'm not pinging it for not nailing, like, raising Arizona

to ask ratatat dialogue, whereas this is getting so close that you become more aware of the gap between what it's trying to do and the literally 20 perfect versions of it you've seen one of these people do before. Yeah. The other thing they may also do in a lot of their other movies is like paying homage to stuff in a way that is not tired that is interesting, that is something to say. And this one is just doing big time, remember that stuff? Well, even like the home invasion scene of.

of the young boy and his mother being attacked, right? I think is pretty well directed. And I'm sitting there and watching it. Visually it's good. Right. And I was just like, okay, this actually like builds tension. It's using like negative space and silence in this very like classically Cohen's way. It remains specific to its character.

It has like shocking moments of humor and of violence. And I felt a little electrified being like, okay. So like Ethan, Ethan's like showing up. as a director, right? Like, he's, like, doing something here cinematically, and the scene ends, and I'm like, I have seen 15 better versions of this scene

done by that same guy. You know? And also, like, the way that the grandma gets killed is, like, another sort of, like, to me, a taste level thing. It just feels sort of, like, unnecessarily mean. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. There was this quote I brought up a lot

throughout this series where Ethan has said, you know, when people ask me what a director does, I don't have an answer and over the years I finally settled on one which is tone management and you do look

at most of their films and you're like that is kind of their ultimate magic is the tone management of how can they hold these two things at the same time

and how can they put these scenes next to each other with such a wide kind of variance of human emotion and tone right? And this is a movie where it just does not

coalesce and there are things in it if I'm like just watching it on a scene by scene basis where I'm like, I'm kind of into this scene on its relative terms. Yeah.

And then I get to the next scene and I'm like, I'm feeling whiplash, but I'm going to trust them that this is all going to come together. And then it has what our French on fantasy on their recent House of Dynamite episode referred to as a kicking the full paint can into the open street ending. Like the person wanted to do that out of anger is what you're saying. That it just feels like, I don't know. Fuck you. Whatever.

You know, like, and House of Dynamite has that, too. This ending, where, like, the movie isn't totally working, but I'm, like, following and some of the scenes are working. And then you're like, let's see if you can pull it together. And then the ending is like, I don't know, fuck off. The ending's like, okay, we're done. And you're like, oh, no, but what about the ending? And they're like, oh, no, these are the credits. I said we're done.

These people made the movie. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, okay, did they? Like, the tone is basically just like, yeah, almost like a bomb falling, kind of. Just like, it just feeds. I heard on a podcast that we built House of Dynamite. I heard that, too. David?

Yep. Oh, wait, hold on one second. It was just here. Griffin, what are you looking for? Well, it's just, I lost sight of my money and financial responsibility this time of year. This always happens. Every end of the year. I'm rushing out of the house.

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Honeydon, what does everybody think of Margaret Qualley? Because I do think outside of this stuff we're discussing, tone management, Ethan, like, you know, like Cohen's facsimile feeling or whatever. And we should acknowledge that much like Driveaway Dolls, this is a movie that by all accounts was completely co-directed by Trisha Cook.

In addition of being written and produced, but because of DGA guidelines, much like the early part of their career. Trisha Cook is very much the co-author of these two films. Yes, in every sense. We are very clear about that in the interviews, etc. Margaret Qualley, who plays the character of Honey O'Donohue in this film.

A private... A private... In Bakersfield, California... Great Baker still in Accent, by the way? She's the queen of accents. What do we think of Margaret Qualley, who is having, I would say, a fairly sustained run at this point of being in movies? Yeah.

So... So that, I think, that noise that Maddie just made is right where I am with Margaret Qualley. I feel like sometimes I liked her in the substance. Sure. Otherwise, I'm sort of, I didn't like her in driveway dolls. A very strong performance. Like a real, like, you know.

That's a Marmite performance that I defend, but I cannot argue with anyone who's like, that drove me crazy. And I think the other thing is like, okay, it's like the noir thing. Uh-huh. Right. I've been watching a lot of noirs lately in preparation for this because I was like, I've got to get back in the zone. Right. And I was like, okay. Because like, a thing that happens all the time in.

noirs is shit just starts happening and then it stops happening in the movie's over and maybe sometimes you're Philip Marlowe or whoever you're Eddie Valiant you're fucking the dude whatever like just sort of like it's just like I'm gonna go home now and the movie's over but like and they're kind of like oh no another day in this crazy town exactly but those movies work because the people at the center you care about or at least they're compelling or whatever sure and in this movie for one reason or another I feel like quality is sort of like a charisma void well let me character feels a little cosplay to me like not margaret doing cosplay like honey doing cause like right where i'm like this girl's kind of

putting on like a she's a rolandex yeah yeah like where i'm like this is what is this i want to circle back to her in a second because i i think you're raising an interesting point here now and then not arizona not raising that no you you have not to date raised one of nathan arizona's children well that those aren't mine good and i'm giving them back that was that was a test and you just passed you should not be raising nathan arizona's children. They are not yours. Unless he asks. If he asks you to, then you can say yes. But you shouldn't take the initiative. Yeah. The cones are obviously very indebted to that kind of noir filmmaking. And also, obviously, like, the history of American noir in novels.

Hard-boiled crime novels. Right. And even in their non-noir films, I do think that is a thing they've really adopted across almost all of their work, which is very often the lack of resolution, a conventional resolution is the point for them, right? Yeah. Things like burn after reading or no country or even serious man that feel like they're building and building and building and then completely veer off from the obvious blow up,

the confrontation, the moment of closure. work for me because they're not just misdirects. It's like that is the thematic point to them. Much in the way that noirs are about these people who are broken down and cynical realizing how powerless they are to actually change anything, right? Yeah, the universe is cruel

and more importantly, confusing. Exactly. And you can never really get your arms around it. Which is really, I think, like, the core issue of the Coen Brothers work. That is the thing that all of their movies are really contending with, of like, is this meaningless or,

not. And if it's meaningless, then what's the point? What do we owe each other? What do we owe ourselves? How do you find some sort of peace within that chaos and the lack of meaning? And so I think all their other endings work because the lack of resolution is the statement they are making that life doesn't give you that kind of resolution. Right. And this movie, in being a hard-boiled detective noir riff, should be even more well set up. to get away with that kind of ending. And yet it doesn't. And I do think,

I don't think it's her performance. That's the problem as much. I like her in this. I was pretty resistant to her when she started out. Interesting, sure. I just felt like, I don't know. I don't get what all the buzz is about her without having, like, a major issue.

I wouldn't say I was allergic, but I was like, I don't know. Look, she's an incredibly attractive daughter of a movie star who is one of those people who was kind of like in magazines. before she had credits where it felt like there was a slight degree

of she's being shoved down our throats as the next big thing. And I always think I'd get a little defensive about like, well, let me decide with these people. Sure, sure.

Sure, with the hot young things. And over time, I'm like, I like the choices she makes. I like the people she works with. I think she has a lot of like, uh, I admire her bravery in terms of not feeling the need to define a thing she does

and stick to it. Even if you look at these two Cohen's movies and the substance and all the other stuff she does. There's like a tremendous range of what she does. She doesn't feel protective of any kind of like brand as an actress, which I always admire. Yeah. You know, I liked her in was Kinds of Kindness. I like She never saw Kinds of Kinds of Kindness. She's in it very briefly, and I like her in it. She had a quadruple role in that. She did. I thought she was great and poor things, even though that isn't a very large role. I know that's another one that people

I'm making the same noise as David on him. Yeah, I was cut on. My whole thing with her was, I first saw in the leftovers, didn't know who she was, and was like, the girl playing the daughter, like, has such a look. And then Googled and was like, oh, it's Andy McDowell's daughter. Well, right, that'll give you a look. It'll give you a look. She's a looker. Yeah. But she's very good in the leftovers.

And so I was like, you know, check noted, like, you know, and then when she was in the sort of the NEPO mailstrom that is once upon a time in Hollywood, I was like, oh, that's, I guess, something Quentin's going. for, right? Like, because, like, there's so many daughters of, uh, and tons of famous people in that movie. Right. Feels pointed. But he also, like, identifies, like,

10 of the next. He does. I mean, it is crazy that they're all hanging out at the fucking spawn ranch, right? Sydney, Sweeney and all those people. Yeah. Whoever else is in that. I guess.

Who else is in it? Dakota Fanning. She's great. Yeah. Love her. That Leonardo DiCaprio guy is making some wife. He's in the, he is in the movie. He's in the movie as well.

But she's, she's very good in it. She's good. and then I have just been like she is one of the most like coin flip actors for me since then where I have like performances others have bumped on Blue Moon this year which is a movie I adore she has this like 15 minute monologue in it that I think she does a good job and it's sort supposed to make me feel on edge but it it really exemplified the Margaret Callie experience for me where I was just like do I like this like she's pretty and she she's holding the camera Like, but am I, is this a good performance or am I just kind of like, is it just kind of sticking out?

Sure. In a way that's me, whatever. I don't know. I think hard to say. I think her driveway doll's performance as Sandy Cheeks, the astronaut squirrel from the land. Uh-huh. Is very broad and in quotes and is sort of consciously cosplaying, right? She is not looking for any sort of like realism in that.

in this, just because it was another film from the same team with the same lead actress, I was expecting her to do the same thing. And I think she is, I was, God, I don't want to say I was surprised by how grounded she was, but maybe just in comparison to the previous work.

Yeah. That I was kind of buying her in this milieu, playing it relatively straight. I agree with you that there's an element to it feels like the character is doing an act and is kind of self-styling. as, you know, a hero of her own story. Yeah.

Which is why you want the movie to, like, unwind her a little bit. I think that is the ultimate failing is not in her performance and that they actually don't give her fucking anything to play other than, like, an improv scene genre exercise of private detective. Yeah. When I saw it on the big screen, I think I got a little fooled by the magic of the movies because I was like, this is, I actually think she's pretty good in it and I was shocked. Yeah.

Because in general, I tend to dislike her in most things. And maybe I'm just holding a grudge because she plays Anne Ryan King and can't dance and Fosse Ferdin and drum me and saying, I look fair, fair. Listen, it's a capital offense where I'm from. But, no, I and I watched it on the big screen. I was like, oh, she's actually pretty good. I'm like shocked. And then I watched it again the other day.

And I was like, I'm seeing through this. Am I? Was I just like, wow, she's the size of a house. But I'm sure. But also how much of that is like, you. go into it knowing that there's no there there for the character, right? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I was like, I was just so

hoping that something would coalesce more interesting about the movie that wasn't happening that I just found myself so frustrated that maybe I took it out that way, I don't know. I was looking at your August 18th log of this movie, seeing it at MoMA, the moment when I ping David and said, Maddie seems to half like this, we should

have her on the show. I don't know if we're going to find anyone more positive than this. We talked about having you on the show. And you said, really love the first half of this. Everyone was good. looks very good, but feels a lot less than some of its parts. Honey, just okay, honey, fine. Yeah. And then I messaged you and you said you were disappointed it wasn't worse because

you had better letterbox jokes lined up that you then didn't get to use. That's correct. Remember any of those? I think it was like, Honey won't. Honey shouldn't. Honey shant. Honey shant. Honey shant.

My favorite was honey don't dot, dot, dot, dot see it. yeah you would yeah honey third act problems honey third act problems yeah i think i think that's a that's a solid one yeah yeah it would be funny if honey's like i've solved the mystery there's third act problems but i think watching it the first time you're like sorry i'm doing a magnifying this is going somewhere and clearly at some point this character will deepen sure beyond just kind of an affectation yeah here's what i think this movie is actually sort of trying

to be about vaginas. No, what I actually sort of think it's trying to be about... Boobes. The longer boob. Now you sound like David. It'd be funny if we were like, The Big Debate, Vagina versus Boobes. No, no, okay, okay, what's it about? What's about? I think it's actually trying to be

about examining the ways in which men hold power over women. If you look at the prism of everything happening around her in this movie, right? It is sort of like, here is someone who is a private investigator. She works for

no one. Sure. She's a private dick. But she doesn't have one. But she doesn't have one. I don't understand this. But she's dealing with... A lady doing detective? Sorry, go ahead. A lady doing detective. A lady doing detective. She's dealing with the law, you know. She's

dealing with her clients. She's dealing with the criminal element. She is dealing with organized religion. or perhaps cults that are sort of framing themselves as organized religion to become consolidations of money and power and sex and cults of personality and the relationship with the father, which is the point where I'm watching at the first time

and I'm like, okay, is this going somewhere? Right. Is there thematically something here in this sort of like someone who has worked so hard to define herself not in relationship to any man? Not only because that is not how she sexually identifies, but also because she doesn't want to be part of these systems, right? And, like, the early stuff with her sister, who's Kristen Connolly, who's an actress, I like a lot.

