The 2025 Movie Star Rankings: 35 Over 35. Plus: Nicolas Cage!

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Big Picture – "The 2025 Movie Star Rankings: 35 Over 35. Plus: Nicolas Cage!"

Introduction to the 35 Over 35 Movie Star Rankings In this episode of The Big Picture, hosts Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins delve into their annual exercise of ranking movie stars over the age of 35. The discussion is driven by a rotating cast of Ringer colleagues, including Chris Ryan, Van Lathan, and Bill Simmons. They aim to build a comprehensive list that not only highlights established stars but also examines the evolving landscape of Hollywood stardom.

Trump's Proposed Tariffs on Foreign Films: A Burning Issue [02:12] The conversation kicks off with a fiery discussion about President Donald Trump's recent statement on the Truth social media app, where he declared, “THE MOVIE INDUSTRY IN AMERICA IS DYING. ALL CAPS.” Both hosts express frustration over Trump's proposal to impose a 100% tariff on foreign-produced movies, questioning its feasibility and actual impact on Hollywood's workforce.

• Rob Harvilla [02:26]: “THIS IS JUST ABSOLUTE GOBBLEDYGOOK BULLSHIT.”
• Amanda Dobbins [04:27]: “I CAN'T LET THIS STAND… IT MAKES THINGS EVEN WORSE.”

The hosts criticize the lack of understanding behind the tariffs, noting that movies are not physical goods that can pass through ports, making the proposal nonsensical. They also lament how such political moves distract from more pressing issues within the industry.

Spike Lee and Denzel Washington’s Latest Project: Streaming vs. Theatrical Release [08:11] Sean and Amanda examine Spike Lee’s new film starring Denzel Washington, questioning why a major release is headed straight to Apple's streaming platform just two weeks after its premiere at Cannes. They analyze Denzel’s consistent box office success and juxtapose it with the decision to release his latest work online, highlighting potential missed opportunities for traditional theatrical success.

• Rob Harvilla [08:11]: “I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THIS MOVIE IS STRAIGHT TO STREAMING AFTER LABOR DAY. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?”

They discuss how the shift to streaming can impact the visibility and box office performance of big-name stars, pondering the implications for future releases.

Building the 35 Over 35 List: Criteria and Controversies [11:03] The hosts outline their methodology for compiling the 35 Over 35 list, which includes:

• 50% Past Achievements: Reflecting on the star’s body of work.
• 25% Future Projects: Anticipated roles and upcoming films.
• 25% Razzmatazz: The star’s charisma and cultural impact.

Sean and Amanda debate the inclusion and exclusion of various actors, balancing box office numbers with personal opinions on performances. They address the challenges of maintaining objectivity and the potential biases inherent in their selection process.

Notable Exclusions and Tough Cuts [34:51] As they progress through the list, Sean and Amanda discuss actors who narrowly missed the cut or were controversial exclusions, such as Christian Bale and Chris Hemsworth. They express regret over omitting certain big names but justify their decisions based on the established criteria.

• Amanda Dobbins [35:03]: “There's a case, but it's like it's… he's doing his own thing.”
• Rob Harvilla [35:25]: “Can I say you hate his guts? That's why he's not making the list.”

Top 10 Movie Stars Over 35: Highlights and Debates [92:58] The hosts unveil the top 10 movie stars over 35, providing insights into each selection. They engage in animated discussions about the ranking, often diverging into personal anecdotes and humor. The list includes seasoned actors like Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, and rising stars like Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson.

Interview with Nicolas Cage: Insights into His Acting Philosophy [112:32] A standout segment of the episode features an in-depth conversation with Nicolas Cage, a longtime fan favorite. Cage discusses his approach to selecting roles, emphasizing the importance of personal connection to the script and the desire to portray authentic, relatable characters.

• Nicolas Cage [112:34]: “I WANT TO HAVE A SENSE OF LIFE EXPERIENCE AND MEMORY AND A SENSE OF THAT WHICH IS PERSONAL… SO I WANT TO KEEP THAT SPARK ALIVE.”

Cage elaborates on his fascination with surreal and psychedelic narratives, drawing parallels to classic films that influenced him during his formative years. He reflects on the impact of Australian cinema and shares his admiration for filmmakers like Peter Weir.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion [133:04] As the episode wraps up, Sean and Amanda reflect on the exhaustive effort behind creating the list and express excitement for the forthcoming 35 Over 35 gallery event. They acknowledge their dedication to honoring both legendary and contemporary movie stars, ensuring the list remains a dynamic reflection of Hollywood's evolving star power.

• Rob Harvilla [133:26]: “I'm going to get pretty darn close to seeing every movie he's ever made.”

The episode concludes with a promise to continue exploring and celebrating the diverse talents that define the movie industry, all while maintaining their signature blend of insightful analysis and lighthearted banter.

Key Takeaways:

• Complex Criteria: The 35 Over 35 list balances past achievements, future projects, and charismatic influence.
• Streaming vs. Theatrical Releases: Hosts critique the trend of major stars bypassing theaters for streaming platforms.
• Actor Rankings: A lively debate surrounds the inclusion and exclusion of prominent actors based on evolving careers.
• Nicolas Cage Interview: Offers a deep dive into Cage’s artistic choices and his dedication to authentic storytelling.

Notable Quotes:

• Rob Harvilla [02:26]: “THIS IS JUST ABSOLUTE GOBBLEDYGOOK BULLSHIT.”
• Nicolas Cage [112:34]: “I WANT TO KEEP THAT SPARK ALIVE.”
• Amanda Dobbins [08:26]: “I CAN'T LET THIS STAND…”

This episode provides a comprehensive look into the current state of Hollywood stardom, the intricate process of ranking actors, and the personal philosophies of one of cinema’s most enigmatic figures, Nicolas Cage.

Transcript

[Rob Harvilla]

Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 Songs that Explain the 90s. Except we did 120 songs and now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The Strokes, Rihanna, JLo, Kanye. Sure. And now the show is called 60 Songs that Explain the 90s. Colon, the 2000s. Wow, that's too long a title for me to say anything else right now, Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s. Cole in the 2000s preference, preferably on Spotify. This episode is brought to you by the Dark Ages ID Software presents Doom the Dark Ages. A dark fantasy sci fi shooter that delivers searing combat and over the top visuals in an epic cinematic story worthy of the Doom Slayer's legend. Dominate demon infested battlefields with bone crunching. Tools of mayhem Take flight atop the fierce mecha dragon or pummel enemies in a 30 story Atlan mech. Stand and fight. Starting May 15th on Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5 and PC. Pre order now. Rated M for mature. I'm Sean Fennesee.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm Amanda Dobbins and this is the.

[Rob Harvilla]

Big Picture, a conversation show about movie stars. Later in this episode, I'll be joined by a movie star. His is Nicolas Cage. Longtime listeners of the show know what a fan I am of Cage's work. His new film the Surfer is another fascinating chapter in his exploration of the surreal, psychedelic and terrifying. Nicholas was a classic big picture guest. He is obsessed with talking about movies. So please stick around for my conversation with him. Spoiler alert. He does not figure into our 35 over 35 movie stars list. Amanda, we will be building that list again in its entirety. How did you find this exercise fun?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, I like it.

[Rob Harvilla]

I like it too. You think the listeners at home will enjoy it as much as we do?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Definitely. They like all our lists. They understand how list making works and they share our opinions about movie stars and movies at large.

[Rob Harvilla]

I wonder if they share our opinions about American politics. Great, because before we get to our list, we have a couple things we need to cover. Off on super important yesterday on the Truth social media app President Donald Trump.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is it an app?

[Rob Harvilla]

I honestly don't know. I've never opened. I've never sought it out. I only see it when it is screenshotted on X and shared or on Blue Sky. I saw it in both places yesterday. Many people let me know that the President has weighed in on movies. This is what he wrote on that app. The movie industry in America is dying. All caps. A very fast death. Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood and many other areas within the USA are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other nations and therefore a national security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda. Therefore, I am authoring the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% tariff on. On any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands. All caps. We want movies made in America again. Now. First they came for democracy, and I said nothing. Then they came for basic human rights, and I said nothing. And now that he's come for movies, it is time for me to speak out. Yeah. I can't let this stand. This is just absolute gobbledygook bullshit.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. And it also sucks. It like, it sucks that we are being roped in to this circus because it is so clearly. I mean, I don't know whether his strategy is at levels where he is thinking this is a diversion from all of the truly horrific and scary and outrageous things that are happening in this country by this government, by Donald Trump's orders. But now we gotta spend time on this bullshit that doesn't make sense and isn't even real, instead of, you know, focusing on the things that are, like, are truly newsworthy. But also, he's complicating a thing that really is a problem.

[Rob Harvilla]

Correct.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But also, he's just making it worse. And so now we have to be bullshit cable news people being like, well, you know, the tariffs function under the. Whatever act of the. Something like, I can't believe we have to do this. This fucking sucks.

[Rob Harvilla]

We don't technically have to. I think it's worth addressing because obviously.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Of course, we have to do it.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's a celebrity. He instituted these celebrity ambassadors to Hollywood in his administration. It seems like he spent the weekend with Jon Voight, and they basically, I don't know, had a few pops and decided to start talking about how to fix Hollywood, which, you know, obviously what's happening in Hollywood is obvious. We've talked about it quite a bit, especially in the aftermath of the strikes, which is that a lot of production has moved out of the city, a lot of production has moved out of the United States. This is impacting a lot of people. It's not really impacting movie stars or big directors. It's impacting the people whose careers are built inside the industry. You Know the people who are electricians and technicians and work in crafts departments and work in all the various physical ways that movies need to get made. So there is a real problem in LA and around the country where there's just not a lot of work because tax incentives overseas have drawn that business away. The way to fix that is, of course, I don't even understand what it means to have a tariff. A tariff doesn't. Like a movie doesn't come in through a port.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

This isn't a physical item.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Your Blu Rays do.

[Rob Harvilla]

So that's tough for you. I'm aware of that and have been thinking about that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But I assume they're just already being tariffed under all the other tariffs.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, but the movies themselves, I mean, who is being tariffed? The movie studio, the streamer, the movie theater that is showing the film. This is fucking nonsense.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Movies produced in other countries, like, what does this mean? Is it shot? Is it. Is it that it's shot there? Is it that it's funded? Is it that there's post production? Is it all of the above? It is. Is it whoever Donald Trump is pissed off with, you know, on any given, like, Sunday night after, like, watching 60 Minutes?

[Rob Harvilla]

I guess I did apply, like, 30 minutes of hard thinking to this last night and immediately regretted it because it's a fake plan with no rules.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He's already running it back. You know, they're already giving press conferences. I'm on deadline right now, and there will, like, be a meeting. Great. Love a meeting. We've got a plan to a plan. What was that nonsense? I'm not looking to hurt the industry is the new quote. Oh, okay. This is. Fuck off.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's. That's how I feel. Yeah, that's how I feel. This is bullshit, and people shouldn't pay too much attention to it. But, you know, everything he does poisons the discourse around that thing, and I don't want the discourse to be poisoned. Should we just say that this is the last we'll speak of it unless we absolutely necessarily have to?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, are we still allowed to make tariff jokes?

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't know. We're gonna get CR Here on that. Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Or Jon Voight jokes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Jon Voight jokes will never die. I terribly. I mean, that's.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, that's the thing is that, like, I don't even really feel like doing a bit about it. It's so. It's such a combination of gross and annoying and, like, a bridge to the other problems that I'm, like, really deeply angry. And upset about that. I don't feel like, you know, making a joke about how I've been moonlighting as John Hoyt's assistant or whatever.

[Rob Harvilla]

But I share your frustration. And it obviously comes on the heels of the time when international entertainment is, like, a big part of the American consumptive habit, like Squid Game and Parasite winning Best Picture and, you know, Anatomy of a Fall and Shogun and Emilia Perez. Like, these are all, like, a part of a global culture that is movies and television. So this whole thing is just fucking nonsense. Anyway, moving on. Um, Reset. Reset this.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I do this with a toddler all the time, but I need to do it.

[Rob Harvilla]

I kind of have some. Some. A much lower octave of rage around this small thing, though, I want to share with you. Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I. I already know what you're going to say, and I agree. And I had the same thought process.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, so highest to lowest is a new film coming to us from Spike Lee starring Denzel Washington. I believe it's their fifth film together. Highly anticipated. A remake of Akira Kurosawa was high and low.824. And Apple produced the movie. We've been waiting to hear when it's going to premiere here. It's going to be playing at Cannes in, I think, a week and a half. And we learned this morning that it opens on August 22nd. There was a teaser that uses the big Payback by James Brown. All you need to do to look at the teasers be like, oh, shit. Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, crime movie. Say no more. I mean, we're good. Like, this is me fun. It'll be a cool movie. Here's what I don't understand. Movies opening in movie theaters August 22, going to Apple TV plus on September 5. What? Why?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I have no idea.

[Rob Harvilla]

Why not? Can I. I've done some research.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Rob Harvilla]

They're the last 10 crime dramas that Denzel Washington has appeared in. Here is the global gross for the last 10. We'll go all the way back to Inside man, his last crime drama with Spike Lee. 185 million. Then deja vu, 181 million. American gangster, 267 million. The taking of Pelham one two three, 152 million. Safe house, 207 million. Two guns 132 million. The equalizer, 192 million. The equalizer two. 190 million. The little things, which was day and date during the pandemic, still made 30 million. And then the Equalizer 3. 191 million. So we're about to talk About Denzel Washington on this list. His movies make money in movie theaters. He was just in Gladiator 2 made $400 million. Why is this movie going straight to streaming after Labor Day? What the fuck is this?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I have absolutely no idea. Other than, like, Apple is like, I guess we want to collect on our investment. I don't know. They want to boost. I don't know. I don't know. Also, August 22nd. What are we doing?

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm not attacking you. I'm just mad.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This is like the instigators dump. Do you remember? Like that. Which is. Which made me nervous. But then I'm not nervous because it's Spike Lee and Denzel.

[Rob Harvilla]

Even if it's a mess. Like, of the 10 movies, like, I'm not the world's biggest 2 guns fan, but it's like, just put the movie in movies. Like, it just. It makes no sense. Like, why are you making movies with big movie stars and Spike Lee if you're not gonna put them in movie theaters for more than two weeks?

[Amanda Dobbins]

People do go see movies in August. Like, it has been shaken up a bit. So the windowing thing, you know, I don't know. I agree with you. I guess Apple doesn't care. They got the tariffs reversed.

[Rob Harvilla]

And this is on the heels of the Fountain of Youth thing that I was annoyed about. And then also the Gorge, and then also the Instigators. And I'm sure it's like, moderately growing their film business, but this can't. This. This is not the way. At a time when people want to go to the movies. This is not the way.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm sorry, I. I really don't get it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Let's pivot to actual movies that we've seen.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Because this will. This will be a real uplift.

[Rob Harvilla]

The original impetus for the 35 over 35 list this year is another simple favorite, which is a sequel.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's just. It's. It's. It's a peg.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a peg.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's a news peg. It doesn't. It's not.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, I located a time when it would be appropriate to talk about.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because we've got a movie with 235 over 35 stars.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

The question of whether or not they would make the list popped into my mind. One of them has certainly gotten more famous since we last did this list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I guess so. But not in a good way.

