The Tenth Annual Blank Check Awards with Joe Reid

Summary

The Tenth Annual Blank Check Awards with Joe Reid Blank Check Productions, February 23, 2025

Introduction: Celebrating a Decade of Dreams [00:16 - 03:27] Griffin Newman and David Sims kick off the episode by announcing the milestone celebration of their podcast's ten-year anniversary, aptly named "Decade of Dreams." They reveal plans for a special anniversary art show in partnership with Coda Gallery and Mutant, emphasizing the involvement of talented artists inspired by the show.

Griffin Newman [01:13]: "We're celebrating a Decade of Dreams with a special anniversary art show presented in partnership with Coda Gallery and Mutant."

Welcome to the Blank Check Awards [03:27 - 50:00] Transitioning from the celebration, the hosts introduce the primary focus of the episode: the Blankies Awards. These awards honor outstanding performances, screenplays, and other cinematic achievements from the previous year. Joe Reid joins the discussion, bringing additional insights and humor to the proceedings.

Best Supporting Actor [04:55 - 07:40] The trio delves into the Best Supporting Actor category, highlighting nominees such as Tom Hardy for Bike Riders, Mark Edelstein for Anora, Penelope Cruz in Ferrari, and others. Griffin Nash emphasizes the intense presence of these actors, while Ben Hosley expresses his admiration for specific performances.

Griffin Newman [06:22]: "Nickel Boys was all me. I did some adjustments on a couple of them."

Best Supporting Actress [07:40 - 15:00] The conversation shifts to the Best Supporting Actress category, with nominees including Alicia Witt for Long Legs, Alison Pill for Trap, Renata Ranzva for A Different Man, and Michelle Austin for Hard Truth. The hosts discuss the depth and versatility of these performances, ultimately voting for their favorites.

Ben Hosley [12:14]: "Dolly De Leon for Ghost Lights—she is insanely good."

Best Screenplay [15:00 - 25:00] The hosts explore both Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay categories. For Original Screenplay, nominees include Annie Baker for Janet Planet, Justin Karitzka for Challengers, and others. In Adapted Screenplay, nominees feature Nickel Boys and People’s Joker. The discussion highlights the narrative structure and originality of each script.

David Sims [20:14]: "Best Adapted Screenplay goes to Nickel Boys—a really interesting way to adapt that book."

Best Actor [25:00 - 35:00] Best Actor nominations feature standout performances from Colman Domingo in Conclave, Zachary Levi in Rebel Ridge, and others. The discussion covers the emotional depth and complexity brought by these actors to their roles.

Griffin Newman [30:00]: "Now, my big takeaway from this year, besides just him, like, totally coming to his own, proving himself. Two movies that clearly got financed, like, on him."

Best Actress [35:00 - 45:00] In the Best Actress category, nominees include Marianne Jean Baptiste for Hard Truths, Mikey Madison for Anora, Julianne Nicholson for Janet Planet, and Naomi Scott for Smile. The hosts debate the nuances of each performance, ultimately selecting their top choices based on emotional resonance and acting prowess.

Griffin Newman [39:00]: "She is quiet, intense, and absolutely nails it in Hard Truths."

Best Animated Feature [45:00 - 50:00] The discussion culminates with the Best Animated Feature category, featuring films like Memoirs of a Snail, Flo, and Wild Robot. The hosts evaluate the storytelling, animation quality, and overall impact of these animated works.

David Sims [48:00]: "Best Animated Feature goes to Wild Robot—a manipulative movie that I was very happy to be manipulated by."

Notable Highlights and Audience Engagement Throughout the episode, Griffin, David, and Ben interject with humorous banter, personal anecdotes, and lighthearted critiques of the nominated works. They engage in playful disagreements, showcasing their deep knowledge and passion for cinema.

David Sims [58:12]: "Sign up now in the Regal app or at the link in the description in our show notes and use code blank check to get 20% off your three-month subscription."

Conclusion: Reflections and Future Plans [50:00 - End] As the awards segment wraps up, the hosts reflect on the year's cinematic landscape, acknowledging both hits and misses. They express excitement for future discussions and hint at potential retrospective episodes covering past decades of film.

Griffin Newman [184:39]: "A decade of dreams. Continue."

Overall Insights The episode provides a comprehensive overview of significant film achievements over the past year, blending critical analysis with the hosts' signature humor and camaraderie. Listeners gain insight into standout performances and screenplays, while also enjoying the dynamic interaction between Griffin, David, and Ben.

Transcript

[Griffin Newman]

David.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

This is a pre roll before the actual episode. Wow. Because we have something special to communicate about our show. Blank check.

[David Sims]

Luke Griffin and David.

[Griffin Newman]

10 years. Decade of Dreams. This March coming up is the anniversary month and we want to do something special. Last year for our live show at Town hall, we had our buddy Ollie Moss, the Mad Lad himself, make a beautiful poster. You might be seeing more of that artwork soon. Yep. And he sent us like six ideas. Right. Of just like here are ways I thought I could graphically represent the show. And his rough drafts were incredible. Yes, it's. It sparked something in my head.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

We got all these amazing artists who we know listen to the show. What. What. What would happen if we perhaps gave those artists a blank canvas to see whatever crazy ideas they could come up with?

[Joe Reed]

Wait, I'm sorry, Griffin, did you have a complicated idea?

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, I did.

[David Sims]

Exactly. Griffin's doing all the talking here because this was all his idea and I've not been involved with.

[Griffin Newman]

We're celebrating a Decade of Dreams with a special anniversary art show presented in partnership with Coda Gallery and Mutant. And who's invited? You're invited. Hell yeah. So here's the deal. March 21 to March 23 at Coda Gallery, located at 210 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002. The show will be open to the public Friday and Saturday from 11am to 6pm, Sunday from 11am to 5pm this special event will showcase exclusive prints from Maragaya, Brian Gaja. Brian Leo Malley. Heard of him?

[David Sims]

Of course.

[Griffin Newman]

Kevin Wilson, our buddy Joe Bowen. And we'll also have unique kind of one of one works from Brad Hill, Sarah Rubin, Abigail Noye, Truck Torrance. Just name a few. It's quite a list of contributors and I've seen some. Some sneaky peakies of what they're working on. There's some really cool stuff. So we will have first run prints available exclusively in person at the show. If there's any leftover inventory, will make it available online to those of you who cannot attend. And here's another thing. You could take a trip down memory lane. Curated selection of blank check ephemera from over the years. Some very important historical items may or may not be on display. The envelope, Berry jeans, perhaps a full ass porch. I think it's going to be a fun thing. If you're a dang ass freak and a real nerd who likes this podcast. We think it's going to be a fun thing to do.

[David Sims]

I think it's going to be very fun. I'M actually excited to see all this stuff that I've had no real participation in curating.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, we make a mistake every year, which is planning a big live show in the same month we do March Madness and taxing ourselves to the high heavens. We will do a live show later this summer.

[Ben Hosley]

Yep.

[Griffin Newman]

But we wanted to do something special in March for the anniversary, and this was a fun idea. To reserve a time to see the show, go to Blank check art show eventbrite.com so mark your calendars, spread the word. We'll see you at The Coda Gallery, 210 Rivington Street, March 21 through March 23. And for more info, you can follow us on socials or visit the aforementioned blank check art show.eventbrite.com A decade of dreams. David. David.

[David Sims]

A decade of dreams.

[Griffin Newman]

Coming to you live from Brooklyn, New York, it's the 2025 blank. What a wonderful night for blankies, Blankies, blankies. Who will win? And some of the possible nominees are. Oh, Amelia. Amelia Perez. Affirming your gender and singing. Oh, Amelia, you ran a cartel. Guacamole smell. Run a charity. I was very surprised. That's what that movie's about. When the girl gets on top and she grinds till you pop. That's so Nora. When a rich Russian boy treats your heart like a toy. That's a Nora.

[David Sims]

Nori's a vampire now.

[Griffin Newman]

I also did Amore for Minari, I believe.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Skip ahead. Conclave. When there's white smoke, it signals that there's a new Pope. Conclave. Conclave. Ray finds. Leads the Catholic Church through changing times. Conclave.

[David Sims]

He sure does.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't think you're ready for this shelving. I don't think you're ready for this shelving. I don't think you're ready for this. Cuz my style is too brutalistic for you, babe. That was a respectful nod from David. I'm watching Wicked tonight. I'm watching Wicked tonight. I'm watching Wicked tonight. But just part one. All I can say is that too Culkin and Eisenberg stayed in their lanes.

[David Sims]

Yeah, that's. That's good.

[Griffin Newman]

He's a young Bob Dylan conquering the world of folk. Wants to go electric. Pete Seeger's saying no. He sleeps with the girl named Joan. Girl named Joan. Plot of a complete unknown. It's a danger zone.

[David Sims]

Okay. I was like, what is it? Okay.

[Ben Hosley]

I was trying. I was trying to find it.

[David Sims]

I got it. I got it.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, here's the big one. What are the nickel Boys, Nickel boys. The school is real bad and real racist too. Racist, too. They mess kids around. And then worst of all. Worst of all, the film is all shot from their pov. Pov. I see what they see. Empathy. Okay, I'm typed out.

[David Sims]

Oh, that was great. That was great.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you.

[David Sims]

Congratulations.

[Griffin Newman]

Now let's. Let's acknowledge a thrill ride for the first year. For the 10th annual Blankies, we brought in our Bruce Valanch.

[David Sims]

Yeah, that's right. And who's that? Of course.

[Griffin Newman]

Sean Clemens of Hollywood Handbook.

[David Sims]

How many of those did he come up with?

[Griffin Newman]

Almost all of them.

[David Sims]

Okay, great.

[Griffin Newman]

Nickel Boys was all me. I did some adjustments on a couple of them. This was almost all last year. He was like, hey, I heard you struggle to come up with the songs. I like song parodies. Feel free to activate me earlier. And I remembered to text him last night.

[David Sims]

So. Nickel boys to build me a buttercup.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, I see.

[Griffin Newman]

What they see was the big. That came to me.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Yeah. No, that was pov.

[Griffin Newman]

The school's bad. Shut it down. I was trying to figure out how to fit that lyric in there. I was.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I want to make it clear.

[Ben Hosley]

Close the schools.

[Griffin Newman]

That's what shut it down.

[Ben Hosley]

Close the schools.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, close the schools.

[David Sims]

Right. What if you didn't like Nick? You like Nickel Boys because you don't like any schools.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, right.

[Griffin Newman]

Shut them all.

[Ben Hosley]

All right. Linda McMahon. Hey.

[Griffin Newman]

Hello. Welcome. Welcome to the 10th annual. People are pointing out that this is actually the 11th year of blank Check.

[David Sims]

Right. But we didn't do a blankies award.

[Griffin Newman]

In our first year, which makes this the 10th annual. But people are saying, why are you talking about all this Decade of Dreams shit? This is year 11. Decade of Dreams is all about looking back, much like the 10th annual Blankies, which are about looking back to 2024.

[David Sims]

Right. It's like we've done 10 years and one day and two days, but still, it's a decade.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a decade.

[David Sims]

I hate people listening to this show and commenting on it. This is Turn it On.

[Ben Hosley]

It's also how birthdays work and have always worked.

[Griffin Newman]

It is how birthdays work. Thank you.

[David Sims]

That's how.

[Ben Hosley]

And.

[David Sims]

And everything else.

[Griffin Newman]

Check my watch here. Well, well, well. Oh, it's my birthday today.

[David Sims]

Happy birthday, Griffin Newman and Blankie Awards.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, well, well. And what a great gift I got this year, the episode that stresses me out most yearly.

[David Sims]

Oh, this stresses you out? You get too stressed out about these.

[Griffin Newman]

Assignments, making these tough, tough decisions. I'm. I'm moving things around still.

[David Sims]

Well, it's tough out there to make those decisions. I understand that. But we, of course are here.

[Griffin Newman]

6 mafia would say it is.

[David Sims]

It's hard out here for an awards body.

[Ben Hosley]

Hard out there for a Griff.

[Griffin Newman]

I want something that's good.

[David Sims]

How is three Six Mafia doing?

[Griffin Newman]

Great. They have three accounts. They each have a trophy. What do you mean?

[David Sims]

Like their last album was released in 2008. Okay. All right.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. But you know what they can do? They can look on their bookshelf and see an Academy award.

[David Sims]

It was a deserved win as far as I was Good movie. I wonder if I would like it now.

[Ben Hosley]

But I have seen it.

[Griffin Newman]

You know, I didn't like it at the time. Now I'm curious if I'd like it more.

[David Sims]

I liked it a lot.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

I like the Hustle. Maybe not so much the flow.

[Griffin Newman]

You weren't into the flow.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Sims]

Did you like Hustle and Flow, Ben? Did you ever see Hustle and Flow?

[Joe Reed]

I did.

[David Sims]

You know, it's hard out here for a pimp.

[Joe Reed]

It was. I liked it. I like. I love a gritty movie about a bunch of riff raff.

[Ben Hosley]

Maybe the flow this time around can be a bunch of animals on a little, little boat hustling to. To make it through the floods.

[Joe Reed]

And you know what? I love to see scrappy audio production.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, well, I mean make it, make it work. Culture was happening in this studio right before we started recording, so that is true. Ben Hosley.

[Joe Reed]

We. We had a little bit of equipment failure, but thankfully we had an extra part and we were able.

[David Sims]

My arm.

[Joe Reed]

We to get things back on.

[David Sims]

I red Hulked out for a second there.

[Griffin Newman]

People might be worried that now that Captain America brave new world has come out and we as a culture have entered a brave new world that the R reference rifts might end. I want you to know, first of all, we have maybe six episodes in the can where we talk about Red Hy.

[David Sims]

I'm looking at him, thinking about him.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm looking at him right now.

[Joe Reed]

Yeah, he's. He's looming.

[David Sims]

He is up above me.

[Griffin Newman]

Our friends at Regal sent us a red Hulk popcorn bucket out of his back.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, is that bucket connected to the red Hulk?

[Griffin Newman]

No, that is a. An avatar bucket.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, okay.

[Griffin Newman]

This is literally just a bust. A very detailed bust of Red Hole Carson Ford. And there's a slot in his back and you can reach him. Oh.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, God. That's. That. God does not approve of that.

[Griffin Newman]

Hey, Our guest today.

[David Sims]

Hey.

[Griffin Newman]

Returning to the show for the 10th.

[Ben Hosley]

Time, getting better with age. I Think so.

[Griffin Newman]

Getting better with age.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, let's.

[Griffin Newman]

Let's co host of this has Oscar buzz.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes, had Oscar buzz.

[Griffin Newman]

This had Oscar buzz.

[Ben Hosley]

But you know, today we'll talk about.

[Griffin Newman]

Things that also had Oscar buzz and it either has Oscar buzz came came to be or not. He is also the godfather of the Cinematrix I That's true indeed. Father.

[Ben Hosley]

Speaking of things that are turning one.

[Griffin Newman]

Hey, today is also the birthday.

[Ben Hosley]

I said last year when I recorded the blankies was the very first day that Cinematrix went live.

[Griffin Newman]

It's everything's happening. Joe Reed, AKA Reading Ranger.

[Ben Hosley]

Thank you.

[Griffin Newman]

A nickname that I solely uphold.

[Ben Hosley]

The only person to call me that. And you know what?

[Griffin Newman]

I appreciate it. Hey, that's what I'm here for, guys. Was 2024 a weird year for movies now? You know, I'm thinking about this. I'm thinking the first time.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

No, it's weird, right?

[David Sims]

One very odd year for life that.

[Griffin Newman]

You know what, that's a good way of framing it.

[David Sims]

Bit of an odd year for movies. Why was it I guess the strike that. You know, I think a lot of it is a lot of weird stuff got kind of like gummed up.

[Griffin Newman]

A lot of it's release wise. I think when things the strike the studios foolishly hubristically thought they could avoid and then went on so much longer than they thought that when the machine started up it was just like we have to finish 5, 10 polls. And everything else was just kind of like backlogged. You also hear all these stories of just nothing getting fucking greenlit anymore. And during the strike there was a lot of talk of like indie waivers. Well, the indies get to go, right? But what people don't know. I had good friends who were ready to make a feature and the strike happened and I was like, well, can't you guys go? Can't you get an indie waiver? And they were like, the indie waiver list is so fucking backed up.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh wow.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. Especially because all these stars were like, get me on an indie. A24 got a couple things through the pipeline, you know, like there were things that happened, things got approved but like they needed to be one by one approved. And so even the indie offerings were backed up.

[Ben Hosley]

And A24 had about 12 movies this year that you were like, well, this is probably going to be an Oscar contender.

[Griffin Newman]

They had a year.

[Ben Hosley]

They're all competing with the inside the same house.

[Griffin Newman]

They had a weird year and then they just bought something at. At the last minute and just put everything on that.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, Venice, I think Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, you're right. Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Both.

[Griffin Newman]

Whatever. Who knows? Everything. It was a weird year. I mean, that. That is the number one reason. And also, we've, like, as we talk about every year, the last 10 years have been very transformative for the Oscars. And you now basically have this body that's, like, at war with itself and is like every year swinging back and forth on what it is.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. They're so in. They're so international now. They're so very much like. And now all of a sudden, this is why the Oscars are much more an extension of Cam than they used to be.

[Griffin Newman]

Younger and artier. And that you still have old fuddy duddies. And sometimes you have a movie that seems like a critics darling art house festival play that then comes out bombs. And then the fuddy duddies reclaim it. One of the weirdest awards season arcs of all time, in my opinion.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes. In that. Especially in the fact that, like, it seemed at times that, like. Do you even know what you like about this movie? Like, because I don't know if you.

[Griffin Newman]

Necessarily do, but, like, Netflix definitely thought buying Emilia Perez. This is at least Anatomy of a Murder Best Case Parasite. They didn't think we're. We're green book this year.

[David Sims]

Right, Right.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, because it was like, it. Listen, it's on the cutting edge of, you know, we are being radically inclusive and we are telling. It's a trans musical drug cartel, it's in Mexico. It's all. It's international, yada, yada, yada. And every little element of this, the component communities were like, don't want it.

[Griffin Newman]

Just to be clear, we're talking about Hot Frosty.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, we're talking about Hot Frosty.

[Griffin Newman]

Netflix is riskiest bet.

[David Sims]

Do you like Episode?

[Griffin Newman]

So I saw it last night. I'd been putting it off this season.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

And I finally saw it. Here's what I'll say. Yeah, I did not like it.

[Ben Hosley]

It's very French.

[Griffin Newman]

I didn't.

[Ben Hosley]

It is a very French movie.

[Griffin Newman]

I didn't despise it.

[David Sims]

No.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't know if that's because I have seen it so late in the bell curve that my expectations were most offensive.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Incompetent, incoherent movie ever made.

[Ben Hosley]

It's a really bad musical and I really don't like that about it.

[Griffin Newman]

It is a disastrous musical. You could do a subcategory this year of, like, the broken musicals of 2024.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Amelia Perez, Joker, Fali, Ada and Moana 2. Oh, I still haven't seen three musicals in crisis where it's like you can't figure out why you're a musical.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I think Joker 2 comes out the best out of those three.

[Ben Hosley]

As a musical or as a movie?

[Griffin Newman]

Both.

[David Sims]

Wow.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

David's making a stinky.

[David Sims]

I would take Amelia Perez more. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Watching Amelia Perez made me respect Falia even more. Have you seen Moana, too? The songs are so fucking bad.

[David Sims]

I know. I've.

[Ben Hosley]

I waited till the Oscar nominations, and then it didn't get any. And I was like, that's a movie I do not have to see this year.

[Griffin Newman]

I complained that Falia de Todd Phillips didn't have enough conviction to really, like, own the cinematic language of it being a musical. And then watching Amelia Perez, I'm like, he went for it much harder than ODR did. That's a movie that feels embarrassed to be a musical in a way that is weird to me.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, perfunctory more than maybe embarrassed.

[David Sims]

I just think they don't know how to sing. That's, like, the major issue.

[Griffin Newman]

But also, the songs are bad, and the numbers aren't shot in any sort of, like, out.

[Ben Hosley]

There's a couple exceptions.

[David Sims]

I disagree with that.

[Griffin Newman]

I think there are two.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah. Joker falling into stinks. The songs are so poorly chosen. I will not get on board with the reclamation of that movie. It's so annoying to me. It's such a dull fucking movie.

[Griffin Newman]

I half like. It's better than Amelia Perez.

[David Sims]

That's fine. But, like, I don't like either of those movies, so I don't. That's, like, not a conversation to me. But Emilia Perez is at least an original musical with songs written to match a plot. I'll give it that. Like, that's. I can give it that. I don't like that movie. I think it's also dull for a movie that's, like, so bananas. Like, I found it, like, dreary, especially the last. Yeah, half.

[Griffin Newman]

I think I just committed harder to the songs in the intro to the Blankies than Amelia Perez does to its musical numbers.

[David Sims]

The actors can't sing musical numbers, so that's the issue.

[Griffin Newman]

That's not the only problem. There are 10 issues.

[David Sims]

That's. But, I mean, I'm just. With the music. I'm just kind of, like.

[Griffin Newman]

It felt like watching the music cut of I'll Do Anything Right.

[David Sims]

Lift this.

[Griffin Newman]

And the movie plays the same.

[David Sims]

Oh, God.

[Ben Hosley]

For Amelia Perez. Yes. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

This was Aukerman's take, which I think is really dead on, where he's, like, its single biggest issue. In a lot of ways is. It's like complete failure dramatically, as a musical, in that the musical numbers, aside from the not being good songs, not being. Well, they're punctuation.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, rather than, like, plot movers, they.

[Griffin Newman]

Are just stating things. Like, it's not the classic. The fundamental, like, musical should be. This is the only way to express a thing that narratively pushes the plot forward. And the musical numbers are just characters restating things without any trouble with you.

[David Sims]

I also just think, whatever, which is what I'll do.

[Griffin Newman]

Anything feels like. It felt like watching that. It's so weird that that movie got 13 Oscar nominations.

[David Sims]

That's mostly. I just feel annoyed that I had to discuss that movie at all. Like, it should have been just like, oh, yeah, that. Yeah. Well, that thing didn't really work, did it? Right. Let's kind of put that in the, you know, forgotten bucket.

[Griffin Newman]

Richard Brody, I think, hit the nail on the head where he just pinpointed it. Its fundamental issue being that it is a deeply incurious movie.

[David Sims]

Incurious.

[Griffin Newman]

Which I was like, that's the whole thing for me.

[David Sims]

Incurious bastards.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. But it's a lot like Green Book, where I'm like, I don't find this movie offensive. I find it stupid and glib. I find the people who elevate it to profundity to then be offensive.

[Ben Hosley]

Sure. Except I think one of the people elevating it to profundity is Jacques Odillard.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Here's the thing. I didn't know and also Carlos until yesterday.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

He's 72 years old.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Man's been around.

[Ben Hosley]

Been around.

[Griffin Newman]

He's been around.

[Ben Hosley]

I spent literally, like, months evangelizing the Sisters Brothers, though, because we rewatched.

[Griffin Newman]

I love that movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Oscar buzz. And I was like, I love.

[Griffin Newman]

I love almost all of his films.

[Ben Hosley]

And I was so high on Odiard at that point. And then Amelia Press came along.

[David Sims]

He had, like, 20 years in France writing crime movies and stuff before he, in, like, the mid-90s, starts directing. Like, he. Yeah, his first writing credit is in, like, the 70s. And I don't really know, like, why he spent so long, you know, like, not directing before he finally was like, you know what? Maybe I'll.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

You know, like. And then, like, started pushing out a lot of interesting movies. He's made a lot of interesting movies. He's also made, you know, a couple misfires. I'm going to call this one a misfire.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure. I think that's fair.

[David Sims]

But have any of us nominated Amelia Perez for Anything today? No.

[Griffin Newman]

Zero noms. Goose egg.

[David Sims]

Ben, admit it.

[Ben Hosley]

Sweet.

[David Sims]

It might appear in a category, so luckily we do not have to bow to the Oscars. Love of Emilia Perez and discussing it too much. But you did see it. You did your homework.

[Griffin Newman]

I did my homework. That's not good.

[David Sims]

No, it's not good. And, you know, I watched a lot of these movies. Like, 2024 is defined by me. Like, in the middle. My twins are born. I go on leave.

[Griffin Newman]

Wait, I'm sorry.

[David Sims]

I miss. Thank you.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm hearing this for the first time right now.

[David Sims]

I. I go on leave. I miss, like, fall festival season. I miss all the awards movies. I catch up with them all, like, with their buzz kind of calcified. Right. You know, where it's like, usually I'm here. Oh, I'm taking the temperature with. But, you know, but like, I go see the thermometer anora. Just like, in the movie theater. Like, it was just kind of fun. I was like, great. This is great. I don't have to, like, worry about, oh, my gosh, am I, you know, whatever. Like, am I going against the grain with this one or go see a Nora? And I'm like, ah, it was good. I can see what people liked about this one, right? Like, yeah, but then, like, other things, like, Emilia Perez is me going like, okay, I guess I should. It's on Netflix. I guess I'll get around to this. And just watching it, being like, I don't have a lot of time right now. This is what I have to be doing with my time. Which was Joker, too, as well.

[Ben Hosley]

Sure.

[David Sims]

So we're here to do our blankie awards. Joe Reed is here. Have we.

[Griffin Newman]

Reading Ranger.

[Ben Hosley]

You did the Reading Ranger?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, I did it.

[David Sims]

Ben Hosley's here.

[Griffin Newman]

Ben Hosley? The great Ben Hosley. He's just been.