Love that actor. And I like that scene, the two of them on the porch together, where it feels like there's actually some real emotion here, like, where is this going? Her sister who is kind of nowhere. No way. She's in the house. Her sister has many children. There's, like, kind of no solid male figure in sight. She's pregnant yet again and makes a crack about her siblings cany.

even her children can't even remember how many siblings they have right now. They're not excited for the new baby. And her oldest child is played by Talia Ryder, who's in her rebellious teen phase, is dating a bad guy. Right. Right. An obvious sort of future abusive husband, if things go that way. Right. It's like a cycle is continuing. You'll later find out that Honey's father, who's trying to make amends, was also abusive, that they've both distanced themselves from him, and that the daughter's flashing out that she feels like her mother is critiquing her too much and warning her about how badly things are going to turn out when she's looking for support. She's getting anger, you know?

And how do women end up giving power over to men? Which is the biggest fucking mess of this movie is just getting into spoilers. Aubrey Plaza revealing herself to be like an 80s movie slasher villain who has gone insane victim blaming women who are victims of abuse because she thinks it's about women being weak enough that they let themselves be abused. Yeah. So I'm going to solve that by kidnapping random teenagers and torturing them to death. That my father abused me.

Yeah. And I now resent other people who don't know how to correct that situation because she murdered her father to get out of it or he died in the penalty. I can't remember. In very spot, you're standing, honey. What's the problem there? I would say it's not played very well. So that was what I was about to say. I would say that is a twist that would be tough to get across maybe anyway because it feels

a little out of nowhere and a little convenient, yada, yada, yada. I also think Plaza cannot do it. Like, and that's another actor that I make a noise about when I'm like, do I like this actor? She is way more that for me. And you had told me, like, watching this, like, I'm questioning if she can act at all. So I went in watching it. And until the final scene, I was like, I actually like her more than me. I would, I liked her a lot

in the rest of the movie because she's really good at that. She's good at playing horny. Good at playing horny. Good of playing flirty. Mean, kind of tempterous. Yeah, she works so well until the last scene the whole time.

Like, wow, Aubrey, like put her in the center of the movie. It's almost like they didn't tell her the twist until like the minute they were rolling in there. Oh, and by the way, you've been the murder of the whole time. By the way, I'm like, I'm sympathetic to her where I watch that final sequence and I'm like, this feels like an actor being like,

Well, I'm going to try my best. This is a tough fucking assignment they gave me. And I'm going to figure out a way and see if I have any in to playing it in a way that is believable. My thing with Plaza had always been, I had struggled with some of, like, I didn't like her very much in Legion, but I didn't like that show much or whatever. Like, I didn't like Ingrid Goes West as much as some people did. And, but then I did like, like, Emily the Criminal, which was a bit of an underseen little gem. And, like, there were a certain thing. I enjoy her in Megalopolis.

I was going to say she gets what movie she's in more than any other actor in the cast. She knows exactly what movie she's. Sometimes it hits and then sometimes I'm like, well, this didn't work. And this was kind of a was hitting and doesn't work all in one movie. It's all of it. Ben, do you have a take here? I just kind of have a crush on her. Oh, interesting.

Wait, wait, Aubrey Plaza. I'm sort of always in the bag for her. Wait, wait, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben. You like someone who has a kind of could be mean to me? me vibe i don't understand this this is not this is not your track record remotely something about her cold cruelty yeah that just for whatever reason sparked something in does not reflect your wife no no very much so kind of one of the billion reasons we love your wife sort of a dating history yes that that conjures up for me that is bright red a lot of wows platinum

in the past yes more emily's the criminals yeah i would say yeah well's platinum okay okay okay Listen, Wow Platinum has got some pretty nefarious motives, if I were called Craig. Wow, Platinum is up to no good. Yeah. Do you know what's crazy? What's up? So, her character's name is Wow Platinum, right? That's so true.

And wow is one of the words that is said most often on the Doe Boys podcast. And the highest honor they can bestow upon anything is the Platinum Play Club. So true. And so I was watching this movie and wondering, does Francis Ford Coppola listen to the Doe Boys podcast, which does make sense because they're a Coppola goofful. Thank you for saying that, and of course That's something Nick Wager said about 400 times last year No, I think I'm the first one to say that on any podcast. Have any of you seen Megadoc?

No, not yet. I have a way too, because I am very invested in McLaugh. Absolutely. A movie I liked. It rules. It's great as a document. It's great as... Maddie, we're both interested in municipal politics

and wacko movies being by Madfin. Yeah, I look. It's got both things going on, baby. Hey, that's a really good point. I'm in the same boat as the two of you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that movie is fascinating as like a supplemental document to understanding megalopolis, but it's also like actually a good movie in its own right.

Well, I understood it perfectly. No problems. Aubrey Plaza comes out of that movie. Coherent film, A to B, 2C. Looking the best. She does. She's one of the top, like. Out of Megadoc, I'm saying, makes her look even like that.

I thought you meant maybe in the wig. She looks the best. She does. She is looking pretty good. But you watch that and like both the behind the scenes footage of her interacting on set and rehearsals and whatever. they show all the like fucking weird Francis 4 Coppola acting exercise improv stuff like all this footage you haven't seen of her performing in character that's all great and you're watching raw takes but also all of her interviews she comes off funny and smart and like the most transparent about everything that was happening in the ecosystem of that movie so i watch that and i'm like she does kind of get it undeniably and also she is someone who very very versus a lot of her, like, contemporaries, has really been committed to movies.

Yeah. I completely agree with that. She tries stuff. She does interesting projects. She, yeah, you're absolutely. And honestly, same with Marco Colley. Yeah. I mean, it's like, what, I'm giving people respect for working,

but I like that they're working. Like, but I think I'll re-paws if I can even go a step further in a way that I just, like, she gets brownie points for me forever for this. Like, does a lot of low-budget stuff. sure yeah with like first or second time filmmakers where it feels like she's actually producing it getting it off the ground calling her friends in interested taking like a fifth supporting part in something you know just to work with interesting people and has done a season of white lotus and did legion or whatever but doesn't just feel like she's doing the fucking streaming prestige cash in she also is agatha all along you're right you're right she's done a couple but she's like was it not time it sure was she's largely in my opinion the best thing best MCU thing since fucking Avengers Endgame or whatever. She is largely not doing big

payday streaming bullshit that doesn't exist, which almost all of the people from her generation got caught up doing. Now, speaking of, Chris Evans is in this movie. It represents Chris Evans' try year, 2025, where he decided to try giving a shit again.

He got off his ass a little bit. I would say he's been somewhat forthcoming, like, I'm aware that I made a bunch of dog shit after Knives Out, right? Like, he's sort of said it out loud, right? Thank God. Like, because his post, we talked about it, but the sort of like gray man ghosted Pain Hustlers Red One, Jesus Christ. It's really bad.

So is there a movie called Pain Hustlers? Are you saying two different movies? Pain Hustlers is a Netflix film. I mean, that, honestly, that's the most, right, already thing he did. It's like a biopic about opioid hustlers. It was Emily Blunt and Chris Evans. It was, you know. I mean, it came and went. From 2019, when he has knives out and end game, and you're like, here we go. This guy's unlocked. He's freed from Marvel.

Right. And he just killed it in a movie playing a real person. Yeah, he's off the leash. Here we go. And then for the next six years or the, yes, yes, for the next five years. Sure. Because 2025 is when he gives a shit again. Yeah.

For the next five years, he only does streaming bullshit and the only two movies he is in that go to theaters are light year in which he played the Real Buzz Lightyear. Well, in the universe of... Not the toy. The man that the toy is based on. That's right. It's based on a film that is, of course, disgusting and frazzled Snoop Dog with its portrayal of lesbianism. It's...

I'm definitely... How is she supposed to explain this? He should never watch Honey Doan. He seemed to more be saying that he possibly is too stone to literally explain homosexual relationships. Yeah. And the Lightyear was simply bothering him because it was prompting that. He wasn't even, like, get this. woke off my screen.

He was like, I am too lazy to explain anything. If you have ever taken a small child to see a movie, something I know you now do. I sure have, yeah. And my child has unfortunately seen Lightyear like seven or eight times. Really? I told you, I've said this on this podcast before. She calls it Grumpy Buzz. She doesn't even like it that much, but occasionally she's like, I want to watch Grumpy Buzz.

I don't know if you told me this before. I forgot this. I've seen that movie a lot. I mean, she definitely likes socks more than most of the movie, because. because that's at least a cat that's cute. Call it Grumpy Buzz kind of underlines the core problem of that movie's existence. She really zero didn't. She's right on what the movie is giving you.

It's like, it's fun. But she's kind of grumpy, right? Have you seen late? You didn't check that one out? Hey, I just have a real quick question for you. Why would I have seen light year? Great question. I watched a lot of.

Why do you experience the event of what I've said this before in the pod, but I was dating a woman and at the time. At the time that Lear came out, and I went to go see it by myself, and she found the stub in my pocket, and I think it's not unrelated that I was stumped within days. Like two condoms in your pocket, one used. She's like, what is this? I was just checking out grumpy buzz. She was like, my ear stub.

Did you take your little cousin? I was like, no, I had time after record. I went to go see it by myself. I mean, I'll watch basically anything. I'll also watch anything animated, basically. Right. I was saying, my ass back. Yeah, I was going to say, like your kind of looks.

all right? It looks good. Pretty expensive animated film. Yeah, Pixar kind of lost me is the thing. I think they've kind of lost it. I think it's not as good as a used to be. The weird thing about light year, there are many weird things about it obviously, but is that it is, the plot is basically like diet interstellar. It's got like this complicated, like, time dilation plot. Yes, exactly what I was going to say. You take a small child to see any movie. They will ask you a question every 15 seconds about what's going on on screen. At a certain age, yes. So first of all, Snoop Dogg's point is invalidated because it's like, what? I don't want to have to explain this.

You're also to explain like relativity. You're going to have to. This is a movie that has such complicated concepts in it. It does. Does anybody fold the piece of paper and put a pencil through it? It doesn't do that. It's not a science fiction movie since the dot of time is done. This is what's so weird is that interstellar, a movie for grownups does that.

And everyone's like, oh, fucking Christopher Nolan, treating us like babies. And then light years like, fine, we got it. You want to be treated like grownups and doesn't take the time to explain it to children. Let me just say. I got a tangent off this tangent. Because we don't need to discuss later that much anyway. Juicy fingers. How are you supposed to explain juicy fingers to your children?

Sorry? The worst concept in Lightyear is that in their alternate reality or their future, their far off future, they eat inverted sandwiches where the meat is on the outside, the bread's in the middle. And Buzz said, why would you do that? And they go, so you get juicy fingers, that's the best part.

When the meat juices get on your fingers and you have to lick them off. kind of sex joke that would be in honey don't explain that shit to your grandchildren snoop i haven't explained anything that's happening in light year to my child who seems to have forgotten that movie exists recently which is good um i had a pivot off of light year i'm wearing juicy fingers tangent off a tango really threw me though and i got a bit of relativity not explaining pencil through the paper david giosi i'm not sure how you say romilly who plays romilly and interstellar is now in netflix is the diplomat a show that i watch an

Enjoy. Is that the Kerry Russell show? That's the Carrie Russell show where there's a twist every fucking five minutes and it rocks and it's very silly and frothy. It makes me look up from doing the dishes. Exactly. And David Giosi is in it playing a hot British foreign secretary and it's just always a pleasure to see that guy. It's great. Oh, fucking good looking.

He's also good actor. Great in Cloud Atlas. Yes, he is. Oh, that guy. Yeah, he rules. He's just got like a really, really great, like, draw, great way of talking, a great furrowed brat. Like, he's great. Mm-hmm. It's great.

The only other movie that Chris Evans was in that went to theaters was, of course, a free guy where he makes a three-second cameo, seemingly filmed on an iPhone, playing himself. He did do that. He is, I mean, Red One, I believe, did go to theaters. Yeah. I mean, you are, you are tragically correct. I mean, like, and technicality. I did see Grey Man in theaters, but that was at Four Wall. But Red, but Red Road got like a real release, I guess.

It did, but it still is streaming bullshit. Yes. Did he reprise his role as Lucas Lee on the Scott Pilgrim show. He did. He did. He was correct. That performance in that movie is so fucking good. He's awesome in that movie. Yeah, yeah. Chris Evans is a good and charming actor who's been working on our screens for more than 20 years at this point. I have always been a big defender.

And I think you look at stuff like Lucas Lee, like not another teen movie, where you're like, this guy does get it. Yeah. Like he is able to poke fun at himself in a way that shows that he doesn't know. He can't contend that he doesn't know what good material is. No, he's got taste. Because he's kind of in on the joke, and he's worked with good filmmakers before. I don't like materialists,

but I don't think he's bad in it. I think he's quite good. He's sort of doing his best. I like him a lot in it. That's a movie I obviously... You defend. But I also think that movie has a core issue with his performance that I think this movie carries as well.

I have not seen the third film in his tri-year trilogy is the Kent Jones film, late fame. Yeah, well, I think that hasn't actually, you know, that got like a festival. Yes, it's played at festivals. You have not seen it yet. No, I didn't see it. I'd like to see it.

I don't know what he has lined up outside of seemingly returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No, what? They got their hooks back in him? He's very much like, as his like biceps and pecks are bulging out of his, like, T-shirt on the wreck carpet. He's like, I don't think I'm going to be in that one. And he's like, got a fucking Captain American Shield is that, basically.

