The Flop House - Ep.#451 - Better Man, with Hallie Haglund

Episode Date: May 10, 2025

Robbie Williams is a chimp. That's not an insult, just an accurate description of Better Man, from the director of past Flop House subject, The Greatest Showman. This one's the rare FH movie that was a critical success while being a financial flop -- will we agree with the critics? Oh, and we buried the lede: HALLIE'S BACK!Wikipedia page for Better ManRecommended in this episode:Dan: Ninja 3: The Domination (1984)Stu: Sinners (2025)Elliott: They Cloned Tyrone (2023)Hallie: Dangerous Beauty (1998)Aura has a great deal for Mother’s Day. For a limited time, listeners can visit AuraFrames.com to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame, with promo code FLOP. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout!Head to squarespace.com/FLOP for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, use OFFER CODE: FLOP to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

On this episode we discuss Better Man. I guess we can find a better man. That's pretty good. Hey everyone, welcome to the Flophouse. I'm Dan McCoy. Hey, Dan McCoy and listeners, I'm Stuart Wellington. Hey, Stuart Wellington and Dan McCoy. My name, which is on my driver's license, is Elliot Kalin. And joining us today is is Hallie Haglin.

Woo! The star of the show, guys. Do do do do. Oh, she's got her, she's part of the B and the third. I didn't realize Hallie has like a ragtime sting that she now uses. Yeah, that was good. Do you hire Scott Joplin to write that for you

for your appearances on podcasts? Yeah. Everyone's stepping up, I appreciate that Hallie had a theme, I appreciate that Stuart specified that he was talking to the listeners when he addressed them. Yeah, it's good stuff. Yeah, this is a podcast where we watch a bad movie

and then we talk about it. Now, hold on. You might be saying the straw man that Stuart claims him are. Now hold on. I'm always talking to. I'm listening. Yeah, so Dan, tell us, wait, before you get in,

tell us about this draw man you're always worried about who always takes issue with everything you say. It's like he's in the audience of the podcast and he's saying, Dan, you suck, I want to kill you. I'm going to kill you. I was scared, bro, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you when you're home at night. It was kind of like an evil Dan is what you're saying.

But it looks just like a younger version of Dan, and then Dan has to jump off the podcast stage and do like a battle? Oh, right. Do a battle with all the other versions of Dan that are wearing the clothes we've seen Dan wearing throughout the movie. The one that, of me that's just Viscera from the rock DJ. That was an Easter egg for the true fans. So this is, so we're referring of, to the movie we watched, Better Man,

which has a lot of Easter eggs for little Robbie Williams moments. So for someone like me who is not super-versed on the career of Robbie Williams, there were times I was like, I guess that's the thing he wore once. Like, I guess that's the thing he said once. Elliot's an outlier for all Americans, though. Americans love Robbie Williams. Before we get into that, though, let's wrap up the thing that I needlessly introduced, which is to say that this got a lot of pretty good reviews. This is not our usual...

Usually we tend towards the critical flop rather than commercial flop. This was a commercial flop though, while being largely a critical success. Someone told me it made like $700 in the US. Is that true? I think it made a little more than that, but not much more. Yeah, not much more. Oh man.

And that includes popcorn sales. That's like, I listen... So one popcorn. Oh, thanks, Trump. I was listening to a podcast recently about the making of Donnie Darko, a movie that I saw in the theaters. And they talked about what a tiny amount of money it saw in the theaters. And they talked about how,

what a tiny amount of money it made in the theaters. It made me feel really special that I was part of this elite, I guess smaller than I realized exclusive crew of people that saw it in the theaters. So anyone out there who saw Better Man in the theaters, you are part of like a real kind of exclusive club of people who can say, yeah, I went to the theater

and I paid money to sit in a public place, a private business that functions as a public place to watch a chimp be Robbie Williams and live out the life of Robbie Williams. Cause not a lot of people can say that, it turns out. And it's interesting, like, so this movie, Robbie Williams. Oh wait, we should make it clear to Americans, this is not a movie about Robin Williams. Yeah.

The much more famous celebrity in America and I think the rest of the world who has a similar name This is about Robbie Williams who is that who's short for Robert Williams? I think who is there who is a singer a singer and dancer a showman, you know as opposed to Robin Williams Who is more of a force of nature, you know One of the greatest That's an Easter egg for this director No, this I mean, he's huge in the, in the UK, Robbie Williams.

Uh, in Europe. And, uh, but the funny thing is this was not even that successful. No, even in the, I thought I was going to see, I looked at it and I was like, Oh, this was probably a huge smash hit in the UK and it just didn't translate. Oh no, they didn't like it over there either. Or they didn't go to see it. You know? Yeah.

Yeah. There's swing. You know what? He did it his way. He didn't do it his way did Yeah, I think a song that was popularized by singer Robbie Williams and no one else He's not even it's not even it's not as if it's not even the first time it's been sung by a figure in a musical biopic You know, it's my I'm referring to Sid Vicious and we have Sid Nancy who also sings My Way. My preferred version.

My wife's preferred. Well, because it's the only one that cuts through the fucking tree. Like, let's be honest. One of the worst Sinatra songs. I want to ask, Charlie, my wife's a huge Sinatra fan. She even saw him in Las Vegas at the Desert Inn. Really?

Which is a story that I will not share. It's her story, but she was very young. Yeah, exactly, she did it her way. I think it can't help being, like, when he gets going, it can't help but being a little rousing. But the message of that song is just so dumb to me. It's like, we all do it our own fucking way, and it also sounds like shitty, like,

no, I didn't take advice from anybody. I'm right, me. And it also sounds like shitty, like, no, I didn't take advice from anybody. I'm right, me. It's a song that work, it's a song that on bass level is a jerk, justify himself, but it works when it is an older jerk, like Sinatra, who has been through things and made mistakes. The point of that song is I made a lot of mistakes,

but look, this is the only way I knew how to do it. I had to do it my way and it screwed me up. That works when it is an older man singing it, who can look back on things. But I feel like Robbie Williams, for all the mistakes, he's clearly made as seen in the movie. It still seems weird for someone who is not in their 60s to be singing my way.

And also in America- Early 50s, right? Early 50s now. But by the time in the movie, he must be in, his parents are still alive and not looking that old. So he must be in like his 30s. Well, not both of his parents. What? Oh, one of them looks old by the time in the movie, he must be, and his parents are still alive and not looking that old. So he must be in like his 30s. Well, not both of his parents. What?

Oh, one of them looks old by the end. One of them is cake. There's a whole song about it, Elliott. No, that's his grandma who dies. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, no, that's, yeah. Oh, man. Did you watch this movie?

I don't think he did. Well, Dan thinks that gran is what English people call mom, which is not true, Dan. They didn't call her gran though. That's true, they didn't really call her gran, no. But I mean. Thank you Hallie. Hallie's the only one who did her homework.

It is an interesting move that the dad, as he gets older, he becomes more and more caked with old age makeup, and the mom, they don't really do much too. Actually, that's just Steve Pemberton's real face. Oh, they do age him for the earlier ones. No, that makes a lot more sense looking back on the movie. But the thing is...

This is a real in-time situation where, for people who don't remember that old episode, we didn't realize that one character was supposed to be another character's mother. The dad is made up, even when he's young, looks so old, that it made more sense to me that those two were together, I guess. Oh, man. Yeah, like, the father in this movie,

we'll actually start the movie in a second, but. We gonna watch it? Yeah, we're gonna watch it together. We'll play on the VHS tape. The father's played by Steve Pemberton, long time member of the League of Gentlemen, long time English comedy guy, and I'm so used to seeing him wearing like, crazy wigs,

and like, with tons of weird makeup on. So I feel like this all tracks. And yeah, I love him in everything he's in and he plays such like a piece of shit and he's so good at doing it in every performance. He's playing the classic, I feel like we have this in America too, but I feel like it's very classic in England,

which is the bad dad who is kind of like a music hall type performer, super low level, super never going to be famous. Yeah, a real Rolling Stone. Yeah. And he's just, I feel like there's, I've seen so many British movies, especially about this kind of guy, but there's, maybe the hit men of England, there's probably like seven of them, but they make so many movies that it seems like this is the number two job in England after like,

I don't know, working in a factory and getting your hands cut off or something like that. The what? Chimneys. Yeah, if you're in England, like, I don't know, working in a factory and getting your hands cut off or something like that. The what? Chimneys. Yeah, if you're in England, you're either a chimney sweep, you are a low level entertainer who abandons your family for a long time, or you are the king. Those are basically the jobs you have.

Packing a guy with a big hat. The guy with the big hat? But like, I feel like- In front of the palace. Oh, right, right, the guard, yeah. I feel like Dick Van Dyke and Mary Poppins crosses off like four of those boxes. Also, that's true.

You know he's got like at least one family somewhere that he's not paying attention to. Oh, yeah. As I said online, too, if you're a performer in the UK, you either end up on a comedy panel show or you get to be a detective. Those are your two paths. Yeah, that's what you get to be. Stick around long enough. OK, so let's get into Better Man. Let's let's jump in here right up top

Let's jump in the way Robbie Williams was because he does a lot of jumping in this movie a lot of jump He's a monkey. So that's it's not a monkey Chimpanzee very different mentioned a bunch of times this movie makes me interesting choice to replace its human performer with a what Dan Informed me was a digital chimper character, a chimpanzee. They didn't really train a chimpanzee to walk on its hind legs exclusively and sing Robbie Williams songs

and do a Robbie Williams impression. Yeah. I think they can do it, dude. They can use tools. To grow to man size. They grow to man size, yeah. So it's an interesting choice and one that didn't financially pay off.

Yeah, it's a brave choice. It's one of those things where it's a double-edged sword because it is the one thing that made us interested in talking about this. I can see how it would bring in- It certainly made me interested. Yeah, that's the thing that might bring in the curious. But for the Robbie Williams fan,

I think it's probably off-putting to not recognize the person that the movie is about. And as we've seen from Bohemian Rhapsody, people love a performer who is made up to be an exaggerated, almost physical caricature of the person they're performing, but they do not like a different species. And there's only one scene where you see the chimp in bed with women and just for that moment,

it is weirdly off-putting, but I had the same feeling watching this that I've had with other things where I'm like I had to keep reminding myself oh yeah in real life this scene is happening with a person and not a chimp doing it and so the movie is much more interesting if it's about a performing chimp than about a performing person. Yeah I mean how like I don't know about you guys but I find it slightly off-putting to see a chimpanzee

snorting like mountains of cocaine. Yes. Well, because then it's gonna rip someone's face off, is my worry. The only place you should see that is a roadside carnival in Florida, and you should only see it because you're walking past that room to the bathroom

and you accidentally catch a glimpse of it, yeah. Okay, well, the movie begins in a little town called Stoke-on-Trent, what a small town in the north of England. We are introduced to Robert, who is a young chimpanzee boy who claims that he can play goalie in a pick-up soccer game. He does terribly. Football, they call it. But this shows his inability

to understand his own limitations. Let's, no, no. But he's cheeky. And he's cheeky. He's assigned to being goalie. This is the thing that I thought was weird. Like, they're all like, you're shit, Robbie. Be goalie.

One of the most important things here. Thank you. As a former goalie, I appreciate your stance. If you're playing like soccer, certainly as kids play it, just put him in the middle. Like, one of the people who runs around, they're not staying tight to their roles, just let him get lost in the...

What's that name of that position, Dan? You're a big footballer. There's a wing and another wing and a forward. Usually there's at least one wing. If you only have one, you're not gonna get far. You know what I'm talking about. I found this right off the bat. Perhaps it could be a striker.

You're not gonna fly. Yeah, it's in that famous Stevie Nicks song, Edge of Seventeen, just like a one-wing dove. Sings a song, sounds like she's singing. Where's my wing? Thank you. Is that the, is that a joke or are those the words? No, no.

It's a white wing dove. Oh, I was gonna say. I was like, I always thought it was a white wig. Yeah. So she's not afraid of changes because she's built her life around goo? All this time, I thought that was the lyric. Yeah. Okay, so.

