The 1982 Movie Draft

Summary

The Big Picture: The 1982 Movie Draft – Episode Summary

Release Date: March 21, 2025
Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins
Guests: Chris Ryan, Tracy Letts

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Introduction to the 1982 Movie Draft

In this electrifying episode of The Big Picture, hosts Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins embark on a nostalgic journey through the cinematic landscape of 1982. Joined by regular contributor Chris Ryan and special guest Tracy Letts, the panel engages in a spirited "movie draft," selecting standout films from various genres released that year. The goal is to curate the most memorable and impactful movies across categories such as Drama, Comedy, Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi, Blockbuster, Oscar-nominated, and Wild Card.

Understanding the Draft Process

The discussion kicks off with the hosts explaining the unique movie draft format. Sean humorously laments his selection of 1982, stating, "I was born in the year 1982," which adds a personal touch to the episode ([03:59]). The panel delves into their strategies (or the lack thereof) for selecting movies, emphasizing a blend of personal preference and category scarcity.

Notable Quote:
Sean Fennessey on draft strategy: “I'll just take my favorite movie. Because I don't care.” ([27:17])

Movie Selections and Insights

Sean Fennessey's Picks

1. Drama: First Blood
   Sean chooses this action-packed drama, highlighting its significance as his birth year staple. Despite some controversy over its placement, he defends his choice by declaring it "the best thriller, horror, sci-fi movie that came out that year" ([27:16]).

2. Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: The Thing
   Emphasizing practical effects and suspense, Sean praises John Carpenter's masterpiece: “John Carpenter is a genius, is a living legend. I think this is his best movie.” ([27:16])

3. Blockbuster: Poltergeist
   Sean acknowledges the film's iconic status and special effects, noting its cultural impact: “...it captured the American consciousness.” ([60:03])

4. Oscar-nominated: Missing
   Sean appreciates the movie's profound resonance and critical acclaim, discussing its relevance and emotional depth ([86:03]).

5. Wild Card: Fitzcarraldo
   Choosing Werner Herzog's ambitious epic, Sean shares admiration for its groundbreaking filmmaking: “One of the craziest acts of movie making.” ([111:50])

Notable Quote:
Sean on Poltergeist: “A film about getting stuck inside the machinery of our obsessions. And especially real estate agents. They’re evil.” ([60:02])

Amy Poehler's Picks

1. Drama: The Verdict
   Amy selects this legal drama, lauding Paul Newman's performance and its standing in his illustrious career: “It's on the Mount Rushmore of Newman's best performances.” ([33:01])

2. Comedy: Tootsie
   Celebrating Dustin Hoffman's transformative role, Amy praises the film's construction and emotional impact: “It's so... effective. It's really a brilliant comic construction.” ([62:00])

3. Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
   Amy champions this high-octane action film as the pinnacle of its genre: “...it's just like, oh, my God, it was mimicked so many times.” ([50:52])

4. Blockbuster: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
   Highlighting its pivotal role in revitalizing the franchise, Amy commends its direction and character development: “It was everything that you loved about the show.” ([82:35])

5. Oscar-nominated: An Officer and a Gentleman
   Amy appreciates the film's exploration of complex relationships and standout performances: “She’s absolutely on my all-time list.” ([72:23])

6. Wild Card: Eating Raoul
   Choosing this indie comedy, Amy shares a personal anecdote about her connection with the film and its director, Paul Bartel: “...the Hot Tub is just a great, hilarious, galvanizing moment in the movie theater.” ([59:17])

Notable Quote:
Amy on Tootsie: “It's just like, realizing this might actually be a benefit, this might be an asset...I started to celebrate that.” ([06:21])

Chris Ryan's Picks

1. Drama: Draftsman's Contract
   Chris selects this unique film, appreciating its artistic depth and thematic complexity: “...a character study about this complex relationship.” ([70:26])

2. Comedy: Fast Times at Ridgemont High
   Emphasizing its relatability and cultural impact, Chris praises the film as a defining teen comedy: “It's a terrific. It's just terrific.” ([68:16])

3. Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
   Chris opts for this cult classic, noting its departure from the traditional Michael Myers narrative: “It's a cult film...purely evil forces.” ([78:07])

4. Blockbuster: 48 Hours
   Highlighting its blend of action and comedy, Chris commends Eddie Murphy's performance and the film's influence on future action comedies: “A great San Francisco cop movie too.” ([36:13])

5. Oscar-nominated: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
   Chris embraces this beloved film's enduring legacy and emotional resonance: “Truly beautiful film.” ([36:13])

6. Wild Card: Personal Best
   Selecting this coming-of-age drama, Chris shares appreciation for its portrayal of athleticism and personal growth: “...a fantastic one.” ([107:24])

Notable Quote:
Chris on Fast Times at Ridgemont High: “Such an awesome cinematic thing to watch.” ([68:16])

Amanda Dobbins' Picks

1. Drama: Diner
   Amanda selects this ensemble piece, celebrating its depiction of friendship and personal growth: “One of the great movies of that year.” ([71:00])

2. Comedy: Death Trap
   Choosing this thriller-comedy, Amanda appreciates its intricate plotting and dark humor: “A great Agatha Christie mystery.” ([71:11])

3. Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: Blade Runner
   Amanda honors Ridley Scott's masterpiece for its visionary world-building and enduring influence: “Creating an entire world and cinema language.” ([36:35])

4. Blockbuster: Annie
   Amanda picks this musical classic, highlighting its heartwarming story and memorable performances: “One of the first movie musicals that I saw.” ([71:02])

5. Oscar-nominated: An Officer and a Gentleman
   Amanda concurs with Amy on this drama's emotional depth and stellar cast: “An Officer and a Gentleman was a great pick.” ([71:16])

6. Wild Card: Evil Under the Sun
   Amanda selects this Agatha Christie adaptation, praising its intricate mystery and strong performances: “A very good Agatha Christie mystery as well.” ([84:34])

Notable Quote:
Amanda on Blade Runner: “Creating an entire world and cinema language. That's number one.” ([36:35])

Special Guest: Tracy Letts' Influence

Tracy Letts, the returning champion, engages actively in the draft, bringing his cinematic insights and personal anecdotes. His contributions add depth to the discussion, especially when addressing the nuances of genre classifications and the cultural impact of selected films.

Notable Interaction:
Tracy taunts Sean about his pick of 1982, leading to playful banter:
Sean: “It's my birth year, as we said.” ([10:08])
Tracy: “Every day I wake up and I sing 82.” ([10:13])

Recap of Final Selections

The episode culminates in the hosts recapping their movie picks, reflecting on the diversity and significance of each selection:

• Sean Fennessey:

  • Drama: First Blood
  • Comedy: The World According to Garp
  • Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: The Thing
  • Blockbuster: Poltergeist
  • Oscar-nominated: Missing
  • Wild Card: Fitzcarraldo ([129:16])

• Amy Poehler:

  • Drama: The Verdict
  • Comedy: Tootsie
  • Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
  • Blockbuster: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • Oscar-nominated: An Officer and a Gentleman
  • Wild Card: Eating Raoul ([130:50])

• Chris Ryan:

  • Drama: Draftsman's Contract
  • Comedy: Fast Times at Ridgemont High
  • Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
  • Blockbuster: 48 Hours
  • Oscar-nominated: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
  • Wild Card: Personal Best ([131:02])

• Amanda Dobbins:

  • Drama: Diner
  • Comedy: Death Trap
  • Thriller/Action/Horror/Sci-Fi: Blade Runner
  • Blockbuster: Annie
  • Oscar-nominated: An Officer and a Gentleman
  • Wild Card: Evil Under the Sun ([131:26])

Notable Quote:
Amanda on her Final Pick:* "And Wildcard, Evil Under the Sun... it's really fun." ([71:16], [84:34])

Closing Remarks and Reflections

As the draft concludes, the panel reflects on the eclectic mix of films chosen and the rich tapestry of 1982 cinema. They acknowledge the enduring legacy of these movies and their influence on both contemporary filmmaking and personal lives.

Notable Quote:
Sean on the significance of Fitzcarraldo: “One of the craziest acts of movie making.” ([111:50])

Final Thoughts:
The episode underscores the enduring impact of 1982's diverse cinematic offerings, celebrating both mainstream blockbusters and cult classics. Through thoughtful analysis and engaging conversation, Sean, Amanda, Chris, and Tracy provide listeners with a comprehensive exploration of a pivotal year in film history.

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Join Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and their guests next week as they delve into the cinematic chaos of 1984 with “Garbage Scorsese” and more on The Big Picture.

Transcript

[Amy Poehler]

Hi everyone, it's Amy Poehler and I'm.

[Sean Fennessey]

Launching a new podcast called Good Hang.

[Chris Ryan]

In preparation for that, I asked some.

[Amy Poehler]

Of my friends to send in some.

[Chris Ryan]

Videos and give me some advice.

[Sean Fennessey]

Just be yourself and the guests will come.

[Chris Ryan]

Don't be the celebrity that this is their, like sixth thing they're doing.

[Amy Poehler]

I love true crime and cooking podcasts.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is there any way you could combine the two?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, everyone has an opinion and a.

[Chris Ryan]

Podcast, so join me for Good Hang.

[Amy Poehler]

It's rough out there, we're just trying to lighten it up a little.

[Sean Fennessey]

This episode is presented by Audi. The all new fully electric Audi Q6E Tron is a huge leap forward featuring effortless power, serious acceleration, and the most advanced tech of any Audi ever. Experience technology that puts you center stage with a panoramic digital stage, plus an optional screen for front seat passengers so they can kick back with a movie. Q6E Tron is not just a new EV. It's a new way to experience driving. Learn [e-mail] always pay careful attention to the road and do not drive while distracted.

[Amanda Dobbins]

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[Chris Ryan]

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[Sean Fennessey]

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[Amanda Dobbins]

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[Sean Fennessey]

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[Amy Poehler]

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[Amanda Dobbins]

It's up to you.

[Chris Ryan]

That's four lines for $25 a line.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Plus four free phones.

[Chris Ryan]

Visit a store or go online today only at Metro by T Mobile.

[Amy Poehler]

When you join Metro plus tax for.

[Amanda Dobbins]

A limited time and subject makes one offer per account.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm Sean Fennesee.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm Amanda Dobbins and this is the Big Picture.

[Sean Fennessey]

A conversation show about 1982. We are drafting again, which means Chris Ryan, CR is here.

[Chris Ryan]

Hello.

[Sean Fennessey]

We are also joined by a special guest and returning champion, Tracy Letts. Movie fan, Tracy Letts. You have many other descriptors that could apply, but today you are a movie fan. Welcome back.

[Amy Poehler]

What a pleasure to be on the Big Picture. What a pleasure. What a pleasure. Hi, everybody.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Hello. What a pleasure to have you back.

[Chris Ryan]

It's great to have this moment of peace before we do battle.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

For this big draft. Are you a competitive drafter? Do you look at this as just a pure celebration of cinema?

[Amy Poehler]

I would be competitive if I felt that the result was in question.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, got it.

[Sean Fennessey]

So you have, frankly, quite arrogantly, been taunting me about the future of a draft experience here. And arrogantly. Confidently, Confidently. Okay. You had a year in mind from the very, very beginning, you, you always wanted to do this year. I don't remember me, 1982, the first time we met. You said, I have a year. I have the year. You haven't done this year. I don't know why you haven't done it. You, you threw a few other years at me, but you said we should do 1982.

[Amy Poehler]

I, I, I don't envy you people and your memories.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's honestly haunting me at this phase of my life. Amanda was just joking with me the other day. I can't remember emotional, personal experiences nine.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Days ago, but is it related to the history of film and, or is it like a footnote in something then Sean's, Sean's got a.

[Chris Ryan]

Who financed a 2011 independent horror film. He's got.

[Sean Fennessey]

I got that. I can hold that. 82.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Why was this the pick for you?

[Amy Poehler]

I don't recall.

[Sean Fennessey]

You don't even know. That's ridiculous.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Seriously.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm absolutely truthful in that I do not recall ever saying the year 1982. It's a great year. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm delighted to be drafted. No, it is.

[Sean Fennessey]

Not a bit.

[Amy Poehler]

I don't, I have no idea.

[Sean Fennessey]

We were walking the streets of New York. I remember this vividly. And we were talking about movies that were released in that year. You were telling, I want to say, you were telling me some stories of movies you had seen in the theater as a young man, as a young kid.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm not cursed by these things you people call memories.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's, that's, that's incredible. Okay, well, then, do you. What does 1982 mean to you, if anything? If it's nothing, I'll just go to Amanda.

[Amy Poehler]

No, no, it means a lot. Well, were any of you alive in 1982?

[Sean Fennessey]

I was born in the year 1982.

[Chris Ryan]

There you go. Well, this is your birth year job.

[Sean Fennessey]

I was gonna bring that up after he finished his soliloquy. That doesn't exist.

[Amy Poehler]

Apparently, you're not quite born.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Not there.

[Chris Ryan]

I was five.

[Amy Poehler]

You were five in 1982? Well, gather round children from the hills and valleys they gather round to hear about 1982.

[Chris Ryan]

It was morning in America.

[Amy Poehler]

I was 16 at the beginning of the year. Would turn 17 that year. So finishing junior year of high school and beginning senior year of high school. So, yeah, obviously a huge year for me in my personal life and my relationship to the movies. I was, you know, king of the virgin, super dorks.

[Sean Fennessey]

Chris.

[Chris Ryan]

I was in a band called Virgin super dorks. I just played rhythm guitar there in Oklahoma.

[Amy Poehler]

In Oklahoma. In a small town in Oklahoma. I think it's the year maybe, probably this happens at different ages for different people. But I think it was the first year for me that I started to own my super dorkness. And I started to realize, oh, this might actually be a benefit, this might be an asset and not a, you know, I can stop torturing myself about what people in high school think. I don't actually live on the island with the other English schoolboys. I'm gonna go out into the world. So I started to celebrate that. I think as a 16 year old, you know, as a senior in high school, we were able to take fewer hours in high school and able to take college courses at the local college. So I started taking theater classes. I had discovered acting at 15, I discovered acting the year before. So I was a fledgling artist. And so that changed everything for me. It changed my outlook, my attitude toward art. Certainly you start to develop. Well, you start to develop your taste, really, and you start to say, these are the things I like and these are the things I don't like. And. And of course, you're very arrogant about that stuff. You believe that your way is the right way. So it was a key year in that way.

[Chris Ryan]

What was the sort of movie theater situation with where you were growing up there and did you have to travel to go to. Were there art house theaters back then or was it just like one movie theater town?

[Amy Poehler]

There were no art house theaters. So in my town there was at this point the. The pornographic drive in had closed. So there was just the theater downtown. Single screen pornographic drive in. Pornographic drive in, yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

He said with great curiosity.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, I had some.

[Chris Ryan]

I was going to call my financial advisor one second.

[Amy Poehler]

It was called the Sky View in our town. We called it the Skin View because you could see it driving down the highway. That closed by this point, by 1982. So there was the ship drive in and I worked there. It was my summer job, was working at the drive in. I mowed the lawn, I brought in the broken speakers to be repaired. I worked the snack bar, I cooked the food, sold the food. And I would sometimes operate the projector. We had these big platter reel projectors. Do you know what these are? It's so you could. Instead of having to switch between two arc light projectors, with every real switch, you would put. All the reels would arrive in their canisters, brutalist style. And the guy who ran the theater, he actually had an Editing bay in the projection booth. And he would splice the different reels together and put them on this enormous platter reel, horizontal platter reel. And so that way you could start the movie and the movie would just run. Of course. Durant, Oklahoma. Drive in in 1982, the prints were all chewed up and stretched and quite often the, The. The nudity had been snipped out of the. Out of the.

[Chris Ryan]

I ask if you did any Fight Club style subliminal messaging into the. To the. To the reels.

[Amy Poehler]

I didn't ever get to that myself. A little advanced for me. But I think they were clipping them not because they were censoring them. I think that just horny projectionists were making their own. You know, we didn't have. We didn't have the access back then that you have now.

[Chris Ryan]

Real heroes.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. But those were just for stag parties. That's fun times. You think you would have done well in 1982? Oklahoma.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Would I have done well in 1982? I think by 88 I could have been thriving.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is that because that's the year of Working Girl?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, sure, yeah. It's convenient, right? And we're not far away from When Harry Met Sally. Nora Ephron is doing her thing, you know, 82. I don't know a lot about a 2. And it's funny. So when I do the research for these years that predate my film awareness or existence, it's funny what gets handed down to you by your parents. And I love my parents and they taught me a lot, but a pretty bad job on the popular cinema of the 70s and 80s. They just didn't think to put me in front of things. With some notable exceptions which may come up during the draft. So this is a year where I had a lot of blank spots. Because the other way that I would educate myself, besides what becomes canonized, or at least cult classic, is the Oscars. And this is an interesting year at the Oscars. Sort of, I guess, remembered, but maybe not. The winners are not what I would seek out. I don't know.

[Sean Fennessey]

As with most Oscar years.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, that's true.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's some interesting choices.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Very Oscar Y. So I don't know. I have some favorites, but it's not. My list might be eccentric. It also might involve some Googling at some point, depending on how the draft order and the genres work out. But that's okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is my birth year, as we said. And thank God that happened. You know, where would we all be? Would we all be together?

[Amy Poehler]

I think we're all.

