Comic Book Recommendations and Closing

On this episode, we discuss after Last season. The movie that dares to ask the question, What's a movie Yep A. Hey everyone and welcome to the Flop House. I'm Dan McCoy. Hey. I'm Stuart Wellington. And I'm Elliot Kalin. and we have We're pretty sedate today. I think because of the The movie you watched, but we do have a guest, right D. have a special guest. We've been we've been wanting to get him on the show for a long time, but it had to be A very special movie and a very special reason. And so for the season, here he is. Janie Yamato. You know him From other podcasts you probably listen to if you listen to this one because they're more popular You know him from he was the showrunner for the McRlrooy showh, a wonderful comedy show that then disappeared from the world. It was on a stream service dedicated to comedy, Dan. S so. S so. Yeah. The name itself screams comedy. Yeah. U, you know, he wrote for the new what was they call What did they call the after Midnight reboot? What was it It was after Mightes. was the shorter of after Midnight. Yeah Wow, Dan has the credits in front of him and it's still Ily bit in It' fun because I could see Dan just kind of trying to pull what he knows from our friendship Dan you might know JD from this dinner party I went to was that Dan. You might know Dan says the credits for guests the way my dad would when he was trying trying to tell me about restaurants he's eaten at in different cities. Yeah. The problem is that our listership has sort of rewarded us for the sort of ramshackle nature of the show. Oh yeah. So we've never saw fit to get better at it. This is their v. Yeah. That's the issue. Yeah JD for lam Ben Hosley's Christmas where Stu D and JD did a bit to avoid talking to other people. It mainly argued about the necessity of video and podcast. Yeah. Uh, welcome, JD. I guess I've told the audience about you. Normally I might be like, say something about yourself, but You were so kind as to come do the show though after running a half marathon today. So thank you in particular for Yes. Well there's a lot here here's the context of this is I'm a flop house fan. I listen to the flop house U As our right thinking people are. Yeah. Yes, of course. I'm an American citizen who I do what's right. And. I'm a big fop house fan We've long discussed coming on but it was we had to find the right project the right project to work together on. And this is a great collaboration between us. Yeah. I will say okay, a couple thing a couple of things that I think are worth noting about coming on here. Num one said Christmas party, we discussed all of this. and then texted with Dan and Stewart and was like, great I want to come on. and they're like, what movie? And I was like This movie after last season, and then we had a whole text start talking about it And then we all realized if we just scrolled up We had had this exact same conversation one year prior. That is the most after last season thing that could have possibly happened. Yeah Ver fitting Well, and the most us like for just forgetting I mean, Dan lives what I would call a groundhog day existence, you know, day in, day out, forgetting what he did the day before. A actually more more of a blank slate existence, I guess, Or a fifty first dates existence. I mean, this is one hundred percent true. now that I have had a diagnosis, I've learned that ADHD has a lot of memory problems associated with it. so Id like to attribute it to that now, I guess But like I do remember your ADHD memory thing last episode. Oh my Gods. I remember But I do remember the names of actors in movies. That's true For some reason. When we recorded So we recorded some episodes out of order today to accommodate that Jie was literally running a running a race this morning.. And we did a mini about Stehen King episode movies that will come out next week. and Dan's memory for the Stephen King movies that he had seen is really phenomenal It's really astonishing. I think I think Dan had seen almost every of the seventy four movies I mentioned. Yes. So get ready for that next week. But this week We're talking about after last season becausecause Dan, what do we do on this podcast? This is a podcast where we watch a movie that was either a critical or commercial flop and then we talk about it. I mean, I don't know that I love the circumly coat locations that Dan goes through to avoid saying bad these days. It's very sweet of him It's very nice,. I don't want to take anyone down that doesn't need to be taken down. This is a movie that like honestly normally would be in you know small timber orber smallmall timber is Elliot prefers. H all right thing people say But you know,, we wanted to have JD on and this is near and dear to his heart. I'm glad to believe. So into your life. Yes, Yes. Be before we get into the movie, what's your relationship with after last season? OkayK, well first, I want to appreciate Dan for for not saying that it's a bad movie because I think it's a good movie. And you're right that you cover movies that are either critical or an artistic failure. And this is just this was one that just financially didn't make its money. But otherwise, listen, I love movies and Guys, this is a good movie. This is a great movie. I'm so excited to hear your argument as we go through the movie about what' a good or so Here is my initial experience with this. So I'm a big movie head like y'all. And if we take we travel back in time to the year. the year is two thousand nine. Wow. And the way that you learned' been podcasting for two years at that point There were only three podcasts in existence and this was one of them. The way you learned about movies that were coming out was through Apple trailers. att least that's how I did and my contemporaries is you would go to apppple dot com slash trailers and every whatever, like once a week they would drop a bunch of trailers and you'd be like, ooh, this is going be like a cool season of movies orver. Ived it. Yeah. I was We had it so good guys. We had it so good. You went to one place and you got to see all the trailers Yeah And then people made sure to make cool trailers. Yeah. And if your internet was bad, it took you a long time, but you still got to see the trailer. Yes, you'd click on the trailer and got you got the choose. Am I gonna wait forty minutes for the high quality? Am I gonna wait twenty minutes for the medium? or in five minutes am I gonna watch the low quality and not be totally sure who's in the movie Yeah If it ain't Lord of the Rings, give me the fastest one. Yeah you said to yourself, how much time do I have to wait to find out who's in GI Joe The Rise of Cobra? I mean I need to figure this out because if I need it fast or I need it et Furious, yeah. And I need to figure out how when and why Cobra is rising. Y. Ironically, Cobra falls in that movie, whichich the trailer wouldn't tell you. The trailer really makes it look like they rise. Yeah we can talk about that movie now also. We can get into I still have a sore spot with that one because that was the one where I made a joke that the American people would never elect a president with crazy hair. You were wrong a on my face really. So so in the years two thousand nine, you're clicking onto Appleot com slash trailers Do you find Jie Okay oming movie that everyone was talking about Was Spike Jones where the Wild Things are He was directing an adaptation of Where the Wild Things are. and am the I was at NYU, a young film school lad with eyes as big as dinner plates looking to the horizon of cinema. and Spike Jones, the master of art and weirdness was going to cover where the wild things are. So the trailer drops, which I will say, my hot take is I think the best film of two thousand nine. wasas the trailer to wherear the wild things are. Okay. Okay, interesting. The trailer has a bespoke arcade fire song. That was like an acoustic version of one of their hits. and it had all this imagery of where I don't know that Where the Wild Things are didn't quite hit me, The movie itself didn't hit me the same way that the trailer hit. It has a melancholy sadness that I wasn't necessarily looking for out of Where the Wild Thingsed You wanted to tweed Joy exclusively. Yes Well you wanted you wanted something, I mean there are things I admire about that movie, but I think you wanted the movie to in some way represent the feeling of the book where the Wild thingsings are, which is not about The regrets that adults have, that childhood is ending, necessarily, you know Totally. And the thing about this project is that there wasn't much about it out in the world, right So the things that we knew is we knew some of the cast and it was like a lot of folks that were like, it wasn't like a huge, big name because it was mostly monsters and a kid We knew that the Jim Henson compompany was making the puppets, but they're using it was like all this mystery shrouout. So when the trailer dropped, everyone was like, whoa, This is like we're getting our first hint into this. Also in two thousand nine, a big thing is that this was the era of lost, this was the era of the interternet being a resource under which people did like alternate reality experiences and like stunt marketing stuff And so at the same time The same moment that the Where of the Wild Things are trailer released next to it on Apple trailers was a trailer for a movie called After Last Season No And when you probably start with As after where the Wilds on exactly A Yeah, they did it based on like seasons and verbs and adjectives. When you watch the trailer, The trailer has a quality to it that felt Almost that like tweee spike Jones confusing strangeness. And it has some of its weird digital effects. all and it's like the lines that are being said don't seem to connect and it's shot in such a way that you are unable to discern whether this is intentionally supposed to be a movie or not And so the internet, I remember, became a flutter with the theory that this movie pererhaps was an alternate reality promo for where the Wild thingsings are And so people were pouring over it, trying to like Google lines and see if like some of the things they were saying were related to where the wild thingsings are in some way. They're like this weird trailer came out Occam's Razor tells us that it must be a prank from that notorious stricter Spite Jones to in someertain way, draw attention to his movie by drawing attention away from his movie when there' already a trailer for his movie. This is very internet filmered thinking, I think. totally. The feeling that like anything that I experience has been tailored for me and is someone speaking to me. Y And so Of course, that was not the case. And then what happened was people going, what is this movie becausecause it was like the only title card was a production company called index Square. And then it seemed to be directed by someone named Mark Region which is a name that feels almost writerly in its simplicity. Yeah, it feels like something you would call out if you were working on a sh or something. It turned out that is like a pseudonym. But not for Slake Jones. Yes, exactly. And then there were rumors, I remember there was rumors that the film was only screened once in like Maine. and everybody died in the theater. Exactly And if you met someone who saw it then you were going to die too in twenty four hours And that it was like a dentist that paid for it. And then like over the years, more and more information came out about like Who this guy was that wrote, directed, shot and produced the film. And like what was real and what wasn't real about it in terms of There wass a lot of rumors of it costing millions of dollars. and it was a very strange thing that unfolded. But very quickly, it was unable to be seen anywhere. I believe in total, There were only four public screenings of it ever. and then there's no way to view it digitally or buy it or purchase it or see it online. So it became one of these movies that's just known as being this strange curio that no one can really wrap their hands around. And in the absence, of course, of it being available, everyone assumes it must be amazing in some way, or other Sure The idea that the thing that is available that is not available could be Maybe not worth the time of watching it is an idea that I think in film people, if they can't watch something, they jump to the conclusion, obviously this must be a singular experience. You know, it must be It is a singular exper. It is a sular That's tr. like you don't like art must be it. It must be it. But it turned out This movie Elliot's in the poarket of Big Hollywood. Yeah ar I am in the poet I'm in the pocket of well made films.ll Ellot Elliot's working for B Hollywood and they're scared like a movie like this is going to get the ball rolling again and people thinking outside the box. That's true. That's back in the box. I am literally working on, I think what is the ironically the opposite of this, which is a ghostbusters television show, as opposed to this, which is a kind of Maybe has a ghost in it homemade