She works at Nickelodeon. Children get bald, or is that the line? So young Robert, he doesn't do particularly well in soccer, people kind of razz him a little bit. This doesn't, we don't really see much more of this relationship with the other kids in the neighborhood. But it shows that he has a desire to be someone and he has a, he lives at home with his mother.

And his bluster, it shows his bluster. Yeah, his bluster and his cheek. This is what's gonna get him through life and eventually be his downfall. He's a little cheeky son of a bitch. Cheeky bastard. He never knows what's in his mouth. He's a cheeky monkey.

He's not a monkey, Dan. He's a cheeky monkey. He's not a monkey Dan. He's not, he's a chimpanzee Dan. A chimpanzee and a monkey are two different things. Are we sure he is though? Yeah, he's not like a capuchin. No. He's not like Dr. Watson. I mean we never have.

Oh he doesn't, well he doesn't have a tail, you're right. He doesn't have a tail. This is the difference between a monkey and other apes, or I guess apes and monkeys are different. Monkeys have tails, chimpanzees do not have tails, gorillas don't have tails, orangutans don't have tails. And we do see his butt when, during the surprisingly ass-bearing girl boy band

world of Britain in the 1990s, I think, where I was always like, throughout that sequence, I was like, this is a lot more skin than I'm used to American boy bands showing. But we do see that he does not have a tail. So Dan, I'd like you to, I'm gonna keep correcting you. This is the kind of straw man you should worry about, a zoological straw man who does not like it

when people confuse monkeys and chimpanzees. Stuart, continue, don't let Dan stop you, just let me stop you. Whoa. So his home life, he lives at home with his grandmother, who's very nurturing, or his nan. Or mother, as Dan says. Thank you, yep.

His mom who is a hard working lady who is trying to pay the bills, and then he has his... Or as Dan thinks, a roommate, who I guess is just renting rooms from his sister. She is a non-entity in this movie. Nan, it's nan. She's such a nan entity. You know the mom thing, she was a mom entity in this movie.

Mom entity, oh yeah. That like, she was a mom entity in this movie. Mom entity, oh yeah. That like, I, yeah, no, I feel foolish, but at the same time, they really do not put any importance on the mom compared to the nan and the dad. She does cry at the end and he says some nice things. Yeah, she's there. That's what moms do. We're just there.

She shows up. We're there, and nobody gives us the credit, but we're always there. Yeah, Hallie, how would you feel if one of your sons, I won't mention their names for their privacy on this podcast, if one of them eventually made a movie where they were a chimp who achieved- Robbie Williams. If your son Robbie Williams achieved stardom as a chimp

and you were barely in the movie, how would you feel about that? I'd be pissed. Okay. Yeah. Would you disown him? I also think this episode comes out right before Mother's Day, right? This is the episode that comes out, I think, the day before Mother's Day. Yeah. Would you disown him? I also think this episode comes out right before Mother's Day, right? This is the episode that comes out, I think, the day before Mother's Day.

Yeah, okay. So everybody tomorrow, take care of your moms, put them in your movie. Make sure to show their important parts of your chimp performing career. Get them a gift. Get them a nice workout set. So let me... Mom, I know that you listen. I find that confusing and distressing, but I love you. Okay, let me just... Now, Deanna, listen I find that confusing and stressing but I love you

Okay, are you sure that's your mom and not your grandma you're talking to because I know you have trouble telling them apart Now now all that's like the end of the usual suspect just check the time time stamp on where we're at in the movie Wow, okay Guys, I mean it's a bit as everybody pees It's the most basic plot we don't need buckle up guys. I mean, it's a... Has everybody peed? It's the most basic. Do we need to pee before this trip? It's the most basic plot. We don't need to get like, you know, it's... He's trying to establish some fucking foundations here.

And his dad is this like, as we said, he's a small level performer. He's very selfish. He's not around very much. He runs away at the first opportunity. He's a bad dad, singer dad. And he's obsessed with the legends as he calls them. This is your Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.

and of course, Frank Sinatra. So, and he at the first opportunity, he runs away. He does not show up for Robbie when Robbie is part of a school production of Pirates of Penzance. Which I have to say, that is an intense production for kids to have to pull off. Gilbert and Sullivan is hard even

for professional adult performers that rapid fired very complicated dialogue. Who's singing modern Major General in that? Yeah, I mean, I guess, I mean, Robbie's playing a pirate. I guess he's not, but for kids to pull off, Gilbert and Sullivan is harsh. This must be one of the toughest schools in all of England. It's like the Fame School, but in England.

Yeah, but that's the thing. That's why... Fame School. I mean, England puts way more effort into teaching kids the arts than the US. So maybe that's the difference. And that's why they get Robbie Williams and we don't. Yeah. That's why we have no boy bands in this country.

Not a single one. We're losing ground to Korea so fast. Yeah. That's why we have no boy bands in this country. Not a single one. We're losing ground to Korea so fast, every single day in the boy band market, yeah. And I think this is a good time as any to say, sorry for not winning any Tony nominations current performance of Pirates of Penzance, now on Broadway, right? David Heisner's?

Yeah. I didn't even know that was happening. Potential snub is what New York One told me. Okay. I mean, we know by now. Well, I mean, you know, well, is it nominated? It was not nominated. This was what you said.

We thought it was going to get nominations. Well, he said potential snub, and I'm like, well, we know it's a snub now. But I haven't seen any of the productions, so I can't even tell if it's real or not. Maybe they, I feel like potential snub just means whether it was deliberate or not, or whether it was like, oh, they just didn't deserve it.

Yeah. Like when Better Man was snubbed by audiences. So his father runs away, leaving Robbie to, young Robert to sing a Robbie Williams song to kind of commemorate this loss. And he still clutches onto various trinkets and artifacts that his father left behind, because he still loves his dad,

despite him being a bad dad, singer dad. In some ways, the more distant your dad is, the easier it is to love them, because there's that yearning. You know, it becomes a very strong thing. Whereas if your dad's kind of always around and wants to help you, it's easier for a kid to say, eh, no thanks, I'll just sit in my room and not interact with you.

All seems very personal. No, all hypothetical, not at all true. But you know, sometimes the dad reaches out and is like, hey, let's play catch. And they're like, I'm good. And you're like, but this is the kind of thing I always wanted my dad to do with me. All right.

And then they go, hey mom, wanna play catch? And you're like, what? Yep, and then you put on Cats in the Cradle. They turn it off. They're like, I don't want to hear that shit. Fuck this truck. My kids are like, Dad, I was really hoping for more of a Cats in the Cradle relationship with you.

Okay. So teenage Robbie now has ambitions to be a singer and performer and kind of like a cabaret stuff Like that's his his foundation. He wants to be like the rat pack. Yeah And so he is with the brat pack. He does not want to be like that He does he expressly says that at the time. It's like most of them didn't go, you know Look, it's a potential hit some quite highs. Yeah the grinders. What a show Yeah But some of them hit some quite highs. Yeah. The Grinder, what a show. High highs, low lows.

Yeah. Yeah, that was what, the Curacao film? Uh-huh. So... Yeah, the Curacao film about the Brat Pack, yeah. Yeah. So, young Robert hears an ad on the radio for a upcoming boy band audition that is being put together by the actor

who played Dewey Crowe from Justified, which he plays it as creepy as possible. I will say that this movie for me, like really loses something as soon as that sleazy producer leaves the movie. Yeah, I agree. Especially because they really seem to make a meal out of his facial hair and regular hair.

Yeah. They also, they make a big point of talking about, like, of like hinting out what a jerk he is. Yes. And then it never, I mean, he's not nice to them, but I feel like in the annals of boy band manager-dom, there's so much worse. Well, I mean, they make a joke of it,

but like, literally the first thing is like, you know, for legal reasons, he was a real sweetheart. And like, I wonder if that's sort of genuine, like there's a limit to how far he wanted to go. But then they undercut that because they say it goes end of right C word and it's like so it's like if you're gonna do that bit do it. It means something different in England. Yeah in England it's a it's a nice thing. It's a term of endearment. Yeah that's what the movie terms of endearment is about.

That's right. Yeah. This is the word, speaking of me and my children, where my older son, he's out of that phase now, but for a while, like a year to go, he was very enamored of showing off what bad words he knew, and he'd be like, I know the F word, I know the S word. He goes, I know the worst word, which of course is a different kind of word. But, and I've like, you don't know the second worst word.

And he'd be like, just tell me what letter it starts with. And I'm like, it's a word you're not even gonna hear. Don't worry about it. He's like, I just want the letter. Just give me the letter. Mr. Policeman, I gave you all the keys. If you even speak it, it'll destroy your mouth. Yeah, yeah, it's a Lovecraftian word.

It's an unsia. So I think it's important to say that this is a, first off, this is a musician biopic, my least favorite genre movie. But it's a musician biopic where the- So you'd rather see a real life snuff film? Yeah, yeah. I considered that a genre movie.

Although it's funny, Stuart, you're the one who really sold this movie. I was, yeah, sometimes- I mean, literally, Stuart was the marketing exec who was on the movie, so. You did a great job, Stu. Good job. Weirdly enough, I got promoted.

That's why he's a podcaster now. Failing upward, that's the Stuart Wellington story. They said, Stu, you took one for the team, you got pinched, you didn't talk, we're gonna kick you upstairs, yeah. Yeah, but, so, I think it suffers from the fact that many of the people that are featured in this movie are still alive, so they are a little bit careful

to not be too honest about things. And we occasionally get voiceovers from real life, Robbie Williams himself, not a chimp. Which, like, he'll give you little insights into the moments of the story, not as good as, say, 24-hour party people, which is much better. I mean, well, that's a great movie.

That's a genuinely great movie. Just a great movie. I think this movie suffers a little bit from, and we can talk about is much better. I mean, well, that's a great movie. That's a genuine movie. Just a great movie. I think this movie suffers a little bit from, and we can talk about this more later, I guess, but like from coming relatively soon after a bunch of other music biopics. Like I'm trying to remember what are the ones that were besides in the last few years,

so it's like Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, but like it is telling a very similar story. Complete Unknown. Yeah. Complete Unknown. Although I guess, yeah, it's a, although this came up... Complete Unknown. Yeah. Complete Unknown. Although I guess, yeah, it's a, although this came up before Complete Unknown, right? Or no?

I mean, within like a few months, right? They're like... And they're the same kind of performer pretty much. So it's like, if you're going to see one, you're not going to see the other. Yeah. I think, I texted Dan this already, but I do think this is like the better version of Maestro.

Oh, I never saw Maestro. This is an interesting take, but I didn't really dig into it on text because I wanted you to explain more here. It's got, you know, like... How many chimps are in Maestro? Well, I feel like the chimp is akin to the prosthetic nose. Yeah. And then they have these fantastical scenes, at least in my memory.

Don't they have like dance scenes in Maestro? I didn't see Maestro. I don't know. I thought it was about mice. Dan, did you see Maestro? I did see Maestro. I don't remember like fantastical, but I remember it being like extremely stylized. Yeah.

I think this, yeah. But the dance scenes in this, I never am that into like dance in movies, but I thought the dance was so, the dancing was so fun in the movie. The dance scenes in this movie are very good. Yeah, I mean there's one scene in particular, the rock DJ scene. We're not even there yet.

We're not there yet. But I just wanna, I mean, we've got it brought it up, I'm just saying, that's like a five star scene in a otherwise, you know, not five star movie. Like two and a half star movie, maybe three star movie. I also thought the dancing, when he did the dancing with Nicole on the yacht, that was excellent.

So let's put the pedal on the metal and get there fast. So he aces his audition, he doesn't sing particularly well, but he has just a kind of, I think the kid's called Riz, a little bit of cheek, a little charm. He specifically talks about his success being tied in with a specific wink he does. Yes, he looks like he's failed the audition and then he turns around and goes,

should I tell the other guys just to give up because you've already found me? And then winks and he's like, if I hadn't winked, I never would have been here today, you know, whatever. And then when he leaves, the guy's like, cheeky bastard. Yeah. That's exactly what we need for our boy bond. We need someone who's a real cheekster.

But I respect him. I mean, every boy band needs a bad boy. Like in the boy band of the Flophouse, I'm the bad boy. Dan's the cute one. I'll take it. I don't know. Elliot's the smart one. I guess I'm the artistic genius that leaves and creates even bigger things. Okay, I'll take it.