[Rob Harvilla]

Infamous, perhaps.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

So another simple favorite. A sequel to the 2018 movie, which kind of caught me by surprise. I didn't see it in theaters. I think I watched it maybe on VOD at home. I thought it was perfectly fine. Directed by Paul Feig, who directed Bridesmaids and the Heat and a number of other movies. This is his 12th feature, Paul Feig, but it's his third consecutive straight to streaming movie. Again, why is this movie straight to streaming? The original made $97 million in movie theaters. Explain it to me. You can.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, stop. Stop yelling. Sorry.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did you know about the literary origins of the first film?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Maybe. I did in 2018 when the film came out and I saw it, but I haven't read it. I didn't. I haven't sought it out since then.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And I. I didn't go to the movie theater then. I think I probably saw it at home, too. I didn't seek it out because of. This wasn't like a Colleen Hoover thing.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. What did you think of the original movie?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I was amused by it. I think I was, like, pleasantly surprised. I have. Anna Kendrick has always been a little black licorice to me, even though she's very talented, sometimes the frequency works. And sometimes I'm like, why are you in the accountant right now?

[Rob Harvilla]

You don't like a tiny little girl? What's that about?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Polly Pocket syndrome.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. You're just trying to get me to do Polly Pocket on. Because. No, I'm. I'm taller, so I'm taller, you know.

[Rob Harvilla]

So anyone who's smaller and using that smallness as a charm.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is an issue for you.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, it's just not an energy that I respond to, which is my right, you know?

[Rob Harvilla]

Absolutely.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And that's okay. That's. Everyone has. Has their body in the world, and they gotta navigate it as best they can.

[Rob Harvilla]

Everyone has their body in the world.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They do.

[Rob Harvilla]

Anna Kendrick is just one half of the. Of this movie. The other half is who?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Blake Lively.

[Rob Harvilla]

Right.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

So she plays the. I don't know, the. The X factor in this movie. The con artist. The woman who sweeps into Anna Kendrick's character's life and kind of turns it upside down. In the original, she operates in the same fashion in this movie. The first film ended, I believe, with her going to prison for murder.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I didn't totally remember the. The crimes ultimately. I just remembered that she got hit with a Prius by Andrew Reynolds character.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And it was like, so he didn't hear it coming because it was silent. And in 2018, that wasn't like, a bad joke, right? You kind of chuckled.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. I mean, in 2025, it would be a Tesla obviously, but.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, in 2025, it's another type of moving vehicle, sort of.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. The new film finds the story moving to Italy, where Stephanie, Anna Kendrick's character, is drawn for the wedding of Blake Lively's character to a Italian gangster. And then someone dies, and then we're back in some hijinks again. I don't mind saying I thought this movie was bad.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't think it was good either. I would say that for the first 20 minutes, when it was just Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, anytime that they were on screen. They do have chemistry. They do. And they are funny. And they're like, you know, some not that funny mom blog jokes and all that sort of stuff, but together they have a rapport. And so I watched it on a Saturday night while painting my nails, and I was like, I'm happy. And then it went on and other people were introduced into the film and I was less happy.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, it's like it's a con artist farce that maybe has more in common with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels than with the original film, which had this kind of, like, toxic curiosity to it or sort of like, what's really happening here. You couldn't really figure out whether or not Lively's character was evil or whether or not she was really her friend. This movie, like, everything is kind of laid bare there, so new characters have to come in. I found it to be, like, a lot zanier and more broad than the first movie. Yes. Not in a good way.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And playing for laughs.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Which some of them. You know, there's one Anna Kendrick hostage scene that's kind of funny.

[Rob Harvilla]

The truth serum. Yeah, I enjoyed that as well.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. The comedy is actually what's working in this movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

So sometimes some of it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Some of it just theirs.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think Anna Kendrick is really, you know, Polly Pocket or not. I thought she was very good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I said I thought she was very good in this movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm sorry I got you off on the wrong foot. You know, I was very angry with.

[Amanda Dobbins]

The world, which she is. Yeah, I know. I mean, I was, too. I was in such a. Not what you want to talk about on a Monday morning. Blake Lively is much taller than Anna Kendrick in this movie. And they really, probably in real life as well, use this for comedic effect. We really, really got to work on our makeup to lighting ratio for exterior shots. That was one thing that I spent a lot of time thinking about. I was just like, what is going on?

[Rob Harvilla]

Why your mind?

[Amanda Dobbins]

But it's like, these are very beautiful people. And I was just kind of like, I don't know what happened here. This got away from all of you. And it's. We're just wearing too much, you know.

[Rob Harvilla]

Let's talk about Blake Lively for a second.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Obviously, I don't. I don't really want to get into the details of the, you know, suing Justin Baldoni and all that. I'm not really interested in that specifically, but I am interested in kind of, like, what it does to a person's celebrity and Persona and how they're perceived. This movie and the original film, and it ends with us all kind of like, emphasized this outlandish style that Blake Lively obviously, clearly, personally, is interested in and kind of brings to these characters, you know, that she is like a daring fashionista. Sure.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And she styles herself.

[Rob Harvilla]

Right. And so that makes her character seem very outsized and in a way, I think actually makes her kind of a good star. I've never really thought she was much of an actress, although she's much better suited, I have found, to this kind of, like, dyspeptic meanness, you know, like, her best performances are, like, in the town where she's, like, a real asshole in the original of this film, and it ends with us. One of the reasons why that movie doesn't work for me is just like, this is not a sympathetic person. On her surface, she doesn't really convey that as an actor, she plays this part pretty well. But that. That star Persona, which I guess has some roots in, like, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, the sort of, like, not to be fucked with female movie star is a little outmoded in 2025. It's not something you see very often.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

So there's like.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's also. Lively is not comfortable with it and is like. I mean, clearly takes on every type of role but that whenever possible. And then all the accoutrements of her life from, like, the, you know, the mom blog Persona, for lack of a better word. And her weird preserve. Was that what it was called? She. She had a goop style company, all these sorts of things that she. She is. She doesn't want to be like the vamp. She doesn't want to be the mean person. She wants to be likable and friendly. And that does not work for her in her acting. And it has not worked out for her in her publicity campaign, which I have. I have, like, been taken aback by the extent to which that lawsuit seems to have brought out all of the hate towards her online in a pretty remarkable way. But it's like, people agree with you that she's not a very relatable individual. On the surface, yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

I mean, I think that's kind of a. Kind of a mistake of our society is the desire for glamorous, successful, wealthy people to try to seem relatable. And you can say, like, I. Actually, there's not a lot I admire about Gwyneth Paltrow, but one of the things that I do admire is that she never actually was like, you're just like me. She would say, like, come join me in this movement. But she would never try to say, we are the same. There was always, like, an elevation. And, you know, Lively is like a statuesque blonde. And that's not. There's nothing really. She's married to Ryan Reynolds, so making people think, like, trying to make people think that she is somehow, I don't know, regular is obviously not feasible. But a part like this, obviously she doesn't need that. I guess she needs that to kind of combat some of the public narrative that she's faced.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But there is a line in this about look for my subpoena coming soon, which I assume was filmed before, but I was amused by maybe, maybe not.

[Rob Harvilla]

Maybe could have been a reshoot just to get one last dig in there. I didn't really think this was super successful, although it does seem like a lot of people are watching it. Maybe this is better as a streaming movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This is classic Garbage Women, and I guess I recognized that immediately. And it's not well done Garbage Women. It's on the landfill scale, but I've heard from friends who watched it and were like, what the hell is going on? Nobody thinks it's good, but it can be sort of enjoyable in this little streaming box.

[Rob Harvilla]

It does have shades of the second screen design that you find. Like, Eileen was watching the Four Seasons last night, and she was like, this is okay, but it's kind of perfect to be looking at my phone while watching. And this movie, too, sort of has people explicating a lot of plot. Plot out loud quite often.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Anyway, like I said, pedicure. The real, real. You know, it was. And I appreciate the movie. Making time for all of those pursuits. You know, I'm a working mom. I gotta multitask.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'd like Paul Feig to get back to making real big movies, like real comedies for movie theaters.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, sure. We'd like everyone to just make good movies. Yeah, we would.

[Rob Harvilla]

We would. God damn it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We live in the real world, so.

[Rob Harvilla]

We do. We do.

[Amanda Dobbins]

If this is the Garbage. It's like I watched it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. So thank you for your service. Did Anna Kendrick make our list?

[Amanda Dobbins]

She didn't.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did Blake Lively make our list?

[Amanda Dobbins]

She did not.

[Rob Harvilla]

Are we 100% sure that Blake Lively should not have made the list?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think so.

[Rob Harvilla]

I want to show you something.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

I knew this was going to be a long and difficult episode, so I actually bought a venti Starbucks, which is what I used to do when I was a psychopath in my 30s.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I remember. And that's what you used to have instead of lunch at Sunset Gallery, you would just go over.

[Rob Harvilla]

Exactly. Right.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is nuclear fuel for me. So I'm going to pod my heart out for the next really long three hours.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So I should have gotten a string cheese from the fridge.

[Rob Harvilla]

We can stop down if necessary. We're about to start our discussion of movie stars. So Blake Lively didn't make it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No. Someone she's related to might have. And that'll be an interesting conversation to.

[Rob Harvilla]

Have, whether or not. Well, yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, because I think that recent events in the legal space have also affected Ryan Reynolds public perception. Not to the extent that it has affected Blake Lively.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, I don't think the dude bros who love Deadpool are gonna care about that specifically.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I agree.

[Rob Harvilla]

She does not have, as far as I know, another film planned, even though she's coming off of this stretch where after a lot of inactivity, she's now been in two consecutive big movies. Technically three, if you include her silly Deadpool and Wolverine cameo as well as her voice work in if. But Blake Lively is actually not eligible based on the rules that we have devised, because she has not had a starring role in three films in the last five years. That's one of the key rules that we created when we started doing this.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Because we're punishing working mothers and working fathers.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, if a man has not made three lead roles in five years, then he also gets punished. One of the reasons why we do this is not just it ends with us. It's because the National Research Group puts out a poll every year of the most powerful movie stars. This is something Matt Bellany wrote about in his newsletter a few weeks back. It's a data point basically to springboard the discussion. I think we started doing this before that poll started, because we did it in 2020 during COVID when we were really down bad with topics. I think we might have done 35 under 35 and 35 over 35 in 2020. We've now moved to only you are.

[Amanda Dobbins]

The Keeper of the.

[Rob Harvilla]

I have now moved to doing one per year. So last year we did under 35.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think that this technically might have been 35, might have been 21. You're right, it is 31, early 21. Because I remember where I was. I tried to take a Palm Springs vacation and then I was just like at the table doing the. What's Anne Hathaway bedded?

[Rob Harvilla]

This episode requires a lot of research and we do not have a research assistant. And so there's just a lot of time just working parents spent banging info into Google documents that people will never see. You're right. We did start doing it in 2021. We did it again in 2023. The contention then was sort of like, we think movie stars are back and they had been gone in this IP franchise era. A couple of things have happened this year at the movies that have indicated that. In fact, I think that there's some truth to that supposition. A couple of movies that have really strong leads that may not have had the same level of success without those leads indicates that whether or not they're as back as the mythology of this show would have you believe, you can disagree. That's okay. It's just a fun exercise for us. So what did the 2025 research group tell us based on their findings?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Old people still rule. Yeah, yeah. That movie stars is synonymous with a 90s movie star which benefits this show. Benefits this show. Also, when we did the Gen Z focus group while you were gone, everyone there named someone, I think over 50 at least.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's interesting because I would argue that things haven't been this good for under 35 stars in at least a decade and maybe more. We've had a real bubbling up where like another Chalamet Oscar nomination, Florence Pugh leading thunderbolts. You know, there's a whole. There's a wave. But the other thing that has happened is we've had a bunch of people who we started with in 2021 graduate to over 35. It's been four plus years since we last did that. 3,000 people are polled, I believe, which is not a huge sample size. It's certainly enough to qualify as a proper poll. But how old were these people? What were their entertainment consumption diets?

[Amanda Dobbins]

They had a Gen Z subset study as well.

[Rob Harvilla]

Right.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But. And that's still found. I think it changed the order of the top 10 slightly. And maybe Scarlett Johansson was a little higher and maybe the Rock was number one in the Gen Z list. In the Gen Z list.

[Rob Harvilla]

I Think that's relevant to this discussion?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, but the general composition of older movie stars, people you associate with a type of art that is for your grandparents. Starring your grandparents seems to be their vibe. I think it's rude.

[Rob Harvilla]

What about your cool uncles and aunts? You know, that's what we are. Yeah, we're your extremely cool uncles and aunts. Right. You don't think so?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Moderately cool, sure. Emotionally distraught, physically laboring, trying our best. Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

As I mentioned, three lead roles in at least five years is a key. No voice work. Voice work does not count in that rule. Now, we have made two exceptions to this rule because I think these are two important entrants. But you must be born before May 5, 1990. We are making two exceptions for that, and we'll explain why.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So it turns out you must be born before, I think, August 2nd 15th, 1990.

[Rob Harvilla]

More or less. Yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

A lot of Leos on this list, by the way, which is not surprising. Yeah. But I just. As I was Googling, I just clocked another. Like, we see you.

[Rob Harvilla]

This, of course, is a Leo podcast.

[Amanda Dobbins]

See another.

[Rob Harvilla]

Jack, what are you. Are you a Leo, Jack? Sure.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

What's your sign?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Do you know what your sign is?

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, I completely misunderstood the question. I'm a Scorpio.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, interesting.

[Rob Harvilla]

I thought you were asking general thoughts on Leos, to which I say, sure. Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, thanks. Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think.

[Rob Harvilla]

Chris, what's wrong with Leos? No, there is nothing wrong. That's what I'm saying. I'm indifferent on the matter.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think Chris is also a Scorpio. Yes. He is so intriguing. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

They have the stinger.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes. Wait. Okay. For a second, I thought psy was a scorpion by Chris, but.

[Rob Harvilla]

Cause, you know, it's so rare that Chris will, like, kind of buck back, but he will. He will. No, every once in a while. Never in your life.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Maybe. Maybe it's. I'm sure it's coming for me, you know, but.

[Rob Harvilla]

No, be safe.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm trying to think. No. Even when Zach got us in that fight in the outside of. What's that canceled restaurant called Horses? That one. But no, the other one in Silver Lake. You don't remember this if you were in the bathroom the whole time and.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, well, that was. That was almost a real fight.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I know. But then I was like, sorry, Chris, I got too hot under the collar. And I think he would have been, like. It would have been legit for him to be like, you need to fucking chill out. And he didn't.

[Rob Harvilla]

He was just what restaurant was that? I forget.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know. I can't remember. It's probably.

[Rob Harvilla]

It was right in Silver Lake Junction. That's the name of it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

There's some legal issues at play.

[Rob Harvilla]

Jesus.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You know.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, I see. Oh, because your husband almost had a violent encounter with a strange man.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. But it wasn't. It was the strange man's fault. And then a little bit my fault.

