Nathan Rabin's Happy Cast

All right, all right, all right listeners, throw on some crusty jorts and dig your bongo out of storage - it’s a McConnaissance double feature over here on the Happy Cast! This week, Nathan and Clint take a look at the wild-eyed movie star’s most recent, most baffling role choices - brooding tuna fisherman/gigolo/Double Indemnity-style murderer in Serenity, and the hedonistic, blazed-out poet Moondog in Harmony Korine’s stoner comedy(?) The Beach Bum. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re certainly effective conduits for Matthew McConaughey’s particular brand of grimy, sleazebag philosophizing - as if he has simply become the guy from those Lincoln commercials, but with a dress code that would get him kicked out of any Lincoln dealership. (Contains spoilers for Serenity, a film whose twists are so incredibly insane that we highly recommend you go in blind, so feel free to skip that segment until you’ve seen it.) 9:20 - My World of Flops: Serenity 26:37 - My World of Flops: The Beach Bum 48:28 - Happy Places Follow us

Suit up, mutants — we’re breaking the X-Jet out of mothballs for a postmortem on Fox’s X-Men franchise! This week, Nathan and Clint look back at the haphazard production cycles and messy storytelling of both retellings of the Dark Phoenix Saga: Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand and Simon Kinberg’s Dark Phoenix! One’s a big, campy mess that throws in a million other subplots about mutant cures and Frasier as a big blue ape; the other is a dour, funereal mess that’s cut to pieces and doesn’t even give its main character sufficient focus. That being said, there’s flecks of gold in this river of crap, so listen to us pan for it! (Also, we want to hear what your Happy Places are — send them to our Twitter at @RabinsCast, and we’ll read them on the show!) 5:47 - Scalding Hot Takes/My World of Flops: Dark Phoenix 39:24 - X-Men III: The Last Stand 56:21 - Mailbag 1:01:44 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @clintworthing)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on A

This week on the podcast, Nathan and Clint talk about two very different kinds of monsters — the fictional beasties of Godzilla, King of the Monsters and the very real monster behind the tone-deaf anti-comedies The Test and Loqueesha, Jeremy Saville. One levels buildings and pulls high-tension wires down, and the other makes deeply strange, misguidedly offensive screeds about how women shouldn’t be trusted and how hard it is for white men to get ahead in the entertainment business. Which of them is king of the monsters? As Ken Watanabe would say, “Let them fight.” Amidst the rubble, we also pick up We Hate Movies’ Andrew Jupin, who finally overcame some Internet difficulties to jump into our recording sesh! 6:00 - Scalding Hot Takes: Godzilla: King of the Monsters 36:38 - The Test, Loqueesha and What the Hell is Wrong with Jeremy Saville? 1:35:43 - Mailbag 1:42:41 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @clintworthing)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on App

Pika-pika, listeners! This week, we Pokemon Go to the theater for the unabashedly adorable, incredibly opaque Pokemon Detective Pikachu, with acclaimed author and humorist Mike Sacks in tow. Together, we attempt to unpack a movie intended for a far younger age group than ours, while pairing it with another movie featuring Ryan Reynolds talking through the mouth of an animal — Marjane Satrapi’s fascinating black comedy The Voices. Along the way, we talk to Mike about his latest project, the Stitcher Premium series Randy: The Full and Complete Unedited Biography and Memoir of the Amazing Life and Times of Randy S.! , based on some books and CDs he happened to find at a garage sale. (Over on the Happy Cast Patreon, we also debut the first entry in our Raspberries in Review segment, where we break down one Razzie winner for every year of its existence - starting with 1980’s Worst Original Song winner “The Man With Bogart’s Face”!) 7:59 - Scalding Hot Takes: Pokemon Detective Pikachu 30:21 - Control Nathan and Cli

Assemble, lovely Happy Cast listeners! This week, we finally offer the world our long-awaited takes on the (now) second-highest grossing film of all time, Avengers: Endgame. Does it bring the MCU to a close in a satisfying fashion? How much screentime does Captain Marvel get? Are they even getting revenge on the right Thanos? Where does the MCU even go from here? Along the way, we also dig into the fascinating mess of 1999’s superhero comedy Mystery Men - a movie that dared to critique a culture obsessed with superheroes, back in a time when that didn’t even exist yet! 4:20 - Scalding Hot Takes: Avengers: Endgame 34:14 - Control Nathan and Clint: Mystery Men 55:39 - What’s Next for the MCU? 1:06:35 - Mailbag 1:13:03 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @clintworthing)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen

