Drop Dead Fred (1991)

Matt (00:00:21):

Oh yes, hello, snot-lickers and boot-sniffers everywhere.

Laci (00:00:25):

Whoa, whoa. Crotch lookers and booger pickers.

Matt (00:00:29):

Snot face, that’s what you- Snot face. That’s what you are is a snot face.

Laci (00:00:34):

Smelling dog poo. We’re going

Matt (00:00:35):

To be talking about a lot of poo in this movie.

Laci (00:00:38):

It’s a limited amount of poo. Mud pie as well.

Matt (00:00:41):

Drop Dead Fred is the name of the movie that we have spent the past week with. We’re going to tell you all about it on our podcast, 1-Week Rental where we spend the week with a movie and then we tell you all about it. My name is Ben Stokes.

Laci (00:00:50):

And I am Laci Roth and I’m wearing green because I am pro Fred.

Matt (00:00:53):

If this is your first time with us, we’ll give you a little backstory. Take you into a world. Laci and I are happily married for a long time, long, long time.

Laci (00:01:02):

Longer than I care to say.

Matt (00:01:04):

So long that we were already years into our marriage when we started a podcast, we used to be called Load Bearing Beams. And episode 10 of that podcast was about this movie Drop Dead, Fred. And now it’s nine years later.

Laci (00:01:15):

We stRiktly picked movies that were essential and core to our personalities at the time.

Matt (00:01:20):

Yes.

Laci (00:01:21):

We have strayed much.

Matt (00:01:22):

We’ve strayed far from there, but we are going back to a classic load bearing beam of Laci’s.

Laci (00:01:28):

What would you say this? A remastered. What are you trying to do? It’s like, now that we kind of know what we’re doing or we definitely know what we’re doing more than we did then, what would George Lucas?

Matt (00:01:43):

The special edition. This is special edition. Okay. Yes. We’re going to replace. He

Laci (00:01:47):

Making it better,

Matt (00:01:47):

But instead of replace everything with CGI Javas and I had never heard of the movie before I saw it for that episode. Up until then, Laci had been showing me all these movies from her childhood and then she’s like, “You like it, right?” And I’m like, “No, it’s stupid.”

Laci (00:02:03):

I had a lot of misses.

Matt (00:02:06):

But Drop Dead Fred with its very poor critical appraisal I watched and I was like, “Laci, this movie’s really good and really funny.”

Laci (00:02:15):

Yes, it’s really funny.

Matt (00:02:16):

And guess what, everybody? It’s almost 10 years later and I feel the same. If not, I think it’s even better than I thought it was back then.

Laci (00:02:23):

Because he puts his whole pussy into this. I mean, they picked the right person. He does everything at 100%, even the sweet stuff and it all works and it’s perfect because Phoebe Cates is so calm, calm and mousy, I guess.

Matt (00:02:41):

She’s very good. She’s great.

Matt (00:02:43):

Knowing what I knew about her going in, I’m bringing all of my knowledge of knowing her from Gremlins and Fast Times and everything, but what I’m very glad I did is start doing some research on her before rewatching the movie. And it kind of brought a new dimension to this character and we’ll get to that in the history segment. So what we do on this show is we watch the movie twice, we research it, we review it, discuss it with each other, come up with little fan theories because we’re fans more than anything and do some irresponsible psychoanalysis including what we’re going to do here, especially when we talk about Phoebe Cates, vis-a-vis the character Lizzie. And that’s the history segment, going through the history of the movie and then we have a lengthy discussion of the movie itself. You could only get that if you’re listening to us on the audio podcast.

Matt (00:03:30):

So if you’re watching on YouTube, go ahead and look at the link in the description and subscribe to us on our podcast and leave us a review and follow us on the social medias. Do all of that stuff that I always forget to tell you to do. Go ahead and hit that like everybody.

Laci (00:03:42):

Matt should describe it.

Matt (00:03:43):

Do you remember where you came across this movie? How would you have heard about it?

Laci (00:03:49):

It always was. I mean, me and Jamie just always watched this movie and I

Matt (00:03:53):

Can’t- Jamie Lee Curtis?

Laci (00:03:54):

Yeah. Me and Jamie Lee. Sorry, sorry. My cousin Jamie, particularly Jamie. I watched it with all of my cousins, but this is one where she had the VHS. I’m almost positive. And it was just a constant in our lives. We love to quote it and act it out, put our heads in the refrigerator, slide on our backs and look at cobwebs.

Matt (00:04:16):

Yeah. And I listened to the old episode and Laci talked about having not seen it in 20 years, assumed it was terrible, but was laughing her ass off during the whole movie. And even in the podcast, she’s like, “I’m laughing just talking about it. I’m just thinking about Fred. We watched the movie separately yesterday in separate rooms and when I didn’t hear laughter coming from the other room, I thought, oh no, does Laci not like this anymore?”

Laci (00:04:37):

Not a chance.

Matt (00:04:38):

Nope. She started laughing her ass off again.

Laci (00:04:41):

Because there was a lot of song … I mean, it’s got a lot of hearts. There’s a lot of parts towards you’re not meant to laugh, man.

Matt (00:04:48):

And a lot of brain too. And goddamn,

Laci (00:04:49):

Is Carrie Fisher good in this movie. I mixed her role in this movie and in when Harry Met Sally, I smushed them together because she’s dating a married man in both.

Matt (00:05:01):

That’s just her … Yeah, she can’t not do it. Yes.

Laci (00:05:03):

I love her as a sassy businesswoman who’s clearly an attorney.

Matt (00:05:08):

The only thing I don’t like her about in this movie is Carrie Fisher is well known for rewriting her own lines.

Laci (00:05:13):

She wrote all … Yep. She wrote all of

Matt (00:05:14):

Them. And they stand out from the rest of the movie.

Laci (00:05:17):

But okay, but you would have to have … It makes sense for someone like Lizzie to have a best friend who’s kind of a bitchy alpha woman. It makes sense why she would be drawn there. But

Matt (00:05:28):

Having these Woody Allen lines in this movie does kind of take you out of it. Every time she says one of them.

Laci (00:05:34):

Okay.

Speaker 3 (00:05:35):

What is with your hair? Is this a Marilyn Queer lookalike contest? Janie.

Matt (00:05:39):

When we were more focused on movies that we were personally attached to, we started noticing a theme with all of Laci’s movies and this might be the err text. And Laci, if you don’t know her, I mean, to know her is to love her, but to know her is to also know there’s a ferocious feral animal inside of her that is just waiting to just-

Laci (00:05:55):

Just let me jump on you.

Matt (00:05:57):

Yeah. And just slap you and just pull everything out of the refrigerator and just throw it.

Laci (00:06:01):

No.

Matt (00:06:02):

And so it’s, yeah, sometimes she makes it easy. Sometimes she makes it easy and we’ll talk about that in the movie discussion. Let’s talk about Drop Dead Fred, the history of Dropbox. This movie has an 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. Now you might think that’s really low, but I got to tell you, nine years ago when we covered this movie for the first time, it was 9%. Hell yeah,

Laci (00:06:44):

Rising

Matt (00:06:44):

In the

Laci (00:06:45):

Race.

Matt (00:06:45):

That’s

Laci (00:06:46):

Us. That is our impact.

Matt (00:06:48):

I think it might be. I think it might be. Let’s take a look at what Gene Siskel had to

Laci (00:06:52):

Say about the movie. Where’s Ebert? He’s

Matt (00:06:53):

Almost-

Speaker 3 (00:06:54):

Okay, this was tough. Finding a film worse than Dice Rules, but I think I have one. My choice of the very worst film of 1991 is, according to me …

Speaker 3 (00:07:04):

Drop Dead Fred. Part of a pseudopsychological bad Beatlejuice imitation. They really wanted to imitate that picture this year. The Fred character being the Drop Dead Fred character, that is being the imaginary childhood pal of a put upon young woman played by Phoebe Cates, whose mother is overbearing and whose husband cheats on her eventually. She goes to a shrink to talk about her pestering childhood friend. Get ready for one of the most obnoxious characters in movie history. Fred is joined by some of his colleagues in crime. That’s Rik Mao as Fred. He’s a British actor on an MTV show. That’s another reason not to watch MTV. Supposedly, he’s her excuse to act out her anger. He can do the things that she’d like to do, but in the movie he’s just annoying to us because he’s as real as anything in the movie too real. 98 minutes of his screaming act, 98 minutes stolen from my life.

Speaker 3 (00:07:57):

And really, I felt it was real aggravating. He

Laci (00:08:01):

Was like, what if a man were a school? I

Speaker 4 (00:08:02):

Was on vacation. I was out of the country. When I came back, you had already seen it and I asked you if I should see it and you said it would be on your list of the worst movies of the year, although I didn’t realize it was going to rank so high as number one, but I’m glad I didn’t see it. Oh my God. Educate yourself. I see how it was on your list.

Speaker 3 (00:08:17):

Consider it my holiday gift.

Speaker 4 (00:08:18):

Thank you very much. I have a few-

Matt (00:08:20):

Every review at the time mentioned Beetlejuice.

Laci (00:08:22):

It’s just because of the house at the

Matt (00:08:25):

End.That’s not the only reason why.

Laci (00:08:27):

I mean, I guess if the two were next to each other, he’s got fun. His outfits are amazing and Beatles just never changes his clothes. Fred is not dead.

Matt (00:08:36):

Beetlejuice does change his clothes, but yes, this is a manic comedian sort of being a play thing for a sort of wayfish, shy girl. I mean, maybe Lydia isn’t shy, but it’s a natural comparison and this does seem like Tim Burton maybe wants his stripey paws on it.

Laci (00:08:54):

Yes. Well, and I guess I could see Debbie Reynolds with the red hair and stuff and being a crotchety, fancy bitch. I could see her seeming like the mom, Katherine O’Hara. Kenny Reynolds. You said it, her name is Debbie Reynolds. The mom. No,

Matt (00:09:08):

I said Carrie Fisher’s mother is Debbie Reynolds. That’s

Laci (00:09:11):

Crazy.

Matt (00:09:11):

The mother in this movie is Marsha Mason.

Laci (00:09:13):

Her. Okay. She could be a Kmart Katherine O’Hara. Yes,

Matt (00:09:18):

She could. I mean,

Laci (00:09:19):

She’s got quite a presence and she is very good in this role, but nothing is Katherine O’Hara. Well,

Matt (00:09:24):

I mean, Marcia Mason was a great dramatic actress. Katherine O’Hara is like one of the great comedy actresses.

Laci (00:09:29):

Right. But if you’re putting both in your head at once, I get where you’re going with that.

Matt (00:09:33):

So every single review from the time is like, they’re just going for Beetlejuice. What’s interesting is I’ve read a bunch of retrospective reviews about Drop Dead Fred, a cult classic now and they point out that this movie probably just arrived two years too early because in a few years, Jim Carey would do all of this stuff and it was all anybody wanted. You even see in that clip we just saw when his eyes pop out that he’s just doing the mask. In every way, he’s doing the mask.

Laci (00:10:01):

It’s just a cartoon film.

Matt (00:10:02):

You’re watching a live action cartoon, which is what the mask is. And it is interesting how these things work, that everything sort of about Rik Mail’s performance, Hollywood rejected, but was totally ready for it a few years.

Laci (00:10:14):

Also, don’t think I feel like there’s definitely a period of time where AmeRikans thumb their nose at British comedy. It still is. Well, it’s advanced, right? So this is two years ahead of its time and British comedy, I find it is we’re always following it, remaking what they make, but making like a lighter version or a less harsh version. Sure, certainly. So he comes off harsh and crass and he’s only got a few moments where he’s super lovable, but that’s what makes those moments so special is because he says exactly what he’s thinking. So if he says, “Snot face, you look great.” Then you know you look great snot face.

Matt (00:10:51):

Trying to research the British comedy world he came from. I’m just reading all these names.

Laci (00:10:55):

MTV.

Matt (00:10:56):

I don’t know any of this. I don’t know that. I don’t know that. I don’t know that. One of those retrospectives, Din of Geek in 2017, “If you’re of a certain age and much like Phoebe Cates’ protagonist Elizabeth at the beginning of the movie, you haven’t seen Fred since you were a child. You may remember it as a childhood staple that you were probably a bit young to be watching. For many, it might have been your introduction to Mayo’s comic stylings. However, also like Lizzie, Fred’s anarcic behavior has different implications when you meet him again in adulthood. Some viewers now go by the reading that the film has more of Fight Club than Beetlejuice, and Fred is well and truly in her head discounting the fantasy part. This would make it a much darker film than was clearly intended, especially in the haircutting incident, which is already weird enough in the way that it’s presented without tipping the film into the realm of psychological horror.

Laci (00:11:41):

Wait a fucking second. Am I the only one that just accepts that he’s not real? This is her doing all of this?

Matt (00:11:47):

Yeah, that’s always been my reading, but at the movie it does play it like you’re not going to get a definitive answer

Laci (00:11:53):

On that. Well, because of the last scene where he is talking to Mickey’s daughter and she is talking about Drop Dead Fred or whatever and he’s moved on.

Matt (00:12:05):

That’s

Laci (00:12:05):

Evidence that he’s real. But no, that’s a child going through divorce who’s also having a really hard time. She’s the exact kind of person who might pick up a little something from their super obsessed father who’s always talking about this Lizzie girl and her drop dead Fred. I mean, what are the …

Matt (00:12:21):

Well, that’s evidence that Fred is a magical divorce fairy who goes to visit little kids who need a little … Like divorce dog from the 80s. Remember divorce dog?

Laci (00:12:31):

Okay, but no. Is that a dog that comes to see you if

Matt (00:12:35):

You get

Laci (00:12:35):

A divorce? Yeah. Okay.

Matt (00:12:36):

You got it.

Laci (00:12:37):

All right. Well, he never showed up in my house, but our apartment didn’t allow pets. Appointedly, Lizzie did not start seeing Drop Dead Fred … I mean, I’m sorry, only saw him while her parents were still together.

Matt (00:12:49):

Yeah, which is a very smart choice the movie makes.

Laci (00:12:53):

I love that the dad doesn’t come back again. I love that he’s only mentioned a couple times and it’s never by Lizzie, except for to talk about how she wished that her dad would’ve thrown her mom. She’s expressing exactly what a lot of people with abusive mothers express, which is, “I did not have a dad as a buffer. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had an abusive mom.” You can’t have both. If you have a strong father who is kind, you don’t have an abusive mother. So those of us that, I’m not saying me, had an abusive mother also feel abandoned by their dad, even if he’s there.

Matt (00:13:27):

Her real dad, when we see him, is British like Fred. So Fred is a manifestation of who she wishes her dad would be. An assertive, fun figure of chaos. Because

Laci (00:13:36):

He’s interested in what … He asks her follow-up questions. He loves her precociousness. He finds her entertaining. He understands what it is to be a child. The mom is so cruel for designing this beautiful palace of things you can’t touch. Even as cruel as to put a flower that the girl is allergic to in a prominent spot. It’s asking a smart only child, bored child, curious child to live in a museum where she can only fuck things up. You put carpet in your dining room and you’re mad at the mud on the carpet, motherfucker. It’s a dining room. White carpet.

Matt (00:14:16):

She wants to be. She wants to be angry. She wants to be angry. It’s like if you’re the mother of the girl from hereditary and you’re like- Stick your head

Laci (00:14:23):

Out the window.

Matt (00:14:24):

I’m supposed to not have peanut butter all over my house on all my surfaces. Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to live like that? That’s not fair. I’m going to put peanut butter everywhere. Why do you have to put gladiolas everywhere? Put something else. You know your daughter’s allergic.

Laci (00:14:36):

Right.