[David Sims]

I got a box. I got a thing of peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it's a bold move.

[David Sims]

Yeah, it's a bold move by me. And we should kick off. We don't need to do too much Prelude. But we've all. We all agree. 2024. Weird year.

[Ben Hosley]

Weird year.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Here's my one qualifier. I always resent doing qualifiers. I regret doing it immediately, but I'm going to throw this out. I have had a rule that I've enforced only for myself in every year that we've done this, that anyone who has been on the show is disqualified due to bias.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay, so who does that entail for this year?

[Griffin Newman]

Well, I saw the TV glow was very Much. One of my favorite movies.

[David Sims]

Just put it in your list.

[Griffin Newman]

I have just. I have exempted.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Jane in director and screenplay. Just the personal nominations. That was my one. I did.

[Ben Hosley]

I get it.

[Griffin Newman]

So just read into that snub as you will. I felt it was unfair. I put it in other.

[Ben Hosley]

My close personal friendship with Ryan Reynolds has forced me to disqualify Deadpool and Wolverine. And also if.

[David Sims]

My close personal friendship with the. The purple guy from if.

[Joe Reed]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Has caused me so rejected.

[Griffin Newman]

Isn't his name Bloom? I couldn't make it.

[Ben Hosley]

Can I tell you about movies that I haven't seen this year? One of them is if. Yeah. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Yeah. I also did not see if, which features George Clooney.

[Griffin Newman]

We were all busy that day.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. Somehow if lagged out some. Some box office. I will say. Like it. It must To. To.

[Griffin Newman]

It was the highest grossing original film in some year. I mean, we fight some.

[David Sims]

There's some way certainly to be like. Yeah, right. Like it's based on no ip except ripping off other ip, I guess. Right. Let's see. Let's take a look.

[Ben Hosley]

Because it's like the whole box office list.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Because like Wicked beyond it being based on a musical. It's like. It's also, you know, playing with toys. We know.

[Griffin Newman]

Absolutely.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

It's based on something that's based on a thing.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

That's based on a thing. It's an adaptation of a musical. It's an adaptation of a book that's an adaptation of the original.

[David Sims]

This is the thing. It ends with us Crush. But it's based on a book. But it's not a bestseller. Right.

[Griffin Newman]

And it crashed. We all loved it.

[David Sims]

I never saw.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Incredibly well at the box.

[Ben Hosley]

Red One is based on Santa Claus.

[David Sims]

That's true.

[Griffin Newman]

It's based on our greatest mythology.

[David Sims]

Right. It's also. Right. It's also based on quality. The notion of a. Of a high quality product.

[Ben Hosley]

Red One is falling just short of 100 million domestic. Is very funny.

[Griffin Newman]

You know what? I hadn't been keeping track because I. I gave up at some point. I was like, fog. It's going to cross it. That sucks. I'm really happy it stalled out.

[David Sims]

It's like 97.

[Ben Hosley]

The other one that stalled out that I kind of feel bad about stalling out is Nosferatu. Because that got up to 90. It's still in theaters. It's not. It's going to need to like get an infusion of something to get to 100 million.

[David Sims]

An infusion. Come here.

[Ben Hosley]

But I think it's also hanging right. It's hanging right around.

[Griffin Newman]

Good beat voice. It will never get old. Has anyone called out that Nosferatu sounds like Wato that it is dramatic Water.

[David Sims]

You.

[Ben Hosley]

You.

[David Sims]

What's what is brought to say? My intrigues don't work on me.

[Griffin Newman]

Only money. No money, no part.

[David Sims]

I know drives for sale.

[Ben Hosley]

I would buy a ticket to Nosferatu though.

[David Sims]

That is just the Nosferato Red boy cannot be beaten.

[Griffin Newman]

I wish Nosferatu. I wish that graph warlike complained about Sabol a lot more.

[David Sims]

I got so much money on that.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, boy. You know what's funny?

[David Sims]

What's really funny?

[Griffin Newman]

As someone who spends too much time doing lotto comedy due for a comeback. Sebulba.

[David Sims]

Let's bring him back.

[Griffin Newman]

I really. You know what? I thought it was brave of Brian Cox in that interview to say that it's time to uncancel Sebulba.

[David Sims]

Wait.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, no.

[David Sims]

Brian Cox actually wants.

[Griffin Newman]

He won't stop saying it. He's done it five times in the last two months.

[Ben Hosley]

And meanwhile, Guy Pierce is like, I have some nails for a coffin for you.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, I know he had his weirdnesses, but Sebor is one of the great pot races.

[Ben Hosley]

I do have. I do have a Watto question for you, please. How are you taking care of your voice with. That's a. That's a lot of.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a really well trained muscle.

[Ben Hosley]

It sounds. It just sounds like it. It would hurt.

[Griffin Newman]

The answer is at this point, I don't. I. I have found a modified version that is easy to sustain.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay, good.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. So I'm just like Watto in the movie is like no money. I just don't want like that tension would hurt to do.

[Ben Hosley]

That sounds like a nodule. That's why I don't think a nodule.

[Griffin Newman]

That's why I'm like, hey, hello. Welcome to the Georgia.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

It's much more triumphy. I' how to do it.

[David Sims]

Hey, let's start out Best supporting actor. What should we do first?

[Griffin Newman]

Best supporting actor. Let's mention that Nosferatu is hosting the awards. Usually we have the past winners present this year, but it's five.

[Ben Hosley]

It's five. Nosferatu coming out to present its. Its individual.

[Griffin Newman]

Can we present. Can we say who our winners were last year? Can we pull that up?

[David Sims]

Can you pull that up 100% sure that we can. But don't we usually start with like supporting actor or whatever?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. So I'm saying why don't you pull up our supporting actress?

[David Sims]

I'm Going to. I appreciate this. Oh, so you want to know who won supporting, right? Who the. So best supporting actress last year. Wow. It is a real trip down memory lane because some of these movies I haven't thought before.

[Griffin Newman]

This is why I like doing this.

[David Sims]

Griffin, who is Julianne Moore from May December presenting your best. You know, who are you? What? What's she saying?

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, so we're getting.

[David Sims]

I'll say. All right, fine. Mine is of course Mar Tierney from the Iron Claw.

[Griffin Newman]

Of course.

[David Sims]

And Joe's of course was a Penelope Cruz in Ferrari. Another person with a normal accent in the movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Very much so.

[Griffin Newman]

I was sort of coin tossing between Cruise and Moore. And then I. Once you pick that, I. I put my chips down. Okay. I'm doing this last second edit, which is just removing the person who got the Oscar nomination whose performance. I love to fight for my guys.

[David Sims]

There you go.

[Griffin Newman]

Best supporting actor in a motion picture.

[David Sims]

Supporting supporting actor.

[Griffin Newman]

And I'm just. I'm ready for right out the gate. David. To make a stinky poo poo face. I'm so angry about it. I'm gonna be so angry. David, neutral face, please. That was the least neutral face I've ever seen. My nominees for best supporting actor. Tom Hardy in the Bike Riders. Okay. His face stayed still. I appreciate it. Mark Edelstein. Anora.

[David Sims]

That's his name, right? It doesn't have a longer name maybe?

[Ben Hosley]

No, I think it's just. I don't.

[David Sims]

Yeah, no, you're right. You're right. Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

He just has a lot of extra watch. A lot of.

[David Sims]

A lot of letters in there spelled.

[Griffin Newman]

In an interesting way.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Jack Haven. I saw the TV glow. Credited as Bridget Lundy Payne in the film. Citing this just for lack.

[Ben Hosley]

No, it's clarity.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. Yes. Adam Pearson. A different man. Chris Hemsworth. Furiosa Mad Max saga.

[David Sims]

Now he is supporting, right? I mean, I wondered about him because he's sort of. He's sort of the lead of like.

[Ben Hosley]

The movie that are his.

[Griffin Newman]

It was obviously.

[David Sims]

He's also not in it for a while.

[Griffin Newman]

It was obviously my least favorite movie of 2024. You will see it receive six spiteful nominations for me this year. I saw it three times in theaters.

[David Sims]

Across with a grimace on your face.

[Griffin Newman]

Every time across the three times. I was like, let me do the math. Not stopwatch, but like really feeling. Is he supporting her lead the first act? He is absolutely, like running.

[Ben Hosley]

Right?

[Griffin Newman]

Because he really disappears for like furious.

[David Sims]

It doesn't even really the middle hour.

[Griffin Newman]

Plus I think it's firmly Supporting much more so than perhaps the person who is about to win supporting actor at the Academy Awards.

[Ben Hosley]

All right, I've come around on this. I think there is a. A solid argument to be made that Kieran Culkin is supporting in that movie. I mean, it's sort of a.

[David Sims]

It's a Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Like when you have a two hander, someone sort of becomes automatic supporting. Yeah, I guess.

[Griffin Newman]

I think you could almost argue that Culkin is more lead than Eisenberg, though. And I'm not stopwatching.

[David Sims]

The movie's about Eisenberg and it's about.

[Ben Hosley]

Eisenberg taking Culkin in and trying to make sense of him. Which does to me, what makes the lead, this supporting distinction.

[Griffin Newman]

It does begin and end with Culkin.

[David Sims]

It does, does it? See, the other thing is I saw that movie more than a year ago and I do not remember it very well, except for the. My. The only scene in the movie I truly loved which involved Jesse Eisenberg. So I walked away being like, dinner table. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

You were calling that you thought was going to win best actor.

[David Sims]

I was calling him to make the five. And I was kind of like there.

[Ben Hosley]

Was a while there where it seemed like that that was a very good.

[David Sims]

It was when it was pre Timmy, you know, pre the Dylan movie, hitting for anyone where everyone was like, who's even getting nominated? Like, there was this brief period where it was like, is this the weakest actor field ever? And then it kind of. Everyone settled down.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure.

[David Sims]

Right. Like everyone kind of settled down. They settled their asses down.

[Griffin Newman]

Who. Who's presenting Joe's nominees?

[David Sims]

Joe's nominees are. I said Penelope Cruz. Penelope Cruz.

[Griffin Newman]

Penelope Cruz.

[Ben Hosley]

I will not be doing an accent.

[Griffin Newman]

Weird.

[Ben Hosley]

Weird. My nominees, Griffin, you will appreciate a lot of these. Mark Eidelstein, Anora. Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa, Karen Karagulian in Anora.

[David Sims]

Love that Guy. Love that Baker is going to be making a Marvel movie. And he'd be like, there's a rumpled Armenian guy, okay, who's stressed out for much of this he relationship with his wife.

[Ben Hosley]

That's the Captain America America we need and deserve is Karen Caragullan, Guy Pierce in the Brutalist, and Adam Pearson in A Different Man.

[Griffin Newman]

Guy Pierce was my. Was my last second.

[David Sims]

Right. I mean, that's a great performance. And I, we. And I think we all love Guy Pierce, like, right beyond liking that performance. We're just like, it's kind of nice to have Guy Pierce, like landing a.

[Griffin Newman]

Punch it is certainly my favorite of the. Of the five nominees and the one I want to win. I bumped him just purely because we're going to talk about him.

[David Sims]

Him. And you bumped him out of spite?

[Griffin Newman]

I bumped him out of Spike.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Guy Pierce is interesting. So you like. I guess. Wait, who. Who are the five nominees?

[Griffin Newman]

Because there's my five nominees.

[Ben Hosley]

No, no, the five nominees. The five. Culkin.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

Edward Norton, who I do really love, in a complete unknown.

[David Sims]

Jeremy Strong, who I also really love. It's a good five. And Yura Burisov, who I assume we all enjoy.

[Ben Hosley]

I like all the.

[Griffin Newman]

I think it's an incredibly.

[Ben Hosley]

I just wanted to give the. Because my thing with Yuro Borisov is like, you know, he's already hot. He's already hot. This is the thing.

[Griffin Newman]

God.

[Ben Hosley]

God doesn't need to give with both hands all the time. He's already super hot. So let's give it to. I feel bad that Mark Edelstein has been like, the forgotten one, like Kara Gulian even at least got a couple of things. I think Ardelstein was so good at playing his character that everybody was like.

[Griffin Newman]

That, this is my take, but we'll get into this.

[David Sims]

Okay. I think you're right that everyone was kind of like, he's. Is he. Is this just what this stupid kid is like? Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Kept talking to people. Our friend Tim Simons.

[David Sims]

Yep.

[Griffin Newman]

Was like, man, you're. You're.

[David Sims]

Who's always got normal takes right.

[Griffin Newman]

Perfectly dictated into his phone with no mistakes. Yes, that's right. He was like, man, Yuribur says, like, amazing. And I was like, really? Mark Adelstein's the one who, like, kind of blew me away. And he went, yeah, but isn't that just Baker finding some kid who's just like this?

[David Sims]

Which I guess is Baker's reputation. Right?

[Griffin Newman]

Totally.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And I kept hearing people say that. And Tim is such a great actor and such a good judge of acting.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

But like, that guy.

[David Sims]

But he's like a Russian actor.

[Griffin Newman]

He's classically trained. He is like the Timothy Chalamet of Russia.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

He's like the big young leading man. This part is, like, totally out of his wheelhouse. And I thought it was like, kind of the most electric, like, new to me performance I have seen in a very long time.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And the whole movie runs on the peaks and valleys of just.

[Ben Hosley]

Also that.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. It runs on Duncan.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

But I. There probably was a lot of Duncan, jokes aside.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. They were probably that.

[Ben Hosley]

Brighton Beach Duncan, I think.

[Griffin Newman]

But yeah, no, the whole movie hinges on being like, I can't figure this guy out. Is he for real?

[David Sims]

We love it. So my five nominees presented by More Tierney. More she comes. She's so good. We take her for granted.

[Griffin Newman]

Wasn't she good in something this year? I feel like I just saw her pop up in something again.

[David Sims]

I think you're right. What. What did More Tyranny just pop up?

[Griffin Newman]

I was very excited to see her pop up in something. What was Mara Tyranny doing the pop up in?

[David Sims]

All right, I'm going to figure it out while. You know what? I just saw her in the Criterion closet and she must. Twisters.

[Griffin Newman]

It was Twister. Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

You know what?

[David Sims]

The only problem with Twisters, it's clearly.

[Griffin Newman]

Meant to be Helen Hunt's.

[David Sims]

Well, that's true. That is very true.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

But it is not. And. Right. It wasn't Helen Hunt's thing. Like, well, actually, I wanted to direct Twisters and they were like, well, we weren't interested in you doing that.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[David Sims]

So my only problem with Twisters, they should be canonically in the movie. Glenn Powell and Mortierney have.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes. Even though it's obvious to.

[David Sims]

Right. Like, Glenn Powell and Mortier have enough chemistry in that movie that you're kind of like, oh, I can go with it. But he actually should be like, oh, I know your mom. It's like, all right.

[Griffin Newman]

Biblically.

[David Sims]

My five nominees are. And I'm also, just for the record, kind of basically kicking Guy Pearson, your Aversov, out, who are both performances.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, once again, like, it's just. Why not take the time on these microphones to vouch for the people who aren't getting credit?

[Ben Hosley]

We're recording this at the tail end of Oscar season.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, but Guy Pierce would be my winner out of the five people they nominated. I think all five of those nominees are great.

[David Sims]

I. I do, too. I really like Jeremy Strong.

[Griffin Newman]

It's maybe the best lineup of the four acting categories.

[David Sims]

And yet I think Kieran's going to win. And I think he's my least favorite performance. Although I don't mind the performance. And I like Kieran.

[Ben Hosley]

I think the pendulum's gone again a little bit more against him then I think the whole, you know, oh, he's just. He's just playing the same guy he always plays. Like. I don't know if I necessarily go with that.

[Griffin Newman]

Love the Guy. I've been holding stock for so long.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

It will surprise no one to hear that Igby goes down left a very big impression on me when I was 12.

[Ben Hosley]

I keep trying to rope you in to do that to this at Oscar. Whenever you are ready to be on Zoom again, come on over.

[Griffin Newman]

We'll figure it out. My thing is, and I feel like I've said this before with Oscar performances, I either want to see something I've never seen them do before or I want to see them do the absolute best version of it they've ever done where I'm like, they've never gone this deep before. I don't buy into the blankets just playing themselves because it's all acting like Kieran Culkin's not playing himself.

[Ben Hosley]

Acting is casting way more than people understand.

[Griffin Newman]

He is doing his thing, which he has never had this good of a vehicle to do in a movie at this length. It suffers in comparison to him just having finished a five year run of what I think is the best case of his thing, which he got a ton of awards for. So there's just.

[Ben Hosley]

But not only at the very end, though. He was undervalued on that show for the first several seasons.

[Griffin Newman]

The last season.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Really put it front center. And he won his awards. He went out on top, swept the whole. It just happened in the last year. Yeah. So there was the part of me that's like, he's undeniably good in this movie. I have nothing against him. I just sat there being like, I'm gonna be blown away.

[Ben Hosley]

This is sometimes how the Oscars work.

[Griffin Newman]

Totally.

[Ben Hosley]

Like, that's sort of. And again, like, we sort of push up against.

[Griffin Newman]

And the heightening of TV in sort of prestige has led to this thing where people get this sort of, like, Halo effect win of like McConaughey being pushed over the edge in the Dallas Buyers Club year because of True Detective.

[Ben Hosley]

Even a performance that I really love, like Regina King and Beale street was the culmination of her being, like, great on like four or five TV shows leading up to that.

[Griffin Newman]

And I feel like there's another one I'm forgetting recently. But, yes, it's starting to happen more and more.

[David Sims]

David.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Don Johnson, Rebel Ridge.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, that's a good one.

[Griffin Newman]

That's been an iron lock for you for like six months.

[David Sims]

A good fucking performance.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Brian Tyree Henry and the Fire Inside. A performance that, when I saw it, I was kind of like, I think this could, like, waltz to a nom and now partly a strong field.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, partly.

[David Sims]

I feel like the film kind of getting a raw deal in its release and stuff, like, did well at festivals, but then, like, you know, kind of.

[Ben Hosley]

Gets lost There was festival. There was festival. Word for Brian Tyranny in Toronto.

[David Sims]

Beautiful performance from an actor who never.

[Griffin Newman]

One of Mrs. One of our best. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Edward Norton in A Complete Unknown. The one nominee I cannot leave because that would. That he nailed me to the wall.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. He's great.

[David Sims]

J O Sanders, his three daughters.

[Ben Hosley]

David, I'm glad you did that.

[David Sims]

An embarrassing winging in like a wrecking ball.

[Griffin Newman]

A movie I know I would love and I never got around.

[David Sims]

And a movie where you're like, oh, and does the dad ever show up? And you're like, oh, he shows up at the end, played by Jo Sanders. And you're like, I bet that's good.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

And David Weber in Hard Truths, the most undersung hard truths.

[Griffin Newman]

This is the husband.

[David Sims]

What's the character's name?

[Ben Hosley]

You heard the pert?

[Griffin Newman]

Is it Pert?

[David Sims]

It's Curtly.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. He's incredible in it.

[Ben Hosley]

Incredible.

[David Sims]

And the most incredible. Carrying a bathtub down the stairs. Action of the year.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

That's just amazing stuff.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

But no, just a performance that we're like, the tiniest.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

When he. And going up against someone who's essentially playing like, you know, Nosferatu. Right. And like, the tiniest, like, ripples of emotion on.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Why are you trying to sell me a couch, Pansy?

[David Sims]

You are so mean to me.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, well, now he's Nosferatu, too.

[David Sims]

Yeah. It doesn't make any sense.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a family.

[David Sims]

It would be funny.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[David Sims]

Pansy's like, why do babies have pockets? Why? They don't need them. What are they carrying? My winner late cut for me was Javier Bardem and Austin Butler in Dune Part 2, a movie that doesn't get enough acting acclaim for its great performers.

[Ben Hosley]

Austin Butler was very, very close for me.

[David Sims]

My winner is Edward Norton, though. I just could not believe how much I love that performance. That movie blew me away generally in terms of I'm walking in going like, I hope this isn't long. Like, ugh, Yeah, I have to see this. What an obligation.

[Griffin Newman]

We've talked about it so much. But the arc of Edward Norton is just so fascinating to me. From being like, he is Brando, he is De Niro, to being like, no one is better at playing kind of earnest, straightforward people than Edward Norton, the king of overcomplicating things in the 90s.

[Ben Hosley]

Wes Anderson unlocked something and.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's incredible. I'm like, he went from being like Stanley Kowalski times a million to being Howdy Doody.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes. But I. But, like, I'm so good At. I don't think you get this Pete Seeger unless you get him in like Moonrise Kingdom.

[Griffin Newman]

I agree.

[Ben Hosley]

You know what I mean?

[Griffin Newman]

Also, he was like, last second sub in, like Benedict. Dropped out like a month before filming started because this was a strike delayed movie. Yeah. Flumberbatch. Which, like, Cumberbatch. Looks more like Pete Seeger.

[David Sims]

He does.

[Griffin Newman]

You could see that casting.

[David Sims]

Honestly, he's a guy who might have done a good job.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Nord gets the kind of like, simplicity, the clarity.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Pete Seeger is a guy who's really important to me. Grew up with his music.

[Griffin Newman]

Taught you it was okay to be weird.

[David Sims]

He did teach me it was okay to be weird. And right when I heard it was Edward Norton playing him, I was like, well, I don't like that. Like, that does not strike me. And so I just. Real due credit to the guy.

[Ben Hosley]

When did you ever think you would describe an Edward Norton performance as like, without vanity? I think, like, that's like, lovely. Lovely. Right. Like generous.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Like.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, No, I just like that he's got two modes now, basically, which are mocking his reputation as an obsessive.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Self impressed.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. Blowhard. Or playing the nicest. Yes. Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

It's. It's amazing.

[David Sims]

Who are your winners?

[Ben Hosley]

I think at the risk of being sort of boring about it, it's Guy Pearce and the Brutalist. He really just sort of like comes in that movie and like, just that you hit another energy level with that when, hello, I'm America.

[David Sims]

I'd like to subtly.

[Griffin Newman]

I might be bad.

[Ben Hosley]

There is. There's a tinge of plain view in there. Right.

[Griffin Newman]

It's.

[Ben Hosley]

It's great. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

My name is Colonizer Genocide President Q.

[David Sims]

Evil.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Yes. Guy Pierce for. For Joe Reed.

[Griffin Newman]

Mark Elstein's my winner.

[David Sims]

You love that guy.

[Griffin Newman]

It just kind of knocked me out. I was like, who the fuck is this guy? I just thought it was electric. And also the kind of thing where I'm just like, I've never seen someone like this before. I've never seen a performance like this. It made perfect sense to me. For a character that doesn't, like, explain itself. All of his behavior, which I think a lot of people maybe wrote off as like, he found a guy who's quirky. I'm like, I think that is, like, very smart analysis, like behavioral analysis of the way this guy would act out.

[Ben Hosley]

Well. And the way this guy sort of learned to operate in the world and. And the ways he's never like. Like the parts of his personality that have never formed that have never hardened into, like, human being because he's never had to. He's just sort of been this little, like, you know, rich baby.

[Griffin Newman]

My other nominees, Tom Hardy and the Bike Riders. Welcome back. Just nice to see him doing.

[Ben Hosley]

There's a lot of really good acting in the Bike Riders too. And he's really great.

[David Sims]

There's a lot of really good actors in it. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay. But I thought Hardy was great. And it's like, this is the guy I was, like, all in on six years ago who has kind of disappeared down a well of Jiu Jitsu and Venom.

[Ben Hosley]

No. Yes. Yes. And I enjoyed him in the first Venom.

[Griffin Newman]

You look and you're like, he basically has done no Nonvenom movies since 2019.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. It is a good welcome back.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. I like that. Jack Haven. I saw the TV glow. Great movie. I think we all adore.

[David Sims]

And I love that performance.

[Ben Hosley]

Yep.

[Griffin Newman]

And is kind of like it's another performance that the whole movie hinges on in terms of the energy. It's. It's a lot like Mark Edelstein, where it's like you have this main POV character who is basing everything off of the energy that this character is giving and the shifts they go through, especially their return later in the film.

[Ben Hosley]

I felt incredibly impactful and has to be a little bit mysterious. Right. A little bit unknowable, but play with specificity.

[Griffin Newman]

What I look for in those types of performances is I can't pin this down, but I have a sense that the actor has it figured out. They're not being vague in their choices.

[David Sims]

With Tom Hardy, it's like, it's been bad if you ignore the. The sort of beautiful tapestry that is Venom. I. And, like, I love him in Dunkirk, but that's, you know.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

A small supporting performance in a way.

[Griffin Newman]

It's also his last Nolan. He hasn't done a Nolan since then. That was 2017.

[David Sims]

I know. Oh, I know.

[Ben Hosley]

He was the. The Explosion and he was Oppenheimer, though.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah. He was just going boom, boom. Yeah. It's like.

[Griffin Newman]

And he played the Revenant. You're going over a decade.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Like, right, Like. And that was like, first Annual Blankets.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Sims]

Performance that was sort of like, you.

[Griffin Newman]

Know, when's the Drop? I think he's very good in the drop.

[David Sims]

The drop is 2014. It's the year prior.

[Griffin Newman]

They never see you come and do that.

[David Sims]

Like, that's the whole thing that kind of like that run of like, Bronson to, you know, the Revenant or whatever. Where it's like six or seven years. Like, man, this guy has got so much.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't like the Revenant, but, like, I think he's great in that. I was so happy where I'm like, okay, we've broken the seal. He's a guy who's getting nominated now. Warrior is my favorite performance of his, but, yes, that was my guy when this show started. Yeah, I was, like, undeniably my favorite leading man. And it feels like he's on, like, the beginning of his elevation.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I hope so. Is there anyone otherwise?

