020 M-FILES COMMUNION

The Henchmen open the M-File on Communion, the 1989 alien-abduction disaster starring Christopher Walken. There are flesh-colored Grays, “big thick kid” aliens, inappropriate Eric Clapton guitar solos, a terrifying probe and one unforgettable extraterrestrial dance party. Was this a misunderstood masterpiece or a $7 million dollar dud? Tune in to find out!

Transcript

Reggie 0:09

This is the Conspiracy Journal Podcast. The transmission starts now.

Michelle 0:17

We're ready for the M Files. Welcome to the Conspiracy Journal. My name is Michelle.

Bobby 0:22

What's up, Michelle? Michelle.

Michelle 0:23

What up?

Bobby 0:24

Hi, I'm Greg.

Michelle 0:25

What up, bees?

Bobby 0:26

Yeah, also Bobby is here. Bobby!

Michelle 0:29

Bobby, the biggest bee in town. Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.

Bobby 0:32

That's right. That's right.

Michelle 0:33

All right, we're here.

Bobby 0:34

The biggest bee in town is his wife.

Michelle 0:35

That's okay.

Greg 0:37

What are we talking about?

Bobby 0:38

No one knows what I'm talking about.

Greg 0:40

They've read the fucking thing.

Michelle 0:42

That's right.

Bobby 0:43

Everybody knows what we're talking about.

Michelle 0:44

You guys know that we are doing an M5L on the movie Communion. This is a doozy. Everybody's mad except me. Hey Bobby, can you tell me a little rundown of like this movie? Tell me about it. Just like the facts, not your opinion.

Bobby 1:02

Yeah, I mean it's uh it's a movie. It's a 1989 movie based off of the 1987 book entitled Communion by Whitley Striber about his interactions with actually quite a few different types of aliens over a period of time. I don't know if I'd call it an abduction story. It's more of like a visitation, a lot of visitations.

Michelle 1:25

Yeah.

Bobby 1:25

Um, so it's just his account of multiple visitations over the the course of what do we think? Months?

Greg 1:31

Yeah, it didn't really seem like months.

Michelle 1:33

Uh no, it was they it did. It was like it was Halloween, and then it was Thanksgiving, and we were making it and then it was Christmas, so it was a couple months.

Bobby 1:40

Like I said, okay.

Michelle 1:41

Months over the holidays. Yeah.

Bobby 1:43

Over his fun holiday romp. Yeah. With a bunch of different kinds of aliens.

Michelle 1:47

And we all know that the holidays start in Halloween.

Bobby 1:50

Sure, yeah. Yeah.

Greg 1:51

That's kind of my first note that I made um watching this. I never read the book. And what's funny is I thought I had seen this, but I think it's just a lot of the memes of like Christopher Walken dancing with aliens. Right. And then like I inserted them into other Christopher Walken movies. Right. And in my head. You made your own movie. Yeah. And in my head, I was like, I've seen this before. I'm gonna read like it's been a while or something. I have to rewatch it. And then I was re-watching it, and I'm like, I've not watched this ever.

Bobby 2:16

Yeah, I had no, I had not heard of this at all until Michelle made her first and last suggestion for a movie for the empires.

Michelle 2:25

I am I am kicked out for sure. Yes, I um not sorry.

Bobby 2:30

I'm just I thought I felt it to be a terrible movie, but was enjoyable to watch in certain ways.

Greg 2:36

It was like it was fun to hate it. Yeah, like I feel like it has to have a cult following just for like how bad it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 2:43

There's definitely there's somewhere that where everyone gets together and watches it and yells out the lines like uh Rocky Horror Picture Show. You know what I mean?

Bobby 2:52

Yeah, and it like I mean from jump, it was like there was a lot going on. You know, he's he he's a a writer. The main character is also named Whitley after the the author of the book, you know, so it's it's his story. He plays a writer in the in the movie, and like just from jump, he's in his his writing den. I mean, he he's dressed, he's got this fedora on, he's got a whole vibe, he's got uh computers, his 1989 computers, and he uh he licks his fingers to warm his fingers up to write, to type. That was one of the first things that really jumped out to me, and I was like, I mean, he's portrayed by Christopher Walken, so we've got a little bit of an And it is an alien story, yeah, better person than Christopher Walken.

Michelle 3:33

Oh, we all know is a real actual alien.

Greg 3:35

He was like the oh my goodness, he was the only alien in this alien movie. 100% he's supposed to be this like father figure and like family man. He cannot fucking do that at all, especially like maybe in other things he can, but like it whatever for whatever reason in this, maybe it was the script or however it was like written. It was just like watching him try to be a dad or like a like a husband or anything, it was just so weird.

Bobby 4:05

It was. I had the same experience, it was so weird, and I was watching, it was so weird, but also obvious. I was like, I'd never thought about this before, but I was like, I bet he doesn't have children. Yeah, and I looked it up, and he did Christopher Walken does not have children. That's how unnatural he was able to play a father the way he interacted with his child. I was like, he has no idea how to be around or interact with a child or just any level.

Greg 4:27

I I don't think he knows how to like have emotion. He's a real alien, everything was so stiff and weird, yeah. And it was again very Christopher Walken. Yeah, but like when you see him in other roles, it's just like he has to be like this stone-faced like psychopath. Right. And you're like, he's fucking awesome in this. Yeah. But to have him like this light-hearted dude, it's just like he doesn't know how to do that.

Michelle 4:49

All right, our ready, ready for a fist fight, because I fucking disagree with you guys. Okay.

Bobby 4:53

Um, I thought You think that Christopher Walken does have children?

Michelle 4:57

No, I think Christopher Walken is an alien from outer space, 100%. There's a couple of actors that I believe that to be true. Tilda Swinton is another one. Uh no, I think he's like from hell, maybe. I think he's a little bit demonic. Wow. You know what I mean? Anyway, I think that this guy Whitney Schreiber, like the character, yeah, the character is an eccentric, right? They went all over the top trying to like beat that into us with his outfits and his moo his licking his fingers, his moot his mannerisms were all a little weird. I think that that guy who's really committed to writing his novels and being a weirdo is not a good dad. I think he's Christopher Walken as a dad. He's removed, he doesn't know how to be a dad. He doesn't know where to do that.

Bobby 5:41

Christopher Walken was being awkward around the child intentionally as a character choice.

Michelle 5:45

Um, he might tell you that, but I feel like the casting is like they were like, oh yeah, he's not gonna know how to be, he's gonna just he doesn't have to act this part, you know, or the director or whoever it is. I guess it would be the director who would be, I know everything's falling down, dude. Christopher Walken is haunting us right now. The papers are falling, my microphone wire makes a loud, loud noise. But anyway, I thought his awkward dad vibe was like believable because this guy's not a human.

Bobby 6:18

That's very good nice of you.

Michelle 6:19

You're welcome.

Bobby 6:20

Yeah.