story. W there's a ghost in there taping up printer paper on things. Yeah. Well Elliot, we're gonna be on the lookout. If there's a ghostbusterss episode that includes a paper mache fucking MRI a ghost that seems to push aside objects on the floor very slowly as it walks toward you. too be honest, I wish I had seen this movie before we started writing the series I definitely would have put something in. There's no one. There's no one that will have watchalked that. No that's why No one would be like, oh, that's an after last season reference. Yeah That' a little wink to his boys U. Exactly. at the same way that so there are two jokes on the Netflix Mystery Science Theater two jokes in the first season. I think it was the first season that I fought so hard for And one of them was a reference to Ival Calvino's novel The Nonxistent Night. And that was just for me. That was for nobody else. And the other one was a reference to the jingle for a hotel in the Poonos called Mount Area Lodge that this commercial used to run all the time in the T State area. And I had such a big argument with the other people on the show because they're like that joke out. Nobody's going to get that joke. It's a waste. It's a nobody nobody's going to get that And that's the one joke I hear about the most from people that go, Oh, I really love that Mount Area Lodge joke because it hit just the right people. It seems weird to me that anyone like like to have Joel back on the show and be like People were like, that joke's too obscure. I feel like that was what I loved about the original mo. It wasn't the one right when there was a joke that even jooled into the reference, he'd go, It's okay, man. It's texture, it's cool. So I didn't have a problem with it. It was the cast was like, why are we doing this? I was like, you're not saying the jingle right. And the cast were like, who cares? Let's not do this joke. It's stupid. No one's gonna to get it I will say mystery that the Netflix Mystery Science Theater was my it was my comfort watch during tumultuous years where I would than you. Every Sunday I would get my black and white cookie. which I like a flat cake, like a flat cake.. would eat that and I'd fall asleep with the dulcate tones of mystery science together. How do you guys feel on black and white cookies? They're a big hit in the Wellington House? So I am not from the East Coast, so I don't have any You say Re Brooklyn Damon. Wh is such a specific. I don't have like a specific like nostalgic fondness for it and I'm not a fan of Cakey cookies. So in the term poondant. Is it but you were a fan of Cakey the character in the in that moviey got cakey. Yeah I was a big fan of the line cy I mean because the L opinions being from New York. Oh yeah, black and white cookies. I don't always want them, but when I want them, I want them bad. they're always want them all the time. that's bad for you. But just seeing when I see sometimes food, when I see them in the pastry case of a diner or a deli, it doesn't make me very happy just to see them there Just another there. Yeah, especially when they're not like wrapped up in plastic, like Laura Palmer Yeah, that's That's when you know right? You don't you don't that's how you know that Bob has been in the deelli or diner. Y. Or how you know that Laura Palmer is chock full of preservatives, you know? Yeah. Now JD, I know from your many appearances on on blank check that you are sort of an expert in like film innovation different like like like film I'm a fan. I'm a fan of of people innovating in cinemat. Yeah, like technologies. Now what would you say about after last season in terms of the filming es and styles I think I think that's the kind of thing we should talk about while we talk about the movie because a. Most people probably have not seen this movie. And I think it's hard to know it's hard to really get a sense. I will say this about the movie. It's an experience. and it's hard to really understand what this movie is without watching it. The same way we were talking about I think when Evan Dorkin was here, I think we were talking about onene Cut of the dead, which is a similar movie where you kind of have to watch it to experience it and get what it's doing. I would argue that that's a really good version of it, while this is I'm not so sure. I don't know that I would say you can watch this movie in even understand it or get what it's doing. I don't think you get what it's doing, but I think you get how it feels to watch it. And so let's talk about it a little bit. And JD Esra went through, I want you to point out, yeah, the parts where you're particularly finding the filmmaking particularly interesting or know innovative or exciting. So after last season, we start with the title. It appears on the screen in pieces very slowly And then we have a scene there's a lady scientist or a doctor, I guess very slowly explaining how it works than giving an MRI to a patient with Parkinson's. The room is nearly empty. Let me just set the scene for you. They're in a nearly empty room. There are pieces of paper with printouts of MRI images taped to the walls. and there's an MRI machine that appears to be made out of aperra Paper cras Yeah. What type of room would you describe even why Is it a hospital room? Is it a doctor's office? That's a good question. The factom the prominent existence of a ceiling fan in the room and the way the blinds and the floor and everything about it, it feels to be more of a guest room that has been had the furniture taken out. yeah. And I would to clarify something. I don't believe this is an MRI machine made of white cardboard MRI machine made of, I would assume cardboard that has had sheets of white paper Yes taped over it. It looks like they've covered the cardboard with whiteap printer paper to make it look the color of normal MRIs, which is blinding white like like. You know, I assume that they had an actual MRI machine that was just covered in corporate logos and they're like, we don't have clearance for this. So we gott to cover it in paper. That's not possible. Yeah. When you hold the MRI machine, make sure to have your hand over the label because we don't have the rights to show the brand. There's a lot of like stickers like Canada's motorcycle. Now I should mention There are a lot of shots of walls, window shades, a fan, a door. And so even scenes even scenes that you think would be just dialogue between two characters will often be intercut seemingly at random or arbitrarily by shots of objects or walls, locations. The u I read an interview with the director actually, where he talked about using that to show that time had passed. Yeah. But this does not actually there's not not internally true. time often time has not passed in the. Well what I'd like to point out is that in film, we have phenomenon known as the Koolershab effect. R? Yes Thank you Y yeah where you can But if I put sunglasses on anything, they turn cool. Yes, exactly. And Top Gun really showed that off. The coolest effect is you take two images and you put them next to each other audience will draw a meaning It'll add meaning between the two shots. So the great example would be like, oh, if you show a neutral faced man was the original sort of test of it. But then you show some audiences a baby as the next shot. the audience would be like, o, the man's like worried about the baby. or if you want to eat that baby. Yeah. Yes. If you show food, it'll be like, oh, he the man's hungry. And so the cool shop effect is When you cut two images that might not be related together, the audience draws distinction between them I would like to posit the first advancement that after last season makes is what I would like call the region effect, which is region has found a way to cut things together to actually It takes information away from the scene and he's breaking the Kulushov effect where's you are losing the connection you would have had between things that are logically disconnected. You have a scene that you did understand and then through the region effect, you no longer understand what's going on. That you know what? you won me over. now I like the movie already. because you're right The movie is constantly daring you to Find what's happening It it. You know, it's constantly throwing chaff in your face as if the movie is trying to escape from you and it's throwing sand at you to blind you so that it can leave. It's then ititering away from you. Yeah exactly. An another thing that I like to point out in this first scene, it's like trying to hold a block of like a little ice trying to pick an iceube up off the floor Yeah. That's what this mov is like It your hands are made of lava.. It's the raccoon putting cotton candy in a puddle and then it disappears U didid that happen You haven't seen that video thead I haven'ten that video he's like he's slamppping the puddle, like, whereere'd my cotton candy go? Yeah. deellicious cotton candy. Its like the saddest thing in the universe That's what watching this movie is yes, it's so Raccoons and cotton candy and puddles aside. That doesn't happen in this movie. That would be the most exciting thing that would happen in the entire movie. We then go to Dr. Marlin, this is a neurosurgeon. He brings in two med students. One of them is a woman named Sarah Who's going to become a major character and takes a long time explaining to them why you would use an MRI. Now this would lead you to believe that the MRI is going to be a big part of the movie. No, it is not a big part of the movie. exxcept for these seances. This is intercut with there's a wom I thought this was just that I accidentally loaded up a MRI like a demo reel for an MI. purchase veryer early days because they didn't have the actual MRI or like a rehearsal for a tech demo for. Thank you.. You're thinking of purchasing the Klaxicoech MRI Here's the starter model that we'd like you to take home for a little bit and see if you're ready for it. That's what it feels like. But so this scene is intercut with a couple other scenes. A woman is having a boring phone call in a hallway And a man is sitting alone in his apartment. We're later going to learn this man is named Ed Brown But when we're introduced him, he is just a man who is writing, looking around, sitting down, gets ups down again. Barding a very British belt. Yeah There's definitely a Captain Britain belt going on. That seems heavily featured to the point that you begs the question Is this man British? The answer is no. No's resolved.. But he may have been there at some point. We get a lot of talk later in the movie about places people have been to or through, but we never find out where he's been. I also would like to point out another thing that Region does that I think is actually innovative directorially. Okay. and something that I like In movies, I think it's really great texture when you leave in You know, as we talk amongst ourselves as real humans in the world, we don't get everything We mess things up. Oh go stop and start. You call teacher, mom. You call mom teacher. you know There is a moment in this first scene where an actor just does a retake of a line They the actor forgets a word and it does a retake right live in the moment and it's left in the movie. And I like that because that's real life. We say the wrong thing in take retakes all the time. I mean My understanding of the movie is that Mark Regent thought that Making it feel real or feel like real life would me and leaving in mistakes, having characters talk about banal things that are completely unrelated. to the movie. We'll get to it later, but one of the most exciting parts of the movie is a woman telling a story about going to dinner with a friend and her friend discovering that she's allergic to shrimp by ordering a shrimp dish and having the allergic reaction to it. And while you're like, this is you're like this This isn't doesn't have anything to do with anything. This is just convers I'm just watching a conversation. Like I'm just watching people kill time, having a conversation that neither one of them are actually that interested in. And that feels that could feel very real. And of course, everything is done with this air of you're watching aliens trying and trying and failing integrate themselves into human society without anybody noticing. Yeah It does feel like the most boring person you've ever met at a dinner party suddenly got to script out a whole movie. Yes, yeah. And also apparently like The lines were sort of untethered in time. L if he had several lines in the same room, like they wouldn't be like recorded like by scenes so the actors could get like an idea of what they were acting about. It would just be like, okay, like run through all the lines for this setup or whatever and they would just be c together later apparently also the lead I was reading something by one of the lead actors in an interview and he was saying that it was very cold when they were shooting. And so often they were having trouble saying the lines because because they were so cold and they would have to run in between takes to to a heater that they