Rom Coms: Harold & Maude (1971)

Gather together from the cosmic reaches of the universe. Here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled.

Keith, people talk about iconic vehicles in movies. The jaguar hearse is awesome.

Terry, I'm gonna be shocked. I'm not one who usually says words like that. And I'm gonna be shocked at what I just said.

Derek. That's how you know it's British. There's two Nigels in the movie. And the power twins Zapp and Jordan with their magical lemur Snort ded to fumbling their way through movies one forgotten gem at a time. This week we watch the 1971 dark romantic comedy Harold and Maude. This is fumbling through film. Like to change into a sunflower most of all. They're so tall and simple. What flower would you like to be?

I don't know.

One of these, maybe.

Why do you say that? Because they're all alike.

Oh, but they're not.

Look. See, some are smaller, some are fatter,

some grow to the left, some to the right.

Some even have lost some petals. All kinds of observable differences. You see, Harold, I feel that much of the world's sorrow comes from people who are this. Yeah. Allow themselves to be treated as. Hello and welcome to another one of a kind, genre defining, brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film. The oldest show that dares to bring together three dudes to talk about movies. These aren't just any movies though. Correct. These are the ones we've missed, overlooked, or feel are simply worth revisiting. And when you spread that far of a blanket or a net, you catch any damn movie,

no matter how big the net, there's always going to be a fish that slips through.

No way.

Yeah, maybe

Keith agrees with me. He said maybe.

Oh, wait a minute. Whoa. No, no. Any movie. Derek, you're correct.

I'm not sure what Keith told was weird. He was like in a trance or something.

Like an incantation.

I. Yes, yes. I was trying to magically summon the. The movies that don't qualify.

There aren't any. I mean, it's. We've either missed it, overlooked it, or feel are simply worth revisiting. I guess there's. There's. I think we've said this before, there's. The ones we've watched that we feel are not worth revisiting.

Exactly. Thank you.

And still I think a few of those we've watched anyway.

But even those, even though one of us may have watched it and may not want to revisit it, odds are One of us missed or overlooked it.

That's it, you see. Good point.

It's any movie. Anyway, my name is Derek and I'm a Fumbler. Joining me here at the Fumble Dome, where we watch just about any movie with fishing nets. We watch. We've watched any movie that has a fishing net in it. And we also watch a movie that comes in our fishing net.

It's a great category idea.

Fishing.

Them.

It is.

Oh, God. Fishing movies. Anyway, joining me here is the prime minister of fumbling and film, Keith.

Hey, what's up, KG Fumbler extraordinaire. I also like movies that just have fish nets.

Fish nets. Dirty again.

Unless they could be classy.

Classy fishnets. Black Canary. That's the only classification.

Fish nets.

Satana.

Is it the time? Yeah, she does. I'd watch a ton of movie. That'd be great.

Heck, yeah.

That'd be kind of magical.

Yeah.

Oh, hey, look at this, you guys. Don't get super sleepy Sunday night.

Keith.

I am firing it off.

He's on fire today.

Firing. It's late night Tuesday. I'm trying to. What is fumbling through film backwards? I think we've done this before. That's how a zatana would. Yeah. Zip neck.

Yeah. It always starts with zip for some reason.

Oh, that other backwards talking fool is the Dr. Dre of Kansas. It's Terry.

Hey, everybody. I think we talked about it in the mirror dimension episode.

I think you're right.

The mirror dimension episode. I don't remember.

I don't remember what movie you were talking about, but I remember us talking about the mirror dimension.

Yeah. Loves us.

Yeah. We're big in the mirror dimension. We're big with cats. We're big with a lot of audiences.

You know, I don't remember a mirror dimension episode, but I also. I don't think you're making it up either. It seems very. Like a very thing that we would do. We're not making it up.

No.

I don't want to rehash old conversations, but yes. Terry claimed to be from the mirror dimension. And we're big there, Keith.

Really big. They love you.

Yeah.

But when it be we. If we're little there, it would be better, Right?

I never thought of it that way.

It's not the reverso.

Oh, it's not. It's not. It's. It's not the bizarro.

Yeah. Yeah.

We're not. We're not little in the bizarro dimension. We're big in the mirror dimension.

Yeah.

Bingo. Sorry.

You know what else There is to be sorry for this podcast. This podcast.

Oh, sorry.

And because we're here, we're not sorry for it, we're just sorry that it we're here and you don't know what we're doing. So you have to listen to it. Let's tell what you're about. You're in for. Every week we watch movies, but not just any movie. Every month, one of us chooses a theme, a genre, a guiding light, some sort of device to fake our own deaths with repeatedly. And then every week, one of us, each of us adheres to those we watch movies. And on the 4th, we watch movie that was tangentially mentioned and given to us by a wheel. But we're not there yet. We're only at week three. We're in DTF down to fumble Y2M5. And that's a Keith month. So Keith, tell us what it is we've been doing here.

We've been killing ourselves each week watching rom coms.

Rom coms from the rom com guy.

Self proclaimed the rom com king himself.

He called the king of the rom coms

the drum com Don. Yes, I forgot that.

I did that twice. I'll never forget it again.

Anyway, Keith, you kicked us this month though. You kicked us. You kicked off the month with When Harry Met Sally. When Harry Met Sally. Then Terry followed it up with Eagle versus Shark. Eagle versus Shark. And then I am following up in week three with another name and name movie, When Harry Met Sally, Eagle and Shark, and now Harold and Maude from 1971.

Do you think When Harry Met Sally came out? They're like, this ain't your grandparents, Harold and Maude?

No, they may have. Who knows what they said. Now, before we talk about our viewing of Harold and Maude from 1971, before we do a deep dive into Harold and Maude from 1971, did any of us have any previous knowledge, experience or history with Harold and Maude from 1971

outside of hearing the name of the movie? No. When he said the name of the movie, I was like, oh, Harold, Maud, I've heard of that. That.

Yep.

Couldn't. Couldn't have told you anything else besides it?

Yep.

Didn't even know it existed, Terry.

Didn't even know existed. I knew of it and I didn't know anything about it. But I remember there's another movie I watched and I can't tell you where it is. Where two characters say that their favorite romantic comedy or movie is Harold and Maude. And I think it's a romantic comedy. And they fall in love and they happen to share this similarity. Or maybe the girl likes Harold Ahmaud and the guy. Like, I don't know. But then I was like, I gotta find a movie. I don't want to. Just as soon as I told my wife what the theme was for the month, she just started spitting out titles like, no, I don't want any of these movies. Because they're all.

Any movie.

They're all the same. So I went to a list and I found somebody ranked like the 250best Rom coms. Which I'm like, that's a stretch. There's 250.

Yeah. How could there be 250 of these things?

I just.

No way they made 250.

Like, I, I don't. I don't hate romcoms. They're just not my cup of tea. But I found this and it was like in the upper 10% maybe. I was like, huh? Behind a bunch of foreign movies that are not available for streaming anywhere. Went with Harold and Mod.

Here we are.