Matt (00:14:37):

“It’s definitely a film about overcoming emotional abuse, but neither the film nor its subtext could ever be called subtle. The subtext is dressed in garish green and yellow, demanding that you take it at face value. While Drop Dead Fred is a figurative manifestation of Lizzie’s repressed rebellious site, imaginary friends have to have some literal tangibility within the world of the film in order for it to work.” I know that looking at it now, I think one, every Pixar movie is basically a rip off of this premise and every sort of comedy these days that isn’t very funny is all centered on childhood repressed trauma and mental illness. I feel like everything owes a debt to Drop Dead Fred, but maybe in 1991 people weren’t just not accustomed to having every single story be about that.

Laci (00:15:24):

I understand that it’s at the root of why this movie meant so much to me. There are certainly movies where it’s just fun to quote. It’s just fun that his head got squashed that we’re talking about vaginas in a kid’s movie that’s crazy. We’re saying shit and things. It’s dressed up as a kid’s movie, but you feel like you’re getting away with something when you watch it as a kid. I knew I loved it for that, but why it stuck with me, why I would crave to watch it is because of the journey that Liz goes on. I didn’t realize that until watching it as an adult nine years ago, that, oh, I felt seen by this movie. I felt like it was okay to be a certain way. I felt like it was okay to have residual effects of being treated a certain way, all the things.

Laci (00:16:06):

So it is the heart stuff. It is the smart stuff, the emotional introspection that makes it a movie that sticks to you.

Matt (00:16:18):

It’s clearly a movie for kids that is rated PG-13 and has tons of curse words in it. And I love it for that. It’s like the movie knows it’s getting away with a PG-13 movie means that this is not for kids, but we all know this is actually for kids. Watch it, kids.

Laci (00:16:33):

Look at his hair. Look at his outfit. Ebert wouldn’t even look at it because he’s like, “Oh, Siskel, you think this is the worst movie the whole year? Plus it looks like a kid’s movie? Skip.” Where if this was the worst movie the entire year, but it was dressed up for adults, how could he call himself a true critic and not watch it? He dismissed it because it looks silly.

Matt (00:16:52):

Yeah. And the criticisms all seem to be, this is very annoying. And I’m very susceptible to annoying

Laci (00:16:58):

Stuff.

Matt (00:16:58):

Yes. And I don’t think he’s annoying. I think he’s really funny.

Laci (00:17:01):

He adds so much energy to every scene that he’s in and he’s not the kind of mischievous where you’re upset with him. Stop. You’re fucking getting her into trouble. It’s like, no, you are pushing something out of her so that she’s not a freaking weirdo doormat for the rest of her life looking like a cheerleader librarian, which I didn’t know you could do that.

Matt (00:17:25):

It’s the joy of his performance of Mail and the actors he’s working against Phoebe Kate’s and the young version of Phoebe Cates. Yes, they have great chemistry. On my way off of her. And man, that kid who’s not a professional actor is really, really bringing it

Laci (00:17:40):

In those scenes. She’s fucking awesome. And she’s precocious and smart and usually that can rub me the wrong way. But I love the way they put her. I love how excited she is. I love that this is her just really excited about her own ideas and about what kind of shit she’s going to get up to and just all the things you have to do to make yourself not lonely. I don’t know. I just buy all of it. She deserves to be precocious and smart if she is also being mistreated this way, like Harry Potter.

Matt (00:18:08):

Or it’s just like kids are annoying and you’re allowed to be annoying and like deal with it, mom and dad. Deal

Laci (00:18:13):

With my mom. Right. I wasn’t born to be an accessory to your beautiful house. I’m not here to fill out that Christmas card that you want to send to everybody. I actually have thoughts and you’re probably a really smart, capable woman. He’s a probably smart, capable man. Guess what you made? Smart, capable person who you are not letting be a kid.

Matt (00:18:33):

All right. Let’s get into the production history of Drop Dead Fred and this is one of those movies where there’s just not that much out there, unfortunately.

Laci (00:18:40):

Great.

Matt (00:18:41):

Ata De Yong is the Dutch director of this movie. He directed a lot of movies in the 70s and 80s in Holland. And then like Paul Verhoven, his countryman, he went over to Hollywood, had way less success than Verhoven and then returned to the Netherlands and kept working. You

Laci (00:18:56):

Guys

Matt (00:18:56):

Are

Laci (00:18:56):

Uptight.

Matt (00:18:57):

Is that

Laci (00:18:57):

How he sounds?

Matt (00:18:58):

Made two other movies after this. None were very successful. The producer of the movie is Paul Webster. There’s a screenplay by Carlos Davis and Anthony Fingleton. And this is all based on a story by Elizabethton Livingston. And here’s why I’m so frustrated. You should at least be able to see like, okay, Elizabeth Livingston writes an idea for this movie. Elizabeth is the name of the main character in the movie. So who is Elizabeth Livingston? Why did she write this story? There’s nothing about this person anywhere online. This is the only credit on IMDB.

Laci (00:19:32):

Could it be a pen name? And it’s Steven Spielberg. He wanted to tell his childhood story.

Matt (00:19:37):

Finally, because

Laci (00:19:38):

He never gets to talk about it. He never gets a talk about shot.

Matt (00:19:42):

God, imagine the Spielberg version of this movie, how heartwarming it would be.

Laci (00:19:45):

Well, when you told me Tim Burton, I’m like, “Well, that would’ve fucking ruined it. There’s a balance this movie’s doing and maybe it’s all an accident, but it’s so good.”

Matt (00:19:53):

Pin in the Burton thing.

Laci (00:19:54):

I’ll pin that Burton.

Matt (00:19:57):

Luckily, the Blu-ray has a feature length commentary from the director and he’s very likable, but it is one of those director’s commentaries where he’s just like, “Oh yeah, we had to reshoot that scene.” Yeah, we filmed this in LA actually.

Laci (00:20:10):

I tripped over my later house in here.

Matt (00:20:12):

The director’s commentaries are hit and miss because you can get incredible insight or it’s just the most practical like, “Oh yeah, she was a little sick that day. We had to get her in.

Laci (00:20:19):

” Right. Guy, we’re not here because we want to know about the nuts and bolts of that day’s craft. Give us some of it.

Matt (00:20:27):

That has its place.

Laci (00:20:28):

Some of it. But yeah, you know when you’re buttoned up against a neuroatypical kind of … I’m telling you about the process here. I find it neat so will you.

Matt (00:20:41):

There is an interview though with Ata De Yong and the producer, Paul Webster, and they sort of tell the story of how the movie came about, which is there were these screenwriters, Carlos Davis and Anthony Fingleton, who were friends with this woman, Elizabeth Livingston, and they said it was a short story, but you can find the original text of what she did on the internet and it looks more like a movie treatment. I don’t know how this ended up getting optioned by a studio or by a production company, but it ends up getting developed and they are brought aboard as screenwriters and then they hook up with Paul Webster and with Ata De Young. And what they said is-

Laci (00:21:19):

I just feel like a money laundering scam that just happened to get fucking pushed all the way through, like almost an accident. For there to not to be any real backup story to … Considering Sweet Home Alabama jumping through months of hoops to get made when it’s like the most obvious movie that should get made and this one just sails through.

Matt (00:21:41):

I don’t know that it sailed through, but even if you remember that movie also had an original screenwriter of sort of confusing unknown providence and there’s not that much information about him. There are just movies where it’s just not all of this is very well documented and usually we’re talking about … The reason I rely on oral history so much is there’s enough of an audience that an outlet will commission a writer to go interview all the people and that just hasn’t been done with Drop Dead Fred. Let me do it. Let me talk to these people.

Laci (00:22:14):

Yes. Can we talk to Phoebe Cates? She is doing great.

Matt (00:22:17):

The thing on this movie’s Wikipedia page says that this movie was offered to Tim Burton and to Robin Williams. What that is sourced to is the same Din of Geek article I was reading from earlier, but that Din of Geek thing is just an essay and it says that the movie was offered to Tim Burton and Robin Williams, but that isn’t sourced to anything. So it’s unclear. Where did that come from?

Laci (00:22:40):

And so you could just say things in that kind of article without sourcing them?

Matt (00:22:44):

You should source them, but it’s not like this doesn’t happen all of the time.

Laci (00:22:47):

Dinov Geek.

Matt (00:22:49):

And it could very well have been movies are in development for a long time and it’s just the production company could have said, “You know who would be great for this? Robin Williams.” Right,

Laci (00:22:58):

Right. Just like with show girls, we could have had anybody. Paul Abdul, Jen and Jackson, we chose Nomi Malone.

Matt (00:23:06):

Because the story that Webster and DeYong tell is that when the script was being written, it was only with Rik Mayo in mind and they even said Rik Mayo deserved screenwriting credit because what the producer said, let’s say he said, quote-

Laci (00:23:22):

They did a Jim Carrey on him?

Matt (00:23:24):

Just

Laci (00:23:24):

Do something.

Matt (00:23:25):

I mean, kind of. He says that we, meaning he and the director, “We sat with Rik and Tony and Carlos reworking the script and Rik would basically provide the comedy. He would provide the gags and Carlos and Tony would shape it narratively and then Ato would turn it into a film.” So if Robin Williams was ever intended to be cast in this role, I found no evidence for that.

Laci (00:23:48):

Can you just imagine all the fucking voices he’d be doing?

Matt (00:23:51):

Thank fucking God.

Laci (00:23:52):

When did Aladdin come out compared to this one? 1991. One year. The one year later, right. And one year before that, I mean, he was in the … Not an Elman chunted forest. Is that it? No, Ferngali. And Fergus, the same year as Alan. So that’s all he really had in there. I mean, if you watch his standup too, and he’s an amazing impressionist, but dude, there’s got to be other ways. And I mean, then you look at Mrs. Dowfire and it’s just, here’s another reason to have him do 20 impressions in a row. And then Birdcage too.

Matt (00:24:22):

Sally Field recently said, she’s in

Laci (00:24:26):

…

Matt (00:24:26):

She said something like Pierce Brosnan had us cracking up on set because we were so exhausted from Robin Williams. Yes.

Laci (00:24:35):

Yes.

Matt (00:24:36):

And imagine how much, how awe that guy is. Well,

Laci (00:24:39):

And he’s always workshopping something, right? And he’s so uncomfortable in his skin and I can name two people that are like this and it is exhausting because it’s like, can words be said around you without you then saying those words in a fun way or like-

Matt (00:24:54):

I noticed you said Mahatma Gandhi.

Laci (00:24:56):

Maha Magana.

Matt (00:24:58):

No, I didn’t.

Laci (00:24:59):

Well, if I didn’t think a reaction was needed, it’d be fine, but I can’t always be on to support that kind of …

Matt (00:25:08):

So the movie was always intended, at least in their telling for Rik Mail. And again, they said he almost deserved screenwriting credit that he just is. So who is though Rik Mail we all want to know. Rik Mail died at age 56 in 2014. The Guardian in its obituary said about him, “Rik Mail who has died suddenly aged 56 was a phenomenal. An outrageous performer a leading light of the alternative comedy circuit that emerged from the comedy store in the 1980s.” If you don’t know, The Guardian is a British newspaper. So this is writing to a British audience for whom one of the major … It was as if Bill Murray of England had died kind of.

Laci (00:25:50):

Is he up there? Does he relate it all to the Money Python? So that would be a set. There’s so many different branches of very important British comedy.

Matt (00:25:59):

I’m bad at knowing comedy and then knowing about British comedy is its own fucking thing. But I sort of get the sense that he was the generation after Monty Popular.

Laci (00:26:06):

Right. He’s the generation X, they’re the boomers and then Mr. Bean is somewhere in the middle of that.

Matt (00:26:13):

I don’t want to say too much because people who actually know this stuff are getting mad.

Laci (00:26:16):

Stop getting mad at us, guys. I handled it.

Matt (00:26:20):

And a not inconsiderable comic actor playing in Beckett and Simon Gray on the West End stage and in Gogal at the national theater, part of his success lay in the timing. His crude persona, Rik, in the breakthrough television series, The Young Ones written with Ben Elton and Lis Mayer was a gimlet eyed, nose picking lunatic, who nonetheless carried a terrible plausibility as a pressy radical student of the day. Long gone were the serious political protests and scabbish intelligent reviews of the ’60s student generation. Here, student life was parodied as grotic and anarchic.

Laci (00:26:55):

So many words. I don’t understand.

Matt (00:26:57):

I think they were, it was the Gen X sort of nihilistic ethos. And again, we are two AmeRikan blokes. We don’t know anything about British comedy and we’d love to have meet a British friend. If you’re a British person, this is- Can we have

Laci (00:27:10):

A British friend?

Matt (00:27:11):

Can you come be our Britain correspondent and tell us about things, please, and thank you. But he was a very important figure in the British comedy scene of the ’80s and ’90s. He and his comedy partner, Adrian Edmondson, started on stage together. They performed on TV in the British version of Saturday Night Live, which was called Saturday Live as the dangerous brothers. Let’s go ahead and watch 30 seconds of that.

Speaker 5 (00:27:37):

Mrs. Ray Looney, we are your babysitter. Yeah, you’ve got a baby will sit on it. My name is Rikhard Babysitter and this is Sir Adrian Babysitter. Ha ha. Robin Sitters. Yes, that’s okay though. But there must be some mistake. And we booked somebody called Jennifer. That’s us matey. We are Jennifer. Our exciting name. Excuse me a moment.

Matt (00:28:09):

Would you like to watch more of The Dangerous Brothers?

Laci (00:28:12):

I would.

Matt (00:28:12):

Okay. I mean, yeah, it’s very British, but yeah, he’s very, very likable and

Laci (00:28:18):

You can see like- We are Jennifer. I mean, yeah, he is. I mean,

Laci (00:28:25):

He’s half of what … I don’t know. 60% of what makes this movie great and it’s his dramatic acting that is what is always so surprising to me. The little parts. There aren’t many, but because of the way that he is, they are so meaningful to me that there’s something so reassuring. So if he’s going to be kind to you or tell you something when he’s using his serious voice, like there’s just this, I can trust you thing. There’s no question. A guy you can just trust if he uses a certain tone of voice, that is comforting as shit.

Matt (00:29:00):

Among this big British comedy scene that had a ton of success at this time on TV, it seems like he was the one that they picked out and said he maybe could make it in Hollywood. Let’s go over to Hollywood and give him a try. Drop Dead Fred was intended to be his entry into AmeRikan movies, but it didn’t do that well. He made one more AmeRikan movie shortly after that and then went back to England.

Laci (00:29:21):

I should have written him a letter. I would’ve just thought he was too famous to care about my letter, but I’d been an AmeRikan who liked him in real time.

Matt (00:29:30):

Phoebe Cates. What comes to mind, Laci, when I say Phoebe Cates?

Laci (00:29:36):

Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I always forget that I love her in this movie and just an adorable brunette, but a sexy person, a sex goddess in my head. Though she plays just as many wholesome things too.

Matt (00:29:50):

Well, because Fast Times, the most famous thing about her career is the Fast Times thing, but then she’s in Gremlins and she’s playing a much more wholesome. Yeah, I guess until learning about her, what I think of is Gremlins and Fast Times and retired from acting and then actually seem to stay retired. I only just learned she’s married to Kevin Klein, has been married for almost 40 years. That’s amazing. To Kevin Klein. Have you seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High?

Laci (00:30:19):

It’s not one of my movies because it’s a movie about guys trying to have sex and there’s only so many of those I need to see.

Matt (00:30:24):

Well, there are comedies from that era that you go back and watch and think like, “Well, I’m not laughing and I don’t like it, but I can see what they were seeing at the time.”

Laci (00:30:33):

How I feel about horror from that time. It’s not really mine because I didn’t get to it at the right time, but I do understand why.

Matt (00:30:41):

Yeah. Or I bet if you watched Animal House, you would say like, “I mean, it’s fine. I’m not laughing.” Well, she’s

Laci (00:30:45):

Always funny to me. I like Blues Brothers too.

Matt (00:30:47):

Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I watched it for the first time ever on Saturday and I gave it five stars on a heart and this is a masterpiece. This is incredible.

Laci (00:30:54):

Oh, I need to revisit. I’ve only seen it once.

