The Mega-Mailbag Is Here, and the New Best Picture Front-Runner Is …

Summary

The Big Picture Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: The Mega-Mailbag Is Here, and the New Best Picture Front-Runner Is …
Release Date: February 10, 2025
Hosts: Sean Fennessy and Bobby Wagner
Guests: Amanda Dobbins
Rotating Cast: Includes Ringer colleagues like Chris Ryan, Van Lathan, and Bill Simmons

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1. Introduction

In this episode of The Big Picture, hosts Sean Fennessy and Bobby Wagner dive deep into listener inquiries in their much-anticipated Mega-Mailbag segment. They also unpack recent developments in the Oscars race and reflect on the latest Super Bowl, all while maintaining their trademark blend of humor and insightful commentary.

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2. Oscars Race Analysis

Current Front-Runners: The hosts discuss the evolving landscape of the Oscars race, focusing on the strong performance of the film "Anora." Sean emphasizes the statistical significance, noting that "seven of the last 10 winners of Best Picture at the PGAs went on to win" (12:51). However, he also acknowledges the unpredictability introduced by unexpected contenders like "The Brutalist" and "Emilia Perez."

Historical Context: Sean revisits past Oscar seasons to contextualize the current race:

• 2016: "Moonlight" wins, sparking discussions on unexpected outcomes.
• 2017: "La La Land" initially leads before "Moonlight" clinches Best Picture.
• 2019: "Parasite" makes history as the first non-English film to win Best Picture.
• 2020: "Nomadland" breaks new ground with its unique narrative style.

He reflects, "The bitterness of these surprises reminds us that the Academy is ever-evolving" (27:06).

Director Spotlight: Bobby brings attention to Sean Baker's potential sweep in multiple categories, highlighting his dual role as director and editor. This would mark a historic achievement, though Sean remains cautiously optimistic about the outcome (20:11).

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3. Super Bowl Recap

Game Outcome: The Philadelphia Eagles triumphed over the Kansas City Chiefs in a remarkable Super Bowl victory. Bobby shares the personal impact, "I had four native citizens of Philadelphia in my home watching the game... Everything made it through, and everyone is very happy" (03:18).

Commercials and Trailers: The hosts critique the commercials aired during the game, labeling them as "genuinely dystopian" (03:31). Specific trailers discussed include:

• Mission Impossible Teaser: Sean notes his son's excitement, "my 3-year-old son was like Tom Cruise" (03:54).
• Thunderbolts Trailer: Bobby expresses disappointment, "I thought it looked really bad" (05:38), leading to a deeper discussion about the film's perceived shortcomings and marketing strategies.

Notable Quotes:

• Sean on commercials: "They were abominable" (03:31).
• Bobby on Thunderbolts: "I thought it looked like real garbage" (06:30).

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4. Mailbag Segment

The Mega-Mailbag featured a slew of listener questions, which the hosts addressed with humor and expertise. Below are the standout topics discussed:

a. Relationship Movie Duos

• Question: What movie duo best exemplifies your relationship?
• Sean's Answer: "Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling" (39:25).
• Bobby's Answer: "Fight Club," declaring himself as Tyler Durden (39:28).

b. Navigating Film Festivals

• Question: How to prioritize and maximize time at a film festival; recommendations for first-timers.
• Sean's Advice: Emphasizes strategic planning, bringing essentials like granola bars and coffee, and recommends the New York Film Festival for its infrastructure (41:22).
• Bobby's Tip: Suggests focusing on one theater at a time to minimize time spent in lines and to fully immerse in the experience (42:45).

c. Ordering PTA Movies

• Question: Best order to watch PTA (presumably a film series).
• Sean and Bobby's Approach: Recommend chronological viewing to understand thematic and structural progression, using directors like John Ford and Paul Thomas Anderson as examples (49:58).

d. Directors with Unimpeded Vision

• Question: Which directors best execute their creative vision on screen?
• Bobby's Picks: Bong Joon Ho and Sophia Coppola.
• Sean's Picks: Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg, highlighting their meticulous planning and consistent aesthetic styles (73:59).

e. Future of Movie Theaters

• Question: Where do you see the movie theater experience evolving in the next five years?
• Sean's Insight: Predicts a shift towards large-format, unique experiences akin to eventizing films, citing successful re-releases and IMAX enhancements (94:13).
• Bobby's Perspective: Compares movie-going to concerts, emphasizing varied experiences and the importance of immersive events (106:52).

f. Balancing Podcasting with Family Life

• Question: How do you balance podcasting, film consumption, and family responsibilities?
• Bobby's Strategy: Utilizes extensive help, including a nanny and a supportive partner, to manage his schedule and maintain a steady podcasting routine (109:27).
• Sean's Routine: Describes a tightly packed schedule with multiple calls, meetings, and family time, often leading to mental exhaustion (114:00).

g. Watching Movies and Critical Analysis

• Question: How do you train yourselves to analyze filmmakers' intent and themes?
• Sean's Approach: Combines practice with a natural curiosity developed through years of reading and film consumption, aiming to empathize with filmmakers' visions (117:32).
• Bobby's Method: Relies on personal responses and formal journalism training to interpret and discuss thematic elements (119:20).

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5. Notable Quotes

• Sean on Oscars data: "Seven of the last 10 winners... went on to win" (13:16).
• Bobby on the Super Bowl: "I had four native citizens of Philadelphia in my home" (03:18).
• Sean on Thunderbolts: "It looked like real garbage on my TV" (06:30).
• Sean on director interviews: "Seeking and searching for these ideas has real value in movie enjoyment" (121:56).
• Bobby on film festivals: "Treat it like a vacation. Go." (44:35).

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6. Conclusion

The episode wraps up with the hosts reflecting on their passion for cinema, the challenges of balancing professional and personal lives, and the ever-changing dynamics of the film industry. They encourage listeners to engage deeply with movies, attend festivals when possible, and cherish the communal experience of cinema.

Final Thoughts:

• The evolving Oscars race remains unpredictable, with "Anora" leading but still facing stiff competition.
• The Super Bowl highlighted both the excitement of sports and the varied reception of high-profile commercials and trailers.
• The Mega-Mailbag provided a comprehensive look into listeners' interests, from movie analysis to personal life management, showcasing the hosts' dedication to both their craft and their audience.

Closing Note: As The Big Picture continues to navigate the intricate world of movies and media, this episode stands out for its blend of critical analysis, personal anecdotes, and genuine interaction with the listener community.

Transcript

[Sean Fennessy]

If you're a fan of the inner.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Workings of Hollywood, then check out my podcast, the Town on the Ringer Podcast Network.

[Sean Fennessy]

My name is Matt Bellany.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm founding partner at Puck and the.

[Sean Fennessy]

Writer of the what I'm Hearing newsletter.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And with my show the Town, I.

[Sean Fennessy]

Bring you the inside conversation about money and power in Hollywood. Every week we've got three short episodes.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Featuring real Hollywood insiders to tell you.

[Sean Fennessy]

What people in town are actually talking about. We'll cover everything from why your favorite.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Show was canceled overnight, which streamer is on the brink of collapse, and which.

[Sean Fennessy]

Executive is on the hot seat. Disney, Netflix, who's up, down, and who'll.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Eat lunch in this town Again, follow.

[Sean Fennessy]

The Town on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by the White Lotus Season 3. It's enlightened, it's twisted, and this time we're finding the dark side of an exclusive wellness resort in beautiful Thailand. Expect some picture perfect travelers that are anything but and some cheerful staff that have got a secret or two. Same luxury new reservations. We can't wait to see what happens. Watch a new season of the Emmy Award winning HBO original series the White Lotus. Premiering February 16th at 9pm on MAX. This episode is brought to you by Hookah. I've got to talk to you guys about the Bondi 9, the new daily trainer from Hookah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

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[Amanda Dobbins]

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[Sean Fennessy]

I'm Sean Fennessy.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'm Amanda Davins.

[Sean Fennessy]

And this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about frontrunners and precursors and everything in between. Later in this episode, we called for your email and you responded with thunder. We'll dig into a mega mailbag for your enjoyment. We also need to talk about the Oscar race, which finally settled after what seemed like months of unsettled and it circled right back around to where it started. To be honest with you, I am.

[Bobby Wagner]

Just getting my concepts and like Pinterest boards ready. The garage is just gonna get a total makeover.

[Sean Fennessy]

Can't wait to see what you do. Yeah, at your expense.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, at SP5. Six bets that we we wrote that in. Don't know if you were aware of that.

[Sean Fennessy]

Didn't know about that.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'm just, I'm very excited with this turn of events. Just a real weekend of winning in my household.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, let's not count your chickens before they're hatched. We will talk about the Oscar race and where it stands at the moment. But first, let's talk about the other big win in your life. The super bowl was last night. The Philadelphia Eagles absolutely humiliated the Kansas City Chiefs. An absolute drubbing. Not. Not the best super bowl to watch, to be honest with you.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, but it was good from the perspective of I had four native citizens of Philadelphia in my home watching the game and anything less would have led to behavior that ruptured my family. So this, I wouldn't say it was our greatest display as a family.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Bobby Wagner]

But everyone made it through.

[Sean Fennessy]

Great.

[Bobby Wagner]

Everyone is very happy. Happy birthday to my son, Saquon Barkley and Cooper dejean, whose name I learned yesterday and actually again this morning, but literally got a pick six on his birthday in the Super Bowl.

[Sean Fennessy]

He's also a white cornerback. I'd like to point that out as well. Just an extraordinary series of events happening at the super bowl last night. Less extraordinary. Yeah, commercials I thought abominable, like genuinely dystopian.

[Bobby Wagner]

Really, genuinely very bad. I was in and out because I had to of the two children that I had with a Philadelphia native. So that was my mistake. But the ones I saw were really bad.

[Sean Fennessy]

Really bad. Did you watch any of the trailers or the commercials?

[Amanda Dobbins]

We did.

[Bobby Wagner]

I saw a couple of them. We saw the Mission Impossible teaser trailer and very proud moment when my 3 year old son was like Tom Cruise.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, wow.

[Bobby Wagner]

So that was beautiful.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Did you watch the Tom Cruise introduction to the game?

[Bobby Wagner]

I didn't. I missed it. I came into the room and they said, hey, Tom Cruise just introduced the Super Bowl. But I forgot until right now to go back and watch it on YouTube. Was it good?

[Sean Fennessy]

It was fine. A wildly portentous narration of haphazardly cut together clips and awkwardly shot fake press conference imagery. You know, Tom was in good posture.

[Bobby Wagner]

With Tom Cruise giving the press conference.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, it was sort of like he was in an odd room that had a series of screens in it. Not unlike you might find Ethan Hunt. But then they would cut away to like Patrick Mahomes standing before 300 microphones having to answer questions.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, I bet he is having to answer some questions. And so is Britney. Finally.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't think either of them will be forced to do anything, unfortunately.

[Bobby Wagner]

That'd be great if we never hear from Britney ever again.

[Sean Fennessy]

Tom was fine. That was completely. It was bland, but he tried his best. The Final Reckoning trailer. I just want to say there are dozens of beautiful images in this trailer. Sure. I'm very excited.

[Bobby Wagner]

Including the biplane, which was. That was also very important because we're in a real, like, Richard Scarry, like, cars and trucks and plane space. So lots of biplanes, triplanes, monoplanes.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, a biplane chase. The red and the yellow, like, the red and pair and of old is gorgeous. I'm very excited about that movie. Did you see the Thunderbolts trailer?

[Bobby Wagner]

I did. I actually watched that live. And then I. For some reason, I guess because I hate myself. I watched the full trailer this morning on my phone.

[Sean Fennessy]

And you weren't happy?

[Bobby Wagner]

I thought it looked really bad.

[Sean Fennessy]

Really?

[Bobby Wagner]

I thought that it looked really bad when I watched the TV geezer.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. You don't really, like, like a Guardian Suicide Squad kind of situation.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, I. I like jokes, honestly. And so I saw that they were trying to do some, like, Quippy, especially David Harbour. And I guess, like, I don't mind that, but it looked, you know, reheated. I was like, oh, okay. Like, we are once again doing. We're like, teaming up a group of unlikely people to save the world. And that's cool. And you. And I do that every day. But, like, I, you know, I have seen this before. I truly thought it looked like garbage. Like, I thought it looked like real garbage and I thought it looked like garbage on my tv. I watched the trailer on my phone, which, like, people can scold me, but also, what is the point of a trailer except to watch it on my phone?

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, in a movie theater as well.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay. But like, I honestly, super bowl trailer.

[Sean Fennessy]

Is for your teenage.

[Bobby Wagner]

Like, I think it literally, or at this point, they are trying to get you to watch it again as many times as possible. So, like, this is meant for your. It's a product for your phone. And it looked like, like, gray computer, like, barf. So that seemed bad. It does not. Sebastian Stan didn't seem particularly happy. I really liked Florence Pugh's like, Black Widow performance, but this one just kind of had some, like, tinges of Felicity Jones's brutalist accent. So maybe that's just, like, out of context.

[Sean Fennessy]

Really, going in on Thunderbolts.

[Bobby Wagner]

I just. I like. I thought it looked, like, quite bad, personally.

[Sean Fennessy]

Interesting. Um, don't agree.

[Bobby Wagner]

But I also. I mean, that's funny, right? Because I thought to Myself. Oh, I think everyone likes this, but it's like all the Marvel people decided to be in a bad mood for a while and now you guys are like, okay, now I'm ready to open my heart again. So. And it's like, I. I think, like, I accept a red Hulk and also I accept this thing. So that's fine. Like, that's good. You guys, like, took a break.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think you have a misapprehension of the situation, but okay.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, I mean. And like, it. It does seem like the. The acceptance of the stuff is just sort of cyclical.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think people are hopeful that it'll get better.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Thunderbolts to me. I think I have maybe just like a little bit more forgive on that because it's just like a low level thing now. The one.

[Bobby Wagner]

But it got a Super bowl ad.

[Sean Fennessy]

It did. Well, I mean, it's a big Marvel movie coming out very soon, I think. Did you know the asterisk in the title? Have you paid attention to this?

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, I. I saw they seem.

[Sean Fennessy]

To be really overemphasizing the asterisk recently.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

And I think that the reason for that is many people believe this is the Dark Avengers, that that's actually what this group is, that they're not the Thunderbolts, the Thaddeus Ross group that pulls together. Anyway. It's a really boring comic book stuff. But the one thing that I thought would be amusing or interesting is if they actually changed the name of this movie, maybe retroactively after the release to Dark Avengers. Like, they're not using that name, but, like, sort of in the live, die, repeat, edge of tomorrow way. Will we come to understand that the name of this movie is actual or something like that?

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure. Though doesn't that seem pretty stupid from a marketing perspective? Like, if you're gonna call it Dark Avengers, shouldn't you just call it Dark Avengers like in the Super Bowl?

[Sean Fennessy]

Totally does. And that crossed my mind too. I. I think that they maybe don't want to give away too much of the game on where they're going with certain things. I don't know. I'm just spec. Otherwise, like, the asterisk thing is a lot. It's a lot of noise about something very stupid. Yeah. Anyway, the movie seems fine to me.

[Bobby Wagner]

Who is that guy in the backseat who's like, I hope we don't crash our car?

[Sean Fennessy]

It's Wyatt Russell.

[Bobby Wagner]

That is Wyatt Russell.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's Kurt Russell and Goldie Hans fucking. But then I was like, wow, he is.

[Bobby Wagner]

I guess the haircut yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

He was prominently featured in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He played a character named US Agent. He has a different name in this series, but he's the same character. And he was like a vigilante. And this is like a group of vigilantes. They all come together.

[Bobby Wagner]

What a time.