Michelle 6:21

Okay, but all right, sorry, we're gonna be amazing.

Bobby 6:23

That's a generous assessment of his performance.

Michelle 6:26

There was actually like one of the opening scenes, he's walking down the street with his wife.

Bobby 6:31

It's I believe it's the opening scene.

Michelle 6:34

Yeah. I freak out already because there's this small child wearing like an old man's jacket and like a paper boy hat, and he's doing the weirdest shit, and he's on screen, but he's not walking in line with Christopher Walken and his wife. He's a little bit closer to the camera and he's just doing his all thing. He's like making weird, like kids make like weird lip, you know, he's like playing with his face and his mouth and stuff, and he's just like in his own little like toddler world. And I was just like, who the fuck is this kid? How did he make it into the final edit? Like, that is the weirdest extra I've ever seen in my life.

Bobby 7:13

Michelle found the child so odd, she didn't realize it was their kid. I thought it was pretty obvious that it was their child, but she was so taken by his performance that's like. Well, you know, something like who is the small man throughout this entire movie?

Greg 7:25

It was like even the idea of the kid, like he was like sometimes there. And then, like, and then it was just like they just forgot about we have a kid in this movie.

Bobby 7:34

I feel like his name was Tommy. Do does anyone actually remember his name? I don't know. I don't, yeah, I don't. You know why?

Michelle 7:40

Because we don't have kids, we don't care. Yeah, we don't care about the kid, but he was um, he was probably the only character who was like pretty consistent in his his way, you know, like he was that's also generous.

Greg 7:56

There were so many things about this movie that was just like like cutting from one scene, like even the opening scene to the next scene, it was like they were totally different characters. Yeah, it was just like a different, it was a different movie that was happening.

Bobby 8:09

Their relationship was was so wild the way that it was portrayed on screen. In one scene, it's like their relationship is the relationship that everybody strives for. They're having so much fun, they're joking, they're laughing. It's just like this connection, and then the next, it's like cold and frozen. And it's just like this is like the next day, the next scene with no explanation, nothing happened. Right. Just like these from scene to scene, wildly different relationships in in such an unhinged way, it was crazy.

Michelle 8:38

That was that was all right. I gotta admit, I'm with you guys on that. That was weird, but maybe believable because you know uh relationships are complex.

Greg 8:46

Sure, but if you're gonna try to tell a narrative or a story, yeah.

Michelle 8:49

I'm just kidding, there's no way for me to be generous about that. Because again, they're they were so confusing.

Bobby 8:54

It was so confusing.

Michelle 8:55

Yeah, you know what it seemed like to me? It seemed like the director was like, All right, now, now say these words like you're mad at each other. Now say them like you're you're in love with each other. Now I'm gonna edit this together in a way that like doesn't make any sense.

Greg 9:10

Something something could have happened in post-production of this movie where it was just like, what the fuck did we just shoot? And like we have to put something together or else the producers are gonna be fucking pissed.

Michelle 9:20

Right.

Greg 9:21

And then they just slopped this all together. Like maybe there were reshoots on a couple of things that like they forgot that they filmed like a couple months ago, and it's just like they don't know how they're supposed to be acting, and they're just like, shut up, we just have to reshoot this.

Michelle 9:32

Right, right. So speaking of post, can we talk a minute about how much money this movie costs to make?

Bobby 9:37

Yep, yeah, let's do it.

Michelle 9:38

Okay, so um, according to my research, uh, it was at the time five million or possibly seven. Yeah. Okay, so we landed on seven. We landed on seven. So uh seven million dollars at the time in 1988 uh is about 13 million, is that what I said? Yep, my math. Uh so that is actually okay. If it was five million, then it would have been 13 million. But it's in fact seven million, which in today's money is 19 million dollars this fucking turd cost to make.

Bobby 10:13

It's so crazy.

Michelle 10:14

That's so crazy. And uh tell me again, because I can't remember anything, how much it made?

Bobby 10:18

1.92 million. Worldwide total. Yeah, are you math and live on the radio?

Michelle 10:23

Oh yeah, absolutely. In my mind, I'm doing this by with my my inflation calculator inside my mind, is 2.72 million dollars in today's money.

Greg 10:33

And it's total to 19 million. Yeah, yeah.

Bobby 10:36

Yeah, that's worldwide gross for sure.

Greg 10:38

Yeah, that's so we were not just coming into this film hot. Like I like I wanted this to be amazing.

Bobby 10:45

We agree with the world based on the numbers.

Greg 10:48

Yeah, we all kind of like speaking. Everyone felt this.

Bobby 10:50

Greg and I agree with the world, Michelle is uh on the outside.

Greg 10:54

On a good note though, like it did have Eric Clapton that did all the fucking music for it.

Michelle 10:59

Are you fucking kidding me? Yo, there were these epic 90s guitar solos in that I was just really vibing like Richie Stanborg.

Bobby 11:08

Yeah, I really think it was it was not bad guitar, but it felt very out of place. It was just like in a lot of it was like in a in like a in a cop movie when like his partner dies, and then he's like the next scene he's like at his apartment, it's raining, looking out the window. It was like that kind of guitar. Yeah, that like weird, slow guitar of a really emotional guitar.

Greg 11:29

At a certain point in the in the story, he goes to a psychiatrist, and like there's one where like this one scene where the psychiatrist is just reading a book, and it's just this like weird, super sexy music from these guitars, and it was just like, Why is this so sensual? And it was like the camera's moving real slow around her as she's reading, and it's just like, what is that? What is this?

Bobby 11:49

It felt like Clapton's contract. He was like, You're not not allowed to give me notes. I'm gonna do all this in one take. And he just went in the studio and laid down like 12 guitar riffs, and that was it. That's the soundtrack. Pay me. He's like, You fit them where you can fit them. Yep.

Michelle 12:01

It did, it felt inappropriate. It made scenes like way to use music against your movie because it made scenes feel inappropriate. Oh, one sidebar is the locations in this movie, that's where their budget went. Actually, no, I actually do see where their budget went in a lot of Eric Clapton, obviously.

Greg 12:23

Um Christopher Walken.

Michelle 12:25

Christopher Walken and and the blue guys who were black.

Bobby 12:29

Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll get we'll get to the creatures, but yeah, yeah.

Michelle 12:35

Um, but everyone's apartment and house and office is incredible. Yeah, and there's priceless art everywhere in every scene. I made a lot of notes about the art. It was crazy. Every single place they went was like museum-level art everywhere.

Bobby 12:51

The art was pretty dope.

Michelle 12:53

That's what I'm saying. That's where the budget went. It was incredible.

Bobby 12:56

Um I have a bunch of notes in front of me, no one can actually see this, but the people sitting in front of me, Greg's uh he's got a lot of ramblings of a madman, notes, things scrawled in the margins of his movies.

Michelle 13:05

But like pen and paper, you guys. I have a computer, like a fucking professional person, and he's got insane things.

