The Flop House - The Moment, with Hallie Haglund

Episode Date: August 22, 2026

Charli XCX is a huge pop star, seems cool, and is a genuine film lover -- but when she decided to make her own movie, were the results any good? That's what we were wondering about THE MOMENT, and we invited star of the show (and bigger Charli XCX-pert than any of us) Hallie Haglund back to the show to help us decide. Tickets for FLOP TV SEASON FOUR are now live! Go pick up a pass for individual episodes or the whole dang season!  And if you live in the Louisville area and want to see us live NOT through your computer screen, come to our show at Whirling Tiger in September! Stay updated on all things Flop House, plus a little extra, with our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets! Wikipedia page for The Moment Recommended in this episode: Dan: Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) Stu: The Furious (2025) Elliott: Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Hallie: The Proposal (2009) Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinflop

On this episode, we discuss the moment. Like right now? Hey, everyone. Welcome to the flop house. I'm Dan McCoy. Hey, I'm Stuart Wellington. Yo, yo, yo, Elliot Kaelin coming to you from the house.

No, no. Stop it right now. It's rejected. Slapsed back. Almost immediately. I tried something and almost immediately was told No, that's fine. I'm just going to say,

it was kind of the way you crossed your arms and looked all sassy when you did it. Was the angle of my hat, though, when I turned the brim not quite right to sell it? Was it the fact that I base this character mainly on T-shirts of Looney T-Tunes characters in Gangsta God? Yeah.

Well, anyway, we've got a guest joining us today on the Flop House, a very special guest. The specialist guest we've had, except for the time when my son was on the show, it's the star of the show. That's right. The star of the show is here. One, Halston Hagland.

You got to say something. She's just a mugging. Instead of saying hello. Hello. I like how Hallie's face fell when she took second seat to her child. To my own son. Yeah. Outrage.

Come on. Who's consistently more of a joy in your life? That is a good point. That's a very good point. known longer, Elliot. And who has more experience performing? It's all signs point to Hallie. That's true.

But this is an ongoing feud between Hallie and my older son, Sarve. Yeah. Wow. Watch out, Sammy. She's threatening. Hallie, I didn't realize you also had a large iced coffee along with that. Hallie's too badgerging today. I came prepared.

She's 40 ounces of water and a large iced coffee. Yeah. And the bathrooms under construction. Oh, no. That's true. What a terrible choice. If only I had one of those mobile toilet robots. That's what we were talking about before the show.

Hall is doing some amazing callbacks to material from before the show. Are you telling me Sammy could do any better? No, maybe not. Maybe not. Clearly, it's always a joy when Hallie joins us. And as happens when Halle joins us, I threw Hallie a list of movies. I was like, which are the. sparks joy for you.

And Hallie said, let's talk about the moment. The Charlie X-E-S, X-E-X, sorry. X, Charlie X-C-X. Is this how it's going to go? I mean, I will trip over several things when I try and say them. I will say, Charlie X-E-X is a hard name to say quickly. I was having trouble when I was explaining this movie to people, partly because I was having trouble saying the name.

Hallie was an amazing question. I don't know if it's going to end up on the recording, but Halley was raising the question of what number XX even is in Roman numerals, right? Because it's like 10, 110, but because their placement, those two X's should cancel each other out. They X's Charlie 100, right? Yeah. It's really complicated, guys. So what's this whole movie about?

Oh, and also on this podcast, we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it. So, Dan, what's this movie about? Yeah. Well, I'm going to start off by saying this movie is, I'm on summary, and this movie is hard to summarize because it is not about much. It is a fictionalized version of the experience of being Charlie X, CX. It is the truth about Charlie. It is a mockumentary where it is more about throwing you into the world and sort of the tone of like what's happening. I will say, I have never seen a mockumentary that was so low on mock and so high on youmentary.

Like it really feels like it is trying at times just to be a regular documentary. The comedy is so dry that is mostly evaporated, I would say, in this film. I laughed. Big you. Yeah, well, we'll talk about it. Not like the whole time. It's hard not to laugh when Cape Blanche in the movie. Yeah.

But she's given like nothing, nothing. You don't have to give her much. She's Cape Blanche. She'll make do with everything. Yeah, all she's got to do is go. That was really close her eyes. I was delighted to see her, but like Cape Burlant, like I think says three sentences maybe. Well, staff was in there letting flats all throughout the movie.

movie too? Yeah, I mean, I think he was great in it. And I mean, you have a comedic powerhouse, Rosanna fucking Arquette, dude. That's true. She's funny in it.

I mean, I was glad to see her. Again, I don't know that anyone is given much of anything. Well, SARSGuard is given the most. Yeah, yeah. He's so funny. Scarsguard.

Alexander Scarsguard is in it throughout MurderBot himself, and he's very funny throughout, yeah. No, he's got the most juice. So you know what? This is heavy on mock, I guess. Maybe, you know, know what, maybe after years of Christopher guest movies, our standards from

documentaries are too high. We expect nonstop laughs. In that they should make us laugh once. Yeah, exactly. I think I was cooler on this picture, perhaps, but we'll get into it. I mean, I think I would have disliked the movie more if I was summarizing it because we'll get to final judgments. Well, I was going to say, as I summarize, because it is a movie that is not, the

plot is not necessarily the point. I will probably skip a bunch of stuff, but if you want to highlight anything that I am skipping, please jump in. Okay. Now, wait, before we start with the plot, though, I just want to ask, what was your guys' experience with the work of Charlie X, CX before watching this movie? Because I got to say, other than that, I don't care song, I don't really know her music at all. I know that song, but I did not know until it played over the closing credits of this, that that was

her. So. That she was featured and she wrote the song that a number. another band is credited with. Yes. Yeah. Much like Sparks with the song singing in the shower. Yeah, I don't know that.

So that reference just flew right over my head. That's fine. That's the real Sparks' Eds. Unlike most of the references Elliot makes, which totally land. So, yeah, I mean, I was familiar with her. I think I was very into her letterbox reviews. I think she's, you know, I think she's got really great taste in movies, which is probably why she's in so many of them right now.

and she's very cool, right? Like, she's super cool. Very cool. She has his new album coming. A big theme of the movie. Is how cool she is. And she has his movie coming, her next album's coming out that has only one featured performer.

And it's fucking David Cronenberg, which is really cool. Yeah, I mean, like that, the impression I get is like, I think that she seems to be a cool person. The movie that was made, I'm like, okay, I guess you kind of needed to do this for your own, like, personal, like, therapy, maybe. But.

Hallie, what would be? Were you a fan of Charlie X-E-X before this film? Yeah, I will say, I feel like I'm probably more familiar with her than the rest of the group. Seems kind of like stereotyping, but yeah. But I'm not the big, I mean, it's, I'm more, I'm, you know, I like her music, but I'm sort of more into her, her lore, her, her place in the canon of, young pop stars, you know, she, her, her beefs, if you will, friendships. What kind of beefs does she have?

Taylor, obviously. Oh, never mind. That's not the kind of beefs. I mean, I'm into like, you know, eat edible beefs. I mean, I have a beef with Taylor, too. Taylor Farms. Taylor Farms beef. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Does she have a beef with Taylor? My tummy is not, is all over the place. I got to say, that's the kind of beef that I wouldn't have taken aside in until Taylor Swift had her wedding at Madison Square Garden and then I was like, you know what? I am on whoever side is not on her side. She owes me money. She owes me money.

And she owes Stewart money. To be fair, Stuart, if you go to a country where Taylor Swift is performing, when she's performing, she probably planned that show way ahead of time. It's not like she heard you were going in this stuff. If you're going to Australia, you might want to know that I'm performing there.

The hotel rates are going to be way higher. XX. Yes. Yeah. I do think that. that if you're Taylor Swift, you know, there are certain realities about your life that maybe require a different type of venue for your wedding than...

She did pay... I don't understand your point, too. I'm just like the security that is going to need to be happening when, like, the largest pop star is getting married to... Maybe it shouldn't be in the center of Manhattan? Exactly. Yeah. Okay, I mean...

For Maxx. some inconvenience of you're right Dan that's the most secure place in the world is Madison Square of Garden. It's the fucking Fort Knox of weddings. You gotta happen. That's really the president. When the president gets married, that's where it happens. He was going to take place there during a celebrity wedding.

Yeah, yeah. My summary just, there's a lot more insults towards all of you that just appeared. Wow, wow, interesting. So Dan's using AI to write his summary. All right, now we get it, yeah. I just blocked someone who literally just reposted an AI.

I'm like, nope, I don't need to see it on my time. Okay. Let's talk about the movie. It's 2024. It's Brad, it's Brad Summer, guys. Pop music has been banned by the world's tyrant government. It's Brad Summer. What does that mean?

I'm not clear. I never was clear. I don't know, but it's happening. I remember. Charlie X, CX is writing high. Now, here's the, again, here's the thing. Here's why I would prefer Charlie XXX to Taylor Swift. Just one more reason is that when it was Brad Summer, I didn't, I've, I've

vaguely knew Brett Summer was happening, it didn't really impact my life. It was just a thing that was going on. When Taylor Swift is getting married, I've got to hear about it all the time. And all I can think is, I cannot handle how fucking annoying it's going to be when she has a baby. And suddenly, I'm going to have to hear about her baby all the time. Whereas Brett Summer, you know what? It was just happening. I didn't need to know about it.

You're right. Those are two equivalent things. Well, that baby's going to be a Brett. The people involved faults about how much coverage it got. And all the cocaine you were doing just kind of made it fly by anyway. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Got to get into the moment.

But guys, you know, Brett Summer inevitably ends and it's bratless fall. What do you do? What happens? The label wants Charlie and her team to extend the whole Brett Summer moment. It never ended. That's the thing. It's how to keep it from ending. Yeah, exactly.

Brett Summer has to become the Brett year. Hallie, what, tell me, what are Brett Summer? Tell me, explain. It's just a feeling. If you don't know, I don't know if I can tell you. Okay. Convenient. It's like Louis Armstrong said, if you have to ask about Brat Summer, you'll never know.

Just the sort of answer you love to get on a podcast. Now, my understanding as a 44-year-old man is that... I don't really know. Is that Charlie Exx actually... Like, the idea of the Brat Summer, my understanding of it, which could be wrong, was that the idea of like, you're kind of a kind of joyful, deliberate being bad in a non-hurtful way to others. Like, you're kind of like you're bad, your behavior is bad.

know what, it's kind of fun, and you're not, you're not a troublement, you're not a Trump. You're not, like, you're not Stephen Miller. That's like Kamala was brat. Exactly. Because, well, Brinor, like, you're not going to play. Her shenanigans, all of the hilarious shenanians didn't hurt anyone. They didn't earn anyone because she never attained political power. I mean, I think the whole thing is like, it's kind of explaining the movie in the way that she put out this album that had a certain attitude and then like, everybody fucking glommed onto it.

And they're like, ah, it's Brad summer, blah, blah, blah, blah. Kamala's Brett. Mario from the Mario brothers is Brad Even though Luigi's the green one And you're like that doesn't make any fucking sense You know Mario is clearly the brat We all know Wario's the Brad Yeah yeah

Waloigi I guess because he's the green one But here's the thing Actually you know what now I'm on Taylor Swift's side Because I forgot that Brat Summer Really overshadowed Brat summer The seasonal celebration of tube meat Well I mean That usually happens in October

So the fact that was in the summer was kind of overstepping it. I know. They were trying something new, and then Brat Summer came and stole its thunder. It was trying to respect Brought Fall. Bratfall, the movie where the giant Brat is crashing into the earth. No, it's named after the halfway house that young James Bond was raised in. That's right, Brought Fall, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because he was raised by a butcher, yeah, exactly.

