Loading summary
Transcript1,316 lines
- [00:00]
A
This episode is brought to you by the Autograph Journey credit card from Wells Fargo. The Autograph Journey credit card from Wells Fargo is built for travel. You can earn rewards wherever you book your favorite hotel site your go to airline and more. You get five times points with hotels, four times with airlines, three times on restaurants and other travel, and one point on other purchases. Whether it's a big vacation or a quick getaway, from booking your stay to that first meal, when you arrive, you're turning your trips into rewards with the Autograph Journey credit card from Wells Fargo. Learn more@wells fargo.com autographjourney Terms apply. This episode is brought to you by AMC. Entertainment Weekly calls AMC's the Audacity a gripping, funny, and sometimes chillingly of the moment tale. Starring Billy Magnussen and Sarah Goldberg, this Silicon Valley satire looks at what happens when the people building our future are falling apart themselves. From Jonathan Glatzer, a writer and producer on Succession and Better Call Saul, don't miss the Audacity every Sunday only on AMC and AMC. Learn more and more at amcplus.com. I'm Sean Fennessy.
- [01:15]
B
I'm Amanda Dobbins.
- [01:16]
A
And this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about 1976. We are drafting again and CR is here, of course, but we also have a special guest, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth chair, Tracy Letts. What number chair are you? Remind us.
- [01:32]
C
You want to have this third chair discussion now?
- [01:34]
A
Let's save it for the end of the podcast.
- [01:37]
D
And then finally fighting over your attention, your affection.
- [01:41]
A
No, that's not what it's about. No, it's about who belongs, who gets to sit and canonize with us, really, in perpetuity. I think.
- [01:49]
D
I think we're about one or two months away from me and him texting and just being like, why don't we
- [01:53]
B
just fucking ditch these losers, Start our only podcast.
- [01:56]
A
I tell you what, give it a shot, see what happens. So we are here to draft. This is the third episode of Tracy that we've gotten this week. How are you feeling?
- [02:07]
C
Great.
- [02:07]
A
Yeah.
- [02:08]
C
I'm always happy to be with you guys, on the mics or otherwise.
- [02:12]
A
Oh, that's beautiful.
- [02:13]
B
Very nice.
- [02:13]
C
I made a little rhyme. I didn't mean to.
- [02:14]
A
Yeah. 1976.
- [02:17]
C
Yeah.
- [02:18]
A
You were alive.
- [02:19]
C
I was.
- [02:21]
A
What was going on? Tell us about it.
- [02:25]
C
You know, it was our bicentennial year.
- [02:27]
A
It sure was.
- [02:28]
C
And I'm born on the 4th of July, so I turned.
- [02:30]
B
I didn't know that about you.
- [02:32]
A
I didn't either.
- [02:32]
B
I should have googled. I'm sorry.
- [02:35]
A
Explain.
- [02:36]
D
You read, Say happy birthday.
- [02:37]
B
It's not the fourth of July yet.
- [02:39]
A
That explains so much about what you represent to this fine country.
- [02:42]
C
There you go. I turned 11 when the country turned 200. And I remember it very well. My dad had. He was a college professor and he had become disenchanted with teaching or the institution he was teaching at. So he quit and he and my mom built and operated a grocery store out at the lake. He became a gentleman grocer for a year. It was a disastrous experiment.
- [03:10]
A
I was about to say this sounds like my dream. I know when you were just a.
- [03:14]
C
You never found two people more temperamentally unsuited to be to run a grocery store than my parents.
- [03:19]
D
A less exciting version of Mosquito Coast.
- [03:24]
C
I think that's very appropriate. We lived in a trailer park, and my birthday gift on our bicentennial was a Honda 50. Got a little Minter bike to go scooting around the lake on.
- [03:38]
D
We used to really know how to raise kids back then.
- [03:40]
C
We used to go swimming in the lake, me and my friends, unsupervised. How did we not drown? I can't even fathom it.
- [03:47]
A
So you had a little dirt bike going around a lake?
- [03:49]
C
Yeah.
- [03:50]
A
That's one of the scariest things I've ever heard.
- [03:52]
C
Yeah. Looked like a little ghost. Right. Just like perennially sunburned.
- [03:57]
D
Like seriously out of gummoe. Just like a little guy.
- [04:00]
B
Right.
- [04:02]
C
And we were, you know, we were at the movie theaters seeing a lot of these movies we're going to talk about today. Afternoon Delight was playing on the radio. Songs in the Key of Life was on our turntable all year long.
- [04:15]
D
Hell, yeah.
- [04:17]
C
It was a great time to be alive.
- [04:19]
A
CR.
- [04:19]
D
You were just a glimmer in my dad's eye.
- [04:22]
A
You were around the corner.
- [04:23]
D
Sure.
- [04:23]
A
You were not quite there.
- [04:24]
D
Yeah, yeah.
- [04:25]
A
You look at the landscape of 76, the cinema of 76, the culture of 76.
- [04:31]
D
Sure.
- [04:31]
A
What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel?
- [04:33]
D
Uh, I was thinking a lot about the pregnant moment before. You know, Obviously Jaws is 75. Correct. So we're living in a post Jaws world. And when you read like Pauline Kael From November of 76, she's still like grappling with Jaws. She's still reckoning with. With what the shark means for movies. But I think while all that nervousness is happening, like, we get like a absolute diamond of a year that is maybe one of the last of its kind before all the big we can make Jaws money kind of movies really start to Come in. And this is one where even, like, the blockbusters are just really creative and interesting, and some of them are just throwaway, like exploitation movies or whatever, B movies. But it's just. It's decidedly free of franchises, it's decidedly free of premeditated blockbusters. And I think you can see that in, like, the variety of work that comes across here.
- [05:26]
A
What struck you?
- [05:29]
B
So I probably first came to this as an Oscars year, right, as an Oscars nerd. And you start doing the history. And this year and the year before it are probably the two greatest Oscar best picture lineups in history. Maybe both times with not the winner I would have chosen. But if you come to this moment by, you know, studying all of the Oscars, you see all of these movies and then this is your introduction to what was going on in the 70s movie wise, which is, you know, what the Oscars taught me over the years. Um, this is still my pick for the best year. So even. Even over.
- [06:10]
A
For the lineup or for the year itself?
- [06:12]
B
For the. For the lineup. And I guess probably, maybe for the year. But it's going to be interesting, right? Because there's. I mean, there's so much top line. There is so much recognizable great works of cinema canonized in part, you know, by the Oscars, but also just because of what we reference. And then there's a lot of. There's not that much in the middle. I found, at least while preparing for this, I was kind of shocked by the number of comedies I just had to turn off. And I was like, well, I'm not laughing. And also, that is not an appropriate representation of that person.
- [06:46]
D
In 2026, I would watch Amanda, watch Car Wash.
- [06:49]
B
I was just like, I mean, not even that one. So I. Can it be great if it's just like all the big names, all bold face stuff, is it the greatest? I mean, not to be Captain Obvious, but like, yes, you've got network, you've got Taxi Driver, you've got all the President's Men, you've got Rocky, you've got, you know, it's. Those are heavy hitters. But I, you know, it's. It was. It was interesting to see what else was. Because when you think about 76 and you think about young Tracy going to the movies every week and living in the heyday of Cinnamon, they're not all network.
- [07:28]
C
No, I was in the theater for In Search of Noah's Ark. I saw that in the movie theater.
- [07:36]
A
I wrote about that in the newsletter last week. And just the idea that that movie was the. Was it the number 9 or number 10 grossing film for the year, which was a documentary? And did your parents bring you to go see that movie?
- [07:47]
C
No, I'm sure I went.
- [07:48]
A
By yourself.
- [07:49]
C
No, with my older brother, probably.
- [07:50]
A
And what spurred that? Was it just because it was a kind of phenomenon?
- [07:54]
C
You had one screen in town. Yeah. There you go.
- [07:56]
A
And that's part of how it works. And I think that's. I don't know. I probably would disagree with what you're saying because I find the middle of this year very soft. And this makes for a very interesting draft because there is somewhere between 7 and 10 extremely desirable titles this year. And then the way that we do, the categories, they're a little weaker. We had to do a little bit of navigating and managing around it. And just thinking back to 1975. We drafted for 1975 four years ago on the pod. And here are the movies that were taken just among the three of us. I'll just list the 15 movies we took in 75. My slate was Barry Lyndon, the Man who Would Be King, Jaws, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Dolomite and Rollerball. Chris's was the Passenger, Night Moves, Shampoo, Nashville, Rocky Horror Picture show and Race with the Devil. And Amanda got Picnic at Hanging Rock, the Stepford Wives, Three Days of the Condor, Dog Day Afternoon, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Gray Gardens.
- [08:52]
C
Amazing.
- [08:53]
A
You just can't. That's not.
- [08:54]
B
Wait a second. I got grey gardens in 75.
- [08:57]
A
You did?
- [08:58]
B
Was that the. Well, I'm gonna have to. Hold on just Googling some release dates here. Grey Gardens was on the letterbox list that you made.
- [09:06]
A
It was. I think it's because we let it go through. Because it played the New York Film Festival in the fall of 75. Okay.
- [09:13]
B
We counted that as Americans, and it
- [09:14]
A
was released in theaters February of 76.
- [09:16]
B
Okay, that's fine.
- [09:17]
A
Now, this is an ongoing issue that I think will be an issue in this episode, and we should probably talk about it up front.
- [09:22]
D
Or do you want to.
- [09:23]
A
Let's just talk about it up front. Because deleting that from Wildcard, there's a whole raft of, let's just say, international movies, movies that were made overseas and the years in which they arrive. In the 1970s, sometimes it takes three or four years or sometimes not at all for a movie to be released. There's been a lot of chaos with Japanese animated movies in the 80s and 90s drafts as well, where it's like, I don't really know what year? This movie should be eligible for like,
- [09:47]
D
seven beauties this year or whatever.
- [09:49]
A
Yeah. Well, at least seven beauties was December 75.
- [09:51]
D
Right.
- [09:52]
A
But it was nominated for the Academy Awards for 76. But there's a whole host of them. One fun activity to do when you're preparing for this is just go to the Criterion Channel and type in 1976.
- [10:03]
B
I did do this. It was really cool.
- [10:04]
A
See what comes up. There's a ton of things there. Probably more than half of those things never even opened in America. So the rules that I created when we were talking about movies from the 2000s, which was what was the US release date as the guide for what we can draft. It's a little squishier here. So Greg Gardens would have been eligible, but since you took it in 75, maybe not so eligible. We don't want to repeat it. I don't know. What do you make of how we're navigating all this?
- [10:30]
C
I think we should just. I think we should play with love and trust.
- [10:35]
A
Yes. Do the best we can.
- [10:36]
B
That's beautiful.
- [10:36]
D
That's a fundamental belief system in this podcast.
- [10:39]
B
I would just say when you're out in the world talking about the big picture, not on this podcast, is it all. It's maybe with love, but not trust. Always. Yeah.
- [10:51]
C
How do you mean?
- [10:52]
B
I would say that you have some feedback about our taste that you've made public on Blank Check and other places.
- [11:00]
C
I've made no bones about the fact that I disagree with you guys 60 to 70% of the time, but I've said it to Chris. That's part of the magic of the show, that you can disagree with you guys as much as I do and listen to the show. And it's not a hate watch. It's not a hate listen. I don't listen to it because you piss me off.
- [11:18]
B
Thank you.
- [11:19]
C
I listen to it in spite of
- [11:21]
A
the fact that's why you listen to the watch. Do you listen to the big picture? Have you heard it?
- [11:29]
D
Do I listen to the big picture? Yeah, I do.
- [11:31]
A
What do you think of it?
- [11:33]
D
It's an interesting experiment in social.
- [11:37]
C
How often do you agree with their taste? Maybe more so than I do somewhere.
- [11:43]
D
I mean, I am usually in agreement with one or the other, if not both.
- [11:47]
C
See, I mean, I like a lot fewer things than you do, but I think that's the way it's supposed to be. I think given the various jobs that we have, I think we like the right percentage of stuff.
- [11:57]
A
Well, I have found the more folks that I get to know who have worked in this business, the more you find that they don't like a lot of things, that they're actually quite critical of a lot of things. Of course they will never, ever say that they don't like something for a variety of reasons. But it's always fascinating to me here why someone who has worked in film, television, theater thinks something is a failure.
- [12:20]
D
It's usually because the director of photography on that is a jackass to be one sometimes.
- [12:24]
A
But sometimes you get such fascinating critical insight that I just wish I could share or wish could be broadcast in a way. But that's because folks like yourself understand how some of this stuff works in ways that we never will.
- [12:36]
C
Also there, of course, there's also a generational component, and we've had this conversation that the Ringer itself, there's a kind of 90s love across. Across platforms here at the Ringer that I don't share. I. I prefer the 80s to the 90s in terms of movies. That's a fight I love to have and keep having, you know, but it's not a. It's not a deal breaker.
- [13:01]
A
Not a deal breaker. This was proffered on the Robert Duvall hall of Fame that the movies from the 70s are better than the movies from the 80s and movies from the 80s are better than the movies from The 90s, and so on and so forth.
- [13:10]
C
We found it both with Robert Duvall and Robert Redford.
- [13:14]
A
Very true.
- [13:15]
B
Yes.
- [13:17]
A
But I wonder if. Are the Robert Redford movies from the 90s better than his movies from the 80s? They might. They might be, yes.
- [13:26]
B
Is sneakers 90s?
- [13:28]
A
No.
- [13:29]
C
Look at our hall of Fame sneakers.
- [13:30]
D
Is 90s sneakers.
- [13:31]
A
You might be right about that.
- [13:32]
B
Is 92 we got to start talking about.
- [13:34]
A
Stars were in their primes in the 90s. That was the other thing is, who was in their prime at that time? Right. That's a factor anyhow, up close and personal.
- [13:43]
D
Do you think?
- [13:44]
A
Never forget, not a great one.
- [13:46]
D
Eastwood in the 90s. Better than Eastwood in the 80s.
- [13:49]
A
Oh, yeah, no question. Not even close.
- [13:53]
C
I can't conjure the titles.
- [13:55]
A
I mean, Unforgiven, in the Line of Fire, Perfect World, in the Line of
- [13:58]
B
Fire, Bridges and Mountains, Madison County.
- [14:01]
A
Some of his best movies are in the 90s.
- [14:02]
C
Yeah. The exception that proves the wrong.
- [14:04]
A
Okay. I think we'll probably end up doing every year from the 1970s at some point. Hopefully with you again in the future too. But this year and the point that you were making about Jaws had me thinking about an exercise which is I find that because the 70s is so critical to shaping the future of cinema, not just in America, but worldwide, each year gets a movie that I feel like is the movie that represents something meaningful, box office wise, critically, cultural impact beyond both of those things. Kind of what it means to the character of the country, the character of the business. And I just this morning just banged out what I think the movie of that year is. So for 1970 I thought M A S H it wasn't the number one movie at the box office, but it's a movie that kind of changed the tenor of what a movie could be and be a very successful film.
- [14:57]
D
And do you think it captured like the anti war sentiment that was growing
- [15:01]
A
something in the zeitgeist? A little bit of the pranksterism too that I think came out of the 1960s. 71, I chose the French Connection. 72. I chose the Godfather. 73. I chose the Exorcists. That's two Friedkin movies. 74. I chose Blazing Saddles over things like The Godfather Part II.
- [15:18]
B
Right. Your anti Godfather 2 agenda continues.
- [15:22]
C
We have some conversation about this on Robert Du all on my. And did I hear you on the Talk Easy podcast learned that maybe your father.
- [15:34]
D
My father did not like Godfather 2. At least he didn't when he was reviewing it.
- [15:37]
A
Apparently Cash Grab he called it. You know.
- [15:41]
C
Sure.
- [15:41]
D
Can you imagine my dad now like having reckoned with what Cash Grab, he
- [15:46]
A
would have been a great third chair.
- [15:48]
C
I think there's a kind of more conversation to to have about Godfather Part II. But it's a 50 year old movie. We don't have to have it now.
- [15:55]
A
It's not the right year, but we'll get there. 75. Jaws, of course, 76. The subject of our draft is probably Rocky.
- [16:04]
D
Yeah.
- [16:04]
B
Yes.
- [16:05]
A
And we'll get into that when we go through the draft. 77 is obvious. Star Wars. 78 I think is Superman. And 79, you can pick your poison. Apocalypse now is the end of something. Alien is the start of something. What do you make of that? Do you feel like that's a little easy Monday morning?
- [16:22]
D
Well, we're not talking about 76 specifically because I think the rejoinder to Rocky would be like, well what about all the President's Men and put a capstone on Watergate and you know, it's like this. But it. I'm curious as somebody who was there and also somebody who's obviously thought about this process, like why Rocky and now,
- [16:38]
B
how thin were you to Watergate at age 11?
- [16:40]
C
Oh my God.
- [16:41]
B
Yeah.