[Sean Fennessey]

Thanks for that. Thank you. Thank you.

[Chris Ryan]

Every day I wake up and I sing 82.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, thanks, Cindy and Ed. My parents were not cinephiles. My mom was a big movie fan. My dad, not so much. Big readers, my parents. Readers of fiction.

[Chris Ryan]

And, like, Updike or.

[Sean Fennessey]

Sure, it could go that highbrow if you so choose. A lot of Stephen King in the house. My father, big Nelson DeMille fan, a long island cop that he is, but I'm not sure. Certainly they saw, for example, ET The Extraterrestrial, because every living human in America saw that movie in 1982, but I'm not even sure that my parents went to the movie theater to watch Gandhi, which went on to win Best Picture. So I'm not sure if I was necessarily handed some of these movies. I mean, we've talked many times over the years about how we were kind of drawn to the glow of the TV set showing the Academy Awards and that being an entry point into this kind of movie love. And then also, you know, on the side, this is also a great year for genre movies. There's a great number of science fiction, thriller movies that I'm sure will come up a lot in conversation.

[Amy Poehler]

Great year for comedy, too. It was really surprising.

[Sean Fennessey]

Deep comedy and mature comedy, too. Not quite the same, like, juvenile sort of thing that you think of, I don't know, five years old, your parents taking you to the movies. Your father's a film critic.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, he was working at the Philadelphia Inquirer. I don't have any clear, like, actual legitimate memory. I asked my mom, and she was like, I'm pretty sure we took you to E.T. so E.T. is probably one of my. One of those movies that I don't remember a time. It wasn't in my life. Now. I spent a lot of time, like, not really checking for that. Like, I've never really gone back until we did rewatchables recently or not recently. That was probably two years ago.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But, like, it was. Max was two months old, and I was on leave listening to it and, like, weeping.

[Chris Ryan]

It was just like.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, three years ago.

[Chris Ryan]

But, yeah, that was definitely, like, one of my. My first. First memories of, like, a movie always being in my life. Like, you know, and then that I. I even remember, like, the explosion in Reese's Pieces popularity. I think, like, that lasted for years after that. So, yeah, I mean, I was.

[Amy Poehler]

I think they were. Weren't they made for that movie? I. I don't think they existed before E.T.

[Chris Ryan]

I think it was a movie that would make sense. So yeah, and then one of the things that struck me and the reason why I was asking you about like the infrastructure of like how you watched movies back then is to take it full circle to where we are now is how many of these movies were very difficult to watch over the last couple of weeks to try and find a decent copy of it or a decent looking print of it, which a lot of this stuff is on Tubi or, you know, is kind of like an example of like what happens when we turn over all of our movie watching to technological technology companies. It is, you just lose swaths of cinema history here.

[Sean Fennessey]

You just put the ball in the tea for the king of physical.

[Amy Poehler]

I figured, well, I saw almost all these movies in the movie theater at this time. Of course, I met the movies every conceivable chance I had. So I saw most of these movies on the big screen. But of course we're also only a couple of years away from home video. And so you would rewatch these movies over and over again on view, or if you had missed them the first time around, you'd see them for the first time on vhs. And it's only now seeing them in blu ray or 4k that you go, oh man, that VHS really sucked. I don't really remember what this movie looked like at all.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's funny you say that. I was just saying on an episode of the Rewatchables that the Blues Brothers, which we did an episode of, was one of the first times in a long time where while watching the movie on Blu Ray, I thought, I wish I was watching this on vhs. And there is a quality to some of these movies too, where it's the first time you saw it and that, and that skipping, you know, image felt more natural. There is, there is a refinement going on with the presentation of some movies that kind of should look a little shitty.

[Amy Poehler]

You know, that's probably true.

[Sean Fennessey]

Even like the movies, like I rewatched Swamp Thing this week. Wes Craven, Swamp Thing, which we projected.

[Amy Poehler]

At the Ship Drive in.

[Sean Fennessey]

Did you?

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, I clearly remember.

[Sean Fennessey]

I have no intention of drafting it. Not one of the most successful Wes Craven movies. But, you know, it's a guy in a rubber suit and you're watching this beautiful presentation that's been made on the Blu Ray and I'm like, that's a.

[Chris Ryan]

Guy in a rubber suit, you know.

[Sean Fennessey]

And not even in an amusing way, like in a shitty way. So sometimes there are some downsides of being able to see it in the most pristine quality, but Some of this stuff is. There's also what is canon and what is not canon. And a lot. The Academy Awards did do some work to make canonize some movies, but then there's other movies. Gandhi springs to mind. Is that a beloved Hollywood classic?

[Amy Poehler]

I don't think it is, though it was certainly an important movie at the time. I mean, think about it. Nobody had ever seen an Indian lead in a movie before. Not in America anyway. They had never seen that before. And obviously the story of, you know, a very important and influential person. Now, is it done in this very stately, somewhat dry, David Lean retread kind of way? Yes. Kingsley's performance in the center of it is undeniable. So there was a sense, and it was at the time, of course, when the Academy was going to honor the movie that is considered quote, unquote important. And that was the important movie that year. And it's not a bad movie. I don't mean to suggest it's bad, but it hasn't stood up over time. Certainly a colonizer's viewpoint of Gandhi. But some, some people would even tell you the. The hagiography of it. Hagiography. Hagiography, I think is. Is also inappropriate. Throw it out there.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, we're just not. You're not the pronunciation.

[Sean Fennessey]

Maybe I should give him your Bible.

[Chris Ryan]

Actually, I took a class in Irish hagiography in Ireland, so that. That word is.

[Sean Fennessey]

Was that word founded in Ireland?

[Chris Ryan]

No, but it was. I heard that word a lot.

[Sean Fennessey]

Any. Any other stray thoughts about sort of what this year represents? Try not to give away too many of the titles.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I don't want to do that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think five year old Chris. What were your interests?

[Chris Ryan]

Slumber Party Massacres?

[Amy Poehler]

Hell.

[Sean Fennessey]

But yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, a lot of really good B movies from this year. I would say, like a lot of really fun cult classics from this year.

[Sean Fennessey]

How did you go back and do your research?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, you. You make a letterbox list, which I look at and then I find stressful because I need. I need written words along with the images.

[Chris Ryan]

Can I make a suggestion? You know what I do is I take the Wikipedia list of all the movies released that year and I just write down the ones that I've seen.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That is also what I do. Yeah, we've talked about that before because we do that. Yeah, that's our methodology.

[Sean Fennessey]

Can I tell you the overlord of 1982 cinema actually added some notes and corrections to my long letterbox.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. You're just, you're, you're there in the comments.

[Amy Poehler]

I was just doing the work.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Are you a commenter generally?

[Amy Poehler]

No.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. Yeah. Just. It would be.

[Sean Fennessey]

Are you.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I'm not.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. Just publicly on video three times a.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Week, unfortunately, only when paid in exchange for money. Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So I went through and did a list of what I'd seen, and then I knew which categories we would be selecting in. And so I started trying to fill in in a slightly strategic way to be able to have enough picks without.

[Sean Fennessey]

Revealing any of the titles. Were you moved by anything that you didn't expect?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Let's see. Was I moved?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, moved. Emotionally. Touched by the cinema?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I wouldn't say like, emotionally. You know, I wasn't brought to tears. I laughed. Maybe I didn't cry, and things stayed with me. But I would agree with Tracy that it was more genre and comedy, that we'll see how drama goes for people.

[Sean Fennessey]

I did want to cite that an unusually soft. You're a dramatist. Sort of a soft year for drama.

[Amy Poehler]

Very.

[Sean Fennessey]

Which is a strong category in these drafts.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

So that may be one of the most competitive categories. Have you thought about strategy?

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, God, I have thought of nothing else.

[Sean Fennessey]

So a lot of that is determined by draft order.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

And have you been speaking with Bob on the side, or.

[Amy Poehler]

No, No, I haven't spoken with Bob. We haven't spoken, have we, Bob?

[Sean Fennessey]

The envelope of cash was not from you. It said your name on it, Robert. No, no, I'm not going to rig it for Tracy. He wants to be. To win it fair and square.

[Amy Poehler]

Sure. Yeah, sure.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Where will we. Where will you be setting the vote? Huh?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

The vote.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. What social media platform do you want this vote to take place?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, you can also just collect ballots.

[Amy Poehler]

I don't care about the good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Thank you.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, you'll just know deep down, in an objective fashion.

[Amy Poehler]

We will know deep down.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, interesting.

[Amy Poehler]

Regardless of the vote.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. That's sort of a godlike admission there.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, we. This is a game the four of us are playing.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, that's true. Well, is it. Do you think it's a game? I like that as an ontological question. Do you see this as a game?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, but sometimes I, you know, wake up and choose violence, and sometimes I just want to hang out. Like the last one that we did, the Best Picture, one that was more fun. You made a couple of, you know, observations, see our choices.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

We couldn't help but lightly mock you, but we were kind to each other, too.

[Amy Poehler]

I listened to that podcast on my trip to Los Angeles, and I have to say, there's some choices there I just didn't agree with.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, no. Okay, let's.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, feel free.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Here, let's go, though.

[Sean Fennessey]

You are not a comment.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, I didn't understand the Sting. And I didn't understand Barry Lyndon because you don't like.

[Chris Ryan]

You don't think the Sting is.

[Amy Poehler]

I love the Sting. I love Barry Lyndon. I just thought there were better things available to both you gents.

[Sean Fennessey]

Barry Lyndon. I was just like, I'm just gonna.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Make a weird choice for me.

[Amy Poehler]

I'll also say no, because I don't think you made.

[Sean Fennessey]

You got your board.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Thanks so much.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, you were. You were. Some might say you were given your board.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You always say that, you know.

[Sean Fennessey]

What do you mean?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm sorry that I have my own view of easy when you're only picking.

[Sean Fennessey]

For eight movies, you know?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's also.

[Chris Ryan]

It's easy to Monday morning quarterback before you see the blitz coming. You have to make some call. You know, we're gonna.

[Amy Poehler]

We're gonna find that out right now.

[Sean Fennessey]

You're saying this is a Super bowl winner who's kind of doing some gloating.

[Amy Poehler]

About the offensive line. If I want to rake, I'm gonna be the first one to say at the end of this thing, you guys were. You guys won it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Listen, we've been raising families. You know, we haven't been at these fancy award shows like you. Like, we've been busy this weekend, you know, we haven't had all this time for strategy, you know, you. You powered through nine episodes of Zero Day.

[Chris Ryan]

You're doing a second season.

[Amy Poehler]

You know who I saw at the. At the. The SAG Awards last night?

[Sean Fennessey]

Who did you see?

[Amy Poehler]

Hit maker.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, yeah. He looked great.

[Sean Fennessey]

I got. I got some in the room reports from him about the certain. Certain moments. Certain moments of the show.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's really annoying.

[Sean Fennessey]

Hitmaker.

[Amy Poehler]

He has not listened to our podcast.

[Amanda Dobbins]

My number.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, Simmons.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Simons Simmons. Do you want to get some coffee?

[Amy Poehler]

Too much cough medicine. This.

[Chris Ryan]

This is what happens when I do a watch pot at 8:30 in the morning.

[Sean Fennessey]

We love you Blame London. Yeah. You saw him in the flesh.

[Amy Poehler]

No, no, no.

[Sean Fennessey]

I was just on tv.

[Amy Poehler]

I just saw him on tv.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, yeah. He was standing and applauding for Jane Fonda.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think he did.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And it was like a very. I thought he.

[Sean Fennessey]

And you thought he should not have done that.

[Amy Poehler]

I just thought, look at Hitmaker going on, living his big, very fancy life.

[Sean Fennessey]

He, as always. This was true of the globes too. We were just texting with him the whole time. I was just texting with him the whole time, which was fun. I. I'm very happy for his success.

[Amy Poehler]

As am I.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. Just making sure. His name is Timothy Simons. Just.

[Chris Ryan]

I only know him because I text him about this professional women's golfer who smokes cigarettes on the golf course. That is literally what we text about your.

[Sean Fennessey]

Your. Your dream girl.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

We were going to do a draft order, and I think we probably should at some point.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Bob, Bob, what's the. What's the technology here?

[Sean Fennessey]

The technology is, once again, random.org because, as you guys know, maybe the listeners don't know. I moved this past weekend, so all my stuff is still everywhere, so I couldn't even find the titles. I'm sorry, you said you're moving to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to honor the riddles, Right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Exactly.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm gonna be in one of the seven Philadelphia cop shows.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

That Chris has personally commissioned from the various studios. Yes, exactly. Okay, we have the list order here. Going first will be Sean.

[Amy Poehler]

Rigged. Wow.

[Sean Fennessey]

Rigged.

[Amy Poehler]

Fucking rigged. Jesus Christ.

[Chris Ryan]

First he pulls this.

[Amy Poehler]

You wanted 1982, Tracy. Wow.

[Chris Ryan]

I get to pick first on my birth year.

[Sean Fennessey]

Interesting.

[Chris Ryan]

Who's next?

[Sean Fennessey]

Tracy's next. Then cr. And then Amanda, you're on the turn.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

I never even imagined this was possible.

[Chris Ryan]

I got jobbed.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, I have to be honest. This could go incredibly sideways. That's okay. That's okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, my head is spinning.

[Chris Ryan]

It's an interesting first pick.

[Amy Poehler]

It is.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think there are a lot of good choices.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. But there's some category scarcity, I would say in some places.

[Sean Fennessey]

There is. There is.

[Chris Ryan]

Although a master genre bender like you.

[Sean Fennessey]

Genre bender?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. When you're like. The winged serpent is, in fact a drama. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

What do you think? Well, we can all share if. If you're comfortable. What do you think is the weakest category can be personal categories.

[Chris Ryan]

Technically, it's drama, but you can move a lot of stuff into drama if you want.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Can you? I think we're going to reveal the same.

[Sean Fennessey]

You don't want to reveal.

[Amy Poehler]

I think it's drama.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. I think it is as well. But that's not. I mean, is that where the heart goes? When you think of my favorite movies from this year, and that actually begs the question of the exercise. Is it your favorite movies or is it the right movie to choose in the right category at the right time? This is a movie with a. This is a year with a lot of movies I really love.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Stop vamping.

[Sean Fennessey]

Why? Because you don't know what to test his show.

[Amy Poehler]

So wait a minute. It's not a game. So you're saying it's not a game?

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, I'd love to evolve definitions so.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You don't come into the draft with a plan for if you get first or second pick.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, I really don't do that. One of my favorite activities, as you know, is making lists of movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't make them in any particular order other than just in the category that they exist. I don't have, like, I need to get this one, I need to get. Get this two. I need to get this three. If that's a fault, I accept.

[Chris Ryan]

Unless it's an Avengers. Infinity War. Right. That's when you're like, I need to have that.

[Sean Fennessey]

I didn't like when you took that film from me. It was Endgame and not Infinity War.

[Amy Poehler]

Which one is Carrie in?

[Sean Fennessey]

She's in Endgame. Actually, she's in both. No End Game. Wait, she is. I can't recall the character's name.

[Amy Poehler]

Proxima. Midnight.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What does Proxima do?

[Amy Poehler]

I've never seen the film. Nor is Gary.

[Sean Fennessey]

She's a CGI figure who is one of the children of Thanos. She is an intergalactic demigod warrior who I think is felled by five female Marvel superheroes. Oh.

[Amanda Dobbins]

When they do their girl power thing, that's.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, I think she's in both because she meets her. According to IMDb, she is in both. We can confirm.

[Amy Poehler]

I believe they went to her for the second one and they asked her to be in the second one. And she said, well, the first one is the most successful movie ever made. Are you going to pay me any more money? And they said, no, we're not going to pay you any more money.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, wait, we have an update. It's in parentheses. Voice uncredited for Endgame.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, because. And she said, wow, you're not going to pay me any more money? Then I don't think I'm going to do it. And they said, well, you know, you should feel yourself fortunate to be part of the Marvel universe. So she declined, but I think they put her in it anyway.

[Sean Fennessey]

The character is there, maybe with no lines.

[Amy Poehler]

There you go. So they own the image.

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Sean Fennessey]

She's a fairly important character in the.

[Amy Poehler]

First film, is she?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I mean, she's one of the, like, lead villains.

[Amy Poehler]

We would have made a bigger deal out of this, but it would have involved us watching the movies, and we weren't going to do that.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, I'll tell you something. They're both good. And then, you know, her performance is wonderful. The fact that she's not credited and didn't perform the second film doesn't mean I didn't want her drafted. I like.

[Chris Ryan]

Have you made your choice for 1982 yet?

[Sean Fennessey]

Is endgame available? No, I really haven't. I really haven't. If I'm being 100% honest with you.

[Chris Ryan]

I bet I know what's going through your mind.

[Sean Fennessey]

Tell me.

[Chris Ryan]

Which is that you know that you probably should take a certain movie in a certain category for the sake of like knocking that out, but that it's not the movie you would like to say. I picked this first.

[Amanda Dobbins]

First in the draft.

[Chris Ryan]

The number one pick is tough. You know, you got to pick.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's exactly right.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, a lot of guys go out in there and they're just like, give me the best quarterback. But you want to take the offensive lineman. That's going to get you to the playoffs.

[Amy Poehler]

I think that's probably. I think.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think he's right. Can I. I don't even want to say what I think the right pick is.

