Ep. 890 - Coyote vs. Acme

**David Chen** (0:19)
Hello everyone, and welcome to The Filmcast, a podcast about movies. I'm David Chen, and like Coyote vs Acme, this podcast is also about one regular person surrounded by cartoon characters. But I'm gonna let you decide who you think that is.
But I think we all know. Joining me today is Devindra Hardawar.

**Devindra Hardawar** (0:37)
We have a movie, now I can't wait for the Coyote and Roadrunner podcast.

**David Chen** (0:42)
It'll sound amazing. And Jeff Cannata.

**Jeff Cannata** (0:46)
If we're talking prosecutions, I finally wanna get Gargamel on War Crimes.

**David Chen** (0:55)
Those are, of course, all vague and oblique references to the fact that today on the podcast, we're going to be discussing Coyote vs. Acme, the movie they tried to stop you from seeing. The movie they almost killed.
Now it's back. It's number two at the box office this weekend. Doing pretty well for itself. I'm really excited that we can finally dive in after this movie was saved from near-certain oblivion. Of course, before we get to that, we've got some what we've been watching for you and some movie news. There's been some really, really, really sad at upsetting movie news over the course of the last week.

**Devindra Hardawar** (1:31)
It's rough out there.

**David Chen** (1:32)
Multiple beloved fixtures of our pop culture have passed away, including specifically the top of mind for me are obviously Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and Peter Cullen, the latter of whom continued working right until the end. I was watching Invincible and he's amazing in that show.
But yeah, these are titans of the industry. Tim Curry especially hits particularly hard. If you're like me, you were completely terrified in your childhood by Tim Curry's portrayal of Stephen King's titular character, it, boy, did that character give me extreme nightmares.

**Devindra Hardawar** (2:17)
I think you mean Pennywise the Clown, but yeah.

**David Chen** (2:18)
That's what I mean. Come on, what kind of a fan are you?
It's not it.

**Devindra Hardawar** (2:24)
Wow, listeners, I am sorry for what just happened. We're better than this.

**Jeff Cannata** (2:30)
You know how many subscribers we just lost, Dave?

**David Chen** (2:33)
I know, so many.

**Devindra Hardawar** (2:35)
But no, Tim Curry, always terrified.

**David Chen** (2:37)
Pennywise the Clown, it was the mini-series on TV. It was like, I remember watching it and thinking, should this be on TV? Like as a child, this is so scary and upsetting. This probably shouldn't be on TV.
He was amazing in it. He brought his A-game to that role as well as to many other roles, ranging from Home Alone 2 to Command and Conquer, and obviously amazing in the film Clue.

**Jeff Cannata** (3:02)
Not since Jack Nicholson played the titular character The Shining.

**Devindra Hardawar** (3:13)
Oh, man.

**Jeff Cannata** (3:15)
I don't want to sully Tim Curry's memory. There are not two films that have had more of an impact on me than Clue and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Both of those had massive, massive impact on my life. Clue, I still quote near daily, had a huge, huge imprint on my comedic sensibilities. As a kid, I watched Clue over and over and over again on VHS growing up. And his totally unhinged performance in that is a thing of beauty. By the end, when he, as the butler, is running back and forth, shoving people, trying to explain who done it in the various three endings, it is just magnificent. He is magnificent. I love that movie so very much. And The Rocky Horror Picture Show, I mean, I performed live numerous times growing up in the Bay Area, went to see it in Berkeley a bunch of times, and then we decided we were going to do it ourselves. I was working at the movie theater. We convinced the owner of the movie theater to let us do Rocky Horror. We performed it in front of the screen.
It was a huge sort of...
At the age that I was exposed to that, which was like 17, 18, opening my eyes to sexuality and this kind of mad capped musical theater exploration of mores and taboos. Like it was a watershed moment in my life to sort of be exposed to that, to memorize that movie and see his performance in it and just being so comfortable in his own skin. At a time when I was not comfortable in my own skin, he had a huge impact on my life and I think is an extraordinary talent. I mean, there's not a thing he touched that he didn't make better. Even like Command and Conquer, you know what I mean?