- [16:41]
C
Very tapped in my father red faced and screaming at the television for two solid years. Oh, no. Incredibly tapped in.
- [16:52]
A
That's so interesting.
- [16:54]
C
Some of my earliest memories, my parents screaming at the television. It was just total engagement and enragement.
- [17:03]
A
Did he read the Woodward and Bernstein book?
- [17:05]
D
Of course.
- [17:07]
A
Did you sense anticipation for that movie in your household?
- [17:10]
C
Absolutely. Hmm.
- [17:12]
A
That is interesting. Not surprising. And I'm not trying to deride all the President's Men, obviously. I just made a podcast about it two weeks ago.
- [17:17]
D
It's an interesting exercise to be like. You know, you might want it to be one way, but it's actually another way.
- [17:22]
A
Well, I think. What do you think? Cause Rocky is very different from most of the movies on that list.
- [17:27]
B
Right. And it wins Best Picture. So it's a little bit Oscar coded, your choice, but you're really doing more of what does this mean for the, the movie industry in the types of movies that are being made as opposed to personal favorites or even what you think the quote unquote, like best example of cinema is, with all respect to Rocky, which is fun and I've been on the steps doing the pose myself. I think that makes sense. I mean, it's, it's good list making. I think that the list mostly favors. I mean, it, it, it is, it. It's an industry measurement list rather than an artistic list. But that's okay. Even though they're good movies on here,
- [18:08]
A
I'm looking to blend both with the idea that like.
- [18:11]
C
Well, and the popular imagination too. But in 1975, nobody thought jaws was going to win Best Picture. It wasn't even a consideration. That movie was not going to win Best Picture. You knew it was going to be one of the other movies. And Cuckoo's Nest obviously barreled through the same way. That's why Rocky was such a shift. It was a real shift. You had these other undeniably great films and then this heart of a champion movie. It was a head scratcher.
- [18:45]
A
I think there's a prevailing thought that the new Hollywood ends a lot earlier than people think it does and that it's not Star wars, but it's that double whammy of Jaws and Rocky that augurs the massive shift at the corporately held movie studios to push in a different direction.
- [19:01]
C
And Star wars seals the deal.
- [19:03]
A
Right.
- [19:05]
D
There's a. So the Kael essay that I was referring to is this like November piece she writes that's, you know, it's a lot of it is about Jaws, but then some of it's about Clint Eastwood and some of it's about John Wayne and some of it's about Alfred Hitchens.
- [19:17]
A
Oh, I've read this piece.
- [19:17]
D
Yeah, it's really an amazing kind of snapshot of a moment in cinema. But I was, I was struck by the fact that In November of 76, she's still kind of like turning Jaws over in her head and turning over like what it meant to movies for this to happen. Do you remember compared to say now? Because this is something that comes up every once in a while on this pod and others. How long things would stay in the consciousness and whether or not something like Jaws just kind of like occupied more mindshare for longer than say something now. Where it's like, man, that show's amazing for eight weeks. And then it just seems to like, nobody mentions it again till Emmys. Or nobody mentions it again ever. Or a movie. For instance, I use Project Hail Mary as an example where it's like a wildly, hugely successful movie. But I don't know, like it's never gonna have the footprint of Ghostbusters, you know, like it's never gonna have the footprint of something that's like.
- [20:12]
A
No, but I think that there's a way. I don't mean to cut you off. No, but I think there's a way to read that movie. The same kind of socio cultural way that Kael was so good at, which is that there's kind of like a hope demism in that movie.
- [20:24]
D
Yeah, absolutely.
- [20:25]
A
I think that people kind of desperately want right now because of a lot of what's going on externally in the world. And it also reminds us of like earlier, more comfy times in movie culture. And so you kind of smash those two ideas together. I mean, that's my favorite thing to do is to kind of overread something in the culture like that in 76 though. Like the fact that the two things are going hitting against each other that like the kind of cynical or more paranoid kind of film could be really popular. And also Rocky could be really popular. Like, what does that mean? That they can coexist, Right?
- [20:56]
C
Yeah, I don't. I guess I don't have a good answer to that though. Part of the answer to that is has to do with accessibility. I mean, you had to go to the movie theater and pay money to see these movies. You couldn't watch them at home. You could wait until it showed up on broadcast television, but other than that, you had to go to the movie theater. So there's is something about that, something about that actually keep the ball in the air in A sense in terms of culture and conversation. Longer because it's a, it's a little harder to see my kids watch the same movie every day, right? For a week or two weeks. It's like I didn't have. That wasn't possible for me as a kid.
- [21:38]
A
Let me ask you one other thing about that. Because when I was a kid, the longest period of time that could transpire was the period when I missed a movie in movie theaters. And I was waiting for it to come to blockbuster. It felt like an eternity. And it was often eight months, seven months. If you missed a movie in movie theaters, and it doesn't sound like you missed many, but if you missed a movie in movie theaters that you wanted to see, were you like, were you anticipating the opportunity to see it on tv? How did you find out it was gonna play on tv? Like can you talk about that gap in time?
- [22:09]
C
Well, I read the TV Guide religiously. I looked for when those things were going to be on tv. I sought them out. And of course with certain things they'd bring them back. I saw most of the Bond movies, most of the Sean Connery Bond movies in the movie theater on re release. That's how you saw that stuff. Godfather also, right? You see Godfather, one of its biggest box office years is like 74 or 75 when they re released Godfather because again, we talked about this on the hall of Fame, Duvall hall of Fame podcast. They didn't know how to put it on tv. It's an R rated thing and yet it was the most popular movie, the biggest box office movie of all time. So how are we going to see it?
- [22:55]
A
These kids don't know how good they have it. It's incredible how accessible everything is. Just the idea of Disney makes my brain melt because scarcity was the whole point for years and years and now it's full blown accessibility all of a sudden. You think it has degraded the culture.
- [23:11]
B
I do think it's degraded the culture. I mean, my child was just screaming to watch box jellyfish videos before he went to school this morning. And I was like, what has my life come to? But it's, it's also degraded the business, right? I mean, the fact that nothing is as special means that the kids and we all expect that we can have whatever we want exactly as we want it immediately. And we're not willing to go out of our way, we're not willing to go to movie theaters. Nothing feels quite as special. So that's a bummer. Luckily you guys have a lot of plastic and you're fighting that off.
- [23:45]
A
We're doing well with that, I think,
- [23:47]
C
you know, in the silent film days, that make the circuit, and then once the silent film was finished making the circuit, they threw it in the trash.
- [23:53]
A
Yes.
- [23:54]
C
Which is why only 10% of silent films have survived. It was like, well, this is done. And they just chucked it.
- [24:00]
A
Amanda proposed that for the mcu and they said, no, we're gonna hang onto those doomsday plays.
- [24:06]
D
Once in every city they shoot the sun.
- [24:11]
A
Do you want a draft? Any other open thoughts? Okay.
- [24:14]
C
Well, the only thing I'll say is that there is a kind of. I like your list. I think your list is good. I think there's an answer to every one of the ones on your list that is. I mean, yeah, MASH 1970, but you could also say Patton 1970, which in some ways is the flip side of the same coin. But there are still some amazing. It's not all rah rah Patton. Right. I mean, it's written by Francis Ford Coppola. There's complexity, totally.
- [24:47]
A
The scene when he's scolding the officer who has PTSD is the most obvious. Like the two generations misunderstanding each other scene in the movie from that year.
- [24:56]
C
And I think Patton probably made a lot more money than MASH at movie theaters, I'm guessing.
- [25:01]
A
I think they're pretty close.
- [25:03]
C
Really?
- [25:03]
A
I think they're pretty. And that was part of what I was thinking was what movie is a box office hit, a critical sensation, and got into the culture in a way that felt impactful. But, you know, everything is debatable.
- [25:13]
C
I mean, Star wars and Jaws are inarguable. Clearly they're inarguable. They really changed. Right. Hollywood movies in the 80s are very different as a result of not only those two films, but those two filmmakers. But, yeah, there's a flip side to all of those coins.
- [25:35]
A
Well, I welcome the feedback, and I won't be looking at it.
- [25:39]
D
It's about community.
- [25:40]
C
Yeah.
- [25:41]
A
So for this draf, we do have six categories. I'm going to read those categories before we settle on our draft order. The categories are as follows. Drama, comedy or horror.
- [25:56]
D
Or sci fi. Right.
- [25:57]
A
Or sci fi. We've done that. Because, as Amanda indicated, this is a tricky year for comedy. I think we could have pulled it off if we kept it tight.
- [26:05]
D
But it would have been pretty funny to laugh at us, but not to laugh at these movies.
- [26:10]
A
That's right. Thriller or action is also a category. Blockbuster. Now, the threshold here is $20 million, and there are only 10 films that qualify for that threshold, then Oscar, which means any film that was nominated for an Academy Award from that year. And then of course, wildcard. Okay, Jack. Is there a Jack Sanders selection that we'll be able to hear?
- [26:37]
D
Hello, it is I, producer Jack, coming from the past to deliver the highly
- [26:43]
A
anticipated 1976 movie Draft Order. As always, I have denied Tracy let's his bribe of a $100 bill for the first overall pick because I have integrity.
- [26:55]
D
Selecting first Amanda.
- [26:58]
B
Oh my God, I'm so happy. I really wanted it and I wasn't going to say anything. First overall draft pick.
- [27:03]
A
Feels like a pretty stacked year.
- [27:04]
D
Feels like a deep year.
- [27:07]
A
I personally would want the turn selecting second overall Christopher Ryan. Wow.
- [27:13]
C
So rigged. Wow, that's so rigged.
- [27:15]
B
This is the first. First pick I've gotten in like six months.
- [27:18]
A
I do feel pretty bad. I feel like every draft Tracy has been a part of, I think I
- [27:21]
D
may have given him the last overall pick.
- [27:23]
A
So I'm selfishly hoping he's third overall here, but we'll see. God damn it.
- [27:28]
D
God fucking damn it. Sean Fency will be third, which means Tracy lets.
- [27:32]
B
The turn's good. The turn's good.
- [27:35]
A
Fascinating.
- [27:36]
B
Okay. I know exactly what I'm gonna do, but I did just change categories because I was a little light. Yeah. So I think this makes sense. I think this makes sense.
- [27:50]
A
Hang in there, mama. Hang in there. We just, we haven't even started yet.
- [27:53]
D
You got this.
- [27:55]
C
I'm ready to start deleting. Okay.
- [27:58]
B
I think in Thriller.
- [28:00]
A
Uh huh.
- [28:01]
B
I will take all the President's Men.
- [28:03]
A
Okay.
- [28:03]
D
Ooh, interesting.
- [28:04]
B
Which all the President's Men was gonna be my number one draft pick if I got the first pick. It is my favorite movie of this year, one of my favorite movies of all time, and also a movie educationally that certainly introduced me to Alan Pakula, William Goldman, and then, you know, all the backstage gossiping and fraught nature of production that William Goldman details in its adventures in screenwriting.
- [28:38]
A
Right.
- [28:39]
B
I think this is probably where I learned who Gordon Willis is. Taught me about the power of gold chains as worn by Robert Redford. It taught me, you know, this is how I learned Watergate, because I wasn't around and I probably saw it before we got to Watergate in whatever truncated Republican American history course I took in high school. You know, they never really made it.
- [29:06]
A
I know.
- [29:06]
D
They never get to Vietnam.
- [29:07]
B
Yeah, they never get to Vietnam or they didn't in our day. Maybe, maybe they've gotten there.
- [29:12]
A
They did in my AP American History class.
- [29:14]
D
You know, What?
- [29:14]
B
Honestly, even in my ap, they were just like, yeah, yada, yada. And then Richard Nixon resigned.
- [29:20]
D
So.
- [29:20]
A
So.
- [29:22]
B
But this is an amazing, electrifying, like, beautiful movie about a bunch of dudes sitting in rooms talking. And it really did show to me, like, the power and the possibility of people talking smartly in rooms and everything that you can do with that, like, visually and emotionally. And I did all of my research for 1976, and then I saved this, and this is the one that I picked to watch, like, right before I went to bed last night, I didn't even watch all of it. But then this morning, I was like, oh, I got 30 minutes here while I got it, while I do my hair and I set it up. Cause I just. I wanted to watch this speech where Jason Robards as Bren Bradley comes out and, you know, like, from the. From his house at night and tells him not to fuck up again. And it's. I don't know. It's an American classic. It's probably. When I say that I think 76 is better than 75, it's just because I love this movie so much. And I think this and a couple others to me are like the highest of highs, whereas 75 is everyone being really, really good. But, yeah, I'm thrilled to have it.
- [30:29]
A
Great pick. I don't know if I would have guessed that this would be the number one overall. Was it consensus number one for you? Yeah. And for you as well?
- [30:35]
D
Yeah.
- [30:36]
A
Interesting.
- [30:37]
D
This is also like a for. For draft Knicks. A crucial title to be taken off the board because of its flexibility across a couple of different categories.
- [30:45]
A
Yes. I think it would have been acceptable in four of the six categories.
- [30:48]
D
So you took it in thriller.
- [30:49]
B
I did.
- [30:50]
A
Excuse me. Five of the six categories, which is fascinating. In thriller, though, is really interesting to me. That is not what I would have thought about.
- [30:59]
B
I will be honest. I didn't read the changes that you made last minute until we were drafting. And so I. I didn't know that it was thriller or action.
- [31:07]
A
Got it. Okay.
- [31:08]
B
I didn't know that. I didn't. I didn't understand that horror and comedy were grouped together. Okay.
- [31:12]
C
So I don't think it'll impact you that much.
- [31:14]
B
Okay, thank you.
- [31:17]
A
Well, Chris, you've got the second pick. Are you. Are you excited? Are you reeling? How are you feeling?
- [31:21]
D
I don't think anybody's going to have a bad movie in the first round of not a bad movie, but I don't think anybody's going to be upset.
- [31:27]
A
Nothing soft coming in Nobody is like,
- [31:29]
D
God damn it, this is a three movie draft and I get the fourth pick or something. I'm going to take Taxi Driver and Oscars.
- [31:37]
A
I'm.
- [31:37]
D
I would be happy to take it or happy to take a bunch of other movies here with the second pick. But Taxi Drivers, one I revisited recently and pretty good. Yeah. And also, like, I forgot, excellent film. Yeah.
- [31:53]
A
One of my favorite movies ever made.
- [31:54]
D
I forgot how, like, beyond being, like, sad to watch a man descend into hell, it's also melancholy and, you know, it's like an incredible portrait of loneliness and an incredible portrait of like, a guy who doesn't know how to relate to the rest of the world and how that drives him insane ultimately. But also obviously, just like one of the great New York films. One of the most incredibly orchestrated movies when it comes to, like, the visuals matching up against the sound, the score, which is always what kind of haunts me about this. And then some of the most virtuistic, dazzling sequences that you can imagine from Scorsese and De Niro. Kind of in a zone that few people have ever gotten to.
- [32:34]
A
So Taxi Driver, normally, if I lost out on the Pikula movie and the Scorsese movie, I would be absolutely devastated.
- [32:44]
B
But you get your number one thing.
- [32:46]
A
The board played into my hands and I feel so comfortable.
- [32:49]
D
But that's the thing, is if I had taken this, what you were about to take, you'd probably be like, awesome,
- [32:53]
B
I'm going to go ahead and do it.
- [32:54]
A
I wouldn't have been upset. Yeah, I would have been a little bit disappointed because my number one on my board. But any other thought, I mean, Taxi Driver, it's on the list of movies that I watch every, like 18 months or so. And I feel like it, what it's exploring and what you just described kind of never goes out of fashion. Unfortunately. It feels like it is right on top of the surface all the time. And a lot of that is due to Paul Schrader tapping into something that I don't think expires. A lot of it is the De Niro performance. A lot of it is the sense that, like, there's always somebody who's unhappy in this country about how the politics is going and that the movie really taps into that too. Or at least they use their dissatisfaction with politics to project something from their own unhappiness. And just that idea alone makes it a timeless movie. My favorite scene always changes with this movie, but it's always a scene where Travis is talking to someone and they're like, what the fuck is wrong with this guy? Whether it's like Peter Boyle outside of the diner or any Cybill Shepard interactions, or, you know, anytime he's got somebody in the back of his cab and they're chatting.
- [34:03]
D
Well, in those scenes, sometimes Travis is like, what the fuck is wrong with this guy in the backseat? Like Martin Scorsese.
- [34:09]
A
Yeah.
- [34:10]
C
The way mental illness is portrayed in movies is interesting. We were talking about this with Captain Newman. The history of that's very interesting. You know, you want to be thoughtful about the way it's portrayed. And in Taxi Driver, he's not only sick, he's not only ill, but he's scary. He's realistically scary. If you've ever encountered somebody who's having an episode or who is mentally ill, but also has you feel in them the capacity for violence, there's a. Something happens inside you. Right. There's a kind of fight or flight impulse that takes hold and. And De Niro just absolutely taps into that.
