The Flop House - Episode #388 - Don't Worry Darling

Episode Date: January 28, 2023

Booksmart was one of Dan's favorite movies of its year. Director Olivia Wilde's big-budget follow-up, Don't Worry Darling... has problems. Dan, Stu, and Elliott chat about them, while mostly ignoring the extra-textural hubbub around the movie. Mostly. Don't worry, darlings. Or do. We aren't your dads.Wikipedia page for Don't Worry DarlingMovies recommended in this episode:MatineeKaithiThe Garden of WomenEver tried Microdosing? Visit Microdose.com and use FLOP for 30% off + Free Shipping.

On this episode we discuss, don't worry, darling. I don't even need to do a hey, Dan McCoy, it's me, Stuart Wellington. And it's semi Elliott K. Lynn pretending to be the hit and endocaracter Mario for the Super Mario games. That's good. That's the matically appropriate for this episode, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, we watched Don't worry, darling. The Nintendo move. Don't worry, darling. Don't worry, Nintendo. Don't worry, Nintendo. Although shy guys, the in circling you. They're shy. They won't do any.

No, they're very shy. They're very shy. Don't worry, darling. You're actually Samus Aaron, a girl fighting a Metroid aliens. Don we'll do it. You're saying, not worry. They're very shy. They're very shy. Don't worry, darling. You're actually Samus Aaron, a girl fighting a Metroid aliens. Don't worry, darling. This guy's just going to take you over to that castle for a while.

Hey, this is a podcast where we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it. Or, you know, look, we don't know whether it's bad ahead of time, but the society, the culture has told us certain things. I mean, we don't know before we watch it, but we have a good sense before we start recording the episode. How do you feel about that? Yeah, yeah, you're right there.

There is a sort of a liminal space where we have formed our opinions, but not broadcast them, but I just wanna make it clear. We don't, you know, I feel bad. I feel like that. Yeah, and there's a moment when we have our opinions and we're like, could we just keep least to ourselves? Can we just say fuck up?

Are there already enough opinions on the internet? Probably, I mean, definitely. But, you know, what, we're, we're very much so. I feel like we got, that's not even a problem. Certainly from people of lower demographics. Number one, we got,

number one, I feel like we got grandfathered in. And number two, we've built too much of our lives around the livelihood that this provides. So we just keep doing it, you know? And I love how I love Dan's constant provisos against a complaint no one has made. A criticism no one has ever made. I have made it in my brain to myself. Dan's like, Dan imagines these hordes of people who are like, you know, the movies aren't always bad

that you talk about. I like that movie and now I hate you. And that I don't know that we've, and the people say like, oh, I like that movie, they go, oh, I disagreed with you, it's fine. But Dan, it's okay. I know you're projecting your,

your dislike of the constant internet hate machine. Yes. Onto the audience. It's a pretty hate machine. And then refracting it back to us. But no matter how pretty that hate machine is, it's still full of hate. And you're raging against that hate brain,

which itself is made of rage, yeah. Okay, so we watched. But despite all your rage, you're still just a podcast or an occasion. What are we doing in this podcast, dude? Again, we watch a bad movie, we talk about it. This one has a lot of baggage around it

that has very little to do with the movie itself. Very true. Yeah, you will be a bad owner. I don't know. I think I'd to be honest, I think if anyone is came to this looking for the ins and outs of the soap opera backstory, I think we should show them the door. Yeah. And that door is marked, come back in, please, and listen to us talk about the movie itself. The movie itself. I don't think we need to get into the like the shenanigans. No, I don't think so either except for Audrey originally, Audrey originally wanted to be on this episode because she has big feelings about it.

And then she mysteriously changed her mind. Oh, yeah, she can't tell you. You're saying Olivia Wilde got to her, okay? Yeah, yeah. Olivia Wilde, she appeared, Stan, you were drugged. You weren't awake for this, but Olivia Wilde was she appeared, stand, you were drugged, so you weren't awake for this, but Olivia Wilde was standing over her bed, just punching her fist into an open palm saying, you want to get book smart about this?

Yeah. Were you going to be book dumb about this? Well, I mean, she just, she did want me to address her feelings, which are also my feelings, which is that perhaps it's not the most ideal thing to get involved with a infidelity onset, workplace into fidelity, plus your marriage, et cetera, et cetera. But the heat that got generated by this is so far outside, the degree to which this is unusual

is not unusual. And a little while took like a lot of key that Audrey believes. And I agree with is probably because she is a lady 100 rather than. I think that's I have two explanations for this. One is as you're saying the institutional satchini of it because you look at a move. I mean, this is a long time ago, but the exact same thing happened in reverse with the last picture show. Yeah. Where Peter Bogdanovich left his

wife, who also is collaborative partner in production for the one of the actresses in the movie. And he got to hang out in and ask us and talk about movies for decades after. And sure. Yes, his career also collapsed because people found it

incredibly, incredibly smartly. Yeah, perhaps his relationship with the actors was an ancient part of the process of the bug, Danovich machine. Yeah. But I also, here's, but I also have a sinister conspiratorial way of thinking. And you know what? Since this is a movie about a kind of sinister conspiracy spoiler alert, even though it's

the most obvious thing in the world from the moment the title you hear it, is that I think this is a movie that does not have a lot of obvious selling points for today's theater going audience. And I wouldn't be surprised if the PR people for the film had a hand in getting a lot of that going to create scandal that would then promote the movie. It's because it to scale. Yes, it's such because otherwise it is such a relatively small scale, not big release movie. And the people involved in it aside from Harry Styles, they're stars, but they're not the biggest stars in the world.

And suddenly this was the biggest story. Well, that is what I would say. If I was going to go to a conspiracy, it's not really much of a conspiracy. It's just pointing to Harry Styles fans. And I think that that was a huge driver of the controversy. And I think you're right. I need to say this.

I should probably get this out of the way up front is that I am a known Harry Styles disliker. I don't really need to go into it. I also don't need to convince other people why I don't like somebody. Yeah, I just don't care for them. It's like if they had cast. Now, I'm hoping it didn't bias me against the movie. It's, you know, it would be like if they cast a Drake in a movie. And I don't like that guy either. Um, but, well, you know, we, I just want to drink. I was trying to teach me about a side of my career. There's like cartoon going on. I guess what, what Stuart is saying is he wishes that Mr. Henderson had never taken Harry from

the forest, shaved him and taught him how to sing. Just leave him in the forest as a little bigfoot and don't this Harry, he would be better off that way. Or put a mask on him and let him run wild in New York City. Mm-hmm. That is a different Harry, a maniac Harry that will hear about perhaps later in the episode during the promo, so maniac New York will come back number one in the comic stores now.

I will say when it comes to the promotion of this film, though, it's possible that you're right because, although this is appearing on the flop house and there was a lot of negative talk about it, this movie was not a flop, this movie made like 80 some million dollars on like a 30 million dollar budget. So, what do you call that Bafo Bio or Bafo Bio? But it's like one step below Bafo, whatever there's.

I call that depending on the marketing costs, I would call that depending on the marketing cost, comfortable Bio. It's not going to, it's not going to push you out of the room. That's Bafo Bio. That kind of Bio will make you leave the room when it's Bofo Pio. Yeah. Yeah. That kind of B.O. will make you leave the room when it's Bofo. But this is just like, I can handle it. Yeah.

You know, maybe I'll, if this happens a few more days in a row, I'll ask my co-workers to start putting on Deodorant. That's the level B.O. Yeah. Okay. Well, we've talked a lot Stewart. Why don't you get into the movie? Okay.

Let's just get into this piece. You're like, well, we've talked a lot. Let's talk some more. Let's talk about something else. The movie. Okay. The movie opens with an old timey song. It opens with the right time. Now Stuart, should we, should we get used to that?

How old timey we are. We're talking because this is not like, you know, you should not like a 50 song writing any far things around or it's not Daisy, Daisy. Yeah, it's not green sleeves. But this, I at one point I was like, I'm glad I'm not doing the summary today because then I would feel the need to count how many 50s and 60s needle drops

are happening in the first four minutes of this movie. What was this? Because it's like every shot has a new, has a new old song. What's the name of the song that they keep playing in sleepwalkers? Yes, sleepwalker by Santos and John. Yeah, no shit. And then it shows up in this movie too.

Yeah, no shit as soon as it shows up, I'm like, a douh. And it's also that the music they play, it's not always, but it's sometimes a little on the nose. Like it's like, oh, the men are coming home from work. I guess we'll play coming home baby with meld to amazing. That's the thing. I, you know, people, I think there's a lot of anger, sort of general, like anger on the internet towards,

uh, quote, needle drops. And I don't have a problem with it. Like one of the best things movies can do is put music and images together. But yeah, without it, like juice box musicals couldn't exist. Often the problem is that they are uncreative needle drops. Here, there's a mixture of some good ones, someone's the, it's like, yeah,

you could have thought a little more about that. Well, at a certain point, when it's in like suicide squad, it just becomes audio wallpaper at a certain point. Yeah. But I will say this movie, I really like the score. Like I really liked the original score for it. And so there were times when a needle drop would happen, I'd be like, I'm enjoying the music that was created explicitly for this movie.

Like I want to hear more of that. I don't necessarily want to hear just the movie that the songs that were on the Spotify playlist that Olivia Wild sent to the actors to get them into the mood for the film. Although, earlier this same day, I'd watch the movie Pearl that came out this year, and that score is incredible. So I was in recommendation is the movie is scored. The music is Pearl, the original motion picture soundtrack. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So a wrist a record.

So this is going to, this is going to kind of get into some setup. But so we open in like a fun couples dinner party where everybody's drinking gibson martinis I clocked those onions. And it's in like a 50s mid century modern style house in what is very clearly Palm Springs. All the men are employees of a thing called the Victory Project, which is this mysterious, maybe defense contractor, and all the wives or homemakers. They all live in this like 50s suburban fantasy where all the men go to work every day. It's like madman fantasy.

Yeah. And when they think these Gibson's, there's like a row of like 12 of them. I mean, oh my God. I, this is when I turned to Audrey and I said, you know, I've never had a Gibson and she gave me a, huh, in a way that said either I'm not interested in that or I don't know what a Gibson is, but I don't want you to tell me what it is. Or I mean, I'm going to say, huh, because that totally seems like something you would do.