I mean, maybe if they call me briefly, I might show up. He's wearing the mask. They've tattooed on his face. He shaved his head. He's in the Romaine Gavre's film Sacrifice, which is at Tiff, which with Anya Taylor-Joy. I don't know much about it. So he has two festival movies that have been premiered yet, right? Yeah.

Chris Evans, do we like him in this movie? The thing about him in this movie in which he plays a sort of, as you say, religious cult leader, the televangelist-y sort of thing. But the movie introduces you to him. misbehaving before you even see him at the pulpit. It is front-loaded with... He's naked a lot of movies. You just gave me a look that I cannot describe why you said that? He's got like a fucking strip mall church that is really a front for a drug operation where they're funneling money from the friends.

But also... The four-way church or something? Oh, God. And he's... Go ahead. Finish your thought. And then I have a thought. He also loves to fuck and he fucks everybody and it's basically a sex call.

And he makes all the female prisoners wear, like, chain bikines. under their roads, and he directs them during sex. Right. Doesn't this all feel very like 80s, 90s kind of humor about like televangelists and TV priests? Very tired. And you're like that thing like what you don't know is like religious people can be hypocrites. And I'm like, yeah, we know that. Like that is done and dust it.

That is old news. JJ did not do a dossier for this episode. He is fired. Exactly. But we told him not to do it, but it was reverse psychology. We wanted him to do it. Yeah, and he failed the test. Exactly.

I was hoping to see the giant book. It opened up, but I guess I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. It's on the shelf this week. But I, there were changes made to this versus the drive-away doll script remaining untouched and kept as a period piece, right? This was a script that they wrote, that she wrote in, at an earlier point. I believe all of these, including fucking, you know, beaver parade or whatever. Go-Beavers doesn't have a script.

I have to remind you. Go-Pers, they told me personally. It's not written. It's an idea. There may be a, like, a treatment or sketch out there somewhere, right? Like, it wasn't just that someone was, like, go beavers. And they were like, put a pin in that. They said that they had the ideas down, but they haven't cracked it yet.

And I was like, what, are you possibly going to crack? That's my only question is, was this written in full in, like, 2002 and then dust it off and, like, COVID reference, you know, updated. I have the COVID reference. They talked about it specifically at the top box because it bothered me. Yeah. Because that, it's, again, attention to detail shit that was driving me insane. Where it's like, again, and like in driveway dolls, my lovely wife, who was a food writer, pointed this out to me. They order a rosé in the 90s.

They would have ordered a blush wine. That's a good call. That's a sort of mistake that the brothers together did not make. And then it's like, I don't give that much of a shit, but it does like, whatever. And then your wife is obviously one of the best food writers. She's America's best food writer, in my opinion. So God bless her for noticing these things. Yes. And then in this movie, the COVID thing is like, Billy Eichner, he's that guy that they say he is.

which is like a weird joke that I don't care about and it's not very good. His character is introduced as a client who is methodically wiping off the chair in her office before he sits in it and they turns store and goes like, can't be too careful. COVID. It's still everywhere.

And he's like, if he was actually that kind of like very conscious person about COVID, he would be wearing a mask. That is. You're right that it is bizarre and lazy. Exactly. And the joke is in there, they said, because they wanted

people to know that it was not a period piece off the bat. Okay. It is there to serve a function not to actually be funny. There are other ways you can. I, nope, there's no other way actually. You watch people use an iPhone all the time. Ah! Does someone look at a calendar? I'm always looking at calendars. Paper calendar.

I'm always, when I greet my friends, I'm always saying the dates to them. I'm always like, and as we all know, it's 20, 20th. How's your November 4th going? You are right, David. That watching this film, you're like, this does feel like a script that has been sitting on a dusty shelf for 25 years and that you're like, yeah, we've kind of moved past this surface level takedown

of, do you know that some Christians are actually bad? Again, I'm not saying that Christians are good or that Christians are above reproach in cinematic satire. I'm more just kind of like did you know priests can be horny and nefarious?

Doesn't feel shocking. And this film really seems to think that I am going to be like, I cannot believe that Chris Evans is fucking ladies in this movie. 75% of his screen time is probably in that bed fucking somebody, right? Or nude arguing with somebody. He is often in the buff or in tighty whitties of some sort.

Here's my core complaint. And I buy it more for this character than materialist where he is playing a struggling theater actor with integrity who doesn't want to sell out. Right. I think Chris Evans has gotten too obsessed with the self-manicuring. I'm sure he's spending a million dollars on physical upkeep a day, right? He looks incredible. That feels like it's not profitable.

But he is spending a million a day. It's a lot of money. He's almost getting to a point where I'm just like, it looks, $65 million. It looks like, sorry, it looks like his beard is being lined up in between words. I think his beard is a little too perfectly cropped. And I feel this way about everything. Yeah, same with materialists. The last two years of it, every time he shows up, I'm just like, you look too good now.

It's not a genetic thing. The hair is too well maintained. Your muscles are too perfect. Your chest is too shaved. The beard lines are too clean. You know, whatever fucking dermatologist, like, regiment you have on or whatever work, I'm just like, you are starting to not feel like a real person. It perhaps works for Captain America. But yet, I would argue, part of what was so successful about him as Captain America is he somehow made that guy feel a little earthbound.

And now he plays him so corny. in a way that's like, whatever. Dumb shit, when he's like, oh, here's the list of movies I've got to watch. It feels like, oh, like, here's like a human being. He's, like, starting to look like an anime hunk. And I'm truly just, like, spend 15 minutes less in the makeup chair. Like, if you're making an indie, just like, let it grow out a little bit.

Yeah. Call it a little bit. I get that this guy is vain and self-obsessed and would be this. Well, it makes more. In materialists, it bugged me more. In materialists, it bugged me. And this, I'm just like... But in materialists, it doesn't matter

because it just went handheld when you're in his apartment and now I know he's poor. Sorry, that's my critique. One of my many critiques. It's a good movie. But I'm just like, this, Chris Evans, the actor

has access to treatments that this character does not have. And a strip mall. Yeah, and Bakerfield. Yeah. I'll believe that he spends two hours in the mirror every day. But I think what you're doing

is nitpicking honey, don't. And you did it too, and I've done it already as well. we've all done it and it's like we drive away dolls tries this and this movie tries this too this kind of like fucking this is a chill movie man this is a ramshackle little delight like you know we just threw this together stop being taking this so seriously and in drive away dolls i kind of roll with it in this one i don't so much partly because as mattie pointed out there's a lot of like grisly kind of lurid stuff that uh you know i'm bouncing up against much much

like harder and so I don't know because you want there to be a point to it every other time the comments have done this you're like it is serving

ultimately thematic concerns yeah it felt a little bit like watching those like in the early 2000s there were a lot of those like

pitch black comedies the post Tarantino kind of crime murder comedy and they spent a night at McCool that's correct

and the whole time those movies are always going like staring at you down the barrel of the camera being like and we're having fun

right you're having fun. It's wacky and fun. What are you offended? I mean, honestly. Are you bad at what happened to smoochie? And I'm like, I'm, poor smoochie. Death has happened to him. Well, like, death is being threatened. This movie's giving death to Smucci a little bit to me where it's like a little. A movie that I liked a lot when I saw it when I was, what year did that come out?

2002 and Maddie, I was right there with you. I think we're very similar ages. And I was also, I was like, this is twisted. This is dark. It's twisted. I get that that's that's transgressive and I'm supposed to be like good I I will say this I I rewatched it recently I also hate society I rewatch it recently I still like it there is no question that the best time to watch death of smoochie is when you are a teenager teenager never hit as hard as the ages from 13 to 18 yeah but like there's like am I wrong here it's got like I was trying like think of more examples of funitis but like this is a thing that sometimes movies do and like

I think driveway dolls also did it to some extent, which is just like, it's fun. But we put it up against this with lady killers, which is like another murder comment. Which I've not seen because I'm afraid of it. But is a movie that very much like maintains the like, this is fun energy. Yeah.

And like, honey, don't, it like has these moments of like her talking to her sister, you know? Yeah. Like the runner having his mother attacked. Like these things where you're like, it's slowing down. It's like investing in character. It's not trying to maintain this like, come on. Don't take any of it seriously thing,

which makes you want to believe it is building up to some ultimate point. David, this episode is brought to you by Mooby, the Global Film Company, the Champions Grade Cinema. For my iconic directors to emerging otters, there is always something new to discover. And with Mooby, each and every film is hand-selected so you can explore the best. of cinema.

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There you go. David. Yes. You know what makes this minute different from all other minutes? What's that? It's the last minute. Ah! We are living in the last minute in terms of having time to buy gifts for your friends and family.

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Head to wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. The end of this movie, just to, like, skip ahead, right? Yeah. The basic setup at this movie is, Honey?

I mean, the premise is that honey gets a fucking case. People are dying. Girls are getting killed. What's going on? A woman who had hired her shows up dead in a car crash. It's a classic fucking Raymond Chandler-y kind of setup. Yes. Like, she, you know, like, it's the case she does.

She should stop sniffing around, but it's too intriguing. Right. Right. Charlie Day is a local cop who has a big crush on her. Very nuanced performance for Mr. Day. The thing is about, I've been. In over 20 years of watching Mr. Day on my screen, both large and small. I've inculcated to his fucking shit. Everybody in choice.

Every time he's on screen, I'm having a ball. He makes a problem I have with this movie is that most of the jokes are not very funny. He has the one thing that made me laugh so hard in the last scene of the film where he says sex hookers. It made me laugh. And I was like, you know what? Against my better judgment, I laughed with that joke. And you know what? I'm laughing.

I also, Charlie, aka Luigi. A.k. Al-a. Luigi. is a funny guy. And I'm pretty much always rooting for him Despite the fact that he is insanely rich And I do not need to roof her He's fine

He does not need my humble If you are quiet for even a moment He'll die If you listen to you all right now Believe in Charlie Day please clap I'm not trying to make the same joke I'm not trying to talk shit But I do think

He seems like the most sort of level And chill of the sunny guys Like yeah Oh by a country mile Seems like they've got stuff You know they're hardworking guys they make their show like there's something I like

Waterloo where the vampires hang out and he fucking crushed that shit I love that and Rob Mack I believe Stop Don't say any more Heartbreaks on that name

Do you know about this Ben? No I also don't know about this Rob McElhany I'm sorry I'm sorry Oh geez Not to dead name him I'm sorry Not to dead name him

But he was born Rob McElhaney And for the 25 years of his career That is the name he has gone by credited it that way and on many episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, his hit show. A show he not only stars in

but he created. And owns, yes, yes. He becomes best friends with Ryan Reynolds. They own a funniest man in the world. You might have heard this, but they own a soccer team. He's married to that girl

from age of Adeline, right? Yes. Sorry. Yeah, I heard about the soccer team. And it does feel like he's become somewhat infected by the mogul brain of Ryan Reynolds. A little bit.

And wanting to be like Ryan Reynolds. Be kind of like a sort of personality brand in a way that Ryan Reynolds also is. He's doing like a more successful run of what Ashton Coochard was attempting 15 years ago. Yes. Yes. And...

Remember that? When he was the most followed person on Twitter? Yes, I do. And he was like starting tech companies or whatever, you know? It's also funny that he was like the person who basically minted Twitter. And then he had one bad tweet that was like, oh, no, they fired Joe Pa? What happened? Do you mean X the everything up?

Yeah. Do you remember this? I do remember this. I do not remember that he was going to the map for. for Paterno. Because he didn't know yet about the Sandusky. He saw the headline Joe Paterno out

and he didn't read the rest of the story and people attacked him in the comments and he went, got it, I will never tweet again. He actually did it right? Where the first time Twitter bit him, he was like never mind, lock out. Okay. But anyway,

that's really good advice. Over the summer, Rob McElaney, I think it's like People Magazine or someone breaks that he has legally filed a name change petition to be Rob Mac period legally and people are like

what the fuck is going on and then he posts like a 15 minute video this is the real Ryan Reynoldsy energy this video where he's I don't know if it's actually maybe it's five but it's one of those like hey it felt like an hour my name you know is you know I have Irish ancestors and like it's been

spelt all kinds of ways and it's confusing and no one knows how to pronounce like right that's kind of his argument his argument is I now do a lot of global business and people and other cultures have a difficult time pronouncing my name and I have lost hours of my life where I could be making money

correcting people on my name. That's actually the jockey kind of explanation he gives is like if you add up every time I've been in a meeting with someone and I've had to say it's pronounced Mechlehenney over years that is 500

hours that I could have been meeting with VCs as someone with an actually hard to pronounce last name. Lubchansky. It's Lubchansky. It's okay. You know what? Point proven.

I don't care. I'm not changing my name to Maddie Lubb. Exactly. Well, I was going to say, my culture is not your costume. Rob Mack. But his argument of time is money. That's crazy.

And I'm missing out on deals. And then it's just a video. And his wife, who he has multiple children with is like, our children have your name and you didn't talk to us about this. Sounds like a normal relationship with him. Your name is Rob Mac. and they're named McElennie. It sounds like that video of that one entrepreneur guy

that's like, my days are cutting to six hour chunks. This is what it's like. I love that guy. You've seen that video? Where he like takes baths and bottle drawn or whatever. By three years from now, I've killed you. I've eaten you. The video has the energy of like I inject my son's blood into my penis to stay young.