- [34:55]
A
But he's. It's not the strange unhoused person shambling down the street. He's very still in the movie. You know, he's that different kind of menacing that is even scarier where you feel like he actually is in. At least believes he's in control as opposed to someone kind of flailing their arms and going crazy. It's still just such an amazingly impactful movie.
- [35:18]
C
I saw almost every movie we're gonna talk about in the movie theater. My parents took me to see Taxi Driver when I was 10.
- [35:25]
B
Wow.
- [35:26]
C
To a. Drive it.
- [35:27]
D
And they were like, here's your dirt bike and here's your unsupervised lady.
- [35:31]
A
Before you go any further, I have to ask you a question about this, because I'm thinking about this with my own parenting. You know, I feel growing up, being exposed to things at a young age got me where I am today.
- [35:42]
C
Yeah.
- [35:42]
B
Yeah.
- [35:43]
A
For better and for worse.
- [35:44]
B
Agree.
- [35:44]
A
I really. I liked the way that I was matured by the culture, but I'm now thinking a little bit harder about what the impact of that would be on my kid. And you turned out wonderfully. But you did also write Bug and Killer Joe
- [36:02]
B
and look how that worked out for him. And we're lucky to have those.
- [36:05]
A
And the thing about that is, obviously touched by a genius quality you gotta get. That's luck of the draw. That's just like, you got it or you don't got it. If you don't got it and you watch Bug. If I showed Alice bug at 11 the way that you saw a taxi driver at 11. How would that go over? How would that get into her bloodstream?
- [36:28]
C
Well, I saw taxi driver at 10. Remember, I had seen Serpico at 6. I mean, my folks exposed me to a lot, and I really just think they just didn't want to pay for a sitter.
- [36:39]
A
That's another reason why I wanted to.
- [36:41]
C
And I have to say, I think differently about it with my own kids. I mean, I think my kids are gonna have it tougher than I had it. I think the world is gonna be a harder place. And so I'm trying to extend their childhood as far as I can.
- [36:54]
A
Oh, that's beautiful.
- [36:55]
C
So I'm not exposing them to stuff like this yet. Now, I did say to Haskell the other day, who was asking about something, I said, when you're 14, you can watch every. Watch anything, watch anything on the shelf. I don't care.
- [37:08]
A
Okay, but even Russ Meyers up.
- [37:10]
C
You can watch Russ Meyers up at 14.
- [37:12]
A
That's exciting.
- [37:14]
C
But Taxi Driver is the first movie they ever took me out of. We were in the drive in. Oh, and when they go back to Jody Foster's place, which is fairly late in the movie, my mom said, dennis, I'm very uncomfortable. And we drove out, and they went back the next night and saw it. Oh, and I didn't see it until.
- [37:36]
A
Well, God forbid you didn't see the day anymore, Dennis.
- [37:39]
B
No.
- [37:39]
A
I bet that's when that would have been a little tough to endure, that final stretch. That's another thing. Speaking of the times, that's a wonderful detail that I think is in the Mr. Scorsese doc when they talk about this film. But just the way in which they change the color tone of that final sequence because of concerns from the MPA board and the rating and that sort of fantasia of violence that Bickle goes on and how just turning that more red and brown and making it seem like. It seems like a descent into hell. But it's also a little bit harder to tell what is happening in each individual bullet hole. And, you know, that's one of those things where some of that is chance, some of that is artistic, some of that is a product of the times and what was allowed and what was not allowed. But anyway, great.
- [38:28]
D
I mean, I would just. The thing that haunts me about this movie, I think you're talking about this being a harder world to grow up in than the one that maybe Taxi Driver entered. But it's. It's gift and its curses. I think it was very prescient about a sentiment of a great way. You know, a rain will come and wash all this away. You hear that echoed in a lot of extremism now and like a kind of just inhumanity and hatred for people that I think is sadly, like very on the nose of like, when you read about, like some of the stuff in the world and you just are like, Jesus Christ. Like, you know, we've really fallen. So way to go, Paul Schrader. You got us nailed.
- [39:08]
A
Tapped into something.
- [39:11]
D
Okay, do the thing, brother.
- [39:12]
B
Go for it.
- [39:15]
A
Well, I'll be taking network in drama, which is a movie I've spoken about quite a bit on this show and we just spoke about it on the Duval hall of Fame. And his scene in that movie, which is one of the most electrifying examples of acting that I've ever seen. Then thinking a little bit about why I got into journalism and writing and broadcasting and all these things that I find myself in. This relates to all the President's Men, two of the three or four best movies of the year. Being about these worlds. I never thought I would be having a camera in front of me while I speak. And yet here I am, Howard Beiling my way through this. I've said before, this is the movie that really, I think, made me feel like a grown up. It taught me a bit more about how the world really works or I thought how it really worked. And it's been called prescient many times. Chayefsky's script being having such an eerily predictive quality and more so every year, similar to Taxi Driver, it kind of never expiring. The other thing about this movie, though, is that it's a lot of fun. It's very entertaining. I think that's a little bit lost in the discussion of it because it feels so powerful and so stoked by this kind of paranoia and corporate malfeasance in the work of journalism and in the work of telling the truth. But what Ned Beatty's doing in this movie is a lot of fun. What Faye Dunaway is doing in this movie is a lot of fun.
- [40:42]
D
Robert Duvall's a lot of fun in this movie.
- [40:43]
A
Yeah, he's having a great time. And that kind of like pop opera that Chayefsky was so good at, that really, really clever style of soliloquy writing that he was best at is just really entertaining. And this is a movie that like, shouldn't appeal to 13 year olds, given what it's about. But when I saw it, I was just taking. It was like on A magic carpet ride away into like the rest of my life, basically, which.
- [41:05]
B
Well, it should. It understands that what it is talking about is that. That its subject is manufactured to be as broad as possible. And it's showing you the machinery, but also recreating the product. It has to.
- [41:19]
D
That's right.
- [41:20]
A
Especially once he is not just when he's looking down the barrel of the camera and talking about how he's had enough bullshit, but once he starts becoming the host of a variety show, effectively in which he is a tent revival preacher speaking about how politics, God and the self operates in society. We have so many examples of people who do this now.
- [41:44]
D
This one is also such an incredible mishmash of acting styles. I was rewatching some scenes from last night and I was like, how do they get Peter Finch and Ned Beatty on this side of Ham? And then Duvall and Faye Dunaway doing this very kind of like loose but very present realism in their performance. And then Holden is just fucking pickled and dying in front of you the entire movie.
- [42:10]
A
One of the saddest performances of the 70s.
- [42:12]
D
But how do they. Lumet, making all of that work in the same frame, same scene, same movie is just always amazing to me.
- [42:20]
C
Superb. You took it in drama.
- [42:23]
A
I did.
- [42:24]
C
Because that's another one. Could go in several categories.
- [42:26]
A
It could be a comedy, it could be Oscar, could be a wild card. I certainly laugh a lot while watching it. Okay, you've got two selections.
- [42:37]
C
I knew those were going to be the first three off the board, so I was just like, just. Just not last anything but last as I was last time. It's very clear the fix is in.
- [42:50]
A
I understand you think Jack Sanders has done something.
- [42:52]
D
You get two picks here. You could really upset the apple cart.
- [42:55]
C
Yeah, I know. And I'm.
- [42:57]
A
You're about to do that.
- [42:58]
C
Do my best.
- [42:59]
A
Okay.
- [42:59]
C
I want to acknowledge that the best three movies of this year, to my mind, have been taken off the board.
- [43:05]
A
Is that a consensus?
- [43:06]
C
I think those were always going to be the first three picks.
- [43:10]
A
That's the argument that you're making, was that this year is this year because it's got these three movies.
- [43:14]
B
Those three movies are like top of the top all time. Still referenced still. We could say both reflective but also predictive of where we are.
- [43:27]
D
For all three of them on a list. If we were doing a draft of our favorite movies.
- [43:31]
A
Yeah. The hundred greatest movies ever made, they
- [43:33]
B
would be in that conversation. And Greatest performances, his screenplay, you know, all of it. Great.
- [43:38]
C
Agree. In Blockbuster, I'm going to take Rocky.
- [43:43]
B
Okay.
- [43:44]
A
Okay.
- [43:45]
D
A movie with personal residence.
- [43:46]
B
Yes.
- [43:47]
A
You want to speak about that?
- [43:48]
B
Deleting it.
- [43:49]
C
I saw it in movie theaters in 1976. It's a terrific experience to watch in the movie theater with people. It's such an exciting movie and such a. It's such an excellent screenplay. You know, the moment when Rocky knocks down Apollo the first time is such a. In some ways, now feels like such an obvious sports movie moment. But watching that film, something about the way that moment was disguised was such a surprise. I mean, people leapt out of their seat when they saw it. So a thrilling movie to see in the movie theater. Now I've done this movie called I Play Rocky, which is coming out later this year. So I revisited Rocky and I put it on for me and Carrie. And Carrie's like, oh, we're gonna watch Rocky. Like, she's seen this. She knows it. And I asked her a question about the end of the movie, which she got wrong. So we watched the movie and she was like. Again, like most things we watch, she was like, oh, I've never seen this before. And we got to the end of the movie, and she said, I thought it was a sports movie. I didn't realize it's a character study. And see, this is why everybody dislikes me, because I think they should have stopped making these goddamn movies after Rocky. I think the world would be a better place if they had stopped at Rocky. If they had stopped at Alien, I think they should have just stopped. Well, now, did they make a billion dollars? Yes.
- [45:22]
A
That's an interesting opinion.
- [45:25]
C
And that's why people don't like it.
- [45:27]
A
No, you're beloved Rocky 2 is very good. And there are people who believe it is better than Rocky one.
- [45:37]
B
They're wrong.
- [45:38]
C
No, they're absolutely wrong.
- [45:41]
D
I prefer watching Rocky 2.
- [45:44]
A
Rocky 1 is extremely slow.
- [45:48]
C
Not so.
- [45:49]
A
It is deliberate in its character study in a way that I candidly find a little dull at times. And now the final 20 minutes.
- [45:58]
C
My wife did not find it dull. Never did she find it dull.
- [46:01]
D
Well, she also wouldn't have been excited by more boxing in it, though, right? She wouldn't have been like, oh, I thought that there was gonna be more sports. She was probably avoided.
- [46:10]
C
So maybe it's a question of what you're looking for in a movie.
- [46:13]
B
What was the question that she got wrong?
- [46:15]
A
Does Rocky win at the end? Yeah.
- [46:16]
B
Oh, that's okay.
- [46:17]
C
Yeah.
- [46:18]
D
Presumably.
- [46:18]
A
And he does not, of course. Spoiler alert for Rocky.
- [46:23]
C
50 years ago.
- [46:26]
A
You know, I was thinking about as a person who likes Rocky and has never loved Rocky. Would I have drafted it at all? Like, would it have been inauthentic to have drafted it? Before you worked on I Play Rocky, would you have described yourself as a Rocky person?
- [46:43]
C
I would have described myself as a person who really loved and enjoyed the first film. And diminishing returns for me after that. I saw two in the theater. I saw three in the theater or at home.
- [46:56]
A
Three is pretty fun.
- [46:57]
C
And I. Four is Dolph Lundgren.
- [47:00]
A
It is, yeah.
- [47:02]
C
By that time, I was out.
- [47:03]
A
He dies. He dies.
- [47:03]
C
I was out.
- [47:04]
A
That's how I feel about CR on these drafts. Philadelphia. Rocky thoughts.
- [47:08]
D
I mean, he's obviously a city icon. I probably care more about at this point in my life. I care more about the Creed, the Creed character played by Michael B. Jordan, than I do about Rocky.
- [47:20]
A
Interesting. He has supplanted Rocky as your Philly icon.
- [47:25]
D
Well, I just think it's okay to move on. Like Tracy said, we've made so many of these movies. Sylvester Stallone has refused to let go of it in a lot of ways, or did. And I just find myself, like, kind of being energized and. And. And stimulated by, like, a new take on it, you know, and a new take on the mythology of the boxer, you know,
- [47:47]
C
I play Rocky. It's good. You're going to like it. That's my selection. Shall I move on?
- [47:52]
A
Did you ask to do this draft just so you could promote your film?
- [47:56]
C
You know me. The reason I like to come on here is to tout. Try to.
- [48:01]
D
It's a run up his numbers.
- [48:03]
A
I see your long Z.
- [48:04]
D
That's Rocky. You took first and your second pick in comedy horror.
- [48:09]
C
I'm going to take Carey.
- [48:10]
D
No, God damn it. Come on.
- [48:12]
B
I mean, I knew that. I knew I wasn't going to get it, but I'm bummed out.
- [48:16]
A
Dope.
- [48:18]
C
Oh, good. I'm glad somebody's upset about my kid.
- [48:21]
A
If I were to get that, I would have felt very good.
- [48:26]
C
I think Sissy SpaceX should have won Best Actress.
- [48:29]
B
Okay, listen, she's incredible in it, but don't bring that to Faye Dunaway in network, which is the most important.
- [48:37]
C
I think Sissy SpaceX should have won Best Actress and I think Piper Laurie should have won Best Supporting Actress.
- [48:43]
B
I'm good with that. But Faye Dunaway, Keep your Oscar.
- [48:47]
A
She does win for Coal Miner's Daughter, right? She gets hers.
- [48:50]
C
I think she's an underrated actress.
- [48:52]
D
Would you try to get De Palma and Director somewhere?
- [48:55]
C
No.
- [48:55]
D
Okay.
- [48:57]
C
I also think they should have stopped making Jump scares after Carrie, I think jump scare, because I hate jump scares. I think they should have retired them after care. There's not been one as good as the jump scare.
- [49:08]
A
You know what's funny? This movie's jump scares are all editing tricks that were used before this and are now used after it. But for whatever reason, the De Palma cut just feels different than other directors cuts. And you feel it in the prom scene. You feel it with the hand coming out of the grave. Like the couple moments where you're just astonished by what's just happened and you can be startled. It's not the same as being astonished. There is something different in this movie. The kind of film grammar that he's working with, that is so great. I'm really mad. You got this.
- [49:44]
C
Amy Irving lives in my little town in New York. Hi, Amy.
- [49:48]
D
Does she look into the big picture?
- [49:50]
C
I don't know.
- [49:50]
B
Okay, well, next time you see her, you can say, hey, I said hello to you.
- [49:54]
A
You should. On a podcast, Amanda recently selected Crossing Delancey, one of her best films.
- [49:59]
C
One of Gary's favorite movies. One of Carrie's favorite.
- [50:01]
D
I wonder whether what you're reacting to is what he cuts to. Because, like, there's jump cuts. There's jump scares in the conjuring movies. And it's like in the dark, it kind of like, okay looking ghost. And just the cut is scary. Like you're like, oh, yeah. But when he cuts, he's fucking like. And now this goddamn image.
- [50:20]
A
You know, also like the use of split screen where you're seeing two things at the same time and your mind is expected to process them both. And they're both scary. It's the look on her face and the fire and something falling in the gymnasium simultaneously. That just creates like an energy inside me that like most modern horror movies just can't really. They can't. They can't pull that off.
- [50:41]
D
Carrie, she just needed somebody to say, you got this, mama.
- [50:43]
B
So true. This is still probably the best movie about high school ever made. I think in addition to having an
- [50:49]
A
interesting draft idea right there. High school movies.
- [50:52]
B
Yeah, but you got opposing counsel and a technical achievement. Yeah, opposing counsel and high school movies.
- [50:57]
A
You gotta explain that joke because we weren't recording when that was talking about
- [51:00]
D
the great opposing councils in movies in the bathroom.
- [51:03]
B
That's what happens when these three men go to the bathroom.
- [51:05]
A
Do you think we should start bringing mics to the bathroom?
- [51:08]
B
They all just. They were like going to go to the bathroom before we record. They came out and were just Being like Kevin Bacon and A Few Good Men. He is very good in that, even though Tracy doesn't like that movie.
- [51:19]
C
Moving on.
- [51:20]
D
You're up, big dog.
- [51:22]
A
Okay, so I wanted Carrie.
- [51:24]
B
I'm bummed.
- [51:25]
A
Carrie and Rocky. And I'm up. Okay, well, I know what two movies I'm going to take and I don't
- [51:38]
D
know, I only get one pick.
- [51:39]
A
Right, sorry. I know what one movie I'm going to take. I know what two movies I want and I got to figure out what is the right category for them both in Blockbuster. I will take the Bad News Bears. Now, some of the. Now this is, in my opinion the best comedy of this year and also the last truly great. To me, Blockbuster is a funky blockbuster year.
- [52:10]
D
It sure is.
- [52:11]
A
And Carrie, I was betting on Carrie there. That didn't shake out too well for me. Bad News Bears, top five sports movie ever made. One of the funniest and sweetest and sincerest but also mischievous movies of its time. The great Michael Richie, Walter Mathau. And ever better as Buttermaker Elite. Stuff from Jackie Earl Haley and Tatum o'.