[Griffin Newman]

Speaking of getting back Chris Hemsworth taking the new male part and Mad Max, but doing a insane kind of inversion.

[Ben Hosley]

Was that always him or did he get. Did he replace.

[Griffin Newman]

It was always.

[David Sims]

That was definitely always him.

[Griffin Newman]

Tom Burke replaced Yahya Abdul Mateen.

[Ben Hosley]

Gotcha.

[Griffin Newman]

But it was always Hemsworth. I desperately wanted to play Mad Max in Fury Road and hadn't yet popped. And you see in that performance, I think the energy of an Australian kid who grew up just being like, all I want to do is be in a Mad Max movie someday. And his lack of vanity. Yeah, like, you feel him being totally unleashed in that. I. I know some people ding the Nose. And I think we said this in the episode. I think the nose allowed him to be freed of being Chris Hemsworth in a way that unlocks that performance.

[David Sims]

Great.

[Griffin Newman]

The nose plays.

[Ben Hosley]

I historically approve of weird noses in movies being the Hours is number one fan, so I get it.

[Griffin Newman]

Adam Pearson, my last nominee. It's just, like, fucking funny performance. It's so good. And it's such a. It's such a, like, unshowy energy performance. Because the whole movie, once again, hinges on when this guy enters, you immediately go, oh, Sebastian Stan could have been happy.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, and not only that, this guy.

[Griffin Newman]

Is so effortless in his sort of, like, joie de vivre.

[Ben Hosley]

He can't be too effortful, he can't be too big, or else the comedy really falls apart. You really need Sebastian Stan to fall to pieces over this guy who is just being himself.

[Griffin Newman]

But, like, who, like, which is showy about it because you don't want it to be like, Owen Wilson, Meet the Parents. Like, oh, this guy. Yes, this guy's too slick. Right.

[Ben Hosley]

You have to have the plausibility of, like, if he knows what he's doing, he's doing it.

[Griffin Newman]

Really, like, movie basically hangs on him entering and you immediately going, oh, Sebastian Stan's character sucks. You don't, like, have contempt for Adam Pearson. You're like, this guy we've Been hanging out with is a bummer. It's a great movie. Do you gentlemen want to run through your other nominees?

[David Sims]

Oh, J.R. sanders. I already shouted out. Check out that movie. That's another movie where it's like, I saw that, like, a year and a half ago, and I like that movie. I think it's good. His scene just kind of, you know, is the showstopper for me. John Johnson. Rebel Ridge would be so easy for him.

[Griffin Newman]

He wasn't your winner.

[David Sims]

Norton came in and snatched it. Snatched it. Like Aaron Pierce snatches the gun out of John Johnson's hands in Rebel. Have you seen Rebel Ridge?

[Griffin Newman]

No, I still want.

[Ben Hosley]

You'd really like it.

[Griffin Newman]

Netflix.

[Ben Hosley]

I know.

[Griffin Newman]

The same with the daughters. I'll watch at some point.

[Ben Hosley]

Netflix, to the point of, like, Rebel Ridge is getting nominated for, like, TV awards. Like, as a. It's being considered a tv, which is so fucking dumb.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I do my impression of Edward Norton snatching the award away from Don Johnson? Well, excuse me. Let me just take this win quick. There we go.

[Ben Hosley]

Can I also just say about Hemsworth.

[Griffin Newman]

Because I, I, I the most gentle yoink of all time.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm not the Furiosa fan that y'all are, and that's fine. I'm gonna give myself permission to do that.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Let everyone get angry at you instead of pretending that we hate the movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Wait, do they think you hate the movie?

[Griffin Newman]

We hate the movie. Go on, Joe.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm sorry, guys. I listened to that podcast, and I'm like, they're being real fucking lenient on fucking Furious.

[Griffin Newman]

What were you gonna say?

[Ben Hosley]

The thing I was gonna say about Hemsworth is I thought he was getting real lazy in the last few Thor performances, and I was worried that this was just gonna be an extension of that. And I think somewhat like Tom Hardy, I saw him sort of get reinvigorated by this in a way that we sort of. We kind of infused Hemsworth with more of that, like, that movie star energy that we love.

[Griffin Newman]

Bombs. And the following Tuesday, they announced that Chris Hemsworth will be the live action lead of the GI Joe Transformers team up movie.

[David Sims]

Wait, is that real?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I mean, there's no further updates.

[David Sims]

I know Transformers Beasts teased that, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Rise of the Beast ends with a business card that says GI Joe on it.

[David Sims]

Hollywood's working so hard. Come on. Wasn't Hemsworth the voice of Optimus prime and Transformers 1.

[Griffin Newman]

A great performance?

[David Sims]

Yeah, he was good. He was locked in. Yeah, I mean, I guess, but I'm.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, we're failing this guy. He's trying to evolve.

[David Sims]

I know, I know.

[Griffin Newman]

I feel like there's another thing he just announced he's doing that I'm like.

[David Sims]

Okay, Chris Hemsworth has tried. He has over his entire career worked with major directors to make non, you know, franchise stuff like Rush and In the Heart of the Sea and stuff. And it's just often does not hit credit, you know, oh, tourist.

[Griffin Newman]

Big budget studio movies bankrolled on his name. Like, he's not doing weird indies, but he's doing weird studio movies. And then he retreats back to like Men in Black International. The other one he's doing is the live action Prince Charming movie directed by Paul King.

[David Sims]

Well, that sounds fun, sure.

[Griffin Newman]

But I'm like, paul, Paul.

[Ben Hosley]

No, I'm disappointed in all those.

[Griffin Newman]

Anything you want to do, I will see.

[David Sims]

My arms were on my.

[Ben Hosley]

But I also, like, I had that same reaction to Wonka. I was like, wonka. And like, I fucking loved Wonka.

[Griffin Newman]

But also, as I texted to David the other day, if Paul King had stayed on Paddington 3, maybe the pandemic wouldn't have happened.

[David Sims]

Well, you know, it's just funny that we're all like, I wish Paul King had made a sequel, right? Like, we're like, you know, how dare he try to do other things.

[Griffin Newman]

Back to the blankies after these messages. David. February time for February movie preview. Okay. And I gotta say, it's a pretty interesting February we have coming up.

[David Sims]

Yeah, what do we got?

[Griffin Newman]

The monkey actually called the monkey. New film from Oz Perkins, whose long legs I loved last year, starring another one of our friends, past and future guest Tatiana Maslany.

[Joe Reed]

That's right.

[David Sims]

And looks very, very funny and cool and scary. Also very intrigued by this Martin Campbell action or Cleaner with Daisy Ridley starring.

[Griffin Newman]

Daisy Ridley, someone I have always had very, very calm opinions about on this podcast I'm very excited for. It feels like she's kind of ramping up her movie career again.

[David Sims]

Here's the thing. Oh, and then there's the Day the Earth Blew Up.

[Griffin Newman]

I was gonna say, if that weren't enough, February ending with the first original feature length animated Looney Tunes movie ever that I have heard is excellent.

[David Sims]

And here's the thing.

[Griffin Newman]

The Day the Earth Blew up in a Looney Tunes movie.

[David Sims]

What's awesome about all this is that there's lots of interesting, different kinds of movies in theaters that you can go.

[Griffin Newman]

See and with Regal Unlimited. The whole point is you sign up and seeing three, four, five, six of those movies is easy and affordable.

[David Sims]

And I find that once, you know, you have the Regal Unlimited, right? You know, sort of the option of basically like, let me pop over my theater, I have three free hours.

[Griffin Newman]

You do it more. That's what's nice.

[Ben Hosley]

You do it more.

[Griffin Newman]

You do it more.

[David Sims]

Go see the movies.

[Griffin Newman]

Go see the movies.

[David Sims]

Sign up now in the Regal app or at the link in the description in our show notes and use code blank check to get 20% off your three month subscription. And then you're going to be in the Crown Club. You're going to get rewards, you're going.

[Griffin Newman]

To build up points, get free popcorns.

[David Sims]

And sodas, 25 grade off candy on Tuesdays, 50% off popcorn, discounted ticket all.

[Griffin Newman]

Into the Regal Crown Club website. And as I said, it's a little deep. It's a little buried in here. There is a section where you can redeem your points for old promotional movie memorabilia like Red one socks.

[David Sims]

Right?

[Griffin Newman]

Follow the link in the show notes, go to the Regal app, click on the unlimited banner and then follow the instructions to sign up and enter promo code blank check when prompted to receive your discount. And look, I'm just going to say it again, David. Signing up for Regal Unlimited or maybe gifting a membership to a moviegoer in your life.

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

Great way to support the show. This is, this is a dream advertiser. Yes. A dream partner for us. We want to keep this going. We think it could benefit everyone, everybody, especially the movies. And we're back to the 20, 25 blankies.

[David Sims]

We have to move on because as usual, we're taking too long. John Johnson, I just wanted to say, could have played that One Dimensional doesn't watch that movie. He doesn't play it one dimensional at all. And you've probably not seen the Firing Sight either, you little twerp.

[Griffin Newman]

I haven't. I missed that because, like, it's hard. When I had my fucking dental surgery when I was in recovery.

[David Sims]

Blames the dentist.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, that movie was like in theaters, out of theaters. It was very quick.

[Griffin Newman]

I'll say this. My, my little cousin George, our second finest movie critic took him to see maybe it was Sonic 3. And we walked by the poster and he went, is that Creed 4? And I said, what? And he said, isn't like the next Creed going to be the daughter? I forgot that the Creed movies are setting up that the daughter is going to be a box boxer.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, I didn't see the last two.

[Griffin Newman]

Creed movies, but I was like, no, that's like another movie. It's supposed to be good. And he was like, really? Because it Looks like a Creed ripoff. And then I looked at the poster and it is Amazon, MGM who released the last Creed movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And I was just like, they are in the marketing making this look like Creed runoff.

[Ben Hosley]

Sounds not very good.

[Griffin Newman]

Right? I think they totally miss sold that movie.

[Ben Hosley]

You keep bumping Lights, Camera, Jackson down the list of our finest film critics.

[Griffin Newman]

He's going way down.

[Ben Hosley]

He's just getting. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

An alarming speed.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

All right, should we move on to. Oh, the blankies. Oh, no. Or I'll give you the blankies after the choice.

[Ben Hosley]

The reader. Choices.

[David Sims]

Choices. Jesus. After we do supporting actress.

[Griffin Newman]

Best supporting actress.

[David Sims]

Do you want to hear who our supporting actor winners were last year? Griffin.

[Griffin Newman]

I would love nothing more.

[David Sims]

Okay. Well, apparently Griffin's winner was Ryan Gosling and Barbie.

[Griffin Newman]

Hell yeah.

[David Sims]

My winner was awga. Honk, honk. Get your goggles on. Colin Farrell, Robert De Niro and Killers.

[Ben Hosley]

Of the Flower moon, taking the 4:30 auto gyro to Prussia. Yeah.

[David Sims]

And Joe's winner was Charles Milton in May December. Three of the big performances that year, I feel. So who is Ryan Gosling telling us about? Griffin for supporting actress.

[Griffin Newman]

My nominees for supporting actress are Alicia Witt in Long Legs, Alison Pill in Trap, Renata Ranzva in A Different Man. Excuse me. Ramina d'ugo in I Like Movies. And Michelle Austin in Hard Truth.

[David Sims]

Now, what is I like movies. I know you like this movie.

[Griffin Newman]

The Great Chandler.

[David Sims]

I like. I like movies.

[Griffin Newman]

Canadian filmmaker.

[David Sims]

Yep.

[Griffin Newman]

A movie that played at TIFF like two years ago and finally got a very limited release, but is watchable on PVOD and is like a great sort of inversion of the kind of Romana Clef autobiography.

[Ben Hosley]

Canadian kid, works in a video star, pain in the ass.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. It is like. It is the. The incredible kind of like, response film to a lifetime of special little guy movies.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

That I grew up loving. Have you seen it? Yeah, it's excellent. She's amazing in it.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, I like.

[Griffin Newman]

She has that incredible monologue she gives in the video store where she explains her history.

[Ben Hosley]

It's the best Maria Dizzia performance not given by Maria.

[David Sims]

Correct.

[Griffin Newman]

That's a great way of putting it. This was actress I was not familiar with before and it knocked me out.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, no, I really like that movie.

[David Sims]

Knocked you out because he Dr. My.

[Ben Hosley]

Nominations are Michelle Austin, Hard Truths, Dolly De Leon in Ghost Lights.

[David Sims]

Oh, there you go.

[Griffin Newman]

You know what?

[Ben Hosley]

A late fill in for someone else.

[Griffin Newman]

Borderline insane. I consider Dolly deleon for between the Temples.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, nice.

[Griffin Newman]

She is insanely good.

[Ben Hosley]

She's Very good in that movie. Yes. Elizabeth Olsen and his three daughters, Tilda Swinton in Problemista and Emily Watson in small things like these.

[Griffin Newman]

I'll say. The Tilda and Problemista was on my long list and I was like, Joe's gonna cover it. I don't need to do.

[David Sims]

I had the exact same. And I really like that performance.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, she's great.

[David Sims]

Okay, that's. That's great.

[Griffin Newman]

Your nominees.

[David Sims]

My nominees are Angenue Ellis Taylor in Nickel Boyce. Michelle Austin in Har Truths.

[Griffin Newman]

The only one in all three.

[David Sims]

Yeah. I mean, undeniable. Sophie Arcanedo in Janet Planet.

[Griffin Newman]

Also strongly considered and left off because I knew you'd go.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I had that one.

[Griffin Newman]

But one of my favorite one covered. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Monica Barbaro Phoenix herself in a complete unknown. A movie where these guys ended up getting the noms. But I'm still just kind of like, yeah, for you in your big studio Bob Dylan movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Hey, I. But I liked it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yep.

[David Sims]

And you know, it's like, do I go weird or do I go normal?

[Griffin Newman]

No, go weird and then tell us the normal you like.

[David Sims]

The normal one is Ariana Grande in Wicked, who I really think deserves, you know, a firm handshake for the great work that she did.

[Griffin Newman]

But not even having heard the weird one yet, I feel confident in telling you to go weird.

[David Sims]

I don't know. I. I can't.

[Griffin Newman]

Who's your weird?

[David Sims]

My God, stop yelling at me. Like, you guys took my two weirds. I will say, which is great. You took Alison Pill, a performance I really like. And you took Tilda's Winter. I mean, nobody took her. Nobody can ever dare take Tilda's Winter.

[Ben Hosley]

Takes Tilda, takes you. Yeah, exactly.

[David Sims]

So I guess like, at that point I. I gotta go with Grande. I mean, you know, I don't know. I mean, I could go with like. No, I don't know. I'm going with Grande.

[Ben Hosley]

I will say I went into Wicked as a real sort of bitchy little I don't like Ariana Grande person. And I walked out of that movie being like, well, she's the best.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, she's interesting.

[Ben Hosley]

So entertaining in that movie.

[David Sims]

She's very good at the comic stuff. I. I've always been neutral on her. I guess would be my. Yeah. My Grande take. Right. I don't know.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, Yeah, I like the movie. Okay.

[David Sims]

I know you do. You like it. Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, the movie's got its ups and downs. Yeah, I'll say that. But like, she's definitely an up up. She's A big.

[Griffin Newman]

She's a big old up, ups and downs. I thought it defied gravity.

[David Sims]

I'm like, you know, it should be.

[Griffin Newman]

Staying in one place right in the middle.

[David Sims]

You know, I'm looking at my other choices here, and it's just, you know, like my other kind of.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

I had Renata Ryan so very close.

[David Sims]

She's good. I like. I mean, I love her to be. Obviously, love.

[Griffin Newman]

My. My three people I knocked off, but. But I was like. That felt like a pretty strong five to me. It felt pretty locked in. Joan Chen and dd. A movie I know I like a lot more than you do. David.

[David Sims]

That's a lovely performance.

[Griffin Newman]

Lovely performance.

[Ben Hosley]

I. I thought it was that. I thought, she's great, but, like, the movie itself didn't entirely do it.

[Griffin Newman]

Ayla Brown and Furiosa, who's young Furiosa.

[David Sims]

Kind of one of those things. I'm like, right, is that a great performance? Is that just great direction of a kid? Because she's so quiet and intense and. Yeah, she's great. Here's one I thought about, like, Sophie Thatcher or Chloe east and Heretic. Both of them, I think, are good, but they're both kind of the lead, you know, like, you know, so I couldn't really.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I throw out the one I couldn't quite justify, but I was seriously considering. I think Zoe Deutsch in Juror Number two is one of the best making something out of nothing performances.

[David Sims]

She's really working with very little.

[Ben Hosley]

She is working with very.

[Griffin Newman]

No, it is.

[David Sims]

And I love her.

[Griffin Newman]

It is. I love her. I'm in the bag. But it's like such a stock character, you know, that Eastwood's giving her half a take and she's playing.

[David Sims]

That was his direction for her.

[Griffin Newman]

And he's doing that in the middle of the day into a microphone. Right. You. I just think she is playing an internal conflict.

[Ben Hosley]

The scene with her and Toni Collette is better than it needs to be. I had a hard time sort of figuring out what I wanted to do with the three actresses and his three daughters. A movie that I really loved. Like, loved, loved, loved.

[David Sims]

Yeah, it's a good movie. And they're all good.

[Griffin Newman]

And that's.

[Ben Hosley]

They're all really good. They're all plausibly leads. They're all plausibly. You could do. They're all leads.

[David Sims]

I think, like, Coon is undeniably a lead, and I think Lyon is a lead. Olsen is the one where I'm kind of like. She's sort of more supporting.

[Ben Hosley]

The Julianne Moore in the Hours where it's like, the less, less the less of equals. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Or the Shailene Woodley and Big Little Lies where you're like, she's like a weed. But she is the sort of. The sort of thinnest arc, I guess.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. But when she has her couple moments in that movie, she really nails it. This is Spoiler ahead. I had similar issues while you had issues with the Anora guys and also the three people in Challengers. Just trying to. There's a lot of movies.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, I was, like, trying to, like, sift through. I did as well. Loved Renata Ryan's Of a Different Man. She almost made it for me. Loved Angenou, Ellis Taylor and Nickel Boy is the hug of the year. I mean, come on. I love, love a good hug in a movie. I shouted out Maria Dizia already, but like, Maria Dizzia and Christmas Eve. And Miller's point is still.

[David Sims]

I like that movie. I like that movie. Yeah. And she's really good. You know, she's always good. Maria Dizzia.

[Ben Hosley]

She's good in my old ass as well.

[David Sims]

Yeah. All right. I think that movie just invites. I had to read my old ass out at the New York Film Critics Circle voting a bunch, you know, like, my old ass. And everyone would laugh every time. You can't help but laugh.

[Griffin Newman]

Have you seen it?

[David Sims]

No, haven't seen.

[Griffin Newman]

I'll say this. That was a movie where people kept telling me it was good, and I was like, yeah, yeah, I get it. Like, I was being very right. You're about it.

[David Sims]

I know what that movie is for sure.

[Griffin Newman]

And then I watch in my post dental surgery phase where I was like, what do I want to watch? Let me just watch, like, coming of age movies.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

That mostly went to streaming that I missed out on.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And I watched that and it kind of. David, Call a Doctor knocked me out. It was. It's. It's a much, like, wiser, deeper film than I was expecting.

[David Sims]

You know what? I'll give supporting actress my fifth slot to Sienna Miller for Horizon. American Chapter one.

[Griffin Newman]

Like that. And I'll say this, David, that investment will pay off when you see Chapter two.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, that's right. You saw Chapter two.

[Griffin Newman]

Horizon and American Saga. Chapter two. And she's really. She's got a barn burner monologue.

[David Sims]

Okay. I love her for an actor who's given bad performances and, like, for a long time seemed like a total zero. Right? Like, it was like, oh, they tried to make her happen. It didn't happen.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, no.

[David Sims]

She's really given some good performances.

[Ben Hosley]

Have either of you two seen Ghost Light?

[David Sims]

No. That's a movie I haven't seen because it seemed. I know I'm. I know it's going to be good, but it seems like it's gonna. I think.

[Ben Hosley]

I think. I think it's the kind of movie that both you would really like. It's also. Kelly O'Sullivan is the writer and co director who did a movie called St. Francis.

[David Sims]

St. Francis, sure.

[Ben Hosley]

Which is incredible.

[David Sims]

And I was on the Gotham St. Jury for many years on their first film jury. And that was a first film that I would not have seen if I had not been serving on the Jersey Journey jury. And I love.

[Griffin Newman]

Gentlemen, who did you pick as your winners?

[David Sims]

My winner is Michelle Austin for Hard Truths.

[Griffin Newman]

Great pick, Joe.

[Ben Hosley]

It was very close between Michelle Austin until just went in for me. But I think I go with Michelle Austin.

[Griffin Newman]

A byproduct of us now having done this for 10 years is we've started to develop our own internal Overdue.

[David Sims]

Oh, you're like, right. I haven't actually given the trophy the Griffey to Rex.

[Griffin Newman]

My. My winner is Renata Ryan, which I think is my favorite performance of these five. But also I did just double check and I gave best Actress to Rebecca hall for the Night House that year over Worst Person in the World. A choice I defend and stand by. But I think Hernandez Renz was so good in A Different Man. I think the like the whole movie, it's another hinge performance. But that's kind of what I like in these supporting performances. The whole movie hinges on him reappearing and her suddenly presenting an entire different backstory and changing all these details to him. And the realization of, like, what the fuck is going on with her? Which the movie never quite answers in a way that actually says a ton, if that makes sense.

[Ben Hosley]

She plays a villain in a really.

[Griffin Newman]

It is not judgmental performance at all.

[Ben Hosley]

It is not a judgmental performance. It is a very recognizable kind of like familiar villainy, which is just sort of like she's taking shortcuts and she's sort of. She sees an opportunity to succeed in a way that sells out somebody.

[Griffin Newman]

And she's a quieter version of what's going on to him, which is just like everyone has an idea of how they could reset their life and reframe themselves the way they want to be. And she does that in a way that she doesn't understand is so painful to him because she doesn't know who he's talking to.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Yeah, the blankie voters, the listeners of the show have a 10, you know, person list for best supporting performance that I will now read from bottom to top. So 10, Mike Feist in Challengers. 9, Ariana Grande in Wicked. 8. Margaret Qualley and the Substance. 7. Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain. 6. Jack Haven. I Saw the TV Glow. 5. Aiden Adam Pearson, A Different Man.

[Griffin Newman]

Hell yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

4.

[David Sims]

Guy Pearson, The Brutalist.

[Griffin Newman]

Hell yeah. 3.

[David Sims]

Yoruba Sov and Anora.

[Griffin Newman]

And now I have to say hell yeah for everybody or I start saying.

[David Sims]

Two Hemsworth and one and one Josh O. Connor in challengers. Now, H, that's not a supporting performance. A big eyebrow from that got run. I think maybe MGM ran all three. Or do they run Zendaya?

[Ben Hosley]

They ran Z as lead because she got the Golden Globe nomination in lead. All three of them are comedy, which is another conversation.

[Griffin Newman]

You can talk me the argument. You can talk me if you want to spread it out. But I think Connor is unpleasant movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Put a pin in this and and get to.

[Griffin Newman]

I think the pin is planted. And look, we can look at, you know, mgm, Amazon's award strategies a scans. But I think we can all agree it paid off beautifully for them. Checks notes here blanked at the office.

[Ben Hosley]

Zero nomination.

[Griffin Newman]

What a disaster.

[David Sims]

Well, they did release my favorite movie of the year. I guess I'll give them that Y.

[Griffin Newman]

Pin in that as well.

[David Sims]

They released two of my five favorite movies of the year. Okay, so let's move along to what should we do the screenplays. What should we do here, guys? Fine.

[Griffin Newman]

Best original screenplay. Best adapted screenplay. I got six in both. I'm gonna have to make a hard cut at this moment.

[David Sims]

I know, right? All right, so original screenplay here are my original screenplay winners then. This is obviously being presented by the winner of adapted screenplay last year, isn't it? So that would be. Oh, Eric Roth shuffling out.

[Ben Hosley]

Perfect. Get Eric Roth out there.

[David Sims]

Let's see who am I adapted and.

[Griffin Newman]

He plays and he wrote so much of that movie.

[David Sims]

Yeah, my adaptive screenplay nominees appear to be. I'm worried I like didn't give this a once over Dune Part 2, Hitman Fire Inside Furiosa Nickel Boys. Which is my winner. Spoiler alert.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm gonna stand by this. My adapted screenplay nominees are. Sing Sing. Furiosa Nickel Boys. The People's Joker. A radical act of adaptation.

[David Sims]

Right, right. Have you seen it? Is that sort of just nominally adapting like the character of Joker.

[Ben Hosley]

Joker.

[Griffin Newman]

It is undeniably an active adaptation and a movie about that in a way. And my fifth nominee. Sometimes I think about dying.

[David Sims]

Is that based on something?

[Griffin Newman]

It is weirdly based on.

[David Sims]

It's based on a thought that you sometimes have.

[Griffin Newman]

It is weirdly based on, I believe a one act play that is just.

[David Sims]

I can see that.

[Griffin Newman]

But. But here's what's weird. It was written by someone else. And the one act play is just about the party scene playing Murderer. You know what I'm talking about, David?

[David Sims]

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[Griffin Newman]

And then that was.

[David Sims]

And then that got like expanded on.