Matt (00:30:55):

Yeah. I was even thinking, should we just cover it on the show? Let’s do it. It’s so wonderful. It is so sweet. It is so insightful. I can suddenly … You rarely watch these totemic movies and see, oh, I see why this is so revered. And she’s not the lead in it. Jennifer Jason Lee is the lead. That’s so funny. And it has to be because it was directed by a woman by Amy Heckerling, who’s a great director, that the sex in the movie is so much more sophisticated and knowing than what you’re used to seeing in movies.

Laci (00:31:25):

It’s the name of the movie and it’s this pool shot that stay in my head. And so I lump it in. That’s so interesting. I’m sure I would love it.

Matt (00:31:35):

And the pool shot is you have your cake and eat it too because she is very sexy, but it’s in a fantasy and you’re flipping back to real life where Judge Reinhold is jacking off. Judge

Laci (00:31:46):

Reinhold. That’s who fucking looks like what’s his nose.

Matt (00:31:52):

Like Jason Siegel?

Laci (00:31:53):

Yes.

Matt (00:31:53):

All right.

Laci (00:31:55):

Okay. I knew there was someone in that movie.

Matt (00:31:57):

Phoebe Cates was born in 1963. She would’ve been 27 or 28 when she filmed Drop Dead Fred. Now this is her background and this is what I found kind of interesting. Her father, Joseph Cates, a major TV and Broadway producer. He produced The Honeymooners. He was the creator of the game show, The $64,000 Question. He supposedly produced more than 1,000 television specials and her uncle was also a major television and Broadway producer. He produced the Academy Awards 14 times. So she grew up in New York City basically groomed for show business. She trained at Julliard. She got a scholarship at the School of AmeRikan Ballet before her career ended at age 14 due to a knee injury. She began modeling at age 10, appearing in publications like 17 Magazine. Google 17 magazine, Phoebe Cade. She appears on so many of the covers. She then decides acting or modeling is not what she’s interested in.

Matt (00:32:50):

She wants to act. Now things get a little fucked up. She does a screen test for a movie called Paradise that is very much everybody understands it’s a rip off of the Blue Lagoon. Blue Lagoon was this movie where these two sexy late teens get naked and-

Laci (00:33:06):

They are brother and sister.

Matt (00:33:07):

Oh, are they? I’ve never seen it.

Laci (00:33:09):

It’s about what would you do if you’re going through puberty and the only person on an island is your brother.

Matt (00:33:14):

Okay.

Laci (00:33:15):

Is my memory of it.

Matt (00:33:18):

But the whole point is people get to see and like, “Ooh, if I’m titilated because I see these naked people. ” So Paradise is getting cast and she goes to an open casting call for this movie that will film in Israel and the role calls for a lot of nudity. She is 17 years old. She sold People Magazine in 1982. “I asked my father, should I do this? ” He said, “How can you even question a lead in a feature film?” I said, “Yeah, but what about the nudity?” And he said, “What are you going to do? Model for the rest of your life? What are you so hung up on nudity for? That’s all I needed. I took the part.” Again, she was 17 years old.

Laci (00:33:56):

How was that legal?

Matt (00:33:58):

I guess in Israel, it’s legal. And certainly there’s states in the US where it’s legal. She said of the part, “In this business, if a girl wants a career, she has to be willing to strip. If you’ve got a good bod, then why not show it? ” Nevertheless, this production was very unprofessional. The script called for, she said way too much nudity. The story didn’t demand that there be that much nudity. And in fact, the filmmakers then added more nudity with body doubles and she was very upset about that. She started feuding with the production or she refused to do any publicity and then the production got sued over by the studio behind Blue Lagoon for saying it was a rip off and Cates went on the record and said it was a rip off.

Laci (00:34:38):

Chitchim.

Matt (00:34:39):

Phoebe Cates’ character in Drop Dead Fred, I feel like she at least seems to be drawing on this I was intended groomed to be an on camera performer, no? What? That the character she plays in Drop Dead Fred, a person who’s molded by these other forces, her mom or very controlling mom. It kind of reads as a sort of stage mom almost. And I just have to think she had to be drawing on her own

Laci (00:35:06):

Experiences. Oh yeah, yeah. This is the best acting performance I’ve seen her give, but I’ve only seen four things with her in it. But I mean, that makes sense if the material spoke to her. An overbearing mom, I could … It sounds like her dad was

Matt (00:35:24):

Also-That basically her dad made her get naked on screen when she wasn’t even an adult yet. And so the movie, yeah, Drop Dad Fred. I just thought that was such an interesting through line and maybe why she’s so good in the movie is-

Laci (00:35:40):

Because she’s a good actress, Matt. What the fuck? This guy.

Matt (00:35:45):

Huh? No, you draw on stuff that she understands the feeling of not being in control of your life. Even when you’re now an adult, everybody still sees you as a girl. As

Laci (00:35:54):

The product they made. Look at this

Matt (00:35:56):

Nice product we

Laci (00:35:56):

Made. This product exasting faulty.

Matt (00:35:59):

Interesting that she then followed that up with Fast Times where she has the famous nude scene, but she had only good things to say about that movie. Also, she was an adult when she made it. I mean, whether there’s any difference between a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, I don’t know, but you got to-

Laci (00:36:15):

You got to put the line somewhere, people.

Matt (00:36:16):

Right. And again, that movie was directed by a woman. So it probably did make a difference.

Laci (00:36:21):

100%, especially just the politics on set and using it where the 80s called for it.

Matt (00:36:31):

She became lifelong great friends with her onscreen best friend from that movie, Jennifer Jason Lee.

Laci (00:36:38):

Goosebumps.

Matt (00:36:41):

After that, she’s in Gremlins. She has the famous Christmas monologue. My dad dressed as Santa and rotted as a corpse in the chimney and returned for Gremlins too. But she would say at the time in the press, “There’s no good parts and movies for women.” Correct. She got a lot better roles on stage. Drop Dead and Fred in 1991 was her last leading role. She was set to play Steve Martin’s daughter in Father of the Bride, but she dropped out because she got pregnant and married to Kevin Klein in 1989. Where did she meet

Laci (00:37:09):

Him?

Matt (00:37:10):

They’re still married. I guess

Laci (00:37:12):

Not on the set, just in town.

Matt (00:37:15):

You meet people.

Laci (00:37:16):

I mean, I got it. I just liked when there’s a work connection.

Matt (00:37:19):

And then she retired from acting in 1994. She returned one more time in 2001 in the movie The Anniversary Party, which was directed by her good friend, Jennifer Jason Lee. It was a favorite to her. 2005, she opens a high-end fashion boutique in Manhattan, which she still runs to this day. She says customers will say to her, “You look like Phoebe Cates.” And she says, “I get that a lot.”

Laci (00:37:39):

Aw.

Matt (00:37:40):

The movie didn’t do well at the box office, although not as bad as I thought it did. It doubled its budget in AmeRika. It made $24 million worldwide. And then like every movie Laci loves, it became a cult classic on home video. In the 2010s, there was a remake and development with Russell Brand. Get brand in your movie, get him to the movie theater, everyone said, on your screens. But his movie Arthur didn’t do well and so they said, “No, that’s okay.”

Laci (00:38:08):

Okay. So then my friend heard her facts a little mixed up, because I thought that didn’t make sense timeline-wise for him to have been considered further. We would’ve been like 14. Yeah,

Matt (00:38:19):

Very young. So that’s the legacy of Drop Dead Fred. Again, as I said, there are not that many resources about that movie. Somebody go write the oral history of Drop Dead Fred.

Laci (00:38:31):

Give us oral.

Matt (00:38:33):

Give us Oral, please. There’s a lot of love for this movie and I really, really like this movie. I think it’s a great movie and I think it’s a very good movie. It’s flawed. And we will talk about it now again. If you’re listening on the podcast, just keep listening. If you’re watching on YouTube-

Laci (00:38:48):

If you’re a real fan of Drop Dead Fred, you’re going to want the audio people. Okay, you’re going to want it.

Matt (00:39:30):

Do you like hearing us talk about Drop Dead Fred? We have tons of episodes of our podcast about other weird cult movies from this era, like we did Nothing but Trouble a few months ago. Have you ever seen Mannequin where a Mannequin comes to life? Kim

Laci (00:39:46):

Cottrell. Matthew McCartney

Matt (00:39:49):

Andrew McCarthy.

Laci (00:39:50):

Get your fucking life together.

Matt (00:39:52):

Hard and souls. Which has a scene that is very similar to a scene in Drop Dead Fred

Laci (00:39:57):

Where

Matt (00:39:57):

You have to be serious in a business meeting, but there’s all these imaginary people talking to you and you’re like, “I’m here for business. Not nonsense.” Not

Laci (00:40:03):

Pleasures.

Matt (00:40:05):

What? She devil, Howard the Duck, all kinds of weird stuff. So go look through that back catalog. We’re coming up on 200 episodes and we have so many podcasts, such sights to show you in our back cabin.

Laci (00:40:18):

We have a cave of wonders. Just

Matt (00:40:20):

Between you and I, because you’re listening right now on the audio podcast. So do you want to get into it, Laci, about drop dead friends? I don’t

Laci (00:40:27):

See why not.

Matt (00:40:28):

Yeah, why not? Anything goes. First thing we see is a goldfish in a bowl. Do you get it?

Laci (00:40:33):

Yeah, she’s really trying to keep her inside of a cage. She can’t blossom if she keeps her in a small bowl.

Matt (00:40:39):

A goldfish will only grow as big as its bowl and this mom’s like you. This is all you are. Your

Laci (00:40:44):

Little girl

Matt (00:40:44):

Is fish

Laci (00:40:44):

In a bowl. A glass bowl, it means that the thing inside is for the person outside, right? It’s unblocked from every angle. It’s just to be admired. It’s not to actually have any kind of interior life. Literally, there’s nothing inside the bowl.

Matt (00:40:59):

Right. And Lizzie at her own apartment has a fish tank full of fish. Fish with friends. The friends, they live their fish lives together.

Laci (00:41:05):

Hideouts, rocks, spurty things.

Matt (00:41:09):

Yeah. And then she’s reading the mother, Marsha Mason, as Ply is reading The Little Girl, a book of fairy tales. Do you think that this prince on the cover is supposed to look a little like Drop Dead Fred?

Laci (00:41:22):

No.

Matt (00:41:23):

I do. I think that he’s vaguely his costume. He’s a green book. Looks vaguely like him and the mother’s like, “And the prince rescued the princess.” And the little girl immediately starts being annoying. Did they live happily ever after?

Laci (00:41:36):

I don’t know. You fucking twat. Probably now I’m going to go not fuck your father.

Matt (00:41:41):

The mom’s just like, “Elizabeth, fucking Jesus.”

Laci (00:41:43):

You’re supposed to be asleep now. What?

Matt (00:41:45):

Let’s just say yes. How did you know? Because she was a good girl. If she would’ve been naughty, the prince would’ve run away. And the little girl says, “What a pile of shit.” And then it’s the opening credits, these opening animated credits.

Laci (00:42:00):

Which I knew you would love and you did. I’m just assuming.

Matt (00:42:05):

I didn’t

Laci (00:42:06):

Care. Yeah, you liked them a lot.

Matt (00:42:08):

I do wonder when they’re doing the cute misspelling of the words, like director of photography, but photography is spelled with an F. How does the director of photography feel about that?

Laci (00:42:16):

I always think about that if it’s its only credit ever. And I think he feels good because if you were going to give a PowerPoint presentation of every time your name appeared on screen, that slide would pop. You’re right. Yeah. I think it’s a nice eclectic. Yeah. I always think about it when the names are hard to read, but maybe that’s a cool art thing. I take a screen grab and you frame it. That’s one to talk about.

Matt (00:42:39):

Well, it’s like if you work on The Simpsons and you get a Halloween credit, there’s nothing better for your portfolio. You might know me as James Hell Brooks.

Laci (00:42:49):

So this guy playing Charlie, he’s born in bread in a test tube to play asshole ’80s guy,

Matt (00:42:57):

Right? Yeah. Jim Matheson frequently playing big old assholes.

Laci (00:43:00):

Just

Matt (00:43:01):

A gaping. Animal house and all kinds of-

Laci (00:43:03):

Wide.

Matt (00:43:04):

All kinds of stuff.

Laci (00:43:05):

Wasp

Matt (00:43:06):

Asshole. 21 years later, Phoebe Gates playing adult Lizzie and she’s in her car outside of her husband’s car dealership and she’s rehearsing her speech. Now, I mean, how is she dressed? It’s always- Yes,

Laci (00:43:19):

She’s dressed like a child. I mean, she’s infantilized. What kind of man would even be interested in her except for if he were just a replacement for her mom, someone who wanted complete control and to treat someone as they were a child and have them worship and rely on them. He gets to drive around the nice car and she’s in a piece of shit like Gremlin. Oh, that might be why. Yeah. I mean, he’s got her in a bowl.

Matt (00:43:45):

As we see when he finally talks to the mother, they are like divorced parents exchanging the kid that they share custody of.

Laci (00:43:52):

Man, they have a sexual tension between them too. They just have this … This always happens on Thursdays. They have the sexual weird tension between them. They have this knowing look. It’s like she gets to vicariously fuck Charles. He’s the Nigel that didn’t leave because they are both on the same page. We want to control that child, right? Oh, we want to control that child.

Matt (00:44:15):

Her husband has cheated on her. Tim Matheson is Charles has cheated on her, but she’s going to go in there and she’s rehearsing her big speech and the speech is- To

Laci (00:44:20):

Get him back.

Matt (00:44:21):

I forgive you.

Laci (00:44:23):

Well, because he fucking obviously gaslit and manipulated her in whatever previous discussion and two saying they should separate, which is what he wanted.

Matt (00:44:31):

Which is what he says, right? He always just starts talking for her immediately and he’s like, “Babe, no, you were right. You said- I

Laci (00:44:38):

Was?

Matt (00:44:38):

We need to be apart from each other. That was your idea. I did. It was. I said that. It was. Yeah, you said I should go live with Anabel.” I

Laci (00:44:44):

Don’t think I said

Matt (00:44:46):

That. Okay. Yeah, you said we need to do something positive. So that’s what I did. I’m living with Annabelle. Annabella. I said that? Oh yeah. Well, I mean, actually the first thing he says to her is like, “Lizzie, what are you doing here on your lunch break? You need to be eating.”

Laci (00:45:00):

Right.

Matt (00:45:00):

So in control of her that even though they’re separated right now, he’s like, “Honey, are you getting your nutrients?”

Laci (00:45:05):

Well, no, he needs to instantly guilt her. Look at you misappropriating your time. Oh, you shouldn’t be in here when we have clearly lots of things to talk about. You should be using nap time to nap, sweetie.That’s not just, I need you to take a nap to take care of yourself. You should be sad that you’re not sleeping like a good girl.

Matt (00:45:23):

Having to remind an adult to eat something that I only thought was in the movies until I saw it in real life when my friend had to get hospitalized overnight while he was staying with us because he just wouldn’t. It’s like you’re 35, you didn’t know you’re supposed to drink water and eat food.That

Laci (00:45:37):

Is though a neuroatypical thing. Lots of people on the spectrum forget to eat or just don’t prioritize it until they start to physically feel bad, which has to be extra bad because they often ignore the earlier signs of discomfort.

Matt (00:45:51):

And then he’s like, “This isn’t even my fault. I’m just smitten with Annabella. She bewitched me. I couldn’t help it. “

Laci (00:45:58):

Oh

Matt (00:45:58):

No. I didn’t do this to hurt you. I just was bowitched.

Laci (00:46:00):

By another woman, a woman who acts like a fucking child as well. A evil witch pussy came and got me and just everything’s someone else’s fault, Charles.

Matt (00:46:12):

Then a sexy lady comes into the dealership and immediately pulls him away. Lizzie goes to the payphone to call her friend Janie, and while she’s talking on the phone, her car gets broken into and then stolen.