- [52:41]
D
Neal. I can't believe they should have stopped making Bad News Bears movies after Bad News bears. Yes, 1,000% I do.
- [52:47]
C
And I saw this in the movie theater and it was a fantastic time for a little 10, 11 year old boy. It was a great time.
- [52:54]
A
Did you say you just checked, you just saw stuff?
- [52:56]
B
Yeah, I remember that I watched it while we were in Vegas for seven. And obviously I knew Bad News Bears because of the remakes and also just as kind of a reference point, like a thing that you say now. But I sat down to you and I said, hey, that was so charming. I just absolutely delighted by every minute of it. And also genuinely funny, which as we've said, you can't say for many of these comedies.
- [53:21]
A
Yeah, and a pretty good representation, I think, of what Little League is like, to be honest with you.
- [53:26]
C
Oh yeah. Richie had such a great, as I recall, Richie just had such a great feel for that kind of middle class suburban lifestyle. Smile was his movie right before this about teenage beauty pageants. And that movie like this one has a similar kind of sensibility about just showing people a very, very relatable milieu.
- [53:52]
A
Yeah. And he's really good at movies about competition, you know, like Downhill Racer, the Candidate, Smile, the Bad News Bears. Semi tough. That whole period of movies is all people competing with one another and what it kind of brings out in you and what it awakens in Buttermaker, what it reveals in these kids. Just a really really fun movie.
- [54:14]
C
His five movie run, Downhill Racer, the Candidate Prime, Cut, Smile, and then Bad News Bears. For my money, it's the best five movie run of in American movies.
- [54:27]
A
Have you said that on this show? I know you've said that to me before. I don't know if you've ever mentioned that.
- [54:31]
C
Probably said it on letterboxd.
- [54:33]
D
There you go, brother.
- [54:34]
B
Didn't we put Downhill Racer?
- [54:36]
C
We did.
- [54:37]
B
In the Red Hobby, in the Red Herd. You didn't say it then.
- [54:39]
A
One of our faves.
- [54:41]
C
You know, I'm an old man. I repeat myself a lot.
- [54:44]
B
Okay.
- [54:44]
A
You know, also Wildcats. Digstown, like, he kept making movies in this world. He's a Wildcats. He is the great sports movie maker of our time. Anyway, feel good about that.
- [54:55]
D
Is that me now?
- [54:56]
A
Now it's your turn.
- [54:57]
B
Don't fuck me.
- [54:58]
C
Well, don't fuck me.
- [54:59]
D
I'm gonna take.
- [55:00]
B
Go ahead. It's okay. It's fine. You can.
- [55:04]
D
No, no, no.
- [55:05]
B
It's okay. It's all right.
- [55:08]
D
I'm gonna take. I'm gonna look deep in your eyes right now.
- [55:11]
B
Okay.
- [55:12]
D
And I'm gonna take the Omen in blockbuster.
- [55:14]
B
Okay, good. That's good. Okay, thank you.
- [55:16]
D
Because this we're running out of.
- [55:17]
B
I've heard of this, but I knew that you guys would take it. Right, right. And this is also. So his name, is it Damian Oman? It's not Damien, but that's what Bill calls him.
- [55:27]
D
Yes.
- [55:27]
A
Bill recently redid a Son of Jim Omen.
- [55:30]
D
Sure.
- [55:31]
A
Jim and Judy Omen.
- [55:33]
B
Okay, that's good.
- [55:34]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [55:34]
B
Thank you.
- [55:34]
D
Still a pretty disturbing movie. You know, I enjoy this film. I think I like to laugh with this movie more than I am afraid of it. But there's some great set pieces. It's got a pretty good backbone of story. Gregory Peck's decent in it.
- [55:48]
A
Wonderful score. One of the great scores.
- [55:50]
D
There's the woman throwing herself out the window. Still fucks with you. A little bit late.
- [55:57]
A
Glass window. That's a great kill.
- [55:59]
C
I think it won the Academy award for score.
- [56:00]
A
Am I right, Goldsmith?
- [56:02]
D
It's a really good score. A franchise I don't quite understand. I've tried to. I think I got pretty deep into the Omen franchise when we did Omen on rewatchables. And I was like watching the Sam Neill version of grown up. Damian.
- [56:17]
A
Yep. Have you seen the first Omen? Do you know about this? I did the movie that came out
- [56:22]
C
a few years ago.
- [56:23]
D
Oh, wait, that was good.
- [56:23]
A
That's a terrific movie. It came out a few years ago.
- [56:26]
B
That's when I became aware of Damian Omen.
- [56:28]
A
From the first Omen.
- [56:29]
B
Yes. No. Yeah.
- [56:30]
A
Yes.
- [56:31]
B
Because it was back in the news.
- [56:32]
C
This was a terrific night with the big bucket of popcorn in the movie theater in 1976. Yeah. Remember it very soon.
- [56:39]
A
And you got it in Blockbuster, right?
- [56:41]
D
I did, yes.
- [56:44]
A
Never one of my movies. As somebody who's really obsessive about the history of horror for whatever my thing,
- [56:50]
D
I don't really know how scary it is.
- [56:51]
A
I think it's because it's made by Richard Donner, who's clearly not that interested in horror. And there are things about the movie that he's interested in, obviously, like this kind of like uptight elite couple having something come into their lives that disturbs their gentle upper middle class lifestyle. But it just kind of feels like everybody's slumming it a little bit. It's like Gregory Peck's slumming it a little bit.
- [57:12]
D
You say that, but I will say that I like when actors of his generation like him, Burt Lancaster, guys who are just like, yeah, I like working. And I'm going to try this out and I'm going to play with my image and I'm going to play. He's made some pretty provocative stuff over the course of his career. He's kind of. I don't know if he's held up as still one of the great Hollywood
- [57:35]
A
actors, but that's a good question.
- [57:36]
C
Gregory Peck. Well, not only that, but I mean, obviously it's made in the wake of the Exorcist, which just made so much money. Now we can cite a thousand examples of low budget, low rent exorcist knockoffs. Here was an example of a studio going, we want some of that Exorcist money.
- [57:55]
D
Yeah.
- [57:55]
C
And it's just big budget Hollywood filmmaking get us big stars. You know, the kids will come see it for the demonic possession, but we're gonna get the adults to come see it because Gregory Peck and Lee Remick are in it.
- [58:07]
A
Right.
- [58:08]
D
And it's parental anxiety.
- [58:09]
C
And we went as a family. I remember my folks wouldn't have gone. My folks did not go to see the Exorcist in the movie theater.
- [58:15]
A
And it's in a tradition of like the Haunted Child going back to the Bad Seed in movies like that too. So there's some tradition there.
- [58:21]
C
I'm flaking.
- [58:23]
A
And I noticed you're wearing the Steely Dan Gaucho sweatshirt. If you wanted to be on time with 76, I think it would have been the Royal Scam. Do you have a Royal scam sweatshirt.
- [58:33]
C
I don't.
- [58:34]
A
Okay, well, so much for that.
- [58:36]
C
I did have a grizzly T shirt.
- [58:38]
A
Yeah, the film grizzly.
- [58:40]
C
Yeah. But I didn't wear that.
- [58:41]
A
Oh, too bad.
- [58:41]
B
One of my favorite traditions is when you correct people and. Or movies for having anachronistic movie music cues or references in the film world.
- [58:54]
C
Since you brought it up, I should.
- [58:56]
B
Oh, yeah, please. Show the pants.
- [58:57]
A
Show the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And nice. That's really nice. Now, are you purposefully evoking the era right now with your garb?
- [59:06]
C
I'm not. Oh.
- [59:07]
D
Like, he's like. Like, he's like the guy in gaucho. Like, try again tomorrow.
- [59:11]
C
Like, I'm dressing for the. For the 1976 podcast.
- [59:14]
A
I'm just asking.
- [59:15]
C
I did not dress for the 1976 podcast. Sorry.
- [59:18]
D
You got two now.
- [59:19]
B
I do.
- [59:20]
A
Okay.
- [59:21]
B
I know what I'm gonna do.
- [59:22]
C
Whoa.
- [59:23]
B
In Oscar. Because many of my Oscar picks are already off the board because, again, of the way this draft works. So I will be taking Marathon man in Oscar. I'm sorry, were you gonna take it?
- [59:39]
D
Well, I just didn't. I honestly just don't like any of the other blockbusters, and I'm trying to take movies that I at least feel like I have a relationship to, but this is one of my favorite. This would have been like, my second.
- [59:51]
B
Like, honestly, it's so good, and it really is where our interests meet, you know, at. Spy thriller. Roy Scheider in Paris. The movie, for me, does drop off slightly in quality. Spoiler alert. Once Roy Scheider is no longer.
- [60:06]
D
It just becomes a movie about dentistry,
- [60:07]
B
which you're not a fan of, but it's true. I think Marathon man is probably why,
- [60:12]
A
you know, what a zag for you. A movie about a dentist, Right?
- [60:15]
B
Sure. But is. Is he using the dentistry for good?
- [60:18]
A
Well, he's a Nazi, Sure. So, you know, not really.
- [60:22]
B
Yeah. Roy Scheider in Paris, spy thriller. Really, really delightful. And Olivier was nominated in supporting actor, I believe. So then in drama.
- [60:34]
C
Hold on. Can I tell a quick Marathon man story?
- [60:37]
B
Yeah, please.
- [60:38]
C
So, William Goldman, my friend TJ Jagadowski. Do you know him?
- [60:42]
A
No.
- [60:42]
C
He's a great improviser. One of the greatest improvisers alive. You might know him from the Sonic commercials. He was on them for a long time. Very funny guy. Anyway, he's a Chicagoan. He's on the train in Chicago, and he's on the train, and there's a young couple on the train, 20 years old, and the boy is explaining to the Girl. The plot of Three Days of the Condor. He's watched the movie and he's telling her the story of Three Days of the Condor on the train. TJ has his back to them and he's fascinated. Not only that this 20 year old kid has watched Three Days the Condor, not only that he feels the need to describe the entire plot to his girlfriend, but that he's so good at it. It's a really replete summation of the plot points of Three Days of the Condor. And TJ's kind of fascinated to hear this kid because, you know, there's some. It's a convoluted spirituality.
- [61:39]
B
Yeah, absolutely.
- [61:41]
C
Takes her all the way through it until he gets to the climax of Three Days of the Condor and he says, and then homeboy made him eat a bunch of diamonds. TJ so wanted to turn and ask,
- [62:03]
D
did you fall asleep? Like, what was happening? Happening?
- [62:07]
B
Really good.
- [62:07]
C
On the couch, watching one and wake
- [62:10]
D
up at the end of the. That is amazing.
- [62:12]
A
That's the most like, I plagiarized this from AI I've ever heard.
- [62:16]
D
Can you imagine if you just took every movie with a twist and then Brad Pitt gets out into the desert
- [62:21]
C
and then homeboy makes me a bunch of documents.
- [62:25]
A
Kevin Spacey. How strange.
- [62:28]
B
Oh, that's funny.
- [62:29]
C
I think of it every time I think of a marathon, man. We just watched it recently, me and the nanny. Great fun, terrific movie.
- [62:35]
B
Good movie, delightful movie. Okay, what I'm gonna do here in. And this is taking a little bit of risk, but I think that this is what would probably go next if I know my audience. So in drama, I'm gonna take Mikey and Nikki, the Elaine May masterpiece that explained men to me, you know, and I spend a lot of time with them even though I'm not privy to the bathroom conversations.
- [63:04]
A
If you watch Husbands and Mikey and Nikki in succession, it's true, those are boys in your life.
- [63:09]
B
It really is. You know, and now I'm raising the next generation, so I'm trying to study, I'm trying to learn, I'm trying to avoid the mistakes of the past, which are enumerated in excruciating detail in Mikey and Nikki, at least.
- [63:24]
A
None of them are gangsters as far as you know.
- [63:27]
B
Yeah, that's. You mean that in Mikey and Nikki or in.
- [63:30]
A
In our life?
- [63:31]
B
In our life, yeah. As far as I know. But we don't. We don't know what's gonna happen to my sons, so.
- [63:36]
A
That's a great point.
- [63:37]
B
You took that in drama, I took it in drama.
- [63:39]
C
Okay, Great. Great.
- [63:40]
D
Great movie.
- [63:41]
A
Wonderful movie.
- [63:42]
B
I would just add that Cassavetes is very powerful to me personally. Even. Yeah, even. You know, given despite all the problems very evident in this film and everything else, I just. I really, really get it.
- [63:56]
D
Your.
- [63:56]
C
Your board is very strong.
- [63:58]
B
Thank you.
- [63:59]
C
She's looking very solid.
- [64:00]
B
Yeah.
- [64:02]
A
A good, good picking spot, I would say. It'd be nice to have the number one pick, I think.
- [64:09]
C
Yes. But she's chosen well.
- [64:12]
A
Completely.
- [64:12]
B
Thank you.
- [64:13]
C
I'm not gonna just put it all on the spot. She's chosen well.
- [64:16]
A
It's not over yet.
- [64:17]
B
Okay.
- [64:19]
A
This movie is. I think a lot of our guys are very influenced by this movie.
- [64:26]
B
Yes.
- [64:26]
A
And a lot of the tone where this movie doesn't have the tone of a gangster movie, even though it's about gangsters. And it makes a lot of choices.
- [64:33]
D
Men on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
- [64:34]
A
It is. It's a lot of like the personal anxiety.
- [64:37]
B
Philadelphia men also on the verge of a nervous break.
- [64:40]
A
To Ned Beatty as the hitman who is the most unlikely of hitmen, who's kind of bumbling and not suave and not cold blooded.
- [64:49]
C
Big year for Ned Beatty.
- [64:50]
A
Awesome year.
- [64:51]
C
Network. Mikey and Nikki and Silver Streak.
- [64:54]
A
That's right. We may get to Silver Streak. We'll see. You grabbed two.
- [64:58]
B
I did Marathon man and Mikey and Nikki.
- [65:00]
A
Very good picks. CR you're up in action thriller.
- [65:03]
D
I'm going to take Outlaw Josie Wales.
- [65:05]
A
God fucking damn it.
- [65:06]
C
God fucking damn it.
- [65:08]
D
One of the great Clint Eastwood movies. One of his best performers performances. A very interesting film to read about the making of Philip Kaufman's involvement with it. The Eastwood rule that came in because you're not allowed to get rid of a director and replace yourself. Replace the director with yourself if you're the star, apparently, which I think I wonder if has happened kind of behind the scenes a couple of times. But at least officially, this became like a DGA thing, I think. A story about a Confederate soldier who tries to run to Texas after a huge confrontation with the Union and disappear from the war and disappear from a life of violence. And the violence and the war just won't let him go away. Get away. So absolutely gorgeous movie to look at and to think about his style evolving out of his experiences with Lyon and his experiences on TV and everything and really starting to find his own voice and his own editing rhythm, his own photography is this Surtees shot this fucking incredible looking movie and a beautiful 4K.
- [66:18]
C
I'm so glad somebody said it before I did. I'm so glad I did not have
- [66:22]
D
to break a beautiful.
- [66:23]
A
Honestly, got that Steelbook.
- [66:25]
D
I just got the Warner one. You just couldn't let it go, could you?
- [66:33]
A
I think that this is in the conversation for his best performance, too, because he's asked to play something that he very rarely plays in movies where he literally breaks down crying in this movie when his family is killed. And he resisted that a lot of times as a star. He didn't really let himself get into that. And he's also got. What is the name of the Native American actor in this film?
- [66:52]
C
Chief Dan George.
- [66:53]
A
Chief Dan George. And their chemistry is so wonderful in this movie. This was. God, I really. I maybe should have taken this in the first go round because it's definitely one of my favorite Clint movies.
- [67:04]
D
Yeah. And I was. You know, you can also feel. This is a guy who's watched Kurosawa movies. Like, this is a guy who actually has, like, a kind of international sensibility when it comes to applying it to Western. So it just. And this is also one I used to watch with my dad all the time. This would. This would be on tbs. This would be on movie channels, or we had it on tape, and it would just kind of be on a lot. This Impale Rider.
- [67:26]
A
A little bit of a pickle here.
- [67:27]
C
Yeah, you are. You are. Because I got two picks coming down the track.
- [67:35]
A
Yeah, you sure do. I don't think there's. There's not. I don't think there's anything that could be taken away from me that would devastate me at this point. So I need to just follow my truth for the rest of this draft, which means I will lose this draft but have a slate that I enjoy.
- [67:51]
D
Okay.
- [67:51]
A
Just gonna foreground that because there's a couple movies I wanted to get coming in here.
- [67:55]
C
Has everybody picked Blockbuster?
- [67:57]
B
I have not.
- [67:58]
C
You have not. You have.
- [67:59]
D
I did.
- [68:00]
C
You have.
- [68:00]
A
I have.