[Sean Fennessy]

Are they good? Are they bad? I don't know. Thunderbolts. Looks okay. It wasn't like, this is my favorite movie, but I really didn't think it looked as bad as you described it. Nevertheless, I thought in general, a pretty underwhelming collection of super bowl trailers. We also saw an extended version of Jurassic World. Rebirth.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Which was fine. My daughter Alice got extremely excited about Lilo and Stitch.

[Bobby Wagner]

I was also very charmed by it. I thought that that was the best of the ads that I saw.

[Sean Fennessy]

Very clever to integrate the super bowl and, you know, having Stitch running around for some reason.

[Bobby Wagner]

I saw Lilo and Stitch, like, in theaters. The original.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. It's kind of in your age range.

[Bobby Wagner]

And was, like, charmed by it. And then I thought it was cute. So I thought that. Two thumbs up for that.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'm not always a hater.

[Sean Fennessy]

I thought it was.

[Bobby Wagner]

I just have standards.

[Sean Fennessy]

I thought it looked okay. We didn't see a ton from the movie. More of like a Super bowl gimmick. There was a 32nd F1 spot where we just saw more images of Brad Pitt behind the wheel. Not really much else. Javier Bardem.

[Bobby Wagner]

Javier Bardem. And there was one very quick shot where he's just like, lying on a couch and has been doing a lot of bulking and cutting. I would say, Bobby, I don't know if you want to weigh in on that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. He's also been doing a lot of hgh.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, I was going to.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I was like, too old to look like that.

[Bobby Wagner]

You said it, not me. But I was like, okay, this is not exactly natural. And then also he's making out with a woman. But I didn't. I don't remember who that woman is.

[Sean Fennessy]

Nor do I. Yeah. Kind of slow rolling F1. That movie's coming in June. We haven't seen a whole lot. I did note, could it be a disaster?

[Bobby Wagner]

The trailer said this summer, not June.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, you think they're going to push it?

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, I don't know.

[Sean Fennessy]

Into that. That one battle after another PTA spot. When they move that movie.

[Bobby Wagner]

I just, you know, there was not a day and date on it. There was. There was this summer.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, so we shall see. Overall, one of the least fun to watch. Super Bowls Ever. There's really no two ways about it. Unless you're an Eagles fan, of course, in which I'm sure it was incredibly delicious.

[Bobby Wagner]

I didn't have a very good time either, but I liked spending time with my son, so that's nice. Both of them, I should say, because I traded off. Yeah. Congrats to the. To the Eagles. Cool.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, cool.

[Bobby Wagner]

Let's move on.

[Sean Fennessy]

Saturday night. Oh, yeah, Totally different story. Yeah, I really. I told you this on the pod last week. There was a part of me that was like, we should just go live on Saturday night, because I just feel like we're going to know everything we need to know after this shit goes down. And Saturday night, of course, after the Critics Choice Awards were on Friday, the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America held their ceremonies on Saturday evening here in Los Angeles, one mile apart from one another, one hour between one another. So this was a Fast and furious collection.

[Bobby Wagner]

One hour precursors of schedule wise, not traffic wise.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, no. Well, I mean, you never know in la.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's what I was saying, but, like, my instinct was like, wow, that's. That's tough.

[Sean Fennessy]

There were many intrepid reporters bouncing from one pavilion to the other trying to catch up on what happened. Let's start with the PGAs, even though it came second in the night, because it is, of course, historically one of the most powerful predictors of the Best Picture winner. And Anora won. Sure did.

[Bobby Wagner]

After also winning Best Picture at the Critics Choice Award Awards, which, respectfully, I don't really acknowledge.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't really think of them much either. I did think that it was interesting that Anora won that award show and this award show because the voting for these closed a while ago before the Emilia Perez drama. So that revealed a profound strength. I've got a lot of data points on this.

[Bobby Wagner]

Let's hear it.

[Sean Fennessy]

So seven of the last 10 winners of Best Picture at the PGAs went on to win.

[Bobby Wagner]

What are the three exceptions?

[Sean Fennessy]

The three exceptions are 1917, which I think we should discuss as a potential circumstance we may find ourselves in here. La La Land, of course, also one of the most shocking Best Picture wins when moonlight went on to win, and the Big Short, which was kind of an odd PGA win.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right. And what won.

[Sean Fennessy]

I believe that's the spotlight year. Okay, so that was a year that sort of felt like maybe the Revenant.

[Bobby Wagner]

Was in contention for 25, but I love that movie.

[Sean Fennessy]

Spoiler. Jesus.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, I mean, I mean, it wasn't.

[Sean Fennessy]

One of the five best Movies of that year.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessy]

But anyway.

[Bobby Wagner]

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

[Sean Fennessy]

Let's just go back to some Menorah thoughts, okay?

[Bobby Wagner]

I like it.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, it's wonderful. Obviously, that's not a dispute. And if it does go on to become a Best Picture winner, that'd be fantastic.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, it would be very confusing, and we would all have to reassess how we spend six months of every year.

[Sean Fennessy]

I want to do. In this conversation. I want to do. Let's just go through the last nine Best Picture winners and be like, I don't even know anymore. Like, all of our expectations and the conventions of Best Picture wins have been thrown out the window. But in fairness to us, and especially to me, because I've been the one doing this with Joanna and Katie Rich. And recently, you. You know, in September, we thought Nona was number one.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

In October, when you went on leave, we started doing Best Picture power rankings. We had it at number one. In November, we had it at number one. In December, we had it at number one. And then in January, we had it at number three. We would have had it at number two if we had recorded two hours later after the Amelia Perez thing kicked up. So it's not as though for us, and in our conversation since August, really, since it won the Palme d'or, yes, we were like, this feels, if not like a presumptive favorite, it has all of the makings of a Best Picture winner. Right now, a couple things happened. One, the Golden Globes happened, and it got blanked at the Golden Globes, and we really couldn't figure out, like, does this really mean anything? And I've heard a lot of people in the aftermath of the PGA and DGA results say, like, the Globes don't mean anything. I totally disagree. For example, the Demi Moore win was confirmed at the Golden Globes. In my opinion.

[Bobby Wagner]

Agree.

[Sean Fennessy]

That can still happen. Someone can give a speech that concretizes a narrative.

[Bobby Wagner]

I think also, even last year, the Globes and the Oscars were, like, a very direct match. And the more, like, confusing and diffuse the race and the award season gets, the more that prime early January TV spot influences voters. It really does.

[Sean Fennessy]

I totally agree with you. So I don't think that we should completely discount the Globes from the precursor conversation. It's just not, like, the surest signal of what's going to end up winning.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

Nevertheless, Anora had been in basically a really good position. And when we talked about the preferential ballot, which the PGA also uses, we talked about the fact that anora is probably at number two and number three on a lot of ballots, and that it could be number two on a Brutalist ballot. It could be number two on an Emilia Perez ballot. It could even be number two on a Wicked ballot.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, and that's the thing, is that it really matters on the I'm Still Here ballot. The Wicked ballot. The what? I mean, I'm sad to say, nickel boys, but, like, nickel boys ballot.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think it's. I think it's. It's a movie that uses old Hollywood conventional storytelling style, but an independent framework and Shawn Baker's particular point of view. So even though the subject matter of a movie like this with an ending like this basically never has a chance at winning Best Picture, the Academy being as different as it is, I thought this was fascinating. A lot of people did seem to start to feel like this is where things were going maybe five, six, seven days ago, that when you really started doing the math in your head, you're like, is the Brutalist really gonna win pga? That would be odd, right?

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, and once the Emilia Perez things sort of clarified itself, which, because we were all scratching our heads for a long time, being like, is this really happening? Are people really this excited about this movie that has minimal critical support, vociferous opposition from every single group, quote unquote, represented in the film? And, you know, a lot of people with eyes and brains and ears and. And. But it kept getting nominations. It kept getting critics. Well, I shouldn't say Critics Guild awards. And we couldn't make the math work. And that. And then that kind of seemed to over index on. Okay, well, maybe it's just the international group, but they also, you know, I think it was just drawing us down some roads that didn't make sense.

[Sean Fennessy]

I totally agree.

[Bobby Wagner]

And now we see why. Because it didn't make sense.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think this is another sign that Emilia Perez in general, is really imperiled on Oscar night, other than Zoe Saldana, and even she is vulnerable.

[Bobby Wagner]

I was thinking. So I ordered a red velvet suit to wear on Oscar night, and now I'm like, should I return it? I do think you should wear it. No. Well, I mean, should I wear it?

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, because you believe in the politics of that film.

[Bobby Wagner]

So you want to represent the music as well. You know, I think it is an aesthetic as well as an ideological achievement.

[Sean Fennessy]

We should do a cold open where you recreate El Mal before the episode. No, no, no.

[Bobby Wagner]

I got to do the one over the table, you know, in the.

[Sean Fennessy]

Would be good. I hope you have the shoes, too.

[Bobby Wagner]

I do think Zoe Saldana will still win, but I am probably going to return the suit, to be quite honest.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, man. Well.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, no, I've got another contest.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, I've got a costume.

[Bobby Wagner]

I know. I don't know whether I'm going to go, like, actual costume. I'm not going to be wearing, like, a Nora bandage dress.

[Sean Fennessy]

Just I'll be wearing her outfit in the strip club. And I'm excited about it. I'm excited to show the world.

[Bobby Wagner]

Can we do the show live? The after show live?

[Sean Fennessy]

We better get an intimacy coordinate.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. So I don't know where my concept is going to go, but, like, I'll still dress them. I just don't. I don't think that the red velvet suit, because the other thing is, like, if I wear it, then the image can be divorced from the context.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes, of course. Very quickly, Odard is your favorite filmmaker. You've been saying this for months. So I think it's a great. I think you should stick with it. I wouldn't blink. Now, speaking of filmmakers. DGAs.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

So they happened, as I said, just before the PGA's. Now, this apparently is the critical race in our big Oscar bet, which is what you were referring to at the top of the show. I have Brady Courbet and you have Sean Baker. Sean Baker won Best Director at the Director's Guild of America. Nine of the last 10 winners went on to Best Director. So we're now looking at if an Aura doesn't win Best Picture and doesn't win Best Director, this is a huge upset, statistically speaking. Couple things. The DGA ceremony is very strange. I'd like to go one day because all the directors who are nominated are presented with medallions or like, they look.

[Bobby Wagner]

Like wrestling, like belts, as I understand it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Intercontinental champions of directing.

[Bobby Wagner]

Very strange.

[Sean Fennessy]

They get their medallions and give a speech before the awards are given out during the ceremony. During Baker's comments, when, before he was awarded Best Director, he talked about a minimum 90 day theatrical window for movies, which is obviously something that I support broadly but understand completely to be impossible. No movie studio will ever do this. But it's important, I think, for artists to fight for theatrical exclusivity and keeping movies in movies.

[Bobby Wagner]

It's cool. I love going to the movie. It's a great idea. I don't think it's ever gonna happen. And I do also, I'm sympathetic to all the people who can't see movies until they are released on streaming. And I mean, that's A problem with theaters and mall real estate values and, like, a lot of, like, business stuff that actually has nothing to do with the arts or movie making. And. And it. And it sucks. And so I do want people who want to see movies to be able to see movies. I think that's really important for the industry, too. But, yeah, theaters are great. We have a mailbag question that. We'll come back to this.

[Sean Fennessy]

We will. So one cool data point coming out of PGA and dga. We knew this when the Oscar nominations were announced, but we didn't really dig into it too much. No one in the history of the Academy Awards has ever won four Oscars in one night for the same film. Sean Baker is in line to do that. He is nominated for best picture. He was the producer of the film, Best director, best writer for original screenplay, and best editor because he edited this film as he edits all of his movies now. This would be an extraordinary achievement that I think is legitimately on the table. I think it's probably least likely that he wins editing. But if there's going to be a picture director writer sweep, it might just be bullied for Anorex.

[Bobby Wagner]

Do you think that even extends to Mikey Madison? Because I don't.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think it's worth discussing.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't yet. Yeah, but if. Well, we have to see sag. SAG and BAFTA are at least instructive on this. If Demi Moore wins sag, it would be extremely surprising to see Mikey Madison win. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened before. There are versions where, like, SAG doesn't mean, you know, that's what's going to happen. But SAG and bafta, you could see a strong showing for Conclave, you could see. The only thing that I think could upset this really specifically is if conclave overperforms those two shows or the brutalist overperforms at bafta. If one of those two things happen, I feel like we still have a race here.

[Bobby Wagner]

If not, I don't disagree.

[Sean Fennessy]

Can I give you one data point? There is one person who did win four Academy Awards in one night. Not for the same films, you don't. Do you want to take any guesses?

[Bobby Wagner]

I've read that. I read it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, you read it.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay. I did this with my wife last night.

[Sean Fennessy]

I gave her, like, 10 minutes to guess. I said, this is one of the most historic people in Hollywood history, one of the most important creative visionaries, engines of movie making and imagineering, you might say. Walt Disney. Walt Disney in 1954, won four Oscars in four different categories for four different films. The four categories were best documentary and then three of the. Then four short film categories. The best documentary is called the Living Desert. I watched it last night.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

54 minutes. Never seen it before. It's basically like planet Earth in 1954. It's about the landscape and the wildlife that lives in a stretch of land largely in Arizona. And it explores with like Disney style music cues and editing and jokey voiceover like, here's how lizards live.

[Bobby Wagner]

So you watched this without Alice?

[Sean Fennessy]

I watched it at like 11pm with a psychopath.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, but would you watch it again with Alice?

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, I genuinely think she would like it.

[Bobby Wagner]

It has the kind of thing she likes, animals of Disney.

[Sean Fennessy]

And it is just animals on screen. So, yeah, it was cute. The documentary.

[Bobby Wagner]

Congratulations to Walt Disney, I guess.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes, yes, absolutely, sir. Also at the DGA's Michael Apted, first time feature filmmaker Romel Ross won, which.

[Bobby Wagner]

Is great and great speech. I finally got to listen to your interview with him, by the way. He is just really smart.

[Sean Fennessy]

He's very smart.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. I mean, which you can tell. But it was awesome to hear it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. He's been an amazing advocate for his own film. Obviously a number of people pointed out on social media that when he won, all five of the best director nominees stood and applauded. I think there's a real recognition in the business.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's what he's doing.

[Sean Fennessy]

He's done something very, very cool. So that's exciting. More people should watch Nickel Boys. They have not yet had the chance to do so Critics Choice again and.

[Bobby Wagner]

You know, kind of feels made up. So you pointed out that the voting was done many weeks ago.

[Sean Fennessy]

12 days ago, something like that.

[Bobby Wagner]

12 days ago for Critics Choice. No, because was delayed.

[Sean Fennessy]

It was delayed, but I think maybe the voting was extended.

[Bobby Wagner]

They reopen it. Yeah, this is what I was going to say.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't know what the dates were, to be honest.

[Bobby Wagner]

So Conclave won best Ensemble and I just straight up don't believe that that was decided before the Amelia Perez debacle. And I don't know how things work at the Critics Choice Awards and I have absolutely no basis. This is just me. Conspiracy.

[Sean Fennessy]

The wild accusation.

[Bobby Wagner]

I woke up this morning just like ready to go, but I'm like, come on, you know, Like, I know they went back and tinkered with that. So they didn't give it to Amelia Perez.

[Sean Fennessy]

Only one win for Amelia Perez of the Critics Choice Awards for Zoe Saldana. The other winners in order for best Picture, Adrian Brody for the Brutalist Demi Moore for the substance cured, Culkin for Real Pains, Always Saldana for Amelia Prez, The Conclave Ensemble award. And then best director went to John M. Chu.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessy]

This is his second best director win of the season.

[Bobby Wagner]

If you don't have anything nice to say, keep it moving. That's what I'm doing.

[Sean Fennessy]

We can keep it moving.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's not at all what I'm doing today, but.

