The Flop House - FH Mini 71 - '22 in Review

Episode Date: January 7, 2023

Hope you're ready for a "mini" that's as long as one of our regular episodes! With the new year just beginning, Dan, Stuart, and Elliott look back and discuss their top movies of 2022 (with the caveat that none of us has the time to see everything in the "best of '22 conversation), and also branch out to some other highlights and lowlights of the year in film.

Hey, it's me, Stuart Wellington, the Flophouse podcast, and this is a Flophouse mini hell. Yeah, that means instead of watching a movie and then talking about it, we're gonna be talking about a lot of stuff. We're gonna do whatever we want, and today is a special day. That's right. Pop your fucking bottles or yourself a drink, because then it is the end of the year. It is no longer 2022. It is now 2023 time for fucking celebrate, right? Yep, give me some woo-woo's voice. Okay, sorry. But although I would say, Iggy Pop and the three stooge is, I think it would go a little something like this. Oh, they're my danger. They're all stranger. Hey, hey, wait, hey, okay.

I will. I was imagining this dourcher being like, I have this valuable Iggy Pop. As you can see, he is quite frail. He is a thin reed of a man. Do not break him. And then, and then Lou Reed leads in and goes like me and then go, you get out of here. Uh huh. Who you called a street walk in Cheetah? Get this guy. Moe is a street walk in Cheetah with a hideful in a palm. So I think that, that's a sketch the Ben Stiller show should have done

in the 1990s. He's the one where he's the, the Dowager hires Iggy and the Stooges to guard her to be plumbers and they're so strong out that they can't get in the middle of it. Oh, yeah, that would actually that would fit very perfectly on that show. So joining me as always are my co-host from the flop us. That's right Dan McCoy and Elliot Kaelin. Hey guys, I'm so excited to talk about 2022 movies and then looking forward a little bit. In general, I think this year was not a particularly strong year for movies, but I do have a couple of favorites and I asked you guys to prepare a list of some of your favorites as well.

I'm sorry. I kind of thought the theme of this episode was 2022 Hollywood's greatest year. Sorry guys. That's why you're wearing those glasses that manage to put two eye holes out of four digits. Somehow they may work. And I disagree about your assessment of the year for movies. I found a lot of movies that I loved quite a bit.

I think it's coming off of last year, which I felt was a particularly hot year. And I'm not talking too big. I'm not talking temperature. I'm actually found that a bunch of the movies that I was looking forward to talking to, because I saw them at the beginning of 2022, were 2021 releases. I was sorry, talking about were 2020 releases.

So I think Stuart was right. I think 2021 was overall a stronger year. But again, I only saw a handful of 2022 releases. So maybe I'm not the best judge. Films 2021. I'm glad that David's fact checking this. I gotta look back into it. No, I just gotta see why you're saying this about, I feel like I remember last year I had trouble cutting my list down to only 10 favorite movies. I feel like Dune even got pushed out of there at the last minute by a little movie called The Last Duel. I mean, I was going to say I last duel was a movie that I was looking forward to talking

about in this episode. So good. It was so sad to remind myself that it was a 2020 release, even though I saw it in 2022. Oh, your notes about the various wigs got crossed off. Yeah, last year was a good year too, but I don't think this is a bad year for me. I'm looking at them now, but when I saw the last duel, it was a very good year, a very good year for ill fitting wigs. And Adam Driver being kind of a bad guy, I'd let's just say a great bad guy. He does something terrible. Yeah, he's a terrible guy. So with that in mind, Dan, why don't you convince me? Why don't you share what your top three movies of the year are? Okay. So number two is going to be controversial. It's fucking marmaduke. And number three is going to be controversial because I said, hey, why don't we keep it to three because we probably don't see a lot

of movies, uh, all of us. And then I was like, uh, I made it a tie. So I'm so, I'm so disappointed already that number one's not going to be controversial. Okay. Here it is. Top three. For me, I chose tar. Yeah. That's why you recommended it earlier. Why is tar in your top spot? Uh, I, it's a movie that I walked out of being like, Oh, yeah, movies can do this. Like, I mean, and maybe it was, uh, was it? What is it? Movies can have a needle drop of dubstep at the end after seeing a intro for Monster Hunter. I think, now, I mean, maybe it's because I'm watching a bunch of junk and my mind is all

junked up with junk as Elliott probably would think about it because we were having a conversation just before we started recording about what about how he likes emotion and I like spectacle these days. about how he likes emotion and I like spectacle these days. And I like a lot of bigness and a lot of madness and a visual flair and like just like, I like a lot of spice. And how he doesn't handle the spice. He wants love, he wants emotion, he wants sadness, he wants heartbreak.

I mean, he's a deep well of... When I watch in a movie, I want it to hit my heart rather than my tongue. Yeah. Okay. But I think that I, Tars, interesting, that I don't think it gets either the heart of the tongue necessarily, but it does,

does something very, I mean, it's a movie that takes this time. I think it does hit the heart. I think it, I think it's, I mean, I'll just, I'll just, it's a heart in a different way than I guess, maybe the phrase hits the heart. I think it, I think it's, I mean, I'll just, I'll take it. It's a heart in a different way than I guess, maybe the phrase hit the heart. I guess I guess that Dan's overriding fear of getting canceled.

Well, here's, I'm going to say, I'm going to interrupting Dan because he's taking drink. I'm going to spoil Tarr is on my top three also. Yeah, we're going to spoil a bunch of things and we're going to spoil our lists in the process. Yeah, yeah. And I think, and Tarr,'re gonna spoil our lists in the process. Yeah, yeah. And I thought it was, I loved it because one, going into it also, I was like, I'm curious,

this is the movie about getting canceled, I guess, but it's not about that. It's not at all. This woman who is refusing to, refusing to kind of interact with other people's reality in a way that gives them agency as human beings and finds that she is dehumanizing herself in the process and destroying herself.

And when I talk about movies hitting me in the heart, I don't necessarily just mean like movies that make me feel warm. In fact, often that's not what I'm looking for in a movie because I get that from my family. I don't need it in my movies. So, but the idea that a movie that where I'm connecting with the character emotionally and the thing that I loved about Tara was I was like, this is a character I don't need it in my movies. So, but the idea that a movie that, where I'm connecting with the character emotionally,

and the thing that I loved about Tara was I was like, this is a character I don't like, but I feel like I'm living inside of her brain, and inside of her feelings. And I am not necessarily understanding her, but I am living her experience. And when she is destroyed, I'm like, a spoiler alert, her life falls apart.

When she's destroyed and her mind is broken. I mean, she is conducting, as I mentioned before, an orchestral performance of Monster Hunter in front of a cosplay audience of cosplayers in Asia. But this is part of me that's like, yeah, this is the, this is the ending you, you wrought, you know. But also, I think that it's interesting is it, it, it, it creates this character who has done horrible things and is refusing to grapple with the fact that she has sort of wreak havoc in her wake. But it also, I feel like too many, at least internet debates about movies, I know I should get off of it when it talks about

movies other than putting this podcast up. But so much internet debate about it is like this character sucks. So I hate her and I don't like you know, like I think a movie like tar shows that yeah, you can see that this person has done bad things and maybe you don't like her or like I think are you really deserves like. Well, no, yes, if we get some virtues signaling for taking my point is, I think that you can empathize with her humanity is what I'm saying. She's a complex character where you can say, yes, of course, she should face some sort of consequence, but there's something that is lost in her destruction and you sort of hope

that maybe she can figure out how to be a human too. You can have another empathy to be like, yeah, you've been bad. I hope you get better, you know. You can empathize with somebody who so clearly needs control in every aspect of their life and wants to conduct their life the way that they conduct in orchestra and wants to treat the people in orchestra, her, her, her tools to get to that. And you can empathize with that, with that need and that desire and that hunger

without being like, yeah, I guess I approve of everything she does. I guess she's a saint, saint tar, make it Saint Tars day. I guess that's the thing that angers day. It is that St. Angers, the feast of St. Anger. And then there's the feast of St. Anger. And then there's the feast of St. Anger. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to say. I feel like a lot of like internet debate flattens it out where like it ignores the fact that you can empathize with a bad character in part because you can see that like everyone has the capability to be bad within them. You know, and like you Michael Jackson wrote a song about it.

I don't feel like I don't feel like there's enough there. As hermer once said, when kids say bad, they really mean good. And to shake one's booty means to like, one's fun. I mean to demonstrate. I just don't think that there's enough there before the grace of God go wide. Not that it's just the grace of God. Like she did bad things, but there's also the like sense of like, yeah, there's a whole spectrum of human behavior that we can think about and, you know, like a poor over in, like, in our own minds and have feelings about that is ignored by

movies a lot. And Tara didn't do that. And one of the things I loved about it was I love like the little, like, just visual cues as opposed to, like like telling you because she travels around she travels around the world a lot. She's a real Carmen San Diego. And luckily she got busted unlike Carmen San Diego. She's a regular Tarman San Diego. Thank you. It was a long walk, but it was worth it. I got there. The along walk just like her walking with her suitcase away from every airport. I love I love the little visual cues of things where you're like, oh, she's in New York

now or oh, she's in a nation country now. The or she's in Berlin. Like I love I love that stuff without having to tell you specifically. So you're like, okay, so I'm going to I have to use my brain like I got to like I use my brain alone in this movie. Yeah. Well, it's like the movie is, its storytelling is telling you,

you're gonna need to use your brain on this to figure it out moment to moment sometimes, and also to figure out how you feel about it. And like, I think the thing that I maybe struck you guys that struck me so much about Tara is, like Dana's saying, it's a complicated movie at a time where I feel like I don't see a lot of, at least big release complicated movies. I see independent complicated movies or far-in

sometimes complicated movies, but it is, I don't want to sound like a regular Marty Scorsese over here, but I feel like one of the detriment of comic books becoming the de facto model of narrative entertainment for mainstream popular entertainment for right now is that everything is good and bad. And this is, and this movie that is not going to tell you how to think about this person, whether she is good or bad or what it she is or how, you know, you have to figure out how you're going to feel about her. Well, also to your point that it's not actually a cancel culture movie.