- [68:01]
D
That's why I picked the Omen so early. Got it.
- [68:06]
A
Boy.
- [68:07]
B
It's okay. You have network.
- [68:09]
A
No, no.
- [68:10]
B
I'm not a disaster. And you have Bad News Bears, which is incredibly charming in
- [68:17]
A
thriller. And action. I will take a Salt on Precinct 13.
- [68:20]
B
Okay.
- [68:21]
D
I'm so glad you did this.
- [68:22]
A
Which is John Carpenter's second feature film and among his best and as directly inspired by Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo and is a kind of trapped in one place shootout movie that is absolutely scintillating and, like, an example of horrifying in some places.
- [68:42]
D
Yeah.
- [68:42]
A
And like a great example of what can be done on a modest budget and is definitely the skeleton key for I think a lot of where his movies are going even as they got bigger in scale. The style, tone, smart.
- [68:56]
D
Alex Anamorphic.
- [68:57]
A
Or the wide style that he looks at. Great performances in this movie. Underrated performances. And just the announcement of a major genre filmmaker who is one of my all time favorites.
- [69:11]
D
I was watching this last night and I forgot how unnerving. Those opening scenes with the gang driving around LA with the rifle with the silencer pointed out the car window. And they keep stopping at different people and eyeing them up. And then they fuck up that ice cream man.
- [69:28]
B
What.
- [69:30]
A
What is the actor's name? Is it Austin Stoker? What happened to Austin Stoker? Is he still with us? Did he pass?
- [69:37]
C
I don't know.
- [69:38]
A
Let me take a look. Yeah, I guess he passed in 2022.
- [69:42]
C
Have you seen the remake of this?
- [69:43]
D
I did. It's Ethan Hawke and Lauren's Fishburne and I kind of liked it.
- [69:47]
C
Oh, who made it? Do you know?
- [69:50]
A
I'm not sure.
- [69:51]
C
And while we're on the topic, have we seen the remake of Bad News Bears?
- [69:55]
A
Oh, sure. Richard Linklater. It's not very good.
- [69:58]
B
Yeah, disappointing.
- [69:59]
A
Billy Bop. Interesting that both of these movies have been remade.
- [70:04]
D
Jean Francois Richet, who also made no other movies that I've ever heard of.
- [70:13]
A
Not a movie that needed to be remade. A solemn precinct 13.
- [70:18]
C
Good pick.
- [70:19]
A
Thanks. Was that in your realm of interest?
- [70:22]
C
Absolutely.
- [70:22]
A
Okay.
- [70:23]
C
I certainly had it on my list.
- [70:24]
A
Wasn't trying to take anything from you per se, but, you know,
- [70:29]
C
all right, I'm going to take a bit of a category reach, but I think it qualifies in action thriller. I'm going to take the killing of a Chinese bookie.
- [70:43]
D
This is fucked up.
- [70:44]
A
This was my other. It was literally either a solemn precinct 13 or this.
- [70:49]
B
I chose Mikey and Nikki instead of this for my.
- [70:52]
A
There were two Cassavetes on the board
- [70:54]
B
this year, but this is the one that my husband was willing to watch with me. He was like, hey, I heard you're doing 76. What do you gotta watch? And then he picked Killigan's Bookie.
- [71:06]
D
Which cut?
- [71:10]
C
The longest one.
- [71:11]
A
See, I don't. I disagree.
- [71:12]
D
I like the shorter one too.
- [71:13]
A
I do too. I think those. Well, there's a great story right, where there's a Gizarro who's like, this is too fucking long.
- [71:21]
D
No, I thought it was the reverse. I thought it was Gizara who was like, you gotta show me when I'm doing this. And then Cassavetes.
- [71:27]
B
Cassavetes is shorter. Yeah. The director's cut is shorter.
- [71:30]
D
It's 108 minutes versus like 100 and.
- [71:34]
A
No, I thought it was that the theatrical cut. I thought they screened the movie at 135 minutes and Gazara didn't like it.
- [71:41]
D
Oh, and he made him cut home.
- [71:43]
A
And he said, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe. Maybe it's the other way around.
- [71:45]
D
No, I think now, I think you might. I thought he wasn't done editing and they were like, you have to put this out.
- [71:50]
A
But then the edit, the 108 minute version, he moves those scenes all over the place. Like the movie is very different.
- [71:55]
D
Very different opening.
- [71:57]
A
And there's a lot less stuff, I guess, in the nightclub.
- [71:58]
C
I've just got a lot more patience for Mr. Sophistication than I did as a younger man. Now I could sit and watch Mr. Sophistication all night long.
- [72:09]
A
This is. Man, fucked up this draft. This movie, I think is one of the better movies about where the lead character is like a stand in for the filmmaker. Where the idea of a person who's like, what I'm really interested in is the design and the world and the artistry that I'm putting into this nightclub. And everybody's there to watch girls dance and to be entertained and that you come to show business for the pomp and the circumstance. You don't come for the artistry. And Cassavetes being totally tortured. I love that idea. That's in the movie that's so at the forefront of it.
- [72:43]
B
All the scenes of him just calling the club, being like, no, no, no, who's on stage right now? What song are they singing? Why is she out there alone? It's really, really, really great movie about
- [72:52]
D
Los Angeles public transportation.
- [72:55]
C
Best use of Playboy Playmates, I think, ever in a.
- [72:59]
D
In a film over Apocalypse Now.
- [73:02]
C
You got me. You got me.
- [73:03]
A
But those are not real, are they
- [73:05]
D
real Playmates like Colin Camp's in, right?
- [73:07]
A
Yeah.
- [73:08]
D
What a week for Colin Camp on the big picture. That's right.
- [73:11]
A
Happy for her. Oh, there's the other great story about this where he asked a whole bunch of studio heads to come sit and be in the crowd of the club. But then he blurred all their faces purposefully so you can't see them, which is like the way that the lighting is set up. So they thought they were being gratified by being able to appear in a movie. And then he fucked him over, which is such a little. He's such a little fucker.
- [73:37]
D
When Seymour Cassell and all the guys take Gazara to the deli on Sunset and They're just all huddled in this deli drinking beers and are like, so let's take out a third mortgage on your house or whatever to pay off your poker debts.
- [73:54]
C
I always am happy to see Timothy Carey in a movie. And he's great in here. And I also have special affection for this because I saw it at. I saw it in Dallas, Texas, with a Q and A with Cassavetes afterwards.
- [74:08]
D
No shit.
- [74:09]
C
Excited to hear Cassavetes.
- [74:11]
A
What do you say?
- [74:13]
C
Like a guy trying to get money together to make a movie. It was all he was. All he was about.
- [74:19]
A
So interesting. Okay, you got another pick.
- [74:21]
C
Do. Does everybody have drama?
- [74:25]
D
I don't.
- [74:26]
A
I do.
- [74:27]
B
I do.
- [74:29]
A
So interesting that thriller action is all filled up. I feel like that's a healthy category.
- [74:33]
D
No, it is.
- [74:35]
B
It was a little bit about the last minute category, shift swap, so I just wasn't as proud.
- [74:44]
A
It may work out for you really well in drama.
- [74:48]
C
I'm going to take Lifeguard.
- [74:53]
A
You are the number one Lifeguard fan on this podcast. You've brought this film to so many people.
- [74:57]
B
No, I haven't.
- [74:58]
C
You should watch it.
- [74:59]
A
Really? I think you would like it.
- [75:00]
C
I think you would, too.
- [75:01]
D
You would really like it.
- [75:02]
B
I'm sure that I would. This is the
- [75:07]
A
Sam Elliott.
- [75:07]
B
Sam Elliot. I was just thinking. I was thinking about the pants, which is. Has that episode come out yet?
- [75:13]
D
That has not come out.
- [75:13]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [75:14]
D
Has physical media come out by the time people have heard this?
- [75:17]
B
Okay, so complimenting people on their pants and complimenting Sam Elliott on his pants is what kind of. She's thinking about pants.
- [75:22]
A
Same story. Yeah.
- [75:23]
B
Yeah.
- [75:25]
A
That was good. I forgot about that. It's been a long week.
- [75:28]
C
It's just a terrific movie. Carrie and I were just. We watched it together. We'd never seen it. We were both just kind of knocked out by what a good film it is. And a film that, as Tim was saying the other day on the podcast, it kind of gets deeper as you get further into it. It's. It seems to be a very light thing when you start and by the end of actually gets kind of deep. And it's a great Sam Elliott performance. Early Anne Archer and maybe first Kathleen Quinlan appearance in Lifeguard. I think I'm done.
- [76:02]
D
Okay, Fenrock.
- [76:05]
A
I've got another pick. Huh. So I'm currently missing comedy and horror. Comedy or horror? Oscar and Wild card. Oscar. What a fascinating Oscar year. Most of the big dogs were taken up front. There's also some good movies left, though.
- [76:22]
D
Yeah.
- [76:22]
A
Some movies I really like. I think what I'll do is I'll just take a movie I really love, which is Harlan county, usa in Austin.
- [76:36]
D
You fucking.
- [76:37]
C
Dude. You fucking motherfucker, you and the horse, you.
- [76:45]
D
Sorry, Sorry.
- [76:47]
C
Now, you guys did that 900th show and that little boy listens to the.
- [76:51]
A
Yeah, not anymore.
- [76:52]
C
He does that.
- [76:54]
D
And if you're listening, I just want to say, you, Sean, you, Nico.
- [77:00]
A
It's just me and you here. Forget about these three.
- [77:03]
B
He's so sweet. He made made Sean cry.
- [77:05]
A
Unpleasant. I was so touched by that. I really was.
- [77:08]
B
It was really so lovely.
- [77:09]
D
Factory owner shit right here for him, you know?
- [77:12]
A
Yeah. I mean, I have probably said on the pod before, I think this might be the greatest American documentary ever made. Barbara Koppel's film about what happens in a Kentucky coal mine and the company that owns it and the folks who work in it and the way in which they organize and stand in the face of the corporation. A movie about real people that shows real people as they are in a direct way, which is very hard to do. And this movie being recognized in its time, I think is really fascinating and really powerful at winning Best Documentary Feature. It's that collision of social impact and filmmaking artistry. And Coppell's made a lot of really great movies over the years, but this one, similar to some of the movies that we took at the top of the draft, also feels as though it is not expiring. Still very relevant.
- [78:03]
C
Oh, very much so.
- [78:04]
A
Still very.
- [78:05]
C
Maybe more so than it has been a long time.
- [78:07]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And very watchable.
- [78:10]
D
Oh, I mean, there's sequences in this. I mean, even just the descending into the mines in the beginning. I mean, where you're like, well, this is as good as anything in any action movie from this year. And some real. I don't really understand. There are moments where you're like, I can't believe there was a camera here for this.
- [78:25]
A
Yeah. She also just. There's a filmmaking style where you could have made this movie as purely observational. But she gets this just into camera testimony from people on the scene frequently where you see them and they don't feel blinkered by the idea of media. It's not like a performance that they're giving because they're being asked a question with someone holding a camera. It feels authentic. It seems like an insufficient word to explain the way in which they're communicating about what's going on. And some of that is the trust that Koppel has built with the people in the community. Some of that is just people not knowing how to be any Other way. But yeah, this movie is like A. Is a 101 for documentary filmmaking.
- [79:05]
C
I was gonna rewatch it for this draft and didn't and then realized, oh, it's okay. It's pretty imprint in your mind.
- [79:12]
A
I feel the same way. I watched it in college. I probably watched it one time since, but definitely one of my faves, I
- [79:19]
C
think on DVD in the Criterion Collection. But I don't think it's upgraded.
- [79:25]
A
Yeah, no, not on Blu Ray. And Hope. I would love a Barbara Copple box set.
- [79:28]
C
Actually, I only say this for the kids out there who might want to check this out.
- [79:31]
B
No, it's important.
- [79:32]
C
Yeah, I just didn't want you to think I was turning this into a physical media podcast. I recognize.
- [79:40]
A
All right, cr. You have a pick here, buddy.
- [79:44]
C
What do you have left, Chris?
- [79:45]
D
I got Drama Wild Card and comedy, horror, sci fi. And in drama, I'm going to take Kings of the Road. This is Vim Vendors. Rather epic, but also very intimate road movie about a very depressed therapist and a film projection repairman driving around Germany and talking about stuff about their lives and, you know, going to hang out with exes and their dads and. And really just trying to, you know. It's basically a blueprint for Linklater. It's a blueprint for Jarmusch. It's shot by Robbie Muller in an extraordinary black and white photography. It's a hangout movie and it's a thinker. But it's kind of just like you can just kick back and watch these guys wash their clothes and walk around in circles and fill up the tank with gas and stuff like that. It's very durational. It's very just. Just watching life unfold. But for me, it's the cinematography that I really come back to. Mueller winds up obviously, shooting stuff like Repo man and To Live and Die in la. And Jarmusch movies like down by Law, I believe, and is one of my favorite cinematographers in film history. So to watch him kind of cook and watch him just really get an expansive canvas like this, it's just a really lovely movie.
- [81:02]
A
The long movie is our call.
- [81:03]
D
Three hours almost, I think.
- [81:04]
B
Yeah.
- [81:05]
A
And it's kind of. It's the last pure German movie that Vendors makes. Right. For a long period of time. The American friend comes right after this, and then he kind of goes on the. His sagas of America. He makes Hammett with Coppola and Paris, Texas and whatnot. Great movie.
- [81:25]
C
This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech.
- [81:27]
A
Everyone knows winter is the MVP and
- [81:29]
C
make it a mess. You don't need Weathertech floor liners in the summer. Unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways. Ketchup goes rogue. Ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those Weathertech seat protectors.
- [81:43]
A
So just to be clear as the
- [81:44]
C
mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need Weathertech unless you plan on doing summer.
- [81:52]
D
Visit weathertech.com today.
- [81:54]
B
Did you know about one in three people with plaque psoriasis may also develop psoriatic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Taken by injection is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis who may benefit from taking injections or pills or form phototherapy. And for adults with active psoriatic arthritis, serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine. Imagine being a million miles away. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about trimfya. Tap this ad to learn more about including important safety information.
- [82:55]
D
This episode is brought to you by NOS Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweat and gears. Every checkered flag and trophy raised, every lap, every race, every hard fought place.
- [83:04]
C
They're all jammed inside every can of NOS Energy.
- [83:07]
D
High performance energy for burning the midnight
- [83:09]
A
oil in the garage and pedal to the metal.
- [83:11]
D
Human horsepower for the streets.
- [83:14]
C
Go ahead, crack open a can of
- [83:16]
D
NOS Energy and get after it.
- [83:19]
A
Okay, Amanda.
- [83:19]
B
Yes, I have two picks in Blockbuster. I will take a movie that I like even if the rest of you are being snobby. A Star is born. The 1976 version starring Barbra Streisand. I don't know why I always have to come on this podcast and be like, Barbra Streisand is important. Barbra Streisand. Barbra Streisand is important. And the movies that she makes that made millions of dollars at the box office are also important. And you all just kind of like stare at me. What?
- [83:53]
A
But it's just not a good movie.
- [83:55]
C
But okay, here's why I'm staring at you. I've never seen any version of A Star Is Boom.
- [84:01]
B
Really?
- [84:01]
D
I haven't seen this one, but I don't mean that in a cocky way.
- [84:05]
B
Kristofferson's kind of bringing it in. This, in my opinion, sure well, that's what he's doing. And so can't argue that. And you know, they have some heat that I responded to at the age
- [84:17]
A
that I was such a boring movie.
- [84:20]
B
That's fine. You can say that. And I had a nice time. And it was the second most. Second highest earning movie of the year.
- [84:29]
A
So there was a very big hit. Yeah. You've not seen a single A Star Is Born film?
- [84:34]
D
No.
- [84:34]
B
Let's unpack that.
- [84:36]
C
I don't have a good reason.
- [84:37]
B
Okay.
- [84:38]
C
There's no. It's not like I'm boycotting A Star Is Born.
- [84:41]
A
I mean, Judy Garland.
- [84:42]
B
The Judy Garland second one is Lights Out.
- [84:45]
C
That's the one I have to see.
- [84:46]
A
I mean, that is one of the great screen performances, in my opinion. You really should watch that. And Amanda and I both absolutely love Bradley Cooper's version. You might disagree with us, as you often do on contemporary films.
- [84:57]
C
How can I disagree with you if I haven't seen it?
- [84:59]
A
Is it cause you hate films that center women? Like, what's the issue?
- [85:01]
C
I'm not responding to your tyrannical questions.
- [85:05]
D
Good, good.
- [85:06]
B
Good for you. Good.
- [85:07]
D
It's nice to see you.
- [85:07]
B
Welcome.
- [85:08]
A
Yeah, but you will. And you do hate films. This entire as I understand it, Is that correct?
- [85:12]
C
I do not submit to the tyranny.
- [85:16]
A
Okay. That's one that's in blockbuster.