Laci (00:46:23):

I mean, she follows him for a little while, which is already fucking crazy while he’s in the car with the other woman and he’s just ignoring the shit out of her.

Matt (00:46:31):

It’s so odd. But still effortlessly when they’re talking through the windows, he’s like, “No, let’s not do a big goodbye because we know. “

Laci (00:46:38):

This isn’t crazy that I’m doing this with a customer. All right, sweetheart. Great. Sound okay? I’ll see you never. All right. Sign the paper. Okay. And then she immediately needs the help of another domineering person who happens to be on her side, who is a good friend and she calls her … Is it Janie?

Matt (00:46:57):

Yeah,

Laci (00:46:58):

Janie. Janie.

Matt (00:46:59):

Fisher.

Laci (00:47:00):

Right. I mean, she’s no nonsense and Lizzie is drawn to that.

Matt (00:47:06):

Right. Yeah. Also, you’ll see always talks for her, always just tells her what she is thinking. She

Laci (00:47:11):

Just happens to have her interest in mind in a way that the others don’t. But I mean, Lizzie’s clearly drawn to this. And you know that because she sees Mickey and she just sees another Lizzie and she’s like, “Oh, fucking cuck. No, thank you. “

Matt (00:47:23):

Yeah. What’s good about this Phoebe Kate’s performance is that all of those traits, she can play all of those traits, but not make this character seem like a pathetic idiot.

Laci (00:47:30):

No, right. He’s like a breath of fresh air, but you know at the same time like, “Okay, you’re not stable either. You’re not in a good place either. No adult should want this kind of anarchy at a restaurant. We’ll get there.” But I mean, it professes his long-term love for her three different times in this movie and in this cute little way and she just goes, “Oh.”

Matt (00:47:54):

It just, yeah, just bounces off of her. She works as a-

Laci (00:47:57):

She knows.

Matt (00:47:58):

Works as a court reporter in Minneapolis. This movie’s filmed on location in Minneapolis. It’s cool to see a city you don’t often see in the movies and it’s not wintertime, it’s just a normal city. We’ll even get that mg decision. That’s how

Laci (00:48:12):

She met Janie. I was wondering, where does someone like this meet a high powered attorney? Your court reporter.

Matt (00:48:19):

Oh, yep, yep. That

Laci (00:48:20):

Must be it.

Matt (00:48:20):

It’s all there. I

Laci (00:48:21):

Like the continuity. They didn’t have to, but they didn’t.

Matt (00:48:24):

She goes into the courtroom. She’s late and the judge is like … She’s like, “I’m sorry, your honor. I lost my car, my wallet, my husband.” All in one launch hour?

Laci (00:48:32):

He’s such a dick.

Matt (00:48:33):

Come here, come here, Lizzie. You’re fired.

Laci (00:48:35):

And then she mouths, “I’m fired.” And he’s like,

Matt (00:48:39):

“Yeah.” That’s when she runs into Mickey and he’s like, “Oh, shucks. We used to live next to each other and I just loved you. ” I

Laci (00:48:46):

Love you, baby.

Matt (00:48:47):

And I’m here at the courthouse to get a divorce.

Laci (00:48:49):

I don’t like that word. And then she’s like, “You really got to stick to it if you want to not get divorced.” And he’s patient with her. He’s like, “Oh, we did. I tried,

Matt (00:49:02):

Lizzie.” But the best part of it is I got to keep my daughter. Look, see, here’s a photo of her and then starts like, “Hey, remember when you were such a little bastard as a kid and you threw paint on my grandmother?” Grandma

Laci (00:49:15):

Pants.

Matt (00:49:16):

I didn’t do that. He’s like, “Yeah, you blamed it on Fred.” And then this look comes over. Phoebegates. Oh, dropped dead

Laci (00:49:21):

Head. He’s unlocking this whole … She forgot she ever had any power. She ever went against the system. She knew how to get under her mother’s skin and make her mom look like a monster in front of her dad, which is she is a monster but really make her claws come out. That’s a fucking power right there.

Matt (00:49:38):

Drop dead for your right. Oh my God. I did used to kick ass and now I suck.

Laci (00:49:44):

But I still wear the exact same outfits. They’re not even different ones. This is just what I always wore.

Matt (00:49:48):

Yeah.

Laci (00:49:49):

I’m a Victorian child haunting a mansion.

Matt (00:49:52):

This notion of drop dead Fred now coming back to her and she’s like, “Yeah, Fred, he was my imaginary friend who was real to me though.” And the guy’s like, “Yeah, real out of control.” And Lizzie says, “Not always. Only when my mother was. Well, you know. “

Laci (00:50:06):

Yeah. We were all a little afraid of your mom.

Matt (00:50:08):

And what she says is not Fred. He always stood up for me. Within five minutes of the movie, you realize, okay, this is a manifestation of the defense against my mother.

Laci (00:50:17):

Well, and so she’s at once a bit helpless. I mean, she’s very helpless, but also you get aggravated with the adults in her life. I shouldn’t even be thinking of them that way because it’s like, just let her do something. But she’s walking into her house after getting fired after realizing she will be getting a divorce and Janie’s with her who’s in a mom working outfit with her purse and she’s got short, no fuss, no must haircut. And then she walks in to find her mom also dressed like she’s going to fucking court. I do not know why this mom dresses this way, but she’s always in some kind of fucksy power suit and she’s cleaning the kitchen the way it should be. Lizzie needs it, doesn’t know how to live without it and is stifled by it. And you see it’s so perfect right here.

Matt (00:51:06):

And I like that when Carrie Fisher talks to the mom, she too is a little subservient of the mom because calls her Mrs. Cronin.You’re two adults, you can call each other by your names. Okay, yes, Mrs. Cronin. It’s not like Carrie Fisher’s character grew up with this Poly character, but she goes and meets up with Carrie Fisher and starts talking for her, sees her like, “Hey, I know how you’re feeling. You’re feeling very conflicted.” And she’s like, it was the early ’90s. We were all about this psychobabble. I did a self-actualization workshop, learned all about how pain is what makes you interesting. I mean, look at Elvis and Phoebe Kate says, “Didn’t Elvis kill himself?”

Laci (00:51:41):

Yeah, but before that it was very interesting.

Matt (00:51:44):

Elvis did not kill himself. That’s so weird.

Laci (00:51:46):

I mean, he did take a lot of drugs and have a heart attack on the toilet.

Matt (00:51:49):

But people don’t consider that a suicide. I mean, there’s other people you could point to.

Laci (00:51:54):

Yeah, yeah. But I guess people do think of him as having destroyed himself, even if he didn’t kill himself.

Matt (00:51:59):

That’s different though. Okay. She makes her say write aloud like, “I hate Charles. I don’t need him. I don’t need a man. I don’t want Charles back.” Phoebe Kate says all of that and then Carrie Fisher’s like, “So do you feel better?” And she says, “No, I do want him back. It’s not true. I love him.” And this is what I mean when I say Phoebe Cates has this quiet dignity to this character who is being pathetic.

Laci (00:52:22):

But earnest and confident in her inconfidence, she’s always kind of unapologetically being crazy.

Matt (00:52:31):

Unapologetic. I know how this might sound. I want my stupid ex- husband back. I love him.

Laci (00:52:36):

Right. And then when she’s literally doing crazy shit, she’s like, “Did you just say piss off?” And she doesn’t go, “No, I said Palm Springs.” And it said she’s like, “I did, but not to you. “

Matt (00:52:48):

That is probably what makes this bearable for me because I really can’t stand though. There’s an imaginary, only I can see even in things I like in Leftovers or Battlestar Galactica, the person accidentally says something out loud and the other character’s like, “What? What did you say?”

Laci (00:53:02):

She just fucking leans in. She knows that she does have something going on and she’s like … I’ve had people fucking offering to take care of me my whole life. Yeah.

Matt (00:53:12):

And at one point she just says, “I’m crazy.”

Laci (00:53:14):

Yeah.

Matt (00:53:14):

And it’s charming.

Laci (00:53:15):

It is. But in the mall when she’s really fucking getting into it and then she just sits down with the people she just did that in front of, she’s like, “I fucking don’t care what you guys think of me. “

Matt (00:53:24):

So Marsha Mason is there packing up for Lizzie and is like, “You’re coming home with me. “

Laci (00:53:29):

Pointedly, she’s cleaning, which is also a fucking slap in the face. Anytime someone offers to clean your house after having just stepped in it, consider yourself insulted.

Matt (00:53:38):

Yeah. Classic mom move, classic adult mom. But

Laci (00:53:41):

Look, she’s using Windex on the counter, which is all I ever cleaned with as a kid. It’s so validating.

Matt (00:53:47):

Yeah.

Laci (00:53:47):

Well, it’s window cleaner.

Matt (00:53:48):

No, no, no. It’s whatever. Windex.

Laci (00:53:51):

Windex

Matt (00:53:52):

Is window. I understand, but you can use it on all kinds of senses. But

Laci (00:53:55):

Then I guess everyone

Matt (00:53:56):

Did. Promo code 1WR. Coming home with me right now. And she says, no, I’m not. And she just says, “Don’t disagree with your mother, dear.” That’s all it takes is I just have to say like, “No, no, no. Good girls don’t disagree with their mothers.” Oh, you’re right. Okay. Yeah, I am a good girl. And then smash cut immediately to in the car with her mom, getting out of her childhood home.

Laci (00:54:15):

She shouldn’t be in the car with her mom, right? She’s got her own car.

Matt (00:54:18):

Yeah, but she’s driven. She’s driven by her mom because if she brought her own car, she’d have some semblance of control, though her car was stolen.

Laci (00:54:26):

Oh, right, right. Okay. I love that the movie spends no time trying to get anything back. Fuck it, whatever. I didn’t even care.

Matt (00:54:32):

Yeah, this might always-

Laci (00:54:34):

I was in the shit car anyway.

Matt (00:54:35):

But it might always be happening to her

Laci (00:54:37):

As

Matt (00:54:38):

Somebody who’s just so out of control of her life.

Laci (00:54:40):

And why should she need her license and credit card? She’s not allowed to use those things that love permission anyway. But look, so she walks in this entire movie, she never wears pink except for when her mom forces her to wear pink one time. And so she walks into this room and immediately feels wrong. It looks like a little girl’s room, but it doesn’t look like her room. And then you notice every other time in the movie, including what we just saw, the mom is always in pink. It is her favorite color. Even Lizzie’s space where she lives in a museum, she’s not allowed to fucking touch anything. There’s white carpet in the dining room. I’d like to re-illustrate that. There’s a whole room she’s not allowed to go in and yet there’s traps in there like ink wells and the room she can go in the middle of it are gladiolas, but she’s fucking allergic to.

Laci (00:55:25):

So she at least has a bedroom and it looks nothing like her.

Matt (00:55:31):

Yeah, because presumably what? She was 17 years old living in this room. She didn’t have posters of Brett Michaels from Poison on the wall. She just had to live in this little doll room as a 17-year-old

Laci (00:55:44):

And this is a very realistic reaction and it is what happens. When you are with a parent who uses your big emotions against you, happy ones and sad ones, you do learn to be hard to read and to just not emote much. And to put a giant poster of something you love on the wall would be to admit you love something. She tucked it all in.

Matt (00:56:08):

Yeah. I’ll keep this as exactly as it was. I will not rock the boat. I will not give her any ammunition whatsoever. But we flash back to her. Well, she goes looking around the room and finds this old taped up jack in the box and this makes her flashback to- Well,

Laci (00:56:23):

Perfectly it falls out of where it was and hits her in the head, right? Because it’s like everything with Fred has to be kind of rough.

Matt (00:56:29):

Yes, because the first time we see her is in the flashbacks, see him. We just see his arm come out from the bed and just bonker.

Laci (00:56:36):

Yes. And the mom, when she takes this thing to hide it, she says, “I’m putting this away and if you ever touch it, I will burn it. ” She threatens to kill him or something. She hides it in her closet. You fucking bitch. You want Lizzie to find it. You want her to fuck up.

Matt (00:56:59):

This flashback thing with him bonking her on the head happens and this causes her to jar awake in the present and the Jack in the Box is operating itself and then Drop Dead Fred comes out of it. Rik Mayal is now in the movie, starts Rik May alling out, calling her snot face. She got old, she’s ugly.

Laci (00:57:17):

I’m sorry.

Matt (00:57:18):

He is a lot.That’s all I got. He is a lot.

Laci (00:57:21):

But he’s good at it. He’s on point. There are plenty of people who are a lot and who are annoying, but he’s going somewhere with everything. He’s consistent.

Matt (00:57:32):

And his entire vernacular, he’s constantly talking about snot and poo. Really, those are his big two, snot and poo. It is in the filthy vernacular of a five-year-old. They’re obsessed with those things. It doesn’t have to be anymore clever than that.

Laci (00:57:46):

He comes up with nothing she couldn’t come up with her on. It’s a really clever way of doing it. It’s not like he’s teaching her anything. He’s just allowing her to be the kid she wants to be.

Matt (00:57:54):

Yeah. I remember writing a comic book with our kid when they were five years old called The Adventures of Poo Poo Dinosaur who thrived on Poopoo. It’s just the kids love it.

Laci (00:58:04):

I mean, we make a big deal about it, Matt. Whenever they go poo-poo by themselves, we can’t stop talking about it whenever they

Matt (00:58:10):

Go on this.

Laci (00:58:12):

Yes.

Matt (00:58:12):

Like drop dead free.

Laci (00:58:13):

Big giant reactions to kids’ poo is all they know for a long fucking time.

Matt (00:58:18):

That’s why it becomes the funniest thing in the world. It’s

Laci (00:58:20):

Not funny. It’s traumatic. I’m always telling moms like, “Can you stop

Matt (00:58:25):

Going? ” Comedy comes from a place of trauma and this is really the central trauma. They think my poo is gross.

Laci (00:58:33):

Not being able to control something that your body does once a day and getting yelled at for it every time is fucking weird.

Matt (00:58:39):

It is weird. Don’t yell at your kids about that. Don’t be a

Laci (00:58:42):

Folly. Oh, you stink. Oh, you’ve shit. Now we need to find a place. I mean, there’s no good reaction to it.

Matt (00:58:50):

The best reaction is, just be chill. It’s fine. It’s all fine.

Laci (00:58:53):

Oh, you did the thing you’re supposed to do.

Matt (00:58:55):

Be like Helen Hunting as good as it gets.

Laci (00:58:57):

And then get your pussy eating out.

Matt (00:58:59):

That’s what will happen. She’s like, “Oh, let’s continue playing just like when we were kids. Let’s go into downstairs into the carpeted room and rub dog shit all over it. ” Now, then it’s the next morning. Well, she’s like, “Okay, Fred, let’s play hide and seek. You go hide and I’ll come find you when he hides in the barn and she just never goes to find him.” So it’s the next morning she goes downstairs and her mother is cleaning the carpet and looks it up at her and says like, “I don’t know what to say.” You’re only here a few hours and you’re already acting like you’re five years old. And it’s like if you especially think your 30-year-old daughter is rubbing dog shit on your carpet, you got problems.

Laci (00:59:36):

Well, she needs to go to a facility.This is beyond. But it’s this mom’s fantasy. That’s what she wants. She wants to be pissy mom on her knees scrubbing Elizabeth. Elizabeth. That’s why she makes the fucking little sign. Do not enter. She knows what kind of kid Elizabeth is. There must have been little moments all through her childhood where this stuff came out. How could it not?

Matt (00:59:59):

If you didn’t want I want this to happen, you wouldn’t be chill about it later. Done cleaning up the dog shit. Let’s have coffee together, huh?

Laci (01:00:06):

Your mind would be blown. You should be like, really? How did you even find it? We don’t have a dog.

Matt (01:00:13):

So much of it too. Lizzie is pouring coffee. Laci’s most disgusted moment in cinema history is just her pouring coffee.