had set up. and also that if an actor was not On screen, they would be off trying to warm up and they would not be feeding their lines to the other actor. So it wasiterally they were literally having trouble saying the lines in a natural way because they were so cold. So that too think is an efficient way to make a film. and on top of that, I would say that Based on all of this, I think we can agree, and this is Elliot's thought and I'm just going to underline it. and I agree with you, Elliott This Mark region is dedicated to realism. This film This film is all about realism and capturing the real human experience. I mean I don't know real human experience because it's also about having a dream about stopping a murderer using microchips on your on your temple. but it is a it is very much about capturing people sitting in cheap rooms say talking about nothing, which is why you would feel in life If you were shooting the movie Jie's looking around, What are you saying about my room, Jie? wass houses. I like. I thought Jie was looking around saying, Yeahah, get it guys, You agree with me, right? He's saying what I'm thinking. Yeah normal slash boring filmmaker, if they were facing budgetary limitations and had to, I don't know, decorate most of the room using paper squares They might not cut away to shots of said paper squares call attention draw attention to it. But no, Mark Reen's like, you know what? this is real life This is the grit. I would argue it's the opposite. This is a Brechian thing. These are distancing effects. He is drawing att to drawing attention to how fake this all is, the artifice, whereereas a lesser movie like Taxi Driver is striving for a sort of realism that you believe these are real characters in a real city having real emotions. Whereas this is this, a greater work of art is showing you it's all fake and it's there's nothing here. Yeah. It's refusing to allow you to invest yourself. Moving on, I gott to keep moving on the plot five minutes or less than five minutes of the movie I think. the So the point is We're watching three things happen. A woman's having a boring phone call. Ed Brown seems to hear something and wanders around that sits down again. and the surgeon is telling his residents about schizophrenia and different types of schizophrenia. People hear voices. Ed Brown calls the library. He hears a knock on the door. We go to the woman on the phone. She stumbles on a man's dead body. It's Ed Brown. It's his dead body. We cut to, two women talk about their family histories and towns they've been in. one compliments another's radio plot. Well we've never been to that town, right? buta been to that town, but she's been through that town. There's like a lot of early scenes where I'm like, okay, they're establishing these characters. They're establishing things, you know, this this will come back. And then like I believe that certain of these characters we see in these early scenes are not seen again. No, these two characters are Sarah's roommate And another woman and she goes, Ohh ye, I have this roommate Sarah Sarah walks in. She's the med student we saw earlier. The woman talk about a patient they knew who had nerve damage in her hand. Sarah walks through the room, leaves the house while those women are talking about their apartments and how big they are. We go to then the very let's just say unrealistic looking headquarters for the pro Roless cororporation whichich is I think maybe my favorite fake name for a company I've ever seen in a movie. stipul. It doesn't even sound like anything, you know Now that there's so when there's a sign identifying this as the pro Rus Roolus cororporation Corporation. Yeah We have to assume founded by Gerald Proolis. They do this by John Otterbridge or whatever. like just like, you know, a font is superimposed on the thing the outside of the building as if it is a sign on the outside of the building, but I'm like, but it looks like There's are credits still going on. L this is like I mean' sponsored by the Pl R Association or something because it's just like a title card. Yeah, in a way, isn't that like, isn't that what paint is in the real worldice than you. paint is just like credits that have been wrapped onto buildings.. And Reion is giving us all giving us as an audience all time because the audience at that point is all sharing stories about what their radio clock looked like when they grew up. Yeah, exactly and what towns they've been through. Now, here's that Stewart. I will say that the Plist corporation is posited to be like a large pharmaceutical or medical technologies company. their signs usually are not painted on the front of the buildings because that are usually made out of like three dimensional materials that are affixed to front of the building. I mean I look Joh now. Yeah, I'm just kind of like a regular blue collar Joe. so I don't understand those like kind minded things. Yeah All your signs are painted small town corporations.. And All you know are hot dog sands and car garages. yeah. they go There's a man there. me six back and a dog back in my truck. I'm happy. will That'sry Okayit, are you Do do you have do you don't a dog? you have a c I mean two cats. Two cats I like this is Wait a minute, you don't have truck. You' been cheap. Hold on a second. Stuart, all this time, I thought you were a down home country boy. Yeah. T turns out you're an urban sophisticated. Yeahah, I'm a grifter. There's also can wait you're grrifter from wildcats? Oh I'm grrifter from wildcats. I we your mask on. It just hangs in front of your fe. I tie it behind my head My name is Cole Cash, I think that was his name right. That was it. Certainly Cole something. called Grifter Elliot. L he Griffs. Anyway, moving on. you guys want to talk about wildcats Y So they're wild covert action teams, I think. Oh yeah. Yeah. So anyway, so a man Matt, he reads a printed out N news article A lot of people online will say, oh, it's supposed to be a newspaper and it's clear printout. The director has stated, this is supposed to be an article printed out from Yahoo newews. which we all do Which we all do Andertainly in two thousand nine we were it converted to text to printout, right? Yes. So the news article says that that dead man from earlier is the third murder victim discovered recently. Sarah shows up. She's a new intern at pro rooolist. She runs into Matt They talk about the woman who discovered Ed Brown's body, another student. And she hands him a questionnaire she filled out and they plan to continue the research project that he is running that she's a part of. Then with Sarah goes to a lecture in a room that I would call unfinished interest Professor talkks critical of all these interesting It's it's I mean, the thing is It feels like they were going out of their way to find rooms that did not look like real places that humans exist in. And if there's anything I feel like you can find, it is a room People live in them. They have them in their houses. Yeah. All of them. building blocks. Maybe that's kind of what the pro Rolist corporation is going for is trying to create an environment that you might not have already seen before. Maybe maybe that's sort of a forwardinking. Just because you're good at finding rooms doesn't mean that the average person is as good as you. So I like you're sort of like, just your privilege. And it's not like this is the movie The Room, which is full of rooms. you know, this is a different kind of movie. so Sarah goes to a lecture about brain function Uh then so part From my notes, it's clear that I was uncar what going on. There's a woman, I think it's Sarah. She looks like in a home and she looks at a piece of furniture and doctor Marlin walks in and the woman says there was a cup on a cabinet. And then it turns out I think that they're looking at objects from Ed Brown's apartment Then we cut to a shot of an overhead fan And then the doctor is in back in his fakeRI room examining a woman whose nerves are healing from a gbing operation. She can letift her arm higher. Yeah. She can lift her arm higher. Her foot still doesn't feel great because that's where they took the nerves from. But she says she's willing to take the numbness in the foot to get the movement on her arm. Yeah. Not since twwin peaks or there so many cutaways to ceiling fans. There's also a moment where there's I swear to God there's one shot where there is a digitally inserted shadow hind Did you notice this? I did notice that. But I' also mention I watched this on YouTube so it wasn't the best transfer. When I found out this movie was shot on thirty five Millimeter, which it does not they did not take advantage of the format. you know, I know what you're talking about, JD. I was like Is this is everything behind this person like greens screen? becausecause the like the shadow looks so like weird and digitally, but then I'm like, they're just in a room. They wouldn't have green screen that. Yeah It looked like one of the demons from Ghost. Yeah. You know that like crawls on it. Yeah. Maybe it was foreshadowing of where the movie is going. So this movie I should mention us by this point there is just was foreshadowing the shadows in this movie. c, right? It made me think about how few shadows I see in O movies unless they specifically are like the point of this is shot as a shadow. Yeah. Unless yeah, I like Baldwin's blast and dudes.g, reading minds. Yeah. I should mention that at this point, there's been almost no background music and the movie almost almost everyvery now and then there's like a like a slightly dramatic two toneslect like midi sense or And there will be long sections later where not only is there no music, but the sounds seem to be The room tone of whatever room may be It was being edited in. They're just kind of like Either pipes behind walls or just kind of that blurry sound you get from poor audio. Yeah. Certainly late in the film There's a scene where you hear, I think the outdoor Tffic noise whenever someone talks. Yes, that's true. And there iss also a scene where there's a handheld camera and you can hear the footsteps of the man walking with the camera, which I know is very funny. But anyway, so so back from that riveting scene of the woman being examined for her nerve damage in her arm. Matt talks on the phone. is this is this is genuinely a very funny scene. Matt is talking to someone on the phone who needs help finding a printer And Matt is just telling him where there are printers. And I think this is a line that was in the trailer, but he goes o, yeah, there's printers in the basement.. And this is this is again, the movie is daring to call attention to how much of the sets are printed pieces of paper by talking about printers. but Sarah calls home. She has a similarly banal conversation about school and someone she hasn't seen in a while. Then her roommate walks in and tells her story about having dinner with a friend who suddenly developed an allergy to shrimp. I think this's the closest thing to a tight intense narrative in the entire movie is the story her roommate is telling about another character we never meet discovering they have an allergy to shrimp. And they both talk about the towns grew up in. Matt sets up, now the movie is really kicking into gear. This is when the story really starts up. What gear would you describe it as. First, maybe neutral? Yeah. Before the movie I had been neutraling backwards down a hill. They hit the emergency b break at least. I mean they're kind of pressing down slightly on it so that it falls back slly less. So Matt sets up a room for a psychology exercise. We know this because he puts a piece of paper that'ays a psychology exercise on the door. He reads an article about a device that reads brain signals. and then Sarah shows up the experiment and explains explains it takes him a long time to explain this. They're testing computer chips that all they have to do is hold them to their temples and then one of them can read the other one's thoughts.'s direction thing. One of them will read the thoughts of the other. They start the trial. They make a lot of effort to make sure that the audience understands there's no potential negative side effects of this technology. Y. Yeah not worry And because we I'm sure they knew the audience would be concerned because they're like, I've seen I've seen things like this. I've seen movies where someone gets a chip on them and they getohny Nneumonic suuddenly they're the run. No, don't, D don't worry. this's not gonna to be any drama. No And it's what's cool is that we're living this movie lives in a world where the technology is so advanced that this microchip it's so compact and the technology is so advanced that it almost looks like, you know just one of those posted sticky notes that you use to like mark a sxt. It almost looks like that.most You're holding just that up, but it's actually this advanced microeset. Yeah. You know what, Dan, what you said remind me there's a scen in Hitch Sky at the Galaxy where it says, there's too much stress in the universe. So just to tell you, when these missiles are flying