But, yeah, the label wants... The halfway house? I was like his family's estate. I thought Stapel was like his family He wasn't in the sister I thought it was like an orphanage or something Maybe I wasn't paying attention to that movie No, no, he's like he's got

He's like vaguely like aristocratic in some way To be the honest I don't like the idea of James von having an aristocratic background I like the idea of him being someone who's constructed this character But yeah Anyway, much like Charlie XX has had to construct this character Of the Brad That's right

And the label wants that to continue forever But Because money. They just see her as a source of money that you can get through being a brat forever. Yeah, like Dennis the Menace, raking in the dough by being a brat. Mm-hmm. How does Mr. Wilson feel about Charlie X-X? Is that a problem?

She's always ruining his prize begonias. Mm-hmm. She finds this cringe and her, you know, her closest team agree, but they want money to. But she's about to do a big arena tour. the main label Bigwig. That's Tammy, played by Rosanna Arquette, as we mentioned. Great to see her.

One of Charlie's team is Tim. He's played by Jamie Dimitrio. Can I ask something about Rosanna Arquette? What relation... The song Rosanna was about her. Yeah, yes, yes. Not quite a year since she went away. How is she related to the rest of the Arquette?

She's sisters with Patricia Arquette, right? Is she also sisters with David Arquette, then? Are they all three siblings? I think so, yeah. Okay. I don't know if... And they're all the children of Fritz Weaver, right?

David... Fritz Lieber? No, not Fritz Lieber. The author of The Great Mouser stories, no. Loving them. I was just... You've been reading... I'm reading some of those too right now.

No, you're right. Rosanne Arquette's sister, Patricia Arquette's sister. Alexis Arquette sister... I'm on David right. He had David's hotlinked, so he just went right there. Cliff Arquette, grandfather, Zoe Blue. That's right. grandfather's Cliff Arquette who performed as Fritz Weaver.

Yeah, yeah. Not Fritz Lieber, author of coming a track. Yeah. Yeah. Where is he? Who is he? We need to know because the family is going to lose you're all in danger. How does he fit in?

He's a brother. He's the sibling. Okay. I mean, he fits in mainly by doing phone service commercials nowadays. What a family. Can you imagine? Powerhouses. I know.

It's Hollywood royalty, the Arquettes. Yeah. As I was saying, I was glad to see Jamie, Dimitrio until I realized that he was not going to be given much funny to do either. Don't know who that is. Who is that? So he's the guy who plays her like manager or business manager. Oh, I like to.

Yeah, he's known for being, he had a show, Staff Lutz, Flats, and he's been in a bunch of other things. He wasn't Mr. Bays, no. He's, he bring, he definitely brings a improv competency that this role needed. But he's kind of just, they don't give, he's mostly doing what I would call Veep Light. Yeah. where it's like he's incompetent what he's doing, he's trying to cover himself up, but they don't give him actual situations to be up.

Cover himself up with a lovely windbreaker. That's true. But it also, there is something funny about the idea of this guy who is clearly not cool, who is the business manager for somebody who is cool, and she's looking to him, like, you know, later on she ends up looking to him for artistic advice, and it's clearly the worst person to ask.

The label is pushing a lot of brand deals, including a brat credit card from Howard Sterling, a failing bank company. Charlie is clearly overwhelmed by the sudden mega fame that she's experiencing and she's exhausted. And early on she has this opportunity for a free, abysive vacation. Wait, wait, hold on. Sorry, can I say something? Yeah, yeah. Because that was a funny moment. The brat credit card is a queer credit card.

And when she asked, she's like, well, how are they going to, do they have to, like, prove that they're gay? I thought that was a funny moment. I thought that was a funny interaction. That was something they could have done more with. The idea of if they were looking to do a comedy movie is the idea of a credit card that is specifically trying to cash in on the queer youth demographic that Charlie has as a fan base. And how do you do that and what does that mean? But they're not really that. It's not really about that.

Like the movie is about what is like to be famous to be torn in a bunch of people? a different directions. But I did think that that moment was funny. It was funny. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Did you laugh?

I don't know that I laughed. It's a mockumentary. It's not a laugh fumentary. It's not a laugh. It's a little bit less. I guess I gave it a rye smile. I don't want to like get too much into my feelings like overall before we get to the end. Dan, we start getting into your feelings.

Come on. But I felt like, I was like, this is gesturing at a premise that. could be funny without like taking full advantage of it. And that's my problem with like a lot of the movie is like I don't think it ever pushes anything far enough to actually find laughs. Like I can see like, okay, well this is the beginning of a comic idea that then it doesn't like heighten really. All right.

So what would you do? How would you heighten it? Yeah, yeah. Put Dan on the spot. He loves this. Oh, punch up house. The fix house. Show me.

Show me. Make a gayer. I was just like, It is like so, it's like such a short scene. Like I would just explore the idea more. How would you explore it? Okay. I'm not, I'm not on trial here, counselor.

This whole podcast's on trial. And a lot of this, up until this point, a lot of it is we are like getting brief introductions to the various characters that surround her and make up her life. And very few of them are that heightened. I mean, when like Kate Burlancho's up, you're like, okay, at least she's doing like a thing. She's like, I'm not saying she's, this is her best work ever, Dan. But I'm saying that at least like, this is a comedic actor who is making choices and is clearly like trying. I mean, this feels like stuff that's inspired by Charlie X-E-X's actual life. But on some level, it's also like, I don't care like that you met this person that's annoying.

Like, that was my vibe with it though. Like I'm like, okay, this is, like, it's like too inspired by her life, even though it's, because I don't think it's going the extra mile of being like, okay, let's make it more than like a story I might tell, like what is interesting about it to the world, you know? It's partly that it's not quite exaggerated enough to be a mockumentary. But you know what? We'll find out maybe that's okay.

Like if they're going to cast a cab driver, throw Eugene Levy in there. He'd be great. Yeah, that's what it needed was more cameo. Need more cameos I mean, those were the things I enjoyed When like people, I'm like, hey, I know who that is There was another pop star who shows up And I was like, I am not sure if this is a real person

Or a character Like I guess it's a real person, but if I There's, I don't remember her name or who was It was just not the girl who shows out, another lady Which at which part They're like in a bathroom Are you talking about Yeah, Rachel Sennett, she's an actress

Yeah, I'm the showy She's the creator of I Love L.A. Oh, I haven't seen it. I love LA. Star of Shiva Baby? I haven't seen Shiva Baby. I don't watch Jewish stuff. I'm not into it.

Yeah. She's very funny. Don't worry. She's not Jewish. I feel like there was a, in a mockumentary that involves famous people, they do one of two things. They either present themselves as the much worse version of themselves. And it's like, ha, ha, can you believe this? I'd never be like that.

Or they just are themselves and they just hang around and it is, they don't really do much of anything. and I feel like this movie can never quite be totally sure which direction it's going in with the people who are in it. But I thought Rachel Sennett was funny when she showed up. Yeah. She wasn't supposed to be... She was supposed to be herself, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, okay. But she was, like, the one that I felt was closest to doing, like, a heightened thing. Yes. Like, she, I mean, like, clearly she's like... And Scar's car. Really, yes. But he's playing a character. He's not playing himself, yeah.

But she's, like, really happy to be like, yeah, I'll do it. like the unpleasant version of myself but it wasn't like it could have been much more unpleasant like she didn't seem that bad you know or that like it wasn't the same as as Patrick Stewart on extras pitching the story about how he wants to make a movie

where he just uses his mental powers to make when he's closed from a wall and something like that yeah um how he's mulling it over well it's just kind of weird because I feel like this is getting very meta because Rachel's sentence show is basically her playing a version of herself that's heightened.

And so now she's coming on as that person who created that show and supposed to be more heightened than that version. Maybe she's writing the character from the show in this movie. Maybe. To be cross over. Anyway, at this point, we've talked about them a lot. Is she related to Max Senate? Is she a nepo great grand baby?

They're spelled differently. Oh, we're probably not. Yeah. We meet Is she related to the Senate, the political body? The government body, yes. I've got 100 parents

from all over the country. We meet Johannes. My mom's the Senate. My mom's the Senate. And I'm Rachel. Crazy. Rachel. Can we workshop this title? I don't know.

It's accurate. There's a lot of stuff going on here. I don't even know whether that... Does the audience understand what... I don't know. So the audience, if they were not aware, there was a one-man show at one point that was running in New York called,

was it my dad's Jewish, my mom's Italian, and I'm in therapy, or something like that. And that same guy then... He did a later one-man show that's called Blood-type Marinera. See, that sounds like a weird thriller to me. Blood-type marinara. Yeah, yeah, the Italian restaurant we ran at a tomato sauce.

We have to use blood. There is a blood shortage right now. There is a blood shortage right now. We should be donating blood right now instead of talking about the moment. But it's the moment. We're having awareness if you can donate blood. To donate blood. Go donate blood.

Don't wait another moment. But don't do it the amateur way where you just poke a hole in your arm, pour it in a bottle, and then mail into the red cross. That's not helpful. Blood out the window at the place. And say, whoever needs it. Don't tie it on to a bird because they won't get there. Don't just leave it on the doorstep in a, no.

That pigeon is not going to bring that blood. Don't just leave it in a can or a tomato jar on your doorstep and say free blood, take. Don't give it to a strange Transylvanian man with sharp teeth. He's just going to drink it. It's not going to get where it's going. Just going to drink it. And don't leave it like in, just on the street corner because he'll get mixed up with all the piss bottles for the cabbies leave. Exactly.

And somebody's going to be like, that needs to go to his. And if you are going to mail it, don't just put it in an envelope. It's just going to soak right through. I think I got to credit my wife with that joke because she makes that joke every time we pass a piss bottle. That is the a rosy sheet. Yeah, they're very health conscious, whoever left that there. They want to get tested, yeah.

Okay, we've talked about them before. This is when Johannes Godwin, played by Alexander Scars Guard, enters the picture. He is the potential... Guard against your scars. With the scars guard. He's a potential director for a concert film of her tour. She just wants someone to document the show because she's got the creative side sorted with her friend Celeste.

But he thinks of himself more as an otore, wants more control. And also we learned that Charlie doesn't like him because of his previous sexist work that she's seen. And he's not, his work is not cool, according to her, you know. But all the people at the label are like, oh, he's the best. He's the best. We got to have him. He's amazing. And he does wear shirts with like really open collars and a lot of like beaded jewelry.

Yeah, wooden beads. He's one of these guys who presents himself as a kind of like calm, hey, let's all collaborate, let's hear each other out type guy. But really he is a dominating tyrant beneath that. Monster, yeah. Who has a very specific idea of kind of fake brat, you could say, like faux rebellion that is not the real rebellion that Charlie is putting out there. Yeah. You know what's interesting about it. He always, he always comes off as sinister.

Like, can you think of any role he's at, like, it's just interesting. He's so handsome. Now I got to look it up. Yeah, I mean, even in movies that I love him in, he is sinister. Yeah. Of course. He has a sinister effect. I mean, I guess the point of.