[Griffin Newman]

And then a new writer came on and was like, what if I spun this character out and that's scene becomes the centerpiece. I love that film.

[David Sims]

There's a movie I saw two years ago, I think, but I like that movie.

[Griffin Newman]

But yeah, it came out January 2023.

[David Sims]

Sundance.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, right. It played January 2023 at Sundance. It was released theatrically January 2024.

[David Sims]

Right. So even you saw it along?

[Griffin Newman]

Even I saw it a year ago. But yes, it's. I give it more credit as an active adaptation because it is unfurled from such a weird specific piece with a couple different writers.

[Ben Hosley]

I thought that I was seeing that movie and the movie that I actually saw was the feeling that the time for doing something has passed.

[Griffin Newman]

A movie I have not seen.

[Ben Hosley]

A movie I did not care for.

[Griffin Newman]

So, Joe, your nominees.

[Ben Hosley]

Screenplays. Conclave. Conclave.

[Griffin Newman]

Conclave.

[Ben Hosley]

Conclave. Peter Strong. Dune Part 2. Denny Villeneuve and John Spade. John Specs. It does sound like you just sort.

[Griffin Newman]

Of third name listed here. Moab Adip Muadib. That was close.

[Ben Hosley]

Nickel Boys. Ramel Ross and Jocelyn Barnes. Sing Sing, which is screenplay by Greg Quader and Clint Bentley with the story credit to Quade R. Bentley, Clarence Macklin and John Devine G. Whitfield. And then small things like these. Who's Enda Walsh and Claire Keegan.

[David Sims]

You know, I got sent that book by the Swag team behind Small things like these. They did not gonna read it. It's good.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. I mean the movie's great.

[David Sims]

Yeah. I didn't see it too busy.

[Griffin Newman]

But you saw the book, the COVID.

[David Sims]

There it is sitting on my desk. And who's your winners, guys? I forgot to ask.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, first for adapt. I mean it's got to be Nickel Boys.

[David Sims]

It's a really, really interesting way to adapt that book.

[Griffin Newman]

The only one all three of us nominate.

[David Sims]

Is that your winner?

[Griffin Newman]

No. David, what's your winner?

[David Sims]

Nickel Boys.

[Griffin Newman]

I think my winner is People's Joker.

[David Sims]

Sure. Great.

[Griffin Newman]

Between that Sing Sing. I adore People's Joker. I strongly implore People to seek it out. I went to see it assuming it was just going to be like a fun act of cinematic you. And what I love about that movie is it really is kind of an argument for why, like I. I refuse to call it ip, but it is worth adapting works and reinterpreting them through different prisms. It's sort of a movie about like, there's a reason we go back to the same stories because we find things that we can only express through those sets of characters. And it makes you frustrated about how often these things are rebooted in the same derivative ways over and over again. But I think it's like an incredible self reflexive piece of adaptation.

[David Sims]

The blankies picked Nosferatu. 5, Furiosa 4, Nickel Boys 3, Conclave 2. Dune Part 2 was their winner. Great.

[Ben Hosley]

Part 2 is a sneaky, really interesting.

[David Sims]

Adaptation and a really complicated thing. He's keeping what he's not.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, yeah. They move it around in some different ways. To end that movie on the note that it ends on is pretty ballsy.

[David Sims]

What he did with Johnny is.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes, that's specifically. Yes. Johnny's character. Yep.

[Griffin Newman]

Best original screenplay.

[David Sims]

Oh, Spaghettios, my, of course adapted screenplay winner last year was. I know, I already. I did this wrong. Okay. Yeah. My best original screenplay was Wes Anderson. So here he is. Hey, look at that. What is the light?

[Griffin Newman]

My winner last year was.

[David Sims]

It looks like it was Wes Anderson.

[Griffin Newman]

I also want Wes Anderson. Okay.

[David Sims]

Asteroid City. Great movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Joe. What did I do?

[David Sims]

Joe, you went. You're adapted screenplay winners, by the way, were BlackBerry for Griffin and Barbie for Joe.

[Griffin Newman]

Hell yeah.

[David Sims]

And Joe, you went with May December, a great screenplay for original. So my best Original screenplays of 2024 are Annie Baker for Janet Planet, Justin Karitzka's potion seller for challengers. Jane Schoenbrenn for I Saw the TV Glow, Mike Lee for Hard Truths and Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Evil does not Exist.

[Griffin Newman]

Joe.

[Ben Hosley]

Mine are challengers. Justin Karitsky's a different man. Aaron Schimberg, his three daughters, Azazel Jacobs, I Saw the TV Glow. Jane Schoenbrunn and problemista Julio Torres.

[Griffin Newman]

My nominees for screenplay are different man. Aaron Shimber. Challengers Justin Kurzkus.

[David Sims]

You want to speak up a little bit?

[Joe Reed]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Well, I'm just realizing I'm gonna forget the names of some of these people.

[David Sims]

Just keep going, Keep going. I can tell you the names.

[Griffin Newman]

Thelma.

[David Sims]

Thelma. I don't know who wrote that.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, well, Mr.

[Ben Hosley]

I can tell you it was a.

[David Sims]

Course written by Josh Marklin. Who I believe also direct directed it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. Hard Truths. I forget. Oh, that's. Who wrote it. Okay. And Hundreds of Beavers.

[David Sims]

Oh, who wrote that? Is that a screenplay? Movie and Ryland Twos.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm gonna make the case. It is a silent film. It is a pure silent film.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

It is, like, one of the most beautifully structured films. You watch it. I'd heard a lot of hype.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm so resistant to this movie, Griffin.

[Griffin Newman]

This movie is so good. You guys.

[Ben Hosley]

So resistant.

[Griffin Newman]

Are going to eat?

[David Sims]

No, I'd like watch it. Well, I don't now. I really don't want to watch it.

[Griffin Newman]

I sat there and I was like, people have told me this is fun. It starts, and I'm like, is it really going to be this the whole time? How long is this thing? Like, 72 minutes. It's, like, two hours long. It not only doesn't run out of steam, it grows. There are, like, concepts in that movie that are so fucking complicated that are communicated with such elegance and wit. It blew my mind. I've seen it twice in theaters now. It plays like a fucking rock concert. I hope it is a movie that will continue making the rounds theatrically for years, because it feels like a perpetual midnight movie touring thing. And it is. It's incredible to watch with the crowd because it starts basically with silence of everyone reacting the way I did. And then by the end, it's undeniable.

[Ben Hosley]

My worry is that watching it with a crowd will make me like it less.

[Griffin Newman]

I think you're wrong about that.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't. My only question is how it plays alone.

[Ben Hosley]

Sure.

[David Sims]

My winner is Annie Baker. Who's your winner?

[Ben Hosley]

My winner is Azizil Jacobs for his Three Daughters.

[David Sims]

It's a screenplay movie, and I'm not saying that. No, to say the directing.

[Ben Hosley]

I think I saw a lot of, like, this play. This feels like a play. And I'm like. To me, I'm like, that's fine. You know? That does not diminish my enjoyment of the movie.

[David Sims]

Feels like Griff's picking beavers.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm a little inclined to do beavers. There's. There are three other things that are in there that I also know are going to win a different award for me. So I'm like, is there a spread the wealth argument?

[David Sims]

I think Challengers is a really, really intelligently constructed screenplay that really nails the ending, which is the hardest thing to do. And that was his ending. And he, you know, insisted on it.

[Griffin Newman]

That's my.

[David Sims]

I think I saw the TV glow. It's brilliant.

[Griffin Newman]

But I exempt it from this category.

[David Sims]

Okay, yeah, he exempts it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, exempted.

[David Sims]

But Annie Baker, she's my favorite living writer, and she wrote a movie for me, and I got to watch it. She gets the trophy from me.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm gonna do Beavers here because this is the one place where I can kind of make the case.

[Ben Hosley]

That makes sense. Sense.

[Griffin Newman]

Although I will say it also should have been nominated for best original song.

[Ben Hosley]

There's an original song?

[Griffin Newman]

No, it's not what you think.

[Ben Hosley]

Original song, David.

[Griffin Newman]

You think you know what it is, and it's not what you think.

[David Sims]

I honestly don't think I know what it is.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

The score and the. And the. The song in that film are exceptional. But. Yeah. No Hard Truth. Challengers, different man are all kind of hall of Famer scripts for me. The blankie that I will give roses.

[David Sims]

In other places where a different man. 5 brutalist 4. I saw the TV glow. 3 anora 2. And challengers 1.

[Griffin Newman]

Back to the blankies after these messages. David.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Are you ready to optimize your nutrition this year?

[David Sims]

I am, but I'm checking.

[Griffin Newman]

Challenging you.

[David Sims]

Who's this?

[Griffin Newman]

This is nutritious. Griff.

[David Sims]

Okay, I'm ready to optimize. What do I have to do?

[Griffin Newman]

I bet you are. Factor has Chef made gourmet meals that make eating well easy.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

They're dietitian approved and ready to heat and eat in two minutes. So you can fuel right and feel great no matter what life throws at you. Also, I changed my name.

[David Sims]

Name. What's your name now?

[Griffin Newman]

Macho Man. Nutritious.

[David Sims]

Oh, that makes sense.

[Griffin Newman]

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[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

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[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

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[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

Oh, no. I transformed again. I'm nutritious Nick Nolte now. David. Yes. Going online without ExpressVPN. I like to say it is akin to driving without car insurance. And that is an experience I know all too well.

[David Sims]

I did that once by mistake.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh.

[David Sims]

My car insurance like lapsed and I didn't know it.

[Griffin Newman]

What did it feel like?

[David Sims]

I felt bad. To get a ticket.

[Griffin Newman]

On edge. Unprotected.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Paying unwanted fees. And worst of all, you had no way to watch the British miniseries cuts of Michael Winterbottom, Steve Coogan and Rob Ryden's the Trip.

[David Sims]

That is a great example of what ExpressVPN brings to the table.

[Griffin Newman]

This I like ExpressVPN. I think they're fun. Intro number one, car insurance metaphor. Intro number two, flight safety. It's like going online without paying attention to safety demonstration on the flight. Right. Intro number three, phone case. Going online is like not having a case for your phone. We get it. Intro number four, saving report. Remember the good old days before auto save your document.

[David Sims]

I didn't ask you to read all.

[Griffin Newman]

Five because I need to set up.

[Ben Hosley]

What.

[Griffin Newman]

How big of a swerve Intro number five is. Intro number five. Going online without ExpressVPN is like having. Having sex without a condom. ExpressVPN goes there. Okay, well, honest.

[David Sims]

Look, every time you connect to an unencrypted network, cafes, hotels, airports, your data is not secure. Hackers can get access to your, you know, personal data, passwords, bank logins, credit card, all that stuff. It doesn't take much knowledge to do it either. Just need a little bit of cheap hardware. Any 12 year old could do it. Any smart 12 year old.

[Griffin Newman]

And most of the time you have unprotected sex, you might be fine, but the repercussions could be huge.

[David Sims]

That's.

[Griffin Newman]

You really want to raw dog the whole Internet. And it says underneath, rephrase or ad lib is needed. Not needed. No perfectly worded raw dog the Internet. Thank you very much. ExpressVPN. That's the best ad copy we've ever gotten.

[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

Look. And this ad copy is focused on raw dogging and also the safety features they offer. But lest we forget, ExpressVPN is incredibly helpful for streaming.

[David Sims]

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[Griffin Newman]

And we're back to the 2025 blank.

[David Sims]

Next. Last time was the best animated feature, so let's do that again. Best animated feature, guys. What a year for animated features.

[Griffin Newman]

Stinky Poo poo.

[David Sims]

It's a bit of a tough year.

[Ben Hosley]

I limited myself to three.

[David Sims]

I have fun.

[Ben Hosley]

I couldn't do more.

[Griffin Newman]

The highest grossing ones were almost the worst ones in my opinion.

[David Sims]

Monitun, Inside Out 2 and Minions 8 or whatever. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And I feel like there's another one that did well that I didn't care for.

[David Sims]

Let's see. Certainly. Right. Like, it's not like, I mean, Inside Out 2 smashing through every record was the moment every, like the entire industry sort of trend line went from like, God, this year's a disaster too. Like, oh, I think everything's fine. Like, you know, it was. That's crazy.

[Ben Hosley]

That's why I'm like, I'm grateful for Inside.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure.

[David Sims]

But it's also funny that it was Inside out too. That did that. Yes. You know, which I thought was fine. I think I liked it more than you.

[Griffin Newman]

I think that movie kind of profoundly doesn't work.

[David Sims]

Let's see what the other big through.

[Griffin Newman]

My five nominees have a proper five.

[David Sims]

Kung Fu Panda 4 must be the other one. Yeah. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. I started. I mean, it's white, right. It's a two. Two twos, two fours. And what's the other one?

[David Sims]

I don't know. Of the highest grossing Moana 2 inside out to Despicable Me 4. Kung Fu Panda 4. I don't know.

[Griffin Newman]

There's one other one we just listed. I forget. I don't know. Whatever.

[Ben Hosley]

Who gives a you the Garfield movie's up there.

[Griffin Newman]

That movie sucks. I. I regret to say at certain point I was like, let me go through more of the qualifying films because maybe there are some hidden gems here. And the deeper I dug, the less I liked what I found.

[Ben Hosley]

Garfield being a movie about reconnecting with his deadbeat dad is almost as infuriating as Super Mario Brothers. Being about Mario, proving to his parents that he could.

[David Sims]

He's a good plumber.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, he's a good plumber.

[Griffin Newman]

It's almost like the people who run these animation studios have bad relationships with their father. Almost like don't respect them going into animation.

[David Sims]

I'm good at cartoons, dad.

[Ben Hosley]

Sonic 3 is the other one. Maybe you're not that animated film. Okay, I didn't see it. I don't know, Joe.

[David Sims]

How dare you.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm surprised you would talk so rudely about Vic, my favorite character from the Garfield strips. We all love Big Vic, Garfield's dad, an important character. My five nominees for best animated film are Memoirs of a Snail, which, spoiler is my winner? Flo, Which I admit is undeniable, but also had the most ill timed bathroom break of my movie going career.

[David Sims]

Like, you come back and like it's the apocalypse or whatever.

[Griffin Newman]

I came back to the director's credit it on screen.

[David Sims]

Oh, no, it's not a long movie.

[Griffin Newman]

No. But I was like, it's hard to pin how long this has been going on. And then I saw another wave coming and I was like, oh, feels like there's maybe another 20 minutes left. Let me run to pee now. And I came back and the movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, disaster.

[Griffin Newman]

I later watched it. The Wild Robot Transformers one.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Which I think is far and away the best movie of the animated IP slop. If I can call it that. Yeah, no, that movie and look back, which rules.

[David Sims]

What's that? That's the Japanese way. I haven't seen that yet.

[Griffin Newman]

It's like 52 minutes long.

[David Sims]

Okay, well, sign me up. Wait, that sounds great.

[Griffin Newman]

You can watch it three times.

[David Sims]

I'm gonna watch it right now. Just play it while we do this episode.

[Griffin Newman]

But Memoir of a Snail was. It's really, really good. Did you guys have voiceover performance nominees?

[David Sims]

I can do that in a second.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, we'll list your animated film.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

But it will tie to my.

[David Sims]

Yeah, because my anime, it's rough. It's just flow. Wild Robot, both of which I like. Liked Transformers 1, which I liked. Wallace and Gromit. Vengeance Most Foul, which I liked. It's a step I could have done with it being better.

[Griffin Newman]

Do you agree with my note?

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

What's your note?

[Griffin Newman]

It is the one Wallace and Gromit movie that isn't actually about their relationship. And at the very end, it tries to pretend it is.

[David Sims]

Yeah. It kind of tries to squeeze it in there. I mean, but also it's like, what's there to say left about their relationship.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[David Sims]

You know, I mean, I liked it more than the bakery 1.

[Ben Hosley]

Loved Vegas legends most. Well, I loved.

[Griffin Newman]

I find it very entertaining.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I think it's at the exact wrong size between being feature and short. And it kind of can't decide.

[David Sims]

I think Inside Out 2 is my fifth nominee by Devote.

[Griffin Newman]

That's insane.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Well, I mean, I don't think I saw any other animated movies.

[Griffin Newman]

Joe, your three.

[Ben Hosley]

So my three are.

[David Sims]

Oh, I saw War of the Rohir. Him. But that thing is pretty.

[Ben Hosley]

I've heard. I heard such bad things.

[David Sims]

That is a homework, apparently, ass movie.

[Ben Hosley]

I was excited for the concept of it. And then I heard just the worst things.

[David Sims]

I was just like, if you're gonna make an ashcan movie, you could still make it good. And it's like. It's like not. It's very, very bad.

[Griffin Newman]

You guys know about this Christmas? Is that what it's called? I think it's called this Christmas.

[Ben Hosley]

The short.

[Griffin Newman]

It is a Netflix feature film in which Brian Cox is the voice of Santa Claus.

[David Sims]

I'm Santa.

[Griffin Newman]

Ho, ho, ho, off. And it's based on three different Richard Curtis short stories.

[David Sims]

That's right.

[Griffin Newman]

And it. That are kind of really mushed together.

[Ben Hosley]

Wow.

[Griffin Newman]

It's like trying to do animated love actually, with children.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm gonna watch that next Christmas.

[Griffin Newman]

But this is like one of the. I'm like, this looks like trash.

[Ben Hosley]

It's bad.

[Griffin Newman]

This is what I'm saying. I was like, digging and I was like, Garfield's from Mark Dinner. Is there anything.

[David Sims]

There's a reason that Flo rose to the top. It's like, yeah, you know, there was space for a movie like that to break through because all the animated offerings were kind of whatever.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. My three are Flow, Wallace and Gromit. Vengeance Most Foul. Justice for feathers McGraw. The greatest character in cinematic history. Wild Robot. My thing with good, by the way, I really love. Wild Robot is a manipulative movie that I was very happy to be manipulated by. I was just like, that's a good way of putting it on me. I think Memoir of a Snail is a very well made movie that to me, is excessively miserable in a way that I did not appreciate.

[Griffin Newman]

It definitely is. And I think it is reflective of the way you and I differently respond to miserable movies.

[Ben Hosley]

That makes sense. Sense.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

I called it the A Little Life of Stop Motion Animation. And I stand by that.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I'm definitely not watching it now.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm back to that degree of, like, pile it odd. Pile another one on yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, yeah, he has his thing that he does, and it works for me. And I could see it being cilantro for people.

[David Sims]

You know who's great in Transformers 1?

[Griffin Newman]

Brian Tyree Henry.

[David Sims]

Brian Tyran.

[Ben Hosley]

I had no idea Transformers 1 was good. I totally.

[David Sims]

The whole thing with it is things.

[Ben Hosley]

I don't have to pay.

[David Sims]

Directed by Josh Cooley, who made the Great Toy Story 4.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. I love.

[David Sims]

It's one of those things where it starts where it's like, ah, we're just two Transformers. My name is like Optimus prime, you know, Berg. Like, his name's a little different. Your name is Megatronissance or whatever, you know. Right. And we're just gotta get those cogs.

[Ben Hosley]

I wish I could transform miners. Right?

[David Sims]

Yeah. You'll never do anything.

[Griffin Newman]

By the end of it, you're like.

[David Sims]

I can't believe that.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm gonna check it out.

[David Sims]

That's crazy.

[Griffin Newman]

Truly.

[David Sims]

What a betrayal.

[Griffin Newman]

There is that moment where you're like, I angry. This movie has, like, childhood friends.

[Ben Hosley]

Optimus prime and Megatron.

[David Sims]

It's a. It's an origin story for them. Although I think Transformers lore is so, like, deep. I think it's kind of like a.

[Ben Hosley]

Reboot of the lore. Transformers Law is. Transformers lore is so deep is a sentence that is both incredibly true and sounds insane and so clear.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't like with Transformers lore at all. I don't know what. I love to throw out random Transformer names that I think are funny, but I can't track any of this shit.

[David Sims]

I think the whole thing with Transformers stuff is just like, no one was really minding the shop, right? So, like, someone else would come along, be like, I'm gonna do this. And everyone be like, that's fine. We don't care. Overwrite whatever has been written.

[Griffin Newman]

I like everything this movie's doing.

[David Sims]

It also looks good.

[Griffin Newman]

It does. Anyway, here were my five nominees for voiceover performance.

[David Sims]

Oh, yeah, go ahead.

[Griffin Newman]

Jackie Weaver, Memoir of a Snack.

[Ben Hosley]

I give you that.

[Griffin Newman]

Which is my winner.

[Ben Hosley]

She's 100%.

[Griffin Newman]

She's great. She's fucking believable.

[Ben Hosley]

She's great.

[Griffin Newman]

Maybe the most emotionally affected I was by any performance this year. Possibly. Maya hawk, Inside Out 2. Compelled to make her my winner. I think she's the only reason that movie even partially works.

[Ben Hosley]

I think her character, though, is a huge problem, but her performance is quite.

[David Sims]

She paralyzes the kid with anxiety. She can't play hockey.

[Griffin Newman]

Papers over the fact that the script was not figured out. Right. I think she plays incredibly well. I'm I'm gonna give it after. You know, I so rudely snubbed him for Best Actor when you guys gave him the flowers years ago. And I think this is the time to properly give him a sort of career achievement.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, boy.

[Griffin Newman]

A Return of the King style nomination for best voiceover Performance. I'm nominating Tom Hardy as Venom in the Last Dance. That movie, great stuff, is kind of garbage.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

But like, anytime he's talking, I was like, right, this is the whole thing. Just do this. It is Lupita Nyong'o for the Wild Robots.

[David Sims]

Yeah, really great.

[Ben Hosley]

She's fantastic.

[Griffin Newman]

I was very compelled to also put Pedro Pascal in there, who I think is incredible and wild.

[Ben Hosley]

Could not place it.

[David Sims]

Which one?

[Griffin Newman]

He's the Fox.

[David Sims]

Oh, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't sound like him. It's really good and really funny, but it felt low. Slowly do double nomination. So I, in my fifth slot, put in Robbie Williams as the narrator.

[David Sims]

Yeah, Robbie Williams deserves it.

[Ben Hosley]

Is that how he's credited the narrator?

[David Sims]

Well, so he's the monkey in it.

[Ben Hosley]

It.

[Griffin Newman]

The singing is his old recordings.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

The character of Robbie Williams is voiced by the actor who did the most, I believe.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, that. I did not know if I know the John phrase.

[David Sims]

The cinematographer for Nickel Boys, whom I think. What's that?

[Griffin Newman]

His name is Jono.

[David Sims]

That's why. That's why I'm confusing.

[Griffin Newman]

Wilson.

[David Sims]

I'm looking up.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it's John. Oh, something.

[David Sims]

Jono Davis Davies.

[Griffin Newman]

But Robbie Williams is specifically just doing the narration, which I thought was excellent. And we'll talk about that.

[David Sims]

Robbie Williams is. Is so overflowing with charisma. Like, he's so good at, like, getting you through that movie. Like, if. If you're like, what is going on?

[Griffin Newman]

You know, I'm complaining about. I don't know who this guy is. I'm like, his narration alone is explaining to you through the energy why he became.

[Ben Hosley]

Robbie Williams was not as famous in America as he was in Britain. That does not mean that he was not famous in America. He absolutely was.

[Griffin Newman]

He wasn't that famous, but I feel.

[Ben Hosley]

Like he was more famous enough to like, like, remember who he was.

[Griffin Newman]

But famous for sort of not happening.

[David Sims]

A lot of people at TIFF were texting me, like, can you explain who Robbie Williams is to me? Including, I believe, Joe Reed, me and Katie.

[Ben Hosley]

But I was. We were not asking. We were asking explain the Robbie Williams extent of the Robbie Williams phenomenon.

[Griffin Newman]

So crazy, right, that this guy is so big in England, so big in Europe. He comes to America and no one like gives a shit about him. Right. And this movie's based on true story. And people were like shrug, I don't care. I don't know who he is. And I'm like, like, this is incredible that this really happened. That there was a random monkey born who could sing and dance.

[Ben Hosley]

It's true.

[Griffin Newman]

And became a pop star and a sex idol.

[Ben Hosley]

You'd think more people would have remembered that.

[Griffin Newman]

That's a fascinating.

[David Sims]

Britain's always got going like what's up with them? Like ah, they all like a monkey. I was like, yeah, it sounds like somebody do sounds like right.

[Griffin Newman]

I've been sitting on that bit for two months.

[David Sims]

Great bit.

[Ben Hosley]

I'll.

[David Sims]

I'll nominate I like all your Jon Ham is great in Transformers. One is the villain.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, Orion Pax.

[David Sims]

Sentinel prime, of course.

[Griffin Newman]

Orion Pax I think is Optimus's name before he.

[David Sims]

That's correct. And Tyree Henry is D16. He's not called Megatronicus or whatever I said before.

[Ben Hosley]

I would also say if we're doing narrators, Isabella Rossellini and Problem east is an incredible, incredible narrator.

[David Sims]

Almost just a layup for Julio to use her as a narrator. Like, you know what I mean?

[Ben Hosley]

So perfect. Again, casting is. Is often.

[David Sims]

I just love Paul Walter Hauser in Inside out too. He was great.

[Ben Hosley]

Who was he in Inside Out?

[David Sims]

He's embarrassment. He doesn't really.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I do my impression?

[David Sims]

Did the blankies pick anything there?

[Griffin Newman]

They.

[David Sims]

I don't think so.

[Griffin Newman]

You fucked up blankies.

[David Sims]

I don't see it here. Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

So can I just. While. While I was on the subject, give out best CGI monkey in a movie to better man.

[David Sims]

Great.