I don't think, I mean, do you have a bunch of cocktail longings in the hinterlands? I can have it at some point or I don't think that it's common. No, I mean, we don't have them at any of my bars because, as you said, it's not common. Although it is a cute little onion. Yeah, it's just too bad. Look at that tiny egg. It could have been common, but as we know, common's cocktail onions, the only cocktail onion company

started by Common, the rapper, was a huge failure. I don't know why. The business plan was really strong. That's why I invested in it. And I'm still digging myself out. Common, uh, comment, but if you want cocktail onions, Dan, I've now got crates of them in my garage just moldering away.

So I mean, you should probably should refer to them, but you, uh, you're in, you're in some place cold, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, I mean Los Angeles, California, Oh, no, right now. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Uh, and like every day the men get their cars, uh, they don't carpool, which is insane. They should carpool. They're all going to the same place. Because this is the house of the exact same time. Exactly. Fucking wrinkle in time. No, no, no, no. These are all alpha males.

They got a drive. They cannot, the passenger seat is the seat for ladies. And I know only know that because the listeners can't see my backdrop, but I'm at the victory project right now. Stan, you can see by the beautiful mid-century modern pool. I can see those California hills in the distance. Okay. And they all get their cars and drive to a giant dome base in the desert, not even on a road.

It's pretty crazy. I mean, well, that's the other thing is they're driving those cars. There's no way those cars are doing a good job driving in the desert. They're old big gas guzzling kind of like hard to steer cars, but it looks, but it looks pretty cool. And there's a lot of, look, there's a lot of cool looking shots in this. Yes. Because when you combine like, you might magic hour lighting with mid-century modern design and neat kind of symmetrical compositions, it's gonna look beautiful. So it's like you're looking stuff on the screen.

I'm coupled with attractive people in like, you know, beautiful costume. Before this movie came out, I was very excited for it because, as you say, it looks beautiful and the trailer reflected that, it has a lot of like striking imagery and Olivia Wilde,

part of the reason why like was rooting for her and kind of annoyed it. Like I love BookSmart so much. I'm like, yeah, BookSmart is really good. This is gonna be fun. And I mean, you know, as we'll talk about the cast, it's got Florence Pugh who can do basically anything. She is all charisma.

And Chris Pine, who is, I'm gonna go on record, my favorite Chris. Mm-hmm. Yeah, one great Chris. I have some Chris's in my personal life that I like a little bit more, but that's okay. But also and look, any movie that's going to take Cape Verlant and stick around a supporting role and not have her and not at any way address that she's got a very strange effect that comes out whenever she talks.

Yeah. Like, I'm okay with that. That sounds good. So Cape Verlant, you're in your supporting cast. Why not? And like Nick Krolls in it, Olivia Wild plays one of the characters, one of the other housewives. Okay. I think with one large exception, a cast of solid actors.

Okay. And I think we'll be getting to, I guess, the flaws in this movie, the major ones, which are one of those casting exceptions. And also the fact that all of this has been assembled for perhaps the least original story in the history of modern-sounding- Certainly, one of them sure. Yeah, okay. And so the women stay home and they do housework and they all go shopping and then they also

take dance class. But the first night, Alice and Jack, drunk as shit on Gibson Martinez, go doing, they go and drive and do donuts and the desert. It's great. They're so in love. That's what people do and they're in love. They do donuts and they ruin dinners by having sex on the table and pushing all the food all the time.

Yeah, of course. And maybe this is a sign of where my mind is that instead of being caught up in the passion of the moment, I was like, you're wasting food. There are people who would love that. And like, what are you going to eat when you're done? You still have to have dinner. Yeah, I understand. You have to have the sex first because after you eat, of course, there's going to be

stuff in your stomach, you're like, I don't feel like it, but that's definitely like the food off. That was like definitely a rookie move in my 20s when I'm like, no, no, no, on a date, we'll go out to dinner first and then we'll have sex and you're like, you're all fucking full. What are you doing, idiot? Nowadays, why do I have all that soup? Yeah.

Why do we go to Borscht Mountain, The only, the only restaurant that serves so much Borscht, you have to get a new bell. Right. And here's the thing, they don't have to have sex on the table. It's mid-century modern furniture. It's all flat. The couches are flat. The coffee tables flat. The floor is flat. Like just have sex on that stuff. Like floor. Flat floor. They just have seen everything. 30s and 40s floor. Pre-war, they were all bumpy. They weren't a bumpy floor. That stuff. What? What? What? What?

I've seen everything. 30s and 40s floor, pre-war, they were all bumpy. They weren't a bumpy floor, it's back then. Yeah. So, in the morning, they're prepping to go to an important dinner at dinner party at Frank's house. Frank seems to be the boss, the leader. Everyone speaks about him in reverence.

The only thing that plays on the radio other than old time hits is Frank giving essentially speeches and sermons, right? Motivational speeches and their conversations interrupted by an earthquake. These happen multiple times in the movie and the belief is that they're caused by the victory project that they're something they're doing. Yeah. They at later that afternoon at dance class because all the wives also, not all the wives because there's a bunch of them. They go to a dance class that is run by Gemma Chan playing the white who's playing Frank's wife. And it's like a ballet class and they're introduced to a new wife, a new couple is moved into the area, gotten hired. And she shows up, everybody else is dressing black, she shows up wearing pink. So that kind of shows that she's not kind of into it yet. It's

going to take a little while for her to become acclimatized. I'm pink too much. Yep. Now it's what it feels like this one to me. I was pink is pink is incredible. Have you ever seen or do aerial work while singing? Dana. I do like. I mean, look, I'll tell you this, this argument longevity. Pink when she first appeared seemed like a flash in the pan yet still going strong. She's had what a 20, 25 year 45 year career, 75 year career.

She's been around since when 1933. If you if you were yeah, man discovered fire and then fire big at pig if you are going to film in Louise your life number one in that song mix is going to be a bunch of pink songs. I got a gear to that shit. Yeah, it's gonna it's it's you're gonna hear it and and you know what you're gonna not have that feeling you had when the song's first arrived when you're like, ugh, I'm tired of the song. You're gonna have that warm feeling when nostalgia that comes with hearing an old song you used to hate, which you remember from when you're young, where you're like, oh yeah, this song.

I guess I will dance to this at my child's wedding, and they'll roll their eyes at me. When my grandson gets married and they play uptown funk, I won't be like, ugh, ugh, ugh, instead I'll be like, yeah, I will dance to this. This makes me feel less like I'm a decrepit old mummy. Yeah, of course. Yep. So Alice, Alice is Florence B's character. She starts to notice things, being a little bit off, Alice. I don't know if you know this. There is this famous Alice that went to Wonderland. Oh, weird. I'm just figuring this out. It's kind of strange. Maybe if someone went to, we're to go ask that.

Oh, we'll figure this out later on. And a character named Bunny, hold on a second. It's too big a coincidence. Oh, weird. And Johnny Tepp does do a break dance at the end as the man had her. Oh, weird. And she didn't realize the bunny connection. That is a little more overt than I. Johnny Tepp does do a break dance at the end as the man had her. Oh, weird. I actually didn't realize the bunny connection that is.

That's a little more overt than I. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a reference to the hit movie The Brown Bunny. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Alice starts to notice things are a little bit off their neighbor. Now Alice is not the new white.

No, Alice is Florence Fuse character. She's the one. It's one of those, it makes me wonder why the new wife is included in new white. No, Alice is Florence fuse character. She's one of those. It makes me wonder why the new wife is included in the story, because usually when a movie, a story like this, in which there are many, like a steppered wives or something, it's the new person comes into this town and recognizes that it's weird. And instead, they have a person who already lives there and a new person comes in and the new person doesn't really have anything to do with much of anything. And do they have a person who's already sort of gone through the, you know, like the realization that will come up later, which I think, I mean, that's,

makes a little more sense, but as we're watching it, I think Audrey made a good point that we don't see like their friendship in any meaningful way. No. Before hands, like it would, it would, it would maybe make a little more impact if the person who's like cracking up who we're gonna get to. Like we see her, like Florence trying to help her early in the movie and

then being like pressured to conform or rather than. Yeah, or we've already been shunned at this point. We see the difference. We see a moment where, and the character we're talking about is named Margaret.

She, as, she was one's part of the group, but has since been kind of pushed to the outskirts. She at one point we will learn later. She claims she saw something out in the desert where they're not supposed to go and she took her young son out there and when she came back her son was missing and she claimed that the men of the victory project took this on. Okay, Alice also starts to notice some other weird things like the eggs and the carton of eggs are all shells. There's nothing inside them and doing that makes her burn the dinner. Now, that was a moment that I really like that moment because it's so weird and it is so, and I was hoping for more moments like that. And there is neither an explanation

for it, which is fine. Nor is there another moment that I felt like got it. I guess it's such a no. There's one more that I like. There's like two more that I really liked later on. Yeah. Okay. Look at it. But it's such an on the nose metaphor for like it's on the outside. It looks perfect. But on the inside, it's hollow. And I kind of wanted more weirdness from the movie. And you sometimes get weirdness. And I do in the moment it was a really fun weird thing and also the way they cut it because it just looks like she's cracking open a thousand days over a period of hours. It's like is that she's just like me for real.

I do. I eat so many eggs. I eat so many eggs. And right before sex that's the mistake. I should. I should when Paul Han Luke had to have sex after he ate all those eggs. Yeah. It was so he's like, they're all looking at that girl washing her car.

He's like, oh, what happened? Many eggs. I agree, though. They should call me bloated hand, Luke. Yeah. Oh, the eggs all went to his hand. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, like in that food fighter's video, the guy's hand gets hit or everything everywhere all at once. Yeah, fair, fair. I just want to say I agree that I think that it would have been helpful to have almost a little more weirdness because I do think that part of the problem that people had with this movie, which is not a problem that I had, I had other problems, but part of the problem that people had with this movie was trying to square the logic of everything. And I didn't really care because I was like,

this movie is so based on its themes and like the metaphor it's doing that I don't need it all to make logical sense. And if the film may be pointed, tips the point of the boat, like the steer, just steer that direction, it would be clearer to the audience. Like we don't need to take all of this.