towards a spaceship We're just gonna to tell you nobody's going to get hurt. It's going to be okay. This movie is kind of like that. The movie is like, don't get excited. Don't worry. notothing will happen But this is when we really get into the meat of the movie. Yes. They start the trial and he says, now Sarah Matt is going to give her prompts that she has to imagine. And we're going to see those imaginings presented as computer generated animated images. And this is where apparently the bulk of the reportedly five million dollars budget Yeah I wanted you put your finger right on like so yeah, said they said there was a five million dollars budget You're watching the movie. you're like find going five million dollars I've spending it a lot printer paper. But then apparently that's where like supposedly it's these computer generated Yeah I mean, I would say this is that if you look at the computeriter images in this film I think trainedy I think an untrained eye might think that they look almost like maybe a camera shooting a screen. Yeah likeike a ramcash playback render on Maya is playing back to sort of like rough parts of basic animation. But if you actually understand cinema tech, film and what goes into it, you know that that region is operating at a level that's beyond that because here's the thing in the They're describing And then you see shapes that are close to those things. I would say not necessarily close. but you are seeing shapes. I do know that apparently apparently it was reported that Weda really went hard after Mark Region to reveal where he got the technology to do these amazing things and he refused, you know, a lot of rumors about how So they stpped They chained him up in a basement. he wouldn't bend after weeks I don't want to jump ahead too much, but there's a later scene where like You know, someone is kind of being threatened within the world of this like lawnmower manany world. Yeah And like nothing. She She like has to like Throw something at the person threatening and it's like she bats the square at him.aceless manner that is just so funny to him this seeen that Elliot described. didid you guys have this? I had this where there's a moment where birds come on screen and I thought there were birds in my apartment. Yeah because it was so realistic. was I was touching the screen. and I was like, oh my God, this is the movie. Yeah' ha now we're having a lot of fun here But just to beious animation just set a baseline of realityt I don't want the audience to be like, oh, I got toa see these amazing effects. It looks Th these are the kind of effects that would have been incredibly impressive in like nineteen seventy eight, potentially. E E then even Yeah there's a moment where he's like, imagine a letter rising out of like a flat plane. and she goes from the alphabet. It is very he was asking her to like describe like a piece of postag. So Sarah's thoughts, so he goes imagina shape This is So then we get the first the CGI scenes, which is a rectangles, zooming around, they're changing shape and size, a cylinder arrives andat Matt goes, Wow, that worked really well I saw a cylinder. and Sara goes, Oh, I was imagining a basket, which is one, a basket is not a shape, but also like the idea that these amazing chips don't work that well. But no, here's if I say, think of a shape Immediately you guys all thought basket. Yeah F more things. That's true. Then we go through a lot more of these CGI brain reading tests. We see cubes, orbs, birds, flowers. I mean And finally, a man being stabbed, which startles Sarah But Dan, what are you say? Well, to be mildly fair to a movie that maybe doesn't require it. as they practice using these chips, like the things start looking more like actual they look more realistic is what you're say. They still I mean they look bad but they're when shess w are being stabbed, she describes features on him that are not even reflected in the image. Yes. So I was specifically you can see the pupil in his eye. And I couldn't. I could barely know. It took me a while to understand they were even people. Now I think there's something to be done. I see what everyone approach is that like. They start out with simple shapes and it's becoming more and more detailed, more and more complex Yeah It still always looks like crap the whole way through. Like it just still really looks bad So but she startles startles Sarah and she goes, I didn't think that. it just appeared prettyretty quickly, they come to the conclusion that this was a vision of Ed Brown's murder. And she goes, Ohh yeah, I had a vision of his murder before it happened too. And that is like That was the interesting, that's the twist there. Yeah. even before we had brain reading chips, she started having premitions of murder. And I was like, did I miss did she stop it? Where whereere they set this up in any way? I did not miss a scene. I think where they set this up in any way. Matt figures they can use her visions to stop the next murder all they have to do is keep doing the same boring stuff they've already been doing. So now we get a very long sequence, punctuated by shots of walls and empty rooms in what appears to be a kitchen storage area. as she realizes CGI shapes that become cars driving around, then weird trees next to a road This all feels like and this all feels like demo sampler stuff. And wait, the k you said a kitchen storage area It looks like it's a room with carpet. That seems like a bad place to store your like drying dishes there There are racks of dishes there. Yeah. o. Yeah. The cars seem fast and cool. That cars the cars seem like I mean, the cars seem like future cars, but you know, And so CGI house CGI woman throwing cubes at something, as Dan mentioned. And finally, through the wall comes a faceless knife wielding killer. It's not really a knife, it's a spike. Its like ripped off aeosaurus's tail. Andaceless like before other than this character, the characters that are represented the digital characters are hyper realistic. This one has like a face like Cobra Commander's mask right? Yes, It's like a mirror just for a face. Yeah And this happens and the killer attacks the CJI woman. And my favorite part of this is this is Sarah's describing the one. she goes It's a woman She's wearing some sort of blouse which which is like not the most important detail, not really represented by what we're seeing. but so now we see a man in that kitchen storage area calling through a door for someone named Angie And then Matt walks into the test room and says he just found out a woman was stabbed in a house. And so I guess that Angie was the who got killed that they saw the vision of. He was listening to a police scanerner, I guess. He kind of like, I guess was driving by that house and I don't know. They go back to the test. What else did they do? They go back to the test So Did time pass between this? How did he find that information out? Is he like checking the citizen app? The region effect. you're all victim to it. Yeah. I think I think he says something about driving past the house. But as far as we know, we didn't even see him leave that room, which we don't have tos like but thisist thing, it feels like we are in a timeless space where they are experiencing the same moment for eternity, but they're free to leave and expand that moment. Hows really it's really disorienting. This whole movie. They go back to the test They see some CGI fish. then we have point of view footage of someone walking around outside. and it's a lot of shots of chairs and hallways and walls and our leads sitting there not talking. and then CGI shapes with ambiguous room tones and then chairs again. And this goes on for like fifteen minutes. Like this is a huge chunk of the movie. It's really it's a whole lot of nothing eventually The CGI comes, they arrange themselves in the human shape and the faceless stabber is outside a door marked psychology exercise. Oh no. That's they are. Right outs door. You know that sign. We've seen it. That's good filmmaking. Our heroes open their eyes and the door slowly opens and closes, seemingly by itself, there's nobody there. then chairs and other objects in the room start moving very slowly. Now Jy as a filmmaker. Yeah, how challenging is it to make believable ghost effects like this. Yeah. This scene rips legitimately. I think this is a great scene. I will say the fact that they don't just have the door open as though someone is walking in, instead it's sort of like teeters back and forth and then opens an amount that a person might not be able to slide even through is actually an interesting choice because you're not sure what's going on, which creates suspense. And then really mifying. Yeah. effects For example, you're seeing a lot of the door. Like I'm say you're going to say you're see forty percent of the door. At least, ye. whichich if someone if there was actually someone like a crew member moving it There's a good chance it wouldd be in that forty percent. So when I see this, I'm like, I don't understand how they're doing this.. Like is there an actual invisible man? And then you're seeing some of this stuff like you see a chair move and you see like the top eighty percent of the chair. And I'm like, statistically, if some's going to move that chair, they're touching the top. So like the fact that it's moving actually I was texting with a friend of the pod, Tod Viziri, who's digal effects work and he's like, I don't know how they did this. was I I gott to say, there's a part later on in the movie where I think it's later on where they're like asking the ghost to move something and the ghost's like That's too heavy. I'm gonna move this ruler instead. And I'm like, that is one hundred percent. the filmmakers being like, okay, well I don't know, the fishing line that we have here is't But it's so funny because it's such an unforced error. because the movie does not need to introduce an object too heavy for the ghost to pick up. It could just not do that. But it's realism. Yeah there's realism that Cront with the ghost.. You'd like pick up my couch and the ghost would be like, I can't do that. you' like. Vicky. The ghost would say. In real life, ghosts have limits to what they can do. So' like Vicky.' limuless. Vick can do anything She took the pill. Sheless. So Vickie' on a limitless pill. Oh my gos. Oh wow. That is me illegal. It is illegal Lotly into that Anyway, I guess we're saying is we're saying one issue voter. from that little girl. Y Jie much girl Jie, why did you? Jie, why did you wot for Trump three times? He's strong on Vicky not getting that limitless bill. know, Vicky and the Pil, they're in different stnates. He said he wasn't gonna to let him happen. rememember theation me he said Oho It pretty poetic friends. So back to the movie. So what this scene lacks in clarity, it also lacks in drama. So it's got that The chair in the office are moving on their own suddenly Matt shouts as if he's been stabbed, but he's fine. There's no wound. Then Sarah shouts and blood appears on her sleeve. Oh no, There's an invisible attacker in the room. They do what anyone would do in this case. They line up plastic bins in a line to try to block the attacker. The attacker and they also do not communicate in any other way They do not speak to each other. They don't figure out the situation They do not leave the room or even attempt to leave the room at this point. They try later that the u they line up these bins in a straight line. You would the invisible attacker, you would not walk around those bins. You would move each one very slowly, one at a time to show you are getting closer to your victims. And then he knocks down Matt and he attacks Sarah. