Tales From the Rec Room

Would it even be a season of TFTRR without super best friend of the show Liz stopping by? Following up on our deep dive into millennial pop divas, we detour into pop star movie vehicle town on the weirdly slow cross-country road trip that is Crossroads. Were critics and audiences way too unfair to this movie or… was it actually kind of bad and we just feel guilty for everything else we put Britney through? Is it possible to include all this horrific subject matter in a movie targeted at tweens? Can we please have a little less exposition and more actual acting, or however that Elvis song goes? And maybe spare some Kim Cattrall? Plus, Bree’s nephew is born in the middle of the podcast. No, really.

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a podcast host. Being a podcast host to me was better than being the president of the United States! Mynty Cicero returns to the podcast to discuss Goodfellas and, more broadly, the legacy of organized crime, the mafia, Martin Scorcese and his gangster movies. We go over the “film bro” persona that has been much discussed over the last 20 years and what role Scorcese and Goodfellas played in this. Bree tries to convince Mynt that Ray Liotta is a good actor. Is it OK for non-Italians to play Italians? How about all the Jewish stuff in this movie? Also, is Christopher Nolan the brutalism of directors?

No items, Fox only, Final destination. It’s time for our annual video game episode! Bree and video game culture correspondent Ted Raymond – host of Let’s Playmond With Ted Raymond – party (game) like it’s 1999 with a look back at Super Smash Bros and the franchise that followed. We discuss the divisive nerdiness and overcorrection that resulted in Melee’s pivot, the limitations of the cartridge era, Nintendo’s evolution to the party game platform and the very sexy Captain Falcon.

Friend of the show Kelsey Goldman whip out their notebooks full of observations for their triumphant return to the mid-90s. In this fun and introspective episode, we revisit Nickelodeon’s first feature-length movie, Harriet the Spy. We discuss the evolution of the Kid Power genre, the movie’s meditations on the loneliness of childhood – which both of us experienced – Harriet’s iconic style and, of course, the career trajectory of the gone-too-soon Michelle Trachtenberg. There’s also a lot of ponderance on this movie’s portrayal of class, friend groups and parents that are neither amazing nor terrible at it!

Well-rounded multimedia producer and former music journalist Ryan Stephenson Price stops by to continue our journey through the early aughts and to go to where the podcast has never gone before: pop punk! Yellowcard’s violin gimmick didn’t win them a lot of fans with critics, but they were much loved by sort-of-angry teenagers everywhere – and then they sort of went away, and then came back, and then went away, but not really, and now they’re back again! We discuss the commercial rise of pop punk (and where it went), cynicism versus idealism versus the evil pragmatism of wanting to make money as a musician, the technical and theoretical challenge of being a drummer and the millennial obsession with nostalgia.

Former high school wallflower Helen joins Bree, who really should have been more of a wallflower in high school, to discuss the 1999 novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. We discuss the pace of change in pop culture from the early to late 90s, how we see ourselves in Charlie, how to communicate deeply internalized feelings in a book versus a movie, how music shapes (or doesn’t shape) your adolescence and much more! This episode deals with issues of childhood sexual abuse and substance abuse.

Welcome to Season 3, where you can’t sleep at night, because everyone is screaming! We Hate Movies cohost, improviser and former Smash Mouth frontman impersonator Stephen Sajdak joins us to, for some reason, revisit the 2004 attempted Ashton Kutcher reinvention, The Butterfly Effect. We’d say Kutcher’s laughable attempt at a dramatic turn is the most offensive thing about this movie, but man, the mentally ill really get it, don’t they? In true TFTRR tradition, we go back to the best and the worst (no, seriously, the worst) of 2004, a time when you could still pretend mental health facilities were nightmare factories and make tasteless prison jokes while still claiming to be a serious movie. Plus, we discuss the Edgy Media Economy, this movie’s weird insistence on attachment to your childhood friends and high school sweethearts and, of course, the Bash Brothers.