I'm like his brother who looks like a normal monster. I think the point, I guess part of the point of. Wait, who's his brother? I know his dad. Bill Scarsgard played Pennywise. Oh. And Nostferatu, right? And Nostferatu?

Yeah. I guess part of the thing in murderb... I mean, I didn't see Nosephra once. The third time I tried to do the sentence, I'm just going to give up on it because... No, no, no, Dan, tell us something about Alexander Scarsgaard. No, I mean, like, and murder bot, like he is, likeable, but that's only because we know inside his head.

Everyone around him thinks he's sinister. And he's a murder bot, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's just a fun name he gave himself. I mean, there's a robot that kills people. I mean, he's a security robot. He's doing it for the benefit of the... Now, he's being naive, Dan.

Okay. He's like property over people. Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. Classic Dan sentiment. I mean, he was raised by a priest who made an infomaniac tried to have sex. He went an infomaniac? You see that movie? It's a long movie.

I think I watched part one and I'm like, well, I've already blasted. I don't need to watch her. So then you never saw the part where he tried to make her have sex with him. And she killed him. Maybe we should edit that out. Uh-oh. Yeah, let's edit out the spoilers for now.

I was just about to watch it. This is when Kate Berlant shows up as her makeup artist. I was happy to see her. But again, I didn't. Like, what did she do that you guys were? No, they don't really give her much to do. She's just kind of hovering around the edges and throwing in gags every now and then, you know. And here's...

I will say this. It's true, that her performance is... It's a heightened version of a makeup artist, but it is a de heightened version of what Kate Burlant usually does. So it's like everything is kind of a little bit calmer and less exaggerated than you think it's going to be. Do you think it... What do you think the hierarchy was between, like,

you get to play yourself. You have to play a character. I wonder that often. I wonder that often in those types of things. things like how it feels to be like, I guess I'm not famous enough to play myself in this thing. Or is it better? You know what?

I don't have to figure out what myself is in this and be a cameo. I have a real role. I'm playing a real character. Yeah. I've tried to figure that in therapy for so long. And now I'm expected to do it for a movie. Maybe this movie isn't the place for me to figure out my true identity. They'll never guess my secret identity.

This is actually this is where we get more into the credit card, actually. We get the queer demographic stuff, but also we learn. We learn this is important that if you sign up for this card, you'll get tickets to Charlie's concert, but she's dubious about promoting a credit card, you know, doesn't feel like it's not very brat. Yeah.

It ain't brat. A brat would steal things. A brat wouldn't, you know, start an account so that you can then pay things off over time. I don't know. A brat might rack up a lot of credit card debt and then never pay it. Oh, great business model for a brat. not a great business model for a credit card, as we'll find. This isn't a great bank.

No, it's not. How did Bradson... Unlike all those great banks out there. This is one of the good ones. You know? Now, the Brat... Carlton Banks. The movie...

Sure. Brats. How do you think they... The banks of the Swanee River? Yeah, Dan, what? How do you think they fair during Brad Summer? Who? The Brats.

Oh, the Brats. They were very busy. Yeah, yeah. I think they were annoyed that someone was taking their style, but they were busy doing brats stuff. They've been doing this. for a certain amount of time. So even though they're getting booked for more events,

there's a part of them where they make like these passive aggressive comments like, oh, for me, it's always brat summer. Yeah. Oh, I mean, it was brat year for us for a long time. Does she have brattitude? I'm not really sure, you know? You've got a summer. We're brat four seasons long.

Okay, well, the whole, I have a note here is just saying that a lot of the movie is just for having vaguely annoying interactions where she has to sort of endure microaggressions from people who, like there's a driver who looks her up, doesn't know who she is, looks up a video, like, oh, you look way different here or whatever. There's a lot of that that I'm sure is drawn from life,

but I'm not going to get into every little thing that happens. Sure, well, it's not like you're on Sunbury Patrol or anything. I mean, I'm doing the best I can, Elliot. I'm doing what I just as God made you, yeah. Yeah, yeah, this is where Rachel Senate shows up. Doesn't do much. They do drugs in a bathroom. Yeah.

Tour rehearsal starts. Johannes is there with his silent. But because we haven't mentioned her appearances on Colbert. Okay. There's a lot of her on Colbert in this movie. Yeah, he's like one of the main characters. This feels like this was shot for the movie. This wasn't an actual appearance.

There's certainly monologue jokes later that he tells about fictional events from the movie. And so then he's certainly shot for the movie. It would have really confused the audience. Where he leads to him more of like a Jay Leno, uh, like roll. Because he keeps saying, you see this? You hear him about this?

See this? I'm like, Stephen's voice doesn't sound like that. He's fucking chomping on Toritos. Why is he showing funny headlines? I don't understand.

You think Jay Leno's like, I can still do this guys. I know I'm not on television anymore, but if you won't be to do some monologue jokes about something. I'm sure they came to ask him to do it and he could not hear them over the sound of the engine.

He was revving in his antique car. So he was like, what? I can't hear you. Brubbubbubbubb rum. Wait, do you guys remember when John did that for that movie about like the gopher puppet that was running for president?

He did it a couple. There was the one he did for the Beaver, the movie that Jody Foster directed. And there's one he did for for Man of Steel, which I wrote that bit. And what they told us the movie was about was not what the movie turned out to be about. So that scene was in the Man of Steel? Yeah, yeah, the Superman movie. The Superman? Okay. It didn't end up in the finished movie, but it was on the DVD because I remember someone being like,

there's this thing on the DVD where John Stewart's making these jokes about Superman saying he's not American, but that doesn't happen in the movie. It's like, well, that's what they told us was going to happen in the movie when they told us to write these jokes about Superman. But yeah, John did that a couple times. So Stephen's turn to do it this time. Well, but I bring it up because I felt like this,

her moment on Colbert illuminated to me that she's not a very good actress, which is kind of weird that she's in so many movies right now because she's not a very good actress. I haven't seen. I haven't seen this Gregoraki movie, but I hear good things about her performance in that.

Is this the one where she, like, doesn't like her boyfriend and then she gets into like a girl or something? That's a different one. That's eruption or whatever. Oh, okay. Oh, and then Vesuvius erupts, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're talking about I want your sex, the new Gregorrock. I am talking about I want your sex.

Yeah, she's also in, she was also in faces of death? Oh, was she? I saw that. Yeah, she's like the co-worker. Yeah, she was one of the faces. Oh. Hey. What?

It's not okay. How is taking offense about? I'm not even sure what you're taking offense. Okay, she was deaf. There's only two things in that title. I can make a joke off of it. I think in, I don't know, because I think when she's

in the Colbert sections, it's like she's playing someone who is uncomfortable in that situation. She's not doing it very well. I guess. That's how uncomfortable is. This is what she does. Like, well,

I just, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you nailed her accent. It wasn't one of those things where when they're showing Alex clips that part because there's a lot of face acting that I don't think translates. Well, no, I want to see more.

Holly, can you do more of your impression of Charlie X, the X's impression of herself? Oh, Stephen. I don't know. I'm not your puppet. I'm not your monkey. I'm just showing you. That's what I should have said earlier. to you, Hallie.

But there's something about her hesitancy in answering his question where I'm like, they probably would have just clip this, they wouldn't have put this in the episode because it's not, like, good. Well, maybe we're watching the outtakes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not like, we don't show someone

to flip turn on the TV. Oh, Charlie's on the Colbert Report tonight. Oh, nothing good for a late show tonight. I'll take a... As a cockney chimney sweep, I love nothing more than Charlie XX I does. Well, after I spend a rough day, sweeping out the chims of London.

I just like to go home and watch a little bit of Colbert on the old telly. Oh, local girl Charlie 1010 is going to be on to show. I guess I'll watch it. Then we see the scene. Oh, she seems right, not comfortable on the couch. Yeah. I'm surprised. I'm surprised.

I'm trying a pint of bitter and swapping down some baked beans or whatever they eat over there. I'll watch through till the second desk bit. Then I'll probably turn it off and get some rest because I've got to be up early so I can sweep through those chimps and clean off the skies of London because everything I clean out of that chimney isn't going to end up in the air above me. I feel like I'm making the Evans clean with my work. Wow. I'm doing God's work I am in these chimps. I'm constantly amazed by how many British fans we have. We're basically committing hate crimes against them all the time.

Yeah, yeah. I want to watch a movie about that guy. Yeah. I'll go do our king. The queen's up there, and I want it to be clean for her. I don't want smoke going up in Mams' face up there as an angel. Wow, a royalist. I'm not.

You know what I was a company. Are you kidding? They love the royals. Yeah. The poorer you are often, the more you love the royalty above you, because it makes it special, you know? Yeah. Pardon me. So tour rehearsals will start.

Johannes is there with his assistant who never says anything and makes Charlie very flustered. He's irritating by being very helpful in quotes. And I have to say, I found his character... Intrusive. He's being very intrusive. Yeah. I found his character kind of confusing because he's set up as someone whose material over-sexualizes women. But then the first thing he is doing is like, we have to make this more family-friendly.

Like, that's his thing. It is very unclear. I agree that there's a lack of clarity and consistency in what this character is. is supposed to be trying to do to Charlie's show. Because he keeps, he'll be like, we've got to make it more family friendly, we can't have this and be offensive for kids. Then he's like, we need you to get inside a giant cigarette lighter

and light and enormous cigarette. This is all references to Taylor Swift. He's just trying to turn her concert into the air as to. This is a layer of meaning that I am not privy to. I need the annotations for this movie again. Is that when she's wearing that kind of spangly outfit? Yes. Oh, okay.

And the dancers, all the dancers, that's like actual dances that Taylor. Taylor Swift's background. And so the scene where she gets married and Madison Square Garden and inconveniences as an entire city. That was based on Taylor Swift. Didn't even register. What about the part where she dates Jake Chillon Hall and writes a song about it? That too.

Oh. So Charlie gets overwhelmed. What about the part where she has a feud with Kanye West? Charlie gets overwhelmed. She decides to go to Abitha after all back at rehearsals. Yohanna and Celeste clash over. Wait, you didn't mention that she was offered to go to Ibiza previously and said no. Because you just said after all, so I wanted to make sure.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I did. Alex, go back and add that. No, I said it. I just was also. There's a lot of people. But do it as Dan, so that Alex can go back and add it. So be Dan saying.

Okay. Alex, go find the part where I said it and loop it here. Yeah, yeah. Just so we can see that was a side effect of being talked to over comes. She's offered a thing. She is in this part, she gets offered to go to a beefa. No, that's pretty good, yeah, that's pretty close. So when you see, Jolly X, X, X, she gets the chance to go to a pizza, but she don't go to it, you know?

That's what I sound like. Yeah, that's you, yeah. That's a perfect, that's pitch perfect. That's what they sounded like in the movie, pitch perfect, yeah. We're just all cappelling over here. Anyway, so she's like sort of an absentee like pop star in charge, which allows Johannes to rest more control from Celeste while she's away. Johannes meets with Tammy from the label to sort of fully take over the concert.

Meanwhile, Charlie on vacation gets a holistic facial from a woman named Maria who tells her that she's totally closed in the heart and her skin has no elasticity. and it's telling her to slow down. And when Charlie sort of gently disagrees with what she's saying, Maria, abruptly says she cannot treat her, but prescribes a bunch of expensive skin treatments. And when Charlie tries to pay for those treatments with her Brett credit card, it is ominously declined.

