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On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean have hired some existential detectives to help solve the mysteries that are plaguing them in the David O. Russell film from 2004, I Heart Huckabees.

Did you know that Shania Twain hates mayo? Like, totally hates it. Can\u2019t eat a single bit of it. She can\u2019t have a chicken salad at all. Be prepared to move out of the way if you ever give her any because she\u2019s going to be throwing up all over you the next moment. We give her tuna fish sandwiches instead, but she\u2019s not buying it. So we tell her we\u2019re allergic to mayo (a total lie, by the way) and eat a couple of them to make her feel better. She eats one and a half of them\u2014one and a half!\u2014before realizing\u2026 they\u2019re chicken salad.

Mayo aside, we\u2019re talking about a movie that\u2019s got some real depth and layers to it. Albert Markovski goes to see a husband and wife team of existential detectives because he\u2019s been having some peculiar coincidences that he just can\u2019t figure out. They\u2019re driving him a little batty! Not to mention he\u2019s having difficulties at work because some punk named Brad Stand is basically trying to take over his environmental non-profit. He gets teamed up with a disaffected fireman to help him figure out the cause of his troubles. There\u2019s a\u2026 well, there\u2019s a lot of heady stuff that goes on with this film. How can someone condense it all into this meager space in the show notes of a podcast episode?

Instead, I want to tell you this story about Shania Twain and chicken salad sandwiches. Did you know she hates them? She can\u2019t eat mayo. No mayo!

This is an interesting film in David O. Russell\u2019s oeuvre. It\u2019s the last film he made that could be considered a straight-up comedy (so far), and yet it\u2019s a peculiar one. It\u2019s unique and eccentric. Then he went off and did heavy as hell things like The Fighter and American Hustle.

It\u2019s a fun one, though. It flew way under the radar when it came out, so it\u2019s been overlooked by many. It evolves into a story with real emotion and consequences as its running time progresses. By the end of it, you\u2019ll probably find yourself asking what exactly does everything mean?

Oh, and did we ever tell you about the Shania Twain-mayo story?

(Recorded on September 21, 2020)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

I Heart Huckabees - IMDb

I Heart Huckabees trailer - YouTube

Chutes Too Narrow | The Shins - Wikipedia

Garden State - IMDb

Jason Schwartzman - IMDb

Rushmore - IMDb

Jojo Rabbit - IMDb

David O. Russell - IMDb

Game of Thrones - IMDb

Hunt for the Wilderpeople - IMDb

Robin Williams - IMDb

Shania Twain - Wikipedia

Newton's laws of motion - Wikipedia

Doctor Who - IMDb

Christopher Eccleston - IMDb

Matt Smith - IMDb

David Tennant - IMDb