I. I asked my mom over the weekend, I said, mom, you ever see Harold and Maude? And she's like, no, she hadn't seen it either. And she looked it up on online and started like running down like the. And it kind of explained why she probably hadn't seen at the time. Also, I don't think she would have liked it if she did see it.

1971. She would have been a young lady at the time.

Yeah. With. She would have been a Keithless young lady.

I say, yeah, that's young lady.

That's pre Keith. So she would have been young. Young. Right.

Her.

Her life still hadn't taken off yet.

Yeah.

So she had done the great. She hadn't done the greatest thing she could ever do.

Her highest accomplishment hadn't yet been, oh,

watch Harold and M. Or

depending.

Oh. Oh, God.

Oh, yeah. She doesn't watch Harold Mod yet, so it's still pending. She hasn't even done the top.

She hadn't done the greatest thing she could possibly do yet.

She's saving that. Yeah.

For 79th birthday.

She's getting. She's getting close.

There you go. You should introduce her. That. A young bow.

Oh, hey.

There you go.

You know. No, I don't want to. I don't want other things like that. No.

All right.

Well, anyway,

this would be the episode she listens to, so I'm not gonna make any other comments.

Well, Keith, you don't make any comments because I'm about to take us Close. Terry, you relax as well. You guys comment all you want. But Keith, you don't have to make any more comments if you don't want to. Particularly about your mother and her sex life. Because I'm going to take you guys closer to Harold and Maude than you could ever dreamed you would get in another pending fumbler. Steep dive. Harold and Maude. This some came out on December 20th of 1971. It's rated PG, runs an hour and 31 minutes.

Oh, perfect.

Keith.

Run time it is.

It was one minute too long.

I will say this just so we continue to track with this a little bit. I actually didn't think this one was too long. I thought that perfect timing.

I agree. Young, rich and obsessed with death, Harald finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral. I will say you will never meet a young person named Maude.

No.

Yeah.

No.

They're not allowed to exist.

They don't exist anymore.

It's like once you reach an age, then you earn the title. It's a title of Maud.

Yeah. It's not even a real name. Once you get like 60, I think that's when you're starting to get to be allowed to become a mod.

Get your mod card in the mail.

Yeah. There's an AARP card and your mod card the same time.

Yep.

It gets a 7.8 on IMDb and 86 on Rotten Tomatoes. It was finding box office information for Harold and Mud Slim Scant box office mojo said it made like $1200. Okay.

Wow.

It was estimated to have made about 1.2 million during its initial release on an estimated 1.2 milli budget. It's got the thanos going for him. Perfectly balanced.

Yeah. As all things should be.

Yeah. And then I. I found this little bit and I thought it was interesting. Despite early poor performance and mixed reviews, the film gained massive loyal audience over time with one theater in Minnesota notoriously playing it for over two years.

Wow.

Wow.

Keep that in mind because when I get to the fun facts, I'm gonna knock your socks off with something else.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. So my. My mom did pull up. I think she. She was reading off the AI overview, but she explained the same thing about like it got bashed by a lot of critics up front before like gaining this cult status type thing.

Yeah. Was not well received. Anyway. Rotten Tomatoes, there's a few blurbs. Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle said this. This black Comedy pairs a 79 year old swinger with a suicidal 20 year old, they go to funerals and philosophize together in between courts. Humorously staged suicide attempts. So her positive review was just an assessment of the movement.

Like, that's. That's right. Okay. Can't argue with that. So.

But not to be outdone, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times.

Oh, no, he ain't gonna like this.

The visual style makes everyone look fresh from the wax museum. And all the movie lacks is a lot of day old gardenias and lilies and roses in the lobby, filling the place with a cloying sweet smell. Nothing more to report today. What Roger really liked, Disliked it so much he'd rather go to a wax museum. I guess I couldn't tell if that

was a compliment or a deal.

Yeah, it was a. It was a bad review.

Nothing more to report today. I feel like you got it. Report a little more.

I liked it so little, he doesn't even want to talk about it.

You wrote the headline and then that was it.

Yeah. This movie was written by Colin Higgins, directed by Hal Ashby. Stars Ruth Gordon, Bud Court and Vivian Pickles.

Whoa. The Adventure of the Pickle had a

lot of cool names on, like Pickles. I gotta find out about this person.

There's a Christmas on the list too, I think.

Yeah, there were. There were a lot of cool names. Writer Colin Higgins has 13 writing credits to his name, Harold and Maude being his first. He also wrote Silver streak, foul play 9 to 5, and in 1982, he wrote the Best Littlee in Texas.

Dolly Parton movie.

Yeah. A town sheriff and regular patron of a historical whorehouse fights to keep it running when a television reporter targets it as the Devil's Playhouse. Stars Bert Reynolds, Dolly Parton, and Dom Deloise.

I don't know Bert Reynolds was in that. Is he the reporter?

No, he's the sheriff.

Oh.

Who likes him? Some, I guess.

Sounds like burn.

Yeah.

Offensive man.

Yeah, he got typecasted.

Seems like a role he could play.

Slid right into it. Director Hal ashby. He has 18 directing credits going back to 1970. He did things like the Landlord, Shampoo, Coming Home, Being there. And in 1986, he directed 8 Million Ways to Die. Former police detective Matthew Scudder, still recovering from his alcohol addiction, is seemingly drawn into the Los Angeles criminal underworld after stumbling upon a local drug ring. Stars Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, Randy Brooks, Andy Garcia and Lisa Sloan.

8 million ways to Die.

Yes.

The thing you told me where you don't give an astronomical number because you'll

never live up to it because now you get I want to see all 8 million ways.

Yeah. That's gonna take the whole movie. Just getting a montage of that.

There is a lyric in a rap song. Is it? I. I always thought it was six million ways to die, so I chose six million ways. One with my eyes closed or something like that. I can't remember what it was.

Yeah.

Is that. Who was that?

So I think it's Red, man.

Yeah, that is who it is.

Yeah. It's on, like six million ways to die. So I chose. Made six million one with my eyes closed.

With my eyes closed. Yep. That's what it was. But I mean, movie was 8 million ways to die.

I guess if you. You could have, like, double the amount of ways to die if you had one with your eyes open. One with your eyes closed.

Exactly. Unless it explicitly was said eyes closed or eyes open. This movie Stored Ruth Stored, starred it also. Stored.

Stored timelessly. Like within film history.

Yeah, exactly. Like a time capsule from 1971. Ruth Gordon as Mod. She has 44 acting credits in TV and film going back to. Drum roll, please. 1915.

Dang.

I said dang indeed.

Jeez and rice.

She was in episodes of Kojak, Taxi, Columbo, and the Love Boat.

Kojak, you say? Keith Cod.

No, Colch is what you're thinking.

Not Hunter. Kojak is Telly Savalas with a sucker.

You know, I'm gonna have to watch K one of these days.

Maybe.

Sounds like your type of thing. I don't know.

She was also in movies like Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Didn't meet Abe Lincoln.

She's.

She's old, but not that old. Edge of Darkness. Lord love a duck.

Oh.

Oh. That was for you, Terry.

I like this.

That's from the Munster days.

I love it.

Every which way but loose. Any which way you can. Those are two separate movies.