And she also runs into, what, a Kardashian? She runs to Kylie dinner. That's the next. Hold on, before we get to Kylie. Isn't that woman who plays the aesthetician? Isn't she like someone famous? She seemed like it, but I didn't recognize her. I think she's like a Latin American soap opera actors or something.

Oh, okay. I don't know that. I might be wrong. Was that juja? You don't know? Yeah, that's probably jucia. No, she would never do that. She's got a hardest big of the world.

Let's look it up. Yeah, look it up. Look it up. Because it seems like a character that would be a, it's a perfect cameo. Camio, but. I mean, there's a, if this was, if this is a. version of this where that part is Kate McKinnon, which it obviously wasn't, but that's,

you know. As weird Barbie. Yes, exactly. I mean, every character she plays is basically weird Barbie. I don't know how to pronounce this last name. Ariel Dombasale. Okay, and look at her credits. Look at credits. An American-born French singer, actress director, she was in Eric Romer's

Pauline at the beach. Oh, okay. She's, let's see. Oh, I was wrong. Roman Polanski tests. No, just an actress, turns out. Yeah. Just, do you know how hard it is to show up every day on set?

It's 5 o'clock in the morning. You've been up for three hours in a makeup chair. Wow. That woman is 17 years old. Do you know how much makeup she had to go through? Amazing. Yeah. She's like the guy who played Beethoven in the Beethoven movies.

He was in the makeup chair for 10 hours to look like a dog. A dog. Yeah. Not the guy who played Beethoven in Immortal Beloved Every morning, every bone in his body was broken and reshaped to play that dog To be a dog, yeah They had to hand glue each of those hairs She

Inspiring the movie Tusk Charlie But not the song Tusk Oh, it was the album, yeah, yeah, yeah So did inspire the album dust But not the song Everything on the album except for the titular song Don't say you're a dog now.

Well, a dog would be too afraid of that band that comes in, that marching band. Yeah, I'm very afraid. What's a dog doing at that stadium anyway, you know? Okay, well, anyway, Charlie is freaked and upset, runs into Kylie Jenner at the spa, confesses to her that a lot of people have been telling her slow down,

maybe she should listen to them, and Kylie's like, no, that's when you have to go even harder. And so... This is a very funny moment to me, Devil on your shoulder type figure. Exactly. And maybe this shows the difference between my system of values

and the pop world. Whatever Kylie Jenner tells me to do, I'm doing the opposite of that. That is not going to be the right advice. What do you think, Callie? You got to keep going harder. You've got to force that brat down their throat. She's like, oh, I guess I have to.

She's like, isn't Johanis the best? She's like, oh, I think I got to have them. I got to have them. Well, I liked that Kylie Jenner was willing to make fun of herself for this. I appreciated that. I'm not sure she knows. she's doing that.

I think she, well, so I feel like this is actually the most I've ever heard Kylie Jenner speak, and I've watched all of the Kardashian reality shows. So I,

but what I did like about the scene was the reason why I reacted to the faces of death joke, full disclosure, is one of the things I like best about Charlie XXX is that she's kind of ugly

and she like lets herself feed. I think that's really, she's not, She's not ugly, but I like that she's like a mess. She's a top star, not. She's a very pretty girl, but she's like kind of a mess. And I like that she's kind of a mess. And it was she's, she's especially harried in this particular scene where and while Kylie

Jenner will not let a hair be out of place. Like she literally looks like she's like when the camera turns to her, it's especially rubbed with Vaseline. And then when it goes back to Charlie, like in hyper focus. But I appreciated the, like, the willingness to be juxtaposed to this, like, cybor.

I think that, no, that's a good point. I think she is shot unflatteringly throughout the entire movie. And it did come across really strong, like you're saying that. When Kylie Jenner is on screen, they are not doing that. She has to look perfectly quaffed and made up.

And it does help emphasize that Charlie is, like, totally at a loss and feels like a mess at that moment. So, yeah, that's good. Yeah. This brings something to mind. This is not about like... For anyone, when Halley referred to Charlie X-EX as, quote, Cadiously ugly, a monster.

No, I don't think she's ugly. I love her. I think I like that she's willing to be imperfect. When she said, I turned on the movie and thought I was watching Gremlin. That is not the way that is. Well, now I can't make my lady gremlin comment about that. Because that's literally how she looks at the end when they put her in the green. When she's got all that weird makeup all around her eyes.

No, but I understand what you mean on the... in the absurd scale of like Hollywood and pop stars and like not being able to have a hair out of place. Like she's not doing that. But and adjacent, not about looks, but like she's willing to like show herself in an unflattering light in this movie a lot of the time. Like even like sort of borderline villainous.

Like the way she treats people towards the end. Yeah. To get to get a good wind for the concert. Yeah. We haven't even talked about Celeste. Yeah, we've barely talked about Celeste. We've talked about a little bit, but let me get to the end of what I'm saying. Barely.

I said, Alex, go back and loop the parts that I said to the list. Celeste has been mentioned, but we don't really know who she is or what's going on. We know about a pizza. Well, Mama Celeste created a pizza brand so you can get frozen pizzas from her. And Celeste is also a hippo in children's books, right? Wow. This woman is very, okay. Again, okay.

Not an appearance thing, just a name thing. to, you know, for the listener who perhaps heard me start a sentence and is wondering what the point was. David breath, yeah. Yeah, yeah, they've been huge on the end of their seats, yeah. Look how cool Stuart looks right now.

Just hanging out with my buddy, Dan. No, Dan, go ahead. Dan, why don't you finish that sentence? And now, listeners, finally, after all that wait, you get to hear the end of Dan's sentence. Let's tune in. I also thought it was funny when Kylie Jenner

showed up and they're in a spa together and she specifically has her robe open and I'm like, who wants around with their robe open? Oh, somebody wants to show off their body, adi, oddie. Exactly, yes. Dan continue. And now without further ado, the rest of Dan says. No, I respect her willingness to be like,

to make her own movie where she doesn't always come off the best. But I also feel like it's a bit weirdly calibrated because she never like pushes her like negative qualities far enough, again, to make it funny. It feels like a lot of the movie is like her complaining about the world she's in. And I understand like it's it's hard to be under that much pressure. But as an outsider like audience member, it is also. Yeah, Dan knows all about that.

No, but I'll, I think. It's also like, you don't come off like well necessarily in a larger sense of like, okay, well, you know, like, as an audience member, it is hard to be like, oh, poor you the whole time. Yes, I think, I think it's, you're right that it's, at first it was hard for me to understand what is, is this movie about, is she going to be a joke? No, she's not. It is about the pressures that she's under. And I think there were, I'll spoil a little bit of my final judgments.

There were asked, I've never been in her situation where I'm a pop star and stuff like that. But there were aspects of this. I know, I know, I lied to you, Stuart. Which gives me an idea. There were aspects of the movie that did remind me of experiences I have had, in professional projects where you try to go with the flow and you end up in a situation

that is not a good situation for you. And so I'm related to that. She's talking about this podcast. Yeah, this podcast, exactly. But at the same time, it is hard to sympathize with, it's hard to feel that pity for the character who at a moment's notice can run off to go to a spa in a Beza and then it does make her problems a little worse,

but like it's a, there's a little bit of like poor little rich kid in it, which is hard, a hard needle to thread. I think that's self-aware. Like she, I don't think, like, that she can run off to go to Ibiza is like not, I don't know. I agree that it's self-aware. I just don't think it's calibrated quite right to make it successful in the movie the way it's done. I don't know. Ellie, you look like you're about to say something.

That's why I paused. I only look like, I'm always about say something. It's going to be another chimney sweep thing. So we don't need to go into that. So Charlie freaks. Oh, I guess I'll just, you know, when you're at, we're sweeping the chimps. that Ash gets all in your pores, the only thing you can do. You've got to go to a beat there, go to the spa, sweat it out.

Just sweat it out your pores. You got to get, ironically, they put a scrub on you that's a fool of charcoal. They're doing a charcoal scrub on me. Oh, don't worry, mate. Don't worry, love. I got the charcoal. It's in me, body. She freaks.

Yeah. After talking to Kylie and. And somehow this means that she throws all of her support behind whatever Johannes wants. Yohanus, yeah. Which didn't really track for me, but whatever, I'll take it in the movie. No, she's feeling at that moment like the, she looks at Kylie, a picture of success. And she's like, I guess that's what I got to do. I don't really, I'm so unmoored that I don't really, I can't figure out what I want for myself.

So I guess I'll just do the thing that everyone's telling me I should do. Yeah. It's a desperation act. She posts about the brat card to make sure she has the money to fund his. vision of the tour. She comes back home to see all the changes that Johannes has made to the show, including. This is a joke that did work for me, changing the iconic green brat background because it was too puky.

I found that kind of funny. And altering the font of the cover. Meanwhile, Celeste is fired from the show, even though she seems to be the only one concerned with Charlie's mental state. And artistic vision. So Celeste has been her. creative partner up to this point. And so it's been Celeste versus Johannes,

what does Charlie want, what's right for the show? And Charlie has already promised Celeste, I will send an email out that says, no, listen to Celeste, she's in charge. But she's so frenzied, she doesn't send that email out. Instead, she just posts about the brought card, a card that gets you for Brought.

So Celeste gets fired. She's just got more time to go boating with Julie now. So that was really. What a delightful movie that is. Oh, man, you had that one fucking lock and loaded. He's been waiting for the right moment. I don't get it. I don't get it.

What is it? There's a movie called Celeste and Julie Go Boating. It's really wonderful. It's a really good movie. It's a French movie. It's more and more unhappy with the show, which has added more conventionally flashy pop star costumes and has her flying around on wires. But I have to say, honestly, like, as someone who loves Peter Pan. As someone who is otherwise unfamiliar with Charlie XX, X, X, X, X, like, I think that in the context of just watching the movie, a problem I had was I didn't get a clear enough.

idea of what her original aesthetic was to be like this is a betrayal of it. Like it just looked like normal like rock concert stuff. You could have used a little more prep in the early. Yeah. I think that might help because I think it's something that would probably, like Hallie says, she's picking up that this is like specifically Taylor Swift stuff. But like it reminds me of like I'll sometimes I'll play songs from two, you know, two metal bands that sound very different to me.

And my wife will be like, was that the same band? Yeah. Like, what? They sound completely different. I think this would play great for like fans. Yeah. But, you know, as someone who didn't have the ground again, I'm like, why is a problem? You didn't think that like, because I actually don't know that much about Charlie.

But I felt like all of the earlier stuff of like the really heavy, you know, the like the strobe lights, the like really heavy like. It's a dance club aesthetic. Yeah, exactly. It's like a little bit. It's a little bit trashy. It's like a little bit low-fi. We see very little of it, though. But it's not just part of, it's not just in the literal moments where they're rehearsing.

It's like, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Like, it didn't do it for you. It didn't do it for it. It was not a big contrast in my mind. He has like the word bitch up on stage, but with like an ampersand instead of an age or something.

And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know how different that is from before. I guess they take out the cocaine imagery and replace it with cigarette. Gorette imagery, you know. So, just can I mention something? So we're talking about, you know, talking about costuming and choreography.