It’s silly cape movies for little babies this week, as pop culture musical parodist Insane Ian joins Nathan and Clint this week to talk about a couple kid-friendly superhero movies - DCEU’s recent (and surprisingly solid) Shazam!, and Disney’s mid-aughts superhero/high school comedy Sky High. Plus, we talk with Ian about “Weird” Al Yankovic’s influence on his music, and what makes him just so neat. (And why you should pledge to Nathan’s Kickstarter for The Weird Accordion to Al in the final days of the campaign!) 6:14 - Scalding Hot Takes: Shazam! 32:40 - Control Nathan and Clint: Sky High 51:09 - Ian Talks “Weird” Al 1:13:56 - Mailbag 1:20:25 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @clintworthing)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon Biegen

What about love? What about trust? What about (Jordan Peele’s) US? This week on the podcast, Nathan and Clint pull the most dastardly double feature - Us, Jordan Peele’s blood-curdling followup to Get Out, and Rob Reiner’s equally bone-chilling disaster The Story of Us, starring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer! Both films are about families besieged by surprisingly internal threats - Peele’s by sinister doppelgangers who compellingly stand in for a variety of societal and cultural tensions, Reiner’s by endless sitcom whining about kids and cheating and all the Capital-P Problems expected of all well-off white folks. Guess which one doesn’t suck? The answer won’t surprise you! Nathan also chimes in on the runaway success of his recent Kickstarter for the book version of The Weird Accordion to Al, and the truckloads of money we’d love for you to send us either via Kickstarter or Patreon! 3:27 - Scalding Hot Takes: Us 33:27 - Lukewarm Takes: The Story of Us 52:51 - The Weird Accordion to Al Kickstarter 2.0: R

This week on the pod, Nathan and Clint strap on their big Feminist Ally hats and dig into the latest Marvel movie Captain Marvel, political context and all! And, just for balance, we take a look back at the last time a women fell to Earth from space wearing a red, yellow and blue outfit - 1984’s camptastic slog Supergirl. Tracking the trends of female-led superhero movies from their ignominious beginning to finding their feet in the modern era, we get reflective on the cultural trends that led the prospect of “good superhero movie starring a woman” to become so controversial. Plus jokes about Hart Bochner being a big dumb beefcake! 5:20 - Scalding Hot Takes: Captain Marvel 30:05 - My World of Flops: Supergirl 56:29 - The Politicization of Superhero Movies 1:11:36 - Podcast Recommendations (Hardcore History Pro, Let’s Get Weirding: A Dune Podcast) 1:14:39 - Mailbag 1:22:14 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to u

With February taking its final bow, it’s our last chance to celebrate the fun and foibles of the romantic comedy with Todd Strauss-Schulson’s delightful Isn’t It Romantic - and Strauss-Schulson comes along for the ride as a guest! Together, we chat about what makes romantic comedies work and not work, how his Rebel Wilson vehicle upends those tropes, and what sets it apart from other high-concept rom-coms like David Wain’s They Came Together and Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty. It’s a delightful conversation, so grab some chocolates and rose petals and give it a listen! 2:17 - Scalding Hot Takes: Isn’t It Romantic? 37:55 - Sub-Cult 4.0: They Came Together 56:51 - Podcast Recommendations (The Dropout, David Tennant Does a Podcast With…, Where Should We Begin? With Esther Perel) 1:01:45 - Mailbag 1:06:52 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com!

Everything is awesome this week, as Nathan and Clint go it alone to delight in the toyetic goodness of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part! Of course, every rose has its thorns, so we have to balance out the pure-strain awesomeness of that film with the horrifying grocery-store hijinks of the cinematic war crime that is 2012’s Foodfight! - a kid’s movie that features black dick jokes and callbacks to classic children’s flicks like Casablanca and Triumph of the Will! Listen to us talk about the current state of Chris Pratt’s career, the tightrope between good and bad movies about toys and consumerism, and more! 5:32 - Scalding Hot Takes: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part 33:58 - Foodfight! 58:48 - Toy Story, LEGOs, and the Ins and Outs of Movies About Branding 1:11:50 - Podcast Recommendations (Hall of Faces, WTF with Marc Maron) 1:14:38 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @clintworthing)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts Ask us questions a

