Top Plug of the Week

Go outside! It’s nice out! Unless it’s raining. But then go outside when it stops!

No Way! Three Films at Once?

That’s a reference to our self-proclaimed “Song of the Autumn,” several autumns ago — HE’S THE HOUSECAT. Take a listen, if you’ve never had the pleasure.

Anyway, recently I, Dan McCoy, saw three movies in three different movie theaters in the same day. Why did I do this? Was it to anger Elliott Kalan by confirming all of his “Dan’s a man of leisure” stereotypes? No, that wasn’t it. (Elliott will never believe it, but one of the only reasons I felt justified in such a ridiculous indulgence is that I just finished a script I’d been writing every day during “office hours,” like clockwork for months, in addition, to, y’know, doing most of the day-to-day running of our shared podcast, but whatever. I only include this detail to assuage my OWN guilt about allowing myself time off, guilt that’s a sickness I don’t wish on anyone).

The actual answer is: it just sort of happened. I had tickets to see Eraserhead in a 35mm late-night rep screening. A couple of days before it was scheduled, my film critic friend, Kimber, invited me to a critic’s screening of Final Destination: Bloodlines, since she knew I’m a fan of the franchise. I confirmed that the timing worked, so — in the words of the gif — “Why not both?” Then, Stuart Wellington (of The Flop House podcast, maybe you’ve heard of him) askedd me to a matinee of Clown in a Cornfield. I checked the timing again — I had time to see all three! Like a mad god, I yelled, “I CAN HAVE IT ALL!”

Did I learn anything from my movie orgy? Well… for one, I discovered that — for a man like me, in my mid-40’s — running around town to sit in various semi-uncomfortable seats for 90+ minutes at a stretch is more exhausting than you’d expect. I found myself fighting sleep toward the end of Eraserhead, and yoga the next morning felt weirdly difficult, like I was moving underwater. But I enjoyed all the screenings, and I don’t regret my foolish life choices.

Do I have any compare-and-contrast thoughts? Well, all three of the movies were, to some degree, classifiable as horror-comedies. Clown in a Cornfield is a mildly self-aware neo-slasher. Final Destination: Bloodlines takes the Rube Goldberg splatstick of earlier installments and has additional fun toying with an audience who, at this point, knows the formula. And Eraserhead is more “existential” in its horror and awkward in its comedy, playing out as the nightmare version of a young man’s fears of marriage and fatherhood.

Living, as we do, at a… let’s say “difficult” time, I also had politics on the brain, while watching. Doing my best to avoid spoilers — Clown in a Cornfield takes an overt political turn toward the end, diagnosing the reactionary fear at the heart of a lot of conservatism, and leaving us with some hope of a way to move forward. Bloodlines is fairly apolitical, but its “danger at every turn” premise certainly feels appropriate for a time filled with anxiety. And Eraserhead isn’t political in and of itself, but it made me think of fascism’s hatred of so-called “degenerate” art — aka art that’s not strictly representational. To me, it’s not hard to make the leap from Eraserhead to the themes I cite above, but I know more literal-minded brains watch Eraserhead and just see “a bunch of weird stuff.” Fascism seeks to stamp out the “different,” so it hates work that’s creative or allegorical. It believes art isn’t for mind expansion, but depiction (which is why they love AI so goddamn much).

I’m getting too in the weeds for a silly podcast newsletter. But these are the thoughts that arise when you have the chance to juxtapose a few films together, even when 2/3 of them are silly popcorn pictures.

But let me swerve from politics toward the other main thought inspired by my marathon day — I saw these movies in the right order! Not to get too “Rob from High Fidelity,” but — just as there’s an art to a perfect mix tape — there’s an art to the order of a movie marathon. The order of the films matters. I know enough movie nuts that I’ve hosted or attended a lot of informal double or triple features, and one good programming strategy goes as follows: start with the slowest movie, while you still have full audience attention. Then hit the crowd with a film that’s still good, but with a bit more pep in its cinematic step. And for the last movie? Pull out something goofball — if you’re programming a “good-bad” movie, this is your slot.

My inadvertent theatrical triple-feature took a slightly different, also effective, route: start with a good-not-great popcorn film, kick it up a notch in the middle (I really liked Bloodlines), and then — when you’re starting to get sleepy and delirious — it’s time for the dream state of Eraserhead.

Anyway, I’d never have planned this day on my own, but I’m glad I fell into an inadvertent movie marathon, and I’d say — anyone who has the inclination should go ahead and treat themselves to something indulgent once in a while (especially if they don’t have my need to rationalize and justify time off, but can just enjoy themselves). And, hey, I ended up writing about it for the newsletter. SO TECHNICALLY IT COUNTS AS WORK, ELLIOTT.

Next on the Podcast

5/24 - We talk about a real Book Club of an 80 for Brady of a movie — SUMMER CAMP, where Diane Keaton, Kathy Bates, and Alfre Woodard go back to camp to live, laugh, and love, and the audience watching them doesn’t laugh or love all that much, but at least we lived.

5/31 - Stuart takes us through the animals of filmdom, and dares ask the question — which ones are best?

Plugging Away

Elliott’s got books for miles — on the comics end, there’s Harley Quinn, and for kids, there’s Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House.

Stuart paints Warhammer models/chats with viewers on his Twitch channel. Subscribe to get updates about when he’s live, or follow the Flop House Instagram, where he keeps folks updated about the future schedule through his stories.

Dan’s personal newsletter, Dan McCoy’s Special Interests comes out every non-Flop Secrets week. The most recent one was very non-specifically braggy, but ultimately about the power of community.

You Made it to the End!

Dan was in the mood for some sketching just as friend-of-the-pod Ben Harrison was livestreaming on Twitch, which inspired him to do this Greatest Trek cartoon. We’re sorry if you’re sensitive to caricature, Ben and Adam! It’s meant as a tribute!