So goddamn seriously. Cause like a lot of people, I think we had problems with it. They're like, well logically, what is this? What is this? What is this? Well, I think the problem is that they do explain what it is later on. And it would be a stronger movie without that explanation. It would be, it's the difference between something being like

Franz Kafka style, where you don't reveal that Gregor Samson was part of a biological experiment to create, you know, the next step in evolution. And the difference between something that really works on an allegorical level and something that just feels kind of like at the same kind of science fictiony story, we've seen. They reveal the twist. They don't explain like specifically why there's no egg in that egg. You can extrapolate why, but you can extrapolate. But I mean, I rather they didn't, I'd rather that there was no twist. I'd rather it was just the same way that like I'm glad that the lighthouse doesn't turn out to be like, these two men were floating in space the whole time and they hallucinate

it. First thing I thought I was talking about to the lighthouse and I'm like, wait a minute. There was a twisted life. Yeah. So when it turns out in the twist into the lighthouse, that when it turns out that humans are just a speck of time in a vast universe that isn't necessarily paying attention to what- Man, there's nothing like the Virginia Woolfix

like cinematic universe. I love the way it all ties together when Mrs. Dalloway shows up surfing on the waves. Yeah. She's like, on your left cap. Well, yeah, when she shows up, the end to go, is have you heard of the hours initiative? Okay. So distracted by these eggs, of course, this whole egg situation, she burns the dinner and when Jack comes home, he doesn't give it. Wait, hold on. Wait, I hate to go back, but Orlando also would totally work in a super

great understanding as the character did in as they did in League of Extraordinary Gentleman's only in League of Extraordinary Gentleman's the character stuck in about. In that one, in League of Extraordinary Gentleman, the story just eventually became about how they all have sex each other, which was. I do love the idea of, I have a movie version would probably go. Some kids moms like, you just love those extraordinary two of them. I was like, Ellie, it's part of that like key and peel

lean reason. Yeah, I guess that's true. It is. Okay. So, come on, I've been working toward this the whole for a while, guys. So Jack comes home, but he doesn't care about that dinner.

He only has one meal on his mind, and it's between his wife's legs. Okay. So he wrote that ahead of time. No, no, I'm so good at improv, guys. I want to say, like, one of the things that Olivia Wilde got sort of like dinged for and the press was like, she talked about like, oh, I wanted to really like center female pleasure in this movie, like, which is why, movie, which is why he's going down on her in the scene, which is wild, no pun intended. Considering what we later find out that this is essentially rape under because he's imprisoned

her. Spoilow it. We'll get to it. Spoilow it. Yeah. When he's signing up for the project, he's like, I want to be British and I want to be super good at eating pussy So to say that that's sintering female. Well, he's rolling. He's rolling Yeah, it's that's it is modifiers and he's like specialty

Connolly yeah, plus two to that dancing not time period appropriately Yeah, plus two to that. Dancing not time period appropriately. No. To say that that centering female pleasure is an odd thing to say. I understand from a standpoint of like, maybe she didn't want to like reveal the twist, but I do think that you can make an argument

that there's kind of an insidiousness to the fact that this is part of like this world that has been created where all of these women want for nothing and the fact that this is the sex scene that we see, it's a more insidious form of control that like, we're going to make you happy in every way, but except for giving you your freedom. But I just wanted to say that was an odd controversy that was in floating around. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't even aware of that good controversy, to be honest, although I

did shut myself off from Don't Read Darling a day's course. Sure, I canceled the Google, and I had set up for Don't Read Darling. No, I imagine you on Twitter being like, which one of these, I can't censor Don't that would let me make too many and I can't worry. I probably darling, I darling. I feel like darling and I could be wrong, but I feel like if you're going to if you're going to do this scene, I feel like and you want to I don't know center it on any kind of female on like pleasure. You might want to include a scene of that like a little bit of aftercare of them like cuddling

and maybe like eating the food off of broken plates or something and laughing. I don't know how gross that is for you, but she does clean it all the time. Okay. I mean, they probably have other plates. They don't have to eat them off of the plates. Yeah, but that's like it's time and with the actually, well, the problem is the domestic set of plates, but everyone in victory keeps kosher. So they actually, they can't use the other plates. That's their, those are dairy plates, not their meat plates.

So they go to a dinner party at Frank's home. It looks kind of like a beach club. The party is briefly disrupted by Margaret the neighbor who makes some accusations against the Victory Project and specifically Frank. Frank is played by Chris Pine who is serving up some serious like scenery chewing cult leader energy, right? Yeah. I mean, he's a skillful cult leader

because when Margaret makes a scene there and she says, this isn't right, he doesn't just try and paper over it. He's like, oh, it's sad they've been having troubles, but she's right, it isn't right to be here in the desert where we're carving a new path forward and like he used that as an opportunity to. I'd say he's a pretty good manipulator. He's not that great a cult leader though, because and this is again, this is not his, Chris Pine's fault. This is the fault of the writing

that everything he says is so incredibly vague and so without meaning. It's just a lot of stuff about this is our world and there's a right order and we're going to create control. And it never quite gets to the level of actually being a comment on anything other than the most vaguest idea of like unequal power, you know. And I was waiting for him to, and it's one of those things where I guess after you learn the twist, you're like, oh, that's why these guys are buying into this because they're monsters.

But the, but you're kind of, you're kind of waiting the whole time for why everyone thinks this is an important thing or a good thing or what they're doing or, you know, I was in the fact that they all live in beautiful houses in the desert and their wives take care of them all the time and the wives get to go to a pool club where one woman is topless, but everyone else wears antique bathing suits. But that's that wasn't the pool club, right? That was Frank's house. Was that what I thought that was when it was when it shrank, that's when it was just when it's what was all women. Oh, no, I mean, I thought like, well, because the wives are talking on one side of the

mayor, talking on another side, because it's like a working, I thought that was the case. Well, maybe it was Frank's house. It just, I just found it very strange that the movie kind of deploys the back of a Tupless woman. And one of the women is like, there's just so much skin around here. And it's like, well, but there is. And everyone else is wearing like 50s and 60s bathing suits. Which are enormous. Which are huge.

They're, they're, they're one step away from astronaut costumes. Come on. Yeah, diving bells. So, so they're all wearing pantomime horse uniforms costumes. It takes two in their bodies. They're completely fit. After, after this very vague motivational speech from Frank, Jack and Alice go into his home and they start to have sex, which at this point, I'm like, oh, wow, two sex scenes.

Is this going to be an erotic thriller? And then Frank shows up and like watches for a while and Alice sees him watching them. And I'm like, oh, this is going to be a Zalman King style movie. It is not. And then he wonders off not really mentioned it's mentioned later, but it's not a big deal. There's also, there's a lot of people wandering into spaces or having to travel distances or sharing the same local space. And then when the twist comes, you're like, Oh, well, this, there's no physical reality. So they could be anyway. It doesn't. There's no, the idea that like, the kind of, we have to go into this room where they can't see us. And then Frank shows up. It's like, well, maybe Frank just blipped in.

Like, maybe he could be in five different places at once. And it's, it's anyway, it's also a little weird knowing what the whole thing is about, about like controlling and yada yada. You would think that like Frank wouldn't be fucking with that. Yeah. It's, it's that he, you would think he would, I guess unless it's just the scorpion's got to sting the frog. Manipulator's got, manipulator's got, manipulator.

But there's a part later on where Frank is like, that wasn't what you said when you were in my, remember when you were in my bedroom and everyone is like, oh, and the implications that I guess she slept with Frank and she never says, you mean when I was having sex with my husband in your bedroom, you walked in like a creep, like, which would be the best rejoinger to that comment? Yeah. Because then the husband could be like, oh, yeah, I remember that. I have a human memory.

I remember that when things that happened, but anyway, all the, all the, all the, all the strangeness piling up, Alice decides to go on a trolley or a tram ride that goes around the victory project. Um, and while she's riding the tram, she notice a small crashing plane, uh, the driver doesn't want to help or get involved. So she decides to hop off the tram and wander off into the desert alone, which is just not done. It's now. It's such a, well, but also it's not the right way to solve that problem. Like you go to the phone and you call the police or the fire department and you say, I just, what, how is she gonna, she gonna triangulate the position of the plane over the mountains

and then pull the guy from the wreck and then give him first aid with no, with just her bare hands. And I'll, and here's my other thing. When we learn the twist, and this is a day and this will get on your nerves. I mean, we're spending a lot of time talking about things that don't make sense because of the twist. Should we just talk about the twist?

Well, we can, but I want to agree with you. I was about to say the same thing. For the most part, I'm fine just accepting everything as a combination of, yeah, it's not meant like this is like so clearly a metaphorical film. And I'm going to suspend my disbelief because I'm watching a movie and like I want to enjoy myself rather than like actively pick it apart. But this plane, the context of the twist, which this is a serenity situation, they're all in a simulation. I don't.

Is a serenity that Dan, that was such a perfect wrap. Yeah. And I loved it. This is a serenity situation. They're all in a situation. Yeah. The most popular form of everybody's trapped in a simulation. Okay. It's a matrix.

It's a true. It's a true. It's a, yeah, it's all sort of. I'm not sure what this plane represents. The crash is that sets her off. Yes. What's the plane? Do that is a plane flying over her house is her husband at home running like playing with his toy plane. It is a rare. Yeah, over. I mean, comato semi comato later on Chris Pine like there's a scene where he just straight up basically, you like admits everything.

I'm not the specifics, but it's like, I've been waiting for someone who to challenge me. Like I don't know, maybe he's deliberately trying to like provoke questions in her mind so he can trouble, yeah, troubleshoot troubleshoot. That's interesting. That's like the theory about Trump that he was deliberately screwing himself up because he knew deep down he didn't deserve these things. So he's trying to, you know, but the, but I, there's, it's another one of those things where like, if you don't have the twist that this is all a simulation, then I'm willing to buy

it. Because then it becomes, you know what, outside of victory, it is a chaotic world. And there are planes that crash behind the mountains. And it becomes about the trade-off between freedom and safety, which is a real choice that societies have to make. But instead, because the twist you're left afterwards being like, wait, so was that the guy who tries to tell Truman that he's on a show and kind of parachutes in?