Like, if the question of the movie is, should she lose her job and be punished, the answer is yes. She doesn't go for the wrong reason. But the movie is not that. It's a character study about a specific person, which is like the interesting thing about it. Yeah. You know, what I like is that they cast Mark Strong in the movie and he gets easily pushed over by Kate Blanchett. So his name is not correct. He is very not strong. I loved seeing Mark Strong in the movie and he gets easily pushed over by Kate Blanchett. So his name is not correct. He is very not strong. I loved seeing Mark Strong as the wimpiest kind of like, like, just least impressive person. And I thought it was such a funny performance for me. And I know, and I say that as someone who is much more like Mark Strong's character,

than the character's name is Elliot, I think, in the movie. And I was like, I thought it was like, when I saw him. movie. And I was like, I thought of you when I saw him. Thank you. I was like, I can't be mad at this movie for basically making fun of me. Like, I love seeing Mark Strong in this role when they could have easily cast someone more, who looks more like me, you know, who hasn't played the villain in, you know, in franchise films before. Yeah. So, tar, great. And I was just one last thing about tar. a movie is starting right off the bat with a Interest deficit from me when it opens that a New Yorker festival talk hosted by Adam Gopnik and I tell you Tari

You won't be back. Yeah, won't be back baby But that's also kind of the amazing thing about it. It's like the movie Trust that it will like you will take the time yeah with that including a long Expositori Q&A at the beginning of the home take the time with that including a long expository Q&A at the beginning of home and all the credits up front to where you're like yes, I Watches at home and I'm like well you're really daring me to check my phone are you? Well, I watched it. I watched a screener of it and I was like did I

break this? I like my backwards backwards to screen or of it and I was like, did I break this? I'm not going back. I'm not going backwards. Um, should we go red robin rather than me just running down my ones? I don't know whether I'm going to get up at red robin and get ourselves a buffet meal is red robin a buffet. You're not our sponsor, Ellie. It's not fucking. Are they fucking red robin at every opportunity?

Bob, Bob and along. Yeah. Uh, yeah, what should we? Ellie, why don't you jump in with your number one? The logging red robin in every opportunity. Bob, Bob in a long. Yeah. Yeah. What should we, Elliot? Why don't you jump in with your number one? I, to be honest, I had not really numbered mine. Perfect. I didn't, I'll, I'll just come right off the bat. I didn't see a lot of movies this year

in the theaters. This was a rough year and a lot of ways for me. I don't need to get into all the details. Dan and Stewart are well aware of it because I've griped to both of them about it. This was not an easy year for me, and I did not make it to the movies that much for a variety of reasons. But I think Tara might be my number one, but another one that I would possibly put at number one, which I did get to see in the theaters was everything everywhere all at once,

which I really loved. I think it's, if I have any complaint about the movie, it's just that there's too much of it. I wrote 15 minutes before the end of the time. Me too, the title. I guess that's true. But 15 minutes before the complaint about the movie, it's just that there's too much of it. I wrote 15 minutes before the ending. Beats in the title. Yeah. That's true. But 15 minutes before the end of the movie, I was like, movie, I'm full.

It reminded me of, there was a time when, when Danielle and I went out to a nice dinner, we didn't get to go up for a lot. And it was one of these restaurants with the like, if you say it was a fucking red robin, I'm gonna take you out this call. No, no, it was that it was that ink, which I think has since closed the Michael Voltajio restaurant. And we or they're like, we just bring it out. Small plates one at a time as they're ready. And we kind of filled up. And then we had forgotten that we had ordered steak as a main course. And by the time

the steak arrived, we were not hungry anymore. And I feel like everything everywhere all at once is kind of like that where a there. the movie was making me cry. And then it kept going. And I was like, movie, you got me, you don't need anymore. But that was one, I really enjoyed it. I liked, I thought it was funny and I thought it was exciting and I thought it was really touching. And Michelle Yo is so amazing in it. And the rest of the cast is amazing in it too. On some level, it feels like Michelle Yo has always been amazing, right? Like, and it's so great that she gets to be amazing in so many different ways in this movie. Yes. She's an actress who, at the very least in English language movies, I feel

like does not get a lot of opportunity to show range. Yeah. And she shows so much range in it. And like, that was one where I literally at work, they said, hey, actually we don't need everybody until three hours from now. And I was like, is there a movie playing right now? And I looked up that I was a 15 minute drive from a theater that was playing everything ever while at once in 10 minutes. And I raced over there and luckily got in

just as the movie was starting, because I missed the trailers. And I was so glad that I saw that in the theater. And I really enjoyed it. So I think that's if tarzmot my number one, then that's my number one for the movie that uses everything to in the sense that like stuff that seems like it's just a joke at the beginning, then becomes like unbearably moving by the end. Yeah, I don't even know if it's amazing. I was like, I don't

need to see the full arc for the raccoon, you know, let alone that they stole the idea from me from an earlier rep from the duly lepso of the flop house. But still that's right. Uh, yeah. So I'm turning. Yes. My number one of the years shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I am a long time about a Luca Guadaguino stand and bones and all was a triumph for me.

It's beautiful. It is a rare movie that captures the like beauty and isolation of the Midwest. It capture it has that like again, desperate romanticism that I'm a fucking sucker for. It's filled with like tiny little details and wacky performances that shouldn't work, but for me everything works. Yeah, it's just fucking great. That's the scariest I've ever seen. What's the name? Michael Stolberg. Michael Stolberg, yeah, he's incredible.

He's in David Gordon Green. Yeah, that was, and then I had to look it up afterwards. I didn't even recognize that it was David Gordon Green until afterwards when I was reading about it. I really liked bones in all of that. That was really great. And the only thing that kept it out of my top three, I think is the fact that after work, I was really under its spell.

But then as the movie went on, is it because you don't like Sully? No, you're not. No, you're not. No, you're not. No, you're fine, Sully. Sully, you're fine. I'm under it. I suddenly started comparing it in my head to badlands, which is a very similar movie that I just love.

And I was like, you know what, this movie is great, and I should not be comparing it to Badlands, but I just kind of kept sticking, and I was like, it was like, if Badlands, if I was starting to sell it to somebody, I'd be like, imagine if Badlands, instead of being kind of a slow, kind of poem-driven movie in a way, is a Badlands is kind of like the best adaptation of an 80s Stephen King novel that Stephen King didn't write. Yeah. But it's, and so, and I feel like it captures so many of those things so well. And it's a beautiful movie, but I, my head, my brain was just tripping me up on it for

that. I think it's great. I, I, you know, this is a movie that I didn't like quite as much, I mean, definitely not as much as Stewart. I don't think as much as you either, Elliot, when I was watching it, although I think that part of that is that this was during the period of time where I was having two thigs because I eventually had to get a root can at.

So you can think about showing down on somebody because my mom, every time they chomped on a, on a, on a carny hustler, you were like, oh, my teeth, oh, only I could do that, but I can't. It wasn't biting specific. It was just the general like fact of the nerve on a carny hustler, you were like, oh my teeth, oh, only I could do that, but I can't. It wasn't biting specific, it was just the general like fact of the nerve inside my tooth was dying. I see.

And off-gassing, like stuff that couldn't go anywhere cause it was stuck inside my tooth. Anyway, gross, that's what happens. I like that Dan Stansroot Canal is the new Dan's ACF. Yeah. I mean, I'm not trying to complain about. I'm just saying, maybe that maybe I don't love a movie. Well, I'm in tooth pain.

But the other, I mean, but it's grown for me since I saw it. I just think that the basic problem for me was like, the tooth pain has grown for you. I don't necessarily sympathize with a pair of cannibals, no matter how in love they are. And I know that maybe I'm supposed to take it metaphorically, but I wasn't able to come up with a metaphor that adequately. I don't think even on a metaphorical level, to me, it is, they're people who, they can't control their desires. This is something they biologically need and they don't like it.

They're not sully who, who has, who seems to really love collecting hair and eating old ladies, but it's a, you know, there's something they're, they're driven to do this thing. And I have to admit, I also outside that there's, I think there's part of me when I was younger that would have been like, imagine being a monster. Wouldn't that be kind of cool in a weird way? But the thing that really struck me this time was like, when they go to that town and they just kind of settle down and get jobs for a little bit and I was like, oh man, to be a person, a young person in love with no ambition whatsoever, who can just kind of do a crappy waiting job. Who's only ambition is to not eat people? Yes, I can handle that.

Like if that was my only ambition, I would be the happiest, I'd be living heavenly life. If I just had a job, I didn't care that much about the rest of my time as my own. And I just have to try not to eat people, which for me is very easy. For them, it's a little different. But for me, that's a very easy temptation to fight. Just I was like, what a fantasy. What a fantasy. I'm like Abraham Lincoln, I'm damned by ambition. Or I guess more like Samuel Beckett, since I think that was the name of, no, damn to fame. was his was the buyer of it. Anyway, uh, back at the time trailer. Yep.

Exactly. And it's for now. Uh, who Al who in a different light you want to? If this movie had been made back in the 80s, uh, he would have been fucking a man. Dean Stocks will be incredible.