Like these insane fucking like biohacking like grindsett tech bro shit. He doesn't have to do the legal change. He can just tell people to call him Rob Mac. Honestly, the answer to most things of late is you don't have to do this. Just call me Rob.

This is the worldwide phenomenon of everyone is 12 now, I believe. This is what they call it. Why can't I just be 12? Why can't I just be 12? But anyway, and again, I want to be clear, Rob Mac has made things that amused me. I enjoyed Mythic Quest.

I haven't watched the latest season. And I feel like everyone fell off with MythCquest, but there was a time when I enjoyed Mythic Quest. Yeah. I'm sure Rexham FC is doing fine. I haven't checked the standings. You're right, though. The Charlie Day seems to be very at peace with himself. He's just the chillist.

He made his passion project and everyone was like, eh, and he was like, anyway. Yeah, I'll show up and be, I'll be Charlie Day for five minutes in your film. This feels like the kind of thing of like, again, if you got in the call from E. And he was like, hey, do you want to do some bullshit in my bad movie, honey, don't? You would have been like, absolutely. That's what he said. I mean, his performance, Chris Evans' performance, and Aubrey Plaza's performance, in particular, have the energy of, I've always wanted to be in a Cohen's movie. I've always wanted to be in a Cohen Brothers movie and I read this script two seconds ago.

Right. I would say it's those two things. And I'm worried that this is the closest I'll ever get. I can turn this down. Well, what if they never get back together again? And like, you're playing a sleazy priest in a Cohen's brother's movie, a Cohen movie rather, is. is like so, again, that part, I think, would be better if it had any jokes that were funny or any dialogue that was even medium interesting or good.

It is such a first draft character. It never goes beyond what he is revealed to be immediately. And then it's just a repetition of the beat, which I think he plays fairly well. And I think the more they repeat it, kind of the funnier it is in a way, because you're, especially as the movie gets darker, you're like, oh, here's Charlie doing that again. Okay. When he showed, when Chris Evans shows up in church and there's like the big photos of him behind him.

I'm like, it got a small chuckle for me the first time I saw it. Same. Yeah. I do feel like if he had figured out a way to add a dollop of real menace to this performance, it would have been a little interesting. But also, this movie kind of shrugs and goes, this guy doesn't fucking matter. He shot off screen after being forced to perform the heinous crime of conalingus upon a woman. I do kind of like that scene.

I'm sorry, I was going by the DJ Khalid playbook there. I do kind of like that scene of his final sex scene is with the French drug nepo queen. Correct. Whose name is French for honey, isn't it? What is her name? Is her name, meow? Miel, which is French for honey. Yes, you're correct.

You're right. The last beat of the movie where they say that. She asked for sex American style, and he says missionary, which makes me wonder, than how do French heterosexual people have sex? The joke is that missionary is the most boring position and Americans are boring. French people, of course, yeah, they just kind of like blow cigarette and smoke at each other.

A petit more de chien? What's that? What's that now? He was trying to do. He said a little death of dog? He just said dog orgasm. Okay. No, what I...

Yeah, that is what I said. I tried to say sex doggy style. Oh, sure. right that what I said was closer to. It's not a closer to. It's a euphemism for orgasm. It kind of fucked out. My favorite French euphemism is, and I'm not sure if this is still true, people

can let me know. I haven't lived in France a long time, is that you call a cum stane a carte of France because the map of France kind of looks like a... You could say that about kind of any map. France is very hexagonal. It's very cumstaining. I was going to say, like, you can't say that about, like, Chile.

Yeah. Italy. Is something wrong? Is something wrong with you? I think one could come my boot. All right. Well, all right. We do a side podcast that's like Coming Shapes. What's going on?

This is an hour 20 in? Side podcast. No, I'm not sure if that's sustainable. Can I mean? We go country to country. I would say Coming Shapes is about the least

podcast friendly thing possible. Sure. Like in audio form or like kind of looks like a boot. Yeah, guys, I wish you could see this one. Can I pivot to something way, way less controversial? I just wanted to say.

I was going to do a good joke. Okay, what's your joke? You ever seen I Love You Daddy, the Louis Sakey movie? Charlie Day is in that. Charlie Day is in that playing kind of the same role. Sure. Charlie Day? Exactly.

Like, or it's just kind of like every... Why won't you fuck me? Every so often he just shows up to be kind of lewd and like that, yes. And it's sort of the same like, hey, this movie kind of needs like a slap on the cheeks like for 20 minutes. Every time the camera fucking tracks into the room and he's doing this with his hands and he yells her name. It's fun. Every time I'm like, I'm having a good time. He does, he does, I will say, the least annoying version of his bit that he keeps not, not even not getting the hint, but just refusing to accept that she is not sexually attracted to men every time he, quote, unquote, politely asks her out on a date, right?

And he does play it so guilelessly that the bit isn't creepy or annoying. It is kind of harmless and funny. Yeah, it's kind of like, oh you. Yeah, like as like, and sort of like, thematically it almost works. as you were talking about before, if, like, the thing is, like, the way in which men control women's lives. Yes.

The first interaction you see or have is him hitting on her. Right. Right. And it's also the last interaction she has with someone who was not the girl on the motorcycle. That even in a non-threatening way,

his relationship to her is completely transactional. Yeah. Of all of his kind of cooperation with her is based on when will she agree to go get dinner with me. Yeah. And when she explains to him why she won't, he goes like, you always say that.

Yeah. Which is kind of funny. But yes, it's all about, yes. a woman trying to find an identity that is removed from all these systems. Honey, kind of. Kind of. Honey, kind of.

Chris Evans' final sex scene, he is having sex based on her direction. She is the one giving the commands, telling him what to do. And then he afterwards says, that was the best sex ever. I like a woman who can take charge. There's some subversion.

And then she shoots him in the head while Honey is parked outside or pulling up to his congregation. As I mentioned, the other plot on here is Talley Ryder as her niece. Right. So you got this kind of, like, domestic plot line and this murder mystery plot line in parallel. So, yes, Talia Ryder is the niece. She goes missing.

What's the character's name, Corinne? Right. She's running away from her abusive boyfriend. She doesn't want her mom to find out and say, I told you so. Honey is kind of, like, helping shield her. She goes to a bus stop. She's creeped out by an old man. She doesn't know as her grandfather.

Played by that actor is. named Kale Brown. I think he's quite good in his one real scene. But she's now a second missing person. Are these things connected? And Honey believes that she must have been abducted by Chris Evans and his sex cult. But in fact, Chris Evans is shot by the French sort of emissary for this drug thing. It's clearly them being like, oh, femme fatale.

get it. Yeah, I mean, having her be French does not make sense. The French are running this drug church out of Bakersfield? What if they wanted to be on the East? Because it seems like a long way to go. I think the I'm just, I'm just

I'm sorry to poke home. They worked backwards from the Vespa clearly. They worked backwards from like, here's a lady wearing all one pattern out of Vespa. Wouldn't that be funny? Would that that be stylish? incredible? She holds the screen. I'm not very hot lady. I'm not not enjoying

myself anytime she's in the movie. But it's adding to the where is all of this going, right? Honey pulls up, she hears a gunshot. Chris Evans has been shot. They don't show her discovering the body or anything like that. She also sees a motorcycle pull away

from the gunshot and she's not like, maybe I should see where she's going. She's like, huh. And that's the second point in the movie where she's sort of like driven past this woman, right, but hasn't really engaged with her. It's clearly blind to her as a suspect because she wants to have sex with her.

Right. And then I'm trying to remember how she figures out that, in fact, Aubrey Plaza is the one... She just goes over to her house because she's like, I know a cop that can actually follow up. It is truly, right, she just checks in and Aubrey Plaza's like, FYI, it was being all along. And Aubrey Plaza's like, you hate me because I'm poor, right? I bet you hate my house. Yeah, and she's like, I'm from Bakersfield, too.

Right. And then Aubrey Plaza goes, like, full kind of, like, serial killer mode, like, Pamela Vorhees. Qualley sees Honey, Honey, C's, honey, C's two cups of tea. And it's like, who are you making... T4. And Honey, sorry, Quali and Plaza, Honey and MG

have been fucking the whole movie, but it's this kind of like forbidden off on like sort of quasi relationship. I think those scenes are all very good

and are kind of the closest this movie has to having any real emotion. There's the scene where they are like basically having sex in the bar in front of all the male cops

is like good and like interesting and like yeah these men would not notice and it's like it is interesting in a little bit, and it is hot, I think. I agree.

But then it gets to another problem I have with both this movie. And the last one is, does Ethan think gay people are funny? I don't know. There's some things in here where it's like there was a bit while they were talking, when I heard them talking after the movie that I saw, where there's that scene right after they have sex, where Honey is like cleaning all the dildos and shit. And they were talking about like the only argument

they had while filming it was like something they'd have whatever they were editing it and even wanted to hold longer on the sex toy cleaning because he thought it was really funny and then trisha says but he doesn't understand as lesbians sex toys are sacred to us and i was like okay one of you thinks this is too funny and one of you think this is too serious you're both horseshoeing over here like let's relax they're just diltos like perhaps a sort of double-pronged thing happening here much like a double-sided dildo uh great segue thank you In their split-up, it does seem clear that Ethan's the horny one of the Cohen brothers, right? Yeah, my stupid letterbox review of driveway dolls was like, okay, the big experiment's over, and now we know which Cohen is which? Like, let's get a pizza in here and get them back together. It is frustrating how much this movie plays into the narrative of now we can divide the interests and the skill sets. Yeah. Which the whole thing was that they were supposed to be like this complete, single. unit that works so well without speaking, right? Which I think they are, and I think to some degree versus like, we will see what the second

Joel movie is like, right? But Joel feels, seems to be taking their sabbatical from working together as, well, let me explore parts of myself as a director that I never explored. Yeah. And treat them with the same level of seriousness as our work together. Yeah. And Ethan seems to be specifically on a mission of, I want to know. not take the stuff as seriously anymore.

Yeah. And, you know, and like, you know, Joel had the car writer, too, which was him Shakespeare? He did. He's from England, I think. Bill did a pass on that script. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The new phone. Yeah, big, big bill. The Blasio himself. The new script there's like not much known about. I think everyone sort of assumes it's a solo writing credit, but no one really knows. What if he started writing with Fran just to like even that? I mean, that would be funny.

I don't know. I don't know. But don't? No. We talk about this in our driveway dolls episode, which will have come out, but you have not heard, that Tricia Cook was very outspoken when she was promoting driveway dolls

and where that script came from and the sort of reignited passion to finally put this thing into production is that, especially at the time she started writing this in the 90s, if there was like gay cinema in America and especially lesbian cinema, it was almost always very serious.

Yeah. Very dramatic. And she's right. I don't disagree. Hard to live life. Yeah. Coming out stories. Exactly.

Getting murdered stories. Even if it wasn't traumatic, it was about adversity. You know, it was about processing shame and fighting for happiness and whatever. And she wanted to, the whole thought experiment of these lesbian B movie trilogy of riffs is can I, like, remove any sense of self-importance from lesbian storytelling? Can I make lesbian movies that are allowed to just be, like, dumb and messy, right? Right. But this movie is like touching third rails or at least like trying to touch serious subjects. It's identifying where serious subjects are pointing at them and saying, but I don't want to talk about that in a way. And I think it extends to the representation of sex, which she's just like, I want to show these things on screen in a way that is not the male gaze and that normalizes it, right?

and that also allows it to be funny but in a way that isn't a punchline but I do think the balance is kind of off here Yeah, just something feels a little too much like you think the fact The movie seems to think that it is like a little bit funny when two women are having sex To me, a little bit, I don't know

Yes, and I think like I think drive away dolls Which is to be clear, it is deadly serious Of course. Sex is very serious It's very, I'm very serious of stone-faced. It's sort of like, I'm like the emoji that's just like line, line-line.

I'm wearing, I'm wearing the gloves that go up to your elbows and a full ball gown. Right, yeah, very serious. Yes. The whole time. I think driveway dolls, like, it abstracts its sex scenes to the point of almost feeling like three stooge's routines. Yeah. Where it is successful in being like, we are working past this being erotic that this is. just eye candy for like young dudes

by making it so silly that it's hard to kind of objectify it in that sense and I think this movie by having scenes where there actually is some sense of palpable connection between her and Aubrey Plaza that has played somewhat real and they're sort of this sort of ticking clock

within the movie of these are two women who are afraid of commitment they like you know they like fuck and move on And they're acknowledging that they're worried about having to hit the end point of disconnecting from each other because they don't want to accidentally land in something that feels more serious and committed. That these are people who try to live without attachments. Yeah, and it feels like it's there already. I thought they were pretty good together in a way that, yeah.

And, you know, the introduction of Honey is her in bed with a woman getting the call and saying, like, lock the door in your way out. Right, right. that she just is really like, I'm moving on. And by comparing notes and revealing that they have the same kind of relationship to relationships, they are unlocking a new level of vulnerability to each other that sort of scares the two of them. Yeah. And is interesting.