Are they sequels or the sequel.

Right.

Maybe don't go to sleep, but I won't. In 1968, she played Minnie Castafette in Rosemary's Baby.

Oh, nice.

A young woman suspects her neighbors have sinister plans for her pregnancy. Starry Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes and Ruth Gordon.

That's a good movie.

I've never seen it. That's on my list of things to see.

Never seen. Somehow missed it.

Somehow missed it. Overlooked it. It was 1968. I wouldn't have. Wasn't even born yet. The greatest thing my parents could have done hadn't happened for seven years. Yep.

Yep.

This movie.

Just so you know, Rosemary's Baby does qualify under the any movie categories.

It is yeah. Stars. This movie stars Bud Court as Harold. He has 82 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1967. He was in episodes of the Doctors, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Tales from the Dark side, Arrested Development, and the Sylvester and Tweety Minis. Mini Misseries, the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. Oh, and a bunch of other stuff, too. But he was in movies like the Chocolate War, Coyote Ugly, the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissu.

Oh, wow.

Dogma Heat.

What?

He was a dog? Spaders From Mars. Yes, he was. Also, he played Willie Hitler in the movie Son of Hitler.

Willie Hiller.

Yes. I'm assuming the titular son of Hitler Willie. Yes.

Wow, that is a crazy idea for a film. Willie Hitler.

Okay, little Willie Hitler. But what a lad.

I don't know what his deal is, but probably not great. I don't know.

I'm a naughty widow. Boy, did I do that. But in 1970, he played Private Boone in the movie MASH. The staff of a Korean War field hospital uses humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war. Directed by Robert Altman and stars Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould and Tom Skerrett.

Nice. That's a TV show too, right?

Yeah, I don't. None. I don't think any of the same people are in the TV show. But the TV show, especially, like the final episode I think we've discussed before, is like the most watched thing ever

and used to be long time. But like M was Long Ring TV show. And the movie MASH is supposed to be really good. I don't know if I've ever seen it.

I know I haven't.

I haven't.

Have you seen any of these from Vivian Pickles. She was Harold's mom, Mrs. Chasen. She has 66 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1946 episodes of Messmates, Moonstrike, the Avengers, Sword of Honor, Churchill's People Love In a Cold Climate, Uncle Jack and the Lock Knock Monster. Not Locked. Ness Monster. Lock Knock.

Interesting.

We've talked about the Avengers once before.

Yes. Not. Not the superheroes, but the British spies. Yeah, secret agents or whatever. She did a lot of tv, not a lot of film, but she was in movies like Britannia Hospital, Candle Shoe. Oh, Lucky man.

Oh.

But in 1969, she played a German nurse in Play Dirty. During World War II, a group of British commandos in North Africa, disguised as Italian soldiers, must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital German oil depot. Stars Michael Kane. Never. Nigel Davenport, Nigel Green and Harry Andrews. That's how you know it's British? There's two Nigels in the movie.

Yeah, that's very British.

I think that's also a British title as well. Yeah.

I feel like once you get to, like, 60, you can become Nigel.

You become Nigel. If you're a Brit.

Yep.

You could choose to accept the title.

It's a heavy burden to become a Nigel, but.

And if you were ever knighted as a Nigel, then you're Sir Nigel. You.

Yeah. That puts you to the top of the. Of the knights.

Yes, it does.

British hierarchy is like you've defeated it.

Yes.

You've conquered it.

King and Queen. The royal family, sir. And then Nigel. That's how it goes in the hierarchy, the ranking. Are y' all ready for some herald and mod fun facts?

I was born ready for it.

All right, this one is my most fun. I think I'm going to lead off with it. In all shots of Ruth Gordon Maude driving, the car she's driving is being towed because she never learned how to drive.

Wow, that's surprising.

That's surprising because I would have assumed that from the way she drove, she

could have just drove all practical and probably would have had the same effect.

Mm. Never learned how to drive. Now, this one's kind of long, but I thought it was interesting. The soundtrack for this movie, Harold and Maude, featured songs written and performed by popular performer Cat Stevens. Yes, he came to Hal Ashby, the director's attention through Elton John, who was being considered for the part of Harold.

What?

Elton John being considered for Hero?

Come on.

Steve Stevens was hired to compose the film's score, but couldn't complete his contract because of scheduling reasons. Now, Ashby, he'd already been using Cat Stevenson's song catalog as mood enhancers and scratch tracks during production. So they struck a deal. He said, listen, you don't have to do the score. We're just going to use all your songs. And he said, bet, But I'm gonna write you two new ones. Don't be shy. And if you want to sing out, sing out. So he made those two.

Right.

Most of the Steven songs heard in the film were taken from his albums Mona Bone, Jacone or T for the Tillerman.

So those two song Mona Bone, Jerome

Jacone, J, A K, O N E or T for the Tillerman.

I don't know much Cat Stevens. I'm not a big Cat Stevens guy. Oh, well, never listened to him. This is maybe the most scary. You know, this might be the most I've been exposed to Cat Stevens.

Oh, man.

There's a couple. I think there's a song or two in one of the Guardians of the galaxies.

Do you like the Ugachaka?

No.

No. Does the songs you heard in the movie sound like the guy who would have been.

I just thought, you know, you might

have evolved more fun facts. The scenes in which Harold turns to look at the camera after successfully scar. Scare. Scaring off his first date. And when he does the finger behind his mother's back after she sets sees the jaguar turned into a hearse. We're not in the script. Rather they were improvised by Bud Court, master improviser. Master improviser. In the scenes between Harold and the psychiatrist, both wear matching clothes down to the ties and handkerchiefs.

I didn't even notice that.

I didn't notice either. But now that I've read it, it makes me laugh. All right, so remember when I said there's that place in Minnesota that ran it for two years?

Yep.

This movie has been showing continuously in the movie Theater Gallery Cinema in the German city of Essen since June 6th of 1975, with the exception of a 10 week break in early 2020 due to coronavirus restrictions.

Oh, that's what shut it down.

So just like once a day they played.

I guess so. The 45th anniversary was celebrated on June 6th of 2020. They've been showing this movie continuously for 70. Since 75. For 50 years.

Wow. Still before Keith's time. But not as much.

June 6th. Two weeks. Just a mere two weeks before Keith was made. His mother do the most amazing things she could possibly do.

I bet that's where a lot of the worldwide box office came from.

From Keith.

Germany.

Oh, from. Yeah. Maybe. It doesn't say people go to it. They just. It's playing.

But it's not like a secret theater that they played in.

Yeah.

It's like if you know, you know. It's a secret club. Let's not be that secret. If IMDb knows about it though.

That's true.

Somebody snitched on him.

You must have. Yeah. Gotta go through. This theater is known for like German snuff cinema. And you have to ask for the secret Herald and Mod Room.

Yeah. It's like the most like horrendous theater you've ever been. Except for they throw Harold and Mod. Everyone like every day

in this movie. Ruth Gordon is just 51 years older than co star Bud Court.

51 years.

Wow.