- [85:18]
B
Yes, blockbuster. And then in comedy, horror. This is one of the international ones where depending on where you are, you get a different year. But this performance from this film was nominated for the Oscars that we keep referencing, and it was released in the US in 1976. So I will be taking cousin cuisine.
- [85:38]
A
Oh, yes, sure.
- [85:39]
B
Which I had not seen until preparing for this and was completely delighted by. It's a French Four Weddings and a Funeral. And, you know, and it's organized. It's romantic comedy organized around two people who are cousins but by marriage. So there's no kind of bloodline issues going on here. It's France. And it is France. They are also married. Unlike in Four Weddings and Funeral, both of them. And they keep meeting over a series of family functions and then ultimately decide that, you know, it's a happy ending, that they want to be together. They are believable. But all of the family functions and sort of the weird slice of French 70s life is so funny and memorable and every weird character gets a moment and makes you laugh. And there are not a lot of great comedies and certainly not a lot of romantic comedies.
- [86:42]
A
I love this pic.
- [86:42]
B
Yeah, it's really good, right?
- [86:43]
A
Terrific. Is It Marie Christine Baron.
- [86:45]
B
Is that who it is? Yeah. She was nominated for Best Actress. Anyway, delightful movie.
- [86:50]
C
Did you know there's an American remake?
- [86:52]
B
I did, but I've never seen it.
- [86:53]
C
It's called Cousins, and I believe it's made by Joel Schumacher, Bill Peterson, and Sean Young and a bunch of other people.
- [87:02]
A
This was discussed when we spoke about To Live and Die in LA on the Rewatchables because this was one of the movies that Peterson chose as he was kind of dawning as a movie actor that didn't really hit and making that choice instead of some other. He was offered in this exact same timeframe. The film Goodfellows reportedly turned it down to do. This Joel Schumacher movie didn't work out.
- [87:27]
D
Good pick, though.
- [87:28]
A
Thank you. Very good pick. This film was nominated for not one, not two, but three Academy Awards. Nice. CR Is back to you.
- [87:35]
C
Wait a minute. Didn't you have two? Did you make.
- [87:37]
B
Yeah, I did A Star Is Born, which you've never seen because you don't care about a life in the arts.
- [87:42]
A
Having heard those picks, do you still feel that Amanda is winning this draft?
- [87:46]
C
Yeah, I do.
- [87:48]
B
Okay. I mean, it's fine. We did let women into the frame, but, you know, it's okay.
- [87:52]
A
I have Faye Dunaways in a film, like, very interesting.
- [87:56]
D
I'm gonna respect women in horror comedy and sci fi. I am gonna take the Town that Dreaded Sundown.
- [88:04]
A
Ooh.
- [88:05]
C
Wow.
- [88:05]
D
Which is intriguing. You know, it has a mixed reputation for very good reason. It's a very scary film that then has a very stupid B plot of the law enforcement trying to capture this serial killer called the Phantom, who's terrorizing Texarkana, I believe.
- [88:22]
A
Yes.
- [88:22]
D
It's made by Charles Pierce, who's from Arkansas and made a bunch of really interesting 70s Movies set in and around the Southwest and used to distribute them
- [88:32]
C
out of the back of his pickup truck, driving around theater to theater, and made fortunes.
- [88:38]
D
But when you watch Town the Dreaded Sundown, it's just kind of like, especially the opening is really inventive with this voiceover of almost like you're watching a documentary about people getting back from World War II and this town that's thriving and then this killer that starts terrorizing couples. But when the cops, the Texas Rangers, I think, come into this, it kind of turns into smoking the Bandit a little bit. And there's a lot of, like, gee willikers, where are we gonna get the gas for this car? And I don't. He was just really playing to a lot of. A lot of different kinds of audiences. But the Phantom is a really scary slasher, and I think you can see elements of, like, Zodiac in this. You know, I don't know if Fincher likes this movie. This was actually remade this century. I don't remember what year the Town, the dreaded Sundown remake came out, but it's pretty good. And it's in the movie. The remake. It is about how they made the first movie about the Phantom and the town. So it's a little like screaming.
- [89:40]
A
It's like 2017ish around that time. Yeah.
- [89:42]
D
Pretty decent movie, though. And. Yeah. So I'll do that for horror.
- [89:46]
C
Nice.
- [89:47]
A
Interesting. How many movies were remade from this year?
- [89:49]
B
Yeah.
- [89:49]
A
Yeah. All right. That's a good film. A good pick. I think I need to. Do I need to pick from that category? I think I do. I'm missing wild card. And comedy and horror. And you tell me if you think this is a comedy, because I do. I'll take Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bulls. History lesson that you were going to
- [90:10]
D
see in the realm of the sits. Okay.
- [90:11]
C
Yeah, it's a comedy.
- [90:12]
A
It's a comedy.
- [90:13]
B
Sure.
- [90:13]
A
I think so.
- [90:15]
B
Yeah, sure.
- [90:17]
A
What do you think it is?
- [90:20]
B
I don't remember a lot of, like, laugh out louds on that one. It's a cynical view of the world and, I guess entertainment.
- [90:31]
A
An embittered satire of the falsity of the American myth.
- [90:34]
B
Okay.
- [90:37]
D
What would the. It's not. Lol. It's like laughing silently to myself as
- [90:41]
A
a satire, stroking amusement. This is a movie that we do. We did speak about on the Paul Newman hall of Fame episode. This is the first of two collaborations that he had with Robert Altman. One of my faves, a movie about Buffalo Bill Cody in the later stages of his life after hiring a publicist and a producer and putting on a big old circus show in the middle of the west where he reenacts some of his greatest achievements along with a whole cast of characters. Unbelievable cast in this film that includes Burt Lancaster, Joel Gray, Geraldine Chaplin.
- [91:16]
C
Big Harvey Keitel year.
- [91:17]
A
It sure is. I might try to grab. Well, maybe you'll try to grab another Harvey Keitel movie before we're done here. I think this is one of the great underrated Altman movies and very much in keeping with this obsession that he has with people who put up a front and don't reveal the truth about themselves.
- [91:36]
D
Do you still have comedy?
- [91:38]
C
I took Carrie in comedy, horror.
- [91:42]
D
Okay. Just out of curiosity, if we started throwing things all over the studio and saying, you can't have this in comedy. I'm curious what your comedy would be.
- [91:52]
A
It would either be up, the Russ Meyer movie, which actually came up on the Physical Media episode. And I watched for the first time yesterday. Had a nice time. I laughed. Did it without my family at home. Yeah, it's very funny.
- [92:06]
C
I'll bet you laughed more at up than you did out loud at Buffalo Bill.
- [92:10]
A
Certainly.
- [92:10]
C
Yeah.
- [92:12]
A
I was titillated as well.
- [92:14]
C
That's topic for another time.
- [92:17]
B
It's great. The Physical Media High Council, which is really all those guys are up to.
- [92:25]
A
There are some horror movies that I like that are left on the board, but I probably would also consider silent movie, the Mel Brooks film, which I think is not one of his best, but it's one that I enjoy. But you know what? There's more picks to be made, so you're up for two.
- [92:38]
C
I saw Buffalo Bill for the first time in preparation for this draft. I'd never seen it before. A little on the nose.
- [92:44]
A
Okay.
- [92:45]
C
I love this Altman style. I love all the cast. I think that Newman is fantastic in the movie.
- [92:52]
B
It's cool that they did it. But also they are belaboring the point a little bit. Damn.
- [92:59]
A
Kind of like a Star is born. Really subtle filmmaking.
- [93:02]
C
Sorry. Joel Gray, man. Joel Gray was a standout for me in that movie. I thought Joel Gray was superb.
- [93:06]
A
He's really great. Burt Lancaster hated making the movie and did not like Robert Altman.
- [93:11]
C
I'm not surprised by that at all.
- [93:14]
D
I'm always supposed to be shooting my scenes.
- [93:17]
A
Is that your Burt Lancaster?
- [93:19]
D
No, my Burt Lancaster.
- [93:20]
A
I love this dirty town.
- [93:24]
C
I have Oscar and I have Wild Card left. And I'm making both of those picks right now.
- [93:29]
B
You are.
- [93:29]
C
Those aren't the last two picks. Then we go back up.
- [93:31]
A
We sure do.
- [93:33]
C
What do you guys have left?
- [93:35]
B
I just have Wild Card.
- [93:37]
D
Wild Card.
- [93:38]
A
Wild Card.
- [93:39]
C
Oh, it's like that, is it?
- [93:41]
D
But I wouldn't choose my wild card for Harlan county if.
- [93:44]
C
Right. It was on my wild card.
- [93:45]
B
The Three Gardens was my wild card pick, but it was apparently also my wild card pick for 1975.
- [93:51]
D
So was the 75 draft when he took Barry Lyndon and you went.
- [94:00]
B
Was that that. Did I do that for Barry London?
- [94:02]
D
Yes.
- [94:03]
B
Why?
- [94:04]
D
I don't know.
- [94:06]
A
I'll tell you why. Cause you're a brat.
- [94:09]
B
But why did I. I don't remember this.
- [94:12]
D
Or maybe it was an Oscars draft or something. It was more recently. We were in this room and you were like Barry Lyndon and you just went, man, like it Was really one of the funnier anyway.
- [94:22]
B
But I liked Barry Lyndon.
- [94:24]
D
Perhaps I got the film wrong. I'd have to go back and see.
- [94:28]
A
I'm going to take some other gal on movie drafts.
- [94:31]
C
I'm going to take in Wild Card, the Man who Fell to Earth.
- [94:37]
A
What category would this movie be eligible in? I was wondering.
- [94:40]
C
That's why I asked about Sci fi.
- [94:42]
A
Yeah.
- [94:44]
C
I have to say there are some movies, your relationship to them changes over the years as you watch them. And sometimes you go back to a movie, Godfather Part ii, and you go, I'm not liking this as much as I used to like this.
- [94:57]
B
Absolutely.
- [94:58]
C
But what's thrilling is when you see a movie and you don't like it and then you go back and you revisit it and you go, oh, there's more there than I thought. And then you see it a third time and you go, how did I miss this?
- [95:08]
D
That's how I felt about Michael Mann's black hat.
- [95:10]
C
There you go. Well, that's how I feel about the man who Fell to Earth. My third viewing of this kind of knocked my socks off. Perhaps due to the beautiful 4K presentation on the Studio Canal Steel.
- [95:24]
D
Is Studio Canal in the room with you now?
- [95:28]
B
I appreciate all the work that Studio Canal does. I haven't seen this particular 4K transfer.
- [95:34]
C
Do you guys know the man who Fell to Earth?
- [95:35]
D
Have you seen Nick Grog?
- [95:37]
B
No, I haven't.
- [95:37]
C
You haven't seen it? David Bowie, Ripcorn.
- [95:40]
B
Yeah, I know that.
- [95:42]
C
Candy Clark, great performance. So that's my Wild card. And in Oscar, I'm going to take.
- [95:48]
A
You've been really stumping for Nick Rogue on these pods since you came back here.
- [95:54]
C
There was a pocket. There's a Nick Rogue pocket. It didn't last long, but it's great.
- [95:59]
A
I'm fascinated by those later ones, though. Insignificance and Eureka. And those movies are interesting, right?
- [96:05]
C
The Witches.
- [96:06]
A
The Witches, indeed.
- [96:07]
C
Angelica, when do you introduce your kids to the Witches? Pretty scary, right?
- [96:11]
A
I saw it very early on and it fucked me up. I was a big rolled doll reader.
- [96:16]
B
The Witches is my favorite of the Roald Dahl books and so I will probably start with that. Book wise, it is pretty scary. And I would say that my kind of line for my kids right now is, is it gonna cause a nightmare that I have to deal with, you know, at like 2am We've had a lot of like, I had a dream about a scary robot recently because of Star Wars. So Witches would be intense, but amazing movie.
- [96:42]
A
I think maybe Danny the Champion of the world is my favorite role. Dahl book. Have you read that one?
- [96:47]
D
I was not a big doll guy.
- [96:49]
A
Really good movie about a boy and his father who was a mechanic. Or a book, I should say.
- [96:55]
C
Because you like Dahl's views on.
- [96:58]
A
No, he's an anti Semite. I reject that about him. I can play the game. I know how to respond to these questions. I've been writing them my whole life. No, he was a wretched anti Semite, but a wonderful writer and creator of stories.
- [97:14]
D
Did you get to see Giant yet?
- [97:16]
C
No.
- [97:18]
D
The stage play with John Lithgow where he plays Roald Dahl.
- [97:21]
A
Oh, interesting.
- [97:23]
C
Probably gonna win the Tony Award for Best actor.
- [97:25]
A
Lithgow's gonna win that. Have you seen it?
- [97:28]
D
No, I will not be going to see it. When I go back to New York next week, I'm going to see a
- [97:31]
A
different play in protest of Dahl's views?
- [97:34]
D
No, just out of my own personal curiosities.
- [97:37]
B
What are you seeing instead?
- [97:38]
D
Becky Shaw.
- [97:39]
A
Oh, okay.
- [97:40]
D
I hear it's great. Alden Ehrenreich.
- [97:42]
C
I hear it's great.
- [97:43]
D
Patrick Ball from the Pit.
- [97:45]
C
And I hear Alden's great in it, too.
- [97:46]
D
I can't wait.
- [97:47]
A
You've always supported Alden.
- [97:48]
D
I have.
- [97:50]
B
In the theater.
- [97:51]
D
I do.
- [97:53]
C
In Oscar. I'm going to take Seven Beauties. Linda Vert Mueller's movie starring Giancarlo Giannini. Was he nominated for Best Actor? Giancarlo Giannini?
- [98:04]
A
I do not think he was. He was nominated.
- [98:11]
C
He was nominated for Best Actor. Great. Funny, horrifying, hilarious, upsetting. All those things. And a great performance. He's really great in this movie. I put this sort of in the bucket of. This is a movie you kids should see. If you haven't seen it, kids ought to go, have you seen Seven Beautiful.
- [98:32]
B
No.
- [98:32]
C
You ought to go out and see Seven.
- [98:34]
A
One of the great things about this year to Amanda's selection of. Is it Coussin? Coussin.
- [98:39]
B
Cousin Cuisine. Get ready for Cannes, my guy.
- [98:44]
A
It's never been one of my skills. I'll do my best, just like now. A lot of international films would find their way into the nominations across the 1970s and were pretty solidly represented throughout those years. So that's it for you. You're done. Yeah. How do you feel?
- [99:04]
B
You have Carrie, though.
- [99:06]
D
I think that's pretty important in more ways than one. Yeah, there you go.
- [99:09]
B
That's true.
- [99:10]
A
In some ways, that's all you have.
- [99:16]
D
What did you pick, Tracy? Just you.
- [99:20]
A
I got a wild card here, huh? Gosh. Well, I Don't know. I don't know when I want to choose. What's my favorite movie that's left on the board?
- [99:33]
B
I don't know. Sean, tell us.
- [99:35]
A
I will. Momentarily.
- [99:36]
B
Okay. Do you know what you're gonna do for Wildcard, Christopher?
- [99:40]
D
I'm trying to decide between three things.
- [99:41]
B
Oh, wow, look at you.
- [99:43]
D
Yeah.
- [99:43]
A
I'm wondering if you've seen a movie that I just watched and how you would feel about it.
- [99:48]
D
Bernardo Bellucci's 1900, casually.
- [99:50]
B
Okay.
- [99:51]
D
Five hours.
- [99:51]
A
I don't know. Is 1900 eligible in this year?
- [99:54]
D
Why? Cause it lasts longer than the year.
- [100:00]
A
I don't really know. Didn't it come out in 77 or 78?
- [100:03]
D
I don't care for that film. So it's got some.
- [100:05]
A
You weren't considering it, but.
- [100:06]
D
Yeah.
- [100:07]
A
Because it was not in the English language or what was the reason why?
- [100:09]
D
No, because I find it to be quite dull and somewhat offensive.
- [100:15]
C
I'll tell you what.
- [100:16]
A
I'll just keep some consistency with my.
- [100:18]
B
Just really unrelenting today. Yeah.
- [100:21]
A
And I'll take Alan Rudolph's welcome to la, which is not his first film, but his first film under Altman's guidance. One of the first films, the first film released by Lionsgate, not the Lionsgate that we know, but the production company that Robert Altman launched on his own and released a handful of films. Only four that he did not direct. This was the first of them. It's a movie, a kind of arch drama about vapid people in Los Angeles gathering in, thinking that they have problems, when in fact they do not. It features many of the players from the Altman classics. Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin. Harvey Keitel appears in this movie.
- [101:07]
D
Lauren Hutton's in this.
- [101:08]
A
Lauren Hutton, Sally Kellerman, Sissy Spacek is in this movie. It's kind of centered around this songwriter musician played by Carradine, who.
- [101:17]
D
Can I just stop you for one second about this? One of the things that stopped me from seeing this film for such a long time is on the COVID of the video box. Carradine has the worst facial hair, perhaps in American history.