Laci (01:00:22):

I didn’t even notice it in this movie. Oh my God. This mom loves to get her dick sucked, especially after she’s been wronged. I mean, she’s so upset. She’s just got every reason to just flutter through this kitchen. And honestly, Elizabeth, this, this and this. And I know I’m going to give you a makeover later and I’m not telling you that, but I’m about to do whatever the fuck I want to you. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you’ve given me the perfect reason to do it. Now I don’t feel bad at all. And even if I was going to and now I could just point to this and you’ll shut the fuck up. Did you make me a cup of coffee? She just loves like, you’re honeymooning me because you were such a bad girl.

Matt (01:01:00):

And to just explain, Laci really hates the sound of pouring coffee.

Laci (01:01:04):

Well, I hate the sound of pouring.

Matt (01:01:07):

But especially pouring coffee. And people drinking coffee.

Laci (01:01:11):

Well, only if they do this after they drink and only because the sound of pouring coffee comes with my second least favorite sound, which is the sound of a spoon ding, ding, ding, ding star. So that’s the problem with coffee is it’s a twofer.

Matt (01:01:25):

It sends

Laci (01:01:26):

You to the sunken voice. That is a coincidence. I have always hated those two fucking sounds.

Matt (01:01:35):

Do you like it later in the movie when Lizzie’s on the tugboat and she’s just got her cut?

Laci (01:01:39):

No. But Matt, that’s the brilliance of this movie. I love this movie so much that I didn’t even notice these things.

Matt (01:01:47):

Mom, do you remember my imaginary friend? And the mom’s like, “No, I don’t remember drop dead Fred at all. ” But Fred is now, we’re seeing the dynamic that will be at play in the movie as Lizzie can see and hear Fred and he’s just screaming and just. I’m in the fridge. And she has to just ignore it. We like that

Laci (01:02:05):

It gets cold. He’s in the fridge like bur.

Matt (01:02:08):

Mom shuts him into the fridge and then smooshes his face and then he comes out and he’s got this charming prosthetic.

Laci (01:02:14):

That’s so good.

Matt (01:02:17):

Early in the run of our podcast we coined the term flipity flu to refer to just kind of whimsical, practical prosthetics and stop motion that seemed to be sprinkled in a lot of lacy movies of her childhood. She wanted a litle whimsy in her world and she just wasn’t getting it. In real life, she needed it in the movies.

Laci (01:02:34):

I did it with my art and with my outfits. I was the whimsy.

Matt (01:02:37):

Oh, you were a whimsical outfitter? What would you put on it?

Laci (01:02:40):

I would make my outfits or I’d put on

Matt (01:02:42):

Everything. What do you mean make your

Laci (01:02:44):

Outfits? Well, I’d go to Goodwill or when I was a kid and I didn’t know to go to Goodwill. I’d cut up doll clothes and make it into a shirt or put enough of it together to make it into a thing. Or I’d wear things that weren’t clothes like ribbons and paper and stuff. Normal shit.

Matt (01:03:01):

Oh yeah. I

Laci (01:03:02):

Was always putting stuff on my head. And then when I was old enough, I would take apart old clothes and make them in new clothes and then I’d go to Goodwill and make those things into clothes.

Matt (01:03:11):

Yeah. You had no one to nurture you to be like, “Oh wow, I really love the way you put that bowl on your head.”

Laci (01:03:17):

My mom was always pretty supportive of it. But she had the same compliment to everything. It was like, “You’re so creative.” So it was just like, okay, I need someone else to fucking tell me something.

Matt (01:03:27):

It really is impossible to be a parent. What do you do? That’s so creative. That’s bullshit.

Laci (01:03:32):

Or what am I going to do with you?

Matt (01:03:35):

She tells Fred to piss off and accidentally says this out loud and the mother’s like, “Did you tell me to pee off?” It’s like, “I did say it, but not to you. Mother, why don’t you just go ahead and sit down with me and have a cup of? ” No,

Laci (01:03:48):

No.

Matt (01:03:49):

And the mother’s like, “Oh, it’s no wonder Charles left with you. You just don’t know how to make a marriage work.”

Laci (01:03:54):

You know how I can tell? Because your marriage didn’t work.

Matt (01:03:56):

Because you’re always saying piss off, which men hate. They fucking hate it.

Laci (01:04:00):

You shouldn’t tell them things about under organs. Then you remind him that you have a vagina deer.

Matt (01:04:08):

Fred is upset because this is when he discovers Lizzie is married and marriage is stupid and gross and for adults and she’s not supposed to be an adult. And he doesn’t even like that she’s a girl, but she’s like a cool girl. And marriage is like a girly thing and that sucks. We get to the first of two extended flashbacks. We get to see Ashley Pelden as young Lizzie, very, very good and has a lot of chemistry with Fred. And I think that the movie, I’ve not seen anything else directed by Ata De Yong, but he seems to like actors and he likes to just let two actors be in the frame and just watch them talk to each other. He doesn’t call. Whenever we watch movies with kid performances like Dennis the Menace, you notice how it’s cut, cut, reverse shot, reverse shot because it’s like- It’s

Laci (01:04:53):

So controlled.

Matt (01:04:55):

We had this kid say the line over and over and over again.

Laci (01:04:58):

Right. Let me get the most precious, but when really what makes this work is how normal she … And she doesn’t say everything the right way either. And that’s what makes it seem as real as it’s going to get from this little four-year-old.

Matt (01:05:10):

Right. When you have a little precocious four-year-old, you get them to say the best line they can possibly say, then you cut to the reaction shot, then you cut back to them and you get them saying another line that’s perfect. Here they don’t cut. They let them just go back and forth. Right.

Laci (01:05:22):

And the experience of being with a four-year-old is them saying things that are probably a little too big for what they even … Saying words they don’t quite know yet and them fucking up. They’re still … A perfect four-year-old in a movie is annoying, but I love that his hands are always dirty. His nails are always dirty. And I wonder if this scene wasn’t the first one they did and truly whatever they used to get on the shirts just never got off the actor’s hands because he just stays dirty the rest of the time. In the dog poo scene, his nails are filthy.

Matt (01:05:54):

Yeah. And I like that he has a different look back then than he has now. Something’s changed about him over the years. He does seem to age.

Laci (01:06:03):

Yeah, he’s reflecting Lizzie because I mean, at the end of the day, he is Lizzie. There’s no separation. He’s not real. Lizzie is real.

Matt (01:06:10):

He is real though.

Laci (01:06:11):

I don’t think … I mean, okay. He never does anything she couldn’t do herself. He’s never accessing things she couldn’t otherwise. There’s nothing magical happening. It’s all her imagination and it’s all stuff that a kid would think to do. She’s not reaching stuff she couldn’t otherwise reach.

Matt (01:06:30):

But he knows the other magical creatures.

Laci (01:06:32):

The only thing is like the big pile of mud that is … Oh, sure, sure. He knows the other creatures. But her experience of him experiencing those creatures are her only seeing him doing that.

Matt (01:06:46):

But why would she see that? Why would she need to manifest that Fred himself has imaginary people?

Laci (01:06:52):

She’s in a room of kids who are there to see a imaginary friend doctor specialist.

Matt (01:06:56):

Right. But we see each of their perspectives.

Laci (01:06:59):

I got you. But that doesn’t mean she’s not thinking it up herself. She’s like, “Well, if mine’s dropped dead Fred, what’s other alliteration? What’s other completely different yet perfectly good? I mean, why not? If you could create him, why not?

Matt (01:07:14):

They play burglar and-

Laci (01:07:16):

Burglar is just putting shit in bags.

Matt (01:07:19):

Wearing striped shirts. Expensive teapot and the mom wakes up like, oh, burglars. Oh, it’s so scary and dramatic. Let’s call the cops immediately.

Laci (01:07:27):

Let’s not go get our kid.

Matt (01:07:29):

Let’s

Laci (01:07:29):

Never go see if she’s okay.

Matt (01:07:31):

Because she wants to be burgled. She wants to call the cops. She wants

Laci (01:07:34):

Nigel to be a little wimpy piss bag that isn’t getting up and taking charge.

Matt (01:07:38):

And the cops arrive and so Lizzie and Fred have to hide. And then the cops kick down the door and then Nigel, the dad, jumps on the cop because he thinks it’s a burglar. I

Laci (01:07:45):

Love how inept the cops are too. They don’t know what the fuck. This is the Rikhest neighborhood. Why are there burglars? I guess we kicked the door down.

Matt (01:07:53):

Yeah.

Laci (01:07:53):

Why? Why wouldn’t you just ask whoever’s in to come out?

Matt (01:07:56):

We knocked on the door. We waited for 10 seconds. We

Laci (01:07:59):

Kick and we kicked through the door.

Matt (01:08:02):

And they arrest the dad thinking he’s the burglar. And Fred now tells Lizzie like, “Uh-oh, things are escalating. Look, just tell them it’s my fault. Tell them drop dead Fred.” But the cops don’t listen to her.

Laci (01:08:14):

Drop dead.That’s another reason this movie just gets it. They know the … If her mom were abusing the shit out of her and, oh yay, finally there’s cops here. I want to tell them this is exactly what the fuck would happen.

Matt (01:08:30):

Yeah. If Fred actually were real and had some sort of magic powers, he’d tell her something helpful to say that she wouldn’t understand to get the cops attention. But if you are a dumb little kid, you’re like, “I’ll just say drop dead Fred did it. ” No one’s going to know what the fuck that means. Ignore her.

Laci (01:08:49):

People ignore kids that they’re there to ignore.

Matt (01:08:54):

So they’re sitting in the tree now and she’s like, “Maybe mommy’s right. I never do anything right.” And he’s like, “No, fucking your mom sucks. Please promise me you will never, ever, ever be like your mother.” And they do a little pinky promise and this is where I really noticed that they’re just letting these two actors act and they’re not cutting away from them. And that’s why it’s all the more effective. And so back in the present tense, the mother is taking Lizzie to get a makeover.

Laci (01:09:22):

Into her exact outfit and haircut. The

Matt (01:09:24):

Instructions to all of the makeover people are is like, more like me. More like me, please.

Laci (01:09:28):

Or you see how I have blushed. That’s exactly the way that I did it. Do that.

Matt (01:09:32):

And then they get back to their house and there’s a note from Charles saying, Lizzie, please come home.

Laci (01:09:38):

I miss our little games. Our games of I’m trying to get ready and you jump on my back like a spider monkey and then raspberry in my stomach. He wants a baby and he fucking wants to hate the baby. She has no chemistry with him. And she could have never had any.

Matt (01:09:55):

Yeah. So what we’re supposed to take from that is that in their marriage, she doesn’t know how to act so she just plays these games and play with him while he’s shaving.

Laci (01:10:03):

Well, she wants to shave him. She wants to do things that she thinks adult romantic. He’s so romantic. I’m going to make a romantic dinner salad. He’s always buying me gifts and telling me and he’s romantic. Adults are just there to be flirty with each other and fuck.That’s adults. You’re

Matt (01:10:20):

Right. She describes what she likes about him is he’s so romantic. He brings me wine. Because

Laci (01:10:25):

He probably wanted some. Right, right. He used to bring me flour. You can tell they have no conversation. He hosts a wine tape. Please tell me why. Someone who works at a fucking car dealership, we have no indication he owns it, is also throwing the most hoity-toity wine tasty. The Charlie party. A party so big there’s not flyers. There are posters.

Matt (01:10:49):

What the fuck? It feels like maybe there’s like a deleted subplot about how if you remember in She Devil with Ed Begley Jr. Is like, “I’m an accountant, but I have big plans for my life.”

Laci (01:10:58):

This is how I’m working up to … I mean, I know it’s a jaguar place, so his clientele is the elite Rikh of the Rikh. Fine, but why are you hosting a really fucking expensive wine tasting part? I don’t-

Matt (01:11:11):

And your girlfriend, Annabella, is Bridget Fonda. Jesus Christ now. She gets back to her apartment, but Charles isn’t there, but Drop Dead Fred is. And he’s like, “Yeah, I wrote that note.”

Laci (01:11:22):

That’s the only part that he ever does that really hurts my feelings. He doesn’t get what a big deal this would be to see the note of your dreams and find out it was a joke.

Matt (01:11:32):

Yeah, but that means that Phoebe Cates wrote it herself. She wrote the note herself.

Laci (01:11:35):

Oh, ouch. Yeah.

Matt (01:11:36):

And then went home and then got very sad. And Fred’s like, “Aha, has it got a husband? Hasn’t got a husband.”

Laci (01:11:42):

Has a stupid haircut. Looks just like a mother. Another stupid meg bitch.

Matt (01:11:46):

But she’s crying. She’s upset because Charles doesn’t want her back. I love him. He sings me flowers and brings me wine. He could be really sweet sometimes.

Laci (01:11:54):

Sometimes.

Matt (01:11:55):

So Fred’s like fucking fine.

Laci (01:11:57):

Well, this is her saying how bad she feels about like, “I let my mom do this. I let my mom cut my hair. I let my mom put these stupid clothes on me. Give me a makeover because this is going to get Charles back.” So yeah, if I’m crazy Lizzie and Charles hasn’t had a chance to see this yet, I’m going to write a fucking note and make my mom think I did it on my own. See this? Ha, he wants me back without this. So I could get that a crazy Lizzie would be like, “Well, looking here, mother, kind of believe her own lie, go home and then just cry about her stupid makeover.”

Matt (01:12:30):

You’re saying she wrote, she would have written the note before she went and got made over. Yeah.

Laci (01:12:34):

Okay.

Matt (01:12:34):

I got you.

Laci (01:12:35):

Or before Charles had the chance to see her made over, right? Like her mom’s big plan, how she’s going to take charge and fix this all for Lizzie because Lizzy’s too stupid to do … All the mom knows how to do is look nice. She doesn’t know how to be nice. She doesn’t know how to do a job. She just knows how to look hot and nylons. So she’s like, “My mom’s just going to make me look like her.”

Matt (01:12:54):

Yeah. So you’re right. Yeah. He never even saw any of this and he wanted me back anyway. So my mom’s wrong.

Laci (01:12:59):

Because you can even see it in the way the mom plays it. She’s like, “Oh, I guess he wants you back.”

Matt (01:13:05):

Yeah, because it’s also, she’s jealous that her ex- husband didn’t ever try to win her back. So it’s just mom wanting only her kid to live the exact life she

Laci (01:13:14):

Lived. Right. And if he, because she’s very good looking, if her hotness wasn’t enough to keep Nigel around, it sucks to be a one tRik pony. You’re just a horrible bitch who happens to be hot.

Matt (01:13:29):

Who also seems like one thing that made him sour on her was the way she treated her daughter. And she’s treating her daughter badly because she feels like the husband doesn’t love her as much anymore and that this kid ruined their lives. She

Laci (01:13:42):

Had her to save the marriage. She even tells Lizzy that and then says, “But actually it backfired. You ruined our marriage.” It’s just the most horrific shit you could tell a kid, which I was told, but not by my mom, by my dad.

Matt (01:13:55):

Who otherwise was great.

Laci (01:13:57):

No, but it just comes out of his mouth all of a sudden and he’s like almost joking like, “Oh no, she’s my best friend.” And, “Well, you took that away, huh? Little best friends dealer. Yeah. And then things, whatever they say.” And that’s just a thought you just had and you said it’s so breezy and he said it more than once. And I’m going to remember this till I’m 40 and having a podcast. It just reverberated in my brain my whole life that I ruined everything.

Matt (01:14:30):

Well, the important thing is he said it many times. You say shit to kids all the time.

Laci (01:14:36):

Yeah. Yeah. But just to keep reiterating, and he would say it when he was joking and he’d say it when he was drunk and mad.

Matt (01:14:43):

So it’s like, oh, obviously this is a core part of

Laci (01:14:45):

The world. Yeah, you’ve decided … You’re so right. It’s something he told himself over and over again as to why did he ruin the only relationship? The only relationship he ever had.