Like, is that someone deliberately trying to screw things up or is that a glitch or it gets, it gets, as soon as you explain the whole thing, I feel like everything else gets taken out of the world of metaphor and into the world of, was that represent which hurts it, ultimately. Okay, so she wanders through the desert alone. She makes her way up a, not even on a horse with no name, No horse. The horse doesn't have a name because there's no horse there. I mean, if it had a name, it would be wild foolish to name a horse that didn't exist. It'd be crazy. A novel about a horse. Yeah, what do you think?

A big bird. Okay. So she climbs up a mountain road and finds it's like weird domed observatory. She walks up and touches the glass windows and experiences this vision featuring like muffled narration and dancing showgirls and flashing lights and stuff. And then she wakes up back at home, inner bed. Jack is there. Seemingly on concern, he's making dinner poorly, might I add. And he does a very, she's confused, but he does a pretty good job

of gaslighting her, right? Yeah, at least a B plus in gaslighting. I mean, you know, I, I got to admit, you know, if I was, if I saw a plane crash, walked out to the desert, found a buzzing, weird station, and then woke up in my own bed, and my spouse told me, oh, it was just a dream. I'd be like, yeah, that makes sense. That's more likely that I actually found a weird buzzing station out of the desert. So that was beaming Busby Berkeley dance numbers into my brain. Yeah.

So she keeps having issues. She has a vision of being like trapped in her house where she's sandwiched between a wall and the window, which is kind of cool. It's kind of a need. That was great. That was a great one. And that's such a, that's one of those things where it's likeed between a wall and the window, which is kind of cool. It's kind of a need. That was great. That was a great one. And that's one of those things where it's like, that's not that we need necessarily more media about the crushing life of housewives in the 1950s and 60s, it's because there's

a lot of that. But that is such a great visual metaphor for that feeling of oppression and suffocation that it kind of takes the place of the whole movie. Like it in a way that the movie is adding nothing more than that moment, you know, than what that moment says. And, and she's at like dance class and instead of her own reflection, she sees her neighbor Margaret reflected in the glass, but wait, nobody else is seeing this or these all hallucinations. She runs home just in time to see Margaret standing on the roof of her house and Margaret sees her, then slits her own throat and falls off the roof.

But before Alice can go to helper, men and red jumpsuits jump in from the sides of the frame and drag her away. And these men and red jumpsuits are also are pretty, are pretty ridiculous elements. I understand. Once you know what's going on in it. I understand that maybe after everything Margaret's gone through, she feels like she needs a redundancy, but at the time, you're like, why, if you're up on the roof, why aren't you splitting your throat that high? You're doing, you're doing to make sure. We'll then cut your throat on the, on the ground. You get a, no one would see her. You need redundancies in the system, Dan. That's that success is built on redundancies. And I just

want to mention also Stewart, thank you for adding to Dan's rap this is a sort of simulation so any situation there all the simulation is it a hallucination yeah so I'm a problem in our nation we're writing in credits music right now yeah that's when when LL cool J does his rap about the plot of the movie. And what is his hat like in the scenario? Well, that's the thing. Is it a mid century modern hat? I can only assume, yeah. And he's and D to Vantees in the video.

It's incredible. Of course, yeah, it's like he's in the scenes from the movie. So he's dancing with D to Vantees and he's with them at the dinner parties. Yeah, yeah, sure. And this, she looks, she looks at the mirror and instead of seeing Margaret, she sees all a cool J. Rap and Adler. And she's like, what is this? These videos are great, right? So like Jack continues to, and then Freddie wakes up and goes, who were those guys? So she continues to have visions.

Jack continues to gaslight her and like brush her fears away. And she just, you know, she continues to not fit in. She one morning, she's saran wrapping her leftovers, then she saran wraps her own face. And I thought this was kind of a cool thing as well because it's like it comes out of nowhere. This leads her to getting a visit from the company doctor, like Jonah from Veepe, Jonah. Yep. Tim Simons, also the raccoon from Housework Day. Oh, great.

On Hulu right now coming back to Fox, this leader this year at some point. Yeah, I love to see him in things. Again, a lot of great actors in. Yeah, maybe needed a better script. But this is a doctor who carries around a brief case filled with classified documents. That was again, that was all ridiculous. This is a simulation. Why is he carrying this document that basically says like the Margaret problem or whatever? Well, especially because when she opens it up, it's all deducted anyway. This document that basically says like the Margaret problem or whatever. That's what it says.

Well, especially because when she opens it up, it's all deducted anyway. So it's doubly stupid for to carry this around. So yeah, I mean, he and this interaction is just like classic 50s, uh, Dr. Bullshit, where it's like, oh, you're probably hysterical. Your husband should give you these pills, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, smoke two cigarettes, etc. Yeah. Smoke two cigarettes, calmly. Yeah.

But then when he leaves, he forgets his briefcase with the glass of eye documents, which is again, hilarious. I mean, again, maybe it's Chris Pine testing, but at this point, like, why is he, like, have to test this hard? Well, if he's testing this much, why do it in the first place? Like, things are going great. But I really want to, is an arch foe. I mean, I guess it's like the theories that Sherlock Holmes created Moriarty, you know,

because he needed somebody to match with or whatever. And in the process, the doctor also makes them like vague threats about what will happen if she continues believing in her visions, that it could lead to Jack losing his job and they'll get kicked off the project, which Kate Berlant, Berlant's character earlier was like, if my husband loses his job, I'd kill myself. And I'm like, whoa, this is, this is too much guys. But coming out of Kate Berlant, I'm like, do you really mean it or is that it's called on a second?

It's so hard to tell with her. That's her whole, her whole stack. So she, Alice has stolen Margaret's file out of the briefcase. She reads it. It's all redacted. So she just burns it. She takes a bath. And then I think this might be the bath where she's like looking at herself in the mirror. And then she slips into the water, but her reflection does not. And I'm like, ah, this is not a bad bit. But I feel like, what's the last night in Soho did something like this better. Well, I think there's, there's a, there's a lot of bits in this movie that are not done

badly, but have been done better. Yeah. In other places. It's a movie that feels cobbled together from bits and bobs from other similar, like her going into the water also felt very get out when he when he's sent into the sunken place. And it's like there's a lot of the movie wears its influences so incredibly heavily on itself without really adding to this.

I mean, this, you know, this movie wants to be feminist get out, which is a fine, and don't take that a context. Dan is not saying feminist get out, which is a fine, uh, and don't take that a context. Dan is not saying feminist get out. Yeah. No, get in. Get in. Uh, get in. We're going to, we're going to see. Make it their release. No. Um, but, but as you say, the problem is more that like, it is a thing that has been done. I mean, like, steppered wives, like, like, there's, there's been similar things that this does not add a lot to is the major. Yes, even the fact that it's in that kind of mid-century modern setting. And it's like, the movie I think thinks it is fooling us into believing it's taking place during that time,

or at least confusing us. Yes. And I'm like, what's, but for moment one, you kind of know it's not really taking place in the 50s or 60s. and I almost wish that everyone was dressed up in like Elizabethan costume or something like that. I actually, I'm like something that moved out of the audience. I actually wanted to address this because like, it's not like a major problem I have with the movie by any means, but I do feel like the fact that it is set in this time period is like basically only thematic. Like the only reason for it is thematic. Like these men want to go back to this time. Like so we are going to literally set it in this time,

which is fine, but then what you realize it and you start thinking about it, you're like, I mean, at least I was, like this could be it anytime, it could be a mix up of times. Like you're telling me that not one of these guys wants to have a big flat screen TV inside his, like mid-century modern simulation. Like, that these young men who want to escape the world

don't like video games, that they don't want to play video games, like. Right. So they don't want to like Westworld the fuck up and have like a cowboy dude, or there's one dude who's like a really sick Samu Ra and also I mean and also it introduces like this someone's like a ninja detective yeah sure man that sounds like Gambit's our genemy and and because all of the women who in this world have been you

know hypnotized brainwashed etc like again not a big problem I have because I can take it metaphorically, but my brain does start working on the problem. And I'm like, well, why would you do something that's so far from their existing circumstances? Like, that seems like a harder brain-rusting job than just being like, oh, maybe this girl didn't dump you, and you still live in the same world, you know? Well, yeah, I'm married to the same person, but now there's nothing she wants more than to hear me teach her about steely dance. Exactly.

Like that, like that would be the thing they really want to see. Oh, man. Oh, man. Like, put on my turntable the other day and Audrey came out and was like, what is this? And not what is this in the way you want when you get to teach her about it? What is this in the way you take this shit off of me? Why would anyone ever? I'm like, I understand. I don't quite understand. It's just a thing that happened to me when I turned 40. Suddenly I get it. Suddenly I understand.

Really what these guys want is the fit. It's this, and I guess it's taking that place a little bit because the women cook for them and clean for them and have sex with them. But it's like that if the analysis of porn hub search engines have taught us anything, it's that most men seem to desire a woman figure who cooks and takes care of them, who is also a daughter they can have sex with and teach. And it's not, I feel like that is the fantasy, not that I want to see necessarily, but that would be kind of digging a little harder and a little deeper and saying a little bit

more than just kind of throwing up this admittedly beautiful 50, 60s design. And just kind of using that to set up a more cliched idea of like, well, this is when men were in charge and blah, blah, blah. You know, like if they could get a little bit more, for a movie that is trying to be intensely kind of psychological, if they could get a little bit deeper and kind of harsher with it. Well, yeah, if the cracks in the simulation started to appear because it was trying to satisfy that like complicated desire that these men have, that is not super linear and easily translate,

but it is like a mishmash of things and for the woman it might not make sense. Yeah. Yes. And so that the really the only desire that the desire these guys have is entirely built around selfishness and about having all of their needs met all the time in a way that is both denigrates and also oppresses and exploits the women in their lives. And the movie just doesn't quite get there. I guess what I'm saying is that the other night I started watching crimes in the future

and I want a little bit more Kronenberg in this movie because I feel like he gets things in a way that I want this movie to get things. It's also funny in this movie. Yes, that's true. It's very, very, very funny comedians in it. It's also funny. Yes, that's true. It's very multiple, very funny comedians. And this was Kate Relay and Nick Krohl and Tim Simons. These are all really funny performers. Yeah. Okay. Olivia Wilde can be a really funny performer. Yeah. She made a funny comedy. She's not known as a comedy person, but is hilarious whenever she plays a black widow

in Hawkeye or like, yeah, it's anyway. She could, she could be a black widow or a Hawkeye. Or like, yeah, it's, anyway. She could be a Black Widow or a Hawkeye, but she's kind of a mix between the two. Okay. Kind of a Black Hawk, but that's a DC character. Yeah, you can't do that. No. For some reason, DC is protective of their IP, as we'll get into later in this episode. So, they go to a dance party in like a big dance club. This is a great big set piece. Everybody's in suits in Tuxedo.