And then the movie responds by saying, actually, she's insane. Right. We're going to throw hot tea in her face and turn her into like a scarred bond villain. Yeah, she becomes kind of a bond villain. Who you have to murder. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I feel like.

Yes. They just don't seem to have that good of a grasp on the wrong material. I don't know. There is a version of this ending that does not redeem this movie for me, but where Margaret Cawley shows up, puts it together, sees her, Aubrey Plaza just breaks down emotionally, rather than going full fucking supervillain mode. Right, full, like, actual psycho.

And being like, you've discovered my scheme. I must fight you to the death. Yeah, it's a little Scooby-Doo, except with... It feels very Scooby-Dubber. murderer, yes. That she's sort of like, I don't know, it got out of hand. Yeah. Right?

That you almost like try to deal with the delayed, like, time release trauma of this woman and what she's gone through and, like, her needing to confess this to someone who she's actually let in emotionally. Yeah. And that still needs more like something earlier in the movie. The clue you in that this lady is perhaps kidnapping people and putting her up. And it would be hard to pull off in terms of the aforementioned tone management. that this movie does not totally have under control,

but it feels like the kind of ending that would at least make this film feel like it had something to say. Yeah. It would have functioned a little better. Something on its mind versus it feels like such an easy out to be like, well, that didn't like mean anything. Chris Evans didn't kidnap her. She did kidnap the Honey's original client.

She solved that, but he's already dead. So there's nothing she can do about it. she retrieved her niece who's now back home you have the kind of one moment of her waking up in the hospital to her sister and the niece being like thank you so much bow tied on that honey drives off sees the french lady on a vespah basically they're fucking each other with their eyes yeah movie over so now she's gonna get in bed with a different criminal yeah what what was the point of any of this it's a really good women be out here doing it for themselves women okay that is true it is true it's a crazy world out there and honey will always be getting a coffee with her trusty assistant what's her pants and solving the next case and fingering a lady and i don't know i'm doing it's no keep going i like the i like to think she's out there right now that dust will be blowing down baker'sfield avenue she'll be flicking through that rolodex it's not the only thing she's flicking through

I like, I have to say it. I like the assistant character, and I do like that dynamic to your cosplaying point of like, she's almost like, honey, like, you're doing like the bit. Why do you still have a Rolodex? Why are you asking me for coffee as if we're in like some fucking 50s TV show? She looks like a lesbian from the year 2025. She's got like a wild fang shirt on like she's, yeah. Her name is Gabby Beans. Good name?

Yeah, great name. That makes sense because she's really obsessed with the coffee. Hey, no. That's a good point. What were you about to say, David? What are my incredible joke? She was in the upcoming film, which we love to see. Okay.

And she was in Romeo and Juliet with our friend Rachel. Oh, the Broadway production? On Broadway. Oh, okay. Yeah. Even just like the opening credits for this, which I think is kind of a cool visual idea of the cast appearing as signage on closed-down businesses. Did they rip that off from Fat City?

They said they might have. Yeah. I think so. And I'm just like, it's kind of just executed sloppily. Can I say? you something about that. Not to keep being like, and I was at the talk back,

but the only three things I remember of all come up. The last one is that they said they had to go film that twice because they fucked up the first time they filmed it. And it's the things you always hear about the Cohen brothers

when there's two of them instead of just one, is that they don't, they are like, they have like the tightest sets you've ever heard of, right? And nothing, there's no mistakes,

there's no wasted shots, there's no wasted time. And they had to go film, they wasted a day filming the wrong stuff, the wrong way to make the credits. Here's the shame. It also feels like they fucked it up the second time.

It feels like they should have done it a third time because I like the idea and it doesn't feel like they figured out the right way to make it to execute it. It just ended badly or something. I don't know what that is. Yeah. And someone was on our Reddit was sharing a story of working on a production

with someone who worked on Lewin Davis and asking them about working with the Coins and he was like, I got so many stories about how they're the fucking best, right? Like as guys, as filmmakers, as bosses, You guys hear fun stuff, right. But the anecdote that really stuck with me was he said, he remembered looking at the shooting schedule,

and in their notes, it would say, like, you know, shot whatever, set up whatever, three takes. And they'd be like, they were allotting three takes, and they would get it in three takes. That they're so good at this, that they basically can guess in terms of, like, how they get these movies made under schedule and under budget, which is always one of the most impressive things about them,

that they can correctly kind of, eyeball. That might take six takes to get right. That one we can probably get in two. And he was like, they were basically always right about that. That's wild. And that's the shit about them that feels magical. Right. Right. Right. Or just experience. But yeah. And then they split up and you're like, this is completely dissipated. What's going on here? Now, what's frustrating about the go beavers thing, if we can circle back here. Sure. Go beavers. Is that when they do interviews now. I don't get it. I just, what's frustrating is that kind of humor is sort of impact. Penishable to me. Here's a spoiler. I predict that movie will be about vaginas. Or boobs.

That would be a swerve. Possible. The Beaver movie was about boobs. That's a twist at the end. The camera pans up. Eyes up here, buddy. A little lower. Booms down here.

My boobs are up here, buddy. When they do interviews. Yeah. Which they haven't done a ton of since they've been split up. But they have both. I mean, like, Ethan and Trisha did nominal press for this movie. They did more press for drive-away dolls

because I think they wanted to really underline like Trisha was the co-author of this. For Honey Don't, I think no one was really barking up the tree anyways. I couldn't find a lot of reviews. To that point, I bought the fucking Blu-ray because I'm committed to the great project of blank check.

This, this, I, I struggled to even define how much this feels like a bootleg. The cover feels like it was printed out on like an HPNV. 900. It's like the discard itself was like written on with a Sharpie.

It has zero special features. The menu says play set up. It doesn't have a scene selection option. No, scene selection. I'm not kidding. Like, it feels like it's a 1997 DVD. Love it. Does it have a menu? It does anything?

It has a menu that's just play and set up and it's just this still image. And when you go to set up, the only option is English subtitles. Music playing? No. The song Honey Don't does not play? No, nothing's

Right, there's an original song in this movie that's co-written by Ethan, produced by Jack Antonoff, and sung by Margar Kali and Tahlia Ryder. There are actually two songs that follow. It's not a cover of the famous song, Honey Don't? That also plays, but there are two original songs in this movie. Right. That Ethan co-wrote. Are they in the movie? Yep.

There's one in a montage where she's driving around, like, interviewing suspects. Okay. And watching at this time. Oh, I thought that was just some bad song I'd never heard. Well, you're wrong about that. I guess it was a bad song I'd never heard. Watching it, I was like, this sounds like Margaret Kali, and then I looked it up, and I want to say... It's called Odd Wad Wankers.

Yes. Sorry. The other one's called In the Sun, She Lies. There's also another one. Her fake name is Lace Manhattan. The other one's called My Little Black Star, maybe? Lace Manhattan and Dixie Normis are the pen names. We got to call it.

I'm playing the box of this. I know, I got so much more to say. This just feels like when you talk to, like, a seven-year-old, and they're like, My humor's a little bawdy. Yeah. Like, it's all, I don't know. It just feels like someone who thinks they are funnier than they are. I agree.

The thing I was going to say. He's famously funny. He's one of the Cohen brothers. There's only too funny. I know. I got tickets to see this play. He's got running off Broadway right now. That's like 3-1 acts.

Everyone who's seen has said is actually very good and funny. Aubrey Plaza's in it. Our friend Dylan's in it. Dylan Galula, friend of the podcast. Oh. It's got a good. It's got to get cast and everyone says it's good. And I've asked this to two people who felt similar to me about Honey Don't.

They're like, yeah, no, it's actually good. I'm not like grading it on a curve. So it's a little odd because he has done these side writing projects and they have worked on their own terms before. The thing I was going to say. You lost is grading people on curves. Honey or Donnie. Hey. In the interviews they have done, they're like, you know, we both felt burnout.

We took some time. Ethan didn't really want to make stuff anymore. Joel said maybe I do something on my own, but that we've just been out of sync. That they've been writing something together, but then it was like, HoneyDon't got greenlit. So then Joel started writing something

else. And then by the time Honey Don't came out and Joel was about to go into production on his movie. So now Ethan has to wait for Joel to be finished with his movie before they could make the next thing together. Where it's like if they did Greenlight Go Beaver's tomorrow, it might delay the reunion.

for another two years. Right, which is the last thing we need. They've been, like, alternating productions in a way that has fucked us. I'm getting older all the time. We all are. Which is breaking. I didn't realize that was going to keep happening to me,

and it does keep happening. I really thought I was going to beat the trend. I'm hitting a big, roundish number. This Saturday? This Saturday. Okay. What are you doing? Leaving the country.

Get the fuck out of here. I'm not kidding. I'm gone. No spoilers, but is it an age that Jed Apatow is particularly about? best way? This is... Yeah, for his film, Mrs. 29, yeah.

That's the roundest number. The nine is pretty round. It's a round thing. I'm realizing he has two titles with that age. Does it? Oh, he does? He does.

A four-year-old virgin. Yeah. You know what? How did that never occur to me before? Obviously, I know the 40-old virgin was kind of Corell's idea. But it is funny that he's hung up on 40. Oh, you haven't heard by...

He's like, you better have even either fucked or become a millionaire by the age of Two of his six movies are 40 pictures. Huh. Anyways, you know what? As it rapidly approaches for me, I kind of understand the man. Sure. Yeah. Your next book is going to be, are you ready to add to the 40 cameras?

Actually, you know what actually is fucked up, the book I'm working on now? It's a lesbian road trip. Well. I'm not getting. Well. So I'm challenging Ethan Cohen to single combat with this book. I think this is a bar you can clear. Yeah, I'm what I'm, I'm, I'm,

What I'm hoping to do is I put in actual jokes. So I'm hoping that does something about it. Interesting approach. Sorry. You were saying something leading up to as you approach. Oh, I'm just saying I'm getting older all the time. They take two more years. Oh, yes.

I'm going to even be around. And look, there's one interview I read with Ethan and Trishon. Ethan Intrition, not Ethan Intrition. What the fuck is going on with me? I thought that's kind of an cute couple name for them. Ethan. Right. Ethian.

Where, you know, they're asked like, hey, are you going to do that third movie? They're like, oh, maybe, like, we, you know, we talk about that. We wrote a script with our kid, so maybe we'll do that. Or maybe, and they also say, and Ethan works with Joel, and they're doing something, and you're like, oh, that sounds good. And, like, again, I do not want to begrudge. The audience is going like, wha-la. People enjoying working with their kids, and it's not like that has never produced something interesting.

They can, but it does sometimes feel a little like, God. I would like you to name. Name a couple. I would probably have to do some strict Googling and research to unearth the ones that are good. The George Miller movie where I always get the number wrong. 3,000 years of solitude. Oh, that's right. But his kid, his kid, quote-unquote, is old.

Sure. No offense to that. You got to have an old-ass kid if you're going to work. You know, it can happen. Of course, it's great. Oh, you collaborate with your kid. I want the Coens and their families to do whatever makes them happy. They have earned it

But I also agree with you That they are soon to both be in their 70s And the film culture has been lacking From their collaborations And when it was just The narrative of Ethan is tired, he wants a break I'm like by all means take your break

But now that we're on the second Lark movie And in that time he has also produced An evening of theater I'm like it's not like you don't want to work No, and I think he has said, like, yeah, I'm over that. Like, that exhaustion, I dealt with it, and it was invigorating to make these movies with my wife, and isn't that fun? And I'm like, that is fun. Would love you to make something I like.

Perhaps a trite complaint of mine. And, like, I do kind of have the thing of, like, you owe me nothing. Yeah. You've made a bunch of shit that I love. You want to make things that don't work for me. That's fine. If you can get the money, go for it. It's not like these.

Boobs. Boobes. Bidinas. Uh, it's not like this movie, uh, was shot back to back, but they were shot pretty close together, obviously with the same lead actor and working title finance them both. And it does feel like working title has benefited from, uh, supporting the coens for decades. They clearly are like, this is a rounding error for us. Exactly. It's kind of like, yeah, it all evens out and maybe there's another interesting thing coming or whatever. But like, I think Honeydon was in the can before driveway dolls even came out. If I'm not mistaken, now that two of these have been released to a pretty violent indifference from the public.

I don't know a single person that's not an absolute freakazoid that has seen it. Right. Whereas driveway dolls, some people were like, oh, sure. This one, I nobody was like, I saw Honey Don't and was disappointed by it. The only person I know that, like, saw it, like, that was like unexpected of me for them to see it was my friend, the drummer in my band Ivy that I took to go see it. I have had multiple close friends and family members truly say, you didn't see, honey, don't, did you? When it came out, like in the month after it came out, and I was like, yeah, we're doing them on the podcast right now. And they were like, yeah, but I thought you were going to skip that one.