[Ben Hosley]

Sure.

[David Sims]

Do you have a winner?

[Ben Hosley]

No.

[David Sims]

Oh, yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Who?

[Griffin Newman]

King of the Planet of the Apes.

[Ben Hosley]

I was wicked. The VFX Oscar category could have been five monkey.

[Griffin Newman]

It could have been five monkey movies.

[David Sims]

And it was declared or two monkey needed a couple more go rounds.

[Griffin Newman]

Can't deny there were a lot of two different.

[Ben Hosley]

Different monkey entities. One real and then a bunch of them cgi.

[David Sims]

Well, let's move on to. Well, before we get on to the big performers, do we want to do like music or cinematography or ensemble or anything like that?

[Ben Hosley]

I did write down cinematography nominees because I always feel like I'm caught shorthanded with that. They seem to be pretty obvious ones. I have Nickel Boys. I have Brutalist. I have Challengers. Which is actually really tremendous tennis match photography that culminates in a moment that just could never actually happen. That I find like incredible for the movie. But the thing where they're volleying back and forth like a foot apart of each other. I'm like, that's good. That is not possible. That doesn't happen.

[David Sims]

But it's fine. They want to do. Because they make you fall for it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Dune Part two and then my one stop to the Oscars. Maria is not a good movie, but Maria's cinema.

[David Sims]

Ed Lackman, the King.

[Ben Hosley]

Incredible.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I would put TV glow in there, but I. That's an excellent five, Joe.

[David Sims]

I got Nickel Boy. Dune Part 2, Trapped, Brutalist, Janet Planet. But Trap, of course, is shot by the guy who shot Challengers in one of the most versatile like DP performances of the year.

[Ben Hosley]

Incredible.

[David Sims]

Do you guys have music picks? Oh, the blanky cinematography picks were not. No. Very dark Nickel Boys.

[Griffin Newman]

Drop it down another F. Stop.

[David Sims]

Challengers and Dune Part to anamorphic.

[Griffin Newman]

No. Hundreds of Beavers. I. I put music because that's. That's a movie that really has to be carried by its music. Can I say a thing that might turn you on to Hundreds of Beavers, David? It uses 8bit video game language in a way I think is really smart.

[David Sims]

Sounds cool.

[Griffin Newman]

It's like we are conditioned as a generation to understand things visually minus dialogue from video games in a way where that's a cleaner kind of jump to aid silent comedy.

[David Sims]

You got any scores? Other score picks, though.

[Griffin Newman]

Challengers.

[Ben Hosley]

Challengers. Brutalist, I think. I think Robot's a really good score.

[Griffin Newman]

The Furiosa score is once again fantastic.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[David Sims]

I also had. I like the I Saw the TV Glow score a lot by Alex.

[Griffin Newman]

I love that as well.

[David Sims]

I like the Nosferatu score. Okay. Yeah. I don't know.

[Ben Hosley]

This is a really, really bad year for original score or song at the movies at the Oscars. But it could have been quite easily better if they just like last Showgirl is not a movie that I liked, but I like that Miley song in.

[Griffin Newman]

It quite a bit.

[Ben Hosley]

There's a song in Wild Robot that they could have nominated and it could have been like, you know, an okay year for song. And instead they opted for like a really bad year.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, they're starting to make the argument themselves for taking that category out behind.

[Ben Hosley]

And they had rehabbed it for a little while there. They had gotten it back to like.

[David Sims]

They'Ll never kill it because they'll always be a year where like Taylor Swift wins. They're like, we can't get rid of this. And then there's like two bad years again.

[Ben Hosley]

Last year where they're like, we could have Billie EILISH. And a whole big. Another Barbie number on top.

[Griffin Newman]

Does it feel like Diane Warren might win this year?

[David Sims]

That's crazy.

[Griffin Newman]

I feel like.

[David Sims]

So it's gonna really depend on the Paras, isn't it? For win it for which I don't know. I don't remember. The names of those songs are bad.

[Griffin Newman]

And two of them are nominated and no one could tell the difference.

[Ben Hosley]

It does feel so. If you look at the FYC stuff that Amelia Perez has been sending out. El Mall, which is the Zoe Saldana number.

[Griffin Newman]

That's the number at the like fundraiser dinner.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes. Where she's in the red and she's doing that. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Where she's like you. I mean, that song sucks. She just dances well.

[Ben Hosley]

She performs it very well. But that's the one they're going with.

[David Sims]

I think that will win if.

[Griffin Newman]

If I'm also feeling like watching this movie. Less than 24 hours ago, I was like, all these songs are 55 seconds long.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. They don't linger.

[Griffin Newman]

Which is part of. It's like embarrassed at being a musical where it's like, don't worry, we'll get this over.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. I also threw down some needle drops. The tattoo needle drop in Anora is one of my favorite things that's happened.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Movie that used this year, Baby Girl also has several incredible needle drops.

[Griffin Newman]

I just think Diane Warren seems to be campaigning harder than usual this year and is campaigning with a very smart strategy of Come on, guys. Right. And it's sort of like, like, is.

[David Sims]

Her song this year remotely good? Isn't it? For the Tyler Perry movie?

[Ben Hosley]

That's awful.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it sounds fine. Whatever. Doesn't matter. There's no stronger nominee.

[David Sims]

No, I understand. Even if you like Amelia, I understand the argument.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

But Joey sent me a link from like a clip from the 6 triple 8 and it really like his movies. Really. It's really crazy because now he attracts this like top shelf talent, I guess because he has a budget and he's like.

[Griffin Newman]

It's also weird that it's like he used to make three movies a year. Right, Right.

[David Sims]

And they were made at the level, like the correct level. You know what I mean? Like his style.

[Griffin Newman]

But now he makes like one movie every three years and it's worse.

[David Sims]

They're bad because, like he's trying to make an Oscar and also he's what.

[Griffin Newman]

Single handedly, quote unquote, writing and directing every episode of television himself for like 20 series.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

I'm sure they're so good.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm sure they're So I love his annual pile of scripts post.

[David Sims]

I don't even know what that is.

[Griffin Newman]

But every year he's like, here's everything I wrote this year. And it's a pile of, like, 40 different episodic scripts. And then a bunch of guys in the comments are like, hey, thanks for not crediting me for hiring, like, scab writers and not letting them into the union and not giving us credit.

[David Sims]

How dare you. Should we do best actor or best Actress? Tyler Perry's never done anything wrong, I'm sure.

[Griffin Newman]

Let's do best actor first.

[David Sims]

Best actor. Best Actor first. So Best Actor for 2024, your winner last year, Griffin in actress was Lord Calamity in full time.

[Griffin Newman]

What a good pick.

[David Sims]

Good movie. I picked Lily Gladstone and Killers of the Flower Moon. The Oscars did too. I'm pretty sure I won't check my notes. And you picked Margot in Barbie. Do you remember that?

[Ben Hosley]

I do. I was mad that she didn't get nominated. I thought Margot was great in Barbie.

[David Sims]

She was not nominated.

[Griffin Newman]

You and Hillary were fighting that fight together.

[Ben Hosley]

Me and Hillary always like, arm in arm.

[David Sims]

Yeah. But this year I can go first. I've been making Griffin go first. Poor Griffin. Justice Smith and I Saw the TV Glow. Josh Hartnett entrapped. Aaron Pierre and Rebel Ridge. Nicholas Hulten, juror number two. And Sebastian Stan. A Different Man. Which rhymes when you think about it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[Ben Hosley]

In fact, it does. My three are three. My five.

[David Sims]

Yeah, just do three.

[Ben Hosley]

No, I'll do five. Mike Feist in Challengers.

[Griffin Newman]

Wow.

[Ben Hosley]

Cillian Murphy in small things like these. Josh O'Connor in challenges. Justice Smith and I saw the TV glow. And Sebastian Stan in A Different Man.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, I'm going to do this because you nominated Josh.

[David Sims]

Right?

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[David Sims]

I nominated Josh Hartnet. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

And you nominated Josh.

[David Sims]

He's the best.

[Griffin Newman]

So then I'm going to drop Josh Hartnet because at least someone else called him out. My nominees are Josh O'Connor. And challengers Glenn Powell and Hitman Sebastian. Stan and A Different Man.

[David Sims]

What is this, a crush list?

[Griffin Newman]

Justice Smith and I Saw the TV Glow.

[David Sims]

Judy Brigade.

[Griffin Newman]

Wait till you get to my best actress picks.

[David Sims]

Oh, boy.

[Griffin Newman]

Justice Smith and I Saw the TV Glow. And Colman Domingo and Sing Sing.

[Ben Hosley]

Coleman Domingo had very close six Thunder.

[David Sims]

Very good performers.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Because you guys didn't nominate Glenn, right?

[Ben Hosley]

I didn't. Although.

[Griffin Newman]

I put him in there. So someone called him out and I didn't put him in the screenplay.

[Ben Hosley]

I love him in that movie.

[Griffin Newman]

I. He was. That was my sixth pick for screenplay I saw that movie at a WGA screening. I was in plus one, where the Q and A afterwards was with screenwriter Glenn Powell, and it was moderated by our friend Esther Zuckerman. Glen Powell walked out looking like 8 people trillion dollars.

[David Sims]

He can do that.

[Griffin Newman]

I was like, the movies are alive and well. And then proceeded to talk so intelligently about story in a way that wasn't like Save the Cat in a way that was like, interesting and challenging. Where I was like, oh, this was probably largely a Linklater script.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Ben Hosley]

Where Powell's like jumped onto and hanging out.

[Griffin Newman]

And it made it so clear it was the other way around. Where he was like, rick, can you help me?

[David Sims]

Here's thing.

[Griffin Newman]

And everything I like about that movie came from him and the screenplay level novel. Which is why, of course, I'm nominating him in best actor. It's undeniable movie star performance.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

But also at one point in this Q A, he went to Esther, he reached out. I think he might have touched her hand and said, sorry, I cut you off. What were you saying? And Esther went. And look, Esther is a pro at this stuff. Yes, she is flappable.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I watched her melt. And I walked out and I was like, buy all the stock you can. This guy is running. He's gonna be the president of Hollywood. I'm all in. In Hitman is just a show reel for him in so many ways, but God is compelling on effort.

[Ben Hosley]

Another movie that Netflix put on Netflix and then a bunch of people watched it on streaming and we're like, I don't get it. And I'm like, see it in a fucking theater.

[Griffin Newman]

Then I saw it once in theaters and it certainly plays like gangbusters.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I saw it both times in theaters, but the first time was a tiff where no one knew it was going to happen.

[Griffin Newman]

Played like.

[David Sims]

And it really did. Like the, the scene, the, you know, the, the iPhone notes scene really played. Played like two screams and yells.

[Griffin Newman]

So wait, all three of us nominated Stan and Smith?

[David Sims]

We love the guys.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. And then you didn't nominate either of the challengers boys.

[David Sims]

No, but I like them both.

[Ben Hosley]

I've been a Justice Smith fan for like a long time ago. I always tell the story. He was in hbo used to do the series of little short documentaries on young arts which does a mentorship thing where they put five, like select five people.

[Griffin Newman]

Is he in it as he's in.

[Ben Hosley]

In two separate ones. He's in the one with Anna de Vere Smith where she has them interview each other also. Play each other in the, like Anna Deere Smith, you know, one woman Jo style. He's incredible in that. He's also in the Alan Alda one. So I've like had my eye on him since that.

[Griffin Newman]

Since he was just like, this is his best performance.

[Ben Hosley]

He's so fucking good and versatile and like, just has to do. Has to tackle so many different really specific emotional states.

[Griffin Newman]

It's also, it is like a performance that is painful to watch. And it is in a way where when it starts, I was like, is it just gonna be hard to make it through this movie with this character? I also think he's like, he's so constrained and tight knit and is playing it sort of like so small and pulled back that you're like, is he doing something accurately that will actually be to the fault of the movie in like pulling back too much? And he just like makes it work well.

[Ben Hosley]

He. He does the thing that the movie does really well, which is like, through specificity, it gets at something that is universal.

[Griffin Newman]

Let's talk about Sebastian Stan. This fucking guy.

[Ben Hosley]

Love that guy.

[Griffin Newman]

Talking about.

[Ben Hosley]

People love that.

[Griffin Newman]

Mayors of Hollywood, right?

[David Sims]

Some people. Sebastian Stan, you guys may or may not know, plays Bucky, AKA the Winter Soldier in the Marvel films right now. Now he's in the Martian. He's in Ricky and the Flash. He's in Itanya. He's in movies where people have said to me, like, well, I liked him in that one. And I've always kind of been like, not me, boy has been my thing.

[Griffin Newman]

Never disliked him, but was just sort of like, he doesn't.

[David Sims]

He was fine.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Like, and then there's other stuff I'm looking at here. Like he's in Destroyer, the Karen Kusama movie. I saw that movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

I did not remember. He's in it.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, he's good in that.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

I don't. I believe you now.

[Ben Hosley]

I am one of those people who you've been bonking away for years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Totally.

[Griffin Newman]

You know the USA original series, Political Animals, Griffin Newman, the NBC.

[Ben Hosley]

I know you were in that one, but the NBC series Kings, two separate shows where he plays the gay scions of political dynasties.

[David Sims]

Kings was one of those, right? Kings was a show where everyone seemed high on goofballs and you were kind of like, I can't believe this exists, and then got canceled. And you were like, of course it did.

[Ben Hosley]

Of course it did. Of course it did. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Bye. Bye.

[Griffin Newman]

This guy's been around for like 20 years, right? Because he was In Gossip Girl and Black Black Swan. He of course, originally tested for Captain America and was one of the finalists. And then they found out he was not USA born.

[David Sims]

Right. He's Romanian.

[Griffin Newman]

And so they were like, we'll give you Bucky as a consolation prize. Right? My big takeaway from this year, besides just him, like, totally coming to his own, proving himself. Two movies that clearly got financed, like, on him, right? Like off his attack.

[David Sims]

You can get a little budget because you have Sebastian. Understand? But those are not big budget movies.

[Griffin Newman]

Now I'm suddenly like, all in on him as a guy. Anything he wants to attach himself to, I think is interesting. These are both like bizarre thunderbolts, baby. Challenging movies. Well, look, honestly, like, I'm like, not immediately excited, but I'm like, if he's in it, I'm suddenly more.

[Ben Hosley]

I have heard from. And I don't even know if this is from reputable whoever.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Like, I have heard that it's like the best of this next crop, which is like, like, you know, that sounds incredible.

[Griffin Newman]

So it's a 3 out of 10.

[Ben Hosley]

Such. It's such faint phrase.

[Griffin Newman]

But, like, I laser targeted David with that one.

[David Sims]

Christ. Have you seen. You still have not done a 40x.

[Griffin Newman]

I have bought tickets to Enter the Brave New World this Saturday.

[David Sims]

His scene in that film is.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, he's in it.

[David Sims]

He shows up for one scene.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[David Sims]

And as people have pointed out online, but it's still insane. Bucky is apparently running for Congress. Bucky, who I believe canonically assassinated JFK.

[Griffin Newman]

He's running for Congress also, like, assassinated T'Challa's dad.

[Ben Hosley]

Right?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Howard Stark. Like, it's like, you couldn't be a famous dad in these movies without Bucky blowing your damn skull open.

[Griffin Newman]

Here's what I want to say about this.

[David Sims]

He's like, I want to represent the good people of Michigan or whatever the fuck he's doing.

[Griffin Newman]

Here's what I want to say about Stan.

[David Sims]

He is his one scene in Brave New World. You're like, God damn. Like, this is more interesting than anything else I'm watching.

[Griffin Newman]

Figured it out. I think he's figured out himself as a performer. He's figured out the kind of material he can get excited about. He brilliantly fucking navigated this award season.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Where it felt like he was going to get double snubbed. He did some of the savviest campaigning.

[David Sims]

He fucking gave his deserved Golden Globe speech for a different man as if he'd won for the Apprentice.

[Ben Hosley]

Right, right.

[David Sims]

Knowing I think that, like, well, that's my Oscar play. So I really should shout it out too. Right.

[Griffin Newman]

You know, but my big line on him is, is he's arguably number 16 on the list of Marvel actors relative to the juice they carry. Right. Like, he's like the 16th most important marvel character at best.

[David Sims]

Sure, yeah. I mean, certainly not top 10. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

If everyone above him was using their juice the way he is right now, we'd live in a much better era for movies.

[Ben Hosley]

He is good in those Marvel movies. Sure. He's always good in that.

[Griffin Newman]

But I'm also like Chris Evans sense not to constantly back on him. He's finally this year, like doing the Cohen Trisha Cook movie.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And the Celine song movie. And I'm like, this is what I'm talking about. Can all you guys do this please also stand revealing that he's been attached this whole time to the Elaine May Dakota Johnson movie that insurance.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Just because Elaine May is 4, 000 years old and is never seen in public.

[Ben Hosley]

It's weird.

[Griffin Newman]

I hear she mostly eats powder. Wait, can I. I'm not joking. I've heard that. That she eats bags full of powder and it's like, I'm gonna live forever powder. It's funny. It's a good bit. Guess what color the powder is.

[David Sims]

I don't know.

[Griffin Newman]

Not normal ones.

[Ben Hosley]

That's what I thought.

[David Sims]

This ain't your normal colored powders. Sebastian said, very good. In a different man. Yeah. Hartnett's my winner.

[Ben Hosley]

Hartnett's very good. Hartnett was on a long list. I want to sort of make my justification for challengers.

[David Sims]

No, I don't think any justification is required. They're obviously the leads.

[Ben Hosley]

They're obviously the leads. I also though, like, Josh O'Connor fucking rules in that.

[Griffin Newman]

This guy's on fire. So I don't watch the crown.

[Ben Hosley]

No, I didn't. I stopped watching the crown before he showed up.

[David Sims]

I I fine in the crown.

[Griffin Newman]

He's good luck mirrors. Embarrassingly one of my biggest blondes.

[David Sims]

Oh, he's so like.

[Griffin Newman]

I feel like there was one other thing he was in that I didn't see. So I've just seen still pictures of this guy and everyone telling me he's like a heartthrob and that he's got.

[David Sims]

Oh, that's interesting. You're going in like, really dry hell.

[Griffin Newman]

How am I going to.

[Ben Hosley]

You know who goes in really dry is Josh O'Connor in God's Own Country.

[David Sims]

That is true.

[Griffin Newman]

Right? That's the other one I hadn't seen.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

So, like, I was Just like, I don't know if I'm buying this Josh O'Connor thing. He walks in two seconds. I'm like, this guy's a movie star. This guy rules.

[Ben Hosley]

This is Challengers is a movie that Emma.

[David Sims]

Did you ever see Emma?

[Griffin Newman]

No.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I've missed, like, all of his.

[Ben Hosley]

He and Calum Turner are both in Emma. And for most of that movie, I kept being like, well, which one is this guy again? Which is no slight against either one of them because I actually think they're both really good in that. Challengers is a movie that gets types of tennis players, and I think they get the tennis dirtbag and the tennis sort of professional really well. I think Feist has been undervalued in this movie because everybody's like, Patrick Zweig Fox.

[Griffin Newman]

Like, his job is to be the unshowy one. His job is to be a little boring.

[Ben Hosley]

Good at that. And I also. And I'm kind of also the person who's like, justice for our Donaldson because he put in the work and he's the best tennis player in the world. And, like, he won all those Grand Slams and he deserves it. So. No, I love him and I've loved him in west side Story. I loved him on stage in Evan Hansen. He plays a great little journalist boy in Bike Riders. I'm all in on fights.

[Griffin Newman]

He's got a good stash. Did you run through all your nominees, Cillian Murphy?

[Ben Hosley]

Small things like these, which haven't seen. I was going to say I'm sort of carry in the banner alone, but, like, that is one of those movies where I watched it and I'm like, this dude just won an Oscar. And I just now saw his best performance the year after. Not no slight at all against his Oppenheimer performance, but he's in a very different type of movie. Very. Like, this is about. He lives next door to one of the Magdalene laundries and sort of takes in this girl who runs away and he has to make this moral decision of, like, am I going to allow this thing to go on by just sort of looking the other way or am I going to, like, you know.

[David Sims]

That'S what it's about.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. And Emily Watson plays, like, the terrifying nun who runs the.

[David Sims]

Doesn't sound like something she could pull off.

[Griffin Newman]

You're currently doing a better job advertising this movie than anyone involved. I'm saying you're making both of us get activated.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. Like, check this movie out. It's rad and he's awesome in it.

[David Sims]

So it was A Lionsgate film. I'm sorry. Bleecker Street. I just need to follow you there. Just kind of felt like a bleaker street.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it's got huge bleaker street. Bse.

[David Sims]

Oh, boy.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, so you finished your five, David.

[David Sims]

I just wanna. I mean, Aaron Pierre start making stuff in Rebel. Original. Nicholas Holt had an amazing year, but I do think, like, I'm always really great Clint performances given how, like, as you said, was I Deutsch. Like, how little they're probably being told to.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Like, we agree on Holt being amazing in that movie, right? Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I also think. Look, I think that is his first successful leading man performance. I think there has always been a divide between when the thing is put on his shoulders and he's sort of being positioned as like, conventional matinee idol. I think he tends to go a little blank. And he's always good playing weasel.

[Ben Hosley]

What are you thinking of in that Giant Slayer?

[Griffin Newman]

I don't find him very compelling in the X Men movies.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, no, I like him in Warm Bodies.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I'm like Renfield and Warm Bodies are getting closer to how to make him work as a leading man, which is like, he needs to be a likable weasel, but he's best as weasels and cucks. That is what he is great at.

[David Sims]

Sorry, Nick. It's true.

[Griffin Newman]

This year was like King Cuck shit for him. Getting cucked by the law. Getting cucked by Nosferatu, and getting, of course, cucked by his cat, Garfield. Lest we forget that Nicholas Holt is the voice of John Arbuckle. The weirdest shit.

[Ben Hosley]

Wait, when you say cucked by the law, do you mean in Juror number two, by the legal system, or do you mean by Jude Law in the order?

[Griffin Newman]

That as well. Good.

[David Sims]

In the order.

[Griffin Newman]

Her. Great call. Yeah. Here's my impression of Nicholas Holt in the Garfield movie. Garfield. What are you doing?

[David Sims]

Sounds good.

[Griffin Newman]

Why did. What? Why is Nicholas Holt.

[David Sims]

Because Illumination is addicted to casting British people as, like, American icons for some reason.

[Griffin Newman]

It's so bizarre.

[David Sims]

Who else do you want to shout out? Griffy Poo.

[Griffin Newman]

I feel like you guys covered all my nominees. My winner is Colman Dominguez. Though I caught up with Sing Sing very late. It was another movie that I was sort of cynically like, yeah, I'm sure it's good. And then I saw it and it is just like it.

[Ben Hosley]

It's the best version of that kind of a movie.

[Griffin Newman]

It avoids all cliches. It is just like, elegantly, intelligently made and told. And in a way, I Was like, I love Colman Domingo. He's a guy that I've like long been like, is this guy quietly the best actor alive?

[Ben Hosley]

I'm glad he got. Got this nomination. After getting the nomination he got last year for Rustin deserving one. I couldn't feel good about that one, period.

[Griffin Newman]

I feel the same way and I.

[Ben Hosley]

Feel great about that.

[Griffin Newman]

I feel great about him being a two time nominee. Like he's in the firmament. It's not a fluke.

[Ben Hosley]

Absolutely.

[Griffin Newman]

But I also think this is like a deceptively difficult role to be the one actor mostly working against these real guys playing themselves and to like not stand out in either direction.

[Ben Hosley]

He's. His character stands out but in a way that I think benefits fits the movie where he's really elegant, this guy. Like he, you see the, you see where he phrase at the edges as the movie goes along. But he's a, he's a really elegant kind of character. Calling him beloved. Like he's, he's quietly is.

[Griffin Newman]

He is quietly kind of this elitist who's like, I'm not like these other guys. Yeah, right.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Like he, he is propping himself up in his own mind as part of the program. I don't belong here. I'm not like them. Look at my empathy in connecting to them. But he thinks he's more like the Paul Racy character who is also incredibly good in this. And then yes, to watch his unwinding in the final 30 minutes of the movie. No spoilers and it goes through multiple arcs. But this guy finally gets pushed to a breaking point and emotionally kind of unravels and he's just phenomenal. He's one of my favorite actors and I think this is the best work I've ever seen him do.

[David Sims]

Very good actor.

[Griffin Newman]

There's a moment I almost was spoiled that I just was devastated by his. His silent reaction shot to it is in his parole meeting. I think you guys can probably guess which line I'm talking about. And they ask him a question and his face in response to it. I literally gasped. He's incredible. David, your winner.

[David Sims]

Josh Hartnett, baby. High wire act. Oh, I love him so much in that movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, I do want to shout out. Nobody mentioned him.

[Griffin Newman]

You said your winner was.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, my winner is Justice Smith. Smith.

[David Sims]

That's another great look.

[Griffin Newman]

Great performance. I love. We're spreading the wild. Good work here tonight.

[Ben Hosley]

I almost nominated Magaro for September 5th because I really, really. I'm just a Magaro fan.

[Griffin Newman]

Still haven't seen it. I saw someone on the Reddit say recently that they genuinely thought it was me until the end credits.

[David Sims]

Or like 9-6- out of 10.

[Ben Hosley]

You know, that's.

[Griffin Newman]

I. David over the shoulder from behind, shattered the backboard.

[David Sims]

I just thought that movie was okay.

[Ben Hosley]

And then. Have either of you seen Woman of the Hour? The Kendrick.

[Griffin Newman]

I have not. Was busy that day.