[Chris Ryan]

No, you cannot do that.

[Sean Fennessey]

I shouldn't do that, should I?

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, you could do what you want, but it's not fun.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'll. I'm just gonna take my favorite movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Look at you.

[Sean Fennessey]

Because I don't care.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You're a brave man.

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't care. Thank you very much for acknowledge. For seeing me as I am in thriller, horror, sci fi. I will take the Thing. John Carpenter's masterpiece.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. I mean, which amazing film masterpiece is.

[Sean Fennessey]

It the right strategic choice? Perhaps not, but I'm standing on business.

[Chris Ryan]

Is it the best thriller, horror, sci fi movie that came out that year?

[Sean Fennessey]

In my estimation it is. I know that there is a significant contender for that category. Happy to hear one of you take it. You know, could I have taken some of these very, very good dramas to clear that category off the board? I could have, but I don't give a fuck. I also wasn't listening when Bob revealed the other orders.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So who's.

[Amy Poehler]

You're next. I'm next.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you have any thoughts on the thing?

[Amy Poehler]

I love the thing. I saw it in the movie theaters. Rip Practical effects. My God. The great rock or great effects man, Kurt Russell. Fantastic. I think Keith David's first movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is that true? Wow. They are magical together.

[Amy Poehler]

Great Keith David, great ensemble cast. Right. Richard Dysart, David Clennon, Wilford, Brimley. It goes on and on. It's a bunch of great actors. The Great practical effects. Great score.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, my God, the score is so good.

[Amy Poehler]

I love the thing. It's a great film. Thumbs up.

[Chris Ryan]

Have you seen the Thing? Is it too scary?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Have I seen the Thing? No, I haven't. And I would have rewatched it or I would have watched it, but it was one of those things where I knew that it would be either a Sean thing or a you thing, you know, pretty easily. So sometimes I, like, kind of steer my watching in terms of, like, I don't need to go.

[Sean Fennessey]

You could have kneecapped one of us by taking it rudely. But that's not what this is about.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Your wife wears like a Is for Carpenter T shirt, like, to the playground very often, not just on Halloween. And I love that about Eileen, and I love that about you. So, you know, I decided to enter this with some.

[Chris Ryan]

We have to get, like, a Reynolds Woodcock scene of you dressing Eileen, but, like, putting her in vintage movie T.

[Sean Fennessey]

Shirts now today, wear the Fassbinder hat. Yeah, yeah. Well, John Carpenter is a genius, is a wonderful. Is a living legend. I think this is his best movie. Do you think this is his best movie? You think Halloween is his best movie?

[Chris Ryan]

No, I think this is. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Interesting.

[Chris Ryan]

Although I think I've seen Big Trouble in Little China the most.

[Amy Poehler]

It was not a big hit.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, it was a bomb.

[Amy Poehler]

It was a bit of a bomb when it came out. It kind of got rediscovered a little bit later. But, you know, it's part of this lore about the sci fi movies. I think this critic, Chris. I'm not going to get his last name right. Chris Nasha Nashawadi.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

Nashawadi has written a book about this summer of sci fi because so many of these movies came out within about eight weeks of each other, including the Thing, which is maybe one of the reasons it wasn't as successful in the summer of E.T.

[Sean Fennessey]

It had a different energy, obviously. And this is a very dour, existentialist, kind of punishing movie in many ways, and very gross. Also, we did an episode about the Thing some years ago during COVID and Carpenter came on the show, which was a real thrill for me.

[Amy Poehler]

Nice.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, you're up with a second pick.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, wow.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So did you come in with a strategy? Did you have a first pick in mind? Did Sean take it?

[Amy Poehler]

He did not.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So. So you know where you're going?

[Amy Poehler]

I do, but the fact that I'm picking second as opposed to first.

[Chris Ryan]

But the lights are bright, aren't they?

[Amy Poehler]

The lights are bright, you know, changes the right.

[Sean Fennessey]

Not so Easy to come off the couch, is it?

[Amy Poehler]

Also, I want to give time for, you know, the banter. The banter.

[Sean Fennessey]

I was giving it to you with all my things. Discourse here for five. We did Proxima Midnight here.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

How did you remember Proxima Midnight? But you haven't seen the film.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, she's. I mean, my God, you should see all the Proxima Midnight shit she signs when we're out about in the world.

[Sean Fennessey]

No kidding.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, more. More Proxima Midnight than anything else.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, wow.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, because those are the people, right? Those are the ones with.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, but it's not her face.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, way more than Gilded Age. The Gilded Age fans are not out there with the photos.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm bringing her an alarm clock to sign.

[Amy Poehler]

All right, first pick. You also kind of can't go wrong because there's so many great stuff at the.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm very, very, very curious about your methodology here. Do you have a sheet for every genre? Do you have a sheet for every category?

[Amanda Dobbins]

You notice you have a cover page also so that I can't see. Yeah. Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

And I have a master list at the back of how I. O.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. This is very Peter Jennings.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you have to get a printer at a Los Angeles hotel to do this?

[Amy Poehler]

No, I printed this at home in New York and brought it with me. With the first Pick in the 1982 draft, I will take, in the category of drama, the Verdict.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, you took it from me.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So that was the.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Was that the consensus, number one? Overall?

[Amy Poehler]

It's the clear drama number.

[Sean Fennessey]

Because drama has so much scarcity.

[Chris Ryan]

Unless you want to start being like, well, you could say that there's drama scenes in this sci fi movie or in this comedy, you know?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I have some. Well, we can get into it. But I have some. Some thoughts about movies that I think are considered one thing but should be considered another thing. And we can debate that here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But the trick about the Verdict is that it's also eligible in Blockbuster.

[Amy Poehler]

It is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So. And I assume in Oscar, an Oscar. Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes. This is Paul Newman's winning Oscar performance, is it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I thought it was Color of Money.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, you're right. Color of Money. Of course it should have been.

[Amy Poehler]

Ben Kingsley won, and Ben Kingsley was not going to be denied that year. It was kind of a weird Oscar year in that way. A lot of people who weren't going to be denied that year meant that some other people who might have won the award in any other year didn't win. And I think, you know, certainly, I Won't say it's Newman's best performance, but it's on the Mount Rushmore of Newman's best performances. No doubt.

[Sean Fennessey]

We are hoping to do an episode. He would have been 100 years old this year. So we're gonna do an episode about his entire career.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You just have to get through all of your. All your Blu Rays.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I mean, those 1950s Warner Brothers films are not gonna watch themselves. Who's gonna watch the young Philadelphians? If I don't watch it, you know I will.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay. When's the last time you saw the Verdict?

[Sean Fennessey]

We actually did do it on the rewatch. One of my favorite rewatch roughly two and a half years ago. I wanna say, fantastic episode. Bill has a great affection for the movie as well. A Boston movie, though, filmed in New York. And just bang on, brilliant performances in the whole movie. James Mason, also fantastic.

[Amy Poehler]

James Mason never won a competitive Academy Award.

[Sean Fennessey]

Crazy talk.

[Amy Poehler]

Unbelievable.

[Sean Fennessey]

Also, I was thinking of James Mason. Your boy Brady Courbet recently was mentioning that the Guy Pierce character very clearly modeled on a James Mason in this era kind of figure, which was.

[Chris Ryan]

I can't remember. What was the story with. This is like Mamet wrote the script, then they had 10 people rewrite it and then they begged him to come back and just rewrite his.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, I think eventually Lumet got his hands on the. On the Mamet script and was like, why aren't we making this? This should be the one we're making.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

I think there was some tinkering with it after from Mamet's original version of it. But it's Mamet's best screenplay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Without question.

[Amy Poehler]

It's an incredible screenplay. It's worthy of study, that screenplay. It's a great piece of work. Bruce Willis, anybody? Bruce Willis, an extra standing in the courtroom, very visible.

[Sean Fennessey]

Can see him in that wide shot. Yeah. When he gives the final.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

It's like, really? The reason half ass Internet research category of rewatchables exists is for scenes like that.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know who's a motherfucker is Milo O'Shea.

[Amy Poehler]

He is a motherfucker.

[Sean Fennessey]

The judge, he's wonderful in this movie, but he is like one of the great villains in movie history. Andre Bartokiak as well, shot the movie and he was just given an award at the ASC Awards over the weekend by Michael Douglas for his work as a cinematographer. He shot many great Lumet movies.

[Amy Poehler]

Wow.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Great fact.

[Sean Fennessey]

Fun timing.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Charlotte Rampling on your all time list. She's on my all time list.

[Amy Poehler]

She is absolutely on My all time list.

[Sean Fennessey]

She gets slapped by Paul Newman in the series.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Publicly punched, I think.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

At like a hotel lobby.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Not ideal. These were the times. 1982. Some were working in, drive in, some were slapping women in bars.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, you're next.

[Chris Ryan]

No, you're next.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, am I next? I'm third. You're next.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. I have the turn.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Great pick, Tracy. That was the right pick.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I just deleted that off my list. So that's how, you know, you did it. Correct.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was the right pick.

[Chris Ryan]

All right, For Oscar nominee, I'm going to take E.T.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. That is partially out of category scarcity. Also adore ET Okay. Truly beautiful film and hoping I can get something else I like on the term. So.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. In. I'm. I'm getting what would have been my number one pick from a strategy perspective.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

In thriller, action, horror, sci fi, I will be taking Blade Runner, which is.

[Amy Poehler]

God damn it.

[Chris Ryan]

Didn't really see that coming.

[Sean Fennessey]

You needed to be ready for that.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, she was like, I didn't watch the things. I was like, maybe I've seen Blade.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Run and I live in Los Angeles, you know, like, come on, Team Ridley forever. Probably my second favorite of Ridley's movies after Alien. But like, in terms of the influence and you know, we say this every time. It's like a very weird, hazy day in Los Angeles or a hazy evening and you're just like, oh, it's Blade Runner time and creating an entire world and cinema language. That's number one.

[Amy Poehler]

Not only is that the right pick, that's the right order. Alien then.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Thank you so much. I appreciate your support.

[Chris Ryan]

Watch the final cut on Saturday night. I think five star masterpiece. Just so gorgeous. Just such an incredible experience. Do you have a favorite cut, favorite release?

[Sean Fennessey]

I've kind of gotten them confused over the years. I do believe I've watched the final cut the most because it was. Was it first issued on D blazerdisc? I don't even know.

[Amy Poehler]

I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

No, there was like a. When he, when they first, he kind of. There was like a. An anniversary version that stripped away the voiceover, but he didn't do the remastering and like the color corrections or anything like that. And there are some criticisms of this last version of it where people think he got. It's too teal or something like that. Like that. They don't love it. But I thought it was incredible.

[Amy Poehler]

Did you know? I don't, I don't care about director's cuts. I mean, I don't Think they make any difference? They all look alike to me.

[Chris Ryan]

I mean. I mean, the VO difference is notable. Like, Deckard is really present in the beginning of the film, just kind of being like. And then this is this guy and this is this guy, and like, so.

[Amy Poehler]

But they're all kind of the same movie. I mean, even when I watch, like, the different versions of Orson Welles, Mr. Arkad, and I'm like, they're all great. They're all great. They're all kind of the same movie. They're. Yeah, I guess they're kind of different.

[Sean Fennessey]

But there are some movies that, you know, excise entire characters and then they restore 40 minutes. Or in the case of Kingdom of Heaven, speaking of Ridley Scott, two hours of a movie that can be meaningfully different.

[Chris Ryan]

I never watched the Napoleon.

[Sean Fennessey]

I never did either. The Napoleon.

[Chris Ryan]

I was waiting for someone to be like, he did it.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's.

[Chris Ryan]

This is amazing.

[Sean Fennessey]

That did not come through the translation. No one. No one, really.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Just kind of like an extra 40 minutes. I mean, I liked the orig.

[Chris Ryan]

I enjoy doing the pick, don't you?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I do. And thank you for letting me Google. In Drama, I will be taking what I think this is 100% eligible for drama, despite its title, and it is the King of Comedy.

[Amy Poehler]

Ah, okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What, you're not going to take it? I mean, I.

[Chris Ryan]

No, no, no, no. I was going to. I was just technically released in the U.S. in 83, wasn't it?

[Amy Poehler]

No, no, it's 82.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, is it?

[Amy Poehler]

No, no, It's 82. You're right on 82. And I think you're fine to take it in drama.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. I mean, it, you know, more drama than comedy, probably. Yeah. The most underrated of the Scorsese in my.

[Sean Fennessey]

It was released in the US in 83.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, no.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's usually what the rule is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, no, it's on my.

[Amy Poehler]

Wait, wait.

[Sean Fennessey]

It was released in Iceland in December 18, 1982.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, dear. That's tough.

[Amy Poehler]

Wow. How did we fuck this up?

[Sean Fennessey]

February 18th, 1983.

[Amanda Dobbins]

All right, Mr. Letterbox, wasn't it on your list? Letters, do the research.

[Amy Poehler]

I've had it on all my lists.

[Sean Fennessey]

Weren't you the ombudsman of my life?

[Amy Poehler]

Total miss. Total miss.

[Chris Ryan]

I was wondering why Infinity War was on the 1982.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And there's the New York.

[Sean Fennessey]

Perhaps it was a bear trap that I saw.

[Amanda Dobbins]

1983. All right, well, I'm pretty fucked here now.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm sorry.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's okay. It's not your fault. I appreciate your support. I guess.

[Sean Fennessey]

Chris I would have gotten right by me.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Wow.

[Chris Ryan]

You can always count on me to really be buttoned up.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Was that payback for.

[Chris Ryan]

No, it wasn't. It was. I didn't mean to be. I wasn't being dick. I was actually just saving us from a bunch of like. Actually.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, actually. Oh, from. From people. Okay, so what am I gonna do here?

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, God, I'm mortified. I. This is gonna bother me.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, it's a great pod moment. That's really awesome.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm up. I'm upset about this, but that's okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Better you than me.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, take a deep breath.

[Amy Poehler]

I would have absolutely had it come back to me. I would have absolutely taken a deep breath.

[Sean Fennessey]

I had it at the top of my comedy list. Did it not have a festival premiere?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I was literally just googling, like, you know. But it doesn't.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's surprising that it wouldn't play New York in the fall.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But it was not appreciated. No.

[Sean Fennessey]

But before its release, you might imagine. Sure.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know Scorsese. Yeah, but they were. I don't know.

[Sean Fennessey]

This film did get bombed pretty profoundly. I $19 million budget, $2.5 million box office for Robert Dairo movie in 1982, directed by Martin Scorsese.

[Amy Poehler]

And it is again, clearly on the Mount Rushmore. My Mount Rushmore of Scorsese movies.

[Sean Fennessey]

Five star masters.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. It's not for me.

[Amanda Dobbins]

The next film is not a five star Martin Scorsese masterpiece. But it does have sentimental value to me and I am going to stay in drama. Well.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, my.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Am I going to do this in drama? Are we going to do it in Oscar? I don't know. I can get frisky with Oscar later. Okay, I'm going to do it in drama. Even though I don't really think any of you will take this. I mentioned earlier that because of my age, I was sort of beholden to what my parents showed me from this year for a long time. And there is very famous 1982 movie that my wonderful father, who taught me almost everything I know about movies, sat me down for and said, okay, this is it. You're like, here we go.

[Sean Fennessey]

I know where you're going. Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And like, here is. This is cinema. I can't wait to share this with you. I'm an only child. It was a real father daughter moment. And he put on Barry Levinson's Diner.

[Amy Poehler]

Nice.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And my response was, dad, I'm seven. And what the hell is this?

[Chris Ryan]

What's going on with this popcorn mom?

[Sean Fennessey]

I bet she was prepping you for this exact day.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But it does, you know, it all adds up, right? We do see how, you know, diner in 1989 led to where I am today.

[Sean Fennessey]

You're bargaining right now.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I have since seen it and like it very much. Not as much as my dad, who is just like the only person in the world looking forward to the new Barry Levinson film.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like the Alto Knights, you know, like.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Does Tin Men speeches, like, at Christmas dinner. I don't know what. Like my dad.

[Sean Fennessey]

Tin Men, Yeah. That's a forgotten one.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He's just like. That's really underappreciated and just reenacts.

[Amy Poehler]

It's a good movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It is a good movie. And, you know, you have met my dad. He's not, like, prone to just reenacting films anywhere, especially at Christmas dinner. But Diner is the classic and a great movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Should this be Knox's debut when we do the Alto Knights and he can talk of the cinema of Levinson?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sure, we can call him in. I think the last time that I volunteered him on this podcast, it was his reaction to Emilia Perez and he was like, I did not know that was going to be public, so could you screen things? Fair. I'll give him a call.

[Sean Fennessey]

But anyway, he was particularly fond of Carlo Sofia Gascon's work.

[Amy Poehler]

Sorry, you've taken this in drama. Yes, I have. Yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, it does have comedic elements, but I think ultimately, like a coming of age, it could go either way.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, do you see it this way, that the blurring of the genre labels was more common then versus now? Because.