Not just that we'd skip the episode, but they'd be like that you would not feel a compulsive need to see it. You would skip it because, like, you have to not see it for your health. And know that I couldn't skip it and are like, but you must have skipped that one tweet about David Attenberg. narrating planet Earth is going skip skip don't like this one skip skip skip this animal it did feel like this was skip out of theaters within like less than two I think it did two or three weeks in theaters uh yeah yeah I saw it like a week into its release and I remember checking showtimes a week later and being like it's down to like one time a day at one theater yeah it was it was gone fast in New York City a thing I want to think about is so when I when I did see it they

are introducing right after Honey Don't, they introduced the long goodbye on the same screen 10 minutes later. Which is a film, Ethan was said, which is a specific inspiration. Imagine watching this and then sitting and you're staying in your seat. And then the Long Goodbye. Not going to make Honey Don't look great in retrospect. I mean, I had a similar experience of... It'll pick you up.

You know, I just watched this for the second time. But two days ago, I went and saw Wake Up Dead Man. Oh, yeah. The new Knives Out movie, which had a little preview screening at the Paris. I guess we'll be out now by the time this episode comes out. At least in theaters or whatever, I can never keep track of what Netflix rollouts are. But I, like, I saw that on Monday or Sunday night. I greatly enjoyed it.

And then I was like, that's going to make this honey don't rewatch significantly worse. That's true in terms of, yeah, right. They're not the exact same movie. No, but there's murders that are being solved. And even it's like relationship to like Christian faith in America. It's dealing with some similar stuff. Well, Wake Up Dead Man has the Ryan Johnson thing of it is trying to run at topical shit that sometimes you're a little like, Ryan, this feels on the nose or Ryan, you're almost too animated by like right now. But at the other time, you're like, kind of respect you taking the swing versus Honey Don't being like, isn't, you know, Pat Robertson a hypocrite.

You're like, mm-hmm, yeah, he's dead. I will also say this to his credit, all three of these movies, the first time I'm seeing them, about halfway through I'm like, I get it. This is good. This is fun. Right. But that's all you got. And then they get you with the...

And then they get me. And it's not even like a twist thing where I mean like... Oh, you're doing far more than I thought you were underneath the surface. And I feel like the first half of the movie, I was just like, okay, I get it. It's a Trump thing. That's really all you have to like talk about. And then he's like, no, I'm talking about like 20 things. And it's the kind of flowering you want a movie like...

What was the talk with J.J. Abrams like? That was the... I thought that was a very interesting point. ploy i did too there were two screenings that day so you didn't see that the one i saw was moderated by josh horowitz oh sure well he was excellent he's the king of that he's good at that they did a surprise of daniel crag coming out the audience exploded i just thought it was i when i saw it was abrams and ryan johnson i did the double take like my first thing was oh sure yeah j j abrams haven't thought about and then i'm like wait oh didn't he fucking make episode nine

which is basically like taking a piss on episode eight like is this like a great grand healing moment? Is this a... We've always been friends. I would have loved to have seen it. It did feel like just them sitting on the stage together was meant to be some rebuttal to the, like, rock versus undertaker narrative that the internet has built for the last 10 years. But it's like the rock versus the undertaker if the rock was, like, lying perfectly still on the ground.

It's a bit of a hydrogen bomb versus coughing baby situation right now. I mean, I'm all from Jaybors making... That's an incredible term. I think I'm all for J.J. Abrams making, first off, anything. He hasn't fucking made anything since episode nine. Second off, would love it to be good. Maybe. Yeah.

That'd be cool. It's by all accounts of Back to the Future Riff. It is time travel influenced in some way. Okay. Hey, the book I'm working on is also a time travel. Hey! There's nothing wrong with time travel. Time travel rocks.

David, I'm going to surprise you with something. This is kind of one of the most shattering... I know what you're going to say, and I'm going to be flat-ray-asted. What do you think I'm going to say? You're a bit of a last-minute shopper. How did you know? Who knows how I knew that? This is one area...

But it does make sense. Of my life where, weirdly, I lack organization and leave things to the last minute. So you got that sort of feeling, familiar Christmas-y feeling of the shelves are empty. your ideas for gifts are running low what do you do for Christmas or the holidays and here's another thing I have some family members who are really

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She goes, I'd never wear this color. But thank you. Right. There's just an immediate rejection of the gift you got her. And you're just like, look, this can evolve. This is, this tailors in real time to your interest, which for her are pictures of herself. Look, for a limited time, you can save on the perfect. gift by visiting auraframes.com to get

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time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Please mention us at that checkout. Look, before we play, we plug Maddie's excellent books, which just reminded me to do. Simplicity. We should play the, we should play the box office team. Much like Rob Mack, just stop.

Don't say, in the land of, yeah. August 22nd, 2025. Honeydone opens number eight, $3 million. I saw this movie in a double feature. It topped out at five. Right. So it could not complete its black hat. I want to say drive away opened a five and ended at 10.

Sure, let's see. So this was already like completely 50% of something that already didn't work. What this bad boy calls? That's a great question. No, driveway dolls also only made five. Really? Yeah. Okay.

I don't know. They're saying they're like 15 or 20? Yeah, I think that's probably about right. They don't seem like they would take that long to make. No. Yeah. I just remembered another gripe. I had.

Please go ahead. Very quickly. During the talk back, Ethan kept saying drive-away dykes, which I know was the working time of film. And that's the sort of secret title of the movie. But I was like, hey, man, are you allowed to say that? Well, again, this is why they did the full court press. Like, Trisha is a co-equal.

I think that's also why the movie was not technically titled that. He said it so many times. Right. And every time I'm like, okay, like eight years ago, I'd be like, all right, whatever, man. Right now. Right now. Right here. right here like the song says yeah bring back fat boy slim um it's a good question he did the

the show with david burn that was good here lily love is that what it was called true uh that was a good show yeah um i saw this movie in a double feature no no it wasn't never mind really there you go sorry i like i was thinking about american oh well now utopia that was very here lies love i had like reception i had political issues with that i won't get into on your movie podcast yeah i don't i i i hear that And I respect that. Thank you. I saw this in a double feature with Highest to Loist, which was just interesting in terms of it being like two late movies from American Masters that are kind of being dumped and disregarded. Yeah, that are funded by, well, no, actually, Honey Don't isn't a streamer, right?

It's a focus. But yeah. But, yeah. But Honey Don't, I was like, whew, and then I went across the street with my girlfriend, we got tacos, we walked back into the theater. We saw Highest to Lois and we were like pumping our kids. And we were like, this isn't perfect, but God, when it hits, it hits. More like lowest, the highest. Yeah, in that regard.

Well, it does kind of build in that order. But it was sort of like, I wish Honeydon could have delivered some of this juice. Yeah. What's number one at the box office? It is, speaking of things that were on streaming, the streaming sensation of the year being pushed onto wider screens 10 weeks into its theatrical release. Because technically, Netflix didn't report the weekend numbers for K-pop demon hunters? But it is listed here on the numbers. is the number one movie of this week making $19 million.

It's one of those depending on what site you check because it was estimates that were like sort of repeated off the record. It was certainly the most viewed movie of the weekend theaters. No question. No one could really deny this and it had an insane per screen average because it wasn't on that many screens. But I believe some outlets reported that weapons was by technicality the number one movie of the weekend. Fair enough. So number two at the box office is weapons. Yes.

One of my favorite movies. I know Matt didn't like it. Oh, whoa. Oh, okay. I know Maddie didn't like things about it. I saw Maddie Letterbox about it. I thought. Or something.

I really, really liked most of it. You didn't love the, uh, Amy Maddock. I thought she was great. Her performance is great. I liked the movie immensely. I was, I was really locked into it for most of it. I thought the ending was so fucking good. I was losing my mind screaming.

Talk about sticking the land. Talk about paying off like a sloppish. It was more like I didn't like Barbarian that much. Right. And the thing, I felt he was dipping in the same. I felt he was going back. to have you heard that I said this on a website I shouldn't have logged into and I got yelled at for days and days and days and days and days and days and days but did you know it's very scary when a woman is old and I think this movie was doing it less than barbarian I think I was more mad at the moment about it I think I would revise my stupid letterbox review to be a little higher sure fair enough and maybe I'll do that so no one yells at me because now you've you've loose them upon me David I fucking logged a five out of ten for Frankenstein, a movie that I know Griffin liked

but, like, hardly was getting like universal praise. And these days you do this on letterbox, people are, there's whatever, there's a gaggle of folks who come yell at you. And I'm not mad and don't put it in the newspaper that I got mad, but I was kind of like, Jesus. I'll say this. David's holding up a little sign that

says, I'm mad. It's like a little wily coyote. It's pointing at him. It's pointing at himself, which is hard because it's holding it perpendicular to his body. I liked Frankenstein, but also like very much for me a gentleman's six with major issues. Sure.

That also I went to see after hearing, like, all of my most trusted friends. New kids from orbit for two months. And I was like, more of this work than I was expecting. This is the Guillermo de Toro special. Because everyone I know hates it. And then I go watch it. I'm like, I had a nice time. You were saying I wish he would make in a text thread we're on.

You were saying, I wish he would make something like Crimson Peak again. Fun. And my thought watching Frankenstein was this is what I wanted Crimson Peak to be. Crimson Peak, I totally bounced off of. I do feel like you and I... You and I land differently on GDT. We're both like hot and cold on him, but we tend to alternate on which ones?

I'll also say the Oscar Isaac performance in Frankenstein goes in the bucket I've created with his Moon Knight and Apocop's performances where I'm like three question marks. Like, what? It is weird. Pedal to the metal kind of performance. Not very successful casting.

No. Alourty is fantastic. He's great. And that's what works in the movie, not just his performance. I'm the first to notice. Is he tall? Tall fell.

Well, there looks as tall to play Elvis, I think. It's a fellow. You have not seen the film yet, Maddie? Uh, you're Frank Frankenstein. Yeah. No. There's this bizarre thing, and I was very surprised. What are you sympathetic to the monster?

The Herritor seems to relate more to the monster character. That's what the book is. Well, I would say the whole movie is a little bit. That's what the book is. Yeah. And to be fair, most depictions, most adaptations of the book don't really get at that. I disagree with that. Yeah, I, well, but a lot of that,

A lot of, but like the classic, like, universal monsters depiction is, like, he was just a beast. Whereas, like, in the book, he's, like, wearing a tuxedo and writing letters longhand with a feather. Which is how to live your life. That's how to live your life. Honey, don't need more longhand feather letters. Stitched fingers.

Say that, that's a theater warm up. Longhand feather letter. Yeah. Number three of the box office, Griffin, is a film that did pretty good. Okay. A legacy sequel. Mm-hmm. that I feel like came out, got MET reviews, and kind of like, you know, cleared almost a hundred million at the box office kind of almost quietly, despite one of its cast members being fucking the loudest person in the world these days.

Enough of her. Maybe I'm being rude. It's a legend. Maddie, you shut up. You talk about it. It's not Sidney's true that at me. It's not, I know what you did last summer. That I did not like

I did not care for that film When did it come out? What week is this? This is its third week of release It came out sort of August 8th Beginning of August My wedding anniversary It doesn't quite hit 100 but it gets close

94 Loudest person She's just There's been a lot of her lately She's And she's off the leash As I sometimes So I respect it

But I do feel like She's felt very empowered To be You know It is Jamie Lee Curtis freaky or Friday Yeah Oh Yeah

Where she's like, should I fire off a Charlie Kirk tweet? I'm going to do it. Like some PR person is like, Jamie, forget it. I defend her Oscar-winning performance. I think she is quite good and everything everywhere all at once. I do think nothing good has come from giving her that Oscar. It has certainly empowered her to go lodge. Very, very broad performances, I would say, of late.

Yes. I will never forget queuing up that bear episode. That's just her and Abby Elliott's face in close-ups. Want me and my wife watching it for 10 minutes And then me going I think the whole episode is going to be this And my wife going I mean, no way, come on

And I sort of do the, I like track You know, I hit the Apple remote To see this, like, see this The little screen Yeah As you try and I'm like, just their faces Just their faces The whole thing's just their faces

I will say Do we have any diapers to change? I will say I will say And go poop, come on, please give us The Bear post season one A lot of episodes you're kind of like, is this going to be the whole thing's going to be this?

I like season two. I like season two. And season three, there were things I like. I've not yet watched four. Much like the lady killers, I'm afraid of it. Same. Or I watched some and then haven't finished it yet. Freaker Friday, did you see Freakier Friday?

I still have not seen it. Neither one. I will watch it when it's on Disney Plus. And you saw it. Say what? I'm joking. You probably didn't see Freakier Friday either. I feel like everyone I know who's seen it is like...

Everyone said it was like, oh, it's fine. It's kind of what you think it is. Yeah, right, exactly. It looks like a shampoo commercial, but it's effective. Who directed it? What's your name? Garnier, the brand. The woman who did late night and blinded by the light.

Nisha Ganatra, yes. Right, yeah. Late night, the great... Who could forget? No, she didn't do... Come on, that's Grendert Chata. That's a real great film. That's a real great film.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But she did do late night, and then she did a great night. movie, I think, called the high note with Dakota Johnson that was sort of COVID. And Tracy Ellis for Allison and Ice Cube. COVID forgotten films. Yes, yes. Number four, did you see Freaker Friday?