Bobby 13:13

Okay, don't first off, don't be fooled by Michelle. She took zero notes. I watched a movie with her, she's trying to pretend like she's a fucking pro. She didn't take any notes at all.

Greg 13:20

I'm just I'm just trying to have giant chunks where I was just like, I was trying to find like a silver lining in what it was I was watching. So it was just giant notes about like what could possibly be the purpose of putting this art in why and why that art is in there. Yeah. Because it was like everything else happening in this movie. I was like, this is all fucking nonsense. And I was like, well, what's the psychology of putting this art here? Why does it look like that? Because it was obviously specifically chosen.

Michelle 13:49

Yeah, absolutely.

Greg 13:50

And it's like it's very surreal, and like all of the faces, like it gave the sense of like constantly being watched, but like you couldn't focus on what it was that was watching you.

Michelle 13:59

Yeah, by like a blurry Albert eyes.

Greg 14:01

Yeah, and it was like this weird psychological thing where it was like almost reflection of like like projections of your subconscious, like how you were feeling. Because, like, whenever the art was shown, there was always like this high tense, yeah, like high stress moment happening between Walken and Lindsay Krause. And it was just and then well, obviously, the next scene, it was just them like nothing happened in the previous scene. But yeah, whenever the art was shown, it was like it was kind of a reflection of who they were supposed to be.

Bobby 14:32

Or this is me like trying to trying to impart something on this positive, but it was so they like the film kind of one of the the earlier scenes they're in in one of these beautiful New York apartments with all this art, and then they're like they're like, Are we going to the country? Yeah, it's like I got a lot of I got a lot of notes on all on all of this that like nobody who lives in New York refers to it as the country, like just in a blanket statement. We're going upstate. We're going upstate, we're going to the Poconos, we're going to the Adirondacks, we're going down the shore. There's a lot of names, but nobody ever says we're going to the country. No, that's true. And then B in this movie, which took place in New York City, when they go to the country, it's the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.

Greg 15:13

Like I've never been so certain of anything in my life. Cut to the California coast. Yeah.

Bobby 15:19

Yeah, exactly. The first shot is like fucking the hills of Malibu. And then the cabin is like in Big Bear. Yeah. It's so obvious.

Michelle 15:26

It's so clear. I'd have not spent a lot of time out there, but as soon as it cuts, I'm like, oh, the Pacific Ocean. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I know it when I see it.

Bobby 15:33

We can even see the ocean, but we could all felt it independently. Like, that's the Pacific Ocean. It's like foggy and there's like a sunset, but you're like, that's we we all know that and feel that. That is the country.

Michelle 15:44

No, it's not.

Bobby 15:45

Yep.

Michelle 15:45

Yeah.

Greg 15:46

I don't know if you guys remember the movie The Great Outdoors. Of course. Of course. Absolutely. Staple of my childhood. As soon as they pulled up to their cabin, I was like, Oh yeah. I was like, is this the cabin? Like it looks like the interior looks like the cabin from the Great Outdoors.

Bobby 16:00

You know what would have made this movie a lot better? John Candy. Uh 72-ounce steak eating fantastic. Yeah. It was missing something like that.

Greg 16:07

It would have made sense in this movie. Absolutely. Like for whatever reason that's happening now.

Bobby 16:12

Yeah, honestly, like I like you're not even joking. If they were at the cabin and they went out to dinner at like a big Texan style steak place, it wouldn't have been out of place with what else we saw.

Michelle 16:21

Yeah.

Bobby 16:22

Yeah.

Michelle 16:22

Yeah. Uh actually, maybe even would have made sense of like the day at least.

Bobby 16:27

Yeah, and so this so they're at this cabin in California. They drove about 20 minutes from New York to California. They're in this cabin, and that's where the first like visitation happens. There's a lot of lights coming through the window. That's kind of the first instance, but we do see a we do see the first glimpse of an alien. Oh, yeah.

Michelle 16:44

He peeks around the door.

Bobby 16:46

Peeking around the door, we see about a half of an alien head which plastic doll. It's like it's a it's a it's a gray, it's pink, but it's a gray style alien. When you think of aliens, you think of the grays. It's definitely that style.

Michelle 16:58

But he's not he's not pink, you guys. Not pink, he's flesh color. Flesh color. Yeah, he's flesh color, yeah.

Bobby 17:03

Yeah, because he's real.

Michelle 17:04

Yeah, yeah.

Greg 17:05

What's funny is like in my notes I wrote gray but pink. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Bobby 17:09

Exactly. And I don't know if he says it in this, he says it many other times in the film. And I can only think that this must be what the author actually said in his encounters, because it's such a strange turn of phrase. He every time he sees an alien or he's visited, he goes, Is that someone there? Yeah, specifically, he's like, Is that someone there? And he says it many times, enough to really get it into your brain, not like who's there, who's that, what's that, is anybody there? Yeah, is that someone there?

Michelle 17:35

Yeah, that's so strange. Really good call out. Because I feel like even Christopher Walken wasn't able to deliver that line because it's so weird. No one, yeah, nobody does, but then it just made him seem more like, I love Greg. The only alien in this movie is Christopher Walken.

Bobby 17:53

Is that someone there?

Michelle 17:55

Oh man. Oh, dude, if we can go back to the beginning of the movie real quick, when we see his little writer's room. Oh, yeah.

Bobby 18:00

Which is just like when he licks his fingers to warm him up.

Michelle 18:03

That's the one. That's the one.

Bobby 18:04

He's got real wet and lubed up, sub lubrication.

Michelle 18:07

He's got yeah, he's got a real wild setup. It's like an old, you know, like a 70-pound computer where like you put the floppy discs in and the bottom and the the screen is like a tube screen, you know, it's like a really big chunky thing. But on top of that, he has a video camera pointed at himself. And then on his right, but like on the floor next to him, like lower than his desk, is a TV that is hooked up to this video camera. So he's doing like essentially like the first selfie webcam vibe that you've ever seen. And he's just being a lunatic. He's got like his fedora on, he's licking his fingers, he's fucking typing away.

Bobby 18:49

In a bathrobe, also.

Greg 18:50

Oh, there was one part where he had a plastic wolf mask on.

Michelle 18:54

Sure did. No pants.

Greg 18:55

No pants and cowboy boots.

Michelle 18:56

I really love that outfit. I gotta say. That was a great outfit. Although his wife comes in and's like, you gotta take that off and put on the stupid fucking elephant nose. Put on pants. Yeah, whatever I get, your gray turtleneck. Also, I have to say that I it a lot of this, this was the most 90s shit I've seen in a long time. Like the patterns of the bed spreads and the curtains and stuff all really brought me back. Like it was the 90s.

Bobby 19:23

The 80s.

Michelle 19:24

The 80s. It was the edge of the 90s. It was 1989.