[Sean Fennessy]

Go Birds. I guess this is not over and done with, but pretty close. Pretty close. After a season where I was, like, keeping my options open, I would agree.

[Bobby Wagner]

With you, but it has been a season of surprises and intrigue. And as you said, we still have SAG awards and we still have BAFTAs, and those represent two. Like, the power of that voting bloc is decreasing, but it is still sizable.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. And those are two in the expansion towards international. Significant number of BAFTA voters have been added. And of course, SAG is still the largest body, so could be some movement. If not. Like I said, let's just go through very quickly the best picture winners of the last 10 years, because since it mirrors perfectly the beginning of the ringer, when in earnest, I was like, I'm going to cover this stuff. This is what I'm going to spend a lot of time thinking and working on this stuff.

[Bobby Wagner]

How are you feeling about that? Ten years in, I've made a huge error.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, I feel. I sincerely feel very lucky to be doing this with you guys. And it's fun. It's really fun.

[Bobby Wagner]

It's fun. Yeah, it's really fun. You're just like, this is how I spend my time.

[Sean Fennessy]

I ruined my life and I made my hobby my occupation. And, you know, that's dangerous. That's very dangerous. So going back to 2016, when moonlight won, I was like, what is going on? There's nothing in the history of the Oscars that tells us that this is how things should work. And it happened. The Shape of Water.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. Won in 2017 over Get Out Lady Bird, Phantom thread.

[Sean Fennessy]

Call me by her name. Dunkirk, Yeah, I will say will be remembered as a bit of an ignominious win. It did feel to me somewhat similar to what an honora win would feel like, which is that most people in the business have a big admiration for the way that Sean Baker works and how he makes his movies and sticks to his guns. People feel the same way about Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro loves movies. He's an amazing advocate for movies. He's made some great films. I do not think the Shape of Water is among his best. It felt like this. And also the sort of abiding message of the movie, the sort of, like, acceptance of people who were less than you and not less, that you were different from you. Or if they're fish, you know, and accept fish, I guess, was the takeaway there.

[Bobby Wagner]

I did think about Shape of Water when, like, doing Garbage Love. And I was like, what is this?

[Sean Fennessy]

What Rewards is a horror romance. It is a horror romance. I mean, it's a creature from the black.

[Bobby Wagner]

From the black ocean.

[Sean Fennessy]

The Shape of Water, though, is a very unlikely win. And actually, me and you and Chris and Andy did a video after the Oscars that year. Pre Picture.

[Bobby Wagner]

At the last minute, you picked Get Out. I did win over Shape of Water. And then you were, like, really mad at yourself on camera. That's what I remember.

[Sean Fennessy]

And that was wish casting. And I've tried to stop wish casting of in recent years. 2018. You know, we talked about this on the Sam Sanders show this week, which we went on last Friday on kcrw, how there was a kind of a white lash, I think, to a lot of what had happened with Oscars. So White and Green book's win in 2018, overcoming a number of interesting movies, though no movies that I think are rock dead, solid clear best picture winners. 2019, Parasite. Who the fuck saw that coming?

[Bobby Wagner]

What a year.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was crazy.

[Bobby Wagner]

That was great.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was the 1917 year where 1917 won at the PGAs. And we all walked away and said, well, I guess this is over and done with. And then Parasite won at sag and everyone was like, hmm, yes, what's happening here? And then Bong Joon Ho went along. Now, he did actually theoretically win four Academy Awards that year because he won also for picture director, writer, and international. But international doesn't go to the filmmaker. It goes to the country.

[Bobby Wagner]

That category is really messed up.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. So the country can choose to give the filmmaker the award. Bong Joon Ho may have the best international feature in his home.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay, so they can choose to give, like, the actual statue.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. Or they can just put it in a museum in a government building.

[Bobby Wagner]

But they can't. They get the credit, like, in the history book.

[Sean Fennessy]

Correct. Okay, so he. Bong Joon Ho doesn't claim that.

[Bobby Wagner]

We gotta work on that.

[Sean Fennessy]

I agree. We have to completely change the category. Maybe something we can do in the off season. 2020, Nomadland. You know, no movie like that ever won before.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

That was very strange.

[Bobby Wagner]

That was a strange year.

[Sean Fennessy]

It was a very strange year. 2020. 1. Coda.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

First win for streamer.

[Bobby Wagner]

I was on leave. That was also when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. So that was a different kind of year.

[Sean Fennessy]

This is an interesting episode of the show, for sure. Coda. Nice movie. I like it.

[Bobby Wagner]

I cried.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, I just love to be a girl, dad. I love to be a girl, dad. It's actually the best thing in my life. And this movie is a nice representation of that.

[Bobby Wagner]

You saw that right after.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, I watched it at Sundance and was like, this is treacle crap.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, that's right. Because we saw it so much earlier. And then Alice was born.

[Sean Fennessy]

And Alice was born. And I was like, this movie is a touching declaration of love.

[Bobby Wagner]

I have a whole and beautiful heart. And I saw it before I was even pregnant.

[Sean Fennessy]

And no one in the world thinks you have a whole and beautiful heart. 2022. Everything everywhere, all at once.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, that happened.

[Sean Fennessy]

That is science fiction, multiversal. Mom, daughter, dramedy.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessy]

Which one? Best picture. What? Right.

[Bobby Wagner]

Lot of speeches from those guys that night.

[Sean Fennessy]

There were. 2023.

[Bobby Wagner]

They kept going.

[Sean Fennessy]

They talked a lot. I would have picked tar. Didn't happen. Sure. 2023. Oppenheimer.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Which in some ways reflects the, like, we got to recognize Steven Spielberg for Schindler's List thing, where it's like, this guy's just making movies we love for 20 years and it's his time, and he took on a subject matter that was right for the Academy Awards. On the other hand, I think Oppenheimer is a very strange movie. The way that it's organized, the way that it's shot. The first 10 minutes are this, like, montage, the final hours in black and white. And is a set 20, you know, 20 years in the future for, as Oscar winners go, it's pretty unusual structurally, formally, it does have a great man quality. Of course.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. And I mean, I think that that is what, to me, it lines up. I mean, it's innovating on a theme, you know, which is like kind of well put, what you want a traditional best Oscar to do. And like that. That's cool. I liked all of it until The Robert Downey Jr. Started yelling, you know, but to me, it's not surprising.

[Sean Fennessy]

2024. Vanora wins.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

This is a Fellini inspired sex comedy about a stripper and a Russian oligarch.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

And features several sequences in strip clubs and the music of Take that.

[Bobby Wagner]

Great.

[Sean Fennessy]

If it wins, that would be weird. I think it's a great movie. I love that movie.

[Bobby Wagner]

But everyone loves. I mean, that's the other thing is that I do feel like everyone who sees it is like, hey, great movie. To me, it would be weird in that actually one of the best movies of the year wins Best Picture, which seldom happens according to the list that you just read. Yeah, I mean, sometimes it does, you know, but often it doesn't.

[Sean Fennessy]

You're right. I mean, Oppenheimer and Parasite are really the only two where I'm like.

[Bobby Wagner]

And Moonlight.

[Sean Fennessy]

And Moonlight. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like. These are certainly among the best. Represent something interesting about the Academy.

[Bobby Wagner]

Moonlight and Parasite, they were surprising in the context of the race and the punditry, but we also just had, like, visible moments of like, wow, the actual best movie won. Like, we don't know what to do with ourselves.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. And in both of those cases, in particular, La la land and 1917 represented our expectations of the old Academy.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

And neither of them won. I guess I don't really know what the old Academy is here this year. Maybe Conclave, parts of the Brutalist, but not really.

[Bobby Wagner]

But not really.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, I guess a complete unknown, but actually a music biopic has never won Best Picture, so there's really not a lot here. And I think that that also tells the story, is that this is. In terms of this crop of movies this year, for the variety of reasons that we've talked about, strikes, what the movie schedule looked like, who got to make movies in 2023, et cetera, et cetera. This is what we have. An org can win. What percentage would you put it at that you think it's gonna win?

[Bobby Wagner]

I don't know, 51?

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, so not super confident.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, I. I mean, I still think, like, voting is still active. I think precursors in the last five years, like, have become less and less sure.

[Sean Fennessy]

And because of this, there's so many of them. Yeah, that's. It gets a little confusing, and I.

[Bobby Wagner]

Think the voting gets weird. It's a weird year, you know, I'm trying to make peace with that.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. Should we go to the mailbag?

[Bobby Wagner]

Absolutely.

[Sean Fennessy]

And no other thoughts on the. We got a couple more weeks of Oscar Punditry here.

[Bobby Wagner]

I really am looking forward to redecorating your room.

[Sean Fennessy]

What are you going to do with all the Blu Rays, though?

[Bobby Wagner]

That's true. I mean, I was kind of like. Because I know you have kind of like the. The extra pile, you know, like the library has outgrown the space that I'm working with.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes. Actually, Chris was over at the house on Friday and he was like, you know what? You are running out of room.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. You're gonna need a bigger house. Yeah. So I guess I just. Will all of the materials be available to me to work with? You know, in terms of what I get to display and how I get to display it?

[Sean Fennessy]

You're like, lazlo talk. There's a concrete. Concrete is good. Yeah. I mean, I encourage creativity.

[Bobby Wagner]

If we could model it on the reading room. The reading room is like, my favorite part of that mov. Glorious.

[Sean Fennessy]

I felt my body tingling when they opened the shelving unit in that home.

[Bobby Wagner]

I know. We could get the light in for you, you know, a little.

[Sean Fennessy]

That could damage the materials inside the home.

[Bobby Wagner]

The plastic.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, we don't want any, you know, color grading shifts. You know, the sun can burn these out. You know, this is a book owner. You don't want the sun on books.

[Bobby Wagner]

I I that. Sure. But that's made of paper, and yours is like the plastic that's ruining our earth.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's so it changes the color, you know, of what? The plastic case of the spines of the imagery. Because it's a paper. Guys, that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's the whole point of the design of the reading room is that it.

[Bobby Wagner]

Closes so that it just opens that. But we can't have, like, it's nice.

[Sean Fennessy]

To have natural light. If you can create some closable, brutalist inspired shelving units for me, I would welcome that.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

I would welcome.

[Bobby Wagner]

They do kind of detail the measurements, you know, like, it needs to be, like, about 12 inches. Like this. They're measuring. Okay. I'm going to need considerably more than $2,000.

[Sean Fennessy]

Let's get Daniel Ek on the horn.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Amanda. Just putting in an expense request for, like, $120,000 worth of shelving at Sean's house.

[Sean Fennessy]

I spent a tidy sum on the original shelving units. I will say that was the one present to myself in the last 10 years.

[Bobby Wagner]

Carpentry is expensive. It's very expensive, and especially at the level that I expect.

[Sean Fennessy]

Mm.

[Bobby Wagner]

It's. You know, we're gonna. We're gonna pay people for their work.

[Sean Fennessy]

You're gonna have to sell my treadmill, I think, just to get this expensive.

[Bobby Wagner]

We are getting the treadmill. Do you ever use it?

[Sean Fennessy]

I. You know, it's so funny because I've been in physical therapy in the last couple months.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

And I have started using it again in part because of that.

[Bobby Wagner]

What do you want? Do you, like, watch movies and.

[Sean Fennessy]

And just walk, set up to watch movies? Yeah, I'll run sometimes.

[Bobby Wagner]

Do you do it like an incline or is it just.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't really like that and I never have. Okay, but I'll run. I can. I will sometimes run very fast.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sean doesn't know about the 12, 3:30. He's not on that game.

[Bobby Wagner]

I know.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, he's not with it.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, we'll have a whole conversation about this. I honestly, I think walking on an incline would be better for your body and for your physical therapy. Bobby, you with me?

[Sean Fennessy]

I may be. Right. But I have an extremely sensitive hip right now, so any, like, over pressure on it could be a challenge.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay, so. But you're running on a treadmill.

[Sean Fennessy]

I haven't really been running of late, historically. I will run on the treadmill.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, I just, I think like low impact, but, you know, some resistance with the.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, sounds like you should.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think we've maybe under explored the potential of getting a camera in there for the YouTube. You know, you walking while talking.

[Sean Fennessy]

Have we understood?

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think we should talk about that. I don't know.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm just definitely.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm an ideas guy. I'm the producer of the show.

[Sean Fennessy]

Sean definitely will stay on this Call for sure when this episode's over to talk to you about it. I won't step out immediately and go eat a granola bar. I promise. I definitely will stay right here.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'm opening the water bottles.

[Sean Fennessy]

Sorry, the water bottles open, which means it's mailbag time. Bob, how many emails did we get?

[Amanda Dobbins]

We had so many emails. I read about 500 of the emails and I just looked at the inbox. There's like 563 still unread. So, you know, making my way through them. A few of you got some responses from me. If I didn't put your.

[Bobby Wagner]

I know, I was. I was gonna just log in and just like, maybe like do some magic.

[Sean Fennessy]

You should have done set up an auto reply that just. Rebecca, go Birds. That would have been amusing.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Amanda setting up an auto reply, being like, sorry, I'm out of office, but you can email.

[Sean Fennessy]

And then your.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Your email address.

[Sean Fennessy]

Sean.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, that'd be great.

[Sean Fennessy]

Please don't do that. Okay. As you know, I care about Inbox zero very deeply. All right, should we start? How would you describe the emails? Chill vibes, Any crazy shit.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Oh, my God.

[Sean Fennessy]

Any merits proposals to Amanda?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, everybody was so nice. That's how I would describe the emails. Thank you all for taking the time.

[Bobby Wagner]

I am going to. I'm going to log in and read some of them.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They came from far and wide, all over this great globe of ours. Australia, Ghana, Scotland, Ireland, Senegal, Italy, France, Canada, Germany, England from everywhere. It was really amazing. Great stuff from everybody. They really showed up, showed out. Really creative questions, too. So let's just. Let's get into it. Let's open it up. First question comes from Shauna. What movie duo do you feel best exemplifies your relationship?

[Sean Fennessy]

Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling.

[Bobby Wagner]

Fight Club.

[Sean Fennessy]

Who's who?

[Bobby Wagner]

I think we all know I'm Tyler Durden, maybe.

[Sean Fennessy]

Could be. Could be Godzilla versus Kong. We have discussed that in the past. I think the energy that we're going for is in your classic Hollywood rom com, like the Screwball. Yeah. It Happened One Night. Or what's your favorite with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, Philadelphia Story.

[Sean Fennessy]

No. Oh, Jesus Christ.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh. Oh.

[Sean Fennessy]

Bringing a baby. Baby. Bringing a baby. Yeah. Or the Preston Sturgis movies. Yeah. You know, Winnie. Repartee, enmity at the foreground. Intensity, humor, weirdness, Fast talking. Yeah, Speed is really the thing. Speed. But there is definitely a little bit of, like, prisoner and captor thing going on here. For sure. There's maybe a little bit of dual Persona.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Crazy. And I think we flip roles in terms of who's crazier every week.

[Bobby Wagner]

Bob, do you have anything that you. You want to add to the mix?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think there's a lot of A Few Good Men energy in this pod, but I'm trying to sort out who would be who. I think like maybe Amanda's bacon and Sean, your tc, or maybe flip those around, depending on what the topic of the pot is. And that makes me Lieutenant Weinberg.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay, great.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, that's pretty good. Who's that makes? Jack Joe.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

In the booth, I guess. So I strenuously object.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Who's Nicholson in this analogy?

[Sean Fennessy]

Bill. Is that like, Bill Nicholson? I think that's right. Okay, what's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Addie asks. I was wondering if you guys had any advice on how to best prioritize and. Or maximize your time at a festival. Which festivals do you recommend for a first timer? We actually got a ton of questions about film festivals in this mailbag. So many people interested in going.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, I met a lot of people at Sundance who were listeners of the show, but. And, you know, maybe that means they want to work in the industry at some point, but, like, people who are just there to see movies, which was awesome.