No. You didn't, you didn't. I didn't get freaky with it. Yeah. Happy Lindsay Lohen seems to a level out or whatever. She seems fine. She is in a commercial that draws me insane where she's like, talking about her children's toys or something that I get 85,000 times I'm trying to watch my shows while I draw.

And for that, she's dead to me. accepted. Yeah. Number for the box office is a big superhero film of the year that did probably about the lowest acceptable, like, amount that the Fantastic Four call in first steps. Right. Like, it squeaked over 500 worldwide.

It just narrowly avoided being an embarrassment. But it was not, I think, the runaway bounce back on it. No. No, especially when you consider Deadpool and Wolverine aside. That being their highest grossing film Or their second highest grossing film In years is faint Praise

Imagine Because it outgrossed Thunderbolts It outgrossed Captain America Brave New World All respect to our president Wow I didn't realize he was here

He's right there He's been listening to me the whole time On our highest shelf You gotta warn me The films before that I will appoint the leader to every position in the cabinet. The film's before that.

Adamantium. Remember when that movie is about like Japan and America negotiating an adamantium mining treaty? That's the plot of, that's the plot of a musket. Yeah, it's the plot of a moochet. One of the fallen celestials has become an island with adamantium in its cold.

Is there a problem? And the countries are fighting over it. It also outgrossed the marvels. It did not outgross. Guardians of Galaxy 3. It did barely outgross Ant Man in the Wasque Quantumania, but that's not what you want it to be doing.

I was going to say, just imagine being Peyton Reed, and you are about to make your 60s fantastic four movie, and you make Down with Love one of the best movies in the last 30 years. In my opinion. Incredible movie. Shout out to my wife for making me watch it because it was her favorite movie in high school. Anyways, a great movie. But imagine being him

and you want to make your Fantastic Four-Six movie, and nobody likes down with love so they don't let you. And then 20 years later, they make it. and it has uh it looks like that look i partially defend first steps but it must have been really frustrating to him to make quantum mania and then watch someone else make the kind of fantastic for a movie that he had always wanted to make he would have nailed and not totally i think he would have done a better job with it yeah oh number five of the box office is another animated film um a sequel but not a squeakle no not that i'm aware of it's the bad guys too that's

correct. A movie that cliently kind of disappointed. It ended up at 80? It ended up at the grand total of 82 million dollars. Yeah. Like the first one outgrossed it and that was 2022 I want to say and also was like when Peacock was putting movies on their streaming service three days after they were in theaters. Uh, take that for what you will. Went to see it with the Ehrlichs? Oh yeah. I see it's his favorite movie. Sure. Didn't really They may have been displaced by whatever he's seen lately. The last time I went over there, he was watching it for the 80,000th time that day. Number six of the box office this week was Nobody 2.

It is a lot of like, okay, like stuff in the box office this August. I do like, it gives me a little bit of hope for, like, the health of cinema going. Yeah. That Nobody 2 is kind of what we need more of, which is like you make a $15 million movie that makes like 50 worldwide. And Universal goes like, why not make a song? Okay, who cares. It's fine. You can make a movie

that gets on like second base and people are like, okay, sure. Number seven, James Gunn's Superman, which in its seventh week is outgrossing, honey don't. Number nine, be great. Naked Gun. Yeah.

You see naked gun? Yeah, I saw it, when it was funny, it was so funny. The last act kind of lost me. I think there's great bits in the last time. I think there's good. But it was like when the jokes were good, I was like having the time of my fucking life.

I will say I saw it a second time in theater and I found it did not quite have the replay value. Sure. For me, I rewatched the fucking three original movies once a year. I grew up watching. We had 33 and a third taped off of television. Yeah. And I watched it until it broke, I think.

Like, yeah. The jokes hit still on the 50th watch for me. And I like The Naked Gun 20, 25, a tremendous amount. But I did feel a little bit more of its crickiness the second watch. Still, best studio comedy we've had in quite some time. I mean, the whole time I was watching it, and I was just like, oh, there's like a comedy with jokes in it. I was so. Can you believe it? So happy while watching it. And even like, you know, just to be clear, watching it the second time, I was very happy watching it. I just wasn't in the static euphoria. I was in the first time.

Yeah. I also missed it in theaters, which I think maybe to my detriment. It was a very good movie to see with theaters. Yeah. In theaters with an audience. I can imagine. Yeah. Number to the box office, Griffin's favorite film in the year Jurassic World Rebirth. There you go. Is that your review of the film? It sucks so much. It sucks so... Not a fan.

Not a fan of that one, were you? Quite poor. It stars people's sexiest man alive. I like him. Yeah, I like him too. He gives the best performance in that movie. Sure. I mean, I suppose.

I mean, what's the competition? That dinosaur that's a mix of two different dinosaurs? I think Merchula gives the best performance. That guy kind of can't be bad. And that movie is like trying to... hard. It's like weighing him down with Bad. And he's still like basically fine. I agree that he can't

embarrass himself. Yeah. Like he's just got like too much like legitimate presence. Yeah. Y'all was watching the other day was Alita Battle Angel. He's fucking a good movie. A good movie. Two. He fucking rocks it. Yeah.

He looks cool as hell. Remember how that movie is like, she's like, I'm a big eyed crazy robot and I don't know what's going on with me. And then she's like, I do remember what's going on with me. I was in a moon war and then she's like, I need to do rollerball fucking cyber sports. My dad is a rocket hammer.

Yes. And then the end of the movie is like Edward Dorton lives in space and I'm like, yes, he does. I can't believe in every second one of those. Christopher Waltz is a giant hammer. Yes, he does. I was genuinely so convinced in my conspiracy theory, Adel Brain, that when Disney bought

Fox, James Cameron was going to make it a contractual point that they had to green light a second Alita for him to keep making avatars. Sure, right, right. No, because he had the avatar bargaining thing. James Carrick could sell one of his submarines and they can make a new avatar whatever he wants.

I was like, if he wants a leader to happen at Disney, now that they're so invested in the avatar business, it'll happen. And it seems like he's just been like, yeah, public doesn't want it. Well, I think there's a world where there could have been some momentum and then COVID kind of killed it. The momentum is absolutely gone. Yeah, yeah.

The momentum was lost in a moon war. Yeah. Moon war. It's just so good when she's like, fuck, I remember. Moon War. And I'm like, what? Remember how she has like bespoke porcelain on?

Yes, yeah, too. It's beautiful. I have the steel book that's her hand or personal in hand. That one goes for a pretty penny. I know, baby. Okay, baby. It's all mine. Howdy, baby.

Sorry. We should mention also. A weird way to end our Cohen Brothers movie series. Our friends at Super Yaki sent over very nicely some co-branded focus features, promo, honey don't air fresheners. I'm giving it one more sniff to try and get to the bottom. Our windowless studio smells great, right? I had to get it off my desk.

It was starting to do. They're going to get a sniff on the microphone. They're meant for cars and not podcast studios. Well, I would say cars are smaller than podcast studios, but yes. Well, not all podcast studios, though. Not that first one we had. That was kind of car size. That was like a van-sized studio.

It was our mid-sized sedan. It's like a smart car or some shit. Why does Honey, who is like so self-serious, have a honey-don't license plate? That's a great question. Well, it's her little twist of. whimsy much like ordering the coffee i don't fuck i don't know sorry for mentioning the movie ben's honey don't thoughts

yeah ben any uh any other thoughts apart from crush on aubrey love it that should be the review that should be what i said to the rep as i exited the theater as i get further in ray the air is still leaving my body eraser head noise yeah

Oh, my God. The classic, what do you say to the rep thing of like, were you like, I was interesting. I got to go. The projector was on. They did a good job turning that on. That seat was working. It did not break.

I'll say this. Both arms. It passed the time while I did laundry. Oh. Was it on my phone as the way it was intended. If you. If the Oscars give this 14. nominations. That'd be funny.

Best phone movie. You think it'll get an original song? Three. It'll get three. Three original song knobs. Right? Like, yeah. Yeah, what are that? Well, K-pop demon hunters will clean up. Oh, yeah. But imagine them getting an original song nomination for this and not for Mr. Kim. That'd be great. That'd be deserved. It'd be good.

Maddie. Maddie. Yeah. When does simplicity come out? Everything that you do. Please do. Not just your wonderful. Too many things. But yeah, please buy my book. I have two books or three books out on the market, but the most of each one is called simplicity. You can buy it at any your local bookstore,

any of the stores online, whatever. I would say it's a somewhat tough story to sum up in a good way. It is, it is, it is elevator pitchless. It has been out for... You need that elevator be going to like the 200th floor. Local. This book, I finished writing and drawing this book

a year and a half ago, and I'm still like, what's the book about it? And I'm like, you gotta sit down. It's really, really good. It's really, I think it's, I'm really proud of it. It's like, but it's about like revolution and love and sex and technology and a lot of, oh, I do know that they, uh, the first printer it was supposed to be printed at in China, rejected it because there were too many nude butts in it. It's your in the night kitchen.

It's my, correct. And, um, yeah. And also I have two podcasts myself. One is about mayors. It's called no gods, no mayors. No godsomeres.com. Where every week we talk about a mayor because, They're all maniacs.

We're recording this on election day itself, not stressed at all. I'm actually feeling really normal. I lack the ability to have faith in things, but hopefully I'll feel good tomorrow morning. I would love to see it. I would love to see one specific thing happen to one specific older man. Yes. We'd all like to see. Curtis Lee will become married.

I was going to say, in solidarity, don their red berets tomorrow morning. A new era for this city dawns. Well, I'm going to be, well, you're going to know because you're at the wake up and you've been conscripted into building a feral cat colony in a park to encourage cat colonies to take care of the rat problem. But if we could talk about, it's me and November and Raleigh from Trash Future, and we talk about mares. And then I also do another show with my friend Clayton Ashley called Temporal Cultural Culture War, where we talk about the early 2000s while we watch Star Trek Enterprise. Wait, how do I not know about this show? That's like right up my out. It's rude of you.

It's called temporal. We've been doing it for about a year. It is so funny to me, just to tangent of that I'm sure you will agree, that they were like, we fucking need to go back to basics. The show will be a prequel. It will strip things away. It won't have complicated Star Trek because it's a prequel. It'll be about the Enterprise, the first one.

Scott Bakila, we need to be really conservative here. Get the most ordinary, like, you know, straight arrow guy to play the captain. And then, like, two episodes in there, like, there's a temporal war happening with the 30th century. There's bug people. Like it's so complicated. They abandoned the Time War after a season and a half. Because clearly UPN was like, enough. No, it's because 9-11 happens.

Oh, that's right. So the whole point of the show is we're watching it. And then every week we also talk about like the movies that came out that week, music, TV, and also like the news that week in 2001 to 2005. Yeah. And we're into like the second season right now. But they drop all of it and it becomes 24 set in space. But it's like Republican Star Trek.

Yes. It's like, there's a fictional man called Lawrence Kansas, I say, is watching the show in his truck on a little TV. What's T-Pole up to these days? It is pronounced Tepal. Fuck. Jalene Blaylock. I will say, I kept saying to poll on the show and one listener wrote in so angry at me and

Clayton, and now we have to say it a thousand times an episode to get it cracked. I wish I could relate. I simply never have been criticized online for mispronouncing words. I think Jolene Blaylock is truly one of those, like, you know, like makes most of the money just like doing the very consistent Star Trek. circuit like persons yeah yes gets nothing to do on that show yeah and does so much with it she's actually kind of astonishing i think she's good i like i like to pull i like that character i'm always i'm always pro vulcan i love a vulcan i need to who's your favorite vulcan i was

gonna say too long baby i fucking love that motherfucker the episode where he mind melds the voyager episode where he mind meld with brad duriff and he goes crazy oh i mean one of my favorite it's brad dorif uh remember drow plays a serial killer who's like on the voyager yeah and then they're like, we don't know what... Wait, Brad Durif? No, you must be thinking of someone different. They would never cast him

and play a serial killer who goes crazy. Oh, God, he's really good. Remember the one where he... He comes back? He meld's with Neelix? Of course. Tuvix?

Do you know about Tuvix? It's Mitch Gorfei himself. Do you know about Tuvix? No, no, we talked about Neelix, who's a character on Voyager. Okay, I haven't finished that episode. You talked about Ethan... I wanted to make sure you talk on Voyager

but there's an episode of Voyager, but there's an episode of Voyager, where Tuvok, who is the Vulcan, on Voyager and Nelix, who is the bizarre alien chef that they picked up while they're in the Delta Quadrant. With his four-year-old girlfriend. With a girlfriend who, yes, canonically is like three or four years old because she has a 10-year

lifespan. He imprinted upon her? Let's not even get into it. Merge in a teleporter accident into one being called Tuvix. It's like a mix of them, right? The fly style. Which is kind of fun. And the episode is kind of about how everyone's like,

honestly, kind of prefer Tuvix to either Tuvick or like Tuvok or Delix. Like, kind of the best of both worlds with this guy. But then at the end of the episode, the doctor's like, so I figured out a way how to, like, separate them. And Janeway's like, great news. And Tuvix is like, oh, hi, that would kill me. Like, I'm a new being.