You're not the quiet one. That's for sure. I am bound for reality television. Okay, so... And Halle is the guest one. I'm the girl. She comes in and does like a hot like solo or chorus that we really need to bump that.

That's right. Yeah, that's right. She contributes the hook. Yeah. Yeah, so he is invited to join. He joins Take That, a hot new boy band that starts out by playing shows in the gay club scene in England before graduating to more, I guess,

cishet normative venues. I mean, to specifically teenage girl directed venues. That's something that, so this was the one insight of them, the insights about like, when you get everything, you won't, it leaves you empty inside, people are important. That insight did not, I've heard that before. But something that I had never like thought about.

Where? Every other movie. Spider-Man comics. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. The movie Family Man with Nicolas Cage. Episode of Family Guy. Yeah. Quagmire says it and they say giggety.

The incident. He sure does. The guy says giggety a lot. Oh boy. No wonder that show has ran for 29 years or whatever. One of the top people who says giggity. Yeah, name someone who does giggity. Undeniable. Name someone who's better at giggity than him.

But the insight that you can create a teen girl oriented boy band by first testing them out in the gay club scene was one where I was like, you know what? That made a connection for me that I had not made internally before. And I liked that. That was the kind of thing where I'm like, okay, that's a different point that I'm seeing.

That makes sense to me, but I haven't heard it before. And, but first before they did that, I was like, he's like, first we started on the gay club scene. I'm like, is there enough money in the underground gay club scene for a boy band to be like, to build a whole career off of that? And then it was like, oh, that was just your testing lab for the teen girls thing, that makes sense, but yeah.

And so they are very successful, but Robbie individually isn't particularly successful. A lot of the money goes to their manager or to their like front man, Gary Barlow. Because Gary writes the songs so he gets the royalties on the songs, whereas they do not. They just get their, I guess,

session and performance fees. Robbie develops a pretty severe cocaine and drinking problem by the age of 21. Even though he has no money, he's somehow swimming in cocaine. I don't think that tracks, because the manager just keeps giving them those things for free. Oh, is that it? All right.

Yeah, that makes sense. Because you got to get them amped up to go perform. I also assume, you know, like, I mean, look, I've never been in a boy band. But podcasting's pretty similar. Yeah. I figure. I know, Halle's shocked.

I think she just did a bazooka joke with a lip-take when Dan... No, hey, come on. Hey, come on. She's doing the mental man. Hey, come on. You don't sell yourself short. You have. You've got time, Dan. You have, thanks to us.

Remember? Yeah. No, but I presume... Remember when you were in Three for All? The three-boy boy band? You were the one who would run out on stage and go, it's a total three for all. And then the other two guys would come out and join you.

Yeah, it was weird though because I was 30 and the other two guys were 18. Well, it's important because there's a three in there, so it works. Yeah, exactly. You have to be an age that's divisible by three, which is really tricky because you can only perform every three years. Oh yeah, that year when you were 31 and they were 19 and you could not perform legally, that was harsh.

That was hard. Terrible business model. You were prepared to do a cast on England and you worked on your next two in two years. The point was, originally, I assumed that also this is a job where people give you a lot of drugs. Yeah, probably. Yeah, yeah, as Stuart's saying. Now, this is what struck me here when he was like...

You don't get it your way. That's a reference to the song. No, no, no, it's good stuff. I'm imagining like a Burger King for drugs. I want to have it my way. Don't, please, no sauce on top of my cake. Or an outback commercial, like no rules just right, and yeah, no rules please.

Yeah, and you deserve a break today. And that break I guess is drugs. When you're at a point, man, that's the McDonald's one. I mean, that's when I take my drugs, is when I'm on a break. Not when I'm at work. I'm loving it. Drugs.

I'm loving it, dot like BK have it your way is my son's favorite song like if that commercial comes on he like stops whatever he's doing. It like, like double takes to the TV. It's amazing. How does your son feel about because this is my sons love that song with a thing they love even more are insurance company slogans. So they'll just walk around going Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Can we get like a single for that?

Yeah, I don't know. It means when I sing the Ring Pop song to them, from all those old commercials, it's like a Gilbert and Sullivan Pirates of Penzance thing. The lyrics are so much more complicated than just, liberty, liberty, liberty. Yeah, you'll get it when you're a little bit older. Yeah, just don't play the Cars for Kids song for them or it'll drive them insane. Oh boy, yeah, that's what they're gonna want my ringtone to be.

They'll just be rocking back and forth singing. Well, they'll want cars. They'll be like, the song says we can have them. Yeah, people are just giving them to kids. Do they do the Cars for Kids song in LA? Is that a thing? Oh, it's nationwide. It's nationwide. It's on your side. Oh, man's nationwide. It's nationwide. It's on your side. Oh, man. Our brains.

So Robbie is unsatisfied being in the group, so it leads him to greater acts of rebellion. He gets kicked out of the group. He wishes that he could take a bigger part in it. He claims that he has all these lyrics, which, having heard a lot of Robbie Williams songs after the end of this movie I don't think that's true. Wow. That's wow. I can be a hater. That's fine. That's you can be a hater. You're allowed I'm allowed. Yeah legally. Yeah, nobody Hater jail, what if you were Bill Hader you'd have? On your resume, you'd be you know, you would love Barry

Yeah, I would I would probably have a pretty good Robbie Williams impression in my back pocket Oh for sure for sure That would be wonderful. Can we get him? Let's see no So He so he gets kicked out of the group that leads him to drinking more watermelon with him like he's the jerk He's like all I need is this watermelon That was an interesting choice and I was not sure what he was gonna do with that watermelon and the answer was nothing

Yeah, he saved it for like 30 years for 30 years That was an interesting choice, and I was not sure what he was going to do with that watermelon, and the answer was nothing. Yeah, he saved it for like 30 years until he brought it back. He says, I'm sorry, message that he carved into it. But there's a scene where he really screws up partly when they're about to go on stage for a concert. They're on like an elevated platform, and he's passed out on the platform, but then the show starts, and I was like,

so when did he get in his costume? Like, did he just pass out a minute ago? Yeah. Guys, I'm sorry. Let's actually, and I know Stuart, you'll hate this, but let's skip backwards because we've gone past the point that you were like, we're not there yet. Oh yeah, yeah, that's fine.

Which is a... Oh, the dance favorite scene. There is a fantastic dance sequence right in the middle of the movie to Rock DJ, Robbie Williams, probably biggest hit in the US, that or Millennium. Yeah, Rock DJ I'm not familiar with, but Millennium. You didn't know Rock DJ, I don't wanna rock.

I did not know that one. Oh my gosh. But I knew Millennium. But like this is a really- You got smiles direct to our face. I don't know the lyrics, but. A genuinely great sequence in the middle. And I thought it was interesting the way that

Millennium was the theme song to the TV show. Yes, it was the lance henrickson did a cover of it for that. Yeah. Yeah like he's You know, they're just exploring his lying to face of millennia You think you're looking over kind of like a desert wasteland, and then it pulls back at the very end, and you see that it was Lance Henrichs' face the whole time. Yeah, yeah. Great actor. A lot of modern-

I have no idea what you guys are talking about. You may remember best from the day Lincoln was shot, the TV movie where you played Abraham Lincoln? He was probably a bishop in Aliens. He's in Pumpkinhead. He doesn't play Pumpkinhead, but he's the guy who summons Pumpkinhead. It's just like credit after credit that we have no reason to expect Halle to be familiar with. I mean, I thought Aliens maybe. He plays Ace in Quicken the Dead. Oh, you may remember best the star of the show, Millennium.

He comes back in Aliens vs. Predator. Anyway, no, the rock DJ scene. A lot of modern musicals cut things all to hell, and this is clearly digitally stitched together from a bunch of different stuff. And I'm sure a lot of it was on green screen anyway, but it is done as if it's one continuous dance. Presented as a continuous shot

where you can see the full bodies a lot of the time, and it goes all the way through the streets of London into different, it goes into stores, it goes on top of a bus. It's a really genuinely great sequence. And they're great dancers. And they're great dancers. And how many deckers is that bus, Dan?

Oh, it's a double. That's right, they pulled out all the stops. But this is a really well done scene and it's a double. That's right, they pulled out all the stuffs. But this is a really well done scene and it's really exciting. Like it really gets you into the energy that they want you to get you to. It's really good. Unfortunately, this hits about a third of the way through

and I feel like the movie has difficulty recapturing this end. No, it never hits that high again, which is a problem. But I'm like, oh, well this is a way forward for a movie musical where it's like, this is modern flash, but it did, I'm like, oh, well this is a way forward for a movie musical where it's like, this is modern flash, but you're still getting to see a big, genuine dance musical number that's not cut to hell.

It looks more like a music video, honestly, but in a good way. But it seriously did make me wonder, if he had not been a chimp. Go on. It reminded me of so many things that get so much critical acclaim. You know, I said Maestro, but it was also like, oh, this is like also a way better version of La La Land, like all movies that were nominated for Oscars.

And then this made $700. La La London. So you're saying it's anti-chimp racism? I think so. I think the backlash, they just, you know... I will say, I did find the... I thought of La La Land 2 while I was watching this because there's that first scene in La La Land where they're dancing in the streets. Yeah, La La Land 2. La La again. La La Land 2. La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La La la la. And the, it's called La La Land's. It's like, oh no, now there's more of them.

But I will say, I thought of that first scene where they were kind of dancing on the freeway or whatever. And I was like, I like this scene more. And the only part of La La Land that's really exciting to me is the part when he's supposed to be selling out and he plays that great keyboard solo. And I'm like, yeah, this keyboard solo rocks. Like, why are we supposed to see this as the nadir

of his artistic career? And this captured that energy really nicely. So I think probably the difference is, here's how I hear my theories for why this didn't get the same kind of acclaim. One, it's a chimp doing it. Two, Robbie Williams. And three, like, it being like yet another biopic, which I think give people reasons to turn away from it,

or to treat it as lesser. I don't know. I mean, it did not get that reviews. This came out after the Queen one? Yes. Yes. I think part of it, yeah, is because we don't have a single person to kind of hang this on.

Like we don't have Taron Egerton doing Elton John. We don't have Rami Malek doing Freddie Mercury. That being said like that... We have Andy Serkis doing... That's what I assumed. It's not Andy Serkis, it's somebody else. But we do have that chimp, but I think it does make it... It makes the movie feel like a novelty act rather than a like a real story.

And I will say, you know, cutting ahead slightly as a spoiler to my final judgment, it's a very well-made movie in a lot of ways. And yet I could never quite get over my intense lack of interest in the life story of Robbie Williams. And the movie did not find the angle, it got the angle to get me into, in through the door, which is there's a chimp dancing.

But it did not get me into this, it didn't get into my heart to the point where I'm like, oh, I care about this guy and I care about what he's doing. And I think that's the real weakness of it. Whereas maybe with Bohemian Rhapsody, it's partly because people have such, a lot more audiences winning with affection

for Freddie Mercury. His story is genuinely also tragic in a way because he died young, whereas Robbie Williams is just like, and then I did great and I'm doing good now. Bohemian Rhapsody told a completely bullshit version. I mean, it's totally made up also. It's not true, which is too bad because Queen is genuinely one of the strangest bands in the history of the world. And it would have been amazing to see their real...

Because the stories you hear about them are just bonkers, just like very weird. But I think that... It's another downfall, the fact that we're talking about many people who are still alive. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe. And but also it feels like I maybe you guys didn't feel this way, but I never quite got over feeling like this was kind of a vanity production in the way that Rocketman feels a little bit to me. Like, if you're producing...

Yes, it's exactly vanity production. Yeah, if you're producing your own biopic, basically, then either you got to really pull out the stops to show that you're telling the story or digging deep. And I guess he's kind of digging deep here. He's saying, I'm depressed. I see myself as ugly and weak and bad. But there's always the thing of like, I think I'm so interesting.