[Sean Fennessy]

As I said, I have this experience every year, Telluride now, where I meet anywhere from 10 to 50 people who are like, I'm here because I heard you talk about it on the show, which Is obviously always so exciting because it means you've got young people getting engaged not just in like going to AMC film culture, but real movie going culture. It's different for every festival. You know, we've all. We've both been to probably like five or six at this point.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

And they all kind of work a little bit differently. So maybe we can speak more specifically about the ways that certain ones work. I'll say for Sundance, it's a. It's a little bit more challenging because you're often in the snow and you've got to bounce from venue to venue. So the thing that I like to do which is like see as many movies as possible is I find to be kind of challenging there because of the Transportation's okay, as I recall, but weather conditions and the lines getting in is a little tricky.

[Bobby Wagner]

They changed it transportation wise, so that's trickier. I mean, the shuttle's good, but yeah, it's really. You. You do spend a lot of time in lines.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes.

[Bobby Wagner]

So I think for Sundance it would probably be just like pick a theater and camp out there.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes.

[Bobby Wagner]

You know, and just like see everything that is at that one theater. Or I guess you could do like the. I don't know if you're. Two movies a day is really doable. 5. You really have to stay in one place.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. I find when I go to Telluride, people say I'm trying to do three a day and then it's a little hard because the lines are a little bit intense. And then also at a place like Telluride, this is true at some festivals. You have to buy a pass to go and it's hard to get individual tickets. And there is a tiering system to the passes. The patron passes, I think are five grand. So you have a lot of, you know, long time patrons who are going and who are getting right to the front of the line. And then you've got your kind of common pass, which is significantly cheaper but doesn't guarantee entry. So you do spend a lot of time waiting in lines. I think you gotta just be prepared to wait for the most part. Be very strategic about your days. Bring a lot of granola bars and snacks. It's hard to stop for meals. Make sure you have a bathroom strategy that is sound. Some theaters have good and helpful bathrooms, some do not. For me, coffee is critical. I need to have at least two, sometimes three coffees a day when I'm powering through five movies. So you got to make sure that the venues have coffee. If they don't know your coffee shops in the area. I think it's probably easier on a first time basis to do something like the New York Film Festival, which is over 30 days and you can say, I'm going to New York for a week and I'm going to catch what I can, you know. And I find tickets are pretty not easy, but easier. Bob, would you agree with that, to get your hands on?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. And I think it's a pretty like democratic way of acquiring tickets. Like if you're there and ready to buy something online. You know, I don't know for certain whether this is the best way to sell anything these days, but it at least is a way that you're probably accustomed to with things selling out quickly for the showings that you want online so you can get access to those screenings. The press, industry screenings is more like you're describing a Telluride. It's like be ready to wait in line. So if you're in press or industry, like get there at least an hour early for or, or maybe even more.

[Sean Fennessy]

As we witnessed, we got shut out of the room next door this year actually Bob and I both. Yeah, we were in line maybe.

[Bobby Wagner]

Turns out that that didn't matter. Yeah, yeah. But New York also, like the city itself and, and Lincoln center, where it's kind of located, has the infrastructure, you know, I mean it's kind of like the theaters. There is a place to eat. And I think you're right. I mean it's really. Are you gonna be a five movie a day psycho like Sean and many other people. And I think that's one way to do it. I find that intense. Or you can be like a two to three a day movie person like me. And that turns out in addition to be a great way to see movies, it's also a great way to see, to like travel and see a part of the world or be somewhere that you haven't been.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yep.

[Bobby Wagner]

Which is also like a nice way to live life and also like a nice way to like enjoy movies sometimes. So you know, if, if, if five a day seems daunting, but if you've ever wanted to go to, you know, and, and have the resources to go to Telluride or New Yorker, even some of the, we've never been to like the local film festivals, but there are so many of them from like I.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm kicking myself because I had a ticket to go see Horizon Part 2 on Friday night.

[Bobby Wagner]

Why didn't you go?

[Sean Fennessy]

And for a variety of reasons, childcare, et cetera, I opted not to go. And then our friend Griffin Newman was there. Didn't tell me he was going.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

And then he told me the movie rocked. And I was like, God damn it. I'm so mad at myself that I didn't go see. So I've never been to Santa Barbara before, and I've been to Palm Springs kind of like. I've been in Palm Springs when it was happening and seen one movie, but I haven't actually spent time at the Palm Springs Film Festival.

[Bobby Wagner]

There's, like, the Mill Valley.

[Sean Fennessy]

Mill Valley, Yes. Joanna goes to that often. Rob Mahoney went to Mill Valley this year. There's a number of locals, and then, you know, there's a contingent.

[Bobby Wagner]

There's south by. There's my. You know, there are, like, lots of different places. People.

[Sean Fennessy]

People really talk up the Savannah Film Festival now with scad. They talk up. The Virginia Film Festival is. Is growing in popularity. There's a number of festivals that are getting bigger and bigger around the country. You can really go to any of them and probably get a really cool experience if they're in that kind of top quartile of. Of film festivals. But then also, I have personally never been to Berlin, Cannes, or Venice. Well, and I probably, before I'm out of my 40s, need to knock those off my list. So 2026, I'm like, so. I can't even stake in the ground.

[Bobby Wagner]

I can't even look in the ground right now. I'm so angry.

[Sean Fennessy]

2026, we literally.

[Bobby Wagner]

We had you, Bobby, find it, like, on camera last year after can. You were like, you're right. We should like. I'm really kicking myself. We didn't go to Cannes. We should go this year. And then you sch.

[Sean Fennessy]

Some fucking abandoned dunes is calling. I've heard from a number of listeners who identify.

[Bobby Wagner]

Dan is listening. Dan, who organized this trip. And I. And I love Dan. I love you so much. And I know that my dear friend Dan. I. I just. We will have a Frank conversation. Dan.

[Sean Fennessy]

2026, we'll go to Cannes and maybe Berlin, too. Fuck it.

[Bobby Wagner]

You know, I would love to go to. I would love to go to all.

[Sean Fennessy]

I've always wanted to go to Berlin. Well, I've been to the city of Berlin, which is a city I love.

[Bobby Wagner]

Um, I would love to go to Berlin. I think the link later. The. The Ethan Hawke, the Lawrence Heart, Blue Moon. Blue Moon is. Is at Berlin this year.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes, I think. I think Nouvelle Vogue will be at camp.

[Bobby Wagner]

You, like, can really only go to Venice if you have if, like, you're being. If you're Italian and. And. Or have, like, a rail. Euro rail pass and. Or your company is paying for it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Bobby Wagner]

But we got to go. It's so awesome.

[Sean Fennessy]

Venice is tough. Venice is hard for me because I have made an emotional commitment to tell you. Right.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, I know. But, God, I love it. Like, your version of, like, coffee and granola bars and five movies days. Like, me at the golden lion bar, having my, like, my spritz before going to the premiere of whatever. Just seeing, like, Jacob Elordi just across the red carpet. It's like. Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

You may never be able to recreate the quality of lineup that you got for your specific interest. You. You got a great year. You got your Bradley Cooper. You got. You got a lot of stuff. Yeah. I mean, they went there.

[Bobby Wagner]

Fincher.

[Sean Fennessy]

You got some good stuff.

[Bobby Wagner]

Fincher was there. Fincher was awesome, walking all the carpets.

[Sean Fennessy]

But that was kind of a dream year for that. You got Ferrari. You got a lot of stuff. That was a cool.

[Bobby Wagner]

It was really fun.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. I mean, look, it's very expensive.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Treat it like a vacation.

[Bobby Wagner]

If you love movies, treat it like a vacation. Like, go. That. I had never been to Venice.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Bobby Wagner]

And, you know, one of those places. Otherwise, you got, like, got to go see at, like, every church, you know, and every, like, fresco and, like, churches and frescoes are beautiful, but I was just kind of like, wow, look, like, I'm in Venice. And then, like, the day was programmed for me, and it was so cool. I, like, I got to see some movies, and then I, like, got the local vibe. It is, like, a great way to travel and to see it like a part of the world, if you like movies. So that is. That's a different strategy again. This is all predicated on having access to resources, and we get to do this for work, so we're incredibly lucky.

[Sean Fennessy]

We are very privileged. Okay, Bob, what's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Abigail wants to know. My friends have never seen any PTA movies. Where do I start? And what order should I show my friends the PTA movies?

[Sean Fennessy]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. I mean, it's a year for preparing for PTA movies. Of course, we probably will build, like.

[Bobby Wagner]

Two weeks of programming or two. Another question. I'm sorry to jump ahead, Bob, about exploring filmmaker work and doing, like, most popular or chronological, and I'm just gonna. I'm gonna lump them together. Should we credit. Who is the person who asked that? Nice question.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes. This comes from David.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay. So, David. Thank you.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, he Asked about picking out a few directors and taking a deeper dive into their filmographies and whether it's best to go in chronological order or go based on, like, popularity or perception of how good the movie itself is.

[Bobby Wagner]

So I think in general, for most directors, starting with the quote unquote classics or like the widely accepted, there's a reason you know this director's name and then going like. And once you're kind of versed in the director's work to go back and start doing deep cuts. And then you could go chronologically, like, then you can make it a project. But it's like if you start with. If you're doing Ridley Scott and you start with the Duelists, which is like a good movie, but you're gonna be like, what's going on?

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, I think it depends on the depth of the filmmaker. If they have only five movies, you could say, I'm doing a Chronic. If you wanted to do Terrence Malick, I would say start at Badlands and just go straight through. Yeah, it's got eight movies. That's the best way to do it. It'll show a progression in a clear way.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right?

[Sean Fennessy]

It's a good question. Broadly speaking, I mostly agree with you. I have been thinking about this quite a bit. Cause I've been really enjoying. You must remember this system this season.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

And Korina's angle on it this year is the old man is still alive is the theme. So it's a look at the classic filmmakers, not just of Hollywood, but mostly Hollywood focused at the end of their careers, like their last movies. And I was just listening over the weekend to the John Ford episode. And the John Ford episode is super interesting because it's about how some of his last four or five films are kind of like recriminations or reversals of what we thought John Ford movies were about. You know, Cheyenne Autumn, which is told with a huge empathy for native people. Or Seven Women, which is an entirely female focused movie. He never had really strong female protagonists in his films. So you could say for John Ford, after you get past the silent stuff, Stagecoach is this huge breakthrough with John Wayne. You probably could just watch Stagecoach all the way through. It's like 35 movies. But you would watch a progression of theme in a really interesting way. It's just a big project. So you could say, oh, actually what I really want to do is I want to watch Stagecoach and then I want to watch My Darling Clementine. And then they were Expendable and then the Searchers and then I'LL kind of pick and choose from there.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

But it's. Every filmmaker is different because every filmmaker reveals something different. And pta.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, I was going to say, how.

[Sean Fennessy]

Do you do that?

[Bobby Wagner]

Is the exception. I think you go straight through. Yeah. Chronological. And it's a little bit. Because it's what, 10 or 11 at this point? But it is. Sorry. My computer died, so I don't have it in front of me. So everything is off the top of my head.

[Sean Fennessy]

You're doing great.

[Bobby Wagner]

So it. It's digestible, even if that, like 10 or 11 is like a lot of movies. But it is also. And there is a progression, and it is also just like, you know, there are no skips. So that's.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Right.

[Bobby Wagner]

So that's the other thing. If you're working with 35 or 40.

[Sean Fennessy]

Or 45, you're not gonna like stuff. It's gonna be boring. It's gonna be redundant.

[Bobby Wagner]

Or even if it's like, not redundant, I think that you do. If you're starting cold with someone, you want to have at least like, some sort of broader understanding before you start doing the work of, like, oh, I see the evolution from, like, this to this, or I see how you got here. You know, like, to. To be able to appreciate when you're watching the first three movies of, like, oh, I see you're gonna build towards this. Or like, this is kind of like xyz.

[Sean Fennessy]

I was having this conversation with someone recently about Paul. You know, I've interviewed him with Bill a couple times now. I've met him a few times over the years. And the thing that I have noticed more and more, and this is. This was in relationship to a conversation about the Oscar race this year, is that he has completely stopped telling people what his movies are about. He does not talk theme. He does not talk interpretive analysis.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

He talks about character, he talks about setting, talks about story. But he doesn't do that thing that many filmmakers when they're younger, can't wait to do. And he couldn't wait to do when he was younger. He loved over explaining his movies, talking about his influences, what he was pulling from.

[Bobby Wagner]

And I mean, it's called being 27, but 100%, no disrespect.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think more specific. I mean, for him, it was because he was such a young phenom. But most filmmakers, it's their early 30s, and they're like, I did it. I'm desperate to be understood. And you could maybe make the case Brady Courbet, who's like 36 or something is like, let me tell you everything. Yeah. And PTA definitely did that and then just kind of stopped. And so what it means is the first half of the movie, the first half of his career, you're like, I have a pretty good idea of what this is. I get what he's going for. I get what he's paying homage to, what the themes are, what it means to his childhood. And then in the second half, especially with the Master, and then everything from the Master on, he's like, you figure it out.

[Bobby Wagner]

What is this?

[Sean Fennessy]

You thought this was about Scientology. It's not. Here's why.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure. I think when you're Paul Thomas Anderson and you've made the films that he's made, you can do that. I did also get a chance to listen to your Nosferatu episode and listen to your Robert Eggers interview, and it was a little bit of like, yeah, we don't talk theme, like, because there is none.

[Sean Fennessy]

I was hunted for it. I know I was doing the.

[Bobby Wagner]

That is like, a. Obviously has, like, different intention, like, with his career and what, like.

[Sean Fennessy]

But he might.

[Bobby Wagner]

Filmmaking, like, means something different to him. And that's cool.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's funny that, because in this conversation that I was just referencing, Eggers came up as well in this conversation about theme. And he has always been very reluctant to talk about those things. It doesn't mean that they're not there. It doesn't mean he's not thinking about them. But he doesn't want to talk about them. Yes. He doesn't want to make that a part of the narrative of the movie, the PTA thing, because there is a progression. You can go back and watch that making of Magnolia documentary that's on all the physical versions. That is. I think it's called that moment. That's just so crazy where you can, like, watch a guy and where he is emotionally in real time while he's orchestrating this big Magnolia.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. Which is also like, yeah, his parents.

[Sean Fennessy]

And his dad and Boogie Nights with his mom and all the stuff that is so evidently right on the surface. Anyway, I'm with you. It should be in chronological order. For his movies, it's only 10. So you can do it.

[Bobby Wagner]

Great.

[Sean Fennessy]

What's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Can I add something really quickly? I think broadly chronological does work. Or if you have a streaming service that you trust that curates. Criterion has most of a lot of directors movies, and they put them in chronological order for you, that's a good way to do it. And then you can go back and fill in the gaps. If you end up loving that filmmaker or I don't know where you are writing in from Abigail, but if you live in a city that shows rep screenings of a director, just try to find one on the big screen first, no matter where it is in the chronology of the director. Because then you build this relationship to that movie and you say, now I either want to go backwards or forwards from this point. And that can change how you feel about being introduced to a director. That's what I like to do with a lot of old directors. Because for me, that means the first experience that I have with the director is the exact experience they wanted out of that movie. Rather than trying to get into someone's old filmography at home with all these different distractions or on the wrong TV or whatever.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's 27 year old repertory theater privilege, boy. Logging on. But I love it. I love that freebie.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm representing my people.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's a good intention that is harder for most people to reach. But if the option is there, you.

[Bobby Wagner]

Should totally do it. You should absolutely. If you're able to do it.

[Sean Fennessy]

And I think our friends at Blank Check do directorial themed seasons. And so a lot of people will fill gaps that way or watch for the first time that way. I think that's a really cool way to experience that show too. This is also a time issue. Not everybody has time to watch every single film directed by the film.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, but Stevenson are doing a project, so it's a good way to do a project.