[Rob Harvilla]

But it was my fault for taking a pee break, I guess.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. No, even then, Chris had my back, so there.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's beautiful. Can you tell us how we devise our list? What are the mathematical specifications we apply?

[Amanda Dobbins]

So it's 50% what you've done, 25% what is to come, and 25% razzmatazz.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, it's like, what could be. That's how I like to think of it, you know?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Do you got it? Do you not got it?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, that's the squishy. 25% is how we get away with doing whatever we want on this list. Ultimately. Just a reminder to anyone listening at home, because the first time we did this, bless their heart, whoever it was on social media identified this as our 35 over 35 actors list. That's not what this is. No, this is not the best actors. In fact, that might be fun to do one day to say, like, here's the people who we think are the absolute best actors, even though we are not learned in the ways of acting, really, from a technical perspective, this is movie stars. This is about stardom. Acting is a part of stardom. It's a critical part of stardom in some ways, but not for everyone.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So that's why the last 25% is razzmatazz.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Also, we will read a list of toughest cuts, which is like 40 names, quite long. And most of them, the category would be, like, incredible actor, not quite movie star. Like, maybe too good of an actor to be on this list.

[Rob Harvilla]

I know what you mean by that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

There is an icon list that we made some years ago in that icon list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Emeritus.

[Rob Harvilla]

We've actually lost some members that were on this list. Like Donald Sutherland, for example, was on this list. He passed away. James Caan was on the list. He passed away. All the mega icons are still here. De Niro and Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Harrison Ford, Judi Dench. He'd go on and on. We recognize their great works.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Meryl Streep.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is Meryl Streep on this list?

[Amanda Dobbins]

She is on the. She's emeritus.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, she's emeritus. Okay. You know, there are maybe one or two people who are 70 plus on our list total. Maybe one. There may be one person who's 70 years old on our final 35, over 35. But for the most part, this is sort of the hall of fame that is concretized. These people are not leaving that space. So if you, you know, text Amanda and say, where the fuck is Martin Sheen? He's. He's in the hall of fame. Everybody just settle down. We know. Ineligible couple of names to cite so that people don't say, why the hell is this person not discussed? I don't know if this guy would have made it, but he is definitely in that. Is he too good of an actor to be on the list? But Daniel Kaluuya has not had a leading role since. Nope. And before that, I think it's been a long time. So I don't know what's up with him. I hope he's in the next Jordan Peele movie. I'm not sure.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I hope so too.

[Rob Harvilla]

Obviously an actor we love.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Do we count Judas and the Black Messiah as leading or that might have.

[Rob Harvilla]

Been the one before.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Nope.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. And I think that those are his last two. And before that, it's five years. Sandra Bullock hasn't made a movie since Bullet Train.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right. And that was a cameo. So really Lost City.

[Rob Harvilla]

Lost City was her last leading role, which did like 200 million and proved her stardom, but she's just not taking parts. Will Ferrell. This is about to change, I think. I think as soon as like three months from now, he will officially gotten to the 3 and 5. But he's not quite there, based on the movie that I think he's about to start shooting. We mentioned Blake Lively. Seth Rogen is interesting to me because he's on the studio right now.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

And when you look at his movie career, even the movies he's made in recent years, like the Fabelmans, he's not the lead.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's a critical character in that movie, but he. I think. I think in American Pickle, who's the best movie that he made where he was the star? Michelle Williams, who has kind of moved to television. I haven't watched Dying for Sex. Have you watched that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I haven't.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Will you watch it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know. I have a long list of tv, but I support her and she looks great in all the press.

[Rob Harvilla]

I like her as well. Janelle Monae. After Knives Out 2, I thought, well, here comes a movie star now. And Then she's done making movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's okay. She can do what she wants.

[Rob Harvilla]

Jim Carrey.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Hmm.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's technically made three consecutive Sonic the Hedgehog movies. And that's it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right. Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's his 2000s.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, his bank account's doing great.

[Rob Harvilla]

John Krasinski.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Because voice work doesn't count.

[Rob Harvilla]

Correct. He obviously wrote and directed if and had a supporting part in that movie as a deeply creepy father, but he is not.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So what is the. The friend is the dad in the end or the friend was the dad's friend?

[Rob Harvilla]

That. I think that's it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

You just spoiled it for the millions at home listening. Ben Stiller.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, yeah, he's making. He's making severance and going on chicken shop date.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. We were recording this on the eve of the Knicks Celtics playoff matchup in the second round of the NBA playoffs. And Ben Stiller is one of the best we have out there supporting Knicks nation, so thank you to him. 22 members of our first ever list of 35 under 35 have moved to this tier, but only 6 of them made this list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, big fish, little pond. Little fish, big pond, you know?

[Rob Harvilla]

Agree. Well put.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Thank you.

[Rob Harvilla]

Toughest cuts. How do we do this? Because there's so many names. Well, I don't mind spoiling.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because it's part of it is just about the ranking. Also, people are. As soon as this is over, one guy is just going to like bang out the list and then just tweet it and then we're fucked anyway. I know.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Come on.

[Rob Harvilla]

I know. Guys spent fucking 12 hours working on this for no good reason.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This podcast is how we feed our children.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's okay. It's okay. This is. It's all content. All content is good. Yeah, right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, I'm sure. I'm sure there are a lot of contradictions to that, but. Okay, there's.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, so let's just set aside two. Let's just talk about the two names that we have issue with. For me, we cut Christian Bale. I don't feel great about that. And for you, we cut Chris Hemsworth. And you don't feel great about that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

To me, those are both big time movie stars. You could certainly argue that they're quote unquote, more famous than other people who will appear on our list. Bale is in kind of a downswing. He was in. He was. I thought he was really good in the third Thor movie, but that movie was not very good. He was in the Edgar Allan Poe movie on Netflix, the Pale Blue Eye. And he was in Amsterdam, which was.

[Amanda Dobbins]

A disaster, which is tough. And Those were all 2022.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. He is going to be Al Davis in the John Madden movie that is coming out with Nicholas Cage, directed by David O. Russell.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I mean, that could go really well. Or that could be Amsterdam.

[Rob Harvilla]

I fully agree with you. Christian Bale and Chris Hemsworth are interesting as comparison points because they both vaulted to mega fame on the backs of comic book characters and have since been putting some distance between their comic book work. But Hemsworth, make your case.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I just. Extraction and extraction 2 are, like, decent movies that.

[Rob Harvilla]

And they're huge.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Half the world has seen. Yeah, almost. And I. We are light on Netflix representation, which I feel fine with because for the most part we prefer movies made for theaters, but those are a huge deal. And the rest of his career, I mean, he just. He is really, really famous and he is in movies that a lot of people see. And that has been the case for, like, almost 20 years now.

[Rob Harvilla]

He has just never proven, I don't think one single time the ability to draw audience outside of a franchise. I see it, you know.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Like, at least at the movie theater. And he is part, like Furiosa being a recent example.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Which is a movie that didn't perform well. He's great in that movie, but that movie didn't perform right. And that is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That was Furiosa not performing. And Christian Bale in Amsterdam are like orders of different magnitude, you know, I really.

[Rob Harvilla]

I know. But yeah. No, I. To me, they both give good performances, though. I don't think that's really the issue. Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But like, Amsterdam.

[Rob Harvilla]

Amsterdam is a nightmare movie. Yeah, I agree.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And didn't make any money.

[Rob Harvilla]

I agree. So this is an interesting test is coming for Hemsworth. And maybe we can reset when we do it next time because we saw a Preview for Crime 101, which is a movie that looks like it was made in 1998. It's just like a pure crime movie that I think. Is it Amazon, MGM that is making it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think so.

[Rob Harvilla]

And it's Halle Berry, Chris Hemsworth, Barry Keoghan and Mark Ruffalo. And it just, like, looks like a Michael Mann knockoff about a thief. It looked pretty good. Like. Like, it looked okay. Kind of garbagey.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Michael Mann remaking Crash. Bad Crash.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, God, I hope that's the vibe of that movie. But you have to go all the way back to bad times at the el Royale in 2018 to find a movie that he made that's an original movie in Movie theaters. And that's a long time ago. Like, he did make Spiderhead, and he did make two extraction movies, but they were straight for. Straight to Netflix. So now my case against him is, like, he made Ghostbusters. He made a bunch of Thor movies, the Avengers, men in Black 4, which people didn't like. It's kind of. I like him as a dude.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I hear you. And I guess he is the number one, like, figurehead for major Marvel star that can't translate outside of Marvel. Except we have another Marvel star who can't translate outside of Marvel who is not on this list.

[Rob Harvilla]

So we'll get to them in a second.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Should we just run through some of the names? Yeah, you want to bounce back and forth. I'll read one. You read one. Okay. Cynthia Erivo. Not on the list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Michael Fassbender.

[Rob Harvilla]

Ana De Armas. Tough one.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. But Valerina's not out yet. And she was only in one scene of no Time to Die. Jesse Plemons to get an actor.

[Rob Harvilla]

Jesse Buckley will see after the bride now eligible.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

Vanessa Kirby hasn't been the primary yet.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

We'll see if she ever does get there. Daniel Craig.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This is the other one where Knives out still exists. They're still making them.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, for Netflix.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I. Like I said, you. That's. That's where your biases.

[Rob Harvilla]

My demerit on Craig, who was on the list last time around, is that he didn't get nominated for Queer.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I agree.

[Rob Harvilla]

Which set aside how you feel about his performance, that almost, like, indicated something about his stature. Okay, who's next? Kristen Stewart, Natalie Portman, Paul Rudd, Jessica Chastain.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This. This one hurts. I thought about it. Ben Affleck.

[Rob Harvilla]

There's a case for him.

[Amanda Dobbins]

There's a case, but it's like it's. He's doing his own thing.

[Rob Harvilla]

When is Ben going to come on the show? Just you and Ben. One hour.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, I just wouldn't get a word in, you know, so. And that's. I would be okay with that. That's the only thing.

[Rob Harvilla]

What would be your first question? Why are you the way that you are?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Jennifer Lopez, Jason Statham, which is another tricky one.

[Rob Harvilla]

Tough one.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's very reliable. And he only makes movies for theaters.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right. And they are successful, like, within the budget range that they need to be, I guess, But I don't know. There wasn't room.

[Rob Harvilla]

I liked the swing of Monkey man, but Dev Patel is not there yet.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, this is another controversial one. Hugh Jackman.

[Rob Harvilla]

I thought long and hard about it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I did as well.

[Rob Harvilla]

He has two movies coming out in the next 12 months, one of which is Song Song Blue, which is a focus movie at the end of the year that could be a sneaky awards race contender. And then he's got the sheep movie that was delayed.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know if you saw recently. It was delayed until the end of next year. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, well, so you know, he's also been mired in a lot of ip.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't mean to. I guess fast forward if you don't want three bags full spoiled for you. In some ways, I don't really even.

[Rob Harvilla]

Know what it's about.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know. I read a tweet that said, what are you doing?

[Rob Harvilla]

This movie's not coming out for two years.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I said fast forward. It's based on a book.

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't want to know that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's the premise of the movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

Jack, you gotta cut that. We can't keep that in. That's the Amanda spoiler core.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Fast forward. That is the premise.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's not my.

[Rob Harvilla]

We'll put that as a blooper at the end of the episode or just.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Like bleep it out. Just bleep out what happened. But, like, I don't know.

[Rob Harvilla]

Let's keep going. We haven't even said a single name from the list yet. Keep going.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's very clear. You need to keep up.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, I'm keeping up.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, it's your turn.

[Rob Harvilla]

Steven Yeun.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And we had to cut him, which is sad. Adam Driver.

[Rob Harvilla]

Vin Diesel. Good. That's what I say to that. Good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sebastian. Stan. Sorry.

[Rob Harvilla]

Close.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Close.

[Rob Harvilla]

One has not proven to be a pure box office draw yet. Jake Gyllenhaal has kind of fallen back into television and Roadhouse.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Streaming movies and Othello on Broadway.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's right. Shut out at the Tonys.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Apparently the reviews are not good.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm surprised to hear that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I spoke to people who did not think it was very good. I did not get to see it. Kirsten Dunst. This one hurts.

[Rob Harvilla]

But do you agree with this?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I agree. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I do.

[Rob Harvilla]

Brie Larson.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I agree with that. Also. Edward Norton.

[Rob Harvilla]

Kate Winslet.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Tv Ray Fines.

[Rob Harvilla]

Carrie Mulligan, Miles Teller.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Tough in My house.

[Rob Harvilla]

Tom Hardy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We have.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Michelle Williams again for some reason. But it's not the other. It's. Yeah, okay. Gal Gadot, John David Washington, Danielle Dudwiler, Elizabeth Olsen and Zoe Kravitz, who's dating Noah Centineo. Did you know that? I just love to bring. Yeah, I Don't know. They're like, holding me up.

[Rob Harvilla]

Isn't he like 19?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I think he's grown up a little bit.

[Rob Harvilla]

I saw him in the film Warfare.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's very big now.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, and he is like, in a park holding hands with Zoe Kravitz.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, good for her. The final trio that are missing from this list we're calling the Materialist Test. So Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal are not on this list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

They are the stars of Materialist, which is out in one month. I'm not saying that movie needs to be a hit to put them onto the list. Dakota Johnson is coming off a tough stretch here. You know, Madame Web, we're down bad.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Posted My Heart Forever.

[Rob Harvilla]

I know you love her. She's fine. Can hardly act, but she's interesting on screen.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She's. Come on. This isn't about actors.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is not about actors.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She has razzmatazz all her own.

[Rob Harvilla]

Chris Evans is gifted, but Lost.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Pedro Pascal, we went a little back and forth.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We talked a lot about this.

[Rob Harvilla]

So I think because of the 50% what you've done.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's ultimately your case for why he's not yet deserving.

[Amanda Dobbins]

There is precedent here. When we make the list, we do it according to the date of recording. So there have been people who three weeks later had, you know, Dune 2 or whatever come out. And there's a big change now when.

[Rob Harvilla]

You look at his career, especially over the last 10 years. I first saw him as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones and then he's on Narcos for 30 episodes and then he's the Mandalorian.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is he?

[Rob Harvilla]

And then he's the last of us.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

So those are huge television shows. And that's where he really got famous. These are the movies that are coming up from him this summer. Eddington, the new Ari Aster movie, which I've been hearing more and more about and very excited about, and I feel like it's going to annoy everybody. Materialist, which I mentioned. And then he's in Fantastic Four and then he's in Doomsday, and then he's in the Mandalorian and Grogu next summer. Those are three of the most anticipated big budget movies, plus two very intriguing A24 films from directors we really love.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

As far as, like the Playbook goes, that's the Playbook. That's like the I'm grabbing the mantle Playbook.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's the Playbook, but it's like three Playbooks at Once. And so my case for you, in addition to the. It's just at this moment in time, he was okay. In Gladiator 2. He was in Wonder Woman 1984. That's a fact.

[Rob Harvilla]

I actually enjoyed what he was doing.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He was fine. And I'm learning now that he was also in 2011's the Adjustment Bureau.