Everybody's dancing to sing, sing, sing with a swing because it's like, yeah, throw some 40 swing music in here. Why not? Okay. Yep. And that's all moldy for them. And as a little, I mean, that's like, even for the characters, supposedly in the movie, this is an oldie. But I guess again, it's like them dancing to, you know, what was the hit when we were kids? They're dancing to like, I mean, dancing like, like in cocktail, they're all dancing on like Louis, Louis and I mean, people are waiting, you know, are still dancing to Jackson five tunes. It's not like that's true. That's true. Like the electric. So there's a little treat for Frank. They bring out a burlesque performer, Deed of Antes,

whose character is also named D. Davantees mentioned her earlier, not just because she's constantly on his mind. Uh, huh. Yeah. And, and the conversation we're having before the episode was, should I feel ashamed that I immediately recognize D. Davante? I said no. And she said, no, she's not even on screen that long.

But I guess she's super fat. She's the only famous bird 50 style burlesque dancer who does a stripper teen involving a giant champagne glass that I know. So where is it at? Martini glass? What kind of glass is that? Stewart Europe. Yeah, it's like a coupe.

That makes a coupe. Yeah, it's I don't even know what that is. It's like a little like a little parabolo rather than the Dan who's boo because that's supposed to be in the shape of? Oh, I don't know. I feel like it's it was supposed to be in like the shape of like marine, that's like something urban legend that I've heard, but I don't remember what the.

Yeah, on the street, I've never heard this legend. Now, Ellie, you should know this. You should do know a Nick and Nora glass. That seems like something you should know because of your love of the thin man. It is, but I don't know glass. Now a Nick and Nora glass is like, is kinda like a dog in it. It's like even more sort of like,

it doesn't go as wide. It's also large enough for you to have enough drink to last for the entire infinite playlist. Yeah. Yeah. So. Wow. Yeah. So, I want to see Nick and Nora's infinite playlist, yeah, sure. Yeah. So Alice is not enjoying this party. She's trying to get out of there. In the bathroom, she confesses to Bunny, the Olivia Wilds character,

who doesn't believe her. She's like, I don't believe you. You can't Yada yada. I don't follow this yada yada. And Frank also during this time, you're not going to make me make me a believer. It's not going to happen. And Alice is by saw her face. I will not be a believer. Alice is trying to pull away. Alice is trying to get out of this. But then as she's doing that, Frank offers in front of everyone offers jacket promotion, which involves giving him a ring and Harry styles like, look, I missed all my rings. Uh, so he puts the ring on and that gives him the magic powers of doing a dumb fucking dance. I'll be in your movie, Olivia.

But I've got to have a ring on my finger in one of the scenes. I'm done. He dances. He dances forever. I did. To me, this is the best part of Harry Styles being in this movie, is seeing him do this weird ass dance where like, it's clear that he knows how to dance.

He is doing like, you know, tap moves. But, yeah, if you look at his feet, you can, like, but he has been directed to dance around like a Harkie Jerky marry in that man because he is literally being, the strings are being pulled by Jack, which is, it's one of those things where Chris Pine keeps going, watch him dance, watch him dance.

Keep dancing, watch it. And I wanted to see shots that people, the audience getting increasingly like, like, we're in it out and uncomfortable. But everyone just seems to love it. They just love Chris Pine shouting, look at him dance, look at him spin. And the dance never builds, it never changes.

It's just the same moves over and over again. But anyway, but it is meant to be unnerving. I assume, right? So shortly after, you know, a day or so later, Jack and Alice are hosting a dinner party at their home. And Frank is going to attend and all the other guys who work there are super jealous. Frank shows up. There's like a good bit.

Where even though there's like, there's aside from when they're crowd scenes, there seems to be like seven guys in all of victory. But they're all like, I hope Frank notices me. And so they're already here. You've been in his house. There was a good bit where Frank shows up not wearing a tie. And one of the other guys is wearing a tie. So like, oh, fuck, and he takes his tie off.

So they can look just like Frank. And Frank during the dinner party, Corners Alice. And he reveals that he knows about her concerns. And he kind of flexes on not like how he's in control, Yadda Yadda. And then he ends it by calling her good girl, which I'm like calm down, but I don't think your relationship's there yet. And then Alex starts to Alice, Alice at the dinner party. She sits at the head of the table. She starts to push everyone to reveal their backstories, which are all eerily similar, like it's written by a very lazy writer. And- And also unnecessary since as we learn these are our actual real people.

Yeah. And so they probably had real stories that could have just used against. And she tries to stand up to Frank, but everybody opposes her. And Frank manages to get everybody to her side to his side. Yeah. Jack is upset. Alice is pleading with Jack Disporter. And he's like, he finally caves. He seems to agree. They're going to run away together. They get in the car, but as soon as they get in the car, guys and red jumpsuits grab her and she pleads and he's like, no, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I do like the image of these men and red jumpsuits just showing. It's simultaneously sort of frightening and funny. You just have like these red jumps you guys

on that nowhere. Yeah, that they just held out from the sides of the frame, basically. Yeah. Yeah. And that they all just kind of look like looks. Yeah. Like they all just kind of look like big guys.

They don't look like they don't even see their faces for a while. Yeah, but there's nothing, I mean, they're not, they didn't cast like huge, you know, massively muscular people or like sinister looking people. They just, they look like, they do look like the huge, you know, massively muscular people or like sinister looking people. They just, they look like, they do look like the kind like these are the guys, these are the, these are the, these are the, these are the, it's the adjustment bureau. Yeah. No, then they'd be wearing a mask too. I know. I'm just fucking, I was trying to get you. Okay, so they drag her off and they give her shock treatment.

And this gives her a vision of a different life. That's right, in this other life, it's set in modern times, or in times. Which, by the way, with modern problems. Here's another thing that I want to say about this is, and products. And products.

Again, I don't need to take this literally, but part of my issue was like, well, at this point, if this is all in a simulation, we know that in our current world that we live in, we don't have this technology and like to to kidnap women and put them inside the simulation would be bad. The flop has not worked on that. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. And we do not, we are strongly against kidnapping women

and forcing them into simulations or anything. I'm gonna say it. Even just the kidnapping. Let's just say, even just the kidnapping is bad. We're against that. It doesn't matter what you do afterwards. It's all gonna be bad. Yeah, this would be a criminal conspiracy,

a monstrous criminal conspiracy. So if we're living in a world where there's a simulation, these men could just have simulated girlfriends legally. And I understand that the whole point of this is that it's about control, it's about like sadism, it's about that these men are like, they don't just want a fake girlfriend, they want a fake girlfriend.

They don't just want some kind of waifu. Real women. So, thematically, I get that. But knowing that we exist in the world that we existed and that these scenes are taking place now, why not put them in some sort of dystopian future? Part of me wonders because it's like, I'm gonna get the theme either way.

I guess the idea is like we want to talk about now. But I think that's the thing. I'm going to push back on you a little bit, Dan, just because I think if you put in a dystopian future, it does allow the male viewer and out to be like, well, I'm glad I don't live in that world. I would never do that. I'm glad we don't have the island in my world. Exactly.

And the same way that if it was set in the 50s and 60s, it would give an out-to-moderate you or two because they'd be like, well, I'm glad we don't live then. I wouldn't have done that. No, that's true. So I get why they're doing that, but at the same time, the whole that, you know, if it was a, it's hard for me to get past just the kind of we've seen this stuff before. And I think that's that's the root of so much. I will say, it's like, it's not shocking what we're seeing because it's like, yeah, I thought it was something like this. I've seen movies. I will say that once we do see the details

of the criminal conspiracy, I like how shabby it all is. Yeah, like that is the part that feels real to me that it's like this underground thing of people on message boards online and they have like this like tech that is basically just like you stick those shit in your eye. I honestly would have liked you. And Harry Styles is and Harry Styles is made up to be particularly kind of like Rady and a friend. Yeah, let's let's get into this. So in this, this is the twist. We see what is turns

out to be the real world where Alice is where people are not polite. No, they are real. Thank you. Well, they are real. Thank you. Well, they're starting to get real. That's true, but they stopped being polite, right? Yeah. So Alice is in the is an overworked doctor in what like an emergency room. Yeah. And she she comes home to her apartment where Harry Styles is her husband and he is like

Bearded and looks like shit staring at a computer all day. A lot like our producer Alex Smith, my high. Wow. That's not all that I was hoping to make. But she does, she does. Suddenly the episode starts adding really bad. She's doing it in Stuart Tuck.

Every time he talks, just fart. I will say that it is, it's one of those things where you're like, girl, why are you with this man? Because she is a doctor, you know, she is, she can do much better than living in kind of a dank gillian mask hole with this weird. I do like this. Honestly, it's not even that bad of an, like, it's a New York apartment. Like, no, but it's just, but it's also like, they seem to have no lights, like the place

is just, it's just an, they've done nothing to make it livable. But I do. So now I'm, so now I'm criticizing their interiors. I do like that there's a certain realism to the idea of that, like, it seems like this was a good relationship, maybe, or at least surface level good back when he had a job and was feeling better about himself. And like the loss of control of that has led him to be a monster and his personal,

like trying to exert control over that. Like I like that. Honestly, I had learned what the twist was to this movie before I saw it. Like I had not resisted. I'm shaking my head. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. But I guess we can do a reaction video.

I'm being honest with you. Thanks for being vulnerable, Dan. Thanks for allowing yourself to be vulnerable. I just want to say, I mean, perhaps it's not an amazing thing to say that reading the twist made it sound dumber than seeing the twist. Perhaps that's not a sounding reaction. Like obviously if you see a movie that has music and style

and whatever, it's gonna come off better. And a... And a very style, but... And like a narrative and a story that leads you... As I've said before, the podcast, ultimately Star Wars is about a narrative and a story that leads you to. As I've said many, as I've said before the podcast, ultimately Star Wars is about a boy from a farm who, in old man, takes him to a bar and they meet a bare man and a space pirate and they blow up a space moon. Like anything sounds just right.