A movie perfect. He would have been fucking great. Dean Stockslaw would have been incredible. Oh, movie. Perfect. So I mean, Mark, why am I just forgetting his? Mark Reilance. Mike Reilance is also great in it. He's incredible. You're right.

And like I'm close to Vini's great, it's. Yeah. Dan, Dan, I have a proposition for you. Dan, if you want, you could call me Al. But, but, but, but, there's a catch. There's a catch. Okay. You must allow me to call you Betty. But if I can call you Betty, then Betty, I mean presumptuous, but I'm calling you already Betty, you can call me. He's been working on this fucking thing for a first. Can we do some sort of trade, some bartering vis-a-vis, like one of us could be a bodyguard. And in return, there

would be a pal sort of level of intimacy that would be- I would say that for a long lost pal. It would have to be a long lost pal, okay? But yes, I think that would be fair. So, any final thoughts on bones and all? No, my final thought was just like when we talked about Stewart, I was talking about how when Mark Rylance first shows up, you're like, hmm, is he putting too much mustard on this? Yes. And then by the end of the movie, you're like, okay. You're like, you're not supposed to.

I think my only other issue is that it was when they're like bones and all. It's like, that's impossible. Like, unless you're grinding the bones into flour, like, what are you doing? Like, there's no way. You would take days. So, Elliot, we're talking about magic monster people. When we you see, you just said my old apartment, you would get Popeyes. The amount of bone that was left after.

But Dan, those are chicken bones. Those are chicken bones. They're tiny. They splinter. That's why you don't give them to dogs. Human bones, they don't break that way. They're tiny, they're splinter. That's why you don't give them to dogs, human bones. They don't break that weight. They're tiny, they're splinter.

That's why you shouldn't have been eating them all, you know, so I'm so worried every time. I'm like, this man is gonna choke. Yeah. I'm glad you weren't there this, you weren't there earlier today when I was having Popeye's lunch with Sammy while we watched the last Jedi. You're having Popeye's lunch?

They'll beat you up. Yeah, I had to, please don't tell Popeye that it is lunch. Guess what? What was it like a chill of spinach? Spinach, yeah. Well, that's the cause, it by that it is lunch. What was it like a chill out of spinach? Yeah, well, that's the cause it was all spinach. So even if he tries to fight me, he's just an old man with no strength that this covered in olive oil. Yeah. Uh, cool. That is covered in olive oil. That's like, it's like in Bronson when Tom Hardy just starts covering himself with the oil so that the guards can't grab. Yeah, it's

you can trick. Uh, Johnson when Tom Hardy just starts covering himself with the oil so that the guards can't grab. Yeah. Yeah. You get trick. But with Papa, you just got to stay in his blind spot, which is enormous because he's only got the one eye. Uh huh. Uh, damn. Why don't you, why don't you throw one at us?

All right. I'll go to my, we got the controversial takes. This is a controversial take controversy and it might be recency by bias, although I've now seen this movie twice because I went back to see it with Audrey and some friends who had not seen it. It is Babylon. I will not be taking tweets at me or email. I just don't know the only thing I'm mad about. I don't care what your life is going to be.

A three hour movie in the theater twice. Just the only thing I'm mad about. To our listeners, look, I love you. You're wonderful. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being members of Maximum Fun. If you are, I just don't need to, like, if you didn't like Babylon, that's fine. I don't need to hear about that. That's great. It's fine. But this is a big deal. This is the first one we talked about that I haven't seen yet. And I've

all and I'll a full disclosure. I am it as I almost never get to see movie all the way through in one sitting. I am halfway through Babylon right now. And what and I am as I almost never get to see a movie all the way through in one sitting. I am halfway through Babylon right now. And I am, I find that my take on it does not fall into either camp of what I've seen online. I'm neither blown away by its wild spectacle, nor am I offended or disgusted by it. And you know what, Elliot? I, I, number one, I kind of guessed that maybe this wouldn't be for you, but also like, I respect that. There are people who, out there, who outright hate this movie, and I just kind of guessed that maybe this wouldn't be for you, but also like, I respect that.

There are people who out there who outright hate this movie, and I just kind of don't get it. Well, here's my, here's my theory about some of it. I don't know. I think part of it is, and Dana said this many times in private conversations. I can't remember if said in the podcast that you think that people are not used to weird things in movies or wild, wild, tonal shifts. Well, so things that are deliberately meant to throw someone off balance or overwhelm you are

taken as bad when they're not bad. They're just, they're meant to have that effect. Yeah, it's like, like it's considered a plot hole. It's a cinema sin, if you will. Well, then also this is not a movie with like a very, like, like, it's starting, and it has like straightforward character arcs, but it is not like a linear plot in the way that also people, I think, come to have come to expect over the years. I mean, I don't know about that.

I mean, again, I'm only halfway through it, but I kind of wish it had a less linear plot. That's the, it's visually stylized and pacing wise. It's so, it's doing so many, so many different things, but I want it, it's story wise, I kind of wish it was a little. I guess what I mean is it's based around a lot of set pieces more than it is like a story and it also is like based so much about let's just be in this world for a while. Well, and here's what I think gets,

and that gets to why I think the other reason it's gotten so much dislike from critics particularly, is I think there's a real possessiveness. I would even call it a nerdy possessiveness about both film history and the past. And I'll say this, I had to, do we know anybody who's like a nerd for that shit? Now and I can think of,

and there's part of me, I watching it, I have to fight against the fact that I have my own idea of what the past of films was like. And the historical inaccuracies that he's got going on, which he's doing relatively deliberately, I assume, they are glaring to me in a lot of ways. And the way that he is presenting Hollywood as kind of pre-sound as kind of like this wild nonstop chaos party carnival, which it was not at that time. But also, I'm going to say, but at the same time, like, I have to fight against the fact that I now have an unpublished novel that someday,

I hope we get published, about Hollywood in the 30s. And so I have my own personal sense of what that what the old time Hollywood was like. And I think a lot of critics are are not able to let go of that. And it's the same way that like when Michael Clark Duncan played the kingpin in Daredevil, there were fans, comic fans who were like, kingpin's not black impossible. What? And a lot of those fans were racist, but not all of them. A lot of them were, some of them were just having trouble

letting go of their own preconceived idea of what this thing was. And I think a lot of film people are having that issue. That's my theorizing. Yeah. And well, I would like to speak to that in the sense that I think,

I also think that it's brilliance to me is in part that it is inspired by these like tales of Hollywood, but it is not purport to be like an accurate depiction of that. It is like Kenneth Engers book, Hollywood Babylon, from which this borrow is the title Babylon, even though it is not a direct adaptation in any way. But it's very much a spiritual adaptation. It's the same kind of tone idea. Well, exactly.

It's been widely debunked a lot of the stories, but also even when it was published, it didn't purport to be the truth. These were rumors in a new endo that he had accrued and put into a book and sometimes it's made up. Certainly, certainly the copy I read when I was a college student in 2000 or whatever was said on the front like the, like the hair raising true tales of Hollywood past or something. Okay. Okay.

At a certain point, I don't think Kenneth Anger says this is, this is die hard truth, but I think the ledger flip around it, you know? Well, okay. But anyway, to get to my point, finally, at the end of this road, it's a, that like, I think that Babylon sort of exists in this world that is like, okay, what if all of the legends and tall tales of Hollywood, Hollywood, like both like, were you about to say Hollywood? That was just my dumb tongue.

Let me take my point. All the legends, like both good and ecstatic and like crazy parties and like all that stuff and bad, like the sad stuff, like a Hollywood and old Hollywood where those were literally true. We're presenting this world where what if all the tall tales and rumors were like this zany thing that was going on all the time because of a sort of print the legend feel of like this captures something about Hollywood that a literal historical truth doesn't. I don't think it's trying to pretend to be more historically true than it is. You know, because it's fictionalized as it.

I think that's true, but I think part of the issue is also that he's truncated the timeline of Hollywood quite a bit. A lot of the stuff that Kenneth Anger is writing about is early 20s and kind of late teens and kind of middle 20s, as opposed to the era of what started getting to me was, there's that scene, that big set piece where they're shooting in the desert and there's an army and they're running around and there's also trouble and people are getting killed. And it's like, well, by 1926, 27, that's not how movies were made anymore. Like movies, this was a, this was a big business that was done in industrial style, you know.

And so I think he's doing stuff for effect because then he wants to contrast that with the sound era where it is in sound stages and it's much more controlled or whatever. Everything's locked off because of the where the sound is. But it's and it's I think that's poking at the same place that got me mad when I saw a man where they're like, we don't like make movies like the Wolfman here. And it's like, well, the Wolfman didn't exist yet. That was a movie that was made 10 years later. I think and I have to say it, Dan,

the movie that Babylon most reminds me of in a lot of ways is Mac. I hate to make your crank. No, but it really feels like Mac. Don't, don't yank my Mac crank because the thing about Mac is Mac purports to be the true story that tells a bunch of lies. Like this movie, like the beauty of it is like,

like there's not even, like Marion Davies is like briefly mentioned in not even like Marion Davies is like briefly mentioned in passing, you know, like, but like for the most part, even the characters that are like analogs, direct analogs for people are not those people, you know, is a wildly fictionalized like rumor-mongered version of history that then also becomes, I think, very touching by the end, although I will not spoil it for you. I'm looking forward to the end. I think the other thing that's kind of getting to me about it.