You should see my whole life here. And that's a hard hurdle to get over. Speaking of his whole life, should we go through the movie or do we just want to skip to a final judgment? No, no, let's go through the movie. Okay, so he is not in the- Sorry, Stu, I forgot that we rigidly adhered to structure

on this podcast. No, I mean, it just sounded like you were wrapping up. Yeah, anyway, I've been only Katelyn. We've got a real Gary on our hands over here. Have a what on our hands? Gary. Yeah, sorry about that. So Robbie is floundering a little bit.

He wants to do his own solo album and he bumps into Nicole, what's her last name? Nicole Appleton from the band All Saints. Owner of a ton of apples. All Saints was a popular UK girl group. When I was living in Germany and Austria, their song Black Coffee was on MTV a lot. And I always kind of associate my time over there with that song, I don't know.

Oh, okay. But, and they- Was that in the movie? No. No. But I was surprised, I'm like, oh, I'm familiar with this girl group. So they hit it off there. But their hit, their number one hit,

the one that went number one in the movie, everybody knows that song, right? Wait, which song was it? Which one's that? It's like, you know, and it never felt so low when you're gonna get me out of this black hole. You know, I think you mean black hole sun. Won't you come and wash away the rain? No, that's not what I mean.

Never mind then. OK. So's not what I mean. Oh, oh, oh. Nevermind then, oh, okay. So they start a romance, the two of them have a musical number, a duet with a little dance on a yacht. It's pretty good. It's good. You get flash forwards to their romance as it builds while they're having this dance.

And also some of the lows of their relationship. She is a really good dancer also. Yeah. Yeah. And through the lows of their relationship. She is a really good dancer also. Yeah. Yeah. And through the montage of flashing forward, you get, it's sort of obliquely shown in the, I mean, they say it outright later on, but it's obliquely shown in this montage

in a way that like, I'm like, oh, I'm glad I read the Wikipedia page for what's going on here, that her label pressured her to have an abortion of their child leads to kind of the divide in their relationship That was definitely very obliquely done in a way that I thought maybe she had a miscarriage because you see them putting a crib Together and then it's just kind of things are not good after that and they're yeah

No, but you see the manager like yelling at her and they're sad. No, but you see the manager yelling at her and she's like, no, no, and then you see the manager taking her. Point to a baby and then like, cross it off. Yeah. Yeah. He brings out a doll and then he just goes, grr.

So their relationship starts to deteriorate. He keeps doing too many drugs. He's very cheeky on television. He has some successful albums. He seems to be sleeping around quite a bit, which that means we get at least one shot of a chimpanzee in bed with some naked ladies. Damn, that must have been like seeing your search results

just come to life in a movie. Exactly. I was, I mean, you know, this movie was not something where I expected to see that. I will say that. Really? The movie about the- Dan was like, wait a minute, am I still watching the movie or did I accidentally switch browser windows?

This is a very, like- How did my fantasy get on the screen? Is this AI? I guess there's a lot of swearing, but like- Am I the lake of heaven? I guess there's a lot of swearing, but like, because it is such a basic story, it like read to me as like PG in a way that I'm like, oh, there's like three nude ladies in bed with a chimpanzee. That I did not expect.

Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, I mean, that is fair. That is fair, yeah. Do you think that's one of those things where they hadn't quite thought of when they started the process of making a movie about a chimperper Abbey Williams and then they're like, oh shit. It's very possible that they didn't realize it would cut down on the amount of kind of like scandalous love scenes they'd be able to do. It reminds me of a... So my younger son has really gotten into the original Planet of the Apes movies recently. And we skipped beneath the Planet of the Apes because I was worried the mutants would scare him. And I was talking to my wife about the making of it

and I was saying how like, yeah, the original version of it, they were gonna have an ape-human hybrid to show that maybe there's a way for the apes and the humans to get along. And they even went as far as to do a makeup test with a kid in ape-human makeup. And then they realized the implication is that

a human had sex with an ape and that it was too late in the process for them to not have spent the money on the makeup, but they cut it out of the movie. And it feels like this is a similar thought process here where they're like, we'll show him as a chimp, it'll be amazing. And we'll show all his bad boy exploits. Oh, you mean like when he slept with women, so you want to show him as a chimp having

sex with women and they were like, oh, okay. Wow. I wish we weren't on day 49 of the 50 day shooting schedule. You guys, this moment did not, I mean, it stuck out to me because there were naked ladies, but like the interspecies, that did not affect me as much as seemingly. I had so accepted him as just Robbie Williams at that point.

Like I didn't really think about it. Maybe it's because I'm a visual learner. I kept having to remind myself, oh yeah, he's a person, he's not a chimp. Yeah, I have amnesia, so I keep forgetting what's happening. Elliot, because I brought up Planet, because you brought up Planet of the Apes, though,

so I finally recently got a new phone to get ahead of our idiot presence, disastrous tariffs and such. Can't wait to find out how this has to do with Planet of the Apes. I mean, it's gotta get there. We're on a journey. Your impatience will be slapped down when you...

No, so I was like, you know, I hate AI for all sorts of applications, but I, you know, I'm like across the board, I'm not like, well, this has no use whatsoever. You know, like I was like, oh, well, it has this, like the phone has this function pointed at a thing. It'll tell you what the thing is, you know. Right, it's green play for me.

I'll try that. Yeah, that's my favorite function, the one that's put everyone out of work. No, but I'm like, let me put it up to a better man, see what happens, and sure enough, it says, you're watching Planet of the Apes. I'm like, oh, A.I. Even for the things I kind of accept you for, you suck.

Dan, Dan, I'm gonna do you even one better. I have a new children's book out, I'll plug it later called Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House. And I had to look up the date of an author event I'm doing so I could talk about in this podcast. And when I Googled Sadie Mouse, once upon a time, which is the name of the store, the AI said, this may refer to the book,

Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House, or Sadie such and such of the Manson family as portrayed in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I'm like, I guess they did wreck that house. Yeah, Google AI, I guess they did. Have you seen that thing where people just put in totally made up phrases into chat GPT and ask them to explain it and chat GPT confidently claims,

oh, that's what this means, and it's like, fuck you. So I guess we know chat GPT is a man. Oh! Whoa, whoa! Air horns. Oh, wait, I don't know how I can, so roasted here, I don't know how to pick up my phone. They're gonna have to fix that

by stealing Scarlett Johansson's voice and just sticking it on there, yeah. Oh, okay. So Robbie manages to, what, he nets a big, he nets a big. Like a huge fish. Yeah, he nets a big, he nets a big. Like a huge fish. Yeah, he nets a huge festival appearance at Nebworth. Were you guys familiar with Nebworth?

I was not, so when they kept saying Nebworth, we gotta do Nebworth, I was like, I gotta look what this is, don't know what they're talking about, you know. It sounds like a nerdy villain or like a butler character. Yeah, that's true. Little Nebworth. Stop Yeah. Little Nebworth. Stop bothering us, Nebworth.

You're too small to play the piccolo. I'll show you. So, leading up to this point, every time Robbie... I'm gonna be too small to play the piccolo. He is so small. Every time Robbie is performing on stage, he looks out into the audience and he sees past versions of himself saying horrible,

violent threats to him basically. Like you're gonna fail, I'm gonna kill you, all these things. Yeah, the I'm gonna kill you was weird. Like I get like the self doubt and like, you know, like you're ugly, you're stupid, but like, I'm gonna kill you does not seem like something you say to yourself.

Yeah. No, not particularly. I mean, although he was in many ways trying to kill himself with drugs and then later on with, I think a razor blade. But- On a frozen pond. So the whole time I'm like, every time he's performing, I'm like, something bad's gonna happen, but I'm not that worried,

because I've seen Smile 2, the worst possible concert So but he this is this seems to be I mean trap was a pretty bad outcome for a concert performance to The actual concert goes off without a hitch trap oh I see yeah exactly and it's amazing You can buy her album somewhere. I bet, right? I'm not sure, I'm all on Stoner. So Lady Raven, Lady Raven? Yeah, cool, I remember. I mean, she doesn't perform in real life as Lady Raven.

That's her character in the movie. She doesn't? I think she performs as a step. Yeah, she should do that. Yeah. So what I'm saying is that this is like, his relationship with himself and his addiction and his relationship with his father,

that's his big challenge that he has to overcome. Yes. And his stress leading up to this big festival forces him to push everyone away. It's turning into more of a stress-tival. Yeah, thank you. He destroys his relationship with Nicole, his grandmother, grandmother not mother, Don.

Yes, thank you. And he wrecks his relationship with his best friend who is a guy that he's known for years. I was like, are we supposed to... Yeah, I see they showed up earlier. They were drinking together when he said, I'm gonna go be in a boy band. Yeah, they were like sitting on a sign.

But like he was not a big part of the movie. Like they made it out like. He's like a conscience. This is like a huge thing. And I'm like, this guy was barely here for the whole rest of the film. Dan, did you really wanna see a lot of scenes with him hanging out with his old buddy

or did you wanna see this chimp dancing on a double decker bus? No, you're right. Do you think that old buddy really exists? I want more medicine, less ice cream please. Or he was invented for the movie? Do you think this character actually existed in real life? Or if this was just like a straw man?

I bet he's a composite of the people he knew. No, I think he's real. I think he's real. And I think Robbie was like, I got to put him in the movie. That he'll know how much I love him. That's how people are going to get mad if I don't put this guy in the movie. It'd be like making a Beatles movie and not putting in, who's a Beatle?

Yoko. Yeah, yeah, there you go. So he strains all his relationships. He even, his father who had come back into his life when he became successful, he even pushes his father away, which at this point we're like, yeah, your father's a piece of shit. We all know this.

He deserves it. Yeah. So he does the festival. Not a better man. It goes off without a hitch, except for the fact that he jumps off the stage and he battles digital versions of former selves, slaughtering them in quite a battle.

Yeah, but we presume that the audience probably doesn't see that happening. My guess is that if you look at the archival footage of his actual performance at Knebelworth, that he doesn't jump off the stage and just start fighting people. But it ends with him stabbing through the, or I guess not ends, one of the big moments

is him stabbing through the chest, his Pirates of Penzance younger kid self. Childish child. It's really sad. Which really was sad, yeah. It was a... And he gave a little whimper. Yeah, it was rough.

It seems like that version of himself didn't really do anything bad to him. No, not particularly. But I will say, this was one of those moments where I'm like, I don't really buy this as a scene, but I love seeing this kind of chimp fight free for all. It's all CGI, it doesn't look like real chimps, but I love seeing all these different chips and different costumes-for-all. It's all CGI. It doesn't look like real chimps. But like, I love seeing all these different chimps in different costumes

fighting each other. That's why they made the movies. It was like 300. Is that the name? Is that the number? Yeah, yeah. That's what I thought. Yeah, it's like 300 chimps. Yeah, 300. Yeah, they stood against Persia in the hot gates. Yeah. The thing is... Now, how would the movie 300 be different if all the Spartans were chimps? That would feel different to it.

Not that much. I guess that's true. They would all be ripped. Super ripped chimps. Now, I'm not the biggest fan always of like, you know, like a mishmash of CGI characters battling each other, but I will say I much prefer that than seeing actual chimps having to hit each other with physics. Oh, for sure.

That would make me upset. I think we can all agree that this is a better movie. I'm just gonna make a stand here. It's a better movie for not Lancelot Link style using a real chimp in a costume and like putting peanut butter on his lips so that his mouth moves and not having real chimps fighting each other.

I think we all agree with that, yeah. Now for people who aren't as old as us and didn't see it in this indication, Lancelot Link was a secret chimp. Now that implies that you think he's a chimp in secret like Robbie Williams in Better Man. No, no, no, he's actually a secret agent who's a chimp in a world of chimps

where everyone is a chimp, yeah. See, I like my chimps playing baseball with Matt LeBlanc and that's it. In which case, I don't think that was a real chimp in that movie, I think that's a person in a costume. So all the better? Yeah Sorry, it's yours. Anna says it's been shattered. Maybe you need to watch Dunstan checks in which I guess I think it's also maybe not real a real

One is Dunstan a real one Dunstan Or I don't remember seren it Orangutan or a gorilla? He is a real one. 100%. He gives 100% all the time. He will check in. You doing bad? He'll check in. He's not afraid of it. That's what it's about, right?