Bobby 19:30

Yeah, it was very much of the yeah, of the the time, the style, and the patterns.

Greg 19:34

Going back to like the first like visitation of these aliens or like abduction sort of thing, there were two classes of aliens. Yeah, we had like the the plastic gray doll aliens.

Bobby 19:44

Sorry, we didn't see them at the first one. Oh, okay.

Greg 19:46

That was the second.

Bobby 19:47

Yeah, I think the second we see them. And just for for the listener, these are also the types of visitations slash abductions that they'd we're not we don't remember them the next day. We're seeing them, but then these characters don't remember. They feel like something weird.

Greg 20:00

That was that was something else that like came to mind. And it's not just for this movie, it's for other like alien abduction things. Like what what would be the point of erasing your memory?

Michelle 20:10

What? There's so many points to erase the memory.

Greg 20:12

I wonder if you were an alien and you just like abducted someone and you just like throw them back, but like why like make them forget? Like, what what would be the purpose of it?

Michelle 20:19

Because they're gonna tell people and I want to be a secret.

Greg 20:22

Is that it?

Michelle 20:23

Yeah, I mean, I want to erase everyone's memory, whoever met me.

Bobby 20:26

But I I wonder, like, maybe it's a byproduct of what else they're up to.

Michelle 20:31

It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Okay. Is erasing the memories. You gotta.

Bobby 20:35

Yeah. I mean, I I'm I um I agree with both of you. Uh I thought without this memory, we we end up with like weird things the next day with him like going into the kitchen and going, was there an owl in here last night?

Michelle 20:49

Yeah, yeah. Also, anybody else?

Greg 20:52

I mean Well, that is like a common thing too. There were a lot of things in this movie that I feel like probably coming from the book, like the some little details like this, because owls were also confused as aliens for the longest time.

Bobby 21:05

Yeah, Barnells were little green men, a lot of a lot of people.

Greg 21:08

Yeah, so like having that idea like used in this and like having it as a line, it's like, oh, okay. There was even this little I again, I paid attention to weird things in this movie. It was Christmas time, and they were like opening gifts, and like that also made me think, is this a Christmas movie?

Michelle 21:23

I don't know.

Greg 21:24

It is, but his wife was holding like instruction manuals for something, and it was for Starcom. And I looked I noticed that and I looked it up. I wanted to know what that was, and it was actually a um it looked like a light bright type of thing. It was actually it's a specialized instrument. You it's like for radio and scanning to detect UFOs and communicate with aliens. Yeah. It was something that was actually produced. Okay, you want to know the little thing I but again, but like to have that detail there, yeah, like so they're they're already thinking about aliens. They're thinking like how is this a a Any surprise to them that any of these events took place? Like they're already interested in thinking about aliens.

Bobby 22:05

Also, in this movie, how can you put a prop like that in and not mention it?

Greg 22:09

And not mention it. It was just her holding the instructions on how to use it. Yeah. And like so, and they were not like alien people. They weren't right. There was no reference to aliens or anything through the movie.

Michelle 22:19

I know what you mean by alien people. Like, yeah, like we're alien people. Yeah. These guys were not. They're like normal ass writer, mom, child.

Greg 22:29

Again, it was like a small detail that could have been in the book or something like that. And it just got glossed over.

Michelle 22:34

Also, it could have been like the guys who made the movie, like a little Easter egg for the alien people, you know? No?

Greg 22:39

It's like crickets. Right around crickets. I'm sorry.

Michelle 22:44

I just sorry, Greg's no longer listening. He doesn't give a shit about what I just said.

Bobby 22:49

It's I just gotta like a moment that's like I've got my notes, which I took while watching this movie in a linear fashion, and they just don't make any sense. When I look at what's next in my notes, I'm like, that's not that's not where we're at, but it's like absolutely where we're at. Like it's it's really well that's the thing, it jumps so much.

Greg 23:10

Yeah. To like there, there was time jumps, and then like I'm guessing that like maybe that's why like their demeanor changed and they were just completely different people from scene to scene. But it was just like everything happened in such a bizarre way that it was hard to follow any kind of story happening.

Bobby 23:27

And I mean, I just like I gotta there's not a transition to what I'm about to say. Like, I just got I don't even know if it's like where we're at in the movie, but like they're like arguing, and he's like, There's aliens, and she's like, You're crazy. And then he just like gets a shotgun. Yeah, and she like barely registers that he has a gun. Yeah, and then he's just like rolling around with the shotgun, and then at some point he just like starts blasting the shotgun off in the house, and she comes out and he aims the gun at her and pulls the trigger, and she what she does instead of running away, she just turns her back, she just turns her back, yeah, and then slowly walks over to him to like take the gun from him.

Greg 24:05

Like this is a normal thing, like, oh, we sleepwalking away.

Bobby 24:08

And then and then the son comes out and goes, What are you shooting at, dad? Like, in a way that's like this has happened many times, kind of if it really felt like that. The kid is like, he's like rubbing sleep out of his eyes, like he's so everyone's so unalarmed that he's blasted off a shotgun inside of their cabin.

Greg 24:22

But prior to this, going back to like like their relationship, like it wasn't even just like calling him crazy. She like he was he woke up, or like I forget what happened, he was genuinely scared. Like he was like, there was like a genuine sense of him being scared, and she's just like, You're being a fucking pussy, yeah. Like, and like and then he's just like, whatever, and like just that's when he like gets up and gets his gun, and I was like, What the fuck is about to happen? Yeah, and then he's just walking around the house, like shooting at things, and it was like, What is up with the like that this relationship? Like, I don't get like how he's he's like confiding in her a little bit, and and she's just like shut up.

Bobby 25:01

I think at this point, it it's it's like it's so crazy the way that things happen and develop in this movie. Like, can we just can we now talk about the aliens, what they look like? Yes.

Greg 25:13

Aside from the plastic doll alien, yeah.

Bobby 25:15

That's so that's like one type, and then there's another type that he he refers to in like appointments with the psychiatrist and some other times as blue doctors. He calls them, he's like the blue doctors.

Michelle 25:26

The kid calls them blue doctors, which I thought was. Walker says it at some point, too. He says little blue men. Little blue men.

Bobby 25:31

Oh, I thought he said blue doctors too.

Michelle 25:32

No, the kid didn't. I thought that was really good.

Bobby 25:34

Okay, yeah. Well, everybody calls them blue, they're black. Uh they're you know, in certain certain lights, in certain white senses, they're a little navy. Uh but you really gotta you gotta argue that they're blue. I feel like I feel like if you called them black, nobody would argue with you.

Greg 25:49

Well, they're dressed in like black robes like druids.

Michelle 25:52

Yeah, they do look like druids. They have like if fat stubby druids. If Ewok's were ugly and blue, black, black, blue, yeah.

Bobby 26:01

And like even did you just call them fat stubby druids?

Greg 26:04

Yeah.