[Rob Harvilla]

But, you know, was he one of the hat wearers?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I hope so. That's what they do.

[Rob Harvilla]

No, he was.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Matrix doesn't wear a hat.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know, actually, because they. I don't know whether the maitre d is time traveling or whatever the hell.

[Rob Harvilla]

He was also in the Great Wall opposite Matt Damon.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, great.

[Rob Harvilla]

A Chinese production where they learned all of our secrets about how to make a movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So it's not there yet. And then the Fantastic Four into Avengers, plus Mandalorian and Grogu, all in 18 months. Plus the Apple commercial. You know, it's just like. It's a lot. He's. We're risking overexposure.

[Rob Harvilla]

Just so I'm clear, you hate his guts. That's why he's not making the list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He's very charming.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, you're right. As soon as July 15, we might be like, Pascal, he's on the list. Shall we do the list?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'd love to.

[Rob Harvilla]

Now, how should we bounce back and forth? You do one, I do one.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

What do you think?

[Amanda Dobbins]

That sounds wonderful.

[Rob Harvilla]

Figure it out with me in real time.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I said, okay. Why does this happen? Okay, this is like. This is a similar thing. I'm sorry that we're just relitigating, like, my domestic issues at home, at work. But, like, Zach does the same thing. He's like, should we do it this way? And I say, sure. And then he's like, okay, but why don't you want to do it that way? And should we do it another way? You got the yes. I said yes. Let's go. Alternately, you know, just take it and run.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'll tell you what, next time, send me an email, and then we'll hash it out that way. Okay. What's number 35?

[Amanda Dobbins]

My beloved Julia Roberts is just clinging to 35 because she has the Luca Guadagnino movie coming out this fall. And also, obviously, she's one of the greatest movie stars of all time, but she hasn't been doing that much, so.

[Rob Harvilla]

She was in Sam Esmail's Leave the World behind, which is notable for a couple of reasons, but most specifically, it is one of the five most watched movies in the history of Netflix and obviously Julia Roberts is a big reason for that. So she still has clout.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

After the Hunt looks like a smaller drama. I thought it looked very good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm really excited. And even, as we all noted, having seen the trailer, they still cut in, like, the classic Julia Roberts smile and laugh in what is, like, a campus, like, politics drama, I think. So they know what works. And she is still being used to see smaller movies.

[Rob Harvilla]

She's also apparently going to be in Sam's next movie, Panic. Carefully looking forward to that, but it's hard out here. She's 57. You know, she's put in a lot of work. She's been a star since she was, like, 20 years old. And I don't know. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe after the Hunt is, like, an Oscar contender. Maybe she's in the Oscar conversation.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That would be really fun. It's in play to have her around.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's not. It's not ridiculous.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm glad she's still on the list. 35 seems fine to me.

[Rob Harvilla]

Number 34 is Mahershal Ali. Now, he was not on the list last time. I think he might have been ineligible because he had been kind of taking a backseat and had been prepping Blade. And then Blade fell apart. And so he's not making Blade. And then Sinners came in and was just like, why do we. We don't need Blade. We have Sinners. He has two Academy Awards. And now he also has Jurassic World Rebirth coming. And then he's arguably the key voice in beyond the Spider Verse because he's the prowler in this alternate universe. Do you remember this? Where the last one ended, where they go where.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Miles into the alternate universe. There were, like, five of them, and. Yeah. And so he's the bad guy in the alternate universe.

[Rob Harvilla]

Or the mentor to the other Miles. Anyway, we'll see what happens. And then he's in youn Mother, your mother, your Mother, which is a Boston Tarek movie. Who was the guy who was going to direct Blade? So Jurassic World, Rebirth, he has, like, the Han Solo part. He's got the Harrison Ford. I'm the quippy, dashing hero guy now.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You got to just check your negativity. How many dinosaurs are allowed to be in movies?

[Rob Harvilla]

I never said they weren't.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's like, we had 36 Marvel movies.

[Rob Harvilla]

I watched Destroy All Monsters with my daughter yesterday.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That is beautiful. I just.

[Rob Harvilla]

Dinosaurs are great.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's gonna be fine.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. You feel good? Merch while he's 51.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, good for him.

[Rob Harvilla]

He looks like he's 35.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I saw him at 8am in the lobby of the Caesar's palace at Cinemacon. Looked. He looked great.

[Rob Harvilla]

Nice. Any further thoughts?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No.

[Rob Harvilla]

So, you know, that was incredibly funny when he presented on stage and then later in the day zoomed in from wherever he. From his house in Los Angeles.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Number 33, your girl, Anne Hathaway.

[Rob Harvilla]

So you added her to your, to this list, which I thought was fascinating. Now of course I support this.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Can I honestly tell you what my methodology was?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Like the, the, the way I put together this first list was I just googled the cast of the Odyssey and then whoever we didn't have on the list, I put on the list.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm happy to hear you say that because I could tell. But you're right, there is something to that because this is the most anticipated movie movie in the world for the next roughly 14 months. Anne Hathaway, she's 42 years old. She's been all kinds of movies. It's an interesting next little stretch here for her because she has Mother Mary, the new David Lowery movie, which is coming out, I assume at the end of this year from A24 where she plays a pop star. And then Verity, which is the next Colleen Hoover adaptation which is directed by Michael Showalter, who directed her last movie, which was called the Idea of you, the Idea of youf where she banged a 28 year old boy band.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You don't say it like that. She found a new chapter of her life.

[Rob Harvilla]

She let that guy hit it raw and they fell in love and it was beautiful. I love that movie. And then she's in the Odyssey and then she's in a movie I can't wait for, but just got pushed by 16 months, which is never a good sign. It's called Flower Veil street, directed by David Robert Mitchell, who made it, follows. And speaking of dinosaurs, apparently dinosaurs figure prominently into this movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

So don't tell me that I don't care about dinosaurs, because I do.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You need to tell yourself that.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, I love Anna Hathaway. I'm proud of her and I'm happy for her. Academy Award winner.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And she's also out and about like a lot right now.

[Rob Harvilla]

There's an incredible thing happening on the ringer.com right now which is called the Millennial canon bracket, which I love and is very funny. And one of the seeds in that bracket is going back and forth between loving and hating Anne Hathaway.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Which is just Chef's Kiss. I of Course. Love her. Okay. Number 32 is Bradley Cooper. Some debate about this.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, the question of is he eligible? Because we don't actually know and we are assuming that he's eligible because he's Bradley Cooper.

[Rob Harvilla]

Let's just say cosmically that this is the Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper memorial 32nd position.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because these 50 something guys may or.

[Amanda Dobbins]

May not worth 50.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's got to be getting up there, right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

46, maybe 41.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wow.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I was going to say that was.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, sorry to him.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Also, Leo.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is he.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, wouldn't say.

[Rob Harvilla]

He has that energy. A little bit like chipper and kind of.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He's Australian, Leo. You know, once they don't have to.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wear shoes, never stop being you, Cooper. I would as well. I'll see you in roughly 20 years since I send my child to college. So he was in Maestro and he was in Nightmare Alley. So those are two leading roles. Is this thing on? Is his next directorial effort. Will Arnett, who apparently is his best friend, is the star of that role.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Everyone is Bradley Cooper's best friend when he's working.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did you see the video with Timothee Chalamen, Saquon Barkley?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I did. And I, I was like, are they best friends? I mean, we're going through a lot with Saquon Barkley in my house right now, you know, and whether to think.

[Rob Harvilla]

He approves of that movie tariff.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think that I am just getting rid of the shirt and getting a tiny Jalen Hurts T shirt instead. That's my plan. But yeah, Bradley Cooper is everyone's best friend. Like they all show up and they're like, Bradley, you know, and everyone has nice things to say about him. Did you also see that he and Gigi Hadid are Instagram official now? She posted a photo of them kissing. So that's what's up with Bradley Cooper.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm going to do that with my wife tonight. Guys were official. Eileen and I are for real. After 26 years, Cooper, I feel like has been doing some weird self sabotage. Maestro. That's a crazy movie that I love. Just from the mind of a maniac. Still don't understand what was going on there. I loved it. Is this thing on? I guess it's about a talk show host, radio host who has like a crisis of faith of some kind. Bradley Cooper literally plays Will Arnett's best friend in the movie. We just don't know how big his part is. If it's a big part and he's a lead and he qualifies if he doesn't, then you can say, just kidding, it's Christian Bale or Chris Hemsworth. Number 31, Lupita Nyong'o. Quiet place, day one. Doing a lot of work here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Now you have. I understand that the wild robot does not count, but you tried to bring it up against me with Pedro Pascal. I mean, 12 Years a Slave. Black Panther, us, Star wars, the Wakanda, forever. A Quiet Place, day one. And then she's gonna be the Odyssey.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, she's got a big part in the Odyssey. She's Clytemnestra. So I like it. I like her. Speaking of people, I saw at CinemaCon two years ago, I saw her walking the floor of Caesar's Palace's Cinemacon. Stunning. I almost fell over. Okay, number 30 is Glen Powell. Glen Powell was not originally on the list. What was going on there with you?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I put. I made a category for, I think, Glenn Sebastian, Stan, Chris Hemsworth. Like, because I'm not thinking of Chris Hemsworth as a 50 year old. I was, you know, late 30s, early 30s.

[Rob Harvilla]

I was thinking 66 for Chris Hemsworth.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. And I was just. I was grouping all of these super charismatic, like blockbuster stars of that generation together, and I was like, okay, who gets the spot? And I think you corrected me. And I'm glad. I'm thrilled that it's going to be Glenn.

[Rob Harvilla]

Glenn's 36. He finally qualified for the big boy list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, he's got.

[Rob Harvilla]

His last two years are pretty crazy. Obviously, coming off of the success of Maverick in 22, anyone but you Twisters is legitimate fame. And then now we know in the fall of the Running man, at some point Huntington, the new 24, I think, crime thriller, will come out. And then he's the star of the new J.J. abrams movie, which is very secretive, but that's in theory, a big deal.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

So I feel good about him at 30.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm excited for him. Next is Michelle Yeoh. She's an Oscar winner and a complete legend and is in Wicked for some reason, but that's fine. And also in Avatar 4.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think her performance in Wicked stinks, but she's a big star and she's going to be in the Avatar movie after this. She's also been very persistent in the movies in the last five years in a way that not a lot of her contemporaries. She's in her 60s, but crazy. Rich Asians, Shang Chi, everything everywhere, all at once. Oscar win. And A Haunting in Venice, a movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That we both saw.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. Which is not a good Film. But she was in it. Yeah, she was one of the stars.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She was there.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Number 28, Jason Momoa.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

So I was a little dubious of this when I saw you had it on the list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But I have two words for you. Do you know what they are?

[Rob Harvilla]

Aquaman.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No.

[Rob Harvilla]

Minecraft.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Chicken jockey.

[Rob Harvilla]

Great. Momoa is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's a thing.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is a thing. I'm thinking about, like, what is his future as an actor? Like, obviously, he was in Fast X. He was in the Aquaman movies. He was in Fall Guy. Very amusingly, at the end of Fall Guy, he's gonna be in Supergirl. What is in the hand of Dante?

[Amanda Dobbins]

You know what? Hold on. I'm so glad you asked, because. Hold on. Of Dante. I was like, what? Oh, it's the Julian Schnabel movie. It's a new year.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's ridiculous. I'm not sure if he's actually going to be Lobo in the new DC universe. Lobo is another character. He was sort of like DC's response to Wolverine in so Aquaman died. I think they're just like, resetting all that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

The oceans are dying, so he is too.

[Rob Harvilla]

Something to that, I would say. What's the Wrecking Crew? Angel manuscript.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What happened to Patrick Wilson? His brother Orm. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

The Ocean Master.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

What did happen to Orm Wither? Orm. I don't know. I think often of Orm.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I love that.

[Rob Harvilla]

What was Willem Dafoe's character's name in that movie? It was like Crab Daddy. I can't recall this movie. Sounds good, though, that he's going to be in. Written by Jonathan Tropper, who is writing your Friends and Neighbors, a TV show I'm watching right now with some reservations. The Wrecking Crew is about two half brothers. A loose cannon cop played by Momoa, and a disciplined Navy SEAL played by Dave Bautista, who must work together to unravel a conspiracy behind their father's murder in Hawaii. I'm in on that. Okay. Momoa is 28. Who's 27?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Channing Tatum.

[Rob Harvilla]

Lot riding on Roofman.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. But we did walk out of that theater in Vegas and we were like, roofman?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. Roofman is kind of what I wish all movies were, even though I haven't seen it and I don't know if it's going to be good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's okay. We like that. It's. We like that it's coming. We like the idea.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's definitely. Tatum is back. It seemed like he had taken some time away, and then he did Lost City, Magic Mike's Last Dance, Fly Me to the Moon, Deadpool and Wolverine and Blink Twice, all in a tight period of time. Roofman is Derek Steen Francis new movie. It's his first movie in a really long time. I think the last big thing he did was the Light Between Oceans with Fassbender and Alicia Wakander, which is the movie I really like.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It was really nice.

[Rob Harvilla]

Great sweaters. Roofman comes out in October. It's Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst. Channing Tatum plays a thief, a robber who robs McDonald's.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

And is arrested and escapes from prison. Or evades capture and then hides in the Toys R Us.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's based on a true story.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes. I think he evades.

[Rob Harvilla]

Evades capture. It looked pretty cool.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It looked exciting, emotional. You're rooting for the, you know, the Robin Hood of the. Yeah, it seemed nice.

[Rob Harvilla]

Every Derek C. In France movie is about a guy whose dad never told him he loved him. And so he has to do crime to feel better about the world, but then also resolve all of his trauma within a two hour period. These, of course, are the best films ever made.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Let's just say. Let's apply it to everyone else in the world, you know, like if everybody could just get their work their shit out in the Derek Zenfrans movie, I.

[Rob Harvilla]

Might do a solo watch along of Place beyond the Pines. Oh, my God, I love that movie. Okay. I'm excited for Tanner.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Did our watch along.

[Rob Harvilla]

I know. What should we do? I don't want to just do like a great movie. I like to do something that's a little weird.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, we did Dark Knight Rises. That was very funny.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

We did Free Guy. That was great. We did Babylon. We did. We did the Snyder cut.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I remember that. And we did Tenet. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, we've done two Nolan, so probably not another Nolan.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

At least for now.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'll think about it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, people out there in the world, if you want to know, at AK Dobbins on all social media platforms. Number 26, Viola Davis. So did you watch G20?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I. I never did.

[Rob Harvilla]

God damn it, Sean, you promised me.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sean, do you know how many films Paul Newman made?

[Rob Harvilla]

A lot of movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's like so many movies. And I'm doing the work, buddy, so I honestly, I forgot.

[Rob Harvilla]

What do you think? You think he was good?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I'm a fan.

[Rob Harvilla]

You think he should have been on this list. Also, should dead Paul Newman be on the list?

[Amanda Dobbins]

A handsome man. Just wanted to point that out.

[Rob Harvilla]

Super hot. Very Very hot guy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Really alarming.