It's crazy. Tom Skerrett is in this movie and he's credited as M. Borman. So Scarrett's Small role in this film. It was the motorcycle policeman. It says here authority off authoritarian motorcycle placement, which I guess police officers are. Came about by accident when a previously cast actor broke his leg. So scared had to get in fill in. But M. Borman is a reference to prominent Nazi official Martin Borman, whose post World War II whereabouts were at the time of this film still unknown.

Wow. Could it be that he became a motorcycle policeman?

Yeah. Doesn't she say something about it being a Nazi?

No, she looks. She looks at him, goes, have like, haven't I seen you before? Or maybe that was your brother.

That could be, yeah. And there's a. One of the fun facts, like, I cut out because, like, in like mods, like, full name is French, but she has a. A concentration camp tattoo on your arm. To avoid an R rating, a controversial swear word had to be eliminated from the scene which Harold and Maud sit under the sunset.

What could it have been?

This is great.

1971 was not ready for controversial.

Like, but no, the 71, they would just been like, hey, it's a slur it.

They've been okay with it.

Yeah, it had to be. Why did I say that? Why would they say that?

Why did you say that, Derek? That's so controversial.

I'm just trying to think of words like why would they say that's the

other word that pop? Like, I mean, either that or either that or would have been like, the only two words that I think would have gotten.

What if it was this sunset is contest

and the mod said it.

Oh, obviously Harold's not saying that just

out of nowhere, so.

So against the grain of the rest of the movie just says that. That'd be amazing.

Start smoke. Just snorting some cocaine as she says it just ran it just out of nowhere.

That would be awesome.

I mean, just like, wow, we're really seeing a whole new side to mod.

Yes, we are.

I also think we found Derek's opening clip.

Oh, fantastic.

What a way to introduce the show.

Yeah. I don't know if. I don't know if people dig that as much as I enjoyed saying it.

I mean, I could feel the joy in your voice when you said it.

Final fun fact. This movie, Harold and Maude 1971, is ranked number four in Entertainment Weekly's Top 50 Cult Films of all time.

Of all time.

Of all time.

Number four.

Wow.

Number four. Now, before you go, Derek, what are the other 49?

Could you please list them?

I have them. I'm not going to go through them all. Oh, I am going to give Some highlights, though.

Okay.

Coming in at number 50 is Faces of Death.

Okay.

At 43 is the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the eighth dimension.

Okay.

38 is they Live, which I really enjoy.

Oh, that's a good one. Mm.

Big Lebowski at 34, clerks at 31. But let's do the top 10 here real fast. Number 10, the Shawshank Redemption.

That's not a cool film.

That's what entertainment.

It's not. It's one of the most successful films of all time, isn't it? It's.

No, it's not.

It's like an Oscar winning film.

It might be, but it did not do well in box offices.

Wildly regarded. Okay.

If it's.

That's how we're gonna judge Number.

By the definition.

Sounds like a loophole right there.

Sounds like a loophole.

Number nine, Blade Runner. Number eight.

Okay.

Scarface. This Blade Runner did not do well theatrically.

Yeah. No.

And it is considered a cult classic. Same with Scarface.

Whatever. These are just. These are. These are poser picks.

Number seven. They're the easy picks. Number seven, Repo Man.

Really?

Okay.

Number six, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's a great film, but I feel like. I guess it makes sense, though, because the higher up on the list you

get, they're more popular movies.

Exactly. That's cult. They become. It's.

I want to say, last year, I tried to, like, watch Massacre. I haven't. I haven't watched it in a long time.

It's disturbing.

I couldn't get through, like, the first 10 minutes of it, and I was like, I can't watch this right now. I turned it off. I forget what I was doing, but I was like, I can't watch this one right now.

It's a. It's a slow burn movie. I watched it for the first time relatively recently, and it's.

I need to rewatch it. It's. It's pretty good.

Number five, Pink Flamingos.

See, now that's a cold film.

Yeah. Number four, Harold and Mott. Number three from 1932. Freaks.

Okay.

Oh, yeah, I've heard that's really good. I've heard that's really good.

I've seen that.

You have?

Yeah. I took a horror films class during college, and that's when the movies we watched.

Okay.

Number two, the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Oh, that makes sense.

You guys haven't seen that?

Yep, I've seen it. Yep.

I tried once. Couldn't get through It.

And number one. This is Spinal Tap.

Sure. Okay.

This is Entertainment weeklies ranking of the top 50.

Are you questioning the integrity of Entertainment Weekly?

What do they know? That's all I'm saying. This list is interesting. I'll give it that. I mean, they spread it too thin. They have made it too long. And so they had to just start throwing some stuff in there.

Know what?

I'm sure they had some metrics they were going off of. They had. They had a big board.

Owen Glieberman, the longtime Entertainment Weekly. Be still there now.

It. It's invalid why that punk.

Yeah, we hate Gleberman on this podcast.

No, I've never seen. We all hate Derek.

You'll say one right now.

I can't. You can't make me.

Not even like a controversial word.

It's contastic.

Did you just call him cunt? Tastic.

That's contastic.

That's what Glieberman said when he made that list. I just can't stop imagining Mod saying that. Just.

I don't know.

Beautiful sunset. Supposed to be a very heartwarming scene. And then. Wait, what?

All right, well, we got through the deep dive. Now it's time we did get goddamn close. Fantastically close.

We say it the more normal it sounds.

But not. But not fantastically close.

No, we weren't there.

Start casually dropping that around. I'm walking around.

Luckily, every episode we do is a one off.

Right?

We've said that in the past. We'll forget about these words next week.

Yeah. Then two weeks from now, I'm gonna listen to our episode that we're listening. Go. Like I said. What? I'm gonna be shocked. I'm not one who usually says words like that. And I'm shocked at what I just said.

Let's do it. Anyway, let's talk about Harold and Maude from 1971. I'm actually quite glad that Keith did the rom com for. And this is genuine. I've enjoyed all three movies that you watched this month. I'm not.

No, I know. I'm just. Because when I picked rom com and says because we were being safe, you were like, yeah, I was giving you guys a hard time. And I was being genuine at that time too, that I thought we needed to broaden things out. So.

See, I like, I don't understand how you thought we were being safe because we watched a bunch of fucking weird. We just got off a month where we watched four of the weirdest fucking movies.

No, no.

Because I watched on my own.

Because. But they're types of movies that we actually would watch. Like.

No, they're not, because I would have never watched them.

No. But like, when we, like once the categories come up, like, again, like, more like James Bond movies are like the Shaw Brothers ones were, like, they're very much in the wheelhouse of the things that we're watching. And we picked kids, like, things we watched when we were kids and then rewatch and see if they held up. So there are things we already kind of knew about. And like, I. None of us seems like a romcom guy, even if I claim to be one. I don't seem like it in real life.

Oh, gees.

I don't.

I don't come across as a romcom guy in my normal daily life.

Yeah. I mean, Keith, you're the most romcom guy I know, probably.

And that's still very small amount of romcom.

Yeah.

Honestly, I don't know that many romcom guys, I guess.

Yeah.

Oh, you don't. You don't have romcom guy, Terry?

No, you are. You're my romcom guy.

Yeah.

Well, there we go.

I do have one.

Yeah.