Grab some tiramisu and your favorite comic books, because for this Happy Cast we’re going spelunking down the deep, twisty well that is M. Night Shyamalan’s mind! Eric Szyszka of We Hate Movies returns once again to talk about the ego, ambition and incredible weirdness of Night’s work - whether he’s poorly deconstructing superhero movies or grossly mishandling the ecological disaster movie. Also, we take a look at another overly-confident, fascinating figure = Fyre Festival fraudster Billy McFarland - through the lens of Netflix and Hulu’s recent docs on the subject. Plus mail, podcast recommendations and more! 5:30 - Scalding Hot Takes: Glass 33:24 - Control Nathan and Clint: The Happening 52:19 - Fyre, Fyre Fraud, and the Fyre Festival 1:11:49 - Podcast Recommendations (Bon Appetit Foodcast, Dirty John, Hooked on T.J. Hooker) 1:14:50 - Mailbag 1:20:00 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @clintworthing)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts

Now that the joy of the new year has passed, and we’ve all forgotten our resolutions, it’s time for a Happy Cast that is decidedly less happy! This week, Nathan and Clint go for a double-dose of arthouse didacticism with indie provocateur Lars Von Trier. First, we break down the upsetting misanthropy of his latest, The House That Jack Built; then we take a trip back to 2006 to watch his computer-shot, computer-cut workplace comedy The Boss of It All. Then, for a nice change of pace we talk about Kevin Spacey’s deeply misguided in-character diss track “Let Me Be Frank” - including a dramatic reading from Clint by way of one of Spacey’s many over-hyped impressions. Let’s dig down into hell together and come out the other side, more warped than ever! 7:33 - Scalding Hot Takes: The House That Jack Built 33:22 - Lukewarm Takes: The Boss Of It All 48:05 - Let Me Be Frank, Kevin Spacey, and #MeToo Forgiveness 1:12:13 - Podcast Recommendations (More of a Comment, Really…, Broken Hearts) 1:16:44 - Mailbag 1:20:45 - Ha

Happy Life Day, listeners! It’s 2019, so we thought we’d look back at that most hallowed of holidays, when the coke piled up like snow and Bruce Vilanch was allowed to touch the Star Wars universe! The Star Wars Holiday Special is an infamous piece of Star Wars ephemera, and we (along with returning guest Brock Wilbur of the X-Wingin’ It podcast) dig into its curious origins, the deeply perverse nature of its horny Wookiee sitcom shenanigans, and the intricate ceremonies of Life Day itself. While we’re on the subject of Star Wars, Nathan vents his newfound fascination with the racism and obnoxiousness of Jar Jar Binks and his incredibly strange place in the psychology of the Star Wars fandom. Plus, we talk about our new year’s resolutions! 7:35 - The Star Wars Holiday Special 41:51 - Jar Jar Binks and the Culture of Star Wars 1:02:40 - Happy Places/New Year’s Resolutions Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @clintworthing)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on Apple Podca

Howdy, listeners! This week, we’re thrilled to bring on writer-director Adam Rifkin to talk about his latest film, The Last Movie Star, which features the wonderful final performance of Burt Reynolds. Among other things, we talk to him about what it was like to craft a script for a movie icon and deal with the man’s legacy. Before that, though, Nathan and Clint pull double duty by looking at the best and worst of the Coen brothers’ output: Netflix’s stunning The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and the Coen-written (and George Clooney-directed) misfire Suburbicon! 8:20 - Scalding Hot Takes: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 34:40 - Control Nathan and Clint: Suburbicon 51:57 - Adam Rifkin on Burt Reynolds and The Last Movie Star 1:20:56 - Podcast Recommendations (Analyze Phish, No Coast Cinema) 1:23:28 - Mailbag 1:30:28 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter at @RabinsCast (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gm

Ho-ho-ho, listeners! We’re celebrating Christmas in mid-November over on Nathan Rabin’s Happy Cast, as we get a sneak peek at the Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles, starring Kurt Russell as a Santa Who Fucks. Friend of the show and Christmas film extraordinaire Alonso Duralde (The Wrap, Linoleum Knife) climbs down our chimney to talk about Minion-y murder elves, pernicious Chicago racism, and all that wonderful yuletide stuff! Along with that, we take a look at Santa’s Summer House, the micro-budget masterpiece from the mind of David “A Talking Cat!?!” DeCoteau, which dares to cast a family holiday movie with former 80s action stars (Gary Daniels, Cynthia Rothrock, et al.) and do absolutely nothing with that premise. We also opine on the passing of Stan Lee, talk about our Christmas wishes, and more, so take a listen, true believers! 6:08 - Scalding Hot Takes: The Christmas Chronicles 34:22 - Control Nathan and Clint: Santa’s Summer House 1:03:21 - R.I.P. Stan Lee 1:20:59 - Podcast Recommendations (With Spec