- [101:28]
A
Well, in the film he does.
- [101:29]
D
Yeah. I mean, like, it is really, like, an abomination of, like, a chin whisker.
- [101:36]
A
It recalls Shaggy from Scooby Doo, but
- [101:40]
D
he's supposed to just be, like, the coolest guy moving through la.
- [101:43]
A
But he's also. The movie is also very cleverly, like, this is the Nepo, right? Like, his father is a powerful music executive, has kind of put him in position to be this much sought after. Songwriter Richard Baskin. Speaking of your girl, Barbra Streisand, who has dated Barbra Streisand for years, plays a singer in the film and wrote the songs that are performed in the movie. Just a really kind of acidic, seemingly soft, but very jagged portrait of, honestly, a milieu that's very familiar to me. I just feel like I know a lot of the people in this movie, even though it was made 50 years ago.
- [102:21]
C
Cool.
- [102:22]
D
My turn.
- [102:23]
A
Your turn.
- [102:26]
D
So, Wild Card.
- [102:28]
C
Gosh, we all feel a little grim here in the later rounds.
- [102:31]
D
I just like.
- [102:32]
A
You know, that's the thing, is these lineups cannot stack up to the 75 lineups. That's why there's not as much stacks.
- [102:37]
B
I don't know. I've got all the President's Men.
- [102:40]
C
Yeah, we know what.
- [102:41]
B
And Marathon Man.
- [102:42]
A
Yeah, you got A Star Is Born, Mikey and Nikki Kuzen. Kuzen.
- [102:45]
B
Kuzen Kuzeen is great. I had the fucking STEPFORD Wives in
- [102:48]
D
75, which is incredible film, I'm sure,
- [102:52]
B
but also kind of belabors the point. We get it.
- [102:56]
A
Oh, my God. Since when is subtlety so important to you? This is not something you've expressed in previous episodes of this show.
- [103:03]
B
Just saying. I can speak my truth, which is.
- [103:06]
D
I think I'll just for the hell of a take, Logan's Run.
- [103:09]
A
Sure.
- [103:10]
D
Which probably winds up influencing more stuff that I liked than me loving Logan's Run itself, but is a real head fuck of a movie when you think about some of the things that the character goes through. It's basically about a guy who. It's a sort of Hunger Gamesy society where after a certain amount of time, people get sort of farmed out into a competition to see if they can still live, keep going and living.
- [103:38]
C
Let me tell you all about it.
- [103:39]
D
And yeah, I believe Michael York plays the main character, who is one of the hunters of those people, but then becomes the hunted and learns a lot of truths about society in the process.
- [103:52]
A
To Tracey's point about the Rocky films, do you think that we should all tap out at 30, that at 30 years old, we should be eliminated from society?
- [104:00]
B
No, I'm thriving.
- [104:01]
D
It would be an interesting way to start thinning out. The amount of chairs in this draft is to. It's like once you hit a certain amount of drafts, you're done.
- [104:11]
A
The bad news would be that this show would never have existed.
- [104:16]
D
So. Yeah, I'll go to Logan's Run for last one there.
- [104:19]
B
Okay.
- [104:19]
A
Okay, Amanda, you've got one final.
- [104:21]
B
I have Wild Card, and I'm gonna do a discovery, another discovery that I made while watching this and also another documentary. My original plan was to do Gray Gardens in Wildcard, which is also what I did in 1975. So maybe I think the lineups are comparable because for me they were going to be sort of the same.
- [104:39]
A
Yeah.
- [104:40]
B
Anyway, I'm going to do a different documentary daguerreotype, which an Agnes Varda film that was 75 in France, 76 in the UK so in the US so it's eligible and is a very charming and interesting snapshot of life on the Rue Daguerre, which is the street where Agnes Varda lived for decades. And it starts with the kind of the perfume shopkeeper.
- [105:11]
A
The shopkeepers, yeah.
- [105:13]
B
And it is mostly about the shopkeepers, but it starts with one perfume esque shopkeeper and her daughter goes in. Agnes daughter goes in and she's interested in them and how they got there and starts following everybody else along the street and asks them, you know, when they came to Paris and what they do and follows them along and follows some pretty like disgruntled shopgoers. But, you know, it's the 70s, so they don't think to just be like, no, no, you can't record me. And is idiosyncratic in the way that all Varda's films are. At some point she starts asking them about their dreams. Like literally what their dreams are. Not like, what do you hope to be? It's not an American thing, it's a French thing. And you know, it's just a way of looking at the world that only Agnes Varda can. And so the documentary communicates that. And you can't experience it from anybody else's camera. And I liked it a lot.
- [106:11]
D
That's awesome.
- [106:12]
A
It's a really good movie.
- [106:13]
C
I don't know that movie. Yeah, I don't know it at all.
- [106:15]
A
Definitely worth checking out.
- [106:16]
D
Great.
- [106:17]
A
Very short, as I recall.
- [106:19]
B
I want to say like 80 minutes.
- [106:21]
A
80 minutes, yeah.
- [106:22]
B
And it's streaming on Criterion right now.
- [106:25]
A
Bang. Honorable mentions.
- [106:29]
D
I already regret my wild card because there are some good honorable mentions.
- [106:32]
A
Well, let's talk about them.
- [106:33]
C
Yeah. I'm looking at my honorable mentions and thinking it looks better than my lineup. I was like, how the hell did that happen?
- [106:39]
D
Roman Polanski's the Tenant just rewatched it recently.
- [106:42]
C
Excellent.
- [106:43]
D
That guy knows how to shoot an apartment. Cars that Ate Paris.
- [106:47]
A
Yep. Was this 76?
- [106:49]
D
I thought so.
- [106:50]
A
Okay. I honestly don't remember.
- [106:52]
C
I think so. Yeah.
- [106:54]
D
2 pulpy crime ish movies. One of which, or maybe both of which I got off of Tracy's letterboxd small town in Texas. And Jackson County Jail. Jackson County Jail with Tommy Lee Jones.
- [107:09]
A
Right.
- [107:10]
D
That is a fucked up movie. And Police Python 357, which is Alan Cornot movie that is basically French Dirty Harry with Yves Montaigne and is in a Great Radiance box set.
- [107:26]
A
I was expecting you to take Yakuza Graveyard, which is also 76.
- [107:31]
D
No, yeah, I like take fan beyond the Yakuza. You know, sometimes I want.
- [107:38]
B
Okay.
- [107:38]
A
You know, there's another Brian De Palma movie from this year called Obsession, which is a movie that I think is bad, that I love.
- [107:45]
D
One of the crazier plots that I've ever heard or seen is Obsession.
- [107:50]
B
Why don't you recap it right now?
- [107:51]
A
I'm going to turn at the end of this movie.
- [107:52]
D
Was that.
- [107:53]
B
Why don't you recap it in three sentences?
- [107:55]
A
Don't spoil it.
- [107:56]
B
Okay, well, people can.
- [107:58]
D
And then he made him eat the diamonds.
- [108:01]
C
Then the homeboy made him eat a bunch of diamonds.
- [108:04]
A
The Ebert quote around Obsession is, I don't just like movies like this. I relish them sometimes. Overwrought excess can be its own reward,
- [108:14]
C
I suppose. More honorable mentions. Well, we should probably mention King Kong, which is not a very good movie, but certainly had delights for a boy who turned 11 in 1976.
- [108:29]
A
That was one of two more remaining blockbusters that were not selected. The others are Silver Streak, the Prior and. Nope, the Prior and Gene Wilder film
- [108:40]
B
with Jill Clayberg, which opens with just like 30 minutes of gene Wilder seducing Jill Clayberg in a way that I did not find to be credible.
- [108:50]
D
Did you rewatch it?
- [108:51]
B
I did.
- [108:52]
C
Or watch it?
- [108:52]
B
I did.
- [108:53]
A
On a Train?
- [108:53]
B
Yes.
- [108:54]
A
On a Train, Yeah.
- [108:54]
C
I haven't seen it in a while. It's a big hit.
- [108:56]
A
Huge, big hit.
- [108:56]
C
I saw it in the movie theater. And I'm telling you, when Richard Pryor appears, he shows up about halfway through the movie. The movie theater just became electric. He just electrified. That's why that movie was such a big hit.
- [109:09]
A
One of two movies in which he did that exact thing. Cause he shows up about halfway through Car Wash and the movie Car Wash comes to life. The other movie was the Enforcer, the other Clint Eastwood movie from that year, which is the third Dirty Harry movie.
- [109:21]
D
Not my favorite.
- [109:21]
A
I don't like it.
- [109:22]
C
Yeah, not very good.
- [109:22]
D
Tyne Daily.
- [109:23]
C
Is that early Tyne Daily?
- [109:24]
A
Yeah. What else you got?
- [109:27]
C
Fellini's Casanova.
- [109:30]
A
Never seen it.
- [109:30]
C
Not for all tastes. Obviously. Fellini, there's amazing Things in it, the front.
- [109:38]
A
I just watched this again yesterday.
- [109:41]
C
Martin Ritz movie with Woody Allen about blacklist.
- [109:45]
D
Right?
- [109:46]
C
Blacklist. People naming names. Very good movie. Zero Mostel. Very good.
- [109:50]
A
I like it a lot. I think it's very good. I think because of everything with Woody in the last 30 years. Maybe he doesn't have the same place it does because it's just effectively a pure drama.
- [110:02]
D
What's what? What happened?
- [110:03]
A
Woody, you gotta check out some. Check out the newspapers.
- [110:08]
C
Face to Face. Ingmar Bergman from this year, which I watched for the first time yesterday. It's not Bergman's best, but Liv Allman. God damn, man.
- [110:17]
B
Very good. She's very good. I agree with you.
- [110:20]
C
She's really something. Hollywood Boulevard, terrific drive in movie. I mean, it's no more than a drive in movie. It's an 85 minute comic romp. Very low budget, very, very Roger Corman.
- [110:36]
A
Alan Arish, right? Yeah. Edited by Joe Dante.
- [110:39]
C
You mentioned up already, but I think up is really fun and really funny. My wife liked it a lot.
- [110:44]
A
So that makes you seem like not a pervert, but all right.
- [110:47]
C
Yeah. Mr. Klein, I think was made in 76, but wasn't available to us because it wasn't released until later. But it would have been. My drama choice for sure has been available.
- [110:58]
A
Joseph Losey, Heart of Glass.
- [111:03]
C
Werner Herzog's movie I watched last night for the first time. Do you know this movie?
- [111:07]
A
I do.
- [111:08]
C
In which all the actors are under hypnosis.
- [111:13]
B
They've all been hypnotized for how to what end?
- [111:18]
C
And it's about a 17th century Bavarian community. And they are known for their rose colored glass. They have a glass works and they're known for their rose colored glass. But the guy who has the secret formula to the rose colored glass has died and the town has gone into shock. And so to create this very sort of eerie feeling of a townspeople in shock, they're all hypnotized before every take.
- [111:45]
D
Is this what Asteroid City was taking from? Remember, they all get hypnotized and asked.
- [111:50]
A
Yeah, could be. That could have been the inspiration.
- [111:54]
B
But you don't get to see them.
- [111:55]
C
You don't see them. You see them. Yeah, you see them acting under hypnosis, which mainly means they talk kind of slow and they have some very odd gestural language. It's quite a beautiful movie really. Next up, Greenwich Village. Some people don't like this. They're wrong. It's a really terrific comedy. And it's a Paul Mazursky movie. Who I'm always Championing on this show. You should watch Paul Mazursky movies. And next stop, Greenwich Village. Really good.
- [112:26]
A
Why did you draft it?
- [112:28]
C
Huh?
- [112:28]
A
Why didn't you draft it?
- [112:29]
C
Well, because we combined comedy and horror, and I had Carrie out there, and I had to get Carrie.
- [112:34]
D
Had to do it.
- [112:35]
A
Yeah, Yeah, I wanted Carrie. You could have taken next step, like 7% solution.
- [112:39]
D
You ever seen that?
- [112:40]
B
I watched it for this. It was entertaining in the way that I found myself reading and learning about a lot of gripping mystery thrillers from this year. And then I watched all of them with my dumb 2026 brain. And I was like, well, this is not that exciting. This is kind of taking a while, but it has fun.
- [113:01]
A
We just had the exact same conversation about it when we did the Duval hall of Fame.
- [113:05]
B
Also, that act is not. With respect to Mr. Duvall, it's not what you want, especially for the voiceover.
- [113:12]
A
And do you find opposite Olivier and Nicole Williamson, it's tough.
- [113:16]
D
Do you find murder by death amusing?
- [113:18]
B
I turned it off because I was. First of all, because Peter Sellers. Yeah, because Peter Sellers. It's not what you want. And then it was also really boring. And I love some racializing from Peter Sellers.
- [113:30]
D
Can you do the voice?
- [113:31]
A
Please don't.
- [113:31]
B
Please don't. Please don't.
- [113:33]
C
I saw that multiple times in the movie theater when I was 11 years old. That was the highest.
- [113:37]
B
Did you think it was funny?
- [113:38]
C
When I was 11 years old.
- [113:39]
B
Okay. Is there a Pink Panther this year? Yeah.
- [113:41]
A
Strikes again.
- [113:44]
B
That would be my Peter Sellers preference, and it was on my long list.
- [113:47]
D
But I enjoy with laughter watching those.
- [113:49]
B
When I was really kidding, I thought they were so funny.
- [113:53]
C
We went to the movie theater to see those. My mom loved dumb comedy. That was her favorite kind of movie.
- [113:58]
D
When they would fight and destroy whatever room they were having a fight in, I was just like, this is the. The dream in life.
- [114:04]
A
More. I've got quite a few. You want to keep going? Anybody else got more?
- [114:08]
C
Rip it.
- [114:11]
A
Alice, Sweet Alice and the House With Laughing Windows are two horror movies that I would love to love and are very important in the giallo movement, but they're not movies that I do love. There are wonderful 4Ks available from Arrow for both of those movies.
- [114:25]
C
I watched Alice, Sweet Alice. Getting ready for this. Yeah, it didn't make my list.
- [114:28]
A
Not the best. I really love Larry Cohen's God Told Me to, which is a. You haven't seen this?
- [114:36]
C
No.
- [114:37]
A
A paranoid thriller about a society that has become violent and turns against one another because of some sort of premonition that they are receiving.
- [114:47]
C
That's weird.
- [114:48]
A
Really cool movie. Burnt Offerings. Have you guys seen this horror movie?
- [114:52]
C
Yeah.
- [114:53]
A
About a couple or family that moves into a new home. You haven't seen this?
- [114:56]
D
I think I. Keep going. Who directed it?
- [114:59]
A
I think it's. Is it Dan Curtis? Yeah. Right. Who made.
- [115:06]
C
Who then became TV guy and made Night Stalker and the other show Shadows.
- [115:10]
A
Help me out. What's the other?
- [115:11]
C
Dark Shadows.
- [115:12]
A
Dark Shadows. Thank you. Yes, Dark Shadows. And he directed a bunch of TV movies over that time. This is one of his few theatrical feature films. But very, very good. And is it Oliver Reed? Who is the old Betty Davis? Betty Davis.
- [115:24]
C
Thank you.
- [115:27]
A
What else is on that list? You know, Lipstick is a movie that I watched for the first time when I did the unboxing boy for 1976, which helped me start to prepare for this episode, which stars Margot and Marielle Hemingway and Chris Sarandon and is genuinely upsetting film about a sexual assault and the aftermath of it. And rendered very realistically in a way that you just don't see. Lamont Johnson directed it. I would recommend it, but it's really hard to watch.
- [115:57]
C
Bonkers ending the last five minutes. Just like, what is going on?
- [116:01]
A
The movie goes crazy. Yeah. In a pretty entertaining. It just turns into an exploitation movie. Missouri Breaks. Arthur Penn, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando. You think would be better. It's not better.
- [116:13]
D
It really has been one of the movies that has followed me around for my whole life. And I only watched it in the last couple of years and I was like, this wasn't very good.
- [116:20]
A
Yeah, it's all right.
- [116:22]
C
I think Nicholson, he spoke about it that he was very intimidated by Brando on the set. He was really. He was freaked out that he was working with Marlon.
- [116:30]
D
Brandon kind of also, like, did his. Like, I've decided I have a new character. You know, like, it's like, yeah, I
- [116:38]
C
think he's
- [116:41]
A
in a movie.
- [116:41]
C
Brando. Yeah. It doesn't matter. I always find him entertaining, watchable, hilarious, and sort of more interesting than everything else going on.
- [116:51]
B
Even in Guys and Dolls.
- [116:53]
C
Guys and Dolls. That's the one I put on when Carrie needs some sleep. She hates Guys and Dolls.
- [116:59]
A
One of the very last Hitchcock films. Family plot. Not a very good film. Don Siegel's the Shootist. Pretty good.
- [117:06]
C
Pretty good.
- [117:06]
A
Late period John Wayne movie.