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Sarah, she's going to be killed by this invisible attacker That's what you think. No, because Matt wakes up and Sarah walks in and Matt tells her I just had this dream where we you using telepathy chips and then Ed Brown's murder came murderer came after us. And I'd also like to point out that number one That scene is legitimately tense. There's a lot of energy there To your point. I would take a lot of energy The invisible tacker You said jumps on them what happens is he gets close enough and then it seems he minorly cuts both of their arms and they both go o, but then stay where they are while the invisible And then the thing that I like to imagine watching that scene is What is the invisible attacker doing? becausecause it seems like he slowly opens the door, closes it, opens it, moves the chair to a side, walks to the left, scoots the one box Wal forwards, gocoots the other box, Gcoots the other box, then walks up, pauses in front of the one guy, sort of nicks him with the knife and then moves it's asking a lot of questions that as an audience member, we get to imagine the result. That's true. We get to make up the story like we're collaborators in this. But I think some level, the stuff that you said that preceded this, the fifteen minutes of boring stuff. Yeah, that was to add more weight to this moment. Oh you're like, oh shit Now things are getting crazy. And now it makes sense because you and also You're like, Elliot, you were like, I don't know what's going on. This seems random. This seems crazy. Well Every writer doesn't leave a thread that leaves nowhere, region pays off It seemed nonsensical because it was a dream. like. thirty to forty minutes of the movie were a dream The last ye, thirty or forty minutes were a dream. so you think, oh, this movie was all a dream. No, the movie continues after the dream to tell a slightly different life slightly similar story. L like life continues. That's true after dreams. So Does it he They go to a different now they go on to doing a different psychological experiment. This time, she's asking him opinion questions that I think she just made up. I think she says I made up these questions. Eventually they hear a sound and they run out. There's a man in the hall who has stabbed a lab worker and he's saying, what are the last six digits of the access code? What are the last six digits of the access code? Matt and Sarah run back into their room but they'll kill her follows. a chair moves on its own. But wait, he's not dreaming anymore the chair knocks out killer and Sarah calls the police on her phone and then a disembodied voice tells them, Hey, can you hear me? Some people can hear me and some can't. I can move some objects. She goes, lift my backpack. He goes, That's too heavy. but I can lift this ruler and they realize that this is Craig a previous victim of the killer and then he seems to vanish. Oh wow. Pro Role of security shows up. The killer is put in a room in front of a piece of paper that says cell one. impmlying that there's other cells. Imlying cells. Yeah. That world buildilding And there's an FBI agent who I think is he's the MRA patient from the beginning of the movie, right? Be he hasn't a noticeable tremor in his hand from the Parkins Are you saying that FBI agents can get sick or have issues? No, I'm just saying that they'reaying off it they're paying off this character from earlier who had not appeared in the movie after that first scene. Yeah. And he explains over the phone The most dramatic way to explain anything, as we saw in the Lucill O Ball movie that came out a couple of years ago. The most dramatic way to explain something is to have someone tell you over the phone. Explains that the killer is Eric Nelson, a former pro roleles employee who had been hired to steal research materials. That's why he needed the code and all his victims had worked on the same Project close. Why would they get someone who used to work there but doesn't know the code They also of the code. Yeah. somethinghing which worth noting is that he's looking for the code, but we see several staff members enter the facility and it seems that they hold up what appears to be a Panera gift card for a red light. The red light remains red, but the door opens.. So he was searching for a code and the entire time he just needed one of those gift cards. L a dongle, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. yeah. My guess is He said to them, I have the code. I used to work there, but then when he went, they changed the codes since after they fired him, he goes, oh oh, I need the code. now. Nothing to do but murder people. Yeah, because in his accident interview, he talked about how he wass going to get into stealing secrets after this Yeah Yeah exxactly. Well, that's when they upgraded their security from a code based system to a gift card based system. Y he' still like he's just yelling into this That's company.' card reader. It's company Srit. A company seven, three eight four nine like And also he needs the last six digits. This is a long code wanted to a door. Yeah. I mean P Ro this is a pretty serious place. Thats Yeah. Yeahah. I mean, P R that's why they You guys's not called ammateur role, is It's kind of bothering me because you guys are acting like they still have the code system. The whole point is they don't have They also saw that it didn't make sense they change it to their system. But he got into the building somehow without knowing they don't have a code system anymore. because he's still killing people asking for the access codes. So back to the lady with arm and nerve damage. She has her follow up appointment with the doctorform She's doing better. arrm much higher She is her arm can get up higher Sarah goes to a computer and thinks about the ruler that moved before. and Matt talks on the phone about the killer. And then this is my other favorite part of the movie. actuallyctually I have three favorite parts of the movie. The printer conversation, the shrimp allergy conversation. and this conversation where's like, yeah, there was this killer. You killed Ed Brown. And the conversation geers into, oh yeah, I have a friend whose brother lives near some hot springs. Yeah My uncle goes there sometimes say tourist like. they have a lot of tourist stuff there. And the conversation good. This is like a real conversation. It doesn't stay in one subject that's related to the movie. It veers off an unrelated conversation. Later, Matt is on his computer. It appears that a coat falls off the wall and Matt calls out for Craig. No response Finally We're at the end we're in the home stretch of the movie. Sarah and another woman. Is this the woman with the arm? damage, I couldn't tell. They're at a house talking about the neighborhood, the work that they did on the house, where certain pictures were taken. One of the pictures they look at is of Craig. who would have been graduating from the meds school program soon if he was still alive, makes a thing doesn't in the. I like they're having a conversation one of the rare outdoor shots and one of the characters They're standing on like a pathway, like a stone pathway leading up to a front door. and one of the characters just like walks a few feet into the snow and then walks back in the main of the house. So I'm like, you just want to get some snow on your boots. What's going Now usually now in every bad movie that's low budget. There are scenes where Bad writing, bad acting, bad actirecting, whatever reason, Wh where human behavior doesn't quite match up with a real life behavior. And I have to say, this is maybe the movie where I've seen the most of this, where characters do stuff like that Stuart, where I'm like, I don't know what possible reason a human would have to do that thing. Like there's something about this behavior that is their actors doing it as if this is a thing that makes sense, but it's not making sense at all Be honest. Be honest Yeah. where know I know the masculinity. you know, there's a lot of gender norms. Wh cried when they saw Craig? Who cried when you saw Craig and learned out that he would have been graduating that day? I mean, I cried a little because I was like, why do they have these pictures turned away from the gam? Yeah they're all turned towards a window as if they want passers by to just see pictures. Yeah. No then you can let your loved ones look out the window There was an implication that Craig and Sarah were in a relationship Because when the Craig ghost shows up, she just she doesn't treat him like it's anything special. But she has a picture of him in her house Um Yeah, I don't know Like think about this movie. I think this's a JD question. Think about this movie, and I've said this a lot on this podcast when we watched one of these more baffling movies is that like Elliot's description of it to the podcast listener probably sounded largely incomprehensible But it was at least fifty percent more comprehensible I put film work into putting this summary together because this movie is it's hard to express the experience of watching this movie, which is that it is like the movie is like at every it is doing the best it can to not give you a thing to hold on to to understand what's why the movie is happening and what's going on. And I'm sure you had like extensive online resources to turn to for this plot summary that explains all the different character its and I meanbe not extensive, but I did some research on it, but I will say this And you can't I've it's You don't he's la at a lot for words. I'm at a l lot words because it's such a singular misunderstanding of how stories are told and how movies work. And it is amazing to me, someone who maybe I just take it for granted that stories make a certain amount sense. I'm a professional writer. Maybe it's because I have an affinity for stories or how things work like that that I do that for living. This is someone in his interviews, the director in his interview, the one. The director is like, Ohh yeah, I want to do something like the Sixth cense or the Exorcist. but I also wanted to talk about brain science and schizophrenia and what it's like to be a med student and that It is such a u such a total lack of understanding of how to do any of those things in a story, then even like if my kids made a movie they'd have a basic understanding of like, oh yeah you introduce his character and he does something and then a thing happens as a result of that. and then he's got to solve the problem. Whereas this is so It just exists in a different plane of thinking. Okay. so have I've been doing a bit of being, you know, trying to be kind of a antagonist here. little stinker, ye. Yeah. real is a real Charles Rodden on the Tonight S showow type type But I will say something that I love and being a longt timee flop else fan, also I want to shout out one of my childhood dear friends, Jay who is a Fop House Super fan, who I'm sure is listening right now and is very excited.. Yeah. He's been listening for a long time and we text about the show often As a long time, I grew up in Chicago suburbs where we had Sen Goui. and so on Sundays, Sen Gi would show sort of horror movies and usually it was like, you know, hor movies they get the licenses to And part of it is like, you know, you're seeing these bad movies. So I've a life long full of bad movies. And to me, what I think is genuinely interesting is A movie can lots of movies can be bad, right? There's tons of bad movies all the time What makes them unique is when someone genuinely tries to make something just does it in a way that doesn't line up with how the as Ellliiot descri doesn't line up with any of the language of how things have been done before. And that's why I think after last season is really interesting is it's, you know, like The Rom, like Birdemic, like any of these big movies. it's like, this is someone who genuinely seemed to try to make a movie, but did it in a way that does defies all logic around all of what we've learned about cinema And I think that's actually like exciting and fun because ye a lot of times and I'm sure you guys can attest this B movies often are very the same. The things that are bad about them can be the same things over and over again. or there's a knowowing sense of winkiness and like sometimes it's just laziness that makes them bad or like apathy. And I think when bad movies are interesting is when it's people that are genuinely trying to make something injust Do not know how to do it And I think this movie in itself is a pe of bad movie that is very specific and different than a lot of the other bad movies out there. And for that, I applaud it because also So what Dan was thinking about the story is When Dan texted and said to Elliot, you were on summary duty. Number one, I felt very guilty because you have a family in a life and I was like This isn't a movie where I could not have done that because the plot to this movie is a A list of scenes. Yeah that you have to infer how they are connected necessarily And I think that's such an interesting thing because it doesn't feel or I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone to sit down and watch it because it doesn't necessarily make logical sense and its paces, it doesn't sort of grab you and pull you along I do think it's interesting because it is a bad movie that has a tone and a style and an approach that is different than I would say many the majority of other bad movies. I think so. I mean, even the Rom or Bremic a have a more inherent understanding of traditional how a movie is and how it's language f language. Well I will say when was one the other things st I want to say is that like This guy doesn't know what he's doing. The movie makes no sense, but also Kudoes to him. I don't, I didn't and make a movie He did it. likeike I'm the guy who's like, Ohh, know how to tell a story, blah, blah blah. I'm not the one who's out there making a movie to express myself no matter despite not even having the language to express myself in. So you got to give him credit for that.. And what I also like to is that I'm sure you all have seen it with all It's a lot of bad movies. Once that gets claimed as a bad movie the creators are like, oh yeah it' kind of a yeah, it's like kind of fun and intentional. Yeah I admant it to be silly. Yeah. And if you write interviews with so called Mark region Literally the interview is like him being like, this isn't a comedy It's not a spoof, It's not funny. It's a thriller. That's