[David Sims]

I was busy that day. And the subsequent for me.

[Griffin Newman]

Rude.

[Ben Hosley]

This. No, I understand the reticence to it. It's so much better than you think it's going to be. And the guy who plays the killer in that movie, Daniel Savato, is terrifying. He's like having like Denafrio.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm very pro. Yeah, he was in the rowboat with me in the Chiller original Beneath. We were fighting that killer puppet fish.

[Ben Hosley]

But he's also in station 11. He's the grows up to be the cult leader in Station 11.

[David Sims]

Never watching Station 11.

[Griffin Newman]

He's really good.

[David Sims]

Apparently.

[Griffin Newman]

He's an excellent actor.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, I like him a lot.

[David Sims]

See what else he's doing follows. He's using Ladybird, apparently.

[Griffin Newman]

Original.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, yeah. He's the guy who's. He's Jonah Ruiz. He's the band that.

[David Sims]

I think he's kind of the off lead in the Pope's Exorcist anyway, which I saw.

[Griffin Newman]

He breaks an ore in half and tries to grab the fish.

[Ben Hosley]

Watch Women of the Hour. If you haven't. I'm gonna convince these guys. We'll.

[David Sims]

Sassy little nobody.

[Griffin Newman]

Sassy little nobody. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Yeah. Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Back to the blankies after these messages. David.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Elevating my style used to mean breaking the bank.

[David Sims]

Your hands are in the air.

[Griffin Newman]

The bank was broken.

[David Sims]

But.

[Griffin Newman]

But with Quint, I get high end, versatile pieces at prices I can actually afford. Now I can upgrade my style by snagging killer luxury essentials that sync with my vibe and my wallet. David, you love quints.

[David Sims]

I do. I'm probably wearing some right now. I'm a big fan of their must haves. Iconic 100% leather jackets, versatile flow knit activewear. And the best part is all Items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands because they cut out the cost of the Millman by partnering directly with top factories. And you get those same savings passed to you.

[Griffin Newman]

Bank Unbroken Bank.

[David Sims]

Bank fixed. Bank has big band aid on it.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

Like big oversight.

[Griffin Newman]

Bank has a thermometer in its mouth that the thermometer is low. Low. And the bank is smiling. Yes, we're on the same page here. Look. Quints only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible Manufacturing practices along with premium fabrics and finishes. I love that. And that has the bench bank in a real calm peace of mind. You know what I'm saying? The bank. Looks like the bank's giving a thumbs up.

[David Sims]

Yes, I've got sweaters. They're all very affordable. They come very fast, they fit very well. And look, you can indulge in affordable luxury. If you go to quints.com check for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com check to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com check.

[Griffin Newman]

I like the sound of that. That's the bank.

[David Sims]

Oh, banks. Bank.

[Griffin Newman]

Maybe he comes back in another ad.

[David Sims]

We'll see.

[Griffin Newman]

We're back, baby. It's the blankies.

[David Sims]

Best Actress. Best Actress. My best actor winner last year was Jason Schwartzman in Asteroid Shitty City.

[Griffin Newman]

Jesus.

[David Sims]

Shot by Dick Poop, I guess. Rip, we can still make that job, right?

[Griffin Newman]

I'm sorry. We are. Come on.

[David Sims]

Schwarzman had another great year. Between the Temples.

[Ben Hosley]

Great.

[David Sims]

I really enjoyed his crazy work in Queer.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm gonna put a pin in that because I have a bespoke notice for him. Yeah.

[David Sims]

What was another. I feel like he had another thing this year that.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, megalopolis. He.

[David Sims]

Hey, man, he was there. He was there along with everyone else.

[Griffin Newman]

He did the pre recorded audience. He did the little someone stands up to do.

[David Sims]

Yep. My nominees for best actress.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, can I just call it two best actor also rans very quickly. Ethan Harisi and Nickel Boys.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I mean, those guys are both amazing.

[Griffin Newman]

And it's, you know, a little tough because by the nature of the performance, he's not on screen that much, which is maybe the only reason I cut him. But I think he is so impactful, especially when we wait so long to see his face. And the moments he has has to like, like sell you on the idea of the ripple effects of this guy's presence over decades. Not to spoil anything in the film, kind of knocked me away. Isaac Yang. Indeed. A movie I liked quite a bit. And I was like, oh, this is like a good. Got a teenager and gave him a natural awkward performance. And then I dug in. This guy's a chameleon. I keep forgetting this is the same kid, but he's good in everything. He's in Walt Becker's Clifford the Big Red Dog. He is in Good Boys where he plays the cool kid.

[David Sims]

Yes, yes.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, correct. He was the best voice in Ryan the Last Dragon. He's just like a really, really good young actor who I'm very excited by every time he shows up.

[David Sims]

Apparently, he was in the Santa Clauses.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, I haven't seen it. Okay. Wouldn't know.

[David Sims]

Nah. My nominees for best actress, Marianne Jean Baptiste for Hartree Truths. Mikey Madison for Anora. Julianne Nicholson for Janet Planet Ilinka Manolake. I have no idea if I pronounced her name right. For do not expect too much from the end of the world. And I gotta give it to her. Naomi Scott for Smile too.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, my God, I almost did. Naomi Scott.

[David Sims]

Wonderful performance.

[Ben Hosley]

Great nomination.

[David Sims]

Wonderful performance. She will never be Smile or Awards.

[Ben Hosley]

List is such a jump up from Smile. It's amazing.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

I mean, for me, it was a jump up from like a two and a half to a three, but I thought she was really good. I could not believe how there are.

[Ben Hosley]

Sequences in that movie.

[David Sims]

There's a bunch of, like.

[Ben Hosley]

There's some real good.

[David Sims]

There's a lot, though, of where she thinks she's like, why are you smiling at me weird? And then everyone's like, what are you talking about? And then they do that 18 more. And then every time she had me on the hook.

[Ben Hosley]

One of my main complaints about the first smile was that there wasn't enough smiling. Like, there weren't enough moments of, like.

[Griffin Newman]

The smile Fact actor.

[Ben Hosley]

Like, there's a lot of smiles.

[Griffin Newman]

That's pretty good style.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Best actress, Joe.

[Ben Hosley]

All right. I have Marianne John Baptiste in Hard Truths. I have Demi Moore in the Substance. I have Hunter Schaefer in Cuckoo. I have June Squib in Thelma. And I have Fernanda Torres. And I'm still here.

[David Sims]

I'm still here. Little loopy.

[Griffin Newman]

I will admit that, like, Cuckoo just missed me entirely.

[David Sims]

I did not care for.

[Griffin Newman]

I just, like, did not get it. I like Hunter Schaefer a lot.

[Ben Hosley]

I think Hunter Schaefer. I like Hunter Schaefer better than I like the movie, but I like the movie pretty well.

[David Sims]

I liked Hunter Schaefer in that movie. I also thought the movie looked good. I just thought it was stupid. I hate to say this.

[Ben Hosley]

No, it is again, though, a movie with two or three really, really rad sequences, one of which is unfortunately given away in the trailer. But I think just she does not only the final girl thing, but also has really amazing sister energy.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I give out an award on behalf of Ben? Or maybe it's in tribute to Ben.

[David Sims]

I'm sure Ben will have his own awards.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I give Dan Stevens the DAF performance, the DFA award, the Dang ass freak. Award for performances most like directly targeting Ben Hosley.

[David Sims]

Dan Stevens is a German, you know, fully German. Like, well, whatever the he is collected awards. And then as like a Godzilla dance. Fantastic Godzilla X Kong.

[Griffin Newman]

And then an Abigail, a sleaze bag.

[David Sims]

And like, hey, I'm from the Bronx.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

What's the matter with you?

[Ben Hosley]

On his side, Dan Stevens and Melissa Barrera carry that movie on their shoulders. That is not a movie I liked.

[Griffin Newman]

But Catherine Newton I think is really good. I think everyone's good in it.

[David Sims]

Yeah, everyone's good.

[Griffin Newman]

I just frustrated by that movie. Ben, am I correct in thinking you saw zero of those three movies?

[Ben Hosley]

Correct.

[Griffin Newman]

Those are three performances of Dan Stevens yelling and waving his arms and going, ben, pay attention. I'm your favorite actor.

[Joe Reed]

Well, you know what? He's on my radar, so I'll have to check out his.

[Griffin Newman]

All three of those movies don't work for me. But what he's doing in them, you'd be into.

[David Sims]

It's just like if you saw that guy in Downton Abbey, you know, 15 years ago, going like, oh, well, I sure hope that I get to be part of Downton Abbey. And I was like, yeah, this guy plays like a Bronx cop who fights Dracula's daughter.

[Ben Hosley]

This is why.

[David Sims]

The same year that he pulls Kong's tooth.

[Ben Hosley]

And he's also a very important and.

[David Sims]

Impactful movie because that movie is, and I will say this with respect, pornography. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

My best actress nominees.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

And I'm wiping my glasses here because for this lineup, I could mistake it for Tuesday night at the Olive Garden.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, oh, oh.

[Griffin Newman]

If you catch my address to Dinners Galore, Best Actress Zendaya. And challengers, Saoirse Ronin in the Outrun. Daisy Ridley. And sometimes I think about dying. I'm front loading the three pasta dinners, but here are two more pasta dinners coming. June Squibb and Thelma, Marion John Baptiste and Hard Truth. My winner is Marion John Baptist for Hard Truths. Oh.

[Ben Hosley]

I mean, yeah, we're unified in that.

[Griffin Newman]

That felt like a mortal luck for all three of us.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

That's the performance of the year.

[Ben Hosley]

It is. Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

The most egregious snob.

[Ben Hosley]

It was a performance that was so much the best performance of the year that it almost got nominated at a way that, like. Well, of course nobody's gonna like. She's so, like, she's so. She's pushing you away so hard.

[Griffin Newman]

Flooring.

[Ben Hosley]

And it's like, of course there's people voting for awards aren't gonna do this. But, like, they almost did. They Came pretty close, I feel like. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. And with that thing getting like a very limited, very late release from a smaller distributor, it was fighting a lot of uphill battles and I thought the work was so undeniable that it was gonna punch through. But yeah, it's. I mean, it's incredible.

[David Sims]

It is. It's the most incredible screen performance of the year. I'm realizing I probably should have nominated Zendaya, but I gotta give it to.

[Griffin Newman]

I put her in there. Yeah, No, I. I saw that the TV glow.

[David Sims]

Oh, I'm sorry. Your actor winner, by the way, was Killian Murphy. And yours was Koji Yakshuko. Yaku. Yakusho. Yakusho for Perfect Day, who is yours?

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Jason Schwartzman, baby.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, it is. It did not get a very wide release. I feel like a lot of people didn't get the opportunity to see it with a crowd. It was kind of fascinating to watch how much of that movie successfully plays as a comedy where you, like, watch it and you're like, where is this going? At first? You're like, am I really going to spend the whole movie with this woman acting like this the whole time? Isn't this going to get exhausting?

[Ben Hosley]

The biggest out loud laugh reaction I've heard, I heard in a movie this year was the what's a baby need.

[Griffin Newman]

Pockets for the middle chunk of that movie. It's like everything she's saying is like fucking Bernie Mac Def Jam. Like, just like three point shots, right? And then it makes it all the more astonishing when the bottom can totally fall out in the last act and, like, really make you kind of like interrogate this person, how she ended up like this. And I, I think it's really smart about, like, the answers it provides and the clues it gives and the things it leaves unexplained and.

[David Sims]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the way that, you know, way Lee works, the creative process. Exactly. You know, the actors are very. Have big stakes in the story being told.

[Griffin Newman]

But it's a performance that shouldn't work.

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

You're like, it should be repetitive. It should be alienating.

[David Sims]

It is kind of crazy that you're right. Like, you're never like, I get it, I get it. She's mentally ill and really, really difficult to be around.

[Griffin Newman]

It is a performance that should make the audience act the way David acts when episodes have hit three hours where he's yelling like, basta. Enough. Basta. Yeah.

[David Sims]

David just checked the clock, Mikey. Oh, I love to check the clock.

[Griffin Newman]

We're doing good on.

[David Sims]

I. I gave Mikey the nod, obviously, she's the breakout star of the year and she's got Oscar noms and she won a BAFTA.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

It's funny that that's the one the BAFTAs were like, oh, we don't care for Nora much. Except for you, Mikey.

[Griffin Newman]

You were making a prediction right before air. Do you want to say it here or do you want to save it for about episode?

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, no, I'll. I'll make it here. My thing. Well, well, this awards season has been so goofy. So with the obviously bottom falling out of Amelia Perez.

[David Sims]

Unsurprisingly goofy, given that there never was the movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Correct.

[David Sims]

Right. Like, so it is a movie where the buzz just ping pongs.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I say one thing about the Amelia Perez bottoming out?

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

This same kind of thing.

[David Sims]

Do you think it has to do with those tweets that lady sent?

[Griffin Newman]

Not as extreme, but this is the exact same point that Green Book was at in the arc before it then won Best Picture.

[David Sims]

But nothing like that happened.

[Griffin Newman]

Nick Greenwood, Longa had the fucking tweet where he said, I saw Muslims cheering.

[David Sims]

One tweet.

[Griffin Newman]

I agree.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

I said was posted.

[David Sims]

It was one of those things where like, is there something she didn't post about?

[Griffin Newman]

No, everything I said, not the same scale. But I went back and read some of the articles, post the Val along the tweet and people being like, I guess that's it. Green Book's done.

[Ben Hosley]

No.

[Griffin Newman]

And people forget that. Also, Mahershala Ali, who later went on to win Best supporting Actor at one point issued a press release basically apologizing for being in the movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Zoe Saldana didn't do that. But she also has been, like, very skillful about, like, distancing herself. Here's the thing about Green Perez does.

[Griffin Newman]

Not green book times 10.

[Ben Hosley]

There was also a weirdly like 2024 election esque, like, thing with Green Book where people were like, I'm gonna silently push back against people.

[David Sims]

Like, I enjoyed it. Stop telling me I can't enjoy that.

[Ben Hosley]

That's exactly that was. And I don't think you' that with.

[David Sims]

Emilia Perez has always had a more polarized, like, fan base or whatever. Like, there's some people who just love it.

[Griffin Newman]

I just refuse to believe it's 100% dead.

[David Sims]

Oh, I think it's dead.

[Griffin Newman]

The way you feel about John Wick, where you're like, they're going to bring him back to life.

[David Sims]

See that body cut into pieces and spread around the earth before I'm like, he's dead. They had him What? Sit on some stairs. I'm like, he's alive. I don't care.

[Griffin Newman]

Fade to white.

[David Sims]

Yeah, exactly.

[Ben Hosley]

But so the. The state of the race currently is Anora wins PGA and dga and everybody's like, done.

[David Sims]

And the critics choice.

[Ben Hosley]

And the critics choice. Well, nothing could be more important than the critics.

[David Sims]

But it was somewhat surprising because it was similarly kind of like it didn't win anything else.

[Griffin Newman]

It literally won best Picture.

[Ben Hosley]

Kyle Buchanan tweeted, or whatever. Blue, blue skied. Is Anora ever gonna win anything at one of these televised awards? Minutes before it won best Picture. And I literally, like Kyle turned around this entire Oscar season with every category.

[Griffin Newman]

It just felt weird.

[David Sims]

And I went on Katie's podcast. It was like, it's too good a mov to win best Picture. It's just not going to happen too early. Exactly. It was kind of the first one. Right. And so that hurt.

[Griffin Newman]

It's like weird that it's winning zero precursors and then suddenly it starts winning everything.

[Ben Hosley]

And it's only got a handful of nominations. So my thing that I want to get on, but it got more than.

[David Sims]

I thought it might like. It got that Boris.

[Griffin Newman]

Did get that Boris thing on my. Because then I'm going to put out the counter. And I think this is an interesting thing to pin at this moment in time.

[Ben Hosley]

I'm saying there is a non zero chance and like, I'm putting it out there that I think it is possible that Anora does a grand hotel of winning best Picture and nothing else.

[Griffin Newman]

I. Last night was like, that idea hit me and I was like, I could see that happening.

[Ben Hosley]

I could see Courbet getting director. I could see Demi getting actress. I could see anything else getting editing. I think editing is totally up for grabs.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. And I could see real pain getting screenplay.

[David Sims]

Yes, me too.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, real pain got the BAFTA for screenplay.

[David Sims]

I. Yeah, I think it'll end up.

[Ben Hosley]

With the most likely scenario, but I think it is. No, it could happen.

[Griffin Newman]

What's interesting is Fenasey on a recent big picture called out that Sean Baker stands to be the single person to win the most Oscars in one night for one movie.

[David Sims]

Sure. Right.

[Ben Hosley]

He could win for picture director, screenplay, editing.

[Griffin Newman]

Screenplay and editing.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[David Sims]

C had this chance. You know, it's happened like a couple times. It's when you edit your own movie. You know, Cameron won three Oscars for Titanic. He didn't win screenplay, obviously.

[Griffin Newman]

Right. And like the only sort of asterisks, Disney won four. And one night for different films doesn't count.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And bong. There's the international award that doesn't technically go to him, but he accepted four times on stage. Right. I could see Baker winning all four. And I could see Anora only winning Best Picture. And I could see it. We're winning. Zero.

[Ben Hosley]

Equally likely.

[David Sims]

Yeah, right?

[Griffin Newman]

It's like, it feels so random right now. I would. I'm betting on some flip of. Of a Nora and brutalist for picture and director, but it does feel like it could go any of those ways.

[Ben Hosley]

Speaking of the Oscars, I have current best actress front runner Demi Moore in the Substance.

[Griffin Newman]

That's your winner.

[Ben Hosley]

I don't know how either one of you guys feel about the Substance. Am I like, on treacherous ground Substance?

[Griffin Newman]

No, no. I love the substance. Here's the thing. I'm like, that's a movie I would have nominated in, like, six categories. And then when the Oscars went 40, it didn't make me like, like. Well, it's obvious now, but I was just like, cool, I can open up space for something else. Yeah, Yeah, I. I know that movie totally works for me.

[David Sims]

And I think she's very good. And I know you love to me.

[Ben Hosley]

I do love to me. I've been doing this little side podcast on. To me, it. The funny thing about it is I'm not doing this podcast because she's like, my favorite actress. She's just so 90s coded that, like. And that's a period of filmmaking that I love thinking about and talking about.

[Griffin Newman]

I just remembered I wanted to do a song parody of Just Dance for Subs. Dance.

[Ben Hosley]

It's going to be okay, Griffin. It's going to be okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Green goo into your spine. Substance.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, you're doing Bowie and I was doing Gaga.

[David Sims]

Sorry.

[Griffin Newman]

Sure do either one.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, but I think she's really fantastic in that movie. I love that she's giving an awards narrative when she never, even when she was at the height of her popularity, was never an awards actress.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I also think, like, all of the kind of, like, I say this lovingly, but the, like, mad TV aspects of the performance, I'm just like, I never knew she had this in her. I never knew she could do, like, Grand Guignol. She gets to play so many different phases of the character. And then on the opposite end of that, just like her standing in the mirror wiping the makeup away is probably why she's gonna win the Oscar. It is so sticky. And it is just an actor tapping into a moment that feels so poignant, resonant, and is done wordlessly that there's just such range in that performance from an actor who I've always kind of liked, but I've never seen her do either of those extremes before.

[Ben Hosley]

I agree. I agree. I'm gonna reach across our divide and say thank you for doing Thelma. Well, thank you for doing June Scribbin, June Squib and Thelma.

[David Sims]

Hey.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, she rules in that movie. And that movie. Is I charming?

[Ben Hosley]

It's so charming.

[Griffin Newman]

It's so charming.

[Ben Hosley]

It's the most charming movie. Incredibly Charm came very close to putting Fred Hessinger on my supporting actor. Incredibly. Do love him. Is it heckinger?

[Griffin Newman]

It is. All right. And Brown Tree also. Rip.

[David Sims]

Great performance.

[Ben Hosley]

So good in that movie. Oh, my God. Parker Posey's really funny in that movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. There was. I'm gonna say this. There's maybe half a second and it got foiled by scheduling where I was gonna play Malcolm McDowell's grandson in that movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Really?

[Griffin Newman]

And I was just like, I just kind of can't make it work.

[David Sims]

Work.

[Griffin Newman]

It was like right around the same time I did the movie Turn me On. Now available on pvod. Directed by Michael. That's the only reason I wasn't in Thelma. Basically.

[David Sims]

A much bigger role is.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. But when I saw the movie, my biggest regret was that was my one opportunity to get punched in the face by Richard Rousey. Rip. Unless I build a time machine.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Yeah. I didn't get set up Shaft in Africa or something.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. I'd be really good on that set. You know what that movie needed? More white guys in position of power. Didn't like John Gman direct.

[David Sims]

That I remember.

[Griffin Newman]

Directed by a white British man.

[David Sims]

Whatever the blankies picks for lead performance, I'll go from 10 to 1. Colman Domingo. RAF finds Conclave Marianne Jean Baptiste, Joshy Hartnett, Zendaya Challengers. Justice Smith.

[Griffin Newman]

People forget that her last name is Challengers. Go on.

[David Sims]

Sebastian Stan. Adrian Brody and the Brutalist. A performance I really like.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, he's great in that movie.

[David Sims]

We. I think none of us actually mentioned him.

[Griffin Newman]

Nope.

[David Sims]

Demi Moore in the substance. Mikey Madison and Nora is the winner. Ah, she's great.

[Griffin Newman]

The blankies loving on Janou.

[David Sims]

Do the Oscars. Maybe she'll win.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Well, except this year they didn't love Angenuel as Taylor, which honestly they up.

[David Sims]

Now, before we get to picture directors. Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Some bespoke folks.

[David Sims]

What are some other things we want to shout out?

[Griffin Newman]

Well, you called out right before we started recording.

[Ben Hosley]

Put you in a panic.

[Griffin Newman]

Hard to pin down a putters and murmurs.

[David Sims]

I Have one.

[Griffin Newman]

I have one too. I, I looked at the list while we were recording and I was like, wait a second. Why didn't this jump out to me immediately?

[David Sims]

What's yours?

[Griffin Newman]

Hiding in plain sight. Timothy Chalamet as Robert Zimmerman in a complete unknown. If. If Bob Dillon himself is not the king of puttering and murmuring. I mean, and if Chalamet did not invoke him, it. Well, then, then what are we even doing here?

[David Sims]

Hey, Woody.

[Ben Hosley]

I was very. I was very proud of Timothy's work.

[David Sims]

I'd like to light year to your. Woody says that in the movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Who's your putter and murmur winner?

[David Sims]

Bill Camp and driveway doll.

[Griffin Newman]

I think I've given Camp a p and M before.

[David Sims]

Of course, the man is practically guaranteed a every year, but he is so. I mean, for one Bill Camp not getting famous earlier, he deprived us of him being in a lot of Coen brothers movies. Like, he would have been really good in pretty much any Coen brothers movie that ever exists.

[Ben Hosley]

I made this point on vulture Slack yesterday. In fact, like literally yesterday. You know, nominative determinism, the thing that like your name determines your personality. He's the opposite of that.

[Griffin Newman]

He's the least campy.

[Ben Hosley]

He's the least campy person in movies.

[Griffin Newman]

That's a great take just to show.

[David Sims]

He plays Curly, the owner of the driveway. You know. Have you guys seen driveway draws?

[Griffin Newman]

I did.

[Ben Hosley]

I did not really care for driveway away dolls, but Bill camp is great.

[David Sims]

I both stan driveway dolls and love his two scenes. One where he's with the girls and then after. Right. He says won't somebody save Curly? Is his line.

[Griffin Newman]

Coleman's also great in that.

[David Sims]

He is very funny.

[Griffin Newman]

I, I considered both of the female leads in that movie.

[David Sims]

I really love Geraldine. Margaret Qually is dropping jars of mustard swings.

[Griffin Newman]

But it works. Is a lot of.

[David Sims]

She's got a cricket bat. Yeah, that's. That's the kind of swing she's taken. She, I, I, I. You know what?

[Griffin Newman]

She's got like a kid's plastic hollow like big slugger bat.

[David Sims]

She's having fun.

[Griffin Newman]

She is.

[David Sims]

Who else though? Putters and murmurs or putters and murmurs.

[Ben Hosley]

I have as I tend to do sort of a, a, a lead up. I think you could plausibly say that monstro. Elisa sue in is a putter and Merritt. She's, she's.

[Griffin Newman]

Is that not more of a. A Sputters and bleeder.

[Ben Hosley]

Sputters and bleeders. She becomes sputters and bleeders 100. I also thought you could do A thing where you combine Sebastian Stan in the first act of a Different man and justice in the last act of I saw the tv.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Into a little combined.

[Griffin Newman]

None of these are your winner. This is all.

[Ben Hosley]

No. This is all.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Leo Harvey Eldridge Ellage as Liam Gallagher in Better Man. Slurs and sneers.

[Griffin Newman]

Here's the better man. Watching that movie as someone who is not deeply entrenched in British pop. That's like the most shocking twist I've ever.

[Ben Hosley]

No, that was news to me is I knew that they hated each other, but I didn't know that it was like, over the.

[Griffin Newman]

I think Better man works better if you don't know any of it.

[Ben Hosley]

Kind of.

[David Sims]

I'm pro Robbie in that fight.

[Ben Hosley]

Isabella Rossellinian Conclave copies and curtsies.

[David Sims]

What a great curtsy.

[Griffin Newman]

Look. I was like, she's almost a putters and mermaid.

[Ben Hosley]

There's something there.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. Because she takes a long time to speak up.