[Amy Poehler]

Not necessarily. I don't think so. I think there are just some things that are comedy dramas, and I think we just happened to hit on a couple of them here. King of Comedy and Diner definitely fall in that category. It was a real moment, that movie, certainly in the. In these young actors lives. Right. It was that ensemble and it was. I remember clearly that it was. There was a real call again for an ensemble acting award at the Academy Awards as a result of Movie Diner. Right. Stuff. Right around the same time people were saying these movies are just not going to be honored at the Academy Awards for performances. But the ensembles of these movies absolutely should be.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you think that would be a good thing? Yeah, I don't know. I'm not quite sure I understand why that isn't the case, why that doesn't exist, that particular award. Cause obviously, this set we. Last night, we're pre taping this. The SAG Awards happened last night. Conclave won best ensemble.

[Amy Poehler]

Right.

[Sean Fennessey]

That would Be a way to honor that film.

[Amanda Dobbins]

All of the shows need more famous, like Visible. You need more performing categories, more performers.

[Sean Fennessey]

On stage to win awards. Yeah, I agree.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We want to keep the crafts too, but you just, you want some famous people on the screen.

[Sean Fennessey]

Seems like a good idea.

[Amy Poehler]

And if you went back, you would find a movie every year. Going back in time where you said, well, that would have been the ensemble award winner for that year.

[Sean Fennessey]

You've just given an idea episode to.

[Chris Ryan]

Do the ensemble award for every year.

[Sean Fennessey]

Wonderful idea.

[Amy Poehler]

Diner I saw at the USA Film Festival. I think that's what it's still called. It's the Dallas Film Festival. I used to make my dad take me down there to see some movies around that time.

[Chris Ryan]

That's awesome.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. Saw Diner before it was released.

[Sean Fennessey]

Wow.

[Amy Poehler]

Terrific, terrific movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's a great movie, I believe.

[Chris Ryan]

Is it my turn?

[Sean Fennessey]

Your pick, Chris.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, we'll just get a little chalky here. And I got ET and Oscar. I'll take 48 hours in Blockbuster. Okay. I guess to our previous conversation, 48 Hours is a comedy because Eddie Murphy goes nuclear five times in this movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Big screen debut, otherwise a violent cop drama.

[Chris Ryan]

It's just like a 1970s cop movie. Yeah. And like the last half of it or the last 40 minutes of it are essentially like a chase through San Francisco. But it's a great San Francisco cop movie too.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I do feel like this. You and Bill referenced 48 hours on more than Almost.

[Chris Ryan]

We were just in Austin, Texas. There's a chain in Austin called Torchies, which is also the bar that Eddie Murphy goes into in 48 hours. And we made a lot of 48 hours jokes because of that.

[Sean Fennessey]

It seemed like a very nice torchy. Is that a chain of some kind?

[Chris Ryan]

It's become a chain, I think. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. But 48 Hours fan.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, absolutely. And saw it not long ago, in fact, for the first time in a very long time. And I was really taken by what an 80s movie it is. I mean, I know what you say is true, that it could very much be a 70s buddy, buddy picture, but the look of that film, the, the. The way the climax that film plays out, I mean, I think it really set a template for action movies.

[Chris Ryan]

Lethal Weapon that lasts to today.

[Amy Poehler]

And to see those guys in their, you know, in their. In their big shoulder pads and the, you know, the neon and the. And the smoke in the alley, I mean, it's just like, oh, my God, it was mimicked so many times. Such is such an influential movie. It's. I don't know. There's my favorite Walter Hill movie. I don't know. It's my favorite Nick Nolte or Eddie Murphy movie. But it's a terrific. It's just terrific. And it's so trend setting. It's unbelievable.

[Chris Ryan]

I will say also, perhaps the best year anyone had, the best 1982 anyone had was Brian James, who was in 48 hours in Blade Runner.

[Sean Fennessey]

He was also in the Ballad of Gregorio Cortez that year, which is a movie I just watched for the first time.

[Chris Ryan]

How did you get that? How did you pull that out of your back pocket?

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm a big fan of Brian James work and I clocked him in the Ballad of Gregorio Cortez and thought, wow, this cast is absolutely stacked.

[Chris Ryan]

And I, like Bill, find the retconning of his character in another 48 hours to be a crime against cinema.

[Sean Fennessey]

That he was actually the killer. Yeah, that's not ideal.

[Chris Ryan]

Spoilers for another.

[Sean Fennessey]

But he does have kind of that energy.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessey]

You could see why he was.

[Amy Poehler]

He was great.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, he was really great actor.

[Amy Poehler]

That's a. That's a mighty good pick, that 48 hours. That's good stuff.

[Sean Fennessey]

Not really one of my movies, to be honest. Not. I don't dislike it or anything, but I just never.

[Chris Ryan]

Are you saying that to be different?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, I didn't. I didn't see. When I was like, I didn't see it, I was like, what's your favorite.

[Chris Ryan]

Eddie Murphy blockbuster from that period?

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, good question.

[Chris Ryan]

Like his acting.

[Sean Fennessey]

I saw Trading Places first and a lot. And I love that movie. Yeah. But Come to America is a big one for me.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm with him where Trading Places got handed down. And 48 hours for whatever is just like, I've seen it, but I more know it through you and Bill referencing it. But everything that Tracy said about it, like setting the template for the.

[Amy Poehler]

Well. And I've heard you guys talk on the show before about the minting of movie stars and how rare and difficult it seems to be these days. This year, 1982, we'll get to some more of it. But, oh, my God, Eddie Murphy is just like, you've graduated.

[Sean Fennessey]

And he was 22. I mean, he was so young.

[Amy Poehler]

He was 20 20. And just like you're in. You've graduated, you are a movie star and you're gonna get your first choice of material. It's unbelievable. And it was a palpable sense in the movie theater, sitting there in an audience like, that guy's a movie star. We'll Follow him anyway. Anywhere really great. Is it my pick?

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't know where you're going to go here. I'm curious.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm going to go to all the right places.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, so how many of your. How's your strategy going right now? Anything off the board? Okay, that's great. We just like to, you know, check in any. Any feedback you want to give us, you know, partway through the draft.

[Amy Poehler]

This is one of my.

[Chris Ryan]

My most populist.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm okay. It could get a little dicey, little gamey. No verdict and no king of comedy is, you know.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, that's another crosshair.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That was like a 1, 2 that I. That I needed.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I actually shouldn't have rewatched Emily in Paris for the fourth time. You could have been boning up.

[Chris Ryan]

We could also. I mean, this may be a.

[Sean Fennessey]

This.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And I loved it. And it's evil, but I love it.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's her zero day strong performance.

[Chris Ryan]

This might be a good place where Amanda could trade me Blade Runner for ET And a pick. You know, we could get like some action going.

[Sean Fennessey]

You would give up a pick?

[Chris Ryan]

No, I would move up in front of her maybe on one round or something.

[Sean Fennessey]

I would welcome it if you so chose.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And I love E.T. that, that was a good. That was a good pick.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

In thriller, action, horror, sci fi, I will take the Road Warrior.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Yeah. This was number two on my board.

[Amy Poehler]

Speaking of fully minted movie stars. Just like. Oh, yeah, it was just like, that guy's a movie star and I'll follow him anywhere. I. To my mind, I think it's the greatest action movie ever made. It's number one on my action.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, I think Bill Hader said the same thing to me once upon a time.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, Bill Hader is also from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's very true.

[Amy Poehler]

And the Road Warrior has a lot of resonance for us there these days.

[Sean Fennessey]

Similar vibes.

[Chris Ryan]

Mel Gibson's favorite of the three, for.

[Sean Fennessey]

What it's worth it, is his favorite. Quite a year for him. 1982, between this, living Dangerously, another Australian film. He was an amazing movie star.

[Amy Poehler]

He was. I mean, again, that sense, in a movie theater when a guy comes out and you're just like, I'll follow you anywhere. Yeah, you don't have to do anything. I'm totally with you. And of course, the incredible action, it's just. It's a great thrilling and it holds up some of those things. You know, you look at an action movie from the 1960s, you look at some early Bond, and it's like, yeah, that thing holds up.

[Sean Fennessey]

You can see all the. You know, they hear about the Spielberg brain chemistry where he knows how to block a scene better than anybody and it's all in his head. George Miller is very similar where you can see, even with limited resources, he.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Knows exactly what he wants because the first one doesn't quite go full dystopia. And the third one has Tina Turner, which I love, but also some other stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

It's such a great story, too. It's just on a very basic foundational, These guys are safe but stuck, and they have to make a run for it. It's such an awesome cinematic thing to watch.

[Amy Poehler]

There's a cool thing in that movie when he steps forward to say, I'm the one. I'm the one who will drive you there is behind him John Wayne. I don't know if it's a cardboard cutout. I don't know if it's a guy who looks like John Wayne, who's dressed like John Wayne. I mean, watch it again and look for the guy behind him. It's hard to take your eyes off Mel, but there's a guy behind him who's definitely put there to evoke that, that silhouette. This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. It's tax season, and we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's one you need to hear. $16.5 billion. That's how much the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year.

[Sean Fennessey]

Now, here's a good number.

[Amy Poehler]

100 million.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second.

[Amy Poehler]

If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed.

[Sean Fennessey]

Save up to 40% your first [e-mail] podcast terms apply. So Road Warrior comes off my board. Fortunately, I did already take the thing, so I'm not too wounded by that. I have two picks. Do you find that there's scarcity in.

[Chris Ryan]

Blockbuster to some extent.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's an interesting blockbuster.

[Chris Ryan]

I've also taken two blockbusters with my first two picks, even though I already selected. You know what I mean? Like, I have. I kind of took up a little bit of space here with mine. There was honestly strategic picks for a man known to pick with his heart.

[Sean Fennessey]

I neglected to cite the threshold for the Blockbuster category this time around, and I should share it. You guys knew this ahead of time, but it was $40 million or more was the threshold that we're using. There are 16 films eligible in Blockbuster so far. Three are off the board. ET the extra terrestrial, 48 hours and the verdict? I'm not sure my. I'm not sure if my heart is really calling to me on any of these, though, even though there's some scarcity.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, I want to.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I want to post names.

[Sean Fennessey]

There are definitely some brand names and some. Some movies I dig for sure. How would you. How does this sound to you? Is the film First Blood a drama?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Mm.

[Sean Fennessey]

You haven't seen it, so you can't weigh in.

[Chris Ryan]

So that was gonna be. This is an Interesting.

[Sean Fennessey]

Because it's not Rambo 2. This is first Blood. This is the first film.

[Chris Ryan]

You haven't seen it, so you can't weigh in.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is a character.

[Chris Ryan]

You can do what you want.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is a character study.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I have seen it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Because I edited the Vietnam series.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

And you would say that this is. I was just making a joke.

[Amy Poehler]

Eat.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, eat it. I mean, you're right that it's not Rambo too. I don't know. It's. Are we.

[Chris Ryan]

What would you have done if she had taken Blade Runner in drama?

[Sean Fennessey]

I think it's probably more appropriate if you wanted to have a delineation that it being a thriller than in a drama. I don't know if it has a classic dramatic elements. Rambo is a character study about a Vietnam veteran. It does have action elements, but they're not as big and bold as you might think. It is described on Wikipedia as an action film.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm a guest. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Sean Fennessey]

Feel free to weigh in. I'm. I'm curious what the room thinks when.

[Chris Ryan]

You'Re listening to these and somebody does a little bit of a backdoor, you know, category fraud exercise like this or. Do you get mad?

[Amy Poehler]

It's totally subjective. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.

[Sean Fennessey]

You're being too polite.

[Amy Poehler]

I will say that I have seen dudes do the monologue from the end of this as audition pieces.

[Chris Ryan]

Have you?

[Sean Fennessey]

Wow.

[Amy Poehler]

I have. It's just like. It doesn't work.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's some good acting in this movie. I like that. You, Richard Crenna and Brian Dennehy are excellent in this movie.

[Amy Poehler]

It's a very good movie. It's very well acted. Ted Kotcheff was a terrific director.

[Sean Fennessey]

Very good. Underrated. Weird. Career weird.

[Amy Poehler]

Career weird. Sort of all over the place. Yeah. North Dallas 40.

[Sean Fennessey]

Great movie. Wake in Fright, his best movie. A great Australian thrillers. He did Fun with Dick and James.

[Chris Ryan]

The comedy movie that I was like. Holy.

[Sean Fennessey]

He was Canadian. Ted Koch, Was it? He was Canadian.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. I believe he was Canadian.

[Sean Fennessey]

Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. He had a very odd career. This is his. If you say it's an action movie. If you say it's an action movie, I accept.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm willing to accept it as a drama. Until the great 1983 snafu. You are going to accept King of Comedy in Drama, and I think, you know, that is a drama with some literal comedic elements. So I'm. Okay, I'll open it. Rambo ii. Obviously not, but.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, no, that's the thing, is the franchise becomes very different after this movie. And I think partially because the movie was sold on this very famous Drew Struzan poster who drew the Star wars posters where he's holding an automatic rifle on the COVID with the bullet. The bullet.

[Chris Ryan]

Bandolier.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, the bandolier. Thank you.

[Chris Ryan]

Glad I could help.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes. A man who knows his artillery.

[Chris Ryan]

And that's achiography. And it's bandolier.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'll take First Blood in Drama.

[Chris Ryan]

We'll see how the streets react.

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't really give a shit what the streets say.

[Chris Ryan]

Your approval rating.

[Amy Poehler]

Now, wait a minute. We do get to now make snarky comments about the fact that you've chosen an injury. Of course, if we accept it and then we make snarky comments.

[Sean Fennessey]

Make your comments.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, I will say, you know what? I am. I'm not. I'm not disallowing it. I'm surprised. Maybe I'm a little disappointed. There's lots of. There's lots of dramas, especially for a. A fiend like yourself who loves to scour obscure films. I'm surprised you're not like, oh, this, this, this.

[Sean Fennessey]

Honestly was disappointed by a lot of the dramas that I visited preparing for this episode. Not disappointed by other categories. I feel like there's a bounty in other categories, but, like, without naming names, these are often the third or fourth or fifth favorites of some of my favorite directors that were made this year. So I chose not to go with that.

[Chris Ryan]

We'll blow our minds, man.

[Amy Poehler]

You choose twice, don't you?

[Sean Fennessey]

I do, yeah. I have another pick. Did you have a snarky comment you wanted to share?

[Amy Poehler]

Not yet. Okay, I'll save it. I'll save it for when I need it in Blockbuster. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Which I think I need to take right now before things get unfortunate. I will take Poltergeist.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I watched this.

[Sean Fennessey]

You did?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. And I had seen. I mean, because obviously the little girl with the hands on the tv. I. Iconic image. So I was like, oh, yeah, cr.

[Sean Fennessey]

Every Sunday night.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I would have Taken it.

[Chris Ryan]

Watching Zero Day. How did you feel as a homeowner watching this?

[Amy Poehler]

You've taken Poltergeist.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It was more like, that's how I feel about TVs, you know, so.

[Amy Poehler]

And you took it in Blockbuster. Blockbuster.

[Sean Fennessey]

You moved the headstones, but you didn't move the bodies. This is a very chilling line reading in this movie. You know Tobe Hooper, the great Tobe Hooper, director of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, perhaps the most influential of the horror filmmakers. This movie long rumored to have been a shadow.

[Chris Ryan]

Spielberg.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, A co work with Steven Spielberg, which I think has been largely debunked.

[Amy Poehler]

At this stage, mostly because Spielberg himself has shouted down that rumor from the beginning. Not true.

[Sean Fennessey]

A film that absolutely changed my brain chemistry and violently upset me as a young kid. And probably one of the significant movies that put me on the path that I'm in now in seeing every horror movie that is made that I can.

[Chris Ryan]

Get my hands on and I thank it for it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, we've made great hay of it over the years. It's been a lot of fun. The peeling of the skin while looking in the mirror will live with me forever. Obviously, a film about getting stuck inside the machinery of our obsessions. A film about real estate and why it is evil and dangerous and especially real estate agents. And they're. They're. They're evil. Beautiful, sad, weird movie that just so happened to completely capture the American consciousness. What movie, what number was it this year? It was the eighth highest grossing movie of this year and made $76 million right in front of the best little whorehouse in Texas.

[Amy Poehler]

And it did that thing that E.T. did too, right? It had that Spielberg suburban real. Here's a real family.

[Chris Ryan]

Something extraordinary could happen in the most ordinary of places.

[Sean Fennessey]

And that kind of glow around it too, where you felt like there was something special. The poster, the iconography of the movie.

[Amy Poehler]

It's really beautifully made too. It's.

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, it's damn good.

[Amy Poehler]

It's really effectively made. All right, I have a pick. What am I going to do? What do you think I'm going to do? Drama? Sci fi? Oscar nom. Blockbuster.

[Chris Ryan]

This is where. This is where everything gets real interesting. I think a lot of our. The big titles are kind of off the board now.

[Amy Poehler]

Comedy.

[Chris Ryan]

Couple, couple left.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think it depends on what you think about some of these classics.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, you took First Blood off that list. You took First Blood in Drama. I did not. In Blockbuster.