Exactly. And I do think that it's possible that some people who have learned about the twist, you know, are like, oh, that sounds stupid. And like, yeah, on a certain level, I'm not saying it's not stupid in the sense that we've seen it before, but I will give the movie credit for executing most of this stuff a lot better than I imagined in my brain. And there are a couple of details that are like the fact that it was like that they're like, you know, that they're saying to, uh, to Jack, like, you know, you're responsible

for the upkeep of your machine and the upkeep of your chosen wife, like that they, that it is a real ram shackle, like it's like a kit that you can apply for it again. And that Frank who we've, who we've presented in that world as like, you know, this golden god type in real life is kind of like one of those, like one of those, uh, entertains that you like so much, right, Dan? What do you say? One of those masculinitytates that you like so much right, Dan? Yeah. What do you think? One of those masculinity gurus that you like so much right?

Yeah, that Dan listens to so much. Dan, what was your... It should be obvious about me is how obsessed with masculinity I am. Well, you listen to it a lot so you know what to run away from and go in the opposite. Yeah, you're like, yeah, I'm just going to eat liver all day. Scott, all that iron. Yeah. Okay.

So yeah, in this case, Jack in this future looks like shit and he's an asshole. He like doesn't do anything around the house. He looks, he watches the computer all day. He's like, he and he blames her for the fact that he didn't do these things, which is again, this whole like control issue. And he's like refusing to take control of this. And he's like radicalized. As we said, he's been like radicalized by this Frank character on the internet.

But then after we, after this realization, we're back in the real, we're back in the simulation. She's been, she's come home from treatment. She seems to be all better. She reunites with all her friends. Everything seems like it's going smoothly. If this was a 1970s version of this movie, this is where it would end. It would end with her back brainwashed in the simulation and the credits would roll and the audience would be supposed to stagger out, devastated that evil one in this case.

Yeah. He comes from home from work and she's making dinner and everything's going really smoothly until he starts singing a song and it seems to break the spell. I guess it's a song that he's- This is a tune that she also has been trying to remember throughout the entire movie. Okay. Where have I heard this? Yeah. And it's the song that he sings at home in the real world, where people have stopped

being polite, started to be heard, which means singing this song. Living corpse simulation body. Yeah. Like the life that's trapped in the, and this is the real, the real world body that it just has those weird eye things on. Yeah. And that's the whole machine. And this, and this song breaks the spell for both her and us.

Wait, wait a second. I just realized the title of this movie should be, the title of this movie should be Florence in the machine. Oh, shit. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, it breaks this spell for the viewer, and we get the whole kind of conspiracy laid out in this case. Jack has gotten involved with this online cult. He's required to keep Alice stuck in the simulation, which involves her being strapped to a bed with these, these like things keeping her eyes pride open, ludovico treatment style, and shooting lasers into her eyes. And he is allowed a certain amount of time every day to also be in the simulation. But the rest of the time he has to focus on like dripping water and I'm guessing broth

into her mouth. And cleaning up the poop. Well, he's working to pay Jack, or like he's maybe, he might be even working for Jack in some capacity. That's not even really Jack. You're talking about Frank. Frank, Jack has to work Frank. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, Jack has, he has to work to support their lifestyle.

It's, it's like the, the capitalist compromise that we all make has been laid bare in the most drastic and dramatic fashion. And Jack admits to all this in the simulation. He's like wrestling with her down on the ground. She picks up a old-fashioned glass and cracks him in the dome with it. Yeah. Well, I just do want to say, like this is the, like what we're talking about, the idealized simulation versus the shabby real life is the argument that Jack makes to her or Jack.

He's like, Jack, yeah. He's like, hey, look, you know, you hate that life. is the shabby real life is the argument that Jack makes to her or Jack. He's like, Jack, yeah. He's like, hey, look, you hate that life. I'm out in that life. That life sucks. It's great to hear. I did this for you. Like, you know, not admitting sure, but you've eliminated her choice in any of the

things. Yes, of course. And which is like, again, the movie is very specifically a control metaphor. But that's also part of why I think the outside world looks so awful is that that's like his twisted argument. Yeah. And so she cracks him in the dome with that glass, which actually kills him and immediately bunny shows up and is like, yo, if you kill this dude in here, he's

dead in the real world. Which is always one of one of my that happens so often in in movies. And it's always like, I know why you're doing that for the stakes, but it's hard for Domingo. Imagine like when they're like, if you die in a dream, you die in a real life. And it's like, no, you don't like that. That's not like video games don't work like that. Like if it if that you think that would be the first bug that they would work out of the simulation. Yeah. Because with all the drinking and driving

they're doing, you can't believe there's hella casualties in this. Yeah. I like again, having like had it spoiled for me. I assumed at the beginning, like, oh, you know, they're doing these donuts because he knows they can't. Yeah. Yeah. And also, yeah, it's, it, that's such a, it's a very strange bug to not fix that of fixing it because it causes a lot of problems later. And it also you would think that they would be like like, oh yeah, we don't we don't want to die. And but do you think, I mean, do you think that was put into the script so that the audience is like, yeah, some of these jerks die. Yeah, I mean, I just I don't think to make it real danger for her, like, if the danger, if there's

no danger, then that, but also I, I'm sure the, they, they've primed the audience to want to see these guys get killed. I mean, I think as, you know, it's at, at, at bottom, that mechanic of it is no, is no more noble than like I spit on your grave, you know, in a certain sense. So I think it, if anything, it's deflating to the stakes because like, I think it would be better if it, uh, I remember when I invested in comments deflated stakes, you're supposed to be able to stack more of them because they took the air out of the state. Sometimes I feel common. Sometimes I feel like dry, steaks are a little deflated because they don't have

as much juice as say anything. I can't. You're saying deflated stakes. don't have as much juice. Dan say anything. Dan. Dan. Dan you're saying deflated states. No, because I think it would make sense. It would be more tense if what happened is. It would be make sense. It would be more tense. Dan, he's been those rhymes. I love it. You die.

Spittin' fire. You're making sense. You're kicked out of the system. There has to be a reboot or whatever, but the idea that he is out there still and she has to deal with him, he may come back into the simulation. Or that he could kill her body while she's stuck in the simulation. That's a scary idea, yeah. But the movie is also heading towards the climax.

That's not the story of this movie. Yes. So, Bunny is urging Alice to escape. She's like, actually, I volunteered for this and you realize it's because that in the real world her children died and this is the only way she can kind of relive her time with her kids, which is very sad. Alice runs away, jumps in a car, runs over Nick Crowell. There's a big chase across the desert.

This is again, like, yeah, I mean, I feel like the highway chase in Matrix Reloaded was kind of an inspiration here. I feel like there should have been a point where Alice jumped on top of the car with a katana. She does not. No, she does. Well, that's also one of those things where if this is a simulation, if it's not real, why do they have to like catch up to her in a car to catch her.

But at this other time, there's a part, you know, she does some, some smooth driving and it means that two cars slam into each other and Tim Simons car flips over and explodes. And I was like, you know what, if I was a director and I got to do that in a movie, yeah, I don't care if it makes sense for the mechanics of this virtual reality twist. Like, I want to, I want to shoot something where cars are smashing into each other and flipping over and exploding. So live your wild you do you. I'm totally okay with that. Frank, you want a little bit of fury road in your movie? Go for it. Yeah, fury road, junior. So Frank gets a phone call explaining the situation. He's very angry. And as he turns around to explain it to his wife, he walks

right into the kitchen knife. She's holding she kills him stabs him in the chest. And I think quite understand she says something to him like now it's my time to run things like something like that. Yeah. So like was she aware like I don't quite quite I guess she's aware, but I don't know why she waited till this moment to do that. It's mysterious. It feels like a twist for the sake of twist and a, and a death for Frank for the sake of

death for Frank. And the kind of thing where if this was a TV show, this is the end of like the first season. And then the second season would be dealing with the new status quo, but it's not a TV show. It's a movie. And what does she mean by winning things? It's not a TV show. I mean, you watched it on a TV show.

I watched it on a TV and it was on HBO Max, which I guess isn't TV, but that's not TV. That's HBO Max. Although it's getting more and more TV and less and less HBO is time goes on and discover takes over. Yeah. Bad TV. It's the age.

I didn't realize the H and HBO stood for HGTV. Yeah. Whoa. But Dan, so you had a question about taking control. Well, I mean, I guess I'm gonna have to take control. You thought it was time for the Ghostbusters to take control. Take control. If it's up to us, anyway.

No, I just wonder like this, she's just gonna be like, and now a utopia for the lives and the simulation. Of course, no one's outside feeding broth to us. But, I mean, like, what does that mean? I don't know. That's all I'm saying. I'm not sure. Yeah. It's not clear. Maybe she's, maybe she's just power mad because she liked running that ballet class, you know, with as a little. Okay. So we're, we're right at the end. Alice manages to get her car stuck while driving up a hill. She jumps out. She runs up there.

She's got dudes chasing her. She has a moment where Jack is there and he's like, hey, stay with me, just a vision, not actually there. And then she touches the window and escapes and we get what like a, like a black screen and we hear the sound of her waking up and that is it. Don't worry darling, we did it. Yay. That is the movie. It's one of the few times where I kind of wished the title was said in the movie because otherwise it feels relatively generic. Compared to, you know, for this, there's a lot of, and that image of all those guys chasing or up the hill, like that's a great image. It's a great looking movie. There's a lot of really good images in it. There's a lot of talented people working on this movie. How do we feel about it, though?

It's time for final judge. Final judge, miss. It's a good bad movie, a bad, bad movie, a movie we kind of like. I'm going to jump right in and I'm going to say, honestly, out of these categories, I kind of liked it. I don't think it's anywhere near like the disaster. It was sort of made out to be. And I am certainly looking forward to seeing Olivia Wilde's next movie. I hope that this doesn't,

you know, tar her with a bad brush because I do think she's a talented director and actor. This movie, the biggest problem as we've said before, seen it before, like it wasn't a big shocker what was happening, but it looks pretty and Florence Pugh is in it, which is always a plus. So I give it a kind of like with an emphasis on the kind of. I do think, I wanna say just because there's no other place. The movie that I imagined when I saw the trailer

was more interesting to me, because I was like, okay, there's gonna be a twist. What is it? And I came up with this idea of like, they're out there in the desert. They're working on this project. It's some sort of like time alteration project. And the idea would be that whenever something went wrong

in their relationship, he would just like shift the time back to before he did whatever it was that fucked it up, which then over time, you know, created like sort of rifts and her mind, rifts in the world. I thought that kind of would have been interesting more, at least something different than what we've seen. Dan, write that movie. That's a good idea. Why aren't you writing that? I don't know. I gave it away for free. I'm out of dumb podcast. Maybe I can write it.