Bobby 26:05

Well, in the film, Christopher Walken describes them as big thick kids. Just some thick kids, groups. He refers to them as big thick kids, which much better title for the film. Gotta say. I have that in all caps in my notes, big thick kids. It was such a weird turn of phrase.

Greg 26:24

The next thing in my notes is literally this feels so long, and it's just written real fucking.

Bobby 26:30

Yeah. Again, this film jumps around in a crazy way, like apropos of nothing. The next thing in my notes is elevator. Because they're like at a party, they're at their apartment, and they get in the elevator arguing, they go downstairs into the lobby, argue some more, and then get back up in the elevator and just go back up to their apartment. They just ride the elevator to argue in the lobby for 20 seconds and then get back in the elevator and go up again.

Michelle 26:52

I did notice quite a few things like that. And here's what okay, so while Greg was trying to make the art mean stuff, I was like, uh, okay, so they did that because they didn't want to fight in front of the kid, you know? And then I was also like, is it cool if you make out in front of your kid? Is that thing is that something people who grew up in families where their parents liked each other? Is that something that's normal? Because for me it's very uncomfortable. Like, I don't like that you're being like a little bit flirty with each other in front of the kid. That kind of creeps me out. But like, maybe that's fine and actually better, and maybe I wouldn't be so fucked up if uh Christopher Walken wasn't my alien dad.

Bobby 27:33

So, what do you what do you take issue with?

Michelle 27:34

Uh, I forget. Oh, it's the opposite. I don't take issue. I made up all these reasons why they would be fighting in the elevator. Like, why would they leave the child in the apartment?

Bobby 27:46

Where did the flirting come in?

Michelle 27:47

Like throughout the movie, you remember how they like hate each other and they're fighting for no reason, and she's like, Be a man, you've got a nice wife and a beautiful boy, and then she's like the whole time she's like that.

Greg 27:57

And then she's just like we're nice to each other.

Michelle 28:00

Yeah, but then sometimes he's like touching her leg and wants to go to bed. Yeah. You know? It's weird. It's a weird dynamic. I didn't really uh understand, so I tried to make sense of it. Yeah, because it didn't make sense. Yeah, yeah.

Greg 28:11

Well, because of like the abduction, the wife not caring, the wife doesn't give a shit that he fired the gun off in the house. That was weird, I have to say. Part of the connection.

Michelle 28:25

Okay, back up, you guys are grossly misrepresenting the situation that went down. Okay, he's got the gun, which I have to admit, she should have said something before he left the bedroom with the gun.

Bobby 28:39

So far, haven't misrepresented the situation at all.

Michelle 28:41

Okay, but there was a fucking blue Doctor Alien man in his house.

Bobby 28:45

In his you mean a big thick kid?

Michelle 28:49

There was a big thick kid hiding behind a vase. And so he shot him. And then she came down and you know, she shouldn't uh come down at that moment. And then he turns and he does shoot at her.

Bobby 28:59

All I'm saying is that she didn't know that there was a big thick kid there, but she still has underreacts. I disagree to him shooting the gun in the house.

Michelle 29:07

I disagree. All right, so for the listener, just visualize.

Bobby 29:10

He shot it at her.

Michelle 29:11

Yeah, he did, he did. Everybody visualize this. So he turns, he shoots at her, she stops. She just got you she just got shot at by her husband. She turns around and like puts her face up against the wall and just like silently is against the wall for for a few too many moments.

Bobby 29:30

She also, I just gotta say, for a little bit of the geography of the scene, she just like dashed in from a hallway. Yeah. That's so her turning around against the wall is as equally easy or for her to run into another room hallway to get out of to leave the room that he has the the shotgun in. So it's not like I'm not saying it's a bad move to turn away from a gun blast who checks out, but if you can leave the room, better choice.

Michelle 29:54

Yeah, but we're not thinking. We're not thinking. Our husband just shot us, you know. I mean, we're we're not dead. We didn't get shot at the show.

Greg 30:01

Well she wasn't shot, but like she's like he's shooting off in the living room and she comes out of the hallway like doing like the rubbing the eyes thing, like, what's going on?

Michelle 30:11

She never even screams. I thought what made it believable was that she doesn't scream, you know. Like, I think that there's there's something to be said of a silent reaction where you're so afraid you can't even scream out, you know, because that was so messed up.

Greg 30:25

Because of all this, they now decide it's probably a good idea that we go to a shrink.

Michelle 30:31

Yeah.

Greg 30:32

And we have to go talk to a psychiatrist, figure out what's going on. They go, super sexy music plays. Essentially, he's trying to talk to her about what's going on. That's where on her desk she has a book called uh First Contact. I looked it up, that book doesn't exist.

Michelle 30:49

Oh, actually, I disagree because I really yeah, because it's hard to see in the movie. They make it a little like uh they don't get you you never really get to see the uh the full cover, the full jacket. Yeah, there's so I took a picture of it and I put it into AI and I did a search on the internet and I found it. It's called First Contact. New Guinea's Highlanders Encounter the Outside World. It's uh not a book about aliens at all, but it does make it seem like she's written some alien first contact book, and it's not. It's about this tribe that sees the white man for the first time. Gotcha.

Greg 31:27

It's about humanity. Yeah, I tried to do like a hunt, and like, yeah, there was just like a thousand books called First Contact, and I was just like, maybe they were just trying to reference um Driver's like real book.

Michelle 31:38

Right, which is actually called Communion, which by the way, I did look up. Like, how many copies did that guy sell that it got like made into a movie? It's actually fucking phenomenal. This book was a major hit.

Greg 31:49

It's it would have to be if they were gonna like spend money on it.

Michelle 31:52

So it's 1987. The book sold more than two million copies worldwide, which is crazy, you know. Like here's a book about from an unknown author about him getting abducted by aliens, you know?

Bobby 32:06

I feel like there's probably a lot of detail in that book that would have made this story make sense. Oh, yeah, for sure.

Michelle 32:12

By the way, it said that he made about 14 million dollars.

Greg 32:15

But the psychiatrist is then like talking to him about what's happening, and he's explaining it to her, and then she's just like, let's do some hypnosis, and like we'll we'll try to figure out what's going on. Um, they put him under, he's just kind of like reliving some a couple of flash of scenes, comes out, then it's just like we'll we'll do this again. But yeah, there's like that naked dancing alien scene.

Bobby 32:37

Oh, yeah, that was I wrote down uh eyes wide shut party with that with the alien aliens. He's like in a room with multiple aliens. The fleshy grays, the pink pink grays. The other ones are so short and stubby that it makes the fleshy pink grays seem like tall whites. Yeah, yeah. Kind of situation, maybe.

Michelle 32:58

I agree with that wholeheartedly. Yeah, yeah.

Greg 33:00

And she's actually like probably one of the better characters, the psychiatrist.

Bobby 33:04

She actually yeah, that's a fair, fair point.