[Sean Fennessy]

Shout out to Abigail and David, both of you guys.

[Bobby Wagner]

We love projects for doing the work.

[Sean Fennessy]

Thank you.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Our next question comes from Alex. Could you identify your favorite movie or a couple of movies that are in opposition to your typical taste, Something that someone would be surprised to find out that you like?

[Sean Fennessy]

I had one movie pop into my head on this one.

[Bobby Wagner]

For me or for you?

[Sean Fennessy]

For me. I'm not sure which you would say. Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

[Bobby Wagner]

I was gonna say fast five.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, yeah. But everybody knows that.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, but you know, okay. It's one of my zags, you know?

[Sean Fennessy]

It is one of your zags. Unfortunately, it's a Fast and the Furious movie. When I was 11, I went to the movie theater with my mom and I saw Untamed Heart. Have you seen Untamed Heart?

[Bobby Wagner]

No.

[Sean Fennessy]

Are you familiar with this movie?

[Bobby Wagner]

No.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. It's a simple romantic drama. It's about a waitress working in a restaurant and a busboy, a very quiet busboy. One night she's leaving work and two men attack her and nearly assault her. And she is saved by this very shy, retiring busboy. The waitress is played by Marisa Tomei. The busboy is played by Christian Slater. Rosie Perez is Marisa Tomei's best friend. Wow. This movie's directed by Tony Bill, who was the producer of the Sting. Very, very modest hit at the time. As you know, romantic drama is probably my kryptonite. Genre wise. It's gotta be really good for me to love it. I wouldn't say Untamed Heart is really good, but it just dropped into my mind.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's nice.

[Sean Fennessy]

While I was thinking about this question, I had a great experience seeing it with my mom. We had a lot of questions. The reason it's called Untamed Heart is because the Christian Slater character has a defect in his heart.

[Bobby Wagner]

This is sounding familiar.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's just one of those, like, saw it on cable kind of movies, you know?

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

But it's a very sweet movie, or at least I thought it was when I saw it 20 years ago.

[Bobby Wagner]

You haven't revisited it?

[Sean Fennessy]

No.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Gotta get it on Blu Ray. I was gonna ask, is this on 4K? Untamed Heart. Anybody out there listening? Just a sweet, simple Hollywood movie. 1993. Yeah. I was 10 years old.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's beautiful.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. $6 million budget, $25 million at the box office.

[Bobby Wagner]

Wow.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Christian Slater in the same year as True Romance.

[Bobby Wagner]

Look at that.

[Sean Fennessy]

Pretty exciting. Okay, what's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Next comes from Corey. Have you ever used any architectural inspiration from films and brought it into your own homes or personal life? Corey is proud. Dob Mob, by the way. And I will say, yeah, so many people identified themselves as Dob Mob. Like, they went so far out of their ways. That was the first thing they said about themselves.

[Bobby Wagner]

You all very, very much.

[Amanda Dobbins]

You're very many people saying that they took a break from their hobbies right into the Gmail.

[Bobby Wagner]

Good, I'm glad. You know, like, and while. While email, listen, writing, direct communication, interpersonal communication is very dop. Email is like, the best tool that we have. Also, like, not answering emails that you don't want is also dot mob. So I just want to give everyone that tip.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Manifesto forms here.

[Sean Fennessy]

We're entering new territories and ethical Dob Mob communication.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay, so this is from Corey. Cory. So, Corey, you know, thank you for thinking that I have the budget to really, like, follow my heart.

[Sean Fennessy]

Do we have the power to build anything?

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. So I don't think architecturally, like, you know, I think most people would think that my immediate design inspo would go towards Nancy Meyers and I like, do like hydrangeas and nice kitchens and kitchen islands and I don't have a kitchen island. I'd love to have one. I'd love to even have two, as she has Instagrammed about, you know, one for cooking and one for the stuff that's really next level. But I don't, I don't have room for a single kitchen island in my home. And I like a bit more color in my aesthetic in my home life than Nancy seems to work with. So I think I would be drawn more to like Sofia or Luca Guadagnino interiors and once again, not really able to realize that. So I would say more that it's been like fashion stuff. I recently bought myself a pair of the. I saw they were purple Chuck Taylor's the High Rise, which, if the real heads will know, there's a shot of them in the I want candy montage in Marie Antoinette, you know, and it's like anachronistic and people got mad, but whatever. So they were on sale and I was like, oh, I'd like to have those. So I have, I, I will do stuff like that. But in the home, you know, we can. We can only dream and hope and save.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's great.

[Bobby Wagner]

You're just like, I have nothing to say.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, I'm happy for you. I mean, I know I don't really work this way. Yeah. I am an extremely simple person when it comes to both style and design. Don't have. I don't define myself by those particular things.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

But I have no problem with anybody that does. I was wildly, almost neurotically minimalist for a long time. And that's over because I have a child. So I have to just let go of that. And all of my. The deep diseases inside my brain that are pushing me towards clean aesthetics.

[Bobby Wagner]

Movie posters.

[Sean Fennessy]

I do. And very few of them are hanging right now. I mean, actually at this point, I own dozens and dozens of cool ones. But I think I'm kind of waiting for. What I really want to do is have like a house and just turn a bedroom into a real screening room for real. And actually, like devote authentic resources to it. And in that room, I will break out some of the very special posters. I have a few nice ones. I have a lot of first run ones. I had a listener who works at Warner Brothers come to an event that I did and sent me some original first run posters that are amazing. One was a Spanish poster from Deep Red, the Argento movie. And the other was an original first Run poster of the Candidate, the Robert Redford movie. One of my favorite movies of all time. You know, they're folded up, so, like, I want to get those framed and put those up somewhere, because those are two of my favorite movies. But that was an amazing thing. I. I can be like. I can be bought with old. With vintage movie posters, so it's a good call. You're right. Yeah. Okay, what's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Austin wants to know in honor of brutalist.

[Bobby Wagner]

Can I say one. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Can I say one more thing?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah, of course.

[Bobby Wagner]

I just. I just want to go back to the Nancy Myers kitchens for a second. So, like. And I love Nancy, and she's an answer to another question that is on this rundown. But the open cabinetry, you know, where you. Instead of cabinets, like, the open shelves, where you can see everything on display, is very big in her work. And I think that that's ruining society, because we can't be organizing all our stuff all the time. Like cabinets that close. Speaking to your minimalism. Yeah, sort of like, everyone, cut yourself a break. You know, we can't be merchandising our kitchens.

[Sean Fennessy]

You're saying this is the number one thing ruining society?

[Bobby Wagner]

No, I just, like. It's. It is. It is one of many. But I wanted to speak power rank it four. I was like. And then, like, the dust is everywhere. Like, what are you doing? How are you living? I, like, cut yourself some slack, you know, we all can't be that organized. Get a cabinet door that closes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Love your passion.

[Bobby Wagner]

Thank you.

[Sean Fennessy]

What's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

It was about questions that are aspirational. You know, like, when I watched Perfect Days, I was like, that's hella aspirational, but I'm never gonna live in a space that looks like that.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, you, too, can have an eight track. Think about it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I suppose I could, but then I would have all the cassettes everywhere, and they would not be that organized like, he is. That is a disciplined man, and I am not that way. That's true. Austin asks in honor of the brutalist and the brutal boys and girls everywhere. My question for you both is, if Amanda was a benefactor and could direct Shawn to create something at her discretion, doesn't have to be a building. What would she have Shawn create? And conversely, if Shawn were the benefactor, what would he have Amanda create?

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay, well, I didn't read that closely, so I didn't get that doesn't have to be a building part of this. But that's fine.

[Sean Fennessy]

You have a building idea.

[Bobby Wagner]

I would like you to Reimagine and resuscitate this Cinerama Dome and its entire environs.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm well suited to this.

[Bobby Wagner]

So it's gonna be like a. But, you know. Cause there's that weird, like, almost like shopping center thing. Like, that whole block is yours. And so you get not only the movie theater and the Cinerama Dome, which you need to build. And so my. My requirements are that. That does have to be a movie theater, but you can do whatever you want with, like, you can make whatever movie theater you want.

[Sean Fennessy]

And then it's so obvious to me what it should be. It should be. It should be.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'm not even done with the commission. Okay, go, continue. So this is like, you know, and I'm not asking you to do drawings. We're on the hilltop. Let me keep speaking.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, keep going.

[Bobby Wagner]

And then I also.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm like, Stacy Martin, like, daddy, it's very cold out here.

[Bobby Wagner]

And then I need you to go. That first half is awesome. The rest of the retail space, I need you to turn into, like. I mean, I guess it, like, can be retail. If we're going to be gauche and speak in, like, real estate time, I have ideas for it, you know, but it all needs to be to my aesthetic and use standards as well. So that's tricky for you. But I would like a bookstore as part of it, you know, but it can, like. It can be like a book and physical media. Like. Like a physical media store. I mean, how about that?

[Sean Fennessy]

When I moved to Los Angeles, we had it all. We had the Arc Light, a pizza joint, and Amoeba within a hundred yards, fifty yards.

[Bobby Wagner]

We don't have a bar, though. So that's the other thing we need.

[Sean Fennessy]

The thing I was going to say was that what that section, that corridor needs very clearly is a corner pizza joint, a taco spot, a bookstore and physical media store. And that movie theater. We basically had it.

[Bobby Wagner]

And. And a bar.

[Sean Fennessy]

And a bar. Excuse me. Yes. Well, maybe. Yeah, maybe a speakeasy in the movie theater, which is something that I think should exist.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. But I do think also that you need a place to go.

[Sean Fennessy]

Where are you at a noisy bars, though. Can you do at this stage of your life? I've been in bars recently, and I'm like, whoa, I'm old. This is loud in here. This is why. Why is everyone yelling at each other? It's really quite. As somebody who fucking loved bars for 20 years, who was like, I'll be spending my life in bars. I can't believe how not bar suited. I am anymore.

[Bobby Wagner]

Talk to me about the kind of noise that you're having a problem with. Is it like, is it 28 year.

[Sean Fennessy]

Old women screaming next to me?

[Bobby Wagner]

I do think that the women need to take the. And the men.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean the men are yelling too, but the women are yelling.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. We have sort of like reached a reality TV show like pitch. You know that I think everyone does. So I'm with you on.

[Sean Fennessy]

I was in Sam's place in Highland park with our friend Nick on a Tuesday night.

[Bobby Wagner]

Which ones would be great? Oh, the wine bar. Like the. Oh, and like also we serve some crudite or whatever. No, no, it's. It's not crudite. It's. There's one. What's it called when you marinate the. The fish? It starts with the C. Help me out here. I don't have my computer. Ceviche.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, ceviche. Yeah. Is there a ceviche? I just get steak. There's a steak.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. No, there. But there's like one ceviche. There are like some olives. There's a salad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Anyway, I was at Sam's and everyone was yelling at each other and I was like, I know my friends, it's Tuesday.

[Bobby Wagner]

I. I think that like I'm 42. Volume wise, we could be. We. We could all help each other.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's why I speak easier. Speakeasies are kind of lame culturally, but.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

They're just not as loud.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure. So no, I. It would be like a nice place where you could. I. I would like to be able to get a drink. I'd like to be able to get a cocktail.

[Sean Fennessy]

You like to drink alcohol in the movies?

[Bobby Wagner]

Not really. Because I do find that I like to focus on the movie. And then.

[Sean Fennessy]

Many people say that about you.

[Bobby Wagner]

I do find that I like to focus on the movie. And then I also don't want to have to pee 45 times.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's a challenge.

[Bobby Wagner]

So one before or a couple after while talking about the movie? And this is the thing really is that I would like to be able. We also got to work on movie time, so. Okay. So that's another thing that would be a requirement of the movie theater. Is that either like four or seven? Well, what am I eating? You know, And I'm. Because I'm not eating at the theater, respectfully.

[Sean Fennessy]

Where I'm not. 8pm would be a great time to have a movie.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure. Or 5pm or 5:30. And then I can go to a 7, 7:30, 8 dinner. Afterwards, I'm okay with both.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's great. Sounds like you're going on a lot of dates. I don't really go on many dates these days.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'm trying. We have my. My in laws are in town, so we're going on several dates this week. I feel like you guys are really good with, like, having like, a childcare rotation.

[Sean Fennessy]

We go on a lot of 2pm Dates. Yeah.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. Zach and I need to do more of that.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's really the only way to survive these days. Sometimes they feature movies. Not always, but.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. So I would like a place separate from the movie theater that I can go before or after.

[Sean Fennessy]

Far bookstore, pizza joint, Taco spot, the Cinerama Dome, and a multiplex with six theaters. This is the way.

[Bobby Wagner]

Great.

[Sean Fennessy]

I would love to do that. For me. You've already answered it. I have a kitchen large enough for a kitchen island. We don't have a kitchen island.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, so you'd like me to do your kitchen?

[Sean Fennessy]

I'd like you to come in and do our kitchen.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'm like, really? Emotion. That's really. That's lovely. That's the nicest thing you've ever seen. Wouldn't that be great? I'd love to do your kitchen.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. That would be amazing. Whether Eileen wants that. You can talk that out with her.

[Bobby Wagner]

I feel like I could work with Eileen. I think Eileen and I could have a constructive process.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'll be in the garage watching movies while you work.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's really nice. I'd love to help you.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think you might have to be, like, out of the state potentially. Like, we might just have to get you out of the.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, Eileen is such a great cook, too. So it would, you know, we would.

[Sean Fennessy]

We have to like her.

[Bobby Wagner]

But also aesthetic. Yeah. And I'm sure she has, like, very specific things, but we need her.

[Sean Fennessy]

We need a refresh.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Need a refresh.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, the thing is, is, like, you and all people really need two kitchen islands. And again, I'm speaking from a place of. Not this big open area in my kitchen. When Nancy is right, she is right. I know, and I know what you mean.

[Sean Fennessy]

But unused dead space.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, the problem is. But that's like also the railway. Yeah, yeah, that's the railway. That's how you and we have the same issue.

[Sean Fennessy]

My daughter exercises every day.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, but like, we have the same issue in our living room, you know, where there's just like that space. But it's like, that's how people get anywhere. So you can't do anything. So we would probably have to do an extension, but that's okay. Cause you.

[Sean Fennessy]

Let's just put another screening room in there.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay?

[Sean Fennessy]

That'll be fine.

[Bobby Wagner]

It's fine. We'll make it work. Because once again, we have unlimited resources as provided by Spotify.

[Sean Fennessy]

Right. I think it's our readers. I think our readers and listeners are going to send in some funds. Right. Bob, you've set up the GoFundMe.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I've been reaping those rewards for years. You guys don't even know about it. Okay, what's next? All right, our next question comes from Sahil. Which directors, in your mind, have the most unimpeded vision? As in, which directors are the best at getting their idea in their head as close to perfect on screen as possible? So not necessarily the directors that you like the most, but that you think are most faithful to what they imagine?

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, I think they are the directors that we like the most, because I think that's just like the definition of a good director. And the directors that we like the most are the ones who we think are the best. And we also respond to their. Their specific vision. Right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, I think Fincher is the clearest example of this for me.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sophia is. The Coppola is the clearest for me.

[Sean Fennessy]

And they achieve their greatness with different aesthetic intention. But you often get similar results. I think when you see a continuity in their work across movies, you get the sense that that is the definition of style. And that when you have a style, then you can manifest just a weird idea. And like you pointed out, the purple Chuck Taylors is a perfect example of, like, a weird idea that only she would think of that she could make work in that environment.

[Bobby Wagner]

Or the story from that is actually that her, I think Roman Coppola, like, put them in, or they were just kind of there and then they photographed it, and she's like, oh, I like that. So. But like, even, like, a found image that, like, reflects, like, very specific sensibility.