[Sean Fennessey]

Correct.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay. All right. I make no bones about this. I'm taking Tootsie in comedy.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. Okay, so speak about this movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, first of all, behind the scenes, you've got Larry Gelbart and Murray Schiskel and Elaine May, uncredited, writing the screenplay. And in front of the camera, you've got Terry Garr and Dabney Coleman and Bill Murray at their peak powers. So you just have some comedy geniuses working on this thing. And it was from a time when a comic script was constructed, Right. It wasn't just people riffing in front of a camera until they hit on something funny. This thing was constructed with jokes and scenes and arcs and building toward a climax intended to be seen in a theater. And this is something. Here's where I pull my old man card on you all. This is something that had to be experienced in a movie theater. Because if you watch this at home, after the reveal at the end, right. Spoiler alert. After he reveals that he is, in fact, the actor Michael Dorsey. When you watch this at home, you will note that for about two minutes, there's just Dustin Hoffman in this ridiculous accent saying over and over again, I'm whatever his name is supposed to be, I'm Michael Dorsey. And it goes on that long because you couldn't hear the dialogue in the theater because of the screams and the gasps and the laughter. It was an explosive reaction in the theater that lasted for minutes. It went on for minutes. And it's because of the construction of that screenplay. It builds that moment. Of course, Pollock's a great director and knew how to orchestrate all of that. It's a great kind of thing that we don't write with our siloed comedy worlds and watching everything on our phones and YouTube. You don't have that experience as much anymore as you had watching a movie in the movie theater. Great.

[Chris Ryan]

I do wonder whether or not you could make an argument that everybody bemoans the death of theatrically released comedies. And I think it's usually ascribed to, like, the changing senses of humor, of the movie going public or what is and isn't funny. But I wonder if it's equally because they stopped writing them, like, writing through, like, as a film with comic elements, rather than here's a scenario where these people can essentially improvise. Like, you're saying, like, kind of like that post Adam McKay Apatow style of making a movie where it's like Rogan and Friends kind of joking around. It's interesting.

[Sean Fennessey]

This has been in the news recently because Judd Apatow at the DGA Awards, I think it was said if someone wrote and produced the Hangover Today, it would make a billion dollars. That there is still a huge desire to have that exact experience that you're talking about. But he didn't say this part. But I think this is true. Movies like Tootsie, like the Hangover, made studios too greedy about comedy, that if a movie could not make $500 million, they should not make one that makes $72 million.

[Chris Ryan]

Well. And certainly we shouldn't spend $50 million to make it and give it, like, a set piece and have a lot of locations. It should be a house in Vancouver where people just, like, joke with each other.

[Sean Fennessey]

But Tootsie.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

I would say, honestly, not to bring you into my drama, but literally. But Tootsie is kind of like First Blood in that it's a comedy, but it's a very sad movie about a confused, desperate person with really, like, high dramatic stakes. I mean, you really. You laugh a lot, but it's taken quite seriously.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. And I mean, well, I'm just going to repeat myself a bunch. It's just. It's so. It's really effective. It's really. And it was very smart that Dustin Hoffman is the guy to play that part and to investigate that character in the very real circumstance that you're talking about. Right. That he's a guy who's gonna say, what's this guy all about? He's not just playing for laughs. Right. He's playing a larger thing than that. But it's just a brilliant comic construction. I guess it's become complicated by some current politics, but I don't know. I don't see it.

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't think it has really fallen into that slipstream as much. I think Dustin Hoffman's identity as a public person has fallen into some complexity for sure. But I think it's still seen as, like, a watermark, you know, watershed movie of the 1980s. Okay, great pick.

[Amy Poehler]

Also, when you look at the blockbuster numbers. Right. ET Is so far ahead of everything else, but Tootsie is actually so far ahead of everything else in the second spot because you wanted that experience in the movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

$177 million in America in 1982 for a character. Comedy is amazing.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, next pick. Cr.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. In comedy. I'll take Fast Times.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Damn it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. The comedy rush has begun, which in.

[Chris Ryan]

We did this for rewatchables relatively recently. What did you say?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I just deleted it from my list. That's what I was gonna pick.

[Chris Ryan]

Next is actually like 70% of drama, you know, like when you watch it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

The whole Jennifer storyline.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. But it's just an incredible slice of life.

[Amy Poehler]

Gosh.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm trying to think of, like, what my favorite performance. Like, the Reinhold stuff is so good. Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Lee are so good in it. Damone is an iconic character.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

It's great.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Phoebe Cates is just really important.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And Heckerling and Crow. I wish they had. I wish they had made more movies together.

[Sean Fennessey]

I do, too.

[Amy Poehler]

So good.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

So good.

[Sean Fennessey]

So, I mean, you were 16 when this movie came out. I know.

[Amy Poehler]

And it's the same year as Porky's, right? Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Don't spoil your next pick.

[Amy Poehler]

Which is. Which doesn't hold up.

[Sean Fennessey]

No.

[Amy Poehler]

Didn't really hold up in 1980 choices in that one.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

But Fast Times felt more like high school.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Even though it was not a high school, I. It was not my high school, God knows. But the, The. The mall culture and the relationships and it just felt very. Just felt. Felt a lot more relatable than a lot of the. Of course this was. We were. We're just getting into the teen comedies. Right. We're just coming out of slashers and moving into teen comedies for the. The teen dollar. Because there was. I mean, John Hughes was what, a year away, I think Adria. Yeah. So like a Freight Train. It was coming and. Yeah, it's great. Great movie. Great pick for you.

[Sean Fennessey]

Must have been nice to grow up in California. That would have been cool.

[Chris Ryan]

You always say that.

[Sean Fennessey]

I just love California. Yeah. It's just an amazing place. It's so beautiful here. Everybody's just really getting after it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

When I was watching the SAG Awards, did a nice, like, tribute to la.

[Sean Fennessey]

A montage.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, and they were during, like, the breaks, which is essential. Sean.

[Sean Fennessey]

I thought it was a nice telecast.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, but they were very nice. And I was like, oh, yeah. Well, now I just, like, I'm a movie pilled. So that's why I love Los Angeles so much. And I see it through those eyes. But I agree with you. That's. That's why we like to be here.

[Sean Fennessey]

Just like being here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I was going to take Fast times in. In comedy, so.

[Amy Poehler]

Sorry.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm sorry. I am sorry.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I got to be honest, like, you have betrayed our alliance a little bit on this one.

[Chris Ryan]

In this one.

[Amy Poehler]

Wow.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Because meaningfully coexist, you know, we don't.

[Chris Ryan]

Have to get into who threw the first Rock. But you knew I was gonna take Blade Rider.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I had to, strategically.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I could have taken it the first time, I guess.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, you really. You just volunteered that Little info about King of Comedy, you know.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, yeah, that's true. I'm sorry.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think you could have had diner in comedy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think I could have had diner and Oscar.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, you're concerned about Oscar now?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I mean, no, I'm just gonna do what I have to do, but I don't love it. It's not. Not a great Oscar yet.

[Amy Poehler]

Fucking Oscar sheet.

[Sean Fennessey]

Every movie is eligible, right? Not just the big categories. I just list the big categories. So it is more expanded than you might think.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, but like Oscar, she dismissing.

[Amy Poehler]

I'll get there. Oh, I'm good. No, I'm good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, you're good on Oscar. Like, I know it's fine, but I don't really love a lot of the, you know, the special ones. The diner was sort of like my. My back pocket and I had to use it. And frankly, I'm looking at the list now and I just forgot to watch Victor Victoria. So that's.

[Sean Fennessey]

You just could have faked it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's not gonna happen to me. I.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you know, what have you got on your board? You got blader. Undergrade pick.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

You got diner. Great pick. Those are your two?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think so. Yeah. And I get two more.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. So one thing I know I'm doing in comedy, I do have a backup, the other Sidney lumet film from 1982, Death Trap.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, great pick.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, that's a great call.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Which is a great pick. And then like a very Amanda pick, you know, like puzzle box.

[Amy Poehler]

What category?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Comedy.

[Amy Poehler]

Comedy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Movie sold as a mystery drama.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But this actually. Yeah. And a send up of a type of film. You know, Agatha Christie, like whodunit that I like very much. Great performances. Shout out. Diane Cannon.

[Sean Fennessey]

Funny movie about a playwright.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, yeah, right, True too. It's all true.

[Sean Fennessey]

All true.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, so that's comedy and Christopher Reef performance. Yes, wonderful.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, the, the, the. The turn. I don't want to. If you haven't seen the film Death Trap, check it out. It's a fun, fun night of the movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's really, really good. Okay, so I guess I got to go in Oscar because I'm just pretty thin on the ground and I've been like scrolling up and down on the Wikipedia page while everyone's been talking, and I don't have that many options left. So. Speaking of movie stars and movie star. Well, I guess he was already a movie star at this point, but An Officer and a Gentleman starring Richard Gere.

[Amy Poehler]

Yep.

[Sean Fennessey]

In Oscar.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, in Oscar.

[Sean Fennessey]

The late, Great Louis Gossett Jr.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you just wish Zach would sometimes come by the podcast studio and sweep you off your feet like that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, it is such a great. It's a ridiculous. Great ending and a great rewatchables that launched one of your Byron Mayo.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Best characters.

[Chris Ryan]

But Robert Loggia tugging at his boxers.

[Sean Fennessey]

So much lower pelvis in a sequence.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It is really confusing. But what stays with me is like Bill's imitation of the other woman yelling like, way to go. You know, it's so ridiculous. And in a lot of ways it's like, I don't really remember the 80s because of my age, but if I were to think of the 80s and 80s movies, it is just sort of an officer and gentleman. Like sentimental. And then really confusing moments. Like the whole Byron Mayo situation. You're like, why is this happening?

[Chris Ryan]

The sad parts too. Like the whole.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Very sad. Not totally realistic. But also, you just gotta hand it to them at the end with that last bit and the song.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think of many episodes that we record together as that sequence where Gossett Jr. And gear fight in a barn. And you're like, why are these two people fighting each other? What are they proving to each other? But it's to the emotional connection that you build with your betters, you know? And that's a weird movie. It's weird how big it was. You can understand with the component parts, but when you watch it, it has a lot of oddity to it, but it's still effective. Suit, this is like one of the best episodes of that show that we've ever done. For sure.

[Amy Poehler]

It definitely was.

[Sean Fennessey]

Of rewatchables. Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I find that, like, suit 78 to, like 84 again, just because of when I was born and like, when I like, you know, came online and started watching things, there are, you know, booting up for a while. There is a certain generation of actor and actress who, like, it just remain a total mystery to me. And I feel like I'm always like, I just want to watch everything to kind of get like, okay, why was this person a thing?

[Chris Ryan]

Like, why was Deborah Winger?

[Amanda Dobbins]

And Deborah Winger is like a thousand percent and obviously, like very beautiful and has chemistry with Richard Gere. But I just. I feel like I lost the moment. And I guess this is the closest. No, I mean, it's Terms of Endearment. But you.

[Sean Fennessey]

You starred in a film with Deborah Wayans.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, I did. I had a great time working with her. Yeah, she was very good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But I just like, I know that she was the biggest movie star.

[Amy Poehler]

She was huge.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Huge. And I just feel like I totally. By the time I was paying attention, she'd retired or whatever she was doing.

[Amy Poehler]

Beautiful and charismatic and funny and interesting. And. Yeah, you know, we. When we made that movie, the Lovers, we were one of those situations where you meet somebody in a makeup trailer before you're going to be making out with them as a married couple for the first time in half an hour's time.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And why do they always do that scene first in shooting?

[Amy Poehler]

I don't know. But we. We in our conversation and we got on great from the get go. But she asked me about doing the gig and I said, look, it's interesting territory for me. I've not played a lot of. I've not played any leading roles on film. I've played a lot of character parts. That's what I do. And she said, well, the responsibilities are a little different. And I said, oh, talk to me about that. And she said, well, when you're further down on the call sheet, the responsibility is to keep the story moving. Right? Get the lines out and keep the story moving. And she said, and when you're the star of the movie, the responsibility is to be interesting. And I had never heard it put quite that way. And it's what Deborah does so beautifully. She's just interesting. You just want to watch her. She's just fucking watchable.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

I mean, not to say that there isn't a lot of skill in what she's doing, a lot of work that's gone into it, but she's just so damn watchable and appealing and, yeah, she walked away from it when the roles started to get less interesting for her. But she's a big part of the success of that movie. The star power of her and Richard is not to mention the great performance by Lou Gossett Jr. Big part of the success of that movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Loggia.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. Shout out. Robert Loggia.

[Sean Fennessey]

You have another pick. You took two.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That was two.

[Sean Fennessey]

You took two. World coordinating Garb and Death Trap.

[Chris Ryan]

Right, of course.

[Amanda Dobbins]

An Officer and a Gentleman.

[Sean Fennessey]

All right. Christopher Ryan.

[Chris Ryan]

All right, so I have to get a drama and I have to get a thriller. Action, horror, sci fi and a wild card. Interesting, interesting, interesting.

[Sean Fennessey]

So drama. I'm very curious to hear where you go here.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't have to do it right now.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, you don't. Wait, you don't.

[Amy Poehler]

You don't have to do anything.

[Chris Ryan]

I know what you like.

[Amy Poehler]

You can stand up and walk out of here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Where's the joy, Chris? Let's take a minute and find the.

[Sean Fennessey]

Joy, what do you love?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Cause, you know.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, I've just been. I've just been so. It's just been like I. I feel like I'm just ticking boxes on this one, you know? Well, I don't have.

[Amy Poehler]

My bad.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's what I'm saying. Let's break out. You know?

[Chris Ryan]

What do we do to do that?

[Sean Fennessey]

Give us some gusto. You've just gotten a firsthand account of what it's like to work with Deborah Winger. Bring something to the table, for fuck's sake.

[Chris Ryan]

Should I talk about when I first saw Slumber Party Massacre?

[Sean Fennessey]

If that's as close as you can get, so be it.

[Chris Ryan]

Gosh.

[Amanda Dobbins]

All right.

[Chris Ryan]

I guess for the action horror thing, for action thriller, horror, sci fi, I'm Gonna take Halloween 3, season of the Witch.

[Amy Poehler]

I didn't see that coming.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What happens in Halloween 3?

[Chris Ryan]

Well, it's not a Michael Myers movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, this is a very generous question. Thank you. Very concrete.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Halloween.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes. Three is very different.

[Chris Ryan]

It's very different, Shawn and I love it.

[Sean Fennessey]

It might be my second favorite.

[Chris Ryan]

When we think we said it was our Halloween movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You did. I listened to that.

[Chris Ryan]

50% of people were like, you two get it?

[Sean Fennessey]

You're the.

[Chris Ryan]

You're the ones.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And then 50% of people were like, you should never podcast again for putting Season of the Witch up there.

[Sean Fennessey]

Are you one of them? You've never seen it?

[Amy Poehler]

I've never seen.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, it's very cool.

[Chris Ryan]

Go ahead. It's basically like a side story. And it's like taking the energy of Halloween to tell, like a different story about kids basically falling under the spell of a toy. Evil toy company.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, what kind of toy?

[Chris Ryan]

It's like a little leprechaun. Right?

[Sean Fennessey]

Silver Shamrock.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And it's kind of like a cult film. It's kind of like a corporate over, like, Big Brother movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Kind of a brainwash movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, but it's.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Where is the. The silver shamrock drawing the kids?

[Chris Ryan]

They see it on tv. They see it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right, right. But then what is he? He or she? She. I don't want to. Gender essentialized leprechaun.

[Sean Fennessey]

The sort of factory. The HQ is somewhere in the desert. Right.

[Chris Ryan]

It's pure evil.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, but. And so is. Yeah, but what are the kids doing? Like, what is. What is the leprechaun inspired the children to do?

[Sean Fennessey]

It's a good question. Making them sort of like dead eyed soldiers for the cause.

[Chris Ryan]

Malevolent forces.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, but like, like, so what's the fucked up stuff? That's what I'm Trying to get you.

[Chris Ryan]

To like, be like, Stab, commit violent army.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, it's not as specific about that part of it. You know, like in the Brood, the great David Cronenberg film we watch, the children are menacing people. You know, they're. They're being very violent. This is more of insinuations of the evil.

[Chris Ryan]

So it's a. This is probably a slightly divisive pick, but I'm going to go with that. There's a couple of other horror still left over, but I might throw that in Wild Card. So I'll take Season of the Witch here.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, you just. You did the thing that Amanda asked you. A personal pick. I did a very cool 80s horror movie. I can't believe you haven't seen that one. It's interesting.

[Amy Poehler]

Haven't seen it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Go.

[Chris Ryan]

See you tracing.

[Sean Fennessey]

You're up, you're up, you're up.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, it's me. Oh. Oh, geez. What do I have left? Blockbuster, Oscar. Wild Card, indeed. Hi. Oh, no. It does get a little tricky, doesn't it? It's a little tricky. It is a little tricky. What's my favorite movie on here?

[Sean Fennessey]

Not so easy when you're not driving in your car listening to the pod at 1.2 speed, are you?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, 1.2.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, I do 1.2.

[Sean Fennessey]

I just guessed that, but many people do. One point.

[Amy Poehler]

Is that all right. That's all right, isn't it? I'm a busy guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know what I do?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Which is just absolutely.

[Amy Poehler]

I can't. You can't hear me?

[Sean Fennessey]

Double speed. Sean, I've been doing 2x for two years.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you listen to the watch on 2x?

[Sean Fennessey]

I listen to you guys at 4x, trying to get through it as quickly as possible. That's not true. I listen to you at 0.5.

[Chris Ryan]

I'm pretty fast.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's why I want the episodes to be longer. I wish every episode was an hour longer. Slow it down.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But like, how many hours a day do you have people speaking in your ears at 2x multiple. I know, because that is just a psychological insight into the world that you have created.