Matt (01:14:56):

Yeah. I’ve called our kid like, “You fucking piece of shit. I fucking hate you ruin everything.” And it’s fine. It is because otherwise I’m good. And it’s not like I’ve said that many times.

Laci (01:15:05):

This was five to seven times.

Matt (01:15:08):

Yeah. And I go say sorry afterward. Hey, I shouldn’t have … Things were said. We both said things we didn’t mean.

Laci (01:15:14):

My beautiful nonverbal child who can’t say anything mean to me. I

Matt (01:15:18):

Mean, I’m talking about the other one.

Laci (01:15:19):

Oh, okay.

Matt (01:15:21):

Lizzie sneaks up because Drop Dead Fred is not happy with Lizzie dressing like a mother and an adult now, but she sneaks off in the middle of the night. She even has to sneak away from Drop Dead Fred, who’s now become just another person she has to avoid who controls her and goes to Janie’s house who lives not just on a houseboat.

Laci (01:15:38):

On a fucking river boat.

Matt (01:15:40):

On a paddle

Laci (01:15:40):

Wheel boat on the Mississippi River. It’s the most amazing fucking house that works. But fuck, you need a captain. Yeah, not permanently more to the

Matt (01:15:51):

Thing. It’s just, you can just press some buttons and go.

Laci (01:15:54):

And she uses it that way enough that Lizzie knows she can use it that way.

Matt (01:15:58):

Yeah. So she goes in and it’s the middle of the night and Carrie Fisher has the horrendous, what is this? A Madeline Coyle lookalike contest?

Laci (01:16:07):

Madeline Coil. Okay.

Matt (01:16:09):

And the second lady of the United States at the time.

Laci (01:16:12):

That’s so weird that I thought it was Debbie Reynolds and that just happens to be Carrie Fisher’s

Matt (01:16:17):

Mouth. And she’s also mad because Murray’s over. Murray’s a 65-year-old man who fucks her once a month.

Laci (01:16:26):

Who goes all night because his wife goes out … It’s the partner of their law firm whose wife goes out of town once a month and he sleeps over there.

Matt (01:16:35):

Yeah. But she likes it because this is her one good fuck a month. This is my Mary night. I get one decent sht a month and you had to pick tonight, but fine, come sleep on my houseboat. And so we flashback- She’s on my

Laci (01:16:47):

Boat, on the paddles.

Matt (01:16:47):

To Fred cutting Lizzie’s hair as a kid and then Leslie lakes up and her own hair has been cut in the middle of the

Laci (01:16:53):

Night. Which is the most disturbing thing that she does on her own if Fred isn’t real.

Matt (01:16:59):

I’d say the violin assault is pretty bad too.

Laci (01:17:01):

Do

Matt (01:17:02):

You ever cut your hair as a kid? Figure. We all do that. I

Laci (01:17:06):

Tried to shave my face and gave myself cut. I saw my dad do it so I went to do it and to cut my lip. But I don’t remember cutting my hair.

Matt (01:17:16):

The thing- I

Laci (01:17:17):

Cut my doll’s hair and all my Barbie’s hair and they all look just like this.

Matt (01:17:19):

Oh yeah. I knew that. Got to do that. I never owned Barbies and even I did that.

Laci (01:17:24):

Okay. Well, you’re a monster. Those things are $20 a pop.

Matt (01:17:27):

The thing that I remember my parents reacting huges to was nothing on either of our bodies. My brother spray painted. We had a backyard wrestling federation and spray painted the logos on our driveway.

Laci (01:17:41):

Oh, Matt.

Matt (01:17:42):

You should

Laci (01:17:42):

Just spray paint the grass.

Matt (01:17:44):

My brother did it. It wasn’t me.

Laci (01:17:45):

What the

Matt (01:17:45):

Fuck? And they were so fucking-

Laci (01:17:47):

I’d be mad too. What an idiot.

Matt (01:17:51):

He wrote-

Laci (01:17:51):

In Meadowbrook? Yeah. Fucking read the room. That

Matt (01:17:56):

Little eight year old? Yeah.

Laci (01:17:57):

Oh, he was eight. Okay. What’s your fucking fault? You’re fucking

Matt (01:18:00):

Older than him. I was with him. I looked out my window and saw him do it. We had the old world order. In real wrestling, there was the WCW and the NWO. So we did WWC and OWO and he wrote OWO sucks on the driveway.

Laci (01:18:18):

You wrote sucks on the driveway. Oh my God.

Matt (01:18:22):

Anyway, Murray comes down the stairs and he’s like, “Hey, what’s up with your freak friend? She’s got her hair all over the sofa.” And Cara Fish is like, “Well, she’s doing a visual actualization thing. She has an imaginary friend.” And he says, “I never had a Mary Genery friend. Just wet dreams.”

Laci (01:18:37):

Murray, keep it in your fucking pants.

Matt (01:18:39):

Carrie Fisher’s like, “What are we going to do with all this wetness that just came out of me? We need a fucking boogie board, Murray.”

Laci (01:18:45):

Let’s ride this wave.

Matt (01:18:47):

And Lizzie goes out, looks out on the water, clutches her cup of coffee, looks out at the Mississippi River. And what’s that? It’s Charles on a

Laci (01:18:54):

Speedboat. Because that’s our boat. Until she says that, I’m like, “You’re losing your fucking mind.” I guess they’re on the Muddy Mississip. I don’t know.

Matt (01:19:03):

All right.

Laci (01:19:08):

I don’t know. I think this is the wildest thing that happens. She sinks an entire home. It’s fucking

Matt (01:19:13):

Wild. All right goes to the whatever, the bridge and starts operating the paddle boat. The paddle wheelboat. And then drop dead. Fred shows up and he’s so much like Laci here because she’s like, “Don’t touch anything. Don’t touch.” She’s like, “I want to touch. I want to touch though.”

Laci (01:19:28):

I’m not like

Matt (01:19:28):

That. Yes, you fucking are. I’m not like that at all. If you’re told not to touch something, you go nuts. And so they sink. They sink the boat. Lizzie has to go to Janie’s work.

Laci (01:19:41):

And this is another one of those dichotomy moments, right? Because Lizzie is so brave to just go into work, into her office to face the music right away. You’re

Matt (01:19:50):

Right. Yeah.

Laci (01:19:51):

But to look like that, to still be wet and to go in front of the giant window of the entire business meeting happening with clients to be like, “Can’t come here a second.” Just wait for lunch break. It’s like the most childish thing. Well, something bad happened. What I got to do? I got to tell mine. Got to tell an adult. Yeah. Right. So it’s super brave. There’s Moxie there.

Matt (01:20:14):

But it’s because she’s this dumb kid. She doesn’t know.

Laci (01:20:17):

Well, it’s not like Janie’s going to tell her step two. She’s just going to go home.

Matt (01:20:22):

Right.

Laci (01:20:22):

But she doesn’t just go home first. She’s like, Janie got some bad news.

Matt (01:20:26):

Remember how you have a house? It’s sang.

Laci (01:20:29):

This is like an underreaction of a fucking lifetime. Everything I own is on that. I mean, I don’t know what Carrie Fisher to do, but it’s very fun. And then what she does here, “Well, hello little sweetheart. How are you? ” Okay. Because she’s trying to help Lizzie get through this drop dead Fred imaginary friend thing. She’s not being judgmental about it. And she’s like, “Fred did it? Is he here? Is he right now?” And she’s like, “Oh my God, he’s sitting next to Murray.” So she takes the office chair out. I just need this. My point is Jamie is willing to act fucking insane. So there’s a bit of Lizzie in her. These people Lizzie’s friends with, there’s a little bit of Lizzie in them.

Matt (01:21:15):

Yeah. And also because she’s going to all the fucking the weird seminars for neurotic business people at the time.

Laci (01:21:21):

She

Matt (01:21:22):

Sort of has a language to be like, “All right, well, Leah, let’s talk about this imaginary friend and kick their ass.”

Laci (01:21:27):

This is the version of her mom that makes sense, right? You’re wearing these suits all the time in these heels because you’re a lawyer who’s going somewhere. You probably look normal when you get home and put on sweatpants and you’re down to earth and yet you know what to do and you’re speaking for me, but that’s because you’re a caretaker and you’re smart and you’re capable and you see that I need help, but you’re also totally understand when I want to do something kind of crazy and then you get crazy too. We drive your house around.You could just tell that there’s a fun Janie in there even though we don’t really get to see her.

Matt (01:22:02):

Yeah. She’s your classic corporate lawyer who’s like, “But I also go to Burning Man.” I have a houseboat. I live on a houseboat. What can I say?

Laci (01:22:10):

I fuck my boss. We’re both partners. We fuck each

Matt (01:22:13):

Other. We fuck each. We slam into each other once

Laci (01:22:16):

A month. But whenever she says it out loud and then she’s like, “Whoa, anybody hot? It’s hot.” And the young partner who’s next to Murray is like, “Oh.”

Matt (01:22:25):

She is really funny here, Carrie Fisher, beating up the air because she doesn’t know that Fred is not there. He’s standing next to Lizzie watching and she says, “Die, you little man. That’s for my boat. And that’s for the one good stuff I get a month when Murray’s wife is out of town.” And everybody’s like, “Sorry, what? What did you say?” And that’s when she gets up and she’s like, “It’s hot in here, isn’t it?

Laci (01:22:48):

” It’s everybody outside. Fucking weirdos.

Matt (01:22:51):

So we have this lunch date scene with Lizzie and Mickey. Mickey who has an earring. And

Laci (01:22:59):

A litle bit of a lisp.

Matt (01:23:00):

Yeah.

Laci (01:23:01):

Wait, because he’s childlike.

Matt (01:23:02):

Yeah, not crazy about this, Mickey. But the point of this is that- I take girl. She is so funny here. I really appreciated the second time watching it this week because Fred is just fucking so mad at her and just moving her arms around and picking up silverware and stuff and throwing it. And she has to deadpan, move her arm around herself and act like nothing is happening. And then Mickey’s like, “Huh, you’re such a free spirit. I love it. ” Wow.

Laci (01:23:31):

It makes sense. He’s so got a boner for her so bad. And he’s just like, I ran into her while she was getting fired and I was getting a divorce. It’s a sign. You just know he’s like that. So he’s like, “Well, whatever the fuck’s going to happen with Lizzie, God wants me to have baby

Matt (01:23:46):

With her.” I have that kink where I love women clearly having psychotic breaks. So this is so much fun. Wow. And then he of course does the, she throws her plate across the room. She’s like, “I’m going to do it too.” And he starts throwing play down her.

Laci (01:23:58):

Throw noodles at people and then just, “Okay, you do it. Pop.” And as a person who worked at a restaurant and knows how long it takes for food to come out, I am so mad at Mickey. Mickey. Mickey. Lizzie threw her own salad.

Matt (01:24:13):

He’s the one who gets kicked out though, not Phoebe Cates. So Phoebe Cates and Drop Dead Fred are walking through the mall and they’re like, “Oh, there’s like a sophisticated concert going on here in the

Laci (01:24:23):

Mall.” They all get kicked out. She just walks out. She’s not escorted out, but she left her dress for the Chlie Potty in there. So she goes, “Oh, my dress.” And he goes, “I’ll get it. ” No, don’t do that. “No, no, I want to. Oh, waiters. “And then Mickey goes in for round two. You don’t remember that? That’s why she’s alone.

Matt (01:24:43):

No, I don’t know. Maybe we watch different versions. It seemed like he was escorted out and it just gets to her and Fred walking through the mall.

Laci (01:24:50):

Matt. Yeah. Okay. But Sydney walks up the tree and he’s like, ” Here’s your dress? “Because he went back to get the dress.

Matt (01:24:56):

Yeah, he does do that. I did think that was weird. Why is he in the tree with a dress? Okay.

Laci (01:25:00):

I mean, I watched the Amazon version that you paid for.

Matt (01:25:03):

I watched the Blu-Ray.

Laci (01:25:05):

Okay. This is crazy. This is just crazy.

Matt (01:25:08):

There’s a concert at the mall and people are very politely sitting down and eating their Chick-fil-A and watching this orchestra perform.

Laci (01:25:16):

The kids from in Getzux are in their giant Jinkos.

Matt (01:25:20):

And they are playing this concert and Lizzie’s like, ” Fred, I want you to get out of my life forever. “He’s like, ” Fine, I will. I’m gone.

Laci (01:25:28):

“This is how you know she’s actually nuts. I mean, she just boldly has this conversation in the middle of everyone being … There’s plenty of places in the mall where you could have done this right here is so … And then she’s like, ” Well, I was just really weird and crazy in front of all of you people and I’m not going to run away. I’m going to sit down and enjoy you.

Matt (01:25:49):

“I’m a fan of the arts. I would also- She’s taking on this classical music and oh fuck, Fred’s playing the

Laci (01:25:53):

Violin. And the actor next to her, who’s just filling the seat next to her, he’s so good. I only noticed him because I’ve seen it a million times, but he’s playing the perfect person who got chosen to be sat next to by the crazy person. He’s so alert and so ready to be nice to her so she doesn’t try to stab him or something. She kind of glances and he’s like, ” Okay. Yeah. “But he’s so nervous and every time she flinches or talks, he’s like, ” Okay. “And he’s just a fucking background actor.

Matt (01:26:23):

Yeah. No, you got to find- He’s so good. Find your niche. No one can sit scared like me. I’m your man.

Laci (01:26:29):

Scared straight? No, sit scared.

Matt (01:26:31):

Fred is playing the damn violin so she gets up and smacks Fred and she grabs the violin and smashes it, but then we realize this is not Fred. This is just some violinist. Some violinist.

Laci (01:26:43):

Okay. You struggled. And then she’s not a violent person. So when she sees that that’s what she’s doing, she is so sorry. But smash cut to her mom writing a check.

Matt (01:26:55):

I just don’t know what going to do with you, Lizzie.

Laci (01:26:58):

Playing such an expensive violin in the mall. She’s got a bitch mom, everybody.

Matt (01:27:03):

So we’re going to have to go to child therapy. The psychiatrist will set you straight. Go to this child therapy clinic and the therapist immediately says- Some therapy.

Laci (01:27:15):

It’s my child annoying and crazy. My child is expressing themselves as if they’ve got thoughts and feelings and I’m not nurturing them. So it’s expressing itself through them pretending to have a friend.

Matt (01:27:28):

Well, this guy specialized is in the very real thing of imaginary friend syndrome. He’s the world’s leading expert on imaginary friend syndrome. So he’s a therapist of sorts.

Laci (01:27:36):

Gives them fucking placebo sugar pills and charges.

Matt (01:27:40):

Tells Lizzie like, ” You sit here dear while I talk to your mom and Drop Dead Fred is drop dead fretting out inside the waiting room and Lizzie’s trying to ignore him by reading the other mom’s magazine. And the other mom’s like, “Oh, is your daughter in there with the therapist? Now I don’t have a kid.”

Laci (01:27:57):

Then who’s in there? My mother, then which one of you? Me. And then she’s doing great acting too, sitting there. And then Lizzie just says something like, “You need to go. Okay. Okay. Yeah, we should.” It’s all very good.

Matt (01:28:13):

But each one of these kids in this room is fucked up because they all have an imaginary friend.

Laci (01:28:19):

I would love to give credit where it’s due. I feel like this could be a throwaway moment. I know it’s in the preview or whatever, the trailer for this movie. Anyway, not the point. I always complain about when there’s one good idea and then for whatever reason they have to expand on this thought and they don’t go all the way with fully formed other ideas. Each individual kid needs to come up with a drawing they could make and that is their imaginary friend. What would a completely different brain and kid draw that’s a friend? That’s hard to do and do it times five. I feel like all of these characters are different from each other and they’re not all surrounded by this one similarity or anything. They’re all very different, weird.

Matt (01:29:06):

I don’t know. I also have to be simple and dumb enough that a kid could come up with them. And I think the idea to suddenly have Lizzie see Fred interacting with imaginary beings that she can’t see is an inspired idea.