Greg 33:06

Yeah, and uh she recommends like, oh, there's this group of like people that we can go, like you can go and talk to about these things that you know it sounds crazy to anybody else, but there are other people that I know of that go through a lot of this same stuff. And he goes to essentially an AA meeting for alien abductions, which happens to be held at her office.

Michelle 33:25

Yes, by the way.

Bobby 33:26

You gotta save on locations, dude.

Michelle 33:27

Locations are expensive, full of amazing art. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it just seemed a little suspicious. Like, there is a group you can go to. I host it every Monday night.

Bobby 33:35

This was the character was played really well and acted really well, but it was funny. She like she went to the psychiatrist and she was skeptical. She was like, I had this alien encounter, and she was skeptical, and she was like, All right, like maybe like this happened or whatever. I forget what like theories she posits as to what exactly happened to him. But then once she like kind of does the hypnosis and all that, she's like, actually, I've got 12 other clients of experience as well, totally, which is such a crazy turn. Yeah, yeah, that's how he comes to this support group.

Michelle 34:05

Man, I have to say, we are making this movie sound like a linear cohesive story, and it's just not the way that it plays out. Like, we were just like I don't know if we're really selling us more so than the actually like watching the movie, you're like, What? Like I don't know. I think from what you just said, I'm like, okay, so he sees some aliens, he goes to he almost shoots his wife, he goes to a shrink, you know. But in the movie, it doesn't really unfold so linearly.

Bobby 34:35

I honestly can't tell you if the part of the movie that we're talking about occurred 35 minutes in or an hour and 35 in. I'm really not sure, honestly.

Michelle 34:44

Yeah, fair again.

Greg 34:45

At a certain point, like that's why I wrote down feels so long.

Bobby 34:48

Yeah, you're like, is this still going?

Greg 34:49

Because like at a certain point, like I had to like pause it to like just take some notes, and I noticed that it was like half, only half done. And I was just like, how? Yeah, what is going on in this film? It's so kind of all over the place. And that's why, like, even like you saying, like, are we like we're I feel like we're telling it in a straight line. It's like, I don't know. I in the well who knows if we are or not.

Bobby 35:09

I'm going through my notes in a straight line, which I took while watching the movie. So that's like all I have to go by to tell you that and eventually we gotta get to he he does a reference earlier, maybe at the shrink, maybe somewhere else, that he gets probed. And so eventually there is a scene where like the big thick kids they have like a machine and they like take up a probe, this like long probe with like a little thing on the end. And and Christopher Walken is naked, tastefully done in the middle of this room. There's big thick kids all around him. They got this. It's like a probe, it's on like a big reel. If you've ever used like an air compressor, it's kind of like that. Like the probe's very long. Like, I think it could have gone like travel the whole distance of his intestines if it needed to.

Michelle 35:49

It seems oh, it could come out of your mouth.

Bobby 35:51

So he went in there, so they come up and they've kind of got it in their hand, and he do you remember what he says? Yes, I maybe know. Yeah, please. I have what I what it what it felt like to me, which was are you gonna buy me dinner first?

Greg 36:02

But what he actually says is Here I am, I am naked.

Michelle 36:06

No, no, no. Right before the alien speech.

Greg 36:09

He says, like, can we can we talk about this?

Bobby 36:10

Yeah, can we talk about this? I think he says, Can we talk about this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He does say that though. Here I am, I am naked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So weird. The dialogue. He kind of has his like Christopher Walken grin. He looks at one of them, he's like, Can we talk about this first? Yeah. And he like kind of says it in like a shticky way that we really felt like it was like, You're gonna buy me dinner first before you put that thing in my asshole.

Greg 36:31

Yeah, like where I'm at in my notes, like I just have it's probe and time. Yeah, yeah.

Bobby 36:36

And and it was, you know, and it was a strange scene. It was, I mean, it was honestly, uh, we'll kind of admit that it was it was well acted. Walken gave a uh a good like nervous tension in that yeah, he was very clearly, it wasn't jokey, he was very clearly upset and uncomfortable with what was happening, but in like kind of this like surreal way, he's reliving it. All these alien encounters take place in like a kind of a like a subliminal dream space, kind of in between asleep and awake, uh, in this very surrealist aspect. Um, to and to that end, it there was earlier like Eyes Wide Shut party with the aliens. At some point closer to the end of the movie, he's in another weird alien party, and there's just weird children in like little like Bavarian outfits, oh I have little bright outfits, and uh he's just in this weird subliminal alien, the aliens are around, walking around. There's many children, so many children. Yeah, all these children. That's what I have in my notes, is all these children, dot dot dot.

Greg 37:33

And then uh there's also he has like a vision of himself as a magician. And then oh, that's all right, dude. And then, like, for me, I was just like watching him as this other like hallucination of himself.

Michelle 37:45

Oh my god, I just remembered what you're talking about, the weird mustache and the whole thing.

Greg 37:50

Right, and then I was watching it, I was like, he's so much better as this weird hallucinated magician than he is playing this other character. Yeah, I'm like him as that. I was like, he's great. Yeah, like walking is awesome. Like it's like there needed to be something in this movie to be like for him to be like, I need to be like a fucking weirdo.

Michelle 38:09

I need to be a bad guy, yeah.

Greg 38:10

And then like it was that, and I was like, perfect. Yeah, like he nailed that, and I was like, I want like I want more of this weird magician guy.

Michelle 38:16

Yeah, that was so weird. God, I didn't remember that at all. Maybe I should make notes.

Bobby 38:21

There was at the opening of that scene, I just like wrote a note when he was walking in, just like the way that scene in particular was shot, and like I know like I've been involved in a lot of wonderful, beautiful, brilliant student films, but there is a connotation about student films, and all of those apply to this scene. Yeah, and I was like, this feels like a student film, like the way that that this was shot, and it was so strange and weird, and uh it was just yeah, it was very strange for uh a production with such a budget.

Michelle 38:51

Well, I again I don't take notes, so I don't really remember the timeline on this one, but I feel like that eyes wide shut party that we keep talking about was like really toward the end. I feel like he has he comes to a place where it is. I'm at the end of my notes. Okay, yeah, yeah. So he comes to a place where he's like less uh afraid of what's happening to him, and he's in more of a uh acceptance zone, and he does an incredible thing. So, oh right, all right. So he's been like a little bit mopey, a little bit afraid. His wife is saying shit like that, like who would be afraid? You know, she's really like you're being uh bad, you know, like a a wuss. I'm not gonna say a P word. Um so his son starts saying stuff like why is dad so sad or whatever, you're so sad. Well, he comes out in a manic state. He's got his fedora back on, he's got a little outfit on. This is also the one and only time it makes sense that this movie is called communion because she says something like, You're dressed for your first communion or something, which doesn't make any sense because wouldn't he be in like a little suit or so? I don't know. He's wearing like a green shirt.