Oh, like, have I heard that before in like a black mirror episode or something? There's something similar. Yeah. Well, anyway, this does feel like a black, like the ideal length for this is like 40 minutes is the main thing. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a twilight tone episode. Yeah.

But anyway, what, what are you going to say? That's, I think you're right that that's one of the big issues is that like, I mean, the big issue for me in the movie is that it's just, you've seen it before. Yeah. Like, this movie, it's, it's just a me in the movie is that it's just, you've seen it before. Yeah. Like this movie, it's just a not an original movie and there's a lot of neat, there are a bunch of neat moments in it, there's some neat visuals in it, but like a lot of the movie is trying to fool an audience that from the moment one knows that something is up, but not like something's up, I got to find out what it is, like, oh, something's up,

this is going to be a simulation or their brainwashed or their robots or their clones or whatever. And the details kind of don't hold together to the point where I do wish, like I was saying, that it was more of a allegorical no explanations just kind of movie. Just it was the kind of movie that I feel like

if it was made in another country, there may be less explanation, you know, because foreign movies can get away with that a little bit more sometimes. But ultimately it was like, it's not like, it's just kind of like a boring movie, you know, it's just kind of a movie that doesn't, that for every now and then there's an image that's really neat or a moment that is neat, but you're kind of waiting for them to get on with the business. And the world that they're presenting is not so incredibly exciting and intriguing.

I got to, I don't want to bring up Babylon because Dan, I don't want to, I don't want to open this wound between us. But I'm not okay. But part of the opening of Babylon is that you're supposed to be like, look at this amazing wild time. Like, can you believe it? Like, this is, this is both a peeling end of setting at the same time. Whereas when I watched it, I was like, I can think of nothing worse than to be in that

room with those people. That's specifically you. That's also why I know. I know. I guess so. But the, I don't want to be in the room. Don't invite Elliot. Don't just be vomiting on each other.

Don't invite Elliot to your balkanol, guys. Yeah, I don't. If it's loud and there's a lot of people, I don't know slipping in their own fluids. Pulls out orgy invitation, rips up. Yeah. We're similar with this. It's like, I think it's coming from a, the idea universally that this is an appealing life, but there's something wrong.

And I think it didn't, it didn't build it to a high enough level of attraction for me to then feel horrified. Yeah. What was being called? You're giving it a didn't actively dislike. Well, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to give it a see me after class try harder. You're not working up to your potential.

Okay. Basically. Yeah, I mean following our categories, I would say this is a little bit closer to a bad bad for me. As we've addressed, there's, I think it's, it's made well in a lot of ways. I like the performers, you gotta out up. But yeah, I just, I didn't particularly enjoy the movie. And I wish it was a little, I wish it was a long episode of television. Yeah. If this was a short, it would be much more successful. Yeah.

For sure. Yeah. Well, you know what? You've probably heard about microdosing. Probably on this. Probably. Oh, wow. Probably.

Such an abrupt segue. I'm not even sure if we're still talking about the movie, but I guess I know microdosing now. Well, Elliot, you should know. Because it feels like having your eyes forced open laser shot into it feels like a macro digs. That seems unhealthy. I just want to make the thing. I just want you to know that all sorts of people are microdosing daily to feel healthier

and perform better. And our show today is sponsored by micro dose gummies. I'm tripping over my words, micro dose gummies deliver. Micro tripping though. Perfect entry level doses of THC that help you feel just the right amount of good. Maybe you want to try gummies, but you're not. It's not something that's been a part of your life. Maybe you don't want to like be high, let's say. You just want to feel a little better, more relaxed. Yeah, you don't

want to be like, zooted out of your mind. I want to be suited, but only because I don't know what that means. It sounds appealing. You want to be likeuded, but only because I don't know what that means. It sounds appealing. You want to be like, yeah, exactly. Shades and a saxophone. How cool is that guy? Anyway, microdose is available nationwide to learn more about microdosing THC go to microdose.com and use code flop FLOP to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. Links can be found in the show description, but again, that is microdose.com code. A lot. We're also sponsored by Babel

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technology helps you improve your pronunciation and accent. Accents important guys, that's the thing. My accent's so good, people assume I'm fluent in languages sometimes. Okay. In languages. English. Not English. But German, I, I'm very good at hot goi checks. Okay. So right now, get up to 55% off your subscription when you go to babble.com slash flop. That's b-a-b-b-e-l.com slash flop. For up to 55% off of your subscription, Babel language for life. I have to say I've been using Babel since they gave us a code to use it, and I really enjoy it, and I feel like I'm picking up new words and languages all the time.

What are you learning? What are you learning? Which one? I decided that I should brush up on my Spanish. It would be the most useful for me. I live in Southern California, and I want to travel in Mexico more widely. And I want to go back to Spain someday. I haven't been there since I was a teenager. And so, and I just feel like, I feel more confident that I'll be able to at least get to the point in the conversation where I can politely ask them if they speak English without, without sounding like I'm just budding

in like a bull in a china shop. Yeah. Uh, we're a Toro in a china shop. You might say. Oh, I might say that. I should brush it. Audrey's mom took us to Dim Sum for lunch the other day. We were in the car and she had a lot of French songs going on. Audrey kept being like, what are they saying? And I'm like, you know what?

I took five years of French. I'm getting every fourth word. If you want to know what every fourth word means, then I'm your man. But I don't know if I can help. And if I want to maintain my status as ultimate otaku, I should probably learn some more Japanese. You probably should. Well, it's a, the, the, the, we got a good selection of languages there. And it's very easy to use and very easy to learn on. But hey, we've got some other stuff to mention. Hey, did you know that my comic book, Maniac

of New York, don't call it a comeback. Number one is on comic book store shelves. Now really? I know that already. Did you know that? I book, Maniac of New York, don't call it a comeback. Number one is on comic book store shelves. Now, really? I know that already. Did you know that? I did know that because I monitor your Twitter, but others probably don't. They may be not. This is the third volume of the Maniac of New York series.

I write it, Andrea Moote does the art, and it's from Aftershock Comics, and the first issue of an arc that I'm really happy with. I'm excited to see what Andrea does with all the art, and I think you're gonna like it too. We are cranking up the satire and also the blood with this one. So get used to it. Maniac Harry is bad. Or is it? Deal. Deal. I have to. I was told to.

And we'll see. We'll hopefully the book will be able to hold to a relatively monthly schedule, but those issues will come out. It's a four issue. See you. Oh, great. But hey, enough of that. Let's talk about flop will come out. It's a four issue series. But hey, enough of that. Let's talk about flop house new stuff. That's right. The flop house is doing a live show in person in your face. If you go to the bell house, our old stomping grounds, the bell house in Brooklyn, our favorite venue Sunday, April 2nd, 7 30 PM. It's a Sunday, but it's not too late. You can still go to work. Still a fun day. Yeah. What are you worried you're going to miss the Fox animation lineup?

DVR it, dude. You can watch it later. Last of us, you can just tape that shit, dude. Just play the video game. It's the same. You're streaming now. Cut the cord, man. You watch it when you want to.

Anyway, we're going to be doing a live show, which means all new material. We're talking about Battlefield Earth, the classic bad movie, the movie that really put a damper on John Travolta's career. And to a lesser extent, the other stars, which is what? What's his first wittaker? And Fetch and L. What? Fetch.

The Fetch, is he a, I don't know. Fetch, Barry, what's his name from saving private world. Yeah, Barry Pepper. Thank you. The movie that the movie that would have turned Barry Pepper into an even bigger star, but instead put him back into supporting actor categories doing that. And so chiles on the soup. And so you know what? I think I was restaking Barry Pepper for Fetch Nelly. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. That's fine. That's fine. Well, we'll do our research beforehand, but that's Sunday, April 2nd, 730 PM at the Bellhouse

in Brooklyn. Battlefield, Earth is the move we're talking about. You're also going to get original PowerPoint presentations from us. We're going to be there in person doing jokes. We're going to have an audience Q and A afterwards. All the classic stuff you come to expect from a flop house live show come see us. We haven't done a live show in a while. We're very excited about it. Go to www.TheBellHouseNY.com for tickets, which are available now. Buy them up. They'll be these shows sell out. So buy them up. They do sell it. I want to say also just because people have been writing or tweeting asking, we will be touring more widely if you can't make it to Brooklyn, but we don't know where yet. So if you're nearby, come out and see this show.

And I think we're intending to do a virtual show. We're also going to do more virtual shows. That's another question that has been asked. But, you know, Josh, if you're listening, our booking agent, come on. This seems like the perfect medium for this. And, you know, Josh, if you're listening, our booking agent, come on. This seems like the perfect medium for this. I mean, to be honest, to be honest, this will sound thirsty. But hey, do you have a theater?

Would you like to book the flop house? Get in touch with us via Twitter or email and let us know where you are and when we might be able to do a show there. Let's see, if you're in a city where you have a enough of an audience for our podcast that they'll come by tickets, then we will do that show. Get in touch with us. Dear reading glasses, it's been years since I've been able to read. I missed it so much that I had no idea where to start.

I felt so overwhelmed. But thanks to your show, now I'm back to enjoying books again and feeling like a reader. Love Sarah. Yeah, that's an email we actually answered. Okay, maybe not that email specifically, but one just like it,

because most of our listeners are named Sarah. Ha ha ha. We're reading glasses and we're here to solve all your reader problems. We give advice, help you find books you love and discuss reading without making you feel pressured. No matter what you read or how you read it, we'll help you do it better.

Reading glasses every week on Maximum Fun. What happens when you give a bug, recreational drugs? What was the first recorded sound? How do we figure out how old the earth is? Let's find out together on our show, let's learn everything. Where we learn anything and everything interesting. My name is Caroline and I studied biodiversity and conservation. My name is Tom and I studied computer science and cognitive...