Laci (01:29:18):

Yes.

Matt (01:29:19):

That she now has to see him and think he’s crazy. But you see each of these kids look and they get their own version, they see their own imaginary friend interacting with the air.

Laci (01:29:28):

Don’t you think that’s a commentary on a kid being told that they’re crazy and need to go see this doctor and all of a sudden they’re having these thoughts of like, “Well, maybe this is weird to be thinking this and seeing this. ” And then all of a sudden they see their own imaginary friend doing the same thing. It’s like they’re seeing themselves through a mirror like, “Oh, I guess that’s what I look like. “

Matt (01:29:48):

Okay. Yeah.

Laci (01:29:48):

Yeah. This is making me think really adult introspective thoughts and this is a bummer. I guess I look like that. Like you can bully this out of a kid and this doctor’s whole thing could be that these are The placebo pills, but you have your kid interact with it and be like, “Okay, well, did you just see your friend? I did. Take your pill.” And they’re working toward getting rid of this tick that they have.

Matt (01:30:14):

I guess so, because later in the movie she takes the pills and he gets weaker, but then she’s like, “This is the final pill, the goodbye pill.”

Laci (01:30:21):

Right. And there was

Matt (01:30:22):

Still another one. So it’s not as if this is a commentary on taking Ritalin or something.

Laci (01:30:27):

No,

Matt (01:30:27):

Of course not.

Laci (01:30:29):

Well, Matt, she wakes up to a pill on the ground. She never takes the goodbye pill.

Matt (01:30:33):

Yes, I know, but the idea that there’s a goodbye pill at all means it probably is.

Laci (01:30:38):

It’s the idea is like, here’s a big giant bottle of very colorful pills. It’s for a kid to actively play a role in … That’s my thought, because this is silly. And this movie’s very grounded in things that are actually happening in real otherwise. So I think that’s what-

Matt (01:30:54):

Imagine, that is pretty fucking cruel to tell a kid. Here, take this pill to kill your imaginary friend. Well,

Laci (01:30:59):

Because if a kid is truly that creative that they’re talking, that they’re having a hard time communicating what they need so they created another personality to do it, that is something … You’re treating a symptom and not the cause. You’re just going to give that kid IBS. That’s all you’re doing. You’re like, “Turn this inward. This is not acceptable.” I hate that this … I hate it.

Matt (01:31:23):

There are some movies that do the sort of anti-medicine thing. I love medicine. I do get the concern. I do get the concern that are we sanding down everything that’s interesting about people or are we over pathologizing things that are just characteristics and not things that we need to treat? I don’t think that this movie is indulging in any of that. I think it puts the blame squarely on these parents.

Laci (01:31:49):

I think so.

Matt (01:31:51):

Of course, there are tons of kids who need medicine and giving them medicine is an act of love.

Laci (01:31:58):

Yes, 100%. And all the edges I’ve sanded down on myself, I don’t want to live with those pointy edges. Maybe those things about me, maybe not treating my ADHD, maybe not treating my depression would make me more interesting sometimes, maybe even more creative, but I was miserable.

Matt (01:32:16):

So it’s

Laci (01:32:17):

Like, oh, we’re standing down the edges of people. No, no. I was an adult when I started taking all these things. I needed things sanded down so I could have a productive life.

Matt (01:32:27):

So Lizzie is confined to her bed with her very scary nurse and her mom is making her eat her vegetables and taking her big, giant green pills. And we see Lizzie’s already starting to get a little catatonic. Maybe the life is going out of her.

Laci (01:32:39):

Going back into herself the way that she was before we met her.

Matt (01:32:44):

We get the second extended flashback where Lizzie’s mom is cutting her hair and the dad spills cereal and the mom immediately yells at him. And then the dad starts asking the kid about drop dead. “What’s going on with drop dead frame?What are you guys up to today? She’s like, ” We’re making vodka pancakes.

Laci (01:32:59):

“Just normal fucking questions interacting with your kid’s reality. What a novel nice fucking idea.

Matt (01:33:06):

Which infuriates the mom that the dad is even a little bit amused and indulgent. And then she says to her daughter,” I don’t know, Elizabeth. Sometimes I feel like I don’t love you as much as I used to. “She says,” Drop dad, Fred loves me. “And she says,” No more, drop dad Fred. “But drop dead Fred shows up and they make mud pies.

Laci (01:33:24):

What’s that newspaper say? My moon?

Matt (01:33:29):

On moon.

Laci (01:33:30):

On moon.

Matt (01:33:31):

They’re on the moon.

Laci (01:33:32):

Right here? I guess

Matt (01:33:34):

That would’ve

Laci (01:33:34):

Been-

Matt (01:33:36):

When did we last go to the moon? 1971? Does that check out? Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. I guess it does. They put the mud pies all over the room and fantasize about how they’re going to kill the mom and eat her guts.

Laci (01:33:47):

Then poop her and then pool her. Poor her because that’s how you say it if you’re British.

Matt (01:33:51):

And the mom comes in and freaks the fuck out. Fred highs in the jack in the box. The mom freaks out because of the mess and she grabs the jack in the box. And when she sees that Lizzie gets super upset about the jack in the box, she’s like, ” Oh, okay. Finally, what to-

Laci (01:34:05):

You’ll cry over this. It’s so fucked up. Do you want tears from your kid?

Matt (01:34:10):

I fucking yell at my kid and it doesn’t do anything, but if I take this jack in the box, that seems to legitimately, this actress seems terrified and is crying that the mom is taking the jacktobs.

Laci (01:34:19):

Don’t take him away from … Now this is earned. Now this crying gets under my skin a little bit, but it’s short. It’s not prolonged like heart and souls is. And this kid’s good in this moment at just enough. And then it cuts to the dad comforting her, which comforts you. It’s just not right. It’s just not right. I’m going to get up and leave.

Matt (01:34:42):

Fuck

Laci (01:34:42):

You.

Matt (01:34:42):

The mom is taping the jack in the box closed. The dad says this just isn’t right. And like you said, gets up, puts on a jacket and just walks out the front door.

Laci (01:34:51):

And so the last thing you see of him is his back and from his butt up. So you’re literally seeing him from Lizzie. H last memory of her dad is him leaving and not protecting me, having the right idea, seeing it, knowing I’m being abused, knowing that … It would’ve almost been better if he’d agreed with the mom. But no, you know what I am, what I’m dealing with and you’re going to let me live with my mom after you divorce her. You have completely abandoned me. And they don’t have to say any kind of long thing or make a plot point about it later when she’s an adult. What I love is that he’s just not even in the picture. She doesn’t even mention him. It never occurs to her to go see her dad because she’s going through a divorce or get some fucking advice from him.

Laci (01:35:38):

He’s got nothing. He’s worse than the mom in some way because at least the mom is Johnny on the spot.

Matt (01:35:43):

No, that’s what I was going to say. He is worse than her. He’s abandoning. He is truly abandoning her to her fate. And that’s it. He’s just gone forever from the picture.

Laci (01:35:52):

And Lizzie isn’t spiteful about it or anything. She just has no feelings of him at all except for that was the one guy that could have done something.

Matt (01:36:01):

So the mom is just like, Fred has taken away her access to Fred. Fred is gone. And so she writes a letter to Fred. “Dear Fred, you are my only friend, but you were taken from me. If you come back, I promise we’ll run away together. “And we cut to the president. Phoebe Cates is crying and says to Fred,” You never answered. You just disappeared. And when you did all the life and the spirit and all the Fred. “Fred. It was out of me.

Laci (01:36:25):

Goosebumps.

Matt (01:36:27):

I should never have let my mother know how to hurt me. Once she knew she could do it, she did it all the time. So I had to learn her to never show my real feelings to her. And Fred’s like, ” Well, we can run away now. We’ll go win Charles back. He’s having his big wine tasting at his carship

Laci (01:36:45):

Friends. “To the party. “The Charlie

Matt (01:36:50):

Party.” But the mother has locked them in so they have to break out through the window and then go out onto the roof and the trees wear Mickey’s in the trees. I brought you a dress. It was very confusing for me.

Laci (01:37:01):

Door to window service.

Matt (01:37:02):

They arrive at the party.

Laci (01:37:05):

Very Mardi Gras.

Matt (01:37:06):

Is in this sexy dress.

Laci (01:37:08):

It is so pretty.

Matt (01:37:10):

Fred gets on the ground and he starts shuffling around on the floor looking for Charlie and then sees up the skirt of Bridget Fonda. Do you

Laci (01:37:16):

Think he sees? I mean, obviously he’s vague, but how great could it be? It’s just pussy from the ground.

Matt (01:37:22):

It’s Bridget Fonda, so maybe a little bridget butthole.

Laci (01:37:26):

No, I don’t think the buttholes are on the outside, Matt.

Matt (01:37:28):

I think they’re in- You haven’t seen what I’ve seen.

Laci (01:37:30):

Okay.

Matt (01:37:31):

But this Bridget Fonda is Annabella who Charles is stopping.

Laci (01:37:37):

I’m your fella, Anabella. So this is where Fred’s sour pays off because now it’s flipping around, right? Now she’s starting to see like, okay, this is the links my mom will go to. I’m literally locked in a room being forced to eat my vegetables with a fucking bodyguard, a prison guard, whatever. And she puts on this amazing dress. She looks like a million fucking bucks and he goes, “Snap face, you look great.” And he’s just not one to compliment, right? He’s not one, especially not on looks, not on looking like a girl, but she looks like a woman. And he doesn’t make fun of women. He makes fun of girls. So it’s hers. He’s corny. Yeah. But it’s her realizing there’s an adult in me. I don’t know what to do with it yet, but I can bring her out when I need to.

Matt (01:38:32):

Right. And so Charles sees this in her and suddenly he’s like, “Oh, fuck. Now I’m attracted to this. “

Laci (01:38:37):

I mean, who

Matt (01:38:37):

Wouldn’t be? Adult version of you.

Laci (01:38:39):

Oh

Matt (01:38:40):

Shit. It’s enough for me to discard Bridget Fonda right here. He then turns into the text Avery like howling wolf and his eyes pop out. But

Laci (01:38:46):

Lindy’s trying to have both women and it works for a while.

Matt (01:38:51):

What is

Laci (01:38:51):

That? Right. So in movie club last night when we did this movie, that was like the braining question of like, wait, what was Charles’s incentive? And I was like, I’ve never really asked that. I know the mom puts him up to it and it suits him because he wants to fuck Lizzie in this state anyway, damn. But what is he telling Annabella? So the only thing I can figure is, well, he was attracted to Lizzie to begin with because he likes the infantileness, he likes the control, he likes being mean daddy and he’s a creep. He likes people who look like little girls. Even Annabella is just a sexy little girl. Yeah, she goes up and like Lizzie does this at her at one point only because she’s being pushed by drop dead friend. And Charles turns to her after Lizzie’s gone and says, “Are you okay?” And she goes, “I think so.

Laci (01:39:52):

” She’s a fucking cupie doll. So it’s like she’s just a different, she’s Shirley Temple and this one’s fucking raggedy Anne. He’s just collecting dolls and he’s manipulating both of them because the whole time he’s just telling Annabella, “Look, Lizzie knows the deal. I’m totally in control,” but never gives her a reason why he should need to be doing both of these things.

Matt (01:40:13):

Yeah. You feel like you’re missing the part where it’s like, “I just need to stick this out for 30 more days and then the boat is mine or whatever.”

Laci (01:40:18):

Right, right, right, right. And so someone said in movie club like, “Well, there are signs along the way that the mom has money, but doesn’t Charles…” I mean, they do live in an apartment and maybe he’s only driving that nice car because he works at the dealership and maybe his money is coming from Lizzie, like the mom. I mean, because she goes and writes that check to pay for the violin. The mom breezes through, has a key to the house. She does kind of operate like she’s …

Matt (01:40:48):

Yeah, I could see that it’s just that’s not … It’s not said. Yeah. Since it’s not said, I feel like that adds a dimension that maybe makes it more-

Laci (01:40:56):

Sinister.

Matt (01:40:56):

… messier than it needs to be.

Laci (01:40:58):

Right. But

Matt (01:40:59):

As I used to see this, he’s just a big fucking dumb guy.

Laci (01:41:02):

He’s not dumb. He’s sick. He’s not dumb. He’s got a weird kink and he sees himself in the mom and they exchanged this look and it’s like she’s just a child, Charles, and his dick is getting hard and he’s like, “But I’m an adult. I can handle this and then take over.” So he doesn’t

Matt (01:41:20):

Need to tell the children reasons. It’s just like- Right, because I haven’t said this, so that’s fine. You don’t have to know. He’s

Laci (01:41:26):

Our Kelly. He’s collecting babies.

Matt (01:41:28):

Lizzie leaves the party and goes home. She’s upset about Charles being with Annabella, but then Charles arrives and he’s like, “Hey, I have to tell you something. You look fabulous. You need me, baby, to protect you. “

Laci (01:41:40):

I’m so glad you put on your raggedy Ann nightgown that is the only thing I let you wear and good, we’re going to fuck and you’re wearing little tiny socks, socks that fold like a child.

Matt (01:41:50):

He picks her up- Like a child.r to the bedroom to make love to her.

Laci (01:41:54):

Puts her in bed like a baby.

Matt (01:41:55):

Like Christian put in Bella or what’s her name? Anastasia.

Laci (01:42:00):

Anastasia.

Matt (01:42:02):

Into the crib and as they’re about to fuck, we hear a Russell. We hear a ruckus and Charles is like, “What’s that? ” And Lizzie says, “It’s Fred.” And he says, “Fred, you got another man I’ll show Fred. I’ll piece on my mind.” And I wrote in my notes like, “Oh, is Fred?” Charles can hear Fred now, but no, what he hears is the mom not

Laci (01:42:23):

Coming into the car. Right. So this I feel like is a clue. If this movie wanted to give you a moment of thinking, “Oh, okay, other people or Fred can affect the world apart from her and then it immediately takes it away from you. “

Matt (01:42:35):

Yes. It’s

Laci (01:42:35):

Like, “Nope.”

Matt (01:42:36):

It’s the mom and wax the nurse with an iron skillet, but then immediately says, “Oh, Polly, hi, hi. I’ll take care of her.” She’s like, “She’s just a little girl, Charles. Yeah, but I’m an adult.”

Laci (01:42:50):

I feel like-

Matt (01:42:50):

Anyway, we’ll exchange a soccer practice next Wednesday.

Laci (01:42:52):

Right.

Matt (01:42:54):

They’re

Laci (01:42:54):

Both getting off. They see each other. I like this too. Let’s keep doing this.

Matt (01:43:00):

Charles returns to Lizzie and they start making out again and he immediately starts moaning and says, “Oh, Annabella.” She says, “What did you say? You called me Annabella.” She says, “What did you say?” And he said, “Well, yes, I called you Annabella, but isn’t it better that I called you Annabella while I’m here with you than if I was off with her and called her Lizzie?” She says, “Oh, I guess that’s a good point. Yeah, let’s resume the makeout.” But she keeps getting distracted by Fred and Charles says, “That’s enough of that, Fred.” It makes Fred go away by giving Lizzie her pills. So now we get the montage of time is moving forward. Lizzy’s getting back to her old routine where she has fun shaving antics with her husband and jumps onto his back and stuff.

Laci (01:43:37):

So whenever they’re doing the little montage, she reads the letter that she wrote to herself about how she thinks their relationship was or how she fantasizes it was how he interacts with what she is and the woman she is is him laughing when she jumps on his back and then blows a raspberry in his face while he’s trying to go to work, he effortlessly shaving his neck and him being appreciative of it. And then you smash cut to the reality of it and it’s, he’s annoyed. Get the fuck off me. I’m trying to put my tie on. And then she goes to shave his neck and he goes, “Nope, nope, no thanks.” And takes it away from her. None of it’s what she … Either it’s never going to achieve what she thinks they can be or it never was anything. It’s trying to tell you either one of those and I’m not sure which one.