Again, I haven't finished it yet. So it's unfair for me to talk about it is that I feel like I think and this might be another thing that critics kind of get have have riled up their feathers, you know, is that it kind of doesn't so far, at least in the first half, it hasn't shown why anyone likes movies. And it's so much more about the crazy Hollywood aspect. If only a movie showed us the magic of cinema this year. So like here's the thing. I'm going to jump ahead to my number three choice, which is,

which might be controversial because it's not an exciting choice, which is the Fable Men's where it opens with them going to see the greatest show on Earth, a dumb movie, a very dumb movie, which did play a big part in Young Steven Spielberg's life, but they're watching it and he feels driven to recreate the train crash scene because it terrifies him so much, but he wants to be a part of it. And I feel like that movie made me feel it like I was like, yeah, that is what it feels like when you kind of fall in love with movies for the first time. And I want a little bit more of that from the beginning of Babylon so that it's not just people, it's just not just naked extra is dancing around to me being like, oh, how long

did that woman have to dance naked while they shot this tracking shot over and over again? I want to get a little bit more of that magic in there because that's what hits me in the heart. Well, Elliot, even though you're dragging me down, I'm going to lift you up and say that I also really like the Fableman's. It was one of my, you know, four and a half or five star letterbox reviews for the year. I like, I'm not going to, I'm not going to argue with you on the Fableman's because like, I walked out of that being like, Oh, a movie, a movie made by a person who knows how to make a movie. It does feel like, it felt like a movie in a way. Yeah, I had of had a similar feeling where I was like,

oh, that's like what, that's like the kind of movie that like, my parents used to be like, oh, you should see this movie. And they'd be like, oh, that was really good. I mean, I tell you something, this fucking Stevie Spielberg kid knows where to put the camera and how to move it around, how to move the actors around. It's like, I feel like I was on a couple of movies. This is like that this year where I'm like, oh, yeah,

this guy knows how to do this. Yeah. Like I saw Avatar 2 and I'm like, you know what? This fucking dude knows how to make this kind of movie. I mean, like Avatar 2, like a movie that essentially has like a lot of goofy dumb dopey stuff in it. But because you know it's how to make a movie, it's about spider now. I told you not to talk shit about spider. Yeah, the feral kid who looks like 33. Even though he is actually quite young back here, but in his

last name is champion, I think, which is perfect because he's a champion. Yeah. So the Fableman's before we go on to the Fableman, so I just want to say, Dan, can you get, I have not seen a lick of Babylon to wrap up Babylon. Can you give me a very concise pitch as to why I should watch it. Um, tempo, tempo, like Damien Schozole, like the, like the Whiplash director, like the beautiful thing about it is, like, it's made up as I said, of a much of set pieces. It has set pieces that are unrelenting and abrasive and set pieces that slowly ramp up and it has comedic set piece. I like, I think that it is sort of masterfully paced despite being three hours long.

I almost feel like it would be more effective for me at least as a movie if it did not have continuing characters and it was more like the French dispatch where it's like almost a one man anthology of scenes set. Yeah. This weird time in Hollywood. This is not a time to be a detractor, Elliott. I just need to know why people should see Dan's number, what number two of the year. Um, but also, I mean, like it has the same, the exact same like arc and beats as, uh, good fellows and boogie nights. But so I was imagining a, uh, a triple feature of all of them and like what

a roller coaster of like up and down emotional. I mean, I guess that's the other thing about again, I haven't finished Babylon, but like I kind of know where the story is going because there's only one. It's the story is not going to end with them having the greatest successes of their lives and they become happy people. Like, but there's because that's not the way Hollywood stories go. And they're just promise like, okay, Damien Chisel, you found a new way to tell the same story Hollywood has been telling about itself since the silent era when they were making movies about how they made or like the original star is born in the 30s. You know, that's why I should love it, Elliot. It's like a movie from me. No, but it makes it the same. The same way that

bones all made me think about badlands. This makes me think about the novel, The Day the Locust, which I just reread Earlier this year and which is such a great novel about kind of the same themes, you know, but from a different At point of view, but uh, so I guess what I'm saying is there's always a better version of a thing that got made now Hey guys There's nothing to do under the sun. It's not like the regular Marty Squishy. There's nothing new under the sun except for the tremors Yep thing to do under the sun. It's. I do. I'm like a regular Marty Squishy. There's nothing new under the sun except for the tremors. Yep.

Uh, well, there's evil under the sun when Peter Houstonov is around. That's right. So why don't why don't we move on to the Fabelman's another movie I have an chance to see yet. Elliott, tell me about the why, why is the Fabelman's in your top three? So the Fabelman's is a movie that going I was, uh, I was like, all right, how is this going to work out for me? Because I have to admit, I've gone through period like I think many film-going men of my age have gone through where Steven Spielberg goes from being the greatest director in the world to being someone you don't take seriously. I call it the Stanley arc where someone does amazing work for a period in their career.

Then they have stuff that's not quite up to that level and you start to dismiss them. And then at the end of their career, you remember, oh yeah, they're a legend. Like, there's a reason they're a legend because they may, because it doesn't matter if I didn't like the terminal because he made ET. Like that. So, and the Fabelman's is a not as fictionalized as you would think, telling of speech billburg's youth and how he got into movies, but even more than that, how his family fell apart

because of the relationship between his parents and his conflicted relations with both of those parents and his conflicted relationship between his family and film as a young man. And I felt like it was a story, it was one of those movies that feels like a novel because it's not a one, two, three story. But at the same time, it didn't feel like it,

one of those movies where you're like, it's a movie, but it's more of a novel and that means it's bloated and the characters don't go anywhere and things like that. There's some real funny parts, but there's a lot of really emotional parts that show a depth that Spielberg kind of doesn't let himself go to as often, which he's really capable of. And it feels it's the first time in the years

that I feel like I've seen a Spielberg movie and I'm like, this is a movie he needed to make and only he could make. And for me, it's right up there with like, maybe, I don't know if it's quite up there actually, but it's it's it's there's this world of like filmmakers making movies about why they are filmmakers. Yeah. And the best of those is probably like eight and a half, I guess. And this is not eight and a half, but it is, it's a worthy entry into that genre. First thing I thought you were talking about eight millimeter. Eight millimeter with Nicholas Cage, which is really about why we're, why we're filmmakers.

This is why we're all filmmakers to make stuff. Because all you need to, all you need to make a film is just to kill a woman on camera and then hide it in a rich man's vault for decades. Yeah, I was surprised seeing failaments. Like I thought it would be more magic of the movie stuff and I was surprised at how much it turns a very honest eye on his early life.

And he's like, it's stuff that he like clearly has processed. And also, you know, he has Tony Kushner to help him shape it or the best drumptus in the world. But like, although there's some part, and I was wondering if it's Kushner's influencer Spielbergs, there's a couple speeches at the end of the movie where characters suddenly become very self-aware of their point, their place in the film. And I'm like, wait a minute, guys, there's no way that he said that's something like that. But I do think that there's a lot more pain in it and like run or like actual reality in it

than I expect. Out of Spielberg kind of in general and it is a movie about movies that not only exalts movies, but interrogates like what it is to live your life with a camera in between you and everything that's going on in your life. Yeah, it's very much about that. That's a good point. And it's also a good looking movie. It's a colorful movie in a way that I feel like

the last few movies of Spielberg's that I saw were like kind of gray. Well, yeah. I mean, I feel like last year, West Side Story was, you know, for all of the sort of faults. Yeah. Is like one of the few, like, you should see this on the big screen movies of the, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, like a movie, just because it's an intimate story doesn't mean it is shot in a way that feels like television or without, not without that same level of kind

of like, just thought that Spielberg at his best puts into where to put a camera and had a cut of singing and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And it's a lot more, I think, brisk and fun than the trailers would suggest. Yes, I agree. And it puts the brisk in brisk it as I as I'm at this point in my life, I'm happy to see any Jewish family on screen that feels realistically Jewish to me. And I'm like, oh, yeah, this family feels so.

What's the face? The woman who's like a Lane Mays daughter is so funny in that movie. It's one of the grandmothers. Yeah, yeah. Have either of you guys seen Armageddon time yet? No, not yet. That's just my greener pile. Because I'm really interested to hear your thoughts on Jeremy Strong's Jewish father performance. Armageddon time yet. No, not yet. That's just my greener pile. I'm really interested to hear your thoughts on Jeremy Strong's Jewish father performance. I'm curious about it. I hear it's fun. I hear it's fun. I hear you. It takes a big swing.

So that's the thing is when when the other Jewel with the other big Jewish performance. So I recently was Amsterdam where I was like, what is it? What is going on here? So I guess to move on from Fabelman's, I would say my second place of the year was another film that while I was watching it, I definitely felt like I was in the hands of a capable director. I was like, this guy's making a movie and that's decision to leave Park Chanwook, a boy who, as I've said, this guy's making a movie and that's decision to leave Park Chan Wook, a boy who, as I've said, makes bangers. Yeah. It's like, like Dana's point out, it's not as visceral as a lot of his other movies, but I feel like that's part of the appeal. It is like you could, you could distill it and say that it's just vertigo set in South, you know, set in Korea,

that it's, uh, that it's about a detective who forgets how to do his job because he meets a woman who's too hot. Um, but it's just got, like it's filled with so many tiny, low details. It's filled with details that me and English speaker wouldn't notice because they're like language-based details about where you wouldn't know that one of the, like one of the woman's character arcs is that, or one of her traits is that she is not a native Korean speaker. So her Korean is like, accented and people will think of her differently. Yeah.

I don't know. Like, it's filled with so many tiny little details up to the point that like the woman's fucking wallpaper has, at first you think it looks like you look at her wallpaper that looks like mountains, but it's actually cresting waves. And the whole movie begins with mountains and ends with waves. It's nuts. There's so many tiny little details in it. And it's great.

And I love it. And again, it's another film that's like about like a desperate romantic and like this seeking for longing, this like longing for a connection. And in this case, a connection that once it's like once it's found for one person, it's dead for them. Like when one person stops falling, being in love with a woman, she then starts to fall in love with him. It's amazing and sad and I loved it.