So after his performance... I hope it's a real ape so that I can go back in time and write a review of that apes performance and say Dunstan checked out halfway through the movie. Oh man, Dunstan's gonna be so fucking bummed when he's at the trace. So mad, yeah. He made Dunstan cry. So, uh, after- This is what it sounds like when apes cry. Do do do do do do. Anyway.

Can you go with when Dunstan cries? Yeah, it's not the right number of syllables. But it has the same beginning sound as Dove. Dan, Dan, Prince was one of the greatest songwriters of all time. I do not want to ruin his scansion, but kind of fit Dunstan in where Dove goes. When Dumps cry.

Dunst. You're right, much better. Dunst, it's much better, yeah. It's only as Dumpster Prince can call him that. By the time we take this on the road. We'll have this. I mean, it's still better than my Raspberry Brape parody. So after battling, again, no disrespect to Prince, one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

OK, still, did you? After all this, Robbie contemplates self-harm, but he stops himself and he checks himself into rehab. He cleans himself up and then he, his first big step, well, only step, is that he reconnects and with all the people that he's pushed away in his life. And he makes like showy amends with everybody, right?

He gives Gary Barlow back a watermelon with a penis crudely carved in it. I love the idea that he's been mad at him all these years because he never paid him back for that watermelon. This is all it took. Yeah. You know, the watermelon symbolizes something. You gotta imagine those are expensive in England, too. Like, you're not growing watermelons in England.

Those are all imported, you know. Mm-hmm, yeah, that's true. Where do you grow watermelons? Yeah. You grow them here. We grow them in the United States. Anthony grew them. But that's my husband, and he grew them in our yard. Yeah, we've grown watermelons in ours too.

Yeah, they grow a lot in Mexico. They grow a lot in Japan is where they grow the square ones. That sounds so... You know how to make a square watermelon, they just put it in a box. It's all they do. It sounds so exotic to me to live a place where you could grow your own watermelon.

So Dan, so you're gonna try to grow your own watermelons now in your window box in your- I think you could do it, yeah. Yeah. I don't think the temperature's here. Well, you can figure it out. You're smart. I bet you could do it.

Yeah, I bet you could figure it out. Maybe just get some grow lights and you know. You can do it inside. Yeah. You should grow it like under your bed. Yeah. Put grow lights under your bed so it also looks like your bed is like a race car. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be cool.

I think it's pretty cool. The bed just like slowly like goes up higher as the watermelons grow. Yeah, it's a real little Nemo type scenario. Oh, I love it. Down by the bay. That's where they grow also. Down by the bay. Yeah, that's true.

They do, but don't talk to your mom about it. She's gonna ask you if you've seen some crazy things. Yeah. So the movie concludes. Robbie does a big performance at the Royal Albert Hall and he does a kind of like a cabaret style show where I'm assuming he does some of his own songs. He also does a tribute to his mother.

He brings his father up on stage and they sing My Way by Sinatra. Again, is that a Sinatra original or is that a standard before that? No, I think, you know what, I don't know if he didn't write it. Like, I don't think, Sinatra didn't write his songs, but I think it was, it was his, I think he may have introduced it.

Like it was his signature song for sure. He did it his way. He did it his way, which means usually extending all the syllables as long as possible, yeah. And that's kind of the end of the movie. He, like, I think he says something cheeky at the end. Yeah, and that's it. He literally ends saying like, that's my story.

I'm an entertainer, I'm the best in the world, fuck you. And then the movie ends, and it's like, I just watched your whole movie. why are you mad at me? I don't understand. And I'm like, if you have to say that, I don't think it's true. If you have to tell me you're the best in the world. At least I see he's a cabaret entertainer.

He's copping to being corny, I think, a little bit. Like, this is what I really wanted, because of this stuff. It is interesting that, I, you know, like, this is what I really want, because of this stuff. It is interesting, like, they're, the, it is interesting that, like, I wonder if there's a, this is not a more interesting version of the movie, I guess, but like, about a guy who is a pop star, but really wants- Two chimps.

Two chimps, two chimps, chimps that will adore you. The whole movie is him, he's a pop star, but he really wants to do kind of old fashioned, those kinds, he wants to do Seth MacFarlane style, big band and cabaret songs. And I wonder if that would have been like, in some ways, a more interesting thing than fame is tough. You get everything you want and it hurts.

It's like I'm performing, I'm a performer who's doing work that is not what I want to do. Although he writes the songs, so I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. He writes the songs that make Robbie Williams sing. There's also a theme that he feels like he is doing everything, but he doesn't really want to. Like, throughout the whole movie, even when he's performing his own stuff,

he feels like he is doing it for someone else. In this case, for most of it, it's like he's trying to own stuff, he feels like he is doing it for someone else. In this case, for most of it, it's like he's trying to live out his father's fantasy to get some kind of approval from his father. Yeah, but it's also very weird that the whole running theme is like, I did it my way. Because also the whole theme of the movie is like,

I was just doing it for everyone else and I just cared about what the other people thought of me so he really wasn't doing it his way. He was doing it. I feel like we're in final judgment. Yeah, we're still in it already. We are in final judgment territory. So let's do final judgments, whether this is a good bad movie, a bad bad movie or movie.

We kind of liked, I kind of liked this one. It is a kinda like, I enjoyed the first half when things were fun better than the inevitable like sink into the mire of like drugs and alienating people. It's the weird, I guess actually this is the way this is a lot of these movies that when things get better for the character, the movie gets kind of sadder and grimmer and more boring, you know?

That like, it's fun to see someone dissolving and being hedonistic, but it's not so fun to see someone recognizing the trouble and reconnecting with other people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, Anora. Yeah. I will say, there is one funny moment

in the getting, that we should have mentioned, in the reconnecting with people montage, where he goes to his grandmother's grave, through the TV and a VCR and watches the old shows they love to watch together with her tombstone and chips and some chips and it's so funny It was the crisps. Yeah, I thought it's so funny cuz I was like, so does he think his grandmother is enjoying this? Like this is making up for lost time and also anyone else walking through that cemetery would just see a famous man Laughing his head off at it in the middle of a cemetery watching a, which seems super disrespectful. What is going on in this scene?

But anyway, I just thought it was a funny thing to put in. I would say, oh yeah, go Dan. Oh yeah, I think there's going to be a split decision on the chimpanzee decision. For me, I think that it takes what is just a basic biopic and it's like, okay, you know, I wouldn't necessarily be sympathetic biopic and it's like okay you know I wouldn't necessarily be sympathetic to this guy who's like just destroying his own life without having any like particularly large problems that he's raging against normally if not for the fact that it sort of literalizes how alienated he

feels in a way that is hard to ignore. And I felt more sympathy for this chimpanzee man than maybe I would have for Robbie Williams. Chimpanzee, yeah. So, but you know, it does kind of lose a lot of steam. I didn't love it, but I kind of liked it. Stuart? Yeah, I would say, so I'm, as I've said before,

I greatly dislike musician biop, as I said before, I greatly dislike musician biopics. I don't care. I just don't give a shit. I don't need to hear a rags to riches story where he gets famous very young and is famous. And the thing he has to overcome is like doing too many drugs and whatnot. I couldn't care less. There's a couple of things, moments in the movie, like obviously that big dance number I thought was a lot of fun.

I really like the scene when his dad tries to reunite with him when he's famous again, and he brings some woman into Robbie's hotel room, and she's like, can I use your bathroom? It's a number two. I was like, great scene, perfect. But yeah, this is, I think the choice to make him a chimp I found kind of fascinating and like every once in a while

I would just be reminded of it and I'm like, why the fuck are they doing this? But I thought it was, you know, I thought that was a fun choice that made it, I feel like it would be almost insufferable without the chimp character. So I'm gonna say, I think this is a bad, bad movie. This is not for me. I'm gonna call this also a movie,

I didn't like it, but damn it, I respected it. I'm gonna call this a movie I kinda respect in that it is well-made. I think at heart, it never gets, I was never interested in Robbie Williams and I never felt emotionally connected with him or anything like that. So I think it fails at its number one job,

which is to get me to care at all about the main character. But I think it succeeds in being like really watchable and a lot of the scenes work well and the dance numbers are really fun. The fact that I don't know the music and don't like that music particularly was not as big a hurdle as I thought it'd be because those scenes are well done.

But it does feel like that chimp thing, like I said, it's a double-edged sword. It is both the only interesting thing about the movie and it also shows you how not interesting, to me at least, the rest of the movie is. Because the whole time you're like, there's a chimp doing this stuff. This should be more, they should be least, the rest of the movie is, because the whole time you're like, there's a chimp doing this stuff. This should be more, they should be doing,

what other stuff you can do? What are your other ideas? And it feels like the movie had one idea, basically. At one point he runs into the Gallagers from Oasis. And I was like- Gallager one and Gallager two. I'm like- Speaking of watermelons. And the movie does portray them as, you know, assholes. Which famously they are assholes, right?

Yeah, famously they're really bad guys. I thought, like, I feel like it would have been great if they were the only other animal characters in the movie. Like if they were like a couple of storks or something or... I mean, I would have liked... Storks would be good for them. I would have liked it more if they just went full mouse and everyone was an animal, you know.

Except for him? Except for, or if they had gone, I was waiting, I kind of wanted him to start, when he's a kid, I kind of wanted him to see him as a person and then have him either, he's a chimp or he changes into a chimp, something to really make it clear that the filmmakers know that this is not a story about a talking, singing chimp

that is a human family. It's not Stuart Little, but a chimp instead of a mouse, a human family with one animal member. But it felt like once you've taken a swing that big to then make the rest of the movie taking no big swings, there's good sequences in it, but to play the rest of it pretty safe, it feels really disappointing.

And I just, his Robbie Williams story was just not quite interesting enough to me to, in some ways to justify taking such a big swing that you know, you shouldn't judge a movie by its budget, you should judge it by what it does. But you know that that added millions and millions of dollars to the budget that every scene had to be performed

by a CGI champ. And I think that was mostly money well spent in this case except do more with it. That's what I would say anyway, from a CGI champ. And I think that was mostly money well spent in this case, except do more with it. That's what I would say anyway, from a story perspective. Hallie, what did you say? What do you think? I liked it. I loved it.

You lived it. She wants some more of it. But no, but I thought that, everyone keeps saying like, well, I'm not that into Robbie Williams. I don't like his music. So the story inherently wasn't that interesting to me. But I actually thought that the reason why it was interesting

is because he's sort of like this side character of fame. Like when you see him, like with the Oasis people, you're like, oh yeah, this guy is also famous, but I have no respect for him as a musician. And it's kind of interesting to watch a whole movie about someone who you don't take seriously, but they are themselves, so they obviously take themselves seriously.

I don't know, I thought it was sort of fascinating to be really invested in a silly famous person. Yeah. You know? And I wanna say, I don't have any sort be really invested in a silly famous person. Yeah. You know? And I want to say like, I, you know, I don't have any sort of breadth of Robbie Williams musical knowledge because he wasn't famous in the US,

but the songs that I do know, I actually, I actually like the good pop songs. I mean, the songs are fine, but nobody is like, he's the best. I don't think, I don't think anyone is like, he's doing the best work in this form. They're fine. Yeah, no, but I think they're fine,

but they're, I don't know. I feel like there's like, there are, there's like, high, low brow, and then there's Robbie Williams. Like Robbie Williams, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say I like have a ton of like, respect for his music, but if I'm at the disco, I'm happy. Would you go to a disco?

Would you go to a disco? Well, that's actually how I know all these Robbie Williams songs, because when I was like, went abroad to Argentina, that's where I would hear them, was like going to like dance clubs. But I, so I loved it. And I thought it was like,

I did think it was more ambitious than just the monkey choice because it did have, you know, like all of these crazy, like the big fight scene, the big dance scenes. Like I thought it was like a really ambitious movie that kept me very entertained. I did hate, I did feel the way you guys felt about like it losing steam the more he descends into addiction because it just felt like there was no way to heighten like you just kept getting these

scenes of him losing his mind and it was like okay like you can't lose your mind any more than you already lost your mind. He gets addicted so early in his life and maybe that's just the way that it was, but it does feel like, okay, and now he's still addicted. Yeah. You're right, you wanna see a build there. That's a really good point. I mean, well, and also-

And you want it to build to the point where he has an all out chimp battle, and the movie ends. I don't know why the movie keeps going after that. Kind of the most striking part of him losing it is early on when he takes the watermelon and there's another cool sequence where he's driving at full speed in the rain.