[Rob Harvilla]

A lot of movies where he's just like, excuse me, I just need to take my shirt off. He's very good at that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Even at like 55. And you're just like, how are you? We've lost a little muscle mass. But you are still jacked.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is where Cruz got it from. Yeah, he learned a lot. You didn't watch G20 because you were watching the Collected works of Paul Newman.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And also another simple favorite.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, I forgot that she was in the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I hated that.

[Rob Harvilla]

It wasn't a very good movie. Never have I diverged more in opinion than my little sister Grace, who was just like. That was a classic film.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is she excited about. Is it Jesse Plemons? Who's.

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't think she's aware. Plutarch Heavens be.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, what are we doing?

[Rob Harvilla]

What do you mean? That's perfect casting.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, you and I are like. We showed up to work today to say, plutarch heavens be in union in unison.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's over. I'm dead inside. I'm completely co opted by the movie machine. Viola Davis is a massive star. She used to. She was 5 on this list last time. She's kind of had a quiet couple of years, I think.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She also did this list right after air last time.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did we?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think so. Because. What, you know, like in our notes, we have kind of like what they've done, their resume upcoming. And you had it written in that she was gonna get another Oscar nomination for Air.

[Rob Harvilla]

It didn't work out. Yeah, she's very good in that movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She's wonderful in that movie. But like. But I think that indicates that we were coming off of air. And so it's another thing where timing is a little bit of an issue here, where she hasn't had that much.

[Rob Harvilla]

Agreed. Number 25, Adam Sandler.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I'm. Is it too low? I'm really excited for this summer.

[Rob Harvilla]

He was 14 last time.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, you.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think you put him here on the. At this space of the list. It's been. It's been a sort of. It's been a. I would say a semi muted stretch since Uncut Gems, with the exception of Hustle, which I think has a lot of fans. Otherwise he's been mostly sticking to murder mystery too. And Spaceman, which didn't really take off, pardon the pun, this year is a big one for him. Now these are two Netflix movies that he has coming, one of which is of course Happy Gilmore 2, which is being released on my birthday.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Incredibly excited about gonna drop edible and.

[Rob Harvilla]

Just relax for two hours and have the time of my life laughing. And then Jay Kelly, which is the new Noah Bombach movie. We'll have a six hour episode about that film.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I just. I can't wait.

[Rob Harvilla]

As I understand it, Sandler is in the number two role in that movie. J. Kelly is the Clooney character, who I think is an aging movie star. Sandler. A lot of Oscar buzz. Oh, do we have nine months of Sandler content in us?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sandler and Julia Roberts in the Oscar combo. Wow. It's. We're really. We're building the oscars of our 90s dreams. Yeah, I know, but that'd be great. It's our time. You know what? We're old. We.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is our time. You guys can have Minecraft. I need Adam Sandler's Academy Award. That might be too low for Sandler. It's tough with the Netflix thing. You don't really know how to gauge it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But also, again, this is a timing thing. Those movies are not out yet. You know, in a few months, I.

[Rob Harvilla]

Don'T get the impression Happy Gilmore too will be competing at the Academy Awards.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, sure, but that doesn't matter.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's shorter shelf life. It is for. Okay, 24.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Jennifer Lawrence.

[Rob Harvilla]

So this was our first big cheat.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Technically, she's not 35 until August 15, 2025.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes. Again. One more. Leo.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is August 15 still Leo?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I believe so.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wow.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I think it's like towards the end, but I don't think it's into Virgo season. And she's not a Virgo. That's just not the energy.

[Rob Harvilla]

Lynne Ramsey's Die My Love was added to Cannes after my Wendy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You started crying.

[Rob Harvilla]

I didn't start crying.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And you were like, I hate France and I'm never going. Okay, it all worked out.

[Rob Harvilla]

We lost.

[Amanda Dobbins]

The plot is Spike Lemon is going to be there when Ramsay's going to be there. I'm not.

[Rob Harvilla]

Uh huh. Whose fault is that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yours.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's not mine. These are your own designs. You're living in your own reality. You know when you're at home and you and Zach are having a disagreement, are you like, I was just having the same fight with Sean or you just say that to me about the fight you're having with your husband.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I know better.

[Rob Harvilla]

Which of course, is not a fight from Zach's perspective, only from yours. Just as I feel these are not fights from my perspective.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, no, no, no, no, no. I. I do think the can convo And I. They've really messed up Gmail search because like I. I have the proof of me being informed of these dates and saying that's when can is. And you have the proof like I do. And I just. But I can't find it because I email you and Zach too much. Because I do email.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, so sounds like you'll never be able to counter, Sue. I'll be in band in dunes, luxuriating in the sun.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Your arms are all going to fall off on the first day. And then it's like we have to go to France.

[Rob Harvilla]

I've been training.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I know Sue. She'll. Why don't. Why were we talking about this?

[Rob Harvilla]

Because Die My Love is going to Cannes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Which is great for her. I hope it's a wonderful film.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Mm.

[Rob Harvilla]

I've really turned it around on J. Law over the last few years. I thought no Hard Feelings was quite good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Very funny.

[Rob Harvilla]

Causeway. Enjoyed her performance in that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She's very good.

[Rob Harvilla]

She was not on this list last time because she didn't qualify technically. Still doesn't qualify. Moving on. Number 23, Emily Blunt.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Academy Award. Nominated for her work in Oppenheimer. She then appeared in the film Pain Hustlers, which you loved. She was great in the Fall Guy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She was really good in the Fall Guy.

[Rob Harvilla]

I liked her in the Fall Guy a lot. And then she's got the Smashing Machine coming. New movie with the rock from a 24. And then she's the star of the new Steven Spielberg UFO movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. So that's kind of like being knighted, you know.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is sort of. I am glad that she's out of the Mary Poppins jungle cruise stretch. She got her streaming TV show thing out of her system with the English, which I never watched, but Chris and Andy swear by she was 33 last time. But tack on an Oscar nomination and then let's not forget she's also going to be the co star in the Dwayne Johnson Martin Scorsese movie. Reportedly.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Allegedly.

[Rob Harvilla]

Allegedly.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's the Hawaii one.

[Rob Harvilla]

Supposedly. That is the Hawaii one. Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sounds great. But I just.

[Rob Harvilla]

Why do they. Why is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's an American, you know, state.

[Rob Harvilla]

So Hawaii is one of. Not in the contiguous 50. It's the contiguous 48.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Those details weren't released, so.

[Rob Harvilla]

So Alaska is Seward's Folly. What is the. Is there a nickname for Hawaii? Is it like Roosevelt's Joy?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No.

[Rob Harvilla]

Have you been to Hawaii? It's so nice. I love it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes. Are you kidding?

[Rob Harvilla]

I got to get back there.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Emily Blunt. Why is she the Rock's safety blanket. Now, what's going on with that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know. They seem to like each other. They. They can they have some patter.

[Rob Harvilla]

What do you think Krasinski thinks about that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

You know, I don't know. He's just, you know, having imaginary friends in. In their palatial Brooklyn apartment is if.

[Rob Harvilla]

Actually a psychological thriller about how he's coping with Emily Blunt spending all her time at the Rock and where his mind goes in the absence.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So if they. It's like the home where all the imaginary friends live.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Because they got retired. Because kids don't have imagination anymore.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's. Well, yeah. Well, they grow up to be adults and then they no longer have access to their friend.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

Because they've lost their joy. Lost their youthful joy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But then they all refined it again.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you think they should do if as the watch along? I just watching if for the first time.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, my God. Can we make Chris watch an animated movie? Has he seen the Lion King?

[Rob Harvilla]

No, he's definitely never seen the Lion King. Well, maybe in his uncle duties somewhere along the line. Okay, number 22. Who is it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Tom Hanks.

[Rob Harvilla]

Not quite 70. He's getting there. He's pretty good. He's got two Academy Awards.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. One of the signature American movie stars, in my opinion.

[Rob Harvilla]

He gave an astonishing performance in here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Which you loved. The last scene was very affecting. I won't spoil it because I'm getting in trouble for spoiling things. He is part of the Wes Anderson ensemble now in his 60s, which rocks.

[Rob Harvilla]

I did see his performance in the Phoenician Scheme recently.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We're not talking about it. He's also making another. He's making a sequel to the movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

About the warship Greyhound. Greyhound two get greyer.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So they saved the ship in the first one.

[Rob Harvilla]

I can't recall.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I can't either.

[Rob Harvilla]

I simply can't recall.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I can't even tell which one was Greyhound. He was on that ship.

[Rob Harvilla]

He was very sternly delivering orders to his men to stern the bow. All kinds of important military things during the war. The Great War, the war to end all wars. He's in Toy Story 5 as well.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Excited about that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'll see it.

[Rob Harvilla]

We did a Monsters Inc. Monsters University double bill on Saturday and Sunday over the weekend.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Wow. How'd it go?

[Rob Harvilla]

So well.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We did Monsters Inc. At the Academy Museum.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think we only did, like, the first 40 minutes because.

[Rob Harvilla]

Was he scared?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, he wasn't. But they do a nice thing. They do great family screenings where they keep the lights up. And I think that that had a big thing to do with it. And he seemed to think it was funny.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is very funny.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And even, like, when the monsters were coming in, you know, we watched the whole, like, training sequence, all the. All the good setup, and then he's. He was like two and a half. So we had to leave.

[Rob Harvilla]

I see. Tom Hanks used to be number nine on this list. He's now number 22. Okay, we still have 21 more names to read.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, this is going really well.

[Rob Harvilla]

Who's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Cate Blanchett.

[Rob Harvilla]

She was 12 last time.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I think we were coming off Tara.

[Rob Harvilla]

We were coming off tar.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Should she be lower? Is this too high? Borderlands. Not her fault, but a fiasco.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right? Disclaimer.

[Rob Harvilla]

Disclaimer. What the hell?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Black bag rocks.

[Rob Harvilla]

Black Bag. Doing a lot of work here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's our list. Just Cate Blanchett.

[Rob Harvilla]

She'll next be seen at Cannes. Is she gonna be at Cannes?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know. You were yelling that. Why is Jim. The Jim Jarmusch movie, not.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did this not get announced for Cannes? Maybe it didn't.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think it did. Let's see. Jim Jarmus.

[Rob Harvilla]

Father, mother, sister, brother.

[Amanda Dobbins]

News.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is podcasting.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, nothing yet.

[Rob Harvilla]

What the actual fuck?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, okay, now you hate France. Again.

[Rob Harvilla]

Cate Blanchett is a wonderful actor and an underrated movie star. Should she.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Who do you want to trade her with?

[Rob Harvilla]

Gosh, I don't know. I mean, when you look down the list of actresses, like, you could see Ana de Armas vaulting. If Ballerina is a real hit. You know what I mean? Like, someone like that, like, she's. Ana de Armas is never gonna be considered the actor that Cate Blanchett is. Cate Blanchett, by force of will, by doing, like, Thor and Ocean's 8, she kind of, like, thrust herself. Obviously, she's in the Lord of the Rings movies. Kind of thrust herself into a level of fame.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She comes back, you know?

[Rob Harvilla]

She does. She does. She continues to play in those movies. Oh, we'll keep her there for now. Again. Check back on this list in two months. It might look a little bit different. Fortunately, we get to wait two years before we do it again. Number 20 is Robert Downey Jr. Is he going to be in the Fantastic Four? First steps? I guess that makes sense, because Dr. Doom is the primary antagonist of the Fantastic Four. Did you know that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Do I need to be a part of this conversation? I just copy and pasted from Wikipedia, man.

[Rob Harvilla]

He was in Oppenheimer. He won An Academy Award.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

As Lewis Strauss. Not Strauss.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What did that guy do?

[Rob Harvilla]

Strauss.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He blamed Oppenheimer.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, he worked to undermine him to further the development of an array of missiles and warheads to compete with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Got it.

[Rob Harvilla]

He was an unkind bureaucrat who attempted to tarnish the reputation of a great man.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I guess there's always one of those.

[Rob Harvilla]

There's always one of those. He was 17 last time. He did win an Academy Award.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

But since last being on this list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Literally he hasn't done any. He did the Sympathizer, which is cool, but I don't really think worked out and now he's just like another Marvel character.

[Rob Harvilla]

The Dr. Doom reveal thing did pop. It was in a certain quartile of the world, but it was a big deal. I'm not really. I don't really love that he's going back to Marvel for obvious reasons, but he is.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I know it's a big deal, but it's not that cool.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you dislike when I start like kind of negotiating, debating through the list after we've already made it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I just. Yes, because then you're making it as like I. As I am the sole author of the list and you just get to edit it.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm merely making a podcast.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, sure. Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Who's number 19?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Keanu Reeves.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is a very interesting one because of what he has coming up. Obviously he's an icon forever.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's been a part of huge franchises, he's given great performances in, you know, awards, films, dramas.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He's going to be something's got to give.

[Rob Harvilla]

Absolutely. Well, he did Yeoman's work in that film as an unreasonably hot doctor willing to give away his libido to a 70 year old man. As one does. He's 60.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wow. Is his hair undyed?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know. But if it's black then that's great.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, I'm not judging him, I'm just curious.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I. I don't know.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's really. It's coming in now.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, some people a bit.

[Rob Harvilla]

The gray white is coming in over here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It could be dyed. That's okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Should I die?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, because then you'll be like George Clooney. That's the thing. So. Because you haven't. So George Clooney dyed his hair for Broadway.

[Rob Harvilla]

I saw that. But that was for the character.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I know, but then he just is living in it and he was like on the Today show on it and he. I Mean, he looked insane about it. He's like, I know that I look insane, and my wife and kids think.

[Rob Harvilla]

That, but he was like a silver fox 20 years ago.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Exactly. And that's the thing. But, like, once the gray starts, you can't. You can't just change it one day. So that's your problem.

[Rob Harvilla]

We're not going to release it. I'm going to dye my hair this afternoon, and then we're not going to speak of this again. Okay? I have no desire to dye my hair. Keanu is a great choice. So he's got Ballerina coming up where he was asked to come in and reshoot some scenes so they could get people interested in that movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So they could have the keanu, the John McMagick.

[Rob Harvilla]

He plays an angel in the forthcoming Aziz Ansari comedy Good Fortune.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I believe the Angel Gabriel. I don't know whether it's the Angel Gabriel or a angel named Gabriel.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, we're about to find out. When we see the film. Bring your Bibles, folks. And then the entertainment System Is Down.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's a pretty important angel.

[Rob Harvilla]

Absolutely. He's one of the key angels, one of the critical angels. It's the name of my memoir. The Critical Angel. The Entertainment System is Down is Ruben Osland's next film, who is a filmmaker who I used to love and now I think might be kind of a dope. But I'm excited about that movie. Kirsten Dunst.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. She's been Instagramming photos from that set, which is just like, you know, they built a plane in a.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you think it will be a withering satire about how we're all idiots?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Probably. Do I. You know, he's.

[Rob Harvilla]

The problem with him is that, like, he's right, but, like, I know.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. This is kind of how I felt about another Kirsten Dunst movie, Civil War. So, yeah, she's.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's right. But, you know, she's.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, exactly.

[Rob Harvilla]

Number 18 is Charlize Theron.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Now, I don't really know what's going on here. She was number two in 2021. She was number seven in 2023.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. And that took some time.