This week I finally got to go see Cats the Jellicle Ball. Oh, I heard it's great. Dan, you got to see that as well, right? As long-time listeners would know, we all have a pretty deep connection to the work of cats. Yeah, whether it's the stage production. Yeah, the work of Cat, the Work comma of Cats. Have you seen the back of my sofa?

Yeah. The back. Wow, your cats are nice. Yeah. But the, so between, you know, we've been long experiences, experiencers of cats either as a musical or as a movie. I think we've all seen the movie. Oregon as pets.

Yep. Speaking to see. As something that creates dander that my body erroneously treats as an immune system. Rejects. Yeah. So getting to see. cats, the jellicle ball, which is taking the musical cats,

but interpreting it through the lens of ballroom culture. It was really magical. It was strictly ballroom. And it was this moment of watching this work and being like, this feels like the original intention of cats. Like this, finally this is connecting

with me in a deeper level. But I have to say, one of the most important moments of the show was when it's incredible, it's only on for a couple more days, if somehow you can go see it. By the time this is airing, there's no way, it's already gone. You missed it, you missed it, you missed your chance. Sorry, but I will say there's...

Like tears in the rain, sea beams glittering off Alpha Centauri. In the first half of the show, they bring up some celebrity audience members to come up and be judges. Dan, do you remember who were the celebrity? It was Neil Patrick Harris, and I believe it was his husband who was also... Patrick Harris. You know, like an actor or a producer or something. Did you say Neil Catrick Harris, Palley? Yeah, Catrick Harris.

So at my show, one of the... At cat hockey, that's what they get is cat tricks. Okay, sure, at your show. At the show that I went to, one of the performers was... Or one of the judges. Was actor Terence Mann, who played the original Rumtum Tugger in the Broadway production. But also, he played the Alien Bounty Hunter Ugg, also known as Johnny Steele from the Critters franchise. So, of course, when he came up on stage, I audibly shouted, oh, shit!

Which is okay, because this is... a audience participation friendly show. And Charlene's like, who's that? I'm like, oh, you don't want to know. We got to go watch Critters tonight. Yeah, and then the whole time during intermission, I'm like, I want to go up and talk to him, but there's a really long line.

You should have done it. You should have done it, Stuart. I don't know, you know. I'm glad that we got this story, so I'm not even going to ask how it relates to the movie. I mean, I just wanted to talk about it. Okay, that's worth of. Costumes.

Tammie. Yeah, costumes and choreography is right. but yeah, yeah. Tammy Burson, Rosanna Arcad. Tammy and the T-Rex? Yeah. T-Rex is a her enforcer. Oh, I see.

Apparently Charlie's Brett card post inaccurately represented the product, which both voided the deal and also the bank has been bankrupted from fans signing up for the free tickets and then bailing,

which is something that like it wasn't initially very clear to me. I feel like this movie, what little plot it has, it imparts in scenes where people yell at each other with a lot of overlapping dialogue, and it happens very fast. And I'm like, okay, I guess it doesn't matter.

Yeah, I didn't understand this. It does feel like the thing that you would expect to have happen with this promotion, because it does happen all the time that people sign up for credit cards and then cancel them if they've gotten the bonus that they want from it. But anyway, this is like, Elliot says angrily. Somebody think of the banks. Somebody think of it, yeah. Well, when I issued my credit card, that's exactly what people did, you know.

Charlie has precipitated a major financial disaster, and there's a... It's pretty brat, honestly. Yeah. Of new... That's the... Well, if there was any moral hazard, it would be pretty brat,

but, you know, these banks are just going to be bailed out. Yeah, yeah, that's true. But this one doesn't get bailed out, Dan, it goes bankrupt and it shuts down. That's how you know it's a fantasy. It's kind of unclear... At first, you see a lot of reactions. It's a big montage of media reactions.

And at first, the fans were like, oh, hey, Charlie. She took all my money. or something like that. But then it's like, but yeah, what would be more brat than setting up a credit card? Everyone gets free tickets

and then the bank gets destroyed. But people kind of thought it was cool. Yeah, but then at the end, they're like, if a fans think it's kind of cool, but we see like sad videos of Charlie Hake former fans being like, I don't like her anymore.

And I'm like, I don't, I'm, that was the part where I was like, I'm unclear how I'm supposed to read the world's reaction to what end. It's not tied up in a neat bow for you. Yeah. Maybe the world is a little more texture.

You're right. There's a little more friction. Look inward. Sorry, AI didn't write this movie. Yeah. You're right. Yeah, you're right.

I'm wrong, yeah. Six days later, her team is trying to use... God rests. In the Valley. Her team is doing some... Damage control. Johannes comes in with his lawyer

trying to bail on the project because now he doesn't want to be associated with a controversial figure. Scars Guard's funny in this as like a sniveling. He's certainly. like, make us Gar's Guard snibbling, perfect. I mean, his performance, he does, he captures that kind of guy.

Yeah. Super well, like fantastically well. You know, we're in New York. We don't get those guys as often. But you guys in L.A., you probably fucking run into them all the time when you're shopping at, what, Arawan or wherever? Yeah, yeah. You've been going to Elliot's under construction bathroom without going to get into. Exactly.

I'm just, every day, I'm just trying to drop off my jars of blood just to help the situation, and I run into one of those guys. Eventually, they all realize that no one has talked to Charlie in a week, and they get worried that she might even be dead. Tim rushes to her home. Tim looks at a framed photo of Princess Diana. Oh, I missed that. Yeah, that was a funny moment.

Tim rushes to her home to check on her, and for a moment it looks like she's dead, and I'm like, oh, if this movie actually had the balls to do this. I felt to say that I was like, this would be a big swing. If the movie had her die, as a result of this. But apparently, she actually. She's been like sleeping for a week. She's taking the break.

She needed all movie. Again, I feel like this is a silly, if you're going to do this, and you're not going to kill the character, you should make it funnier. Like you should hand this moment up a little bit more. She should get up and they should go, ah! And then she yells, ah! And then they yell, ah, why are you yelling?

You were yelling. That's, well, why were you yelling? And then she also has like a piece of bologna stuck to her face. Yeah, she should have that. Yeah, and somebody's on the phone and they're like, uh, cancel the headstone. That would be... Oh, man, we should have punched this up.

She was like, stop the presses, stop the presses. And there's a press plant that's printing up the tribute magazine to Charlie XX. What are we going to do with these? I don't know. I thought that was your chimneys. No, this is a different guy. Although I did a solid job at the printing press. It's all to make ends meet when you're just a chim, you know?

Just chim, chiming, and there's fewer and fewer. chimneys to sweep. People don't use their chimneys so much so they don't even swept out. I thought I'll be safe due to AI. But then, global warming, my old enemy. No, global warming's been the best thing we can ask for. There's so many fires across Europe. More ash coming into chimneys.

I'm used to sweep it out chimneys from what comes from the bottom. But now it's what comes in from the top. But I'll do a lot of sweep on. The problem is just sort of dietic, you know, sort of in the air. Her ashes coming back down chimneys. You don't want me coming into your house through the chimney. No, no, no. All you want is Satanic coming into your house.

There's only one thing you want coming down your chimney, and that's the occasional squaw and maybe for the Christmas. Is that right? You want him to come down your chimney, so you catch him, holding for ransom. Because we're all criminals, we are. The accent's getting worse. It's getting like Australian.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's been there the whole time. And now the Australian list is like, no, it's not. That's not like that goes. NAR! It's not. That's more of a northern. Anyway, she sends Celeste a long apology voicemail talking about how she's grown to hate Brad.

She felt so much pressure to be liked. She's decided to go on with the show anyway because even though it's not the tour that they did, if she does a bad tour, it would be the final nail in Brad's, She's coughing. She's got to kill brat. Yeah. But the movie ends with a trailer for the chore, which again, to me...

I found very funny. To me, a normie looked totally fine like a normal pop tour. But there are a bunch of good reviews, which are supposed to be ironic because it's like, no matter what she does, she can't escape it, people think it's brilliant. Some of the reviews felt like they were, and I thought this was funny, that they felt like they were clipped to seem positive when they were not actually positive. High production value, high production cost. Overwhelming and high production value.

So this is a very like... a literal, that's all, but that was a reference to the Ares tour. No, I didn't know that. Glossy, it's like a super glossy live show. It has like, it says like Charlie, it's like brat and then with like live written over it in cursive.

And they play no Charlie XXX music. It's only Bittersweet Symphony, which is also like such a like kind of artistically bankrupt song as well. When they started playing that song, when they started playing that song, I was like, oh, that's fine. And then I realized it was over the trailer, and I'm like, oh, that's fine, that's fine. Well, it's just the idea of this, I guess, maybe that is, maybe that is a stretch. But it's just playing this song that also is, like, mired in complicated.

I would say it's like, it is a cliche song, certainly. They're reaching for the most cliche song they could. And also, they lost all the rights to it because they borrowed so heavily from the Rolling Stones. Yeah, well, that's a separate thing. Well, they sampled, they sampled an orchestral version of a Rolling Stone song, and then the Stones came in. You ain't what I did to our song. They said what our song?

Did he say we're going to have to sue them? He was a session drummer. Maybe it's just cruel intentions. But I like that song. In any case, it's funny that they don't even use one of her songs in the trailer for her tour. Yeah. Yeah. And okay.

That's the story of the moment And like Amazon is plastered all over everything Which is kind of funny Yeah Guys it's time for final judgments I don't care I love it You know

It's time for final judgments Where we decided whether there's a good bad movie A bad bad movie or a movie You kind of like Look I I don't care I know that I sound You love it

I know that I sound I know that I sound like desperately like uncool when it comes to like the music side of this because I don't have the grounding for it. And like I probably. I probably missed like a lot of stuff that I might have found funny if I had more context for it. I freely admit that I don't look. I'm a 48 year old man. So I now. He's 50.

Don't age me up. Dan likes to shave a few years off his age. No, I'm accurately reporting my age. Dan's like a reverse story in gray. He gets older, but his painting stays the same. Spooky. I don't, I don't care. Sing it again.

Isn't that what happens? Like, I've given up on being up on new music. But just judging it as a film, I was like, she seems cool. I feel like she needed to work through something for herself. I don't begrudge her that. But I didn't need to watch it. Like as a movie, I'm like, this is not funny enough to be a comedy.

It is not telling me. They went to his house with a gun and they said, put this movie on. While it is clearly like mired in like reality, it is not telling me something new about that world. so I was mostly... It's a moment. It's not the moment for it. Yeah. Yeah.

I was mostly kind of bored by it. So it was a bad bad for me. But, Stuart, what do you think? Yeah, I think for a mockumentary, I wish it had been a little more heightened and that there was more jokes. It's kind of the things we've been talking about quite a bit already. One of the weird things that like...

So a lot of this movie is, you know, she is being pushed and pulled in different directions by the people that work for her or the people that... the label that she works for. And I feel like this movie almost feels like it could have come out of that world. Like the idea of like Charlie, Charlie, the best way to extend Brat Summers is to make a mockumentary about it. So I feel like it, but at the same time, I do think parts of it are funny.

I think Charlie X, EX is still cool. I do not like Kylie Jenner. So that was kind of disappointing. But I guess she's used appropriately. And I like the idea also that you have this character who goes through an arc as little as it is. And where she eventually lands is, no, I'm going to make the soulless version. I'm going to land on the side of making the soulless version just so it'll be over. Which I don't think I've seen before.