the thing. like then that one interview that I think you also read Elliot. He ends it by being like, they like you just want to say, And he's like, Yeah, it's not a spoof, it's a thriller. I want people to know that it's a thriller I think it's funny and it's not appreciate that he's just like, this is what it is. I made what I made Take it or leave it Yeah, well this I mean, we're already there, but this also dovetails so much with what I wanted to say in final judgments. Let's go to final judgments Let's do where we opine on whether this is a good bad movie, a bad bad movie or movie we kind of liked and like I don't I don't recommend watching this movie the way that I watched it, which is you know alone from a file that Jie sent me, like But it's not a movie to watch alone. This is a movie that to like, it feels like if someone says to you, I'm gonna to go home and watch after last season by myself tonight, then you should. I'm worried about you. I about the pizza I think you would have more fun watching it with others and sort of discussing it, but not in like also like a classic bad way. Like, I don't think there's a lot of laughs in this per se But I think it's an interesting movie in the same like in the way that JD's talking about where like sometimes if you're Like if you're like us sickos, if you like love movies so much, if you love storory so much You like watching a thing that kind of breaks your brain because it's like, oh, this doesn't have any of the language I'm used to. L this is a totally different thing And, you know, it might be because of a lack of understanding, but it is interesting to see that different perception of like, oh, I'm going to do it this way. So like I guess I'm coming down on good bad even though I found myself bored for most of the movie because it is such a singular experience But what do you guys Yeah? I mean, I think one hundred percent this is a good, bad movie. I mean, I think it's a movie that is if you are into watching Like silly bad movies that are definitely thrillers, not comedies then yeah, I mean, watch it with your sicko weirdo movie friends. I think it also for me What I do find fascinating, I think this is similar to what you guys have been talking about is how like you know,' I've made some comics and I have some understanding of film language and just like This is the first time in a really long time that watching one watching a bad movie I'm like Why did they make it this way? likeike how like that's not That's not how you do that Like why are you doing this like this? And it's I think that like J the fact that it forces you to think about movies is interesting. It is It really shows you how much film language you how much film grammar you have internalized when you watch something like this and you're like, oh, wow, I don't even know how to I don't know how to read this. I'm going to call this, I'm going call it Bad bad if you're by yourself good bad if you're with the right people. do not watch this movie by yourself. Similar to if I think too scared. Bad bad too t. I think if I had bad on the streets. I think if I hadn't had the need to take notes to to say the summary later. I think I at certain points, I think I probably would have just started looking through the screen and not even being able to pay attention to it was going that letter that rose up out of the plan Exactly. I kept waiting for that letter to be like the first letter of the name of the killer or something like that. No, it's just a thing. likeike you're try that's not the language he's using Ell. No No. I'm trying to force a connection when it doesn't really exist.. You're trying to get into a triangular car and drive away and instead you just need to look at three of them sort of flow by you. Like the old thing says. Um What's your definit? I agree with everything you guys have said. And I think that this to me, this is a good, bad movie. that doesn't mean it's an enjoyable bad movie. And Stuart, I think what you're saying is interesting because as someone who, you know and we all make stuff artistically in different ways, truly watching this, it reminds me I'm like, o There are no rules. you can kind of do anything and the fact that you can sit through this and suss out a story and you are You know you have some semblance that's stuck in our head of what these characters experienced, like it reminds you that it's like, you can do anything, which I sort of like about it. So I would say it is a good bad movie and I agree with everyone. It is not a good bad movie that would be fun to queue up by yourself and watch and you need a very specific group of friends that would understand what's fun about it. And would say Do not Officially do not do a drinking game where you drink every time there is a cutaway that doesn't make sense. No That would be dangerous. Yeah. You would die You would die. Yeah this Wing this on your ownerally equalent Bur out of your body and run away. Y. It's like the watching this on your own would be like the equivalent of going to some kind of amateur in a garage playhouse production by all amateur people of some kind of play that one of them wrote about their life And not doing that because you know anyone in the cast very specific There's something about this movie that like it feels like the kind of movie you would see if you It's the kind of movie you see where you're in a movie where like you're on a road trip, your car breaks down, you at a place you have to bring it into like a grimy like garage and they go, Ohh, don't worry. My brother runs a motel just just across the street. You've got to dodge across a highway to get this motel. It's full of bugs. You turn on the TV, this is the movie that's playing. And then the guy from the hotel and the guy from the garage come in and kill you and eat you Like, that's kind of moie this is. That's it's what you're watching when you were in a harmor. It also reminded me of like when I was a kid I had these visual memories of going to like art museums and seeing video art and being like I guess I'll understand that when I'm an adult. kind of That's kind of how after last season feels. you watch it and you're like, I guess when I grow up, this will make sense to me. H sex. Those are the two things that you understand And you see them in museums Yeah, yeah What's more action packed than prestige television With more continuity than comic books And more reality than reality television? It's professional wrestling And to better understand wrestling is the ultimate form of entertainment, you need the Tits and Fights podcast. This is the perfect wrestling show with a lot of love, a lack of toxic masculinity, and just the right amount of butts, cats, and spandes. Listen to Tights and fights every Saturday on maximum fun You know, we've been doing my brother, my brother me for fifteen years. and. Maybe you stopped listening for a while, Mbe you never listened, and you're probably assuming three white guys talking for fifteen years, I know where this has ended up. But no. No, you would be wrong. We're as shocked as you are that we have not fallen into some sort of horrific scandal or just turned into a big crypto thing Yeah. You don't even really know how crypto works. The only NFTs I'm into are naughty funny things, which is what we talk about on my brother and my brother and me. We serve it up every Monday for you if you're listening. and if not, we just leave it out back and goes rotten. So check it out on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcast Good morrow to you, flophouse listener Oh Hale and well met Hey, Uh, we got a sponsor. It's Lisa Mattresses just despite that um You know, that vigorous welcome I don't I don't sleep well You you might be surprised to learn that Dan McCoy doesn't sleep well, perhaps it is his uh bad joints Perhaps it is the state of the world. Maybe, just maybe. is my mattress Maybe I need one of these beautiful Lisa mattresses that I hear nothing but the best about Lisa has a lineup of beautifully crafted mattresses tailored to how you sleep. Each mattress is designed with specific sleep positions and feel preferences in mind. And you know what U. If only someone had my feelield preferences in mind, Oh, the dream Lisa mattresses are meticulously designed and assembled in the USA for exceptional quality and they back it all up W free shipping, easy returns, and a one hundred and twenty night sleep trial. That's a lot of sleeping before you gota commit. Lisa isn't just about sleep though. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's about impact They work with local nonprofits across the US to donate thousands of mattresses each year to families in need with over forty three thousand mattresses donated. to date That's a lot of sweet sleeping out in the world Thanks to Lisa. So go to Lisa dot com that is l E ES a dot com for thirty percent off select mattresses plus, get an extra fifty dollars off. Promble code flop. exclusive for our listeners. That is L EEA. com promo code flop for thirty percent off select mattresses plus an extra fifty dollars off. Support our show and let them know we sent you after check out Lisa. com promo code let's let's answer some letters from listeners. letters that rose up out of a of someone We're going to read them and then answer them. Yeahah, The the first one is tea So we got that one out of the way This next letter is from Sebastian, Last name with Held. I hope the microphoneess picked up my heavy sigh. Yeah. Sbast in the trcal Um oh it goes like this. deer peaches. Elliot's dive into the IMDB trivia section for Gabby's dollhouse rememinded me of my all time favorite factoid From the trivia page for twenty eleven's X Men F Class. Okay. And here's the trivia. it says This is the second time that January Jones has been cast in a n cast in nineteen sixty two opppposite an actor with a pork based name. The first was in Madmen, opposite John Ham. and then this alongsideen. p one hundred fifty eight of two hundred thirty three found this interesting. Three more one more and it you get an N New York Times style piece out of Yeah. Why is Janmy Jones be cast in nineteen sixty two opposite? Hm pork based nes. Yeah U who else I kind of think? Frederico Guanciiale Brendon' sausage? This boss hog? Yeahber Dog Okay, Sebastian goes on to write. It has since been deleted for being too interestact the kind of thing the deep state doesn't want you to know, yeah. Sounds like Sebastian wrote this trivia. Yeah. Yeah, he's very mad. but can still be found in the Internet archive goodness or thank goodness They do good work over there Yeah M much How much clean fresh water is being wasted, cooling the servers that are maintaining't take down the internet archive. Like that's take down the AI centers have why do I have choose We can get rid of dumb, everybody? We don't hold on too of them Uh, my question. What's the last movie you bought on physical media What Classic zag zagged on us. I actually I actually just this week The DVD of Joe Dante's the moovie Ogy after Dan and I talked about it existing on DVD. And I was like, I'm just gonna to do it. I'm going to buy it so I can watch this thing. So it was just this week that I bought the media A movie on physical media. Yeah. You know what? I'm going go because I bought a Joe Dante movie as the last movie that I bought in physical media for my birthday this year upcoming in June, I was like, I'm just going to have a few people over. not like a huge thing. We're going Wh me We're gonna watch a couple movies. I mean, if you were in town, Elliot, obviously you we're going to watch a couple movies. What I hear is what I hear is you putting requirements on our friendship I'll send you an invite so you can say no. Okay. you'll fly out. You don't know. Anyway. Wh Don't threaten me with a good time. Come out and watch Anyway, the point is I. I titled my birthday, Dante Danferno because I was gonna show Two Dante movies, you know, not my. Brown's Joe Dante Yeah Uh ye. notot my, um not my Absolute favorite top tier Je Dante movies, but ones I enjoy Yes. small solders is one of them. That's the one I bought most recently and the other is Innerpace, which I got in ition that Innerpace movie poster he sent us. Yeah that's right does explain that. Yeah. And I informed you guys that in David Milch's memoirs, which I just read, he goes out of his way to compare something to innerpace and then point out that it's a good movie, but he does not name the movie. He says, Oh, it's like that guy ins. I felt like Martin Short in that movie where the guy' inside of him, which is a pretty good movie. He doesn't bother to name it Uh Anyway, it was my birthday was my party was a good excuse to give myself an early birthday present of getting Sm soul to your son a four K. I did. Happy birthday. Thank you Thank you. JD, have you bought anything recently? Yes. I recently bought, I gifted a friend for his birthday a copy of The Wizard of Speed and Time, My cow. So I purchased a new copy to replace it. And along with it, I got a Korean version as well. That is a movie that I was introduced to by