[Sean Fennessy]

Right, right. So, yeah, I think those are probably our best examples. I mean, look, it's pretty clear that Christopher Nolan knows how to get what he wants on screen. You know what I mean? There are certain people who. They have strong. Strong visual aesthetics and the ability to interpret unusual ideas. Like memento, really early on, you could just be like, he had a. Had an idea of something that was odd to look at and technically profound on, like, a small budget. I'm sure there's a number of examples.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, I was thinking about Bong Joon Ho, who Another great example. Storyboards, like, literally every single frame, right? And it's like he just. He's like, this is where. This is how it will look.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, the single most often cited example of this is Spielberg, who understands staging and blocking better than anybody on earth. So he can kind of see a chase scene play out in full in his mind and then can corral the right people to help execute it. So there's like a million examples. But I agree with your point that it's like the people we like the best are the people who we think are doing this the best. Specifically.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

What's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

The truck going down the hill and licorice pizza. There's no way that. That's not exactly what that looked like in his mind.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm sure he knew the location he wanted to shoot.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It was so harmonious. Yeah. I mean, it's sort of cheating. But Miyazaki, like, that's exactly what it looks like. And budget be damned, production demands be damned. We need five people drawing this to try to see who can do it. The best be damned. I finally watched the documentary about him, Miyazaki and the Heron, the Charles recommended, and talk about, like, someone who is there for their specific vision and none of the other shit matters at all. That's incredible stuff. So that would be my cheating.

[Bobby Wagner]

Porco Rosso, big hit in the home.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, I told you.

[Bobby Wagner]

I do want to let you guys know that, like, my son is three. And it opens with, like, a bunch of pirates kidnapping. Very funny, independent little girls. And then there are, like, lots of, like, guns everywhere. And I was like, oh, this is an interesting recommendation from both of you.

[Sean Fennessy]

But your son watches Top Gun.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, well, it doesn't have guns. It is, like, weirdly. I mean, I understand that. The whole thing is like a round of box. I know, but you don't see any of it. Do you know what I mean? Like, I.

[Sean Fennessy]

It is men die.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, not in the hour that we watch. So there's that. Anyway, those. Those little girls are very feisty. I like them.

[Sean Fennessy]

Porco Rosso is good. This is just the very beginning of a beautiful story of Miyazaki films.

[Bobby Wagner]

He just asked me to fast forward to any time there's a plane flying.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, that pig smokes cigarettes, so.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. And he drinks wine.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Bobby Wagner]

Which is great.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's a great lesson. What's next, Bobby?

[Amanda Dobbins]

The next question we got. We've been asked this question so many times over the years, so I wanted to throw this one in to maybe get an update from you all about your input on this one. Thea wants to know, what is our fandom's name like for people who listen to the big picture? Who weekly has the hooligans and Las Colturistas? The psychos.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, Big pig Psychos.

[Sean Fennessy]

The psychos. I agree. I love the psychosis because so many people listen to.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's psychos but not sickos, Right? It's psychos.

[Sean Fennessy]

We have sickos, but they are the psychos. Yeah. The psychos are the people who listen to every episode and watch four movies a year. Those are like the real psychos.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I heard from them, and we have.

[Sean Fennessy]

A lot of them. I hear from a lot of those people. And that's nice. And people are like, why do you talk about your kids? Why do you talk about your kitchens? I'm like, trust me, people are here for all of it. You may not like it, but they're here for all of it. I promise. The psychos are also the people who are like, I heard Shawn say I should watch every John Ford movie, and so now I will watch every John Ford movie. And those people are also psychos and should be saluted. And there's a vast, you know, there's an in between. You can be both. You can be the person who only sees Smile two.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

Or you can be the person who sees every horror film ever made.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

You're both great. We appreciate you both. This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn. When you release a movie, the first thing you want to do is make sure people know about it. And even more importantly, you want to make sure that people who like the genre know it's out. Because horror fans are more likely to go see new horror movies. Disney fans will go see new Disney movies. Rom com fans will go see new rom com movies. Targeting the right audience is key when it comes to marketing. If you're selling expensive new kitchen appliances, you probably want to sell to people who actually like to cook, not people who rely on food delivery services for every meal. And that's the tricky part, making sure your message gets to the right people. You have to use the right tools. If you're in B2B marketing, that means using LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has a network of over 130 million decision makers and the targeting tools to make sure you're connecting with the right ones. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority, skills, or company revenue. So you can stop wasting your time and budget on the wrong people. LinkedIn will even give you a hundred dollar credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself. Just go to LinkedIn.com thebigpicture that's LinkedIn.com thebigpicture Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Welcome to Nada Yada Island.

[Sean Fennessy]

Next on Metro's Nadiata island podcast.

[Bobby Wagner]

I almost fainted when the four new bombshells arrived. Four free Samsung Galaxy A16. 5G phones at Metro.

[Sean Fennessy]

No way.

[Bobby Wagner]

And finding out the fourth line is free. Things got heated. That's wild.

[Sean Fennessy]

Join Metro and get four free Samsung 5G phones only at Metro plus tax.

[Bobby Wagner]

Bring four numbers and an ID and sign up for any Metro Flex plan.

[Sean Fennessy]

Not available currently at T Mobile or.

[Bobby Wagner]

Have been with Metro in the past 180 days.

[Sean Fennessy]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Drew wants to know if 2024 was the year of no partial credit. According to Amanda, what will be the focus of 2025 from a critical viewpoint?

[Bobby Wagner]

I don't know whether that was all critics or just me. I. And I would argue that.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think it was just you.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, not all critics really lived up to partial credit.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't agree with your partial credit theory at all.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, I know. I mean, because partial credit is also the, it's the brutalist thing. At some point you, you celebrate that and I celebrate the result. Yes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, I mean, we both do both. But. Yes.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, yeah, but I think, like, if we. The ideological divide.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes, yes, exactly.

[Bobby Wagner]

Which is, you know, why it's so great to be in my life at all times.

[Sean Fennessy]

Again, many people are saying this. I've been hearing this nonstop. All of the people who know you are constantly contacting me. Why isn't it great to be in Amanda's life? Doesn't it feel so true and deep?

[Bobby Wagner]

So I, I'm just, I'm sticking with publicizing no partial credit. You know, you're holding the line, which is just an extension of, like, we have standards. You know, are you. Did you. Did you meet the standards? It's a, it's a yes or no. And the standards are personal and my standards can be different than yours. But, but, you know, no partial credit.

[Sean Fennessy]

I won't dispute it. The focus of a critical viewpoint in 2025. I don't know if there is a theme that has emerged yet, I do think that there's going to continue to be a really wide divide between movies that Hollywood makes for money and then all other movies and I don't know, IP filmmaking dominating at the box office last year and probably dominating at the box office this year. It's gonna break at some point, you know, like, I think people are getting really burnt out.

[Bobby Wagner]

I sure am. I mean, you heard me talking about thunderbolts.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Bobby Wagner]

So I don't know where we're going, so.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, I'm trying. Your heart's open in part for the purposes of this show, but also. Cause I was once 11, you know.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'm trying to open to Mission Impossible. You know, there's other IP that Megan 3.0.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, Meg 3, I was thinking about this recently. Like Universal slate this year is mostly big movies. It's Jurassic Park 7, it's Wicked 2, it's Megan 2, there's a couple of other really big ones. And then universal slate in 2026 is original Steven Spielberg, UFO movie, Christopher Nolan's the Odyssey, new Jordan Peele movie, new Daniels movie. I know you're not a big fan of the Daniels, but regardless, like it's the complete opposite where it's like all the big bets this year are on big noisy tent poles and all the big bets next year are on original stories from great filmmakers. So do you think that's just like luck and circumstance?

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, is that just sort of like production and various things?

[Sean Fennessy]

Because I mean, the credit to the studio is that they are investing in working with filmmakers.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, right, Totally.

[Sean Fennessy]

But that's fucking awesome. The year though, I think is because not as much stuff was in motion. Plus this group of people, like Jordan Peele's movie, I think was supposed to be out this year and then they pushed it the next year. Nolan is on basically every three year cycle, so his third year is coming up.

[Bobby Wagner]

Plus he has to go make the Odyssey. So.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Bobby Wagner]

Who is. Is. Is it Tom Holland or is it Matt Damon?

[Sean Fennessy]

It has not been communicated to us.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

I have heard Tom Holland is.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's what I assumed as well. And then. Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Which I'm not sure who Daemon plays there.

[Bobby Wagner]

The old guy. Laertes.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm not up to date on my Odyssey. I gotta probably revisit.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay. I mean, I.

[Sean Fennessy]

We originally thought that he was gonna be Telemachus Holland.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

But it sounds like that's not the case. But that cast is insane. It looks like the presenting team of the Academy Awards. It's wild how many people are in that movie. I'm very excited about that movie. I hope it's good. Okay, what's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

We now just got two straight mentions of Megan 2.0. Mithrigan. It's been called many things. But Mariana wants to know. I need to know what Amanda thinks of the feminomenon. Megan 2.0, the bitch's back trailer.

[Bobby Wagner]

They're very good at the chapel roan song. Yeah. Excuse me. Excuse me.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm just making sure that Sean knows what we're talking about.

[Bobby Wagner]

Just make sure that all the listeners are out. Oh, that was directed at Sean. Oh, okay.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes.

[Bobby Wagner]

Did you ever listen to that album? It's good.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's budget K. Bush, but I know. I understand why people like it.

[Bobby Wagner]

Listen, you know, we. We have to meet the children where they are sometimes. Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Relative to other pop phenomenons right now. It's awesome.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay, great.

[Amanda Dobbins]

They woke up. That's what you asked. They woke up.

[Sean Fennessy]

She's up. She's up. She's definitely up.

[Bobby Wagner]

She is.

[Sean Fennessy]

No denying she is drinking all the coffee.

[Bobby Wagner]

I think it's great. I think that Megan 3.2.0, whatever is. Is universal, right?

[Sean Fennessy]

It is.

[Bobby Wagner]

They're very. They're very good at marketing their films. They were very good at marketing the last one. I still think that Amy Donald should have been allowed to perform and that Megan should have been at the Oscars, but maybe this year.

[Sean Fennessy]

I have heard it is the T2 of female robot movies, so I'm very excited about it.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Who have you heard that from?

[Sean Fennessy]

T2. I'm very connected. As you know, people on the streets.

[Bobby Wagner]

Walking up to you saying, sir, like, pre party. You know, they're doing some of the early work here before Vegas plugged in.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I really wish I got a text message that was like, just heard Megan 2.0 is going to be the T2 of female robot stories. Does this track for you guys?

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't know. This is 20 years of journalism showing right now. Building sources, making relationships.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I believe that's going to be good.

[Sean Fennessy]

The first one was good a lot. First one's good. First one's funny. This one is, like, more an incredible act of marketing. The movie is fun. It's fine. It's like. It's gateway horror, sci fi.

[Bobby Wagner]

You don't need to be snotty.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm not.

[Bobby Wagner]

You don't need to be snotty.

[Sean Fennessy]

If. If it's going to live up to its T2 billion needs to be.

[Bobby Wagner]

Here's another critical viewpoint that I'm I'm projecting into 2025. Let fun things be fun. It's okay just to enjoy something sometimes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, so. So you just dropped a Let people enjoy things while also shitting on thunderbolts.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, I thought thunderbolts looked bad.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's not letting people enjoy things.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, no, no, no, no, no.

[Sean Fennessy]

What are you talking about?

[Bobby Wagner]

I didn't enjoy it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Your own very specific standards. That isn't what you believe. I think it's a nice thing to say on a podcast, but it is not what you believe. In fact, you like to historically yuck people's yums. You like to be like, the thing you like sucks.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's true. But I think what I'm saying is I don't enjoy it.

[Sean Fennessy]

You don't enjoy Thunders.

[Bobby Wagner]

And I actually. I do. Often instead of saying the thing that you like sucks. I mean, sometimes I know I say that, but I do try to be like, this was not for me. I do not like this. This is not an abandoned movie, which.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think is typically the right way to approach these things so that people are not like, I'd like to stab the person on the other end of my AirPods, but sometimes that happens, too. I've been on the receiving end of those, too.

[Bobby Wagner]

I did not enjoy the Thunderbolts trailer on the TV or on my phone.

[Sean Fennessy]

Definitely. You want to break it down again? What were the things you didn't like about it?

[Bobby Wagner]

And also, if it really is called Dead Avengers or whatever, like, they should just call it that.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think it was Dark Avengers, but.

[Bobby Wagner]

All right, well, you know what? Maybe if their marketing were on point, first of all, maybe if they'd used Phenomenon, like, I would have liked it more.

[Sean Fennessy]

They've gotten plenty of airtime here today, so maybe they're doing something right. Okay, what's next, Bobby?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I agreed with Amanda. That trailer stunk. Next question comes from Alyssa. Where do you want to see Tom Cruise go next in the post Mission Impossible era of his career? Who would you like him to work with should there be a Top Gun 3?

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, there is going to be a Top Gun 3, right? Or there were rumors of it, but.

[Sean Fennessy]

It'S not been announced.

[Bobby Wagner]

But it's not been announced.

[Sean Fennessy]

Safe to say it will happen at.

[Bobby Wagner]

Some point with Teller and Glen Powell. How's Miles Teller doing today? I hope he's great. Go Birds.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm sure he's very happy. A series of highs and lows for him.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, right now we've got a Super bowl victory. He's one of the biggest well known Eagles fans in America. His new film, the Gorge, arrives on Apple TV on Friday.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's not a good situation is how I would describe that movie. I can't say I would recommend the film. So it was the best of times.

[Bobby Wagner]

It was the worst of times. Teller. Where they're like. Like, remember when Bradley Cooper was campaigning for Maestro, I guess. And they were like, do you want an Oscar or do you want to.

[Sean Fennessy]

Stern asked him this super bowl win.

[Bobby Wagner]

And he was like, I want a Super Bowl. Which I did not believe. But that's, like, the only answer you can give.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And that's got great news for him.

[Sean Fennessy]

So no Oscar.

[Bobby Wagner]

But I do. I honestly do wonder if Miles Teller were given the choice between super bowl win and the Gorge. Being, like a $300 million, like, box office sensation, he, like, might still pick Super Bowl.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think so, too.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. And honestly, respect.

[Sean Fennessy]

Bully for him. Yeah, I agree. That's dope. I would. I would literally kill. I would kill. I would probably kill a man for a Super Bowl. I'm not kidding. Like, I really. I can't even imagine what it would be like to win the Super Bowl.

[Bobby Wagner]

Aaron Rodgers no longer a Jet.

[Sean Fennessy]

We're about to restart on yet another jets rebuild. This is like the 18th jets rebuild of my lifetime. Yeah. Yeah. Aaron Rodgers is no more.

[Bobby Wagner]

Good.

[Sean Fennessy]

Fuck him. See you later. That whole thing was an absolute nightmare.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Seemed really bad. All Jets.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Super bowl or World Series.

[Sean Fennessy]

World Series is my number one choice.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think so, too.

[Sean Fennessy]

World Series.

[Amanda Dobbins]

It's just so much harder to guarantee. You know, the problem with World Series.

[Sean Fennessy]

Is we've gotten close a few times and so I. It feels touchable. Super Bowl. The jets have not been to the Super bowl since 1969.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

They haven't had a winning season in 2020.

[Bobby Wagner]

I think the longest drought in professional football.

[Sean Fennessy]

No, because there's a couple teams that haven't won any Super Bowls. Can't think of, like, the Chargers. I don't think I've ever won a Super Bowl. There's a couple teams that haven't.

[Amanda Dobbins]

But they're expansion franchises though, have the Lions. So they haven't even. So a lot of them haven't been around that long.