Did you? My name is Ella and I studied STEM cells and regenerative medicine. On our show, we do as much research as you would for a class, but we don't get in trouble for making each other laugh. And we get to say f***! What is it done with the trailer? Subscribe to Let's Learn Everything every other Thursday on Maximum Fun. This is where we do letters, letters from listeners.

We do them. We do them. We do them. We do this letters. That's not what I was saying, Dan. Not at all. I was like, fucking doing these letters. And then that was too aggressive, too hostile. Real quick guys, if you had to fuck a letter, it's got to be cute, right? Cause cute. Think.

Ain't love mysterious. It's very mysterious. You don't see it that often. I just love my red flags. Okay. Well, anyway, I'm sorry for that. Willie writes, Willie last name withheld. Nelson.

Willie Lohman, the titular salesman. Sorry to hear about your death. I'm writing you today with important information regarding your fire starter episode. Fire starter published published in 1980 is Stephen King's 36th longest novel with 426 pages. We are now into baseball stat territory. That is for your brother, I guess. The fact that he has written the books that this is 36th longest novel at 426 pages. This is a mere 86 pages short of Stephen King's 26th longest

novel, The Dark Tower Three, The Wastelands, in which the Cotette of Roland Susanna, Jake and Eddie board an insane monorail named Blaine the Mono. Many things happened during their monorail life, but ultimately they end up in Topeka, Kansas. Anyway, I feel like I would just say, I've never read the Dark Tower books, and every now and then I consider doing it, but every time I hear a detail of it, I'm like, I just want to keep hearing random details

for the rest of my life and never knowing how they connect. That's kind of how it feels to be. Yes. Anyway, what are your favorite trains and movies? Sublates, don't count count because I don't want to Elliot to recommend the remake of the Taking of Pelin123, which everyone knows is his favorite movie. Excuse me, sir.

Excuse me, I'm offended and insulted. Keep on squatting in the free world, looking at you, too. Willie Lasting withheld, favorite trains. Favorite trains. You got to throw one up there for snow, Piercercer because it's got my girl tilled on it. You know what I'm gonna say there's been a lot of fights on top of trains Sure, and that's why you're talking about the seven percent solution Yeah, if you're gonna have a fight put it on top of a train, dude, or on top of a bridge

above a pit. So you can uppercut a dude off that fucking bridge and they fall on this spike. I'm going to say one of my favorite fights on top of a train is in the first mission impossible movie. They got a lot even better with the wild stunts, but that's a pretty great fight on top of a very fast train. Elliot, what do you got? I think let's not let's not turn against fights inside of trains because there's the classic

train fight scene in on her majesty secret. No, sorry, from Russia with a lot of sorry, in from Russia with love, but also I was going to say snowpiercer and Glad Stewart mentioned it, but you know what you can also have on trains is romance. And so I'm going to say the train where Janet Lee hits on Frank Sinatra in the mid-Serie in candidate, where she just unleashes the string of the strangest non-sequaters any conversation has ever had. And it's just, it's such a wonderful scene. And it can only happen on a train because they have to be on a transit system together and

then be able to go from a public part of it to a private part of it. You can't do that as easily on a plane. What are they going to be in the bathroom together? As long as we're talking train romance, we got to talk North by Northwest as well. Great stuff. Sure. And as long as we're talking about cool trains, I got to talk about that train sequence in the, in what season four of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure where, uh, uh,

fun movie, but okay. It depends if you watch it fast enough. If you put on super fast and it ends in an hour and a half, that's a movie, right? Yeah, I guess so. And also, of course, my, as listeners know, my fifth favorite movie, I used to have it at number four, but I'm downgrading it slightly. My fifth favorite movie, closely watched Trains,

has a ton of trains in it. That's weird. It's just part of just 20 trains. Yeah. You know, the longer I'm staring at the second letter I chose for this week, the more I can't remember whether we've done it already. Guys, so I was about to say the train and how to train your dragon by realize that's not about trains. No, it's not about turning your dragon into a train. Considering that, considering that I'll tell you what train I don't want to be on. That train to Busan. No thank you sir, not a train I would like to be on. I was going to say considering that Ellie has a family engagement and I cannot confidently

say we haven't already talked about this. I'm just going to move on to our last segment. And I want everyone to, don't get too excited. It's not that someone in my family got engaged. It's that I have to take my son somewhere on a schedule. And you're keeping it vague in case somebody develops a time machine and goes back in time to find you. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. I have to keep it vague for that reason. I don't want the listeners yet. It's suddenly run to where I am. To see that I'm not there because this was we recorded this a week ago. Yeah, to source code their way back. Yeah. On a train. On a train, on a train. On a train.

Oh, hello. I think we've hit on something which is that trains are the best conveyance to put a movie on. You're on it for a long time. You can move around a lot within there. A lot of different people use them. Like there are thrillers on planes. There are thrillers.

I assume in cars. I guess there's like, you know, a collateral, I guess is in a car. It is. Right. But there's thrillers on boats, but I got to tell you, for real thrill, got to be on a train, make it trains everybody. They make mine trains. Yeah, make mine trains.

Yeah. I remember of the Mary Train Marching Society. The last thing that we do here is we recommend movies that might be a better use of your time than our usual fare. My recommendation is I went to see a matinee of the film matinee recently. Nighthawk Prospect Park was showing Joe Dante's love letter to the atomic panic films of the 50s and 60s. It's from 1993. It's just like, I mean, the brilliance of the movie is a lot of those old cheesy science fiction monster films

were based on nuclear anxieties. And Dante was like, what if I construct a film around one of those movies being shown, but also around real world panic around the Cuban Missile Crisis there in Key West, right? You know, right next to Cuba, you can see it from Key West. I've done it myself.

And it's just a movie that's steeped in a lot of Joe Dante's signature love of the trash of his youth elevated through his own brilliance. And it's got a great John Goodman performance that combines a lot of warmth with Huxerism. He's playing kind of a William Castle stand-in. And it's a movie that sort of takes its time setting up this world and then when it starts paying off and the second half it really pays off like gangbusters. It's very funny and very sweet.

So I'm recommending Matt Nay if you've never seen it. I'm gonna recommend a Indian movie from 2019 called Khythe spelled K-A-I-T-H-I, which in Tamil means prisoner, I believe. And this fucking movie, guys, this movie is like a fucking thing. If this is, it's like this guy. This movie is like a cross between a sold-unpreasing 13 and Conair. The setup is this elite police squad makes the biggest drug bus in history, but in the process, the leader of the police team breaks his arm.

Okay, they go to the head chief inspector's house where they are celebrating this bus after disposing of the drugs into a private secure location. Wow, somebody's honking, they love this movie. Now, the drug dealers find out that their stuff's been busted so they get an inside man to drug all the cops except for the broken arm guy who can't drink. So everybody gets knocked out on Roe Hippnall. Uh oh, and the drug dealers are coming to kill all the cops. So he can't drive, he needs to get these guys safe.

So he has to take a criminal who's been locked up in the back of one of the trucks to help him. But it turns out that criminal is an ex-con on his way to see a daughter he's never met before. And this guy is a super badass, but he can't do anything wrong because he wants to be able to see his daughter. Oh boy, it is a, and this all happens

before the credits drop. Wow. Amazing. It's like, it's, I mean all happens before the credits drop. Wow. Amazing. It's like, I mean, that doesn't mean anything. RR, the credits drop 40 minutes. Uh-huh, and I'm like, the credits could be at the end. And then I'm like, uh, high fidelity, the credits don't show up till the very end. I'm like, RR, drive my car, drop them five minutes after you.

Yeah. High octane thrill ride, drive my car. But yeah, Kitey, if you're looking for like a great action movie, I 100% recommend it. Super fun. All right. This, the movie I'm going to recommend is not a high octane action movie. We are. It is a melodrama.

I was talking to you. I was talking to you. I'm there. Medium octane, I guess. Because there's still some kind of thrills in it. Okay. I'm going to recommend a movie called The Garden of Women. This is a Japanese movie from 1954,

directed by Kaisuki Kineshita. The Garden of Women is the story of an all girls boarding school that is run by extremely strict regulations that lead to emotional turmoil and political uprising among the students. Very much an ensemble movie with several different plot threads, all painting a portrait of a post-war Japan, in which the young struggle against the bars

of a metaphorical prison of social standards built by the old. And I kept thinking it, and well, kept thinking it. I kept thinking while watching it, this would make a great TV show, but it's even better than a TV show because it's only two hours and 20 minutes long. So you don't have to sit through like a couple hours then just setting up the characters. Hey, floppers, why not program a little double feature for yourself with this and my previous recommendation, Magic and Uniform. That's right, a German movie about an impressive girl's school and a Japanese movie about an impressive girl's school. I call it the Axis Powers Girls School Double Feature.

But if you've already watched Magic and Uniform, which you should have, because I recommended it, it's really good, then the Garden of Women is great on its own. So that's the Garden of Women. Wow, we did it. We did it. We did it in record time. We're going to get you there. We're going to get you out, Elliott. You can go back. Wow, we did it. We did it. We did it in record time. We're gonna get you there. We're gonna get you out, Elliot.

I really appreciate it. I appreciate that you don't get our usual two plus hours of jokes and jakes. Apologies to you, or maybe you like it better this way. Either way. I mean, from what the listeners have told me, they seem to kind of refer it this way, but who knows? This has been the flop house. We are part of the maximum fun network.

Go over to maximumfund.org. Check out all the other great shows. Comedy and culture. That's what they say. Scott Boath. I don't know which year it nailed it. Taste is culture. We mixed them.

We mixed them up. Yeah, we got peanut butter and your chocolate or whatever. And also, thank you to Alex Smith. He goes by the name of Howell Dottie on Twitter, other socials while he's making music under that name. He is our producer. He's our editor. He does great stuff for us. Sorry, that Stuart Zingia earlier. And that's all I got to say. He's got a, he's got a thick skin, yeah, thick skin, crusted from sitting in front of a computer. We love you. Thank you to you, the listener and for the Flapphouse. I've been Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. I don't think the series gets good until don't worry darling reload. You're right, that wasn't good. That is a good one.

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