[Ben Hosley]

June Squibbin and Thelma Snazzies and jazzies. They're on their little jazzies. I had Todd Phillips in Joker follow you do. Just puttering his way through that movie making.

[David Sims]

Murmured most of his direction.

[Ben Hosley]

Murmured most of his direction. Just absolutely. Just zero effort. My pick is Dave Bautista in the Last Showgirl.

[David Sims]

And when he putters and murmurs. It's Good. Blade Runner 2049. Good.

[Griffin Newman]

I have not seen it yet. I will watch it before SAG voting this weekend because of course it's been nominated for two. That is the one reason I'm looking forward to watching.

[Ben Hosley]

He's the best part.

[Griffin Newman]

Not to be rude.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

And I'm all here for the Pam revival campaign. Very excited for her being a naked gun. But Batista in a drama. I love to see it.

[David Sims]

There's an obvious winner, but it's in a film I guess neither of you saw because I think a lot of people did not see it. Anthony Hopkins in One Life.

[Ben Hosley]

One Life's a good movie.

[David Sims]

The James Hawes true story movie. It's a. It is a good movie. It's a great example of that kind of movie. Like.

[Griffin Newman]

Correct. That we didn't see it.

[David Sims]

Right. This is a movie about. This is a movie about, like a real guy who did a thing, you know, that's. That's, you know, interesting to think about and important to honor. But also the first 20 minutes of that movie is hoping. Where I put that mail.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

When are we going to flashback to the young guy who plays me?

[Griffin Newman]

Your letterbox of this movie really stuck out to me very much.

[Ben Hosley]

The classic original Griffey Newms definition of putters and rumors.

[David Sims]

No, that's what I'm saying.

[Ben Hosley]

It's actually straight down the line.

[David Sims]

My letterbox was. Sorry, but if you have Anthony Hopkins in a slow moving English drama that builds to a quiet but devastating emotional climax, I'm gonna like it.

[Ben Hosley]

It's exactly right. You're exactly right, David.

[David Sims]

Yeah, that's. That is sort of the, you know, Samuel L. Jackson in the Piano Lesson is a Putters and mermaids.

[Griffin Newman]

It's the other thing I need to watch before SAG vote.

[Ben Hosley]

And I liked that movie.

[David Sims]

I. I liked it better on Broadway.

[Griffin Newman]

Talk about a movie that just like evaporated in the race. If you're Netflix, it's really Get Lost.

[David Sims]

I know, but he is kind of right. You know, he's playing. I think a lot of people are surprised by that performance. Assuming, oh, Samuel Jackson in August Wilson, is he gonna have like tons of crazy loud monologues?

[Ben Hosley]

He was. He was.

[David Sims]

He's good.

[Ben Hosley]

He might have. Don't. I don't think he won the Tony, but he's definitely nominated for the Tony.

[David Sims]

But he's really good. But other bespoke awards.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, here's some other bespokes.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Best Godzilla.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Of 2024, I'm giving to bisexual lighting OIC Godzilla and Godzilla x Kong.

[David Sims]

I'm going to give it to Marianne, John Baptist and Hard Truth.

[Griffin Newman]

Biggest mistake of last year's awards, I'm going to give to forgetting to do the best Godzilla category in the year that Godzilla -1 came out. Biggest mistake of this year's awards, I'm going to give to making the Bisexual Lighting oic Godzilla and Godzilla versus kongju joke. This is kind of an easy joke. It's very dumb. Have you guys seen that movie, Best Power?

[Ben Hosley]

I haven't, no. I, you know, I think I maybe saw the end of it on tv.

[Griffin Newman]

Godzilla gets all like, pink and blue instead. Oh, yeah, yeah. Anyway, my Sergeant Shroom award, named after Vin Diesel's performance in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. It is performance that I most wanted to give a nomination to and I can't quite sell it now. Usually it's more of a. Like, there's just nothing in there, sight unseen. I wanted to believe in it. This is someone where I'm like, the performance is really good. If I'd put it in and not included Adrien Brody, who I'm already snubbing from, my five people would have asked for my head on a pike. Given to Michael Keaton and Goodrich.

[David Sims]

But a good performance.

[Griffin Newman]

This is the thing. It's genuinely a good performance. Me putting it in the five would have been overselling it a little. Best airplane movie. As in movie to watch on an airplane. Airplane. Giving that to Goodrich. Goodrich 2 wins one year.

[Ben Hosley]

I gotta see that movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Best performance by Megalon in a supporting role. I'm giving it to Megalopolis.

[Ben Hosley]

There's nobody in Transformers one called Megalon.

[Griffin Newman]

It's funny that Megalon is just kind of a thing in that one. Yeah.

[David Sims]

What do you mean? It's how they make buildings and stuff.

[Griffin Newman]

That's not the main thing.

[Ben Hosley]

How they heal skin.

[Griffin Newman]

It's just one of the many things that movie is throwing out Megalon in a supporting role. Best thriller where the villain is time. Saturday night. I don't know if you know this. That movie's not a comedy. It's a thriller where the villain is time. And most destructive movie. It ends with us.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, not just like it ends.

[Griffin Newman]

Everyone.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, that's true.

[Griffin Newman]

Everyone who saw that movie in theaters.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. Turned.

[Griffin Newman]

It had like a curse upon their family. I heard that Lauren is going to fire Jenny Slate again.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. I have a couple bespokes. I don't want to step on Ben's toes at all.

[Griffin Newman]

The bespokes.

[Ben Hosley]

The Bespokies. Best conveyance of information by an object in a film which is a little busy, but hang with me. The flyers for Horizon in Horizon and American Saga Part 1. The photocopies in conclave. The portrait of Bill Clinton in Long Legs which tells you exactly when this movie is taking place. It is taking place when Bill Clinton is president. It does get bigger every time they cut back to it.

[Joe Reed]

I believe.

[Ben Hosley]

I firmly believe, obviously. The notes app in Hitman.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I just call a shot quickly off of what you said that I want to pin? Praying that it gets a qualifying release. Ribisi might have next year's putters and murmurs in the bag. The Horizon part.

[Ben Hosley]

The thing I'm most excited for in Horizon 2 is Rubisi. To find out what Ribisi is going to do.

[Griffin Newman]

Here's a spoiler. You're not going to find out a lot.

[Ben Hosley]

It's the.

[Griffin Newman]

He is not on screen much, but most of it is puttering and murmuring.

[Ben Hosley]

It's the little Yakuza boss in that Simpsons episode where the Japanese mafia comes after Marge Simpson and her pretzel wax dragon is. You just want to see what he's going to do.

[Griffin Newman]

I would.

[Ben Hosley]

You know, it's going to be good.

[Griffin Newman]

I would have been so angry at how little he has to do in the movie if the end didn't stick the landing so hard.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay, I'm. You seem genuinely enthused. Horizon 2.

[Griffin Newman]

Thrilled by like watching it and just immediately being like slot machine payoff. Like, it's like the movie starts and at like minute two.

[David Sims]

Can we please not do this? Come on, let's stop talking about. No one has seen that. That didn't come out.

[Griffin Newman]

This will it into release.

[David Sims]

It'll come out. Don't worry.

[Ben Hosley]

My fifth nominee and best conveyance of information by an object in a film is obviously the tennis ball against the neck of the racket. And challengers.

[David Sims]

A neck movie. Best necks.

[Ben Hosley]

Challengers. Very good.

[Griffin Newman]

That's a great example of. People like to think that screenwriting is about dialogue. That is a screenwriting decision that is like beautiful, like structure and setup and payoff.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. That whole last match is no dialogue. And it's perfect.

[Griffin Newman]

When he did that move at the end of the film in a close.

[Ben Hosley]

Up and you know he's going to.

[Griffin Newman]

Do it, the crowd I saw it with burst into applause. And it was the most established reaction I had in a movie theater last year where all of us were responding to like, good. Like, nothing thrills me more than when a movie can build its sort of like its obstacle course so perfectly that at the end, one single image can mean 20,000 things without any words.

[Ben Hosley]

Yep, yep.

[Griffin Newman]

And we just all know it.

[Ben Hosley]

Almost as if Challengers was a great movie and its director should have stood by it more. And it's award season.

[David Sims]

Luca is a really normal and not ornery guy who makes normal decisions.

[Griffin Newman]

And also, to be fair, in his defense, he could only stay above water on ground for so long before he was gonna get caught.

[David Sims]

Why are you in a bike race?

[Griffin Newman]

He couldn't campaign for two movies and also check in with his fish parents.

[Ben Hosley]

True.

[David Sims]

With my Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan. There you go.

[Griffin Newman]

The most Italian sea monsters.

[Ben Hosley]

Good movie.

[Griffin Newman]

That movie rolls. My other for cool kids.

[Ben Hosley]

My other bespoke category is best performance.

[Griffin Newman]

Wait, who's the winner in that category?

[Ben Hosley]

Sorry. My winner in that category.

[David Sims]

It's a tennis ball.

[Griffin Newman]

The tennis ball.

[Ben Hosley]

It's the tennis ball. It's perfect. Which is kind of a huge upset. Cuz like, no, I did not think anything was beating notes app after I saw.

[Griffin Newman]

But this is, by the way, good category. I think that one's a perennial note.

[Ben Hosley]

Thank you. Best performance by an actor of another actor. Austin Butler playing Stellan Skarsgard in Dune Part 2.

[Griffin Newman]

Pretty good.

[Ben Hosley]

Nicholas Podani is the guy's name as Billy Crystal in Saturday Night.

[Griffin Newman]

I. I went to see this film.

[Ben Hosley]

It's such subtly accurate portrayal.

[Griffin Newman]

That movie is quietly a thriller in the villainous times.

[Ben Hosley]

What?

[Griffin Newman]

But it's my favorite secretly a western of this year. I hear he comes a lot of.

[David Sims]

People playing famous people movies.

[Griffin Newman]

He comes on screen, says two words and I went like, holy. Like I was.

[David Sims]

I can't believe he's nailing young not famous crystals.

[Griffin Newman]

In real time. Like I've never heard anyone do a crystal.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[David Sims]

I guess.

[Ben Hosley]

Right.

[David Sims]

Well, I hear someone do it at.

[Griffin Newman]

The top of blankies, but this is what I'm saying. Like, that's what I'm expecting. I'm like some guy's going to come on and be like. Like Sully.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Mickey Mantle.

[Griffin Newman]

He is like stunning. He's great.

[Ben Hosley]

He's great. I love him. Aaron Taylor Johnson doing.

[Griffin Newman]

By the way, that's become the new guy who beats me out for every role I want. He's a great actor.

[David Sims]

He's good.

[Ben Hosley]

Aaron Taylor Johnson is Matthew McConaughey in the fall Guy. Endlessly amusing, I thought it was.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Talk about another guy who needs to not be a leading man.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, he's so great when he like shows up at a like pinch hitter kind of a.

[David Sims]

Did you like him in Nosferatu? I did like him in the Better this Nosferatu nonsense.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes.

[David Sims]

I hate this.

[Griffin Newman]

You know what I didn't like him in? Craving the Hunter.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I have haven't seen that one.

[Griffin Newman]

You should go, Hunter.

[David Sims]

I tried. I tried to. I was texting showtimes to Alex Perry as they dwindled as they pulled them from the like 10:40am or bus. And then he was just busy and then that was that.

[Griffin Newman]

I was going to go with a crew to see it in 40x and we all got a head cold and all canceled. Like 10 of us had bought tickets.

[Ben Hosley]

And you would have been the only. Only box office for that movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Yes. And then it was gone the next day. There was one performance in that movie you will love and I bet you can't guess who it's from.

[Ben Hosley]

Who else is even in there?

[David Sims]

Russell Crowe, I'm sure. I love that.

[Griffin Newman]

Of course you're gonna eat that much.

[David Sims]

Like with Thor and everything, you know, poker. He's just playing another Greek diner owner.

[Griffin Newman]

No, he plays a Russian monster, but.

[David Sims]

It'S always Greek diner.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

The Last Exorcist is very much sensitive thought Joe. Sorry.

[Ben Hosley]

Two more. Jason Schwartzman playing Stanley Tucci in Queer.

[Griffin Newman]

Interesting.

[Ben Hosley]

Jason Schwarzman who knew that Jason Schwartzman playing gay is just Stanley Tucci? It's fantastic.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[Ben Hosley]

And then Jody Comer playing Bill Swartzki from the Super Fans in the Bike Rider.

[Griffin Newman]

A very. A very close best actress candidate for me.

[Ben Hosley]

She's good in the movie, but the accent is insane. She's absolutely. She sounds absolutely insane. Talking so bad.

[Griffin Newman]

She's so good in it. David's high on crack for not respecting art.

[David Sims]

I like Jody Cobra, though.

[Griffin Newman]

It was just wonderful.

[Ben Hosley]

It does make me sound.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. Good. I feel like I'm sitting back in the multiplex.

[David Sims]

I feel like I'm sitting back and closing my eyes and dreaming of other things during that boring ass of a film.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm leaning in. Yeah.

[David Sims]

I'm leaning in and falling out of my seat.

[Griffin Newman]

You can't do both directions.

[David Sims]

Asleep.

[Griffin Newman]

You can't say you asleep in both directions.

[David Sims]

That's the one movie that made me asleep in both directions.

[Griffin Newman]

Movie's good. David's rude.

[Ben Hosley]

Jeff Nichols. Keep making more movies.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you.

[David Sims]

Keep making those c. Oh, my God. That's a conce. There is no director.

[Griffin Newman]

You're ruder.

[David Sims]

That guy is a cheap supermarket because he. He's se town.

[Griffin Newman]

Wow. Wow.

[David Sims]

Is that. Does that. Is that going to travel or are there only seat towns in New York?

[Ben Hosley]

I've never seen a se town up.

[Joe Reed]

Side of super mar.

[David Sims]

I did my best. Do you guys want to give me your best directors or do we have any more?

[Ben Hosley]

No, I'm out of. I'm. I'm out of bullets.

[David Sims]

Yeah. You know, best going live on Instagram goes to Lady Raven for trap over Zachary Levi. Zachary Levi, of course, gets best crayon. I don't know. I don't know what to give that guy. We need to give that guy something.

[Griffin Newman]

Can we find five other nominees past?

[David Sims]

He needs some medicine.

[Griffin Newman]

Him out.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

No one who's more anti medicine where I'm like, you might need some medicine.

[Ben Hosley]

You.

[David Sims]

You need to go to the doctor.

[Ben Hosley]

You are following. Following the exact wrong path.

[Griffin Newman]

Levi showed up at the Horizon Chapter two, and I was like, don't make me feel like I'm not allowed to like this jump.

[David Sims]

Scaring people there.

[Griffin Newman]

He's also so tall.

[David Sims]

Yeah, he's very tall.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, it sucks.

[David Sims]

Yeah. That's why he gets to play Shazam or whatever. Best normal chill sculpture to have in your house. Oddity. Did you guys see Oddity?

[Ben Hosley]

I liked Oddity, but Wooden man and Oddity, I think it's.

[David Sims]

Is it Australian? I think it's Australian.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay.

[David Sims]

Is it not Welsh it might be fucking Welsh. I don't know. It's something or other something. No, it's Irish. Maybe. It might be Irish, but it's a horror movie about someone who gets the most fucked up sculpture in the world puts in their house. And they're like.

[Ben Hosley]

It's like a vengeance.

[David Sims]

I don't think anything's gonna go on with this, but don't kill a wit.

[Ben Hosley]

Don't kill a witch's sister. Is basically the. The lesson of that movie.

[David Sims]

Oh, best exposition about like the past and mythic stuff. Tai Olwin Fur in both the Watchers and Tarot shows up in both movies to like dispense. Like, here's the lore of the movie.

[Ben Hosley]

Is that the old lady and the. Oh, she's. She's good, she's good.

[David Sims]

No, the Watchers rocks. I'm pro. The Watcher.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[David Sims]

Did you see the watches?

[Griffin Newman]

Still haven't seen it.

[David Sims]

Gotta check it out. Yeah, I don't know. Best baseball cap. Jason. Jason Bateman and Carry On.

[Griffin Newman]

I still haven't watched that either.

[David Sims]

You just said that like you haven't watched that. Buddy.

[Griffin Newman]

Hey, buddy. And haven't caught that one.

[David Sims]

Yeah, I don't know. Is there anything else we want to.

[Griffin Newman]

Stuck in the Netflix pit for me? Yeah, look, I'm happy Sarah's back. What was the thing I saw Best.

[David Sims]

Movie that for 10 minutes you're like, we are fucking cooking. And then it kind of gets a little boring. Natalie. Erika James's apartment 7A. Oh, I didn't see that. Which like for. And we all love the first Omen, directed by a friend of the show, Arkasha Stevenson. And that one. Similarly, you're like, oh, she's doing stuff here. This is actually more than just like a sort of rote TV prequel to Rosemary's Baby has this amazing sequence in the middle of the movie, but some of it's a little boring.

[Griffin Newman]

There was something I saw.

[David Sims]

What was it now?

[Griffin Newman]

I'm trying to remember. But it was. Oh, oh, you know what it was? It was Flight Risk. Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, Flight Risk. It would be winning best Picture next year.

[David Sims]

It's just directed by some bum called. Oh, Mel Gibson is an Oscar winner I'm seeing here.

[Griffin Newman]

No, I checked the poster recently and I think it's from the director of Apocalypto and Hacksaw Ridge. No name needed.

[David Sims]

Uhhuh. Who are your best directors, guys?

[Griffin Newman]

Best director. My best director nominees are Luca Guadagnino. I was thinking about making another Pixar joke and why put that word Disrespect on his name. George Miller or Furiosa, A Mad Max saga. Oh, sorry, I'm reading off the wrong list. Worst directors of movies. I hate Mike Cheslick for Hundreds of Beavers. Ramel Ross for Nickel Boys. Michael E. For Her Truth.

[David Sims]

It's a very hard truth.

[Griffin Newman]

It's the hardest truth of all.

[David Sims]

The nominee.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, My list is Brady Courbet for the Brutalist. Luca Guadagnino for Challengers. Julio Torres for Problemista.

[David Sims]

Ooh.

[Ben Hosley]

Rael Ross for Nickel Boys. And Matthew Rankin for Universal Language.

[David Sims]

Oh, I need to see that. I think you now in theaters. A Canadian Iranian film that I've been told is really, really good. My nominees are Andy Baker for Janet Planet It, Radu Jude for Do not Expect too Much from the End of the World. Luca Guadagnino. All three nominees for challengers, Mike Lee for Hart Truths and Rommel Ross for Nickel Voice.

[Griffin Newman]

My winner is Romel Ross.

[David Sims]

My winner is Rommel Ross. My favorite movie of the year.

[Ben Hosley]

My winner is Luca Guadagnino for Challenge.

[David Sims]

Yeah, well, it's a great, great movie.

[Griffin Newman]

And you know what?

[David Sims]

I'll say, normal guy.

[Griffin Newman]

You can feel the presence of a director on that movie.

[David Sims]

Oh, interesting. But not in his other films. No, not a showy filmmaker.

[Griffin Newman]

Should we just go straight in the best picture? Because I feel like these are overlapping conversations.

[David Sims]

Yes, we should. I will say I watched his first movie, the protagonist, because it was on movie. You know how, like, Lucan kind of tried to make good movies for 10 years before he suddenly started making them?

[Griffin Newman]

I didn't see any of them before. I am love same.

[David Sims]

No one has.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, that was the first.

[David Sims]

But they. They put the protagonist from 1999, wit T. Swinton on movie. And I'm like, how bad could it be in 10 minutes? And I was like, oh, no, it stinks.

[Griffin Newman]

Isn't that part of the fun of doing this podcast when we see someone come out of the dirt?

[David Sims]

But you're like, I don't understand how the filmmaker I love like there. It's trying stuff. So you're kind of like, I guess he was trying stuff and not doing a good.

[Griffin Newman]

But I mean, Park Chan Wook's another example. Stanley Kubrick's another example where the first movie almost feels like they have to do every single thing wrong. So then by process of elimination emerge, like, seemingly fully formed.

[David Sims]

I'll give you the blankies. Nominees were Ramel Ross, 5. I'm going from the bottom up. Romel Ross. John Baker for Nora, Jan Chamber, Denny Viln, Lino.

[Griffin Newman]

Best Picture.

[David Sims]

So your top tens for the year, basically, is what we're going to do next for Best Picture. Do you want to do them bottom up or.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm going to do bottom up.

[David Sims]

Okay, you go first.

[Griffin Newman]

Number 10, better man.

[David Sims]

Wow.

[Griffin Newman]

Loved it. Monkey loved it.

[David Sims]

Monkey loved it.

[Griffin Newman]

It. Number nine, the People's Joker. Number eight, Hundreds of Beavers. Number seven, Long Legs.

[David Sims]

This is a Griff list.

[Griffin Newman]

This is a real griff list. Number six, a different man. Number five. Furiosa. Mad Max Saga.

[David Sims]

No. Number 500, you mean.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, yes. Sorry. Number four, hard truths. Number three. I saw the TV glow. Number two, Nickel Boys. Number one, challengers. At the end of the day, I just like. That was the most transcendent experience I had watching a movie movie. And I kept being like, is that still my number one? It feels kind of poppy to be my number one, but, like, open that pop. God, I love soda.

[David Sims]

Exactly. Drink that bubbly soda.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Starting from number ten, my number ten is I Saw the TV Glow. Number nine is Nickel Boys. Number eight is Universal Language. Number seven is Hard Truths. Number six is I'm Still Here. Number five, A Different Man. 4. Challengers. 3. His Three Daughters. 2. The Brutalist. And my number one movie of the year, which I watched this morning just to make sure, was Problem Easter.

[David Sims]

Wow, what a great movie.

[Griffin Newman]

I love possibly future guests.

[David Sims]

I'd love to get Julio back. Why not?

[Griffin Newman]

I think I recently scheduled. Yeah, I think I recently realized I somehow don't have any of his contact information. But what was this? I was like, how did we get him on the first time? Did we literally, like, whisper into a pigeon's ear?

[David Sims]

It kind of was. We did basically whisper into a pigeon's ear or, like, write something on a Lego brick and leave it on the subway. Like, we DM'd him. I think we, like, there was a Twitter. Someone had it and he was.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, I've known him for a while. I swear at one point I had some direct contact, but I think it.

[David Sims]

Was a social media act. Like, I don't think we ever had a phone number because I'm not even convinced he has a phone.

[Ben Hosley]

No, no, no. Nothing about him would indicate that he.

[Griffin Newman]

Would have got a pocket full of.

[David Sims]

Precious gems, you know?

[Ben Hosley]

What was the movie that he.

[Griffin Newman]

Edward Scissorhands.

[David Sims]

One of those episodes where, like, the day before we were like, are we just going to do that one without a guest show up?

[Griffin Newman]

Right. There was another movie, I feel like this year where we were like, fuck, that'd be a good time to get Julio back. And we talked about it and then I was like, I actually don't know how to reach him.

[David Sims]

I love Julio Torres, as do you. As do. I think everybody here is a great guy. But I was really blown away by how like emotionally intelligent and beautiful. Problem Easter.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, I. I will say this. I obviously did not like it as much as you did. And I was like, this is like a good first movie. He's like working out some stuff and then like the last 20 minutes, I was really impressed. Impressed by how hard it all paid off. There are certain ways in which I think it, like the setup is almost to the movie's detriment. It needs to hold back on certain things in order to make that payoff work. But I was like, the last 20 minutes of it worked for me so hard.

[Ben Hosley]

There are so many ways that he could have just sort of rested on quirky, strange. You know, I'm Julio Torres. I love shapes like that kind of a thing. I. I think it's an incredibly funny movie. Is the other thing though. There's so much actual overt out loud comedy. And then to pull it together in a really sort of like. There's a lot of good insight in that movie. There's a lot of insight in that movie to the human condition, his specific experience and the specific experience of people trying to emigrate to the country and stay in the country.

[Griffin Newman]

But also every single universal universe is so well observed.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes, yes. And like Tilda Swinton's character who is like simultaneously a dragon lady cartoon and also admirable in certain ways. Same with the reasonable.

[Griffin Newman]

Could just be a kind of offhand note. The amount of time it spends in investing in this character who's gone. Yeah, David, your 10.

[David Sims]

My 10 are from bottom up. Red rooms number 10, which we haven't mentioned on this podcast. I should have fucking nominated Juliet Gareppi be an actress, but I had to give Naomi Scott her flowers. But a great insanely freaky Canadian horror film that I think a lot of people are discovering, including me, late in the race. Number 9. Evil does not exist. Number 8. Trap. Number 7. I saw the TV glow. 6. Dune Part 2. 5. Janet Planet.

[Ben Hosley]

4.

[David Sims]

Do not expect Too much from the End of the World. Great Romanian movie that everyone should watch. You should. You'll like it, Griff. It's a. It's got a. Yeah, I've been mean. A view of society that I think he'll respond to. Three challengers, Two Hard truths. One nickel.

[Ben Hosley]

Boys director was so overflowing with People I wanted to nominate for best director, I thought so many of these, like, I. I don't always subscribe to the, like, the best movie is the best directed movie. Always, like, at some point. I love the movies that I love so much. In certain movies feel like they have more of a directorial. You're taking a little bit more of a chance as a director, or you're taking on maybe a bigger sort of project. But Aaron Schoenberg for a different Man. Jane Schoenbrun, Coralie Farja, obviously Villeneuve and Sean Baker and Walter Sells for I'm Still Here. Have you guys seen I'm Still Here?

[Griffin Newman]

I saw it last night. I liked it.