And the world's exploding around him. And we're like has a sort of fantasy driving into the water and almost drowning. People are grabbing at that. That was a great sequence. That's a really great sequence, yeah. And this director also did Greatest Showman, a movie that has its fans.

I mean, I'm somewhat mystified, but it- And similarly, The Greatest Showman has some great produced sequences in it. Some great, like, it's got great sequences to watch, and especially the musical numbers. But that's another one where the story, you're like, what? Like, there's nothing, there's very little to dig into.

Although there- Like Zac Efron's like climbing a rope or something? I don't remember. Well, it's also, that one is so completely inaccurate. And I feel like I wish they'd taken a little bit of that and put it into this movie to like, like if they were like,

oh, that's the point when I got arrested for trying to kidnap the queen or something like that. I wish they'd done bigger with it. Because part of it is like Robbie Williams is sold on his charm and cheek. And I would like to see more of that injected into the storytelling. Just like braggadocio. It made me want to be more cheeky. I was like, maybe that's all I need.

Maybe that is what you need. You should try it out. So Hallie, be a little cheeky. Do something cheeky. Wouldn't you like that? Oh, look at her. Look at that face. Yeah, you can't see the face listeners, but it's a little cheeky, do something cheeky. Wouldn't you like that? Look at her, look at that face. You can't see the face listeners, but it's a very cheeky face. One thing this movie did hit home for me, which is something that I like to see

is those glimpses of British culture that we don't always get in the United States, because we tend to get the more sophisticated British culture, not always, but over here, and how so much of British culture is lowest, crassest, dumbest stuff, and like he said, bum, and they're all laughing. Like, just to be reminded that England has this strain

of just the dumbest stuff. I really like a lot, yeah. And I also will say, I actually don't usually, I don't usually like dancing or singing in movies. I don't usually like dancing or singing in movies. I don't usually like fight scenes. And I really liked all of that in these movies. Or in this movie.

So I think it was done really well. You don't like dancing, singing or fight scenes? Those are like some of the top things that can be in movies. Steven Chao is crying right now. No, I feel like usually it's like, ugh. That's how I feel about when in La La Land, I was like, ugh, you're embarrassing yourself, guys. Someone needs to go in there and tell these people that people are watching them.

Jackie Chan, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, quit it. Just don't. Just who cares? Don't. Just don't. You know, the Flophouse is sponsored mostly by the wonderful listeners, members of Max Fun. Thank you for being a member if you are, but we also have a couple of sponsors. And one of them this week is Aura Frames.

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with decades of family photos. That's the beauty of these frames is you can preload them and from a distance using the power of the internet add new photos. So your family is up to date and all the great things in your life and it's, you know, you can do it from afar. I have one of these frames.

It's a wonderful thing because we have all of our wedding photos on there, stuff that otherwise maybe would go in an album that you take down once every few years and take a look at. But instead we get to be reminded of all our great friends. I have photos of these two Flophouse co-hosts, Jokers. Pop up regularly. I was invited to the wedding. of these two Flophouse co-hosts, jokers. Pop up regularly. I was invited to the wedding.

I couldn't go because I was too pregnant, but I was invited just so the listeners know. Yes, I know that Hallie would have been there if she could have been. Dan said nobody's gonna upstage me at my wedding. Especially not a pregnant lady. Keep that belly away, I said. It was named the best dish.

This wedding has a four drink minimum, so Hallie, you're not coming. Yeah. That would be wild. We have to take advantage of the open bar. Four drink minimum. It was named the best digital photo frame by Wirecutter. It's easy to see why.

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That's AuraFrames.com, promo code FLOP. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Stuart. Hey, y'all. this podcast is also brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is a all-in-one platform for creating a website.

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Jumbotrons. Not just regular trons, but trons that are jumbo. And the first one is from Laura, last name withheld. She says, for years, my husband, Brendan and I have been listening to the Flophouse. Our new video game, Skin Deep, is a comedy stealth game inspired by immersive Sims like Thief, Prey, and Dishonored, and by classic action movies like Die Hard. Play as Nina Pasadena, a human insurance commando who saves talking cats from space pirates. You can flush a pirate's head down a toilet,

use deodorant as a weapon, and drive a mech. It's on Steam right now to buy or wishlist. Check out our slapstick stealth game, Skin Deep, on the Steam store. So that's one Jumbotron. That sounds pretty fun to me. Next Jumbotron. This is a message for Dylan, last name withheld,

and this message is from Melissa, Morgan, Harper, and Charlie, last names also withheld. And this message is from Melissa, Morgan, Harper, and Charlie, last names also withheld. And that message is, happy 40th birthday to you and Kellan. You are a wonderful brother and uncle. Thank you for introducing us to some of our favorite things, Flophouse included. Here's to many more years of Nuggets Championships and video games with the kids.

This place may be a prison, but we will always love you, even Harper, despite her note. Do you think they're really in prison? I have to assume so. Probably. And nuggets championships are when you try to eat as many chicken nuggets as possible in one sitting, right? I mean, I can't think of any other way to take that phrase. Or when you're listening to nuggets,

that psychedelic songs collection. Oh, not familiar, but okay. Okay, I'll pretend I get that reference. And what's the championship aspect of it? Just how long you can just like listen to it in a loop. Oh, I see, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, maybe you wanna mention your book.

That's exactly what I was gonna do. I don't have a book. Thank you, Dan. You've got a book in you, Stu, someday. Someday, Confessions of a Bartender. Hey, don't tell yourself, you've got a bunch of books. You can do it, Stu, someday, someday. Confessions of a Bartender. Hey, don't sell yourself, shorty. You've got a bunch of books. You can do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a real, that's a real Chico Marx way to do it.

Oh, I don't have a book. Hey, you got a lot, you got a bunch of books. I've seen them on your shelves. Yeah. I have a new children's picture book that is out right now. It's called Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House by me and with art by Tim Miller. It is about a good girl mouse who is tired of doing the chores and decides she's gonna do them bad.

So she never has to do them again. And she wrecks her house. You can pick it up in bookstores now. It's a really fun book for kids. It's a picture book, as I said, for children. And I am going to be making a public appearance, appearance, appearance, appearance. Wow, wear your bulletproof vest.

So you're saying that to the audience? Cause you know what my children's things I like to, they're just, they're just pellets. They're just pellets. It's not, you know. So I, at Saturday, May 17th, one week after this episode is released, I believe, at 11 a.m., I will be at Once Upon a Time Bookstore

in Montrose, California. Once Upon a Time is one of the oldest children's bookstores in the state, possibly in the country. I'm not sure. It's a great little store. I love it there. And I'm going to be doing a story time reading Sadie Mouse to anyone who shows up at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 17th.

So please come by to Once Upon a Time in Montrose, California. If no one shows up, will you still read it? I will still read it. I've done book readings where no one showed up and I just read it for the people who work at the store. So that will happen. But please don't force the people who work at the store to listen to me.

Come by Saturday, May 17th at 11 a.m. at Once Upon a Time Bookstore to hear Sadie Mouse wrecks the house. ["Rex the House Theme"] Hey, we're the Eurovangelists and it's the most wonderful time of the year because the Eurovision Song Contest is next week. 37 countries will face off in Basel, Switzerland to determine who has the best song in Europe.

On our show, we've argued about all the songs and we are heading to Europe to bring you our reactions straight from Switzerland. And on our next episode, we're going to predict who's going to survive the semifinals, compete in the grand final and ultimately win Eurovision 2025. Albania, baby! It's Malta. Latvia! But we won't be alone.

Glenn Weldon of NPR's Pop Culture Happy are with us, sharing his own predictions and telling us why we're wrong. So make sure you're ready for Eurovision by listening to Eurovangelist on Maximum Fun, available everywhere you get podcasts. You never know what you'll learn more about on the Celebrity Trivia Show Go Fact Yourself. For over 150 episodes, we've welcomed guests

like DJ Jazzy Jeff, Audie Cornish, and Andy Richter to tell us why they love what they love and then get quizzed on it. And past quizzes have included some pretty unexpected topics like Reverse painting. The perfect flip turn while swimming. Prince's house party playlist from that one episode

of New Girl, and so much more. Plus our guest meet surprise experts in their topics. Like the time we met an actual celebrity cow. So listen to Go Fact Yourself twice a month, every month on Maximum Fun. Do it for the cow. No. Let's read some letters from listeners. Why not? I'm gonna cow. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Long ago, in 1998, I went to see Armageddon in the theater with my best friend.

As a 14-year-old girl, I was enthralled. I laughed, I cried, and I walked away with a huge crush on Steve Buscemi. Probably not what Michael Bay intended. When the movie came out on video, I begged my parents to rent it for family movie night, assuring them that it was a great movie and they would love it.

You're gonna love this, hunk. As middle-aged adults with fully grown frontal lobes, they did not love the movie. This has stuck in my mind as my first experience with hyping something up as great and then learning that it was actually pretty stupid. I actually haven't rewatched Armageddon since then because of the residual embarrassment attached to that memory. I have two questions for you to choose. What a tragedy. Yeah. I'm sorry. and we're getting since then because of the residual embarrassment attached to that memory. I have two questions for you to choose.

What a tragedy. Yeah. I'm sorry, if somebody you like, you should watch it. Was I embarrassed by looking uncool in front of your parents? Yeah. They're just your parents. They're the least cool people there are. Exactly.

Yeah. I have two questions. I'm not mine, but. Sorry, mom. I have two questions for you to choose between. One, what was the first time you shared a movie you really liked with someone and they thought it was dumb? Did it change the way you felt about the movie?

Two, are there any movie characters you crushed on when they were clearly not intended to be on the movie's roster of crushable characters? Thanks, Elise Lasting with Hell. Dan, you can answer both, don't worry. I'm able to, I'm allowed? You're allowed to, yeah, I'm gonna give you a left. I'll answer the first, I'm gonna answer first. I'm just gonna answer the first one first

while I think of an answer to the second. But I remember introducing my friend Nigel, who is from ye olde England I introduced him to... Home of Robbie Williams. Home of Robbie Williams. Wow. Yeah, if I told him we watch Better Man he'd be like, oh yeah, this is my favorite guy. My mate, Robbie.

Yeah. Dead on impression. He... I introduced him to... I loaned him my DVD copy of Wet Hot American Summer and I'm like, this movie is so funny, I love it. And he watched it, he's like, this is the worst movie I've ever seen. And I'm like, is it just that he has bad taste,

which is possible, or that he, like, it just didn't translate to the type of comedy he likes, which is like Benny Hill running around and that. Oh yeah, classic English comedy, the sophisticated English comedy that they love, yeah, yeah. But I was like a little shocked also because that was one of those relationships where I kind of viewed him like a cool older brother

and it would hurt my feelings. That's certainly when I was in high school, there was a girl that I crush on and she came over and we, no, I went to her house and we watched Brazil, which I had seen multiple times and I was like, this movie is amazing. And afterwards she was like, yeah, that was a weird movie. And I otherwise made no impression.

And I was like, oh, okay, I guess, and then I felt dumb afterwards, yeah. Yeah. I'm having trouble thinking, like, you know, I'm secure in like how I feel about my own things that I like, you know. Have you always felt secure in the things that you like? Yeah, yeah, I'm not.

Dan's always struck me as someone with a very healthy amount of self-esteem. Well, here's the thing, I'm not secure about myself, necessarily, but like why should I give a shit what your tastes are if they're not mine? True. Sounds healthy. But I mean, there are occasions where like,

I'm a little sad that someone doesn't like a thing that I like or whatever, and the thing that's springing to mind, even though it's not exactly right, is like, I feel like Audrey just got the wrong impression about a thing. I showed her the outtakes for Emmett Otter's Jug Bag Christmas, because I was like, oh, you'll like this, this is funny.