[Rob Harvilla]

Since then, she's been in Fast X and she's going to be in the Old Guard two.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And this is where the Odyssey is doing a lot of work.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She's Charlize. Like, you think she just shouldn't be on this list.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think she should make movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, well, talk to her.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, I can. If I could speak with her, I probably would, but that's just not in my power right now. I'm obviously a huge fan. I think she's a genuinely phenomenal movie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

If Julia Roberts is on the list at 35, then Charlize also gets to be on the list, even though the spacing between her movies has been a little weird.

[Rob Harvilla]

Arguing. She shouldn't be on the list, but just make more, you know, Maybe she's raising a family. I don't know. I wish her well.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

I hope she makes more movies. She does. She does have a few coming down the pike. The old guard, too.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We were fine on the old part.

[Rob Harvilla]

That was Gina Prince, by the way. And that's not who directed this one. I think Victoria Mahoney directed this new one. I think. I don't even know how I know who that person's name is, but maybe it'll be good. I shouldn't dismiss it out of hand. Who's number 17?

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's your fave. You put him here. His name is Chris Pratt.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did I put him here?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I think I did.

[Rob Harvilla]

You did. I'm pretty sure you did.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, but you're not wrong.

[C]

You're not wrong.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's Garfield, renowned for his work as Garfield in the film Garfield. He's Star Lord. He's the chubby guy from Parks and Rec.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. What was his name in the Electric State?

[Rob Harvilla]

Jim State.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Great. People seem to like his movies. What's the. He's in a crazy movie. I don't know.

[Rob Harvilla]

Some people, you know, sold me on Jim State. That's the best I can do here. It's been an hour already. It's been an hour and 15 minutes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm sorry. I was too busy trying to recall the plot of the insane movie that he introduced at Cinemacon.

[Rob Harvilla]

Movie's called Mercy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's going to be Minority Report for people with a brain injury. And honestly, it looked pretty entertaining.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Rebecca Ferguson is also in it, right?

[Rob Harvilla]

It looked entertaining. Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And she did, like, a prerecorded FaceTime call.

[Rob Harvilla]

She did? Yeah, she did.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She. And then he was just there being like. I'm strapped to the.

[Rob Harvilla]

No one has seen this footage. This movie doesn't give out for a year.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It looks pretty stressful. But I remember Matt Bellamy being like that. Looks like the kind of streaming movie that I will watch until the end.

[Rob Harvilla]

But it's coming out in theaters.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, well, that's the thing. It'll stream eventually.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think it's a January 2026 release. Number 16 is Robert Pattinson. I lobbied for. For Bob Pats. I think he needs to be on the list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You know that I love him deeply.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. Now, Mickey 17, not a huge hit, obviously.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

But he has quite an array of films coming up, and he is Batman. We don't know when Batman 2 is coming. There's been some confusion about whether or not the script is done or not, whether or not Matt Reeves is gonna go forward with it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

How it fits the James Gunn thing. Does James recognize Robert Pattinson as Batman.

[Rob Harvilla]

In the films made by Matt Reeves, but not in the universe he's creating? Okay, you asked that question, and you got the answer that you deserved.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I honestly. That look of disgust was not directed towards you. It was directed towards Jim's gun and his aesthetic choices.

[Rob Harvilla]

I like the film the Batman quite a bit. I love tenet.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Me too.

[Rob Harvilla]

Mickey 17, I liked. I think people are, like, weirdly too hard on it sometimes. You like to kick a guy. You know, you're like, you had your parasite moment. Maybe you're not so good.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, we like this. But also, you know, why is there a Trump character for an hour?

[Rob Harvilla]

So I was thinking about this over the weekend. If Kamala Harris were the president, there would be a lot more warmth towards the movie, would be my opinion.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sure. There would be a lot of things.

[Rob Harvilla]

It would feel more like an artifact of political satire rather than an active moment of political satire.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, fair enough.

[Rob Harvilla]

Just my take. Pattinson, I think, is great. Die, my love, I can without you. The drama, which is a new drama apparently starring Zendaya and Pattinson, coming out later this year. A24. The Odyssey.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Who is he?

[Rob Harvilla]

He's Zeus.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm not sure that would be funny.

[Rob Harvilla]

A film called PrimeTime and the Batman 2, in theory.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Are you guys into Greek mythology over at your house yet?

[Rob Harvilla]

We do have.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Did you read the book? I gave you that book, so that's why you have it?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, we've read every story. Every chapter is 38 pages, so it is like a deathless struggle to get through.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They're beautiful illustrations.

[Rob Harvilla]

Think the book is wonderful, Amanda, but, God, it's like, roughly 40 minutes just to get through one story. And then as soon as we finish one, she's like, can we read the next one? So nice purchase. We're trying to keep bedtime to a reasonable stretch.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This is Jolar's book of Greek myths. For anyone who doesn't know the classic. There's also apparently a really good podcast for kids that I'm going to put Alice on too.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, that sounds great. Alice, as you know, very fond of Stories. Wonder where she gets that from.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, he's playing Hermes. According to the first Google.

[Rob Harvilla]

That checks out.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I can see it.

[Rob Harvilla]

That checks out. Isn't Hermes bald canonically?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I actually don't know if that's canonical. You have read Dolores more recently than I.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, I think that. Yeah. I'm not sure. I'm gonna give that some thought. Who's 15?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Margot Robbie.

[Rob Harvilla]

Now, she's not 35 for another eight weeks.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

But it's important that we get her on this list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She's not a Leo. I believe she's a cancer.

[Rob Harvilla]

Just like Alice.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

She went from. Are we sure she's good to this person? Matters greatly to me after Babylon to this person changed your life in Barbie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And now what is your doing there?

[Rob Harvilla]

Your life. Your life was. You saw Barbie and you said women can have it all.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Barbie was a phenomenon. That's all. I made a shit ton of money. It made more money than Oppenheimer. I just kind of like.

[Rob Harvilla]

But so you were saying you didn't like it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I loved it, but I just. You don't need to just, you know.

[Rob Harvilla]

As I recall, was your number two movie of the year.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Was it better than Oppenheimer?

[Amanda Dobbins]

To me, yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Interesting. She's also gonna be in Wuthering Heights with her.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. I'm concerned about this off and on partner.

[Rob Harvilla]

Emerald Fennel. And she's going to be at a big bowl of a beautiful journey in September, which I'm very excited about. Opposite Colin Farrell. She was number one on 35 under 35.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Let's see if it translates.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. I think we will.

[Rob Harvilla]

14. Who is it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Joaquin Phoenix.

[Rob Harvilla]

Tricky time for old Joaquin. We got the Folia du Disaster. We got the backing out of the Todd Haynes movie. Hate to hear about that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Not a fan.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Napoleon didn't really hit internationally, though.

[Rob Harvilla]

It did.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did very well in Europe.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. I liked it.

[Rob Harvilla]

I liked it too.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And now he's got Eddington.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He's the rare, just like really good actor who's so weird and has kind of fallen into enough franchise parts mostly through Joker, but, I mean, I get, you know, Gladiator.

[Rob Harvilla]

Walk the line.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. That. That he's legit, but it's hard to do what Joaquin is doing. So you say tricky times. I say, you know, he's. He's painting his masterpiece.

[C]

Going up.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Prices keep going up these days. It feels like being on an elevator that only goes up. Going up. But not at Metro. We're pushing the down button. Going down. We've lowered prices. Get one line of 5G data for $40, period. That's 20% lower. And you get a free 5G phone when you bring your number only at Metro five year guarantee on eligible plans exclusion supply. See website for details. Not available. Fab Metro with T Mobile in the past six months. Tax supplies.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, so Joaquin was 18 previously. This next guy never been on one of our lists ever. And he finds himself at 13. Who is it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's Sean's favorite movie star, Jack Black.

[Rob Harvilla]

Jack Black. Jack motherfucking Black. Jack Black. Recent guest on Good Hang with Amy Poehler. Phenomenal episode of the show.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, wow.

[Rob Harvilla]

They're booking very well on that show.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They really are.

[Rob Harvilla]

They're better than here. They don't have Nicolas Cage, do they? They don't shout out to Amy. You know, it dawned on me after I saw Minecraft that this is a huge movie star.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This guy Minecraft. Plus Super Mario Brothers.

[Rob Harvilla]

Plus Kung Fu Panda.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Plus Jumanji.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Mm. I forgot that they were still doing that.

[Rob Harvilla]

Billion. That's $3 billion in movies, right? $4 billion. That's a lot.

[Amanda Dobbins]

How many Jack Black movies has your child seen?

[Rob Harvilla]

Zero.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Same zero.

[Rob Harvilla]

We've never watched a Kung Fu Panda or the Super Mario Brothers movie. I do think that's probably coming for us.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right. Because her cousins are into Super Mario Brothers.

[Rob Harvilla]

We've got a whole week coming with our cousins, so that'll be interesting. What gets in the bloodstream there after the trip?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Some Princess Peach vibes coming strong.

[Rob Harvilla]

No question. He's next gonna appear in the film Anaconda.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Which I think is going to be a tongue in cheek riff on the 90s classic Anaconda, starring Hollywood ambassador Jon Voight. Oh, and Jennifer Lopez.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. I wrote the script, so finally my dreams are making it to the big screen.

[Rob Harvilla]

You like a snake?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't. I don't mind them.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, what about a giant snake?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I think that would scare me a bit. I don't really want to interact with them. Definitely don't want to keep one as a pet in my home.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, well, you've got two boys in your house, so I wish you luck. Number 12 is Ryan Reynolds.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Here we go. I mean, I get like, you know, Deadpool and Wolverine. We get it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Free guy, Mint Mobile, the Atom project, red notice, Deadpool 2, which I liked. He's gonna. He's got an animated movie coming up called Animal Friends.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And then he's got an original with Apple called Mayday. He was previously 21. He's now 12. I think there's really a grudging acceptance at this point that we are kind of living in Ryan Reynolds century. And what does that mean for us as a culture?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't think we love it. But if it keeps the theaters open and gives people discount, mobile service and also a soccer team in Wales, then that's where it is, Right? That's where Wrexham is, I believe so. Never watch an episode of that. Nor I. Yeah, he's hanging on. I did think that the Blake Lively Justin Baldoni of it all was notable for a number of reasons, but the way that he was brought into it and the way that they tried to go for his reputation as well, and it definitely did not stick in the way that it did for Blake Lively. Now obviously we live in a sexist world, and especially when it's people on Instagram and on Instagram. Instagram.

[Rob Harvilla]

We live in a sexist world. But I don't understand what you mean. You mean that somehow men are judged differently than women in our culture?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, yeah. And especially like, who's responsible for sticking up for themselves?

[Rob Harvilla]

But wait, go back. When did this start?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. Okay. Girl. Dad. First time hearing of this with my PowerPoint for Alice.

[Rob Harvilla]

Great. She's being raised to be confident.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She is extremely confident.

[Rob Harvilla]

She's deeply informed.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is clearly making her an asshole. Know it all. But we're working through it. I take the blame.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Anyway, I was for a moment there, it was wobbly with him and then everyone decided that they didn't care.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think he's very good at his thing. And once upon a time his thing, the absolute ceiling of it was Chevy Chase. And now all of a sudden his thing is billion dollar movie star. And I find some of the Persona to be deeply unpleasant in comic book movies. We could do worse. Honestly, that's how I feel about the Deadpool movies. Like they're silly, they're stupid, they're kind of. They're profane and ridiculous. But like, that's okay. They're comic book movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Other stuff, when he's trying to make like a Spielberg esque, touching sci fi dramedy, I'm like, get. Just get the fuck outta here. Like, this sucks, dude. Like, I really don't like those movies at all.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You didn't like him as the doting father in if.

[Rob Harvilla]

No, he was the. He was the.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh no, he was the surrogate.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, he was like the. He was the stand in for. He was the lost friend.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, that's right. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Krasinski was the creepy Father. He keeps hiding in the closet in the hospital bedroom. It was just very strange movie. There's so much if talk on this episode. Ryan Reynolds is a huge star. We're saying, though, that Ryan Gosling is at number 11, a bigger star. Is that actually true? I mean, to us, it is. The Ryan and Ryan battle here at 12 and 11 is very interesting to me. They're both right on the outside of the top 10. Ryan Gosling is, of course, in theory, the more sophisticated and interesting actor, the more appealing famous person.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But Barbie in Star wars, you know, that's kind of. That's what the. That's what inches him this high up, in my opinion.

[Rob Harvilla]

The I'm just Ken performance at the Oscars is what I'm leaning on for this ranking, which was. That was one of the best Oscar moments of the last five years. Incredibly memorable. In fact, I can feel the Oscars wanting to chase that for the next five years. Only he could have done that. And then we did get a chance to see project Hail Mary footage when we were in Las Vegas, and we're psyched. It looked great. It looked very exciting. I can't say I'm thrilled about Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy, better known as Ryan Reynolds, creative partner.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm not thrilled about it either, but, you know, Star wars is in the title along with Starfighter for it. It's like the premium brand name.

[Rob Harvilla]

How did you celebrate May 4th?

[Amanda Dobbins]

What did I do? I looked at a local pizza establishment's Instagram post saying that their old school TV and VHS had been fixed so that they could be playing the trilogy all day long.

[Rob Harvilla]

No kidding.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. And then I reflected on how I tried to go to that pizza place on Friday night, but it was too crowded, so we had to leave. You know, I'm happy for them.

[Rob Harvilla]

When this episode goes up, it will be revealed that the next rewatchables episode is a little movie called Star A New Hope, which we did.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So when is that? Are you sure? I just, like. I just got really nervous, like. You're sure about the timing? Jack, don't. Don't screw this up.

[Rob Harvilla]

I was struck by Zeus. Simmons. Thunderbolt. No. Yeah, it'll be up tonight.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, great. That's exciting. I'll listen to it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, we did that, and Ryan Gosling didn't come up. Okay, let's do the top 10.

[Amanda Dobbins]

All right.

[Rob Harvilla]

I like this pick at number 10. Who is it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's a man named Matt Damon.

[Rob Harvilla]

Big Vault up from 23.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

So Gosling, the last two years, has completely Rebuilt his image. He was 35. Matt Damon now has vaulted up, too.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So the last time that we did it was right after air, and we were like, pretty good. But, you know, this is a movie about marketing. And then Oppenheimer and Odyssey came through.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. And also rip, which is new movie with Ben Affleck coming out later this year.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I do think that, like, Matt at 10 also stands in for Ben. You know, they have been together, standing for each other. And so right now, what's. Matt's carrying the mantle?

[Rob Harvilla]

What's our version of artist equity? Like, what are we going to do together? What business are we going to form.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That really gives back and makes us a lot of money because we sell it to streaming services for just, like $200 million.

[Rob Harvilla]

What's our sellout move? That is masquerading as an act of decency.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I mean, hosting children's screenings at various Los Angeles movies.

[Rob Harvilla]

Matt Damon's great. I'm a huge fan. Can't say I like the movie the Instigators, but I didn't hate it. But Casey Ashley was funny.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Driveway Dolls. Great cameo.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Really funny. And he always does those things.