I think what happens, at least in my brain with romcom is the moment you say that the. Is the first thing I think of is, like, how to lose a guy in 10 days or all those, like, Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson movies. Failure to launch some, right. Like, it's 13 going on 30. These are movies.

That's actually pretty good.

Zero interest in these movies. They might be good. That's mark Ruffalo, right? 13:30. Yeah. Like, I know these exist and I've probably seen large chunks of them because they have played in my house. My wife loves these movies. I just. If she asked me to watch, I'll watch with her. But mostly I just do not care. But it takes quirky, weird for me to get hyped. And I think each week we've gotten progressively quirky and weirder. In this one, this movie, like, for. For me, I ticked all my boxes.

Wow.

I enjoy the dark, macabre humor of Harold.

It's not what I expected. I didn't expect.

No. I didn't expect any of that.

Making his. When I first. That first scene of him hanging himself, I was like, shocked. I was like, what are you watching? I was like, this is a crazy dark way. But then, yeah. When you figure out he's faking it, it's kind of like you get the reaction he wants from you.

Yes.

But I could not believe when I thought he hung himself. I Was like, wow, that's crazy.

Yeah.

I want to say it takes about 10 minutes for this thing to kind of get really kind of going for me. And it might be the first time that might be like, the first time that Maude shows up where she's just kind of standing, like, she kind of waves at him from.

At the funeral.

Yeah, yeah. She's out there eating a peach or something like that. Once she's introduced into the mix, it's pretty solid going from then out for me in this. And I really enjoyed a lot of stuff. I also thought it was kind of. You had like, this main story of the two of them first in, like, a friendly way and stuff like that. And then obviously, Harold getting more attached. But then you also got almost like, interstitial skits that keep popping up. Like, whether it's him doing the, you know, faking his death or the. The dates that his mom keeps putting them on. Like, I found those little things very funny that they just had these recurring things that would pop up, and they were almost like. Like, if they threw, like, a little skit in the middle of something just to break up whatever was going on. I could see how back in, like, 1971, when people first saw this, they were like, what the is this? Yeah, I looking for maybe more like a straight storyline where this is, you know, kind of broken up here and there.

It's just kind of an oddball movie.

I feel like I agree with that. Yeah.

Both of these characters are oddballs.

Agreed.

They're, like, weird in their own way.

There's nobody in this movie that isn't

like, the mom is not.

The three dates that come over are all kind of. Maybe there's one of them. There's one of them. The one he cuts his hand off

in front of the cattle feed girl.

She. Yeah. But she still seems like she might be the most normal person they had.

Yeah, she just works at an animal feed distributorship or something like that. Right.

And she handles the whole southwest.

Yeah, no, not the whole Southwest. Keith, don't give her all that.

Oh, yeah, not quite.

But when I was watching this movie, you know what movie kept popping in my head, even though they're. They're nothing alike.

But was Tampopo they kind of a similar vibe?

I would say they have similar vibes, I think. Right. They. They. They both hit. Are kind of dark, funny, weird. Now Tampopo really does the interstitials, like, as full on, not relating to the main plot line at all. Where Harold the modern are all contained Within Harold's world.

Thank God Harold and Maud didn't start eating an egg between each other.

Oh, I would love that.

Maybe that was the controversial scene. They had to get rid of the egg swap.

Yeah.

Possibly Mod pulls out an egg from her basket. All right, here we go.

You know what? One thing that I liked a lot and people talk about iconic vehicles in movies. The Jaguar hearse. That is awesome. And I never heard anybody talk about it before.

No. His controlling mom. It's like, let's get rid of that hearse that he drove around for fun and get you this. Oh, just sweet ass Jaguar. And what a car. And then he converts it into a hearse.

It's fantastic because. And it's. It looks awesome.

Yeah, it does.

Like, Harold's a pretty smart guy and knows how to do stuff here. He's pretty resourceful when he wants to be and wants what he wants to do. Yeah.

Yeah.

So obviously his dad passed away at some time, left this fortune to him and his mom, but they didn't, I guess. So like where it came from overall, I don't know that that's a. You know, just as weird about like he's. Can do whatever he wants really in life. He's got the, you know, the ability to go and do whatever he wants. But like he just likes to keep doing these pranks on his mom.

He just wants a emotional response from his mom.

Yeah. He's hasn't led a very normal life in anything. Well, normal to us squares.

And. And he. He does break down when he realizes like the last time his mom really seemed to be emotionally moved by was she thought he had died in the fire.

Fire. Yeah. He just is chasing that his entire life. It's just. He's a sad character. And I think Mod is a sad character as well.

You don't think at first, but the more like you learn about her.

Yeah, yeah. She clearly had some love lost in the past that really affected her and ever. Ever since then because she tells that story about he was a serious person or whatever was a doctor or worked at a. And that broke her down. Like she's like. Which it was kind of apropos or fitting where Harold spends this entire movie faking his own suicide. And Maude carefully calculates her. Her own suicide.

Yeah. And she does it without like a big show of it or anything. She's just like, yeah, she's straight up

told him I'm turning 80 and then my life's over. Not in the metaphorical sense, but the actual literal sense. She Was going to kill herself on her 80th birthday.

Yeah. You don't realize that at first, but yeah, then it's like, oh, you were serious. Okay.

She was living life like she has nothing to lose because honestly she. She knows she's only be around for a few more weeks and that's it.

Yep. Do whatever you want. That's probably why she felt so carefree. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm hoping she left. She left Harold that like whatever. The skeleton key for cars.

She stole all those cars?

Yeah, yeah.

In the 70s they left it in their, their little.

Oh, she explains that the guy. That the guy left her a key or something like that.

Oh, did she?

Before he went to bed or something. He left her key in. So he can get in. She can get in any car.

Any car. Wow, that's a pretty.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah. I wish I had a key that could go to any car.

Yeah.

Imagine the havoc I would reach reap.

I mean she does. She seems to. I mean she flying everywhere in those cars, whipping around, stuff like that. And, and I like the one when she pulls up because she sees the tree, she stops out and the guy starts to question her or she starts to ask questions and then she's like, oh, by the way, turn off the radio. Like it'll wear down the battery.

Yeah.

And then just walks up and takes the very next car in front of him and the guy just looks at her like, huh, yeah.

All right. Have a nice day. After she asked, how's that one parked? Is that one parked okay? That's great. Okay, good. Very peculiar characters, both of them. And. And it's the inverse of the traditional. I thought that was a nice thumb up or. No, that's a thumb to nose. What are they? Whatever they. Because Hollywood and stuff like that usually does a May December with. With some old ass dude and some hot young woman.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, almost always. Like Jack Nicholson being like 75 years old and having Helen, like a 30 year old Helen Hunt fall in love with him. Get out of here. Doesn't happen. And that's a rom com that. I don't know why. One example was as good as it gets.

There you go. Oh, it's an actual thing that happened.

Yeah. Oh, and it's an Albert Brooks movie with Jack Nicholson is like a novelist and Helen Hunt is like his neighbor that dislikes him. But eventually she falls in love with him and he's easily 45 years older than she is.

Interesting.