And they're hilarious, I mean, like, you know. I've seen those outtakes, they are fun outtakes. There's nothing funnier than outtakes of puppets, you know, like staying in character reacting to stuff. And you know, she loved the outtakes, and then one Christmas we're like, let's watch Amid Honor, and her main reaction was she found it so sad.

And I'm like, yeah, but it's- Yeah, it's sad that the fucking Riverbottom Nightmare Band doesn't win. I'm like, it ends up happy, everyone's happy at the end. She's like, yeah, but it's sad for so much of it. She just wasn't prepared to watch something bittersweet, I think, after these fun outtakes. Yeah.

So, I don't know. What about you, Hallie? Well, I'm trying to think of something. I feel like the opposite usually happens with me where someone shows me something that they really like and I don't like it and I have to pretend like I like it. I feel like I'm not secure enough in my own taste that I'm willing to reject the thing that I don't like. So I'm always like, yeah.

And usually it's whatever it is is very, very long and it's my husband who likes it. And so it's a lot of wasted time. Give us one, give us one. So one of our first dates we went on, we saw that movie, The Great Beauty, which now that I'm thinking about it, I might've even like recommended it on this podcast

because that's how Stockholm syndrome I am. Semented your relationship, yeah. I feel like I remember this, yeah. Yeah, and if I'm being totally honest with myself, I didn't really like the movie. It was really long and kind of boring. The only thing that was cool was that there was one scene with like a really big giraffe, which I found interesting.

I'm very happy you say this, Hallie, because that's a movie I also did not like very much. But it was one of those movies where people are like, oh, a ravishing love letter to Italy, you know, and stuff like that. And I'm like, all right, I don't know, it's kind of boring. Yeah. And to, yeah, do we have answers for the second question? I do.

Yeah, I got one. Dish, Hal, dish. Dish, do dish. I got John Malkovich in both Conair and Mary Reilly. I love this. Oh, and Mary Riley. Wow. Okay, somebody likes a bad boy.

On the, I would say Ursula from Little Mermaid. Interesting. Oh, for sure. Yeah, yeah. I feel like anything I come up with is like the most like surface level, like, oh, not like other guys or other girls, you know, like sort of like... Oh, it's kiddie pride. Oh, you know, like...

Because like, I was really... I'm sure that there's a more interesting one, but, you know, in a movie where like all the other women are like made up to to be the most conventionally attractive. I remember Mean Girls being like, who's this Lizzie Kaplan? But she's like a gorgeous woman. So it's not like that weird. That's the hard thing, even in movies. Even John Malkovich has a magnetic charisma about him.

I know. He's a movie star. The first things that came to mind to me were... I mean, mentioning Kitty Pryde opened up a whole world of other characters. It's like, I've always had a crush on the character Spiral, who is an X-Men character who is- That's a cool one.

She dances, she's got a samurai helmet, she has six arms and like, you know, she does, she changes people's bodies in weird ways. Like she's amazing, I love her. But the first thing that came to mind was, I always used to think like, well, in Teen Wolf, I'm really into Booth. I'm not into the other girl, but the movie is into Booth. Like obviously she's the one he's supposed to end up with.

But I realized who I really have a crush on are those two girls that hang out with Stiles who have no dialogue in the movie. And they always are rolling their eyes at him. They always look like they hate everyone else that they're around. And I'm like, these are exactly the girls in high school I would have had a crush on.

That's the level of confidence you aspire to. Yes, exactly. They're like, we're not even a part of this world. We're just here, we're going through it. And that they're, yeah, so that's who I have a crush on, is those girls from Teen Wolf. What about that little dancing girlfriend, Mac and me? Well, that's Nikki Cox.

That's just, oh, I didn't have a crush on her. I just always felt bad, because I was like, she's trying so hard. Like she wants to be a professional, you can tell. And it's just, she's in this shitty movie. But then I found it was Nikki Cox. I'm like, oh, she had a whole career. Great, okay.

I didn't feel bad anymore. You know? And I don't know if this is a fair answer since this might be the sexiest a woman has ever been in a movie, but obviously Joan Cusack and Adam's family values is deadly. I mean, yes, of course. Yes.

That's when we're, I mean, it's one of those things where it's like she's presented as a femme fatale the whole time, so they know she's sexy, but I don't, I don't think they realize how much she is. Give me a kiss, give me a what? Give me a 15, what'd you say? Give me a 20, I love it. Okay, well, our second and final question

from Benny Last Name With Hell. Benny Hells. Or Letter. Benny NT Jits. question from Benny Last Name With Hell. And the G for letter. Benny and T Gips. Benny writes, when listening to your Venom, the last dance episode, I was dumbstruck that none of you mentioned the underlying metaphor of an adult man who reflects on a life of retreating into escapist superhero fiction

instead of pursuing family or career goals that his best friend feels partially and selfishly responsible for his lack of ambition. My question is this. It's a lot of credit given to Venom 3. I love it. Well, here we go. My question is this. Have you ever been so confident in an interpretation of a film as universal only to later find

said interpretation was merely a window into your own messy psychology and dysfunctional relationships? So, this is a complex question. was merely a window into your own messy psychology and dysfunctional relationships. So this is a complex question. Believing your interpretation, of course, is the obvious one, and then being like, oh, maybe that's just me. And I don't really have a good one.

I thought this was a great question. I don't really have a good one for this. The only thing that came up, and it is not a reflection of anything in my life, but I remember I saw the recent Music Man revival and it was the first time when I'm like oh like Winthrop's obviously like her kid right like that she got pregnant by this guy. You finally cracked the code Dan.

You finally got it. And to me like then it seemed so obvious but then it's like, and to me, like then it seems so obvious, but then I would, I like went online for like confirmation. They're like, Oh, I was just an idiot all these years. And they're like, so many people like saying like, no, like look at the ages of the characters. No, like Meredith Wilson didn't necessarily like speak to that. Like it seemed like he didn't have that view, but it seems so obvious to me, like, of course, like, the whole thing's about her being the sadder but wiser girl, like she has this child that is actually her child, but...

But that's not a reflection of me, per se. That's just like me realizing in subtext. You'd be the child in that situation, right? The child who doesn't realize that his parents have had this life before he was around or what that means. Interesting. Yeah.

So the first thing that came to mind for me was something that I've actually talked about before on a different podcast, on the Being Seen podcast. I talked about my relationship with the movie Taxi Driver, where when I was, I first saw that movie when I was like 14 years old and very depressed and very lonely. And I continued to be depressed and lonely

for basically the next six to seven years. And feeling such sympathy and empathy with an identification in a way that I now think is bad with Travis Bickle and his loneliness and his inability to really understand the rules of human life, how to be a human and how to interact with other people. And it was only when I got older and had grown up a little bit that I saw it,

and I'm like, oh, I think you're supposed to feel bad for him a little bit, but you're not supposed to identify with him. Like, you're supposed to watch the movie being like, this guy's a weirdo, this is strange, as opposed to looking at him being like, I hear you, man, it's hard to know how to talk to people. So that was a real shift in the way I looked at that movie.

And it helped a little bit, I think it was last year reading Quentin Tarantino's book where he talks about watching Taxi Driver when it came out, when he was young in all black theater and how the audience just laughed through the whole movie being like, can you believe this guy? Can you believe the stuff he's doing? This guy's an idiot.

You know, that they fully saw the other side of that character, which is from the outside, looking at him, what are you doing, man? Whereas I was looking at it from the inside of like, yeah, I get it, I get it. Then no one tells you the rules when you're born into this world, you know. What about you, Hallie?

I don't really, I can't think of, I don't have a good answer for this. You're allowed. I'm always right. Yeah, I mean, I feel, I don't particularly. I always get it. Hallie makes snap judgments and they're always correct. Yeah. I don't particularly... I always get it. I always get snap judgments and they're always correct. I don't particularly have any good answers either. I'm going to piggyback on Elliot's, which is just the idea of like, so many movies I

watched as a teenager, I sympathized with the wrong character or I used things to justify based on my own feelings, like my own feelings of alienation or how I'm the most important person in the universe, that kind of sociopathic teenager thinking. But as an adult, I like to think I've become a little better. But I'm sure I'll think of a better answer and then be dumbed. I mean, there are certainly things like high fidelity,

where I realize that this is not supposed to be a great guy, but it was only later in life when I realized what a sharp critique it is of a certain type of nerd and their blinkered difficulties with empathy. Yeah, that's a good one. There are a lot of movies that involve guys of a certain type where if you were a guy of that type you buy into it I mean, I feel like I didn't I never liked this guy But I feel like I knew people who are really into Rushmore because and without recognizing like what a little shit He is for much of the movie and like

You know, yeah, well he's kind of a big shit. Yeah Wait, which one is sorry. I missed it. What is it? Big Bill Murray. Yeah, you're talking about Bill Murray Yeah, yeah Well, I mean the other thing of like it's the there's that two sides of shit There's the moment learn to be better from each other. Yeah That that famous kid's book big shit little shit. Yeah There's that moment. There's that moment when you grow up when you cross the bill murray Understanding barrier when you go from being like this is the coolest man in the world to being like,

okay, this guy, like, what is this guy's deal? Like, why does he think he can get away with anything? It's not fair, you know? Well, there is a thing about like media literacy, whereas a kid, if you grow up with an actor or performer and you have like deep emotional connection to them, that like you have trouble identifying them at like Identifying them as a bad person in a movie. Yeah, you're like, oh, but I love I love Michael Keaton

Why would he be a serial killer trying to kill Andy Garcia? Yeah, a lot of kids had that strange realization I don't know. I don't know if this is exactly if this exactly fits but I think it was very hard for me to wrap my head around in the Winona Ryder little women in the 90s little women like it never made sense to me when I saw that movie seven times in the theater why Joe wasn't supposed to wind up with Lori and why Amy was supposed to wind up with Lori. It's like, it seemed like that was big miss. Like it was like we spent, we invested this entire movie

in rooting for this particular couple to work out and then they don't work out. Why did that make sense? And I'm, but I'm not sure I have an answer. I'm not sure that I now understand why it did work that way. Why they didn't wind up together. I mean, I don't know that version of the movie that well, in the book, I think it's a matter more of like,

they actually aren't the right match for each other. She needs someone who's gonna play a different role. And that's why she ends up with the professor who, I think they made a big mistake in the Greta Gerwig one by making that professor so handsome. But like, because I think you're supposed to read that book and be like, Joe, why aren't you with Laurie? He's handsome and rich.

Why are you with this kind of like older, not attractive professor guy? But it's like, but that's the relationship that she needs in her life rather than, you know. Well, but I think they made it, it made more sense in the Greta Gerwig one because Timothy Schallme was like such a kid. Yeah.

And so you understood why she wouldn't want to, why he would represent the past rather than like the future to her. But in the Winona Ryder one, freaking, what's's-his-name-is-so-hot. John Malkovich, your favorite. No, you know, what the... Who is that? Ski Doll Rich? Stephen Dorff? No, no. It was the 90s, yeah.

You know, the little... McCulloch Culkin? Oh my God. I can't believe I'm not remembering his name. Kieran Culkin? No, he's the one from The Machinist. The one from what? The Machinist. Christian Bale?

Christian Bale. Oh? Christian Bale. Oh, Christian Bale. There's a moment in the recent season of Righteous Jamstones where Steven Dorff says the word nards, and it's the funniest thing I've ever seen. You swim at Wolfman? Unfortunately, no, but it's, oh man, it was like, ugh.

I love Righteous Jamstones. And I thought this season, at the beginning of the season, I was like, every season I like this less, but then by the end I was like, this is great. It's best ensemble cast on television right now. Yeah. Let us... There's a little show called Tracker. Oh, my mistake, I forgot about Colter Shaw and his tracking.

That's about the guy who tracks. He does track, that tracks, yeah. Yeah, it sounded like Colter Shaw was knocking on your door so that he could get in on the entrance. My family is currently building a kind of gardening cage around our blueberry bushes that the birds and squirrels can get to them. And they're doing it right outside the window

where we're recording. So they're hitting the window every now and then. And the best part is seeing my wife's face as she knows that we're hearing the sounds and just like, ugh, sorry. Let us, well, let's, in that case, move on to the next segment, which is recommend movies. There's still more, what an amazing value

for the dollar we give with this show. I know, it's really, I mean, considering also that you don't have to give the dollar. Damn, don't tell people you don't have to give the dollar. Damn, don't tell people you don't have to. Look, we love that you give the dollar. So this is a trick. GTD, give the dollar, that's what we're always saying.