[Sean Fennessey]

A powerful instrument.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, it's like you are living.

[Chris Ryan]

But how close or you to just chatgpt. Summarize the ringer fantasy football episode.

[Sean Fennessey]

I would never do that.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Why would I do that?

[Chris Ryan]

Because you're trying to be as you.

[Amy Poehler]

Know, you guys are about the only podcast that I listen to.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's very nice. How did you find the show? Was it Tim?

[Amy Poehler]

I don't remember.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. You don't Want to give him 1982?

[Amy Poehler]

I think it was. Actually. I think it was Bill and gambling. Sports gambling eventually brought me around.

[Sean Fennessey]

Brought you over.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

You are an avid sports fan, Sam Darnold. Not back. Not back.

[Amy Poehler]

We'll see.

[Chris Ryan]

Are you guys both Jets? Mets?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, he's Vikings.

[Amy Poehler]

Vikings, Cubs, Bulls.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Wow.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is Oklahoma that we're pulling from. Was it parental that the dad pushed you in a direction for a certain season?

[Amy Poehler]

No, I just. Fran Tarkinden was my childhood.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you like the Sooners or the Oklahoma State Cowboys or college at all?

[Amy Poehler]

I kind of stopped following the college game a while back.

[Sean Fennessey]

Too corrupt?

[Amy Poehler]

That's part of it, actually, yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Chris, you're pro nil. Would you like to speak to it?

[Chris Ryan]

I participate in a lot of collectives in Blockbuster.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm taking Star Trek, the Wrath of Khan.

[Sean Fennessey]

This was right behind Poltergeist for me.

[Amy Poehler]

Now I projected Star Trek to the Wrath of Khan at the Plaza Theater. And that was a. The Plaza Theater had two CarbonArc projectors, which was. They were tricky to operate. And I actually fucked that up. And the screen went dark for about 20 minutes while I was projecting Star Trek II to a packed movie.

[Chris Ryan]

I was worried that maybe you were gonna put the last reel first or something like that.

[Amy Poehler]

I didn't get them out of order, but just the screen went dark and had to make a panicked call to my boss to come back.

[Sean Fennessey]

Can you talk about the transition from the difference between Star the Motion Picture to II and how this sort of saved whatever the Star Trek thing was?

[Amy Poehler]

There is no Star Trek these days without Star Trek ii. Star Trek II saved the entire franchise. The first Star Trek movie was a disastrous misfire. Robert Wise was not the man to direct Star Trek. I don't know. In my own personal proclivities, I'm more of a Star Trek guy than a Star wars guy. I think I prefer the. I don't know. There's something about the mission that's just so stupid and open ended. Just like, we're just going out. We're just going out. We're just gonna go and see what.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

See if we can get into some.

[Chris Ryan]

We might zap down there, see what's up, come back up.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's kind of the good hang of sci fi franchises.

[Amy Poehler]

It was so beautifully cast. Those characters were so specific. And I mean, really Spock, what a. What an amazing character. What an amazing cultural touchstone Spock was. And this movie brought it back to life. I mean, it was everything that you loved about the show. And I Mean, Khan is just a great villain.

[Chris Ryan]

Mantle Bond is just going for it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Truly.

[Amy Poehler]

He is just eating the drapes. It's fantastic. It's a great time. It's a lot of fun, this movie and really did rescue the franchise.

[Chris Ryan]

The one with the worms in the ears.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

That's great.

[Sean Fennessey]

I was shown this in sixth grade when a substitute teacher came in and did not want to teach the class and he just put on Wrath of Khan and it was wonderful.

[Chris Ryan]

Really, truly. Some of we really made American film students by like, be like, I don't feel like teaching today. So we're watching Spartacus.

[Sean Fennessey]

Very, very exciting. I read this. Nimoy did not want to come back for this and he had to be convinced to come back and that he lobbied hard for the death of Spock very early on, which then this becomes like a trilogy of movies. 2, 3 and 4. 2 and 4 are by far my favorites. I think 2 and 4 are great movies. Great adventure movies. Really fun. I really, really like that. Great pick. Okay, I have two selections. Oh, fun. Data point for you. I also learned researching Star Trek ii, directed by Nicholas Meyer, who was an author before he was a director.

[Amy Poehler]

The 7% solution.

[Sean Fennessey]

7% solution, a novel he wrote. His daughter, Dylan Meyer is engaged to Kristen Stewart.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, congratulations to them.

[Sean Fennessey]

I believe Dylan Meyer is also a filmmaker.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you ever throw up a live long and prosper.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I can't do it. I don't have the gene.

[Chris Ryan]

This is a lot of practice as a kid.

[Amy Poehler]

It's genetic.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I think so.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

You can do it or you can't do it. You look like Alice trying to do a peace sign. She always goes like this to do.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Max, who started counting, but he's doing like the Inglourious Basterds too thing or whatever. I was like, I didn't know you could do that.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, so I have to select. I have Oscar open and I have comedy open. Comedy is an easy choice.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Not because there are a lot of comedies, but there is one comedy remaining that I quite like, which is the World According to Garp.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Directed by George Roy Hill, one of the early Robin Williams starring performances adapted from a John Irving novel. A very good novel this is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You're a John Irving guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

I read.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What is up with John Irving?

[Amy Poehler]

What do you mean?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, crazy shit happens in those books. And also I was given to all of. Given all of them at like the age of seven.

[Chris Ryan]

There's a lot of sex stuff and then there's also just a lot of like carnival performers, right? Yeah, like he was a wrestler and.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Then he went on the road die randomly. But most. Mostly sex stuff, I guess.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think there is a general weird energy that I would say has actually been adopted and comported into prestige television. It's like his movies don't seem as weird or the adaptations of his novels arc, honestly. They don't just seem as strange as they did in the 80s and then the 90s. I don't know why. I mean, his. John O'Brien's novels were huge.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think that's why. And it's the same thing. It's like I was allowed to read Grisham and John Irving like before I was old enough.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is a very curious movie. Features an amazing performance from Glenn Close as Garp's mother, who is a very independent, forward thinking feminist figure who becomes pregnant purposefully astride a dying soldier so that she can conceive and be a single mom. And she raises this unusual boy who goes on to become a writer. But just as he is starting to flower as a writer, she writes a kind of feminist manifesto that becomes one of the most popular nonfiction books essentially in American history. Is sort of what the movie tells you or the story tells you. And then it becomes this interesting character piece about this complex relationship between these two figures. And it's also a romance about Garp and this woman that he falls in love with, but who is unfaithful to him. And he. Such an odd character. Very, very strange movie. Funny, but not in a laughing out loud way. You didn't have that tootsie experience that you had described watching it. George Roy Hill also kind of getting a lot of his personal interests into this movie. There's a very memorable sequence where a plane flies into a house. Reminds me of the great Waldo Pepper. Just a really good movie that I think has kind of been a little bit forgotten.

[Chris Ryan]

Not by Bill Simmons.

[Sean Fennessey]

Bill Simmons is a fan of the movie. This was not eligible for box office. But there were quite a few Academy Award nominations, right? I believe so.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, Glenn Close was nominated and Lithgow and John Lithgow.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, and John Lithgow were both nominated.

[Amy Poehler]

And it's funny you mentioned that about prestige tv because I've often thought, why don't they go back and revisit some of this Irving stuff? I mean, the World According to Garp and Cider House Rules are so ripe for that treatment form the limited series.

[Sean Fennessey]

More so almost than a movie form. Yeah. World of Courting. Garp is a big story.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Big sprawling lot of time. Anyway, really good movie. I like that movie a lot more than Cider House Rules.

[Amy Poehler]

I think people were disappointed because they had certain expectations of Robin Williams and of course he was trying to break out of a certain way that people saw him.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's a very low key character. It's not the zaniness that you would think. Anyway. Okay, I have another pick and I'll be making it an Oscar. What did I say I wanted to do?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Only you and the voices in your head.

[Chris Ryan]

So you didn't put Garp in Oscar. You took Garp in drama.

[Sean Fennessey]

You put Garp in comedy.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, comedy.

[Amy Poehler]

Which would certainly be also a comedy drama crossover.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, Oscar.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Have you watched Victor Victoria?

[Chris Ryan]

You have a Sophie's Choice here.

[Sean Fennessey]

I have a lot of holes in the Blake Edwards filmography. That's not really one I've spent a lot of time with. I probably got to go back. There's a really good series of episodes of. You must remember this about Blake Edwards. That was related to 10, as I recall. That made me want to go watch a lot of those, especially those 70s and 80s movies.

[Amy Poehler]

He hit a kind of new gear, starting with 10 that went through Victor Victoria sob.

[Sean Fennessey]

I have seen. What's the film with Jack Lemmon, where he's living in his house.

[Amy Poehler]

That's life.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's life.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Which is such a thinly veiled self portrait. That is crazy movie. Super interesting movie. But anyway, I haven't seen a lot of those movies. I don't even know if I've seen Victor Victoria, to be honest with you. I'll take Dust Boat.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, that's a good pick.

[Sean Fennessey]

Which is Wolfgang Peterson's three and a half hour masterpiece about being trapped on a submarine. And the absolute hell of that experience, which does reflect the occasional movie draft. You know, sometimes it does feel.

[Chris Ryan]

Is that right?

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, not to me, but I think maybe to some others on this panel.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is that how you feel? There are some days, especially in our old studios, where we get a little stuffy, which were audio only and. But, you know, no windows and had sort of. They had a long, like a. What is the. They were long and narrow and narrow quality to them. That is how I imagine a submarine. Yeah. This is a classic.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's tight air, you know, that air that you keep breathing in over and over.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Our colleague Juliet Lippman has a very classic party question. Space or submarine? Where are you? Where would you prefer to go?

[Chris Ryan]

Like to spend time or die?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, well, either the eternal question.

[Amy Poehler]

You mean like reels, but not like on the. On the deck of the. Of the Enterprise. You mean like in an actual spacecraft?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, like you're going to space or you're going in a submarine to the. To the deep sea.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm not. I'm not going to either of those places. Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

He brings up an interesting distinction, which is that I think when I think about wanting to be in outer space, it's often on like, you know, the spaceship from the Martian. Hanging out with spaceship, that would be tough.

[Sean Fennessey]

That would be me with Jessica Chastain.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

But likelihood is that more like you're just in a rocket, Right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's true.

[Chris Ryan]

Kind of going up.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, I think they're both kind of silent and oppressive and the great void. And also, I just have a real.

[Chris Ryan]

Fear of being crushed at the bottom of the ocean.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Me too. For me, it's space. No question. Submarines are terrifying to me, and that's. Ignore all that other stuff.

[Amy Poehler]

I won't even get in the goddamn thing to go up to the top of the Arch in St. Louis, so I'm not about to get in Space cats.

[Sean Fennessey]

And yet you so memorably got in that car in Ford versus Ford Ferrari.

[Amy Poehler]

Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

[Chris Ryan]

Have you ever been in a submarine movie or a movie set in outer space?

[Amy Poehler]

In a submarine movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Or an outer space movie.

[Chris Ryan]

That's.

[Amy Poehler]

All right.

[Chris Ryan]

Bucket list. Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Or a bucket.

[Sean Fennessey]

All right. You have another choice.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, Jesus Christ.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is it your final selection?

[Amy Poehler]

No, I still have Oscar.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is this going as you expected it would go?

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

Oscar. Have you seen the TV version of Dasboot?

[Chris Ryan]

No.

[Amy Poehler]

I wonder if it's any good.

[Chris Ryan]

Is that more recent?

[Amy Poehler]

Pretty recent. I think in the last couple of years, they did a limited series of Das Boat, and I don't know if it's any good. And I already did Blockbuster, so I have Oscar and Wild Card left. Oh, in Oscar, I will take missing.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, good.

[Amy Poehler]

Costa Gavras movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Jack Lemmon.

[Amy Poehler]

Jack Lemmon. Sissy Spacek. This is my latest screed. I think Sissy Spacek has been underrated. I don't think we talk enough about how great Sissy Spacek was. I think she was one of the greats, I think, and I. Any conversation that doesn't include her as one of the greats, I just. I just disagree with it. And to watch that movie now I've seen it not. Not that long ago. It's really interesting to note the difference in performance styles between what Sissy Spacek is doing and what Jack Lemmon is doing. He is very clearly from a different. I Mean, not obviously his character is from a different generation, but he's from a different generation of actor, naturalistic versus what he's doing is. Is fussy and performative. And what she's doing is locked in. She's great in that movie. She's great.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you have a favorite sissy space art performance?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, CLO Miner's Daughter is kind of undeniable. I mean, it's one of the rare times where we gave the Oscar to the person for the right performance and that definitely was the one. But I often think about her in these movies in which I just. The movie, for whatever reason gets forgotten or not remembered as fondly. Though I think Missing is in the Criterion Collection. It is one of those. I mean, the truth is that movie really holds up and unfortunately, maybe even more relevant now than it is.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, it resonates. It's kind of the end of an era for her as a major leading actress. And it's not totally clear to me why that happened. She made Raggedy man the year before that.

[Amy Poehler]

Right.

[Sean Fennessey]

With Jack Fisk. And then she's in the river and Marie and Violets are Blue. And she makes a big sort of comeback, for lack of a better phrase, in the 90s in a lot of supporting parts. And she starts taking a lot of middle aged female parts and obviously the.

[Amy Poehler]

Business very actresses, I mean, she didn't go cutting on herself and she was at a time, I mean, it's not as true now as it used to be that roles for actresses just fell off a table after they hit 40. So she probably just aged out of the good parts. It's just so crazy talking about minting of stars in this year with Mel Gibson and Eddie Murphy. It's also true that with Meryl in Sophie's Choice, again, just kind of undeniable in that movie and all of the work she did in that film. So if Meryl doesn't make Sophie's Choice that Jessica Lange almost certainly wins for Frances, which means that Jessica Lange doesn't win supporting actress for Tootsie, probably. Terry Gar wins supporting actress for Tootsie, I think.

[Sean Fennessey]

But more than likely Terry Garr thinks so too. She did think so, I believe.

[Amy Poehler]

Did she?

[Sean Fennessey]

I believe so, yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

More to the point, you know, Meryl, I mean, obviously she was already a movie star. I think she'd already been had. She won for Kramer versus Kramer. Right. So she was a movie star. But Sophie's Choice was just like, oh no, she's the movie star. She is our greatest actress. That became cemented really with Sophie's Choice this year and Jessica Lange. Right. This was also kind of her year with Frances and Tootsie. It's like, well, she's one of our. She's not just a model who became an actress. She's actually one of our great actresses.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Did you end up getting that edition of Frances that I hyped you to?

[Amy Poehler]

I already had Francis on the imprint.

[Chris Ryan]

Gotta get up pretty early in the morning to get past this guy.

[Sean Fennessey]

Just made him aware of a new edition. Sometimes you'll double up and not in this case, I guess, holding on to that Australian edition.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, Chris, I gotta do drama. I gotta do Wildcard. I was looking at missing. But for drama, I'm gonna pick one that has, I guess, weirdly, a personal resonance. Although it's a perverted film. The Draftsman Continuous Draftsman's Contract. Peter Greenaway is not a director that I think is particularly in fashion right now. But my dad used to have all these, like, BFI books. And some of the most earliest erotic images I ever saw were from these books about Peter Greenaway's.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Nice that we can always come back to.

[Chris Ryan]

Which are. Are truly like, you know, like, there's a lot of kink in these. So this is a movie about. I can't remember when it set, I guess like the 17th century, 16th century. And a rich woman who, With a. With a frigid marriage, has hired a.

[Sean Fennessey]

An artist.

[Chris Ryan]

An artist to come and do landscape drawings for her. And part of the contract is that she will also sexually pleasure him every day that he turns in one of these drawings. And it's kind of portrait of class, but also of, like, excess. And it's just like, got a great style. It shot in 16, but they blew it up to 35. And an incredible act of like, kind of independent filmmaking.

[Amy Poehler]

And.

[Chris Ryan]

And he's such a unique voice and he just really doesn't come up. The Cook, the Thief, the Wife and Her Lover, I suppose is his biggest film. Yes, but this is a fantastic one.

[Amy Poehler]

What category did you take this in Drama? I worked with Anthony Higgins, who plays the lead in Draftsman's Contract. I did a very bad play with him in London and he was a great guy. I really. You know, he's also in Raiders. Yes, he's one of the. One of the Nazis. Right. Invaders. Great, great guy. Had a lot of great showbiz stories.

[Chris Ryan]

He.

[Amy Poehler]

He's a guy that they would always tempt with Bond. He was going to be the next Bond.

[Chris Ryan]

Be the next Bond.

[Amy Poehler]

Only reason they did it was to get Roger Moore to sign his contract. And Anthony knew it. It was like, the only reason you're bringing me out is to get Roger Moore to agree, because they'd sort of dangle Anthony out there, like, well, he might be the next Bond. And Anthony, I was so grateful that he was not made the next Bond. He would have been really kind of.