Interesting indeed.

Yeah. At first I wasn't sure this was Going to become a rom com. Because I was watching it and I'm like, they're just friends. But then it becomes clear that, yeah, they're more than friends. But it took a while. It took a while for them to like, get there.

Yeah.

Usually I feel like all these movies they like, you know, rom coms, they butt heads for a while. Right. And this one, it feels like they thought like Harold was intrigued by Model from the get go. He was like, all right, well, let's see where this goes, you know? And like he doesn't seem like he doesn't really push back against this weird relationship. I feel like he's like, he gets drawn in quite easily.

I. I think he sees her as against the grain and weird like he is. But they're really different personalities.

Yes.

But he sees, I think he sees her as like, oh, yeah, she's just like me, except not. But maybe he is in the sense

of just like outcast. Strange.

Yeah, strange. Odd. Yeah.

And I mean, as it goes on, like she's pulling that person out of him and he starts to be a little more. He smiles more. He's a little more carefree about things,

you know, Learns the banjo.

Yeah, he's learning the banjo. Stuff like that. And he's just, he's. He's feeling really good about everything.

Yep.

And you know, where she's already, you

know, well, at that point and even at the end after she dies and you think it's set up, they see Harold's car drive over a cliff. And my first thought as well, I mean, he. He did it. He finally. And it turns out, no, he just drove his car over the cliff. And he does what he always does, banjo. But he had a smile on his face. He played the banjo. Like it was like his last one. He's like, I'm done with this sort of thing. I don't know. I liked it. I liked how that worked out. I like how.

And it lingers long enough for me to be like, is he really dead?

Yeah.

I think it's almost because, like, in order for him to move on, he. He kind of had to die again.

Yeah.

One of these little deaths. And then he could move on from that part of his life and. And suddenly seem to be much more carefree and stuff like that.

Yeah.

One thing I kind of wish they would have also done this movie is. And I think if they would like ever remake this movie, this is. They would have done something like. This is a little more of maybe like a bit of a montage of like, more of the dates, like, his mom bringing in, like, because it was like, there was three. And I really. I really enjoyed this.

Rule of three, Keith.

I really enjoyed the scene where, like, she's like, all right, let's answer these questions. First of all, those are the worst questions for a dating profile. But at the same time, she's just like, okay, yeah, that, you know, she's answering as herself.

But for him, like, yeah, like, she's just a controlling ass woman. Right. Like, and defines the relationship. Harold is there, and she answers for him and does it. She says, it's time for you to get married. He's like, why? Like, why is that a mother's choice for their children?

I think it was mostly just because she wants him out of the house at this point because she started dealing with this.

Yeah. There's ways about that without being like, yeah, get married. Right. It seems strange.

Right? Get him an apartment.

Yeah, exactly. But get all this money. I'll just get you an apartment. You just go live your life. Please.

That house is big enough.

Just.

Why don't you live in this corner of it and I'll stay on this side?

I think he just torments her, though, for the tension.

Yeah, he's. Yeah, he's definitely reaching out constantly. But it's like, she's. The point where she's like, whatever.

Like, desensitized to it, too.

Yeah. Like, even they had that. That, like, dinner party early on. He's like, I think I'm getting a sore throat. Oh, no. You'd be like, she babies him. Doesn't let him, like, live at all.

I thought the joke was when he said he had sore throats because he had just hung himself.

Yeah, exactly. That was his joke. But she doesn't. Yeah, she doesn't get that.

Eat those beets.

Yeah, eat your beets. He's like. Like the worst thing possible.

Yeah. Do not gorge yourself on beets.

No. Especially pickled beets. Get out of town.

Forget. If you forget about it really throws off things when you go to peel it around.

Oh, true. The whole. Yeah. The chemical balance is just wrong.

Yeah. Ph. Way too high.

Well, it's also bright red. Gross.

Thanks, Keith.

Yeah, Nice.

The only way to counterbalance that is have a beat. Asparagus and pineapple dinner.

Oh, God.

The only way to balance that.

Yes, it's. It's like balancing delicate flavors, you know,

Like, I mean, the worst thing possible is if you eat asparagus and beets at. In the same meal and then you forget about it in the Middle of the night, you go use the bathroom and that smell hits you, and you look down and you see it's all red. Yeah, yeah.

The smell of decay releasing from your body. Oh, yeah.

I. I've had that happen before. I was like. I was like, oh, man.

You've had both beets and asparagus in the same meal?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we roasted them. They weren't pickled. They were roasted.

Roasted beets.

Yeah. Those are really good. Haven't had those in a while. Need to cook those.

But you did pickle your asparagus.

No, I tickled it, though.

You tickled it.

Keith tickled his asparagus with his roasted beans.

No, you know what? Doesn't sound right.

It's now immortalized.

Yeah, I'll never forget that. That's one.

You'll be known as the asparagus tickler from now on, guy.

That's fantastic.

If they would let that in, though, that would been funny. I found this movie to be very funny, to be honest.

There were parts I was. Yeah. That made me laugh out loud.

I had a few laugh out loud moments and I was like, oh, okay. I wasn't expecting that. Harold Ahmad. I was not familiar with your game.

I was expecting her to. I was expecting her to die, you know, at some point in the movie. Even though she did lay out the whole thing of like, oh, yeah, when you're 75, you know, to 80, you're still in the good half of things. 1. After that, nobody wants to be 85. You're in the bad half things. It never occurred to me that she was going to kill herself.

No, I didn't think so either.

But I knew. I. My assumption was she would be dying at some point during the movie. It just. Oh, that seemed like something that would happen with her being that old.

I'm sure happens to everybody. I. I think after he tells his mom they should get married to Maude and she sees the picture and then he has to go to all these different people to. To talk him out of it. The priest.

Yes.

Oh, that was like, whoa.

That.

That.

I was. I was cackling at this, like, you're young, firm body.

The way he's, like, pausing between each.

Yes.

Mixed with her tagging.

It was awesome. There are lots of things in this movie that really. That made me laugh and really enjoyed.

His uncle used to be MacArthur's right hand man.

Oh. Oh, God. The military uncle who's missing the arm. But he has that slam on his right arm and he can, like, move it to salute. And stuff like that. He was. He was awesome. I. I really enjoyed him too. I thought he was funny.

Yeah. I like the. The third date, I thought they finally met someone who could, like, match his weirdness with the.

Yeah. The theater girl Sunshine or whatever her name is.

Yeah.

Who, like, she also killed herself with him. I thought that was, like, really funny. I was like, finally he found somebody who, like, will match him.

But the weird part is when he. When she does that, he seems a little freaked out. Like, what?

Yeah, like, wait, this is my thing. You're not supposed to do that.

I thought it was a match made in heaven, but he didn't.

Heaven forbid we share hobbies as a couple.

Yeah. Pretending to do this Samurai tradition of disemboweling yourself for an honorable death. I learned recently. I read a. Read a book where it was described that. And there was an extra step to the harikari. You don't just, like, spill your guts. You have somebody slice. Slice your head.

Yep.