“You talk about things that are important to me, I’m gonna talk about Danny DeVito in that couch.” You really thought it was going to be a TFTRR special week without Liz? No way. Comms pro and hockey writer Liz shows up to discuss traumatic Christmas traditions, Rashoman-ing your own life, actors getting too pretty for their own good, the newfound stigma of rewatch podcasts and more. What were your favourite toys? What were your Christmas traditions? Turns out, we don’t care, we’re just watching Glenn Howerton’s little kicks!

“Another sympathetic reaction is watching people above the age of 30 fall on their backs. How is he walking?!” New friend of the show Amber Flannery Field – the only good tour guide in New York City – stops by to discuss Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Strap the heck in for a discussion on the highly protected institution of the white American boy, the “clean-up” of New York City in the 90s, the racial politics of tourism, power, homelessness, violence and – look out below – Brenda Fricker. Settle in and learn why they call Amber “America’s comic.” Also, what is a Lynchian couch? Gotta listen ‘til the end. This is about Home Alone 2, by the way.

“Would you buy an NHL game with Steven Lorentz on it?” “I mean… yes?” Shove this up your stocking! Bree and Mike Stephens get surprisingly all up in their feelings for a classic Christmas comfort watch: The Simpsons Season 7’s “Marge Be Not Proud.” We start Freud-raging, discussing the dynamic between mothers and sons, tough love, the lack of 90’s schmaltzy Christmas movies, the pain of Bart, and, of course, video game culture, uh huh?. Plus, a lot about Lawrence Tierney, that’s right. Well, try to have a Merry Christmas.

I’m sorry to defer with you, but you’ve always been in the rec room. Pour yourself a bourbon and advocaat. It’s time to discuss The Shining! We Hate Movies cohost Eric Szyszka returns to discuss our favourite elevated/elevator horror movie, The Shining. Does the lore around how Kubrick treated Duvall border on disrespectful toward her legacy? What is the actual best Stephen King adaptation? And, in all seriousness, what are the biggest ways in which this movie has influenced the horror genre and filmmaking in general? Plus, lots of Treehouse of Horror V references!

After a summer of legendary audio issues, Bree and friend of the show Frederick Blichert cap off the season with a playful romp through a home viewing favourite (“favourite” might be generous for Bree), Urban Legend. The movie obviously apes Scream every chance it gets, which might make it the ultimate movie through which to explore the context of late 90’s blockbusters. In the fun of figuring out exactly what about this movie doesn’t work – when in fact there’s a bit about it that does work – we also look at what sets it apart from the horror movies it was trying so hard to imitate, and how its themes fits into the 2020’s era of misinformation. Also, lots of love for Brad Douriff and Loretta Devine.

Climb into the RV and don’t forget to strap in Milhouse! In our first-ever showdown episode, Ted comes back to discuss two of our favourite Simpsons episodes from our rec room eras – and what they say about our childhoods. Ted’s here to discuss the classic boys’ adventure, Lemon of Troy, and reminisces about playground wars, the cliche of boys never growing up, the perfect depiction of an early summer day where time stretches on forever. Bree brings to the table Summer of 4 ft. 2, to discuss its depiction not only of the 90s but also of, well, a girls’ adventure. Which, naturally, is all about rejection and loneliness. But, like, you know, whatever!

Welcome to the Jay Mohr Cinematic Universe, where your favourite comedy legends are apparently in mortal danger. Friend of the show Mikey “The Mouth” Stephens, having been heavily bribed and plied with favours and snacks, comes to discuss the infantile attempt at a mafia spoof, 1998’s Mafia! (also known as Jane Austen’s Mafia!, for some reason). Does this movie kind of work? (Mike says no, Bree says yes). What was the magic of the ZAZ-iverse (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker) that was kinda missing here? Could Leslie Nielson have made this movie better? What is the best mafia movie of all time? (Spoiler alert: Not this one). Also, it’s Christina Applegate Appreciation Hour!