[Chris Ryan]

How they treat Jameis Winston now. You know, like, we can always just go get Jameis.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, honestly, future quarterback of the New York Jets. If I'm guessing, favorite Bond. You mean favorite actor who portrayed James Bond?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, I think the obvious answer for somebody my age is Sean Connery, but the truth is, I'm born in 65, which means, yes, I'm the first Gen Xer. Gen xers are turning 60 this year, and our Bond was Roger Moore. He just was. I know he wasn't great, but he was our Bond.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, that's great. That's nice. You did choose Craig over Pierce, right? You won't choose.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, Craig over Pierce? Oh, 1,000%. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Craig's the best. I understand that. Craig is the best.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Does anyone pick Dalton?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No.

[Sean Fennessey]

Now's the time.

[Amy Poehler]

I did show my. My wife had no experience of James Bond. I was like, well, we gotta watch. We gotta start with Sean Connery.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

So I showed her one Sean Connery, and she was lukewarm. And then I showed her the second Sean Connery, and she was like, I hate this.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

I think this is stupid. These jokes. These. They're like, just. They stuck. Stupid. Like, cornball double entendres. And just, like, the action isn't that great. And this bad guy's ridiculous, and she's just like. She's totally out of Bond. And if you're out on Sean Connery, it's like. You're not gonna go for Pierce Brosnan.

[Chris Ryan]

Probably not.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, what about Daniel Craig? What about Casino Royale?

[Amy Poehler]

I wanted to wait long enough for her to forget it before showing her cast. Skyfall.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, there are some essential early scenes in Casino Royale that I think might win and some people over.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's also played more straight.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Doesn't have that.

[Amy Poehler]

And she loves Mads.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

So Mads might be the door.

[Sean Fennessey]

He's phenomenal in Casino Royale.

[Chris Ryan]

Have you done. Do you watch, like, many? We don't keep talking about Peter Greenaway, but I was curious. Do you know how I just watched.

[Sean Fennessey]

This film for the first time, two days. What'd you think of the film you just picked I really liked it. I had seen the Cook, the Thief, I think it. They're totally singular. Right. The way that everything is framed in the movie. They're just. They're very cinematic, but they don't really have. They don't feel like they have a lot of forebears. So it's a little hard to kind of wrap your head around it. Visually. I love, like, the perversion.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

How he's very clearly like, this turns me on.

[Chris Ryan]

Like English fine art perverts. Ken Russell, kind of like. I like that.

[Amy Poehler]

I do, too. Zed and Two Knots. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

I've not seen that.

[Amy Poehler]

That was a lot of fun. Oh, man. Belly of an architect. Interesting movie. Didn't. He was like, what are you doing here?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Amanda, you've got. Are these your final two?

[Amanda Dobbins]

My last two picks. I have Blockbuster and Wild Card, so Blockbuster is interesting. I'll just read. There were 16 on the table and many are gone. Now, here's what's. So here's what I'm picking from number one, was E.T. gone. Two. Tootsie? Gone. Three, an officer and a gentleman. Gone. To me. Four, Rocky III. Five. Porky's. Six. Star Trek, Wrath of Khan. Gone. Seven, 48 Hours. Gone. Eight, Poltergeist. Gone. Nine, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which I'm not gonna take respectfully to Dolly Parton, who I love very much. 10, Annie. 11. The verdict. Gone. And then Gandhi, First Blood, Also gone. The Toy Firefox and the Dark Crystal. And I have to be honest, I don't know what the last three are, so I won't be picking those, just for shame.

[Chris Ryan]

Wow.

[Sean Fennessey]

The disrespect to Clint and Jim Henson is astonishing.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No. Do I know Dark Crystal?

[Amy Poehler]

You've got to show your kids Dark Crystal.

[Chris Ryan]

Not yet.

[Amy Poehler]

What? My boy was one way into dark crystal by the time he was four.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That was very upsetting.

[Amy Poehler]

Dark crystal is so good.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's also so much devoted to it at the Academy museum. So many of the puppets are there.

[Amy Poehler]

And it's handmade and it's. Oh, it's really good.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's on a very short list for.

[Amanda Dobbins]

My wild card selection. Okay. So. Well, it'll be there for you, but I guess. Wow, his Skek season. What were the other things really upsetting? I don't remember the names, so I know what I'm gonna do here. Despite Rocky III giving us Eye of the Tiger, which is really important. I mean, it is. It's very important. My high school cross country team trained. We did our own training. Montage don't worry about it.

[Amy Poehler]

It was our senior song. We had to vote on a senior song. And it was. I voted for B.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Four straight state championships. Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

So I'm not doubting it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Whatever you want to say, like, we did it. You know, I was a child once, so I'm gonna take Annie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. I had assumed you would take that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. This is a classic and probably one of the first movie musicals that I saw or like in that grouping, but like, one of the good ones, in my opinion. And now with Nox, we're going through all of them and I just really. I can't watch the Music man again. Respect. But Annie's great.

[Sean Fennessey]

And you can teach him about the Great Depression.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, sure. You know, and a great cast and like, probably like my first introduction to Carol Burnett. Carol Burnett, Finn, like all of those. Tim Curry, you know, everyone.

[Amy Poehler]

And it is a hard knock life, as it turns out.

[Chris Ryan]

It is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. So is it.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, no, it is.

[Sean Fennessey]

It is.

[Amy Poehler]

It is.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. All right. I'll take your word for it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And then Wildcard is probably my favorite movie of the year, which is. And just very Amanda pick Evil under the sun, which is another of the Agatha Christie adaptations starring Peter Ustinov as Erickul Poirot. It's not as good as Death on the Nile, which was like in 1978 and is just a legendary movie. The original. Please don't watch the new ones. They're all awful. But Evil under the sun is a very good Agatha Christie mystery as well. Because I read all of them. I recommend it. And stacked cast, very fun.

[Amy Poehler]

Who directed that?

[Sean Fennessey]

This is Terrence Young.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Guy Hamilton.

[Sean Fennessey]

Guy Hamilton.

[Amy Poehler]

Another Bond.

[Sean Fennessey]

Different Bond Guy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, exactly. But, you know, it's Maggie Smith, Jane Birkin, James Mason, again, Diana Rigg. Like, you know these people.

[Chris Ryan]

It's just.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's really fun. This one's set somewhere in the Mediterranean.

[Sean Fennessey]

He said Istanov.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

He was never phoning it in, Peter.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I mean, it was very. It's very big and like, this could have gone in comedy probably, but even though it is a murder mystery, but really fun.

[Sean Fennessey]

I took Alice to see the great Muppet caper at Idiots yesterday afternoon. Very well. I mean, it's a real platform for Ms. Piggy, who is a.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessey]

She's a big hero in the home right now. So it went over very well. And, you know, for Charles Grodin fans, that's a core text. But Peter ustinov gets like 90 seconds. He makes a meal out of his 90 seconds. He really. He Goes for it. He never didn't go for it.

[Amy Poehler]

Is Austin Pendleton in that movie?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, he's in.

[Amy Poehler]

He's in the first one.

[Sean Fennessey]

He's in the first one. He is Charles Durning's henchman.

[Amy Poehler]

Right. I heard a young actor once ask him what it was like acting with the Muppets and he got mad and said, it's like acting with cloth.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, you took your two.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, that's it.

[Chris Ryan]

I have wild card left.

[Sean Fennessey]

What are you gonna do?

[Chris Ryan]

I'm gonna take personal best.

[Amy Poehler]

Whoa, I didn't see that coming.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Nice pick.

[Chris Ryan]

So I was watching the Yakuza recently, Sidney Pollock movie with Robert Mitchum in Japan, crime film. And I've forgotten that Towne did a rewrite of the Schrader script, that he's accredited co screenwriter. So I kind of went on a little bit of a Robert Towne jag, like both trying to find stuff that was suggested that he had rewritten, but also stuff that he had written. And I realized I had not seen personal best maybe ever. If I had, I did not remember it. And what really struck me about it this time, it's a coming of age movie and a love story about a track star in Oregon who's training for the Olympics. And Scott Glenn, Marielle Hemingway is the track star. Scott Glenn plays her coach. Is how amazingly Towne directs all the running sequences and the training sequences and how wonderfully cinematic it is. But it's got a great script. And I wasn't sure if this was like a controversial movie or not.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you think because of the sexual politics?

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah, I don't think it was popular enough to be controversial.

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, it was very well received. I went back and read the Pauline Kale review of it and like the Stanley Kaufman review of it, but I thought it was a fantastic movie.

[Amy Poehler]

People just weren't up for it for whatever reason. They weren't.

[Chris Ryan]

This guy loves track.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's an unlike. He does. He does. It's a very unlikely choice though, given what his CV was before that too. And I think they didn't totally know how to sell it. It's a. It's an odd movie. Yeah, but very.

[Chris Ryan]

I really dug it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, it's cool. What's it. What's the film right after that that he makes. Doesn't he make another star?

[Chris Ryan]

Sick star?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, no. I mean he made. He makes Ask the Dust and he had another late later period film that he directed. I can't remember, but I thought he had one more film in the 80s. Oh, Tequila Sunrise.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Right, yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Which is, you know, an attempt to make something more commercial, more commercially viable.

[Chris Ryan]

There's just for fun, this was his uncredited writer. Run was Godfather, Parallax, View, Marathon Band, Heaven Can Wait, Reds and then, you know, Crimson Tide and Armageddon.

[Sean Fennessey]

Later in the way, he had Warren on speed dial. As we all know, having read that Peter Biskin book. Okay, Tracy, you have a wild card selection.

[Amy Poehler]

I know, and I'm actually more torn about this.

[Chris Ryan]

This is the hardest.

[Amy Poehler]

Any other category because you're like, they're.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Scribbling out now on the paper.

[Amy Poehler]

And do you. Do you. Are you trying to fill out a card or are you trying to just go with your heart and say, this is the thing that I've seen most. This is the thing I will go back to most often. I'm really torn between about three movies here, but I am going to go with my heart. Eating Raul is my wild card pick. I saw this at the USA Film Festival. Paul Bartel and Mary Warnoff were there. I had a terrible crush on Mary Warnoff. And then about 20 years later, killer Joe, my first play, opened in New York, and I was living in Los Angeles at the time. And Paul Bartel called me and asked me to go out to lunch with him. And we went to Dupars, and he just wanted to meet me because he'd seen the play and he liked it so much.

[Chris Ryan]

That's so good.

[Amy Poehler]

It was just a lovely, generous, friendly guy who just like, I just want to hear your story and how you came to write this thing. And I'm just a fan, and I just think it's great. And it was just such a lovely. And then he died a couple years later. He was so sad. Eating Raul is not only funny as hell, but there's something about the indie spirit of it and the fact that a guy would spend years of his life trying to make this goofy, strange, very LA comedy and yet again, scripted. The climax of this movie, the Hot Tub. If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. The Hot Tub is just a great, hilarious, galvanizing moment in the movie theater. Eating Raul. Still a lot of fun. Watch not that Long Ago. Still a lot of fun.

[Sean Fennessey]

Great pick.

[Amy Poehler]

I can't.

[Sean Fennessey]

I can't say I'm surprised that Paul Bartel liked Killer Joe. I feel like that's kind of in his zone. All right, so I have the last pick. This is my wild card lot to choose from here. A lot of strange things. I think I'll go with Fitzcarraldo.

[Chris Ryan]

This is on my list.

[Sean Fennessey]

Werner Herzog's epic story about a man trying to drag a ship up a mountain. Certainly one of the craziest acts of movie making. In the same year, Les Blank's Burden of Dreams was released, which was a documentary about the making of the movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Almost outshadows the movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think it has kind of subsumed what Fitzcarraldo is. But for whatever reason, I think of actually the way that you and Carrie watch movies. My wife and I in the 2000s got into a weird Herzog thing where we just watch every movie he had made up until that point. I think it was around the release of Rescue Dawn. Was that the Christian Bale movie that he made? And this was by far our favorite of all of them. More than a Gear of the Wrath God, more than, you know, Nosferatu. And is just an insane concept for a movie that is actually based on a true story and is beautiful and sad and really you feel the pain of the people that are in the story and the pain of the people who are making this story come to life. So that's my wild card.

[Amy Poehler]

You won't often hear me acknowledging a meme, but there's a great one where he puts on an album. He's demonstrating the Victrola he's got there, and he puts it on and meme. It's a steely dance song. And he's gesturing. It's fantastic. And everybody's just like, drifting away slowly. That's a great pick.

[Sean Fennessey]

Thanks. So we're done.

[Chris Ryan]

Should we recap our picks?

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, let's. Should we do some. Some honorable mentions first?

[Amy Poehler]

Hell yes.

[Chris Ryan]

I got to throw out a couple of B movie genre movies. Vice Squad.

[Amy Poehler]

Great.

[Chris Ryan]

Which you can see a poor version of a To be is a absolutely disgusting la noire with a truly, truly unhinged Wings Hauser performance as a pimp.

[Sean Fennessey]

If you enjoyed the film Maxxine, there was a lot of Maxine that is pulling from Vice squad. Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Also Amityville 2, the possession. A really good horror movie. Damiano Damiani. Is that his name?

[Sean Fennessey]

Damiano Damiani, An Italian filmmaker who barely spoke English, who made a movie that feels completely disconnected to the original Amityville.

[Chris Ryan]

Horror with Burt Young.

[Sean Fennessey]

I find incomprehensible this movie. It's fun to watch.

[Chris Ryan]

And one last one. There was a couple of TV movies from this year that I really enjoyed. One was the Shadow Riders, which is a Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott western adapted from a Louis Lamar movie book that was like, on TBS my entire Childhood and Executioner Song, the adaptation of. Of the Norman Miller novel with Tommy Lee Jones as Gary Gilmour.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Wow.

[Amy Poehler]

There's a. There's a European cut of that with a lot of nudity that didn't make it onto American tv.

[Chris Ryan]

I'll have to look that up.

[Amy Poehler]

Just. Just FYI. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Was that spliced out of the reels that you were showing at a certain point. Any other wild cards you guys would like to cite? Greece 2, Grease 2.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Michelle Pfeiffer.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's true. Speaking of movie stars arriving on the.

[Amy Poehler]

Scene, I did that at the ship drive in. I remember Greece 2.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Goverwell.

[Amy Poehler]

I don't recall.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Chan is missing. First movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

I loved Grease. Okay, great one. Yeah. Chan is missing. I just watched it a couple of days ago in preparation for this draft, and it was one of the. One of the ones I was really juggling for. Wild Card. It's a great movie. It's a great. Did you know it's one of the most successful movies ever made in terms.

[Chris Ryan]

Of its budget to box office.

[Amy Poehler]

$20,000 budget.

[Chris Ryan]

Wow.

[Amy Poehler]

$20,000 and made 1.2 million in the box office. That's a 60x ROI. There you go. Know a lot about it, but it's pretty good.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is a legendary cult horror year for a variety of reasons. Some movies we've selected, some we didn't select. In particular pieces. The Spanish American Juan Pierre Simone movie, which is one of. In the conversation for most deranged horror movie of the 1980s about a chainsaw murderer. The House on Sorority Row. Yep. And also Slumber Party Massacre.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

In the same year. So you can, you know, to the Porkies and Fast Times Point young men at this time, they wanted something particularly specific.

[Amy Poehler]

The slasher just. It blew up for two. Right. The peak year was 81, and then by 82, it had kind of. It started to really play out by ages.

[Sean Fennessey]

But anybody with $120,000 could go make.

[Amy Poehler]

One of these and still make money off.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right?

[Amy Poehler]

Right.

[Sean Fennessey]

Cue the Winged Serpent, also a cult horror classic directed by Larry Cohen.

[Chris Ryan]

It's about a winged serpent terrorizing Manhattan.

[Amy Poehler]

Living in the Chrysler Building. Great method performance by Michael Moriarty. Moriarty at the center of that thing. Just like nobody told him that he was in a bad movie because he thought he is.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think I said that to you when we were talking about it. I'm like, he is. Is locked in. In this movie. You know, a movie I have not seen but that people say kind things about. Is my favorite year.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, I Love it. It's a great movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Ever see that movie?

[Chris Ryan]

Peter O'Toole.

[Sean Fennessey]

Peter O'Toole.

[Amy Poehler]

You would love that movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I would. Okay.

[Amy Poehler]

You should put that on your list. That's a great movie. Directed by Richard Benjamin, based on his experiences as a page. Oh, that NBC, while they were making your show of shows.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is it Marklin Baker? Is he the star? Yan.

[Amy Poehler]

And Joseph Bologna plays the Sid Caesar part. And Peter O'Toole. It's a great Peter O'Rourke. I always wanted to see this movie. That's really good. It's a nice Warner Archive Blu Ray of that as well. Say Amen Somebody. A great documentary from that year. Joyous documentary about gospel singers. Just if you're feeling bad about the world right now, get say Amen Somebody and feel better about yourself. Also available on Kanopy. Do you know about Canopy?

[Sean Fennessey]

I certainly do have a library card.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes. That's a really good service.

[Sean Fennessey]

Explain what it is. If people don't know if you have.

[Amy Poehler]

A library card, you can get the streaming service Kanopy. That's all that's required. And it's actually pretty replete little streaming site.

[Sean Fennessey]

I watched for the first time the movie Nine Songs. Michael Winterbottom movie. You're familiar with this movie?

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, you're not?

[Chris Ryan]

I don't think so.

[Amy Poehler]

I'm surprised you're not.

[Sean Fennessey]

It features nine individual live performances and interspersed with a love story, a sort of physical love story between a man and a woman who have real intercourse in the film.

[Amy Poehler]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

That is portrayed in between the musical performances.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And that's available on camera.