[Sean Fennessy]

The Lions haven't won a Super Bowl. Maybe they won a title in the 60s. I'm not. I'm not as strong on football history. But that's the other thing with football, too. It's like in the last 25 years, like, eight teams have won a Super Bowl. Maybe 12 teams, like, not A lot. It's like, it's pretty. We got two Eagles, we got three Chiefs, you know, we got six. Was it six for the Patriots, two for the Bucks?

[Bobby Wagner]

Yes, because then he won one with Tampa Bay. Yeah, right. And it said seven. Super seven time super bowl champion Tom Brady. Which was. Is the only positive thing that can be said about that broadcasting experience.

[Sean Fennessy]

He's, you heard it everywhere except on the big picture. He's so bad, it's unbelievable. It's painful to listen to. He the. The most obvious, inauthentic and dull commentary I've ever heard. Now obviously I despise him as a Jets fan and I hope he falls down a well, but I, I can't believe I have to listen to him for the next five years.

[Bobby Wagner]

He's even selling the, the like garbage fake stuff. Like he's so stilted anyway, it's bad.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, a lot of super bowl takes today. Let's do, let's do like five more.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Sure. Yeah. Five of the 120 questions that we have here in this mailbag.

[Sean Fennessy]

Circle back. Do you think it would be good to do these live on YouTube?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I do.

[Sean Fennessy]

Do you think people would want.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Because then people could get really mad at you in the comments in real time as opposed to just, you know, stabbing you on the street.

[Sean Fennessy]

That's always gonna happen.

[Amanda Dobbins]

No, I think it would be a lot of fun. Also, people could ask follow up questions or break news to you in real time.

[Bobby Wagner]

Just think we wouldn't be able to prepare in the same way.

[Sean Fennessy]

I wouldn't say I put a ton of preparation.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, I did like I did a little bit.

[Sean Fennessy]

You read the question. Yeah, yeah, we wouldn't have that, but it's better, I think actually. But you can't just have the thing that you always hate, which I don't like too, which is just like recast this movie for me with actors from 1952.

[Bobby Wagner]

That's one thing. I love everyone and I love movie stars. But like the casting questions and the recasting questions, we've used all our ideas. You know, everybody loves fantasy sports at this point. I would like to see like, you know, money in exchange for having the movie made if I'm going to keep doing it.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, interesting. You want producer credit. Okay, good to know. What's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Bobby, we got a question from Jules and we honestly got a ton of questions about at home viewing setups, whether they've changed. We've answered questions like this in the past, but it's obviously been a couple of years, so here's Jules. Question. My question is about the method of watching movies. There's always been debate about theater versus home viewing, especially recently with the rise of streaming and better home setups. Where do you personally prefer to watch at home on a screener, streamer, or in the theater? And what's your at home viewing setup like nowadays?

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, theater.

[Sean Fennessy]

1000% much prefer to watch a movie in a theater. I just had this experience with virtual Sundance where there were at least a few films I would have liked to have been in a theater for. There are a lot of times when I'll read reviews.

[Bobby Wagner]

Film. The logging one.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yes, the logging one, which is called Train Dreams. A beautiful film that Amanda has chosen to mock. On this podcast, I sometimes read criticism of a movie that I watched at home and I'm like, maybe I missed something because I didn't see it in the way it was meant to be seen. As Bobby was saying with the rep screenings, because it is harder and not because I'm distracted, even necessarily at home. It's just different. It's just less immersive. So I would rather not watch a screener. But in our line of work, time is a serious consideration. And so I have to watch some things on screeners. I have to experience movies that way because I just can't see everything while also navigating my life. So for my house, I have an 85 inch 4K Samsung television. I have an Arc Ultra Sonos.

[Bobby Wagner]

I was just imagining me trying to guess what type of TV and pretend. Keep going.

[Sean Fennessy]

Everybody always asks me, what Blu Ray player should I get? This is the number one question I get from people.

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, I think that's awesome. You do Blu Ray players and I'll do kitchen islands.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay. I mean, that is us to a T. It's Sony. This is my only wreck on this Sony UBP X700 4K Ultra Blu Ray region free player. You can play any disc from around the world on this player. It's very easy to toggle between regions. I have four of these in my house.

[Bobby Wagner]

Four?

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay. Bedroom, living room, garage.

[Sean Fennessy]

Bedroom, living room, garage. No, three. You're right.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

I was like, well, we. I used to have one in the spare bedroom.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's not plugged in because I don't have a table there anymore, but I do own four. Okay.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, so can I have one?

[Sean Fennessy]

You can borrow one.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's retailing for $200 right now. That is pretty cheap. I would also say it's probably not a bad idea to Have a few of these, because who the fuck knows when they're going to discontinue making these things. Because this is not.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, but this is where, like, you have me until you get to, like, your prepper mode of it, you know, where you're like, I have to own. I have to create, like my own library of Alexandria and I have to have like 45 DVD players in my closet for when they break.

[Sean Fennessy]

Bill Simmons is completely 4k pilled. He's been acquiring 4ks, and we talk about it every week.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

Chris Ryan has discovered Radiance films and is getting excited about buying Blu Rays. So you're going to be left behind.

[Bobby Wagner]

So here's the thing, is that you've just described two men who I love with all my heart.

[Sean Fennessy]

Two great men.

[Bobby Wagner]

Two. Two of the greatest to do it. I love them both dearly. I like them both a lot more than you. But, like, you know, Bill is transferring, like a collectible habit from, like, sports stuff to something he has a collector's mind.

[Sean Fennessy]

He does.

[Bobby Wagner]

To go with his, like, stat mind and his. And his sort of his baseball card mind for extremely better.

[Sean Fennessy]

Powerful brain is very extraordinary success.

[Bobby Wagner]

But in many ways, he has been thinking this way for a long time. And he's just. He's finding a new venue for it and then, you know, Chris can do whatever he wants. Chris is my guy for life. I don't care. So.

[Sean Fennessy]

Just saying, you're gonna be left behind, spend his money in train dreams.

[Bobby Wagner]

You know, I'm.

[Sean Fennessy]

You'd be stuck in that logging valley all by yourself forever.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Reading books.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, you know, books are also hanging on. Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay.

[Bobby Wagner]

Just like in the history of time.

[Sean Fennessy]

And art, more and more people are reading and seeing that every day. So that's my setup at home.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay, cool.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's perfectly fine. I tell you what is not good is my couch. It's not that comfortable. I like to get a new couch.

[Bobby Wagner]

I like your couch. Well, it's like, seats a lot of people.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, in the living room. The living room couch is good. In the garage, it's not good.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, okay. I haven't.

[Sean Fennessy]

I just got to get movie theater seats in there. That's what I got to do. Okay, well, that's what I'm going to do.

[Bobby Wagner]

Not if Sean Baker wins best director.

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, boy.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think you should just get like a. Like a poker table folding chair, and you should just strap yourself into it, you know, Clockwork Orange style and just get. Garage.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Get the Gatorade right here in the Helmet, Right. Get the Red Vines over here. Like in Wayne's World. I had Red Vines yesterday at the movie theater. I saw Follow that Bird after your son's birthday party and idiots. It's sick.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, that's nice. You guys went straight from the party.

[Sean Fennessy]

Solo to Follow that bird, did you? I'm just kidding. I took Alice. Yeah, we just went straight from the party.

[Bobby Wagner]

His recap of the party. My, my son had a birthday party yesterday because it was his literal birthday. And his three year old recap involved walking around with Sean and Alice and juice boxes. So those were the things that stuck with him was I think I supplied.

[Sean Fennessy]

Him with two juice boxes.

[Bobby Wagner]

Here's the thing. Every single adult at the party supplied Knox with juice boxes. So my Guy had like 45 juice boxes.

[Sean Fennessy]

Speaking of train dreams, we were playing on a train, me and Alice and Knox. And he was fired up. He was a. The most enthusiastic man that's ever been on a train. It was like, it was Richard Gere and I'm not there, and then it was Knox. It was really something. He was super happy. We had a lot of fun. It was a great party.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, now what's next?

[Amanda Dobbins]

All right, this is a funny one. I don't know how we could ever even guess this, but it's funny. Anyway. Skyler asks on just a quick estimate, how many times do you think you visited the movie theater in your lifetime?

[Sean Fennessy]

I wanted to keep track of this on a yearly basis.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like now. All right, like how many times am I in the theater, per that question, about at home screenings in my lifetime? A thousand.

[Bobby Wagner]

You think that's all? Well, let's just do, let's do the math. So once a week probably. And for the. And, and I think you can probably average it out for you anyway because the.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's probably twice a week for me at this point.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, but there were some years where you weren't going every week.

[Sean Fennessy]

So you want to average it to once a week.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. So 52 times 42. Let's. We'll just. Let's do 50 times 40 because I can do math without my. So that's 2,000 times.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, 2,000. I've been to the movie theater 2,000 times. Okay, that sounds right.

[Bobby Wagner]

I think I've probably been closer 1000 to 1500, right?

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, probably.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, in the last seven years we go to the movies a lot. Yeah, I would say it's probably ultimately more than both of our estimates because like, I don't know, I also go to film festivals. That's five a day, right? So it's way up there. Honestly, I still love it. I was in the movie theater on Saturday and Sunday over the weekend saw Paddington in Peru, the Ipic, which was great. Follow that bird.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Which was great. These are two movies that were made for like 8 year olds and I was having the time of my life. Just loved going to the movies. It's the best.

[Bobby Wagner]

I agree. I'm excited.

[Sean Fennessy]

Okay, what's next? How about you, Bob? How many times you've been in the movie theater?

[Amanda Dobbins]

I would say I'm probably closer to like your first guess. A thousand. I do log how many times I go to the theater now because I tag it on letterboxd when I see it in a theater versus when I watch it at home. And my goal last year was to go more than 100 times and I hit that goal 110 times at the theater last year. I don't think I've been at that pace my whole life, though.

[Sean Fennessy]

So. No, there was a couple years there.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yeah. Yeah. So probably more like 1,000. We got a lot of questions about the theater going experience and how it's changed in the course of doing the show. Obviously this has been a constant conversation of the show and something we get asked about a lot. But Matt wrote in to say I'm curious in hearing a conversation around the future of the theater going experience. I go see movies on the big screen as much as I can and find myself thinking about what the experience will be like in five years. You both have discussed this off and on throughout the years, but it's been a while since you reflected on that.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think one of the interesting outcomes of some of the brutalist conversation is a follow up on the Oppenheimer conversation, which is a follow up on the Avatar conversation, which is that large format, unique experiences is where a lot of both the business and the fandom is going. And so in five years, I think you won't necessarily see less movies because there are a lot of people trying to make movies to catch people's attention right now. But you'll see more eventizing around movies. And I think the studios are kind of getting hip to the kind of film bro y thing that has happened. And not just bro y, obviously a lot of women as well, but the cinephilia amongst young people and trying to lean into it. That we're seeing a lot of re releases recently and people showing out like the Interstellar success is really notable and there were a couple versions of that last year as well. And so I think kind of just turning it, like. Like I've said in the past, like, a little bit more like Record store day, you know, and the vinyl craze, where you're like, this is more rare, and this is, like, a cool thing that is more expensive but worth it for the experience. And you're doing something with people. You know, it's not quite going to Disneyland, but, like, the popcorn buckets and everything is about, you know, how it feels to be in the movie theater.

[Bobby Wagner]

We've, you know, we have compared it to amusement parks often, and we've also used the, like, the concert comp. But I do kind of think that that is the model for. And really just kind of how you consume music and how you make money off of music, which is, as we know, in the. The touring, the event aspect of it. Right. And, like, you know, you have the ERAS tour, and now everyone's gonna try to do their giant, like, event IMAX version of that. But then there are, you know, smaller acts who you go see, like, you know, at different places. And you don't go as frequently as you used to, I think, to, you know, concerts. You don't go every single week, probably, which is, I mean, unless you're 27. And that's awesome for you, Bo, once again, congratulations on, you know, living your life. So it's rarer, but there's a range of experiences, a range of price points. You spend time with the. The art or the art around the art in one way or another before you go. Like, you have to have some sort of relationship to get you to the venue. And then, yeah, like, the merch and all of the. The extracurricular stuff is also part of the financial equation.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's weird. Movie culture is both cheap and expensive. Like, tickets are. They're getting more expensive by the year, but they're still cheap relative to a live concert. But then a lot of times, if you don't like a movie, you don't really know what you're sitting yourself down for. Part of the purpose of this show is to help you figure out what you should and shouldn't see based on what you like. And so it's still a risk. And so what you might find is what's been happening culturally across the world, which is people kind of only leaning into the things that they know they're gonna like. And the Brutalist in Oppenheimer is kind of like the MCU in that way is kind of like those streaming romance movies that we were talking about last week. On the episode where you're like, I like this kind of thing. And that's it. So a real challenge for movies is how do you get people interested in something that they don't know anything about that they might not like? That's really hard. We have way too many, not just options, but way too much personal freedom in terms of entertainment right now. So I don't know. When you hear people doom and gloom about it, it's partially because of those things where, you know, I could literally just sit at home with a Criterion Channel until I die if I so chose. I don't. But you could and still have a great movie watching life. So it's. It's tricky. I don't. I'm not totally sure what's gonna happen to the multiplex stuff. It kind of seems like a lot of that stuff is evened out. It doesn't seem like AMC and Regal and all those companies are in the same financial straits. Although there's talk of you potentially joining me at CinemaCon. And if you do join me, you're going to hear a lot about this. You're going to hear a lot of exaggerated enthusiasm, I would say, for the future of theatrical.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure. Yeah. As you know, I love to hear from movie theater owners, so.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yep.

[Bobby Wagner]

But I've never been to Vegas, so it would be a funny.

[Sean Fennessy]

Gotta put a GoPro in your head for the whole trip.

[Bobby Wagner]

I know. When do I just like get to the GoPro would be best. Like me following you around playing poker at like 4am it would be so boring. Do you think you could ever recover from that? Of.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's just me listening to Illmatic quietly with my head down.

[Bobby Wagner]

I know.

[Sean Fennessy]

And not making eye contact with anyone.

[Bobby Wagner]

It's like I. I've actually never seen it. I've heard tell so many times. But I think I.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's just Sean Fennesee is Michael Fassbender. Is the killer in the Killer really alarmed?

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, yeah. It's good though, you know, but it's.

[Sean Fennessy]

Anything to $400 off the table.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it is. It is my hobby.

[Bobby Wagner]

I'll put it towards the kitchen island.

[Sean Fennessy]

You think I should flip and make that hobby my occupation and make. Turn movies back to my hobby?

[Bobby Wagner]

I don't know. Would that be more financially advantageous?

[Sean Fennessy]

Probably not.

[Bobby Wagner]

Not at this point.

[Sean Fennessy]

Especially considering how weak my poker game has been the last five years.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I think it would be good for the pod though if you took like a two year Michael Jordan style hiatus and went to play minor league baseball. But it was really just you grinding at the poker table, rounder style.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. You think everyone keep listening. If I was talking about all my hands, what's the only thing more boring than people talking about their fantasy team is people recounting hands that they had and they played in poker.

[Amanda Dobbins]

And I think I listen to that a lot. I think in this version, you. You go away for two years and someone takes over the feed with Amanda, like Chris or something, and then you come back storming through.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, I need to know. I would need, like, the live, because we have to chronicle the disintegration of Sean's, like, mental and emotional.

[Sean Fennessy]

I live at the win.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

I move in.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We could get him on the phone WFAN caller style while he's live betting at the table. I think we could do that.

[Sean Fennessy]

That reminds me of.

[Bobby Wagner]

And then he puts all the winnings towards the DVD collection instead of, you know, his, like, life responsibilities. So then it's both, like. You know, it is like the unboxing videos, but also is like a Sundance drama about a dad. Just like a.