- [117:08]
C
Last John Wayne movie.
- [117:09]
A
Is it his last film?
- [117:09]
C
It is last film.
- [117:11]
A
I'll tell you one of my favorite kung fu movies. Master of the Flying Guillotine. Have you guys seen that one?
- [117:16]
B
Probably.
- [117:16]
D
I have.
- [117:17]
A
I haven't Pretty sick movie.
- [117:20]
B
I mean, what you've just described there in the title seems compelling.
- [117:23]
A
It's in the tradition of the one Armed swordsman films.
- [117:26]
C
Sure, if you have a flying guillotine, it would be good to be the master of it.
- [117:30]
D
Ideally, you don't want to be the novice of the flying guillotine.
- [117:32]
A
Right. The yeoman of the flying guillotine. Not ideal. Flying beans of the flying views. You know, a movie I haven't seen but was Oscar nominated and popped up on a bunch of lists is Voyage of the Damned. You seen this film?
- [117:45]
C
Yeah, it's of another era.
- [117:47]
B
Okay.
- [117:48]
C
I mean of an earlier era than 1976.
- [117:52]
A
Little old fashioned Stuart Rosenberg. Yeah, there's some international films I didn't know where to put. Carlos Soares, Kriya, Cuervos, Lenobracca's Incheon. I don't know. I don't know what to do with that.
- [118:05]
D
Isn't you in the realm of the senses?
- [118:07]
A
17 in the realm of the Senses. Now, the one movie that I wanted to bring up to you guys, I don't know if any of you have seen it, I presume you have, is Robin and Marian.
- [118:13]
D
Yeah, I seen it.
- [118:15]
A
Which I thought was pretty good. I liked it. It's kind of a late period reimagining of the Robin Hood myth with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn. This is the movie I'm in. I was saying I wonder if you've seen it because you might like it.
- [118:28]
B
I was just reading the ending of the Voyage of the Damned which is really upsetting and apparently they handle it all in footnotes. What the fuck?
- [118:36]
A
I haven't seen anything really.
- [118:38]
B
I'm not going to, but.
- [118:39]
A
Excuse me, can I tell you, I bought it on Blu Ray, didn't watch it. Robin and Marian is Richard Lester, in the aftermath of the Three Musketeers movies, kind of in this. He's in this moment where he's making these kind of historical dramedies, these swashbuckling movies. But I thought Connery and Hepburn were phenomenal together.
- [119:00]
C
Really lovely.
- [119:00]
A
And it's a nice movie.
- [119:02]
C
Kind of about like Robert Shaw too, right?
- [119:04]
A
Robert Shaw, Richard Harris, A great Richard Harris performance as King John and somebody else. There's one other. Oh, Ian Holm. So funny as who's King John's brother. Or maybe it was.
- [119:19]
B
No. Ian Holmes.
- [119:19]
A
King Richard and Prince John. Yes.
- [119:21]
B
Yeah. And Richard Harris is Richard the Lionheart.
- [119:23]
D
Yeah.
- [119:23]
A
Yes, that's right. I don't know. Thought it was really good. Thought about drafting it. It feels a little lost In Time. A little baggy in the middle, but very sweet.
- [119:32]
B
I've never seen this, but obviously I would like it. This is in my interest set.
- [119:35]
A
I think you would enjoy it.
- [119:35]
B
Yeah.
- [119:36]
A
Well, that's all I got.
- [119:38]
C
Shall we recap?
- [119:40]
A
Let's recap. Well, Amanda, you selected first so you can read your.
- [119:44]
B
That's so exciting. I did. In drama, I have Mikey and Nikki. In comedy or horror, I have Cousin Cuisine. In thriller or action, I have all the President's Men. In blockbuster, A Star Is Born, which Tracy Letts has never seen in any iteration. In Oscar, I have Marathon man. And in Wild Card daguerreotypes.
- [120:06]
D
Can't believe you got Marathon man in all the presidents. That's tough. In drama, I took Kings of the Road. In comedy or horror, I took the Town that Dreads Sundown. In thriller or action, I took the Outlaw Josie Wales. In blockbuster, I took the Omen. In Oscar, I took Taxi Driver. And in Wild Card, I took Logan's Run.
- [120:29]
A
In drama, I selected Network. In comedy or horror, I selected Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bulls. History Lesson. In thriller or action, I took John Carpenter's assault on Precinct 13. In Blockbuster, I selected the Bad News Bears. In Oscar, I chose the documentary Harlan county, usa. And in Wild Card, I chose welcome to la.
- [120:51]
C
In drama, I took Lifeguard. In comedy or horror, I took Carrie. In action or thriller, I took the Killing of a Chinese Bookie. In blockbuster, I took Rocky. In Oscar nominee, I took Seven Beauties. And in Wild Card, I took the man who Fell to Earth. You know, when we read them all out loud like that, it's more even than I thought. Everybody's got good stuff and everybody's got marginalia.
- [121:19]
A
Weird year. Your claim at the top fascinates me.
- [121:22]
B
It's just three of the all timers, which can't argue that, you know, can't argue that it matters.
- [121:29]
A
It says something about how you organize taste.
- [121:31]
B
It's true. Be the best. That's what I ask.
- [121:35]
C
Shall we talk third chair? Is this the time?
- [121:38]
A
Speak now.
- [121:39]
B
Go ahead.
- [121:40]
C
Okay. So I got on the plane to come here and record. Is this the last one to air?
- [121:46]
A
It is.
- [121:46]
C
So I came to record three podcasts for the Big Picture. And I want you to know that when I got on the plane to come here, I had decided to concede.
- [121:56]
D
Concede third chair.
- [121:57]
C
To concede third chair.
- [121:58]
D
So that would suppose that it was yours to concede.
- [122:03]
B
To concede the fight.
- [122:04]
D
This was a race that was running.
- [122:05]
C
Just concede the fight. Because I had listened to the 900th episode. I had sent in a voicemail for the 900th episode, which was not played instead.
- [122:16]
B
How did that happen?
- [122:16]
C
I don't know.
- [122:17]
A
Well, that's Jack's fault.
- [122:18]
C
It was not played.
- [122:19]
D
But instead, Jack just tossing Tracy Lett's voicemails out.
- [122:22]
C
Yeah, he's tossing out my voicemails, and he's always putting me forth.
- [122:26]
A
How convenient that Jack also went on vacation the week you arrived. Did you notice that? Yeah, I did. What do you think that means?
- [122:32]
C
So in that episode, not only did you not play my voicemail, but you then took, what, 10 minutes to sing heroic poems to Chris Ryan? Later in the episode, Amanda suggested that we should take Teddy Roosevelt off of Mount Rushmore and replace him with Chris Ryan. That we should replace.
- [122:55]
B
Did I actually do that?
- [122:56]
C
You did. In fact, you decided we were going to replace TR With CR.
- [123:01]
B
I think in general, my relationship, the hero of San Juan Hill, the Trust, Rushmore, is disinterest. Right.
- [123:09]
D
But I was on it. Wouldn't that make it more interesting?
- [123:13]
B
Sure, but I think that.
- [123:14]
A
I think it would lower the interest.
- [123:16]
B
The conversation was about what Teddy Roosevelt did to earn being on Mount Rushmore, and neither of us were particularly clear on that.
- [123:25]
A
That's absolutely untrue.
- [123:26]
B
What if he. Go ahead. I said national parks a lot.
- [123:29]
D
Spanish American War, Right?
- [123:31]
A
Yeah. Also led the country through a time of extraordinary tumult.
- [123:35]
C
Not to mention the Trust buster. I mean, he was essential, crusaded on
- [123:39]
A
behalf of the individual in this country. One of the great individuals.
- [123:42]
C
Amanda would like to replace him with Chris Ryan. So it's very clear to me that the fix is in. I'm Al Gore, he's W. And you're the Supreme Court.
- [123:56]
D
So it's like, now watch me get distressed up.
- [123:59]
A
It sounds like Jack Sanders is the hanging chad in this equation.
- [124:03]
C
So I was like, you can't fight city Hall. So I was ready to concede.
- [124:07]
B
Yeah.
- [124:08]
C
But I've decided to redouble my efforts.
- [124:10]
D
Oh.
- [124:11]
C
And I'm going to tell you why. My constituents, who are they? They are the people of America, my friend. They're the people in the streets.
- [124:21]
A
I'll dub them right now. Are you ready? You know what they're called? The let's Lads.
- [124:25]
C
You think they're men?
- [124:26]
A
Well, frequently, yes.
- [124:28]
D
Yeah.
- [124:29]
C
And they want to see more of what I'm cooking. And so my hat is still firmly in the ring. You guys can try and block me out if you want, but I am
- [124:42]
D
playing for Keith now. I can't believe I'm even entertaining this because of the work I do for this pod and for the other pods on the Ringer podcast network where I, a prospective Saturday night spent podcasting about the fucking Sixers. But here's what I'll do with you. That doesn't happen because I'm interested in content.
- [124:59]
B
This is a no 6 or zone, so that's not going to be taken into consideration.
- [125:02]
D
Should we have a November 6th election for third chair and Tracy and I can make our cases.
- [125:10]
A
Now, this is a man with great confidence in the aftermath of C armon who is willing to put a 2A public vote?
- [125:17]
D
I didn't say that. I'm just saying we can use an electoral college system if you want. Like, we can have each different states have different weights, you know, but if this is what you want, if you really want to drop gloves and go fisticuffs.
- [125:32]
A
Well, here's the thing. I'm not sure that there are only two contenders. I mean, there are other people.
- [125:40]
C
Who the hell are you even talking about?
- [125:42]
A
You know, there are a great many beloved guests in the history of this show. You know, the physical media High Council did not start with either of you gentlemen. It started with Timothy Simons.
- [125:51]
C
See?
- [125:51]
B
Oh, dear.
- [125:52]
C
Well, he is not available. And second of all, he's quite literally not available.
- [125:57]
A
He's a busy man.
- [126:00]
C
Chris. Chris is already first chair on the watch. He is chair 1A on the rewatchables. He is a basketball expert. He's not watching 56 Robert Duvall movies now because he's gotta watch the goddamn movie it's about.
- [126:21]
A
This must be said because you haven't heard this yet, but I'll say what Tracy Letts did for the Robert Duvall episode is among the most titanic acts of scholarship that have been applied to this program.
- [126:35]
D
What did you do? Did you watch, like, all his TV appearances or something?
- [126:38]
C
I watched a bunch of those and I watched 56 Robert Duv movies, okay?
- [126:43]
D
If I only had to do five pods a year, I'm sure I could do the same thing.
- [126:45]
C
This is my point, okay? You're making my point for me.
- [126:52]
A
What. What would be a better life?
- [126:53]
D
Would it be to be Tracy Letts
- [126:55]
C
have
- [126:58]
A
Tony Awards, married to Carrie?
- [127:00]
D
If I was married to Carrie Coon and I got to swan in here five times a year, that would be pretty awesome. Fucking show up in a Catherine Bigelow movie and go, you know, like, yeah, that was. That would be awesome. Instead, I'm out here watching fucking Joel Embiid. Walk back to the locker room, come back onto the court 7:38, 15. When are we gonna start?
- [127:22]
A
Amanda, what are your thoughts?
- [127:23]
B
Yeah, you know, I don't think we have to decide today. You know, I think that it can.
- [127:28]
A
But you think it should be decided at some point.
- [127:30]
B
Well, I don't know. You know, there is. There's a will they, won't they element to this that keeps. That keeps the podcast going over time. Yeah. And then I think what we all learned from that is I'm interested in
- [127:41]
D
who you think H. Ross Perot is in this equation. Who is the outsider insurgent candidate?
- [127:46]
A
Well, I always love talking to Alex Ross Perry. He brings a completely different energy than either of you ever could, and he's, you know, he's a bit of a villain in a way that I always find appealing. And he's been on the show many times over the years. And he also, to his credit, if I ask him for an act of scholarship, he will bring it. He does when it comes to that sort of thing.
- [128:04]
B
He also makes a lot of memes, so he's been very crucial. Mostly of Sean.
- [128:09]
A
Yes.
- [128:10]
B
So he's been very serious.
- [128:11]
A
Funny. You're not on text with him, right?
- [128:12]
D
Publicly share these memes? No. Okay.
- [128:14]
A
He privately generates several memes featuring photos of me from the Void recordings and then takes literal quotes that I share on episodes.
- [128:24]
B
And now also that one south by Southwest photo of you with your card. You know, like you're preparing for a
- [128:29]
A
presidential address, which I did not approve the posting of that photograph.
- [128:32]
B
No, I'm sure. I can't believe you said sad for
- [128:33]
A
it, but that's okay.
- [128:35]
D
Are there any good Kyer Gerber hands memes that I should check out?
- [128:39]
A
Are you aware of this lore?
- [128:41]
C
Yes, I saw the picture.
- [128:42]
D
Okay.
- [128:42]
A
Okay.
- [128:42]
C
Let me ask you.
- [128:43]
B
But you're not on Instagram. How'd you see it?
- [128:44]
A
As a person who's frequently.
- [128:45]
D
I don't know.
- [128:46]
C
I heard you guys talking about it, so I looked for it as a
- [128:49]
A
person who's frequently surrounded by attractive people. When you're in a photo op, do you just. Hand on the back, go for it?
- [128:57]
C
Yeah. There's a photograph somewhere of a bunch of us at that. A screening of House of Dynamite, and it looks like. Is her name Willa Fitzgerald, the strange Darling?
- [129:10]
A
Yes.
- [129:10]
C
It looks like we are a couple with everybody else around, you know, just like, we can't.
- [129:16]
A
Yeah. You put your arm around her.
- [129:17]
C
I put my arm around. It was just like, oh, this feels unfriendly. I'll put my arm. You know. And now the photo makes it look.
- [129:22]
A
How did she respond, you know, she
- [129:25]
C
was not threatened warmly, I don't think.
- [129:27]
A
Okay, interesting. You think I should have done that with Kaya?
- [129:29]
C
I don't know. I met Kaya. We're both in Saturday Night. And so I met her at screening of that. And as we met. You've never seen two people who had less to say to each other.
- [129:39]
A
I find that so interesting. She's a woman of letters herself and.
- [129:42]
C
And apparently you guys hit. Not that we didn't hit. She was all kind. She was totally pleasant. I'm just saying she. She. She didn't have anything to say to me.
- [129:50]
A
Interesting. I wouldn't say she had things to say to me, but she did say things to me.
- [129:54]
B
Yeah, that's right.
- [129:55]
D
Like, it. It's Wednesday.
- [129:57]
B
Yeah.
- [129:58]
D
Hi, Sean. The sun is out.
- [130:00]
A
Appears you're alive. Yeah. Okay. I mean, listen, I appreciate all of your efforts. I've got, you know, 17 more years. 18 more years of experience with Chris.
- [130:14]
C
Sure.
- [130:15]
A
But you've entered our lives like a shot.
- [130:19]
C
Let's face it. I forced you all to be my friends. I forced my way in here and forced you to be my friend.
- [130:25]
A
It's absolutely ridiculous. I feel maybe there's an inter. Like a turmoil.
- [130:31]
D
Well, I don't like. You know, I admire Tracy very much. Waiting for the butt. Like, I gotta let the dogs off the leash. It's like, you know, like, it's not gonna be pretty. So I'm begging you.
- [130:46]
B
Yeah.
- [130:47]
D
Don't make me go to the mattresses here.
- [130:52]
C
Regardless of how this. This works out, I love all of you. I love being on this. It's been a real pleasure. I've had a great week.
- [131:00]
D
This is awesome. Thank you for having me.
- [131:01]
A
Excellent. Thank you for coming. Thank you for participating.
- [131:03]
D
I don't think I have laughed harder than I did during Physical Media in a long time.
- [131:07]
C
Oh, my God. I've been laughing all week just thinking about it. Just really funny.
- [131:11]
A
It was a very good time. Thank you to Lucas Kavanagh and Sarah Reddy for their production support on this episode. Thanks to Jack Sanders.
- [131:18]
C
Thanks for nothing, Jack.
- [131:19]
A
Yeah, Jack was not here today, but he. We did do the selection and excitedly shared the results, which fucked me and Tracy over pretty badly. In this draft at this time. What is happening? When is this. I think this episode is airing while we're at the Cannes Film Festival, God willing.
- [131:37]
D
Also, just like I said, it's an opportunity for us to do a coup.
- [131:43]
A
What would you guys even talk about?
- [131:44]
D
Tracy and Chris at the movies. Come on.
- [131:47]
B
Okay, great.
- [131:47]
A
I wish you guys luck. What feed will you be posting this show on?
- [131:52]
D
I'll figure it out.
- [131:53]
C
To remind us, he is an editor@theringer.com. that's right.
- [131:57]
A
So I've heard. Thanks to everyone for participating in this draft. I hope you've heard of some of these movies. And we will be back, I think our next episode. We will be covering the Cannes Film Festival. We'll see you then, Sam.