So I thought that was a funny choice and a kind of interesting one. So I guess a movie I kind of liked. I think this was not a successful movie, but it is a movie I kind of liked. I was expecting it. I wasn't really expecting anything in particular. I didn't know what to make. I had no expectations about this movie because I didn't know what it was going to be. And it was not particularly funny through a lot of it, but it did, I did walk away from it.

Previously having no opinion of Charlie X, X, X, X, X. I now have a pretty positive opinion of her as a performer or a personality. and so the movie did its job as pro-charlie propaganda, I guess, Charlie Ganda. But like I said, kind of hinted at it earlier, there were times in this movie where I was like, oh, I can relate to the feeling of being part of a creative machine that you have a responsibility in, but which you feel like you can't trust your own instincts or not everybody agrees, but they're all trying to act as if they do or something like that. And so there were times where I was like,

I kind of, I hate that. I'm kind of like, I'm connecting emotionally with this movie just because it's not a movie I expect to do. So it's a movie I kind of like, but I still don't think it's a very successful movie yet what it is. I don't know that's great, but, you know,

I think there are a couple moments where, where you're kind of reminded that the people that are in her orbit all have their own lives and jobs and responsibilities, and everybody's kind of, the problem is that they don't all line up, clearly. And there's, but there are obviously a few monster characters

like Alexander Schres. There's one moment in it that I thought, that I liked that we didn't mention, which is so Celeste, her friend slash creative collaborator, someone from the album label, I guess,

there's this like group of guys who somehow work for some aspect of this. And I was never quite sure if it was the label or marketing or what. One of them goes up to her and is like, oh, Johannes is in charge. And she's like, well, then what the fuck am I doing here? And he goes, yeah,

I don't know, what the fuck are you doing here? And then she's like, oh, God, just to leave. And he walks over to someone else, and they go, you mess that up. And he's like, shut up. I really like that. The moment where it's the, you know, the act two rock bottom moment or whatever where like the heroes part with their friends or whatever,

that was not seen as a triumph for the bad guy character. And instead it was like, he still screwed it up. And I was like, oh, I like that. That's something kind of fun about that. And one more thing. I don't know. There's a very on the nose metaphor. in that their rehearsal space,

they make mention that there is a bird flying around and eventually that bird dies right around the time when Charlie's reaching rock bottom. And I'm like, okay, guys, come on. Come on, guys. Allie, what did you think? Well, I'm trying to be emotionally honest. I feel like sometimes,

I don't want to say that I like this merely to be in opposition to you guys, But I did like, I thought it was. No, I liked it. I liked it. And I also think that I, it frustrates me when a movie strikes an unusual tone and the pushback is like, well, it should have been more like these other things that already exist. Like, I sort of liked the ambiguity of the tone. I don't, I hear you guys saying like you thought it should have been funnier, but I liked that the moments that were.

funny, we're funny, and then it wasn't, it wasn't just slapstick. I honestly, if this had not been described to me as a mockumentary ahead of time, I would not have had that expectation. That feels like it's a, just what I was led to believe in the beginning. So it's a, clearly, but there's like a bunch of comic actors in it. Like, I, I hear you, Hallie. Like, I also, I also feel like. He's defending it.

No, I, no, I also feel like I like things with strange tones. a lot of the time, but I don't know. If it sets itself up like it's going to make me laugh, I just want to laugh more. But I also understand what you're saying. Okay. It'd be so funny if Halley, if you were like, you're like, I got to say this,

but also it sucked. I hated it. But when I was watching it, I was going, the first probably 10, 50 minutes, I'm like, oh boy. Yeah, I did think it was going to, I did at the beginning. I was like, oh, wait, this is really going to.

But I can't deny that, like, I had an emotional response to it, right? Like, I got caught up in it, and I was like, oh, I connect to things in this. And, like, by the end of it, I was like, good on you. Good on you, Charlie. So I can't deny that I like to. I'm not the one for England. I think, I mean, honestly, I think one of the better movies we watched for the Flop House. You know, we got Charlie.

So what are you saying? I was just saying one of the better movies we've watched for the Flop House. Yes, I think that's true. I think it's, I think it's in the upper margins, you know. It's not abduction. No, it wasn't about abduction. What was the one with Hallie Berry where a kid gets kidnapped? Kidnapped?

No, kidnapped is the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. What was the one that we watched that was the, I feel, the Mama Mia Mafia one? Oh, Mafia Mama is the best movie. That's a good movie. That's a good movie. I was all prepared to like this movie and I wound up liking it. Then maybe that's it. I went in being like, I'm going to hate this movie and I ended up liking it.

Dan went in thinking he's going to like it and he hated it. When you got expectations, you can mess with it. you know. That's what they say about expectations. It makes an X out of you and me. Makes an X out of your X. It makes an X out of Charlie X. Charlie XE Expectations.

Yeah. She should make great XE expectations, which is her version of great expectations, but it's her. Hey, it's John Moe. I host a show called Depresh Mode with John Moe. And you might think, oh yeah, Depress Mode. That's the show for people struggling with mental health. And it is. But it's more than that.

It's a show for anyone and everyone living in the world today. A world that can be a pretty rough place sometimes. Our show is about how to keep your mind on your side, working for you and with you. Instead of making stuff worse. We get stories from famous people. We talk to experts and researchers. And there are jokes. So I'm John Moe, the show.

is Depressmode with John Moe. I hope you'll give us a listen on maximum fun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. It's hard to explain what Jordan Jesse Goe is about. So I had my kids take a stab at it. Probably weird stuff. You talk about jobs that are annoying.

Mm, business. I think you probably learned your lesson after talking about business a couple of times. Growing up jokes that I don't understand and there's no putting me. All the podcasts are going. Subscribe to Jordan Jesse Go, a comedy show for grownups. This podcast, yes, this one, the one you're listening to now,

The Flop House, is sponsored in part by Squarespace. What is Squarespace? Well, my friend, it gives you everything you need to offer services and get paid all in one place. You can get paid on time, the best way to get paid in my in my book, with professional on-brand invoices and online payments. Plus, you can streamline your workflow with built-in appointment scheduling and email marketing tools. Squarespace also offers a complete library of professionally designed and award-winning website templates. If you want to build a website, you want to look good.

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Now, I recently was undergoing some confusing and mysterious upper GI pain, and I was in a lot of distress, and it was tough, and getting that all sorted and finding the right doctor, was challenging and only added to my existing stress. Zoc Doc tries to help you and make... Zoc Doc lets you search and compare local in-network doctors. Say you move to a new town, maybe your insurance has changed, or maybe your health care needs have changed.

Zoc Doc will help make your life a little bit easier. Your health matters and taking care of yourself shouldn't be complicated. So find and book the right doctor with Zocdoc. Head to Zocdoch.com slash flop to get started and check that appointment off your to-do list. That's Z-O-C-D-C dot com slash flop. The flop has some things we'd like you, the listener, to know about, and I'm going to tell you about them right now. First of all, because she's too modest to mention it, I'd like to call attention to our guest, Hallie Hagland's

substack newsletter. That's right. Her substack is entitled That hurts my feelings. It is available at

Hallie Hagland. Substack.com and it's really fantastic. It is a must read for me. I read it all the time. I love it. It's hilarious.

It's heartwarming. It's insightful. It's everything you want a substack to be with none of the Naziism or AI slop that you often get

the substacks. So I think I can make that promise for Hallie. You will get no Nazi content and no AI content on her substack, which is called

that hurts my feelings. Next, the Flop House. We're going to be live in person in Louisville, Kentucky on September 18th. That's right. We're appearing at the Whirling Tiger with special guest, Howell Dottie. That's right.

Our own Alex Smith will be joining us on stage that night. We're going to be talking about glitter starring Mariah Carey. It's going to be very fun. This is at the Whirling Tiger again in Louisville, Kentucky, September 18th. For more information, and to get tickets,

go to Flophousepodcast.com slash events. We haven't done a live show in a while and we are chomping at the bit whereas Dan would say champing at the bit to do this show. Well, as someone who understands what the idiom is correctly but yeah, yeah, yeah, because we all know what

champing is. None of us know what chomping is. As I've said before, it just means chomping. It's another way of saying chomping. And if you can't make a... Yeah, yeah, when Dan's like, excuse me, I need a burger to champ on. They're like, you want to be a champion on this burger?

You're trying to champion this burger? I mean, it's pretty good. Yeah. And for those of us, who can't make it to Louisville, Kentucky, which does not include me, I'll be there. But for those of you who can't make it to Louisville, Kentucky, do not worry, you will still have a chance to see our cutie pie faces while we talk about movies. That's right, Flop TV is coming back.

The first Saturday of every month from September through February. We're going to be doing season four of flop TV. It's the worst of the best, the best of the worst and the worst of the best. We're talking about the worst-best pictures that were named, according to us. Go to theflophouse. simpleticks.com for the list of titles

and also to buy tickets, remember, you can buy individual tickets for individual episodes or you can get a season pass bundle, six episodes for the price of five. How are we making money off of this? We're ripping ourselves off. Our prices are crazy. We're insane. That's a reference to the crazy Eddie electronic store chain. I would never make light of the mentally ill to sell tickets.

Go to theflophouse. Simpletics.com for season tickets or individual tickets to flop TV. the first Saturday of every month from September through February. If you can't make it to the first Saturday of every month, don't worry. The recordings are available, and your ticket gives you access to watch them as many times as you want through the end of February. Of course, I'll also just mention I have a few things that are always going on.

Harley Quinn from DC Comics, I'm still writing it. Barbarian Behind Bars from Mad Cave Studios, my other comic, please buy the Collected Edition or Pre-Order it, if you would so like to do. And, of course, my book, joke farming, how to write comedy and other nonsense, is available in bookstores, mostly everywhere, if you want to order it, and the audiobook is also available to buy. So you can hear my sweet, lovely voice reading it to you, the listener.

And before we close out this little personal plug section, I would just like to say no jumbotrons this episode, but if you would like to have your jumbotron read on an episode, we don't mention it enough, but you can do that by going to maximum, Maximumfun.org slash jumbotron. People ask us sometime, how do I get a jumbotron on it? Well, it's handled by the network.

If you go to maximum fun.org slash jumbotron for, I believe, $100. You can put a personal message up there for perhaps you know another flop house listener who would be tickled to hear themselves shouted out for an event on the show. If you have a business that you want to promote, that's a little more expensive. but you can also do that with a JumboTron. So check it out at maximum fun.org slash jumbotron. Hey, guys, good news. I found the letters that I was going to read for this episode.

Oh, thank goodness. Wow. They had disappeared from my inbox. Dan, I have never met anyone who consistently has letters disappear from their inbox as much as you. You know what it is. I think I introduced you to the idea of folders. I am too aggressive about keeping my inbox neat And then sometimes I'm mistakenly

I'm like, well, I don't need this anymore And I'm like, oh no shit, I needed that thing But I found it Oh This first letter Is from Icarus Icarus

I'm right You miss little wax dude My wings ain't working Me, Das said I flew too close to the sun. I don't know why he has that accent. No, it seems like the person who definitely wouldn't have. Now you have a Greek accent. After listening to the episode on Jim and the Holograms,

I watched a few episodes. The episode that launched a revival for Jim and the Holograms. According to one website, I watched a few episodes and the show is fun, but the music left me wanting more. which fictional band from TV slash movies do you think actually has the best music? And are there any tracks from in fiction groups slash artists that you actually listen to? P.S., obviously my answer is the Monkeys,

although they might arguably be called a real band since they release music and toured outside of just their TV shows. I would call them a real band. I would call them a real band. They're a band that were formed in tandem with a television show. I mean, they were a corporately put together band, but they also had a creative direction. Like that's what the movie Ed is all about and things like that.