Through the neck, but not all the way through. A full beheading would be dishonorable, but you have to have somebody chop your neck from the back to the front and stop. So there's just a. So it's not a full sever. Yeah. It's gonna be very precise. Yeah.

Have you seen the movie Harakiri?

No.

One of the best movies of all time, really, in my opinion. I love that movie. Great.

One of the 250 best rom coms of all time.

It's a great, great, great, great movie. I can't stress enough how much I like it. It's really good.

I know the TV show Showgun that came out like, last year. Something year before. They did like a couple times, like, when somebody had to do, like, they would. They had to pick who was going to be the person that sliced their head right after, you know, so they. They do, you know. Yeah. Who's the second sleeve? You know, do the thing. And then they obviously put them out of their. Their misery. I didn't. I didn't remember the whole thing about making sure it didn't go all the way through.

It's very highly rated. Wow.

Very highly.

Yeah. That's what you think, bro. What was that?

What are you saying? Why you keep talking quiet over there?

You keep talking, but.

Sorry.

I'm afraid Keith was going into the land of regrettable accents there for a second.

Surely not.

I hope not.

Well, the tape will show.

No, it's British accent. It was bad British accent, though.

Oh,

good.

Not regrettable, but it's British.

A Regrettable British accent. Oh, no, bro. What?

I don't know what you're saying.

I have no idea.

You say, hey, what's up, bro?

And that's not a British accent.

It does not sound British to me. But it's all right.

You can. It is bad. Terry. Terry, you translated perfectly.

What's up, bro? Hello, bro. Hello, bro. What's up? What?

Why are you saying why? What is this voice character, British Keith. Hello, bruv. Just mumbles.

Just mumbles and says, bruv.

You know. You know what sucks is I was doing this voice and to me, it sounded fine earlier

and earlier when?

Today.

Around my house.

Oh.

Like talking to dogs and stuff like that. And it sounded fine and like, I've. But now trying to do it on here. Like, I. I just can't do it.

Yeah, Mike Frost.

Yeah.

He's been working on this. This voice all day. It was this new character.

He's gonna break out, man.

No, it wasn't. No, no, it was. I. No, it wasn't like a character. I just did.

I was excited for British Keith to make his debut.

No, I don't think anybody was excited for that, but, yeah, we all would. No, I don't. I don't. I don't know why then once we're sitting here talking, I can't.

He sounded like, to me, just a bunch of grunting.

Oh, that's what it sounded like to me, too.

Oh, it almost had a Vin Diesel quality to it.

Yeah.

It was probably supposed to be a little more stamme. He's always like, oh, yeah, bro. He's always talking to Mom.

But the thing is, your mumbling does not come across as br.

I know.

No, I guess. No, this example that I'm trying to do here right now is absolute horseshit. And, like.

Sorry.

Yeah, I. I regret even having attempted it.

It's just. It's like, I wish you had. You just keep saying brought. But I think, like, most of the words are planned out. You have one word planned out. You don't know for sure.

When you do an accent or voice, you always have to have the word that brings you back. Right?

Yes, yes.

In case you start. And his is bruv. It's not British. It's just the word bruv, which I guess is.

No, it's the. It's the trying to do the. Trying to do that. But also do, like, the, like, low gravity voice is what's throwing me off right now. I just. I can't do the three of them together.

Pick. Pick one or the other.

Right?

Like, yeah,

don't give yourself 8 million. Just give yourself, you know, two qualities to this voice and master those.

Yeah, I got 8 million and one now because.

With your eyes closed.

Yeah.

Nice. Did we do it? Did we get.

No, I didn't do the accent. No, I didn't. It was terrible.

Did we get through Harold and Maud from 1971?

I believe so.

Yeah, I believe so too. What you guys think?

I liked it. I think. I'm pretty sure you probably went into this thinking that this movie that Keith's gonna poo poo on and. Nope.

Why would I think that?

Actually, that was pretty good. Derek, much like you, it. I like quirky things. It hit a lot of. Took a little bit to get into it, but then it checked a lot of boxes of like, just quirky oddness. And we. We do watch a lot of quirky, odd things here, but it hits, like, the. The right types of them for me.

Sure. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I'm kind of. With Keith. It did take a little bit for me to, like, feel like, get on the movie's level, but once I started clicking with it, I feel like the. It started to really stand out to me once. Like, it kind of hit the more, like, oddly serious moments or like, the bittersweet kind of stuff. When you start to learn more about mod, I felt like that's when it really started to hit. When it started to add a little depth to her, rather than her just being a just zany character for being zany. There's, like, layers to her that I didn't expect, which I really liked. And same with Harold, you start to learn more about him too. So I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed it.

Now, personally, I've been thinking about this since I watched it. I watched it earlier today. I think this is my favorite movie from this year so far.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah, I think so. To me, this is an outstanding movie, and there's something about it. I enjoy the dark comedy. I enjoy the sadness of this movie. There's a lot of sad this movie that's kind of masked by the quirky and weird and, like, the oddball. But to me, they're sad characters and they have sad lives and they're trying to navigate their sadness together, and they just happen to be. One's really old, one's really young, and they fall in love, and I just. There's something about it. There's. This movie's got a lot of characters. It's based on a book. And when I found that Out. I'm like, I kind of want to find this book.

It is. I didn't know that.

Yeah. So we know what we thought. What did the Internet have to say? Because they're always full of good stuff, right?

Yep.

Oh, the Internet. Just a bounty.

Except for that stupid Entertainment Weekly list.

Yeah. Well, own Gleberman.

Yeah.

Well, on July 19th of 20. Nikiska.

I heard British keep coming back.

He's trying to sneak his way in there.

Yeah. Years ago.

Yeah.

And then

on July 19th.

I didn't think after the year, you're

building your way up to it.

I like when you could tell when Keith is fighting himself. Amusing. Because he just slurs,

You know, I. I hate that

I know when Keith's on the verge of being lost. On July 19th of 2019, baker's gonna bake had this.

That's a great name.

It is. Lessons of Life and Death. Harold is a young man who is obsessed with death. He stages fake suicides, drives a hearse and goes to lots of funerals. Maude, on the other hand, is an older woman, almost 80 years old, who is enchanted by life. She lives life at its fullest and she sees death with different eyes. This is a movie about love, friendship and knowledge exchange. While Maude shows Harold different ways to see and live life, she also learns a lot from him. It's an incredibly deep movie, but its approach is light and funny. Light is not the right word, but funny is four found it helpful to not so much.

10 out of 10. Nice.

10 out of 10 out of 10. Indeed. But not to be done on December. Hold on, let me see how long this is not too bad. December 9th of 2005. Vibiana had this to say. If you want to be trite, be trite. Because there's a million ways to be trite. You know that there are.

Okay.

In the late 1960s, a trend in literature and film that of attempting to make the lies of WASPy East coast tycoons to be look wretched and soul destroying swept over America. Those of us in the flyover states, flyover and quotes, contentedly munching our cake in participating in league bowling and working for a living were profoundly mystified by this trend. Particularly since films like Harold and Maude, Love Story, the Graduate, etc tended to make the richie parents paragons of evil to the point they were cartoon characters. Oh yeah, it's so terrible that you stand to inherit more money than 20 of my relatives put together will make in their whole lives. Let me hold the hanky while you Blow your nose.