Cassettes creator John Holt, who does our animations for TV. I don't know. Yeah. and it's great. And the creator Mike Jitlov is a real character. I have a I believe that. I mean he still host he hosts the website It's like an old school website as him defending the movie and putting his gpes publicly and's been run this for a while. So if buy you can like buy post. I have a signed poster of it and you buy it from him in his website. Yeah . And I what like a week or two ago, I ordered a movie I'd never seen. I ordered a black hat Yeah Okay. becausecause it's the controversial. But I got the director's cut version that apparently is superior Why' do you decide to go physical media U becausecause you can't get the director just cut digitally And I'm going through a little bit of a crush on lead actress what Tongue Yi who is in decision to leave and and l caution. So I'm like, I gott to complete the sure The big trif factor there. Anway I'll watch it at some point. And I just a shout out to Sebastian for asking a question that is very easy to answer definitively. Yeah, thank you. U Let's see, what do we got here? This next one is from Maro, Morrow, sorry for Butcher from the island of Doctor. Yeah, yeah. ye Howoutdy peaches I've been a fan since the days when you were just a few slightly cranky singlemen. Now I was I was previously Married I was single and cranky in the middle. I don't think we're all single at the same time So that that goes in the goof H the microphone pick the side for this one too. Letter, putut this in the goof. A might be a trivia section thing. This might be a trivia section thing Ino an archive on it Here's my confession. I stopped collecting comic books in October. Here's my confession. I killed a man.. Well, wrap the flop house up. It's been a sting. Forgot it. The body' in the East Rriver. The current is probably taking it north. Here's my confession. I stopped collecting comic books in october twenty ten. It was becoming a real problem, so I had to quit Since then, I've occasionally bought a floppy or a trade paperback But I haven't read any of them out of fear that I dive headfirst back down that slippery st. No Yeah Lately though L a paper dragon. Lately, life in these in times vibes have had me craving the escapest joy of comomickin So I finally broke the seal with Maniac of New York Volume one byen and Moody. that Moody?. Watch which full disclosure I bought almost three years ago? Naturally, like any he's still green, baby. Yeah Yeah Like any good comic book junkie, I immediately went to revenge of the Revenge of comics in Los Angeles and picked up M of New York loc store. One of my local comic stores. along with barbarian behind bars issues one and two. The cashier asked how I'd heard about them and I somehow ended up unintentionally fanboying for a solid minute shouting out the flop house, Mystery Science Cedater, and Harley Quin So yes. While I curse you all for breaking my comic book of sobriety I also love these books and remain a die hard flophouse fan. With all that said, other than Mr. Kalin's work O what comic book series or creators would you recommend to a former collector before going cold turkey I was a devout reader ofst Astro City Ed Rubaker's Criminal and anythingything by Artist Jan Jose Rip So what's been floating your boats lately? Thank you Morrow I'll do a little log rolling for a guest and say that the comic I wrote I read most recently is Jadie's book. The endless game Uh, which u Yeahah, hold it up for the camera. Yeah,ah got to grab it U which was a delight. is It's a YA u novel. And it's very sweet and funny and' about game of cl like Batman in there or ye, yeah, you should sell it. There's no Batman. so I mean that my answer is so this my debut graphic novel. It's a middle grade graphic. Cratulations.. And middle grade is like that like seven to twelve range. And so I've been very like immersed in that space over the past year. and so You know, growing up for all of us, we didn't really have the middle grade graphic novel universe. L the closest thing was like mouse You know I feel I feel when we were growing up it was either you were either reading Archie comics suuperhero comics or cerebus. Like those are the only level or Levven Rockets. Like there was nothing for someone who wanted to read a story that wasn't superheroes, but was not old enough to read Lo and Rockets or American Slendor or something like that, Yeahah. Yeah. And likewise also on the other side of that was just books that were like pros pros. It was like it was this or Johnny Tremaine. And for me, I was like a reluctant reader. It took me a minute. And so I think you't like reading about the travails of a silversmiths apprentice during the Revolutionary War? I would have But reading didn't it wasn't, you know, here's a question. if it comic? What if it was called Johnny Deformed? I love that Simpson. I would just as a kid, I read it and I was like, there's not enough like ghosts and dreams and murders and cutaways to things But so I've been reading a ton of so on top of, I would love everyone purchase my book and, you know, give it good reviews on all the places, your good reads, your Amazons, whatever. If especially you have a seven or twelve year old in your life But I'd also recommend, Rayna Telgeeyer has a bunch of books that are great for middle grade kids about sort of the toils of growing up. The ammulet series is a great like fantasy series for kids that is super fun. And then also I love Once Upon of Space Time, which is Jeffrey Brown who did like adult comics and now he does a lot of stuff in the kids space and those are amazing. So are thoseose are big favorite with my kids, the Once U upon T Spaceime books. Yeah yeah. So if you don't want to support me and get my book which I understand Check out those ones. this guy Jady's book first I would love that. It would mean a lot. But you you guys are more plugged into modern comics, I think Well kinda. I mean,' I really only get to the shop to buy floppies if like it's something Elliot wrote or something a friend of the podcast Andander Cannon makes, his recent series Sleep. I thought was a ton of fun. and also ' it's Andander Cannon super sad it's so great. But the creator I want to highlight is one who I almost exclusively at this point get his work through kickstarters And that is comic creator Simon Roy. I thought it was gonna to be Simon Roy. I love his stuff so much. Like he does this like really weirdo science fiction And he and a team of collaborators have made so many great little books. I just recently read Sharp Eye, which was an expansion of the universe created with The book firstirst Kife that they put out through image that's about this like you know, United States, u, you know ten thousand years in the future or something. And how and how like the world is now like very tribal and strange and it's awesome Yeah, he does science fiction stuff better than anyone out there. He does he has aook called Habbitat I think is a really good kind of like first first one for him where it's like, it's not a long, it's not long. It's a quick read but it's like you're like, this book is there's so much stuff going on in this book. Like the there's so many ideas and things going on in it, you know, it's real fun othertherwise, I'm a little bit outside of regular comics right now. I just haven't had as much time to read them in my regular life. And so I'm sad to say that the comic that I've been reading the most lately is There was a kickstarter campaign by Mike Barron, the writer of Nexas, which is one of my favorite series to collecting big omnibuses, hopefully, eventually that whole series. and I got the I contribute to the Kickstarter for the first volume and so I'm rereading the first issues of that series and I'm like, This series is great. I love this series. and Nexus is like, It's space opera But it's also there's also comedy stuff in it, and there's also the art is beautiful because it's mostly Steve Rud drawing it And the dialogue in it is super sharp and the characters are really fun. And so it's an old comic I'd recommend it. But I think I need to read some new ones too. So if this letter writer reads any new comics and likes them a lot, write in again Tell us which ones you liked I'm looking for recommendations. Um, let's move on. to our final segment, which is recommendations, movies that we saw recently that we really enjoyed. U S you mentioned glass Sory, you mentioned Black hat. I actually had N seen Lat. You mean Kurunko, the Samurai movie? Yeah. And that's what that's what I said Stuart mentioned black hat. Oh I actually had never seen Michael Man's Heat until just this week. I Everyone told me or not not he's. what am I talking about? Thief? They're about forice. I saw heat at the time. I like heat fine. It's not actually one of my favorites, but like I saw thief For the first time Um There's there's so many, you know, sometimes the interruptions interfere with Dan's brain waves. This is a safeace. It's a very unsafe space Yeahah. Do you think he would have been better if he shot it in his like digital video era public enemies? Yeah, sure I mean, Miami Vice looks fucking great. Thief, sorry, Thief the movie with James Chon and Tuesday Weld and Robert Prosky, Jesus, Robert Prosky being scary in a way that I've never seen him in other things. Jim Belushci. than you. Jim Belushci has a line in it that made me laugh more than like Jim Belushci comedies when he's like seeing James Cown's like house' like, what you got here a tree or something? He s something like that. It's very funny Anyway, like I had somehow not seen it despite years of people being like, oh, Dan, you would love thief. And I'm like, yeah know, I'm sure I would love thief. I love Jie, you're from Chicago. They make you watch that shit and as soon as you're born. Yeah. I love movies with lots of neon and you know, light shining off of wet things and Tangerine dream soundtracks. But what I also really liked about this movie is that I kind of, you know, sometimes Michael Man gets a little too like For lack of a better word, like male for me, like in a gender centialist way, like like masculine, like, you know, it's about men who are like kinda They're assholes, yeah, but maybe that's what they need to be to get things done. Andoul can be represented by a collage. keep, But the thing about thief is he does he does have a sensitive side with that collage. it's a weird If someone showed you that collage on a first date, you'd be like, check, please. Well I I mean do so well almost does. But like I was setting that up in opposition thief where like Yeah, there's that stuff in it, but it's clear that this is a Lonely weirdo who has A lot of emotions and it like yeah, as you say, a sensitive side, he has love to give, but he doesn't know how to express it or how to appropriately go about. finding a way to express it. and you know, he's kind of in a trap of his own making like all of his like the Code is kind of you know, stuff to protect him L's trying to exert control over a world he can't control And so I found that a lot more meaningful than some of the other You know, unli like I said, I don't want to cause a lot of controversy. I think Heat's a great movie, but I like it less because I feel like it's a little too much like Men doing men stuff And also that like what's the difference between this cup and this crook? Yeah two sides of the same coin. Well, not in a in a good world, they would not be two sides the same coin You can make a movie about damaged guys without seeming to be endorsing that yeah, that you need damaged manen on both sides of that coin to shoot each other at aports. But Dan,'s a great movie I' glad you finally saw I think it might be my favorite Michael Man moie to be honest. I think it might be now that I've seen it finally. I'm gonna to recommend this is actually a this is a partial recommendation, I guess I just watched and also this is tied in with the themes we've had tonight of movies that are hard to find and have mysterious backgrounds. I just watched the recent Faces of Death movie, which is kind of loosely inspired by the original faces of death, which I've actually never seen and never intend to see and has since, you know, as the because you' too scared? Yeah, because I'm not I'm not'm not As tough as a Michael Man hero U Stuart' fine with death, scared of faces Yeah I just don't like to be perceived. But the I've never seen it, but in the years since the movie came out, a lot of the actual deaths have been disproven as being fake And so this recent movie is not obviously a remake of that, but it is it's a fairly in some ways straightforward serial killer who's kind of inspired by that and also like playing around with. social media and various people's attention spans and it it's directed by it's made by Daniel Nob Is it Daniel Goldhaver? Donaldold? I don't remember, but the guy who made of knowing. the guy who makes Dan who made Cam and he made How to Blow up a pipeline, two movies that I liked quite a bit And I think this has Daniel Goldhaber. Thank you. I was right the first