Bobby 39:56

I mean, he looks handsome, he looks like it's not a bad outfit, but it is very I also I have a double-breasted suit in my notes. Like the fact that it was a double-breasted suit is you wouldn't wear that to your communion, straight. It's like a black double-breasted suit, fedora, and then he has like a hunter green shirt and matching tie on. Yeah, and this is the outfit that he chose. He's also driving like a jacked up with like KC lights, like Chevy, it's like it's a K5 blazer, but it's the GMC version. Uh it's escaping me of the model at that point. Car stuff. Pretty great.

Michelle 40:26

Big old, big old truck.

Bobby 40:28

He's he's dressed like a mobster at a Christmas party, but he's driving this like huge blazer and he drives it out to the woods and he sees this like glowing orb and he goes inside.

Michelle 40:37

Oh yeah, that's how he gets to the party. That's that's like the this end.

Bobby 40:40

And that's where he like meets the magician of himself, who I have for like I forgot. That's the last thing I wrote down. Behind this magician is just a Christmas tree.

Michelle 40:49

Oh yeah, that's a good point.

Bobby 40:50

And also, he when he walks into this, I have called it a party, it felt like a party. He walks in, and there's like the big thick kid aliens, and he like starts to like they starts to dap them up, dude. They do like a normal handshake, and then they're like doing all these variation handshakes, and it's kind of like him like oddly embracing. It's so weird. Like they're basically losing into it.

Michelle 41:10

Yeah, they're basically like, what up, homie? And then they're laughing.

Bobby 41:13

He does the little thing on his nose with the wiggly hand.

Michelle 41:16

Totally. It turns into a David Lynch movie.

Bobby 41:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 41:19

You know, and then we're dancing, we're swaying with the aliens. Then the pink alien looks like one of those like outside the tire house, you know. Like, I think his prop was made with air in it because his fingers were doing weird wiggly things.

Bobby 41:30

Picture like the vibe and the lighting is like when you go into like uh in Star Wars when they go into like the cantina and most eiseley and there's like the party going on and the weird, weird dancing and all that stuff.

Greg 41:41

The fat kids, what what is it called?

Bobby 41:43

Big thick kids.

Greg 41:44

The big thick kids. Imagine if they were like designed and made by Jim Henson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like there's something very like not amateur, but like it just didn't fit the tone of the movie. Like it didn't match, like nothing matched in this movie, but like this was definitely like it felt like they had leftover things from something else. Yeah, and they're like put robes on them and like just shove them in this.

Bobby 42:06

Like yeah, Jim Henson was like, I got these guys for cheap. Yeah, and they're like, We'll take a dozen. Yeah, yeah.

Michelle 42:11

But then have David Lynch direct the scene and be like, Christopher, now just start laughing.

Bobby 42:15

It did really feel like that. Yeah, it was a very disjointed uh last little things I have.

Greg 42:22

Uh it says uh sexy clapping guitars, sexy clapping them alien cheeks.

Michelle 42:27

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I uh I was like, I am naked.

Greg 42:32

I'm here, I am naked.

Bobby 42:33

Are you gonna buy me dinner first?

Greg 42:36

Yeah, of course it's like it's walking, he has to dance and everything that he does. And then it at a certain point, after this little like alien party, they go back, and now his like he and his wife are fine.

Michelle 42:47

And then Oh, wait, wait, wait, pause, pause, pause, pause. So when he's leaving the house before he drives out to the alien party and he's dressed up, his family is like stoked to see him in such high spirits because he's been such a downer, you know. But his wife is like, Where are you going?

Greg 43:00

Oh, he's going, I'm gonna go buy some cigarettes. That's right.

Michelle 43:04

It's amazing. I'm gonna go buy cigarettes.

Bobby 43:06

And a really dramatic pause before he says it too, really makes her wait for it.

Greg 43:11

And again, the dialogue was so weird in this because then she's like, after he left, he's like, But you don't smoke.

Michelle 43:16

I thought that was great. It was the only time the lines were delivered, I think, the way that I wanted them to be.

Bobby 43:22

The timing was so weird. He's like long out the door, and she's in the room by herself, and she goes, But you don't smoke.

Michelle 43:28

That was one of my favorite scenes. I don't care.

Bobby 43:31

No notes from Michelle.

Michelle 43:32

No notes, that was perfect. Fucking chef's kiss. I loved every second of it.

Greg 43:36

Yeah, after all this, after his little party, he comes back. They're in his he and his wife are walking around an art museum.

Michelle 43:43

Um my god, those scenes are so weird.

Greg 43:46

And it's so odd to watch them interacting, and then for whatever reason, like it gets into this, it ends in this like weird, like hyper existential, philosophical, like gobbly gook. Of just like and it was trying really hard to sound profound about like reality and life, and it was just not paying off at all.

Bobby 44:09

When it was done so poorly, I mean, not not to get into the nitty-gritty, but it's not like I've been holding back so far. In this weird, like existential moment that they're trying to have, like each of them are standing in front of a different painting. Yeah. And they're like is ostensibly talking to each other, and so we're kind of cutting back and forth, but particularly with her, as she's speaking, her eyes are moving like she's speaking to him. Her eye line is changing, but we know that they're stationary. Right. And I was just like, figure out their fucking eyelines, dude. It just like really took me out of this otherwise incredible scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Greg 44:44

I agree. It felt so jarring, and it was probably the eyelines, but it cutting back and forth between the two of them. It wasn't even like angled shots, it was head-on there like have this painting behind them.

Bobby 44:55

Yeah, and his if his eyeline doesn't ever his eyeline doesn't change first.

Greg 45:00

And it's just back and forth of just like again, like trying to sound profound, as like this is like some important thing that like they're trying to bestow upon the audience, and it was just like, oh my god, shut up. Like and I understand, again, it's probably in the book where like Whitley's trying to kind of come to terms with everything that like has happened to him up until this point, like within the book itself, and like they just did not handle those ideas or those concepts of like what life is really like or whatever, like in any good fashion. They're just like, We have to put this in, and it just it was so out of place, and then they're done waxing poetic about all this shit, and then it just cuts back to them like walking around the art gallery a little bit more, and then like they leave. And it was like, What why would anyone talk to each other like this? So bizarre.

Bobby 45:55

It was absolutely bizarre, it was a bizarre way to end a bizarre movie.

Michelle 45:58

And oh, one thing we didn't talk about though is um the kids, the actual children, not the alien children, but the kids. Oh, yeah.

Greg 46:06

Remember they had kid? They had a kid.

Michelle 46:08

No, fuck that kid, not that not.

Greg 46:11

Because he's gone at this point in the movie, right?

Michelle 46:13

Yeah, no, no, no, not that kid. Uh so at some point he has vision of himself as a kid seeing the light. And so he's like, It turns out, you guys, this has been happening to me my whole life, and I'm like a chosen one.