Like, you can't kill me? Like, that's murder. Yeah. And Janeway's like, got it, got it, got it. Think we got to do it. And they do it. And then the episode just kind of ends with them being like, oh, that was kind of fucked me.

Like, it's kind of never addressed again. Voyager rocks. Voyager is so good. I love Voyager. My project while I drew simplicity was I watched all of Star Trek. Yes. Hell yeah. All of it.

From the original series. From the beginning all the way through. Did you watch the animated show? I did not watch the 60s animated show. I have never watched that and I've always thought I should do that someday. Yeah. Would people prefer this podcast if it were hosted by Gravid? Kind of like Gravid.

I mean, it's like, again, the iconic Bluey episode, Mini Bluey, in which Bingo Bluey Pates Bingo Blue and is like, here's how to be bluey and like, you know, essentially be obnoxious. And the parents are like, God, this is so annoying. And then they're like, okay, well, the one. be two bingoes. So bingo Paints Bluey Brown. And then they're like bingo, so they're both being good. And the dad's

just like, honestly, this rocks. And Bluey is like, that hurts my feelings. And they're like, oh, sorry. And the episode just ends. It's so good. That's really good. Sorry. Had to discuss that. Thank you for being in this matter. Oh, do you watch Bluey as a parent of young children? I watch three episodes of the Bluie every single day. I have seen every Bluie so many times.

It is absolutely fucking crazy at this point. I can do like the dialogue. How many episodes are there in total? There's about 150. Every parent I know is putting up me in 1998 watching The Simpsons numbers and watching Bluie. You're like exactly correct, exactly the same vibe. And honestly, Bluey is so good that I am never like, ugh. There's like three Bluey episodes where when my daughter picks down, I'm like, this one. Everything else good. What's up in?

Well, the one where they explain how Bingo got his tattoos. It's a long stroke. It's a pretty good joke. It was okay. I was trying to think of shorthand for famously bad episode. Like a famous episode. A famous skip. Yeah.

So links to all of Maddie's plugs. Wonderful work. Good. Good work. Are available in the episode description. Thank you for producing this podcast, Ben. I also have a plug. Oh, I know what this plug is for.

I've been seeing some IGs. It's the holiday season. Yes. And as of course, the holiday season. This episode comes out on December 7th. So it's actually been about a week since slow Christmas number five released on all streaming platforms. Perhaps you've noticed, shit's slowing down around you. Ho.

Oh. Hell yeah. Slow X-M-S-V. Yep. This year, it's being served cold burr. What is that? Unlike the others? Bundle up and sip away them holiday season blues with wintry, ethereal tunes.

Yummy! We'll love it. I like the implication that the other ones were too hot to touch. So a link to. That album will be in the episode description as well. And then lastly, here at the end of the episode before you take us out, Griffin, we're just going to tack on at the end. We, a few months back when we were in L.A.,

we've mentioned it, I think, in past episodes. We did, we curated a screening. American Cinema Tech, friend of the fest, we presented a hud sucker proxy. And we just did a little intro. They were nice enough to record that intro. Oh, cool. And so we'll just add that here at the end of the episode. enjoy that this has been the end of our coens series i think we did our rankings on the buster

scrugs app out of respect more of the pomp and circumstance ending did you rank your business and yeah here's my ranking of the ethan trisha cook films driveway dolls honey don't weird i actually have in first driveway dolls and in second honey don't haven't watched the jerry lee lewis thing yet my guess is it's probably in between the two or something i don't know i put it third now let's rank our solo joles quickly at number one i have the tragedy of Macbeth. Oh, interesting. Me too. Okay. Okay. Next week, we are going to do an episode on the new James L. Brooks movie,

Ella McKay. Truly, of all the filmmakers we've covered, who are still alive, the one I was least expecting would release another movie ever. Yeah, sure. Well, here it comes. It's kind of an exciting treat. And then the following week after that. This, like, indie project that's being put out by,

I don't know, some studio you've ever heard of. Avatar, colon, fire, and ash. Now, Maddie, I know you don't like those movies. Okay. Which is fine. I will keep seeing them in theaters as long as I live. Because I enjoy a spectacle. You've never vibed with them as much as some. You don't like them yet.

I have problems with Mr. Cameron's approach. He's going to keep making them on one of these days he's going to get you. Okay. I will say watching the preview for the new one. It has me the most like perhaps I will like this one because you want to think it's pretty cool. Fire. Varang as a former pyromani. Nevi.

Oh, it was recovered. Elapsed Pyromaniac I will then I will actually Griff we should say And then in January I agree We will be doing an episode on

Is this thing on? Wait a second Is this thing? What's going on? Is this thing on? Bradley Cooper's Saddad Stand up comedy

Divorce film Completing our kind of In Progress Bradley Cooper Completing I assume we'll make more rooms But continuing And then we're going to do an episode

on Park Chenwoks No other choice There's lots of Blanksheet blank check directors at this point putting out movies all around Christmas time? It tends to happen this time a year.

The timing is pretty good, though, because, like, you'll, these things will hopefully have been expanded enough that people will be able to see them, blah, blah, blah. So December 28th is our one dark week every year, but we have a block of four episodes across five weeks that are all new releases. And then, of course, as everyone knows, as everyone has guest online. Oceans are now Battlefields. Yes. Harrison Ford is John Book.

Dig up your dead poets. because the next mini-series on main feed is Lynn Ramsey, you motherfuckers! You don't know shit! We're doing Lynn Ramsey next. Not Peter Weir, you motherfuckers. Peter Weir is after Lynn Ramsey. We have, uh, we planned this long ago

when we found that Lynn was finally doing another movie. One of, in my opinion, the best filmmaker is alive and I've been waiting. Griff has always said, whenever she does a movie, next, we're doing her. We're doing the five films, five feature films from the, that wacky Scott, Lynn Ramsey. That wacky Scott. And then indeed we will be doing Peter Weir. It just made us feel so big and special and smart.

When people reading the tea leaves are like, So Weir is definitely next, right? And we're like, these fuckers don't even know. We're slipping in a quick five. They might know it. And then they'll know. And then they'll know. Since we're talking about 2026, over on the Patreon feed,

we're going to be kicking off the year with a new commentary series. We are. Oh, that's true. The films of Wizard of Oz. Of Oz. Oh. The Oz. They don't all have the wizard in them.

Although I guess they all kind of do. I think they might all in some form or other? Does Return to Oz have one? I'm trying to him. I think the wizard does not appear in return to Oz. That might be the only one. But we are in a Patreon commentary series going to do Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz. Yes.

The Wiz. Yes. Return to Oz. Wicked for good. We are not revisiting Sam Ramey's Oz the Great and Powerful. You can check that episode. Are you guys going to have the sphere? I ain't going to no sphere.

Maddie, I think we should. As much as I ethically support what's going on. I think it should. I just want to see Phil Dolan in it, my friend and yours. I hear he's so good in it. I hear his performance is so good. That harmonica? Zadlav's in there?

He should have known. There's a part where he sings I should have known about the wizard. All right. We need to record ads. I need to go to the bathroom and then go home to my loving family. James Dolan being friends with Harvey Weinstein and then releasing a pop song about his guilt. Do you know about this? I do, but we have to be done.

I should have known. I should have known. go another 20 minutes. Maddie, thank you for me. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. This is such a blast. You're the best. I love the show so much. It's very important for me that I got to come on. That's very nice of you and it was good to have you on. I promise you will return to the show

not to do honey don't. There will be better films in your future or at least more interesting. David, oh yeah. You can't promise that we won't ask Maddie to do honey don't. It's possible we'll do another honey don't. You never know. You can't promise that. A honey double dip. It could always happen. Maybe we've revisited Clifford. Right. And this film's definitely as good as that one. Maybe we just have to go back and do, honey, don't.

Yeah. Maddie, you contribute an art piece to our Decad of Dreams art show earlier. I did. A really good, uh, retired bits hanging up the rafters piece. I just wanted to make sure we vocally thanked you on microphone for that. Oh, thank you. That was such an incredible blast to draw. It was so much fun.

I really enjoyed drawing some buried jeans. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, everyone should, uh, read your books and listen to your podcast. Thank you. Uh, and thank you all for listening. and I hope you all have fun checking out these new releases with us

and then Lynn Ramsey in January and then of course we're never covering Peter Weir thank you all for listening and as always Honey Don't is about vaginas Without further ado

Please welcome from Blank Check Griffin, Beth, and Marie Whoa, hello. Oh, wait. Should we be color coordinating Huluops with Mike courts? Yeah, okay. I don't think there's a purple one. Ben's got the, I got yellow. We could maybe can blind a couple colors.

Hello, everybody. Now that we got that important business out of the way, thank you so much for coming here. Thanks for us. Maybe going to try to attempt to do. do the first three-person hula hoop live intro simultaneous performance. I don't think that we had planned for wired mics. That was not a consideration.

We'd ask for headsets, so we'd ask for a headset mic. Okay, maybe let's try and get a little bit of distance. Okay, maybe this is the solution. This is great. We're just working it out on the fly. Marie's husband said, however good you think you are at this, it's a lot harder than it seems. And I said, I think I'm terrible at this.

so it's going to be a real I read that you're supposed to put like one foot in front of the other and then like keep your top part of your body straight and then just kind of like this it's a this thing

I think it's a hip thing it's a yeah it's it's in okay hips okay all right on three one two three That was really good guys That was really good

It's kind of an age for a situation That is well as I thought of it We spent $45 on this We bought them at the groves It was kind of a markup situation There was an activation happening for perfume samples Who here has seen this movie before And let's do the inverse

Who has never seen this film before? You'll get the Hulu Hoot thing later. It'll make sense. It's only a spoiler if you acknowledge that I just told you was a spoiler. It seemed random. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. One of my ten favorites,

which, with our very, very normal listenership online. And when I say this, by the way, all of you are cool and normal. I'm talking only about the Redditors who aren't in the room. But I've seen a lot of preemptive. Is Griffin really going to fucking rank hud sucker above Fargo and no country? Well, you said on the episode.

I've said this many times. It's my favorite, but I wouldn't say it's their best. They made Fargo. I know they made Fargo. I'm not eating. These guys have made like 15 masterpieces. But this is a movie that is just so completely on my wavelength. It is, it's just like the pop song I can't help but dance too.

I saw it for the first time in 35 millimeter at MoMA in New York City, and I went into seeing it being like, this is the one that everything sucks, right? And from the first shot, even those of you have seen this before, if you haven't seen a big screen, if you haven't seen it on Celluloid, I do think it is like genuinely one of the great film craft movies. It is like the one time they got to work on a really big budget with entirely analog models and sets and costumes and practical optical, optically printed effects

and all these things that just kind of make me cry thinking about them existing. We used to make things in this country. And if I could just... For a new moment here. This film was, of course, shot in North Carolina. It does feel like a New York movie,

which is funny because we're in L.A. Yes. And L.Bowski is our current episode. And that's L.A. movie. Yes. But I believe the crow, which we just covered on our Patreon, also was shot in North Carolina. The same set? The Super Mario Brothers movie.

I think at least one of the Ninja Turtles, there was this weird rush in the 80s and 90s to build your fake. Like shitty New York in North Carolina? A lot of them are reusing these same things. And in particular, this movie, the Cohen brothers tricked Joel Silver into getting more brothers to give them a bunch of money to build these buildings that were reused like a trillion times. So if you're like, man, I can't believe they let the Coen Brothers build these crazy sets. Joel Schumacher stole them. Batman scaled these buildings many times.

You know, even since our episode came out, I've had a lot of people be like, I really just, I frankly don't get this movie. And I think it's a really interesting one because it seems to split people on, for Corn Brothers fans who have some hang-ups with them, they feel like this movie is Emily. emblematic of, oh, are they just pastiche? Is it just style? Is it just a fact? And is this movie really cynical? Is this movie making fun of all of its characters? Is it all a lark?

And I have the read that I think this is quietly their most sincere film. I think they mean everything in it. I think it's a fascinating midpoint between them and Sam Ramey, who they came up with. It is what they tried to do with Crime Wave. Obviously, one of the best movies ever made. Love that movie.

but making a tribute to the kind of films they grew up loving but infusing it with a modern sensibility and combining different eras and different styles. And I think it is at the end of the day a very open-hearted movie about what if the dumbest guy had the best idea. And it's a really, really fun conceit for a film to have the entire audience know that he's right from the beginning.

And if you don't know I'm talking about, you'll learn soon enough. But thank you to folks at American Cinematarie. Awesome to be here. But Griffin, I mean, speaking of sincerity and a really good idea. Yeah. Actually brought a prototype out here with me today. Right.

So just to be one set. Yeah, Ben's trying to launch a new product here tonight. Okay. So what we have here is chain for bad kids. and you can do a lot of stuff with it. I mean, you look cool. And just quick show up swinging around. I mean, there's endless possibilities.

It seems like easy to scale, you know? Oh, for sure. Quick show a hands out that the chain's been brought out. Who has never listened to the podcast, blank check? Okay. Again, once you see the movie, you'll get it. Yeah. Maybe not the chain part, but everything else.

Thank you for being here. Yeah, yeah. Thank you, everyone.