Matt (01:44:24):

She’s walking with Carrie Fisher on the riverfront and Carrie Fisher is so happy because she just got a check from the insurance company and holds it up. Have you ever seen that many zeros outside of the national debt? Awful. I deducted a star from the movie score for

Laci (01:44:38):

That. Hey.

Matt (01:44:39):

Just terrible Carrie Fisher.

Laci (01:44:40):

Blame it on Carrie.

Matt (01:44:41):

The national debt. We’re spending too much. China’s buying our debt.

Laci (01:44:46):

But someone’s house gets sunk. I do appreciate the movie wrapping that up. I do. It’s a little pat. It’s one of the most pat moments probably, but it’s like, kind of feel better because I do like that Carrie Fisher.

Matt (01:44:57):

Truly. If you just did not say national debt, I would … That is a joke for fucking grandpa listening to NPR.

Laci (01:45:05):

If he’s going to take the grandchild to see the movie.

Matt (01:45:07):

So now it’s time to make Charles a big romantic dinner, but it turns out to be a mud pie and he says, “What’s the big idea, Lizzy? Your big romantic idea was a bunch of cow shit on a plate? Something’s up to you, girl. I don’t even know. ” Right

Laci (01:45:22):

Again, not reacting big enough to this situation, just like the mom with the poo on this. I just want to be mad at you. I want to discipline you. You’ve acted out again. She’s lost her fucking mind. You live in an apartment downtown. Where did she even find this amount of mud? Charles. I

Matt (01:45:40):

Can get you

Laci (01:45:40):

Some mud. And she cooked it.

Matt (01:45:44):

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll make you a big dinner salad.

Laci (01:45:46):

I’m so sorry. I cooked this mud. Yeah. A romantic dinner salad. Okay, Lizzie. Okay. Okay. You’re lucky I love doing this.

Matt (01:45:56):

Yeah, but he does make it seem like a lot hinges on the quality of the salad, Lizzie. You better act right. Make a damn good salad. But

Laci (01:46:02):

You know this is all they’re ever doing.

Matt (01:46:05):

Sure.

Laci (01:46:05):

She does something wrong. She makes it up to him and he gets to be a jerk.

Matt (01:46:08):

He goes into his room and slams the door where he’s calling Bridget Fonda. “Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby. I love you baby and I like be bad.” We

Laci (01:46:16):

Don’t have ceilings in this house,

Matt (01:46:18):

But

Laci (01:46:18):

I’m just going to say whatever I want.

Matt (01:46:20):

Which is another clue that Fred isn’t real because she sneezes him onto the thing where he can overhear, but she- But

Laci (01:46:26):

Really, it’s a crack

Matt (01:46:27):

On the door. And you need to be able to be up there to hear. There’s no ceilings.

Laci (01:46:31):

Well, there’s that and there’s a crack in the door. And she probably in a different life or leading up to him admitting he was with her discovering them on the sofa, she probably heard him saying that word all the time. Nope, nope. I don’t want that to be true. And she’s finally letting that be true, letting her see the real him when he was probably acting that way the whole

Matt (01:46:56):

Marriage. And has been so brazen about it. Yes. It does not have to be careful at all. And then Annabella gets mad at him so he hangs up the phone and says, “Fuck you, bitch. Hey, babe. Lizzie, where’s my dinner salad? Okay. But

Laci (01:47:11):

I hope you like lots of radish.

Matt (01:47:13):

Fred tells Lizzie, you have to leave him right now.” And she says, “I can’t. I’m not strong enough.” Says, “Yes, you are. Come with me. ” The

Laci (01:47:22):

Sweetest part, this is the most emotional part is just her falling into Fred and it being so comforting in that moment of like, “I don’t even care where you’re taking me. Just take me. “

Matt (01:47:32):

Where they go away to this nightmare on Elm Street house, everything’s a little German expression is sticky. It is very timbered.

Laci (01:47:39):

Well, it is, but it’s also supposed to be the way that Lizzie has a little girl experienced this house. The Gladiolas, if you notice, this is a weird angle, but they are triple the size as they were anytime they were

Matt (01:47:49):

In reality. She’s an adult child walking now through a supersized house and the dimensions are still

Laci (01:47:56):

Male tower over her. But the idea is this is what your psyche. This is how it felt. This is how suffocating it all was. None of it seemed pristine and beautiful. It all seemed scary because around every corner was a way for you to fuck up. The stairs aren’t even real. So you might go to try to go up your room. Number one, you’re not in control of when you’re in your room. That gets told by your parents. Number two, if you fall down these stairs, you’re going to hit the gladiolas. It’s all booby trapped

Matt (01:48:23):

For

Laci (01:48:24):

Her to fuck up and to not be in control of where she gets to go in that house. She’s contained to the foyer here and it’s because she uses her own power to grow a tree that she can take control of this house.

Matt (01:48:37):

And go to the second story has to first get past the mom who’s like, “You cannot go into this bedroom.” And all she says is, “I’m not afraid of you. ” And the mother slid on fire, burns away. And so she goes into her childhood bedroom and there’s the child version of herself who is taped up with the same kind of tape that the jack in the box was taped with. And then she gives her younger self a hug and says, “You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

Laci (01:49:00):

And she has no privacy, right? She has a room that’s just a loft that’s all open. Anyone can see into her goldfish bowl and it’s kind of similar as the apartment that she shares with Charles. There’s no real privacy. If there’s no ceilings, then I shit and you can hear me and I can be on the phone and you can hear me and it’s all an observation deck for Lizzie.

Matt (01:49:23):

The adult has reconciled with the inner child. If Fred looks at her, he’s very proud and he says, “You have to go now.” She’s like, “Okay, yes, let’s go. No, no, no. You have to go alone. I can’t go back now.” It’s a great line. “You’ve got you now. You don’t need me. “That is like in the Simpsons, the Lisa substitute. The note he writes her to comfort her is you are Lisa Simpson. “You’ve got you now. You don’t need me. Now let’s kiss on the lips.” I

Laci (01:49:51):

Love that part. And I know it’s weird, but I love that part. I

Matt (01:49:54):

Mean, they are two adults, but-

Laci (01:49:55):

They are, but if he were to be kissing Mickey Bunce’s child goodbye, if she just happened to be really good really early on, is he kissing a 10 year old later? I guess the idea is most people don’t fix their shit until they’re adults.

Matt (01:50:11):

He’s British and that’s what they do. They kiss each other. They’re all Tom Brady’s over there. And then it says, “Say my name.” And what she says is you dropped dead Fred. The reason he has called that is you have to eventually learn to grow past him and say- Tell

Laci (01:50:23):

Him to drop

Matt (01:50:23):

Dead. “Drop dead. I don’t need you anymore.” Wakes up, does not take the final pill, then walks into the room and Charles is like, “Where’s my salad?” Just dumps the things head. I like that it’s not very dramatic. She just …

Laci (01:50:39):

Right.

Matt (01:50:40):

Now you’re a big salad face and here’s a booger for your face. Bye, Charles. Goes back to her mom’s house and her mom yells at her, “Hey, you dumb bitch. What are you doing?”

Laci (01:50:49):

I’ll be lovely.

Matt (01:50:51):

What did she go back to the house for though?

Laci (01:50:54):

To confront her mom, I’m pretty sure. She didn’t even know that she’d escaped.

Matt (01:50:58):

Or it was to get the jack in the box.

Laci (01:51:01):

I don’t

Matt (01:51:02):

Remember. But

Laci (01:51:03):

She’s doing closure, right?

Matt (01:51:05):

Her mom yells at her, says, “You ruined my life. I had a child to save my marriage and then things only got worse. My husband left me because of you. ” And what TB Kate says is, “What a pile of shit.”

Laci (01:51:17):

How can you even say that,

Matt (01:51:18):

Right? Which is what the litle girl says at the beginning of the movie. Shant. It’s nice symmetry. And her mom has literally never seen her stand up to her before and is walking out the house. And so of course the mom has to say, “Lizzie, don’t. I’ll be alone.” And Lizzie hugs her mom and says, “You

Laci (01:51:36):

Need a friend.

Matt (01:51:36):

All fucking adult parents need to learn. You need a friend.”

Laci (01:51:41):

Figure out how to interact with other people who have agency. Then maybe you won’t be an evil twat.

Matt (01:51:48):

It’s great to have a great relationship with your adult kids, but they shouldn’t be your friends.

Laci (01:51:53):

Fine, but this woman gets to hide behind, well, I’m a housewife and a mother. And it’s like, well, but you don’t have your husband anymore. Well, but I’m a mother. So all she’s interested in is in relationships where she has the upper hand and she never bothered having any peers. That’s because she has a fucking personality disorder. So if she were able to have a friend, it would mean she were finally kind of dealing with her shit. Yeah.

Matt (01:52:19):

And it’s hard to make friends when you’re adult. I sympathize mom. Oh,

Laci (01:52:21):

Goddammit. She’s doing nothing all day, but having carpet shampooed and

Matt (01:52:26):

Shit. The shampoo guy might be interesting. Then she goes and hangs out with Mickey and Mickey has this daughter, Natalie, who runs out of the house covered in chocolate and her befuddled babysitter’s like, “This little girl’s too much for me. I simply can’t.” And the little girl’s like, “It wasn’t me. Drop Dad Fred did it. ” And Lizzie looks at her and sees Natalie is giving the air a pinky swear and we are seeing drop dead Fred, but then from Phoebe Kate’s vantage point, she does not see him anymore, but she just smiles down at this little girl.

Laci (01:52:57):

Which is really, I mean, and this would be your biggest evidence. See, he is real, but he’s not because this is the daughter who’s going through divorce, whose dad is Mickey Bunts who is obsessed with a woman named Lizzie, who get this, has a marriginary friend called Drop Dead Fred. You’re telling me Mickey, who knows all about Drop Dead Fred didn’t fucking say this in front of his daughter. Oh, that’s so sad. That’s so sad. Yeah. So it’s just this whole movie is about passing on trauma, right? So then even in a good way, you can do it. But if it helps this little girl get through … Obviously I was a shitty babysitter and she just got rid of a shitty one, whatever.

Matt (01:53:36):

It doesn’t matter if he’s real or not. I don’t actually think he’s real. But even if he were real, still the movie, he could literally be real, but what he is is a manifestation of all that is troubling her and what she needs to grow past. She needs to get him to drop it.

Laci (01:53:51):

So she looks at Mickey Bunce’s little girl and what she sees is herself, right? So yeah, if I’m seeing myself in your little girl, then obviously she has to drop dead Fred. I wish that for her. I hope she gets to keep him.

Matt (01:54:03):

Yeah, because this is a dad who is not going to beat that out of her. And as we saw, he has full custody. The court awarded him.

Laci (01:54:10):

Look, it even comes with a picture of my kid so I know who to pick up tomorrow.

Matt (01:54:15):

Drop dead Fred. That’s drop dead Fred.

Laci (01:54:35):

Best movie ever.

Matt (01:54:36):

Laci calls it the best movie ever. Okay.

Laci (01:54:38):

It’s not the best movie ever, but it’s five stars.

Matt (01:54:40):

Five stars. Yep. Why?

Laci (01:54:44):

It’s smart. It’s ahead of its time. It’s delicate and it’s full throttle. I just think it’s walking a tightrope and nails it.

Matt (01:54:55):

I agree. It’s walking a tightrope. All of these things, all of the things we have said about trauma and repressed childhood trauma and all this stuff about mental illness, if it were made in a movie today, I would despise it because I feel like that’s all any movies are about. 1991, fresh as fuck. And I think more powerful than anything that gets made today. More moving. It’s not a perfect movie. There are things that annoy me about it, but I think it’s really well directed. I think Phoebe Cates is so wonderful. BRik Mayo is very funny and great. He’s also lovely.

Laci (01:55:28):

The mom is awesome. Carrie Fisher. I like her and I love her in this role.

Matt (01:55:33):

Yeah. Four out of five stars for me. I’ll

Laci (01:55:35):

Take it.

Matt (01:55:36):

It is hard for me to get past all the talk about snot and poo. I guess I am just a little like a … I’m not that gross. I don’t like-

Laci (01:55:43):

You’re not

Matt (01:55:44):

That

Laci (01:55:44):

Gross,

Matt (01:55:44):

Bitch. You’re not

Laci (01:55:45):

That real. Okay. You’re not in touch with the fact that- I’m not that real. Yeah. You’re not wrapped in plastic wrap. You have snot and you shit shit. And you walk through mud. Yes, you do.

Matt (01:55:54):

I do walk through a lot of mud. It’s really …

Laci (01:55:56):

You fucking nasty bitch.

Matt (01:55:57):

No, and one of the best things about Ozempic is it makes you so regular.

Laci (01:56:02):

What is happening right now?

Matt (01:56:03):

That you barely ever have to shit more than once a day, which is wonderful. As someone who hates that, because as you said, I don’t like shit. I’m not a shit guy.

Laci (01:56:14):

I wonder why you don’t like those things about yourself, Matt. Do you think maybe you were traumatized a little bit and maybe you felt disgusting?

Matt (01:56:20):

Obviously, yes. And that’s boring.

Laci (01:56:22):

Hated how much you had to have human stuff happen.

Matt (01:56:25):

Of course, of course, yes. Who gives a fuck though? That’s so boring. And the other thing it does is you never ever fart.

Laci (01:56:34):

Me?

Matt (01:56:34):

One who takes Ozempic, at least me.

Laci (01:56:37):

No, I don’t ever fart.

Matt (01:56:38):

Never fart. Because sometimes I will fart and I will be like, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. ” It’s so miraculous. Be on Ozempic is what I’m saying. Okay. It changes everything.

Laci (01:56:54):

This is not the Cata?

Matt (01:56:56):

It makes the freds go away. Why it’s the noise.

Laci (01:56:59):

This is not the coda to the show I thought we would have.

Matt (01:57:03):

What are we doing next week, Laci? You

Laci (01:57:04):

Fucking know. You said you wanted to reveal it to me. I said I want to do Muriel’s wedding. You said no. It’s too obscure. It has tampons in it.

Matt (01:57:12):

I hate tampons. So gross. We are going to be starting our summer mini series in three weeks from today. We will have an episode next week. We will be off the week after that and then our summer of blank starts. Announcement. Pending. I know you’re all waiting to be hard. God, what could it be?

Laci (01:57:30):

I’ve told several people.

Matt (01:57:33):

To segue our way into the summer, we’re going to next week treat ourselves to David Fincher’s Gone Girl. Oh

Laci (01:57:39):

Yeah. I love spelling

Matt (01:57:40):

So much. The ladies like this movie because women love murder, let’s be honest. And it has the word girl in the title. And then during the summer we’re discussing the most manly filmography that there is. Do you

Laci (01:57:50):

Think this is a girly movie?

Matt (01:57:52):

Women love murder, as I just said. They

Laci (01:57:54):

Love it.

Matt (01:57:55):

And they love- It often

Laci (01:57:55):

Happens

Matt (01:57:56):

To them. Girl is in the title and it was based on a book that women love.

Laci (01:57:59):

I’ve heard everything you said.

Matt (01:58:01):

You’re

Laci (01:58:01):

Right. Oh, I love this movie.

Matt (01:58:03):

Yeah, me too.

Laci (01:58:03):

I accept.

Matt (01:58:05):

Okay. Gone Girl Next Week. Check out Laci’s Coloring Morphew. It’s because you haven’t made a video in one week. Wow. Oh my God. It

Laci (01:58:13):

Makes me feel ashamed.

Matt (01:58:15):

Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Blue Sky, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. My band is Rural Route nine. We have an album called The Joy of Averages. On that album is the song you’re hearing right now. You can listen on Spotify or wherever you get your music. And I thank you so much for listening to 1-Week Rental.

Laci (01:58:33):

I think you love you. Goodbye.