[Ben Hosley]

I really was so engrossed by that movie. I thought I was just like, it really does look like, you know, grab you by the shoulders.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm gonna say this, and I don't mean this in any backhanded way, but this was like my profound takeaway from watching the movie in a certain way. Right. The Academy's changed so much. It's gotten so much more international. It used to be so rare that a foreign language film crossed over into any other categories. Now it's obviously more commonplace, Right. And it used to be that when it would break through, there was this air of light, like, this is the kind of. That could never get made in America, right? Not that it was like, the studio system would never support this foreign.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Griffin Newman]

So these other countries are already or. And whatever. And I watched that and I was like, this is the kind of movie that studios used to be great at making for 30 years. Yeah, sure. And then for 30 years after that, it was supplanted by, like, Focus and Searchlight and the mini majors making them. And now it kind of like, we need to import are, like, incredibly sturdy, intelligent, political.

[David Sims]

It's been happening since, you know, the miramax era, the 90s and all that. And it feels like much like last last year, this was the. What's the cooking movie? The Taste of Things.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, sure.

[David Sims]

Every year there's a movie where I'm like, harvey Reinstein wants to break out of prison to run the Oscar campaign for this movie. He's like, I'm gonna call a congressional hearing. I'm gonna have a press conference.

[Ben Hosley]

That's so true. About the Taste of Things.

[David Sims]

God.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh.

[David Sims]

The Taste of Things was. I was like, are we sure Harvey's in jail? Like. And I love that movie. To be clear, I'm just talking about the kind of sort of middle brow, adult foreign drama that, like, Miramax I'm.

[Griffin Newman]

Not saying that I'm still here is middlebrow, but I'm saying there's a degree of being like, it's not high art. Yeah, it's. It's. It's incredibly well made. It's like a very affecting story. The, The. The casting at the end is very impactful, not surprising to me.

[Ben Hosley]

I also saw it, like, maybe two days after the election, so. The what? Yeah, there was a. There was an election. It hit particularly hard. Certainly harder than when I saw Doctor Strange the day after the last time.

[Griffin Newman]

I did one of those.

[David Sims]

Give me the news. Look, it's a good time for movies at the top, and there's lots of interesting stuff in the middle. This was not my favorite movie year. Wasn't.

[Griffin Newman]

It was not my number one favorite.

[David Sims]

Movie year of all time, which, of course was 1928. Great. What a great year.

[Ben Hosley]

But I do feel like people sort. I've heard quite a few people calling it, like a bad year for movies. It was just. Can't. I can't get. I don't think there's ever a bad year for movies is the thing.

[David Sims]

No, not really.

[Griffin Newman]

If you just slice off the top.

[Ben Hosley]

Except for 2011, like, that's the only bad year for movies. But no, I think there's. Yeah, you slice.

[Griffin Newman]

Wasn't 2011 Margaret and Moneyball, or was that 2012?

[David Sims]

No, it was money. It's a really bad Oscar.

[Ben Hosley]

It's a very bad Oscar year.

[David Sims]

But 2011. Yeah. My top 10 is Margaret, Moneyball, Certified Copy, Tree of Life, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Ghost Protocol, Uncle Boon, Me, Archipelago, tinker Taylor, fast five. That's a great top.

[Griffin Newman]

I mean, fast five was obviously in my 10. I'm trying to remember. I feel like I had my top 5 were all M movies, and now I'm trying to remember what the other ones would have been, but Martha, Marcy.

[Ben Hosley]

Merlin, off the top of my head, Margaret is up there. Martha, Marcy, Certified Copy, Hannah. Joe Wright's Hannah. Is that your Hannah? Warhorse? Of course.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, there's some positive takeaways from this gear. As we said, the Inside out two lesson. David's doing a slide whistle.

[David Sims]

Oh, is my penis. On the mention of war going.

[Griffin Newman]

First of all, wait, that was kind of impressive. David mimed the slide whistle really well, but he was doing the motion. Yeah, no, it was good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was. There was good stuff this year, and I think there were good takeaways. And I feel like, as you said, there was like a. This, this feeling of catastrophe when all the May movies underperformed. And then immediately it was just like no. People showed up in droves for Inside out two and Twisters and Deadpool and wol, Wolverine and it ends with us.

[Ben Hosley]

And some other things of the exact same level.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, you can't automatically trick people into a blockbuster anymore. You have to give them something they want to see. And if they want to see it, they'll show up in droves. And I think the things that people are showing up for is diversifying a little bit. It's not just the same couple tent pole franchises. And I think also that all that doomsday was forgetting that like Dune and Godzilla were just like genuine blockbusters in the first three months of the year. Year. The thing I'm always pointing at is like January, you had Beekeeper and Mean Girls. Yeah, both make like 80 million domestic.

[Ben Hosley]

One Love is this close from 100 million domestic.

[Griffin Newman]

And like Mean Girls and Beekeeper were supposed to go straight to streaming. And I was like, here's the lesson. Make more movies like fucking this. Make mid sized films.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, the things that encourage me is Nosferatu 95 domestic, complete unknown, 71 domestic, domestic. Like, you know, those kinds of movies are still getting, you know, they're not, you know, knocking it down like, like Oppenheimer did.

[Griffin Newman]

David and I were talking about the sort of like rise of like quote unquote otur horror, which is like the horror which used to be this autopilot. Every horror movie opens to 20 and makes 50. Basically had like more kind of like actual flops. But the through line is like movies are being sold on Oz Perkins, on like, like Damen Leon, you know, like all these people. Which is like exciting. It's like it speaks to a culture that is engaged with the idea of like movies are made by people and visions and all that sort of stuff. All that sort of stuff.

[David Sims]

Oh, movies are good. Ben, can you save us?

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, Ben, do some stuff. You got some stuff planned, right?

[Joe Reed]

Yeah. So it's that time in the episode of our blankies episodes where I relax thing. I do some of my original categories. So just to start things off as I do every year, we have of course, the Weddies, the Golden Mop.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Joe Reed]

The slickest flicks of the year.

[Griffin Newman]

I love when he says slickest flicks of the year.

[Joe Reed]

It's the movies that soak through boy. What splished, what splashed.

[Griffin Newman]

Right?

[David Sims]

Okay, good questions, good questions.

[Joe Reed]

Who dunked going rub a dub dub. I'm taking a bath.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't think I quite understand the Parameters of this category. Can you. The films are wet. More.

[Joe Reed]

It's the wettest films. All right, so number one, twisters. Okay. Not only is there rain.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay.

[David Sims]

Which.

[Joe Reed]

There is an abundance of rain.

[David Sims]

That's true.

[Joe Reed]

But Glenn, he's not just giving. My man's pouring out.

[Griffin Newman]

Riz. This is true.

[David Sims]

Oh, you're so. You're saying his. His acting is so charismatic that he's wet.

[Griffin Newman]

It's dripping, Riz. Wet with strip and R. I like them.

[Ben Hosley]

He's glistening with Riz.

[Griffin Newman]

You know.

[Joe Reed]

Okay. Number two, the substance.

[David Sims]

Yeah. It's a moist.

[Griffin Newman]

Moist.

[Ben Hosley]

It's a squishy movie.

[Joe Reed]

It's just. There's so many fluids being represented in this film.

[Griffin Newman]

Various colors. A rainbow of fluids.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Joe Reed]

Cornucopia.

[Ben Hosley]

Going in, going out. Like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joe Reed]

Number three, challengers. It's a sweaty movie.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Joe Reed]

But in the best way. Right. Because often on the show, we label movies as sweaty because it's just like.

[Ben Hosley]

A sauna scene half baked.

[David Sims]

Right.

[Ben Hosley]

We're not sweating us.

[Joe Reed]

But. Yeah, the actors are hot. Right. Not only are the actors are hot, but I walked away perspiring after seeing that. Okay, number four, we live in a time.

[David Sims]

Oh, the. We live in time. Excuse me.

[Joe Reed]

So now when I say that I ugly cried during.

[David Sims]

Yeah, you shouldn't have seen that one, Ben. Honestly, I would have kept you away from it. Ugly.

[Joe Reed]

Like Donald Trump's heart ugly.

[Ben Hosley]

Wow.

[Griffin Newman]

Getting political.

[Joe Reed]

Destroyed. Truly destroyed. Clean up on aisle, my ass.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, okay, okay. Well, okay.

[Joe Reed]

And then number five, unfortunately, is Moana two.

[Ben Hosley]

No.

[David Sims]

That's a lot of water.

[Griffin Newman]

Wet.

[Joe Reed]

It's extremely wet.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Joe Reed]

Please, I just looked.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a movie for losers.

[David Sims]

But it is the Young Woman in the Sea, which I know you haven't seen. Oh, yeah, that's a swimming movie.

[Joe Reed]

I miss that one.

[David Sims]

I think you'd like it. Yeah, well, if you like wet movies.

[Ben Hosley]

Flo is very wet.

[David Sims]

Flo.

[Griffin Newman]

Flo. I can't believe you haven't seen. Right. You.

[David Sims]

You'll enjoy that.

[Joe Reed]

Friend of the show, Jordan Fish had suggested it.

[Ben Hosley]

I think you'll really like it.

[Griffin Newman]

It's a cat in water, basically.

[Joe Reed]

I know, I know.

[Griffin Newman]

I think you'll cry.

[Ben Hosley]

But there's a bird.

[Griffin Newman]

You'll cry.

[David Sims]

It's not.

[Griffin Newman]

We live in time. Crying. You'll cry at moments of like, oh, my God, the cat is scared. You know?

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

You'll cry at moments of intimacy.

[Joe Reed]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Can I throw out a couple I'm surprised you didn't include.

[Joe Reed]

Well, may I just finish my point on Lana 2 and then yes, please. I just wanted to though, say, can I get a Chiho? Has maybe some of the sweatiest lyrics of all time.

[David Sims]

That's a song. Can I get a Cho.

[Joe Reed]

It is indeed a. It's a rap song performed by Dwayne.

[Griffin Newman]

Of course, built around his famous catchphrase, which you remember definitely was there in the first movie.

[David Sims]

He does say it in the first movie.

[Griffin Newman]

Does he?

[David Sims]

I've seen moana, you know, one to 200 times. Yes, he says it.

[Griffin Newman]

He says it 800 times in this movie.

[David Sims]

I would say he probably says says it like three times in Moana. He says it when he's about to turn into something.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay. Because in this it feels like a Marty McFly chicken thing.

[David Sims]

Sure.

[Griffin Newman]

We're like, you're telling us this was your deal the whole time.

[Joe Reed]

The song sucks, but what are some other problems that.

[Griffin Newman]

Look, Flo is a big snob, but you just haven't seen it yet. Rude to pool man.

[David Sims]

He hasn't seen.

[Joe Reed]

I'm not gonna go see pool man.

[Griffin Newman]

It's wet.

[Joe Reed]

I'm sure it is.

[Griffin Newman]

That guy's fish now leaves the whole time.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Also Ghostbusters, Frozen Empire.

[David Sims]

Well, the water is frozen in that one.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, but here's. Imagine what happens at the end of that movie.

[David Sims]

Honestly, I saw it.

[Griffin Newman]

They stopped the day. It's going to start melting. Sees about to get wet as hell.

[Joe Reed]

You know, I saw that movie and I could not tell you a single thing that happened in it.

[David Sims]

It is gone.

[Ben Hosley]

I just saw. I remember being like, this is better than I thought. I don't remember it, but it's gone.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, I almost slimer. Almost is a putters and murmurs candidate.

[David Sims]

What else you got? Better? Any?

[Joe Reed]

Okay, well, I think I've sort of decided that, you know, of course there is the films that should be remade with. And then I, you know, pick out all of these kind of.

[Griffin Newman]

Right.

[Joe Reed]

But again, I'm going to say like I did last year. I just. I'm sick of remakes. I'm sick of just everything being so IP driven that as in a protest. I will not continue to generate more content.

[Griffin Newman]

I like that also saves you some time. Time.

[Ben Hosley]

That's right.

[Joe Reed]

Okay. But moving right along, we have, of course, the no thank yous number one at the top, Amelia Perez. Never before have I avoided something that somehow also doesn't exist. It's as if the culture is telling me, look, ghosts exist. And I'm like, sorry, what? Because I'm wearing noise canceling headphones. Number two, Blink Twice. I did. And Suddenly the movie stopped playing cuz I had left the theater.

[Griffin Newman]

No.

[David Sims]

There you go. Got out of there, right?

[Griffin Newman]

Yes, yes I did.

[David Sims]

That movie's not very good.

[Ben Hosley]

Not very good and with a horrible ending.

[Griffin Newman]

I would agree with that. AA Rona is kind of incredible in it though. Half consent Nominating.

[Ben Hosley]

No, she's very good. She's very good.

[Joe Reed]

Number three, the Apprentice. Me thinks no one asked for this.

[Griffin Newman]

I do think it's quite a good film. But I made. I made the in retrospect, great choice to see it four days before the election. I could not imagine watching it now.

[Joe Reed]

Yeah, yeah. Number four. Nosferat Hong Shu.

[David Sims]

Boring. How dare you call my movie boring?

[Griffin Newman]

You try to sleep with me atop you like a witch.

[Joe Reed]

What a beautiful looking movie. Sure like great costuming. Fucking dirty and shit provides. But it was boring.

[David Sims]

No. Come closer. Take 20 minutes to come closer.

[Joe Reed]

Oh, slow down. Slow down. Like it's that fast.

[David Sims]

Open my coffin. You can take your time. Carry on. Sorry.

[Griffin Newman]

That's fine.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

And then last stop thinking about how sticky that mustache would be with all the blood stuff.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, blood, the bugs.

[Griffin Newman]

Blood and the bugs.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in that.

[Joe Reed]

Okay, so lastly I just struggled and it ended up just kind of being a three way tie between Mufasa if and Red One. And what? Well, just like what they all share.

[Griffin Newman]

For me is I would for the Nobel priest.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Joe Reed]

What they all have in common for me like is that I would prefer to go to prison than watch any of those movies.

[Griffin Newman]

Because at least there you can put on good plays.

[David Sims]

I have also not seen any of those movies.

[Griffin Newman]

I think Red One is my dead bottom of the year. It has to be. I think it's one of the worst things our culture has ever produced.

[David Sims]

My bottom of the year currently is Does Joe Kerfalio do Carry On Bim?

[Griffin Newman]

My second to worst is Ricky Stanicki. A movie that we should not let get away with its crimes under the radar.

[David Sims]

Well, because nobody saw it.

[Ben Hosley]

Zach Efron. Is that Ricky?

[Griffin Newman]

Correct.

[Ben Hosley]

Okay. Yeah.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Joe Reed]

So honorable mention. Saturday night. I had fun. I thought it was good.

[Ben Hosley]

I had fun with Saturday night. I will agree with you back.

[Joe Reed]

Okay. It's not like reinventing the wheel. It's a stupid predictable biopic. But fuck it, I. I liked it.

[Griffin Newman]

It's still biopic because I think I'm more as a thriller rhythm.

[David Sims]

Who's the villain there?

[Griffin Newman]

Time.

[David Sims]

No, too Sorry, I mean time.

[Griffin Newman]

I didn't care for it.

[Joe Reed]

This is carrying over from last year. I guess it's become now a new award. Violator Achievement Award. Movies that remind me the most of the relationship between Violator and Spawn.

[Griffin Newman]

Who last year the winner was boy in the Heron.

[David Sims]

Yes.

[Joe Reed]

Who had Violator energy. This year as Kieran Culking and a real pain.

[Griffin Newman]

I friends. He's not wrong.

[Joe Reed]

What an absolute monster of a person.

[Griffin Newman]

And of course when I saw Jesse Eisenberg come on screen in that film, I went, man, this guy's got huge chains and ectoplasm energy. Never before as a character felt more.

[Joe Reed]

Like the Prince of Hell himself.

[Griffin Newman]

No, I think you're right.

[Joe Reed]

Megalopolis. I love when an artist sees through their vision uncompromised by coherence. Vision doesn't need to make sense.

[David Sims]

Agree.

[Joe Reed]

Can just.

[David Sims]

Especially if you lose one of your eyes.

[Ben Hosley]

He does crazy Put the wow platinum in the world that you want to see.

[Joe Reed]

Wicked little letters. What's a fucking steaming bag of fun?

[David Sims]

You saw that?

[Joe Reed]

I did. Some of my favorite insults include, you really are a tricksy old fucker. You belong in hell. Probably. And you're a sad stinky bitch as well.

[David Sims]

That movie went direct to Cobble Hill Cinemas. That's a joke for 10 people.

[Griffin Newman]

I was angry at myself for not seeing that. I was like, I would love this.

[Joe Reed]

It's a delight. Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Olivia Coleman and Jesse Buckley writing mean.

[David Sims]

Letters to each other in like an English town.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Cool as hell.

[Joe Reed]

It's so good.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm so.

[Ben Hosley]

I almost made it my annual Tiff cozy watch when I'm too far into tiff and I'm too stressed. And this year was the Steve Coogan movie with the Penguin.

[Griffin Newman]

I was about to ask. I saw a trailer for that yesterday before. I'm still here. That's the most Sony Pictures classic ass.

[David Sims]

Made up I have ever to go see that.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah.

[Joe Reed]

Wait, am I the only one that saw this movie?

[David Sims]

Literally never. When did you see it? Where? Like how did you. Did you.

[Joe Reed]

My dad told me about it and I realized this is a major like my dad was like, I saw this really funny movie to check it out and it's very like my wife and.

[David Sims]

I debated seeing that film and I think picked something else. I have not gotten around to it. Did you see it in theaters? No. Okay.

[Joe Reed]

Other just swear words to or favorite swears or insults, you aging soft cock streaks of a hot horse piss.

[Griffin Newman]

This is all in that movie.

[Joe Reed]

Correct. And I'll leave you with you mangy old titless. Turnip. Wow.

[Griffin Newman]

God. Are we going to have to like record an addendum to this episode? When we all see it, it sweeps every category.

[David Sims]

Depiction of Kendrick versus Drake. Wicked little letters.

[Ben Hosley]

Amazing.

[David Sims]

Wow.

[Joe Reed]

But that's it. That's it.

[Griffin Newman]

Wow.

[David Sims]

Okay.

[Griffin Newman]

Wow. What a year.

[Ben Hosley]

What a year.

[Griffin Newman]

What a year.

[David Sims]

What a year it has been.

[Griffin Newman]

What.

[David Sims]

What a year for film.

[Griffin Newman]

A decade of dreams.

[David Sims]

Decade of dreams. Continue.

[Griffin Newman]

Joe, thank you for being here.

[Ben Hosley]

Thank you for being here every year. I have such a good time at this.

[David Sims]

Hey, Joe, thank you for being here. It's me, Bob Dylan.

[Ben Hosley]

And that's actually a shockingly Timmy esque.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm really excited about our guest we have here today. He loves to give out awards and talk. You.

[David Sims]

Pete, shut up. Play this guitar till you get mad.

[Ben Hosley]

Good movie that appeared on none of my categories.

[David Sims]

A complete unknown.

[Griffin Newman]

I like complete unknown. Tremendous amount. It really worked for.

[Ben Hosley]

I literally walked out, I texted people, I'm like, I liked it. I don't know if other people are going to like it, but like, I think I liked it.

[Griffin Newman]

And then I thought it was people also liked it.

[Ben Hosley]

I was happy with that.

[Griffin Newman]

Joe, this had Oscar buzz.

[Ben Hosley]

They said, Oscar buzz.

[Griffin Newman]

I'll come on. I just zoom. But I got to do it.

[Ben Hosley]

I got it.

[Griffin Newman]

Especially after Kieran wins.

[Ben Hosley]

Yes.

[Griffin Newman]

I hate the little window. I can't box on the screen. I feel like I've been in a box. In a box.

[David Sims]

I did enjoy, enjoy dropping into Doughboys via Zoom because I was watching you guys for a minute before I got to drop for more than like 10 minutes.

[Griffin Newman]

But also, you not knowing the most famous conversation and then getting brought into it, that couldn't have gone any better.

[David Sims]

It was so organically funny because I did not know what you were talking about that I listened to the episode and my reaction and then it's bubbling up two hours later. It was great.

[Griffin Newman]

Gardner and Weger texted each other and were like, I have a conspiracy. That Griffin came to LA with the explicit goal of recording the longest episode of each show. And I said to you in confidence, my goal was like, I want to be on really good behavior. I want to come in tight on rails, deliver normal episodes and silence the haters. And I fucked up.

[Ben Hosley]

Well, I fucked up.

[David Sims]

You fucked up. You fucked up. I fucked up. Up.

[Ben Hosley]

I do want to also, if Snake.

[Griffin Newman]

Is more famous than Pokeball, if the.

[Ben Hosley]

Blankies want to sign up for another Patreon, hell yeah. Yes. To me, myself and I chugging along three episodes a month for $5 on Patreon. I've got some blank check familiars there. I just had Fran Hoffner on the great Fran Hoffner. The Scarlet Letter. Katie Rich is on often. Richard Lawson was on to talk about disclosure.

[David Sims]

Mm.

[Ben Hosley]

Just lots of real good fun. We're in the thick of the, like, 90s stuff, so.

[David Sims]

90S, yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

90S.

[David Sims]

Not a great decade for her at the end.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah, the end. It was bad. The early part, she was raking in money hand over fist.

[David Sims]

So, yeah, I'm really close to Count Von count.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm really 1, 2.

[Ben Hosley]

Cookie Monster and Count Von Count combined is kind of the.

[David Sims]

Or they have killed Mr. Noodle.

[Griffin Newman]

Ben. Next week on the calendar is next.

[Joe Reed]

Week on the Purple.

[David Sims]

Next week. Next week.

[Griffin Newman]

I'm losing my Spielberg chronology.

[David Sims]

After E.T. the extraterrestrial is surely Color Purple. Indiana.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh, no.

[David Sims]

With Olivia Craig.

[Griffin Newman]

Nice. An episode that will make certain people very angry at us.

[David Sims]

We don't like that movie very much.

[Griffin Newman]

I don't. Don't like the movie. That is annoying.

[Ben Hosley]

I feel like that's the Indiana Jones movie most people don't like.

[David Sims]

That's right. But then there's lots of people who are like, it's secretly the best.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, God.

[Griffin Newman]

And I'm like, it's the best at annoying me.

[David Sims]

This real secret is shut up.

[Griffin Newman]

Anyway, it's a fun episode. We talked about a lot of stuff.

[David Sims]

Lives the best.

[Griffin Newman]

I promised this. We talked about a lot of stuff in that episode. And it's on topic.

[David Sims]

We recorded that. Like, I don't think. I don't remember when we recorded.

[Ben Hosley]

Yeah. Listening to you guys these days is really a journey to the past kind of Aaliyah style.

[Griffin Newman]

We somehow recorded the Temple of Doom episode before David and I had met.

[Ben Hosley]

That's amazing.

[David Sims]

Anyway, this guy seems to be pretty smart. I don't know. He is.

[Griffin Newman]

The. The episode ends with you going weird. I got a text about video trivia. Want to come with me?

[Ben Hosley]

Amazing.

[Griffin Newman]

Anyway, Decade of dreams.

[Joe Reed]

Hey. This episode will be coming out kind of quickly after we record. We recorded.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah. This quick turnaround.

[Joe Reed]

Yeah.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah.

[David Sims]

Good job. By everybody.

[Ben Hosley]

Good job, everybody. I love you guys all.

[David Sims]

Love you. Love you, Joe. And yeah. We'll see you next. Next year for Blankies Edition 1111.

[Ben Hosley]

A new decade. A new beginning.

[Griffin Newman]

A new beginning. And you know what people keep asking for? We did our decade best of blankies for the 2010s.

[Ben Hosley]

We did. And it brought on the pandemic.

[David Sims]

It.

[Griffin Newman]

It did, unfortunately, bring in the. Yeah, that and Paul King not making Paddington three.

[Ben Hosley]

We can count our culprits.

[Griffin Newman]

It would be another five years before we could do the 2000s Blankies.

[Ben Hosley]

True.

[Griffin Newman]

But I do. I hear cries for people begging us to go backwards and to maybe in a future year do a.

[David Sims]

An old.

[Griffin Newman]

A 2000s and 90s and 80s or something. I think it'd be fun to.

[David Sims]

I'm just, you know.

[Ben Hosley]

You know, I have. I don't quite have the spreadsheet. The. The spreadsheet.

[Griffin Newman]

It would take some work.

[Ben Hosley]

I've got a Word document. I've got an unruly word document that stretches back into the 90s.

[Griffin Newman]

I stayed on text edit for too long.

[David Sims]

Yeah.

[Ben Hosley]

Oh, I know. I'm in the process.

[Griffin Newman]

A lot of my yearly documents transfer.

[Ben Hosley]

To Google sheets and it is a. It is a process.

[Griffin Newman]

Now I use the Notes app, which is better.

[David Sims]

You are my affliction.

[Griffin Newman]

Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.

[David Sims]

Didn't you pre record that and so we don't have to do it anymore.

[Griffin Newman]

Yeah, but this is the one part I say at the end. This is how I. I don't credit everybody. The crediting of the people who work on the show happens in a pre recorded segment. You keep not having the confidence that I know how to end the episode which then stretches the episode out longer count.

[Joe Reed]

Just so you know that we. We haven't locked those credits in yet.

[Griffin Newman]

Oh great. So I'm the one who up.

[David Sims]

It's quite all right.

[Griffin Newman]

Okay, well, let me go die on a bed of fire.

[David Sims]

But not before snacking on a tap.

[Griffin Newman]

And as always, let me snack on that damp it.