[Chris Ryan]

Reputation is approved now on this movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

71 minute film with porn in it. Keep going. What else do we got?

[Amy Poehler]

Quest for Fire.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Jean Jacques. Is that how you say his name? Which is about early man.

[Chris Ryan]

Caveman. Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

With Ron Perlman and Everett McGill and Ray Dawn Chong. Terrific adventure about early man. Those movies don't usually work, but they actually did the work on that one. Anthony Burgess did the sounds, the language that they're using, and Desmond Morris did the movement. I mean, they actually put some work into creating the world of early man. Paul Mazursky's Tempest, which is great comedy drama based on the Shakespeare play with Cassavetes and Jetta Rowlands. Who am I this time? Do you guys know this?

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't.

[Amy Poehler]

Jonathan Demme, Christopher Walken, Susan Sarandon. It's an hour long film based on a Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Short story.

[Chris Ryan]

I do not know this one.

[Amy Poehler]

Who am I this time? Great romantic comedy with. It's only an hour long, but I think was originally shown on American Masters or American Playhouse, something like that. Great movie. Koyana Scotsi. There's a lot of fun depending on your state of mind. Smithereens.

[Sean Fennessey]

Just watched this yesterday as well.

[Amy Poehler]

Familiar with this movie? Yes. Smithereens. Smithereens, the first American independent movie to play in competition at the Cannes Film Festival was a very good punk.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's Susan Seidelman's movie.

[Amy Poehler]

And it's got a great score by the Feelies.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, man.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Yeah. And Richard Hell plays a large part in the movie. It's good. Barbarossa, good outlier western directed by Fred Chapisi with a screenplay by Bill Wittliff, who is a great Texas writer with Willie Nelson and Gary Busey. And if you. If your picture of Gary Busey is Gary Busey now, then you've forgotten what a great actor Gary Busey actually was. He was really a superb actor. Really good western. Veronica Voss. Vassbender had two movies this year, right? Carell and his last two movies. He died this year, I think in 86.

[Sean Fennessey]

You have a preference. Veronica Voss.

[Amy Poehler]

I'll take Carel.

[Sean Fennessey]

Back in the news.

[Amy Poehler]

Mark Maron's favorite movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Veronica Voss.

[Amy Poehler]

Veronica of o interest.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's his favorite movie.

[Amy Poehler]

It is.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. It's a bold pick.

[Amy Poehler]

Richard Pryor, Live on the Sunset Strip, almost hooking comedy.

[Chris Ryan]

I was thinking about it. This and Night Shift were the two comedies.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, Night Shift too. I didn't even think of that. Live on the Sunset Strip was just on HBO non stop in the 80s. And so I've seen it 100 times. I mean, so many parts of it. So many.

[Amy Poehler]

Did you happen to check out the box office for that? On the box office?

[Sean Fennessey]

It did well, right?

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, man.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Richard Pryor. This was a big year for Richard.

[Sean Fennessey]

Prior, but it was. It was kind of like that first Chappelle special on Netflix after he had been gone for a period of time because there was this feeling like he had something to say after all of these incidents that he had had with addiction and, you know, all the trouble that he was having too. He's amazing in that movie. That's like, Is that the greatest standup comedy film ever?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, he's the greatest standup comic and that's a pretty good record of it right there. Smash Palace, a New Zealand movie with Bruno Lawrence, directed by Roger Donaldson. Roger Donaldson is the father of India. Is that her name?

[Sean Fennessey]

India Donaldson? Yes.

[Amy Poehler]

Donaldson, who directed.

[Sean Fennessey]

Good one.

[Amy Poehler]

Good one this year. Roger Donaldson. Very good. They'll get mad at me if I say that's part of the Australian New wave because it was in New Zealand. But the truth is it is considered part and parcel of Australian new wave, which was really thriving that year. And Le Balance, which I just rewatched a French movie that's credited with kind of bringing back the police. Yea, Natalie Bay is in the movie. She won all the awards for the movie. And it's a good Pimps and gangsters. French.

[Chris Ryan]

I gotta check that out.

[Amy Poehler]

French thing. Yeah, it's good.

[Chris Ryan]

We didn't mention Year of Living Dangerously, which is Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson.

[Amy Poehler]

Because it doesn't qualify at all. This is what we found out.

[Sean Fennessey]

Did it not. Did it come off 83.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, okay. Creep show. And then I was going to ask you, have you ever seen the still of the Night? Roy Scheider and Meryl Streep. It's basically a Hitchcock pastiche. Robert Benton directed it. Meryl Streep said it is the worst movie she has appeared in, which I disagree with.

[Sean Fennessey]

But when did she say it On.

[Chris Ryan]

Watch what happens live, like 10 years ago. So I don't know.

[Sean Fennessey]

Interesting.

[Amanda Dobbins]

There have been some since then.

[Sean Fennessey]

What else?

[Amy Poehler]

The Entity, Barbara Hershey being raped by a ghost.

[Sean Fennessey]

Crazy movie. Upsetting film in some ways. Remarkable special effects for the time, which is a stupid thing to say about a movie about rape. But there are incredible special effects. You know what I saw for the first time that I really liked is White Dog.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, yeah. Stan Fuller.

[Sean Fennessey]

Stan Fuller. Movie about a dog that is trained to attack black people. And the attempt.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, no, I did not. It's not where I thought you were going.

[Sean Fennessey]

Where'd you think I was going?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know. You just started talking about dogs. And I was like, well, okay, I love dogs.

[Sean Fennessey]

I would not love this dog. This is a mean dog. This is a dangerous dog.

[Chris Ryan]

But this is one of his last movies, right?

[Sean Fennessey]

It is. It's like a great confrontation about the idea of can. You know, it's clear that racism can be trained into someone, but can it be trained out of them? As someone who has been taught to see the world that way come to. You know, obviously it's metaphorical because it's about a dog, but Paul Winfield plays a dog trainer who attempts to convert this racist dog into a. A dog that doesn't see color.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Does it work?

[Sean Fennessey]

Which sounds ridiculous. I don't want to spoil the film. It has one of the great endings, I think, of the year 1982.

[Chris Ryan]

Entity, White Dog, Double Feature, Basket Case.

[Sean Fennessey]

Frank Hennan Lauder's Very Small Body horror comedy about a boy and his severed brother who lives in a basket and murders people.

[Chris Ryan]

What were we doing?

[Amy Poehler]

This is probably.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is one of the most important mov to watch. If you liked the substance is something that I will say. Shoot the moon. What about Shoot the Moon? Really good.

[Amy Poehler]

I mean, not great, but really good. And there was. And because it was not great, because there are things about the movie that are a little wet or don't quite work. It's overshadowed some of the really good qualities that movie, especially the performance of a young actress named Dana Hill in that film, who the same year she appeared in a TV version of Carson McCullough's Member of the Wedding. And she was a great actress who died unfortunately way, way, way too young because of her diabetes. She was much smaller and often played juvenile roles, even though she was an older actress and the diabetes killed her a couple of years later. She was a great actress and is a great performance by her. And you know, it's Albert Finney and Peter Weller and Karen Allen and Diane Keaton. It's a great cast.

[Sean Fennessey]

Very good movie. Yeah. Coppola's one from the Heart.

[Chris Ryan]

Yep.

[Sean Fennessey]

A famous fiasco.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, really? This was 82. Oh, I wish I'd known that.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, well, I think a movie that had a very, very bad reputation when it was released, but has been revived. Revived multiple times, most recently last year.

[Chris Ryan]

Tom Waits. Music for that.

[Amy Poehler]

Tom Waits and Crystal Gale.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

You like author? Author.

[Amy Poehler]

I love author. Author. Israel Horovitz.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Sort of writing about his personal experiences, even though he's gotten. Gotten in some trouble and then he died. But yeah, this is a lot of fun.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Amy Poehler]

Bob Dishy, very funny in that movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

Speaking of getting into trouble. Midsummer Night Sex comedy. You know, Woody Allen.

[Amy Poehler]

Good stuff.

[Sean Fennessey]

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, yeah. Steve Martin.

[Sean Fennessey]

Martin. Fun, fun comedy.

[Amy Poehler]

Last American Virgin.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. What about Chris?

[Amy Poehler]

This is a teen comedy and it's just a kind of a cheapy TNA teen comedy with a surprisingly dark ending. The end. It's worth watching Last American Virgin to see that ending and go, whoa, I did not see.

[Sean Fennessey]

I haven't seen it.

[Amy Poehler]

Breaking that dark. I got to check Gregory's Girl actually made a couple years earlier, but released in America that year. Bill Forsyth's Coming of Age drama. Comedy. A lot of fun.

[Sean Fennessey]

The big one we haven't mentioned, which is Conan the Barbarian.

[Amy Poehler]

Right.

[Sean Fennessey]

Speaking of a year that introduced us to movie stars. We'd seen Arnold Schwarzenegger before, but I feel like this is the concretizing moment of Arnold's massive forthcoming celebrity. And it's a cool real metal version of a movie where you've got this collision of the original story.

[Chris Ryan]

Milius wrote this.

[Sean Fennessey]

And John Milius wrote and directed.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, and directed it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Actually. It was written. Co. Written. Originally written by Oliver Stone. It's Oliver Stone's script. But you can see Milius has also brought a lot of his foreboding masculinity to the story. Very strange. Amazing James Earl Jones performance as the villain in this movie. Wearing quite the wig.

[Amy Poehler]

It's just not my.

[Sean Fennessey]

Not your thing.

[Amy Poehler]

It's not my thing.

[Sean Fennessey]

You don't get into fantasy.

[Amy Poehler]

I got on the airplane to come here to la and we got on. No, no. I was coming back from New Zealand. I was just in New Zealand. So it was a long 15 hour flight. And the guy. I don't know. You guys watch what other people are.

[Chris Ryan]

Watching all the time?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Of course.

[Chris Ryan]

Constantly.

[Amy Poehler]

So the guy across the aisle from me, before the plane even took off, he started on that first Lord of the Rings.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, that's actually like. Because you can do that for a long flight and you can watch the three of them and be done. It's a trick. It's a kind of a trick he did.

[Amy Poehler]

He watched all three of them back to back to back. I've never seen them. And watching them over his shoulder, I was just like, I don't. I don't get it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm with you. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Probably not the way Peter Jackson intended those films to be seen.

[Amy Poehler]

That was my other thought.

[Sean Fennessey]

From Tracy Letts.

[Chris Ryan]

I did something once where I was sitting next to a guy who started watching the Dark Knight and he was watching it and I just kept kind of looking over. I was watching like a game on. On. It was like on JetBlue flight and he's watching Dark Knight. And I was like, man, Dark Knight looks pretty good right now. And so. But then I decided the game was boring and I was gonna watch Dark Knight 2. But because he had been watching Dark Knight for 45 minutes, I fast forwarded it to catch up to him. So then he looked over and I was also watching Dark Knight exactly timed to his. And I was just like, you know.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You didn't exchange words and you said, why so serious?

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, let's recap our picks.

[Amy Poehler]

Hold on. Tenebrae.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, I forgot about Tenebrae.

[Amy Poehler]

Dario Argento. Giallo. Good stuff. Class of 1984. Good little exploitation movie.

[Sean Fennessey]

So many horror. Exploitation movies from this year. Crazy.

[Chris Ryan]

And they're all like 75 minutes long.

[Sean Fennessey]

Why did you say at the top of this that you didn't pick this year when you so obviously did? What was that about?

[Amy Poehler]

I did not pick this year.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm so confused.

[Chris Ryan]

We would have done it anyway. Because it's your birth year. Don't we do the birth years?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, we have done yours and we've done yours.

[Amy Poehler]

So you probably said to me, you know, what we should do is 1982 because it's my birthday.

[Sean Fennessey]

It did not happen, happen. I'm almost certain of it.

[Amy Poehler]

Sitting there very confidently with your Porter Wagner coif.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'll take that as a compliment. Okay, let's recap our picks. I went first, so I'll go first. In drama, I selected First Blood. Little controversial. I feel good about it. In comedy, I selected the World According to Garp. In thriller, action, horror, sci fi, I took the Thing. In Blockbuster. Reminder, the threshold was 40 million or more. I took Poltergeist In Oscar, I took Das Bote. In Wild Card, I took Fitzcarraldo. Two West German productions in my sleep.

[Amy Poehler]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Who knew?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Congratulations.

[Sean Fennessey]

Who knew who the funkin.

[Amy Poehler]

It was the last year of the new German cinema movement. In drama, I took the Verdict. In comedy, I took Tootsie. Sci fi, action, thriller, horror, I took the Road Warrior. In blockbuster, I took Star Trek 2. In Oscar nominee, I took Missing. And in Wild Card, I took Eating Raul.

[Chris Ryan]

In drama, I took the Draftsman's contract. It's a hard word to say for me. In comedy, I took Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In sci fi, horror, thriller, I took Halloween 3, Season of the Witch. In Blockbuster, I took 48 hours. In Oscar, I took E.T. and in Wild Card, I took personal best.

[Sean Fennessey]

Love that for you, Amanda.

[Amanda Dobbins]

In drama, I took Diner. In comedy, I took Death Track. In thriller, action, horror, science fiction, I took Blade Runner. In Blockbuster, I took Annie. In Oscar, An Officer and a Gentleman. And in Wild Card, Evil under the Sun.

[Chris Ryan]

I feel like you and I had a mutual destruction pact in this one. It was like once one of us lost, we had to take the other one down.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It was tough. A little bit. That's like, order, draft order, you know, and it's kind of like taking one from the other, but yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Did this go as you thought it might?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, other than Bobby sticking it in and breaking it off, yeah, you got it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Take it up with the Internet. I didn't have nothing to do with it.

[Chris Ryan]

I. I thought it was, you know, a king of comedy would have changed.

[Sean Fennessey]

Things if it had that event have changed Things. Do you have anything you'd like to promote before you say goodbye?

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, God, no.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for not doing that.

[Amy Poehler]

Oh, no, I have no.

[Chris Ryan]

Can I promote some stuff?

[Sean Fennessey]

Please? Feel free.

[Chris Ryan]

The Eagles won the Super Bowl. They've had a parade. They've all done podcasts, is airing in March. I have no. I have nothing to promote.

[Sean Fennessey]

Anything you'd like to promote?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Jam session.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

The.

[Amanda Dobbins]

The actual fun time I have on this.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, how dare.

[Amy Poehler]

Come on.

[Sean Fennessey]

No.

[Chris Ryan]

You don't like talking about sex comedies and exploitation horror.

[Sean Fennessey]

We were talking about Halloween 3 for.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Nine consecutive minutes, and you did a great job recapping it for me.

[Chris Ryan]

You're like, what do they do?

[Amy Poehler]

What do they have? We've been doing this for, like, three hours.

[Sean Fennessey]

Has this been over two hours?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is how it goes.

[Chris Ryan]

The drafts are long.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Aren't you having fun?

[Amy Poehler]

I have a great time.

[Chris Ryan]

He was better about not accusing me of having right wing politics because you're here, but other than that, this is pretty much how it goes.

[Sean Fennessey]

What's that? Well, thank you to Tracy Letts. This was very generous of you.

[Amy Poehler]

It's my pleasure. I do want to point out that I did send in a couple of questions to the mailbox.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, that's right. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Bobby, do you want them answered now or should we address that?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, the question was about the third chair. It was like, I think we all. Can you give some clarity to the third chair? Because I'm pretty sure that Tracy Letts should be the third chair of the Big Picture.

[Sean Fennessey]

Wow. This is the email that Tracy Letts sent to the Big Picture?

[Amy Poehler]

Well, I signed it to, you know, concerned listener or something.

[Sean Fennessey]

So real man of the people moment that you just emailed the same email address that everyone else did? Because there's just. There was no way I was going to be able to kneel in a haystack. You could have texted us. I think it's all out there. It's all possible. You know, we don't. We don't want to give.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Too much away.

[Chris Ryan]

You're welcome to it. I have a lot of projects.

[Amy Poehler]

You know what?

[Chris Ryan]

I have to promote my movie podcast. It's called the Odyssey. It's about when the Odyssey is coming.

[Amy Poehler]

Well, you. You are the. You're. You're the first chair of the tv.

[Chris Ryan]

You know what? Everybody keeps me on pins and needles, though, you know?

[Sean Fennessey]

What do you mean?

[Chris Ryan]

Well, you know, it's just like, Andy Bill, you.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I think you've got to break your home I think.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think you're going to do great.

[Amy Poehler]

Great.

[Chris Ryan]

Thanks.

[Sean Fennessey]

As soon as you get your own show, I think you're going to do really great. Chris, do you want to wait, do you want to weigh in on the armor situation with the Odyssey because. No, it's not coming out till March.

[Amy Poehler]

So wait a minute. He's in armor, but he's also piloting a helicopter in downtown Los Angeles?

[Sean Fennessey]

Do I have a curious question.

[Chris Ryan]

We haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

You will, though. That's what you're here for. Thanks to Tracy.

[Amy Poehler]

Thanks for having me. You guys are great.

[Sean Fennessey]

Thanks, Amanda. Thanks, Chris. Thanks to Jack Sanders. Thanks to our producer Bobby Wagner for his work on today's episode. Next week on the show, which is in March, we're watching the Alto Knights and discussing what we are calling garbage. Scorsese, we'll see you then.