It's great. And it's a movie grew in my opinion as time went on. Groove from the Despicable Me movies? Yes, yeah. Thank you. The forget. Forget his job because of the woman is hot. You're quoting a tweet, right?

I am, yeah. Like that quoting a tweet. I think it's very funny. Okay, I just didn't want to, I like, I knew that. And I think you knew that you assumed that all people knew that because I knew it. But I didn't want it to seem like we were just stealing material from. I'm not going to steal someone's. Yeah, you're right.

Thank you. Someone else. It is funny how many movies that describe so. I mean, like that's also the plot of Laura, the film are. Yeah, you're right. Thank you. Someone else. It is funny how many movies that describe so I mean, like that's also the plot of Laura, the film are in. Yeah. He only sees her as a painting. That's what hot paint. Well, that's the back before we had that sounds like a hot painting. You just look at a painting and you're like, that's what I mean, that was the whole thing with the Mona Lisa's that in in Renaissance Italy, guys were just forgetting how to do their jobs, left and right, because they saw that painting. But with that smile, they're like, with that smile, you know, she knows it to do.

Yeah, well, they would see the painting and then they would look around and point themselves like, me, are you? Are you? Are you? Look, smile on me. Okay. And then they try and leave with her and the guard would stop them. Yeah, yeah, because there was still a guard at the back of the painting. These two of his jobs, you know, yeah. Yeah. Hey, don't a kiss at a painting. These two and his job, you know, yeah. Hey, I don't want to kiss at a painting. You got a guy's coming in here trying to kiss at a painting.

That's what you would say. That's what they sounded like. I have thoughts about decision-to-leave story, but I'm saving him a little further down the road. Okay, that's a spoiler. Okay. That's a, I guess we'll meet decision-to-le Crossroads, so you won't be lonely. My fellow graduates, for 500 episodes, my podcast, the JV Club with Janet Varnie, has gathered story after story of all the scandalous things we've done throughout our childhoods.

Stories like How Jimmila Jimmills survived a horrific house party and she was on crutches. Or how how loved one learned a Shakespearean monologue in his pajamas. Without your love and life tragedies, there would be no podcast. In fact, I have an exclusive look at how Maggie Lawson's mom confronted her after a sneaky basement meetup with her crush. Secure T. Listen to the JV Club with Janet Barney Thursdays on Maximum Fun! Class of the Forever! Hey, I'm Ben, and I'm Adam. We host a show called Greatest Trek on Maximum Fun that covers all the new Star Trek

ships, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Picard, Prodigy, Discovery, and any other new Star Trek show, Paramount Throws Addis. Come find out why we're the most important Star Trek podcast on the internet with our funny and formative recaps of all the new Star Trek shows that Paramount keeps churning out. Subscribe to Greatest Trek, it's a new Star Trek podcast from the makers of the Greatest Generation. Star Trek podcast from the makers of the greatest generation. The flop house is sponsored in part by members in large part in overwhelmingly large part.

Sorry, I went on autopilot there in overwhelmingly large part by listeners, members of maximum fun. If you want to join, go to maximumfund.org slash join, but we also take advertisements, including J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J-J- Internet's only hot take machine. Join us, Maddie and Cameron every week, as we review the discographies of artists that are misunderstood, unrecognized or dismissed. Started season 25 to hear us in our full, trans and gender non-conforming glory as we aim our gay agenda at the music of Nirvana,

or start at the beginning and listen to our eggs slowly crack for five years as we listen to Garth Brooks, ICP, a lot of some more said and many more. So that is a think outside the box set. You can subscribe to think outside the box set wherever you get podcasts. that sounds absolutely delightful. That was a great ad read Dan, but step aside because Elliott's got something exciting to plug. Face front floppers, because in less than two weeks on Wednesday, January 18th, you'll

be able to walk into your local comic book shop and demand a copy of Maniac of New York. Don't call it a comeback. Number one, the third volume in the Maniac of New York, don't call it a comeback. Number one, the third volume in the maniac of New York saga. That's right, it's the start of a whole new maniac story, new thrills, new chills, new kills, and maybe a new maniac. We'll see with all the horror and satire you've come to expect from the team of electrifying elite Kalen, Andrea Masterpiece Moody, and terrific Taylor Esposito. So on Wednesday, January 18th, don't forget to tell your local comic shop owner, make mine maniac by going to the comic store and

buying. Maniac of New York, don't call it a comeback. Number one, January 18th from Aftershock comics. And now back to the podcast. Okay. So Dan, you tease us with another, another hot take. Yeah. What's what else? No, it's not a hot take. I was just chastising myself for breaking the rules, but I think this fits in in an interesting way because as I said, like as Elliot pointed out, I like maximalist filmmaking a lot of the time. I like it when a movie is throwing a lot of stuff at the wall and filmmaking a lot of the time. I like it when a movie is throwing a lot of stuff

at the wall and balancing a lot of, I don't know, eggs on top of straws on top of chairs. What, you know, what- People do that probably. Yeah. And Babylon for me is that maximalist thing. Tar is the other side where I do like, I mean, like that is a movie that is doing a lot of stuff. It is not like a movie without style as a tremendous amount

of stuff, but it's very patient movie. It's very, it is minimalist and so you're saying it's done as darling, you do know why you go to extremes. Too higher, too low. I do know in between. Yeah, well, but I'm going to find some in-betweens for my number three. It's a tie. It's two horror movies. Love it. Both do wild stuff. One's a lot funnier than the other, which is sad. But it's barbarian and resurrection.

And I think both of these movies, an interesting thing about them is they are patient until it's time to not be patient. And then they unleash some of the wildest shit you'll see in horror movies. And for both of them, I don't necessarily want to say too much about it, but they were my like to like fun spinning off the rails, but still in control, surprise horror movies of the year. Did you want, did you see either of these, Elliot? I saw Berberian, I haven't seen resurrection.

Okay. So if there's any, so I'd rather you not release the spoilies for that one, but Berberian, I saw and I, that was one of my, I was in my not in my top three other favorites category. Yeah. When it, when it was working for me, it was in my not in my top three other favorites category. Yeah. When it, when it was working for me, it was really working for me. I have to, by the end of the movie, I had felt it kind of like had become a little bit less than the, the sum of its parts, but, but it certainly, it was one of the few movies I've seen recently where something would happen.

I'd be like, that's not what I thought was going to happen. Yeah. So that gets a lot of points for me. Yeah. Now, that was, that was really what, like like the trailer does a good job of not only setting up the movie that you kind of imagine it might be, but then setting you up to think like, oh, I know where this is the surprise is probably going to go or what I like. And then the surprise I think of Barbarian is how wildly different it turns out to be

in, you know, I'm ruining it by saying that, I guess, but I just like, like Tar, Barbarian kind of within a less overt way. I feel like with Tar, you know, right off the bat, this is a cold character with, with Justin Lam's character, it's like Barbarian keeps giving you reasons to think that he's going to become a better person. And then he continues to not do it. And I was like, I really, I really admired the movie for being like, yeah, this guy is not going to suddenly, he's not going to change.

Like this. Well, I mean, I think that's an interesting point. I was talking to somebody who said he didn't like Barbarian because he's like, I can't believe you're supposed to be sympathetic to her just in the longs character. And I'm like, I think you're misreading the movie. I don't think you can understand what's going on in that movie. Yeah. I mean, you can sympathize with.

You won't even just be the baby. He should just be the baby, everybody. Well, that's that you can sympathize with any character whose life is in danger at a certain point, you know, at a certain level. But I don't think you're supposed to sympathize that character. Although I will feel also barbarian. I read a piece afterwards and this was like, how come the scariest thing in horror movies these days

is naked women's bodies? And I'm like, yeah, you know what? The movie gets a fair amount of scare value out of a character with no clothes. And it was like, I did feel a little bit bad afterwards after thinking about this. Guys, I have a question. What if...

I both understand. What if she got after she got canceled tar had to go back to the barbarian house? Yeah, it's called Tarbarian. Yeah. That's how that be so funny. If the scene in tar where she was back to her child, no, she goes back to that house, goes down into the base.

Seems like you forgot where you're from. I wanted to say was I can see where that article is coming from on the one hand on the other hand. It's not just a naked body. It's a like eight foot tall. You know, yeah, yeah, who's a mergers. Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah.

I think we can trust. It's a, we can all agree. It's a monster. I mean, I'll be at a sympathetic one in certain ways that, sure, you know, let's not get into it. Sure. I'd like, you know, it's like, and I, I mean, that the movie, the movie does a great job of making you as the viewer, I feel more sympathetic with the monster than with Justin Wong, which is, yeah. Oh, that's funny. And the resurrection is great. I mean, that's a movie with two like world class performances. And you don't get that in a lot of horror movies where

with Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth, it's just incredible. Yes, yes. That is the reason. I mean, even if you know, for people who maybe won't want to go, the places, the movie is going to take them. I'm being vague, obviously. Like, I think even those people probably would enjoy the performances in the film. That's when I've got to see, I got to put it on the top of my list when I finish Babylon. I got a number three, and I also have an honorable mention. I have one more honorable mention, but you go first with your number three.

Number three, perfect. So number three for me is a movie that again makes me fall in love with the magic of cinema. That's nope. Jordan Peel's like horror comedy action adventure movie, that was not exactly what I expected to be. And it wasn't just because of twists or turns, it was just like I didn't expect it, like the marketing kind of misled me maybe, or maybe my brain doesn't work.