Well, after last week’s miserable slog through Family Guy, we’ve come to a nice palate cleanser with… oh, American Beauty? Okay. Well, our old pal Mynt showed up to discuss American Beauty, a movie that was considered such a masterpiece in 1999 that it cleaned up at the Oscars and, less than two decades later became almost universally regarded as a joke, mostly because of the you-know-who of it all, but also because of the argument that it was no longer as edgy, profound or as ground-breaking as we once thought. But upon further reflection it’s still… pretty good? Do people get the criticism of this movie wrong? Do we really think the movie is on Lester’s side, or does it agree that he’s a reckless, misogynistic loser who projects his issues onto everyone? How does this movie reflect the immediate post-Cold War, peak-Lewinski sexual politics of the era? Why did none of these young actors have bigger careers? How did Mynt miss a very young John Cho in this movie? How has the show managed to go off on tangents about Aaron Sorkin two weeks in a row and yet has still never covered The West Wing? Anyway, stick around for the ultimate “hear us out” episode of this season.

Well, they can’t all be winners. Bree and sitcom retrospective expert José look back at the first three season of adult comedy “bad boi” Family Guy – the adult animation juggernaut accused of being everything from a Simpsons clone to one of America’s “worst TV shows for primetime viewing.” The show gained cult status thanks to the DVD box sets that littered many a rec room (hey, that’s the name of the show!) but… did it actually earn it? No, no, this show was just plain bad, even though teenage Bree really, really liked it. Listen to Bree and José try to rationalize how this show has managed to stay on the air for so long, find some nice-ish things to say about Seth MacFarlane, and ponder what it’s like to be a tween of the 00’s raised on Family Guy the way we were raised on The Simpsons. Plus, the first-ever case of someone completely blanking on almost every question of the Lightning Round. It’s my fault, folks, I asked someone to say nice things about Family Guy.

Miss the Euro Cup yet? That’s okay, because we’re taking a European adventure of our own! Bree welcomes returning guest and We Hate Movies host Andrwe Jupin to discuss the 2004 teen sex comedy, Eurotrip. We follow three-and-a-half nobodies around Europe as we discuss the pervasive early-aughts depictions of teen sex and partying (why do all high school students have easy access to kegs? Why are they into G&Ts?), try to figure out what happened to R-rated teen movies, lament that okay-looking people aren’t allowed in movies any more and are shocked that only a few things in this movie (you know, like the big extended sexual assault joke) haven’t aged all that well. It’s okay, we’re Catholic.

Bree reunites with TFTRR video game expert and digital journalist Ted Raymond to talk about the time Mom and Dad (a.k.a. Nintendo and Square) got divorced, and the honour student they made before that happened: Super Mario RPG. We discuss RPG history and the meteoric, early-90s rise of everyone’s favourite plumber, get really, really nerdy about the vaudevillian nature of Super Mario RPG, share our differing opinions about Gino and give our take on the Switch reissue. Oh, and we sing a lot.

It’s the John C. Reilly appreciation hour as Bree and best friend of the show Liz dive into 2007’s Walk Hard! How did such a silly movie manage to have such an impact – temporarily killing the musical biopic genre and the superspoof genre? Does this movie somehow work as a serious movie? How did this movie managed to get such a stacked cast, and will we ever see another movie like this again? Speaking of things you won’t see anymore: cool rock stars, pot jokes and SNL character movies. Where did they all go? Anyway, welcome back to the Rec Room, folks – load up your mouths with popcorn, take a swig of diet soda and enjoy!

We close out the week with Bree’s all-time fave, 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – and our good friend, Rachel Kellogg, has joined us! Yes, Dunst is a supporting player here, but she might be the most tragic supporting actor of all time. We discuss the timelessness of this movie, whether or not this movie is hopeful about love, how Dunst herself influenced the popular character analysis lexicon, and why Elijah Wood is the perfect Weird Lil Guy. Also, we’ve got a Mark Ruffalo Falling Over And/Or Dropping Things counter, Lacuna might be an absolute Mickey Mouse operation, and we’ve got some beef with Walk The Line.