(Note: we didn’t even realize when recording that this is the one-year anniversary of Nathan Rabin’s Happy Cast! Thanks so much to everybody who listens, comments, likes, pledges, and subscribes. Here’s to another year o’ laffs!) This week, Nathan and Clint continue their tradition of talking about weird month-old releases by diving into the superhero madness of Tom Hardy’s Venom! We also look at the similarly strange early-aughts Halle Berry misfire Catwoman, the dizzying tale of a woman who gains magical cat-like powers, like wearing leather and being great at basketball. What’s more, we shamelessly ape We Hate Movies’ Animation Damnation by digging deep into a very scientifically accurate episode of the ‘80s cartoon Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n Wrestling. Today’s the midterms, so you should save all your brain energy for voting* - let us talk about dumb stuff for you!*BUT SERIOUSLY, GO VOTE TODAY. IT HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT. 4:27 - Scalding Hot Takes: Venom 25:15 - Control Nathan and Clint: Catwoman 52:14 -

Happy Halloween, ghouls and goblins! For our spook-tacular horror-themed episode of Happy Cast, we bring on 80s horror movie maverick Scott Weinberg (80s All Over) to take some evil, dark acid and wield overly-long chainsaws as we discuss the psychedelic Nic Cage slaughterfest Mandy! Also, we bow to the whims of our Patrons and talk about the one-off anthology horror film Halloween III - Season of the Witch, and chat a bit about which horror remakes/reboots work, and when they work, and why! Strap on one of three possible Halloween masks available for purchase, sing the Silver Shamrock theme song, and give us a listen. 14:35 - Scalding Hot Takes: Mandy 47:09 - Control Nathan and Clint: Halloween III - Season of the Witch 1:08:32 - Horror Remakes, Sequels and Reboots 1:29:54 - Podcast Recommendations (The Capital Steps Podcast, Gladiator, Friendly Fire) 1:35:09 - Mailbag 1:38:30 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTun

Oh hai, Happy Casters! For this latest episode of Happy Cast, Nathan and Clint are thrilled to bring on Greg Sestero of The Room fame to talk Tommy Wiseau, contending with cult fame, and re-contextualizing their friendship in the form of their ambitious new collaboration Best F(r)iends! Of course, we’ve also got some bigger fish to fry - Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga team up for A Star is Born, the ultimate Oscar-bait film that’s (to our surprise) is a lot better than its auteur marketing may suggest! In keeping with that tradition, we follow it up with another story of fractured musical fame with Mariah Carey’s obnoxiously overwrought Glitter. Go off the deep end and into the shallows with us! 8:11 - Scalding Hot Takes: A Star is Born 33:03 - Control Nathan and Clint: Glitter 51:08 - Best F(r)iends: An Interview with Greg Sestero (The Room) 1:15:46 - Podcast Recommendations (The Last Podcast on the Left, The Best Show with Tom Scharpling) 1:21:29 - Mailbag 1:25:06 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: 

This week, Nathan and Clint are two ugly motherfuckers trying to catch some prey in an unforgiving world, as we talk about two different entries in the Predator franchise! First, we break down what Clint hated (and Nathan found not so bad) about Shane Black’s latest, messiest entry in the series. Then, we take a time warp back to the far-flung future of 1997 Los Angeles for the deeply racist, yet shockingly entertaining Predator 2! From there, we finally hash out the question that has plagued the Internet for the last two decades: Why are remakes? And what purpose do they serve? 6:04 - Scalding Hot Takes: The Predator 36:50 - Control Nathan and Clint: Predator 2 59:16 - Sequels, Remakes and Reboots 1:13:52 - Podcast Recommendations (Dr. Death, Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project) 1:19:42 - Mailbag 1:26:51 - Happy Places Follow us on Twitter (Nathan: @nathanrabin, Clint: @alcohollywood)! Pledge to our Patreon, and subscribe to us on iTunes Ask us questions at asknathanrabinshappycast@gmail.com! Theme Song by Jon B