Okay, now I'm getting hot signals.

It was, as another reviewer pointed out, hard for me to get past the squick factor.

The what?

In quotes, S Q U I C K factor of contemplating a 20 year old guy in bed with a 79 year old woman. But it was even harder for me to like dour Harold or annoying Maude. They both seemed utterly amoral and unsympathetic. The only reason I watch this movie is that I love Ruth Gordon, but I did not like her character in this film. 52 found this helpful. 56, not so much. 1 out of 10.

So the complaint is that they don't like how the rich are portrayed as cartoonishly evil. But then they also kind of backtrack and say like, oh, woe is me not rich enough? But what are they? What's wrong with the rich being evil?

Yeah, I, well I, I think her or I don't want to say her, but the thumbnail looks like a her. Viviana's complaint is that there were all these movies at this time that came out that tried to show the, the difficult, the difficult lives of rich people while we, we pories will never have as much money as these people in a fictional story. Right. I can't relate to it.

Harold is a rich boy. He can't have like why does he

have, why is he upset about. He's got more money than anybody knows. Like, you shouldn't be mad, you shouldn't be sad or upset. You got money.

Money doesn't solve everything. You haven't heard that before.

But I mean, that's what this is, right? Like here's a movie that tries to portray rich people as having emotions and.

I see.

And problems. But what do they have to be upset about? Because they got more money than 20 of my relatives put together will make in their whole lives. I bust my hump. Harold.

You know that person's an. I didn't like that review at all.

They're a jerk.

Wow. Geez. Take that, Fibiana.

Like, it's almost like she's just trying to say something. They was trying to say something just like to try and sound smart.

Yeah. Oh, I agree with try.

Try and sound better than their lot in life probably should have them be. And it comes across as just being condescending without really having the, the full reason to be condescending. Like the. I'm guessing that that person probably has had some struggles, but probably not the kind that like some people really, really have. That could be like, Jesus, these rich people.

Yeah.

Like, yeah, no, I didn't like that. One out of ten.

It's pretty harsh.

That's. That's my review of the review.

One out.

Oh, wow. We should start reading IMDb reviews of the IMDb reviews.

Oh, now that's something. I like that idea. But not to be done. On May 12th of 2026, KG3030 had this to say. Viviana's review sucks.

On the other hand, TV.

But not to be outdone by that TV underscore, Dr. Dre had this to say on 5 12, 2026.

I quite agree. The rich should not be sympathetic. Yes.

Oh, I think you're gonna be reviewing Keith's review. Oh, KG3030 doesn't know what he's talking about.

Yeah, he doesn't. He needs to.

He probably talks in a bad British accent when he says these things.

Yeah, I wish British Keith would have reviewed this.

Oh, I know, bruv. We did it, boyos. We got through the first three weeks of DTF Y2M5 Rom coms. So you know what that means?

What could it mean?

It's goddamn Wheel time.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, baby. Wheel time.

So that means each of us chose a movie that was tangentially mentioned or brought up during a deep dive over the last three weeks, and we put him on our Wheel of Death. Terry, what did you choose?

I chose Megan 2.0.

And Keith, you chose Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon Dynamite. And I chose Rosemary's Baby. So I put those three on our Wheel of Death with a spin again. Doubled it up a couple times. Now wrinkle into DTFY2. There's the veto powers. But Keith and I blew our veto for this cycle last time.

That's True's got all the power now.

I didn't have anything against Relaxer. Coming up on the Wheel. I just wanted to watch Madam Web. Keith did not want to watch Madame Web, and we ended up watching Relaxer. So Terry's the only one with the power of veto right now.

That's right. Well, I use it. We'll find out.

We'll find out.

He likes to use it in weird ways.

Likes to use it in weird ways.

Ways that make absolutely no sense to anybody about me.

They say that about me sometimes. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

Oh, that sounded good to me. All right, you guys see the wheel?

Yep.

Yep.

All right, Megan 2.0. They're all on there. And I will click it as soon as one of you guys says, go ahead and spin it.

Go ahead and spin it.

I was waiting for you one of

you to say it's waiting for Keith to say it. Oh, nepid nap.

Napoleon Dynamite. And I think I might have spelled Napoleon wrong, but that's all right.

Oh, should I? I feel bad because Keith hasn't won any of these. Do I want to take this away from Keith? No, we should watch this. We should just watch this. But it feels like a waste not to use my veto, doesn't it?

You still have it next month.

Oh. Oh, I'll save it then. Yeah. Why would I use it here? I'm happy to watch Napoleon Dynamite.

Well, there you go then. I guess that means we're off to Napoleon Dynamite, which is a movie I think we've all seen before.

Indeed.

Haven't seen a while, so.

All right.

Be good to be worth revisiting.

That's what they say.

We did it. We finished the first three weeks of DTFY2 Rom Coms, M5. We're on to Napoleon Dynamite next week, which is going to be a good end to this month because it's pretty. Watch some of the quirkiest movies possible, like three straight of them. Yeah.

Speaking of quirky. This is the king of quirky.

Yeah, I don't know about that, but it is. It's up there. It's on the Mount Rushmore of quirky.

Okay. Yeah. Maybe not the key. Well, yeah. Here in America, we don't recognize kings, right?

No. No, we do not. We recognize Rushmores.

Rushmore.

See?

Yeah. We don't.

I'm sorry, hold on. We don't recognize Keith's. Is that what you said?

Kings. Kings. No. Kings.

I have my way. Well, Keith's will be also be included on that.

Yes.

I've been working for Congress on this for a long time.

I guess that leaves us with nothing to do but to end. This way we end everything. Yeah.

Everything.

Everything. La la la la la la la la la la la la now that I've lost everything to you youu say you wanna start something new and it's breaking my heart you're leaving Baby, I'm grieving But if you wanna leave take good care Hope you have a lot of n But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there. Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world it's hard to get by just upon a smile thanks for listening to Fumbling Through Film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email [email protected] you can see our films to fumble before you tumble into the grave and other musings on letterboxdat fumble through film. The through is T HRU. You can also follow Keith on Instagram @kg33Lives and on Letterboxd3030. Terry is on Letterboxd @terry2099. Derek is on Letterboxd Derek the number nine and then the word nine. All original music is done by the Dr. Trey of Kansas, Terry. So hit him up for them bangers. Our new podcast logo is done by the delightful and talented Sanjay Vicki Nyak. You can find her on Instagram at Einstein. That's Einstein with a K in there. We'll see you next week as we keep on fumbling.

Derek, is there a number of times that we said that in this episode that you have to actually, like, click something in the like description for uploading?

This is like, explicit.

Highly explicit. I already bark them. I. I thought you meant like, like last episode. The Contastic man will appear if you say it three times.

You do not. You do not want the. The Contastic man to show up.

No, I mean, it depends. Does he take out the hot dog man?

Maybe the only way to get rid of him is to eat him.

Always goes.

God damn it. All right, I meant to do some edited now.

Yeah. Please bleep out all those highly controversial words.