So, yeah, I'd call them a real band, yeah. I don't think that they're like tracks I specifically listen to that I can think of other than, I mean, I have the O Brother where Art there, though, soundtrack. So I guess I like the soggy bottom boys would count as one. But like they're individual like songs like the song from Josie and the Pussy Cats that was done by letters to Cleo, the pop punk, whatever. song that they do is good. What thing, that thing you do from the movie, that thing you do is a fun individual. I've mentioned on the podcast before that I have two answers to this question. One of the ones is the one I mentioned for Ellen Ame and the attackers from Streets of Fire.

I think they're legitimately really great. And their first song in that movie, Nowhere Fast, I listen to a lot. I think it's a great song. I really love it. And I'm not usually that big a fan of that like Jim Steinman like kind of big stuff. but his work with Ellen Amin and the attackers and his work with Sisters of Mercy you know

this is the best stuff but also I'm gonna say I think Spinal Tap's a pretty great band in a lot of ways like the like Spinal Tap has real catchy songs their songs are genuinely funny I like listening to them I'll often find myself

kind of singing them to myself like they have good songs so I'll say Spinal Tap even though the whole point of that movie is that they're not a good band I think they're actually really good I mean there's some obvious answers here like the river bottom nightmare band.

Oh, yeah. You know, there's strong defenders for Powerline from the goofy movie. Four Town from Turning Red, amazing. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I've listed a lot of like animated things, and I feel like there's a real world for that. Allie, do you have any? Yeah, so I don't know if this exactly fits,

but one of my favorite movies, thing called Love. with Samantha Mathis, the song that she sings, she's always trying to write her country song throughout the whole thing. And then at the end, she plays the song, Big Dream that is written for the movie. I love that song, beautiful song. River Phoenix also wrote two tracks for that that he performs.

I think one of them was actually cut from the soundtrack, but Dermott Moroni wrote a song for it that he performs as his character. So I think the music in that is excellent. And it's not, it's, they're all performing. as the individual... As the characters. Yeah, it doesn't exist outside of that.

So that's my answer. I was thinking of bands, but that makes me think of Nashville also. Has a bunch of great songs in it. And it's all by the actors as the characters performing those songs. Oh, and I forgot the song in the summer, Scotty doesn't know from the movie Euro Trip. I don't know that one. Really? I don't remember it.

You don't want to know it because you'll never stop humming it. Oh, wow. This is me, maybe, don't send in the angry letters, I've never seen Euro Trip. Yeah, clearly, you would remember, Scotty doesn't know. Or we would see the big scars on your side from where your gut busted. What's the problem, Doctor? I'm afraid you're going to have to stop watching Euro Trip.

No, no. No. I guess cancel Comedy Central from, what, 15 years ago? Before they discovered office reruns. Yeah. This second and final letters from John last name withheld. Who writes? John from Cincinnati?

Regarding Dan's complaint that his older brother is misremembering and or overstating Dan's childhood love of poorly animated European films. Yes, Dan. Every damn time said older brother came into the living room from about 1985 to about 1990. Dan would be glued to the family's 17-inch color television watching the god-awful joint UK Polish 1978 production The Water Babies, which seemed to be on rotation on HBO for the better part of a decade. And said older brother would ask Dan to turn it off.

So this is a specific John wrote this letter, is what I'm learning. This may or may not be a specific John. No, it's John from Eureka, yeah. Said older brother would ask Dan to turn it off or change the channel to something else, only to be told, no, I'm watching this, go away. This sort of behavior is that of an addict Not someone merely watching whatever's on

To be fair Water Babies was only the symptom of a larger problem With the explosion of cable in the 1980s There were suddenly a lot of broadcast hours to fill And many terrible French Italian and Polish cartoons were hastily dubbed and aired on both the premium and basic channels This was a few years before Japanese animation's conquest of North America Water babies wasn't a Virginia Wolf book, right?

I'm thinking of the waves. You think of the waves, yeah, yeah. Very different. Water babies is the original title of the fucking waves. You're thinking of Virginia Woolf's novel, Solar Babies. Said older brother had the bad fortune to catch an episode of Le Monde Anglutie, a sort of animated Moibus for kids post-apocalyptic series, which was retitled in English to Spartacus and the Sun Beneath the Sea,

when it ran on Nickelode in the late 80s, and to this day he has the dance of the pirate song stuck in his head. Perhaps it would now be the time to mention that said older brother has his own podcast, sophomore lit, in which he and a guest discuss a book or story that gets taught in high school or college and perhaps a book that they read his kids

or really anything because he's lazy when it comes to themes. All three of the original peaches have been guests on said podcasts. Not me. And all are welcome to come back. Yeah, why am you invited to Hallie? If they want to talk. Water Babies. I mean, I can put you in touch with my brother John.

He'll be happy to have you on the show. What an ambitious thing to have the title, to have a kid's animated movie, and it then just says, adapted from, based on the waves by Virginia Woolf. And so, like, Transformers the movie, based on the waves by Virginia Woolf. What an amazing touch that would be.

But then will only be eligible for the Adapted Screenplay Academy Award. Yeah. All three of the original features. Having guests on said podcasts and all are welcome to come back if they want. If only Dan were so gracious in inviting his older brother to be on podcast. Wow. Does this mean I have a paper? It feels like you're a guest already.

I guess I should end this with a question. Is there a bad animated movie or direct-to-video that you saw when you were young and will not leave your brain, John last name without, well, probably water babies. It would be mine. Water babies. Water babies. Yeah, Jim Henson's water babies. The commercial for Wiggles and Jiggles and Feels So Real.

It's my water, baby. Dan would go, I'm watching this. That's when I'm going to add that to the rotation of old commercials that I sing to my children. I do my buddy and kid's sister. I do ring pop. Oh, of course. Sometimes I'll do what you'm a call it. What should we call it?

Thing of a Bob. So I don't really have an answer to this one. I think the closest I can come to is when I was an adolescent, there was a video of computer-animated shorts called, I think, Journey to the Mind's Eye. Yeah, yeah. And I used to rent that a lot because I liked watching those. But it was just a random collection. Some of it was commercials.

Some of it was just random stuff. And it was, one of it was a very long kind of like satellite view over, you know, looking over landscapes. and I would always fast forward through that. Elliot, why rent it? You can just go to your local radio shack and they'll be playing it on the TV there. That's a good point.

That's a good point. If you have a local radio shack, that's crazy. You may be living in the past. Check in newspaper. That's what we're putting in. That's what we're changing the back. What a dead on Jeff Box for the impression?

Was that Catherine Hepburn doing a Jetbox for the impression? You might be living in the past, your poop. Oh, man, she crushed that to her, though, man. Yeah, she did, yeah. She did the redneck comedy and the original, original. The name comedy. So, Stuart, what about you? I can't really think anything.

I had, even as a child, I had impeccable taste in my animal. Like when I made my parents watch The Legend of the Overfiend. Yeah, Allie, do you have anything? Did it have to be animated? Not really. It's John's, John, Dan's brother wrote this letter. He can say whatever you want. Well, I'm trying to figure out.

I was trying to look it up as someone else was talking, but my internet isn't working in your house, Elliot. I don't know. I guess it's connected to your bathroom. roof. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have toilet-based Wi-Fi here.

But do you guys remember the movie Watcher in the Woods? I think that was directed in video, right? I never stopped thinking about that. Watcher in the woods. I don't remember that being in theaters. It was like a, it was not like a Disney production from like that period when Disney was like, it's okay to scare children. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Very scary. When they made like Black Cauldron and stuff like that? Mm-hmm. Yeah, something wicked. Scary. Oh, right, right, right, right, right. Right, right, right, right, right.

I mean, like, when I was a kid, I watched, like, the Ewalk adventure and was like, this is sick. What's it? I guess the closest I could, this is not animated, but, like, something that, like, stuck in my brain for a long time was when I saw, as a kid, I saw a fool's fire. A murder. A murder, yeah. And no one would believe me. It's never been to shake it out my brain. So I had to take justice into my own hands.

So I was staring out this rear window. That's a window I used to look at butts. Rear window magazine. It's a weird window magazine. It would be all pinups based around peekaboo like long johns. Oh, boy. I'm vibing, yeah, I'm into it. But when I saw, on PBS one night saw a fool's fire,

the Julie Tamor short film where it's mostly puppets but not entirely puppets. And I remember not knowing what it was and being very kind of like disturbed by it. And it took me a long time to find out what that was. But that wasn't like a bad thing. It wasn't like I was like, I watched this bad thing over and over again, stuck in my head. That was more of a, it took me a long time to hunt down what this thing was that I couldn't quite describe to anybody, you know. Yeah.

So I hope this answers this mysterious John's question. And everyone should check. out sophomore lit. The episodes we were on first, of course. Yeah, the best ones. If we didn't answer this question properly, why don't you call your brother Dan and bug him about it? Off air.

Off and not in the show, yeah. And Hallie, if you want to be on the show, I'm sure he'd love to have you. He's like me, but quieter. Oh, no. I don't have that much to say. I can't feel that much air time. Exactly.

You're going to have to go in and talk about the waves. Water babies. Let's recommend some movies. Let's do it. Movies that we saw and enjoyed and think that you might see and enjoy. Who knows? Who knows? What do I want to recommend?

Sorry. I should have thought about this. Someone else can talk. You usually start, but if you're not ready, we can always break that rule. I'm going to recommend a modern martial arts masterpiece called The Furious. This is probably the first, I think it just came out this year. It is a fairly straightforward plotline of a, what, a mute handyman. Daughter gets kidnapped by a ring of child kidnappers.

That I don't love. And he teams up with the husband of a missing reporter to take down this syndicate. Of course, they have their own misunderstandings along the way and fight each other for a little bit, but there is a ton of battling. The fight choreography in this movie is absolutely bonkers. There's so much like physical storytelling with what they're able to do. And it is kind of the first movie since the raid that I feel like either equals or tops the raid and just visceral thrills.

Plus, it has a lot of nods to like classic kung fu cinema that I find makes this movie feel like it is kind of part of that classics conversation. It's really great. If you get a chance, check it out. I think it's rentable now, but you might be able to catch it in your local theater. That sounds great. I'm going to have to watch that one.

It's great. I was having trouble because, like, other than The Odyssey, which doesn't need my help, I have been watching a lot of, let's call them three-star movies lately, but I'm going to recommend one of those. Who are the three stars?

Like Chevy Chase, Martin Short, Steve Martin? Yep. I want three amigos over and over again. It was originally called the three stars. No, so I am going to recommend a movie that, like, it's a silly recommendation, a qualified recommendation. But the local Alamo, which I have been avoiding for new movies, but I've been going to rep screening still

because usually people aren't taking their phones out there. This is the type of thing where, like, the people who go to those aren't, aren't rude filmgoers. I've been going to... Their weird Wednesdays have been running through a bunch of, like, a beach party movie every month. And they've gotten to the point in the AIP Beach Party films where they have left the beach behind.