And it's like Daniel Collouin, Kihei Palmer, or So Charming. And then he throws in a Keith David cameo and a Michael Wynnecott cameo. And an alien design that I have never even considered. It's like beautiful and fun and scary. And yeah, it's just fucking great. Yeah, and there's a fucking Akira bike slide in the movie, Jesus.

I'm gonna toss out a theory here, which is just that like, I think that I've laid a lot of the movies I've loved, including Noop. You know, have been the ones that have surprised me in some dramatic way. And I think that for a while, like movies were so obsessed with this idea of twists and surprising people through twists and people want twists. And number one, that's a very hard thing. They made a hard dance about it. Yeah, come on baby, let's do this. I mean, they even made a whole movie about it called Twister. Yeah. But number one, like, Twists are a very hard thing to pull off well because they're like so entirely based on plotting and whether the audience is going to think that you played

fair with them or whatever. And so you have to be fair while still. And it's just, that's hard. But number two, like, we got to a point where twist became so frequent that now, like, everyone's ahead of them or trying to anticipate them. Yeah. Whereas these movies that are this new crop that I'm talking about seem to have discovered new deeper ways in being unexpected, like, to realize that it doesn't have to be, this narrative, like, gotcha surprise, but maybe just, like, go about how doesn't have to be like this narrative like gotcha surprise, but

maybe just like go about how we're gonna structure the narrative or like literally like let's take this narrative in a different direction than we've seen before. It's not a twist. It's just, yeah, let's be a little more creative people. Yeah, I don't know. It seems non-plussed by a- No, I don't want to rain on you guys' parade. I actually found, I actually, one of the categories that Stewart, who just was biggest disappointment, I actually was pretty disappointed in

no. I had real high hopes for no. No, but. That's a quite rhyme, but almost. And for me, it just kind of like, there was so many things I liked in it. And like you're saying, all the stuff you'd named, like the performances in it are great. I love that creature design. I love that Akira bike slide. There's a lot of things I like in it. But for me, it was like a lot of elements swirling around that I couldn't quite find the connections to. And it kind of never, it never really hung together for me. So just kind of didn't, it just didn't do it

for me. But I don't want to, I don't want to tell you guys that you're wrong to feel that way about it because you're not. This is, I mean, my take on it, you know, but that's instructive too, because I think this comes down to like, for me, at least, you know, I don't know how Stewart feels like, like the things that I have discovered about like talking to you about movies and talking to Stewart about movies, like what are personal tastes are like I Almost like it better when a movie like throws out a lot of things that like You know provoked ideas within me and then refuses to tie them together. Yeah, you know, because I'm like Yeah, I would hate as a teenager where I'm like I needed all to make sense

Well, it's not even a matter of making sense. It's more of a, cause I've, and as, as Dan knows, I'm also a talking heads fan and they told me to stop making sense. And I said, okay, sir, I won't make sense anymore. Raspberry, dishwasher, bubble gum, duck. Hard way to live your life, but I did. It makes it very hard to do anything or to hold down a job that I will not make sense, sir.

I think it was more like, I feel like Jordan Peel is kind of moving in a direction with any of us made that many movies. It's kind of moving in this direction of each movie being a little bit less tightly constructed in a traditional way, I guess, because certainly, nope is very constructed. Like he's telling you the story as he wants to tell it to you and the structure is there. But there is the, maybe I'm being too traditional minded, but I'm like, I'm curious to see how the story about this chimpanzee is going to tie up with the story of this thing. Oh, it doesn't. Okay. I mean, it does not thematic level that I'm not quite getting into at the moment, but that's okay. But I feel like I'm curious to see what he does next, whether

he continues in that direction, because I think if he goes even further with it, I might like it more. Yeah. At that point, when he's making movies that are almost like Valerie's Week of Wonders that are just like surreal happenings, you know, that you can dig into rather than, I mean, on the guy who recently recommended Fruit of Paradise on the podcast, which is a movie where like, you really have to be digging in hard to find the story in it. And so I think it's more like, right now I think he's a little too betwixt between for

me and I want him to go in one direction or the other. But that's just, again, my personal taste. Everything's moving from a technical point of view and from a storytelling point of view, he's, it's, he's amazing. He's doing amazing work, you know? Yeah. Well, I, I agree in that, like, I think that the, like, the narrative messiness that is there, like, is genuinely narratively messy and is connected on a thematic level. Like, he's interested in, like, doing these things, making the thematic connections rather than making it express. And for me, he successfully marries that then to like big budget Hollywood filmmaking, but I can understand like, it's not my aesthetic, but I can understand someone

being like, I want it to be tighter. Well, there was a certain point where I was like, man, I don't, I'm not quite sure why they're so intent on getting a picture of this thing. Like, and I, and I was like, they're really risking their lives to do this. When they don't have to, there's no reason that they have to. And I feel like in a more traditional movie, which might not have improved it, you'd have like, they got to clear their name or some dumbness that they have to do it, you know, which I'm not saying they should have done that. But there was a certain point where it's like when they're, when they're, when they're

dying where I'm like, this seems like it's more trouble than it was worth to get this thing. Yeah. I feel, I mean, again, I feel like that's part of the charm. And I feel like having been swept up in the movie, I feel like it all makes, that makes sense to me in the context of the movie. But yeah, I get that. It's another one that I wish I'd seen. I wish I'd seen the theaters. It was one of the

rare ones that I got to sit and watch it all the way through, but I'm still watching it at home and not in that cocoon of unreality that is a film, a film viewing experience. Yeah, especially those like the opening moments with the fucking chimp in a seat like a full theater of people. Yeah. Like not knowing what to expect was really great. That was great. And my and my honorable mention is another genre movie and that was a huge surprise to me

and was probably the most like fun I had watching a movie and that is pray the predator movie. It's so much fun. It's filled with like, oh shit moments. It's the first time I've seen like a predator movie and all, you know, since what, the first predator, sorry predator to where I was like, no, I watch all these fucking, you sold fucking toys. I rewatched Predator 2 recently and that movie is it's one bonkers and two super racist. Yeah. Everything about it is super racist.

Yeah, it's really great. If you're, if you are on the fence and you're like, I'm not sure, yeah, like you're not going to see, I don't think you're going to see a better like action horror movie this year than prey. And Amber Mithunder gives an incredible performance like she holds that whole movie down in the dog lives, sorry, to spoil it, but the dog lives. It's an important thing. And yeah, there's a, there's a specific action sequence where the predator is just going, fucking nuts. And it rules.

Yeah, I really liked to pray too. I thought that was that that was on my, on my biggest surprise list, where I didn't, I didn't expect it to, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. And then I did. Yeah. Fair. Ellie, you have an honorable mention. My other honorable mention is the, the other, the other big hit of the summer, triple R. That's right.

RRR, the, the Indian Action Adventure movie that is, that there's so many fun scenes in it. And it's so high energy and all that stuff. And I know that like there are a lot of Indian film fans who are like, you think that's original to RRR. They do it in this movie, in this movie too. And I'm like, that's true, but there's still a lot of it in this. There's a lot of movie here.

And you still get to have a fight scene where a guy is on another guy's shoulders running around for the whole time and a scene where a guy unloads a cartful of animals to attack British soldiers in the same movie that there's a huge dance competition number that goes on for a very long time. I actually literally just started watching that movie today.

I'm like an hour in because I want to do a double... I want to do a double feature that I call tarar. They're two very different. The whole sequence, you don't get the fucking, you don't get the opening credits until 40 minutes in. It's like drive my car level. And those opening credits turn into a fucking friendship montage, which is amazing. It is, it is one of these movies that it is. So it remember what it reminds me so much of is Hong Kong action movies from the 90s, where you'd have these super like big brutal action scenes and then you'd have a scene

where two guys are just crying over how much they love being friends. And that really makes me wish that the heroes in American action movies were able to show emotion much more. The thing is, the thing is just there. These two guys have incredible gestures. The thing that bumps it down to me for honorable mentions is that at the end of the movie, there's a long song number that feels like that after the story is over, they have this kind of epilogue wrap up musical number about the strength of the Indian nation that starts to feel very like not not what's the word for it. Not inclusive to all the people who live in India,

basically the current government India. And by the end of it, it feels very much like, no, this is what we do. India, we have, look at all these great heroes of Indian nationalism who are all Hindu, none of them are Muslim and Gandhi is not here because he was not, he was not as on board with this as we are. So by the end of the movie, I was like, wait a minute. Did I get tricked into watching propaganda because there's all these great action adventures scenes in it? And so I kind of felt like, like, wait a minute.

Did you sucker me in with a scene where a guy unleashes a tiger on somebody? Am I watching a Michael Bay movie? Yeah, so there's a, there's this, and I think part of that comes from, there can be a really exciting thing to watching a foreign movie that is meant for a foreign audience where they are not like, well, this is the movie that's going to be big in America. And so we're going to do it American style. If you're watching the movie that is meant to be watched by an Indian audience that wants that, that there's sometimes where you kind of like, I can feel myself stumbling into, uh, into frames of reference that are not necessarily

my own. And I'm like, am I, am I, like, enjoying something that is not totally, that I wouldn't feel totally okay about if I was fully aware of everything I'm on in it. And so there's, that's the only reason it's, it mention because otherwise it's a real thrill ride. Book a Lupstoo because you got a lot to look forward to. Yeah, I can't wait. Have you not seen the dance competition scene yet? No, I think I'm just about to start it. I think that's about an hour in, but I'm not sure.

We'll find it. I mean, it's, there's, if it is, as you meant, it is after the opening credits, which as you mentioned are 40 minutes into the movie. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I like driving my car. Take that, take that tar. You don't need to throw all the credits up at the top. Great. Sure. I'm not taking, I'm not taking an app. I just haven't seen RR. Yeah. Yeah. I think you'd enjoy it. If you, Dan, you're really into three hour movies these days. They're like, you're not as spectacle. Yeah. Yeah. You see RRR. I love it. I love it.