That's why all the Flophouse merchandise has GTD and Blazendon. Yep, don't check that. Unless you're asking AI, in which case they'll say, yep it does. It sure does. AI is in which case they'll say, yep, it does. It sure does. AI is in some ways the worst improv partner. They're just like, I will yes and whatever question you ask me, but not in a way that builds the scene,

just in a way that confuses you. In a way that adds to the general misinformation in the world. And ends up gaslighting me out of, and catfishing me out of all of my money. Yeah, that's the worst part, yeah. That's why he got a GTD. Because Stu keeps getting catfished by AI, yeah.

Let's recommend movies. That's what I'm trying to get to. Movies that you might enjoy. Dan's gonna recommend AI. Well, I don't think, I think that Stuart made a little video with me recommending this movie, but I don't think on Maine, I don't think we recommended this.

No, we didn't. Stuart and I went and saw another Ridiculous Sublime. We always plug these Ridiculous Sublime movies. Your favorite series. If you live in Brooklyn, go to the, run Don't Walk to the Nighthawk Cinema for their Ridiculous Sublime series. Always the best.

Great stuff. And we watched Ninja III, The Domination from 1984. I haven't seen that in a long time. Very silly, very fun. Honestly, it starts out with an action sequence that I'm like, holy crap. For a movie that is a low budget movie, this is one of the most amazing action sequences.

The bang for your buck in this is so much bigger than any blockbuster you're gonna see. But the movie- Big the bang for your buck in this is so much bigger than any like blockbuster you gotta see. But the movie- Bigger bang for your buck than a blockbuster. It says Van Bucoy. That opening scene, I've said it before, but it's like a five-star Grand Theft Auto rampage caught on cinema.

It's so wild. It is essentially a ninja kills a guy and some other people on a golf course And then is chased down by a bunch of cops Eventually, he shot a ridiculous number of times and then the spirit of that ninja Inhabits a woman who works on the telephone wires. She's from a dickie Yeah, it's the director of Breaking Two Electric Boogaloo and Lucinda Dickey was in that film.

Star, yeah. And so she becomes the ninja, she's possessed by the ninja as he wants to kill all the cops that killed him. And it is... They should have called it Ninja 3 possession. I don't know why it's Ninja 3 domination. Even though she decides to start dating the hairiest of the cops.

Yeah. A man who's so hairy that you're like, am I in a different dimension where you can be that hairy in a movie and still be the love interest? All the audience cheered when she's like, I don't date cops, and then like, boo, she started to date that cop. But it's a perfect movie of its type in that, like, it's really silly

But also kind of amazing like it's genuinely like entertaining and great in a lot of ways while also being the goofiest shit You ever saw so that's what I recommend Ninja 3 the domination Stuart. What do you recommend? I'm gonna recommend a movie that is hot in the theaters right now. So hot it will burn your flesh with flames That's right. I'm gonna recommend Ryan Coogler's Sinners. It is one of the, like, I would argue probably one of the biggest box office successes of the year. It is an original kind of horror movie that is set in Prohibition era South.

It stars two Michael B. Jordans, that's right. You get double your Michael B. Jordan for the dollar where they play, where he plays two twin brothers who are setting up a juke joint near their hometown. And then there's some vampire violence. It is so fun. Rated R for vampire violence. It is, it's so fun.

It is a movie that I kind of went in expecting it to be a fair, you know, like a really intense horror movie. And I feel like the horror movie elements while done well are kind of not the thing the movie is most interested in. It's a total blast. It's all the performances are great. The music is great. And it is the kind of like in theater experience

that I've been looking for. I think it's great. If you haven't seen it, you should go check it out. They brought it back to IMAX and it crashed Fandango. Yeah, I can see it. It's great. I'm gonna recommend a movie that is kind of not, it's not really related to Sinners,

but it is directed by the writer of Creed II, which Ryan Coogler didn't direct, but Ryan Coogler did directed Creed, so it's kind of similar. And this is someone who, their work has been on the fly house before because they were a writer of Space Jam, A New Legacy, but they made a movie called-

Interesting bona fides for this recommendation. This is a movie directed by Jule Taylor, who wrote those, called They Clone Tyrone, that came out like the year before last. And it's a science fiction, it's like a science fiction movie that is science fiction kind of mystery action movie that has like a black exploitation

kind of style touches to it. And it has to do with a drug dealer in this kind of in this bad neighborhood, predominantly black neighborhood that is economically depressed and he gets killed and then wakes up the next day totally fine. And it leads to a plot that I won't tell you too much about what happens, but involves a secret government plots and people being used for experiments and things like that. And I thought it was really fun. It's a really funny movie and it was real.

It had some real good action scenes in it. Jamie Foxx appears in it as a slick Charles, a pimp who becomes one of the hero group and he's great in it. I watched this not too long after watching, finally seeing collateral for the first time, which I'd never gotten around to seeing. Oh, yeah, that's fun. And I was like, this is the kind of Jamie Foxx I want to see though. I don't want to see serious Jamie Foxx who's just trying to build his limo business.

I want to see Jamie Foxx as a kind of larger than life character. And it's really great. Tiano Paris is in it as this character, Yo-Yo who's the kind of takes the lead in the mystery and in figuring out what's going on. And it was, it's not, it's kind of lives in a similar world in terms of being a science fiction satire on black themes, a similar world to Sorry for Bothering You,

but uh- Sorry to Bother You. Sorry to Bother You, but it's not as, it's not quite as incisive as that one. It's much more fun than that one, but I really enjoyed it. So that's, they cloned Tyrone, which I think it's on Netflix right now. I think it's a Netflix exclusive movie. Allie, what about you? What's your recommendation? Well, I'm going to recommend a movie that could very well be the answer to the previously

asked question about being really embarrassed when you reveal something that you like because it turns out it actually sucks. Because I haven't seen this movie since I was probably like 14, but for some reason it's just been on my mind recently. The movie Dangerous Beauty, did you guys see that? In the 90s starring Rufus Sewell. I've been thinking about it a lot

because I recently watched The Diplomat and I was like, this guy never stops being smoking. He is so hot. And he was so hot in Dangerous Beauty, the story of a courtesan in a historical time. This is one of Hallie Hagelin's classics. No research movie reviews. No, but it was during both the Black Plague and the Inquisition, because both of those were featured within the movie.

And it was great. I rented it over and over and over again. I thought maybe when I grow up, I'll be a courtesan. But I didn't really know what that was. You know, I never saw this movie, but I remember seeing the poster for it. Yeah, well, it was good. Okay. Wait, Stu, you gave a knowing nod. Do you remember this movie?

A little, yeah. I mean, I remember when it came, I remember seeing it years ago, but I don't, I couldn't give you too many details on it. Do you remember if you liked it? I remember liking it, yeah. Okay. Okay. I remember it being like a liked it? I remember liking it, yeah. Okay, okay. I remember being like a little horny, right? Yeah, yeah.

And I liked Rufus Sewell, like I'd get stuck in a dark city with him. I gotta tell you, it works in person too, that Rufus Sewell attraction. I saw him on stage in the play Rock and Roll and he was very handsome. Oh my God. Very handsome.

I saw him on stage in Richard the Third and... Who'd he play? The titular Richard the Three. The titular third. He played all three of them? Seems better than two Michael B. Jordans. Richard the Third is like multiplicity, but it's set in England's past, yeah.

Yeah. Two Michael B. Jordans. What would be better? Two Michael B. Jordans or three Richard's? Three Rufus Sewells, who knows? I'll take the, yeah, hard to choose. I just looked up Dangerous Beauty on Letterboxx. The most popular review, the top review,

was just, did she peg the King of France? So that's the thing that might happen in this movie. I don't remember that part. I guess I've gotta go see it again. I guess I'm recommending it to myself. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I do find that like, sometimes recommending a movie I haven't seen in a long time,

I'm like, you know what? I'm going to watch that fucking thing again. Yeah. Is it available on streaming since you just looked it up? Could you help us out with that? Yeah, Dan. Pull up Just Watch real quick. Yeah. OK. Well, it's connected up Just Watch real quick. Yeah, okay.

Well, it's connected to Just Watch, so it shouldn't take as long as it does. Where to watch? It just says Cali's house. It just says rent or buy, so I don't think it's, you know what I mean? You can still rent it. Yeah, it's still available.

I mean, there was a time in the past when you always rented or bought things. But there were places to go to do that in the past, and there aren't anymore. You know what, I bet there's a place, I bet you could go to Vidiots and rent it. I will, I will. And a new DVD store just opened up,

DVD purchase and rental store just opened up in Williamsburg. I don't know why Letterboxx linking to Just Watch doesn't work as well as just going to Just Watch itself, but if you go directly Yes, it's on Hulu. You can see it on Hulu You can have a Hulu hoop But not sure not sure

Hey, I just feel bad that Stuart headed and an ace lathe of heaven Reference earlier and I thought it was so funny and the best I can do is Hulu hoop in my best song parodies. It's always a shot in the arm, Hallie, when you're here. And a delight to see you again. Dan looks down at me. A good one. I hope not a gunshot. I miss seeing you regularly. You know what, you guys?

This is real. I had a moment a couple weeks ago where I was like, I don't laugh anymore. I just don't laugh, nothing makes me laugh anymore. And I thought, I'm so glad I'm doing the Flophouse because when I do the Flophouse, I laugh. So thank you guys for that. I think we should probably have you more on more often

just for your own mental health. Yeah. Yeah. And you have a delightful laugh. So that's also good for us as well. Oh yeah. Ha ha ha ha! That's the one! That's the one.

That's the one. Oh yeah. A lot of people don't know, Hallie makes most of her money off of doing Halloween sound effects. Yeah, yeah. Zoom's like, that Halloween sound effect is copyrighted. No, yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's why we had to stop using that chain rattle sound. We get sued, yeah. Anything you want to say before we do our sign off, Hallie? Thanks for having me. That's all.

Hallie, why don't you plug your sub stack? We should have mentioned earlier. Oh yeah, yeah, sign up you guys. Read my sub stack. Check it out. It's called, That Hurts My Feelings. I'm glad I still got it, because honestly I read the last one, like, does this mean she's stopping? There was like a, there's a sense of finality about it.

I know, I know. It's like goodbye forever or something? Yeah, but I'll recommend, Hallie, if you are continuing, That Hurts My Feelings, it's the thing I read right away when it shows up in my email inbox. I always think it's great. It's both funny and also kind of meaningful and touching and revealing in ways that I think...

Very revealing. A lot of nude pictures. A lot of nude pictures, yeah. A lot of nudes. Dangerous beauty. It was originally called That Hards My Feeling, right? It was just much more of a porn newsletter. But it's a, no, it's like, it's, Halle's doing such amazing writing on it, and someone's got to, someone's got to, like, some, I wish there was more newspapers

with syndicated columns, because it shows me that Halle would do an amazing job with that. Oh, thank you. Thanks Yeah, so if any newspapers are listening If you're listening USA Today, and I know you are Mr. USA Today Ulysses Samson Arthur Today Thank you to Hallie. Thank you to our producer, Alex Smith, both producing the show and being on our unfrosted

episode recently. And if you don't subscribe to Flop Secrets, our newsletter, the most recent one was devoted to Alex's side project. So look that up. It's an easy way to see what Alex is up to. Thank you to Maximum Fun. side projects, so look that up. It's an easy way to see what Alex is up to. Thank you to Maximum Fun. Go to MaximumFun.org to find other great shows on the Max Fun Network.

And for the Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy. I've been Stuart Wellington. I've been Elliott Kalin. And I've been Hallie Hagland. And thank you to us. Oh, thanks. Oh. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do I remember what the movie's called, so that's the important thing. Here we go. On this episode, we discuss Better Man. And if your number one celebrity crush is Robbie Williams, prepare to be confused.

That's really good. That is a hot one. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. Of artist-owned shows. Supported. Directly. By you.