They're still technically beach movies, but no longer... Beach Quarry, Beach Factory. Well, like, the last month, which I didn't see was called Sergeant Deadhead, and it was just like... It was like an Army comedy. and then the one that I did go see was of course Dr. Goldfoot and the bikini machine

Oh, had you never seen that before? I had seen a long time before for some reason but I was glad to revisit Dr. Goldfoot and the bikini machine That's the song Yeah, we're talking about good songs from movies Starring Vincent Price as the titular Goldfoot. Yeah, if you want to see a movie

where Vincent Price is not only hamming up but he's doing like full comedy. I'm like normal Vincent Brunner. Well, that's what I'm saying. He's like adding, he's not just like stopping it like, I'm doing a little camp here. He's like, I'm doing a comedy performance. He understands the level of a movie with Bikini Machine and the title. Yeah, he is an evil scientific genius who has his Igor assistant and he has built a bunch of sex bots to go out into the world to seduce rich men and have them sign over property to them.

and then he can profit, essentially. And the main connection to the beach party movies is Frankie Avalon is the star, I guess, even though Vincent Price is the real star as far as I'm a star. If Vincent Price is in the movie, he's the star. Yeah. Yeah. But Atlan...

He's the star of Edward Sezorhands, and he's barely in that movie. I was never that charmed with him in the beach party movies that were on the beach. But in this one, I don't know, something. Like, he showed it a flare for physical comedy. He does a good job as like kind of the square hero to Vincent Price is like a lot

funnier, sort of just dripping with disdain evil guy. And it's just, it's a silly 60s comedy. It's about a guy with a bikini machine. Yeah. So if that sounds like it's up your alley, you're saying it's ready for, it's ready for a gritty reboot. Yeah. Don't expect, you know, like temper your expectations.

but if you like nutty stuff, pop culture junk from the past, you'll have fun watching it. Dan, did you ever read the later League of Extraordinary General and Hardcovers that Alan Moore

and Kevin O'Neill put out? There's one where they're in South America and there's a group of former Nazi scientists that are working in South America and one of them is Dr. Goldfoot. And I just really enjoyed that he was included

for these bad scientists. Ellie, why don't you go? I'm going to recommend a movie. So Dan talked to us about bikinis and Stuart talked us about violence. I'm going to talk about the opposite of those things. Okay. Because I watched a movie recently about a guy who stands for the,

about peace and also, I guess, the laws of religion. And that is the last temptation of Christ. That's right, everybody. I have been going back and watching some Scorsese movies I had not seen before. And this is when I'd put off for a long time because I'd always heard it was boring. Because you're Jewish. And because I'm Jewish.

I'm like, I don't care about this guy. This Jew caused all that trouble. No thanks. Made things a lot harder for us. As if things were ever easy for us. Oh, boy. Oh, no. Let me tell you.

Oh, oh. So anyway. Moving into Dracula zone again? Yeah, well, it was going into Jackie Mason territory. You know, Jackie Mason's kind of like the Dracula of comedy. Actually, Miltonville would be the Dracula of comedy because he steals from so many other people. But this one, I should have remembered that Martin Scorsese has two super strong modes. And one of them is modern, kind of like modern violence and modern, modern turmoil.

And the other is such a true devotion to the mystery of religious faith. And I love his movie Silence. I think it's a fantastic movie. And this one, I was really blown away by it. I thought it was really great. I didn't find it boring at all. I didn't find it. It's a slow-paced movie, but in a way that makes sense when it's set in biblical times.

Like, it should not be fast-paced. And something that I'd always heard is a criticism of it, that the performances feel very modern and their voices are very modern. You have Harvey Keitel playing Judas, you have Willem Defoe playing Jesus, that there were jokes I remember people making about like, oh, they just sound like normal modern people. And I really liked that about it. It made it feel like the characters were so much more alive. And it meant that in Willem Defoe's performance especially, he's playing the Jesus of the Gospels who was so inconsistent and that he's able to create this character who is inconsistent because he's kind of wondering what God wants him to be doing. And I thought it was really good. I thought it was a really just fantastic movie. And one of these movies that if I had any interest in being a Christian, this would have helped to peak that because it helped to make that aspect of the Gospels feel relevant in a way and kind of modern in a way that made sense to me.

And there's a there's a great scene with Andre, with Andre Gregory from my dinner with Andre playing John the Baptist. That's really fantastic. And I just thought it was a really beautiful movie and very stirring and very touching. So if you've been putting it off because you think it's going to be boring, but you have an interest in it, check it out. I think it's really good. Last temptation of Christ, you know, don't miss your last chance to see this temptation. Before it goes to the Disney Vault.

Allie, what do you want to recommend? Have you guys watched for the purposes of this podcast that Jennifer Lopez rom-com office romance? No, not yet. Yeah. Okay. We probably will. Well, I recently took a very fun girls' trip with my friend. Thanks for inviting me.

Part of what did you say? Thanks for inviting me. Would have been nice to feel included in your girls' trip. It was about girlhood. But one of the things, we went to Nashville to see Toriamos perform at the Ryman. But one of the things that we did every night was watch a bad rom-com, a newer bad rom-com. So we watched this office romance and it's ridiculous. It's fucking ridiculous.

And I was like, how did this get made? It's a different podcast. We hate movies. Jennifer Lopez doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to do. She is rich. So why did she want to do this? So I did a little bit of research. It's written by Brett Goldman, the her love interest.

Great. Goldstein, yeah. Oh, Goldstein. Excuse me. They all look alike to Hallie. Yeah. All those Jews. But he wrote it especially for her.

And he was like, I don't even, if she doesn't want to do this, I'm not going to make it. I need to find a way to kiss Jennifer Lopez. But she apparently wanted to do it. So the premise is like she's a pilot and she owns this airline and he is her lawyer. But she really liked that it upended conventional rom-com tropes because she is in like a high status position versus like when she's like the maid or the wedding. Didn't she see that the whole Kidman movie? Well, what I was going to say was

this was a terrible movie. The one was a baby doll. Is that it? Baby girl, but it's not a rom-com. Depends on how you look at it. But I was going to say, this was not. Almost no calm. It's like, okay.

But this was not a good movie. But the movie, the proposal with Sandra Bullock. It's very similar. It's very similar in premise. She is the high status. boss to Ryan Reynolds, who I usually, I hate Ryan Reynolds in general. But I loved that movie.

And yet you love Mint Mobile. So. And Deadpool. And a wreck zone. Yeah. So what I'm saying is, so you're recommending the proposal. I'm recommending the proposal. I actually have not seen the proposal.

It's very, but is it a funny movie? I loved it. I did watch it on a plane, but I loved it. I remember enjoying the proposal. Yeah. That's not the one where he is in like a fat suit, right? No, that's just friends, I believe. Okay.

With Amy, is it Amy Sideris? Sedaris. I would love to see an Amy Siddharic. Yeah, I think that's correct. I would love that. Yeah. That just makes me think of the Boja Horseman subplot when she's, she's the cat who's dating the kid who is just like standing on another kid. Yeah.

Trench coat. Yeah. That could be a whole movie. That was very funny. Yeah. get a little weird. In live action, yeah. Yeah.

Well, guys, we did it. That was our moment. And that was your moment to listen to us, the flop house. Thank you to Halle for being. I'm not sure you're team to at the moment. Talking to the listener at home, the listener at home. Although I'm also saying thank you to Hallie for being here. And bringing joy, I was like, oh, good, I get to see Hallie today.

and it lived up to my expectations. So now that we're going around the table, what do you have to say to me? Good to see you against Stewart. I haven't seen you in a while, even though we live in the same, we live in the same apartments. Same apartment.

Sometimes doing the show together, you know, like kind of gets in the way of us. Spending more time together because, you know, we're like, oh, we can always rely on the podcast, You know. Yeah.

She makes some time just for us. It's awkward to spend time to get it. Elliot, I haven't seen you in a while because you live across the country, which was I felt like I was a personal betrayal. I thought like the same neighborhood. Yeah. We're like you guys. Yeah.

We need podcasts to keep us together. Damn and I keep talking about going out to L.A. And L.A., it's like, no, no, no. It's all fires here. It's all fires all the time. My bathroom doesn't work. I have another bathroom. You can use that bathroom.

Whoa. Don't say that on air. People are going to think you're rich. I think I'm rich. Like when people got upset that one of the doughboys boys had stairs outside his house. Outside house. Yeah, it's like a lot of stairs

leaving up to his house, I think. No, he lives in L.A. or something. He could probably lives in Highland Park. He could live in, you know. Highland Park's got a lot of skills. I mean, I've got like, what, two, three stairs going up to my front. Stop it. I told you.

It's just a brick stoop. Just a brick stoop. stoop, you know. Within that elevated lifestyle. Okay, well, anyway, thank you to... I'm just a couple inches higher up than most people. Thank you to our network. Maximum Fun. Go to MaximumFund.org to check out the other great shows on the network.

You know what? Check out our newsletter, Flop Secrets. It's a great way to learn about everything new that's happening with the show. If you go to FlopHousepodcast.com, it's very easy to sign up. and you can hear about all the stuff that you probably already heard about in our plug section but it gets mailed to you directly

with a little few extra jokes. Well, Dan does... Dan puts a lot of work into making it a fun, entertaining, reading experience. You get answers to listener questions that you don't get on the podcast. Yeah, I would say sign up. Sign up.

Dan puts a lot of work into it. Let's recognize that by signing up and read it. Yeah, make me feel like my work is worth something. That's what I'm one out of life right now. Sign up and re-enlist today. Thank you to Alex Smith, our producer. He goes by name Howell Dottie.

If you want to see you in person and you live in the Louisville, Kentucky area, you come to our show. But for the Flop House, I've been Dan McCoy. I've been Stuart Wellington. I'm Elliot Kaelin, and we've been joined by... Ali Hagland. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Okay, I'd like to back up and ask an actual friend question. What's going on with your bathroom? What are you doing? So the floor was rotting. We knew we were going to have to make a new one at some point. And that turned into a project of making it into a master bathroom as opposed to a bathroom off the hallway.

And so it's just getting totally redone. So the guys came and they demoed it. And now they've put the new walls in, and they've put the cement in so they can put the tiles down. It's coming along. I love this blue collar, Elliot, we're getting here. He's like, ease in terms of demo and all that stuff. He's got a tape measure.

Yeah, yeah. Every day I show up with a hammer and one hand, I go, what do I do, guys? How do I help you out? He just start banging on things. Yeah, yeah, he's like, when's quitting time? Oh, man, I can go for a frosty one right now, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, it means that my house is very loud and full of

dust and I don't have my usual workspace. So instead I've been working outside and it's been very hot lately. It really is very hot here guys. Oh, you're sorry. When I said workspace, I was referring to a separate space than my usual jerk space,

which I still have, which is the corner of the garage farthest from the door. You just face the corner? Yeah, I call it winter witching. Oh, I think he's like one of those Japanese screens with hentai printed on it. No. The good thing about this is clearly

Kelly, it's like, you know, keeping his imagination alive. It's all fantasy-based. Exactly. Exactly. I don't want to lose that part. I don't want to lose that. You know, that innocence. I don't want to have to deal with the fisherman's wife's dream. I want my dream. See it now. Well, we've greeted Halley

in the normal way. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. Of artists' own shows. Supported. directly by you.