Welcome to Nathan Rabin's Bad Ideas!

The Saga Begins!

A little over twenty five years ago, in May of 1997, I wrote my first professional reviews for The A.V. Club: Tromeo & Juliet and Seconds. It was an auspicious combination that anticipated the bifurcated nature of my sensibility. 

It’s fitting that my first pieces for The A.V. Club as a freelancer would be about a seminal New Hollywood cult classic abut identity, ego, aging and mortality and a fucked up Troma take on William Shakespeare written by a young James Gunn.  

From the very beginning of my career I loved art and trash in equal measure although, to be fair, if I had to choose between great art and exuberant garbage, I’d probably go with trash. 

Ten years ago I left The A.V. Club after a decade and a half as a freelancer and then its Head Writer to join a handful of my colleagues at The Dissolve, Pitchfork’s short-lived but much loved and sorely missed film site. 

I’m extraordinarily proud of the work that I did there even if I ended up getting laid off shortly before the site went out of business. 

Five and a half years ago I took the plunge and launched a personal website, Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place. It was a life-saver, personally and professionally. After two years in the wilderness I finally found a permanent professional home, one that I had complete control over and could not be taken away from me. 

I’m happy as well as exceedingly anxious to announce that the next phase of my career begins TODAY with the very first post in Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas, a Substack devoted to ideas and projects that are misguided and irredeemable in the best possible sense. 

What kind of bad ideas? I’m glad you asked. 

For starters, I’ll be writing about all of the Ernest P. Worrell movies in chronological order, including re-watching and re-reviewing the ones I’ve already covered. Why? Why the hell not? I am a lover of fine art, after all, and an intellectual. 

I will also be writing about the complete filmographies of either James Belushi or Gary Busey. Why? Again, there’s no good reason for it. It’s not like Travolta/Cage, where they’re two fascinating film legends whose careers overlap in some really fascinating places. No, they’re just two weird, oddly fascinating trash culture icons whose names happen to rhyme. Also, I’ve kind of been obsessed with James Belushi since seeing him perform at Old Joliet Prison as part of the “Blues Brothers” for the Blues Brothers Con. 

I’ll let YOU determine whether I waste my time with Belushi’s or Busey’s oeuvre. I’ll be conducting a poll for subscribers that will end on February 1st, at which point my journey with either Busey or Belushi will begin. 

I’m also going to start going to the movie theaters on Friday to watch and review new movies, something I did at the beginning of my career back in Madison as a freelance critic for The A.V Club in the late 1990s. 

Only this time I’ll be doing it for y’all and letting you choose what I review. I’ll begin this Friday by watching and writing about either the Gerard Butler plane crash action thriller January special Plane, the House Party reboot OR M3gan. 

M3gan is a bit of a cheat, since it came out last Friday but I’m looking for any excuse to watch and write about it. 

Studios generally dump their worst movies on apathetic audiences in mostly empty theaters in January and February. What better time for me to get back into writing up new films? 

Also, Cocaine Bear! I repeat, Cocaine Bear! 

I was a professional film critic for eighteen years. I was pretty good at it, I reckon. I miss it and welcome an opportunity to do it again in my own idiosyncratic fashion. 

You’ll also be getting exclusive access to an upcoming piece on my experiences at a Shrek-themed rave in Atlanta this Friday: I am a forty-six year old husband and father. I have no business going to a big Shrek themed rave (my very first) but I’m going to do it anyway and write about the experience because that is a VERY bad/good idea.  

Here’s the fun part: I can pretty much do whatever the hell I want with this Substack, but I can also pretty much  do whatever the hell you want as well. 

Want me to write about all 13 Gallagher specials? Fuck it, if enough people get excited about a sick idea like that I’ll definitely consider it.  

Want me write up everything Larry the Cable Guy has done? I could do that as well.

At the end of the year I plan to write up the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise in its entirety. Who knows what crazy side-quests I’ll pursue here? Not me! I’m open to anything as long as its bad and tacky and vulgar and probably a terrible idea.

Rally the troops, get a bunch of folks excited about a specific bad idea, and I’ll definitely give your awful idea consideration. That’s what this crazy new venture is all about. 

One of my favorite things about Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place is the community that has grown around it. I would love for Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas to develop a similarly tight-knit, intelligent and respectful community but I’m also hoping that the lovely folks who make the Happy Place a joy to visit will stick around and make their benevolent presence felt here as well. 

We should have a name for y’all. Which do you like better, Baddies or Idea Men/Women? 

I’ve been doing this for a LONG time. A LONG time. With Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas I hope to build upon everything that I have done in the last quarter century in terms of books and columns and ideas and podcasts and whatnot while also embracing a glorious new beginning. 

Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas can be anything! We can shape and mold it together and turn it into something that’s a glorious extension of Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place while also being its own thing. 

Join me! This is gonna be fun. 

That’s the Nathan Rabin promise!