The reason I haven't seen it is I wanted to see it on the big screen with an audience. And they keep, they keep having like this and that pop up in New York. And I hope that I will be able to see it that way. Okay. So now that we've talked about our tops of the year, let's, let's do a little bit of speed round. Let's talk about some of our other favorite things that might not have fallen into our top three. Does anybody have any favorite performances? I know for me, one of the standouts was Lashana Lynch in the women king. It's like super charismatic performance that like in a way anchor like Violet Davis is incredible

and she's absolutely fucking yoked. I mean, she is so huge, but Lashana Lynch also provides this like emotional center that anchors the whole movie and she's fucking great and I can't wait to see your more stuff. Um, what about you guys? Well, I have to admit, I just, you know, picked some categories from your lists. I don't have anything like I can't round robin like this. I just have the ones that I have. So for performances, I'll say, uh, from the opening moment, minutes of tar, not to keep talking about tar again, I was like, this is maybe my favorite Cape Lanchett performance I've ever seen because I will, I'm like, I'm seeing a- I'm a lateral.

Even more than galadriel, even more than Queen Elizabeth, even more than, isn't she the ex-girlfriend in, is it hotfuss? Where she has a mask on, and she's in one scene. One scene is great. So that she is, it's one of those performances where I'm like, this is not necessarily a flashy performance,

this is not a showy performance. I feel like I'm watching a real person who lives and is not Kate Blanchett that she is creating a person on screen. That was really exciting to me. My honorable mention though, I have to say, I'm gonna give it to Margot Robbie because whatever movie she's in,

even though I don't think I'm gonna be liking her big movies of 2022 that much. Amsterdam of course I hated. And Babylon, I don't think I'm gonna be liking her big movies of 2022 that much. Amsterdam, of course, I hated and Babylon I'm not so sure about. She gives her all in every part. I feel like she is always acting at 100,000 percent and every single part I've seen her in She acts like this is the part. It's like she's auditioning to become a movie star every single time she's in a movie And I have really that really impresses me that she is, she still seems to be so passionate about her performances in every VSC RN. Well, she obviously radiates charisma, but she's also just so physically precise. Whether

or not you love Babylon, hate Babylon, whatever, there's that long scene where at the beginning, at the party where she's drugged up, but she's feeling the music and she does like this amazing dance number that she is like tossing her whole body into and is captivating through the whole thing. I said, I in the dance the awards this year for Best Margot Robbie dancing Babylon, that's hands down over Amsterdam. That's for sure. Wow. Okay. Oh, wait, was suicide squad this year? She was good dancing in that. I see. But even whether she's playing Harley

Quinn or Tonya Harding or whoever, I feel like she's always acting to the hilt and I really admire that a lot. Yeah. Dan, do you have something for a different category? Uh, well, I, yeah, I'm sorry to have gummed up the work. Don't apologize. I just have a, I, I, you're true. I paired up, I paired up biggest disappointment and biggest surprise. Okay. Hmm. A surprise disappointment. So, you know, don't go breaking stews heart. I put decision to leave on my biggest disappointment not because I didn't like it Stoost do stop smearing ashes The keeper of the stars. I gave it three and a half. I think it's, I think it's good. And I understand why other people love it. I just, you know, like I love Park Chanwook and I don't want him to not be

garish and, and wild. Like, you know, that's not what I want out of his movies. And I understand, you know, like, like, they're all the critics who are like talking about decision to leave. And like, oh, it's such a mature work from Park Chan, Wilkins, so was straight. And I'm like, that's not necessarily good in and of itself. He's so good at being like wild and doing nutty things in the movies and like making like just being like a virtuoso, like just let he did this one for Ellie that not for Dan. Yeah. I mean, I love his other movies, but yeah, that's he did it. He's like, he's like, Elliot, I'm at the same place in my life that you're at in your life where you're looking for emotional

connection and not just empty stylistic. You're gonna love it. Right, but I do like those movies. I can't wait to see it. You've always been older than BLE even though I am in fact much older than you. I'm gonna say biggest surprise positive was a weird was a weird this will show you how few movies from this that from 2022 that I ended up seeing was like orphan first kill which we watched for the flabby, which I was not expecting to enjoy as much as I expected to be as kind of like loony garish of a pulp movie as it was. And the other was, is the menu a 2022 release

or 2023 release 2022? Yeah. I watched the menu recently and I was like going into it, I was like, all right, what am I going to feel about this? And I really enjoyed it a lot. And it was not an amazing movie and the satire targets are pretty broadside. You know, it's not a, it's not the most sophisticated satire, but I really enjoyed Ray Fiennes performance in it. And I think it works better as like a fun thriller than as a satire. Yeah, exactly.

I think it worked. It worked as a fun thriller. And it's got a bunch of good pretentious chef speeches. And Nicholas Holt is fucking great in that shit. He's so funny. He's such a funny performer like the, that he's, uh, so, yeah. And, and, and, and you're telling your Taylor joy is good in it. Like this, it's a, so that was one where I was like, I kind of watched it on a large and I was like, yeah, this is a really fun thriller.

Yeah, I'm enjoying this one. So also a really good performance from Hung Chao, who also gives a good performance in the whale on movie that I did not particularly care for, but does have good performances. Now if we're talking biggest disappointments then, if I'm gonna pair it up like Dan did, danted, again, I mentioned, nope, was a bigger disappointment. We're just because my expectations were so high for it, and it just didn't match that.

But I'm pairing up biggest disappointment with another category that Stu had, which was seen that really stuck out to me. I don't know if you guys saw the movie Athena, but the opening scene of that is astonishing, and the rest of the movie just does not stand up to it. The opening scene is this, and this feels very like, it feels very bablon fanboyish also because it's a lot of, it's a movie that a lot of long takes. We are like, how do they do this in a single take? And it's a single take that involves an assault by a gang on a police station and then them going through the police station stealing stuff and blowing things up

and then getting into a stolen van and then driving away and it's all happening around the same time. It's really astonishing. And the rest of the movie, you're like, oh, this movie's gonna be so amazing. And then it turns into kind of a, kind of a flat,

a dramatically flat movie that has a lot of like set piece things in it. But by the end of it, you're like, oh, this is also a movie about like young people rising up against a government. And there's no real ideas in it. And the characters don't really make sense. I don't really know why they're doing anything. All right. But that first opening scene is a stunning, is astounding. So it's kind of like worth watching the first 15 minutes of the movie. And then being like, all right, I saw what this movie has and then turning it off. So that was disappointment that didn't live up to that.

For a disappointment, I wasn't a big fan of Thor, Love and Thunder. I feel like it was such diminishing returns from the previous Thor movie. And I feel like maybe I've gotten tired of Tyico with TD's thing or, I mean, ultimately, just the whole thing felt very lazy and considering how much money is involved in these things, you would think, I don't know. Well, the thing is, the clearly, Tico with TD is stretched at the moment. Yes. Yes. Working on a lot of different things. That's a big part of it, I'm sure. The ish, as much as I didn't love nope, Jordan Peel feels like he is constantly developing and constantly pushing himself. And it feels like at the moment, at least, Teco-Otidi is not

doing that. And he's done a lot of work that are really loved, but yet feels like he's kind of like, people are paying me a lot of money. Coasting, yeah. Coasting, I think I'll keep doing it, you know. Yeah. To move back to pauses, if I can. Yeah, of course. Uh, no, no, no, no, we're now we're just in the, in the dumping part of the, the episode. Two Dan, here's what I don't like about you. You're too nice. Oh, that's not what you don't like about me. Um, uh, so, you know, this, uh, this will get more hate mail for old Danny Boy after liking Babylon

and saying I didn't like decision to leave as much as Stuart. My positive surprise will get everyone making fun of me. It's bullet train, a movie that probably benefited from the fact that I went to it sort of on a lark because I have, you know, a season pass. And it was what was playing. And at that point, everyone had come out with their, you know, bad reviews. And I'm like, but maybe I'll like this. And it didn't spark joy at the beginning. I thought it was going to be like what it looked like in the trailers, which was a sort of post Tarantino smoke and aces, lucky numbers, 11 bullshit. Yeah. That like clogged clogged up America's colon

circle like 90s. But yeah, I'm ready to spend at least two days in this valley. Yeah. How many heads were in this double bag better be in this date? I'm dead and I'm in Denver are there things to do here? This may ask me to concierge at the mortuary. Nobody got a Zoe. I'd like to be killing it. Hey, what kind of things do you have in the menu? Bad. Do you have any? You're very bad. You're telling that even out of this boondock, you got saints. Anyway, I thought it would be that kind of bullshit. And like on a certain level, I guess it is, but speaking of my maximalism, it just keeps piling on layers and layers and like narrative digressions and gimmicks to the point where like, if you're me at least,

you stop being mad at it for being too gimmicky and start getting amazed at it very how gimmicky it gets and like it becomes less that sort of glib action comedy and more like a loony tunes cartoon, which is when I started really kind of locking into it and enjoying myself. And I think if you look at it as like just this wacky live action crime cartoon, it's a lot of fun. So before we move, we move on to wrap this whole thing up. We did talk a little bit about how

we don't only watch new movies. I feel like we all watch a ton of movies. Was there anything from pre 2022 that you watched that you really connected? What was your like best first time watch this year? It sounds like, Gaelic, you watched a lot of 2021 movies this year. I mean, I was like, what movies am I talking about?