Bobby 46:27

He just forgot, because remember, we've established forget. Or they like compartmentalize his brain.

Michelle 46:33

Right, right, right, right. So I think that like when he's on the spaceship, I think he's naked, which is a little inappropriate, but he's on the spaceship.

Bobby 46:40

He is there, he is naked.

Michelle 46:42

He's there, he's naked, and there's weird Danish kids everywhere. They must be other chosen ones, you know? And then like the people in the AA meeting, they're all chosen ones too. I mean, I it's clear as day, it's brilliant. I loved it. That was great. You're welcome. Fucking you guys hate this movie.

Bobby 46:58

I mean, yeah, uh, if I can't recommend anyone watch this film unless you're gonna watch it with two to three friends who are really funny and enjoy bad movies, then it could be a good time.

Greg 47:08

Yeah, if you're gonna like uh mystery science theater, the thing. Yeah, exactly. By all means have at it.

Bobby 47:13

Exactly. I mean, I if I was gonna recommend a film, I would recommend one of the director's other films, 1997's Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills. So just keep that in mind.

Michelle 47:24

Woo!

Bobby 47:25

Yep.

Michelle 47:26

Okay, I just looked up whether or not he the guy who wrote the book, whether or not he liked the movie. And what comes up is no.

Greg 47:37

I can't imagine that he did. He's like, they're fucking, they've ruined everything.

Michelle 47:41

He says that they this is uh paraphrasing, they turned the story into something closer to a horror movie. They oversimplified the encounters, and they didn't capture the psychological or the philosophical aspects of what he believed happened to him. Um, he was involved in early in the project, but the studio and the filmmakers changed the tone during development.

Greg 48:05

Oh, we can tell. And one thing he said though they changed it like 15 times through the movie.

Michelle 48:10

One thing he did say was that Walken's performance was good.

Greg 48:14

Okay.

Bobby 48:15

Did you like the movie? No. Performance? It was good.

Michelle 48:18

Yeah, I mean, it was Christopher Christopher Walken played me, so like that's kind of not that I mean I do kind of appreciate that.

Bobby 48:23

It won't be back a little bit for Whitley that he's like, yeah, it wasn't a very good movie. Yeah, what a bummer for me.

Michelle 48:28

Yeah, for sure.

Greg 48:29

Yeah, that's why like it's funny that he had mentioned that like they didn't capture like the philosophical aspects of what he was trying to say. Like the God, they did try, they did such a the only place they did it was that one scene at the end of the movie in the in the art gallery.

Michelle 48:44

I thought what do you when I was watching that scene? I was like, oh, they must have paid a lot of money to get the rights to use the art, and that's why it looks like this, because they were standing in front of famous paintings.

Bobby 48:55

He was in front of a Jackson Paula, she was in front of maybe like a Kandinsky or something. Yeah, or something.

Michelle 48:59

I mean, I couldn't tell you exactly what. I mean, I recognized Paula because it's so recognizable. I don't know what her painting was, but it was clear that they were trying to get every dollar out of that location.

Bobby 49:10

Yeah, you know. I mean, that guy was at the Met. Yeah, or MOMA, maybe it felt like the modern ring of Matt.

Michelle 49:18

In the MoMA, but it could have uh you know what? I don't know. I don't know where it was. I should have took notes and did some more research. But I like to freestyle.

Bobby 49:26

It was in a museum in New York.

Michelle 49:28

Probably. Yeah, could have been in California, Chicago.

Greg 49:31

I was uh I was thinking about like when we did uh Willow Creek in comparison to this. Like well, my my notes for Willow Creek were not nothing, but they're like next to nothing. Because it was just like enjoyable and like this was just like from like minute one, I'm just scribbling furiously. I'm just like, I can't believe what the fuck I'm watching. Me too.

Michelle 49:50

I mean, I wasn't scribbling, but I was like, who the fuck is this kid? Why is he wearing an old man outfit and why is he on the screen so much?

Greg 49:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle 49:56

Yeah, I got really upset. I started out hot. Yeah. But you know what? I liked it. I think uh I think I think everybody should watch it with friends and make fun of it.

Bobby 50:07

Yeah, that could be a good time. Yeah. And if you've had any sort of communion with alien beings.

Michelle 50:13

Oh, you know what? I have one question. Do you make your communion when you're a baby?

Bobby 50:17

Or is that con No, you're that's your baptism.

Michelle 50:20

Okay.

Bobby 50:20

Yep. You're okay. You're like a believe I was in first grade when I got my first communion. Okay. So about six six years ago.

Greg 50:27

Yeah, I think I was in third grade or something with that.

Michelle 50:30

Okay, all right. Never mind.

Bobby 50:31

Yep.

Michelle 50:31

If you've made your communion.

Bobby 50:33

Yeah. If you've made your communion.

Greg 50:35

I don't remember when it's a big thing.

Bobby 50:36

Well, there's your first communion, your first reconciliation. There's a lot of rites of passage to become confirmation. Confirmation's like age age 13 four is confirmation when you're like old enough to uh agree to be Catholic. Because they baptized you and you're a baby. And yeah, you don't have any say.

Michelle 50:53

And then they brainwash you for 13 years and then they tell you uh choose us, or when confirmation comes up with stories.

Greg 50:58

Confirmation isn't like really your choice though.

Michelle 51:00

Yeah, no.

Greg 51:01

It's like, well, do you want to be like no one asked if I wanted to do that? Right.

Michelle 51:04

Do you want to be confirmed or do you want to burn in hell, Greg?

Bobby 51:07

You're still under your parents' roof. Yeah. Right. Exactly. It's like, yeah, you don't have too much say. Yeah. Even though I did a board I bailed on the confirmation.

Michelle 51:16

Did you?

Bobby 51:16

Yeah, they said I remember I started it, uh they sent me on a retreat and I found the other one other bad kid in the confirmation class, and we were like smoking cigs behind the like conference center that we were at. And then yeah, I think I just like I was just too bad of a kid. I think I just like stopped going and disappeared. Yeah. And I mean at that point, and you know, God bless my parents. It was uh at that point they were wise enough to pick their battles. I think I was like, this is maybe not one that we want to go to the mattresses on, kind of thing.

Michelle 51:43

Go to the where?

Bobby 51:44

Mattresses?

Michelle 51:47

I thought it was like a wrestling thing.

Bobby 51:49

No. If you know anything about anything that I just said, call us at the Strange Exchange. Yeah. 929-445-3705.

Michelle 51:57

Yeah. Recommend a movie for us to watch and spoil for you.

Bobby 52:00

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We'd be happy to.

Greg 52:02

Oh, yeah. Spoiler alert, everybody.

Michelle 52:04

You're supposed to say that in the beginning, Greg. Fuck. Yep. Well, spoiled it for you again, folks.

Bobby 52:10

You're welcome.

Michelle 52:11

Goodbye.

Bobby 52:12

Bye bye, guys.