[Rob Harvilla]

He is. He's a cameo king. He's 54 years old.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you think he's hanging in supplements to get yolks?

[Amanda Dobbins]

But I hope that it was safe. You know, I. We looked at the photos.

[Rob Harvilla]

Speaking of supplement questions, Dwayne the Rock Johnson is number nine now. Curious thing here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He had, like, a bunch of flops, and then he moved up on our list.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. He's on an epic cold streak right now. I mean, he's on one of the worst cold streaks I can remember. These are his last few movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Red Notice, Jungle Cruise, Fast X, Black Adam, Redone. That's five stinkers in a row.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

And yet Smashing Machine trailer. People are like, is it the rocks? Oscar time. Moana Live action.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Also, you left out Moana, too.

[Rob Harvilla]

Moana too. He was amusing. He was amusing in it. It was okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I've heard the feedback.

[Rob Harvilla]

It was okay. I'm actually. I've turned it around on that soundtrack. I kind of like it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Griffin Newman and I have a debate about it. He says it's not so good. It's hard to live up to Lin Manuel Miranda.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think that's true.

[Rob Harvilla]

But yeah. So Moana, Live Action. And then Martin Scorsese's last movie. He's the star of Martin Scorsese's last movie, Allegedly. What's going on there?

[Amanda Dobbins]

People believe in him. Even though, despite the Evidence, you know, this is a city of dreams. Sean, also, I mean, he was the.

[Rob Harvilla]

Arts District of Los Angeles. Certainly a lot of dreamers here.

[Amanda Dobbins]

This is where dreams go to die. He was like top four on the National Research Group list, and I think number one among Gen Z. He has just like. He has the Rasmataz and he has the brand name recognition independent of the movies.

[Rob Harvilla]

So if you could just take him and put him into any a24 movie that's ever come out, just swap him in as the lead in any of those films. Which one would you put him in?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Showing up, he's doing the little sculptures with his big hands.

[Rob Harvilla]

That was as good an answer as I could have asked for. Who's number eight?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Zoe Saldana.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, big jump up from 27. This is what an Academy Award will get you.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And also being in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar 1 through.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you remember her character's name in Avatar? Come on.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm closing my eyes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Rack your brain. Try harder. These are the biggest films of all time. She's the star. No, Neytiri.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. What is Sam Worthington?

[Rob Harvilla]

Jake Sully.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, sure, I remember Jake Sully. Yeah, yeah, I heard there's some Sully stuff on the rehearsal.

[Rob Harvilla]

What about the whale's name? Do you remember the whale?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No.

[Rob Harvilla]

Payakan. Okay, and what about.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Wasn't there a different. Was there a whale or a significant sea creature in Black Panther Wakanda Forever?

[Rob Harvilla]

I think you're thinking of Namor.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I mean, that's the superhero. But isn't there.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, Namor.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I remember.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think you're thinking of Monstro from Pinocchio the Whale. No. Is that not what you're thinking of?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Maybe I'm thinking of. Who was the Godzilla? Kong. The new. What was their most recent Godzilla with Godzilla V. Kong.

[Rob Harvilla]

Godzilla.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, thank you so much for that important clarification. And then. So Kong lives in like those. Rebecca hall explained it so well. You know, the Hollow Earth. And then under the Hollow Earth, there's like another. But that is that person made of ice. The ice.

[Rob Harvilla]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Do you don't remember?

[Rob Harvilla]

I can't remember.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Who were the antagonists in Godzilla X. Kong. Because it's not Godzilla or Kong.

[Rob Harvilla]

I've been averaging 4.2 hours of sleep for like five years.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, maybe that's who I was thinking of.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, what does this have to do with Zoe Saldana?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Avatar.

[Rob Harvilla]

Right. She's also. She was in Guardians of the Galaxy. She was in the Star Trek movies.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What's Avatar 4? Avatar 3 is fire. Avatar 4 ash, sure, but so then is 4 ice.

[Rob Harvilla]

Avatar 4 is microplastics.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Not funny.

[Rob Harvilla]

It is funny, though.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's funny, but it's real.

[Rob Harvilla]

Number seven.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is just great news. Michael B. Jordan. Michael B. Jordan, star of Sinners. He did it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Just a movie star.

[Rob Harvilla]

He did it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Here we are.

[Rob Harvilla]

I mean, obviously, the Creed movies are huge, and he's beloved from Black Panther and the Wire and less beloved for without remorse, but he killed it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That was really bad.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, it was pretty bad.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Very violent. Stefano Solima, director of Sicario. Day of the Soldado was his film. Now he. After the incredible success of Sinners, which really, like, at this point, again, it dropped, like, 25% last weekend. It's gonna make $300 million. It's a huge movie. It's so cool. Thomas Crown Affair is his next project. He's directing. And is he writing it or maybe he's adapting someone's screenplay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I know he's directing and I know.

[Rob Harvilla]

He'S starring, so we haven't really talked about this. I mean, this is one of your favorite movies of all time.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, the remake.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, the remake. The original film.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Thomas Crown Affair, parentheses, 1999.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. I'm excited. Listen, art heist. Great. Let's just. Let's make an art heist every month for the rest of time.

[Rob Harvilla]

Have they cast the Faye Dunaway, Renee Russo part yet?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Not that I'm aware of.

[Rob Harvilla]

Interesting. I wonder who that will be.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They didn't really have it. Seems like it's still very much in the works because at Cinemacon, he zoomed in from London, but there was, like, no footage. There was nothing to show.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, it says Taylor Russell, apparently.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, yes. They had announced that. Yeah, she's. She's pretty young.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

For that. He, of course, is over 35. He's 38 years old. Shout out to him. Number six is Brad Pitt.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

I would say a lot riding on F1.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wouldn't you say?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I would say a huge amount is riding on F1.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's obviously legendary. Movie star. Wolf's not great.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No.

[Rob Harvilla]

F1. And then heart of the Beast, which is a dog movie directed by David Ayer, director of the Beekeeper. And then he's making the continuing adventures of Cliff Booth, the new film from.

[Amanda Dobbins]

David Fincher, script by Quentin Tarantino for Netflix.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

How are you feeling about that? Where are you? Where are your emotions?

[Rob Harvilla]

Great. Put it in my soul.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay, Same.

[Rob Harvilla]

Just bury it deep into my heart. Which is where I want it to be.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Cliff Booth, did you read the.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I didn't. Zach, did I need to.

[Rob Harvilla]

The novel adaptation. Yeah, I feel I would like that. I think you would enjoy it. There's some unkind characterizations of characters in Cliff's life that you may have some.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Notes about some women.

[Rob Harvilla]

I didn't say that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh.

[Rob Harvilla]

But I've just learned on this podcast, yeah, there's sexism. There's like a patriarchy of some kind.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Is that word. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Interesting. I'll have to get to work on that. Speaking of the patriarchy, number five, who is it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Scarlett Johansson, up from 15. Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Why is she up?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Because of. Well, I'm trying to think of the last time we did this. It would have been like right around, right after the Black Widow and then the Disney suit. So things were like in a little bit of what's going on here Flux with her. And then she was fantastic in Asteroid City. She was in a movie called Fly Me to the Moon, which, you know, whatever. And she. She has a lot of stuff on the horizon that we're counting because she's so established.

[Rob Harvilla]

So answer me this. Do you think if a. An actor or an actress encounters a scandal a la the Disney pay dispute or the Blake Lively Justin Baldoni battle that elevates their movie stardom in any way?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Mm, no. I think it depends on the interpretation of the. You know, does it play well for them or does it play not? Does it not? Because that affects. Can they get people into theater, theaters. And then I think it also affects. Do people wanna work with them? So do they even get jobs? But ScarJo's in Jurassic World, so she's fine.

[Rob Harvilla]

Number four.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, this was, this is all you.

[Rob Harvilla]

I feel very strongly about this.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, you. You bombed in with this. And I like, I agree this person's on the list, but go ahead.

[Rob Harvilla]

So Emma Stone is number four.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Now obviously I have a soft spot for Emma Stone. No ways have.

[C]

Here's my thing.

[Amanda Dobbins]

She's cool, wonderful, so exciting. Really rad. I get it. Like it. It is like slightly niche, but that's okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Slightly niche?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

The star of La La Land is niche. Two time Academy Award winner is niche. So here's the thing. She hasn't been on one of our lists since 2022 because in 2023 she wasn't old enough to qualify for 35 over 35. And in 2024 she was too old. So now this is her. Her chance to step into the limelight. And since we last listed her she has got this big thing going with Yorgos Lanthimos. She was in the Curse, which is the greatest show of all time. She won her second Academy Award. And now Begonia, another film with Lonthimos. Her fourth movie with Yorgos Lanthimos is coming out this fall.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I love her. I think she's so rad. She's producing a lot of stuff. Like, it's what she's doing with Yorgis. Lanthimos is very cool. I mean, in terms of, like, movie stardom. For movies with Yorgos Lanthmos, even if one of them won you an Oscar.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is not like, poor things made, like, $100 million.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. So do a lot of movies. So did Garfield.

[Rob Harvilla]

That guy's on the list, too. John Arbuckle is on the list.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He's John Arbuckle. I thought he was Garfield.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's Garfield. I don't know who John Arbuckle is, actually. I think it's cr. Who's number three?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Denzel Washington.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's our only septuagenarian on this list. And as the aforementioned highest to lowest is coming soon. He was the best part of Gladiator 2.

[Amanda Dobbins]

He was.

[Rob Harvilla]

By a pretty significant margin, in my opinion.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Too much.

[Rob Harvilla]

He was the best part of the Equalizer 3.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Did you see that?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, but, I mean, it's my understanding that he's the best part of all the Equalizers.

[Rob Harvilla]

There's some truth to that. Malcolm X. Ben Affleck said the greatest screen performance of all time.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You know what? I did watch the entire Criterion. Ben Affleck, Criterion video. I thought it was very charming, and I agree with him.

[Rob Harvilla]

When you see something like that where the love of your life and cinema collide in that way, do you need a quiet time afterwards to reflect?

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, because I mostly have spent time being like, what's he gonna do with this bag of DVDs? Like, I. Cause he doesn't actually, you know, like, I wanna know. What's this?

[Rob Harvilla]

That's what my wife says every third day.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But I was like, I don't. Cause I don't think that he is a weirdo.

[Rob Harvilla]

4Ks. Can you please show some goddamn respect? Jesus Christ. Ben Affleck in the temple of cinema. Speaking about the great work.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And, like, I liked his picks, but, like, you know, they were accessible. You know, like, so if he's a collector, those aren't things that he has missing from his collection. Right?

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a good question about what is the purpose of the closet.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So then he's just. But with his Particular picks. I was like, okay, if you actually do have a Blu Ray library or whatever, then don't.

[Rob Harvilla]

Or whatever. Blu Ray library, which is a real phrase that exists and is in action.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I need you to decide on one term. You know, like, I'll do whatever I.

[Rob Harvilla]

Want if you insist that the patriarchy exists. I insist that there are multiple ways to define my collection of physical media.

[Amanda Dobbins]

If he has a collection of discs, is that. Can we call them discs? Sure do. That does. Like, a DVD is a disc.

[Rob Harvilla]

Sacred treasures, the pinnacle of a cultural art form, whatever you want to call them.

[Amanda Dobbins]

So he's got this. If he has a collection, then he already has, like, Armageddon.

[Rob Harvilla]

And now the Armageddon DVD from the Criterion Collection is out of print and extremely rare and goes for hundreds of dollars on ebay. Okay, so that may not actually be something he owns.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Okay. All right, then you know what's another? I can't remember what he picked.

[Rob Harvilla]

He picked Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game, I want to say, right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

But he was like, this has my favorite line in all of cinema.

[Rob Harvilla]

So you think he doesn't. You think he owns it?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, I'm just like, if he doesn't, if he has a collection, he owns it already. And if he doesn't, then he's just, like, got this, like, sack of.

[Rob Harvilla]

Sometimes you have doubles, you know? Sometimes you have doubles in your collection. It's okay to have doubles. He walked out with Malcolm X, maybe give it to a friend, maybe heads over to Jim Garner's house. He's like, hey, you see Malcolm X, see good film, check it out, show it to the kids.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's why I'm like, what's happening with the things? If he's giving them away to people, that's great.

[Rob Harvilla]

You don't know this, but I give physical media to those I care about, but only if they support physical media.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I know, but you asked me what my reaction is to the video, and reaction is like, what happens to that sack once he leaves?

[Rob Harvilla]

So proud of Ben. He didn't make the list. Tough beat. Number two is Tom Cruise. He's 62 years old. He's still fighting the good fight. We're seeing the final reckoning in roughly seven days. This is just a huge moment for me in my life seeing this film.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm really excited.

[Rob Harvilla]

In the aftermath of this movie, he's making a movie that is operating under the false title of Judy right now, which is the new Alejandro Inaritu movie. Not our favorite director, but. But it's Cool.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That he's doing it.

[Rob Harvilla]

He's doing a performance.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, I'm open to it. I'm excited.

[Rob Harvilla]

Last time we did this list, he was number one. He slid down to number two.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Who did he slide down to number two in favor of Leonardo DiCaprio. Why did we move him up? You moved him up and I support you. But why Vibes. Just vibes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Just vibes. Just like. I'm just like. He is, you know, he's the only person that could get one battle after another, like, made and released the way that it's being released. Every event that he has, every movie that he has is an event. Like, I just looked at pictures of him, like, cleaning up plastic in Formentera with a bunch of children, you know, like. Like summer doesn't start till I see him doing water sports. So he's just like. He was like, at Glen Powell's catch up launch, but like, not photographed on the step and repeat. Just kind of like there in the. In the corner. Which big look for Glenn, actually. Yeah, I. It's. He just. He has a lot of power and it seems like he is also really focused on just being a movie star. That's what he wants to do.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's all he does.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You know, he does that.

[Rob Harvilla]

He does his documentaries about the destruction of our environment and he goes on vacation and he goes to the beach and plays various sports with attractive young women.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Not sure anybody's ever done it better. I'm literally not sure that there's ever been a better movie star. You might say I like watching Cary Grant more or Humphrey Bogart evolved the idea of movie star. Or, you know, Jack Nicholson or Meryl Streep or any number of people over the years. The entirety of his life is focused on the three things that you just identified.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And he's smoking it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Absolutely. You know, and he's also. He's a bit older than us. He's 50, which is sobering. But for shame, like, he's our movie star, you know?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. Yeah, he's our number one guy. He's been number one for a long time for elder millennials and younger millennials. But one battle after another is a true test, I believe. Give me a box office number right now worldwide, just off the top of your.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Why, like at total. Like at the end of the run.

[Rob Harvilla]

The end of the run, when the. On the day you die. What will be the total box office for one battle after another? Not. And no anxiety or shame. Just like.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know, but like, like what.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you think it'll be?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I don't know. Okay, tell me. What. What's the worldwide for sinners right now? I know it's different.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think it's like 190 something. I believe it's up to 230.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, great. Okay, good for them. Okay, so 230 right now, but still going. What was the.