Well, of course, the last duel, of course, the tragedy of Macbeth and I'd be like 2021, 2021. But I, so this is, I think this will go down in my personal movie legend, which was this Decision this serious movies that I watched this year that really I would that where I was at a very low point emotionally That really kind of helped pull me back and they're not like it's not like go

I went and watched a bunch of comedies and they like lifted my spiritual whatever But there was a there was a night when I was going to I was going to a period that I have not fully brought myself out of where things that once brought me a lot of joy no longer bring me joy the same way. And I was like, am I gonna watch Thor, Love and Thunder right now? Don't. Knowing I'm probably not gonna enjoy it,

or am I gonna watch this Spanish movie from the director of Spirit of the Beehive that I don't know anything about? And I watched that Spanish movie, it's called El Ser and it was just like it's Dan would hate it it is a quiet movie about the relationship with man and his daughter and there is no spectacle to it there's a part where he's divine he's using a defining stone to find water and a field and I'm sure Dan was like okay this is how his powers are shown. Okay, what's the, was there a geyser that's gonna come out? He's gonna ride it into space. But no, that doesn't happen. And I went on, I was on this run where I was like, okay, I'm gonna just watch movies

that I think I'm gonna connect with emotionally. And I, in three in a row, I watched Elser passing and afterlife. I think I ended up recommending all these in the podcast. Yeah. And it was just like, oh, these are all movies that like, I really feel like I got a lot out of and that may remind me of like why, why movies are a thing that I've spent so much of my life

thinking about and loving and wanting to be a part of and talking about. And it's like, oh, okay. So that was really, so those were ones, there were a bunch of the movies I saw this year that were not from this year, about the all older movies. Mr. Klein, which is from the 70s, Imagine in uniform, which is from the 30s. I was a simple man, which is from just a couple years ago. And then like there's this Japanese movie called Fighting Alligy. There's this, I really like the lost daughter, which is also from 2021 that I found this year. And like this Agnes Vardem movie called One Things, The Other Doesn't. I think these are all movies that I might have recommend on

the show, but like, that I just, I went, I realized like, okay, there's a lot of movies that I saw this year. And it was always better for me when instead of seeing the movie that everyone was talking about, because it's the biggest thing that happens to be out at the moment, I saw the thing that I had a sense might say something to me. And so that was really the best part of 2022 in terms of movie movies. That's got to feel good. We're like instincts were right. Yes. Well, that's the other thing is it's like it feels good when you are, when you feel like you are out of step

with the way a lot of mainstream entertainment is right now, which is weird for me since mainstream entertainment is essentially built off of Marvel comics, which has been in my bones for, you know, 30 years now, that like, yeah, bones, look, it's a spider man's in their bones and all that, yeah, all those bones that even cross bones, the Captain American villain. Absolutely. Yep. Yeah. Red skull. He's a bone. Yeah. Yeah. That's dry bones. That it was like, oh, wait. Yeah. The dry bones from Mario will show up in Marvel comics sometimes. I mean, eventually, at some point Disney's gonna buy Nintendo. And Chris Pratt will look at the camera and be like, well, that happened.

And we're like, okay, here's my money. And it was, it reminded me that like the movies I see, I was never limited this way, because as you guys know, I watch old stuff all the time. But the movies I see and that I care about and I talk about don't have to be just what's out at the moment and don't have to be the thing that the studios man tell me that I'm supposed to care about.

And that I had, I don't remember if I mentioned this in the podcast before but I had a conversation with John Hodgman earlier this year where we were talking about Moon Knight and he was like, it's not talking about Moon Knight and he was like, it's not, it's like, he's like, you know, you know, it's fun, but it's, you're not essential. And I was like, John, none of it's essential. We don't have to watch any of these. We can watch whatever we want. And it was great to like take the reins of my own movie viewing and be like,

I'm going to watch what I want. And to be rewarded so richly with movies that really, that really touched me in a way that I hadn't been touched in a while. Guys, it's been so long since I was touched in that way. I feel awakened as a viewer again. Dan, do you have one of these? You know what? I didn't originally, but Elliot was so sincere that I wanted to talk about. I watched a movie from 2019 called It Started as a Joke.

It was about the Eugene Merman comedy festival that ran for a while in Brooklyn. And it's a documentary and it touches on that. And then spoiler alert, it also becomes about the illness of Eugene Mermanens wife and her passing. And that's a very sort of moving part of it. But along the way, the reason it spoke to me, I can't really, I think it's a good movie, but I can't look at it objectively because I kept seeing people, I would either see on stage when I was trying to do comedy in New York during the same period or I would actually later come to know at the Daily Show or work with that I've been on in the past. And, you know, it's kind of an odd thing to think

that I'm old enough and that, like, you know, I was never a name in any sort of way. I just was trying to do comedy at the same time. But, is a scene still that i was a part of like it's weird to look back on that and see that in an actual movie about something. So that was that was a touching movie to see in one that i enjoyed a lot. see in one that I enjoyed a lot. Yeah, I mean, in a way, the movie that I think had the biggest impact on me is kind of similar in some ways to both what Dan was at and where Ellie it's at. Back in February, right before my birthday, I flew out, I had to fly out to Portland because my mother-in-law's husband passed away at the last minute.

And we, I have a tendency to like download movies out of my laptop to watch on planes because I have this weird control thing. And I don't know, I like to make sure that I have as much possible entertainment so I'm not bored. And I also have a tendency to try and watch things that say I wouldn't have a chance to watch at home. So I watched Oslo August 31st, which is a Yacham Treeer movie from 2011. He had made my favorite movie of last year, Worse Person in the World.

And Oslo August 31st is a single, tells a story of a single day in the life of a recovering drug addict who has one day to go leave his treatment center to kind of, to like figure out where his place is going to be when he leaves that treatment center. And I don't know if it's like being like an elder millennia whole or something and this feeling of like not knowing

exactly where you fit in the world and not knowing if you're where you're supposed to be, if you're at where you're supposed to be at for your age and also like coming out of the pandemic and not knowing like, I mean, we're still in a pandemic, obviously, but coming out of the pandemic and, and just like, not knowing how the world works anymore. It was like, it was a super moving and like, like crushing in some ways, like it's a very sad movie in some ways, but it also like, it was a super moving and like, like crushing in some ways, like it's a very sad movie in some ways, but it also like, I don't know.

It's that, you know, like even when you see something, it's super sad, but like, you connect with it, it makes you feel good. Yeah, well, I feel like that's what I was trying to get at. And you said even better, which is like, when I was feeling down and it was like, I didn't want happy things to Jolly Me out of it. I wanted something that, the thing that reaches out to you

and is like, I understand you, you understand me. Like you're not alone. And sometimes that means watching a movie about someone whose life is falling apart or is very sad. And you're like, oh, they get it. The same way I've tried for this before. The first time I ever had a kidney stone and it was super painful.

And I watched from beyond. And Jeffrey Thompson's going mad and he bites someone's eyeball out and I was like, this movie gets how I'm feeling right. And finally movie that understands me. Well, that's great. I feel like all things considered, it was still a good year for movies and it was a good year for us doing the podcast. I had a great time. I'm looking forward to another year of, let's say, good movies and potentially some bad ones. There's a lot of averages.

Leading off that, here's my New Year's resolution. I'm going to take a page from the book of Dan McCoy chapter one, but wait, let me move a little forward. Okay, chapter two more butts, chapter three wife. Sure. Yep. Chapter four, see chapter one. Okay, chapter five. Okay, here we go. That where I feel like Dan has said to me, he goes, we'll talk about a movie and he'll be like for this podcast. And it's like, I think you're looking for things to not like in it because you think you're supposed to for the, for the podcast. Like I'm going to go in and're looking for things to not like in it because you think you're supposed to for the podcast. Like, I'm gonna go in and I'm going to, I'm always want to enjoy it. And Dan has a habit of comparing the movies

to other movies we've seen as opposed to comparing them to all the possible movies in the universe, which I tend to do. And so my resolution is I'm gonna try to go into the movies that we see for this podcast saying, I want this movie to be good and I want to enjoy this movie and I'm going to go in expecting it to be good and hoping that it's good and hoping that I get surprised. And I'm going to go into every movie doing that.

And I'm going to bring that same energy to our next movie, Black Adam. Oh, boy. Like the movie that was so bad, it made the rock unfollow the official Black Adam Instagram account. That same one. Oh, but I'm going to go into it. Looking for the rock unfollow the official black Adam Instagram account. That same one. Oh, but I'm going to go into it. It's looking for the positive. I think I want to take a pay. Dan and I, we don't love all the same movies, but I think I really admire Dan that when you go into a movie you're like, what am I going to like about this? What am I going to see in this? That's good. That I'm going to enjoy. And what am I going to see in this that I haven't seen before and that's big and weird and surprises me.

So I'm going to try to go into movies with that mindset. And thank you for granting it to me. I've just stolen it from you. You don't have it anymore. Oh no, now I have to be more critical. It's all I have. Okay. We're real freaky Friday.

This is a bit. It'll be a real, a real, slightly different Friday. Castle free, he Friday. So this has been a presentation of a fly pass podcast. Oh no, I've got to take my daughter's test and my daughter's ripping my ding dong off. That's a cast on me. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, been, yeah, this has been a presentation of the flop-house podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thanks for tuning in to the future. Thanks for supporting our show.

There's other great shows, like ours, on the Maximum Fund Network. Thanks again to our producer, Alex Smith, who goes by Howell Daudy, and he makes this sound great. For the flop-house, I've been Stewart Wellington. I've been Dan McCoy. And I'm the new, hyper-positive Elliott Kaelin. Go movies, flop house forever. Bye-ee. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ fun.org. Comedy and culture. Artists owned, audience supported.