time and I questioned myself because I had blank looks from my co host. know yourself. I know, you know U the So I think there's a lot of really good stuff there and I think the performances are good and it's gross in places and u It continues the themes that this guy's movies have of like existing and not only is the internet a terrifying place But also that like we live in a world where a lot of the things that we turn to to protect us will not protect us or save us in any way that that the institutions like the police and things like that are either outdated or they don't care and that you kind of have to survive in whatever way you can U And it's yeah, it's I would say it's bleak, but it's not super bleak. It's if it's a Would I like it to be more than just a kind of a straightforward like Serial killer movie. yeah, but I think there's a lot of good stuff there, soundtrack, the way it's shot. I think it's good I am going to recommend a movie that I actually mentioned in a previous episode that I was in the middle of watching And then I finished it And I liked it a lot. and that's a movie called it's a Guys, you're gonna lagh at me. It's a C cheech movie, but it's under it's listed under a couple of different titles. It's either called Dinner for Adlee or Adele hasn't had her dinner yet or like Prague or Adle has Adlee is hgry. And this is another movie by Oldrich Lipsky, the director of Lemonade Joe Rich Lips Well I don't know how its pronounced.s 's old rich lips sky up to these days. Well, his lips are still pretty rich. The rest of him is poor as all. His lips inherited all the money The eye. And it's the story it is a parody of the kind of like adventure mysteries that you would have seen at the turn of the twentieth century. And the greatest detective in America, Nick Carter, he goes to Prague to deal with a to deal with a mysterious case of a disappearance. and it gets he gets wrapped up in a story about with a mag scientist with a man eating plant. and there's a lot of scenes about how great the beer and sausages in Prague are and things like that. And it's just really funny. similar to the director's previous movie that I talked about Lemonade Joe, it like feels like a Mel Brooks movie. Like it's just really silly. I thought it was really funny But there's also some stop motion animation it by Jan S Fank Meyers. So he did the animation for the man eating plants And It's just it's a I thought it was a really fun, funny movie. and watching it There was just a lot of times when I was laughing out loud. So it feels like with this director, it's not exactly like Melbrooks' stuff, but it does feel at times like I've discovered like a hidden vein of Melbrooks movies that Melbrooks didn't make And I'm getting the same kind of enjoyment out of them. So I would recommend it if you want to watch a comedy, a comedy mystery where it doesn't really matter what the mystery is. L don't worry about the plot that much. It's called Dinner for Adele. and all of these or this one and I think the movie that another movie his that I'll probably recommend next time are both available on Tuubbe So it's easy to get. added it to my letterbox watch list, which means I will forget it's there and not see it. But I also also I should mention one of the funny things in it that was is that one of the actors in it, this Rudolph Rrussinski. he' In this he plays the local police police officer who like, all he cares about is getting the best beer and eating saues and he's kind of a he's not a doof, but he's just like taking the mystery seriously. But he is played by the lead the same actor who played the lead in the movie of the Cremator which I recommended a long time ago, which is a very chilling movie and a very like intense movie. And it was just very funny to see him play this very this comedy role, this very silly role. U so I'd recommend it dinner for a dle Shady, do you have a movie you want to highlight I mean, I'm a big Tati head and I recently got to see my uncle big screen for the first time in the theater, which I would say if you have similar to Lllie, you want to go back in time and find some interesting comedy. Jack Tati is I think maybe my favorite filmmaker of just like doing unique very specific, very specifically paced comedy And it's funny because my uncle I brought friends to it and not unlike after last season, it has a very a very particular pace to it that if you are having other people watch it with you, you have this feeling of like Come on, come on, justust get to the joke. C on. G to the joke. My friends are bored. Yeahah.ah, exactly. But it's actually a lovely movie and I think like Tatif films are meant to be seen in the theater with lots of people, so you can enjoy it. So You want to see he does stuff with with the frame too where like it's much there those are much better on the big screen because you want to make see all the details of what's happening. Yes. he Democratic filmmaking. He would Yeah he' shoot on seventy millimeter and he would highly choreograph everything and I mean, playtime is really where this happens. But ye he's playing with it in my uncle where in the background and foreground separate from Monsieur Hilo, you can sort of see little scenes taking place and So at its best moments and we be like playlaytime different parts of the audience be laughing at different things because there's sort of different stuff happening in the corners of the scene, which is brilliant. And you can also he's so like he'll distract you sometimes in a way where like the real joke is happening in that corner. You know, But it's a he does there's is it o no, it's in 's holay, right? There's or maybe I don't remember which. There's there's a bit he has where a guy' painting a boat and the can of paint is washing in and out on the tide and it always shows up just as he needs to needs to dip his gash back in. And I'm always like, how did he do it? Like that's that unlike Almost last after last season where we were joking about like, how did he move that chair? That is one shot where almost like, how did he how did he do that shot? Like, I don't get it. I mean it's funny because Mr. Ho's holiday It's kind of like The most like Mr. Bean And then like M its like gets closer and closer to this being like art. And then like playtime is like if mis. Bean made a film that was like a three hour long piece that Mr. Bean mostly wasn't in and like bankrupted his entire estate is like an epic opus. so I gott to see one of these on the big screen sometime because I confess that I have trouble locking in to the pace and everything. like When I first when I went to France for a week on an exchange program when I was in school in high school, that my host family was like,, well, this is Monsieur L Aide. this is You know, he's he's the greatest of French comedians. I'm like, great, great is going to be. Yeah I toet w Is it cole But I'm not laugh. I think I think it really it requires such attention and it helps when you're in a movieater. I think that I would love focus on it. Yeah. But also playt timeime has more like hard laughs where I think like My uncle, It'suly going be like five minutute setups so something where we're like, Oh that kind of does look like a face. Yeah, it's kind of fun. it is more look at that. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that do that dog and that person do kind of look likeike. Okay. Yeah. Which I enjoy. But again, if you're like looking for Big wallping laugh. Yeah. Yeah, Monaco's the one with the house, right? Yeah Wh where it's like, ye like yeah, you're like yeah, when they turn on the lights the windows, it does look kind like it's a face with ees Oh yeah yeah, it's looking over there.'s lookingking over here. Yeah.n. Is it like sccary moovie too. Yeah it's how much How much is it like scary movie? Yeah they're just joke sc movie My uncle is mostly like, um An older man with an umbrella and a hat and a trenchcoat sort of observing the modernity of France that develops. then There's also a bunch of like Brittney Spears topical jokes. thrown into it also. They're weirdly like mean about her for no I don't know the reason. For some reason, there's a lot of parodies of movies that came out in two thousand three, specifically. Yeah. And it's also parodies of other comedy movies. Yeah. It's a parody as if it was like the same way that the movie quiz, if you were sitting in the movie theater, would all be for movies that are either just out or recently out It reminds me of I just recently, I don't remember why the on some list of something, it was maybe I was looking up movies from a specific year, but it was just like, I was reminded of the existence of Remember the Spartans. and I was like, oh yeah, that existed. That's a thing that was made and exists and is real, you know. Stuart, what you just said reminded me of. So I've switched over to Regal Unlimited recently because I was like, I don't know we're trying to booycount the alma. I't little. Well, I don't like ye Yeah. I don't like what the alma has done. about meet the spart not the sp likeike phone ordering and then they had, you know, like, I mean labor issues before, but so I'm going I'm going to the regal and they've got You know, like Never very good pre show entertainment has gotten like shittier over the years, I think. it's gotten really bad. But at least yeah. With a regal movie you can show up like thirty minutes late and you have ' my last it's a Toyota commercial. Have you guys seen this thing where there's like It's about like perfect movie lines or whatever It's just like it's always just that one line for Casle. Yeah like We'll always have gin joints or it's like the false ones or And then find it's like, oh, we'll always have pears I did a whole like breakdown of it for a blank check live show, but one of my favorite things is the evolution of the Coca Cola student filmmaking challenge. Oh yeah because it started as this thing where it was like, the students could kind of make something and now it's like They get to make an eight second Short film But it's literally just a straight up commercial for Coca Cola. But they still the student to be like, Hi, watch my short film. And they're like Coca Cola is great. And you're like, this was your short film that you had an idea for. It's just Coke being like, hereere's what you're gonna make. Yeah, fucking Mark Reion sitting in the theater being like, I don't understand. Mark Regions it. They went from wide shot to close up. There's no fan, there's no wall in between. What is this one eggy degree line that they're fing? I would look the scariest movie I've ever seen This is amazing. I think if we gave Mark Re. I think Mark Reg's issue is that I don't think he should be writing directing shooting and producing But I'd be curious if you gave Mark Reion a script that someone else wrote what he would do with it He' mess it up. Let's not pretend me Um Jie, thank you so much for being here along with your book. I mean, is there anything else you want to plug before we? No, that's it. The endless game, bookstores everywhere. It's about a kid who moves to a new town where every kid in the town is part of a game of Capture the flag that's been going on for eighty years and has split the town in two Um, it's a really a book about like you're that U period of time as a kid you're trying to figure out your identity U And for me growing up in the suburbs was out with my friends and this is just like a heightened, fantastical version of that. So yeah, bookstores everywhere and also, you know j. d. a motto on Instagram and you can see book events and links to or to get the book? M I recommend it. very much. I enjoyed it even not as a child. I have the brain of a child, but I'm ostensibly an adult man Well, thank you for being here. Thank you also to maximum Fund. Go to maximumfund. orga cheheck out all the other Great shows on the MaxFun Network. Thank you to Alex, our producer B name Howal Dotdy Uh, if you want to have a few laughs download bigig Howl and posossum. It's a very strange podcast that Alex does. It's very funny Um, But for this episode of the Flop house I've been Dan McCoy. I've been Stuart Wellington. I've been Elliott Kaalin and we've been joined by Stadiam motto Okay. And hi Jay. Hi J Bye J. On this episode, we discuss after lastast season know, I'm Yeah. I didn't have heart one didn didn try again, try again Let's get it one in a second, o yeah. Heat it up. On this episode, we discuss after last season. Alternate title, Halls and Walls, The movie Okay time for the back rooms. Yeah, the strs. Okay,'ve got another one. Okay On this episode, we discuss after last season I had wait, I think I had one. I thought I had one, and I hadn'tite phrased it right now.ait wait, I've got one. I've got one. Oh, wow. I'm impcited, but let's do it On this episode, we discuss after last season An MRI is a type of image that you can Learn a lot of things about the brain from inside You take a scan Perfect. Just a twenty minute long open. Yeah. Actually Dan, I've got another one. I got another one now. Maximum fun. A work around network.