[Rob Harvilla]

2:30 is crazy. That's great.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What was the worldwide for? I don't know. I was going to say 2:10.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, that would be a home run.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I know. I think it can get there. I think it can. Sinners is at 2:30. That's what I say. Like 210 is what popped in my head. I do think Sinners is bigger, but.

[Rob Harvilla]

Hearing that, I hope that's true.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Listen, it's Leo, it's imax.

[Rob Harvilla]

I split my head open.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We're doing an event thing. I don't know. You said to say a number and that's what popped into my head.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm not judging you, I'm just surprised.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I believe in this movie. I think it's got it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. In total. In total, worldwide box office for Paul Thomas Anderson's films is 317 million. Yeah, but in total he's making movies since 1997.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I loved licorice pizza, but like, that's not a bunch of people shooting guns at each other in widescreen. You know, you're right.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, we're going to test the power of Leo. In the meantime, let's test the power of Nicolas Cage. Let's go to my conversation with him right now. Foreign it's an honor to be joined by Nicholas Cage. We're here to talk about the Surfer. Nicholas, at this stage of your career, it's more than 100 films in. I'm curious if you could just walk me through how you decide to take apart what has to draw you into a script.

[C]

More and more, as I proceed down this road in cinema, I think I. I need to have a sense of life experience and memory and a sense of that which is personal, where I feel I can portray the character and the narrative, the story authentically. And it's the kind of thing where I want to feel less and less that I. That I have to act. Of course it's acting, but. But I want to be able to get to a place where I. I feel it's coming from some truth that I know how to play or this person, I know how to tell this story. I think that is the main requirement. And then after that it goes into many different directions. One direction is, oh, this movie is. Is a movie that I'm going to be maybe working on it for two days and it's probably ultimately not going to be a great movie, but maybe I can play with performance and experiment and try something fun and maybe realize a kind of oddball fantasy that you can create with film performance. So I look at movies like Never On Tuesday or, or Deadfall or movies where I'm just going really whacked out and trying to find a sound. It's not always a good sound, but it's a sound that I'm going for. I do that as well. And then most importantly, along with the script and the story itself, is do I have a relationship with the filmmaker that I think they can find something unique or bring out something new? I mean, the most important thing I feel after doing it for over 45 years, and I started when I was 15, is how do you stay interested? You don't want to ever lose interest, because if you lose interest, then I feel like film enthusiasts, people that I make movies for will lose interest. So I want to keep that spark alive.

[Rob Harvilla]

You have this incredible knack for desperate and disoriented characters. And I was wondering if you go looking for those characters or you feel like people are coming to you because you have an ability to capture that feeling.

[C]

Well, that's a great question. And I think the way to answer it is I want to tell stories that I think I might want to write. And with the Surfer, I read the script and I immediately thought, well, this is the kind of story I aspire to write. I like narratives that are enigmatic, that kind of go in non linear directions. It's no secret that I like surrealist presentations. I like Dream Logic. I like that which is almost psychedelic, which this movie certainly has those feelings. And I think it goes both ways. I think people have come to know that that's an interest of mine. And I also think it's something that I've been blessed to find and have an interest in and to look for because it genuinely fascinates me.

[Rob Harvilla]

The Surfer fits really nicely into this lineage of Ozploitation. Did you and Lorcan talk about Wake and Fright or Patrick or these movies from the 70s and 80s in Australia that are crazy in this vein?

[C]

Yeah, well, they, they both. Lauren, the writer and Morgan brought it up to me. Now, I had never seen Wake and Fright. It was totally new to me and I checked it out and I saw what they were looking for. But I do think I do think they're somewhat different experiences. I was mostly affected by the movies of Peter Weir and the Last Wave or Picnic at Hanging Rock and Nick Rogue, Walkabout. These are movies that had a huge impact on me because I saw them as a child that was in the 70s, and I was what, 10, 11, 12, and my dad would take me to see these movies in the cinema and they really wowed me. And kind of, especially Walkabout kind of broke my heart. You know, that movie really tore my heart out because anytime you have a love story and it's unrequited, it's, it's tragic it all, it just always pulls my heartstrings. That movie did. So I, I do, I do have regard and reverence for Australian cinema. I, I, I, I don't know about the word osploitation. I, I, I see it just this is a part of the world that has generated some of the best movies and certainly with great style. And to that I applaud.

[Rob Harvilla]

I know the John Cheever story, the Swimmer and the film with Lancaster was also a reference point for you guys. That movie is so interesting. And where Lancaster was at that time in his career is not so different maybe from where you are in your career. Did you look at that movie before this? What did it mean to you?

[C]

Yeah, I think of all the references, that was probably the strongest one for me. And not only the movie and Lancaster's performance. And there are moments in this movie where I'm talking about, I'm gonna buy that house right there on that bluff. And I'm even hearing Lancaster's voice in my mind as I'm saying it. And Lorgan and I were very specific about that in that one moment by the car. But also the short story. Cheever, to me, is one of America's great writers. And I think that the short story is arguably more powerful than the movie. The movie is very similar, I think, more so than Wake and Fright in terms of the character's trajectory, in terms of what he's trying to achieve, that he's trying to get back some semblance of his former life. And of course, the Swimmer ends tragically with him pounding on the door in the rain. And it's no one's opening the door and all the furniture is gone. I mean, this is really, for me, it's a story of a man trying to reclaim both the memory of his childhood and get back like that, that Beatles song, get back to where he once belonged.

[Rob Harvilla]

And he doesn't belong from an acting Perspective. I've always wondered when you are making a really bold choice as a performer, and you talked about when you choose a part, is there something new you can try to pursue? Are you telling the filmmaker or the scene partners beforehand? Hey, I want to try something, or I'm going to go big here. Or are you surprising them in that space?

[C]

No, I try to be a collaborator and go through the notes with them as much as possible. Whether it be with rehearsal. When Julian came on, we had that massive scene in the car park where he's eating the hamburger. That was his first day. And that was like a six page scene. And we both ran it and ran it and ran it and got in step with what each of us wanted to bring. With Lorcan and I, I try to let them know, like, if I'm gonna surprise you and myself, this is where I'm gonna do it. So it's like music. We've got eight bars here, and in these eight bars, I'm just gonna let it rip. And we may use it or we may not use it, but let's. Let's shoot it. And so like, that was that whole riffing scene with the. He had that. He had a camera mounted on my shoulders with a fisheye lens. And I'm saying things like, oh, we're gonna have clams casino and spaghetti puttanesca. And all that was just coming out. The only time that I think I maybe surprised him a little bit, Lorcan, that is, I got attached to the prop rat and I used. It was such a good prop. And it was a good looking prop. It looked real. And I thought I could. I could save this and put it somewhere. Plus, I like the idea of the. Of the rat's tail hanging out of the surfer's pocket, wiggling around as I'm walking around. So I thought that was funny. But also I was thinking about Billy Wilder and his movie Sabrina where Bogart says, eat it. And he puts it on all of it, I think, in his actors playing his uncle's mouth. And I couldn't stop laughing when I watched that. So I explained that to Lorc and I said, I know this sounds crazy, I know it sounds wild, but this is like the punk rock version of Billy Wilder's movie Sabrina where he says, eat it with Jo. And so I knew I was going to go in that direction. I just didn't know where or when. And it turned out it worked well with the Pitbull character in the ocean.

[Rob Harvilla]

I wanted to ask you about Persona on screen Persona. The last five or so years of parts feel like they've been in conversation with other parts of your career. Like Unbearable Weight of massive talent, obviously. Taking on Dracula after Vampire's Kiss, Spider man noir. And even this film feels like there's some wild at heart in it. You know, there's some. There's some past in the present. How much of a self awareness, a consciousness are you having in terms of creating a lineage and a connectivity between the characters or even what you're doing on screen when you're taking parts? At this point, I would say that it's.

[C]

It's. It's not entirely present on my mind as these things are unfolding. I think it's just the natural evolution of things by way of kind of osmosis that particularly with a younger filmmaker who may have grown up watching some of my movies, they get an idea of what they can do with me as their instrument. Let's say they have memories of earlier movies and they find, more often than not, I feel, excellent ways of deploying that. And so they. That's harkens back to one of your earlier questions. I think that's also what's happening when they bring me these scripts or different materials. I don't feel that as much with older filmmakers. I think this is a symptomatic of the fact that I've actively sought out younger filmmakers because I knew I was going to get a pulse from them. I knew I was going to get a heartbeat. Whereas the older guys, not all of them, but many of them, have kind of already made up their minds about me or I've been there, done that. But these younger filmmakers, I think they want to find a way of reintroducing what they may have seen in A Wild at Heart or an adaptation like with Christopher Borgley. He saw that movie. He thought it was. That style of film performance would work so well with Dream Scenario. And I think Lorcan, he's a. He's a filmmaker. In my view. What makes him singular is, one, he's not afraid of a nonlinear narrative and an enigmatic and dreamlike narrative. That's big. But two, his sense of humor. This is a guy who has a really fast sense of humor. Like when I did the scene with the telephone and the cord is dangling. I need my telephone prop. And I'm like, where's the words? I need. I need the telephone. And Lorcan would go find and go, it's for you. I couldn't stop laughing because the speed of his humor and that and that's in his movies as well. So he's got this special mix of surrealism and comedy that I find so delicious. And he's one of those guys like Christopher Borgley is one of those guys. And I think those two mostly. Another director in the older guard would be Werner Herzog. And he certainly has that as well. You know, he's not afraid to have a non linear narrative and also find the humor in dark situations.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm glad you brought up Dream Scenario. I was at that screening at the Arrow where they showed the film and you were hailed as a God at the end of that screening. I mean, that was a fascinating moment. You were wearing the leather jacket and everybody loved the movie. It was really a lot of fun. But it did have me thinking about your career in context. So to hear you talk about Chris and Lorcan. And I know you said you saw Vivarium and you dug that. Like how are you scouting young filmmakers or people putting names in front of you? How does that work at this stage?

[C]

Well, what happens is I get a script and I respond to the script and I say, can I look at the filmmaker's work? And Vivarium was a movie I had. I actually went and saw it in a cinema. But I, I review and I. And then I get an idea of what is possible with the filmmaker's vision and then I match it to the script and I reread the script, visualizing what I think this filmmaker can do. And then also I think about where I could go with the, with the character and fit into this filmmaker's vision. And no more evident was that process than with Face off because John and I, John Wu and I, he wasn't someone who at the time anyway was speaking a lot of English and I didn't really fully understand. I knew his classics like Hard Boiled and the Killer, but he wanted me to see specifically Bullet in the Head. And I watched that movie and I knew when I saw that movie, the opera and the magnitude of where the actors could go, I knew where he would allow me to go in terms of the scope of the performance and the music of the performance. So that was a very helpful experience.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you think being a movie fanatic makes you a better actor?

[C]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is there any part of it that is bad? Like can you see something and it's know you can't get to where another performer is going or make yourself self conscious?

[C]

I mean, the only time that ever really crossed my mind is when I'm looking at someone who is astounding at doing Absolutely zero. Nothing. I'm like, why can't I. Okay, you have Bruce Lee over here and Enter the Dragon, he's moving everywhere and that's compelling and fantastic to watch. But what's equally compelling is Charles Bronson and Once Upon a Time in the west, when the camera is in on his face, he's about to have the shootout with Henry Fonda. And I don't know why I can't. I'm riveted equally to that. And he's not doing anything. And I'm like, what. What is that? How is he doing that? Is it the shape of his face? Is it. Is it the fact that he's a Purple Heart? He don't give a shit that Henry Fonda is starring, played Abraham Lincoln in the movie next to him because he's a Purple Heart and it's in his eyes and it's like, well, you can't act that. You just are that. And I'm not going to be that. So you can try. You can try, but it will never quite get there any more than I'm going to be able to do a backflip. And in the scene with Entering the Dragon, you know, it's. Those are. Those are extremes, examples. But in between I can do a lot of. Try and bring a lot of my own stuff. And to answer your question, I think that it's all good. To be a film enthusiast is the best teacher next to life adjacent to life experiences, watching movies and studying. I didn't have a lot of training. I mean, I just. I went to a summer stock at ACT in in San Francisco when I did maybe six months at Loft Studios in Hollywood. I learned by practicing on camera and all that that means and by watching movies.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'd been meaning to ask you, since you've had this huge revival, especially in the last 10 years, is there a film of yours at any point in your career that you feel like maybe hasn't gotten that kind of love or appreciation or revival that people should take a look at?

[C]

I think that Matchstick Men, Ridley Scott, Alison Loman, Sam Rockwell. I think that movie was great. I think that was a. I mean, I had a choice. I could either be in mystic river and, and play Robin's part and Clint was directing and that was a great project. Or I could work with Ridley on Mastic Man. And at the time, that was the choice that I wanted to make because I. I really cared about that character and I cared about his afflictions. I had a personal relationship with it and that was the story I want to tell. And I think that really, I mean, that movie to me is one of his best movies. And I, and I, and I would like to have that movie maybe be reviewed a little more often than not.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's one of my favorites. I love that pick. Nicholas. We end every episode of this show by asking filmmakers what's the last great thing they have seen. Since you are such a film watcher, have you seen anything that you've loved lately?

[C]

The last great, great movie I have seen and I'm sure there's something that would come to mind, could be old or new. As I said, I like to try to approach things from a personal place as much as possible. And I saw a great Japanese filmmakers movie. Like Father, Like Son, Torieta and the actor, the actors in it, Lily, Frankie and Masuhara Fukuyama, who's actually a singer, but he's a hell of an actor. Machiko Ono and Yoko Maki. Man, that movie is some of the best acting I have ever seen about a very painful, heartfelt situation where children are swapped at a hospital and then the biological parents want their child back and the other ones want their child and it's just, it just tears your heart out. And to me that's, that's as good as it gets. If you can move people to that level with a movie with, with, with, with the experience of watching a movie where it just tears your heart out. That's the, that's why I got into cinema, because of James Dean and East of Eden. Well, he did it. Coryetta did it with Like Father, Like Son. And I think I will never stop singing the praises of the effect that that film had on me.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a fabulous recommendation. Nicholas Cage, thank you for what you do. You're the best.

[C]

Thanks so much. Be well.

[Rob Harvilla]

Thank you to Nicholas Cage. Amanda, thanks. How do you feel about this exercise that we've done today on the pod?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I feel good about it.

[Rob Harvilla]

We did it again.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, we did it again. We smashed it.

[Rob Harvilla]

Eight straight years of award winning podcasts. Thank you for all the awards we've been getting.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm really excited for everyone because, you know, this brings fame and fortune to everyone that we bestow this honor upon.

[Rob Harvilla]

So lucky.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You know, it's like we'll be seeing everyone at the 35over35 gallery later this week.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's really exciting. Thanks to Jack Sanders for his work on this episode. Later this week, Amanda indicated it. We are finally, finally, finally building the Paul Newman hall of Fame. We've been working honestly tirelessly to plow through his filmography. I'm just not going to get through every single film. But I'm going to get pretty close.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm doing my best.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm going to get pretty darn close to seeing every movie he's ever made. There are quite a few. We'll see you then.