[Sean Fennessy]

You know, today we're unboxing my draining of my 401k.

[Amanda Dobbins]

We're unboxing me realizing I'm acting like Oscar Isaac in the card counter.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. Okay, let's do two more.

[Amanda Dobbins]

All right, we got a question here from David, but also from many, many, many people about this exact thing, because I think there's a lot of new parents judging off the people who wrote into the show.

[Bobby Wagner]

God bless them.

[Amanda Dobbins]

How exactly do you balance the podcasting, preparing for the podcasting, watching all the movies, going to the screenings, doing the interviews, and everything else we don't know about, while also having families, children, partners, and giving everything equal time and attention. Are your days just scheduled to the minute or what? I need answers.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, I mean, the. The big top answer is that we have a ton of help. And, like, I. I mean, like, that's my answer. We have an incredible nanny. I have a partner who shares things like, truly 50 50. Our kids go to a great school, you know, like Bobby and Jack. Like, we just. We have, like, a lot of help, both in child care and professional stuff, which is, I think, the only way that anyone gets anything done. And I really feel for all the parents in the world who don't have this kind of help. And it is, you know, is it. It should not be a privilege. It should be a right to everyone. So that. That is. That's where I am. Nitty gritty. There were several months where I didn't get to watch that many movies because I was totally sleep deprived. I mean, like, I don't know what else to, you know, And I. You have a superhuman ability to not sleep. So now I put the kids to bed and I try to do one movie a night. That's, like, kind of my goal. And if you can hit it right where dinner is cooked and, like, Knox agrees to go to sleep instead of needing, like, three water refills. And like, I, you know, and I showered already, you know, because, like, I have to time my showering because I have to, like, look decent on YouTube because I. Once again, I'm 40 on YouTube, so if I hit that right, I can watch a movie and then still be in bed at a decent hour. So that's one a day. And then I have the privilege of being able to, like, schedule in either a screening or, okay, I'm gonna disappear and watch this movie from this time to this. This time while other people are taking care of my children. But, like, that is everything that it takes. So, you know, all working parents have some version of this that. That mine is to get to watch movies is awesome. But I, like, I feel you guys, you're doing great. All of you are doing great. It's really hard being a new parent, and you're doing great.

[Sean Fennessy]

I don't really know how I do it at this point.

[Bobby Wagner]

You do, like, 45 things at once. Can I ask you something, actually?

[Sean Fennessy]

Sure.

[Bobby Wagner]

Because this is so not this past Saturday, but this Saturday. Like, a week ago, you were not on a plane, but you were just like a plane, Sean. Level mode of communication and productivity in a nice way. It's always nice to hear from you, Sean, but from like 3 to 6 on Saturday, you were just like, you were in the Matrix. And I had the thought to myself of like, where are Eileen and Alice? Like, what's. What is going on? And how were you able to achieve that?

[Sean Fennessy]

It was virtual Sundance. And so I had negotiated and done a lot of childcare in the previous days to allow for as much Sundance consumption as possible. So I was very much locked in on one work. And also virtual Sundance gave me a chance to be, like, thinking about work in the way that I used to when I didn't have a kid. And I worked every weekend and had millions of ideas and was super engaged in everything in a way that's just not possible when you have a family. I mean, look, last Thursday, I'll just read you my schedule. We had a conversation with our. I guess our chairman's Daniel Ek from 7:00am to 8:00am I drove my daughter to school from 8 to 9. Then I had a call at 9 to 9:30. Then I had a call at 09:30 to 10. Then I had a meeting at 10. Then I had a Meeting at 10:30. We recorded Garbage Love at 11:15. I had a call at 1. I had a call at 1:15. I had a site strategy meeting at 2. I had to check in with Juliet at 2:30. I had a doctor's appointment at 3. I drove home at 4. I had to watch Alice because I only went out from 5 to 7:30. And then she went to bed and I watched two movies. That's what I do. Yeah, that's what I do. Most days I will have a mental breakdown. Like I will legitimately be institutionalized.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Because to go from 7 to 10 every day is hard. But I. It's more or less what I do.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

Like, and so. And that's on a day where I only watch two movies.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, I was gonna say, yeah, it's.

[Sean Fennessy]

Easier on non record days, but invariably on a non record day I have more ringer work to do. So. And that's a day where I didn't have to travel. I just had a local doctor's appointment.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right, right, right, right.

[Sean Fennessy]

But when we have screening days, it's not just driving screening, it's one hour in the car, one hour back.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah. And. And the reality is, like, that is where I've chosen to like, I just can't go to screenings. If anyone who schedules screenings in Los Angeles is listening, like, since we're making this personal, like, you guys gotta do Eastside, we just. Please, I'm begging you. It would help us so much. I can't drive to Beverly Hills. Cause it is an hour to like an hour and a half to two hours.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's annoying. On the flip side, you foregrounded the conversation properly. I'll end it properly. I have the coolest job in the universe. Yeah.

[Bobby Wagner]

I mean, it's like.

[Sean Fennessy]

And am very fortunate to have found my career in this position. And so I'm not complaining when I say I'm going to have a mental breakdown. I've put myself in this position. No one's forcing me to do any of this stuff. I also have a ton of help. And I think I heard Chris Berman on the press box say that only 15% of people in America get to work in the field, that they want to and be happy, let alone do the thing that they want to. I get to hang out with you all the time. And talk about my favorite thing. And we get to make a show that people listen to, which is amazing to me. And I also get to work at the ringer, which is something that I couldn't have even imagined when I was 20 or 30. So very, very lucky. But self care is not one of my skills.

[Bobby Wagner]

No. So I was gonna say, can we. Cause it's new parents that were asking this.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Bobby, many, many people wrote in saying they had kids under three years old.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right. And how do you think they're mirroring.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Their life experiences through what you guys talk about?

[Bobby Wagner]

Totally. And so what I would say to the parents with. With love and respect and. And deep gratitude for you is don't put the pressure on yourself that Sean puts on himself to watch. You know, watch. If you can get one in every once in a while, one a day is great.

[Sean Fennessy]

One a day is very healthy.

[Bobby Wagner]

One a day or one every, like, every few days. I. I think that I watched several movies, like, over the course of a couple nights, especially when Cy was, like, figuring his sleep out. You know, Zach and I haven't had, like, a date night in a long time. But we have managed to independently like to the movies. I mean, but we have managed to independently see a few movies and then talk about them afterwards, which, you know, that's one thing that you can do. Be kind to yourself. And also, if movies. If it's not your line of work, if movies can be just, like, a nice thing that you do for yourself.

[Sean Fennessy]

It'S a great hobby.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, great hobby. Let it be that hobby.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's a great passion. It's a great personal thing. It's a great entire career if you have restraint. And if you don't, it's not, you will be a brutal boy like me. Let's do one more.

[Amanda Dobbins]

All right, we got one final question here from Harry. Shawn and Amanda always impress me with how quickly they can articulate what they think the intent of a filmmaker is. I want to ask how you guys watch movies. Are you constantly thinking about the intent? And where did you learn the skills to decipher these ideas? How do you train the eye or ear to pull out the idea that the artist is smuggling in?

[Bobby Wagner]

Well, I think that's giving us a lot of credit personally, but thank you. That's very nice.

[Sean Fennessy]

I think it's one part practice, one part. Either you see it or you don't see it. I mean, I very vividly remember being in English class and reading novels and participating, because I love to hear the sound of my own voice. Obviously, and thinking I understood what a story meant or where a writer was going with something. I was always interested in theme and subtext.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right.

[Sean Fennessy]

And so it's natural when you get really invested in movies and you start thinking about things on these continuums of experience, that. The way that everything's all connected to each other and why are they connected to each other and what. What movies has one filmmaker seen? And, you know, it's not a game so much, but it kind of. It just deepens your experience of watching the movies. But, you know, you. You're a classics major and you read all the time. You know, they're. They're connected.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure. I guess some of it is not even the work of criticism, but just when you are. How you consume art and do you enjoy consuming art and what do you look for and respond to in it? And why are you, like, watching or reading or looking at what you're looking at? And so I guess that is sort of at some point what we respond to. And when we're talking about it, when we're talking about the themes of the movie, it's because that is like. Is what we took away from it. The same way that if you look at a painting and you really like the color of blue, that they figured out, and that speaks to you in some way in terms of intent. I mean, you know, sometimes I think that who knows if we're right, you know, because we. We are not in a filmmaker.

[Sean Fennessy]

Never confirmed.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, it's. It's never confirmed.

[Sean Fennessy]

Wrong 80% of the time.

[Bobby Wagner]

Right. And also, like, maybe we rely too much on it because I think we're interested in filmmakers as well. We think that they are cool people. And so, and, and to make a film is to us, like, an incredible artistic achievement. And, you know, also a feat of organizing and diplomacy and like, and. And. And financial manipulation and many other things. So I don't know if we're always right, and I don't know if we're always. If that's how they want the movie, even if, like, their intent is their intent, you know, or the intent for the film. But I guess I think it's just how we respond to it. And we respond to it by that. The. The way that we've learned that is just by watching a lot of movies. And I guess, like, we had some formal journalism training as well.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, I mean, that.

[Bobby Wagner]

That it does affect how we think about, like, we were magazine babies, the last magazine babies, and so we definitely bring that. But yeah, yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

I mean, I edited lots and Lots of criticism over the years. So that's part of it, I think the other thing too is that for me, at this stage of my life, intent engenders sympathy or empathy. And maybe that's not the right thing if you are a hardline, ink stained wretch film critic. But I'm interested in what artists are thinking and what they want to achieve. Like, it's just something I've always been interested in. I'm increasingly interested in it as I get older. I'm way less worried about, like, here's why this sucks. It's just not. It's actually not. I don't find it to be a very like, rewarding use of my time and where I want my head to be when I'm spending all this time on movies. So it's a very personal thing. But when you start thinking about what someone was trying to accomplish, it gives you a sense of like, if they did error, why or how they erred More clearly. To me, it's part of the reason why I like doing the filmmaker interviews is because sometimes they'll just say, this is what I wanted this to be, or I wanted to do something formally this way. I wanted to use this tool, or I wanted to work with this actor. And then you better understand what they were going for and then you can better understand the movie. So it's basically understand because I obviously have said many times, like, understand myself through understanding the movies. And most artists are putting so much of themselves, most directors are putting huge parts of their lives into these movies. There's that hilarious James Lipton quote where he talks about his parents and how they are representative as characters in his movies. And Steven Spielberg is sitting there dumbfounded by the insight that James Lipton has discovered into his life based on this one question on Inside the Actors Studio. And it's like these people are doing it consciously, they're doing it subconsciously. So I think actually to kind of seek and search for those things has real value in movie enjoyment. So whether we're good at it or not.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, I don't really know.

[Sean Fennessy]

I'm sure movie to movie, who the fuck knows, right?

[Bobby Wagner]

We're doing our best.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, we're doing our best. We did our best today, Bob. You did your best. You found a lot of questions. Want to thank you for that.

[Bobby Wagner]

Bobby, are you in fact still 27?

[Sean Fennessy]

Bob's 28.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'm 28, have been almost 29. Yeah. Coming up, coming up in a month and a half.

[Bobby Wagner]

You're 27. Forever in my heart, you know, that's great.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I'd love to stay 27 forever. In your heart and in real life. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessy]

I would take your 27 year old physique. Maybe not that mind, though. There's so much more.

[Bobby Wagner]

Did we get any questions about protein flexibility? No one's coming to us for that kind of insight yet.

[Amanda Dobbins]

There's a very real possibility that we got about 400 of them in the next 600 emails that I haven't had the time to read yet. So I'm going to go through them, I'm going to sort through.

[Bobby Wagner]

You and I are really exploring new frontiers and you've been very, very supportive in all of my journey and I, and I want to thank you for that as well. As well as for being 28 and working hard.

[Amanda Dobbins]

Yes, it, it makes me happy to see people committing, doubling down on protein flexibility and extending our musculoskeletal forms, corporeal forms. That's, that's what drives me here at the Big Picture Incorporated.

[Bobby Wagner]

I just remembered that if I won the big bet, that maybe I was going to have you do a podcast with the weights and I should really explore that, you know, because it's on the table now.

[Sean Fennessy]

But what's going to happen? I'll do it for 30 seconds and then it will be over and I'll have to put them down.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's a good Instagram clip. That's like, sometimes all you need in life, you know, is like one good reel.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's true. Sometimes all you need in life is one good reel. That's what many filmmakers have been saying for 120 years in this country. Thanks to Jack Sanders, thanks to our producer, Bobby Wagner for his work work on this episode. What are we doing later this week? What do we have?

[Bobby Wagner]

What are we doing later this week? We're recording a lot of things, but I. Oh, next, this. Oh, Paddington in Peru. I'm taking knots.

[Sean Fennessy]

Paddington in Peru and.

[Bobby Wagner]

And also Bridget Jones, Mad about the Boy.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah. But isn't that Monday's episode? That's.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's next week. Yeah, that's next week we have a conversation about Captain America.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, God, I totally forgot that I have to go see that tomorrow night.

[Sean Fennessy]

Red Hulk. Red Hulk. Like I'm seeing Mickey 17 today.

[Bobby Wagner]

You know, sometimes it's just like you could hit forward on the email.

[Sean Fennessy]

It's for editorial purposes, so.

[Bobby Wagner]

Oh, okay. All right.

[Sean Fennessy]

Very excited. That's great, Captain. Brave New World. My heart is open. I'd like to enjoy it, I guess.

[Bobby Wagner]

Sure. My Heart's open too, Red Hulk. And that reminds me that I gotta see what's the one that's like the Conversation or whatever. You're just like, oh, 70s amazing.

[Sean Fennessy]

I believe they used that to sell Captain Winter Soldier.

[Bobby Wagner]

Yeah, I gotta see that one.

[Sean Fennessy]

Which is a perfectly fine film, but does not resemble Three Days of the Condor in any way. Okay. Nor does it resemble all the President's Men or Klute or any of the other movies that were cited as inspirations for it.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

But it's, it's.

[Amanda Dobbins]

I watched it and I thought it was a dead ringer for Parallax View, though.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's not quite in that zone. Those guys should not talk about. They should not compare their work to Antonioni or any of the other cinema masters. They should say, we've made a cool Marvel movie. I hope you like it.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

I would be good with that personally.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay. So Captain America, Brave New World. Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Which is, of course, this is an adaptation of the Algus Huxley novel, which I'm really excited about. One of my favorite works.

[Bobby Wagner]

They turn into like mid century sci fi goo, right?

[Sean Fennessy]

They turn into goo, don't they?

[Bobby Wagner]

Turn the humans into goo. That. What am I thinking?

[Sean Fennessy]

I think you think of the substance.

[Bobby Wagner]

No, no, no, no.

[Amanda Dobbins]

What's happening here? We were so close to being wrapped. Sean did the outro already.

[Bobby Wagner]

Then he asked me what's next.

[Amanda Dobbins]

That's true.

[Bobby Wagner]

There's not like. Isn't there some sort of substance in Brave New World? Or am I thinking of a different book that they made you read in elementary school?

[Sean Fennessy]

Oh, isn't Brave New World soma? Yeah, soma is the, you know, the narcotizing.

[Bobby Wagner]

See, there we go.

[Sean Fennessy]

Well, it's not a goo. I think it's more of a pill. Right?

[Amanda Dobbins]

Well, happiness producing drug. Yes.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Yeah, it's kind of precursor to antidepressants, I think is the intention there. So it's sort of like defuses the impulses that would make you want to be free.

[Bobby Wagner]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessy]

Again, English student in ninth grade. You can imagine me reading Brave New World having consumed lots of science fiction and being like, sir, sir, I have some thoughts on Huxley's thoughts. We'll have some more thoughts on Brave New World later this week. See you then.